The Heart of His Lair (MSP #1)

     Ross was very tired. He badly needed sleep, twelve hours straight would be really wonderful. He smelled bad and felt grimy. A long bath will be on the list. He touched his chin. And a shave, probably a haircut too. But, most of all, he needed sustenance and maybe s*x if there’s a willing woman. Maybe he could call Jessie or was it Jane? God! He was really dead beat. He couldn’t even remember the name of the woman he had f****d three months ago. s*x would really help him release all the tensions and frustrations he was feeling after their last arduous mission.       Yes, it was a success. Thanks to his men from MSP, they were able to save nine little girls from those f*****g monsters who were going to sell them to those f*****g sick wealthy men who paid millions just because they can. Christ! Just a f*****g child. Why there were men like that, who couldn’t keep their d***s in their pants and want to stick it to innocent children? He didn’t know why they did it. And he didn’t want to give excuses for their actions. All he knew was that they needed to be stopped and be put behind bars, if not killed. Maybe he should have given himself the satisfaction of killing them, but he didn’t. He needed them alive to tell him of the location of his sister. He knew that that organization, in which those men were involved, had something to do with his sister. He had been looking for Misha for more than a decade now.      How long had it been? f*****g eighteen years. All those years, he had been looking for Misha after he had lost her that unfaithful night. He had gone to work. When he came back to bring her medicine and food, she was already gone. He tried to find her everywhere. But... Stop! He didn’t want to go there tonight. If he did, he’s going to lose his goddamn mind. That was where all the frustrations were coming from. Those motherfuckers were not speaking of their boss and where there HQ was located. They were too tight-lipped. But he’s not going to give up. He just needed sleep and s*x to restore his energy and return his mind to the game. And tomorrow he would give them the worst pounds that they ever felt in their lives. He smirked. Those fuckers didn’t know what’s waiting in store for them.      Almost there, he thought. He drove fast the neighborhood. He missed his house. Nah, not the house. The neighbor. His two-story townhouse was situated at the secluded part of the subdivision, with only one neighbor close by. He chose that house because it was far away from the other overfriendly neighborhood. He was not a snob. He just didn’t have the time and energy to do the neighborly things. And he wanted privacy, with all that he was and his job. Beside, this set-up was just temporary. He would be moving soon to the compound, where MSP is located, after his place there was finished. He just chose to live in this subdivision because it was a good twenty minutes away from MSP. MSP was his company. His baby. He built it from the ground after his twelve years of service in the Philippine Army.  Two years ago, he bought the old factory with a vast field area, located here in Laguna. He turned that factory to Misha Security and Protection. This was his life now.      The ringing of his phone reiterated his thoughts. He absently reached for it and put the speaker on without looking at the caller. “Yeah?” he said as a way of greeting.      “You home?” a deep baritone voice said on the other side of the line.      “Miss me already, honey?”      “f**k you, Ross!”      “Nah, I’d rather f**k my fist than you, Rio.” He said sardonically.      Rio laughed. “If you want to f**k, Jenny has been looking for you.”      “Who?” he said, confused.      “Jenny? The one you’d been with the last time we’re at the bar downtown,” Rio said in a mocking tone.      “So, it’s Jenny,” he said dryly.      “f*****g unbelievable.” Rio said mockingly.      He swiped his right hand on his face to rub out the fog of sleepiness, and swerved his car to the left. Just two more streets and he would be able to sleep.      “What is it, big guy? I know you aren’t calling me at this time of the night just to have a chit chat?” He asked curiously.      “Did you find Misha?” Rio asked seriously. Ross heaved a sigh, always straight to the point. That was Rio.      “No.” He could hear hurt in his own voice. He coughed to cover the  hurt.      But it  didn't go unnoticed to Rio. “We will find her, you know that.”      “Yeah.” Sometimes, Ross doubted that he could still find her. He didn’t even know if she was still alive.      “Have you finally decided to go back to the land of the living and join the MSP?” he said, changing the subject.      Ross had been trying to buy Rio for six months now after he resigned from his commission. He had been budging him to join the MSP. Rio was the best. Well, one of the best aside from him.      He and Rio had been best of friends since he was seventeen. They both came from the orphanage, both decided to join the army when they graduated in high school, and had been at each other’s back since then, protecting each other. Ross was just the first one who had called it quits with the army.      “Soon, Ross.” As always, that was Rio’s reply. At least, he was not saying no. That was okay with him. For now.       Rio told him the first time he asked that he needed to do something first. What that ‘something’ was, he didn’t know. But he intended to know. He was just goddamn happy that Rio was back after he almost died from his last mission.      “What is it, really? You got a problem?” He could feel miles of hesitation from the other side. Then, followed by a resounding “No.”  Rio was hiding something.      Secrets, he understood that. Because he had a lot of them. He was not going to push him.      “You okay?” But that didn’t mean that he didn’t care. He cared because Rio was not just a best friend. He’s a brother.      Silence.      “You know, I’m always here, big guy.”      You getting touchy on me now, sweetpea?” Ross chuckled. The light bantering was back.      “Just wanna know if you’re still alive, Ross.” Ah, he was just checking on him. They always did that whenever they got into a mission.      “Well, I’m still alive.”      “Good. Look, gotta go. So, Friday?” Rio said absently.      “Yeah.” Friday was their hang-out night. Privilege of being a civilian. They could do now what normal people did.      Ross was about to hang up, when he heard Rio, “Oh, by the way, I saw Cookie lady earlier this night.”      That got his entire antenna up. “What’s she doing?”      “She was on a date.”      “Wha—,” then, a beep. f**k!      A date. His Zia was on a date. Ross drove angrily.      He parked his car on his drive way, and then he got out. He glared at the house of his one and only neighbor. She was on a f*****g date. Who the hell had asked her? Who was that motherfucker trying to get what belongs to him?      He stood at his driveway and stared at the black night sky, trying to calm himself before he did something stupid like knock onto Zia’s front door and demanded who the man was. After he was certain that he was in control, he walked to his door.      What he would do first thing in the morning was to know who the guy was. Maybe he could pay him a visit. Then, he would make sure that the guy would be forever gone from Zia’s life. Ah, Zia, his very pretty neighbor.  He smiled to himself when he remembered her, leaving a plate of cookies on his front porch, or sometimes slices of cake. That was always the highlight of his day. His Cookie lady. Rio had started to call her that the first time he heard of her.      The first time he saw Zia was when he was driving around to look for a place. He would not forget that day. She was playing with the kids. Her laugh had made him turn. She was laughing carelessly around the kids. She was wearing a faded blue t-shirt twice her size, the front part was tucked on her white shorts. Her long wavy hair was tied into a messy bun, with loose wisps of hair framing her heart-shaped face. There was mischievousness sparkling on her beautiful brown cat eyes fringed with thick lashes and adorned with perfect eyebrows. She had perfect straight nose and rosy kissable lips. Her almost translucent creamy skin looked soft and silky. He never saw someone as beautiful as she was. That was the day he decided to live here. That was the day his obsession had started.      No, he was not that ‘sick obsessed’. He was not that kind of guy who made a prey on women. He just wanted to look out for her. Watching her from afar. Wanting her. Seeing that beautiful, innocent face everyday had made him yearn for something. What that 'something' was, he didn't want to dwell on it. Her sexy sinful body, not that he had already seen it, had made him instantly hard. He knew that the body underneath those baggy clothes of his Zia was a sin to a man like him. He felt his d**k jumped in his pants. God! He was aroused, just by thinking of her. This had never happened to him before. Ever. Now, with his hard d**k, he was fully awake. He sighed. He decided not to give it his attention.      He punched the code to open his door and got inside. He was about to lock his door, when he heard a shriek from the other house. Without thinking, he went outside and run to the direction of the sound. That was dangerous. For a soldier like him. Attacking without knowing who he was up against. But, he didn’t give a damn.      When he got at Zia’s house, he saw a man pinning her at her door, then, his mind had instantly gone blank.      “Zia!” he shouted as he unceremoniously knocked the man in his face.