Dark Cherries

by Eve Bradley

  I know they’ll be running after me, men whose guns can find me anywhere, who can most likely outrun me and outsmart me, and I’m panicked from the realization. But as I’m passing the cinema, I feel a pair of hands pulling me to the side, drawing me through the doors and nearly throwing me towards the ticket booth.

  “Rhett?” I gasp.

  He looks at me with determined, enraged eyes. His hair swoops into his eyes and he throws money at the lady offering tickets. We receive ours and he pulls me like a disobedient child through the crowds of people leaving the most recent film toward the maze of doors that lead to different screens. He pushes me down the hall and I scramble forward, glancing back every few seconds to make sure we’re not being followed. When we finally get to the screen furthest to the back, Rhett takes me by the wrist and pulls me all the way to the top of the theater, where lazy-boy style chairs are waiting for us.

  My heart continues to pound in my chest, and I swear I’ll see Daniel and his goons come flying through the doors and bullets will find their homes in our heads. I think I’m in shock because my whole body is ice.

  “What the fuck did you think you were doing?” Rhett hisses angrily. “Didn’t Shawn make it clear that they want you dead?”

  “Yeah. So? How was I supposed to know they’d be watching for me? How’d they even know I was in that hotel?” I reply, heat on my tongue.

  “That’s a joke right? Of course they’re going to have eyes everywhere,” he says, and the way he says it makes me feel ridiculously dumb.

  His eyes are shining in the darkness and I see lines of worry and fury tangle on his features. He reaches out and grabs my upper arm, and I can’t help the emotions from crashing through me. Every cell is high on the will to survive and his touch is the anchor that brings me back to reality.

  “If you would have stayed in the hotel room, they would have never known you were there. They had guys posted up in all three of Shawn’s local hotels with your face on their phones. You could have just fucking died, Allie,” he tells me, voice firm and vibrating down my head to my heart, where all of the realizations sink in.

  “We don’t want you to be trapped either,” he continues. “I told you before, when I first met you, that we don’t hurt women. We stand by that. Shawn just underestimated the Young brothers. We all did. And we all feel responsible for getting you into this mess.”

  I swallow, trying to focus on the heat of his grip on my arm and the intensity of his gaze. Again he says that they don’t hurt women and it calms me even further. I feel like a complete idiot for leaving, for allowing myself to think that it would be better. Now I’ve made things a thousand times worse for the three of them, and guilt traverses across my entire soul.

  “Don’t you think they’ll look in here?” I ask, trying to keep the fear out of my voice.

  “Shawn already called the cops to the scene when his source called to tell him you’d left,” Rhett says and shuts his eyes for a long second. “Young won’t want to risk it.”

  “H-how are you guys going to get out of this?” I say, voice cracking.

  Rhett shrugs and lets my arm go, then leans back in his seat as more people start to file into the theater and fill up the seats. He pats his hands over his torn jeans and then crosses his arms, his black leather jacket squeaking as he does so.

  “Rhett…” I start to say, searching for the right words to say. I don’t know what to do or how to make it better.

  “It’s my fault,” he sighs and says under his breath. “I fell asleep on the job. I should have known it’s what you would do. Now I have to take responsibility for it. If you would have died today, it would have been my fault.”

  I can’t explain why, but I’m irritated with his self-righteous martyrdom.

  “No,” I whisper as the commercials start blaring through the surround sound speakers. “I shouldn’t have…I should have…I felt like…” I don’t know how to explain it to him. What can I tell him? That I was afraid that they’d kill me regardless? That I trust myself more than anyone else and that’s why I needed to risk it and run? That I wanted to go back to my family and leave this whole nightmare behind?

  Rhett, for some strange reason, begins to smile. The shining of his white teeth glows brighter in contrast to his tan face, and he leans over so that his lips are near to my ear.

  “Don’t worry about it now, little miss. We have a movie to watch.”

  His breath teases my ear and neck, and my skin nearly melts with his closeness. I can’t help it; my eyes go to his. They’re locked onto his sinful chocolate irises, and my body is humming with the same fascination, and perhaps, infatuation, that it did the last time we were near like this.

  “Oh…” I let out the breath I’ve been holding and give him a relaxed smile. “So, this is like our first date?”

  Rhett holds back his laugh, staying close to my ear. He leans his shoulder against mine.

  “I don’t know if you have what it takes to date me,” he says, and his tone wraps me up and sends heavy heat down to my core. He’s insinuating something that makes me want to pull the veil back and discover what he means. It makes me feel like I have to prove that I do have what it takes and that I could please him, or any of them, more than they could even comprehend. Most of all, it feels like a challenge that he knows I won’t turn away.

  “I don’t know. I guess I’d have to know what it would entail,” I say, and he looks me up and down as if he’s judging whether I have what it takes.

  “No,” he shakes his head and gives me another sweep of his eyes. “I don’t think you do.”

  Without thinking, without really even calculating the consequences, I lean forward and connect my lips to his. His mouth is soft at first, but he claims me swiftly, and the previous experience I’ve had with booger-picking, sloppy, high-school douchebags flies out the window and is replaced with Rhett’s cool, delicious, smooth movements and the taste of his minty tongue. His fingers comb through and cradle the back of my scalp and press there so that I can’t escape.

  “I knew this is what you wanted,” he mutters between kisses, kisses that make the space between my legs quiver and pleasurable tingles to tumble through my body. I’ve never been kissed like this. Not ever. And I can’t get enough of it. I’m breathless, his mouth on mine, and he’s turning me on like a wind-up doll; too many turns and I’ll snap.

  “You’re greedy,” he says as he parts us and lays a finger on my lips as I lurch forward, desperate for more.

  “That’s so unfair,” I nearly moan.

  I’ve almost forgotten that we’re in a theater and there’re people all around us. Luckily there’s no one next to us. Still, I feel my cheeks grow hot. I don’t know what happened. Why did I do it? Suddenly I feel even more foolish and retract myself from him. I lean back in the cold leather seat and scoot my bag of money further in front of me on the floor.

  “You’ve never been truly kissed…have you?” he asks me as I cross my arms over the Gucci velour covering my breasts.

  I think back to previous experiences with boyfriends. Like I said, my high school boyfriends always cheated or left me for the next piece of ass. I don’t think I’d ever actually enjoyed kissing or fucking them. In truth…I don’t know if I’ve ever been given an orgasm. Doubts ramble like buzzing bees in my head, reminding me that I definitely don’t have what it takes to please someone like Rhett. Or Shawn. Or Alexi. Each of these men are out of my league, no matter how well I can pretend otherwise. Something inside me tells me that they know about things that I couldn’t even dream of. Sex like that is reserved for rich people and people with the freedom to explore their passions. When have I ever even thought about passion, or lust, or personal sexual preferences?

  “Are you a…virgin?” he whispers.

  “No!” I snap and then gain a few annoyed glances from surrounding movie-goers.

  Rhett exhales and uses his hand to force me to look at him again.

  “Allie,” he says, and I can
’t ignore the demanding lift of his tone. “Come here.”

  Our eyes connect once more, and in the darkness, with the din of the movie in the background, it feels like I’m about to lose myself to the war happening in my mind. Is it normal to feel this drawn to someone? Is it normal to feel like I would fuck him on our first “date”? I’ve never felt like this with anyone, except for maybe…Shawn. But before I can rethink what I’m doing, Rhett kisses me again, this time he nibbles at my lip, and I let a small, needy whine slip.

  “Shh,” he says between kisses. “We have time, honey. Pace yourself.”

  But I can’t, I want to say. Am I not allowed to feel this extreme desire? I want to hop over to him and bounce on his dick right now.

  “I’m going to teach you a few things,” he pulls back and smiles, and I can’t fathom what he means. I don’t think I’m necessarily innocent, but the way he says it makes me feel like I am. Like I’m a naïve teenager all over again. The thrill that runs through me convinces me that I’m actually nervous and it’s like the first time all over again. Although Rhett promising to teach me dirty sexual things while I’m practically begging for his touch is on a whole other level. I’m a mouse, and he’s the cat. He could play with me all day if he wanted.

  “I’d like that,” I breathe the words, and he reaches over and captures my breast in his palm. I hold my breath in delight.

  “You would, wouldn’t you, little miss?” he says as he cups and then squeezes my left breast. It hurts slightly, but the pain sends me over the edge. I want to be naked with him. I want to explore his body while he explores mine, to delve into these foreign territories he talks about, and to learn what he wants to teach me.

  Rhett releases me and smirks, swallows, and then we both hear the buzz. He flips open his phone.

  “Fuck,” he says, and wipes his hand over his mouth and then forehead. “Shawn wants to see you.”

  I look up at the movie screen, coming down from my high on Rhett. I try to pull myself together, my breast sensitive and aching where he squeezed. I will have to face the reality of what happened no matter what, and more than anything, I want to help these men. I only hope Shawn will forgive me for trying to escape.

  “Raincheck?” Rhett says, sexy dark eyebrows lifted, and then, as he begins to stand, he plants a kiss on my forehead. “Duty calls.”

  Eight

  Divine Punishment

  Rhett smuggles me out the back of the theater, down back alleys, and then receives a phone call. Although the sun is out my skin prickles with cold. Perhaps it’s the sudden realization that everything Shawn said was right and that I truly am wanted dead. The Young brothers would kill me as easily as they would a spider. Truthfully, I’ve felt this feeling before when I lived in my mom’s house. It’s a sensation that you never quite forget because it triggers the flight or fight inside you that wants so desperately to survive. Every small sound makes me flinch and I stay close to Rhett as we amble down the alleys.

  “Yeah,” Rhett says into his shiny iPhone. “Yeah, behind the Cinema. We’ll be here.”

  There’s the revving of an engine and then the electric blue Lamborghini that Alexi had been driving the other night comes rolling down the alley. The gravel applauds under its wheels, and he stops right next to us. Alexi gives us an expression that nearly drowns me with guilt, and I hop into the back while Rhett takes the passenger seat.

  Instantly we’re flying down the alley as if riding a cloud.

  “What the fuck happened?” Alexi looks intently between the both of us, eyeing me in the rearview mirror.

  “I…uh,” I grasp for words, but those nasty little buggers scatter all over the cracks in my mind and hide under anything they can find.

  “She wanted to go home,” Rhett says, lighting a cigarette and then taking a long drag, resting his hand on the edge of his open window. “You can’t tell me you wouldn’t feel the same, right friend?”

  “And you didn’t stop her?” Alexi’s tone is sharp.

  “I fell asleep,” he admits carelessly, flicking the butt of his cigarette out the window.

  “Oh yeah. Fell asleep. Naturally,” Alexi grumbles in his Russian accent, speaking more so to himself. “And you,” he directs his narrowed eyes at me. “Now do you understand that we’re trying to keep you safe?”

  I lift my chin a bit, trying to show him that I can’t be bullied by his anger. But in reality, this is nothing. I’m afraid of what Shawn will say when he sees me. Essentially, it’s my fault they’re now in deeper shit with the Young brothers, and as we drive along, headed for Shawn’s home in the sea of mansions speckling the hillsides, I shut my eyes and rest my head against the door.

  Fuck, Allie. What have you done?

  “Leave us,” Shawn’s voice is firm.

  They’ve already given Rhett a verbal beating, and I could only watch as his agitation grew. He left to go check in with the Young Brothers and keep his place in their mob intact. His alibi? He was selling fake art to a dealer at the other end of the city. Alexi gives me a curt smile and ambles out the doors and heads to the car. I hear the engine rev, and then he’s gone, leaving Shawn and me severely alone.

  We’re standing in his living room, a space filled with cream couches, a record player, gray and white shelves and alternative seating, a small table, and a white piano. Out of the expansive front windows you can see the glorious front yard, the perfectly manicured topiaries, the glittering aqua blue of the pool, and the skyline of the city and jungle-esque trees.

  “Explain.”

  The word is so simple that it’s like a knife to the gut. It’s soft and yet glints like the silver of a blade.

  “I bet you could guess,” I say, trying to keep my voice strong.

  Shawn is wearing yet another suit, but this one is a bit more relaxed. It’s a dark gray, and the buttons are loose at the top of the white dress shirt, showing me a glimpse of the golden skin that lies beneath. I look at the floor, hating myself. Hating that I chose something so reckless. Perhaps Rhett and I are even more alike than I thought.

  “I don’t want to guess. I want you to tell me exactly what was going through your head,” he says, feigning calmness. He leans against the back of the couch and crosses his arms.

  “I-I’m so sorry,” I finally squeeze the words out, my chest nearly bending beneath the weight of the apology. I hate saying sorry, and always have. But, there is a time and a place for the word, and the current state of events warrants a few of them. “I didn’t think anyone would be watching me. I was just going to head back to Illinois, to my mom and Emily. It could have been easier for you, too. You wouldn’t have to deal with me.”

  “Hm,” he grunts, and lets his eyes slide over my body. It feels like he’s touching my bare skin, every part of me freezing under the intensity of his dominating glare. “You think I wouldn’t want to deal with you? Allie…” he sighs and adjusts his cuffs, looking down and then glancing up again, wolfish gray eyes like javelins to my stormy stomach. “If you think that I don’t want you around, you’re even more naïve than you look.”

  My heart jumps in my chest like a bird suddenly tossed into the air, flapping for dear life. Why can’t I get ahold of myself? It’s like the interaction with Rhett wound me up so tight that now Shawn simply saying that he wants to be around me is causing my body to respond by sending a flood of delicious sensations down to the aching core inside me. But it’s more than that. It’s the insane eye contact that he insists upon having that taunts me and makes me think, and hope, that he wants something more.

  “Sorry for disappointing you…again,” I grumble, fiddling with my nails.

  Shawn walks towards me and I maintain connection with what feels like his soul, through the depth of his gray eyes. He comes to stand just in front of me; tall, strong, and unyielding.

  “If you were mine, you’d show me just how sorry you are.”

  Panic spreads and gushes through my veins, spurting from my heart. If I was his? Does he want me
to be his?

  “I get the feeling you keep your women in check,” I say, inwardly laughing at the way he simultaneously makes me weak and yet pulls the wicked curiosity out of me. Sprinkle in a few of my daddy issues and I’m hooked.

  “It’s not about keeping them in check,” he says, and he’s once again calmer, more reflective. “It’s about an exchange of power that we both agree to. A mutually satisfying agreement.”

  I lock my arms around myself and swallow. Am I a bitch for flirting with all three of them? Am I going to ruin their entire little group if I go any further with any of them? I mean, maybe I’m overestimating how much Rhett, or Shawn, want me. Perhaps, like their lives, I’m just a game to them. Everything is an extreme sport; getting money, living large, conning people they dislike, and now, I’m yet another playground that they want to explore. At least, that’s how I feel.

  But I want to explore, too. I’m trapped in Shawn’s life of crime and money, and as I look into his eyes it makes me think that the longer I stay, the deeper I go, the harder it’ll be to untangle myself from them. And I don’t know if I’ll want to.

  “I bet you’ve had a lot of those agreements,” I snicker, trying to bring light into the situation.

  “A few,” he shrugs and then slips his hands into his pockets. “None that have lasted.”

  This makes me pause. None that have lasted? What does that even mean? That it wasn’t a good fit? That they weren’t good enough for him?

  “Why not?” I ask, nearly breathless with the delicateness of the conversation. It feels like I’m handling glass, and one wrong word could shatter the entire masterpiece.

  “I don’t know how much you’ve experienced sexually, Allie. But, based on your reaction to things that I say and do, it seems minimal. I don’t want to scare you more than you already are,” he says, lifting his brows slightly as if watching for my reaction.

  “Scare me?” I laugh. “Oh, Shawn. I’m not scared of…” I stop myself. I am afraid of the Young Brothers and their mob. I’m afraid of my own foolishness. I’m afraid of my stepfather being alive and well and going back to kill my mom and sister. I’m afraid that everything I do is doomed to disaster and flames and every bad thing.