by Koko Brown
“And more.” She hiked her skirt up a little above her knees and eased her seat back. “I’m sure he has someone watching my home, or has some tracking devices on my phones or something. I imagine Crush is sending people after me who he thinks I would trust.”
Russell blinked. “After all these years and with what I’ve been through, you still trust me?”
“Sure.” She shrugged. “Any reason why I shouldn’t?”
He could have listed multiple points that would have made her demand he pull the car over and send his ass packing. Russell returned his stare to the road ahead of him, and brushed his fingers over the skin next to his eye when he felt it moving a bit. He would have to keep Victoria talking or he would say or do something foolish soon, or worse, give away his true intent for helping her.
“You said something about Crush killing your mom.” He remembered the elegant Eloise who knew her way around any type of gun she picked up. He peered at Victoria. “Were you bullshitting me?”
The woman Russell remembered could definitely handle herself. He had seen Eloise make grown men cry and beg for forgiveness from just one look. The way Victoria handled herself at the airport, it looked like she picked up a lot of her mother’s traits. Why did Crush make it seem like Victoria held on to her irresponsible traits from her past?
Victoria took a deep breath. “What was reported was that Eloise Crandall overdosed. She would never harm herself.” She shook her head. “They did an autopsy on her and found a bunch of sedatives in her system.”
Russell started to open his mouth to ask if her mother would have taken them purposefully when Victoria stopped him.
“My mother also hated taking pills of any kind. She would rather sleep off a headache than take an aspirin.” She wiped her forehead. “You remember her, don’t you? You know.”
He knew that he had made some rash decisions today and he needed to get all of his ducks in a row. He knew what to do when he strong-armed someone, but he had no out plan for this situation.
Russell peered up and saw a sign that welcomed them to Eastern Shore. He wondered, after Victoria had paid the high toll amount, how far she would want to go.
His stomach growled. That simple breakfast he’d eaten before going to the airport didn’t hold him as long as he had wanted.
To keep himself occupied and forget about his hunger, he continued questioning her. “So why would Crush kill your mother? What did he have to gain?”
“Tell me something. Back when you worked for my father, people called you Chop. Why?” Victoria folded her arms over her chest as she regarded him.
Russell shook his head. “I really don’t want to talk about that part of my life. I’ve done my time. I’m trying to move on.”
“I understand. I’m trying to do the same thing. But how you answer will help me answer your questions about my father’s motivation. So Chop. Tell me about it.” She got quiet to allow him to answer.
Russell thought about his past, about his irrational behavior and hot-headed nature. “It didn’t take much for me to fight back in the day.” He stole quick glances. “A wrong look from a guy, I was all over him. I never lost.” He shook his head. “Never. I was a good hatchet man for your father.” He shifted in his seat for a different reason this time. “So that’s what I did. If Crush found out that someone stole something from him, he would put me on them. To punish them—”
He stopped, unable or unwilling to finish the story. Russell didn’t want Victoria viewing him differently, like an animal or a thug. He had changed.
“Go on.” She placed her hand on his arm.
The softness of it radiated through his body, making him hot all over. He also noticed something. Victoria’s hand trembled. Was she nervous to be by him, to hear this story? The old Russell would have used that fear to his advantage. The trembling, along with looking in her wide brown eyes, had his protective nature taking over his decision making.
He lifted his arm to break the hold she had on him, but then quickly grabbed her hand. “I got the nickname Chop because if you were caught stealing from Crush Crandall, I chopped off something on you. Crush wanted a visual message sent. If you took something small, I might take a finger or thumb.” To illustrate his point, he moved his hand up to hold her index finger. He noticed her breathing increased. “Something bigger, I would take a hand.” He wrapped his hand around her tiny fist and squeezed.
If he wanted to, he probably could have crushed some of her digits. As the thought crossed his mind, Victoria pushed in the cigarette lighter. Then she glared at him.
“I understand what you mean.” She glanced at his hand covering hers before she reconnected her gaze to his. “Let me go.” She hovered her hand over the knob with the worn-off illustration of a cigarette with smoke coming from the tip. “I can get this faster than you can. If you let my hand go, I’ll scratch your mother fucking eyes out. Think twice about hurting me.”
As much as Russell didn’t want to, he let Victoria go, and he became incredibly turned on by her fighting nature. He remembered this smart hellcat before he got arrested, the one that didn’t put up with anything.
He returned his hand to the steering wheel and his full attention to the road. He would have to be cautious with Victoria. If he planned on crossing her, he would have to make sure to keep all weapons away from her grasp.
“Did you kill anyone?” Victoria’s voice dropped down to a barely audible whisper.
“Don’t ask me that.” He drummed his thumb on the steering wheel out of nervous habit. “Your turn. What did Crush have to gain by killing Eloise?”
“People think Crush ran the city. No. It was my mother. She owned the largest hotels and clubs down at the Oceanfront area. She gave my father the seed money for his businesses. She was the big baller. I think, after a while, that wore on his nerves. Plus he could see that I was becoming more and more interested in the business. Mom was teaching me more.” Victoria curved her body around to him.
The cigarette lighter popped out. Both Russell and Victoria peered down at it. He looked at her to see what he next move would be.
Victoria crossed her arms over her chest and exhaled before she continued talking. “A couple of months ago, I had gone on a trip. As soon as I landed, I had gotten the news of my mother’s death. It bothered my father to learn at her will reading that she left everything to me. The only way he can get his hands on the money and the businesses is if something happens to me. I went to Vegas to put some separation between me and him.”
As Victoria told the story, it all sounded plausible. Russell started to see her as someone with a legitimate claim rather than a crazy psycho.
“You know how Crush is about money.” She leaned back. “Might not be a good thing that you’re helping me, especially if he finds out. Then again, maybe it’s a good thing for you that you didn’t finish the job.”
“You think Crush would do something to me?” Russell rubbed his hand over his sweaty bald head. “Why would he want to hurt me? I can understand you.”
“You are the only person who can do harm to his reputation. You have his secrets. You were fine when you were behind bars. Now that you’re out, you could really put the screws to him.” She pulled her shirt hem from being tucked in her skirt. “It’s so hot.”
Russell couldn’t agree with her more. “So what you’re saying is that you are now the head over all of your mother’s businesses.”
Victoria nodded.
He glanced at her. “I’m hauling around a millionaire, is that right?”
She shook her head. “More like billionaire.”
Russell almost slammed on the brakes at her correction. “Are you serious? A woman like you is in a piece of shit car like this with a—”
“Gentleman like you.” She offered him a smile.
“Yeah. Gentleman.” If she knew what he’d been thinking, she wouldn’t call him a gentleman. “You shouldn’t be running.”
“I’m not. I’m—”
<
br /> Russell cut her off. “You are. One thing I learned over the past few years, if you back down from a fight, you will never win.”
“Does that mean you’re ready to go home and face Crush?” She smirked.
“I’m not going to back down from him or anyone else.” He glanced at her. “I’m here for you.”
Silence hung in the car so heavy that Russell wished the A/C did work. He unbuttoned a couple of top buttons on his shirt.
“How much did Crush offer you to bring me in?” Victoria wrung her hands together.
“Five million.” Russell wouldn’t mince words. “I walked away from a payday big enough to start my life over, unless…”
Victoria finished his thought. “Unless you take me to him.”
“It’s not like you’re going to jump from a moving car, right?”
Now he had to stop talking to her. Russell told her too much.
She clasped her hands together and placed them on her lap in a businesslike way. “You’re helping me because of a business deal. Let’s keep it that way.” She cleared her throat. “I’ll give you double if you keep me safe for a few days.”
He snickered. “A billionaire like you could give me way more than ten mil.”
Victoria sat up tall, braced one hand on her seat’s headrest and the other on the sun-bleached, faded blue, cracked dashboard as she faced Russell. Wind rushing through the windows billowed her thin top, and her hair whipped lightly around her face. “What else did you want?”
Russell didn’t have a quick answer for that loaded question. What he wanted, he didn’t know if she could or would provide. For years, he imagined taking this woman sexually in every kind of way possible. Missionary, doggie style, her on top, anal.
He imagined that she kept her pussy either clean-shaven or with a little strip of hair. He would eat her out until she went dry, which he suspected that she never did. A young woman like Victoria probably went to bed and woke up wet.
Then he thought about her sucking his dick. Her full, bow-shaped lips would look so good around his shaft. Russell could almost feel the warmth of her mouth on him, surrounding him. He would come so hard that it would buckle his knees, and she would swallow every drop.
In his dreams, she had begged him for more. In reality, she wanted to burn him and scratch his mother fucking eyes out. What did he want? Her. Like they say, people in Hell want ice water.
Russell rubbed his chin. “A few days, huh? Then what?”
“The first board meeting with me being an owner is on Monday. I’m trying to stay secluded until then. If something happens to me before the meeting, Crush will swoop in to take over. I can’t have that. If I get beyond that point, I think I’ll be safe. I can get a good outside security team around me and keep Crush as far away from me as possible. I’ll make sure to keep my mother’s businesses legitimate. Under Crush, they would turn into drug dens and gun-running operations. I know it.”
No wonder Crush wanted to keep Victoria in his home through Monday. It all made sense. Victoria’s theory about Crush tying up loose ends with Russell also rang true for him. He could definitely see Crush locking Victoria up somewhere in his home, and getting Jelly to put a bullet in Russell’s head instead of paying him.
Victoria had Russell hooked by the sincerity in her eyes.
He asked her again, “Why are you running?”
“I told you. I’m not running. I need some time to think.” She punctuated her statement by reclining back in her seat.
“You’re wounded and you’re going off somewhere to heal. You can’t do that.” He ran his hand over his thigh. “If Crush is after you, he thinks he’s already won because he’s got you running scared. Hold your head high. Show folks you mean business.”
Victoria smiled. “You told me that same thing when I was seventeen.”
Russell didn’t remember saying something like that back then. It shocked him that she recalled that. “So you want me to turn around?”
Victoria shook her head. “No. I need a game plan. I need a place to think.” She looked through the windshield. “A few more miles and we’ll be in Maryland.”
A realization hit Russell and he slowed down the car. “I can’t cross state lines.” He peered at her. “I’m a parolee. I can’t leave the state unless I tell my p.o. first.”
“Are you serious? We’re talking about my life here, and yours.” Victoria sat up straight.
“Exactly.” He split his attention between the road and her, making sure he didn’t cross the line. “I just got out. I’m trying hard to go straight. I don’t need anyone pissed off at me right now.”
She chuckled. “Too late. I don’t think Crush will be a fan of yours if he finds out that you’re helping me.”
He shook his head. “All I wanted to do was get what was owed to me and leave town.”
“Back then, what were you promised?”
Russell hadn’t spoken a word about this deal to anyone. Not his attorney. Not his cellmate. Not even his mother when she pleaded with him to tell on Crush. With everything Russell had gone through, he felt the need to purge, especially to someone who could be an ally.
“Before everything went down that night, Crush and I had a conversation.” Russell’s body eased back into his seat. He felt a spring jutting into the center of his spine, which prevented him from getting too comfortable. “Both of us knew we were on borrowed time. Either we were going to get popped by the cops or…” He stopped before he said anything else incriminating about Victoria’s father. “Anyway, I told him about my family. Told him I had a baby brother who was going to do great things with his life one day, and not be a fuck-up like me.”
Russell heard Victoria release a heavy sigh like she wanted to console him. She leaned in closer to him and tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ears, but remained silent.
“I told him that my mother didn’t understand what I was doing with my life. She was a single mother, raising us two boys on her own. She did good with one.”
“Both.” Victoria smiled.
Her kind words didn’t change Russell’s perception. “I wanted fast money. It didn’t matter how I got it. So Crush and I made deals with each other. Anything happened to me, he would take care of my mother. Put her up in a nice home. Put some money in her account. If I got locked up, he would put money in my account so that when I got out, I would be taken care of.”
“Did my father hold up his end of the bargain?” She crossed her arms over her chest as she awaited his answer.
Russell said nothing. He gripped the steering wheel and drummed his thumb over it.
“Understood. I can see where that would make you mad. I’m surprised you believed him enough to follow through on this job.” Victoria dropped her gaze. “So if the situation was reversed, what did you promise to Crush?”
Russell peered over at Victoria.
“You asked him to look out for your family. What did my father ask you to do if he went to jail or, um, worse?” She ran her hand over her throat.
“It doesn’t matter, does it? He remained free. I did the time.” Russell thought that his statement would have ended the conversation.
Victoria gripped his arm. Back in the day – hell, only days ago in prison – Russell would have broken a person’s finger for touching him. From her, he wanted more. Her second touch soothed him more than her first time. He wanted her to hold him like she never wanted to let him go.
“Please.” Her request could barely be heard over the noisy engine.
Russell answered without looking at her. “Revenge.” His one-word reply ripped at his gut. “If anything ever happened to Crush, he wanted me to seek revenge on his behalf. Either find the person who got him incarcerated, or harm the person who killed him.”
“So you worried about your family. Crush worried about his reputation.” She shook her head.
Silence filled the inside of the car that smelled of stale cigarettes and a pine-tree-scented deodorizer.
“There you go. Asking questions you shouldn’t be asking again.” He cleared his throat. “What’s in the past should remain there. Can’t relive it. Can’t undo it. It’s time we all moved on, don’t you think?”
At his blunt statement, Victoria removed her hand from his arm. For a car with no air conditioning, Russell suddenly felt very cold.
“We’re going kind of far. Won’t your husband or boyfriend be worried about you?” Russell wanted to pose the question in a more casual way. No time like the present.
“No. I’m a grown woman.” As though she needed to prove it, she sat up taller, jutting out her rounded breasts. “I can come and go as I please.”
He nodded.
After a beat, Victoria concluded, “And I don’t have a husband or boyfriend.”
Russell tried not to look too relieved, but his slight smile probably gave away how he felt. He kept his face forward and away from Victoria’s full view.
He didn’t know why the news of her single life gave him some pleasure. No way in the world would she consider him as a good match for her. Then again, many years ago, she had given him a sign that she wanted him.
“If I can’t convince you to go even further, you can take the next exit and stop at the Holiday Inn Express.” She pointed to a road sign. “You really have become a regular Boy Scout now, huh?” She chuckled. “So different from the guy I knew years ago.”
“I’m trying hard not to fuck up again.” He glanced down at her legs, then directed his attention back on the road. “You know, I don’t mind driving you to wherever you want to go.”
She sighed. “I hear a but coming.”
“Unlike you, I don’t have extra clothes. I wasn’t expecting to run when I came to pick you up.” Something told Russell to grab his bag of stuff when he left his hotel room.
Instead, he left it in his room back in Virginia Beach. At least he had his watch and wallet, which contained his new driver’s license.