27. Jaxson
27
Jaxson
I t takes everything in me not to get on a plane and fly straight back to Georgia upon finding out Lauressa had given my security detail the slip.
Wherever she went, she’s not using her credit cards, bank accounts, or her phone. And there’s no indication that she was looking at hotels, rental cars, or plane tickets when I looked through her accounts and internet history. My men found her phone turned off in her apartment, but my calls to her didn’t go straight to voicemail which means she’s probably managed to find a way to get the calls forwarded to another phone. A burner phone. One she’s probably made sure to never connect to her regular wi-fi.
Of course, Snow White would have put precautions in place like this once she realized the depth of my stalking and spying on her. Just in case. It’s only practical. I can’t even say I’m completely upset that she did it. If anything, I’m impressed by how intelligent she is. It just proves what I knew the first time I laid eyes on her. That she’s going to be one hell of an asset to the Sovereignty when I finally convert her and she’s standing at my side .
I’m only enraged that it’s me she used her skill on instead of using said skills for me.
Rather than do something hasty like get on a plane to investigate and figure out where she went myself, I stopped to think about who she might have told. Who she might have spoken to and let know she was gone. She had to tell someone either before she left or after she arrived. But she also would have known that I would go through this exercise and made sure not to tell anyone that she knew I was aware she was close to.
Lauressa finally picks up the phone late in the evening of the day she disappeared.
“Where the fucking hell are you?” I growl as soon as she picks up, barely able to keep my temper in check. Not just at her, but at the way I can’t reign myself back under control. Not until I know where she is. Not until I know she’s safe. That she won’t inadvertently get herself killed trying to escape me.
“That kind a language is unbecoming of a man trying to make his way in the world,” she sings with laughter in her voice.
“Lauressa,” I growl, pointedly enunciating each of the syllables of her name, holding the phone so tightly I might break it.
“I just took an impromptu vacation is all.”
“Without telling me.”
“You don’t control me.”
“Evidently,” I ground out. I’m definitely going to work toward rectifying that when she’s with me again. “You’re still mine. In my control or out of it. Now where the fuck are you? ”
“If you want to know so damn bad, figure it out yourself. But you can relax. I’ll be back Sunday. Before you’re even back in from Chicago,” she assures, though I’m far from assured.
“Lauressa,” I growl again.
“Fuck you,” she snaps and hangs up the call.
I try to call again. This time it goes straight to voicemail. The damn woman turned off the forwarding to her burner phone, I bet.
I’m seconds from booking the first flight to Georgia when I remember something.
J.
On Fridays, J goes to meet Lauressa as a concession for allowing him to keep secret the friend he’s staying with and not getting any authorities involved. Something she would only do as a last resort if she thought J was in a danger she couldn’t protect him from.
There’s no way she would disappear and let J worry about where she went or why she didn’t show up. There’s no way she would disappear and risk J going to her apartment and possibly running into my men and getting involved with me.
I pull up the file with a call log and recordings of all J’s call. I don’t really care about who J decides to call or not call. I only care about it as far as his attachments to Lauressa. Hence, I didn’t miss the opportunity to take him under my wing. I gave him a place to stay in an apartment with one of my men on the north side of the city. That way there’s no risk of him running into Lauressa at my estate.
My investment in him pays off, because sure enough, Lauressa talked to him. And sure enough, the first thing she tells him is that she went to Savannah. I listen to the call to make sure she doesn’t reveal any more hints. But the only thing I learn is that J is spending his mornings playing video games rather than doing his schoolwork first. I’ll talk to him about that when I get back. After I deal with Lauressa.
I send a security detail to Savannah to find her, instructing them to only observe her when they do. No interference. Let her have her little vacation away from me if that’s what she wants.
Feeling significantly calmer now that I at least know where she is and that my men will have eyes on her soon, I can go back over the information that was personally handed to me this morning.
I haven’t seen Abner in months. Not since my father gave him the assignment of Priesthood over the Los Angeles Altar. He used to be my assistant when he wasn’t doing security detail for my father. That is to say, his job was to keep his ear to the ground and gather information from the places that I couldn’t be seen without suspicion. From people who would think twice about behaving a certain way in front of the son of the Oracle. But wouldn’t think at all about doing and saying the same things around said son’s best friend.
Abner couldn’t stay long. He’s here to meet with my father. But he always likes to check in and give me information that I might already know but also might not.
While my father may not have gotten up to anything in the last few weeks, those from his inner circle have. The National Sovereignty Treasurer is embezzling funds from the Sovereignty coffers. My father’s personal doctor is running a black market pill scheme. One of my father’s conduits is having an affair with the head of his security. A high priest and his wife are abusing their children. Multiple of his priests and security team are cheating on their wives, some of whom will no doubt announce their divorce of said wives before making the women they’re cheating on their new wives. One of those people from his security team being Brian. Jessie’s husband. All the while he leaves her dealing with a crying baby.
As much as I’d like to deal with Brian right now, I can’t yet. Not unless he becomes an immediate danger to Jessie’s physical wellbeing or Jessie directly asks me for help. There’s not much I can do about any of this actually. Not right now.
I could take it to all my father. But instead of shunning the perpetrators from the community for the abuses and adultery like he’s supposed to, he’d probably allow them to keep acting in their official positions. He’d say the Supreme Force would enact divine justice as if he’s not supposed to be the embodiment or the mouthpiece of said deity. And that’s at best. At worst, he'd just blame the young women or young men as temptresses. Ask the wives what they could have done to stop their men from being unfaithful or falling into degrading behavior. Lecture the children for not being obedient enough.
There’s also the fact that going to my father would be showing too much of my hand. I can’t let him know how far my reach in the Sovereignty goes. How many of my people I have planted in every Altar and in his circles. For that reason, I also can’t stage a few violent accidents. It would be too risky and put my father on higher alert than he already is. It would also put Abner at risk. I trust him enough that he’d erase any evidence of anything that can get back to him. But I can never be too careful dealing with my father and his favor.
For now, I have to let it continue to happen unless someone’s in immediate danger. At which point, the risk of interference would be severely outweighed by gaining the endearment, loyalty, and a favor owed from the person I deliver. But for now, the best thing to do is nothing. Well… not nothing.
I’ll text Abner a cryptic message when he’s back in LA to send some of the intel about a couple of the adulterers and the abusive parents to Magdalene. I may not like her, but she’s generally good about finding a solution to this shit, branding herself as a champion of women. As much as she’s allowed to brand herself that way anyway.
That done, I start to look over the financial reports from the National Treasurer’s embezzlement scheme.
I spend most of the night and all of the next day pouring over the financials of the Sovereignty. I forget to eat. I almost forget to sleep if not for the fact that the numbers started blurring on the pages.
Something about all these money transfers isn’t right. This isn’t just embezzlement. Something more is going on here. A large sum of hundreds of thousands of dollars just disappearing. It’s like the treasurer isn’t even trying to hide that he’s moving money. It’s obvious. I bet anything that my father already knows about it. Which means he’s directing the treasurer to do this, and no one questions the Oracle when he gives a direction. Where things get unclear is where the money is going. It’s going to take weeks, maybe months of research to find out .
Before I can contemplate what exactly my father could possibly be up to now, I get a message from one of the members of the security detail I sent to find Lauressa. They found her early this morning and have been tailing her ever since.
The message comes not from the man I left in charge of Lauressa’s little Savannah escapade, but from one of his subordinates. Why…?
Thought you should see this , the message says.
A video call comes through, pointed away from the caller and to what looks like the view of a beach.
Lauressa is there with a male photographer, taking pictures in a bikini. The fact that she’s giving her attention to another man would be enough to have my blood boiling. But then she takes off the bikini and allows him to take completely nude pictures of her and my blood turns into a fucking volcanic eruption.
I can’t hear what they’re saying over the wind, but the next thing I see is Lauressa laying on a blanket, spreading her cunt for him. He takes a few pictures before finally kneeling down, kissing her, and inserting his fingers into her and fucking her.
“Faster,” I manage to hear her say over the wind. “Harder.”
The man she’s with must give in to her because the next thing I hear is the familiar sound of her moans as she comes.
“Keep going,” she says, and in short order, she’s keening as she comes again.
He kisses her, and they both stand up. Lauressa puts back on her bikini with an excited fervor, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why they’re packing up to leave the beach .
The man sends Lauressa ahead as he packs up all his photography gear and blankets, surely intending to follow behind her.
My blood is beyond erupting. I’m now apoplectic with fury.
“Intercept him. Be discrete. I want him brought to me. To the Macon Estate. Dealing with him can wait until I’m back. Secure him in the meantime,” I manage to order through my fury.
“Yes sir,” the female voice says, and I instantly understand why her superior directed her to contact me.
None of the men who work under me would dare risk laying eyes on Lauressa’s naked body if they could help, knowing the kind of punishment they’d be in for if I found out. They would if it became absolutely necessary, but why do that when he could just put a female teammate on it?
Gone is the calm serenity and control that washed over me with the security that I at least knew where Lauressa was. Gone is the control. To think, I thought I was being too hard on Lauressa. Too hasty with her. But if she thinks she can disappear to give herself over to another man to spite me, clearly I haven’t been hard enough. Clearly, I haven’t been clear enough in my intentions. This time, I’m going to have to make the lesson stick.
******
Somehow, I manage to wait the three days before my scheduled return flight back to Georgia though it was close. I spent a fair amount of time talking myself out of booking the next flight back, all the way up to ten hours before my flight, at which point it would have been completely impractical to try to book an earlier flight .
As soon as I land, I instruct my team to have Lauressa’s little paramour, Kaydon, ready for me.
My driver is waiting for me at the airport, and I spend the hour and a half ride back in eager anticipation. Not just to see Lauressa again, despite my ire at her spiteful antics, but also to make the photographer atone for trying to defile her. Of course, there’s nothing that could defile Lauressa. Not in my eyes. But certainly that’s what she thought she would be letting another man do to her.
My driver drops me off, and I immediately go down to my blood altar.
Kaydon is already there, stripped naked to a chair in front of the cross. I have no patience for the dramatic, ceremonial garb today. I simply discard my suit coat, roll up my sleeves, and make my way over to him.
I snatch the black bag off his face, and glare down into his blue eyes with contempt. Objectively, his eyes are quite stunning. I’m sure he’s lured in many men and woman with them. No wonder Lauressa was so enchanted by them. I’m going to make sure they don’t enchant anyone again.
“Who are you?” Kaydon demands frantically. “What kind of sick shit is this, man?”
I suppose it’s only fair that he knows what he’s about to atone for. There can’t be atonement if the wrong isn’t pointed out first.
One of my men pass me the man’s camera, so I can flit through the ones of Lauressa. They really are stunning photos. Especially the ones of her naked, walking in the sand and water of the beach. Splayed out on the blanket while spreading her cunt. Just looking at it is making me hard.
I shake my head. Right now, I have to be in control.
“You have a real talent,” I say to Kaydon. “I’m going to have to print your photos of my Lauressa for my personal pleasure later. And while I appreciate you giving me that, I can’t let go the sin of you laying eyes on her and touching her so intimately while she belonged to me and she knew it.”
“Lauressa,” Kaydon mutters in confusion. Then he says, “That Res girl! Her? Look man, I’m not trying to get between you. I didn’t know she was taken.”
“I know you didn’t. Lauressa was throwing a bit of a tantrum because she’s upset with me. It’s not your fault she tempted you into sin. Supreme Force knows she has tempted me on many occasions,” I mutter. “But alas, you’re still the one who committed the sin. Whether you knew it or not. So now, you have to atone.”
“Atone? What the fucking freaky shit are you on about? I wasn’t trying to get in the middle of a lover’s spat. I just wanted a good fuck. You know how it is?” Kaydon begs desperately.
I ignore him. I’m tired of hearing him talk.
I put on a pair of gloves and a plastic hazmat suit to protect me from the chemicals I’m about to use. Then, I’m handed a bottle.
I grab Kaydon by the hair, yank his head back and hover the bottle over his eye.
He screams in terror. Good.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” he screams. “I— ”
I pour the acid on his eyes. He tries to close them, but closing them won’t save him. His entire body jerks, and he yanks against the restraints on his arms and legs as the acid burns through his eyes, ruining their enchantment and taking away his sight.
“Don’t despair,” I say, once the acid is gone and I toss the bottle on the ground. “At least one of the last things you saw was the sight of my beautiful Lauressa.”
I let Kaydon go, and he continues to scream in pain and terror. But I’m not done yet. I haven’t forgotten the way he touched Lauressa. The way he made her come with the fingers of his right hand.
There’s a reason I blinded him first. Because I don’t want him to see what I have next in store for him. I don’t want him to be able to brace himself for it.
I grab a small surgical knife and go to Kaydon’s right side. I grab his hand, stilling it. He begins to jerk and try to yank away again.
“I know it’s going to hurt,” I assure. “But I unfortunately can’t let you keep these fingers.”
His screams drown out the sound of me stabbing his pinky at the joint to start the process of relieving him of his digits.