Lahat ng Kabanata ng Mastering Charlotte: Kabanata 211 - Kabanata 220

RichardJames' expression is bland as he returns to the office.Fresh shirt........ Tie neatly knotted....Hair washed.... and fresh aftershave....Mmmm....I try to keep my tone neutral. "Everything alright?"His tone as bland as mine, "She's fine."Ah, fuck........ How do I ask?Man to man?.... Dom to Dom…?....?The book of etiquette is strangely silent on this one....Try a different tack...."I was talking with Michael while you were.... occupied.... It's the first time I've really had an opportunity to speak with him. He doesn't normally say very much."He arches a brow. "Don't let that throw you. Michael's no-one's fool, and he'll see through a brick wall if you give him long enough. If he starts talking, it's a good idea to start listening."Yes, you trust him completely........ His judgement and his loyalty...."I'm coming to agree with you. He said something about not trying to cage Charlotte. That I should find her some work to do."

JamesCharlotte swallows hard, and again, then, her voice steadier "And this isn't small trouble. They probably don't want to kill her.… me.... otherwise it would just have been a bullet in the head in a parking lot.... It's more likely they want to learn what she.… I.... know and then sell her on.… me on...."You have got to be kidding me....Gaping at the slender girl, so like my own Elizabeth, stating what are simple facts but which all we men have avoided saying, I lose my words.James, Michael and Will are also staring slack-jawed at her performance…"Jeez, Charlotte," says Michael, his grim belligerence vanished. "You sound cold-blooded when you talk like that." Head high, she stares him down. "It's about survival isn't it." She nods towards me. "Richard was right when he said that you're no good to anyone if you panic. Some things have to be done in cold blood."James, towering over her, says in a cool voice, "Like selling yourself to the highest bidder? Done in c

JamesMichael sits on the couch, feet propped up on the desk where Charlotte is occupied with her work. He's working himself, riffling through a stack of invoices and checking them against his tablet, ticking them off as he goes. I'm sure he'd be more comfortable in his own office at the leisure centre, but right now, he's not letting Charlotte out of his sight and so the couch has morphed into his mobile work-station.Still, she certainly appears happier since she was given work to do....Memo to self: don't let her sit idly......... the devil finds work...."How's the work going, Charlotte?" I ask.Added to her list of documents, she now has aerial photographs of the City....Where the hell did she get those from…?.... Ah, yes.... The marvels of Google Earth........ all spread out on a huge table she commandeered from one of the canteens downstairs. Stooped over a couple of the plans, she's busily annotating more of the yellow notes with information from somethin

James"Where is she now?" asks Francis."Well away from the City now, and off the main highways.… no more cameras."As we watch the screens, two of the travelling points stop moving. The remaining five split, three going one way together, the other two travelling separately.Her mobile?I check.My stomach churning, "One of the static signals is the one for her phone. Michael's voice has a panicky edge. "So, they've got her and dumped her mobile?" He closes his eyes for a moment. "The other static one?""No idea."Where do you have the tracers, Jade?I'm going to thrash the living daylights out of you for this...."What was that?" says Michael.Am I talking to myself now?"She's not going to sit down for a fucking week when I catch up with her…""Keep your temper under control," he growls. "It's not helping."I snap back. "Oh, and you're pleased with her?""No, I'm not. When we do get her back, I'll hold your coat. But we all know why she's done this...

Horse and rider canter into the yard, assorted pairs of eyes watching their arrival.It's a fine sunny day and everyone has found work to do outside. Brett wearing faded overalls, touches up blistered paint on the sheds, giving her a wave as she passes. Old Jacob, busy clearing a blocked drain in the yard and wearing his usual stinking rags, follows her with his rheumy gaze. Tom, stripped to the waist to keep the muck off his shirt, helps. Well-muscled from hard physical work, he's a handsome sight. Some girl called Carol must have thought the same, judging by the tattooed rose carrying her name which curves from shoulder to chest.But handsome is as handsome does, and his good looks are spoiled by his slit-eyed scowl as, seeing Jenny, he turns away.Jenny's stance now is very different from the first time she mounted Maggie. Sitting straight, her spine is a smooth curve from shoulder to hip. Her thighs move rhythmically in a rise-and-fall with Maggie's movement, and her hair,