Dual Harvest Read online

  Dual Harvest

  By Lori Michelle

  The characters depicted in this story are completely fictitious, and any similarities to actual events, locations or people, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in reviews. For information regarding permissions please contact the publisher [email protected]

  KINDLE EDITION

  Dual Harvest

  Publisher: Rainstorm Press

  Copyright © 2012 by Rainstorm Press

  Text Copyright © 2012 Lori Branson

  All rights reserved.

  Interior book design by –

  The Mad Formatter

  www.TheMadFormatter.com

  Cover Design by: © Eloise J. Knapp

  Acknowledgment:

  I would like to say a huge thank you to my parents for always teaching me to reach for the stars, and for supporting me every time I have fallen. Also, I would like to thank my kids for listening to me type and bringing joy into my life.

  I would like to thank all the people on the now defunct Storiesville website for giving me a place to experiment with my writing and letting me learn how to grow. I also want to thank the Nanowrimo organization for inspiring authors all over the world to write a novel in one month, and forcing me to sit and write.

  But most of all, I would like to thank Max Booth III, who is my muse. His belief in me and my abilities have meant more to me than anything else. Without him I am just another writer who talks about writing. With him, I have wings. Aloha ie au oe kau a kau…

  I can do it with integrity, I can do it with disgrace

  But either way, Either way, I wanna kill you, I wanna blow you … away

  Poe “Angry Johnny”

  ONE

  The bat made contact with her ribs and she heard them crack. Pain seared through her body and she could feel the tears running down her face. But she couldn’t let him see her cry; he would only hit her more.

  “No John, no, please,” she heard herself scream.

  The wooden weapon hit her in the stomach and the blood started to flow freely. She grabbed at the blood as she felt the life flow out of her…

  Lila woke up in a sweat. It was the same thing every night; horrific dreams and nightmares. No one could tell her why she had them, or even who the other people in the dreams were. But it was the same theme over and over. Lila decided it was time to get up out of bed and get ready for work. She turned off the alarm clock and got ready for her morning run. She hated running but she knew that it made her feel better afterwards.

  Lila looked at herself in the mirror. She stuck her tongue out at her reflection. Not bad, she thought, but certainly not model material. She had a decent figure, but knew that she could stand to lose five pounds. She had what she considered to be blah boring brown hair and shit-brown eyes. While her hair was naturally curly, she had learned how to tame it over the years.

  Getting ready for work, she had already showered and put on her makeup. She kept it light, not wanting to look like a streetwalker. She took the can of hairspray to her carefully coifed mane of hair and left the bathroom.

  Out in the kitchen, she packed the vegetables and the protein that she needed for her healthy lunch. She wished that she could eat like everyone else, but her frugality wouldn’t let her eat out everyday. Not to mention, she struggled with her weight already, and eating at a restaurant or fast food place would not help the situation any. As it was, she knew that she should have gotten up earlier to run longer. But whatever; there was always tomorrow.

  Lila told herself this a lot.

  She gathered up her things and went out the door to her car. She knew that she would be early to work. She was always early to work. She wasn’t sure why she was that way, but it had always been that way since she could remember. She drove leisurely there, not letting the traffic affect her well-being; her mind on trivial things. She mentally thought about what she had to accomplish at work that day.

  She arrived at work and unlocked the door. She turned on the necessary lights and stored her food in the fridge. She didn’t bother to write her name on it, because nobody would want to steal what she had brought anyway. She put coffee and water in the coffee pot and inhaled the yummy aroma as it started to percolate.

  Lila walked down the hall to her cubicle and flipped on the overhead light. She sat down and turned her computer on, listening to the hum of the motor as it loaded dull software programs. Again she let her mind wander as she readied herself for the day. She heard the front door open as her coworkers straggled in.

  She smiled at them as they passed by her cubicle, shuffling into the kitchen in need of a serious caffeine fix. She was friendly to all of her coworkers and they were friendly in return, but she wouldn’t really consider any of them good friends. Thinking about it, Lila wasn’t really sure she had any good friends. Certainly no one she could call to go shopping with. She sighed as she thought about her lack of friends and wondered why that was. She mentally shrugged and pulled out her work for the day.

  Lila was a conscientious worker. She was prompt, neat, and thorough. No one could find fault with her work, but she wasn’t spectacular either. Her boss had never praised her, but he had also never had a reason to berate her for anything either. She was the kind of person that tended to blend in to the background. She was good at a lot of things, but not brilliant at any of them. Outwardly, Lila seemed to be ok with her place in life.

  But secretly, Lila wished she was a little more outgoing. She wished that she could be more in the limelight. She wished that there was something that made people notice her. She was tired of being plain, and stodgy, and boring. She wanted people to know who she was. She wanted all the girls to be envious of her, and for all the guys to want her. She wanted to be able to go out to the clubs and shake it on the dance floor with everyone else. She wanted to be able to let loose and have everyone accept her.

  Lila kept her wild wishes to herself. She knew that she would never be able to let loose and be free. She had no friends in which she could confide. And she wasn’t certain enough of herself to try and change. Her self-esteem had never been wonderful, at least not that she could ever remember. And something seemed to always hold her back. Internally she cried for her mediocreness. Outwardly she smiled to the world, never letting them see her pain and sadness. She felt like a doll; a lost soul trapped in a fake grin, porcelain strength on the verge of cracking from the slightest fall.

  After the accident three years ago, she wasn’t able to remember anything about her previous life. She didn’t know how she acted, if she had any friends, nothing. She had gotten this job with the state’s help. She didn’t know if she had worked before or not. She knew bits and pieces of herself, but not anything specific.

  She had tried to find out more of who she was, but no one seemed to have any answers. No one would tell her what happened to her. They just told her that she had been unconscious for a while and that she had a lot of rehabilitation. It had been painful, but she had made her way to what the doctors considered normal. Still every once in a while, she had flashes of before.

  Sighing, Lila opened up her email and began to trudge through her work of the day. The day passed as it always did. Nothing exciting happened, just the same old boring paperwork. People passed by her desk, none of them really saying much to her. She knew when lunch hour was because the noise level got louder and then quieter as most of the people in the company went out to lunch at nearby restaurants. Lila stretched her arms and legs and went into the kitchen area to grab her lunch.

  Surprisingly, the boss, Mr. Olberman, was in there. Lila smiled to him and sl
ipped by to grab her salad stuff out of the fridge. She wondered why she seemed to not be able to lose weight when all she ate were leaves and twigs. It wasn’t important anyway. She sat at the table and Mr. Olberman sat down next to her with a cup off coffee and some birthday cake. She wondered where the cake came from.

  “Hey there Lana,” he said.

  “It’s Lila sir,” she replied. “What keeps you here at lunch today?”

  “It was Brenda’s birthday,” he said. “Just eating cake. I didn’t feel like anything else. Besides I have dinner tonight with the mayor.”

  “Really?” Lila began. “I didn’t know that … ”

  “Got to go Lola,” he interrupted. “Keep up the good work.” And then he walked out the door and back to his office.

  Lila stood there incredulously. She had worked for the company for over three years now and her boss didn’t even know who she was. Not to mention, no one had asked her to come sing and have cake with Brenda. Blinking back the tears, she looked at her pathetic lunch and dumped it in the trash. She spent the rest of her lunch hour in the bathroom, alternating between crying and wiping up her face, trying to make sure that her tears were not obvious.

  The rest of the workday passed in a tear-hazed blur. She knew that she didn’t get much work done. But she didn’t care. No one seemed to notice her or what she did anyway. Responsibility made her continue to do what little work she did accomplish.

  She packed up her purse and turned off her computer at closing time, and went out to her car. She drove home and wondered why nothing she ever did was great or exciting. She wished that she was noticed. She yearned for that one thing. The one thing that everyone wanted. She wanted to be great at something. If only she could recall what her life had been like before the accident. Maybe then she would finally find some happiness.

  TWO

  Amber stood in her bathroom looking at herself in the mirror. She was applying the finishing touches to her makeup. The darker the better was her motto. If she was going to make the effort to put it on, she wanted everyone to notice. She wasn’t sure what other’s saw in the natural look. If she wanted the natural look, then she wouldn’t have bothered to put makeup on at all.

  After putting the last coat of mascara on her eyes, she stood back to survey her work. Pleased at what she saw so far, she grabbed the body lotion that she used to keep her skin smooth. She squeezed a plop out into her hand and ran the fragranced softness over her curvaceous body. She had large boobs and a decent waistline. She knew that she was no Barbie Doll, but she also knew that the men she was with liked her for what she was. If they didn’t like her figure, then it was their loss, she thought.

  Amber finger-brushed her hair and let the wild curls go where they landed. She didn’t spend much time on her hair, letting it take the natural wild look. She knew most guys liked the fact that he could run his fingers through the curls without coming up with a bunch of styling gunk. Not to mention, it looked like she had just had some wild sex, and most guys found that incredibly hot. Taking one last glance in the mirror, Amber left the bathroom and went to get dressed.

  She put on her skirt and top. The top was a plunging affair, showing off the cleavage of her very ample breasts. The bottom was a little wispy thing that wasn’t much longer than a cheerleader skirt. Amber looked at herself in the mirror critically. She rearranged her boobs to show off the most she could. She then put on her stiletto heels and smoothed her skirt. She went back in the bathroom to spritz on some perfume and to apply her bright red lipstick, making her lips look full and pouty.

  She grabbed her purse and headed out the door. All she carried in her small purse was her lipstick, her keys, a condom, and her tools. She didn’t bother with money knowing that she wouldn’t need it. She had never had to pay for drinks on her own. Ever. And she knew the way she looked tonight would be no exception. She drove to the nearest club where the sound of rock music was already pulsating out the front door. She waited in line to get in, but she didn’t have to wait long. The bouncer saw her and immediately she passed the others in line and breezed on inside the club.

  Once inside, the pulsating of the music filled her body, and she closed her eyes and let the beat of the drum enter her soul. She let her body sway to the beat for a minute, and then headed on over towards the bar. She slid her body onto an empty stool (which was amazing that there was one empty) and waited.

  Amber looked around the bar and saw the regulars down at the end. Most of them nodded their heads in her general direction. They were good for a free drink now and then, but she would never go any farther with any of them. She spotted what she was looking for in a group of businessmen at a table obviously getting inebriated over some victory that was won. There were four guys who were in their 40’s or 50’s. One wore a gray suit, one a dark blue suit, one was a little rotund, and the other wore slacks and a green shirt. She sauntered by their table slowly, and in a fluid movement made a show of dropping her purse.

  “Oh, excuse me,” she said loudly. She noticed they all stopped to look at her. She eyed then critically and determined that they would be perfect for what she was looking for.

  “I am so clumsy sometimes,” she said, stooping over to pick up the contents of her purse, making sure to show off her ass. She stood up slowly to look at them. “I am so sorry.”

  Most of them stared at her dumbstruck. Then Mr. Green shirt spoke, “No problem miss. Would you like to join us for a drink?”

  “Sure,” she said, almost batting her eyelashes at them. “Seems like you have a big celebration going on. What’s the occasion?”

  “We just closed a huge contract with GM,” gray suit chimed in. “It’s going to make sure that we are taken care of for a very long time, if you catch my drift.”

  “Ah,” she said. “Then my one little measly drink won’t mean much to you.”

  “Having your presence here means more than a drink to us,” the portly one felt the need to share his two cents. “I’m Adrian.”

  “Gary,” said the gray suit guy.

  The guy in the navy suit finally spoke up in a very quiet voice, “Adam.”

  She turned to the guy in the green shirt. He was the most handsome out of the four. His eyes were the most gorgeous color she had ever seen. She looked at him expectantly. “John.”

  “I’m Amber. Pleased to meet all of you.”

  Just then the cocktail waitress showed up and they toasted each other with their drinks. “Here’s to good fortune,” said Gary.

  “In more ways than one,” Amber muttered under her breath.

  They continued to drink until the alcohol began to make them fuzzy. They all talked and listened to her as they traded nonsense stories. Adrian hung on to every word that came out of Amber’s mouth. She thought it was very sweet. Gary was the quickest to laugh and she liked the way his mouth curved as he smiled and laughed.

  They decided to dance and all took turns moving with Amber on the dance floor. Pretty soon all four of them were dancing with her and having a good time. She asked them if they were staying in a hotel.

  “Yeah baby,” piped up Adrian. “High level Hilton. Penthouse suite.”

  “Oooh,” Amber cooed. “I have never been inside a penthouse. Can I come see?”

  The guys were excited by the possibility of this beautiful young woman accompanying them back to their hotel. They walked the block and a half to the Hilton, and the guys were in high spirits; the alcohol affecting most of their normal quietness and restraint. Adam was still the quietest one of the bunch, and Amber knew that she had some work to do to get him to come out of his shell.

  The guys all giggled as only drunk people can do and they all tried to hold her as they made their way back to the hotel room. They rode up the elevator all the way to the top floor and let her in to the spacious suite. Amber looked at all of the windows and could see the whole city. It was a breathtaking sight.

  She had been in many hotel rooms and they all began to look the same after
a while; the muted tones, the fake artwork. But this room was a little nicer. Here there was a mini bar and a nice couch and chair. Also the chandelier seemed to be real, and not the imitation that was normally used in hotel rooms. There were two doors leading off from the main room that they were in, and Amber assumed that they were the bedrooms. But Amber was entranced by the sparkling lights of the city below.

  “Wow,” she said, “this is really something. We need to celebrate some more, since this is the road your life seems to be going on.”

  John popped open a bottle of champagne that had been sent up earlier.

  “Here, let me pour it,” Amber suggested.

  John handed the bottle willingly over to her, and she took it to the minibar to put it into glasses. They all watched her ass saunter under the skirt as Amber made her way across the room, each one of them envisioning just how they wanted to make it with her. They were so intoxicated with her appearance and the idea of sleeping with her that they did not take notice to the fact that she was secretly slipping little grains of powder into each one of their glasses.

  She passed out the champagne. “Here’s to good fortune and good times, starting now.”

  They raised their glasses in a toast to one another and swallowed the smooth champagne, oblivious to the fact that she had just poisoned them.

  Amber walked up to John and kissed him hard on the mouth. “You want to be first?” she asked him seductively.

  She slid her hand to the front of his pants, and noticed that he was rock hard. “That’s a good boy,” she said as she walked to the next one.

  “What do you guys think of playing altogether tonight?” she asked. “A little gang bang action, so to speak?”

  She could tell that the guys were all excited by the prospect. Except Adam. She walked up to him. “What’s wrong baby,” she purred to him in his ear.

  “I keep thinking about my wife,” he said.

  “She’ll never have to know baby. Why don’t you just come in for the fun? You don’t have to play along. But it would turn me on to have you there.”