A Matter of Circumstance by M J Marlow (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud .TXT) 📖

have contacted the feds when Juliana arrived. They probably have someone in place to keep an eye on her already.” He frowned. “We’ll just have to let them know they have to keep a closer watch.” 6 She’d been so close! But the child was even stronger than she remembered and being surrounded by her family only added to that strength. She would have to get the girl away from that house. She wondered how to accomplish that and then saw the answer driving by in a rusted out pickup truck. Of course! She was just a girl, after all. What better lure than boys her own age to make her feel safe until it was too late? One she discounted immediately. He was a hunter, a champion, and he would fight her. She did not want to expend all her energy controlling when she didn’t have to. The other four of his group were far more susceptible. For the next week, she worked on them until they convinced them to bring the girl to her. They were of an age where the promise of sex as a reward and an incentive would chain them quite effectively to her service. “I had the weirdest dream last night,” Grady said a few mornings later as they were on the football field at the high school tossing a ball around. “This really hot woman was in my room stripping for me and telling me how much she wanted my hands on her.” “That’s wild,” Gordon said, frowning. “I had the same dream two nights ago. Was your babe tall and dark-haired with really dark eyes?” “You guys need girls,” Adam sniffed as he heard the other four compare their dreams. The woman was the same for all of them and something about that disturbed him. Each of his friends had dreamt of the same woman, on different nights this week. But the dreams were so detailed, he wondered uneasily if they had been dreams. He tossed the ball back to them and knew he had to talk to his uncle. “I promised Uncle Hawk I’d check in with him. See you later.” The other four nodded and sat silent for a moment and then they began to compare notes with more enthusiasm. There was something exciting about the thought that they were all sharing the same dream. Then Frank suddenly stiffened and turned around. She was there! They approached her nervously and her smile reassured them that she wanted their attention. They drove out to their favorite spot and after she had shown them more of what they would receive for their obedience and loyalty, she told them what they must do. “When I have trained her in the ways of pleasure,” she smiled at the four boys kneeling in front of her, panting in eagerness, “I shall allow you to have her as well. Think of that my little hounds. The pretty Juliana, my little flame, lying beneath you eager and willing for your touch.” She smiled. “I see the sound of that excites you.” “We will bring her to you, Mistress,” Frank moaned as he felt himself losing control. “No one is going to stop us!” Grady nodded, his fervor making his eyes go wild. “I have shown you the spot where you will leave her for me,” the woman smiled and laid her hand on each of their heads. “Tonight or there will be punishment and pain instead of pleasure.” She watched them go and held back her laughter. Men were so easy to manipulate, she smiled to herself as she got in her care. These four would fall all over themselves to please her now. Juliana and her family would never know what hit them. “The hunters are in play, my love,” she said to the man coming up behind her. “Be ready to slip in and take her if they run afoul of the security.” She felt his amusement. “It is amusing to see how readily a young man’s mind can turn to mush around a willing woman, is it not?” “Why not the other one?” he asked her. “He is a true warrior, that one,” she responded. “His instinct to protect would always overcome the weakness of the flesh. Subjugating him would be a waste of energy that will be required to chain the girl.” She closed her eyes and smiled warmly. “She has grown stronger during our desperation but soon, my little flame, will join with me. It is only a matter of time now.” 7 Juliana raised her head from the book she was reading and frowned. Something was happening in town and it was not good. During her visits into town with her mother or sister, she had caught the eyes of people on her. Their curiosity was understandable. It was the hungry looks on the faces of four young men who she had learned were the friends of Hawk Travers’ nephew that disturbed her. They were up to something, and it meant her no good. She saw the security men outside and wished that she felt safe with them so close. But they did not know the woman as she now did. If she wanted to get to Juliana, she was not above convincing gullible boys to help her. She felt as if a major storm was headed towards her and she was helpless to protect herself against its onslaught. No, she told herself firmly, don’t give in. The woman could do her best and Juliana would still fight. “You’re looking very serious,” Joanna’s voice cut into her thoughts. She smiled as Juliana got up and came to hug her. “I’m glad to see you, too.” She set her coat over the back of the nearby chair and looked serious herself. “So what was bothering you?” “She’s getting closer and stronger, Joanna,” Juliana told her sister, hoping she would understand. “I have a feeling she’s recruiting help from among the townspeople; meaning to use them as diversions so she can send the real hunter at me.” She shook her head. “Listen to me. I really have to get out and do something or I’m going to be seeing spooks everywhere.” “We’ll go get some ice cream!” Joanna decided. “Get your coat, little sister. We’ll go to the diner and say hi to Aunt Viv.” Juliana nodded and they walked down to the town and entered the diner. Viv came over and gave them both hugs and they went to the booth in back. Viv encouraged Juliana to explore the sensations she was feeling and then she and Joanna attempted to help her relax. For a while it succeeded and then the bell over the door rang and Adam’s friends walked in. Juliana felt her skin crawl as she sensed the woman’s influence on them. “Hey Joanna,” Frank slid into the booth and put his arm around Joanna’s shoulder. “Are you going to introduce us to your pretty sister?” Joanna saw the wariness in her sister’s eyes as she introduced the boys to Victoria. Adam wasn’t with them so she knew these four were up to no good. Adam always served as their moral compass somehow. They stayed just a few minutes until Juliana was finding it harder and harder not to scream. “They’re up to something,” Joanna said before Juliana could. “I think it would be best to get home.” She waved to Viv as they left the diner. They were just passing the last turn where the road was lined with trees and there was no sign of any habitation, when they heard a vehicle moving up fast behind them. “No matter what happens to me,” she said to her sister as they began to pick up speed, “you get home! Is that clear?” Juliana saw Joanna slipping her gun out of the holster at her hip and her fear escalated. She couldn’t leave Joanna to face those four alone. They would hurt her. Juliana was the one they wanted. The pickup drew closer and Juliana stumbled and sent her sister tumbling off the road and down into the ravine. As Joanna struggled to her feet, she saw Juliana being yanked into the back of the truck. She only got off one clean shot and heard the bullet ricochet off the side of the truck before it disappeared from sight. “Martin!” she screamed into the cell phone. “They’ve got Juliana! Call Hawk and tell him to ask Adam where his friends would take her. Hurry.” She ran to the house and got her car. She only spared a moment to tell Norman what was going on before she was on the road. She headed out of town and the next thing she knew the pickup was barreling into the side of her car from a side road. She went off the road and hit a tree. As she stumbled out, she heard someone scrambling down the hill to her and she was grabbed and shoved against her car, her wrists bound behind her back. A hood was tied over her head and she was carried up to the road and dumped onto something hard and metal. “Leave her alone,” Juliana’s voice came at her as someone laid a chloroform soaked rag over Joanna’s face. “You don’t need to take her!” “It’s going to be a long wait, Scarlet,” one of the boys laughed as he ran his hand along Joanna’s leg. “We can’t touch you, that’s her order, but she doesn’t care what happens to your sister.” Joanna lost consciousness and Juliana tried to get to her. They yanked her back and held her down until she quit fighting them. But then she was out of their hold. She grabbed Joanna and was over the side and onto the road before they could stop her. The truck stopped and the boys were on her before she could get up. “You try that again,” Frank hissed as he held his knife to Joanna’s throat, “and we’ll kill your sister, Scarlet. Is that clear?” Juliana nodded and the boys yanked Joanna up onto her feet. Before they could get her back into the truck, a patrol car came over the crest of the hill and spotted them. They left Joanna in the road and took off with Juliana as fast as they could. “Joey,” Warren cursed as he took the hood off the figure lying on the road and saw his older niece. “What happened?” He hissed as he realized she was out cold. He whipped out his cell phone. “This is Sheriff Marlow. Kidnapping in progress.” He got Joanna to the patrol car and she started to recover. She told him what had happened and he had just gotten out an APB sent out on Cloudwalker’s rusted out pickup truck when it barreled back at him and he went flying. He felt his ankle buckle and was unable to get up fast enough to stop them from getting their hands on Joanna again. “Damn!” he cursed as he was only on his knees by the time it disappeared from his view. He hobbled to the car and added more information to his bulletin. “Agent Joanna Marlow and her sister, Juliana, identified as the kidnap victims. Positive ident on kidnappers Cloudwalker and his gang.” Adam heard the bulletin on his uncle’s radio and met Hawk’s eyes as the man whipped around at him. His only defense was that he was here. What the hell were his friends doing? This went far beyond dream sharing. They were behaving like thugs. “This is not like them at all, Uncle Hawk,” Adam started to defend his friends. “Kidnapping? I can’t believe it.” “The Sheriff was there, Adam,” Hawk said to him. “Where do you think they would go?” He was on his feet looking at a map of the area. “It would have to be someplace isolated. Black Woman’s Wash?” He looked at Adam for help