Tolerable Cruelty - Chapter 17 (Patreon)

Chapter 17

Vince Harris sat in front of his corkboard with a few photos and printouts of key people, linked together by pinned pieces of string. Detailed note cards were placed underneath each profile, highlighting the most pertinent information on the subject. Prezbiak and Satellar out on the rim, linked to an outdated photo of Piper Paloma nee Paddison near the center, with a few key figures at Transient such as her boss, Grant Behnam, as chief suspect of their conspiracy hunt. A photo of Peter was also tacked on alongside Piper.

They had been monitoring Transient for a week, Grant and Piper most of all. All they knew was that Grant worked. A lot. And he didn’t seem to have a life outside of work. No close acquaintances in his life, no activities or communications that garnered any suspicions at all. And with regard to Piper, she kept routine hours and had had a dinner with some relatives. Judging by the lack of familial relations Piper had, it must have been in-laws. Nothing seemed to be untoward with what had happened at Satellar. But they had to keep looking. Satellar might have been incompetent or cutting corners, but there was no way they would involve FBI without a good reason. Even they couldn’t be that stupid.

Some other agents were abuzz about something in the break room. Agent Harris rubbed his eyes and made his way over for more coffee to listen in on the gossip.

“Yeah, some double murderer, found totally mutilated. But even more than that, one of the prison guards, decapitated! No eyewitnesses, of course. But they say the scene is real gory. Like nothing anyone has ever seen before!”

“Huh. Who was the convict?” Harris asked idly, getting into it.

“Dunno. Forget. Happened over at Sarasota Max.”

Harris sipped his weak caffeine and went back to his desk. Out of curiosity more than anything else, he pulled up the records.

John Bledsoe, ghastly looking mugshot. Victims: Daniel and Marcia Paloma.

Harris choked on his coffee. Sputtering madly as drops of liquid stained his shirt, he called his partner who was out on the field surveilling Grant Behnam.

“Sarah! Get on the Palomas! Forget Grant and Transient for now!”

“You figured something out?”

“I’ll tell you soon. I need to make a call to a maximum security prison asap.”

“Alright, I’m moving.”

The call ended. Harris looked up the prison’s number and called there.

“Sarasota County prison.”

“This is FBI agent Harris. Can I speak to the warden please?”

“I’ll transfer you.”

“Hello? This is Peter Paloma. I haven’t forgotten,” he answered the phone call from Sarasota County jail. It was strange, though. They had automatic texts for reminders.

“It’s not that, Mr. Paloma. This is Warden Johnson. I have news for you. You won’t need to come in for the parole meeting tomorrow.”

“Huh? What do you mean? My family’s already here! Don’t tell me you’re rescheduling it!”

“No, Mr. Paloma. It’s not that. How shall I say this? ...You don’t need to come in for another parole meeting ever again. Mr. Bledsoe is deceased.”

Peter’s phone trembled in his hand. Piper listened intently from across the house.

“Mr. Paloma?”

“What happened?” Peter asked, his voice barely a whisper.

“Inmate violence. He was not popular here.” It was half true, anyway. The warden had been given strict orders to say no more than necessary. And certainly not about the brutal, unexplainable crime scene or the fact that one of the guards was dead.

“Well… thank you. I can’t say I’m upset about it.”

“No, Mr. Paloma. I imagine not. Have a good day.”

They hung up.

“Piper! Piper! Bledsoe’s dead!” he shouted in pure joy across the house.

She came floating into the bedroom where Peter still stood, dumbfounded.

“He is?” Piper feigned innocence, not knowing how to play it yet.

“I’ve gotta call Steven and Sarah! Is it bad that I’m so happy, Piper!? This… this is such a relief! Even though a man just died, I can’t help but...”

“Come on, Peter. Be real. You don’t have to rationalize it. He deserved to die. We all know that.”

“Okay, hang on! Let’s just have another dinner tomorrow. I’ll barbecue! We’ll have a nice lunch before we send them off.”

Piper watched her overjoyed husband in relief. Yes Peter, no need to rationalize it, she re-emphasized to herself.

“Oh Peter, Steven! Piper, Piper!” Sarah cried in joy as she got out of her car to greet her siblings and her sister-in-law. They all embraced in a large hug.

“Looks like you got your wish, bro,” Steven quipped.

“Now Steven, don’t be too boorish,” Sarah sniffled with tears in her eyes. “But I can’t say I disagree…”

“No, certainly not,” Peter comforted her, looking at Piper knowingly. “There’s nothing to feel bad about. I don’t know if it’s justice, or what… but it’s okay to be happy about it.”

They squeezed each other tighter. Sarah even looked at Piper through blurry eyes, with no hint of condescension. Only happiness and relief.

Piper smiled at her big sister-in-law.

“Well, I guess Stephen and I fly out tomorrow. We’ll have to get together for some other reason now, I suppose?”

“Heh, bro was right. How are we ever gonna meet up now without a murderer in our lives?”

“Steven!” Sarah and Peter chided simultaneously.

They all gathered on the outdoor picnic table that Piper had set up, with Peter going back to his famed barbecuing duties. Piper and Sarah sat next to each other, Steven on the opposite side. The midday spring breeze smelled especially sweet that day.

“So are you serious about learning a trade, Steven?”

“Uh, um, yeah,” Steven’s eyes darted to Piper once again. “I don’t think my politics courses are gonna do me any good, y’know what I’m saying? Let me just go into something, like, with my hands, y’know?”

“Alright, Steven. This isn’t the path I pictured for you, but I understand and support you. I think Mom would be proud. Of all of us.”

Steven breathed a sigh of relief as PIper made no outward motions of objecting or speaking up.

“Burgers up! Peter special!”

They ate their beautifully charred patties along with Peter’s homemade spread on store bought buns in relative silence. Piper finished hers and went back for another, double two patties, before anyone else finished their first.

“Piper, you have to tell me how you can eat like that and still look that good,” Sarah admired.

“Exercise and uh… diet,” Piper giggled. She smirked at Peter.

“Ugh, fine, keep your secrets.”

Peter basked in the casual conversation the two women were having. Apparently the cattiness would not be present. Not for today.

“Steven, I’ll pick you up tomorrow for the flight at 5:00 AM. Make sure to have your things packed this time! I mean it!”

“Actually sis, I was thinking… I mean, I was hoping… I could stay with bro and Piper for a week. I mean, if that’s okay with you guys,” he pleaded at Peter and Piper.

“It’s okay with me,” Peter replied, before realizing he’d spoken too soon. He looked at Piper for confirmation, hoping she wouldn’t overrule him in front of his family.

“Fine,” was Piper’s terse reply.

“Steven? You sure? What about your community college? You’ll have to put in the forms to tell them that you’re dropping out, look for a trade school… there’s a lot to do!”

“Ah, heh heh, ah, um… just wanna take some time off. Hang out with bro a little. I promise I’ll get everything in order sis!”

“You better.” Terrifying Piper was back.

Steven grimaced as if he’d been physically struck. Peter and Sarah’s fine hairs pricked up from her ominous declaration.

“Ahh… yeah… I’ll be good. Brand new me. New year, new me!” Steven tried lamely.

“Well… okay then. Since Peter and Piper are good with it, I’ll leave you with them. Just change your flight. I’ll pay the additional fees. I have to get back to the firm to continue working our case for Orange.”

“Thanks sis! Thanks bro and Piper!”

“I love you all!”

“Love you too, Sarah!”

“So Steven, what’s this about?” Peter began to gril his little brother with Piper nearby.

“I uh… well, you know I’m not actually in school…” he began.

“Uh huh,” Piper replied dismissively with an angry glint in her eyes.

“Ah, yeah…” Steven gulped. “And I’ve just been couch surfing at a friend’s place. I thought it’d make it easier on them if I stayed away for a little bit…”

“And Sarah’s been giving you money this whole time?” Peter raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah…” Steven admitted, not daring to look at Piper any longer. “I’ll be good! I swear! I promise!! On mom and dad’s grave!”

Piper was just about ready to take Steven’s head off, but her fists unclenched as she heard those words.

“Just… let me stay for a week. Please.Bro, please. Sis gives me enough money. I’ll find a place. I’ll enroll in… I think… plumbing. Or locksmith stuff. Plumbing. Let me think about it. Please, bro!”

“Piper?” Peter asked.

“He steps out of line for one second, he’s gone,” Piper announced.

“You heard the woman. Don’t betray our trust.”

“Bro! I won’t! I swear! Let me just… let me find one last nightclub gig around here, k? It’s not bad pocket change, really.”

“Okay, fine.”

Peter lay on top of Piper in their bedroom that night. He was thrusting in and out of her impossibly tight sex, the nearly unbearable pleasure of being squeezed so forcefully inside of her hot, wet, canal driving him to frenzy. The sight of her perfectly perky breasts, her beautiful scarlet hair, always looking completely pristine, not to mention her self-illuminated emerald eyes…

But something was wrong. Piper looked uninterested.

No, it wasn’t that. Conflicted?

Peter paused his urgent thrusting into his super gorgeous, unthinkably powerful wife.

“What’s wrong, Petey? Not man enough to satisfy me? Tired already?” Piper taunted him. But her voice was listless. She wrapped her interminably long legs over his hips, her smooth heels digging into his butt, and pulled him in all the way.

Peter groaned as Piper used him, burying him to the hilt so easily. He couldn’t penetrate that far into her most sensitive region without her assistance, and it drove him absolutely wild when she did it to him!

Piper flew back and forth along his impressively long, rigid shaft, lashing at his huge organ with her impossibly fine control in there. His urgent groans became shallower and shallower as Piper manipulated his lust as if he were nothing but a toy, under her complete control.

Still… her eyes had a faraway look. None of the usual sneering or contempt that she displayed which turned him on so.

“Piper… are you… unff… okay?” Peter moaned as she clenched her powerful muscles all around him once more.

“I think you should be more worried about yourself.” Piper gave him a powerful squeeze with her perfect thighs, eliciting a gasp of pain as she constricted around his healing, but still bruised body.

“Nnnnnng!” Peter’s eyes glazed over in pain as he felt himself grow ever closer to that inevitable eruption that Piper was so adept at squeezing out of him.

“I’m going to tell you a secret, Petey. You can’t tell anyone, okay?” she whispered.

Peter could only wheeze. His voice caught in his throat. His erection was throbbing, so ready to erupt inside of Piper’s hot, crushing depths. She placed her full attention on him now.

“I killed Bledsoe.”

Peter’s eyes went even wider. His loins ached, a torrent of molten lava ready to explode from deep inside of him.

“Yeah, that’s right. You like that, don’t you? I flew over in the middle of the night, after I fucked you silly. I bet you were sore that entire morning, weren’t you? I could tell you could barely walk after what I did to your pathetic little penis!”

Piper cackled softly, not wanting Steven to hear.

“Did you… really?” Peter managed to mumble.

“Oh, yes! Stabbed him right in the heart. Smashed through the walls of the prison by flying through it as if they didn’t exist. Rocks crumbling all around me, prisoners all whooping at what they thought was a jailbreak. And then, I just blew my sweet little breath at them and sent them flying.”

“Piper… I’m gonna…” Peter’s eyes slammed shut.

“Not yet, my stupid little hubby.” Piper licked her lips and squeezed him inside even tighter.

“Haaaa!” Peter wheezed.

“It was just me and him. I fashioned a stake and stabbed him over and over with my superspeed. You should have seen the fear and desperation in his eyes when I drove the thing through his heart! He was so pathetic and helpless against my power! And as he was fading away, I drove my knee into his face and took it clean off. It was so easy, Peter. I wish I could do it all over again.”

She tried to lock eyes with him to measure his response. But Peter was way too far gone, drowning in the depths of her sexual mastery and unstoppable power.

“Well? What do you think? You like what I did? I’ll let you come if you liked what I did to that sadistic fuck. And if you didn’t… I’ll just torture you some more. What do you say?”

Peter was suffering a wealth of two irresistible choices. Both sounded like pure bliss to him. But his need for release was far too great.

“Piper… that’s… wonderful! Fuck! I hope you tortured him real bad! Please let me come!”

Piper smiled, but only for a moment. She released her unbreakable bind on her muscular lover, letting him spurt inside of her with a torrential release. His body was frozen in ecstasy, a grimace plastered on his face as his long overdue, pent up orgasm finally came to its violent, glorious resolution.

“Oh fuck, Piper. Fuck,” his head fell onto her gravity-defying chest, his torso against the solid, smooth perfection that was her abs. “That was so hot. So fucking hot. I wish I could watch you do that to someone as vile as him.”

“Mm,” Piper replied halfheartedly before flipping Peter off of her with a tiny push of her elegantly long, slender arms. She wasn’t going to press the issue any further.