Hide in Plain Sight

"Ha, ha. Very funny."

We climbed up out of the ditch and quickly looked around. The sun was low on the horizon, peeking through the orange trees. It cast long shadows making it harder to see, but it seemed like the coast was clear.

Beth and I both looked a fright. Leaves stuck to us everywhere in addition to the mud, and we also had quite a few scrapes and welts between us.

"Do you think it's safe to head back yet?" Beth asked me.

"Cautiously, yeah. Do you want to get dressed now?"

"Not yet. Let's see if it's safe to wash up in the pond first."

We made it back to the tree line without further incident, and Beth did her thing, crawling up to take a peek with the binoculars, then came back. "They're still at it," she reported. "I don't see the woman anymore, but there's a male bounty hunter on the beach with binoculars searching this way."

"Shit. We should have kept going the other way."

"Let's hope it's not too late." Beth took the lead heading west one more time. But, we didn't take more than ten steps when we heard shouting.

It was a woman's voice from close by. "I got something, over here!"

Suddenly, the women bail agent was right in front of us. "Stop right there!" She yelled as she aimed a shotgun at us. From what Wilkins said, it probably fired rubber bullets, but neither Beth nor I was willing to take any chances. "Get down on your knees with your hands behind your head," she demanded. Beth and I complied.

Keeping the weapon aimed at me, the woman held a pair of metal handcuffs out in front of Beth. "Put these on yourself with your hands behind your back, then stand up and turn around so I can see them." Beth did as she was told. The woman then reached out and tested the handcuffs to make sure Beth made them tight enough. "Now, get back on your knees."

The woman then told me to take the backpack off and toss it aside. She then made me lay down on my stomach. I guess she only had the one pair of handcuffs, because she used a plastic zip tie to bind my wrists. By the time she was done, one of her associates showed up. Together, they escorted Beth and I down to the highway, where a third associate waited behind the wheel of a black SUV.

When I saw that it was their intention to just leave my backpack on the ground where I had tossed it, I yelled, "My backpack! Please, it's got our clothes."

The woman hissed, "Too bad. You should have put them on earlier."

All of a sudden, we heard gunshots and two of the SUV's tires blew out. The driver ducked down and we all dropped to the ground. Then we heard Jason's voice. "This is a citizen's arrest. The police will be here any moment. Everybody stay down and nobody will get hurt." The faint shrill of sirens could be heard in the distance and grew louder as Jason spoke.

A minute later, Agents Wilkins and Larsen pulled up in an unmarked Kia Optima, followed by two black and white police cars. The agents had the police officers arrest the three bounty hunters. They rattled off half a dozen charges, from conspiracy to commit murder, to witness tampering.

Jason and Henry came out of the woods from the opposite side of the highway. They each had a hunting rifle slung across their back, and they had their hands in the air to show they were friendlies. They waited until Wilkins made it clear to the police that Jason and Henry were on their side, and then rushed towards us.

Wilkins said to them, "Thanks guys. That was a big help, keeping everyone pinned down till we could get here. But, since shots were fired, I'll need to take those rifles into evidence, I'm afraid. You'll get them back after the reports are all filed."

"No problem," said Jason. He handed his over and then came running over to Beth and me. "Are you two all right?" He saw that my wrists were bound with a zip tie and pulled out a knife and cut them away.

"We're just shaken up a bit. Nothing serious." I answered.

It took a few minutes to retrieve the keys to Beth's handcuff's from the female bounty hunter. While Beth was waiting, she just stood there on full display to everyone as she glared at the bounty hunters. In the mean time, I ran back to fetch the rucksack and had some clothes out for the two of us by the time Beth was let loose.

Wilkins rode back with the police to book the bounty hunters. So, Agent Larsen drove Beth and me back to the resort, dropping off Jason and Henry where Jason had parked his Jeep along the way.

Larsen didn't let us out of her sight as we showered off the mud, attended to our cuts and scrapes, gathered our things, and put on clean clothes. She only gave us enough time to say goodbye to whomever we happened to pass. That included Prachi, who launched herself into my arms and gave me a long, wet kiss. It felt funny to be hugging her while one of us was wearing clothes. "How long until I can see you again?"

"I don't know. Maybe a year or more. If you're not here when I get back, leave me a note."

"I will. I promise." Before Prachi let go of me, she whispered in my ear, "I can't wait to have sex with you again, but a year is a long time. So, what happens in hiding, stays in hiding. Right?"

She then hugged Beth and kissed her on the cheek. "Take care of each other."

Larsen interrupted them, "Alright, we gotta go now."

As we passed through the lobby on the way back to the Kia, Vicki said her goodbyes to us. "You are welcome back anytime."

Beth said, "Don't worry. You guys have been so nice. We'll be back as soon as they let us."

###

They took us to a heavily fortified FBI facility where we were finally reunited with Barry, if only for a few hours.

Barry was already teary eyed when we walked into the room. We hugged him, tight. "I'm so glad you two are alright," he said. "I was worried sick that I might have gotten you captured or killed."

I said, "I'll bet we would have been, if you didn't send us that message telling us to run and meet you at the pier. But I have to tell you, I honestly wasn't expecting you to wave us off when we got there. I mean, if you knew you were being followed, why did you even show up?"

"Actually, I didn't think I was being followed at that point. I honestly thought I was two steps ahead of the bad guys. But, when you gave me the option to have you keep running with a way to contact you later through the classified ads, I jumped at it. I thought I was just being extra paranoid. It's a good thing you gave me that option, because I was barely one step ahead of them, it turns out."

Beth asked, "Who exactly are these bad guys, anyway? The FBI said something about election fraud? What does that have to do with us?"

"Well, you know how my job is to go around and audit different companies?"

"Yeah, it's that Sarbanes--Oxley stuff."

"Right. Well, about five years ago I was auditing a company that makes components for those electronic voting machines. Part of my job is to try and break their security and see how far I can get. Their security was actually pretty good, but I found a back door into one of their servers in engineering. Of course, I reported it to the Chief Technology Officer. He was really worried when I gave him the news. He acted scared, like he thought his job was on the line if I reported this to anyone. I had to reassure him twice that I was working on his behalf. He just needed to get someone to patch the security hole, and then my final report would only list the matter as one issue that was addressed without giving any details.

"He was relieved and thanked me for alerting him of the situation, but something about the way he acted when he shook my hand and practically shoved me out the door of his office made me suspicious. I realized that the next election was coming up soon and that voting machines with those components were already in the field."

Beth said, "Let me guess. You wondered if whoever programmed that back door into the engineering server might have built a similar back door into the voting machines themselves."

"Yes. And I wondered if the CTO was in on it. I felt compelled to talk to his boss, the CEO. The CEO acted genuinely alarmed and assured me he would look into the situation. I left his office satisfied that I had done my job, but I only got as far as the elevator when I realized that I had left both copies of my report on his desk. I had intended to keep one copy for my records, so I doubled back to his office to retrieve it. But, before I could knock on the CEO's door I heard him shouting into his phone at the CTO. 'You've got to do something about this Barry Dayton. He knows too much. Find a way to shut him up. And do it now!'

"Of course, I hightailed it out of there. I didn't know what to do. That was a Thursday night. I called in sick the next day, thinking that would give me three days to think things over, but that was a mistake--a fatal mistake. Now they knew that I knew that something was up."

I was alarmed. "A fatal mistake? Are you telling us that mom's death was no accident?"

Beth looked at me surprised, "What?!?"

I said, "Mom died on Halloween night, which would have been just a few days before Election Day. And she was driving Barry's car. That was no ordinary hit and run. Whoever it was, he was gunning for Barry in order to shut him up. Huh, Barry?"

"I'm so, so sorry kids. I torture myself every day wishing it was me in that car and not your mom." Barry reached out to hold our hands but Beth pulled away from him.

"Don't touch me!" She got up and moved so that I would be between her and Barry. I turned to face her and she put her arms around me. We cried on each other's shoulders for a long time, several minutes at least.

Eventually, Beth released me and found a box of Kleenex to dry her eyes. She turned to Barry and said, "I'm sorry Barry. I know it's not your fault. I overreacted." She hugged him.

"It's okay. I understand your grief. Believe me; I miss your mom as much as you do."

I asked, "So what happened after that?"

"You probably don't remember, but the next morning while your mom was still in surgery and we were all in the waiting room, some guy in a suit who said he was from the insurance company handed me a sealed envelope. I didn't open it until much later, but when I did I found that it did not contain any insurance papers. Instead, it contained a threat. There was a photo of the two of you, and across your faces someone wrote in block letters, 'They're next if you don't shut your mouth.'"

"The next day I called the CTO and apologized for missing work. I assured him that my final report would be on his desk soon and that he didn't have anything to worry about. I emphasized that last part about not having anything to worry about. A few months later, I turned in a glowing report, and moved on to audit another company. We've had a truce ever since."

Beth asked, "Then why is all of this coming up again after five years? Why now?"

"It's the hit-and-run driver--the guy they hired to send me a message. He got caught doing it again to somebody else, and so he's turning on the guys who hired him to get a reduced sentence for himself. As part of the arrangement, he also confessed to killing your mom, and that he was hired by that CTO. I didn't know any of this at the time, just that a detective called me to say that they were reopening your mom's case as a homicide and that he wanted to ask me some questions. I knew I had to act fast to protect you two, so I sent you that message and then I ran, myself. I decided I had no choice but to talk to the authorities, but I wanted to make sure you two were safe first.

"Right after I left the pier that day, I realized that I was being followed. So, I drove in circles until I was almost out of gas, to give you guys as much time as possible to get away. Then, I went straight to the nearest police station and turned myself in. It took two days of talking before I could convince anyone to take me seriously about you two being in danger. Finally, I was handed over to Agent Wilkins and you know the rest."

Beth spoke for both of us when she said, "I'm really glad we have you for a stepfather, Barry. Mom would have been proud of the steps you've taken to keep us safe. But you don't have to worry about us anymore. We're in good hands and we'll do everything they tell us to do and not risk exposing ourselves. So, you just focus on doing whatever you need to do so that mom's killers finally get the justice they deserve."

Beth and I said our final, teary goodbyes to Barry, and then turned to Agent Wilkins. "What now?"

"You each fill out this questionnaire about your education, skills, and interests, and then we figure out a couple of cover stories that make sense. John, you're close enough to graduating, that we'll just give you a degree and then set you up in a job somewhere. Beth, we'll probably set you up as a transfer student to another college somewhere."

Beth said, "Wait a minute. Are you saying that you are going to split us up?"

"It would be safest for everyone."

Beth wouldn't hear it. "No way! It's bad enough you're going to keep us away from Barry. Not each other, too."

Wilkins considered it. "The best cover stories are the ones that people find the easiest to understand. If you two insist on staying together, then the simplest cover story would be to say that you are newly married. Can you pretend to be married for as long as it takes?"

Beth answered, "Yes. That works for me."

I shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

###

I'm not allowed to talk about where Beth and I ended up in hiding or how we got there, except to say that the climate was warm, so Beth and I found ample opportunities to shed our clothes and bask in the sun.

The local Wit Sec operatives only knew us by our cover identities and a case number. They thought we were actually a married couple. So, of course, the day that we moved into the apartment that had been arranged for us we saw that there was only one bed. "Hmm, just like at the motel that first night," I commented.

Beth shrugged. "Well, at least this one is a queen. That other one was only a twin."

It was the end of a long day of traveling, but we had very little luggage to unpack, so less than twenty minutes later Beth happily stripped off all of her clothes and climbed under the covers to sleep. "Aren't you coming to bed, my husband? It's been a long day."

I stripped down and joined her, then doused the light on the nightstand next to me.

Beth snuggled next to me. "I don't know about you, John, but I really don't want to give up having sex for however long the trial lasts. But, at the same time, I don't think it would be wise for either of us to get involved with anyone around here and blow our cover as a married couple. You see where I'm going with this, don't you?"

I nodded. "Siblings with benefits?"

"Yeah, but let's not call it that. I'd prefer to think of it as keeping in character, for purely practical reasons, I assure you." Beth giggled because by that time my penis had grown hard enough for her to feel it pressing against her. She reached down and began to massage my penis and balls with her hands. "Oh, John! You are so accommodating."

###

Epilogue

Beth and I were forced to play the young newlyweds role for eleven whole months while the trial plus two subsequent appeals ran their course. If anyone asks, we were only pretending to enjoy marital relations during that time (three or four times per week). There was also the matter of the witness tampering charges leveled against the bounty hunters who harassed us. Fortunately, they all pleaded out or turned into witnesses themselves, so Beth and I weren't needed to testify about any of that.

During that time, Beth celebrated her twenty-first birthday by getting her nipples pierced, and she talked me into getting a tattoo on my arm. I went with a simple rope design surrounding my bicep.

It was the end of June when we finally got our old lives back, almost one year to the day from when this all started. In the mean time, WitSec had put all of our stuff into storage and rented out our house. The tenants were still there, and we didn't feel right about kicking them out, but that meant we didn't have a place to live.

"No problem." Beth suggested, "I can't wait to go visit everyone at Pleasant Hills, anyway. So, let's just stay there for a while." I, of course, was all for it, but Barry freaked out. Beth insisted that he had to join us, though. We'd been separated from him all this time, and she wanted some long overdue conversations. "Besides, there are some people there that I really want you to meet." Barry eventually came around, but only committed to giving nudism a try for a week. Beth smiled and said, "I'll take it." I thought to myself, Just wait until Barry gets a load of Beth's clean shaven pussy and pierced nipples.

Vicki was ecstatic when we phoned ahead. She was happy for Beth and me to take up where we left off with tutoring and lifeguarding. She was also eager to meet Barry.

When we got there, Vicki personally set Barry up in a private room and showed him around the resort. Beth pointed out to me that Vicki had a lot of the same qualities as our late mother and that Barry just might fall for her. "I'll bet they're sleeping together by the end of the week," Beth said. She was wrong. It only took two days.

I, of course, couldn't wait to find Prachi. "She's down in the bunkhouse getting ready to make a supply run for the Fourth of July party. If you hurry, you can catch her and go with."

I caught Prachi just as she was climbing into the diver seat of one of the resort's shuttle vans. I called her name and her head snapped around at the sound of my voice. "Greg! I mean, John! You're home!" She stepped out of the van and hugged me and kissed me ferociously, as if she was my war bride reunited after a long tour of duty apart. "I missed you so much," we both said in unison.

I was still dressed from traveling, so she told me to get in the van and we made the supply run together, talking and catching up the whole time.

For the trip into town, Prachi wore red, white and blue: She had put on a short denim skirt, a white V-neck T-shirt, and a pair of red leather boots. The material of the T-shirt was thick enough not to show the details of her nipples, but it was still easy to tell that her breasts were unfettered. She naturally grabbed the attention of every guy at the warehouse store. I'm sure most were wondering if her being braless also meant she was walking about sans panties. (Of course, she was.) They obviously hoped to get a look up Prachi's skirt, and Prachi happily obliged by bending over at every opportunity.

After our return, and after the supplies were unloaded and stored where they needed to be, Prachi dragged me back to the bunkhouse and made love to me. I kicked off my shoes and socks while Prachi stripped my shirt off me and together we unzipped and shed my pants and undershorts.

Once I was naked, Prachi reached for the hem of her T-shirt to pull it off, but I stopped her. "Leave that on for now. The skirt and the boots, too." I pushed her down onto a bottom bunk and ran my hands up under her shirt to explore the feel of her breasts with my fingers, sight unseen. I played with each nipple until they became hard. Then, I reached under her skirt to play with her ass and manipulate her pussy and clit.

"That's more than enough teasing, John." Prachi pulled her skirt up to bunch at her waist and then took my cock, which was quite hard by then, and guided it home.

It felt good to be home.

###

This is an entry in the 2012 Nude Day story contest, so please vote.