SUED FOR PEACE (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 11) Read online

  Mark turned away from the camera to look off camera in the direction of where the Congressman continued to walk away, “And let’s not even begin to discuss the significant and unique electrical pieces that require manufacture in China itself.” Mark looked back towards the camera, “Pieces that once destroyed, will keep your city dark for months or significantly longer if we should be at war.”

  Two blocks away, Terry Richards pulled out his cell phone and punched in a specific contact's number. This phone number was memorized and was restricted to a single use. Halfway around the world, after seven different forwards to hide the eventual destination, a woman picked up the phone, “Hello?”

  “This is T.R., I’ve been asked questions and had my connections and exact funding delivered to me in detail by a reporter. You told me this wasn’t possible!” he fumed.

  “Was the group behind it headed by a male reporter?” the woman asked.

  “Yes! Mark Billingsly and two females,” he answered while looking for cars before crossing the road.

  The woman responded in a calm tone, “You are the third concerned citizen to ask about this situation. You know what they say in America about three strikes?”

  Terry only admitted, “Yes.”

  “Well, don’t expect to receive another request for an interview,” she replied.

  “Fine, that works for me. What about the video?”

  “Our teams will work on it. Give us time is all I can respond to that question.”

  “Understood, goodbye,” Terry said as he hung up and closed the phone.

  In a foreign country, a Colonel hung up the phone and turned in her seat. She was part of the approximately seven and a half percent of the PLA army that had responsibility for long-term foreign investment. She picked up the phone and made another call, “I need the approval to send out a clean-up squad. There is a thorn we need to get rid of.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  QBS Polarus in the Pacific Ocean heading towards China

  John Grimes walked into the shared area where he and his guys had their rooms. Darryl gave him a nod from the couch. Scott and Eric were getting set up to arm-wrestle. “Eric, why are you doing this to yourself?” John asked, “We both know Scott is going to eat your lunch.”

  Eric grunted as Darryl said, “Go,” and the effort was on. Eric’s biceps were massive, able to easily out dwarf most men’s. But he wasn’t budging Scott, who was steady, holding Eric’s other hand under the arch of their two arms clasped in a titanic struggle of strength.

  “You know,” Scott told Eric, smiling. “We can stop now, and you can walk away with your manhood intact.”

  “Huh,” Eric grunted, trying to get Scott to lose focus so he could drive his arm down in a sudden burst of effort.

  He barely moved Scott’s hand a quarter to a half-inch.

  “I’ll take that as a ‘no,'” Scott grinned, “ready to give me twenty pushups?”

  Eric ground out, “I’ll give you twenty pushups when you stop being such as weak-ass bitch.”

  Darryl warned him, “Don’t let Bethany Anne hear you say that lame-ass name.”

  All of the men turned towards the door when they heard Bethany Anne’s voice arrive right before she turned the corner into their room, “I did hear that lame-ass name, and after Eric gives Scott twenty, he can do another twenty-five while I stand on his back.”

  Eric’s eyes opened slightly before they darted back to his grip with Scott, who was still paying attention to Bethany Anne over his shoulder. Eric drove his shoulder into the challenge and caught Scott off-guard. Scott barely stopped the sudden drive half-way down to the table, his knuckles mere inches from touching the wood.

  “You…” Scott started speaking, through clenched teeth as he tried to offset Eric’s better leverage and damned impressive effort to drive his hand down. “Are … a ... bloated….” Scott’s arm started rising, an inch for every word he said, “Semen … packing … animal … fondling … fuckfaced … cockthistle … cockroach … ass … bandit!” With the final word, Scott slammed Eric’s hand down on the table, making sure he would feel that pain for a while.

  Eric pulled his hand back and started massaging his knuckles, “Shit, you pig, that fucking hurt.”

  “Not as bad as these heels on your back,” Bethany Anne mentioned. The two men looked around the side of the table.

  She had on three-inch heels.

  Scott looked over at Eric’s face, his jaw dropping in surprise. Scott grinned as he told Eric, “Damn dude, those are going to hurt.”

  Eric looked back up to Bethany Anne’s face, “Isn’t that going to be a bit much?” while pointing at the shoes.

  “No, a bit much might be me lifting something while I’m standing on your back to increase the weight.”

  Darryl spoke up from the couch, “I’ll volunteer, you can lift me!”

  Eric flipped off Darryl, his hand carefully blocked from Bethany Anne’s view by the table.

  She turned towards Darryl and chuckled, “I said something, not someone.” She walked over to the couch and sat down. “Before you do your push-ups, Eric, I have a request of you guys.” The four men walked over. John sat next to Bethany Anne, Eric beside Darryl, while Scott took the chair. Akio was out at the moment.

  “The ladies have come up with a way to potentially help us in the PR department, make money for a charity, and apparently, have a good time. Well, at least the ladies will have a good time.”

  “Why do I sense a ‘but’ arriving soon?” John asked, looked sideways at Bethany Anne.

  She opened her mouth, then closed it again. Finally, she opened it again and spoke, “Because I didn’t expect this to occur and I’ve got to say I’m sorry in advance. So, I’m sorry.” She turned to John, “But, you guys are going to be thrown under the bus on this one.”

  “You want us to do it, regardless?” John asked, “I’m assuming that since it is for charity, I’m not being shot, so I’m in. What do you want us to do?”

  The guys all looked towards Bethany Anne, who was obviously having a hard time with this request. Coming from the lady who chewed up and spit out Forsaken for breakfast, their curiosity was in overdrive. Scott glanced towards Darryl and Eric before Darryl minutely shrugged his shoulders.

  Bethany Anne put her hands on her knees and took a deep breath, “Ok, I’m just going to say it. The girls want you guys to do a pin-up calendar.” She exhaled noisily and looked around to her team.

  John put up his right hand with a finger pointed to Scott, then Darryl, Eric and finally himself. “You want us four to pose for a pin-up calendar?” he asked, a question clearly on his face.

  “Yes,” she admitted, her voice a little higher than normal. “Oh God, fine!” she blurted out, “They want you to do a beefcake calendar!” She threw her hands up, “No shirts, tiny underwear, baby oil and in like, four countries in twenty-four hours.” She put her hands over her face, “I’ve created a set of monsters.” She mumbled through her hands, “It started with Jean Dukes.”

  “Jean?” Darryl asked. Bethany Anne nodded her head.

  “What did Jean have to do with this?” John asked.

  “What didn’t she have to do with this?” Bethany Anne replied, “she came up with the idea and rallied the other ladies to get behind it. Then Cheryl Lynn got involved, and Patricia was asking questions.” Bethany Anne pulled her hands from her face to look at John, “Did you guys know you have female fan clubs?”

  John’s blush told her everything she needed to know. She pointed at him, then the other three, “You guys know you have fan clubs?”

  They all tried to keep their faces from showing anything, but finally, Darryl gave up and just smiled broadly. His grin was contagious, and soon they were all chuckling. “Bethany Anne,” Darryl said, “we are the Queen’s Bitches, of course, we are going to have fan clubs!” Eric turned and high-fived Darryl. Scott just laughed quietly.

  John spoke while pointing to Eric and Darryl, “Those two ass-wipe
s have been having bets on who can get more fans. However, someone leaked pictures of Scott without a shirt on, and he got something like three thousand fans in twenty-four hours.”

  “Unbelievable,” Bethany Anne murmured looking at the three, “So, you guys don’t have a problem with this?”

  “Well, are we going to have to get rid of the chest hair?” Eric asked, “Because, I’m a hunk of burning love, and I’m not sure I can handle having a wax job. Scott and I watched the Forty-Year-Old Virgin Tuesday night. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be just as big a baby as that guy was.” He rubbed his chest in a circular motion, “I don’t think anyone can photoshop a bad wax job off all this!”

  “Hell, just have a woman running her hands through that chest hair, a few girls will get jealous and perk up!” Scott tossed out.

  “Hell yeah!” Eric’s eyes lit up, and he turned to Bethany Anne, “What’s our budget for this? Can I hire a model or two to pose with me?”

  Bethany Anne stared at the man, dumbstruck, “Younatalie

  want models in your beefcake pictures?” She turned to the men, “You do realize this is a calendar for women, right?”

  “Well, The Fire Department of New York is doing one. Guys on one side, girls on the other.” John mentioned before realizing he might have given too much information away. He got a surreptitious glance from Scott.

  “What?” Bethany Anne turned towards John as John watched Scott put up his fingers to his head and act like he shot himself as he rolled his eyes behind Bethany Anne.

  “Well,” John ad-libbed, “I was looking into New York after our little episode there a few months ago, and I ended up on a website that was talking about the new addition of women from the Fire Department doing a calendar. And…Uh…” John faltered, trying his best for slightly embarrassed, “Well, for research purposes I went to go see what the pictures might look like for the women.” he shrugged as the guys all smiled at his discomfort.

  Knowing full well if they didn’t pull this off, it would be hell to pay later.

  “I’ll tell you what, how about you guys agree to the beefcake, but I’ll say there is a condition that the women have to do a few poses for a personal calendar that can only go to you guys. That way, they can put up or shut-up?”

  Scott grinned, “Hell yeah!” Then Scott asked, “Do we get to choose?”

  “Choose?” Bethany Anne turned to him, “and who would be on your list, Mr. English?”

  Scott’s face went red, “Uh…Who is in the group again?”

  “Uh huh…” She smiled, “Ok guys, I want you to think of who you would like in the calendar!” She clapped her hands twice, loudly, “Come on! You know who it is!”

  The guys all looked at each other when she started laughing and stood up, “Oh my God. This is priceless!” She began walking towards the door, “Don’t forget your push-ups, Mr. Escabar, I’ll have Scott stand on your back in my place. He doesn’t have heels!” She waved over her shoulder to them and exited their rooms.

  Once she was out of the room, the guys turned to face each other, confusion on their faces.

  “Does she know we bugged the last meeting?” Eric asked.

  John turned back to look at the door and his missing boss and admitted, “I don’t think so, this is much worse.”

  “Worse?” Darryl asked, “How the hell could it be worse?”

  John told the guys, while still watching the door, “I think she just got the names of every woman we like.”

  The men all turned towards the door.

  “Oh shit,” Darryl said.

  —

  “They want WHAT!” Cheryl Lynn gasped, her look of shock complete as her eyes darted among the three other women in Bethany Anne’s suite.

  “Wait a fucking second,” Jean spoke up next, “This was about getting those guys to bare their bodies, not us expose ours!”

  “Why are you worried?” Cheryl Lynn turned to Jean, “You have a gorgeous body. I’ve pushed two kids out, and if the girls aren’t a little less perky, I don’t know what is!”

  Bethany Anne had told the ladies the request, modified for her personal reasons, and sat back to watch the fur fly.

  Damn, she wished she had thought to pop some popcorn.

  “And who is going to ask Natalia to join this?” Cheryl Lynn continued, “She didn’t even start this project, and someone is going to have to ask her to pose in a bathing suit? She’s the XO on the Ad Aeternitatem for pete’s sake!”

  “Hey, you guys are asking them to go shirtless with really tiny skivvies, all they want is a one-piece,” Patricia reminded them.

  “That’s easy for you to say, your name didn’t get drawn out of the hat!” Cheryl Lynn hit back.

  “Why are you having such a hissy-fit?” Jean asked Cheryl Lynn, “You’ve got a body to die for, if I had the extra three inches in height you have, I’d be dancing a pole somewhere.”

  Cheryl Lynn turned back to Jean and pointed to her, “This is your fault, you hussy!” Cheryl Lynn kept going, even as Jean started laughing, “What the hell am I going to say to my kids?”

  “Momma’s got back?” Patricia suggested.

  Bethany Anne couldn’t stop the short laugh escaping from her lips. She quickly put her hand over her mouth as the arguing women turned towards her. She got out a ‘sorry’ before Cheryl Lynn continued the conversation looking to her, “Who is going to ask Gabrielle?”

  “Oh hell, that’s easy,” Patricia said and pulled out a phone. She hit a couple of numbers before waiting for a second as the women watched, “Hey, Gabby baby, it’s Patricia. You know that favor you owe me? Yeah, that one. Hey, it’s time to pay me back for a good cause. What? No, you don’t have to off someone for me.” She paused for a moment before chuckling, “No, I can take care of him all by myself.”

  Now, all three of the ladies were engrossed in Patricia’s side of the conversation. Jean looked over to Bethany Anne and mouthed ‘your dad?’ to her. Bethany Anne shrugged as they continued to listen.

  “No, I want you to wear a hot bathing suit and get pictures taken with Jean, Cheryl Lynn and Natalia just for the guys. No, they didn’t ask,” Patricia glanced over at Bethany Anne, who returned her look with an innocent smile, “I guess someone ratted them out. No, I don’t know who asked for you. I could speculate, but so can you. Who knows, maybe it was John.”

  “Oh, he can ask for Gabrielle when I yank his pecker off,” Jean muttered. Bethany Anne could hear Gabrielle’s laughing as she heard Jean's comment.

  “That’s harsh, don’t you think?” Cheryl Lynn asked Jean.

  Jean turned to Cheryl Lynn, “Ok, so how about it was Scott that asked for Gabrielle?”

  Cheryl Lynn’s mouth pressed together before answering, “Well, I would have to accept that he had interests in someone else, not every person is going to return my interest.”

  “Trust me, if you have their pecker, they will be focused on you, and you alone.” Jean told her, “I mean ... it doesn’t have to be in a bad way, a careful pull, then another careful pull, and you…”

  “Enough!” Cheryl Lynn put up her hand, shaking her head, “How can you go from yanking their pecker off, to jerking it off in two seconds?”