I watched the eye play between Annabelle and Shaw before I added, “Shaw is right. This is your big break, and you need to take it. You could be a huge star and you won’t want to know that anyone was in your way to change that. Get on that goddamn plane with Dominic.”
Annabelle looked a tad bit perplexed but as Shaw and I met eye to eye, we knew we’d convinced her. She’d grown up poor, living hand to mouth. Why would she want to be some hillbilly’s old lady when she could have the world at her feet?
She clapped her hands before glancing between the two of us. “Well, I guess that’s it then.”
“Yep because tomorrow, you’ll be somewhere sunny and fun and living the dream.” I couldn’t keep the irony out of my voice, even if I tried.
Liv didn’t get upset often but when she did, a subtle change came over her. I knew she was fuming before we left the Bluebird Café.
Not that she didn’t have a right to be but it pissed me off too because once again, I’d fucked up. It wasn’t bad enough my own life was screwed from the time the doctor slapped me on my ass and welcomed me to the world, I seemed to bring everyone else down with me.
Unlike me though, Liv would let it blow. It was only a matter of time before she let go all of her frustrations and I would be at the eye of Hurricane Liv. It’d happened plenty of times before while we were growing up but that famous Callahan temper was no fucking joke. Her father had it and she’d inherited it in spades—the only difference is she could control hers until she couldn’t.
I managed to book us a room at the Gaylord Opryland Marriott. Just because we were on the run didn’t mean we had to stay in fleabag motels. Plus with Liv’s perfect credit, an American Express card under Siobhan Callahan shouldn’t ring any bells. Most people in our neighborhood assumed Liv used her mother’s maiden name since her dad had never been home from Walpole for more than three years at a time since the day she was born. In fact, she was quite proud to be a Callahan. Unlike most of us, more than ninety-five percent of the family on her father’s side was still in Northern Ireland. They lived in Belfast or Omagh, and she spoke to them Gaelic at least several times a month. In fact, she was one of the few Irish people in our neighborhood who was fluent in Gaelic—not just conversational or a word here or there.
She’d only spoke of her mystic aunt who lived somewhere out west but she was loath to admit much about her, what she did, and why she was so important to her.
Although we used the card to hold the room, due to hotel regulations, I actually paid for the room in cash. We decided that if we had to stay any place a couple of days Nashville would be it. We needed a solid plan as to where we were going and how we were going to get there. Since gangsters were after us, we couldn’t allow our feet to slip, not even once.
Neither of us had anything but a couple days worth of clothes. That would have to change and there was The Mall at Green Hills. It certainly wouldn’t pay for us to look like we were refugees or vagabonds while we traveled so buying clothes that were at least upper crust if not designer were a must. We had to appear like a Yuppie couple taking our first road trip together or perhaps we were on our honeymoon but no way could we look like we had anything to hide.
However when I informed Liv of all of this, she merely nodded her head. The moment we entered the hotel suite, she breezed past me. “I’m gonna go take a shower.”
Tropical storm Liv was officially on the horizon and it wouldn’t take long until she turned into a full-blown, Category Five Hurricane. She was just waiting for me to say the wrong thing therefore I said nothing at all. As much as I loved and respected my girl, I wasn’t in the mood for her shit right now. Not when I felt bad enough about my own fuck ups in life.
The funny part was I knew what caused this. It all had to do with Annabelle and the Bluebird Café. How hard it must have been for Liv to watch a young woman with no formal education past high school from a broke down bayou outside of New Orleans about to see her dream come true. Liv had a college degree. A Bachelors of Science in Pharmacology and it didn’t mean shit because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yeah, talk about pouring salt on someone’s wounds. All those hours she spent studying and all the parties she didn’t go to. Graduating Magna Cum Laude from Boston University and in one night, it all went right up in smoke. It meant nothing. Because she was stuck with a fuck up like me and I was nothing.
Not that you would catch me feeling sorry for myself, not on my worse fuckin’ day but I knew my past had killed her future and that depressed the shit outta me. It wasn’t up to me to make that decision. Why didn’t she take that fucking job in Basel, Switzerland? Why didn’t she try to run as far away from me as possible? I should have insisted. If I loved her as much as I claimed to, I would have taken her to Logan Airport myself and put her on a plane. She didn’t need to be wrapped up in my bullshit. I should have been running alone.
I sat on the bed and opened up the bag of stuff I had brought up to the room. That included our change of clothes, toiletries and a bottle of Jack Daniels. No way was I paying mini bar prices when I’d stopped by the liquor store before we came directly to the hotel.
I stood and walked over to the mini bar/coffee station, grabbed a glass, opened the bottle and poured myself a generous helping. After the first sip, I walked over to where our window faced the Atrium. It was a beautiful sight and worth the extra money but it wouldn’t matter one iota to Liv. All I could think about was how I’d really fucked up this time, and there was no way to fix it or undo it.
“What are you doing?”
I turned around to see Liv emerge from the bathroom, steam billowing out as she had a towel around her head and another one covering her body that stopped at mid-thigh. “Nothin’, just thinking is all.”
“Humph.” She walked over to the mini bar, grabbed a glass and poured a generous helping of Jack Daniels. “Is this our new life? Getting drunk in random hotels while we figure out how to outrun not one but two major gangsters that want us dead?”
“You don’t have to get drunk and I’m certainly not drinkin’ to get drunk. I just want a little buzz going on since they watered them drinks down at the café. I think better—what do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know, Shaw.” Liv swallowed her JD and set the glass down on the table hard. “How about this has always been your life so how hard do you really have to think? This is how you’ve always lived. Easy girls, gettin’ into trouble and bringin’ someone down to your level. Hell, I still can’t believe Jerri fucked you again especially after you made her have that abortion before you ended up in Walpole four years ago. So don’t you dare tell me how you have to stop and think because we both know you’re not thinkin’ about anything or anyone except how to cover your own ass!”
I finished my drink and ran my hands through my cropped hair. “That is such bullshit, and you know it. You think I wanted to drag you into this? I knew you’d resent me after the adrenaline wore off and reality set in. You’re stuck with some loser when you can be with the crème de la crème in Europe working for some rich ass pharmaceutical company. You shoulda got on that plane, Liv.”
“I wanted us to leave together, Shaw, but you wouldn’t fucking listen! Your first night out of the pen and what do you do? You set up a deal with undercover cops tied to Povikov and Carter? You couldn’t wait one lousy day? I had the money for the tickets and I was gonna get us both outta there. My cousin has a source in the Passport Department in Pittsburgh. He risked his ass to get you a genuine passport and it cost me twenty thousand dollars. We were almost home free but you had to fuck up yet again and you’re the reason why we’re in this mess now—not me!” Liv began to pace, and that was never a good sign. It only meant she wasn’t finished, she was just getting started.
“What the fuck is it with you and the thug life, huh? Did you watch too many old Tupac and Biggie videos? Worship Dr. Dre and Eminem? Think that there is anything glamorous about drinking Cristal with drug money and
having cheap whores all over you? If it was such a great life, why do you think they all left it and became hip-hop stars? It’s a dead end, Shaw! It leaves you in prison for life or dead by the age of twenty-five and no one will remember you.
“I went to school. I busted my ass to get out of Dorchester and I worked myself damn near to death doing it. You think I liked being on that stage shaking my ass for those rich assholes so I could get good tips. Or how about all the blowjobs? It was just a way for me to get through school so I could save money and not have any student debt. It was never gonna be a career choice for me!” Liv’s face was stained crimson with tears flowing down her cheeks.
“Just come on out and say—don’t hold back now.”
“I threw my whole future away for you! And look where it got me? Smack dab in the motherfucking thug life I have been running away from since I could walk! Why should I be on the run for the rest of my life when I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University, Shaw? Give me one reason why I shouldn’t just walk away from you right now!”
I threw my empty glass against the wall where it broke, and charged her, grabbing her by the shoulders before she could stop me. “I can’t make you stay, Liv, you know that. It’s not too late. You can still take that job in Switzerland and no one would be the wiser. Go! If I am such a goddamn burden for you and you don’t want to be with me then leave. Christ knows I never wanted to see you trapped in this lifestyle—”
“We both know it’s too late for ‘goodbyes’ and ‘see ya,’ Shaw.” Her gorgeous violet blue eyes with their green striations surrounding her pupils widened. “You know we’re the same. I might have my fancy college education but underneath it all, I’m a ride or die. I’m not going to leave you in a situation that is partly my fault so stop acting like a major dickhead and help me through this crisis of conscience I’m having.”
“What did you say?”
“Goddamn it, I’m fucking scared, Shaw!” she screamed as she leaned into me and began to sob.
I let go of her shoulders and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her as close as possible to me. “I swear to God I won’t let them hurt you. And I know this isn’t the life you wanted. You deserve more . . . so much fuckin’ more and it’s because of me you’re stuck here, in a hotel and in Nashville. Life isn’t fuckin’ fair, is it? You should be with some rich guy with fancy shoes, suits that cost over ten thousand grand and who would treat you like you were a princess. Instead, you’re stuck here with me: a three-time loser, never going any place . . . ruined your whole fucking life and for what? Nothin’. I will never understand how such a beautiful, gorgeous soul like your self could fall for a selfish, piece of shit like me. And don’t say my looks because we all know those will fade with time.”
“Believe it or not but you have a hell of a lot of charisma, baby.” Liv pulled away from me and I knew she had calmed down and was a lot more like her usual self. “I used to follow you and Ness around the neighborhood convincing myself that one day, you’d be my husband. The father of my children. I was a stupid kid at the time but some dreams never die.”
Tears fell from her gorgeous eyes again and all I wanted to do was lick them up and never see her cry again. “Truth is I’m fuckin’ pissed at you, Shaw, but I will never regret our time together. You’re my best friend, my confidant, the shoulder I lean on when I’m feeling weak and feel like I can’t take this shit anymore. Even when you were inside, I’d cry myself to sleep thinking about you and knowing you’d wipe my tears away and say to me, ‘Liv, nothin’ bad lasts forever . . . just like nothin’ good but it’s life, and we all have to deal with it. Although it’s better when you know you got that one person who will never let you down, and loves you to the marrow of your bones.’ Where did you pick up that sayin’ anyways? I always thought it was some shit you made up to make me feel better when my dad used to be beat my mom’s ass the few times he was out of prison.”
“I remember learnin’ about marrow in science class—that’s before I dropped out of school. That leukemia destroys the marrow or somethin’ and that’s why people who get it need bone marrow treatments.” I stared deep into her mesmerizing eyes, and secretly wished I’d never have to look away. “I remember the teacher talkin’ about how painful bone marrow transplants were and all I could think about was if you got leukemia, I’d give you every ounce of my bone marrow just so you could live. That’s how much I cared about ya. Didn’t know a human can’t live without bone marrow but I’d die for you, Liv. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do just to put a smile on that beautiful, innocent face of yours.”
She laughed out loud as she removed her towel turban and walked back over the mini bar, pouring herself another JD. “I’m not so innocent anymore, Shaw. I gave a lot of hand jobs, blowjobs and naked lap dances when I was at the club. I hated it but my mind was like a torpedo—all I could think about was the end justifying the means. When it was all over, I’d have my degree and that’s all that counted. Then none of those filthy sons of bitches could ever touch me again. It was tough . . . not gonna lie to you but I was so proud I held on to my virginity. I coulda tricked there too but I wouldn’t. Povikov wanted me to but he knew he couldn’t make me.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
Liv stared at me with eyes that pierced my soul. “Povikov breaks all the girls in and he was willing to pay me for my virginity but . . . there were certain lines I couldn’t even cross. I felt sleazy enough just workin’ there. Maybe, just maybe that’s why we’re in this position. I cheated. I should have worked dead-end diner jobs and went to school. It wasn’t like I needed the money. I made top grades so I always got scholarships and the amount for books I paid was paltry in comparison to what I was makin’ at the club. Maybe I did this all to myself.” She held up her glass, saluted me, and swallowed the Jack Daniels down in one gulp.
“Don’t say shit like that. If anyone deserves all this, it’s me. I was tryin’ to be too slick. I couldn’t just be happy with making the money I made and drivin’ a nice car. I got greedy. I wanted to do more than just get by—I wanted to save so I could get the hell out of Dorchester and move somewhere else. Hell, leave the east coast and all its cold weather behind.
“I wanted to set myself up somewhere nice and warm like Vegas or L.A. Start my own little empire. I knew people out in Vegas. Bikers and the like. I had connections to a cartel or two. I know you can’t trust them as far as you can throw them but I wanted to be rich. Have a beautiful house, maids, you tannin’ your ass next to our swimming pool while we enjoyed the good life. I always had an end plan. I just didn’t know it would blow up in my face the way it did. Then again, I should have expected it to. Guys like us don’t get outta the life. Just like you said, we’re either dead or in prison for life by twenty-five so I was livin’ this whole fantasy in my head. What a stupid way to survive but . . . I wasn’t smart like you—I just didn’t know anythin’ else but dealin’, fast cash and fast women. I wouldn’t know what to do with a good girl like you if I tried.”
Liv approached me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “I told you I wasn’t such a good girl. I’m not a bad girl either but I’m certainly a very naughty girl. You gonna turn me out, and finally break me in? It’s been long enough. What are we waiting for exactly? For all we know, we could die tomorrow.”
She shouldn’t have said that to me because my cock hardened and pressed against my jeans until it was painful. I had been waiting for this moment between us forever but I sure as hell didn’t expect it like this. With us on the run and in some fancy hotel while her gorgeous body was pressed against my own.
My lips claimed her own without any resistance from her, even when I slid my tongue inside her mouth and sought out her own. I jerked the bath towel from her body and tossed it on the bed.
I knew Liv had a beautiful body but she also possessed a healthy pair of natural breasts that defied gravity, a lithe body with enough meat on her bones without looking too
skinny or fragile, gorgeous skin—a peaches and cream complexion with a hint of olive tone—a flat stomach, long legs and a landing strip that didn’t cover any of her pussy. I was salivating thinking about where to begin but my body made the decision for me when I dropped to my knees.
I pulled her body close to me and inhaled the scent of the honey-vanilla body wash she’d used during her shower. As I pulled one of legs and sat it on my shoulder, she spread her vaginal lips for me and I immediately grabbed the globes of her ass as I pressed my nose into her. She smelled clean and yet all I had a desire to do was dirty her up again.
My tongue darted out and flicked her clit before I drew it in my mouth. Exploring her with my mouth was like entering forbidden territory and as she moaned, I continued my ministrations. She looked so hot as I stared at her. She looked down at me with those violet-blue eyes that had grown so dark the green seemed to expand around her pupils.
I was determined to make her come before I stood and allowed my dick to go anywhere near her body. She wasn’t some skank to be taken care of quickly before I moved on. She was like my own personal goddess and I wanted to worship her beautiful body.
I slipped a finger inside her and she clung around me like she wanted to consume it. My tongue continued to work over her clit when my mouth wasn’t doing as much as I could to tease the nub. As I began to move my finger inside her tight hole, I could feel her becoming wetter and wetter. She bucked against my face as her own fingers twisted her nipples.
“Fuck, Shaw—I’m cuming.”
My mouth, chin and the front of my shirt was suddenly soaked with her juices as she squirted. It was the sexiest and yet the most bizarre thing I’d ever seen. I’d seen enough pornos in my lifetime to know that some women squirted when they came but I’d personally never been with one. It definitely wasn’t piss as I licked at her drenched inner thighs. It tasted like pussy juice that was untainted by another man.
Run (Run Duet #1) Page 6
