* * * *
“Come on, Ben,” John said angrily. “We found the entrance this guy was using to get inside the house. Christ, it looks as though he was almost living back there. He could come and go through the back without setting off any of our security alarms. You can’t even see that there is a door there from the outside.”
“You know you should have called me before your people touched anything.”
“Damn it, man, we’re not trying to step on your toes in this matter. We have the technical equipment that your office doesn’t have, as well as the training and experience to use it properly. Our people are aware of the importance of fingerprinting and the need to preserve evidence. None of the spyware was physically touched by our teams unless they were wearing exam gloves. Besides that, Ben, you don’t have enough men to cover this place. To check every room in this mansion for surveillance equipment is going to take time and personnel, not to mention the specialized detection equipment.”
“I know, I know,” Ben said wearily. He ran his hands through his short, light blond hair in frustration. He was almost an inch short of six feet tall and his body was muscular, tapering from a broad chest and shoulders to narrow hips, but the cowboy boots he wore pushed him over the six foot mark.
“Well, will you at least keep me informed of anything new?” Ben asked.
“I can tell you something new, right now,” said Mike as he hung up the phone. “Tom, I just spoke with the contractor who put up the physical therapy room. He claims none of his guys could have done anything as extensive as a secret passage without his knowledge and that of his co-workers. He said it had to be the worker you hired to come in at night to expedite the construction. He claims the guy always came in right before his crew’s quitting time. At the end of the first week he said he was told by Mr. Martins that he was supposed to finish the back wall. When they came in the next day, the wallboard was up. A few days later the paneling was finished, and a week later he was gone.”
“But I never hired anyone to work at night,” Tom exclaimed.
“John and I both saw him almost every night. He’d talk to the foreman and the other guys before they’d leave, and then he’d get busy. We could hear the hammers, nail gun, and electric saws long into the night. We had no reason to suspect that he was anything but a member of the construction crew on the night shift.” Mike shook his head in disgust.
“Give me a description of this guy. I’ll run it through our computer, and I’ll talk to some of my men and see if they can identify him. I’ll also need the name of the foreman and the construction company. They may have additional information on this guy. Maybe some of the crew members have seen him on a previous job.” Ben took his notebook out of his back pocket and began writing busily as Mike and John began describing the person they saw.
* * * *
Kate bent down to Tom and whispered in his ear. “Why don’t we go upstairs and rest for a little while? We’re not needed here. Mike and John have everything under control, and it’s been a very busy and emotion-filled morning. I think we need some downtime. I know I do. Join me?”
He smiled at her playfully, but with obvious weariness, “I thought you’d never ask. Why don’t we check with Mrs. Mallory and see if she can prepare a picnic lunch for the two of us? We can take it with us to my room and have a snack and rest and talk, if you want. Or, we can just nap. Okay?”
“It sounds wonderful, Tom, just wonderful.”
He picked up the house phone and called the kitchen. While Tom was on the phone, John turned and looked at Kate. She nodded at Tom and then indicated herself and pointed upstairs and closed her eyes. John’s eyes softened with warmth as he looked at her and then at Tom. He nodded, a smile tipping up the corner of his mouth before he turned back to Ben and Mike. Before Kate could take a step, Mike caught her eye, winked, and gave her a quick smile. Boy, she thought, these guys didn’t miss a thing.
* * * *
“They’ve done it again, haven’t they, John?” said Mike softly as they stood in the doorway to Tom’s room, looking at the two people stretched out on the bed, fully clothed, with the fingers of their hands entwined.
“Done what?” John asked as they backed away from the room and gently shut the door.
“Holding hands and looking more in love than they did the day of their wedding, and they’re not even awake this time!”
John chuckled and put his hand on Mike’s shoulder as they walked next door and entered their room. “You’ve really missed him, haven’t you, Mike?” John said, suddenly very serious.
“Yes, yes I have. Very much. It’s been hard to hide that emotion, that love, for so long, even if it was what he needed and wanted. But we were able to manage, weren’t we, John?” Mike could tell by John’s tenseness that he was disturbed, and Mike wasn’t sure how to ease that tenseness.
“That’s the key here, John, to manage. We managed. Had Katie not been…Katie, we would have ‘managed’ for the rest of our lives to love him without the physical or verbal expression of that love. We would always have missed the sexual and verbal connections to him, but we would have been able to ‘manage.’ Right?” At John’s tight nod, Mike continued.
“Then let me make one thing very clear. I could never, and I mean
never
, ‘manage’ to live without loving you. You are the bedrock foundation of all that I am. Without being able to express my love for you, I would shrivel up and die inside and probably outside as well. I’m not just talking about sex, either. I—”
John’s voice shook with emotion as he framed Mike’s face with his hands. “I feel exactly the same, but haven’t the eloquence to express it as beautifully as you did. Without you…”
John fisted his hands and stepped away. “I can’t even go there. When I saw you with Tom today, I felt twinges of jealousy and fear for the first time. Fear that maybe you wanted Tom more than you wanted me, jealous of the stark emotion I saw in your eyes, and yet, yet I was happy for you. Just know that it doesn’t matter what happens between the four of us, as long as we, you and I, love each other the way we do. We can also accept the very real love and desire we have for Kate and Tom. We can make love with them, and cherish them, and it cannot harm what we have together. As long as we love each other, everything else will fall into place.”
“Speaking of a place. There is this place called a shower that has both our names on it. Care to join me? Maybe I can get you to scrub my back while I scrub yours. Interested, John?”
“Lead on, I’ll be right behind you, literally as well as figuratively.” John laughed.
* * * *
The sound of shared laughter slid through the partially open connecting door to the two rooms, and then stopped.
“Well, that was pretty intense,” Kate said in a low whisper.
“I’ll say it was. I’ve always known that they loved each other, and that they loved me. But I had no idea of the depth of their passion for each other, or for me. I should have known. Maybe on some level I did know. It sounds like I rejected them when I met you, and I probably did. You came into my life like a whirlwind and turned everything I thought or felt upside down. But I have not one shred of regret for anything I did to keep you in my life.”
Kate leaned over and kissed him soundly. “Perhaps I’d better shut that connecting door before they get out of the shower, or before we start any intense conversations ourselves.” She quickly moved to the door, shut it quietly, and returned to bed, snuggling up next to him for the next twenty minutes, resting quietly. “I’ve missed this, Tom. Just being together, talking, a little cuddling, falling asleep knowing you’re beside me.”
Suddenly, Kate sat up in bed and her voice hardened. “I won’t let you take this away from me. I won’t let you shut me out again. I know you’re going to have a period of recovery to get through after the surgeries, and I won’t interfere with that. But I’m your wife, and damn it, I expect you to treat me that way, not like some guest who has to be avoided or who has to be pawned off onto someone else.”
“Kate! That’s not true! My God, how can you think such a thing? I love you,” Tom protested.
“How can I think such a thing? What about the last two years you’ve been out of the hospital, Tom? How many times did you ever seek me out, just to talk, to discuss a movie or TV program or a book, or to watch the sunset? Try never, zip, zilch, zero, nada and, not one damn time. But Mike and John did, often. You guarded your privacy with such zeal that I felt like an outsider. Mike and John welcomed me whenever I needed to talk, or just needed company or a shoulder to cry on.” Kate took a deep, shuddering breath.
“You couldn’t have wild monkey sex…hell, I knew that, Tom. But you could have held my hand, kissed me once in a while, or just put your arm around me occasionally. Mike and John were always touching my arm or hand, hugging me or throwing an arm around my shoulders, kissing my forehead or cheek. They gave me their warmth and showed their caring in a hundred different ways. Whenever I asked you how you were doing with your physical therapy, you shut me down and changed the subject. You even buried yourself in your office at mealtimes. Ninety-five percent of my meals were eaten with Mike or John, or both. Maybe one percent of the meals, when we had guests, you would join us. The other four percent I ate alone.
You fucking left
me!
” she said angrily.
“Kate, no! No, no, no. It was to protect you! I was only half a man. I didn’t know whether I’d ever walk again or if I’d be able to make love to you like a normal man. I didn’t want you to have to deal with the pain-ridden mess I’d become, or the rage and frustration that would overcome me at the knowledge of the things I couldn’t do anymore. Christ, for almost three months I couldn’t even go to the bathroom by myself,” he shouted.
“Protect me, my ass,” she snarled at him. “Half a man? Give me a break. Even wheelchair-bound, you’re more man than any five thousand men off the street.
“And please, tell me I did not actually hear you say you were afraid you’d be unable to make love to me like a ‘normal man.’ Since when did you have this sudden urge to make love like a normal man? I seem to remember the conference room, now that certainly was not normal, or perhaps the library. Nope, I don’t think that qualifies either. Oh, wait, let’s not forget the pantry! On second thought, forget the pantry. Mrs. Mallory would be appalled and would never do any cooking here again. Definitely not normal. Come on, Tom, I could go on and on. Room after room to be exact. Maybe you’d better define your concept of ‘normal’ for me.” Kate got on her knees and got right in Tom’s stunned face.
“And, as your wife, it’s my right to deal with your rage and frustrations and to even wipe your ass, if required. Don’t hand me any more garbage, Tom. I’m giving you fair warning that I won’t allow you to push me aside this time. So don’t even try.” Kate swiped at the tears running down her face until Tom handed her a tissue and pulled her into his arms. He held her tightly, his hand pressing her head against his chest.
“You’re something else. You know that, don’t you, Kate? And, you’re right. I did that to you, to us. But it was such a fearful time for me. My whole world had changed, and I had no control over my life at all. For a long time there was only a sea of pain and fear. The doctors couldn’t even tell me if my spinal cord would, or could, heal. I believed that for the rest of my life I was going to be contained in that damned wheelchair, that I would never be able to
feel
anything ever again. There were many times I wished that I had died in that car crash. It wasn’t until two or three months ago that I started having definite sensations in my legs and…er…other areas. That was when I knew I would walk again. That was when my world changed once again, this time for the better.”
Tom pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I was wrong to handle things the way I did, I know that now, and I think I even knew it at the time. I was wallowing in fear and despair and didn’t want you, or anyone else, to try to pull me out of it. And, no, I won’t try to push you aside this time, I promise.
“On another note, I would prefer to have a bidet installed rather than have you wipe my ass, if you don’t mind,” he said with a grin.
She shook her head with a watery chuckle. “You won’t get an argument out of me on that one, Tom.”
“You won’t get an argument from us either, Tom. A bidet sounds like a fine idea,” said Mike as he and John walked in through the open connecting door between the two rooms.
“Hi, guys,” said Kate, sitting up.
“Didn’t mean to intrude, but the door was open.”
“No problem,” said Tom. “That door latch is sprung. I’ll have it fixed one of these days.”
“Wow, don’t the two of you look great!” Kate said. “Nice clothes. Very nice. Kind of the mature preppy look, huh?”
“
Mature
preppy look? Damn, John, I think we’ve just been dissed by our sweet Katie.”
“No, no. You guys look great. Don’t laugh. I’m serious. John! You’re wearing loafers!” Kate scrambled awkwardly from the bed and stood at John’s side. She reached out and lifted the leg of his trouser to see his shoe better. “Oh, my God, they are, they really are penny loafers.” She looked up at him in awe.
“And that’s bad?” John asked, his lips twitching and his blue eyes filled with laughter.
“John! Penny loafers are
hot
! I kid you not. They are soooo sexy. They’re right up there with boots. I mean, all you see men wearing today are those ugly running shoes, trainers, or whatever they’re called or sandals and baggy-assed pants. You hardly ever see eye candy wearing penny loafers or boots with pants like these, pants that let you know there is some seriously awesome rear action there. Wow, John, what a combination! I’m seriously impressed.” She patted his butt as she moved to Mike.
She looked down at Mike’s feet. “Oh, please. Don’t tell me you’re wearing boots! I can’t stand it.” Kate sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of Mike and slowly lifted the hem of his jeans, up, up, up. “Mike,” she breathed. “These are full boots, real leather boots. I
love
real, full, leather boots!”