Inheritance Pt. 03

"You know I'll do anything you want, right," Janice purred, feeling the cool air flowing over the exposed parts of her breasts that her half-cup bra didn't cover. Lowering her face inches away from his, allowing him to view her breasts to his heart's content. "I'll suck and fuck you just to keep you with the firm. If you want," she cooed, her hand rubbing along his groin and starting to feel his manhood responding to her touch. Her eyes glanced down when she felt him growing more than she thought he would be. When Jesse was at full mast, Janice would admit she was drooling in her mind when she felt the heat of his erection on the palm of her hand. That was until Jesse took hold of her wrist and removed it from his person.

"As tempting as the offer is, Janice, I'll have to decline. I don't want to mix pleasure and business. I wasn't planning on leaving until you give me a reason to," Jesse said, extracting himself from the situation.

"I understand, Jesse, but if you ever change your mind, you have my number," Janice said as she watched him walk out of her office.

******

Ruth Grander sat at her desk as she reread the case file on her desk. So far, they had ruled out a number of the members of the Anderson family. She had even put herself in the position at the gas station after tailing Jesse Armstrong from the exit of the high-end community that he was currently living in. Even borrowing a car from the impound lot to make it seem she was down on her luck. Her children were all excited to play pretend. She was not expecting the man to pay for her gas or give her three grand off his person to a complete stranger. Her husband wasn't happy that she had put their children in such a position, yet when she told him that they were in no danger, he relented but demanded that she never do that again, no matter what the case was. She had looked at Jesse hard, given how he was the sole beneficiary of Greta's estate. Something she knew from their surveillance was that his family was not happy with how that came about. Namely, a man named Richard Anderson. Then there was the sudden fire at Linda Anderson's house that had been ruled arson given the witness statements the patrol officers had gathered. A patrol car had found the van, yet it had been torched, so any evidence that might have been in the van was long gone.

So she was going through all they had gathered hoping she could see something that they had missed. That was until John Kane of their undercover unit strolled up to her desk and sat right down in the chair next to her desk.

"Hello, Detective," John greeted.

"Hello, John. Aren't you supposed to be on a case?" Ruth asked, looking over at him.

"I am, but I think it might be tied to the one you're working on," John whispered low. "Listen, I rather not talk here, too open, and someone might over hear something or blow my cover."

"Alright, stand up," Ruth said, pulling out her cuffs. Making it believe she was putting him under arrest and leading him toward one of the interrogation rooms in their station.

"Thanks," John said, rubbing his wrists and getting a nod out of her.

"So you say you might have something for me?"

"A few days ago, someone put out feelers for a hitman," John said. Clearly, Ruth hadn't known, given the look in Ruth's eyes.

"And you know this how?" Ruth asked, not convinced.

"The brass put me in with this group that's been connected to many of the homicides in the city amongst other crimes they've committed, yet everything they've found has been circumstantial at best, nothing hard that would point the finger at who it was, you following?" John asked, getting another nod out of her. "So they sent me in since I kind of look like who they recruit from," he said, gesturing to his Hispanic heritage.

"Were they involved with the arson of Linda Anderson's home?" Ruth inquired.

"As far as I know they were, the two that were involved were gloating about how they burnt that house down so fast no one could point a finger at them," John said, seeing Ruth's lips press together.

"Go on."

"So I told the guys that my baby mama was pitching a fit about something that I had to go and quiet the bitch down. As I was leaving, I heard one of the lieutenants whispering to another about some rich white man who was looking to put a hit out on another. They were going to put their feelers out to find out if it was true or not, and if it was, make sure they got paid well for it."

"Any idea who they were talking about? There'rea lot of rich men in the city."

"No, but I thought if it was connected to the Anderson arson, it has to deal with someone in that family," John said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Hmm," Ruth hummed as her fingers pinched her lower lip as she was deep in thought. "Alright, but if you hear any more, especially a name, report back to me. If the hit is real, then we need to put whoever it is into protective custody until this can be sorted out. We don't need the Mayor on our asses if it turns out to be one of his donors."

"True, we don't," John agreed. "I should get back to them, don't want to blow my cover."

"Right, if you can't contact me directly, pass it through your handler, and I'll handle the rest," Ruth informed him.

"Good luck, Detective," John said, hoping coming to the precinct hadn't put him in danger. "Walk me out, will ya? Got to make it look good, you know." With that, the both of them left the room with Ruth holding tightly onto his arm as she escorted him out of the building.

"Get you're ass out of here; if I see your ass slinging drugs again, I'll snap your ass back so fast even your grandmother will feel it!" Ruth said loudly enough in case anyone was casing the building as she shoved John out the door.

"Perra, if you were any uglier, only a dog would fuck you!" John said, playing up his accent as he tugged on his jacket. With that, he made his way down the steps and back to the shady part of the city.

******

A month later...

Brinda stood beside Jesse as they were down in Florida as they stood in the private monitoring room that over looked the command center for such launches. While NASA was in control of the launch, it was still their rocket that was sitting on the launch pad as they fueled it. The clouds of fog billowed out from the fuel intakes of the liquid hydrogen and oxygen as her eyes moved over the monitors, ensuring that nothing was going to go wrong with the launch. She and her team had double-checked and re-checked that the rocket was sound enough to fly and again after the rocket had been transported from California. Brinda looked over at Jesse as his topaz eyes had a child-like light in them as he stared at their rocket.

"You know, Ms. Dell, I kind of always wanted to launch a rocket when I was a kid, yet my folks thought I should apply my mind to something more important than silly things like that," Jesse said, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"T-minus two minutes." Jesse glanced up as someone spoke over the intercom.

"How long will the probe take to reach the moon?" Jesse asked, peering over at Brinda.

"About three days then it will make its descent to the Sea of Storms on the moon; we believe that's where we will find the most helium-3 in the lunar soil. The storage tank has already touched down on the landing site and is just waiting for the rover to arrive. Once it's launched and landed, we can perform the tasks back in New Mexico. When the tank is full and sent back to Earth, it will land in the salt flats out there. Supposing all goes well, and the tank isn't damaged in its reentry and landing, we should be able to start experimenting on the H3 within a month or two," Brinda said as Jesse nodded along. "Sir?"

"Hmm?" Jesse hummed as he watched the countdown.

"Were you serious about the space station?" Brinda asked; she wasn't complaining; his logic was sound. It was true it was far cheaper to launch objects into Earth's orbit than it was to launch to the moon. Given the amount of fuel it required to reach it.

"I was, I was thinking we make something similar to the X-37 since it doesn't need people on board, and we can outfit it with vast storage tanks and something like that would be much more cost-efficient to launch from the MALS drive then hitching it to a rocket that costs millions when we're trying to bring a new energy source to the planet," Jesse said, noting how the count down had reached thirty seconds. "Plus, if we do found a base on the Moon to farm the H3 there, those drones will come in handy and offload it's payload onto the station and send supplies to the base instead of constantly returning to Earth."

"Then I'll speak with R&D and have them start developing some mock-ups for stations if this gamble of ours does pay off," Brinda said as the same person's voice on the intercom counted down from five. She saw his smile as the rocket engines fired; the cloud of water vapor billowed out from the end of the rocket before its thrust finally started to lift it off the ground. She nearly held her breath as the minutes wore on before it breached Earth's atmosphere. "Well, Mr. Armstrong, congratulations," she said, holding out her hand to him.

"Nonsense, you and your team deserve the credit; I just paid for it," Jesse said, shaking her hand and returning her smile.

"Would you mind if I make a trip home before returning to the office?"

"Sure, go see your family. I don't mind, just don't do anything I wouldn't do, but I must get back to the office. No telling what's been going on in my absence," Jesse joked as they walked out of the room and handed in their access badges before they left the launch center. "You going to see someone when you get home?"

"I might," Brinda mused with a sexy smirk on her lips.

"Anyone I know?" Jesse asked in a teasing tone as they walked out to the parking lot where their rental cars waited.

"Not unless you know a Jerry Maxwell," Brinda hummed, wondering how Jerry would like to see her bouncing on his hard pole. From what her family members had been telling her, he was very well endowed, and she couldn't wait to try him out. She just hoped she could keep Reda from getting too jealous of her when she knew how she and her husband always had some sexual tension between them before she moved to Seattle.

"Nope, never heard of him well, hope your family is good. If something happens, let me know," Jesse said, waving to her as they departed for their own cars. While he was heading towards the private airport where his company's plane waited, Brinda was headed toward the public airport for a short flight to the north.

******

A few hours later...

"Sir? You might want to come up here." Jesse looked oddly up at the intercom as the plot's voice came over it. Getting up, using the walls of his plane to keep him steady as he ambled towards the cockpit.

"What's the problem, Fred?" Jesse inquired as he leaned between the two seats.

"They are, sir," the co-plot said, pointing to the right of him towards the F-15 that flew along with his plane.

"What the...?!" Jesse muttered, turning his head to look out the port window and seeing another F-15 flying along side them.

"We're receiving something," Fred said, flipping the coms to the speakers.

"Flight 295, please follow us to our air base."

"Who is this? I demand to know what is going on?! I will not divert my plane just because you command it," Jesse said sternly.

"Sir, I'm Captain Morgan, Air National Guard. We are assisting the police in this matter, and they've asked us to divert your plane to our air base; it's imperative that you cooperate with us."

"Police?! What's the charges? I want to talk to my lawyer..."

"Sir, I do not know the details; I was ordered to bring you to our base. I'm sure if you comply with our request, you will find the answer to those questions."

"Are you threatening me and all the souls onboard?"

"No sir, yet I just know it has to be very important for the Governor to activate us just to escort you to our base."

"Very well, Fred, follow whatever they say, and you better be sure this is on the up and up," Jesse threatened, patting Fred's right shoulder.

"We are sorry for the inconvenience, sir, pilot change course to..." Jesse didn't hear the rest when Fred flipped the switch off. Holding onto the seats as Fred and his co-plot made the course correction. Pulling out his phone as he walked back to his seat.

"Janice?"

"Hello, Jesse, what can I do for you?"

"My plane is being escorted to some air base by the Air National Guard on orders by the Governor. Find out what the hell is going on, and if it's something to do with the law, then I want you to get the best team of lawyers quickly! I don't have much time," Jesse said seriously.

"What?! Right, I'll get right on it. I have a friend in the DA's office. I'll call her and see what the hell is going on. I'll get back to you as quickly as I can. Whatever you do, Jesse, say nothing, understand?"

"Right, no singing like a canary," Jesse joked, trying to relieve his stress. He knew he had done nothing illegal, and he wasn't a national security threat, so he had no idea what he was flying into.

"Just hang tight; I will get to you as quickly as I can. Trust me."

"See you soon," Jesse said, ending their call as he heard the flaps of the wings engaging, knowing they were about to land. He peered out the starboard window as Fred turned the plane around once they reached the end of the runway, getting it ready to take off again. He was not expecting to see four police cars waiting on the tarmac. He oddly thought he recognized the woman who stood in front of her car with her gold badge glinting in the sun.

"Mr. Armstrong!" Jesse heard a loud female voice as someone banged on the plane's door once the plane's engines had fully shut down. "Please, Mr. Armstrong, we need to talk!"

"Fred, whatever happens to me, I want you to get this bird back in the air. I don't care if you have to take off without clearance. If they're after me, I'm not going to let them keep you from your family. When you get back to the airport, call this number for me; tell her what you saw if you don't hear from me soon," Jesse said, holding out a slip of paper to Fred.

"Do you really think that's wise?"

"Wise, probably not, yet I want my ass covered if it needs protecting," Jesse stated as the co-pilot unlocked the door. Seeing a man carrying a ladder towards the open doorway. "You're fucking kidding me; you divert my plane under mysterious reasons, and you bring a damn ladder!" he grumbled, incensed.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Armstrong, but it's important that you deal with the unpleasantness just a bit longer," Ruth said. She could understand the man's attitude.

"Fuck no, you tell me right now what the hell is going on, or I'm ordering my plots to take off," Jesse snapped, staring the woman down. He still couldn't shake the feeling he had seen the woman before.

"Very well, Mr. Armstrong, there's been a hit placed out on you, and we're here to take you into protective custody," Ruth said truthfully, seeing the complete shock on his face.

"What?!"

"Please, if you come down, my partner and I will fill you in on the way to our safe house," Ruth said, watching Jesse just blink blankly at her before shaking it off.

"Fred, forget what I said, but get home to your two's families, don't say a word of this to anyone until it's over," Jesse ordered; if someone was out to kill him, he damn sure wasn't going to make it easy on them.

"You have our word, not a word," Fred said, with his co-pilot nodding along.

Once Jesse climbed down, the ladder was quickly removed, and Fred quickly closed the door and sealed it tight. "Alright, so who is trying to kill me?" Jesse asked, tugging on the lapels of his jacket.

"Please, if you'll follow us, we can discuss this on the way to our safe house," Ruth said, leading the way to her cruiser.

"Have we met before?" Jesse asked; he still couldn't figure out where he had seen the woman before.

"You bought me gas once," Ruth said truthfully. A little sad that she wasn't that memorable.

"Wait... that was you?!"

"Mmmhmm, sorry, but we've had you and your family under surveillance for some time," Ruth said, peering back at him, noting how Jesse was not happy about that.

"Why?" Jesse asked, looking for answers to all of this.

"We're looking into the homicide of your grandaunt," Ruth's partner stated over his shoulder. Not seeing the rage in Jesse's eyes when the man spoke those words.

"What do you mean the murder of my grandaunt?" Jesse inquired testily. If he ever found out who killed Greta, he would use all his money to make their lives a living hell just to bring justice to Greta.

"Your lawyer, Janice, and your cousin Linda Anderson, found it strange that your grandaunt suddenly died for no apparent reason. So they asked for an autopsy, and its results are the reason we opened this case. Can you think of anyone who would be willing to kill your grandaunt?" Ruth asked, noticing how Jesse was taking all his will not to erupt into a profanity-laced tirade.

"Richard?!" Jesse hissed. "That son-of-a-bitch! I'm going to kill him!"

"And why do you think this Richard would murder his own mother?" Ruth's partner inquired, not voicing that what Jesse had just said could land him in jail. Yet the man let it slide due to the emotions that were in his voice when he issued that threat.

"He's burnt through his trust fund; the man doesn't know the meaning of living within his means. His mother would always refresh it when she was alive, yet when she died, he was cut off. I wasn't about to fund Richard's man-whoring ways or his gold-digging girlfriends of the month. He was not happy Greta left me everything. Hell, I didn't even know she left me everything until the reading of her will. She was not happy with the rest of the family, and they certainly weren't happy to know that I was named Greta's beneficiary. However, Richard was the one that stormed out of her... now my house, saying he would get his money one way or another."

"Just how desperate is he?" Ruth asked as she opened the rear passenger door of her cruiser.

"He's down to his last hundred grand," Jesse said before the door muffled his words. Reaching into his jacket, pulled out his cell phone and called Briana.

"Jesse? When're you coming home, I got something that misses you?"

"Oh?"

"Mmmhmm, it's been so hot and wet, just waiting for you to come home. I'm sorry I couldn't go with you," Briana whispered low in the room she had been using since moving into Jesse's home. She didn't want her mother to overhear how much of a slut she was turning into when it came to sex with Jesse.

"Bree, you're schooling takes precedence over traveling with me."

"Maybe, but my pussy is missing that big stick you have. I think you broke me for other men."

"I see; listen, I'm going to be gone for a while. I need you to call my mother and tell her I need her and Aunt Patricia to cover for me until I get back. If it's really important, you tell them they may call me, but only if it's really important."

"Jesse, what's going on? You're scaring me."

"I can't talk about it now; I promise I'm okay."

"Alright, I'll call them, but you promise you'll tell me when you can, right?" Briana asked; she knew it was wrong of her to start to develop feelings for Jesse, yet the amount of times they've had sex with one another. At first, it started out to keep Jesse's eye from wandering and keeping his money within the family, then it turned to her just showing him how appreciative she was that he helped her and her mother out of the jam her uncle had put them in. Now, she just couldn't keep from forming an emotional connection with him; she was never like that, having sex without feeling something for the person she was bedding.