by Korry Smith
"Keep an eye out!" a man yelled.
I focused all my energy and concentration on the cars as they pulled up, their tires crunching over the rough terrain and kicking up rocks, pelting the side of the bus. Their engines hummed, idling, doors opening and closing, an influx of unknown voices overlapping and growing louder.
The commotion was a distraction but did nothing to alleviate this pain that radiated throughout my body.
"In there," someone said, bringing my attention back to the forefront.
There was a sudden banging, and heavy thumping on the steps of the bus like someone was stomping their feet, followed by distinct cocking of a gun.
"Where the fuck is she?" That voice I knew, and it was gruff, strained with emotion.
I couldn’t trust it and needed to see him. Opening my eyes, I leaned over and peeked around the seat.
My heart stopped.
I couldn't breathe.
He was standing there in the flesh, wearing a tattered orange prison jumpsuit, a lot like mine, but he had his top unbuttoned and hung down, showing off his wife-beater and tattoos. Sometime between last Friday and today, he shaved his head. It was short, not skinhead like that fed had mentioned by the elevators, but close enough.
All that glorious and messy black hair was gone, but he was still my Alex.
Towering over Arden with the Colt pressed to his forehead, he spoke fury through his gritted teeth. “Where’s Madi?”
I grabbed the edge of the seat in front of me to pull my body towards the aisle and called out to him, "Alex…" but it was low, barely above a whisper. He didn't hear my depleted voice amidst the confusion and continued to scour the bus for me.
My eyes water, making my eyesight even more fucked, as a solid lump lodged deep down in my throat. I was holding back that emotion—the kind that could turn me into a slobbering disaster within a second flat.
Jutting out his chin, he was losing his patience with Arden's silence and moved the barrel of the gun from his forehead to his mouth, shoving it in with brute force. "Fucking tell me where she is or I'm going to blow your fucking head off!"
I was half-tempted to let him pull the trigger and end that asshole, but my baby looked so rough and torn down.
Loss of love equals violence.
I should know.
The man had the power to take my breath away and breathe it back into me. That desperate need to feel him, to make sure he was real, took priority over my bloodlust.
"Alexander," I said louder this time, sitting up and tapping my wrists on the top of the seat, causing the chains to clink together.
He snapped his head to the sound, his eyes frantic, searching and finding me.
A slow, satisfied smile spread across my face. “You’re late.”
My guy smiled in return, so pained, and all the tension in his body washed away with a steady whoosh. Tucking the gun into his back waistband, he took several quick, and faithful strides in my direction. The closer and closer he got, pushing his way through the madness, the more intense with love and need his eyes became.
“There you are.” Dropping to his knees in front of me, he looked over my face and body as his hands patted down my legs, arms, and torso. He sighed with relief. “They didn’t get you.”
Before I had to chance to say anything, Alex took my face into a firm grip and put his lips on mine. All the pain and heartache, grief, and loneliness were gone and replaced with life and his love. A feeling of wholeness came over me. I was no longer just an empty version of myself.
I was home again.
He was my home.
"I was going fucking crazy," he said, and I was crying through his kisses. He tried to pull away, whispering my name, but I pressed our mouths together, forcing him to stay.
My guy didn't fight. Whatever I wanted, he gave me, and right then, all I wanted was his lips and tongue. He tasted like peppermint, but there was also a strong hint of cigarettes. My guy had been smoking like a fucking chimney again.
Alex had his face buried in my neck, kissing, and marking me, when someone kneed him in the back and cleared their throat.
"Yo, Lex."
The distraction was what we needed and not necessarily what we wanted.
“What?” we both snapped at the interrupter.
Len stood over us without apology and shrugged. "You gotta wrap this shit up."
There weren't sirens yet, but there would be.
"Fuck!" Alex leaned his forehead against mine. "I know."
"Here," Len said, holding out the keys to my chains. "Two minutes, brother."
My guy nodded, kissing me briefly on the lips before snatching the keys from Len and unlocking my ankles. Rubbing out the soreness with a soft massage with one hand, he opened my wrists with the other. Gazing up at me, he smiled, but his eyes were blackened with bruises, and his bottom lip was swollen and cut. The tiny things I didn't notice in the heat of the moment were all I could see now.
"Oh, my God, baby. What happened to you?"
He looked away and shook his head. "It's nothing."
"That doesn't look like nothing." I grabbed his chin and forced him to look at me.
"I'll tell you later.” Alex jerked his face out of my grasp and stood. "But right now?” He glanced out the back window and then down at me. “We gotta fucking move."
He was right. Time was ticking. I took his hand, and he pulled me up into his arms, unwilling to allow even the smallest space get between us again. Len led the way, and I saw how nasty this jailbreak was. Blood was everywhere, and I tiptoed around it. I looked down at the guard gone from this world and the convict who held him while he died. Her eyes were void of emotion, staring out into nothing, hands painted a deep red.
Arden was in the seat behind Dave with Sawyer pointing his gun at him. He would be the only guard who survived this event, and it didn't seem fair. I remembered all those things that bastard said to me when I couldn't fight back.
How many women will he fulfill his promises to?
I couldn't leave without giving him some parting words.
"Wait!” I pulled on Alex's arm. "Give me your Colt."
"Okay." Complying without thought, he took it out and placed it in my hand.
That blind trust he willingly gave over to me was unreal. No questions asked or anything, just, ‘Here's my gun. I trust you.’
The Colt heavy in my grip, the chrome-plated surface reflecting my decisive eyes, I flipped off the safety with my thumb. Sawyer backed away to give me room, but never lowered his weapon.
Placing my hand on the seat for balance, I leaned over Arden and put the muzzle to his knee. I recited the very words he told me not too long ago into his ear.
"Right before you go to sleep at night, you're going to think of me. Where I've touched you," I trailed the gun up his thigh, a gentle caress, like his filthy hands were on me, "and how you fought it, but I'll make you quiver so good, girl. Especially when I fuck you here." I shoved the gun into his crotch, jamming it as hard as I could into his nuts. He yelped out in pain. "It's going to be explosive." I smiled and pulled the trigger.
The loud pop startled the men, and they all jumped.
Arden recoiled away, screaming bloody murder, and throwing a needless fit. "You stupid bitch! You stupid fucking bitch!"
Alex yanked the gun out of my hand and put it to Arden's mouth. "Call her a bitch one more fucking time, asshole."
"Jesus Christ!" Sawyer grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off the bus. He threw me into the backseat of a waiting Mercedes. "Stay in the fucking car, Madi! Do you hear me?"
I nodded.
"You two are unbelievable!" He slammed the door closed behind him.
If there was one way to defuse a situation and get Alex's attention, it was to separate us. He came flying out of the bus less than a second later with Len hot on his heels. He searched for me around the vacant field with worried and panicked eyes. Frantically running his hands over his head, and into hair he didn’t have, he
yelled and asked where they took me. Sawyer pointed to the car. Then they argued about it. Alex yelled some more and cursed at him. Sawyer stood there with a calm demeanor, taking the abuse, but reprimanding my guy for the time wasted.
Eventually, Alex tuned him out and came storming towards the car. He was mad and fired-up. I liked that. It made him unpredictable and violent.
The heat of my arousal moved its way up, flushing my face and chest, and I pushed myself across the seat to make room for him. My pulse was racing with impatience, yearning for his touch.
He flung the door open and hopped into the car. Even before the door could close and lock behind him, he was grabbing me by the neck and attacking my lips. My hands flew up to his taut biceps, his skin burning my fingertips, needing that extra stability as he laid me back. I opened my legs to him and wrapped them around his waist. He grunted, and I could feel his hardness through the fabric of the jumpsuit, pressing into me with every firm thrust and grind of his hips.
It propelled me with courage, and discretion was no longer a factor.
Moving my hands down and squeezing them in between our tightly conformed bodies, I slipped my fingers below the hem of his jumper and rubbed my palm over him through his boxers. He squeezed my throat and pulled my head up from the seat, shoving his tongue deeper into my mouth.
He was straining to get out, hard and ready, and I wanted to grab him. I wanted to drive him crazy. I wanted to make him explode.
My mind miles ahead of me, I was pulling at the last barrier, my fingers just barely grazing over the bare tip, when Len made his presence known.
"You better not be fucking back there!"
I stilled, never taking my hands out, but hoping that if we stayed quiet long enough, he would disappear.
Alex didn’t even bother removing his body from mine. "Fuck off!" he said so eloquently against my lips and continued to kiss me.
It’d been seven nights since we felt each other like this, so close and tangible; it didn't matter to us who had the unfortunate chance of seeing it.
The only thing that brought me back to my senses was the lack of space. Alex was having trouble unzipping my jumpsuit, and I couldn't get my hands around him.
Not properly, anyway.
"I can't!" I huffed and pushed him away. "Not like this."
"You’re right." Alex sat up and leaned towards the front seat. "Hey, man, you gotta find us a hotel somewhere."
"What?" Len jerked his head away from the expanding road. It just occurred to me now that we were driving. "Are you fucking kidding me?"
"We can't fuck here, now can we?" Alex said with a shrug.
"You do realize that you and your girl are fucking fugitives, right? The cops are already out there looking for your asses."
"I don't give a God damn."
"Yeah, I can see you guys don’t give a fuck about anyone but yourselves." Len shook his head. "No, I'm driving you to meet up with Marcos, and that's it!"
"We gotta stop somewhere to change anyway, man. We can't go see Marcos in these prison uniforms."
Len snorted. "Change at a fucking gas station."
The thought made me cringe. I had my limits, very few, and fucking in a seedy gas station bathroom was one of them.
"Look," Alex said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You can either stop some place with a fucking bed, or you can plug your fucking ears. Either way, man, it's happening."
Len debated for a moment, not willing to give in, but knew that Alex wasn't bluffing. He had a choice, none of them appealing, but one of them didn't need therapy in the future.
Alex sat back in the seat with a self-satisfied smirk and threw his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him tight. He won, and he knew it. We just waited for Len to figure it out.
In the meantime, he decided to drive me crazy by slipping a wandering hand underneath this ugly jumpsuit, casually rolling his thumb over my nipple, and it hardened on contact.
"Damn it!" Len swore, yanking the car swiftly to the right and exiting the freeway. He glared at us through the rearview mirror. "You're going to fucking owe me for this."
Alex scoffed. "Put it on my tab."
Ten minutes later and an hour outside of Casa Grande, Len was handing Alex a card key and a duffel bag. The room was on the second floor, and not much of a drop if we needed to jump out a window at a moment's notice. I was always looking ahead at the nearest escape route now. Alex ingrained that survivor’s tick in me, and even being on the run, I wouldn't trade my life with him for a clean rap sheet.
"You're on the clock," Len said as we hiked the stairs. "Make that shit count!"
I would kill him for making his crude jokes, but for now, he was the timekeeper and our lookout. There was a police scanner and radio in the car. If anything was to go out on the wire, anywhere near close to our location, he was going to call Alex on his cell phone.
We had an hour—at best. It was stupid to risk this stop. There was a massive manhunt searching for us, and the Mexico and Arizona border blocked for twenty-five miles in both directions with police. No one was able to get in or out. We were playing with fire, and it burned, but then again, wasn't that the only way to go out, in a fiery blaze of glory?
The card key slid in and out, unlocking the door and unleashing a whirlwind of passion and chaos into the room. Alex dropped the bags to the floor and pushed me up against the wall. The impact knocked the wind out of me, leaving me breathless, but eager for his lips. I didn't even care if my lungs were starving for oxygen.
All I fucking wanted was him.
My old man had my back pinned, and with one hand inside the opening of my jumpsuit, he palmed my breasts with his rough touch, while the other one was firm on my throat to keep me still. He kissed me, greedy with need, plunging his tongue into my mouth.
I grasped his shoulders and dug my nails into his skin, hoisting my leg up and around his waist. He grunted, squeezing the shit out of my breast, painful and delicious, thrusting his hips into me, hard and urgent. He will fuck me through this damn thing if I let him.
"Bed…" I gasped against his lips.
Six days and seven nights of pent-up sexual frustration was a ticking time bomb. We had zero patience for romance or tenderness, we just wanted the ka-boom.
Alex grabbed my thighs and lifted me off the floor. He walked over to the freshly-made queen, throwing me to the mattress and stripping me down. Each article of clothing removed and thrown across the room into a pile by the door within a minute flat. It happened that fast.
He stood over me; his dick was harder than I'd ever seen, it fucking pulsated in his fist. The pre-cum was dripping and rolling down his head, glistening the tip. I licked my lips, and reacted on sight, sitting up and putting my mouth around him.
"Jesus, Madi!" he said, putting his hand on the wall, thrown off by my sudden attack.
I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of him, placing my hand at the base of his cock, and squeezing it tight. I moved up and down, slow, and steady. Licking him along the shaft, I lapped up the taste of his salty skin and the tang seeping out from the tip.
Alex lost it when I sucked on the narrow slit. "Fuck!"
Grabbing fistfuls of my hair, he slammed forcefully into my mouth and hit the back of my throat. He was twitching, close to exploding all over my tongue when he pulled out and pushed me down on the bed.
"I need to be inside you."
I throbbed at his words, so anxious for his touch.
Flipping me over on my stomach, he grabbed me by the hips and lifted my ass up. Shoving into me, Alex filled me completely with one, sure thrust. I moaned and cursed, burying my head into the mattress, and clutching the comforter. The fucking he was giving his girl was relentless, pounding into me, faster and harder, never stopping.
"Oh, God…Alex," I whimpered with my eyes screwed shut. My breathing was erratic, and my heart was pounding against my chest, bursting out of me.
"Madi, baby…" Pulling out and sliding the head along my
pussy, he rubbed and awakened every nerve. He wrapped his arms around me and rested his forehead on the back, kissing me softly. "I fucking missed you." He propped himself up and pushed back into me. "I fucking missed this."
I held my breath as my muscles contracted around him.
Alex groaned and squeezed my waist, deep bruises forming under his fingertips. He thrust into me violently without mercy or pause. He felt so fucking good. It was all painful, but the sweetness of his lips made me crave more. Pushing my ass into him, I begged him with my body to keep fucking me deeper, rougher. I didn't care if he made me sore and raw. It had been too long since I felt him buried within.
“God damn it, kid.” He slapped me, a sharp sting on my backside, sensing my need.
I bit back a scream, my bottom lip taking all the brutality.
"Fuck!" he shouted.
I backed into him as he drove into me, our bodies smacking together, louder, and louder, only matched by our collective moans. We were ruthless, fucking obsessed with each other.
"Shit!" He reached around me, fondling my clit, crude and persistent, and setting me off.
The tense knot in my gut started to build and grow, but Alex pulled out too soon. Stroking himself against my pussy and ass, he tried to keep his fingers in me with intent on making me come. It was his deep grunt and moan as he came all over my back that pushed me over the edge.
“Alex, Oh God!” I cried out as everything crashed into me.
The forced abstinence made my orgasm a thousand times more potent. It hit me with a punch and knocked my world off its axis. My vision became blurry, quickly going in and out. A million electrical pulses shot through my limbs and created an uncontrolled tremble in my body. I pressed my fingers to my nub to smother the tingles, but I was weak, and my arm was giving out on me. I fell to the bed with a heavy plop.
Panting slowly, trying to catch my breath, I angled my head to the side to see my love. “Baby?”