Trouble Triangle (Tyler's Trouble Trilogy) (28 page)

I looked at Mr. Knight, standing there with his mouth open. Holly stood there opened mouthed as well, which kind of turned me on, thinking what I could shove—

I slung my arm around him. "Otto." I extended my hand toward Holly's dad. "This is Reverend Knight." I moved my hand toward Holly. "And this is my girlfriend, Holly."

Otto wiped his hand on his pants and extended it to Mr. Knight. "Pleased to meet you." Holly's dad took his hand. "Holy crap. You're one of those finger pinchers. Lighten up, dude?"

The Reverend's nostrils flared as he looked at me. "Tyler, who is this man?"

"Umm…I help out at the soup kitchen, and Otto is one of our customers." I looked at
him. "Isn't that right, Otto?"

He nodded.

"And we often discuss Shakespeare. Isn't that right,
Otto?"

He nodded again.

"And you're
gonna
quit swearing lik
e we talked about, aren't you?"

More nodding from Otto.

"Maybe you should apologize to the Reverend."

Otto stepped toward the Reverend and bowed his head. "Sorry I cussed," he said softly. He looked up at Mr. Knight.  "You
gonna
heal me, Father."

"What manner of healing are you in need of, Mr. Otto? Physical or…" he cleared his throat, "spiritual?"

"Well, my life's pretty fu—"

I kicked my foot sideways an
d managed to hit Otto's ankle.

He shot me a sharp look which quickly dissolved. "Oh, right. I mean, my situation is pretty messed up. You know, living on the streets and everything."

Mr. Knight took out his hanky and wiped his brow, and shoved it back in his pocket. He gently laid his hand on Otto's forehead. "When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers t
hem out of all their troubles."

Otto shifted his look from side to side, his eyes blinking wildly. "I feel different, Father. Did you
heal
me?"

Reverend Knight put a hand on Otto's shoulder. "Not me, son. A power greater than I. I am but a servant."

Wow. A bolt of
lighting
striking in front of us wouldn't have surprised me. Something powerful happened, but I wasn't sure what.

Holly's feet twitched. "Come on, Daddy, let's go."

Mr. Knight and Otto stared at each other in a bonding like moment. He removed his hand from his shoulder. "God bless you," Mr. Knight said, looking Otto in the eye. He reached in his wallet and gave him fifty dollars. "The Lord says I should trust you to do the right thing with this. I may not trust you, but I trust Him."

Otto's face lit up, staring at the fifty dollar bill as we walked away. Mr. Knight stepped sprightly ahead of us. His shoulders thrown back like a man full of pride.

I wondered if I'd ever see Otto again.

Holly dropped her dad off at her house and took me back to base. Although I had sex with Debbie the night before, it wasn't Holly. We hadn't had sex for over a week and I missed her wild ways. Daddy may have had a way of healing the sick and disabled, but his presence
also acted as a chastity belt.

Holly was unrestrained, uninhibited and full of surprises; an out and out, anything goes fuck toy. I couldn't believe that she had become so reserved just by her father being on the same island. I liked Mr. Knight. Maybe because if it wasn't for him, Holly wouldn't exist. He was a bit strange and loud, but full of passion. I admired that. Somewhat like Holly, albeit motivated by different powers.

We pulled up outside my barracks. I wanted to demand that we had sex right there in the back of her Mustang. I had such a burning lust for her, but sensed that until Daddy took the skies, an
y passion would be put on hold.

Holly shut the engine off and turned sideways in her seat to face me. I held both of her hands in mine. It was a tender moment looking into her warm eyes. Passion and desire consumed me, but she looked like the vulnerable girl her Daddy thought her to be.

"Hey, babe, I think you're doing really good. It can't be easy with your dad around and his beliefs. I know how much you like a good fu—, I mean fun time. I'm proud of how you manage to maintain your integrity while he's here."

"Oh, Tyler, that's so sweet of you to say that. You barely spoke a word all the way here. I thought you were like totally super-mad at me. I know how much you like…well, you know…and you've done really well at not staining."

"I think you mean abstaining."

"Like, whatever. I even forgive you for trying to touch my
bibble
box in front of Daddy." She giggled and gave me a naughty smile. She moved in close. "If it wasn't for Daddy, I would have done it right there. You're such a bad…bad…boy." She licked her lips. My crotch twitched. "As soon as Daddy leaves, I'll make it up to you. Promise."

"You're worth the w
ait. Goodnight."

'Love you' seemed the right thing to say, followed by a hot throbbing, pulsating co— well, that wasn't going to happen, so I left it there. I leaned in and kissed her. She looked quite sad as I left, knowing we weren't going to make love. But I knew she'd be so wracked with guilt if she did consent that it wouldn't be up to our usual standard.

#

I woke up Monday morning feeling refreshed. The absence of a hangover put a spring in my step as I walked to the shop. It was just as well to be of sound mind as I took the exam for Third Class Petty Officer in the morning. Although I did very little studying for it, I felt fairly confident that I would pass. Most of the test was on firefighting and damage control, subjects I excelled at in 'A' school. Sober and confident, I looked forward to the rest of the day. Returning to the shop, Petty Officer Watkins called me into his office.

"Chambers, I need to send a man down to the
Evansville.
You think you can do a job without setting any Master Chiefs on fire or getting underway with the boat?" He smiled, obviously amused by my past antics.

"No problem, boss. What you got?"

"The submariners are having trouble with their hydrostatic testing rig. It's on the fritz. They need to pressure test a recently replaced hydraulic system. The system operates at 3000 psi, so you know what that means."

"Yeah, we got to test it to 4500."

"Right. Take our rig down there, hook it up and help '
em
test it. Okay?"

"You can count on me, boss." I gave him an unnecessary salute.

I took the hydro rig down to the boat and the submariners helped me take it down and get it in position. Some bubblehead named Rumsey and I were in charge of testing the system. We knelt down as we hooked the rig to the system to be pressurized. One of his shipmates, Smith, stopped by.

"Ooh, la, la," Smith said, "Rumsey, you have
got
to check out the fox in the R-1 division office." He grabbed his crotch. "She has got to be the hotte
st piece of tail on this base."

He could grab his crotch all he wanted, but that was as close as he'd ever get to Holly. A certain amount of pride hit me knowing that I was the one getting that hot piece of tail on a regular basis. Well, regular when Daddy wasn't in town.

"Nice tits?" Rumsey asked, cupping his hands in front of his chest.

"Perfect. Not too big, not too small, just the right size. If she's not
lesbo
, I'm
gonna
give her a good hard one before we go to sea." He
thrushed
his hips.

"Hey, maybe we should double team her. You don't mind sharing with a shipmate, do you
Smitty
?"

"Umm…." I cleared my throat. "If you guys don't mind, that's my girlfriend you're talking about. And I can assure you, she's not a lesbian."

"You? Get
outta
town. It's a well known fact that the chicks in Pearl are all lezzy. And what would she be doing with you? She needs a real man, not some faggot."

I couldn't figure out where these guys were coming from. I never did anything to them. Just because I had a hot girlfriend didn't mean they could kick sand in my face.

"Come on then, Chambers," Rumsey said, "what's she like in the sack?"

"What?" I looked at Rumsey. "You some kind of
sicko
that can't get any, so you get off on listening to other people's tales in the bedroom?" I stood up and looked at
Smitty
. "And who you
callin
' queer?"

"Tell me, Chambers,"
Smitty
said casually, "does she swallow? Like you?"

"Swallow this, motherfucker." A loud crack sounded when my fist connected with
Smitty's
jaw. He fell to the deck with the back of his head making another loud noise from the full contact of his skull hitting the metal plating.

Rumsey scrambled to his feet and landed a punch on my good eye. I retaliated with a solid right hook to the side of his face. We both lowered our heads and kept throwing punches. Then, a sharp rabbit punch landed on my kidney from behind and I fell to my knees.

"Leave Rumsey alone, you surfac
e puke," the assailant growled.

I rolled onto my back to see four more bubbleheads standing over me. I closed my eyes and tucked into a ball when I saw their steel-toed boots coming toward my body.
They kicked the crap out of me.

An announcement came over the loud speaker. "Security alert, security alert. All hands stand fast. Security team arm yourselves from the ammunition locker and conduct a thorough search of the
USS Evansville
."

The kicking stopped and a few moments later heavy footsteps came running down the deck.

"Stand aside," someone yelled. I could tell the bubbleheads had stepped back a
s the air became more abundant.

"Identify yourself."

I opened my eyes to find myself staring down the barrel of an M-16 rifle. Next to the rifleman stood a guy with a .45 caliber pistol aimed at my head.

"Fireman Chambers, flex hose shop," I called out. My voice shook with fear as I trembled with pain and laid there scared out of my wits, hands shaking in front of my chest.

"He attacked me and Rumsey,"
Smitty
yelled, pointing to me on the deck.

"On your stomach, Chambers. Arms stretched over your head and legs straight."

I rolled over as instructed. Someone patted me down while I winched in pain, confirming my belief that some ribs may have been broken.

"Suspect clean," the patter announced.

"On your feet," the gunman yelled.

The bubbleheads stood back as I struggled to stand upright. My body throbbed all over. Severe pain to my ribs made it difficult to stand up straight. No doubt, Rumsey gave me a matching set of black eyes, and my hand hurt from connecting so solidly with
Smitty's
jaw.

"Let's see what the Captain wants to do with your sorry ass. Move it." Mr. Forty-five shoved me in the direction he wanted me to go. Armed escorts in front and behind me led the way to the Captain's stateroom. After knocking and receiving permission, we entered.

The Captain's small flip-down desk faced the wall. He moved his chair sideways to look at me. Touches of gray appeared at the sides of his otherwise jet-black hair. Early forties, I guessed, and a face without laughter lines. Not a good sign.

"Captain, we apprehended the suspect. He started trouble with members of the crew and they used necessary force to re
strain him until we arrived."

That lying sack of shit. He never asked anybody what happened. Boy, these guys did circle the wagons when one of their shipmates gets the crap beat out of them. I stood at attention as best I could.

The Captain's eyes narrowed and his voice boomed. "What happened, sailor?"

I stood there for moment composing myself while my mind raced through possibilities.
Well, sir, they called my girlfriend names, so I started a brawl on a nuclear submarine.
Naw
. Won't wash.
"Sir, I came down to assist with some hydrostatic testing. One of your men made cruel and sick jokes about homosexuals. I happen to have a brother who was gay. I politely asked him to refrain from making such comments as I found them offensive and in bad taste."

I looked at the Captain. It looked fifty-fifty whether he was buying it or not.
Okay, dog movie
. I closed my eyes for a moment, rerunning the sad ending in my mind. Visualizing the shot dog letting out her final whimpers with a bullet hole in her head. Once I had a proper welling up, I opened my eyes and made a noticeable hard swallow.

"Your man continued with his comments. He said those kind of people should be shot." I let the tears go into full flow. "My brother was gunned down last month in a drive by shooting outside a gay bar by some bigots. I know the Navy doesn't allow homosexuals, but this was my brother. Shot dead, just as a member of your crew had wished." I sniffled hard. "Sorry, sir. I flipped out. I decked him, then half the crew jumped me, and I just tried to defend myself."