by Bella King
Tonight, there’s going to be blood.
I turn from the TV and step back out into the shop. It’s empty now, and the clerk is nowhere to be found. He probably hightailed it out of here down to the nearest telephone booth, but I’ll be long gone before the cops get here.
I take another sip of my beer before throwing it onto the floor, piss-yellow liquid gushing out onto the linoleum floor. I follow it up with a glob of spit and a pile of ash before stepping outside.
The sun at noon is a force to be reckoned with, but I barely feel it anymore. I’m so used to Texas that I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Not many people move out of our small town. Even Marybeth’s father stayed here for a good long while after all that drama between them. I liked him, but she never did.
I unlock my truck, stepping up into the driver’s seat, and starting the engine. I filled it up before I went in to check the cameras. I have to fill up often because I don’t get many miles to the gallon, but this truck has the horsepower of a Lambo. That may come in handy when I catch up with Marybeth and Rey.
I slide another cigarette between my lips, sucking it down to the orange base so quickly that it burns my lips. I don’t mind it too much because I kind of hate myself, but maybe it’ll be better once I rescue Marybeth. I was never quite happy after she left me.
Then again, I’m not sure I’ve ever truly been happy, but that conversation is best left for a therapist. I’ve been over it too many times alone in my head already. It’s enough to drive a man crazy.
I pull out onto the road, setting my sights in the direction the Mustang was going. If my estimations are correct, they should be getting close to the border. I might be able to catch them there.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Marybeth
In the light of the midday sun, he mounts me. I’m drenched in shadow as Rey hovers over me, planting sweet kisses across my skin. The beads of water that were on my face are now replaced with a shimmer of sweat.
The grass tickles my back as he leans in further, pushing my legs apart with his powerful thighs. My body aches for him to take me, every cell inside of me reaching out for his muscular body.
The air moves slowly by the river, creating a cool breeze close to the earth. It’s not much, but it’s enough to make being outside bearable. I’ve always hated how hot it was here, but with Rey, I barely even feel it.
He rests his head on the side of my neck, his breath tickling my skin as he reaches his hands to my bottom and grabs my ass, positioning his cock outside of my pussy. He rubs it against my fluids, moistening the tip before he goes in.
I hold my breath in anticipation. At any moment, he could sink himself inside of me, tainting me forever with his wicked power. I’ll never be able to go back from this, but as I teeter on the edge of this rollercoaster, I’m the one who gives it the final push.
I place my hands on his ass, feeling the tight muscles as I spread my legs wider and push him in. I feel stretched, full, and not entirely comfortable at first, but the deeper he goes, the more powerful the radiating pleasure building between my legs is. It’s humming in my pelvis, working its way up like fairies dancing in my stomach.
Rey has control over my lower half, holding me in place with his large hands as he slides in and out. His fingers dig into the soft flesh of my ass, holding me tighter as his movements grow in speed and intensity.
Seconds ago, he was gentle and loving. Now, he’s slamming his balls against my pussy like there’s no tomorrow. He doesn’t need to wait to build up speed. I’m utterly drenched, dripping around his cock like a sloppy blowjob as he fucks me.
I’m overcome with pleasure, riding out waves of euphoria as the tingling that was once restricted to my pussy and legs travels throughout my entire body.
I’m hot, but not just from the sun. Every touch from Rey’s spectacular physique scorches my skin like fire, feeding the passion that’s growing between us.
“This is wrong,” I manage to utter, clinging to the last piece of sanity I learned at home.
Rey will have none of it. He only fucks me harder at those words and whispers in my ear, “Then why are you so wet?”
I moan, tossing my head back and holding him tightly as he pumps his hips, filling me with his cock. “Because,” I breathe, “It feels so fucking good.”
Rey lets out a throaty chuckle and dives deeper, his cock slick with my natural lubricant as he fucks me by the river. He is moving at a delicious speed, tightening the coil that leads to my climax. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to hold it back, and Rey shows no sign of slowing down.
This is it. I’m really doing this with him.
I dig my nails into his back, squirming as the intense pleasure comes to a peak. I press myself against him, my breasts glued to his chest, and my legs up high in the air as I start to climax. It’s powerful, blowing my mind like a bullet to the head, shattering my consciousness in an instant.
I grip Rey’s cock with my pussy as I cum, shaking and moving beneath him like a woman possessed. I can’t think about anything but having him inside of me and all the pleasure he’s giving me by being there.
He cums as I spasm around him, brought to climax by my own pleasure. I feel his cock pumping the sticky hot fluid into me, and I’m aware of what I’ve done.
In an instant, I feel every emotion under the sun. I’m ashamed, aroused, shocked, and comforted by the feeling of his semen in my pussy. I never thought I’d be here, but here I am.
With my grip, I urge Rey to stay inside of me, even as his orgasm passes. A wave of vulnerability follows my satisfaction, and I want to keep him close to me for as long as I can stand in the sun. For him, it’s probably hotter since he’s the one blocking out the sun with his broad back, but I need him here to feel good about what I just did.
A bead of sweat drips from the tip of Rey’s nose, splashing onto my face as I come back to reality. I’ll let him move now because I don’t want him to be sunburned to the fifth dimension.
He slides back off my as I release my grip, his thick cock coming out of my pussy, followed by a gush of his cum. He pumped so much of it inside of me that I feel like a water balloon. I don’t think I can keep it all even though I want to.
Rey stands up, towering over me like the perfect Greek statue as he holds out a steady hand to me. I wait for a second so that I can admire his figure in front of me, and then I take his hand, allowing him to pull me to my feet.
My legs are wobbly, and I’m still starstruck by what he has done to me. I’m also smiling like an idiot and embarrassed by it. I hope that he can’t tell why my cheeks are so pink. It’s not just from the sun.
“That was hot,” Rey says, but I don’t know whether he’s talking about the sex or referring to the sun that is now beating down on both of us.
I smile at him and agree, trying to find my footing in the dry earth so that I can walk to the river again without falling over. My body is recovering from the orgasm, but it was too strong for me to instantly spring to my feet and dash to the river. Rey, however, seems fine.
“Let’s get cleaned up. I think our clothes are dry by now,” he says.
I cup a hand over my eyes to block the glaring midday sun, and I see our clothes, as stiff as cardboard, plastered against the rock we left them on. They’re definitely dry. They’re probably roasted into brittle cakes at this point.
Rey slips back into the river before I do, and I stop to watch him wade into the slow-moving water. His tattoos reach down to his ass, but his actual cheeks are bare. It strikes me as cute, even on a man who is anything but cute.
I steady myself on my legs, taking a deep breath and walking into the water after him. The water feels even colder now that we’ve just had sex, but it’s in a way that relieves me instead of gives me goosebumps. I’d stay in the river all day if I could, but I know that Rey’s probably in a rush to leave.
Our clothes are crispy and hot when we retrieve them from the rock, but we’re no lon
ger dirty and gross. I feel much better now, almost like we’re on vacation instead of on the run from the cops and cartel. All I want to do now is kick my feet up and relax in Rey’s Mustang as he continues the drive up to Canada.
“I’m starving,” Rey says, pulling his grey t-shirt over his head and rubbing his stomach.
I hadn’t thought about food at all, but neither Rey nor I have eaten anything. “You’re not going to lock me in the trunk again, are you?” I ask.
“Probably not,” he replies.
“Probably?”
“Not,” he says, finishing the phrase.
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, I got that, but why not just ‘no’?”
He shrugs. “I still don’t trust you.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rey
I can already hear the alarms going off in Marybeth’s head when I tell her I don’t trust her, right after we had sex, but it’s the truth. I can be honest, but people tend not to like it. I garner from Marybeth’s shocked expression that she doesn’t like it either.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she says, shaking her head in disapproval.
I walk around the front of the Mustang, opening the door and sliding behind the wheel. I know she’s trying to start an argument, but I’m not pressed on entertaining one. I’ve got what I wanted, and now it’s time for me to chill out and enjoy the rest of the drive.
I pull out a cigarette, hand-rolled, and gifted to me by the guy who set me up with the car, and I slide it between my lips.
“Are you smoking?” Marybeth asks, her frown deepening as she climbs into the seat beside me.
“What does it look like?” I ask, flicking my lighter and touching the orange tip against the end of my cigarette.
“That’s a bad habit,” she informs me, as though I didn’t already know it.
“Want to try?” I suck in some of the smoke and hold it out to her.
To my surprise, she snatches it out of my hand, but not to toss it out the window and save me from my wicked ways. Instead, she takes the longest drag I’ve ever seen anyone take from a cigarette, burning down half the damn thing in one go.
She slides down in her seat, handing it back to me as she lets out the smoke with an audible sigh of relief. “It’s been a while,” she says.
I chuckle. “I thought you were a good girl.”
“I was,” she replies. “And then I wasn’t, and then I was, and now I guess I’m fucking not again.”
“Can’t make up your mind?”
“I think I have,” she says, looking over at me with a crooked grin as I start the car.
I narrow my eyes at her. “I knew there was something odd about you.”
“I just never fit in growing up,” she says with a shrug, taking the cigarette as I pass it back to her.
I throw the shifter into gear and pull back out onto the road. “I never fit in either, but I think that’s pretty obvious.”
“What were your parents like?” she asks.
“Dead.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah, but it’s not a big deal. The streets raised me fine, and I learned how to hustle early on. You get by when you know how to steal, and you get smarter about it once you have to endure a little time in prison,” I explain.
“That’s rough. I guess I can’t blame you for your lifestyle,” she says, looking into her lap.
“Nah, you can definitely blame me. I chose this shit. I mean, I made plenty with cocaine, and yet here I am. I got greedy, I suppose.”
She looks back up at me, her eyes wide with honest empathy. “I don’t think you’re greedy. For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re that bad at all.”
I laugh. “Foolish.”
“I’m not,” she insists, her eyes going from empathetic to almost sad. “I kind of like you, Rey.”
“You don’t even know me,” I reply. “And besides, I’m dropping you off once I reach the border. I trust you won’t tell anyone about our little adventure until I’m in Canada.”
“What if I want to go with you?” she blurts.
“You can’t handle this life, Marybeth. It’s not for you,” I reply.
God, how I’d love to have a woman like her by my side, but I know how this works. She gets all caught up in me because of the sex but then skips town the second things go sour. They’re all like that.
“You could teach me a thing or two,” Marybeth says, refusing to give up that easily. There’s a fighter in her, but it’s probably not strong enough to overpower my decisions, and I’ve decided that she needs to go back home once I leave the country.
“Aren’t you worried about losing your friends?” I ask, avoiding the topic of her family entirely.
“I don’t have friends,” she snaps.
“I bet you do,” I reply.
“I don’t.”
“Okay, but what about Texas? It’s a nice state.”
“Too hot.”
I sigh. “What about your freedom? If you stick with me long enough, you’re going to end up in prison.”
“I can handle it.”
“Or dead.”
She shrugs. “Dead is better than stuck at home for the rest of my life.”
“You have other options, you know?”
“What if I don’t care?” she asks, but I can see in her eyes that I’ve sown the seeds of doubt. It’s not that I don’t want her by my side, but I’d rather see her live a normal life than to get wrapped up in all this.
“You don’t have to care, Marybeth. I’m not going to let you…” I trail off when the sight of a shiny police car bumper catches my eyes in the rearview mirror.
Marybeth’s head spins around just as quickly as my eye lock onto the threat, and she lets out a gasp. “They’re coming for us, Rey,” she says.
“They’re coming for me, Marybeth. Not you,” I correct, stepping on the gas a little harder.
The police car doesn’t have its siren or lights on yet, but that might just be a ploy to get me to trust them. I’m almost certain that those lights are coming on when they get close enough to recognize my license plate.
“Are you going to kill him?” Marybeth asks, eyeing the rifle in the backseat with morbid excitement.
“Jesus, when did you become such a lunatic?” I ask, gripping the wheel harder. “I’m not shooting at anyone who I don’t have to. My main idea is to outrun them.”
She turns back around and crosses her arms over her chest. “What’s wrong with wanting a little more action? I told you I could handle this.”
The sex must’ve broken something in her brain because she’s doing a complete turnaround on all the shit she was talking when we first met. Maybe she’s afraid of losing me, but this is much bigger than a little romance on a road trip. My life is dangerous, and it’s only getting more so.
I study the police car in the rearview mirror, trying to figure out if they’re actually coming after me or not. Right now, everything points to yes, aside from the fact that they’re not speeding up as I do. I’m pushing the legal limit, and anything more than that will make them put on their siren regardless of if they realize who I am.
I puff on my cigarette until it begins to burn my lips, and then I ash it in the old cup sitting in the cupholder between Marybeth and me. I don’t want any action today if I can avoid it, but that police car is giving me bad vibes. Why the hell haven’t they started pursuing me yet?
It might be worse if the cop decides not to pursue me right away. They could be following me until I run out of gas, trailing just far enough behind so that I don’t freak out and run, but not ever leaving me in peace entirely.
I lean over to Marybeth, patting her thigh and turning serious. “I want you to hang tight and do exactly what I tell you to, okay?”
She shrugs. “Anything you want.”
I squint at her, suspicious of her sudden change in demeanor, but I won’t question it too hard right now. I just want to get the hell out of this state and ditch this car f
or another one. It’s not safe to keep driving it everywhere with how eye-catching it is.
I slow the car down, keeping my hand on Marybeth’s thigh. “Just relax and try to look normal,” I tell her. “I want to see if this fucker knows who I am or if he’s just passing by.”
“Doesn’t everyone know your car by now?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Your little town was pretty slow getting the news about my escape, and I reckon out here in the middle of nowhere, not everyone knows or even cares about who I am,” I reply.
“So, you’re going to let him catch up to us?” she asks, spinning back around as her voice goes shrill with realization.
“Yes,” I answer, confident in my decision. “What’s the worst he can do?”
A bullet cracks the back windshield, causing both of us to jump. Then another one comes flying through, and another. The lights on the police car are still off, but there’s a man leaning out, firing his gun at us.
He doesn’t look much like a cop.
“Oh shit,” I mutter through gritted teeth as I slam my foot down on the gas.
“Why the fuck is he shooting at us?” Marybeth yells as I start swerving on the road, trying to evade the gunfire.
“I don’t think that’s a cop,” I yell back, leaning low into the steering wheel.
“Who else would it be?”
“The cartel.”
She scrunches up her nose, leaning forward in her seat like me to duck the bullets. “The cartel stole a police car?”
“Yes, and probably killed the driver, too,” I reply. “You know, they’ll basically do anything at this point to get me.”
“But why?”
I laugh, shaking my head as I try to keep an eye on the road with my head so low. “Because I have something they want.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Marybeth
“Is it the money? It must be the money, right?” I ask, trying to figure out what would drive the cartel to come after Rey with such reckless abandon. I’m sure he has enemies, but this is ridiculous.