by Grace Risata
“Are you ever going to tell me what happened to the guy who shot at us?” Samuel asked slowly and deliberately as though not really wanting to know the true answer.
“Nope,” I replied. My bodyguard wasn’t the only one capable of keeping a secret. I could tell that he wasn’t afraid to resort to violence when necessary, but I knew he didn’t enjoy it. Some of the other guys were the complete opposite and bragged about their brutal activities. Let’s just say that I felt it best not to tell Samuel that his assailant was currently decomposing in the East River.
I yawned in exhaustion and fought to keep my eyes open. We’d been awake for over twenty-four hours and I was in desperate need of sleep.
“What if we got a hotel room and just took a quick nap?” I suggested, struggling to get comfortable in the pickup truck. This pile of rust was a standard cab and had no backseat for me to stretch out.
“We can go a little while longer before we stop. Just close your eyes and let the motion of the road lull you to dreamland.”
“You’re not a robot…we can’t keep driving all night.”
“I know. We’ll stop in Columbus.”
“Ohio?”
“Yeah, Ohio. We’ll get a cheap hotel, find a pizza place, and crash. Tomorrow will be a long day.”
“Why? Are we going to Chicago? I think we should stop there and check out the sights. Oprah lives there, doesn’t she? There must be decent shopping and restaurants. This is a vacation!”
Too tired to put up a fight, I leaned my head back against the window and instantly fell asleep. I guess all the excitement of the night before had finally caught up to me.
Chapter Ten
Samuel
This was quickly turning into the road trip from hell. Leandra slept longer than I thought she would, so I was able to push us all the way past Columbus and kept on going. That’s the end of the good news.
Somewhere along the line, my air conditioning went out. It took about twenty minutes before the truck got stifling hot and I was forced to crack a window. My boss woke up crabby, complaining, and soaked with sweat.
“Why did you turn off the air?” she mumbled, wiping her face and rubbing sleep encrusted eyes. “It’s like an inferno in here!”
“We’re having technical difficulties,” I admitted, wondering just how the fuck I could convince her to sit in this oven for our twelve hour ride tomorrow. “I guess we can pull over and stop for the night.”
“Okay. I’m hungry. I need to check my phone for a decent restaurant. Make sure we get a nice hotel with free wifi and preferably a suite. I would like to unwind in a Jacuzzi tub after a stressful day. I guess we could just order up room service. I’m not picky.”
Of course she wasn’t. The problem was that we were right smack dab in the middle of Ohio, which was not quite a metropolis full of five star resorts. The truck had also begun to make a slight squealing noise, and I just wanted to get her off the road.
“Here’s the thing…we need to find something sooner rather than later. You’re going to have to suck it up and make do with what we have.”
After taking the first exit available, I coasted to the nearest motel. Naturally this was met with displeasure.
“Are you kidding me? This place looks condemned! I think prostitutes take their Johns here! Keep driving, buddy. Leandra Donahue will not sleep at the fucking Bates Motel!”
“Hey, quit your bitching. You wanted to get the whole road trip experience. What’s more authentic Americana than staying at a flea ridden shithole? Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”
She had no logical argument for that, and I knew I’d won the battle. Without waiting for her reply, I got out of the truck and made my way to what would have been a lobby if this place wasn’t a dump.
Damn. This motel really was disgusting. I think all that time in New York gave me an appreciation for the finer things in life. Yeah, I hadn’t come from much, but when you routinely ate at five star restaurants and slept on Egyptian sheets with an insanely high thread count…you got used to the lifestyle. I was currently standing in a small room that hadn’t been remodeled since the seventies. Green shag carpet covered the floor, a pair of mismatched desk chairs served as the only place to sit, and thick dust coated the reception desk in a heavy layer of filth.
I coughed loudly to get the attention of whoever might have been in charge, but received no response.
Leandra followed me inside and began dinging the bell on the counter.
“CUSTOMERS ARE GOING TO LEAVE IN THIRTY SECONDS!” she shouted, quickly losing patience with the whole scene.
A middle-aged balding fellow slowly crept out from behind the door that separated the reception desk from a hidden back room. He took one look at Leandra and his eyes nearly popped right out of his head. I knew my boss had a body to make a man weak in the knees, but I still loathed the stares she received from members of the opposite sex. Cleavage, face, cleavage. It never failed to piss me off.
“We want a room,” I explained in a none-too-friendly tone.
The jackass tore his eyes away from Leandra’s tits to focus on her expensive watch and diamond necklace. Why the fuck hadn’t I made her take them off?
“That will be two hundred dollars per night,” he replied with a lecherous grin.
“Or not,” I growled, finally getting his attention. “We’ll pay you fifty bucks. Take it or leave it.”
“So sorry, sir. There’s only one room left and that’s the price. The Mayor is having a family reunion this week and the town is short on hotel rooms. Two hundred bucks. Take it or leave it.”
Leandra put her elbows on the counter, leaned in making sure her breasts almost popped completely out of the low-cut v-neck shirt, and purred, “Shove your room up your ass, you lying bastard. There’s a hotel across town that’s advertising online for sixty bucks a night. I bet it doesn’t have a murdering mama’s boy in the shower, either. Thanks for the free wifi!”
She blew him a kiss and then walked right out the door.
Nice.
I sincerely hoped my truck would make the short drive across town. Turning the key with a noticeable hesitation, I drew unwanted attention from my boss.
“What’s the problem?”
“The A/C doesn’t work and she’s starting to squeal. There’s a twenty percent chance you might have to get out and push.”
I was expecting her to freak out, but that didn’t happen.
“When we get to the hotel, just pull over and pop the hood,” she demanded. “I’ll figure out the issue.”
“Did you magically wake up with the power to fix cars?” I snapped, tired and irritable.
“No, sir. I always had that power. Ian ran with a crew that made heavy use of a chop shop once. I went along for the ride, met some people, and learned a few tricks.”
The unflappable woman actually began to blush, leading me to believe that one of the criminals might have been her lover. I didn’t doubt that for a second. Why else would she lower herself to hang out with car thieves?
Leandra checked her phone, gave me some easy directions, and we quickly approached a welcoming hotel in a nicer section of town. This place looked a lot safer than the previous establishment.
“Go in and get us a room while I inspect the truck,” she instructed, eyes lighting up at the opportunity to get her hands dirty.
Much to my relief, the hotel clerk was a decent human being and I got us a room for seventy bucks without having to show any identification or give a credit card. I explained that I was traveling with a friend, we’d been robbed, and were desperate to get home as soon as possible. Sometimes a little lie goes a long way. The clerk took pity on me and gave us a discount.
With nothing on my mind but the urge to finally get some much needed sleep, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the commotion in the parking lot.
What the hell?
Leandra was surrounded by not one, but three different men as she bent over the truck and poked around und
er the hood.
“Back the fuck up,” I demanded, pushing the guys away with a sudden fury.
“It’s okay,” Leandra insisted, turning and holding up a belt she’d removed from the truck. “Jack was kind enough to lend me one of his tools so I could pry this sucker loose.”
I narrowed my eyes at the punk as she returned the borrowed object. Judging by his pimple covered face and the way his eyes bugged out at the sight of Leandra, I’d guess he was in his early twenties and barely wet behind the ears. The other two morons must have been his friends. As soon as I made my presence known, they put a safe distance between us. Wise move, gentlemen.
“Come on,” I snapped. “Quit playing mechanic and get your shit. I got us a room.”
She gave me a look of pure defiance and threw the truck part at my head.
“There’s the source of your squealing noise, genius. It’s also the reason your A/C is shot. That pretty little black rubber thingee is called an air conditioning belt. You’re welcome, asshole. I guess I’m done playing now.”
With a snarl and a shake of that hot little ass of hers, Leandra grabbed her bags out of the truck and marched away in the direction of the hotel.
“Looks like someone’s not getting any tonight,” one of the three stooges had the nerve to comment.
“I’m going to count to five…if any of you are still here when I get to two, there might be bloodshed.”
I didn’t even make it to ‘one’ before those piss-ants scattered like cockroaches.
Was this day ever going to end?
Following after my boss with a mood that became worse by the second, I decided it was time to take action. There had been enough fucking around for one day.
Picking up the pace and easily walking right past her, I mumbled, “Number one twenty-four,” and led the way to our room. Jamming the keycard into the lock, I surveyed the accommodations and finally felt myself relax a little.
“I suppose this will do,” Leandra commented, taking in our surroundings. The place was nothing spectacular, but at least it was clean. Two queen sized beds dominated a tiny room equipped with your standard hotel furnishings such as a pair of nightstands with lamps, a small flat screen TV that sat atop an oak dresser, and a bathroom situated against the far wall.
“So here’s what we’re going to do,” I began in an authoritative voice that was not to be disobeyed. “I’m dead on my feet, Leandra. I plan on taking a shower and then collapsing into bed. By my count, I’ve been awake for well over twenty-four hours and I’m running on empty. Don’t fuck with me, don’t start shit, and just leave me alone, okay? I know you’re unhappy with the lack of ‘fun’ on this road trip, but I’m not in the mood to discuss it right now.”
To my utter shock, she simply ignored my speech and plopped down on one of the beds. Without making eye contact, the woman began touching buttons on her phone and made one single comment.
“You can use the bathroom first and then I’ll freshen up when you’re done.”
I did exactly that before she had the opportunity to change her mind. I had never seen my boss so agreeable to anything in the entire time I’d known her. While stripping out of my sweaty clothes, I ran over any possible scenario to explain this new attitude. Maybe Leandra was simply as exhausted as I was? Maybe she was hatching some sort of scheme and that’s why she was on her phone again?
Hmm.
Actually, the most likely answer would probably involve me coming out of the bathroom to find her naked and waiting, legs spread wide open just beckoning me to take what could so easily be mine.
Fuck.
Now was not the time to get a hard-on. I distracted myself by hand washing the t-shirt and underwear I’d been living in for the past two days. Letting them get a good soak in the sink, I proceeded to the shower and attempted to wash my problems away.
I hurriedly scrubbed down while desperately trying not to picture Leandra in a variety of sexual positions including her pouty lips eagerly sucking my cock or that wet pussy coming all over my face.
Fuck.
What am I really going to do if she tries to seduce me? I won’t be able to resist. I got out of the shower, toweled off, and weighed my options.
KNOCK KNOCK.
Wait a minute…was someone trying to get into the hotel room? Struggling to wrap the towel around my waist so I didn’t bust into a potentially dangerous situation half naked, I ripped open the bathroom door and discovered Leandra grabbing a brown paper bag and handing over some money to a young woman in her early twenties.
“What is going on here?” I questioned irritably.
“I ordered us food,” Leandra replied, holding up the bag and inhaling deeply. “We haven’t eaten since lunch and I’m completely famished.”
My boss shut the door after thanking the delivery girl and then busied herself laying out a picnic on the bed.
“There’s a diner across the street that caught my eye. I figured you’d be too exhausted to eat there, so I got take-out dropped off instead.”
After digging through the bag and pulling out a giant container of pasta and garlic bread for herself, Leandra handed over my dinner. Honestly, it could have been anything and I would have eaten it.
The only thing keeping me from devouring the feast was my lack of proper attire. I placed the food on my nightstand, untucked the covers, got into bed, whipped off my towel, and made sure all my private parts were carefully hidden from view.
“What are you doing?” she asked, pausing mid-bite to stare at me.
“My clothes are drying in the bathroom. They stink and needed to be washed. What the fuck am I supposed to wear? I’m going to sleep commando anyway…I just got started a little early, that’s all. You never saw anybody eat takeout food while sitting in bed naked before?”
She closed her eyes, mumbled something about needing superhuman willpower, and continued to chew her food in silence.
Good. Now I can eat in peace. Let’s see what she ordered for me.
Oh. Now we’re talking. Salisbury steak smothered in mushrooms and gravy with a side of white rice and broccoli.
“Thank you,” I muttered, truly impressed with the meal. She’d somehow managed to get all my favorites. I have a strong dislike for most anything you get in a drive-thru. I need decent, down home comfort food to fuel the body. Greasy garbage does not agree with me. It was torture sucking down the crap we ate for lunch.
“I know what you like,” she purred seductively, never looking up from her feast. “Anyway, you seem really pissed off and I’m just trying to get you to loosen up a little.”
“You know why I’m on edge?” I asked, taking a giant bite of the meat and moaning with pleasure as it melted in my mouth.
“It’s been a really long time since you’ve gotten laid?”
Rolling my eyes and ignoring her remark, I explained part of the reason for my unhappiness.
“What would we be doing back in New York right now? What plans were scheduled for tonight, Leandra?”
She paused to consider the question and ultimately replied, “The fight.”
“Yeah. Since that isn’t happening anymore, I figure I’m out about twenty grand.”
I was supposed to go head to head with Willy ‘the Iron Fist’ McMahon in the third bout of the evening. Yeah, the final match paid the most, but I wasn’t quite there yet. However, I knew I could kick Willy’s ass without even breaking a sweat.
“How much do you make betting on me?” I asked, knowing full well she probably wouldn’t share that number.
“What’s your last name?” Leandra countered. Touché. I guess I’d have to give information if I wanted to get any in return. Not happening.
I shrugged and kept shoveling forkfuls of heaven down my throat, intending that to be the end of our little chat. It didn’t quite work out that way.
“It’s technically my fault that you had to go AWOL from the fight, therefore costing you money, Samuel. If you want, I could lend you the twenty gr
and. No strings attached. Just pay me back when you can.”
It was kind of her to offer, but there were always strings attached. I somehow managed to survive these last several months in New York without owing anyone a damn thing. I sure as fuck wasn’t going to start taking out loans now. Especially not from her. Fuck that shit.
“Nope. Not gonna happen. I earn every dime I make. Keep your handouts.”
“I don’t know why it’s so difficult to trust me. You’re obviously desperate for money or you never would have taken this job in the first place. It’s not for the thrills, that’s for sure. I can see it in your face. You don’t like hurting people. Just tell me the truth and maybe we can work out a deal. I can help you if you let me.”
No way was that happening. I’m not naïve. I know better than to trust a person like Leandra. Someone that smells weakness from a mile away and happily profits from it. The second I start taking her charity, is the moment she stops seeing me as a man and starts viewing me as someone to control. Someone to own and possess. I may have given up a lot of things when I went to New York, but my dignity is not one of them.
I won’t sell my soul. Things will be done my way or not at all. I reminded myself of the mantra that kept playing over and over in my head.
Trust no one. Show no emotion. Stay strong and do what needs to be done.
It’s gotten me this far and I can still look myself in the mirror without shame.
