Encountering Evil: Dark Horse Guardians Book Two (24 page)

~ Lara ~

Lara enjoyed watching her first sunset at Clearwater Farm with Eliot. But as it got dark, she realized she was exhausted. Eliot walked inside the house with Lara and excused himself to use the bathroom. Lara strolled through the house turning on a light here and there to eradicate the darkness. There were no street lights nearby and the only outside light on the two-acre property came from the porch light and the moon and stars. Lara made a note to get motion-detection lights installed around the property and a lamp post that stayed on all night. When Eliot came out of the bathroom he thanked Lara for her good company and gave her a little hug, "I'll pick up the dinghy tomorrow. I can walk home from here." She accompanied him out to the screened porch and waved goodbye as he made his way up the long driveway toward the road.

As she watched his figure recede into the distance, Lara felt it was a thoughtful gesture on Eliot's part to bring her a picnic dinner tonight. He seemed to always be in tune with her need for food. When she worked at the firm, he'd often split a wonderful deli sandwich with her, sharing his lunch. It was always a working lunch at the firm and together they'd plot out the next job or talk about a potential client. Sometimes she even missed his dry sense of humor. But mostly she enjoyed the long talks they'd have about design and architecture. Eliot was a compendium of information and she would draw all that she could from him.

~ Eliot Stone~

He waited until Lara moved back inside the house before he doubled back to her property to get his binoculars out of the dinghy. He noticed there were no drapes or window coverings yet. He nestled into an outcropping of rocks surrounded by overgrown wild raspberry bushes. He was looking directly into her master bedroom on the first floor from that vantage point. Waiting for what seemed like an eternity, he finally saw Lara walking through the bedroom. His breath quickened and he instantly became alert. He was fixated on watching her undress. He brought the small pair of binoculars slowly to his eyes. He
tried to be as quiet as possible so her dog would not bark.

As she slipped off her shirt, he examined her perfect breasts and imagined caressing them. Then she
turned and slipped off her shorts and he could see her lovely feminine bottom. He could only view her back as she reached for her robe. She moved closer to the huge bedroom window and he watched as she slipped into the robe but didn't tie it. In his mind, he kept willing her to turn toward him and look out at the view so he could see her nudity from a frontal perspective. She removed the clasp from her hair and was running a brush through her heavy mane for a moment. It was as if she could hear his thoughts when, once again, she walked closer to the window and opened it so the sea breeze could enter. The robe was open and he caught a glimpse of her perfect body. Eliot felt a sudden urge of excitement flow through him. He could not stop himself. He remained there with the binoculars watching her until the bedroom went dark.

In the darkness he walked home with the image of Lara's naked body in his mind. As soon as he arrived at his Tudor mansion, he dialed Cassandra's phone number. Her sultry voice answered, "I somehow
knew
it would be you."

~ Lara ~

Exhausted, Lara plopped into bed but not before gazing through the back window in the black night toward the ocean. Einstein had barked several times. He usually did not bark unless there was someone there. Not seeing anyone when she gazed out, she went about her business preparing for bed. Breaking the rules, she allowed Einstein to sleep in his dog bed on the floor of the master bedroom that first night. She was afraid of being alone in a big house that was unfamiliar to her. She had her leather sack with the loaded Glock ready, as well as pepper spray and various other weapons, just in case she had to defend herself. But, she felt silly for a moment as she thought:
I live in one of the safest communities in Maine
.
There are wealthy families surrounding me
. Lara talked herself into feeling secure even though she set several booby traps downstairs at every door. She installed shopkeeper's bells…they made a loud noise when a door was opened. And she placed items in strategic places where an intruder would trip over them. She would remove the items once the security system was in place the next day.

~ Ben ~

Finally, after several fretful days, Ali Farouz gave up his search for the runaway wives and their daughters. He was, however, still searching in Maine for his own daughter, Nadia, who had been removed from his custody. Farouz ignored the court appearance and the judge ruled to keep Nadia out of his care until the case wound its way through the
legal system. In a meeting at the mosque, Ben engaged Farouz in conversation about his daughter. The fat man seemed eager to tell Ben the sordid details. With his girth parked in a chair that could hardly bear his weight, Farouz waved his arms about like a lunatic when he spoke, "Do you have daughters, doctor?"

Ben nodded and spoke, "Yes, I have three daughters. I am very proud of them." This angered Farouz even further, "Well, I am
not
proud of my daughter, Nadia. I never should have introduced her to Western ways. Once in America, she attended a private school and met an American boy named David. I beat her, as any good father would. She had an arranged marriage to an Iranian sheikh coming up as soon as she graduated from school. But she would not listen to me. I never should have sent her to school. She defied me! When the beatings did not work, I stopped allowing her to eat. I only gave her water. Even
that
didn't work. I had to resort to locking her in the bedroom. She pounded on the door until exhausted. But, she wasn't with that American pig. She was safe in my house. The police in Portland took her away from me. I have issued a fatwa to get her back. My men are tracking the police officer who took her, but he is well protected. I will have his head!" Ben thought the screaming man might have a heart attack and drop on the floor right in front of him. His blood pressure must've been through the roof. A vein bulged in his forehead when he ranted. Ben hoped Farouz would just burst an artery, collapse, and get it over with.

The next day the women and children of the compound were lining up at the medical building and Ben dreaded what he would find. Performing medical examinations on the women and children was one of the most gut-wrenching moments of his life. Trained as a medic in the Navy, he was familiar with standard medical exams. Ben lined the children up and gave them numbers. A woman stayed in the room to act as his medical assistant. The first few children he examined were young boys. Several had head lice and all were malnourished. One boy had a broken hand. When Ben asked what happened, the boy told him that one of the guards struck him with a baseball bat. Many of the young boys had scars from severe beatings. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when the girls started filtering in one by one, they wouldn’t speak to him. But, as he examined their bodies beneath a white sheet covering them, he held back tears of anger.

The young girls suffered lashings leaving long red marks on their backs and legs. They were punched and kicked repeatedly and had black and blue marks on their arms, legs and abdomens. The men rarely hit females in the head for fear they would cause permanent brain damage or ruin their attractive qualities. The younger girls, some as young as eleven, had been raped repeatedly and suffered from yeast infections, sexually transmitted diseases and vaginal tears. Several times, Ben had to take a break and use the rest room. He brought a prayer rug and kneeled on the floor briefly allowing the tears to silently roll down his face as he bowed and touched his head to the floor repeatedly. He knew a camera was most likely viewing him, so praying seemed to be the only way to give him the chance to collect himself before continuing the gruesome examinations. But those watching him had no idea he was praying for their demise.  In fact his prayer was a silent mantra, “I’ll kill the bastards that did this to you…”

The rest of the medical exams were done on the women and the injuries and diseases he discovered were as horrendous as those he diagnosed in the young girls. Sexually transmitted diseases were rampant. He made a long list of medical prescriptions and sent Habib to the nearest pharmacy. The women and children would return to the clinic in two days to receive necessary medications and instructions.

The night after the medical examinations was especially difficult for Ben. He could not sleep and considered killing the men by having an emergency meeting with them. But, he knew in the end it wouldn’t go well if he did it in that manner. It was too risky, there would be too much noise and confusion and he didn’t want the women and children to go through even more distress. He took a deep breath as he stared at the ceiling in his trailer for hours on end. He wanted to kill these men so much he could barely contain himself. He felt like a caged tiger. He fought the anger and brought himself back to the calm collected assassin he
knew
he could be.

Ben had been dreaming of killing Farouz and his plans were laid to make it happen. But, he had to steel himself to go along with
the fat bastard until September 11
th
. As the weeks passed, Ben grew to detest the man even more than when he first met him. As he heard about him raping young girls on the compound and beating his wives, Ben fought back the urge to rip the man apart. He had never found it so difficult to exercise restraint. He was coming to the end of his rope.

Ben had many long conversations with Farouz. Apparently, the fat man liked Ben and trusted him to some degree. Believing he needed a doctor, one day Farouz asked Ben to examine
him
complaining he wasn't feeling well. He said he'd been having fainting spells and sometimes felt tired and fell asleep. Ben performed the examination, gaining more trust and support from Farouz. Ben gave him his best doctor's advice, "You need to start an exercise program and eat healthy foods." Farouz railed at him, "I get plenty of exercise in the bedroom and I'll eat what pleases me!" Ben took the fat man's blood pressure and it was 230 over 160. He was a stroke waiting to happen. Ben thought he might not
have
to kill him; he may die on his own.

That night while alone in the solitude of his trailer on the compound, Ben was thinking of Lara. There were times when he couldn’t wait any longer to hear her voice. To contact her, he made an excuse several times to leave the compound and Habib drove him to Springfield where he could
contact her using the secure satellite phone, even though he had to be vague. He just wanted to hear her voice. She was always bubbly and excited to hear from him, but listening to her voice actually made the longing to see her worse. Today she told him about the move to Clearwater farm, "Oh Ben, the house is beautiful. I'm on the beach every morning drinking coffee thinking of you. Mom and Rusty helped so much during the move. Also, Don and Olivia helped that first day and have been over to visit several times. I had a short visit from Eliot the first night I was here. He brought me a picnic dinner and we ate on the back porch."

As soon as Lara mentioned Eliot Stone, Ben’s body tensed. He hated the guy and sensed the sneaky bastard was madly in love with his wife. But he couldn't prove it. So, he listened as Lara lightheartedly described her interactions with Eliot and tried to ignore the gnawing anger in the pit of his stomach. He made a mental note to meet with Eliot when he returned to have a little talk with him. Lara tried to get Ben to commit to a general time frame as to
when
he'd be returning home. All he could say was, "It won't be until sometime in September." The silence on the other end of the phone was deafening. He became apologetic and knew he had to hang up.

~ Lara ~

Talking to Ben on the satellite phone only served to magnify Lara's loneliness. The conversation also heightened her concern for Ben's safety. This mission seemed different than the others. Usually he was in and out within a few days or two weeks at the most. This time it seemed he was inside a prison and couldn't tell her anything about it, which only served to feed her greatest fears. Making her rounds at the renovation projects on a sunny August day, Lara decided to stop by the dojo in an attempt to get her mind off worrying. Bettencourt, now with his new alias of Harrington, was teaching a class and would be available for a private ass-kicking in a few minutes.

She spied him as she walked through the door. His class had just ended and Bettencourt waved to her. Lara was eager to see him, "How do you like your new place?" Bettencourt smiled and calmly said, "It's in a better neighborhood and has a bigger fridge.” Then he added, “Soon, I need you to stop by and give me your renovation advice. I'm going to work on it for a rent discount." Then he looked at his watch and said, "Meet me in the small room for a private smack down." Lara pushed him aside as she headed to the women's locker room, "Yes, get ready big guy, I'm going to put
you
down!"

After changing, she tossed her pink leather backpack into the corner of the small dojo room where she planned to take Randall Bettencourt down. Bettencourt was waiting for her. The imposing six-foot-four Ninja cop egged her on for a mixed martial arts contest. After an hour of what seemed like the most grueling match of her life, Lara collapsed against the wall of the room and spit out her mouth guard. "I'm done. You beat me!" she said with a ragged breath. Bettencourt sank down next to her. He was sweaty and exhausted; they sat side by side in silence breathing heavily.