by Kara Hart
“I don’t have a crew.” I said, matter-of-factly. He seemed, well, aimless.
“Let’s just say I’ve been left on my own for a while. Until I figure things out.”
“I’ll be your friend.” I said to him, smiling and offering out my hand.
“No thanks, kid. But I’ll let you hang with me. For one night.”
The engine roared loudly as he stepped down hard onto the pedal. I found myself screaming, “Woo!”
“Hold on tight, baby.”
We were zipping through the park, eventually making our way outside, in the direction of east. He swerved violently throughout the neighborhoods, screaming in this moonlit hour.
“Hey! This isn’t the way to my house!” I yelled.
“I know.” He said, staring straight ahead.
The whole town seemed to be asleep. There wasn’t a light on in any house within miles of us. The roar of the engine echoed throughout the quaint little neighborhoods and I suddenly felt a joyous elation.
Freedom.
That’s what it was alright. And I was basking in the warm feeling of it.
I held around his leather vest. My small fingers glided around the valleys of his perfect six-pack. I looked up at the stars falling around us. Tonight was the night I would get out, I decided. Tonight was the night my whole life would change, for the better and the worse. I would be like the characters in all those books I read. I’d lead an interesting and exciting life.
“Where are we going?” I yelled over the sound of his bike.
“You wanted to get out, right? Well, here’s your ticket out. One night. Take it or leave it.”
“Ugh.” I sighed.
I really had to be home by a certain time. Although my parents never really noticed when I wasn’t there, I still had an overwhelming sense of guilt for disobeying the rules of their home. I was good most of the time, but on a night like tonight, I had to find out more. What was this crew he was talking about? It seemed like he might actually show me, and I just had to find out.
Chapter Four
We slowly pulled up to an abandoned house. It was completely removed from the town, covered in dirt and dust. I assumed it had been rejected decades ago and left to rot. The windows were boarded up and from the looks of it, no one sensible would ever step foot inside that musty home.
I felt shivers run down my spine.
“What is this place?” I asked him, covering my bare arms. Goose bumps formed around my neck and shoulders. If I had enough street smarts, I would have taken his bike and hauled my butt right out of here, but my curiosity got the best of me.
He grabbed my cold cheeks with his warm hands and squeezed. “Ouch!” I screamed. “Get off me!”
“Shut up, Rose.” He was clenching down hard, treating me like a child. My eyes started to water.
“You’re hurting me…” I explained. He was acting like an old relative or something – completely annoying!
He let go and sighed. “Don’t ask questions around here. This is just a little business opportunity, okay? Now, keep your mouth shut and follow me. If someone asks you who you are, you say nothing. I’ll answer them.”
“Okay.” I said, shivering. The cold air ran across my back, around the insides of my skirt.
He led me around back, where we discovered a huge group of long-haired, derelict-type men and women, drinking and hollering. If I was being honest, I was absolutely terrified. Though I tried to act strong. I went to latch onto Adam’s hand, but realized he had walked ahead of me to talk to an older woman. She was maybe 28, 30 at the oldest and she was wearing an American flag bikini. I did not fit in here.
Slowly but surely, I walked up to them. They were laughing and he lightly touched her waist. I felt my face get red with anger, although I wasn’t sure exactly why. It wasn’t like I knew the guy. But for some reason, I felt close to him already. It was as if he had known me for years. At the very least, he seemed to understand my deepest need to escape the life of a small town girl.
“Who’s the kid?” She looked down at me, smoking a cigarette. Her eyes mocked me.
“Who you calling, kid?” I said, angrily.
“Woah, feisty little girl, are we?” She cackled into the night sky, taking another long drag of her cigarette.
Adam gazed at me, condescendingly. He wasn’t happy with me talking back. “She’s supposed to keep her mouth shut around strangers. Aren’t you, honey?”
The woman looked amused. “She your daughter or somethin’?”
“Something like that…” Adam said back. He grabbed her cigarette and took a drag himself. He placed it back into her mouth smoothly.
Suddenly she became quite serious. She stomped out the burning embers of her smoke and put her hands on his shoulders. “So what do you want, babe?” She asked him. “You know full well you shouldn’t show your face around these parts.”
“I need two hundred pounds of the good stuff.” He said, looking at the other guests of the party.
There were men with long, red beards revving their bike engines. Tough looking people were throwing bottles of whiskey at the boarded up house. There were strange figures in the darkness, playing pool and screaming at each other. It was a terrifying scene for someone just out of high school, but I remained as strong as I could. Maybe Adam was right about shutting up, I thought. I decided to keep quiet.
“You mean two hundred pounds of the bad stuff?” She laughed, sizing him up.
“The badder, the better, I’d say.” His voice was deep. At least it was deeper now that he was talking to this woman. I realized quickly this was no normal get together. This was some bad shit and I was in the thick of it.
A man came out of the bushes, zipping up his pants. His head was completely shaved and covered in a dragon-like tattoo. He smiled, revealing a row of broken teeth. One looked like it was solid gold. He was Mexican, maybe even involved with the Cartel. It would make sense since we were close to the border. He took a swig from his beer and let out a loud burp.
“You think you can handle all that weight, padre?”
“You calling me a pussy, Jorge?” Adam said back. They stared each other down for a brief moment. Then, calm and steady-like, Adam said, “Because, if you are…I’ll lay your ass down like a ton of breaks. I’ll make sure you never see the light of day…padre.” He practically spit that last word out at the guy.
They stood close to one another, completely dead faced. Their chests were touching. My heart was racing. I didn’t know what to do. I looked at the man and noticed he had a pistol on his hip. I stood in silence, sure that my life was about to end.
Chapter Five
I never really prayed, but in that moment I took a step back and closed my eyes. I began mumbling to myself, Dear Lord, I’m sorry for all that I’ve done. I’m sorry I’ve said bad stuff about this town I grew up in. I’m sorry for bad mouthing my parents and for getting angry, even with all the opportunities they’ve given me. Most of all, I’m sorry for not reaching out to you, for not believing in you with all my heart, and for getting caught up in this mess with these evil men. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, “I’M SORRY!”
At that moment, the two men burst into laughter and embraced each other. Adam kissed the Mexican on his shiny forehead. The man looked down at me. “Hey, what’s the matter with her?”
Tears were streaming down my face. I was strewn across the dirt below them, holding on to Adam’s knees. Apparently I had yelled out loud and those around me heard everything. I was so embarrassed. I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes and got up from the ground.
“Hey, Adam…you don’t have a kid now, do you? ‘Cause that would be kind of weird.” The man asked him, laughing loudly.
Adam looked away. “Nah, man. No kid. This here’s a distant cousin of mine.” He said.
Cousin? Is he for real?
“Alright, I can respect that, homes.” He bent down to greet me. “The name’s Jorge. I’m also a relative of Adam, you hear me?” He hoist
ed my butt into his arms and pushed me onto his shoulders. “We’re all family here.” He said to me.
We’re all family here. I liked the sound of that…
“My name’s Rose.” I said, rubbing his bald head.
“Nice to meet you, Rose.” Adam walked closer to the house and Jorge followed.
“What’s this tattoo anyway?” I said, perhaps a bit too inquiringly. Adam looked at me angrily, so I closed my mouth.
Jorge reassured Adam. “Nah, man. It’s cool. Rose, if I were to tell you, I’d have to kill you.” His smile turned into a menacing grimace. Shadows from the fire crossed over his face, reflecting off the gold of his teeth.
“Adam, man. Let’s talk inside.” He motioned for him to follow.
“The girl comes with.”
He looked at Adam. Then me. Then back at him. “Ah man! Alright, alright. I’ll trust you on this. But if you fuck me over, I swear…the girl is gone, man. Gone. You hear me?” They were both staring at me now.
“You hear him, Rose?” Adam asked me. How I ever got mixed up in this, I would never understand. But I nodded my head like a good girl should and walked inside.
The house was old and rickety. Spider webs covered the ceiling and dust hung low in the air. We walked into what appeared to be the living room and stood around an old wooden table. On top of it was a few big duffle bags full of what looked like glass shards. My guess was that this was the bad stuff they were talking about earlier.
“See this house? At one point in time, this house was worth a cold hard million.” Jorge told us. “But now look at it. It’s old and falling apart. It’s been neglected. Now it’s worth jack shit.” He motioned towards the bags. “But this stuff? This glass right here? This will remain the same forever. This shit is like gold.” He smiled, opening one of the zip locked bags with his tattoo-covered fingers.
Adam looked at him unamused. “Okay, Jorge. I get it. I just wanna’ see the stuff.”
“Alright, homie. Take a look for yourself.” He brought the crystals up to Adam’s face. He took out a glass pipe. I was shaking so bad I practically peed my panties. I was holding my skirt tight, waiting for Adam to get me the hell out of here. I wanted no part of this at all.
Adam held out his hand and back away slightly. “You know I don’t touch that shit. Have the stuff sent to one of my men. You’ll get your money then.”
“No, no, no. I’m going to need some down payment if you want me to do that.” He cracked his knuckles and threw the zip locked contents back into the duffle bag.
Adam laughed. He reached into his leather vest, revealing a hidden pocket on the underside. He pulled out a grip of large bills and threw it on the table. “There. That’s fifty grand. Have I been known to rip you off Jorge?”
Jorge took the bills and ran his fingers through them. They were brand new bills. He looked satisfied. “Nah. I guess not. You never can be too careful though. A’ight. I’ll be seeing you.”
They shook hands and we made our way outside. I don’t know what it was, but I suddenly felt a great weight being lifted from my shoulders. I was smiling wide, walking tall next to Adam. There was this whole underground world I never even knew existed. It was so exhilarating! For the first time in my life, I felt like I was a part of something real. Jorge’s words echoed in my ears: We’re all family here.
We walked past the side of the house. His motorcycle was parked in the front. Adam looked at me and laughed, “Do you feel free yet?”
“Show me more.” I said with confidence.
Chapter Six
Adam took me home late that night. I made him promise me he would pick me up at the same spot the next night. I needed excitement. I needed some real experiences. I also needed to know what he was all about. 50 thousand dollars? That was a fortune to someone like me. I developed a strong feeling that there was a lot more where that came from.
Adam kissed my soft cheek when he dropped me off. I didn’t know what I was feeling, but I knew life was exciting when I was with him. I blushed and waved at him, running to the side of my house. His motorcycle took off in a stampede of sounds. Although I hopped through my window at a quarter past 4 A.M., my parents seemed to have no idea.
* * *
“What time did you get in last night?” My mom asked me the next day. “We didn’t see you before we went to bed.”
I smiled, eating my eggs. I had no appetite. I didn’t care about eating. I just wanted to be around Adam. “I was just reading at the park. Nothing really exciting.”
My mom looked worried, “In the dark? Aren’t there gang bangers that hang out around there, Jim?”
My dad paid no attention to our conversion. He was busy reading the editorial section of the local paper. This always got him going.
“Hm. What? Come on, Nancy, I’m reading the dang paper!” He swatted the idea away, annoyed that someone would interrupt his reading. I smiled.
There was no real reason to distrust me. I was generally a pretty good kid. Thus far, I had never gotten into trouble. In fact, when I was in high school, I was at the top of my class. But things tend to change once you graduate. Little did they know, their baby girl was up to some scary shit.
“No, mom. It’s safe, I promise. I sat under the lights. Anyway, I was in bed by 10:30.” I sat there in my pink dress, smiling.
“Oh, okay.” My mom said, giving up the fight before it had even started. I was proud of my skills of coercion.
The rest of the day was spent absentmindedly daydreaming. Who was this Adam guy and why was he making me feel this way? I was experiencing a plethora of emotions I had never felt for someone else before. I wanted to scream! Thinking about his kiss sent me spiraling into sexual frustration. I may have been inexperienced, but I still thought about sex on a daily basis.
I dreamt I was lying next to his motorcycle in the cold park down the street. He came up to me and asked me where my parents were. I told him they were home asleep. Slowly, he bent over my body. The smell of dirt and wet grass was all around us. His hands and arms were dirty, covered in engine grease. He had just finished working on his bike and now needed a thick, young body to work on.
He beckoned me forward with his ringed finger. I crawled against the grass, mindlessly, until I reached his denim jeans. I reached up to feel his hard cock growing inside his pants. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and his abs glistened against the dark glow of the moonlight. I was salivating, yearning for him.
I unzipped his pants and discovered he wasn’t wearing any underwear. His massive girth bounced up against my face and I slid my tongue out for him. He slid his huge member onto my tongue and let out a moan when he felt my warm breath around him. It was only moments before I felt him explode inside my mouth.
That’s where the dream ended and reality decided to kick its ugly head in. A girl can dream, right?
When the night actually did come, I was sitting in the exact same spot as before. Only this time, I didn’t bring any books. Instead, I wore my short jean shorts with a black halter-top that showed off my stomach. Underneath it all, I wore a white, cotton thong that delicately draped in between my ass, along with a matching bra I had picked up at Victoria’s Secret a while back. I tried not to overdress. I didn’t want him thinking I cared too much. Plus, I think he liked my good girl look and I didn’t want to mess that up.
I was actually really nervous about meeting up with Adam again. Despite us having a crazy night, I was sure he thought of me as just another dumb young girl. Yet, there was still the question as to why he came up to me in the first place. The whole thing made no sense, quite frankly and I vowed to get an answer from him tonight.
A low frequency rumble sounded in the distance. I instantly picked my body up from the grass and looked ahead of me, past the parking lot. At first there was nothing, except for a group of birds flying away from the sound. However, after a minute or so, I noticed something past the end of the street. It was Adam on his motorcycle and he came barreling down the road at h
igh speeds.
He was looking straight ahead, wearing the exact same outfit as last night. He looked stern and confident and he sure as hell didn’t give any fucks. I anxiously ran to the end of the block, waiting for him to pull over. It only took him seconds to reach me and I saw his white teeth shine underneath his beautiful lips. He parked the bike and walked towards me.
I didn’t know what to say or do. All I knew was I wanted him now. I didn’t care if anyone saw us. I was practically soaking through my panties.
“You ever shoot a gun?” He asked me.
Surprised, he put a 9mm handgun directly into my shaking palms. I looked down at the cold, black metal and looked back up at him again.
“Um…No?” I said, feeling weak in the knees. I guess this was why my parents always told me never to talk to strangers.
“Well, now’s your chance to learn.”
Chapter Seven
He stood behind my small body, holding me steady. We weren’t in the park anymore. He had taken me to another location, in the desert somewhere, a couple of hours away. I could feel his hands inching up my side, feeling close to my perky breasts. Please move closer to me, I found myself thinking. His face was next to my ear and I felt his warm breath on my lobe. I shivered with desire. Fuck me, I thought.
“You see that target over there?” He pointed to a Coke bottle in the distance. “I want you to shoot that thing to smithereens.”
“I can’t, Adam. Really, I can’t.” I said, still holding my aim.
“You can and you will.” His grip around me tightened. He moved his head back to protect his ears slightly, although he didn’t seem to care all that much. “Okay. On my count. 3…2…” Just when he was about to yell 1, I felt his warm lips smack against my neck and his hand fell onto my tight butt.
“1!” He yelled. I shot, completely missing the target.
