Soul of Freeman. 3rd Book of the Freeman Series.

Chapter 13

Dean entered Allie's work office and put his hands inside his pockets. His wife was sitting at a desk, squinting at her computer and biting her nail. He moved a little bit forward to make his presence known, but she did not blink.He made a half smile. Her light pink lipstick enhanced her perfect heart-shaped lips. Despite the small cut and the bruise under them, she was still stunning.

"Why go to an art museum when I already sleep beside a relic of utmost beauty?" He gained her attention.

"Babe," she brushed her hair behind her ears and walked around her desk, "I'm so sorry. I didn't wanna wake you up so early in the morning."

He tasted her lips, then rubbed his thumb against them.

"You got me worried when I woke up and you weren't beside me. I thought we agreed that you were gonna stay home and I was gonna take care of everything."

"I know I know," she leaned back on her desk. "It's just that last night my brain started circling around some things."

"Sweetheart, it's PTSD. You don't have to bury yourself in work to get through this. You can talk to me."

Allie tilted her head and held her husband's hands. She was grateful to hear those words.

"Thank you for taking care of me. I won't pretend that the hairs on my back don't raise at the thought of Wayne, but I've been pondering more about the company numbers."

"That intense semblance is telling me you figured something out." 

Allie dragged Dean in front of the computer. She sat on her spinning chair and made it roll toward the keyboard.

"Check this out," she pointed at the screen. "The accounting sheet on the left has the modified numbers and the one on the right has the actual numbers."

Dean leaned over her shoulder, looking at the date on both files.

"Does that say nineteen-ninety-nine?"

"Yes. But we already knew they've been doing this for a while. I kept asking myself how I didn't notice that the payroll department was stealing from the company. I thought something was wrong with me; that I was too dumb to see it."

"Allie, they fooled all of us."

"No, I have too much control over those numbers. I mean, after what Jay did, I always make sure to match them to the farmers' report. You see, the numbers we think are fake match the numbers of crops sold."

"But that would mean no one was stealing from the company. Then why did Bammel have a separate file with inflated wages? Where's the extra cash coming from?"

Allie turned to Dean and smirked in gratification. Her brain had just solved a puzzle.

"Maybe the extra cash is fake cash."

Dean stood still for a moment, then raised his ears.

"Money laundering."

They heard a knock on the door and Allie's bodyguards walked into view.

"Mrs. Freeman, your secretary wants come inside your office to tell you that your chauffeur is here. Should we pat her down before gives you this important message?" Bolek held his hands behind his back in a wide stance.

Allie rolled her eyes and smacked her lips.

"You know what?" Dean addressed the bodyguards. "You two can take the rest of the day and the weekend off."

"Sir, for your wife's protection, I advice—," said Lolek.

"I will be with my wife the whole time so she doesn't require your services at the moment."

The bodyguards swallowed and nodded without making eye contact.

***

"Dean," Allie moaned.

 Her legs were wrapped around her husband's hips while he dropped her onto his shaft. He was bathed in sweat and the veins in his arms popped under his skin. Ignoring his aching muscles, he carried her buns up and down faster.

 Their naked bodies stood in a prairie on top of their dirty business suits. Two trees guarded their privacy from the nearby empty road.

 "Dean," she moaned again.

 "That's so hot. Keep saying my name like that," Dean's eyes were locked on her bouncing breasts.

 "No, Dean, there's a cow behind you," she tightened her arms around his neck.

 Dean glanced over his shoulder. A brown cow was chewing on the pasture behind him.

 "It's all right. We're not bothering her. Oh, God, that's so good," he rolled his eyeballs up and brought his hips forward, feeling her love fluids run down his testicles.

 "Don't stop," Allie cried as Dean's hairs rubbed her vulva and his p***s poked a specific spot inside her.

 Without pausing, he managed to slide his hands lower. Then, he used his middle finger to fondle the outer area of her anus.

 Her moans became louder and closer together.

 "I'm. Cuh-m-in'." Her spine curved and her legs trembled. She buried her face on his neck while she let her blood flow freely through her body.

 "f**k!" Dean propelled forward then held his balance on a tree.

 "Are you okay?" Allie came down from his hip.

 "f*****g cow just licked my ass," he picked up his car keys and pants and wiped his buttocks.

 Allie gasped and giggled. "It's not her fault. She agrees with me that you're very attractive."

 Dean watched the cow with the corners of his eyes and threw his pants at the animal's face. He was about to start laughing when they heard a thumping.

 Not far from them, a bull bellowed and grunted at them.

 "Don't make sudden moved and walk back to the car very slowly," Dean whispered, pulling Allie's body toward their car by the side of the road.

 They moved backward as the bull stomped forward. They interlaced their fingers together.

 Suddenly, the brown cow began urinating and the bull launched itself in the tree's direction.

 The couple left their clothes on the grass and sped toward their car.

 "Go, go, go," Dean pulled Allie's arm through a wire fence. He pushed her buns into the other side and climbed after her.

 Allie panted, held her chest, and looked back at the prairie.

 "Get in the car!" Dean hauled her shoulder.

 "Wait," Allie stopped him and pointed at the prairie.

 "What the hell?" Dean laughed.

 They both watched as the bull mounted the cow from behind and made sweet love to her.

 ***

"How did we get here and where are we supposed to be going?" Dean opened the driver's side.

 "We were going to make a surprise visit to Steven Childan, my mother's lawyer, remember?" Allie sat on the passenger seat.

 "Oh yeah, well, that ain't happening in our birthday suits. I've got emergency blankets on the back seat. We can stop at home for a shower. Argh, damn," he looked down at himself. His rod was as solid as the bull's.

 "Open your legs for me," he wrapped his fingers around the shaft and stroked himself. "I wanna jack off to your pussy."

 Allie did as he said and watched him for a minute. Then, she moved closer to him and licked the side of his neck. Her lips nibbled his ear while her hand turned on the car's engine. She whispered, "Drive."

 She lowered her head to his groin and guided the full length of his c**k into her mouth. With his jaw dropped, Dean placed his foot on the gas pedal and backed into the road.

***

Dean peeked through the windshield at a mansion with a Victorian facade. Although the fountain in front of it changed colors as they drove by it, Allie seemed disinterested. She dusted her green satin blouse and picked a lint particle from her black pants.

 "Wow, Steven must have very rich clients to be able to pay for all of this," said Dean.

 "He does have a reputation for winning most cases," replied Allie.

 They parked not too far from the fountain and got out of the car. Dean rolled up his sleeves to avoid overheating and held Allie's hand, going up the wide stair-steps.

A woman in a long black dress guided Allie and Dean into a terrace.

 "Sorry about the mess," the woman pointed at some boxes stacked on top of each other. "I'm moving Mr. Childan's old cases into the storage room."

 Steven sat at an iron table that had a lone star engraved in the middle. A man in a suit served him coffee while he took a bite off a buttermilk biscuit.

 "Thanks Jacob, you may leave," he waved his hand and wiped his mouth as he stared at the couple walking toward him. He stood up, opened his arms, and hugged Allie. "Please, tell me ya'll are back together." He was one head smaller than her.

 "We are but that's not why we're here," Allie smiled.

 "Dean, how long has it been."

 "Not that long," Dean replied. "You were in our wedding."

 "That's why I was so shocked to hear about your divorce. I'm glad you have resolved your differences," Steven's voice became unusually softer.

 "And we did that without your help," Allie raised one eyebrow.

 "I'm so sorry about that, Allie, but I told you a long time ago that Olivia's marriage clause—"

 "That's no longer important. Out of everyone I know you were the one who interacted with my mother the most, so I hope you don't mind if I ask you a couple questions."

 The lawyer crossed his legs and interlaced his fingers over his knee.

 "Not at all, I love talking about her. What would you like to know?"

 "Did she ever mention having suspicions about her employees?"

 "Suspicions? What kind of suspicions?"

 "Like, maybe she had to fire someone because they lied to her."

 Steven frowned at the stone floor and took a slow deep breath.

 "Helen was good to all of her employees and if she had to fire anyone she wouldn't have found it appropriate to talk about it. Of course, she almost never had to do that. She was incredibly selective about whom she'd hire," he dropped back on his chair and stared at the bushes with narrow eyes. "Even when she got sick, she was always on top of every detail of the company. Nothing moved without her knowing about it. An incredible woman, she was."

 "You have the same opinion of her as everyone else who works at Wellington," Allie smiled.

 Dean frowned momentarily and continued to listen quietly. He found Allie's questions to be too broad. He recalled her telling him in the car about all the points she wanted to talk about with Steven. Instead, the conversation turned brief. Allie and Steven said goodbye with another hug and the lady in the black dress came back to show the couple the exit.

***

In the center hall of Steven's mansion, Allie kicked a box.

 "Goodness gracious," the lady in the black dress humped the box aside. "That could've been an awful fall."

 "Don't worry about it," Allie shook her head.

 Dean panned around the area. There were only two big pompous looking chairs with cushions that had a flower pattern. Apart from that, the hall was too empty for Allie not to have noticed the box.

 "I have so many things to do I forgot I'd left this one here," said the woman in black. "If only this house had an elevator to the second floor, my job would be faster."

 "Seems like you've got your hands full," replied Allie. "Why don't you get back to work and we'll show ourselves out."

 "No, how could I do that to you?" the maid screeched as if she had to make herself say that.

 "Oh, please," Allie tapped the woman's forearm and began toward the front wing, "I'm like a daughter to Steven. It'll be like leaving my house. You take care."

 "Yes, ma'am. I will," the woman spoke shyly.

 "I didn't know you thought of Steven as a father," Dean whispered into Allie's ear.

 "I don't even trust him anymore," Allie whispered back at him. She made sure the maid wasn't behind them and pulled Dean's arm toward a set of stairs.

 "I knew something was off with you. Why are we going upstairs though?"

 They arrived at another hall of pompous chairs. This one was more decorated than downstairs with vases, rugs and realistic paintings of Biblical figures.

 Dean pulled Allie behind a column to avoid being spotted by another maid.

 "Steven said that my mother was on top of every detail in the company even when she was sick and that got me thinking, then how come she never had suspicions about the money laundering? And how come the FBI got involved now?"

 "Maybe your mom wasn't really as Steven described her, unless...she was in on the money laundering business," Dean said that with a gasp.

 "Exactly and I'm pretty sure Steven knew about it."

 They walked down the hall until they found a hallway with four doors.

 "The records must be behind one of these doors," Allie jerked the door handle to her right, finding it locked. "s**t, I knew it wasn't gonna be so easy."

 "Girl, I got you," Dean pulled a pin from Allie's hair and inserted it into the lock. "What are we looking for exactly?"

 "I don't know yet, but if someone runs a money laundering scheme, they'll probably use a good crooked lawyer to cover their own tracks."

 "You think Steven's crooked?" Dean kept fighting the lock.

 "We're about to find out," Allie watched for other house workers.

 Dean retrieved the pin and bent its ends. Then a scuffling made him stop.

 "Shh," he placed his index finger on his lips.

 "I hear that, too," Allie whispered.

 They tiptoed down the hallway.

 "Behind that door," Dean pointed at the last door to the left.

 "Can somebody hear me?" They jumped at the unrecognizable voice. "Let me out!"

 Allie jerked the handle. Dean waited for her to nod in approval and he jiggled the pin inside the lock. The girl played with her fingers in anxiety. Whoever was behind the door wasn't there by choice.

 "There," said Dean. He listened for a clicking sound and pushed down the handle.

 On the other side there was a twin sized bed in a corner, surrounded by windowless walls. A teenage boy laid on it, handcuffed to its metal frame, begging them to let him free.

 "A-a-are you here to rescue me? Did my dad send you?" asked the boy. "Please, help me. My name is Kai Clarke and I'm being held hostage."