Dark Angels

Chapter Three-1

Chapter Three

Lee rummaged her bottle of Old Bushmills Irish Whiskey out from under the sink. She blew out a whiskey glass, splashed in an inch of liquor and fortified herself. Then taking the bottle by the neck, she made her way back down the hallway.

In her darkened home office she slumped back in her La-Z-Boy recliner and watched the street. It was barely past nine but already the neighborhood was quiet. The headlights from the occasional car swept the house across the way, but for the most part, only the quiet light from the streetlamp illuminated her lawn and the damp pavement out front. She took another sip of whiskey but the smell of the antiseptic cream on her fingers, mingling with the heady scent from the secretions she had stirred up in her niece, was distracting. And not in an unpleasant way.

She rested her head back and breathed deeply; trying to sort through her emotions.

Despite Mindy’s apprehensions, Lee was not a lesbian. She suppressed a healthy heterosexual bent only because, thus far, she had failed to meet a right and suitable partner. But she couldn’t deny the overpowering lusty feelings that accompanied the understanding that her niece’s battered body was the result of a vicious rape. Lee thrilled to the thought of Mindy, the little slut, being held against her will, striped of her clothing and forced to the floor.

Why couldn’t it have been me? The voice in her head stilled her breath.

The thought had materialized from nowhere, was unexpected, and just a wee bit creepy; she took another hit of the whiskey to still the trembling within the walls of her heart. Why couldn’t it have been me? Christ... what the hell? Mindy had suffered a horrific experience, one that would follow her throughout her lifetime and she deserved sympathy and understanding. But it was all Lee could do to suppress the rudeness in her loins. It was sick. Depraved. Lee felt she had taken a wrong turn down “Sanity Street” and like Alice, had stepped through the looking glass. She lifted the whiskey tumbler to her lips and found it was empty.

The Bushmills had gone down smooth and easy. Lee had known it would and she topped off her glass once again. What the hell. Tomorrow was Sunday and though usually just another workday for Lee, her surprise house guest would change that. She would give the office a skip for once.

The office was located on the upper floor of the Hardware Supermarket, one of the four Hardware Supermarkets she presently owned. The first two had come to her when her father had passed away fourteen years ago. They were so named because he took out a lease on a defunct IGA supermarket when he first decided to go into the hardware business. It did well eventually and he leased a second supermarket in a neighboring town.

When he died, each of his daughters got a store but Lee’s sister, who had married well, wasn’t interested in the hardware business and she happily sold her interests to Lee. What Lee knew about hardware wouldn’t fill a thimble, even today, but she was a natural when it came to Retail. It could have been used cars or medical supplies, it didn’t matter an iota. Lee had a knack with wholesalers, pricing, store layout, location, advertising, and she knew how to motivate a sales staff.

One-stop shopping was just catching on and Lee had the parking spaces and the room for inventory. She expanded into housewares, sporting goods and automotive. The money started coming in. She acquired the stores she had been leasing and bought two more. She paid cash for a nice house in a good neighborhood. She drove a Porsche.

And all it had cost her was her happiness.

She thought again about the ring of teeth marks that encircled Mindy’s n****e; conjured up the image before her eyes. What kind of man would do that; hurt the girl, intentionally? Surely by the time things had progressed that far, by the time they had stripped off her bra, gotten her pants down and forced her to the floor, it would have been obvious that Mindy had surrendered herself. That she was theirs for the taking. But still the humiliation wasn’t enough for them; they had brutalized her, ripped at her flesh. Made her bleed.

What sort of man would do that? A real man, maybe? Lee felt icy fingers along her spine.

Certainly none of the men she had dated would have the balls for it. Her men, and there weren’t many, had all been overly nice. Sickeningly so. One of them was only after her money and when she realized the truth, she had run him off like a stray dog that had been caught pissing on her rose bushes. One other also had visions of an early retirement but been more interested in getting between her legs; and the third? Well he was just a plain old, garden variety, sick-oh. He had cared little for her bank account, which was a relief in the beginning and she had wondered if he had been God-sent. But no; he had other fixations: While playing with himself, he demanded she do things. And he had only ever wanted to c*m on her face.

She had indulged him, giving him the benefit of the doubt, and stupidly thinking it might be adventurous. But when he asked her to bend over and place a carrot in a spot she could only find with the help of a mirror, he got the same treatment as the others. And damned quickly, too.

So where were all the good men? The ones with backbone and a sense of pride. The ones she had read about: Strong, hard, courageous. She was looking for someone who, like herself, was seeking a life-partner as well as a lover. Someone who wanted to take care of her; protect her. To have and to hold... yah-da, yah-da, yah-da! Some women were lucky in love; others could make money. And when it came to making money, Lee had two green thumbs. So she had resolved herself, a long time ago; was content to do what she did best. Forget about the men.

She thought of the teeth-marks again. Hell, she squirmed, I want someone to take me! Right now!

In her bedroom, Lee dug the appliance out from the drawer in her bureau. She held the smooth, pink plastic in her hand. It didn’t seem like much: $15.99 on-line and delivered by an unsuspecting UPS driver, but it was all the love-life Lee had. And the effing battery was dead. She fumbled with the switch and instead of humming seductively, it lay lifeless in the palm of her hand. “Can’t get it up?” she demanded. Damn. She would have to provide her own stimulation; something she wasn’t very good at. But then she couldn’t tickle herself neither.

Lee placed the appliance on the bedside table and began her nightly ritual: She stripped off her clothes, placed them in the hamper and pulled on her robe. In her bathroom she washed her face and did her teeth. Lee sat at the vanity and applied moisturizer. She brushed her hair and studied the crinkles in the corners of her eyes; the ones that gave her face character according to her beautician. What does a twenty-two year old beautician know about character?

With a sigh, she doffed her robe, slid between crisp sheets and reaching across, she turned off the switch at her bedside lamp. The darkness filled in and she snuggled down into her pillows and closed her eyes. The image of Mindy drifted up again and Lee’s imagination took over: The naked girl being held down while a man straddled her writhing thighs. Why couldn’t it have happened to me? She felt about until her fingers closed on the dormant vibrator. It will help me sleep, she thought.

Lee was applying vaseline to the tip when she heard a movement. She turned her head and listened intently. The wind had come up and she thought briefly about the loose eaves-trough. She earmarked it for a telephone call to the roofer the next morning and replaced the lid on the vaseline tube. Lee c****d her knees under the sheet and, feeling out the soft-spot between her legs with a gooey finger, she inserted the tip of the vibrator. Lee rolled her hips forward and, with a smooth steady stroke, she absorbed the length of the inanimate erection.

Lee’s head came up off the pillow. “Oh, holy c-crap,” she moaned, clamping down on the obstruction between her legs. She eased the pressure slightly, pulled back and, reversing the stroke, she drove the device back into place, hard against her cervix. “Augh!”

It hurt. But what delirious pain.

Lee reached down with her other hand and poised a slick fingertip over the tender morsel. She was just beginning the circular motions when she heard it again: The damned eaves-trough. Lee paused in her carnal pursuits to listen to the sound of the crinkling metal working against itself in the wind. She held her breath, and then with a gasp, she jerked the vibrator from between her legs. Lee threw back the bed covers and swung her legs out. It wasn’t the sound of metal that had disturbed her lustful concentrations; but the sound of glass.

Her over-hyper mind had immediately jumped to a conclusion: Some thug had broken out a window pane and even now, as she sat paralyzed in fear, he was creeping along the hallway in search of two helpless women; his jutting p***s hanging from his zipper. Lee forced herself to listen harder and then she heard it again.

Lee winced. “Oh s**t! That little bugger is into my liquor!” Lee had heard the rake of the lip of a bottle across the rim of a glass. And then she could just make out the happy glug-glug sound of booze escaping. Lee blew out a rush of air, stood and pulled on her bathrobe.

“Mind if I have a shot of that?”

A startled Mindy looked up from the kitchen table where she was helping herself to Lee’s vodka. “Oh! Auntie Leanne... you frightened me!” She took a moment to catch herself. “Damn. I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep and thought... Gee...” Mindy looked into her glass. “Here I am helping myself to your liquor. I’m sorry... it’s just that...”

Lee stepped closer, a shrug. “Oh don’t apologize. You’re welcome to the damned stuff and anything else you can find in my cupboards. And if you want the Irish Whiskey, it’s in my bedroom. I guess we’re both suffering from the same affliction tonight. And indulging in the same cure.”

“Affliction?” Mindy looked puzzled.

“Mmm. Neither one of us can sleep.”

“I know why I can’t sleep,” Mindy said, “but what’s keeping you awake?”

Lee brushed hair from the girl’s cheek. “Same thing, I guess. I keep seeing you with those men.”

“It was horrible.”

“I know baby,” Lee sympathized.

“Can I try the Irish Whiskey?”

Lee smiled. “Sure. Get yourself a clean glass. And while you’re at it, there’s cold beer in the fridge. Grab us a couple of bottles.”

Mindy’s expression went blank. “Beer too?”

Lee’s smile widened. “Oh child. Welcome to my world. You haven’t lived until you’ve washed good Irish Whiskey down with cold beer. We’ll have ourselves a real slumber party. How about popcorn?”

Mindy giggled. “That sounds like fun.” She got up from the table and placed her arms around Lee’s neck. “You’re not a lesbian, are you, Auntie Leanne. Never were.”

“Afraid not. But don’t ruin it for me by telling. I’m kinda enjoying the notoriety.”

“You’re a bad auntie,” Mindy scolded playfully. “I’ll get the beer.”

Lee watched her niece, still dressed in the bathrobe that swam about her feet, lean into the fridge where a line of green Heineken bottles stood sentry-duty on the lower shelf. At the counter, Mindy twisted off the caps and poured the amber-colored brew into tumblers. Lee took a sip before tossing a packet of Orville Redenbacher into the microwave. The smell of freshly popped corn filled the kitchen and placing the fluffy kernels in a large bowl, Lee added extra butter.

Lee carried the glasses of beer, and Mindy, with the popcorn and a whiskey glass, trailed down the hallway to the master bedroom. The bed was huge.