With school about to start the following week, Julia decided that, because her family was being stalked, that she'd take them to Austin to see her parents, brothers and her sister, Niki.
Jorge Valenzuela agreed to continue Zach's crossbow training in Austin, and Jeremiah and Jasmine allowed Aaliyah to accompany the Summers family for the week.
If anyone does anything to this house while I'm away, Julia thought to herself, I will find them and make them pay a steep price for threatening my family.
Jordan and David were surprised that Julia was bringing her kids and Aaliyah Donovan, but had the resources and the room available to take care of them. David worried about Julia's reaction to the way Niki looked because of her treatments.
"David," Jordan said; "Niki's an adult. You can't shield her from the world or protect her from how certain members of this family are going to react to her illness. It's up to Niki, not you and not me, to be honest with Julia and tell her what's wrong."
"You're right, Jord," David said; "but it still concerns me."
"Why should it?" asked Jordan; "Julia is certainly old enough to handle it. After all, she had to bury her husband three and a half years ago, and there was no outward sign that his health and life were in danger."
"So you're saying I'm overprotective?" asked David.
"Just like the stereotypical Jewish mother, my dear husband," his wife replied.
"Why doesn't anyone tell me shit like this?" David asked in mock dismay.
"And ruin the fun?" Jordan said as she walked away to prepare the house for her daughter and her family.
David had to admit Jordan had a point. He was too over protective of his daughters. He was proud that Kimber was able to do so well at Northwestern and get a paid internship as well. Niki's college career started out a little shaky, but she finally had found her passion. Then she got sick.
"Julia's going to find out one way or another," David said to himself as he booted up his computer to work on his book. "It may as well be from Niki herself."
His manuscript was about half way done. The publisher wanted to see his progress a month earlier, but David had put that off due to Niki's illness. Now that she was getting treatment, he could concentrate on writing.
He was at the point in his life story where he spoke about the beginning of the Occupation. It was something he was reluctant to relive, but decided that if he could influence one person to stand up and speak out about things that were wrong, then it would be worth it.
"Come on, you guys," Julia said, "we're going to miss our flight if you keep goofing off. Rachel, Aaliyah, I'm talking to you two!"
Miri tapped her foot on the floor impatiently. Julia noticed this and wondered where she'd seen that before. She then remembered. Jack did the same thing. Lord, Julia thought, she's more like him the older she gets. And they haven't even met face to face!
Jaime and Zach had their things ready to go. Julia was getting impatient with her youngest daughter and her youngest niece.
"Rachel! Aaliyah! Stop playing around up there and let's go!" Julia called up the stairs.
"Coming, Mom!" Rachel shouted down; "Aaliyah can't find her watch."
"Found it, Rach," Julia heard Aaliyah say. "It was in the bathroom under a towel."
"Well come on, ladies, let's get a move on! The plane won't wait, you know!"
The two girls came down the stairs, and it always amazed Julia how alike Rachel and Aaliyah were. Except for the obvious height difference, they were just a couple of eight year old girls. Julia had resigned herself to the fact that Rachel just wasn't going to ever be that tall. She was small for her age, and petite like her mother on top of that. Julia knew that Aaliyah outweighed Rachel by at least forty pounds. Aaliyah would go through puberty sooner than Rachel, too, if Aaliyah's older sisters were any indication.
"It's about time you two got down here," Miri said. "I was ready to stuff Rachel into a suitcase and check her as luggage!"
"You were not, Miri!" Rachel said, not getting that Miri was teasing.
"I was teasing, Rach! Sheesh, baby sister, you should know that by now!" Miri said.
"That's enough, girls," Julia said. "Now if you don't mind too awfully much, can we please get in the van and get to the airport. Uncle Jere has been waiting a long time out there!"
As everyone trooped out to the fifteen passenger van that the Donovans owned, Julia noticed that Jeremiah was waiting outside the vehicle. She noticed he was smoking, a habit Julia thought Jeremiah had given up years before.
"What's with this?" Julia asked as she reached up and snatched the cigarette from Jeremiah's lips, dropped it to the ground, and crushed it under her foot. "Your wife's a freakin' doctor! You know that shit's bad for you!"
"I seem to smoke more when I'm stressed," Jeremiah said; "I know it's bad for me, Julia. That's no excuse, I know."
"Just don't do it in front of your kids or my kids...hell, just don't do it, period!" Julia said.
"I'll stop," Jeremiah said. "I don't really like it anymore anyway."
"Good," said Julia as she opened the passenger's door and climbed into the seat. As she was putting on her seatbelt, she said, "Because I'll tell Jasmine if I catch you at it again! No, better yet, I'll kick your ass. You know I can do it, too!"
"Oh, yeah," Jeremiah said as he got behind the wheel; "If you can take down someone like Nik, I'm probably no match for you."
"You'd put up a fight, Jere, I know you!" Julia said, laughing. "Now, let's get to O'Hare and catch a plane."
Jeremiah started the engine and the trip to the airport began. As he drove, he noticed that he was being followed.
The five children in the back of the van noticed that car tailing them. "Daddy, we're being followed," Aaliyah said.
"I know, baby," replied Jeremiah; "We're just going to have to lose them. I know a way into the airport that will confuse them."
"Well, shit," Julia muttered, "we can't even go on vacation without all this fuckin' drama."
"It'll be okay, Jules," Jeremiah said as he warned the kids that he was about to take a hard left turn.
After making the turn, Jeremiah noticed that the car could not slow down enough to make the turn safely and kept going straight. By the time the car turned around, the van was gone; seemingly vanished into thin air.
"Dammit!" Trevor Green shouted; "Lost them! Miss ain't gonna like this."
This would be his second strike. Three strikes, and Green could kiss his life goodbye. Chastity Edwards would make sure of that.
Julia showed her DHS badge to the inspectors at the gate where she, her family and her niece would be getting on the plane.
"I'm authorized to carry a weapon on board," Julia said. "I hope this won't be too much trouble."
"No, Mrs. Summers, not a problem," the head inspector said; "As a Federal agent, you are correct. You can carry a weapon on board. There will be no mention of this to the other passengers other than to say there are air marshalls on board."
Julia nodded and went through the security check without being detained. The children, however, still had to be screened.
After everyone made it through the inspection checkpoint, they all headed to the gate to await their flight to Austin. This trip would be the first time Julia and her family had been to Austin since Ryan died. She couldn't wait to see her brothers and her sister, Niki, again.
Julia, however, would wish later that someone had given her a heads up about Niki. The older of her younger twin half sisters would have some serious explaining to do.
"Are you telling me, Mr. Green, that you lost your target? Is that what I'm hearing from you?" asked Chastity when Trevor Green called to check in.
"Yes, miss," Green said; "She fooled me. I do know that they were headed out of town, because they had been loading luggage into a van."
"And you're not following her to her destination?" screamed Chastity. "What fucking good are you, Mr. Green, if you can't even keep track of your target?"
"I'll have a surprise waiting when they get back, miss," Green said; "You'll have Summers and her family out of the way then."
"You better be right, Mr. Green," Chastity said harshly; "or your miserable life will be so over!"
Green didn't like the way that sounded. Chastity Edwards didn't like failure. And her method of punishment for those who displeased her was permanent. Nothing short of death. A slow, painful death.
Green knew all about that. He was the one who took care of the now deceased mayor of Riverton, Wyoming. Police there called it a home invasion, but it really was an execution. It was messy, bloody and gruesome; all things that Chastity liked about her punishments. She hated incompetence, yet she herself was incompetent, Green thought. The woman definitely had some mental issues she never took care of.
She was a civilian in charge of soldiers; she called the shots, gave the orders, and meted out the punishments. No one got a second chance with Chastity Edwards.
It was what her followers didn't know about their leader that would be Chastity's downfall. If they knew she had abandoned her child at birth, got kicked out of her home by her family, and had a rap sheet as long as a football field when she was known as Kathryn Marie Hope, perhaps she wouldn't have as much power as she did. But changing her name was not a cover up for all the mistakes she'd made in life. Some of those would come back to haunt her. And one of them would end her life.
A cruel irony it would be, too. A woman who didn't give second chances wouldn't get one either when it was all said and done. It didn't matter what name she used; she would be found out, and her punishment would be just as messy, bloody, and gruesome as the ones she gave out.
It was the method of that punishment, and the person(s) applying that punishment that would be lost on Chastity Edwards, until it was too late to change course.
II
Kelly checked the mail, hoping that the acceptance letter from Northwestern would be there. She had already found out online that she had been accepted. The hardcopy letter was a formality at this point.
She opened the mailbox at the curb in her rural part of town and inside, amongst the bills and junk mail, was a letter from Northwestern University addressed to "Miss Kelly Clare Hope".
She tore open the envelope and read the letter, which began: Dear Kelly Clare Hope: Congratulations on your acceptance to Northwestern University, class of 2038. Find enclosed information you will need to select classes, make housing arrangements, and pick up your financial aid debit card, if you applied for aid for this school year...
"Done. Done. And college is paid for, thanks," Kelly said as she read. Classes would start in two weeks, and her grandfather had already made flight arrangements to accompany her to campus to get settled.
Kelly walked back up the driveway to the house. Her grandfather was waiting on the porch.
"So, I'm assuming your letter finally came by the way you attacked that envelope," Eric said.
"Yeah," Kelly said; "but we've known for a while. Why did you insist that I get a physical letter, though?"
"Call me old fashioned," Eric said; "That's all they did when I went to college. No acceptance emails and crap like that."
"Okay, you're old fashioned," said Kelly, smiling; she knew her grandfather had her best interests at heart.
"You all ready to start this adventure Kelly Clare?" asked Eric.
"More ready than you'll ever know, Grandfather," she said.
"Oh, I know," said Eric. "I have sent a kid to college before, you know."
"And look how Uncle Dylan turned out," Kelly said; "I hope I'm just half as successful as he is."
Eric kissed the top of Kelly's head. "You work on what you need to and not compare yourself to your uncle, all right? Good things come to those who apply themselves."
"You going to be okay here by yourself, Grandfather?" asked Kelly protectively.
"I think I can manage, thanks, Kelly," Eric said; "I can cook and clean and pay bills and take care of myself. I'm not that decrepid yet!"
"You're still young yet," Kelly said; "Maybe you'll find a nice gal to hang out with."
"When you've had the best, the rest pale in comparison, Kelly," Eric said with just a hint of sadness in his voice. Helene had died much too young, he thought.
"There could be two of the best, couldn't there?" asked Kelly.
"Maybe, but I'm not counting on it," Eric said. "But, enough about me. We have a trip to Chicago to take and get you settled into your dorm and familiar with the campus. So let's get a move on, little girl!"
Once the plane landed in Austin, Julia felt uncharacteristically nervous. What's wrong with me? she asked herself as she shepherded her brood off the plane and into the terminal. It's just Mom and David. Shit, Julia, you're getting sentimental in your old age.
"Okay everyone," Julia told the kids; "we're all to be on our best behavior, right? No fighting or fussing, because Granpa David will take matters into his own hands and punish you."
"Aw, come on, Mom," Miri said; "Granpa David is a softie. He just likes to think he's tough."
"Oh, you think so?" asked Julia; "You didn't grow up with him from age 12 on."
"I do know you ran away from home once to help Uncle Jeremiah and Uncle Joe get out of trouble," Miri said.
"And who told you that?" her mother asked.
"Granpa David did."
"Well, it's true," Julia said as they made their way to the waiting area where one of both of her parents would be waiting; "I did do that, and Nonna Jordan freaked pretty bad. She thought the New Army got me. I had to apologize and offered to accept any punishment they gave me. I was fourteen after all."
"What did they do to punish you, Mom?" asked Zach.
"They didn't," Julia said; "Since I admitted I was wrong and was willing to accept punishment, they chose not to. We did have a frank talk about me being more considerate of my mother's feelings."
"Fourteen? Geez, Mom, you were doing your thing at fourteen?" asked Jaime.
"Yep, that I was, Jaime," Julia said.
They had gotten to the waiting area where, as Julia thought, both David and Jordan waited for them.
"Well, look who we have here, Nonna," David said; "It's the girl and her family!"
Julia hugged both Jordan and David. All the kids got their hugs in as well.
"My goodness, Aaliyah," Jordan said; "you've certainly grown since we last saw you!"
Aaliyah blushed.
"Nonna Jordan..." Rachel said; "You made Aaliyah blush."
Jordan had to consider that Aaliyah was probably uncomfortable being so much taller than her favorite cousin.
"Thank you," was all Aaliyah said.
"Well, let's get your stuff and head to the house," David said; "Julia, your packages arrived safely yesterday, by the way."
"Good," Julia said; "hard to train without weapons or supplies."
"You're still going to train, even on vacation?" asked Jordan.
"Mom, it's a long story, and not one for this venue," Julia said. She paused, then said, "How's Niki? She and Drake ever going to get married?"
"Maybe someday," David said. "Life's a little too uncertain for them at the moment."
"They're not having troubles, are they?" asked Julia.
"No, no," David said, backpedalling; "It's school, and work, and other things. They're pretty solid as a couple, though."
"Good," said Julia; "I hope she's not too busy to see her nieces and nephew while we're here."
"I'm sure she'll make the time," Jordan said; "She knows you're visiting."
Julia got the feeling that her parents were leaving out something major about Niki. But she would discuss that with them after the family settled in.
"So, what's for dinner, Mom?" Julia asked.
"Hmmm, I don't know, Julia," Jordan said; "Stuffed shells?"
"Cool, Mom," Julia said; "I can definitely get into that!"
After dinner Jordan and David spent a good deal of time with the grandchildren, asking them about school, their training, Miri's college plans; It had been a long time since they had seen Julia; since Ryan's funeral three and a half years before. They had seen the children the previous summer while Julia was at a computer convention in Dallas on behalf of Ryan's company. David seemed to be pleased about the children's adjustment to having just their mother as their primary parent.
Jordan wanted to take all the girls shopping the next day after their training; David wanted Zach to show him his new crossbow skills. They all talked in the living room when Sam and John came home from football practice.
"Oh, wow!" John said; "Jules is really here! Sam, look, all the kids are here, too!"
"Hey guys and girls!" Sam said playfully. "Even Aaliyah is here! Your mama and daddy know Auntie Jules kidnapped you?"
"Dad drove us to the airport, silly!" Aaliyah said.
"Don't get too big for your britches, guys," Miri said as she stood up and gave her uncles a hug. The boys weren't much older than Miri was. David was surprised that Miri and the boys were nearly the same height.
Sam sat down next to Zach and said, "We're gonna have to hang together while you're here. Take you to some of the places we hang out."
"Sam, remember, Zach's just ten, so you can't take him to all the places you hang out," Jordan said.
"Not even to the gym to play bad basketball?" John said.
"Let his mother decide that," David said. But Julia had stepped out of the room to call her sister.
When the line on the other end was answered, Julia heard the Aussie accent of Niki's boyfriend, Drake.
"May I speak with Niki please?" asked Julia.
"Who may I ask is calling, please?" Drake asked in reply.
"I'm Julia, Niki's sister from Chicago," Julia said. "I'm in town visiting my folks for a week with my kids."
"Wow, Niki will be thrilled to hear that," Drake said; "Wait just a sec, okay?"
Julia could hear Drake calling after Niki, "Baby, your sister Julia's on the phone. She's in town with her kids!"
Niki then picked up the phone and gave a tired sounding, "Hello?"
"Niki, it's Jules."
"Hey, Jules," Niki said; "I hear you're in town with the kids."
"It's true, sis," Julia said. "I brought Jere's youngest Aaliyah with me, too."
"Are she and Rachel still joined at the hip?" asked Niki, feeling a little more energetic.
"Just about, except it's clear that Aaliyah's going to be a lot taller than Rachel, even at eight years old," Julia said.
"Well, both her parents are tall, and her sisters and brother are tall, too," said Niki.
"This is true," Julia said. "Rachel's going to be short, I suspect. Shorter than I am more than likely. I hope I'm wrong about that, though."
"Me, too," said Niki; "She got such a rough start in life. I'm sure that being short is the least of her worries."
"You might be right," Julia said; then, "You know, sis, I haven't met Drake yet. How about I come over tomorrow afternoon and catch up?"
Julia could hear Niki sigh on the other end. Then Niki said,
"Yeah, sure, Jules; I'd like that, and Drake's been dying to meet you!"
"Great!" Julia said; "Is 1pm okay with you?"
"Drake just happens to have tomorrow off from both jobs," Niki said; "1pm sounds great, Jules. I don't live in that little apartment anymore. Drake and I rent a house now. We have the option to buy it if we want. We're thinking about it. Mom has directions if you need them. The address is 115 North Bastrop Road."
"My rental car has a GPS unit, so I'll find it," Julia said.
She and Niki spoke for a few more moments, then they hung up. Julia had a nagging thought however.
There's something wrong, I just know it.
III
Trevor Green was still skulking around Julia's now vacant house. He managed to get inside by cutting the alarm system wires. When alarm was armed, the doors and windows locked automatically. When the system is not working, the house is vulnerable. And that was Green's plan.
He went inside and looked around. It looked like any other family's house. Green went upstairs and went into Julia's study. There sitting on the desk was a tabletop computer. It was locked from the outside, and a special unbreakable code locked the computer's hard drives. Green wasn't computer savvy enough to break the code. He wouldn't have been able to anyway. The program that was installed on the computer was invented by the computer's owner. Or rather, its original owner, Ryan Summers. It was not widely available to the public, being sold mostly to businesses. But the software made a mint for its creator's family.
Unfortunately for Green, the same software also locked the cyberlocks on the desk drawers and on the gun cabinent in the closet. It also locked the computers each of Summers' children had. Green was not going to be getting any information from the computers in the house.
Instead, Green wired all the doors with a tripwire, so that if someone came into the house, he would know immediately via secure phone. He also placed C-4 explosives at strategic points in the house along the wires, so movement of those wires would trigger an explosion.
Or so he thought.
Unbeknownst to him, his entrance into the house was being recorded on video. The house was wired with video bugs that could be accessed remotely by only three people. One of those people would be getting a message to check the video feed. And they would know Green on sight.
Also, Green was unaware that his plan to blow up the house and anyone who attempted to get into it was a failure from the moment he placed the plastic explosive on the wires. The wires had to be electrified in order for it to generate enough heat to explode. The tripwires Green used were not the proper ones. Since he cut power to the alarm system, the tripwires were useless.
At that time, there was someone checking the video feed at the house. And he would not like what he saw.
The message on Nik's phone was clear: Unauthorized access at 1024 WhiteFeather Lane.
Nik logged on to a website on his personal laptop, punched in a code, and brought up the video feed at Julia's house. A bank of camera shots filled the screen. In one of the shots, Nik saw a person in Julia's office; in another shot, the same person was poking around the children's bedrooms; in still another shot, the intruder was laying a wire and sticking some kind of putty on it.
This last shot showed the intruder's face. Nik recognized it immediately.
"Disoriented in the woods, eh, Mr. Green?" he said under his breath. "You lowlife bastard! I should have let Miri blow you away that night!"
The live feed from one of the cameras in the hallway outside the children's bedrooms showed a disturbing image. Green had pulled down his jeans, and was masturbating in Miri's bedroom. Nik could clearly hear the man fantasizing about forcing the fifteen year old to perform oral sex on him.
"You fucking pedophile! You sick motherfucker!" Nik said aloud. "Your ass is mine, you sick fuck!"
Nik then got on the phone to the police precinct that patrolled the former Chicagoland compound.
"There's an intruder at 1024 WhiteFeather Lane, on the former Chicagoland compound," Nik said; "He may have laid C-4 explosives in the house; use caution and take a bomb squad unit with you. I have the intruder on video surveillance. His name in Trevor Green. Check his name against known sex offenders nationwide."
"Yes, Lt. San Marco," the dispatcher said; Nik then heard the dispatcher send the call to the local precinct.
"It's all taken care of, Lt. San Marco," the dispatcher said. "We're working on the National Sex Offender Database to see if he's registered. You'll be contacted if you're needed on scene."
"Fuck that," Nik said; "That's my sister's house and I'm going to watch that motherfucker squirm when he sees me. I know enough to stay out of the way."
"Whatever you wish, sir."
Nik hung up and logged off his laptop. He then left to watch the drama unfold at Julia's house. The same house they all grew up in.
"Nik," Jeremiah said when he called a few minutes later, "I got a message that Julia's house was being broken into. What's going on?"
"The video bugs picked up an intruder, Jere," Nik said; "I actually met the sorry motherfucker about a week ago when he claimed he got disoriented in the woods. He was trying to blow up the house with C-4 explosives and tripwires."
"Who is he?" asked Jeremiah.
"His name is Trevor Green," Nik said; "He may be a sex offender. I caught him doing something in Miri's bedroom that suggests that he's a pedophile."
"Let me look him up on the National Database. Hold on a sec," said Jeremiah. Not two seconds later, he got a hit. "Nik, you're not going to like what I found."
"Probably not," Nik said; "but tell me anyway."
"Trevor Green is a two time convicted pedophile," Jeremiah said; "Served seven years for the first offense; seven more for the second; each time he went right back out and reoffended. This will be his third strike, because the intent was there. Luckily, his intended victim was not. He's also a operative for that American Republic Movement we've been told about. He reports to a woman named Chastity Edwards, who isn't exactly an angel herself. She has numerous convictions for petty theft, robbery, drugs, DUI's, shit like that. She's been married like three times, each time for less than two years. She has five children between the three marriages, and gives the fathers custody because she can't be bothered with being a mother."
"She pops em out and walks out on em, in other words?" asked Nik.
"Exactly," said Jeremiah. "She's not playing with a full deck, you might say."
"Great," Nik said; "But at least we know who we're fighting against."
"Yeah. A 31 year old woman who never really grew up," Jeremiah said. "Detractors call her a spoiled brat; her ex husbands call her insane; police call her power mad. And we're her targets. Doesn't this shit just excite the fuck out of you, Nik?"
"Oh, yeah," Nik said sarcastically as he drove up to Julia's house; "I'd rather have my nutsack pulled off than to have to deal with a female Carl Parks."
"That's exactly who she's like," Jeremiah said; "Wonder if there's a connection there, like one of his many illegitimate children."
"Julia's gonna love this," Nik said.
"Right, Nik," Jeremiah said; "Like she'd love having her teeth pulled one at a time without anestetic."
If there was one thing that Chastity loved more than being in control of the movement to stage a second Occupation, it was sex.
She was incapable of love, and her string of broken marriages and abandoned children only proved that point again and again. Chastity called getting pregnant "getting trapped", because the last thing she wanted to do was have a screaming, puking and pooping baby around.
On this day, however, she wasn't worried about that, because her sex partner was her deputy, Krysta. A voluptuous blonde with green eyes, Krysta wasn't even the girl's real name. It was the name Chastity gave her when she came to work for her when she was seventeen. At twenty seven, she was Chastity's favorite female bed partner. They slept together on all the nights that Chastity didn't have a man in her bed. Which suited Krysta just fine. She wasn't into men that much anyway. She'd fuck men, but it was just a job for her. Which was how Chastity met her. They were both working for a strip club when they met ten years before. Chastity liked the younger girl's big tits, and Krysta loved the attitude that Chastity had. They became fast friends, and because they got along so well, they often performed together. Though they were supposed to simulate the sex, it often ended up being real.
When Chastity was elevated to her current position, she brought Krysta on board as her deputy. Krysta was the only person who could calm Chastity's temper tantrums down. If Chastity were capable of feeling love, it would've been for Krysta. But Chastity allowed Krysta more leeway than she did for a male lover.
Chastity had been upset by the arrest of one of her operatives, and his failure meant that he would feel her wrath. Krysta was calming her down.
"Miss, you can't get upset at every failure," she said; "It's not good for you to be so upset all the time."
"Krysta," Chastity said; "I can't tolerate failure. I want this mission to succeed. It's not going to go anywhere if operatives keep screwing up."
"You need to be a little more patient, Chastity," Krysta said. "Anything worth having is worth fighting for. I know you know this."
"But I want things to go right," Chastity whined; "It's not that hard to eliminate one woman to get her out of the way of our goal."
"Your adversary might be more clever than you give her credit for," Krysta said; "You have to have the patience to think of ways to outsmart her. Maybe killing her isn't the answer. There are other ways to disarm an enemy, Chastity."
"Why are you always so right, Krysta my sweet," Chastity said as she pressed her lips against Krysta's. The other woman responded and she felt Chastity's hand on her leg, then, on her hot button. Krysta moaned appreciatively as Chastity made her come.
"Krysta," Chastity moaned; "I need you to tell me I'm a whore, that I'm nothing but a whore. When you say it, it makes me wet."
"You're a fucking whore, Chastity!" Krysta cried; "You're nothing but a cunt for hire. You'll never be anything but a two bit cunt. Lick me, bitch! Make me come all over your face, then maybe I might share my tits with you. You have to earn that, you fucking, scheming bitch! You understand?"
"Yes, Mistress Krysta," Chastity said, almost begging. She then went down on Krysta and did as she was asked. Krysta loved watching Chastity hand her control over to her, even for brief periods like this.
One day, Krysta thought as Chastity pleasured her, I've give this bitch what she has coming to her. Until then, she's my bitch.
Training went well that morning. Julia decided that the only way that Rachel and Aaliyah were going to get used to the heavily forested area around their grandparents home was to actually go out into it.
She gave each girl a compass, then paired them up with one of their uncles. She drove them to the other side of the property, as far from the house as possible and told each team they had three hours to return to the house.
"Sam and John, let the girls do all the work," Julia said; "You're just there for guidence."
"Okay, Jules," Sam said. John only nodded. If anyone knew every inch of the Draiman's property other than David, it was these two.
"The first team back to the house will have breakfast served to them by the last team," Julia said. "You will wait five minutes, then begin. I'll see you back at the house."
Julia then got into the all terrain golf cart David kept on the property for the maintainence personnel and headed back to the house. She could hear the trash talking, or what passed for trash talking for eight year old girls, on her way out of the area.
"You're going to make me and John breakfast, Rachel," Aaliyah said.
"Oh, no, Aaliyah," said Rachel, "you're going to make breakfast for me and Sam!"
"Am not!"
"Are so!"
"Ladies," John said. "You so don't know how to trash talk. You sound like little girls fighting over a doll."
"Really," chimed in Sam; "It will turn out that John and I will make you two breakfast."
Rachel and Aaliyah didn't know how to take that.
"Five minutes are up," Sam said; "Last one back to the house is a rotten egg!"
And the race was on.
"Where are the girls, Julia?" asked Jordan when Julia returned alone to the house.
"They're having an orienteering race," Julia said; "The last team back has to make breakfast for the first team back."
"Who do you think will win?" asked Jordan.
"I have no idea, Mom," Julia said. "Aaliyah's with John, and Rachel's with Sam. It could be either one of them. They're both good enough."
"But they've never been here before," Jordan said.
"That's the point," Julia replied; "They're going to have to learn to do this no matter where they are. Not all battles are going to be fought in the backyard."
"True, true," said Jordan.
Rachel was really struggling. Sam was helping her the best he could, but per Julia's orders, let Rachel do all the work.
"You're not tired are you, Rach?" asked Sam.
"Nope," Rachel said; "But these hills feel like mountains to me."
"What do you do when you have an impossible route, Rachel?" asked Sam.
"Find another route," said Rachel. She looked around, then saw a smaller slope to climb. "This way, Sam!" she called.
Good girl, Sam thought.
Soon Rachel could see the house, but knew that they still had a ways to go. She looked at her watch. Two hours had gone by already. Rachel was sure that Aaliyah and her longer legs were back at the house by now. She didn't let that discourage her.
Just keep moving, Rachel, she told herself.
Within thirty minutes, she and Sam made it back to the house. When she entered, Rachel called out to Aaliyah, "Okay, I'm here. What do you want for breakfast, cousin?"
No answer.
"Aaliyah? John?" she called.
"Maybe they're not here yet," Sam suggested.
"I'm sure she is," Rachel said. "She's taller and faster than I am."
They headed to the kitchen, but the only people there were her mother and grandmother.
"Where's Aaliyah, Mom?" she asked Julia.
"She and John aren't here yet, Rach," Julia said; "Looks like they'll be making breakfast for you and Sam."
"I won?" she asked, not believing she beat her cousin back.
"Yes, ma'am," Jordan said looking out the kitchen window. "In fact, here she and John come now."
"Rachel?" Aaliyah called out.
"Kitchen, Aaliyah!"
"You beat me!" Aaliyah said.
"Yeah, it looks like it," said Rachel.
"I guess John and I are making you breakfast," Aaliyah said; "But next time, I'll beat you."
"Bring it on, cousin!"
Julia had to laugh. Somewhere along the way, the girls learned to trash talk.
IV
Chastity thought of a way to get Julia Summers out of her hair for a while.
Threaten her family if she dared return to her home. Make her go elsewhere to keep her family safe. Chastity didn't care where, just as long as she stayed out of the way. Then she'd hunt her down and eliminate her.
Like prey.
She liked it when Krysta talked sense into her head. Chastity knew she was a handful, and most times, she didn't care. But if Krysta made her think about her actions, her job was a lot easier.
Chastity didn't know that the woman she trusted the most would betray her in the cruelest of ways. Just not betraying her to the "pansies", what she called the government currently in power, but betraying her to the very people she vowed to forget existed.
She honestly thought that Krysta cared about her, and at one point, Krysta did. But as the parade of men came into and out of Chastity's bedroom, Krysta got tired of being treated like she was a second class citizen because she wasn't a man.
Krysta compiled quite a collection of Chastity's misdeeds to turn over to whomever would pay her price. She would end her indentured servitude to this vain, foolish bitch. Krysta wanted as much power as Chastity had, but Chastity never wanted to share anything.
Krysta wanted to go home to the family she abandoned ten years before in a fit of teenage angst. She was the youngest of six kids, and she missed her family, even though they didn't understand why she loved women instead of men. She wanted to take back the name she'd been given by her parents. Her life as "Krysta" was a lie. She dreamed of the day she would be able to return to her family, and try to live life their way, because God knew her way didn't work.
All she wanted was a way to get away from Chastity and go back to being plain old boring Alexandra Hall. Chastity was incapable of loving her, although she loved Chastity in spite of her many, many flaws. She had to draw the line somewhere. So she drew it.
It was what she found out about Chastity next that would make Krysta reach her breaking point.
Her real name. And what she realized that meant.
Julia prepared to go over to Niki's to see her sister for the first time since Ryan's funeral. She thought they had a lot to catch up on, and Julia would impress upon Niki to finally end this stupid feud with Kimber and accept her twin's decisions about her life.
She decided to stop off at a bakery to pick up the one pastry she knew Niki loved above all others: bear claws. There was only one bakery in Austin that made bear claws every morning. Fortunately, it was pretty close to the house where Niki and Drake lived.
Julia had been hearing about Drake for a couple of years now, and wanted to meet the man who had so captured her sister's heart. He'd have had me the moment he said "g'day", Julia thought. But Niki seemed to make a good decision about him. The same couldn't be said about her many major changes.
First, it was design; then graphic design; then music theory; finally, Niki had settled on photography, something that Julia knew Niki was good at, and had been most of her life. She'd no doubt graduate from college after Kimber, but Kimber always knew she wanted to work in the media, specifically, the growing field of online newspapers. Jeremiah's success inspired Kimber, and Jeremiah even wrote Kimber a letter of introduction when she applied to Northwestern.
Niki could never make up her mind. Her revolving door of boyfriends, many of who only dated her to meet David, was a testament to this. She found one she really liked, but he dumped her at the senior prom for some girl who had the reputation for being "available" whenever, wherever. Niki was heartbroken. Julia fixed him but good; when his name came up as a candidate for a position at Homeland Security (this boy's dream job), Julia wrote on his file that "candidate makes poor personal choices". As a result, the boy was not hired as an intern for the summer after his high school graduation. He never knew that Julia worked for them, or that she deep sixed his application. He ended up working for the Governor of Texas as a press liaison.
But now, something nagged at Julia about Niki. She didn't sound right on the phone, like she was trying to hide something from her. Maybe she's pregnant, Julia thought, and Mom and David don't know.
She didn't know how right, and how wrong she really was.
Julia found Niki and Drake's little tract house and pulled into the driveway. What a cute little house, she thought. All Ryan and I had was that silly apartment he'd lived in for four years.
She grabbed the box of freshly baked bear claws and closed the car door. She walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. She heard Niki's voice call out, "Just a minute."
The door opened and Niki stood there and said, "Hi Jules!"
Julia barely recognized her. She was so thin and pale. She wore a bandana on her head. Had she not spoke, Julia would have sworn she had the wrong house.
"Niki! My God..." she gasped.
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