William Davis - Blackmailed

"Drop the gun… Ollie!" Arnie told him, low-voiced.

"Son-of-a-bitch! Arnie!"

He swung around to level his pistol, just as Jay sprang from cover, bringing his own hand gun down in a short, hard arc against Ollie's gun-clutching hand. The steel barrel crunched the bones of that hand, and the pistol clattered to the porch flooring.

"OOww!" he screeched, looking down, helplessly, as he realized both his hands were broken.

Ramsey, hearing Ollie's shriek of pain, jumped up from his chair and dashed toward the front door, his pistol in his hand.

Standing in the darkness of the porch, Jay could have shot him… but he didn't. He wanted the man to live… to face a court. The crazy impulse to charge in shooting had already been stilled. Now, he coolly waited for his man and chopped him down with a stunning blow to the back of the neck as he came through the door.

Pausing only long enough, to pick up Ramsey's pistol and grunt to Arnie, "Take care of them!" he headed toward the bedroom and his wife.

Quickly, he freed her, and she was in his arms.

"Jay! Oh, Jay!" she cried with relief. "They… r-raped me… and did horrible things… t-to m-me!"

"I know… darling… but everything's all right, now!" he soothed, as her hysteria mounted.

p(line).***

Jay summoned a doctor, who administered a sedative to her and recommended that she rest in bed for a day or two.

To the sheriff's deputies who came to take the three men into custody, Jay recounted the charges he would bring against them. "I'll be talking to the D.A… but for now, we can start off with forcible rape, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit extortion… and if we can get the word out fast enough… we can take Carla Reynolds off that plane in Hawaii. I want her held as a material witness!"

p(line).***

The human spirit is resilient and time is its best ally.

It was three weeks later, at Betty's insistence, that Arnie and Joan Pearson were guests for dinner at the Ballard home.

She was the perfect hostess, serving everything to perfection, and after dinner with drinks in their hands, the conversation turned to the experiences they had shared.

Arnie was uncomfortable. Betty was seated next to him on the couch, and as the talk drifted to sex, it was Betty who carried the conversational ball.

"One thing… I found out… was that I was dead wrong… the way I treated Jay… before… and I found out that I'm more responsive than I thought!"

"You can say that, again!" Jay put in. "I've got a real tigress in bed, now!"

"… But, one thing I've really thought about… and Jay and I've talked about it, is that loving one man isn't enough for me…!"

Joan Pearson cut in, then, "Do you mean… you want to have affairs, now?"

"No… that's not what she means!" Jay said. "Let's all face the truth of the matter!" He looked around at the other three. "I've made it with Joan… and Arnie's made it with Betty! What we're talking about… is more of the same!"

"Damn! You're not serious?!" Arnie grinned, "… Are you…?"

"We are!" Betty and Jay said it almost simultaneously.

Betty turned toward Arnie and asked breathlessly, "What do you think darling…?"

"I think it's a damned good idea!"

"What about you Joan…?" Jay asked.

"Well… it's kind of a wild idea… but…" She stopped momentarily, looking at her husband Arnie. Then, as Betty Ballard slid easily into her husband's arms, she went on, "I'll go along with it!"

Jay Ballard came to where Arnie's wife sat, took her by the arm, lifting her, then led her down the hallway toward the guest room.

"This time," he told her, "we'll have plenty of time to get acquainted… first!"