by Nikki Wild
She could barely breathe my name before she came. Twitching, gushing, toes curling and clit shaking. She came like a star being born. I drank her up, sliding my tongue into her slit and letting it pulse and tighten around me. I wanted to feel everything. Every ounce of pleasure I’d given her. I never wanted her to stop coming.
But my cock had other ideas.
No sooner did she begin to still, panting as she relaxed into the bedsheets, than I crawled up her body. My cock was angry at having to wait so long before being buried inside her. I grabbed her hands, pulled them over her head, stretching her long body even longer. Chin raised, she found my eyes and invited me inside.
With a groan, I sank into her. Felt her pussy envelope me, hot and wet and still ready to be pleased. I sank and sank until there was no space between us, until I was pressed against her deepest depths, until she was groaning and clenching around me.
I bit down on her neck, just enough for her to feel me claiming her. And started thrusting. I tried to go slow. Really, I did. But she was so good. So tight. And her hips pushed me faster. Her breath in my ear pushed me faster. Her voice called me deeper, harder, faster. Each time she said my name, I ground against her, thrusting until she was unable to say anything. Pinned below me, I watched her eyes roll back, watched her lip disappear between her teeth, watched her cheeks go red and her jaw go tight.
“Again,” I whispered. “Come for me again, baby. I want to feel you come.”
“Oh,” she gasped, hips arching off the bed, slamming into me. I dug deeper, until I felt her release. Her pussy clenched around me, then loosened, again and again, the perfect rhythm to set me off. My cum filled her pussy, splashing against her womb, my shaft milked and sucked dry by her climax.
“Yeah, baby,” I moaned, loving her so fucking much, wishing we could just have this moment forever. Wishing someone would kill me right then, buried inside her, so it could be my eternity. All the blessed heat of her rushed against me one more time before she went still. I released her wrists and she brought her hands to frame my face, scratching gently at my stubble.
“Rev,” she said. “We’re too good. They’re going to get us, because we’re too good to exist. The universe won’t allow it.”
“They’ll never get us,” I promised, staying inside her. “Never. I promise, Misty. I’m going to get us out of this. I’m not losing you. You’re mine.”
She wrapped her arms around me, pulled me so close I could feel her heartbeat. Fuck the universe. We were gonna make it. I never once had a reason to live that was half as good as her.
Chapter 29
Misty
Dinner was corn chips, off-brand nacho-cheese tortilla chips, Butterfingers and chocolate chip cookies. All courtesy of the Daniel Boone Motor Lodge vending machines. To be perfectly honest, I had no complaints. I would have gone for a junk food picnic even if we had another option. The county sherrif used to brag that he spent less feeding prison inmates than he spent feeding police dogs. After years eating green baloney, I happen to take great comfort in vacuum-sealed sugars and powdered cheeses.
The conversation, though, could have been better. I can imagine that most new couples, after declaring their love, might spend hours wrapped in each other’s’ arms, trading childhood memories and life goals and opinions on obscure 80’s comedies. Rev and I didn’t have the luxury of idle chatter. We had to talk strategy.
“So you think someone went after the girl, right?”
“Must’ve,” Rev said. “She wasn’t beat halfway to shit when I talked to her. Maybe her pimp did it and someone paid her to blame it on me. Maybe someone paid her to let them beat her up. Maybe she didn’t get paid at all, just beaten half to death and threatened. I’d like to know which. It’d be fun to find out just how much my freedom is worth to these guys.”
“I don’t want you coming with me,” I said. “I can talk to Leathers by myself.”
“Bullshit,” he said. “You know I’m not letting you go into that den of wolves by yourself.”
Yeah, I knew it. My protests fell on deaf ears. Rev would find a way to come with me, even if I snuck out in the middle of the night. Just like I would find my way to his side if he tried to leave me behind. Maybe we were both too stubborn for our own good; but if we were going down, at least we were going down together.
“What do you think Leathers has to tell us?” I wondered aloud, not expecting Rev to say anything I hadn’t already thought of. We’d already decided that we needed to act on what Gino said. It was the only lead we had. All that chasing after red-headed kids had led us nowhere. I had barely even tried to process the fact that there might actually be some money hidden somewhere. I thought it must be another trick, another dead end, another bluff.
“I imagine he’ll tell us whatever Millions told him,” Rev said.
“I don’t think my dad and Leathers could have much to talk about,” I said. “I think he must have overheard something. You know what a barfly he is. And no one bothers talking quiet around him, because he never opens his mouth except to order a beer.”
“He doesn’t even do that. He and Luis have their own form of sign language.”
“So someone slipped up around him. Why would he talk to us about it? And how would Gino know that he knew?”
Rev shook his head, brushing cheesy crumbs from his stubble, then grimacing at his orange fingers. I grabbed his hand and licked his index finger clean, grateful for his smile.
“That’s…disgusting,” he said.
“Get used to it,” I teased, giving him his hand back. “I happen to be a disgusting girl.”
“I can tell,” he smirked. “I think I’ve got some chocolate smeared on my lip, if you want dessert.”
“Always,” I cooed, leaning in for a kiss. And as usual, it didn’t end at a kiss. Half an hour later, and my stomach was rumbling again, my appetite ignited by our acrobatic routine between the sheets. Rev went to replenish our dwindling supply of saturated fats, and I decided it was time to call Janie. I grabbed the phone off the bedside table and dialed, grateful that Janie’s number hadn’t changed in so long that I still knew it by heart.
Which was more than I could say about the rest of the phone numbers in my now-destroyed cellphone...
“Girl! Where have you been! You know your house burnt down, right? Holy shit, it was such a mess. There were, like, fourteen fire trucks outside - for hours. No one knows where you are! I was worried sick! Where are you? Oh - I saved Daisy, Jonesy, and Lynnette…but I’m sorry. Peter is ashes in the wind.”
“Poor Peter. And poor Daisy,” I said. “At least we don’t have to pay for cremation.”
It was silly, but I did feel a pang of sadness at the news of my plastic flamingo’s passing…
“Seriously, though. Where are you?”
I wanted to tell her. I wanted to tell her everything. The holes in the motel ceiling, the smell of a junkie’s sweat, the feeling I got when Rev kissed me, the way Purrloin was getting used to her car carrier after years of resisting it, the fear in the darkest pit of my stomach - the constant fear, beating its steady rhythm underneath everything else. Any moment, it could all fall apart. They could find us. Riding around in that goddamn Bel Aire, bullet holes and all. I might as well have been riding around with a mariachi band singing our names through a set of stadium speakers.
“I’m…away,” I said.
“Duh,” Janie grunted. “Where’s away?”
“I can’t tell you,” I said, closing my eyes tight. Without Rev there, I felt like the room was caving in. Janie’s voice was the worst sort of reality check. She was the past. She was the time when things were good. When my biggest problem was getting dog shit out of my scrubs. When I had the luxury of dreaming up lives and personalities for my lawn flamingos. When my father was alive, before I ever heard of any money, before I needed a bodyguard, before I had to make that drive to Guvcheck -
No. That wasn’t something I’d take back. I wouldn’t give up Rev to go bac
k in time.
“Earth to Misty,” Janie’s voice was annoyed. “Why can’t you tell me? Are you on Survivor? Area 51? Planning a surprise party for me? What the hell?”
“I just..I can’t. I don’t know….if I’ll ever…if I’ll ever get to see you again, Janie.”
Oh, great, I was crying. Big, fat tears.
“What?! What does that mean?! Is it Rev? Did he kidnap you? The cops said he kidnapped you! Tell me…”
“Just…I miss you. I miss you so much. And if I can talk to you when this is all over, you’re the first person I’m gonna call. But right now, I just need you to know you’re the best friend I ever had. I love you. Take care of the flamingos. Give them my love. Be good, Janie. Be so, so good.”
I hung up before I could break down any more. When Rev returned, he found me bawling, staring at the phone. He dropped everything, came to me, folding me in his strong, inked arms. It wasn’t enough - but it was so close that it hurt.
Chapter 30
Misty
“Took long enough.”
Leathers picked up the pint with a shaking hand. I watched in utter amazement as he drained it in one go, gulping audibly, the amber liquid disappearing down his throat. His Adam’s apple, wrinkled as a walnut, jerked spastically the whole way. When he slammed the glass back down and smacked his lips, he seemed no worse for the wear.
We were sitting in the very back of the Pied Piper, far from the scant crowd at the bar. Luis glanced in our direction occasionally, concern in his eyes, but he didn’t intrude. And we trusted him to make sure that no one else would intrude, either. It was good to know he was on our side. It was hard to tell who was.
“You know, I’ve never heard you speak before,” Rev said. And I realized I hadn’t, either.
“Don’t never had much to say,” Leathers said. His voice was rough, soft, and wheezy. It almost seemed like using his voice pained him. Which would explain his years of silence.
So why was he speaking to us now?
“Gino told us to come to you,” I said. “He said we needed to talk to you.”
“I expect he did. Only one he trusted to do it.”
Rev and I shared a glance.
“Who trusted? To do what?”
“Yer old man,” Leathers said, throwing his filmy eyes my way. He lit a cigarette, offered the pack. We all took one, for formality’s sake, mostly. Somehow, I’d managed to quit after all. Replaced nicotine with sex, I suppose.
“Millions told Gino to tell us to talk to you?” Rev asked. It sounded like an eighth-grade gossip mill. But then, criminals can be petty as pre-teens sometimes. And certainly as careful about who knows what.
“Ayup.”
We waited for him to go on, but he didn’t. Rev’s eyes darted to the door every few seconds. We were both waiting for the police to bust in, for someone in the bar to rat on us. Luis could only do so much. If someone went to the bathroom and made a call…
“Why?” I asked. We needed to get out of here, sooner rather than later.
“Yer old man knew I was good for it,” Leathers said. “I take secrets to the grave.”
“So Millions trusted you,” Rev translated.
“Ayup. I promised him I’d never tell anyone but you.” At that, he raised a bony finger and pointed it at Me. His nails were yellow as old newspaper.
“Tell me what?” I asked, getting frustrated.
“The money,” Leathers said. “It’s in the fairy house. Don’t know what that shit means, but I’m guessing you do.”
Holy shit. Gino said there was money, but I still didn’t believe it - couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe my dad would keep it from me. But now - there wasn’t any denying it anymore. Leathers had no good reason to know the words “fairy house”, and certainly had no good reason to know to say them to me. Dad kept it secret, but he left the trail for me to find it. When I had a reason to. Why? Why not just tell me? They could have killed me long before I ever talked to Leathers…
“He didn’t want ya knowin’,” Leathers grumbled, reading into my expression. “’Cause knowin’ coulda got ya killed. Don’t expect he expected to die ‘fore he could fix it so ya knew ‘bout it, but he prepared.”
“It still doesn’t make sense,” I said, shaking my head slowly, my mouth parted, my mind going a million miles an hour. Trying to figure it out. Trying to understand.
“Some things a man does don’t make no sense,” Leather snapped. “Yer old man didn’t want ya leavin’. It’s a lotta money. He couldn’t stand ya takin’ it an’ leavin’ him to rot.”
“I would never have left him,” I said, feeling unwanted tears pressing against my eyes. “No amount of money could have made me leave him. He was my father.”
“Misty…” Rev put his hand over mine. I knew what he was trying to tell me; this wasn’t the time or the place to figure this shit out. We were sitting ducks at the Piper. We needed to get gone. Before we could do that, though, Leathers spoke up again.
“Somethin’ else I gotta tell ya,” Leathers said. “Gemme a beer.”
Rev shot up to order, and I was left alone with the old man. He just smoked, staring at me, blinking far less often than seemed normal.
“My old man trusted you,” I said.
“And I trusted him. He was one of the good ones. One of the only good ones.”
Trust. All this fucking shit boiling down to trust. Well, if my father had just trusted me, I wouldn’t be running for my life. Rev wouldn’t be running from the law. He wouldn’t have been shot in the arm. I wouldn’t have had my house burnt down. Trust. What a fucking joke.
“How’d anyone else find out about it?” I asked.
“Don’t know,” Leathers barked. “Does it matter?”
It didn’t, really. Maybe someone bought it off Gino. Maybe someone heard it from my old man in prison. Maybe someone had it come to him in a dream.
But even if someone had found out they needed to talk to Leathers, what good would fairy house have done them? That was me and dad’s thing. Our favorite secret. No one could have found it - only me.
Rev trotted back, beer slopping over the rim of the glass onto his hand. He slammed it down in front of Leathers, who made it disappear just as fast as the first one. A hell of a magic trick. He put the empty glass down, smacked his lips, and started talking again.
“Them asshats who done work with Millions, they’re not on yer side,” Leathers said. “Slickboy, Tanner, Shark. Ain’t no one paid me to tell ya this. Just my own honor. Can’t abide this disloyal bullshit. Ain’t no kind of man at all, a man who betrays his friend. Dead or alive.”
I felt a pain in my soul. Slickboy, Tanner, Shark…they were like my family. Uncles. They’d spoiled me, doted on me. Shit, Shark and Tanner even came to the ceremony when I got my vet tech degree. And they’d turned their backs on me. They were going to let me die. What could be worth that, to them?
“What’ve they done?” Rev asked, his knuckles white and jaw clenched.
“Jackie’s got shit on ‘em. Prison time shit. Holdin’ it over their heads like grand piano. Ain’t none of ‘em want to spend retirement in the hoosegow. Shark burned up yer house and told the cops ya took the girl. Tanner, Slickboy, they roughed up that girl, got her talkin’ bout you. Tryin’ to save their asses. Don’t even care if ya die so they don’t get locked up. Disloyal motherfuckers.”
“Jackie? Jackie who?”
“Haven’t figured that out yet?” Leathers said. “Jackie O’Callahan. He’s the one after ya.”
Jackie O’Callahan. Oldest brother of seven rowdy, red-assed, law-flaunting kids. They were their own little empire of ruckus. Rich as shit, but you wouldn’t know it from the way they dressed, or spoke, or acted. Now, we had a face and a name. But besides slaking our curiosity, it didn’t serve much purpose. Rev and I both knew that if it came down to it, we would be dead before we could even say his name. He was too big. Too powerful.
If anything, knowing his name was a curse, because
it robbed us of the last thing we had: hope.
Chapter 31
Rev
Misty was quiet on the drive to her childhood home. I suppose it was to be expected. She’d had a heavy bunch of truths just dropped on her. The money, for sure. But also her father’s friends; the men she considered family. I had my own anger to deal with. Bastards. Just had to prove my suspicions true. Shark sold me down the damn river. After telling me to make sure she was safe. Setting me up like a goddamn dartboard. Sat there next to me and acted like he wasn’t about to turn his back.
And Slickboy and Tanner. Going after some poor, hopeless trick to get me thrown back in jail. They knew I was going to see that girl. Thinking back, they were some of the only people who did.
I’d done jobs with all of them. Enough jobs to expect some respect. Jesus, I could have used a tip off, at least. And forget me. There was Millions to think about. He must have been trying to figure out what paperwork he needed to fill out to come back as a ghost and do some proper haunting.
“You know what I think we should do?” I said, growing anxious in the silence. My eyes were all but glued to the rear view. Looking for sirens. Looking for anything.
“Thelma and Louise off the Snake River Canyon?” Her voice was snide, but at least that was better than forlorn.
“Costa Rica,” I replied. “Beaches. Cocktails. A nice little bungalow on the shore. I know a guy in Odessa, five hours from the border. He can get us identification and everything we need.”
“Costa Rica?” Misty asked, turning to me with an eyebrow raised. “We can’t just go to Costa Rica, Rev.”
“Why not? You got a boyfriend I don’t know about who expects you home to cook dinner?”
I meant it as a joke, and flashed her a grin, but she wasn’t biting. She pursed her lips and looked out the window. I went back to studying the rear view. And almost immediately saw something I didn’t like.
