A Common Man - A Tangled Web Pt. 04

Across town, Susan sat sipping her drink staring at her image in the mirror behind the bar. She had never been a prude about sex. She believed it was a woman's right, as much as a man's, to fuck who she wanted to when she wanted to. She wasn't promiscuous. She didn't just jump into bed with every man she met. But those she liked, like Garr, she had no problem with fucking. She didn't want any permanent ties, didn't want to be beholding to one man.

She had thought it was the same with Tele. She liked him. She had been horny. She figured a roll in the hay to satisfy them both was in order. But someplace that night something had clicked and she couldn't stop thinking about him.

"Damn you!" She breathed as she stared at her own scowling face in the mirror.

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"Ready?" Tele asked Ted.

Ted nodded and adjusted the small black day pack he had on that held his electronic equipment, "One keystroke and the alarm system will be deactivated."

Tele turned to Susan sitting in the front seat, "You'll have feeds from our body cams and the earwigs are working so we can hear you. If anyone shows up, or anything goes sideways give us a warning and we'll get the hell out of there."

Susan nodded, "Done. Be careful!"

Ted tried not to grin as he heard the note of concern in her voice and knew it was more for his friend than him. Tele nodded to Ted who hit the computer key disabling the alarm system. A moment later the two were out the van door sliding through the shadows, barely visible because of the black commando outfits they wore. When they reached the office door Ted kept watch as Tele used the pilfered access card to open the door. They slipped in and quickly made their way up the stairs to avoid being caught if the elevator quit. Ted had disabled the security cameras in the stairwell and on the floor they were headed to. Even with the security system disabled, they took extra precautions just in case.

It was a long climb to Madison's office on the top floor. When they reached the door Tele used the access card and they were inside a moment later. They made their way quietly to the inner office door. Tele pulled the latex copy of Madison's fingerprint from his pocket, slipped it over his thumb then pressed it to the scanner. He heard a click as the lock disengaged. When he pushed the door open Ted entered first, heading straight for the computer sitting on the desk. Ted pulled a laptop from his backpack. A few seconds later he was busy typing on the keyboard.

"Shit!"

"What?" Tele asked.

"He has a wireless alarm on the computer connected to the net independent of the security system," Ted replied.

"Can you bypass it?"

"Yea, but it's going to take a few minutes."

"I'm going to look around while you're doing that," Tele said.

As Ted worked at his keyboard Tele began to look around. Doing what he did for a living he was very good at spotting things out of place. One wall was bookshelves from floor to ceiling. As Tele looked them over he noticed that the bookcase seemed to be a single piece built in place from floor to ceiling. He could see the top was tight against the ceiling and the bottom tight against the floor, except on one end. A section about 4' wide had a small gap between the top and the ceiling and the bottom shelf and the floor. Tele spent several minutes feeling along the edges until his fingers touched a latch. A moment later that section of the bookshelf swung out exposing the door of a safe.

Just as the shelf swung out Ted grunted, "Got it!"

"Good, because I have another job for you," Tele said.

Ted turned to see the exposed door safe. He walked over and quickly checked out the safe, "Good. It's old school. It's a Cary fireproof safe from sometime in the early part of the last century."

"Can you open it?"

Ted grinned, pulled out an electronic device from his backpack, "You of all people should know that the government trains us very well for all eventualities!"

Ted put four suction cups on the front of the safe, attached them to the device then plugged in a set of headphones to another port in the device, "Back up and stay quiet."

He began to slowly turn the brass dial. It took him 10 minutes, then with a grunt, he grabbed the handle, turned it accompanied by a satisfying click as the lock disengaged.

Before they began to look through the contents over Ted took several pictures. There were many paper files that they quickly scanned through. None were of interest. But there was also a stack of DVDs. There were over two dozen of them. Ted picked them up and began to read the labels. Each had a name and a date on the front.

"Like I said, old school. They could have put all these on one of the high capacity thumb drives."

Ted took one to his computer and slid it into the cd player. As it began to play they realized they were watching George and Madison rape a young blonde girl. Ted pulled it out and put in another. It was pretty much the same with a different girl.

"It looks like we're going to be here for a while. I need to copy these to my computer one at a time." Ted said.

"Get with it. I'll go keep watch in case anyone shows up." Tele replied.

Even with high-speed transfer, it took Ted 45 minutes to copy all the DVDs. When he finished they used the pictures he had taken to put everything back exactly the way it had been. Ten minutes later they were sitting in the van with Susan.

"Get what you needed?" Susan asked.

"I think so, but I also think we should go do George's office, in case he has something Madison didn't," Ted said.

An hour later they were sitting in the van having gone through George's office and computer. They had copied all his files from his computer and found a thumb drive with several videoed rapes that Madison hadn't been involved in.

"Let's go back to the motel and see what we've got," Ted said.

When they got to the motel Ted set up a projector attached to his computer so they could project the videos onto the wall. As they started to view each they realized that most were about a half-hour long. As they made their way through the pile Tele saw that Susan was getting angry.

Ted started the second one and the image of a young blonde, naked, tied to a chair flashed onto the screen.

Susan jumped to her feet and screamed, "You bastards! You fucking bastards!"

"Easy. Easy." Tele said as he put his hand on her arm, "We'll get them."

She turned to look at him and he could see pain and anger in her eyes, "I worked for those bastards! I contributed to that! To them raping those girls!"

"You didn't know," Tele said, trying to soothe her.

"I should have! I should have! The bastards!" She snarled again.

"I think we should knock off for tonight," Ted said as he closed his laptop, then stuffed it into his backpack.

He picked up his pack, "I'll see you guys tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM here. Susan, you can skip the rest of it. Tele and I can handle reviewing the stuff we have."

Ted stepped out the door and as it closed behind him Susan threw herself against Tele and burst into tears.

"Easy girl, easy." Tele crooned stroking her hair.

"Bastards! The both of them!" Susan sobbed.

Tele held her until her sobs slowed and finally stopped.

"You want to talk about it?" Tele asked.

"Nothing to talk about but those two bastards!" Susan said.

"You can bullshit some of the people some of the time, but you can't bullshit someone who's had to deal with shit on that level," Tele said.

Even though anyone else would have found Tele's statement to be incomprehensible, Susan knew exactly what he meant.

Before she could stop herself she said, "I was raped. In college. I went on a date and the guy took me to his place where two of his buddies were waiting. They took turns raping me. I thought I was over it, but when I saw those images, when I realized I had been working for those assholes, it all came back."

She didn't see Tele's jaw tighten as he pulled her tighter and said, "It appears that these two have even more to answer for than I knew. I might beat David to killing these assholes."

Susan looked up at him and asked, "You would? Why?"

Tele looked into her eyes and said, "Because I now know why David wants to kill them. He does because they hurt Chelsea. I do because they hurt you."

The smile that creased her lips made her tear swollen eyes look less so as she said, "Why Tele! I'd almost say you like me."

Tele stared at the wall, afraid to meet her gaze as he said, "More than you realize."

Susan reached up, put her fingers on his chin, turned his face so his gaze met hers as she said, "You know what that means? It means for the first time in my life I want to stake a claim."

"I've never wanted anything like what I want with you," Tele said.

"Me either." She replied with a soft smile.

Tele grinned and said, "So does that mean we're going to fuck tonight?"

"Tonight and every night after." She said as she put her lips on his.

When she pulled away and began to undress Tele grinned and said, "Done deal!"

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Garr grabbed his backpack, "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah. Eva and Joanna are going to look after the place while I'm gone."David replied.

"So let's go already!" Garr said holding the door open, "I need to smack that asshole Samoan around for stealing my girl!"

Three hours later they were on a plane to LA. Tele was there to meet them as they came through the security checkpoint.

"Hey, dude!" Garr greeted him," So you stole my girl did you?"

"Not yours anymore, mine!" Tele shot back.

"You treat her right or I'll have to smack you around!" Garr said giving Tele a light punch on the shoulder.

"What if she doesn't treat me right?"

"I'll cheer her on!" Garr replied with a grin.

"You would asshole!" Tele said with a responding grin as they headed out of the building.

Garr and David climbed into Tele's rental car, David said, "To Chelsea's."

"She's still at work." Tele replied as he pulled out into traffic, "I've watched her and she usually doesn't leave the studio until 8 or 9 in the evening."

"Ok. You can take me to her house when she gets off work and get's there."

"That won't work. She has a really good security company and they won't allow anyone into her compound without her say so."

"Okay, so how the hell am I going to get to her?" David asked.

"I got that covered." Tele said as he negotiated traffic, "I arranged to meet her limo driver. He's a standup guy. He was in the Rangers and spent three tours in Afghanistan. I told him what was going down and he agreed to help. He said she's in bad shape right now and he's pretty damned concerned about her. He knows who you are David because she's got a picture of you on her phone, has shown it to him and talks about you to him all the time, a lot of the time while crying. He said he will call when she gets off work and will bring her to us."

"Okay, mean while let's get something to eat and drink," Garr said.

It was 10:32 PM before Tele's phone rang. He answered it and after a terse conversation hung up and said to David, "She's out and in the limo. He says she's pretty messed up tonight."

"Messed up? What do you mean?" David asked.

"Stoned. She's high. And she's crying uncontrollably," Tele replied.

"Fuck!" David snarled, then added again, "Fuck! Let's go!"

On the way out the door Tele said, "The driver will pull into the southeast corner of the parking lot at the mall on the way home. We'll meet him there."

Ten minutes later they were parked waiting for the limo. Shortly the long black limo pulled into the parking lot, drove over, stopping right next to their car. Tele got out and walked to the driver's window. When it rolled down David could see Tele talking to the driver. A moment later Tele turned waved a come on to David. David climbed out, walking to the car so the driver could see him. As he got to the car door he heard a click as the door locks were unlocked.

David took a breath, opened the door and climbed in. A moment later he was sitting facing Chelsea. Her face was red and swollen from crying. David could see her pupils were dilated from whatever drug she had taken.

When she finally realized who he was her eyes widened and she gasped, "David? How...when..."

David smiled, but there was no warmth in it.

"I'm here to take care of business."

"What? No! You can't be here! They...threatened to take everything from you! I can't...I can't let them do that! Please! Go away before they find you here! Please ...you can't be here!" Panic creeping into her voice.

David reached over, pulled her to him, held her tightly as he whispered, "I know everything. Don't worry. We have it all covered. The bastards aren't going to harm me, or you ever."

He felt her begin to sob as she said, "I've missed you! God how I've missed you!"

"I know. I've missed you too." He replied into her hair as he pulled her tighter.

"David? They killed her! She...she overdosed last night..." Chelsea sobbed.

"Who? What are you talking about?" David asked.

"My friend Christina. They...they...raped her...and...and she took drugs and she...took too many! She's dead! They killed her!" Chelsea choked out," and...I was...I was supposed to go to George's office tonight. I think he was going to..."

David didn't let her finish.

He put his finger on her lips, "Ain't gonna happen. Now I think we ought to tell your driver to take us to my hotel."

As they pulled out of the parking lot Chelsea said, "David? You...you haven't said it. No one else gets to say it, No one else would ever say it to me, only you...only you. I told Christina what you call me and she said it was because you can't say ...you know. I know what it means...I know what you mean when you say it. Say it...please?"

David smiled and replied softly, "Okay...sugar pussy."

As he spoke he heard a soft sigh from her and felt her arms tighten around him.