“I want you to stay the night again,” May said, lightly stroking Jessup’s arm.

Jessup smiled, leaning over the bench seat of the Chevelle to give May a warm kiss.

“Maybe we’re mixing a little too much pleasure with business,” he said. “We’re at a critical stage here. Tomorrow is a huge day.”

“I don’t want you to stay just for sex,” she said, “though I won’t lie. That was part of the package.”

Her face reddened.  He smiled.

“I don’t feel safe,” she continued. “You heard how pissed Marbury was today. He sent goons after me before he was pissed. I can’t imagine what he’s up to now.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Jessup said.

“This Navy SEAL you called. Have you heard from him, yet?”

 “Steve Horner?” Jessup replied. “No, not yet. I’m afraid I struck out on that one.  He is a field commander in Bahrain.  He was scheduled to be in Seattle to oversee a field exercise in the Puget Sound. He originally asked me to drive up and see him for a day but that was a week ago.  I called him and left him a brief message but have heard nothing from him. It’s possible that something came up forcing him to stay in Bahrain.”

“I’m sorry,” May said.  “I hate seeing you shoulder all the burden. You didn’t sign up for any of this. I’ve put you in harm’s way.”

“You forget who started this whole thing,” Jessup argued. “If I hadn’t put that note on your car windshield, you would have signed that proxy. You’d have made millions and been back in Seattle by the end of the week.”

“And it would have been the absolute wrong thing to do,” May reassured.  “I felt lost, alone and vulnerable before I met you. With you here I feel I can take on the world if I need to.”

She leaned in and kissed him again. He allowed her tongue to enter his mouth and their kiss deepened.

“Let’s see what Consuelo has rustled up for dinner,” she said. Her fingers stroked the inside of his thigh. “I have plans later for dessert.”

Inside the house, May called for Consuelo. There was no answer. In the kitchen, she found a note and read it: one of her children had a fever; she left early. Dinner was prepared and waiting.

May sensed Jessup was standing behind her, reading the note over her shoulder.

“You hungry?” she asked.

“I am,” he said, “but I was hoping we could have dessert first.”

She flashed him a playful grin and slid his arms around his neck. He kissed her again moving his hands to her waist and allowing them to slide down over her hips.  He pulled her into him as the kiss deepened. She could feel him getting hard, rubbing up against her, and the sensation electrified her.

Three minutes later they were in the bedroom, naked, kissing, touching, exploring each other with their fingers and lips.  The foreplay was unlike anything she’d ever experienced in the past. He seemed so patient, kissing her breasts, her belly and moving his tongue lower still. She gasped when his tongue found its target. It was what she wanted; wanted it so badly. His hand roamed her body as he patiently pleasured her orally, slowly. It felt fantastic. After what seemed like an eternity he finally rolled onto his back and pulled her on top of him.

Jessup caressed her breasts, pressing them together, suckling on her nipples. She straddled him. She felt the soft wet flesh of her lower region gliding across his fully erect penis. She moaned loudly when he slid into her. Her fingers squeezed his back as she accepted the penetration.

She moved her hips, easing him in and out of her, slowly at first, then faster. Every part of her body ached for him. Her motion slowed again as Jessup drove himself into her deeper than before. He slipped his hands down to her buttocks and pulled her downward driving himself even further into her.

She cried out when the orgasm sent spasms of pleasure throughout her body. She cried out yet again, and then she heard him moan as he reached orgasm himself. His body stiffened.  She could almost feel the sensation surging through his body.

She collapsed onto his chest basking in a breathless afterglow, him still inside her, kissing her face as he ran his fingers across her back and buttocks.  She finally lay at his side, one leg laying across his belly, one hand on his chest, lightly moving across it.

For over thirty minutes they held each other, caressed each other, kissed each other, quietly and softly.

“Not to mix business with pleasure but did Mrs. Sweeney find anything in your dad’s emails that might help us?” he asked.

“No, but I wasn’t expecting to hear from her,” May commented. “She has a lot of material to go through.”

“Just out of curiosity, did you go through your dad’s office for clues,” he wondered.

“With a fine-tooth comb,” May indicated.  “Mrs. Sweeney and I tore the office apart looking for anything that might help.”

“No, I mean his home office,” Jessup corrected. “A man like your dad may have kept some of his private information at home.”

“No, I didn’t, but that’s a great idea,” she said. She hopped off the bed and slipped into a silk robe.  Jessup slipped on sweatpants and a t-shirt.

“Follow me,” she said. May and Jessup spent forty-five minutes searching Mike Major’s home office.  The only thing that really stood out to them was a large state map. Her dad had colored areas of the map green and other areas red. 

“That’s a lot of area,” May noted.  “What do you think it means?”

“I don’t know,” Jessup replied. “Maybe the emails will help us with some clues.  Did you find anything else?”

“No,” May said, shaking her head.

“I’m sorry this was such a waste of time,” Jessup apologized.

“Hey, it was a great idea,” May said. “You’re thinking is spot on. We know he was working on something. That’s why he delayed. We just have to figure out what it was.”

Jessup nodded, “I’ll go downstairs and heat dinner. It smelled wonderful.”

He tossed her the TV remote, “Why don’t you find something on Netflix to watch, and I’ll bring it up here. You pick the movie.”

“Mmmm,” she said. “Are you proposing we watch a cheesy romance movie while naked and eating in bed?”

He chuckled, “It sounds great,” he replied.

“Just thinking about it is making me a little horny again,” she said. “Don’t be too long, though. I might just start without you.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be quick,” he said.

 

 

Jessup ambled down the stairs and into the kitchen. When he switched on the light he paused.

Something was wrong.

He looked around the room quickly, seeing nothing.  He had grown to trust his instincts; his senses were all firing warning signals.  Someone was in the house. He knew it.

He heard the tiniest of sounds; a floor creaking.  He tiptoed toward the sound but from behind him heard a crisp wispy noise and an impact on his lower back. Pain surged up his spine. He looked down and saw the dart sticking out of his side. He reached for it as he felt the effects of the tranquilizer coursing through his system.

He looked up to see Stan, one of the men he encountered in the bar harassing May. Stan was smiling at him, dressed in all black. Behind Stan were three more men, all dressed in black as well. One of them held a rifle, undoubtedly the one used to fire the tranquilizing dart.

He wanted to yell for May to get out of the house but he became dizzy; his knees buckled. The last thing he remembered was falling to the floor.

 

Upstairs, May picked out a movie, an old western starring Tom Selleck, her favorite actor and a man who reminded her of Jessup in so many ways.  She loved the Louis L’Amour films.

She wondered what was keeping him so long. He should have had more than enough time to reheat the dinner.

She got out of bed and put back on her robe.  She wandered out of the bedroom to the top of the stairs.

“Jessup,” she called out. No answer.  She cautiously walked down the steps, not understanding why she sensed something was wrong.  When she arrived in the kitchen, she saw nothing. No one. Jessup had gone. There were no signs of a struggle—nothing. He’d just disappeared.

May walked to the front door. It was cracked open but showed no signs of forced entry. She looked out the front window. Jessup’s car was gone.

What the hell happened? 

She walked back into the kitchen and looked around. The dinner was still in the fridge. She closed the refrigerator door. It was then she noticed an eight by eleven-inch piece of paper on the table. 

She looked around the room once again, her heart racing.  She picked up the envelope leaving the cell phone on place on the table. She opened the note and unfolded it. The note read:

May, I’m so sorry. I suddenly felt ill. I think it’s my heart condition acting up.  I decided to seek medical attention. No need for you to worry. I’ll call you as soon as I can.

What the hell? She looked at the note again. It was handwritten. 

And what was all this about his heart condition acting up? He’d told her that his release was due to a medical condition, but he never told her the nature of the condition.

The next two hours went by in a blur. May called every hospital in the area—nothing. No record of Jorge Jessup. She dialed his phone a dozen times and sent a half dozen text messages. No response.

With each passing minute May became increasingly convinced that something was wrong. She dialed nine-one-one.  May told them the story, but it sounded as though the operator didn’t believe her.  She kept trying to convince May that there was no evidence of a crime. If Jessup didn’t turn up after twenty-four hours, she could file a missing person’s report.

May finally convinced the operator to have an officer stop by and look around, to see if a trained cop could spot evidence to support what she’d been saying.

She hung up and called Ray Tostum, not sure who else to call.  Ray tried to calm May down. He told her when Jessup filled out the paperwork for the contract consultant position, he had written down his own home address. Ray said he could access the address and stop by Jessup’s house, in the event he felt better and went home.  He would check in on her afterward to see if she was ok.

May thanked Ray and hung up just as the police arrived. It was Officer Singer, the same cop who responded to the assault in the bar the evening before.

“Thank you for coming,” May said, despondent.

“I heard the call come in and when I heard your name I picked it up,” he said.  “Tell me what happened.”

May took the officer through the events as they occurred. Even though she was nearly out of breath from hyperventilation, she was thorough.

Singer listened intently.

“Let me see the note,” Singer asked. May handed it to him.

He read it, “It looks suspicious, I’ll give you that. If he was having a heart attack, he’d likely call nine-one-one rather than drive himself.  Even if he drove, he would probably not have taken the time to write a note. He would call you on your cell in route. Does this look like his handwriting?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I… Wait, a minute. He wrote me a note and put it on my windshield yesterday.”

May retrieved the note from her purse and handed it to Singer. He held up both notes for comparison. He let out a breath, “It sort of looks like his handwriting but then again… I don’t know. I can’t tell.”

He handed the notes to May. She looked at them side by side. The officer was right. It was close. She couldn’t tell either.

“Well, I’ve been through your place,” Singer said. “There is no evidence of foul play I can see. No forced entry, nothing broken. Your father doesn’t have cameras around the place which is surprising given his position and how nice the house is.  I’m not supposed to do this because technically he can’t be listed as missing for twenty-four hours but I’ll put out an APB on the Chevelle Super Sport and see if any of our officers locate it. My beat takes me past the two main hospitals. I’ll stop by throughout the night and see if he showed up.”

He handed May a card with his cell phone number on it, “You call me if you hear from him?”

“I will. You believe me, right? Someone took him. I know it.”

“I believe you, Miss Major, but I have one question. Why would they take him and not you?”

“What?”

“I mean, it’s you they were after, right? You were upstairs. They had to have known you were here. Why didn’t they grab you at the same time?  Why take Jessup?”

May formed a look of confused shock on her face, “I don’t know—vengeance maybe. He did kick the shit out of Stan and his goon last night.”

Singer sighed, “That could be it, but why the fake note?”

May shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“You gonna be ok tonight?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Can someone guard my place?”

“Again, we have no evidence of a crime,” he said. “I couldn’t sell that.”

“I’ll stay with you, Miss Major,” a voice called from behind. It was Ray Tostum.

“Did you go by Jessup’s house?” May asked.

“I did. Locked up and lights out. No one home. No car, no signs he’d been in there in a while.”

“It sounds like you’ll be in good hands,” Singer said. “I’ve known Tostum here since I was kicking his ass in football our senior year in high school.”

“You are getting old,” Ray replied. “You have memory issues.”

Singer smiled and nodded, “Good evening Miss May.”

The officer left.

“You don’t mind staying?” May asked.

“No ma’am,” he said. “I’d feel better about it.”

“There’s a spare bedroom next to my room,” she said.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll sleep on the sofa in the living room,” Ray said. “I can hear better.”

May smiled, “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“I’ll get you a blanket and a pillow,” May said.  She went upstairs to gather a few things.  When she got back downstairs, she offered Ray half the dinner Consuelo prepared.

He declined.

They heard a hard rap on the front door.

Ray touched his lips with his index finger and waved May into the next room. Ray walked over to the door.

“Who’s there?” Ray called out without opening the door.

“My name is Commander Steve Horner,” came the reply. “I’m here to see Jorge Jessup.”

May heard what he said and came rushing into the living, “He’s all right,” she told Ray.  “He’s a friend of Jessup’s.”

Ray opened the door. A six-foot tall powerfully built man stood in the doorway.  He was ruggedly handsome with a serious look on his face.

“Oh, my god, thank you for being here?” May exclaimed. “How did you know to come here?” Ray asked.

“Jessup called me and left me a message describing the issues you were facing. I got here as soon as I could. Jessup didn’t answer his phone. I went by his house. The lights were out and his car was gone. I thought he’d be here.”

“I’m so glad you’ve come,” May said.

“Are you Miss Major?”

“I am,” she said.

Horner took a quick look around. He looked cool and calm, calculating what he was seeing, “Looks like you’ve seen trouble here tonight. I don’t see Jessup and you look frightened out of your mind. Why don’t you tell me what’s happened?”