Rob had done some searching for buildings on his phone during the drive. There were a couple that he thought might work and we pulled straight into the parking lot of the first one as soon as we got into town. I got out and went inside the building with Michael to meet with the owner who was selling it, while the other two guys stayed in the car with a still-sleeping Naomi. If nothing else, she would be well-rested and hopefully that might help to calm her down a little bit when the drugs wore off.
The building was an old retirement home. It had several private bedrooms down two opposite hallways, and a bathroom in between each set of rooms. There was a little kitchen, a community room, and even an outdoor gardening area. It was clean, operational, and needed only a few minor repairs in addition to needing to be furnished and stocked with supplies. It was perfect.
“I’ll take it,” I blurted out, even as the man was still trying to explain some of the features of the building.
Michael looked at me with a raised eyebrow. He was probably thinking that I should have negotiated a lower cost than the asking price. Or maybe he was thinking that I should have waited until we asked some more questions to make sure that everything was fully functional beneath the surface level and that there would be no major repair surprises in a few months down the road.
But honestly, I didn’t even care about any of that.
My mother’s inheritance money was such a large amount that I could have paid triple the asking price and still been fine with it. If something went awry with the building a few months from now, then I would simply pay someone to come and fix it. The bones of the building’s structure were perfect, and I could already envision the sanctuary.
In fact, that’s what I would name this place.
The Sanctuary.
I wanted something that was ready to be lived in right now. That way we could all stay here, keep an eye on Naomi, and work on getting The Sanctuary up and running. I was ready to hand him the cash and take the keys.
When we got back to the car, Michael explained in a rather amused tone that I had just purchased the building and that we needed to go to the bank and then come back with the necessary components to finish the deal. Neither Adam nor Rob protested, and the entire process took less than an hour before we were back at the building and I had the door keys in my hand. Just as I was getting back into the car to talk to the guys about what we would need to do next, Naomi woke up.
She was groggy and agitated, and she was extremely confused about where she was.
“Ugh,” she groaned as she looked out the window at the vacant building where we were parked. “Please tell me that you’re not stupid enough to think that you’re going to make that into some sort of mental institution.”
“No,” I answered her truthfully. “None of us are qualified to run a mental institution. It’s going to be more like a group home, where people can come to get help and help each other.”
Naomi made a simulation of a gagging gesture and rolled her eyes. “You are just like your mother. Optimistic and unrealistic to a fault,” she said.
“How can optimism be a fault?” I asked her, smiling because she told me I was just like my mom.
She shrugged. “Because optimism hides the truth. The truth is that this building will be nothing short of a disaster. No one will come here to be a part of your pet project, and even if anyone does, they will end up trashing it and leaving you to cry over all your wasted time and money.”
“Well, Naomi, I guess you’ll be able to laugh in my face about it soon if you’re right then; because you’re going to be the first resident here,” I said with a grin.
Naomi kicked and hollered as Michael pulled her out of the passenger seat and into the building by her bound wrists, which were starting to bleed. I felt no pity for her at all as I watched Michael drag her inside. She had nearly killed him. I didn’t care if he dragged her inside by her hair.
The building was empty, aside from a couple of random chairs that had been left behind and a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom. We all agreed to take turns guarding Naomi while we got the place set up and figured out what to do with her. The first things to do were to make places to sleep, configure a way to keep Naomi confined, and get food and the supplies that we would need for the first few days of living here. Rob took the first shift to watch her while Michael stayed in the building and started working on some of the things that needed repair, like the faulty light in the bathroom. It was a good idea for there to be at least two of the guys at the building in case Naomi decided to try to pull something again. Adam and I headed back to the halfway house because there were supplies there that we could likely use. On our way there, we stopped at several stores and ordered beds to be delivered and a large delivery of food and sundries, which was thankfully able to be delivered on the same day.
It was a strange feeling to be back inside the halfway house. I couldn’t even remember how many times we had all told each other that we would never be back near these campuses again. But yet here we are, again. There was a bit of bittersweetness to it. It was nice to see that the halfway house was still successfully being run, even without Adam and I there.
It gave me hope that The Sanctuary would be able to have the same success too.
It was also disheartening to be back though. It was as if we could never really outrun our past, no matter how hard we tried.
Adam said hello to a few people while I looked around. Then we both went back to the storerooms to see if we could grab a few immediately necessary items to get us through tonight while we waited on our orders to be delivered. I left a plentiful wad of cash with the woman who was now running the halfway house, enough to replace the supplies we were taking about three times over. The money didn’t matter, but the time away from the building where Michael and Adam were watching over Naomi did. This was the easiest and fastest way to get what we needed for the next couple of days.
“I wish Julian was still alive,” Adam said. Then he shook his head as if he was trying to clear away the cobwebs. “Jesus I can’t actually believe that I said that.”
I laughed a little, even though the thought of Julian not being with us still made me as sad as if it had happened just yesterday.
“I just meant that it would be cool to have him around to help us with all of this, you know?” Adam smiled fondly as he remembered Julian. “That pain in the ass kind of grew on me after a while.”
I stopped my hand that was reaching toward a pile of blankets in the storeroom and looked at Adam. The thought of Julian being dead hurt every damn time that it came into my mind. I used the back of my hand to wipe my wet eyes.
“Yeah, I wish he was here too. It’s my fault he’s not,” I said as I tried to replace my grief with anger.
“What? No, it’s not,” Adam said.
I ignored him and started reaching for the blankets again. We might not have beds built by tonight, but we’d have mattresses delivered, and blankets. But Adam grabbed my wrist and turned me around to face him in the cramped little storeroom. I think that he was going to say something to me, probably something along the lines of “none of this is your fault, Lisette”, but instead the sudden closeness of our bodies pressed up against each other seemed to have stopped his words in his throat. I was glad for that, not only because I wanted him so badly that I couldn’t stand it, but also because I was getting sick of hearing people tell me that it wasn’t my fault. It didn’t matter what people said.
It only mattered what I believed.
“Lisette,” Adam said in a whisper.
He was trying not to. He was trying to tell me something that would make me feel all better. But the only thing we both felt was desire.
So, I reached my free hand up and grabbed his face and pulled his mouth toward mine.
When I did, he lifted my wrist and held it against the wall behind me as he pushed against my body with his own. He pinned me there, kissing me without relent. And when I finally wriggled my hand free from him, I used it to grab the top of his pants and pull his body even closer still.
Until I could feel throbbing hardness between his legs that I needed to have inside of me.
Our arms grasped at each other as our heads turned and our mouths pushed against each other. We were a formidable knot of pent-up desire that had come to a head.
His hands were everywhere, groping my clothed breasts as I bucked against him, my body no longer holding back.
I wanted him.
I needed him.
