Two weeks after Andy and Jamie had been kidnapped, they were pretty much able to do anything they wanted to do—well, they did have to make sure their cock and balls were protected—so long as they were careful. Their cuts and bruises from the beating were healing, as were the burns but more slowly. Both had been given a drug to prevent erections and to keep their libido under control―as if that were possible. Jamie decided not to take his pills once and raging hormones did what raging hormones do and he was in misery. He very carefully managed to get off without doing any damage, but no-one had to remind him to take his pills again.
Against his better judgment, Ethan reluctantly agreed to his going to Braggton Friday night. Dek told Andy he could go as well, but reminded him to keep it in his pants. Both promised they would just go to A’isha’s Auntie Sherlene’s to watch some movies. Sally Ann was going with them and Keith would meet her there. She promised Ethan she would ride herd on the two.
Scotty was preparing a special dinner for Ethan and himself, after which they were planning on looking at courses for the following semester at Audubon State. They wanted to be able to register at the earliest possible minute in order to get on-campus classes which would minimize the number of times they had to drive to Audubon. Ethan planned a surprise for his lover as well. While Scotty was preparing dinner, Ethan was busy preparing for after dinner.
Ethan went downstairs to the den and picked up a list of the course offering for the spring semester after Scotty ordered him out of the kitchen. At 8:00 Scotty came into the den, kissed Ethan and said, “Dinner is served, m’lord.” He took Ethan’s hand and led him into the dining room. The table was covered with a snow-white cloth. The china was some Ethan had never seen and was quite beautiful. There was also crystal and silver he had never seen. Candles lit the table and room. On the sideboard was an arrangement of fall flowers. Scotty seated Ethan and served him before serving himself.
A perfectly prepared filet mignon was accompanied by twice-baked potatoes, fresh baby green beans and a wonderful green salad. As they started eating, Ethan said, “Whence the beautiful table setting, Scotty?”
“They are my great-grandmother’s. She left them to my grandmother who would have left them to my mother, but when I was beaten she knew at once what had happened and puzzled out the why. When she asked if her surmise was true, I told her it was. When it became clear that I was being put on the street, she said I could live with her. Before I got moved in with her, she had a massive stroke and died only hours later. Everyone was surprised when her will was read. She had changed it two days before she died. She left most of her estate to me in trust which I will be able to draw on when I am twenty-one. In addition, she left me her silver, china and crystal.”
“It’s beautiful, but how did it show up here?”
“I decided last week we should have it to enjoy and had the executor of her estate ship it to me. When it came, I just put it away until a special occasion and I wanted tonight to be a very special occasion. By the way, there’s service for twelve with all the extras. If we are going to be a household—a family—it belongs here
“Well, you certainly are a part of the family, babe,” Ethan said, leaned over the table and kissed him,
One might expect pecan growers to be tired of pecans, but nothing was further from the truth. Dessert was a rich, wonderful pecan pie with homemade french vanilla ice cream which Scotty served with coffee in the living room.
After the meal, Ethan insisted on doing cleanup and Scotty didn’t put forth much of an argument. When he finished cleanup, Ethan went upstairs. Scotty was in the bathroom, but came out shortly, wearing a pair of running shorts. Taking the hint, Ethan was soon dressed in running shorts as well. They forgot their plan to look at a course catalog and started making out instead. Their kisses went beyond passionate, their cocks streaming precum. Ordinarily one or the other would have a mouthful, but tonight was different. “Scotty,” Ethan whispered, “I want you inside me.”
“Are you sure, Ethan?”
“I am sure.”
“If you are sure.”
“I am.”
Scotty reached into the bedside table, took out the lube and a condom, lubed Ethan well and delighted him as he played with his ass. Finally Ethan whispered, “Scotty make love to me.” Ethan rolled the condom on Scotty’s hard cock—they had laughed when they had seen the condoms Doug and Rich had bought for them were extra large. They had laughed, but found that both could well use the large size and Scotty required it. Ethan was lying on his back—they had talked about their first time and both wanted to be able to see their lover’s face—as Scotty placed his condom covered cock against Ethan’s hole, he watched his face. As he inched forward, Ethan got a pained look on his face and Scotty started to pull back, but Ethan held him in place, “Just go slowly, Scotty.” Scotty moved forward, deeper and deeper into Ethan. Finally he was all the way in. He rested a moment before pulling back and thrusting forward. Ethan was groaning, now in pleasure, not pain.
Both were determined to make their love-making last as long as possible, but with Ethan’s tight, hot ass surrounding his cock, Scotty soon, much too soon for his liking, exploded inside him and just kept cumming in the most intense orgasm he had ever known. They lay in each other’s arms, Scotty still inside Ethan, until Scotty’s no-longer-hard cock slipped out of Ethan. It was only then that Ethan realized his stomach was covered with his own cum.
They went to the bathroom, cleaned up and put on their running shorts. Back in their room, they looked over the course catalog. Scotty had decided to get as many requirements for English and psychology majors out of the way as he could. Ethan was planning on the same approach for business and horticulture majors. They found evening courses, Intro to Psychology for Scotty and Intro to Business Administration 102 for Ethan, which met from 7:00 to 8:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays. Joe had told them he could arrange for them to get credit for the work they were doing under his direction and had already set that up for them. They also were able to get a literature course from 5:00 to 6:30 on the same nights as their other on-campus courses. Ethan would sign up for the next accounting course and Scotty for an advanced composition course online. Having achieved their stated goal for the evening, Scotty reminded Ethan that it was only 10:00 and they had an hour and a half before the ‘children’ were due home. Soon they were making out again and Scotty whispered, “Ethan, make love to me.”
“Are you sure, Scotty? Don’t think you have to.”
“Beloved, why would I think I had to, ought to, was obligated to? I want you to make love to me because I want you to have the wonderful feeling of being totally and completely connected to me.”
“Scotty, baby, I know that feeling already.”
“Then experience it in a new way.”
Ethan lubed Scotty well and engaged in ass play until Scotty said, “Inside me now, Ethan!”
Ethan covered his throbbing cock with a condom, lubed it well and slowly pushed into Scotty. He was about halfway in when Scotty grabbed him by his ass cheeks and pulled him all the way in. Ethan started thrusting slowly in and out of Scotty who held on to his ass, pulling him in as deep as possible on his inward thrust. Suddenly Scotty raised up, put his legs around Ethan and half guided, half pushed him on his back and started riding Ethan’s rigid cock. From time to time, he leaned over and kissed Ethan, thrusting his tongue into his lover’s mouth. Ethan reached up, grasped Scotty’s hard cock and started stroking it in rhythm with Scotty’s movements. Suddenly he felt Scotty plunge down on his cock pushing it as far into his ass as possible. As he did, Ethan felt his lover’s ass tighten around his cock as Scotty covered his hand and stomach with shot after shot of hot cum. Scotty’s orgasm triggered his own. As he exploded into the condom, Ethan recalled the wonderful feeling when Scotty came inside him. Once again, they lay in each other’s arms until Ethan slipped out of Scotty. They exchanged a tender kiss before going to the bathroom again to clean up and get dressed.
It was a quarter after eleven when they got downstairs and five minutes later, Ethan started pacing the floor. “Ethan,” Scotty said, “you know they will not be back until 11:29:59.”
“I know, but I can’t help but worry a little bit.”
“I know,” Scotty answered and pulled Ethan to him for a butterfly kiss. “but, Ethan, you have to turn them loose. You’re finally able to think first of Ethan, think about us, not them.”
Actually it was only 11:25 when the three came in the back door. “Thought we’d get home a few minutes early to keep Big Brother from driving you crazy pacing, Scotty,” Jamie said with a grin.
“You barely made it, Jamie. He started pacing five minutes ago.
Jamie walked over to Ethan, hugged him and said, “Thanks for caring so much, big brother. Love you.”
Ethan hugged him back and said, “Love you too, little brother. Have a good time?”
“Yes,” he answered and winked.
“Well, I’m for bed,” Sally Ann said. “Goodnight all.”
“I’m heading for bed as well,” Andy said. “Nighty, night. Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
“I hear a bed calling as well,” Scotty said.
Jamie went to the fridge and got two cokes and handed one to Ethan before he sat down. “You asked if I had a good time, Ethan. Well, I did in spite of the fact that I knew if Kathryn and I started making out, pill or no pill, I was going to get hard. If I get hard and stay hard twenty minutes, I need to get off. If I stay hard very much past twenty minutes, I either get off or I get blue balls. I was worried about what Kathryn might think if I didn’t make out with her because we always do. Not bragging or anything, but for about the last month, when we are making out, we have brought each other off with hands and fingers—I guess you don’t know about bringing a woman off. But anyway, the last time we were together, we had oral sex. To tell the truth, I hadn’t gone with a woman more than twice before having oral sex before Kathryn, but she’s different. So what was I going to do? As we were going to Braggton, that sister of ours said, ‘I hope you two macho males tell your women you are going to have to keep a lid on it. If you don’t they’re going to wonder what’s wrong.’ Problem solved except I didn’t know exactly how to approach Kathryn. I needn’t have worried. We walked in and after we all had greeted our girl or boy friend, Sally Ann announced, ‘Kathryn, A’isha, your studs had better cool it tonight. Jamie and Andy, you need to talk to your women.” So I told Kathryn what had been done to my cock and balls and how they were healing, but they were not completely healed and the skin was extremely fragile. I added that I was taking pills to keep from getting hard, but didn’t think they were strong enough to work during a make-out session.”
“‘I’m glad you told me, Jamie. I didn’t know they hurt you that way. Damn! They are fooling around with something that belongs to me!’ Kathryn said and was obviously pissed. Kinda made me happy. I mean she said my cock and balls belong to her! Well, I’m going to bed. Think I’ll let Andy have the room tonight and sleep in my own bed.”
<>
Sunday morning, Ethan was surprised when first Jamie and then Sally Ann came downstairs as he and Scotty sat down to toast and jelly. What are you two doing up?” he asked.
“Kathryn wanted to go back to St. Matthew’s,” Jamie answered, “and Sally Ann is going with the Warrens to St. Matthew’s.”
“Want to have lunch afterward?” Scotty asked.
“Sure, especially if you’re paying,” Jamie laughed.
“It’s a deal, bro.”
“I’m having lunch with the Warrens,” Sally Ann replied.
When Scotty and Ethan arrived at St. Matthew’s, Miss Mattie was nowhere in evidence. They waited outside for Jamie and Kathryn expecting to see Miss Mattie’s land yacht cruise in any minute, but she had not arrived when Jamie and Kathryn joined them. Inside, they occupied Miss Mattie’s pew. When Keith and Sally Ann arrived they deserted Keith’s parents and joined the others. With Keith and Scotty helping, everyone got through the service with as little confusion as possible.
The Gospel for the day was Matthew’s account of the beheading of John Baptist, a well-known story. How Fr. Everett managed to turn that into a tirade against sex among young people today slipped past Ethan. He especially found the connection between a woman’s strip act in front of a ruler and gay marriage elusive to say the least. Remembering Fr. Mason’s admonition to ignore Fr. Everett, Ethan just shrugged but, after all, he was a lot more even tempered than his younger brother.
After the Eucharist, he was asking Fr. Mason about Miss Mattie when he heard Jamie say in a louder-than-normal voice, “You know Father, I have heard a lot of stupid shi... crap in my life and have spoken more than a little, but I have never heard a bigger pile than that unorganized, off-the-wall, hateful shi... manure you unloaded from the pulpit this morning. You are a disgrace to your collar and St. Matthew’s.”
“How dare you, young man!” Fr. Everett said, turning red in his anger.
“I dare because I have learned the hard way, tolerating such hateful—and I’ll say the word—shit results in people getting hurt. While I’m not much on church, I’m pretty high on love and justice and you offend me because you offend both love and justice. And do worry, Father, because I will be back.” People were standing around with an astonished look on their faces as Jamie turned and walked away.
When Ethan turned back to Fr. Mason he saw the priest was trying hard to hide a laugh. Two or three people reached out to pat Jamie on the back as he walked toward his truck. Finally an elderly man started applauding and several others joined him. A few frowned, clearly angry at Jamie.
“Miss Mattie, Father?” Ethan asked again.
“She’s visiting Jonathan. He was in a minor accident and is recovering quickly, but she had to go up. She’ll be with him two weeks then she is taking Jonathan and Arthur on a cruise. She’ll be gone until the last of November. Fr. Everett? I suspect you just heard his last sermon thanks to Jamie.”
Sunday afternoon Ethan and Scotty decided to pay Rich a visit and see if he knew how things were going with the prosecution of the case against Tad, Ox, Tiny and Chad. As everyone expected, the case against Jamie and Andy for starting a riot in the park was thrown out of court.
Rich wasn’t home when they reached his place and Scotty suggested they have a look to see how the blue lupine was doing. When they reached the grove, it was covered with soft green, the clover darker than the lupine. As they walked over the field, a breeze sprang up and the scent of pine filled the air as the breeze was coming from the south where pines marked the end of the grove. The fresh pine scent lasted only a short time before the paint-like odor Ethan had smelled before became quite strong. Ethan stopped and whiffed. “Do you smell that?”
Scotty whiffed and said, “You mean the smell of pines? Of course ... Wait a minute! You mean ... Yes, like you said earlier, there’s an odor that smells like the paint we use to repaint tractors. The scent the pines almost covers it up. I think we should tell Rich.”
They went back to the truck and drove to Rich’s place. They planned to leave a note if he had not returned home. When they stepped on the porch, they heard an alarm inside. It quickly stopped and they heard someone unlocking the door. When the door opened, Rich said, “Sorry about the welcome. Come inside.” Once inside, he said, “I just got home and lay down for a nap and I put the alarm on when I do. Had a couple of attempts to break in when I was sleeping, so the boss ordered security be beefed up. Seems the breakup of the undocumented workers racket kicked over a larger hornets’ nest than we knew. What’s up?”
“Ethan got all antsy and had to check out the blue lupine ...”
“I would have thought two studly studs like you two could have found a hell of a lot more interesting things to do than check out a field Sunday afternoon.”
“We did that already,” Scotty grinned and Ethan blushed.
“Anyway, we drove to the grove and smelled the same paint-like odor Ethan told you about before. We thought we needed to tell you.”
“Right. How about taking me to the grove.”
When the reached the grove and started walking toward the piney woods, the smell was much stronger than it had been earlier. “I need to take a look, but I don’t want to have you standing here in the open, but if you go with me, you may be in greater danger.”
“I’d feel safer with you,” Ethan said.
“So would I,” Scotty agreed.
“Well, keep your eyes and ears open. Make as little noise as possible.”
As the entered the pines, the smell became even stronger. The further they walked, the stronger the smell. They had walked about three quarters of a mile and the odor was so strong it was becoming nauseating. Suddenly, Rich put out his arm, stopping them and whispered, “Get down!” They hit the dirt and lay still for a couple of minutes before Rich gave them a signal and they raised their heads and peered through the pines. A couple of hundred yards in front of them was a metal building. Two twelve-feet-high chain-link fences about eight feet apart, topped with razor wire, encircled the building. The reason Rich had them hit the dirt was plain to see. A guard carrying an assault rifle was patrolling the area, walking between fences.
Rich took out his cell phone and began taking photos. After taking several, he whispered, “I am going around the building so I can get snapshots of the far side. You guys have your cells?” Ethan and Scotty nodded. “If one of you could crawl to the front and the other to the back, we could be out of here shortly. Be careful! That guard means business.” Both nodded and Rich walked back some hundred feet and disappeared in the pines. Ethan crawled toward the front and found the whole area in the front was barren. He got pictures of the front, but from an angle. No way could he get a head-on photo since there was no cover. He finished and was crawling back to the rendezvous point when a shot rang out. There were no others, and when he got to the rendezvous point, Scotty was waiting for him.
“I was afraid you had been shot,” Ethan replied and kissed him.
They had been waiting a short time when a night bird called behind them. A night bird mid-afternoon? Ethan turned to face the call and saw Rich. He motioned for them to follow him as he dropped to the ground and started crawling away. Ethan and Scotty started crawling also. At a point where they were fairly sure they couldn’t be spotted, and to Ethan and Scotty’s relief, Rich stood and whispered, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
They didn’t speak until they were in the truck headed back to Rich’s place when he said, “I about had a heart attack when I heard that shot.”
“You think you did? I about shit my pants. I could see Ethan all bloody again.”
“I just quietly panicked,” Ethan said.
“Well, it’s good to know we are all in one piece,” Rich said. “That guard means serious business and the fence says he’s not the only one. No way I can be sure, but I’d bet six months’ salary that the building you saw is a meth lab. If it is, it must turn out the shit by the hundreds of pounds. There’s another, much larger building some one hundred yards from this one and two smaller ones. My hunch is we have stumbled on a major drug manufacturing and distribution center.”
Back at his house, Rich handed the two a beer and took one himself and said, “Let’s have a look at the pictures we got.” At the door to his office, Rich placed his thumb in the black box and said, “Agent Richard Long requesting entrance. Mary had a little lamb.” There was a loud click and Rich pushed the door open. As they walked in, Ethan again noticed the not-at-all-regular door to an office.
Inside, Rich pressed the button on a keypad and doors opened on a cabinet revealing stacks of electronics including two computers with large monitors. Rich downloaded their pictures into a computer which had dual monitors so all three had a clear view. “I can’t blow up the pictures very much since they were made with a cell phone, but we should be able to learn something from them.”
They studied the pictures carefully but learned little they did not know before. They did see a number of video surveillance cameras on the metal building which they had not previously noticed. Rich pointed out a dog pen with an opening into the space between the fences. “I was lucky to spot the dogs before they spotted me. I guess since I was outside the fence I wasn’t covered by their job description. I don’t care what the reason was, I am just glad they didn’t bark.
“I’m going to call headquarters about possible satellite images,” Rich said. “If I’m lucky there will be some available or can be made. Might give us more to go on.” He created a file folder for the images and copied them into it, wrote a cover letter and sent it. “If we’re lucky, images will be available and we’ll get a quick response. Meanwhile, how about some cheese and crackers and another beer while we wait?” Ethan and Scotty nodded.
They had been enjoying the beer and snack while speculating about what was going on, especially why the facility was located in Bragg County, when a chime sounded. Rich got up and went to his office and returned carrying sheets of paper. “We are fortunate. Our location happens to be under a satellite’s path so we have images and can get more.” As they looked closely at what they had decided was a meth lab, Ethan pointed out the many chimneys coming out of the roof. “Hood vents,” Rick speculated. “If this is a meth lab, and I am convinced it is, it is certainly not single wide trailer type operation. This is more like a small pharmaceutical lab. This is a lot bigger complex that what we saw. See, there’s a large building several hundred yards south of where we were and another to the west. Look, there’s an eighteen wheeler approaching the complex.”
Scotty pointed out an eighteen wheeler parked at a loading dock of the large building south of the meth lab. Not only was it there Monday night, but Tuesday and Wednesday as well. Thursday, it was parked near the large building south of the meth lab. There was a line of people from the van to the building. A smaller covered truck was backed up to the meth lab as well.
“Damn, I didn’t know satellites could pick up such detail,” Scotty said.
“I was thinking,” Rich said, “we need night IR—infrared—images. I’ll see if that’s possible.”
It was half an hour before the chime sounded again and Rich brought a stack of sheets to the kitchen table. “There are heat images and I have been sent a series beginning last Monday through last night. They were all taken about the same time, 10:00 pm. He spread the images side-by-side, in sequence across the table with the daylight sequence directly under the corresponding heat image one.
There were six warm things between the fences of the meth lab each night. “They let the dogs loose inside the two fences,” Ethan said, pointing to the warm spots. There were a few warm spots in the meth building, but not enough to suggest anything was going on inside.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday night the meth lab lit up like a thermal Christmas tree. “Activity in the meth lab,” Rich said. “Ethan, what’s the work schedule for Arkadelphia and more specifically at Pleasant Grove?”
“We had an understanding about that in July. We work five days a week 7:30 until 5:30 unless there is a real crisis which determines otherwise. A hardwood lumber company had been logging off the grove we crossed earlier. We had started doing it, but the company made an offer which got it done faster without cost to us, so they took over. They work the same schedule.”
“So you had just started in the grove when you smelled the odor before?”
“Right.”
“And the odor was not mentioned by the men logging off the grove?”
“No, not to my knowledge.”
“Take a look at the night images again and tell me what you see.”
They had barely glanced at them when Scotty said, “What you expected. The meth lab is cold Monday through Thursday nights and is hot as a firecracker Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights when there is no-one in the grove.”
“Bingo!” Rich said. “No doubt that is a new schedule. The fence looked newer than the building which puzzled me, but I think I understand. Look at the wide angle day image. The complex is large, but lost in an huge pine forest. For years it could operate as if Pleasant Grove was an extension of that forest since no-one ever came into the grove. They hadn’t expected you when you showed up working in the grove. In response, they beefed up security—new fences, dogs, guard—and changed the operating schedule of the lab. I’ll send our conjectures to headquarters and suspect I’ll be called to Atlanta soon.
Shortly after the speculations had been sent, Ethan and Scotty went home and had a good make-out session before the children got home.
Monday morning as Sally Ann and Ethan placed breakfast on the table, the phone rang. Scotty answered it, listened a few minutes and said, “Right, understand. Remember all work and no loving is a bad thing, a very bad thing. Call when you get back.” He hung up and said, “Rich. He called to let us know he was headed for the office in Atlanta and would be gone several days.” Later he told Ethan Rich said under absolutely no circumstances were they to go back to the lab, so of course they wouldn’t.