Player Retired

"Now, one week a month each of them must go with Senor Thurgood and have sex with him and anyone he gives them to."

"Shit. Why didn't you go to the police, Senor Morales? Crap, I can't believe that man was once my friend. Well, that stops now. I do not want to take advantage of your wife or daughter in that way."

Senor Morales sat with his shoulders shaking. He wiped his face and said, "Thank you, Senor. From the bottom of my heart I thank you."

"Now, why did you not inform the authorities about Pete?"

"We could not, Senor. I do not have the green card and he knew it. That also was part of the reason my wife allowed him to do those things to her. And, he has three very large, very bad men working for him. They have hurt many who have not done as he wished. We could not take the chance with our family. My daughter decided it was better to be a Puta, a whore, than to be dead or crippled."

"Where is your wife and daughter, Senor Morales? I would like to meet them."

"My wife is in our apartment resting, Senor. Senor Thurgood brought her back this afternoon. She is still tired and in some pain from her week with him. My daughter is now serving him."

"SON OF A BITCH! This is just too much. I'm going to make that bastard pay for this. Not only is he robbing me, he is robbing all of you and doing unspeakable things to your women. This stops now."

Dave leaped from his chair and rushed through the door. Senor Morales followed as rapidly as he could waddle behind him. Dave surged through the door into the meeting room. Most of the people there jerked in fear when they saw him come storming into the room. Dave stood surveying the room for a moment then said, "I cannot believe what I have heard and read this evening, I just cannot believe it. As of this moment I am cancelling all your rental agreements and we are going to renegotiate them. I am also going to do something about that asshole who has been mistreating you and your families.

There was an immediate outcry from the renters when Dave said he was going to cancel the agreements. After listening to the raised voices for a moment Dave calmed down and said, "Whoa, there. I'm sorry I upset you all. I am not kicking anyone out of their homes or closing any of the businesses. I just meant I felt what you are paying is unfair and in some cases, according to my attorney, illegal. I intend to make new agreements with many of you that are more fair for you and, hopefully, more affordable. Those of you who are here under a contract we made before I went into the Army will continue to have that same payment. I expect many of you will have to pay less. Now, if you will excuse me I have some things I need to do. Thank you once more for coming. I will call another meeting when I have the new agreements ready."

Dave stormed from the building and over to the room he had been sleeping in. As he walked he began making phone calls. Sometimes the good ole boy network is a good thing. This time it was a great thing. Three phone calls later Dave was smiling. His three closest friends while he was in the Army were able to come help him with this problem. All four of the young men had gotten out of the service within a month of each other. They also knew of two more men who might be able to come help them. None of them had yet found jobs so they would not miss work. Dave promised to feed them and pay normal expenses while they were helping him. That and friendship were enough for them to agree to come and help.

Early the next morning Dave returned to the old house. As soon as Senor Morales opened his office Dave went in. After their greetings Dave said, "Senor Morales, we have to find your Daughter and get her away from Pete. Do you know where he takes her?"

"Yes, Senor, I do, but you should not do anything. He is very big and very mean. He sometimes has his two large men there also. I am afraid they would injure you or my daughter if we do anything to get her. He will bring her back at the end of the week. He always has." Senor Morales looked hesitant then continued speaking, "Also, Senor, it would honor me if you called me Pedro. It is not right for you as the Patron to call me Mister or Senor."

Dave smiled and reached his hand out to shake Pedro's hand. He was about to speak when a vision of loveliness walked into the room. She was about 5'6" tall, blond and built like the proverbial brick shithouse. She stopped and said, "Oh, I am sorry, Honey. I didn't know you had business."

Pedro looked at the woman and smiled. He said, "Please, come in my dear." He turned to Dave and continued, "Senor, this is my wife, Sharon. Sharon, this is our Patron, Senor Dave Stebbins. He has been most anxious to meet you."

Sharon looked at Dave and her face paled somewhat. She pressed her lips together and said, "I'm pleased to meet you, Senor Stebbins. I'm sorry to interrupt your business with my husband."

Dave smiled and stood. He walked toward her and reached his hand out to shake hers. He stopped when he saw her flinch back slightly. He said, "Mrs. Morales, I'm sorry. I am pleased to meet you. Your husband is correct. I have been anxious to meet you, but I think you may have taken his statement wrong. ALL I wanted to do was meet you and get to know you better."

Dave stopped talking when he saw the reaction Sharon had to his last sentence. He backed away and sat in his chair once more then continued talking. "Please, sit with us a moment, Mrs. Morales. I think you are still misunderstanding. If what I say embarrasses you in any way I am sorry. I think it has to be said. Much of your heartache and pain is a result of decisions I made. I allowed that bastard to manage my building while I was in the Army. I had no idea he was such a son of a bitch and I am sorry. I am in the process of righting as many of the wrongs he has done to you, your family, and the other renters as I can.

"I have known Pete Thurgood since he and I were in 7th grade. I once considered him one of my friends and I trusted him. I was wrong or he has changed drastically in the last few years. He and his father have always been loud and arrogant. Perhaps I misunderstood how immoral and unethical he was. I am here today to find out where Pete stays when he is not here. I intend to find him and get your daughter back from him before he puts her through any more pain or degrades her further. I intend to stop him from ever hurting others again if I can. I will need help from you and some of the others to do that, however. I want to get him arrested and put in prison for what he has done if I can. If I can't I intend to hire some of my friends as guards here until he decides to move on to safer places."

Sharon began crying when she heard Dave promise to free her daughter. She said, "I will do what I can, Senor Dave, but I cannot do much. You see, uh, my husband and I don't need publicity and-,"

Dave broke into her conversation. He said, "Mrs. Morales, I understand. I know your husband is an illegal. I will try to protect him, but I ask you, what is worse? Is it worse for him to be deported or is what is happening to you and your daughter and the other ladies here worse? You do not look Hispanic. Are you also illegal or...?"

Sharon smiled somewhat and said, "No, I am a U S Citizen as is my daughter. The man who was my daughter's father died in the first Iraq war before our daughter was born. I am afraid I am not a good woman. He was married to someone else and we were lovers. He said he was going to divorce his wife, but he was called up with his reserve unit before he could do so. His actual wife got his military benefits. I was in serious financial difficulty when Pedro took me in. We fell in love and became a family. We were married in Mexico then came back here to live. We have no documents that prove we are married. We are afraid Immigration will deport him if he is brought to their attention."

Dave and Sharon talked several more minutes. During that time Dave found out where he took Sharon and her daughter, Emma, when he had them. He also found out that the time he kept them was becoming longer and longer. At first it was just one of them a month one weekend a month. She felt they were trapped and couldn't think of any way to get free of his blackmail. Between him threatening physical violence and deportation, as well as threatening to turn them into the law as prostitutes, she felt they had no way to get away from Pete.

Dave smiled when she said that. He almost immediately came up with a plan to deal with his ex-friend Pete. He, Pedro, and Sharon discussed the plan, fine tuning it during the rest of the afternoon. The plan was simple. When Pete brought Emma back the renters were going to meet him. They were going to let it slip that Dave had gone back to the army making arrangements for Senor Morales to handle the rentals and mail Dave his money. They were to refuse to have anything else to do with Pete.

They were going to video the meetings if possible, but for sure they were going to tape them. If Pete did as they expected and made his threats, Dave was going to take the tapes to the Prosecuting Attorney. That way the police would be involved immediately and do the investigation for them. Additionally, Dave and his friends were not really going to be away, just hiding. They would provide protection to the renters in case the Police did not or could not.

Dave disappeared with great fanfare the next morning. He made sure most of the people in the area saw him telling everyone good bye and took off in his truck. He drove to Valdosta and directly to an old garage he had rented. He hid his truck inside and he and his friends took off in their vehicles. None of them had been to Tifton yet. They made sure to arrive late in the night and moved into Dave's old barn. From then on at least one of Dave's friends was in the house all the time serving as an unofficial guard. The most difficult part for Dave was hiding inside the barn 24/7. He did sneak out during the early morning hours but that really wasn't satisfactory.

The second morning after Dave returned and went into hiding, Pete arrived. He brought Emma back in very rough shape. She was tired, bruised, pale, and walked as if she were in pain. When Pete demanded time with Marisa she refused. He began to look uneasy when several of the tenants surrounded him. He began yelling and making his threats and became even more vocal and arrogant when they told him they were through submitting to his demands.

He turned to Senor Morales and hit him when he was told Pedro was now the rental agent for Dave. "That's bullshit and you know it. I control this building and your sorry asses. I expect you to pay me as before. You can send the base rent to that asshole if you want but I expect all the extra rent we agreed on to continue like it has in the past. If it doesn't someone will get hurt badly. In fact, because of your bullshit I think you need to be punished. From now on I expect 15% extra instead of the 10% you were paying. If I don't get it and if I don't get the pussy we agreed on someone will get hurt."

Pete laughed maniacally and continued, "You're lucky you have this old house to live and work in. What if it wasn't here any longer? What if it caught on fire and burned to the ground? What would you do then? Think about that assholes."

Pete turned and pushed his way out of the small crowd. Just before he got into his large ML 470 he turned and said, "I'll be back this weekend for my money and my pussy. It better be here."

After that afternoon Dave spent some time watching Pete's house in Valdosta and trailing him around there taking pictures where he could. It looked as if Pete and his father were involved in a prostitution ring in town as well as some strong arm stuff. That seemed to fit nicely with what Pete's mother had indicated when Dave saw her his first night in town. After a few days of surveillance Dave took his tapes and pictures to the District Attorney. The DA was very interested in the information. It was an election year and if he could make a well-publicized case out of this it would help him in with the voters. He advised Dave to keep in touch, but the authorities would have to handle it from here. Dave was too close to the case and could easily do something that would make it much more difficult to get justice done.

Dave and his renters carried on as before during the next week. He worked several hours a day inside his barn on his machinery. He spent a lot of time on the internet, also. He got the tractors running again and had one of his friends begin clearing brush from the Pecan Grove. He also got his spraying rig operating and had them spray the fence rows with brush killer. They sprayed the fields to kill the foliage. He planned to plant a cash crop of some kind in the open ground.

Dave was going stir crazy even sneaking out nights and spending some time in Valdosta before the small gang was arrested. It turned out Pete, his father, and three goons were trying to run a small crib of prostitutes and a small time protection racket. They preyed mostly on Hispanics. Much of the money was hidden in the income of their small construction company. The authorities were true to their word and were present at Dave's place that weekend when Pete and one of his goons arrived to collect their graft and women. Senor Morales was safely away as were the few other illegals. Pete tried to out them while he was being hauled off, but the police ignored his rantings. Dave just hoped the DA didn't make an issue of the two or three illegals he knew about should Pete try to turn them in. He would just have to wait and see.

After the arrests Dave once again returned to the public eye. He returned to work on his place after squaring things with his friends and wishing them a safe trip home.

One day during his lunch Maria approached him once more. He had taken to eating all his meals at her restaurant. He felt bad about that because she refused to let him pay, but she convinced him it was only fair since he had reduced her rent after their meeting. She no longer had to give Pete a percentage of her profits, plus she was no longer a sex slave to him. She could not explain to Dave how much she felt she owed him for doing this.

This day she seemed hesitant when she brought his lunch. Dave looked up at her and said, "Ok, Maria, what's bothering you today? I can tell something's wrong."

"Senor Pete refused to do anything about the bees in the walls, but they are getting to be too much of a problem. I am begging you, please kill them for me. They sting me and Marisa many times a day when we are moving around working. They come inside sometimes when we open the door or come in the windows if they are open."

"Of course, Maria, I didn't know there were bees in the walls. Show me after we finish our meal and I will decide what to do about them."

After the meal Maria took Dave outside the old house. She pointed upward and he saw bees coming and going into two holes in the wall. One hole was near the eves of the porch and the other was in the wall itself about fifteen feet away from the first one.

This was a very old house and the standards at the time of construction weren't very high. It had the old lap board wooden siding on it. Dave also knew it was only poorly insulated. When he had renovated the upstairs rooms they drilled holes and pumped foam into the walls. He knew that was not a perfect insulation and many times left spaces or voids in the walls. The way the bees were moving he knew there was probably a large colony in each hole.

When he was younger his grandfather had kept bees for pollination. Dave remembered how to care for them from watching and helping with the hives. Dave got into his truck and went into Valdosta for the supplies he would need. He bought a smoker, beekeepers helmet and some heavy coveralls.

When Dave got back home he went into the barn and began rummaging around. Finally he found what he was looking for. He found a large pile of his grandfather's old bee hives. He pulled them out and inspected them. He was able to put five hives together from all the pieces. He had three supers on each of them. He even had enough frames for a good start on honey storage.

Later that evening Dave backed his truck up against the house. He had all the hives in the truck bed and opened ready to receive the bees. He first worked on the colony under the porch roof. He smoked it for fifteen minutes then carefully pried the boards off. He had to take almost six feet of boards off before he found the exact location of the colony. Even in their smoked stupor and in the dark the bees were buzzing around angrily.

Dave carefully moved and rearranged the bees until he found what he was looking for. He found the Queen and her court. He carefully moved a large pile of the honey into the base of the hive then he picked up the queen and several handfuls of her workers to go into the hive. He placed a super on it then the cap. He sealed the hive.

Dave continued looking at the remaining comb then smiled. He found what he was looking for. There was comb that had many larvae in it. There were two cells that had new Queens growing. Dave carefully broke that comb out and put one of the new Queens in each of two new hives with more honey and more workers. He sealed these also as he had done the first one.

Dave left the wall as it was and moved his truck back to the barn. He carefully unloaded the three filled hives then returned to the house. He backed up near the other colony and once again smoked it. This time he was working from a ladder. The work took longer but finally he found the ball of bees and moved them as before. This was a small colony and did not have a new Queen cell growing that he saw. He moved the current Queen and much of her honey and workers into one of the last two hives. He once again left the wall uncovered while he drove back to the barn and unloaded the full and empty hive.

After that work was done Dave went into the kitchen and found one of Maria's large pots. Outside he went once again up the ladder. He pulled most of the rest of the honey filled comb from the wall and placed it in the pot. Dave moved to the lower colony and harvested much of that honey also once again leaving the wall open.

Dave took the pot of honey to his room and set it on the counter. He walked back to the Cantina and got a beer, sitting at a small table and relaxing. Marisa and Maria came to his table and sat beside him. Marisa smiled and said, "Thank you, Senor. We appreciate the trouble you have gone to for us. If you need help repairing the house I can find some men to do so for you."

"You're welcome, Marisa, and thank you for offering to find help. I don't need it right now, but I will keep your offer in mind. I want to leave the wall open for a few days to let the bees harvest their remaining honey and wax. After that I will cover the wall once again. I will insulate the opening before I do so however."

The next day Dave got out his grandfather's old honey extraction machine, cleaned it then cleaned the honey he had saved from the colonies in the old house. He went to the local Wal-Mart store and purchased a case of pint jars to put the honey in. Most of it he placed in the jars without comb but he made 6 jars with comb in them. After the honey was put in the jars he took the comb outside and placed it near the hives he had set near the side of the old barn so the bees could harvest it and reuse it. The next day he opened the crawl space in the hives slightly so the bees could come and go as they pleased. Almost immediately they began returning to the house and gathering up the remaining comb and honey to move to their new homes.

Three nights later Dave was awakened by loud noises and screaming coming from his old house. He got dressed and was just outside his room when he saw a dark shape running from the building carrying a kicking, screaming young woman. The man ran directly toward him heading for the passageway between the nearest two outbuildings. Dave rushed toward the running man and intercepted him just before he could disappear between them. When Dave grabbed at the man he dropped the woman he was carrying and turned on Dave.