Standard Disclaimer: Yes, I’m at it again, finally. The muse has returned big time. So I, once again, have borrowed the character of Xena from Rob Tapert, et.al, and Renaissance Pictures. I’ll bring her back unscathed when I’m finished.
Violence Disclaimer: I’m afraid De has her back up, and there is no other choice for her, other than to come out fighting. I’ll try to keep it down to a bare minimum, only enough for the plot, nothing gratuitous will be found herein. But then, forewarned is forearmed, so let the reader beware.
Hurt/Comfort: There will undoubtedly be some hurt here, but not to the main characters. There will be lots of comfort, however.
Sex Disclaimer: There was absolutely nothing in "Paybacks", so I’d say we’re about due. Let me say, these two women are very much in love with each other and, on occasion, express it overtly. Yeah, they do the wild thing; what can I say? There will be no instances of "potty mouth" syndrome; after all these two are ladies. Still in all, if this sort of story does not appeal to your sensibilities, then, by all means, do not read my stories. There are lots of other good general category stories out there. In addition, if you’re not of legal age (at least 21), do not read this, if this kind of literature is not legal in the state or province in which you live, do not read this story. There, I think that about covers everything.
This is the last story to "The Real Dreams Series". I want everyone to know I have somewhere found my muse again, and I have already got a new series kicking around inside my head called "Elan". I’ll get started on that in a few days. Until then, I hope you enjoy this story. It has been fun writing this one, but all good things eventually come to an end. Write me and let me know what you think. You can reach me at the following addy fantasysrealm@jccomp.com Remember all constructive criticism is accepted.
You’re Mine, Lassiter
Part I
By
Fantasy
June 3, 2001
Chapter 1: There are Days When…
"These are times that try men’s souls…" Thomas Paine said that in his "Crisis Papers" during the American Revolution. I’m quite certain that the Honorable Mr. Paine wouldn’t mind my borrowing his words if he knew the "crisis" I now found myself in with De. I had never in my life met anyone who was as bull-headed and stubborn as De…well…I suppose the same could be said of me, but that’s beside the point. We’re not talking about me, now are we? What makes this doubly hard is that because De is my best friend, and of course as such I would naturally be concerned about her welfare, but she is also the woman I am madly in love with. Of course, needless to say, I am more than a little concerned about her well being. And, it appeared I was the only one so concerned, obviously, not De and the others. In fact, Unc, Maggie, and Ian were blithely going along with everything De ordered. They acted like this was some heroic adventure. I was sure they had De confused with that tall chick who played Xena on television. That’s fantasy, Lassiter and his thugs were all too real. Well, I wasn’t going to be the blonde sidekick mindlessly going along with everything De had in mind, not by a long shot. Not me! I’ll be damned if I will.
Who am I trying to kid? Shouldn’t it be obvious? Oh dammit all to hell anyway! I’d do whatever the hell I had to just to be near her.
I was perched on my favorite haybale, a cup of cowboy coffee in hand, contemplating the affairs of my state, when I heard familiar footfalls. Only one person could walk that way. I always told Unc he’d never have made a good Indian. Anyone could hear him coming a mile away. He sounded like a heard of elephants stamping their way across the African bush.
"Ya mind a little company, short stuff?"
Only Unc could get away with calling me that. Even De was the victim of my childish tirades when she made a reference to my short stature.
"Sure, Unc. Pull up a seat. Want some coffee?" I asked as I picked up the thermos next to me.
"Who made it; you or De?" He asked, as I handed him the cup and he tentatively took a sip.
"What difference does that make?" I asked, "coffee is coffee. But if you must know, I did."
Unc winced noticeably, and coughed a little to get his breath back.
"Whew, that is not for the young!"
I laughed, and took another swallow of the rich, black liquid.
"Yeah, it’s granddaddy’s recipe. It does take some gettin’ used to. You know he always said…’if you can see the bottom of the cup, it’s tea, and no self respectin’ cowboy would be caught dead drinkin’ tea.’"
Unc nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, Dad was pretty set in his ways a’right, his coffee was just one example of that."
There was a brief silence between the two of us before Unc spoke again.
"So, how ya doin’ with all this? And don’t try ta hide nuthin’ ‘cause you ain’t never been able to lie to me before, so don’t try this late stage of the game. It jus’ won’t work. C’mon, fes’ up."
I always hated being so transparent to my father. It wasn’t any different with Uncle Doan either. Both of them had a way of reading people that was just plain spooky. I never had any luck trying to pull the wool over their eyes, and Unc was right. There was no point in trying now.
"God Unc, I hate this. There’s nothing about this I like. De is putting herself directly in the path of Clanton and Lassiter. She’s staking her-self out like a lamb for a wolf, and there’s not one damn thing I can do to get her to change her mind. Nothing…nothing."
I dropped my head in defeat, resigned to the fact that for better or worse, I loved this woman more than anyone that’s come before her. I’ll love her 'til the end of time. The tears began to fall unbidden, but I didn’t care, I just let them fall. Unc put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into a still powerfully built chest.
"Now darlin’, you jus’ hold yourself together. De doesn’t need you to be fallin’ apart on her now. Ya have ta be strong for her, for both of you."
I knew Unc was right, but I just couldn’t help myself,
"Ahh Doan, I just don’t know what I’d do if anything ever happened to her. I love her so."
The tears fell anew, and Doan rocked me in his arms, and hummed an old cowboy tune, the same way he did when my father died, in an effort to comfort me.
"Now hon, it jus’ ain’t as bad as all that. Ya know De and you ain’t in this alone. Maggie and me, we’re here, and shoot fire, all the ranch hands are here to help. And don’t you forget Ian and a whole division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are on our side. That Lassiter and his bunch ain’t never tangled with the likes of us, and he don’t know what the hell he’s getting’ into. Why before we’re through, that sorry piece of shit will be beggin’ to be sent back ta jail. Hell jail ‘id be a picnic compared to what we have planned for him…"
I must have missed something. Miraculously my tears dried up instantly.
"What plan?" I asked.
Daon ignored my question.
"Where is De, there’s somethin’ I wanted to talk to her about."
Chapter 2: Always in the Dark
I wasn’t about to be put off so easily. I wondered where De had gotten. Unc barely slowed down long enough to explain.
"She moved into town, into the penthouse you and Ian set up for her. I imagine she’ll be staying there until this is all over. You’d probably find her there or at the club. Now tell me about this plan."
For an old man, Unc could move like a cat. He was about that quick. He was up and halfway back to the house before I caught up to him. Damn his long legs!
"Hey wait a minute, dammit!" I shouted. "Damn you Doan, would you slow down? How the hell do you expect me to keep up with you? Shit! Stop, would you?"
Unc’s only acknowledgment of me was to look back over his shoulder, while he continued to stride on, and holler.
"You never could walk worth a damn. Hurry your lil’ ol’ butt along if you’re comin’ with me. We got things to do!"
What things I wondered? Dammit, I felt like a mushroom. People always keep ya in the dark and throw shit on ya.
"What things? Oh hell! What don’t I ever get told anything," I groused as I caught up to Unc. Finally Unc stopped at his desk in his den.
"All right, Missy. What do you want to know? I’ll tell you anything you want ta hear," Unc smirked.
Son of a bitch, I felt like hittin’ him right betwixt the eyes with a two by four. Good thing there wasn’t on handy.
"THE PLAN!!! Why don’t you tell me the plan? De left outta here last night and said I was to stay here at the ranch, and that I’d be hearing from her. Now what the hell is that supposed to mean? I don’t like being treated like a little kid who can’t wipe her own nose."
The little smirk on Unc’s face turned into a toothy grin.
"So what’s your point?" Unc laughed out loud.
Hardy har har. Just what I don’t need is a damn comedian.
"Very funny. I am an adult ya know. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I have been for quite some time now, lest you forget. I am part of this family and I have the right to know what’s happening where De is concerned, and I’ll find out anyway. Even if I have to walk right into the middle of that club to find out. You know I will too, so you best get to talkin’, old man!"
Unc’s expression suddenly changed from one of mild amusement to downright anger in no more than a blink of an eye.
"You’ll do no such a thing young lady," Unc growled. "You are forbidden to go anywhere near that club, or the penthouse, unless De tells you personally. Do you hear me?"
Forbidden? Not in this lifetime.
"No one forbids me anything. I’ll do what I want, when I want. Ain’t nobody gonna tell me what the hell I can or can’t do! You don’t believe me? You just hide and watch!"
I hadn’t heard anyone come in the room, but the low contralto voice reverberated up and down my spine was unmistakable.
"Wanna bet me on that?" De demanded.
Suddenly, I didn’t feel so all fired sure my stance on this particular subject wasn’t the right one, but my sense of false bravado wouldn’t let me back down at this point.
"Damn straight! I’ll bet you. Name the ante, it’s up to you." I shot back, but the expression on De’s face quickly deflated my puffed up ego.
"Your life," De said simply. "Are you willing to beat your life, Cody?"
I didn’t hesitate to reply.
"If it means saving yours, yes, in a heartbeat." I stated flatly.
There take that, I thought proudly.
"I’d go underground and you’d never find me again before I let that happen. My life isn’t risking yours, so don’t even think about it. Do you understand?"
I felt like I’d been kicked in the guts by a sorry ol’ cantankerous mule.
"You’d do that? You’d leave me? Give up what we have together?" I asked not believing what I was hearing.
""Yes," De said softly, "it would be the hardest decision I’d ever have to make, but I would. I’d have no other choice. You are needed by too many people to ever allow you to die on my account. But, if you follow orders, and do like you promised, it won’t come to that. You did promise, remember?"
I was trapped and I knew it. But I didn’t have to like it.
"Yes," I murmured, "but…"
De placed two fingers lightly over my lips to silence me. Then she moved closer, and her fingers were replaced by two warm, soft, wet lips. She then ran her tongue over and between my lips asking for entrance which was readily granted. Our tongues dipped and dove about in each other’s mouths, gently exploring, loving. Our hands weren’t idle either, as I felt long, strong fingers needing and groping my behind. There was no telling where this might have led were it not for a deep, firm voice speaking loudly.
"Dammit you two, you’re like a couple of weasels all wrapped around each other. Give it a rest until this business with Lassiter is finished. We got no time for such nonsense."
Both De and I separated like two scorched cats.
"It doesn’t look much like nonsense to me," a gentle warm voice remarked.
Maggie entered the room carrying a tray of coffee and biscuits, with strawberry and orange marmalade.
"I thought you might like something to munch on while I get the rest of breakfast on the table. It won’t be too long."
Breakfast. In my haste to find out what the hell was going on, I had completely forgotten about breakfast. My growling stomach, however, hadn’t forgotten.
"Mmmm, that looks really good, Maggie. Thank you. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starved."
All three of my family grunted heartily.
"And that should be a surprise to just who?" Doan asked.
Maggie corrected him.
"Whom."
Doan looked perplexed.
"Whom? What the hell is that about?"
Maggie the ever patient woman she was replied.
"Whom is the correct way of saying who should be surprised."
Ha, ya can’t bet that! A free grammar lesson with breakfast.
"Oh hell," Doan grumbled, "it don’t matter how it gets said as long as everybody understands ya. Ain’t that right, De?"
De chuckled.
"That’s right Doan, and we all know how much Cody likes to eat," De laughed.
What’s the big deal?
"Laugh all ya want," I mumbled, with my mouth full of biscuits and strawberry preserves, "but I won’t be lying on my deathbed worrying about the late biscuit and jam I didn’t eat. Now, enough about my eating habits and tell me about the plan."
De poured herself a cup of coffee, smelled the soothing aroma, and took a long sip.
"Mmmm, now that’s good coffee," she said, glancing in my direction. I just rolled my eyes and said, "Hmph."
"Okay," De began, "everything is set at both the penthouse and the club. Undercover Mounted Police are working as bartenders and the bouncer."
Unc interrupted.
"Who’d ya find for the bouncer, Quinlin?"
De nodded and smirked at the same time.
"Yeah, Quinlin is big enough to make two or three normal sized people. The really surprising thing is how quick he is for a man his size. The man has muscles on top of muscles. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to tangle with him."
Unc agreed, and I was beginning to feel a little better about De’s safety. I’d seen Quinlin in action. He took on four street punks who were trying to steal a little old ladies car. The four were pretty good sized themselves, and he went through them like a dose of salts. In his off time, Quinlin steer wrestles. He’s been to the National Finals Rodeo three or four times and has won the National Championship each time. I figure anybody who can leave his horse goin’ about thirty-five miles an hour, grab holt of a six or seven hundred pound steer running full tilt, stop him, and throw him to the ground in less than four seconds isn’t anybody I’d care to mess with.
"I sure as hell agree!" Unc said. "That boy hasn’t missed many meals that’s pretty damned obvious. I suppose a man would have to be half a bubble off plumb to take on someone as big as a house."
Good ol’ Unc. He certainly had a way to lighten up the moment, and De could just as swiftly bring us all back to reality.
"That may well be Doan, but he still can’t take on an uzi and live to tell about it. I want to do things my way to avoid anyone getting hurt or killed. I plan to take on Clanton, then Lassiter myself, and if things work the way I want, they’ll both go down."
Oh isn’t this just dandy, I thought.
"I certainly hope you don’t mind my asking just how you plan on accomplishing that little feat, on your own, without getting yourself killed," I demanded.
De surprisingly was very forthcoming about her plan.
"Actually it’s very simple. I am going to become the old me, the person I was before I met Yustus and Virginia Half Moon. I’m going to become something ugly and vile, someone without feelings or compassion, someone without a heart or a conscious. If necessary, maybe even a whore…"
I started to protest, but De stopped me before I started.
"…who’ll do anything to get what I want, and I want Lassiter, on his knees, begging me to kill him just to stop his pain. And he will be in pain, believe me. I plan on making him suffer so horribly that he’ll want to die. But in order to get Lassiter, first I have to go after Clanton, or rather invite him to come to me. He’ll be a push over. He always fancied himself a ladies man. Well, he’s going to get more lady than he can handle, the whole package. He’ll get so much lady he won't know what to do. The really rotten part of this is that I may have to go to bed with him to get what I want."
Once De had finished with her proposal, I nearly had a hemorrhage.
"De, God dammit why? There must be another way to do this! Why do you have to go back to the way you were? It isn’t neces…"
I never got to finish before De shouted.
"Because that’s the only way to beat scum like Lassiter! Using and abusing people is all he understands. Trust me, I intend to make him understand everything…clearly…painfully clear."
De paused just long enough to take me in her arms and hold me tightly.
"Of course I’ll understand fully if you’re not here when this thing is over. I can’t expect you to stay with me after…after...I…I do what…I have to do. But always know I will love you forever."
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
"De how can you say that? I’ll never leave you, never. But there has to be another way. Please tell me there’s another way."
I felt De loosen her hold on me until we could look at each other closely.
"No baby, I’m sorry, but there’s not. Clanton has to believe I’m the same old me. He has to believe I’m into every dirty, stinking thing I was before. Dealing drugs, prostitution, even murder. He has to believe that I control everything in this town, maybe even in all the Western Provinces. He needs to see I’m the biggest crime boss since John Gotti. No my love, there is no other way. As much as I hate to do this to you, to us, there is no other way."
I fell back into De’s warm embrace.
"When do you have to leave?" I asked tearfully.
"Tomorrow. I’ll be meeting with Ian and the other Mounties at 7:00am. Clanton has been found; he’s at the Cattleman’s Resort. The word has been leaked where I am, and what I’ve been up to. He’s probably salivating and panting by now at the prospect of getting a meeting with me. I have to play the part and look the part too. It will take a little time to pull myself together, and I have to be alone to do that."
I hated what that meant.
"You mean away from me, don’t you?"
De never replied; she just held me tightly to her chest and nodded. I was afraid this might be the last twenty-four hours together, and if that were the case, I wanted De all to myself.
"Let’s get out of here, okay?" I asked. "I want us to be alone for awhile, please?"
De smiled, and kissed me sweetly.
"Whatever you say baby. I love you, let’s go. Doan, I’ll talk to you early in the morning, just before sun-up. I’ll come here to the house."
As De and I started to go, Unc stopped us, turned us around, and engulfed us both in his strong arms.
"You two make this night your own. Hold on to each other, comfort each other, love each other. Don’t worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will take care of itself."
De tried to speak, but Unc quickly hushed her.
"No, not a word; you do as I say, now git."
With that, Unc kissed us both and sent us on our way.
Chapter 3: Work it Baby…
De and I slowly climbed the stairs to our apartment. I wished I could close out the world, when I closed the door, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. The world was closing in on us, meaning to rip us apart. I was determined not to let that happen, no matter what I had to do. There was no way I was going to let Lassiter get his filthy hands on De again. I held on to my love for all I was worth, loath to let go.
"Uh baby? Darlin’, I can’t breath. Sweetheart, could you please loosen your hold just a bit."
Hell no, De’s mind screamed!
"No," I grumbled into De’s shirt. "I won’t, I can’t."
De tried again.
"I won’t be much good to either one of us if you squeeze the life out of me, right?"
I guess she had a point, but I hated to let go, even for an instant.
"Well, I guess if I have to. But only just a little. I like holding you; you’re hard and soft at the same time. I must admit though, you’d feel even better if you and I were both naked. What do you think?"
De took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.
"Why Miss Fleming are you suggesting we engaged in wild, amorous, love making? Such a brazen, forward lil’ thing you are. Why I’m shocked!"
I couldn’t help but smile.
"Does that mean you aren’t interested in going to bed with me?" I murmured.
Are you nuts?
"Oh on the contrary. I just said you were outright brazen, I didn’t say I wasn’t interested."
Shortly after my love’s confession, long fingers began making short work of the buttons and zipper on my shirt and jeans. Of course, not to be outdone, I too did a job on De’s clothes. I had the advantage because this delicious woman’s shirt had snaps. With one swift, sure tug, De’s shirt was history; her jeans followed closely behind. Her bra, which opened in front, was a flimsy barrier at best, and, in an instant, the perfectly formed creature she is lay open before my eyes. But before I could do anything else, I found myself swept up in strong arms and carried to our bedroom, wherein I was deposited on the bed. What was left of my clothes were tossed in a formless heap on the floor beside the bed. Every part of my body was being assaulted with extraordinary, spine tingling sensations. I felt as though I was on fire from my darling’s incredibly talented fingers, lips, and tongue. I could do nothing; what little strength I had simply vanished, and I was left swirling and whirling out of control into the sweet abyss of pleasure. My last conscious thought before I totally succumbed to my desire, my need for this woman was, ‘please God keep my lady safe; I don’t want to lose her, ever.’
"I love you my darling," I whispered, "please make love to me. Love me like this is the last day of the world, and we are the only two people in it."
De continued to make beautiful music with her tongue and lips. She paused only long enough to whisper in return.
"Yes my love, I will love you always. Never will I leave you. I will be in your heart forever, as you will be in mine."
So ends "Lassiter, You’re Mine" Part I. The second and final part will follow shortly. Write and let me know what you think. As always, constructive criticism will be gladly accepted, profuse praise is even more welcome. You may reach me at fantasysrealm@jccomp.com