Janet tells Diego about Tex, and he takes it in stride. He tells her he quit working for the CIA, because he’d nearly died.

They made love the rest of the weekend. Monday morning, she returned to school, smiling.

“You look way too happy,” Mr. Whitmore said. He still worked at the school. Not so young now, he still had a great sense of humor. They’d become good friends.

“I had a good weekend. Don’t ask, I won’t tell you.”

“I can already tell,” he said, sidling closer. “New boyfriend?”

“Old one returned.”

“Ahh….”

“How can you tell?” she whispered, casting about to see if anyone was listening.

“The smile of complete satisfaction on your face. My wife wore that same expression after our honeymoon.”

“Lucky girl!”

“She thought so. Anyone I know?”

“Remember when I was dating Diego Hernandez?”

“No kidding? Well, I’ll be. Congratulations.” He gave her a hug.

Diego stayed with her for three months. He got a job at the sugar factory as a low level executive. He made decent money. It was a good life, stable, fulfilling. They were happier than either of them could remember.

It was Diego’s birthday. They’d celebrated with his family, but were now having their own party. They’d made love twice, and were thinking of a third, when someone knocked loudly on the door. They tried to ignore it, but the banging continued. Diego glowered. Grabbing his jeans, he buttoned them up and went to the door shirtless and barefoot.

Slinging back the door, he got even angrier. Three people he hoped he’d never see again, stood on the porch. Diego was frowzy and disheveled from their love making. The three men knew they’d disturbed something, but they politely said nothing. The leader, a man who looked like he could break a tree in half with his pinky, walked past Diego and into the living room.

“Don’t mind me, Colonel,” Diego growled. “But you’re trespassing in the lady’s home.”

“Wanna press charges, kid? Go right ahead and call,” the man said calmly, smiling.

Diego refused to be dragged into a conflict. “What do you want, Colonel? I left the game. I’m done.”

“You were, until now. Your country needs you.”

“You played that card all ready!” Diego yelled. “I gave you seven years, and almost gave my life. It kept me from the woman I love. Now, I’ve got her back. We’re building a life….”

“Those men who held you, had friends,” the colonel said with a menacing glower. “Friends who will track you down and kill you, and your happy life. They’re in this country looking for you. We came to give you the means to even the score.”

Janet came out of the bedroom and stood beside Diego. He took her hand, drawing her close, slightly behind him as if to protect her from the large, angry man.

“Revenge? You came at me with revenge? “That’s pathetic, Coffey. Even for you.”

Colonel Lane Coffey eyed him grimly. “They want you dead. Only they won’t just kill you. They’ll kill your pretty, little woman, after they do unspeakable things to her body—while you’re forced to watch. If you’re lucky, it ends there. But you’ve got family next door. A beautiful sister, three darling little kids, a crippled father, an aging mother….”

“Enough!” Diego roared. “You’ve made your point, Lane. You want me back. You want me to track these guys down and bring them in.”

Colonel Coffey said nothing, shifting from foot to foot uneasily.

“I see. It’s like that, huh?”

Janet stepped closer, her arms circling his waist. “What’s going on? What does he mean?”

“He wants me to hunt down some people. And kill them,” he replied coldly.

“And no one’s better at that than you, Diego,” Colonel Coffey said with a nasty grin.

Diego’s dark eyes flashed and Janet got the impression that the man he most wanted to kill was his superior.

©2020 Dellani Oakes

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Living in Scottsbluff, working as a teacher, Janet had no idea that Diego would walk back into her life.

Janet was waiting for him at the bathroom door, dressed in a red ribbon and a pair of naughty high heels, neither of which he removed before carrying her to the bed. She tried to kick the shoes off, but he insisted she wear them while he made love to her.

“It’s been too long,” he sighed as he held her.

“Way too long….”

He laughed as he traced the line of her breast with his fingers. “You know what’s sad? I can’t remember the last time I had sex.”

“Me either.” She bit back any comments about Tex. Eventually, she’d tell him. But not now.

“I may not last real long,” he confessed. “It’s been damn near a year for me.”

“It’s been close to two for me, so shut up and kiss me.”

His prediction was wrong. He made love to her for almost two hours. Janet remembered their first time being good. This was so much better. She knew what great sex was like, having had a good bit of it with Tex. This was incomparable.

She clamped down on his ass, the heels digging in slightly. It should have hurt, but he found it exciting. He howled when he came, making Janet laugh.

“You turned into a coyote.”

“No, your heels caught me.”

She kicked off one, the other he removed for her, kissing her foot. His lips traveled up her leg where he nibbled behind her knee for several minutes before going further up.

“When I was over there, I thought of you. When they captured me, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. I came home to see if Mona knew how to reach you. I had to see you, tell you how much I love you. I’ve never loved anyone like I love you.”

“Diego! I love you so much! So much!”

They made love most of the night, only stopping for a romantic bath and a snack around 3:00. Afterward, they napped a few hours, had breakfast and went right back to bed.

“This reminds me of our first time,” he said over coffee. “I was so worried I was gonna get you pregnant.”

“I wouldn’t have cared.”

“My mother would have killed me. What happened to us, Janet?”

“You went in the Navy. I went to Texas…. I—I have something to tell you. Don’t freak out.”

“You’re married.”

“What? How did you know?”

“It was the only thing you could tell me that would possibly freak me out. So, where is he?”

“He beat me,” she confessed, tears brimming. “I had him thrown in jail and I left. Only now, I can’t find him to divorce him. It was such a huge mistake, but I hadn’t heard from you in over a year. I missed you. He made me feel—I felt like I did when we were together. He was special, for a while, but he wasn’t you.”

“Poor guy,” he murmured. “Having to compete with a memory.”

“You’re condoning his actions? His beating killed my baby!”

“No! God, no. He needs to drown in his own blood. But it wouldn’t be easy for any man to live up to what we had.”

“I want to be with you forever.”

“Me too, Babe.”

“How long will you be in town?”

“How long do you want me?” Diego smirked, dark eyes glittering with merriment.

“Forever, you dope.” She smacked him playfully.

His eyes lost their glimmer. “I quit my job. I couldn’t do it anymore. They damn near broke me. I thought I was going to die. Had the military not attacked the compound where I was being held, I would have died. My people didn’t know where I was. It was a total accident.”

“No, it was God. He found you, and brought you home to me.”

“I believe that, too. Come on. Let’s go back to bed.”

©2020 Dellani Oakes

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Janet and Tex have a terrible fight, and he beats her. When she’s at the hospital, she finds out she’s pregnant.

She pressed charges against Tex, and they put him in jail for nine months. Unfortunately, her baby didn’t make it that long. She carried it four months before she miscarried. By this time, she was back in Nebraska staying with her Aunt Martha and Uncle Buck. She got a job working as a school secretary at the high school while she waited for a teaching job to open up. When it did, she took it and didn’t look back.

She hadn’t heard from Tex, and had no idea where he was. She’d tried to find him so she could divorce him, but he’d been released from jail, and disappeared off the face of the earth. After a year of teaching, she got her own place, next door to Ramona’s parents. Her best friend was married and happy. The mother of two, with a third on the way, she and Janet spent every possible minute together. They were at her mother’s house one day, helping make buñuelos for Christmas, when an unfamiliar car pulled up in front of the house. A tall, muscular man with close cropped black hair got out, stretching before he walked slowly up to the door. He had a slight limp, but there was no disguising that walk. Janet’s heart skipped a beat. Her breath caught in her throat.

“Diego!” she gasped.

Running to the door, she flung it open before he knocked. He stood on the porch, eyes wide with disbelief.

“Janet? Baby, is that really you?”

“You bastard!” She slapped him. “You quit writing. I didn’t hear from you! Where have you been?”

Diego grabbed her to him as she tried to beat him. Laughing, he held her wrists in his hands, firmly but gently.

“Not quite the greeting I envisioned,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s a long story, baby. Can I come in my mother’s house, and take a piss before I tell you?”

Janet’s kiss nearly knocked him over. Diego held her, kissing her with unequaled desire. Gasping and crying, she let him come inside. He went quickly to the bathroom, then came out to meet his niece and nephew, and see the rest of the family.

His mother nearly smothered him with kisses. His father, who was unable to rise from his recliner without help, took his hand. Ramona hugged him, standing a foot away because of her pregnant belly. The whole time his family mauled him, he held Janet’s hand. When they’d finished, he drew her to him once more, kissing her. He couldn’t believe she was really there.

“I’ve missed you,” he whispered.

“Me too.”

It took a while, since the family kept interrupting, but he explained where he’d been and why he hadn’t written. While in the Navy, he was approached by the government, asking him to work for the CIA.

“I couldn’t tell you,” he said, apologizing. “I wasn’t allowed to talk about it. I’ve been working for them for three years, but I finally gave it up. I nearly died on my last assignment. I can’t tell you a thing about it….” He looked sad, closing in on himself.

Janet took his hand, raising it to her lips. “It’s okay. You don’t have to explain to any of us. We love you, no matter what.”

His parents wanted him to stay the night in his old room, but Janet invited him to stay with her instead. He grabbed his things from the car and went with her to her house.

“I need a shower,” he said with a grin. “Otherwise you’re not gonna want to be around me. I’ve been driving for three days. I had to get home.”

She showed him the bathroom and got him towels. He sang as he bathed and she smiled when she heard the words. He was the only person she knew who’d be singing Stairway to Heaven in the shower. He shut the water off when he got to the last, “And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.”

©2020 Dellani Oakes

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Janet and Tex make love for the first time. He asks her to marry him.

With every trick he knew, he made love to her again and again, trying his best to convince her he was the man for her. Finally, just before falling asleep, she said yes….

The wedding took place a month later. Janet was already living with Tex in his small apartment, but they were looking for a house. He’d start his doctorate the following fall and she was going into her senior year. Tex had been promised a job as a graduate assistant as he worked on his PhD. Life was good for a time. They were happy choosing and moving into their new home together. It wasn’t a fancy house, but it was roomy.

The first night that Tex came home drunk, Janet didn’t think much of it. He’d been out with a few friends, celebrating his master’s degree. They’d had their own celebration—dinner out and lots of sex to follow. Tex had a strong drive. He needed sex at least twice every night, or he didn’t sleep.

One night, shortly after their second anniversary, he came home with lipstick on his shirt, smelling of another woman’s perfume.

“It’s nothing,” he explained when she confronted him with it. “I was at the club with the guys and some girl was dancing. She flirted with me some. That’s all.”

For the first night since they’d been married, he went to bed without demanding sex.

Janet didn’t know what to think. She called her mother to ask her advice.

“Probably he’s just tired. You can’t expect that fire to last forever. It’s been two years. Surely the honeymoon was over a long time ago?”

“I know, Mom. But to go from always being horny, to not wanting me at all? Do you think he’s got someone else?”

“Don’t sweat it, sweetheart. Just ride it out.”

Janet rode it out. That storm and many others came along. School was hard on him. He had trouble meeting his teaching obligations, and still keeping up with his classes and his dissertation. She took over writing that for him, coaching him on it when he had time. She helped him grade his papers, somehow managing to get her work done, too. Through it all, Janet never complained. Husbands and wives helped one another.

When he failed his oral defense, he came home that night, drunk and surly. No matter what she said, he got angrier. Not even the promise of love making made him happy. She tried once too often to cheer him up—that was the first time he hit her.

It didn’t stop with one blow. He beat her repeatedly, finally passing out in the living room. Janet crawled to the phone, calling 911. The police broke down the door to get to her. They arrested Tex, taking him away in a squad car. The ambulance took Janet to the hospital where she was treated for bruised and broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and a fractured humerus.

Her doctor came in, face grave. “Mrs. Macy? I want to keep you overnight.”

“I can’t,” she said. “I have to get home….”

“I can’t let you do that, ma’am. Mrs. Macy, were you aware that you’re pregnant?”

“I am?” She brightened. This should make Tex happy.

“But given your other injuries, we’ve reason to believe that you may miscarry. We want to keep you overnight, to keep an eye on you.”

Janet burst into tears. It was bad enough to find out she was pregnant that way, but much worse to discover she might not keep it.

“Is there anyone we can call for you?”

“My parents,” she gasped.

Her father arrived half an hour later. “Mama’s not feeling well,” he told her. “She’s gone to bed. I’ve got Sookie with me.”

Her sister came in, big eyed and frightened. “The doctor told us about the baby…. He told us Tex beat you damn near to death. Janet, you can’t stay with that man. He’ll kill you!”

“I love him, Sookie. You wouldn’t understand.”

“I understand murder, Janet May,” she said angrily. “And if your baby dies, that’s what it is. You need to throw that man in jail, and leave him.”

“Mama and I will do all we can for you,” her father said. “Money, anything that you need.”

“I want to go see Aunt Martha,” she begged. “I want to stay up home for a while.”

“We’ll pack up your things. Soon as you’re better, I’ll drive you up myself.”

“Thanks, Daddy.”

©2020 Dellani Oakes

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