Disclaimers in Part 1
Kathleen Windsor was waiting for them at their office in a state of high anxiety.
"Mr. Steele, what am I to do. They want the plans for the car that I told you about."
"Did your caller identify himself?"
"No, his accent sounded Asian. I could not tell for sure but I think it was Korean."
"Do you know of a Mr. Young Lee who met several times with your husband within the last few weeks?"
"I vaguely remember hearing that name, but Richmond and I don't discuss the business side of things. I worked with him on the technical issues with his inventions."
"We have brought the police in on this, Mrs. Windsor."
"They told me that they will hurt Richmond if the police are involved."
"They will hurt him whatever you do, if we do not find him first." Remington's voice was chilling and his eyes were like blue steel.
"Oh, my God! They have told me where to drop the plans and when. They will kill my Richmond. It is three o'clock already!" Her voice broke and she began to cry.
"There, there, Mrs. Windsor. We will resolve this and get your Richmond back to you. Alessandre, please take Mrs. Windsor to our room in back where she can rest while Laura and I work on how we are going to approach this."
"Do we have any idea where the Mr. Lee can be found?" Laura asked Hector.
"The phone number traces to a place on Pico in Korea Town. It seems to be a car repair place."
"Hector and I should go see Mr. Lee. Laura, please try to calm Mrs. Windsor down while we are gone. We just don't know where this is going to end."
"Do you think we should call Lieutenant Woodley in on this now?"
"We don't have anything. Hector and I will just do a bit of investigating of this Mr. Lee for now."
"I don't want anything to happen to you, Rem. I wouldn't know what to do without you."
Remington gazed down at Laura and saw the concern in her eyes.
"I wouldn't know what to do without you either, love."
He quickly kissed her lips before he left the office with Hector.
* * * * * *
The address on Pico appeared to be an auto body repair shop. Remington and Hector walked into the building casually as if they were prospective clients.
"Who you want to see, sir?" the young manager asked warily. He looked strangely clean cut for an auto body repairman.
"We're looking for Young Lee . . . a business matter," Remington said. "I think we have something he may want and he may have something that we want."
The manager's eyes narrowed slightly.
"I do not understand."
"Where is Richmond Windsor? You tell whoever it is that you work for that I want Windsor back at his home by nine o'clock this evening or any deal is off. If you want what he has, you must negotiate for it like everyone else. I can be reached at this number when the package is ready."
"I do not understand."
"Yes, you do understand. Anyo haseoh!"
Remington bowed slightly and left the building with Hector following behind him.
"What was that, Mr. Steele?"
"That was the bait, Hector. I am giving them opportunity to save face and return Mr. Windsor. If they think that we know what is happening, they would rather bow out without direct confrontation. It is the Asian way."
While they were on their way back to the office, Remington got a call on his cell phone.
"Yes. Yes. I do know where that is. No police will be involved if this matter is handled in good faith. You have one and only one opportunity."
"Head for the docks, Hector. They say they will leave Mr. Windsor there this evening at 8:00 p.m. on a small fishing boat, the Korean Queen."
"You still will not bring cops into this, Mr. Steele?"
"Not at this point. We may have to deal with these blokes again some day and I want them to know that my word is true. That can mean the difference between life and death one of these days. They have Mr. Windsor and they can kill him if they wish, but they will not have the plans for that car. That is more valuable than Mr. Windsor to them at this point."
Remington called Laura to bring her up to date on the situation as insurance for their safety as they made their way to the determined pickup point.
When they arrived at the docks and found the small boat where Windsor was held, Remington quickly boarded and cautiously went below. He opened the cabin to find the man tied up in ropes and bound to a chair.
"I'm here to get you out, Mr. Windsor. Sorry that we were detained in getting to you."
"Thank God!" Windsor exclaimed as Remington freed him.
"Now let's get out of here. This situation does not feel just right."
Remington and Windsor went back on deck and were making their way off the boat when they saw Hector being held at gunpoint by two Asian men, who motioned for them to come as well.
"I said that I didn't like the feel of this situation."
"What's going on?"
"It appears your captors do not want to negotiate in good faith." Remington said dryly. "Quickly now, where is the information that they are seeking? Absolute truth."
"Actually it is in the plant, locked up in my safe. Only my wife and I have the combination."
"Is there a back-up copy anywhere?"
"Actually there is one-in my office at home."
Remington went quiet as they approached the other men who were holding Hector at gunpoint.
"Just follow my lead, Windsor," Remington murmured.
"Now, Mr. Remington Steele, you will take us to the plans that we are seeking."
"You are Mr. Lee, I take it," Remington replied.
"No, I am not Mr. Lee. I simply represent him. That is all you need to know."
They hustled Steele, Windsor, and Hector into their car and started driving from the harbor area when suddenly they were cut off by two police cars at the entrance to the docks.
"I suggest that we avoid trying to outrun the police, gentlemen. They are very good at what they do. And that will not help you with your project either. Mr. Windsor has already negotiated with T. Boone Pickens of Mesa Power in Texas, (I am sure you know who I am speaking of) in a deal for the plans for this car. You have come with too little too late. I negotiated with you in good faith, but apparently my wife had the authorities ready to stop us if we were not freely released."
The driver looked back at Steele with complete disdain as he got out of the car and surrendered to the Lieutenant Woodley along with the his partner. Laura got out of the limo and ran to Remington who caught her up into his arms.
"I had to come. I just didn't feel safe, Remy."
"Good timing, Laura." He turned to Richmond Windsor. "And now I suggest that you contact T. Boone Pickens immediately and make an offer which includes these plans. He is known to be a fair man and his organization can protect them. Some things are just too hot to handle for a man in your circumstance. You must have someone or something powerful backing you up or you are not going to survive."
"And you know about T. Boone Pickens?"
"I read the papers, Mr. Windsor," Remington said with a sardonic smile. "Now I think that we should get you back to your wife. She has been in quite a state with you missing."
At the office there was a flurry of excitement when Remington, Laura, and Hector brought Richmond Windsor in. In spite of the period of captivity he had endured, his blond handsomeness was quite apparent and the look in his eyes when he saw his wife again and embraced and kissed her, left no doubt as to where his affections lay, no matter how many years his senior she happened to be.
"Windsor, I think that you and your wife have matters to attend to. Why don't we meet here on Monday morning to sort out the rest of this? We all could do with a break at this point, I'd say."
Remington and Laura finally left the office at nearly ten o'clock after sending the Windsor's to the Bonaventure for the weekend for safe keeping.
"You gave up our reservation for Richmond and Kathleen Windsor. That was very generous of you, Remy."
"They looked like they needed it more than we do," Remington quipped as he took Laura into his arms. "And besides, I want him in a safe place for the weekend, while we figure out the rest of this puzzle. As for me, I think that I just want to go home and get into our bed with my woman tonight . . . and thank God that my family is safe."
Epilogue:
Remington and Laura Steele came home to their house in the Hollywood Hills minus their twin daughters for the first time ever on December 20, 2008. The wedding of the two of them to the Brathwaite twins had been truly beautiful, Remington sparing nothing to give his beloved girls away in high style to the handsome Barbadian twins who had been born on the same day just a few months over twenty years previously. Their friend, Jocelyn Walters from Weddings Unlimited had pulled out all the stops to use the Steele-Brathwaite double wedding to showcase their newly opened wedding facilities in North Hollywood.
All the friends and family had been there. Even David and Jacqueline Chalmers, now in their eighties, had made the trip from London to be there along with all the family from California. Bryce Daniel had come out from Chicago to be a part of the festivities as well.
Remington had been stunning as usual in a tuxedo custom-made for him. He was still incredibly handsome at the age of fifty-five, his hair marked with several streaks of gray, his body firm and straight. The most poignant moment was when his voice broke when he was called upon to give his twin daughters away.
"I somehow always felt that the two sets of twins would marry," Laura said as they went through the front door of their house. "These last few months preparing for the wedding, watching them so caught up in one another have been difficult. I'm glad they're finally married."
"I think I always prepared myself for it too. We're adding quite a bit of color to the gene pool, love."
As Remington and Laura found their way to their own bedroom in the darkened house, his thoughts turned in a different direction. His senses focused completely on his wife and he caught her by the hand and drew her suddenly into his arms.
"I think we should take advantage of this quiet house, love."
Laura tilted her face up to Remington and he winked at her. It melted her as much as when he had first done it more than twenty-seven years previously.
"You looked positively smashing as the mother of the brides," Remington said, looking her up and down in characteristic fashion.
Laura was in fact stunning at fifty-three. Her hair was randomly streaked with long strands of gray and she had it up in an elegant French twist. She was still slender, but no longer the hundred and five pounds she had maintained for so long. Her weight had leveled off at one hundred fifteen after baby Maggs and just stayed there. Her hips were fleshier and her stomach muscles never completely recovered, but her figure was even more shapely than in earlier years and her breasts were magnificent, the cleavage pushing upward in the neckline of her elegant celery-colored lace and beaded dress in a manner that had distracted Remington all evening.
Remington gave in to the intense arousal in his flesh and drew her into his arms as they went into their bedroom and closed the door behind them.
"Let the young people go to the 'after' parties. I'm glad we have the house to ourselves, love. We can have our own party right here."
"And what did you have in mind, Mr. Steele?" Laura teased.
He answered by easily unzipping Laura's dress, following that with a series of kisses on her back and neck as he slipped the dress from her freckled shoulders.
"Um, woman, I want you tonight," he whispered as he found the tortoise shell combs that held her hair in its elegant upsweep and allowed the thick grey-streaked chestnut locks to fall to her shoulders.
"I know that you do," Laura said, turning to face him. Remington's features were flushed as his passions asserted themselves. He released Laura's brassiere so that her breasts were there for him once more.
"God, Laura, I am so crazy for you." He bent to kiss her breasts, his nostrils flaring wide to inhale her scent, and Laura caught him to her bosom as he finished undressing her and then picked her up and carried her to their bed.
"As handsome as you look in that tux, you're going to have to take it off," darling," Laura whispered.
"You don't let me wonder what you want. That's what I love about you, lassie."
Laura watched him undress and smiled. He was so beautiful when he was like this, so lacking in any self-consciousness about his handsome body, so glad for her to see his need in anticipation of connection with her.
He got onto the bed with Laura and took her into his arms, found his place between her breasts and sighed deeply.
"You intoxicate me, Laura."
"I begin to feel like my body is just not beautiful anymore . . . and then I get into bed with you."
"You are a vital and gorgeous woman in full bloom. I have used your body so many times, woman, and I still haven't seen enough."
"I've loved your using me and I want you to see all of me."
Remington caressed her, searching for all the places that brought pleasure to her flesh, till she was helpless in ecstasy. Ever the imaginative lover, he lifted her knees onto his shoulders so that she was cleft wide open to his gaze as they came together. And he used her with all his vigor, coming hard into her and rotating powerfully again and again with Laura groaning with each thrust till suddenly Remington felt himself coming to climax.
"Laura!" he croaked her name. "Laura, I love you so, babe."
After all the years, Remington always cried out in surprise when it happened, the sheer perfection of it capturing him every time just as if the very first time.
Remington's whole body flushed, his pupils dilated at the sight of Laura so excited, rejoicing to bare herself completely to him, all of the inhibitions of her youth gone, her own coloring heightened, her eyes rolling back uncontrolled as the rhythm of coitus caught them up. The pleasure was so intense that they could not hold the climax back. And it was upon them so quickly that they could do nothing except let it roll over them, with blinding force as a rainbow of brightly colored lights seemed to explode simultaneously in their brains.
Remington let his wife down from the cleft position and then slipped back into her as they lay together, allowing their passions to slowly ebb.
"You were so beautiful, Laura, showing me that rare beautiful swollen orchid dripping with fragrant nectar . . . your most intimate parts, darling."
"You make me blush when you talk like that. I am still a little shy after all these years?"
"You are nothing like at the beginning when I had to convince
you of how beautiful you were, how much I longed to look at you,
how I wanted to see everything and you were so hesitant with me.
Now you know how lovely you are and when you show me, I am completely
undone, lass."
"You are so like a wild horse when we make love . . . a beautiful
wild stallion."
"Your wild horse is getting old, darling, but he forgets when he is with you."
"I never get enough of you, Remington Steele. I admit it."
"You shameless wench. I remember when you would have cut out your tongue rather than admit that you crave this as much as I do," Remington quipped, kissing her playfully with pursed lips.
"I . . . thought menopause would slow me down."
"I prayed that it wouldn't . . . and the Lord has definitely answered that prayer, love."
"Am I terribly ravenous? I am, aren't I?" Laura answered her own question.
"I am quite desperate to keep up with you, lassie," Remington's smile revealed that he was truly jesting.
Laura giggled girlishly and hugged him tightly.
"Before you know it, we'll have our little coffee-colored grandchildren."
"Yes, Laura. God willing, our girls will be as fruitful as their mum."
Remington caressed her belly and squeezed it gently.
"You don't mind my belly, love."
"I love it. It reminds me of you carrying our precious little Maggs, the crowning gift of our fruitful marriage."
"You don't care if my belly is never flat again?"
"I don't want it to be. Like this . . . when I see you, I see my woman. You have given yourself to me night after night, day after day; your belly has carried our children and your lovely intimate parts are still so strong that I cannot restrain myself from crying out when we come together. You do know that, Laura. Each time you accept me it's like it never happened like that before."
Laura looked at him and shook her head, blushing.
"You know I wish it weren't all over."
"What, love?"
"The pregnancies . . . the fruitful years. I don't even understand why, but I wish I could have another baby for you."
"Darling, we have ten children . . . if you count Johnny and Joanna. You have carried eight wee ones. I don't need anymore children from you. I just need you."
"I loved walking with my belly, holding your hand, everybody knowing that I was carrying for you."
"I loved it too. I felt like the cock of the yard."
"And you were . . . This beautiful . . . cock . . . gave us our family." Laura caressed Remington's parts, cradling his testicles in her hand and they responded once again to her touch.
Laura had used the word that she had never used to refer to his parts and Remington chuckled in surprise.
"You never deigned to speak so plain, milady."
"I guess I can call it what I want to. This is mine . . . all mine, isn't it?"
"Yes, babe, yes! You know it's yours.!" Remington groaned.
Laura caressed him with the skill and confidence borne of years of being tuned in completely to the sensual needs of another person. She knew exactly how to pleasure him in countless ways and she sensed what he craved on this night.
Remington writhed, his back arching again and again in response to Laura's touch. The irises of his blue eyes turned into dark cobalt rims, his pupils completely dilated, as he lost all consciousness of anything but the unspeakable pleasure in his loins. Suddenly it escalated to the point that he could do nothing but grunt and groan, shaking in rapture.
"Lord! Help . . . us!"
"Yes, Remy," Laura whispered as she climbed onto him and the rhythm caught them up again.
There was no frantic urgency now, just the perfect joining of lovers who know where all their pleasure can be found, and have found it. Remington gave Laura all the time she wanted, watching her respond to the pressure of the magnificent stalk that was his to give to her. Her eyes turned characteristically nearly hazel when she was at full tilt, and Remington knew well what that meant from the wealth of sensual knowledge he had gained over the years with her.
Laura's head was thrown back, her thick chestnut hair a wild and beautiful mane as she gladly received Remington. She smiled, welcoming the contractions of the acme as they came upon her.
"Remy! Help me."
"God! Dear God!" Remington cried out and lost vision as the climax took them yet again.
They lay in their bed dazed, drenched with perspiration, and fulfilled. And when Remington kissed Laura and smelled the scent of his semen upon her breath, tenderness overwhelmed him and tears sprang to his eyes as him mouth completely possessed and tasted hers.
"You always beg me to help you at that special moment, love. Don't you know by now that I will take you all the way down the river."
"I know, but . . . at that moment I feel like I will die if I can't release all of what I'm feeling. Back in the day I was so afraid that I wouldn't be woman enough for you."
"I never doubted that you were the woman for me from the first day we met. Thank you, Laura . . . for loving me, for being my wife, for letting me belong to . . . you."
"I do. I do love you so," Laura sighed and tried to embrace him, but she was exhausted, her arms too weak to hold him.
Remington gently gathered her into his arms, cherishing her.
"We must think we are the ones havin' the honeymoon tonight, don't we, old girl," he said softly as he kissed her cheeks and then her forehead.
"Umm, it sure feels like a honeymoon," Laura said dreamily. "Didn't you promise me a honeymoon tonight when we were dancing?"
"I . . . I do recollect something like that. I was quite overcome with you. I saw no woman there more beautiful than you, darling."
"I hope our girls are as happy tonight as you have made me."
"Well, I dare say they are enjoying their young men. They are certainly endowed with the equipment and the sensitivity to satisfy them. I can only hope that they all realize the need for complete fidelity as marriage mates. They are so very young."
"Our girls were quite determined to get what they wanted. They have kept our loft very busy since they got engaged. I think they know already how to keep their men in tow." Laura giggled softly. "Greg and Geoff didn't stand a chance when our girls set their hearts on them."
"If Chlöe and Cassie have inherited half of the sensual nature of their mother, those blokes won't be able to think about anything but home sweet home," Remington chuckled. "But I think that they could benefit from some of your womanly advice at this point in their lives."
"Remy . . . I'm not the sensual one. You're . . . you're . . ."
"You are the most sensual woman I have ever known, Laura," Remington murmured as he reached to turn out the lamp, drew their covers up over them, and gathered Laura once again into his arms. "Sleep now, darling . . . for a while."
The End