Our neighbors were titillated by the tawdry details breathlessly reported on the front page of the local newspaper every morning. Because of such extreme publicity, the prosecution rushed to take the case to trial. They would have no problem finding a jury willing to convict Eli and sentence him to life in prison, no possibility of parole.
I felt like the only person in the world who believed Eli was innocent. With two billion dollars missing and the rest of the fortune used to cover his bail, Eli was unable to afford his own lawyer. Not even the court-appointed attorney pretended to think my stepdad had a chance of beating the charges.
When I went home after my graduation ceremony, I found Eli sitting at the kitchen table. His suit jacket was thrown over the back of a chair, and his expensive-looking tie was loosened at his neck. He looked so handsome in that moment, it took me a second to notice the tray of delicious-looking cupcakes on the table.
“You baked?” I asked, incredulous. “You never cooked a thing in your life.”
Eli smiled and shrugged. “First time for everything,” he said. “Now that Maurice isn’t around to cook for us, I had to learn a few new tricks to keep you happy. These are your favorite, right? Cream cheese frosting? And they’re not half bad if I say so myself.”
I grabbed one closest to me and tasted the glorious frosting, then peeled the paper and nibbled. He was right; the cupcake was yummy.
“Well, I am shocked,” I said, licking a daub of frosting from my finger. “You’re a natural baker, Daddy.”
“I try,” he said.
“I’m serious, though,” I said between bites. “You could seriously open a bakery if you weren’t—”
My eyes widened faster than my mouth clamped shut. There was no way I could finish that sentence. My dad could have been a baker if he wasn’t going to prison, but that’s not the kind of thing you say to a man enjoying his last days of freedom. We knew the authorities had put a warrant out for his arrest, and he was probably going to be apprehended any day now. But we really had no idea when. It could be next week or maybe a few months from now. The wheels of justice turn slowly, after all. I sat down at the table next to him, not sure what to say or do to break the awkward silence.
Eli took a deep breath and furrowed his brow. Even now, with sadness written across his face, he looked like the man of my dreams. I put my hand on top of his much larger one, enjoying the warmth of his skin. He put another rough hand on top of mine, dwarfing it, and we sat there not talking for a while. I could tell he was trying to gather his thoughts, to tell me something important.
I wished there was something I could do to help relieve his pain. Some way I could please him, to be closer to Eli and give him something to remember me by.
A certain thought crossed my mind. I had always loved Eli as a daughter, but I was no longer a little girl. I was a woman. I felt a tightening in my tummy and a stirring between my legs. I tried to pinch my thighs together, but that only heightened the sensation.
I was eighteen years old, and I had never given myself to a man. If anyone was going to usher me into womanhood, why shouldn’t it be the man I loved most?
But we were running out of time to be together. Maybe I was a bad girl for wanting what I shouldn’t have, but I didn’t care. I imagined Eli’s cock stirring in his trousers, and it drove me wild. I wanted to know what he tasted like, to feel him inside of me.
Every inch of him.
“Avery,” Eli said. “You have no idea how proud of you I am today.”
His expression darkened.
“I wish I could provide for your college education like I had always planned. I am so sorry that I won’t be there for you any more. You are the most important thing in the world to me, and I hate this. I really hate it that I can’t take care of my own precious little girl.”
“There, there, Daddy,” I said, caressing his arm. “Everything will be okay. I’ll be fine. I’ll get scholarships. And I will always be your little girl, no matter what happens.”
I climbed into Eli’s lap and wrapped my arms around his waist. My face was buried in his firm chest. I could feel his heartbeat and smell his familiar scent. He put his arms around me and held me tight. I had never felt closer to him than at that moment.
I nearly gasped when I felt a hard bump pushing against my ass. I repositioned myself in Eli’s lap, enjoying the pressure of his manhood as it pressing on my most sensitive spot. Without even realizing it, I had begun to grind my ass into his crotch, making him harder and harder. A gentle moan escaped my lips.
“Avery,” my stepfather said. His voice was ragged and full of emotion. “Avery, we can’t.”
His words said one thing, but the bulge in his trousers was shouting something entirely different. I knew it was wrong to want my own stepdad this much, but I couldn’t help myself. And if I didn’t act now, I would lose my opportunity forever.
I grabbed Eli’s ears and practically pulled my face up to his. His chin was scratchy against mine as my lips nuzzled my stepfather’s mouth, grazing his lips with soft kisses. After a moment his mouth parted and he kissed me in return, faintly at first but with gathering passion. His tongue dipped deliciously into my mouth as his firm hands grasped at my back, pulling me closer.
I felt heat welling up inside me. I was grinding against his stiff manhood, but I wanted more. I wanted Eli to fill me up and fuck me. When Eli kissed my neck, I bit my lip to stifle a moan.
Eli growled. He pulled back and stared at me with wild eyes that were full of lust.
“Fuck, I can’t control myself with you, Avery,” he said. “Are you sure this is what you want? If we go any further, I don’t think I can hold back.”
My stepfather was so turned on right now. It made me incredibly horny to know I had that kind of power over him. My body was aching to be filled by his manhood. My mouth found his, and he kissed me with such passion I could scarcely breathe. The hard little nubs of my nipples were pressing against my bra so hard they hurt.
Eli slid his hands down my back and groped my round little ass. I moaned, my entire body trembling with anticipation. Then, as if coming to me through a dream, I heard a pounding noise outside the front door.
Wait, a pounding noise?
Before I even knew what was happening, the door smashed in. Splinters were flying everywhere. Within seconds we were surrounded by a half dozen men in masks and dark uniforms. Their guns were drawn and aimed at us.
“Hands where we can see ’em,” one of the SWAT team officers barked.
We both complied. An officer jerked me off my stepfather’s lap.
“Eli Rutherford,” the officer continued, “you are under arrest for the murder of Patricia Willingsby Rutherford.”
I began to cry as a different officer violently grabbed my stepfather’s arms and shoved them behind his back, handcuffing him and escorting him out the front door. It was entirely unnecessary to break down our door like that. Eli wasn’t the type to run from the law. At least, not at the time.
A portly cop patted Eli on the back. “Say goodbye to freedom, pal. You might never see the inside of this big old place again.”
Eli twisted his head even as he was being led down the walkway and around the fountain in front of our mansion. I was standing on the front steps, my hand over my mouth. Before the police officers managed to load him into the back of a squad car, I heard Eli’s voice call out to me.
“I love you, Avery. I love you so much.”
And then he was gone.
But that was half a year ago. Tonight, we were going to be reunited. And this time I was never letting go.
3.
I crouched in the shadows next to the razor-wire fence, praying not to be noticed by any of the snipers positioned in towers at each corner of the prison yard.
“Come on,” I whispered through my teeth. “Hurry up, Eli.”
It was a moonless night, and I had changed into a dark T-shirt, jeans and running shoes. I heard a harsh creaking sound, followed by
a grinding screech of metal on metal. The noise was coming from a small grate mounted to the brick wall, maybe fifteen or twenty feet off the ground.
I heard the noise again and cursed under my breath. He was being too loud. Much too loud. After one more noise the grate fell to the dirt with a thud. I flinched at the sound, looking around to see any movement from the guard towers. Nothing. Thank God.
When Eli’s head stuck out of the opening where the grate had been, I smiled. That was my cue, so I got to work. I had brought a pair of wire-cutters to snip a hole in the fence. I positioned a piece of chainlink between the scissor blades of the wire-cutters and pushed the handles together. It was harder to cut than I expected, and I had to really push to clip through the heavy-gauge wire.
I looked up and saw a rope of some kind being lowered out of the empty space in the wall. Then Eli and another man were shimmying down. It was all happening too soon! I had only clipped the fence in a few places. Eli spotted me. He ran forward, his body crouched as low to the ground as he could get. The other inmate was following right on his heels.
From a guard tower near another part of the prison yard, a spotlight beamed down. The light panned across the grounds, steadily moving closer.
“Faster, Avery!” Eli said. “It’s now or never.”
“I’m trying!”
My hands were hurting as I fumbled with the cutters. The spotlight beam was moving closer. Eli grabbed the chainlink in frustration.
“Gimme that!”
He took the cutters and snipped furiously. By now the slit in the fence was wide enough for a small child to crawl through.
It was too late. The spotlight was nearly here. Eli had no choice but to push himself through the tiny opening. He handed the cutters to the other inmate. I glanced at the strange man but didn’t get a good look at his face, I was so preoccupied with breaking my stepdad free.
Eli stuck his hands through the opening, then his head. He had to wiggle to get his broad shoulders through, stretching the wire and pushing the hole wider with his body. He grimaced as the sharp tips of the wire dug into his skin and tore gashes in his prisoner jumpsuit. The orange fabric was shredded as Eli willed himself through the tiny hole.
Even in the shadows I could see that he was bleeding badly.
The spotlight passed overhead, briefly illuminating us. The other man was only halfway through the fence. Eli grabbed his wrists and yanked. The inmate roared with pain as the sharp wire tips cut into him. Eli pulled him through, and they both tumbled to the ground. After passing by, the spotlight suddenly darted back, blinding me. A siren wailed.
“Run!” Eli shouted.
He grabbed my hand and we sprinted across an open field, moving as quickly as we could toward a stand of trees a hundred yards away. The other inmate was faster and was soon a step ahead of us. I heard a rifle shot echo from one of the guard towers, followed by the sound of lead shot spattering the ground at our heels. They were shooting at us! We ran faster as the bullets landed closer and closer. Eli gasped and lurched forward. I screamed.
“Are you hit?”
“I’m fine! Keep moving!”
We reached the woods and slowed our pace only slightly as our eyes adjusted to the darkness. The forest was filled with brush and low limbs. We scurried through like mice in a maze, ducking branches and tearing through barbed vines that nearly caused me to trip and fall. Men were shouting, and dogs were barking in the distance.
We came to the narrow blacktop road where I had left our getaway car behind a pile of brush. Eli and the other man threw away the brush while I jumped behind the wheel. In the rearview mirror I saw the faint light of approaching headlights, far in the distance.
“I’m driving,” Eli said.
“No time to switch,” I said. “Get in and buckle up!”
Eli and the other inmate turned back and saw the fast-approaching headlights. Then we heard the sirens. The men jumped in, and I mashed on the gas pedal.
I tore down the blacktop road, skidding at turns, trying desperately to put some distance between our car and whoever was following us. Then I rounded a corner too quickly, lost control, and we flipped.
We went rolling down a steep hill, not stopping until we reached the valley below. Somehow, our car landed upright. My neck was aching from whiplash, and some broken glass from the windows had cut my shoulder. But it was a miracle I was not more badly hurt. I turned to the passenger seat and saw Eli grinning at me.
“Well, that’s one way to stick a landing,” he said.
“You were wearing your seatbelt?” I asked, feeling incredulous and relieved. “See, it pays to do what I say.”
“Mostly it pays to not trust your driving.”
We heard a groan and looked at the backseat. The other man had been thrown to the floorboard. It was the first time I was able to get a good look at him. Just like Eli’s clothing, the man’s orange jumpsuit was in tatters. He had greasy hair, a full beard, and a hollow look in his eyes that sent shivers down my spine. The tattoo on his forehead did nothing to improve his looks.
“Burke,” my stepdad said. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll live,” he muttered.
Eli chuckled.
“Let’s get you out of there. We need to get a move on. It won’t take long for the guards to find the skid marks where we took our little plunge down the hill.”
Eli turned and grinned at me again, then tousled my hair. For a moment it seemed like old times, and I was still my daddy’s little girl.
“Hot damn. I’m a free man thanks to you, Avery,” he said. “God, it feels good to say that.”
4.
Eli was slightly less thrilled only seconds later, when we realized the car trunk was so smashed and crumpled we were unable to pop it open. The trunk was filled with our getaway supplies—changes of clothing and shoes, guns and ammo, and a whole lot of peanut-butter snack crackers. I had carefully packed them all, along with a first-aid kit and other necessities.
Eli looked around, trying to think of a way to open the trunk. Just then from the road we heard cars slamming on their brakes, then men’s voices filling the night air. We ran into the woods. We ran and ran, until we were beyond exhausted, with no thoughts but our own survival.
Hours passed. I was so tired, I couldn’t tell you anything about them.
The next thing I knew, I was stirring from a fitful sleep. The air was cold, and the ground was hard. I could hear the slow drip of water, and I felt that my head was resting in Eli’s lap. I opened my eyes, and reality set in. To my surprise, this wasn’t a dream. We were hiding in a cave we had stumbled upon in the middle of the night. I looked up at Eli, and he smiled at me while caressing my hair. His jumpsuit was torn down the middle, exposing the hard planes of his chest.
“How’d you sleep?” he asked.
“Like a girl in a cave,” I replied. “How about you?”
“Wasn’t tired. Gimme a couple hours, though, and I might grab a little shut eye. We’ll hole up here till after dark, when it’s safer to leave.”
Burke spoke from the other side the cave. His gruff voice startled me. I had forgotten about his unwanted presence.
“I say we take off now,” he said. “Put some distance between us and them.”
Eli’s eyes narrowed.
“No one’s forcing you to stay here, Burke. You can go on your own way at any time you please.”
Burke grunted irritably but averted his eyes. He wasn’t going anywhere. I watched in disgust as he picked his nose. The man examined his finger, studying the extracted contents of his nasal cavity. Then his tongue darted from his mouth, like a frog, and he licked his finger clean.
My stomach turned. What an ugly man. Burke glanced at me and caught me looking at him. He gave me an evil sneer as his eyes raked down my body, gazing at my tits. I immediately crossed my arms to shield them from view. Burke clucked his tongue and looked away, staring blankly at the sky beyond the mouth of the cave.
We hid th
ere for a long time in the shadows, watching the sun on its journey through the sky. Despite the unwanted presence of Burke, it felt good to be with Eli again. I had missed him. I had missed us.
Eli was a brave and stoic man, but I could tell he was trying not to let on that he was in a good deal of pain. One of Eli’s sleeves was so badly torn I went ahead and ripped it all the way off, then pressed the fabric against his more troubling cuts until they stopped bleeding. There were a few tiny pieces of lead that had gotten lodged in Eli’s leg when the prison guards were firing at us, but I didn’t have any way to dig them out.
Too Big Taboo Bundle: Naughty Brats, Forbidden First Time, Man of the House Page 9