Family Affairs – Teri and Emily – Part 2 – Chapter 5

“Thank you, Olivia. You are delicious. And thank you, Dee Dee for sharing this with me.” I said as I gestured toward Olivia, now moving back to stand next to Dee Dee.

“It was our pleasure, David. See you tonight at dinner.” Dee Dee said, she kissed Olivia, and then walked me to the door.

I left her office, and headed down to the parking ramp. As I got off the elevator and approached my car, there was a long box on the trunk of my car, it was painted with a desert camo motif. I was instantly pissed, that someone would do something like that, then I looked more closely at the box, and I realized that I recognized it. I opened the box and there was the old man’s .40 caliber sniper rifle, along with a Sig .40 hand gun along with a couple boxes of hollow point ammo for the hand gun and full metal jackets for the rifle. There was only one way in hell that this rifle could be here.

I grabbed the Sig and made sure the clip inside was loaded, and I pulled one cartridge for the rifle out and put it in my pocket. Then I turned to find the black SUV rolling up behind me. I lifted the handgun as I came up to the driver’s side window and pointed it at the driver’s left eye.

“Hands on the dash, both of you, or you’re done.” After some hesitation, they both put their hands on the dashboard. “If you move, detailing won’t clean what’s left. Am I clear?” Both men nodded and looked straight ahead.

These words were barely out of my mouth when the back door opened and my ‘dead’ father stepped out of the back of the truck. I just stared at him in disbelief. Then all the bullshit came flooding back and I couldn’t think of anything to do except cock the hammer on the pistol.

“Whoa, David, wait a minute now. Let me explain.”

“What’s to explain old man? Why you lied to me? Why you lied to Teri, or maybe why you kept all those things from Rachel and her sisters? Maybe why you kept me from my own DAUGHTER for the last 10 years?!? Go ahead motherfucker, explain it to me, I can’t wait to hear it!!”

“I meant about my being alive. I don’t have anything to say about the other stuff.”

He moved to come around the door, but I took a step to the side to maintain safe distance between us. I’d just as soon shoot him as to fight him hand to hand.

“WitSec?!? Seriously?!?” I glanced at the guys in the front seats, they just nodded slowly and kept their hand on the dash. I looked back at the old man.

“Get back in the car before I shoot your already dead ass.” He didn’t’ move, so I pulled the trigger and blew the far back window out of the Fed’s truck. The old man wasn’t expecting that, he jumped when the glass shattered, then looked at me. I couldn’t tell if it was fear or respect, but I really didn’t care at that moment.

“Okay, David I’m getting back in now.” He climbed into the back seat, and I moved in close to him and put the weapon against his neck just below his ear.

“You twitch and I will shoot you.” There was a woman in the back seat with him, a raven haired woman, thin, big tits and every bit as young as me if not just a little younger. I looked at her, then back at him.

“You probably thought you owed me some sort of explanation, but since you and I have differing opinions about what you need to explain, we don’t have anything to discuss, so you’re going to go ahead and get on with your new life, and forget all about us. Forever!”

I looked over at the woman sitting next to him with her hand clutching the old man’s.

“I certainly hope you’re completely committee to this, because it’s only a matter of time before you do something to disappoint him. Grab your happiness as fast as you can and for as long as you can, but know this: It will end and it will be your fault, at least in his eyes.”

I looked back at the old man and pulled the rifle cartridge from my pocket and dropped it into his shirt pocket.

“If I ever see you again, hear about you coming back, or even suspect that you’ve sniffing around my family, my friends or my life EVER again, I will paint the sky with your blood. Do you understand me?”
He didn’t answer, so I jammed the gun into his neck a little more to emphasis my point.

“DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”

“Yes.” He finally said quietly.

I backed away from the truck and shut the back door, then moved to the driver’s window.

“Watch him closely, Marshall, I wouldn’t want to think that he would be the one to ruin WitSec’s spotless record. If anyone will go ‘off reservation’, it’ll be him.”

He started to say something, but the look in my eye dissuaded him from sharing his thought. I pointed the weapon down and dropped the hammer closed. He started the truck and they drove away.

I picked up the ejected cartridge then went across to dig the slug out of the wall, mostly out of habit, then went back and put everything away and loaded the gun case into the trunk. I just stood there shaking with enough rage to bite a chain and spit out nails. I barely noticed Dee Dee and Olivia come up behind me with building security in tow.

“David, are you alright? We heard gunfire, what’s going on?”

“Just an engine backfiring. Sorry guys, it looks like somebody broke a window or something over here.”

I don’t think they bought the whole backfire story, but they couldn’t prove anything else, and weren’t looking to argue with me since it seemed everyone was safe and any danger that might have been was gone now.

I pulled Dee Dee aside when the guards went for maintenance and said, “Dee Dee, this is critical, the passwords on all the accounts got changed right? Just like you told me you did? Rachel’s too?”

“Yes Davey, I did them all personally, and kept no electronic records, as you requested, on paper and only two copies. I’ll bring Rachel’s to her tonight.”

“And your copy, it’s not on the premises right?” My paranoia was running high, hard and fast.

“It’s exactly where you asked me to put it and I’m the only other person that knows where it is. What’s this all about? You’re starting to concern me more than a little.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to frighten you. I just needed to be sure.”

“It’s done, Davey, I promise.”

Maintenance showed up right then and cleaned up the glass from behind my car, so I could leave. We watched them clean up and go without another word between us. I was starting to calm down some, and the shakes were subsiding. Olivia reached up and put her hand on my arm, and looked into my eyes.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Olivia asked as we watched the guys leave.

“Yeah, just…nothing. I better get going, besides, I have to tell Rachel you two are coming to dinner.”

They both looked more than a little skeptical, but didn’t say anything else. I waved at them as they moved toward their cars and I climbed into mine.

I headed home to find Rachel and the girls home from their massages. I assumed they’d be relaxing at the pool, so I went around the house to tell Rachel about dinner.

“Hey Davey.” Rachel called as I came up to the pool.

“Hey, is there any problem with Dee Dee and Olivia coming for dinner with us tonight?” It was really hard to keep my voice even and calm.

“No problem at all, we’re having company anyway, so there’ll be plenty.”

“Cool. Um…who’s the company?”

She stood up and kissed me and wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into her. She broke the kiss and looked into my eyes, searching for something.

“They’re in the living room, c’mon.”

She led me into the house, and I could see Crissy and Sarah get up to follow us into the house. Something was up.

Rachel led me into the living room, and there was Teri standing in front of the sofa dressed in a pair of jeans and an un-tucked button up shirt. Christ she was beautiful, her hair pulled back into a single braid that end just below her shoulder blades. She looked so much like the other girls, I wondered how I could have missed it when I was younger. Maybe I didn’t on some level, and that’s why I was drawn to her: She looked so much like Rachel did when I first met her that she could have been her twin. As much as the other girls looked like Rachel, Teri was practically a dead ringer for her.

It’s hard to put into words just how it feels when you see the first girl you were sure you loved, smiling in front of you after 10 years of believing she hated you. I could feel myself start to shake as the anticipation, anxiety and fear all took hold of my breath and my pulse so close on the heels of the incident in the parking ramp, I could hardly breathe. But seeing Teri there in front of me, all the anger and rage flooded away and were gone in that single moment. All I could do was stand there and take in the beauty of this woman.
Rachel put her hand on my lower back and whispered to me, “Go on, Davey. She’s really there.”
I looked at Rachel and all I could do was nod stupidly. She had tears in her eyes, and she pushed me gently toward Teri.

“Hey you.” Teri said, breaking the spell, and all I could do was move up to her and take her into my arms and hug her close to me. I was afraid that she was going to disappear. She hugged me back, matching my desperation with her own embrace. I heard her let out a sigh of relief, like she’d been holding her breath since the last time we’d seen each other. I knew how she felt. I was still holding my breath.
She kissed my neck, and I could feel her tears touch my skin. That was all it took, I let out my own sigh of relief, and let the tears flow down my face.

“Teri, I am so sorry. So very sorry you were put through all of this, can you ever forgive me?”

“Shhh…you have nothing to apologize for. There’s nothing to forgive. You didn’t know the truth, you couldn’t possibly have known or we would have been together sooner.”

I pulled my head back and looked at her, taking in every feature of her face, and seeing all of the pain, all of the joy and all of the life that she’d led to this point. She was so beautiful. I reached up and cupped her head in my hand and pulled her into a kiss. Her hands came up and cradled my face as she returned my kiss and slid her tongue into my mouth, searching for its long lost partner. When they found each other, the results were amazing. 10 years fell away, and we were the only ones in the room. The kiss seemed to last for only a few moments, but it felt comfortable enough to have been 10 years long.