“It’s fine,” Eli assured me. “I already forgot about ’em.”
In the morning we heard the long-distance hum of helicopters overhead, and the occasional siren in the distance. I held my breath each time, hoping for the noise to pass and praying we would not be discovered. By the afternoon, we had waited through hours of silence. At dusk Eli was feeling antsy.
“Let’s have a look around, Burke,” he said.
“I want to come,” I protested.
Eli gave me a serious look.
“You’re staying right here.”
It wasn’t fair, not at all, but I did as Eli instructed. Eli peered out of the cave, looking right and left, then silently eased outside. Burke followed closely behind.
The cave was on the side of a steep hill. I heard the faint crunch of the men’s feet on the loose rocks and gravel, but soon there was no sound other than birds chirping and the slow drip of spring water oozing from the cave ceiling.
It was nearly nightfall, and dark shadows were spreading across the cave. I heard a couple of pebbles cascading down the hill. I froze. Then I saw Burke at the entrance. An evil grin spread across his face. He was missing a couple of teeth, and the others were rotten.
“All alone, little girl?”
“Fuck you,” I said, trying to sound tough. “One step closer and I’ll scream.”
Burke pretended to pout, as though my threat had hurt his feelings.
“You don’t want to make no loud noises, girl. These hills are crawling with the law. You want them to find us? Find your old man? Shit, they’ll lock him up faster than you can say boo. Next time there will be no escape.”
Burke shook his head sadly.
“That would just be awful for good old Eli. Here, let me sit down for a second. You and I need to talk about something.”
Burke took a step to enter the cave. I instinctively pulled back, my body pressed against the damp cave wall.
“There, there,” Burke said. Both his hands were in front of him, like he was trying to calm a frightened animal. “We’re gonna have ourselves a nice little chat is all.”
He grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward him, clamping a hand over my mouth to muffle my scream. I struggled to break free, but he was too strong.
“You realize the last time I got a piece of ass?” Burke muttered. “Wasn’t nowhere near as pretty as you are. Quiet down. You’re making this harder than it’s got to be.”
He placed his hand over my mouth, and I sank my teeth into the tender meat of his palm. He yanked his hand away, and I belted out half of a scream before his knuckles crashed into my cheek.
“Shut the fuck up,” he growled, pawing at my T-shirt.
“My daddy will kill you,” I said between ragged sobs.
“Naw,” Burke replied. “We got just enough time to have us a little fun. A real quick fuck is all I want.”
The man tugged at the button and zipper of my blue jeans. I tried to push away his hands, but it was no use. He pulled down my jeans and panties in one swift motion, exposing my sex to him.
“No!” I cried, trying to roll away. “Stop!”
Burke pinned my back to the rocky floor as he fumbled with the zipper of his jumpsuit. His rubbery cock flopped out. It was discolored and rimmed by a wiry nest of pubic hair. He was licking his lips and staring at the crevice between my legs. Then he squeezed one of my breasts as he stroked himself to hardness.
I couldn’t stop crying. I was terrified, and I just wanted it to be over.
Out of nowhere, I saw Eli’s face. He was standing right behind Burke’s shoulder. He lifted a huge rock above his head.
My eyes widened, and Burke turned to see what I was looking at. That very moment, Eli slammed the rock against Burke’s forehead. My assailant’s eyes crossed and he slumped over, his semi-erect penis flopping to one side. Eli pounced on him and smashed the rock against Burke’s head again and again, crushing his skull.
It was a level of horrific violence I had never seen in my stepfather. The sound of crunching bone was brutal, and I wanted to gag. But Eli had saved me.
When he was sure Burke could never hurt me again, Eli’s rage was replaced with concern as he turned his attention to me. He wrapped me in his arms and held my trembling body, rocking me and stroking my hair as he helped me to calm down.
“Did he hurt you?” Eli asked.
“No,” I said.
He took my chin in his hand and turned my face, examining the bruise that Burke’s knuckles had left on my cheek. Eli’s shoulders were trembling with the remnants of his anger.
“That bastard hit you,” he said.
“It doesn’t hurt,” I lied. “I’ll be fine, I promise.”
“No one lays a finger on my little girl.”
I smiled weakly, knowing my stepdad was there to protect me. Eli looked at the bruise, then politely locked eyes with mine as he helped me pull on my panties and jeans, which had bunched around my left ankle.
When I was fully dressed, Eli glanced at Burke. Blood was congealing around the dead man’s head.
“We have to go,” he said. “Now.”
5.
We dashed down the hill and through the woods, with only a general idea of where we were headed. I had my cell phone, of course, but it was of no use. I couldn’t get a signal this far out in the boonies, and then the battery died. I had no one to call anyway.
We waded a creek and swam across a swift but narrow river, its water cool and black as the night. We came to a field of waist-high wheat, and Eli stopped.
“Look,” he said.
At the other end of the field was a small house next to a wooden barn. No lights were on. We warily approached the structures with no clue what we might find.
A gray dog barked and trotted over to greet us. Eli patted the dog’s head and scratched behind its ears. When he removed his hand the dog whined, and Eli nuzzled his ears again. Creeping past some rose bushes, we peered into the house. Moonlight shone through a bedroom window, and we saw an older couple nestled together in a double bed, a quilt warming their bodies. The man’s irregular snores practically rattled the windowpane.
Watching the cozy scene, I couldn’t help but wonder if Eli and I would ever be able to grow old together. I hoped so.
Eli tapped my shoulder and motioned toward the barn. Inside, we found an old farm truck. Of course, the keys were dangling from the ignition.
Eli pointed at me, then pointed at the steering wheel. I got behind the wheel and put the pickup in neutral while Eli went behind and pushed. The dog started barking again.
“Shush!” I scolded, to no avail. “Shush!”
Eli was pushing fast now, his hands pressed against the tailgate as he sprinted down the long gravel driveway. The dog was nipping at his heels.
Eli hopped in the back of the truck, and I turned the key. The truck rumbled to life, the tires squealing when I threw the clutch into second gear.
I drove a mile before Eli tapped on the back of the window. I stopped, and Eli took the wheel. I looked back at the little farmhouse, thinking about the couple resting in their warm bed. Their lights never came on. My stepdad and I had committed grand theft auto, and our victims had slept through the entire heist.
I glanced at Eli, and it’s like he could read my mind.
“Twenty-two-fifty-seven Hollow Oak Lane.”
“What?” I asked.
“Twenty-two-fifty-seven Hollow Oak Lane,” Eli repeated, as if I hadn’t understood him the first time. “That’s the address. Someday we’ll repay those people for loaning us their truck.”
I laughed. Eli was crazy, but I believed that he would do his best to make good on his promise.
“So, my noble thief, where exactly are we going?” I asked.
“We’re going home,” Eli said. “And we’re going to find your goddamn mother. She’s the only one who can prove my innocence.”
“My mother? How will we even find her?”
“I have a hunch.”
Never taking his eye off the road, Eli stripped off his torn and wet prisoner garb and shoved it behind the seat. He drove in his tight white underwear. Even in the dark I could see the silhouette of his arms and bare chest, not to mention those muscular thighs, and my imagination told me what was waiting beneath those undies of his. We were running for our lives. Eli was a fugitive and I was aiding and abetting him, but all I could think about was Eli’s body so close to mine for the first time in so many months.
I scooted closer, and Eli put his arm around me. I breathed in his scent, a delicious smell that was one hundred percent Eli. It mingled with the strong leather smell of the old pickup truck.
God, why did I have to get these inappropriate urges? I placed my hand on Eli’s thigh. I could feel the contours of his muscles beneath his smooth skin. Little sparks of electricity shot up my fingertips as I moved my hand up, up, closer to his manhood. I felt that familiar tingling between my legs. My mouth watered as I imagined the taste of his hard, meaty cock sliding between my lips, filling my mouth and dominating me.
My fingers were nearing his bulge when Eli placed one hand on top of mine. Then he lifted my hand and removed it from his thigh.
“Avery, we need to talk,” he said. “It’s something that’s been on my mind the entire time I was in prison. You see, I’m sorry for the the things that … that happened between us on the night I was arrested.
“You are a beautiful young woman. Every time I see you I am amazed at the lovely, kind and intelligent person you have become. But you’re still my little girl, and you always will be. I never should have crossed that boundary. I feel like I was about to steal your innocence. A father should never put his daughter in that kind of position.”
“You’re not my father,” I corrected. “You’re my stepfather. And I don’t care about any of that. I love you, and I know you love me, too.”
“I love you so much, Avery,” Eli said. “I cherish you more than life itself.”
I pulled away from Eli. “If you really love me,” I said, “then you’ll give me what I want. And I want you.”
Silence enveloped the cab of the truck. Neither one of us talked for a mile or more. Finally, Eli spoke.
“I’m sorry, baby girl,” he said. “This is tough for both of us. But someday you’ll understand.”
I felt like such a fool. I tried to choke back the tears, but it was no use. I had been certain that Eli felt the same way for me that I felt about him. For the love of God, I even helped him break out of prison so we could be together forever. Eli had saved me from that monster who wanted to rape me. But now Eli had spurned me in the worst way, and he had pushed me away.
Eli’s rejection hurt more than I could possibly bear.
“Pull over.”
“No,” Eli said.
“I said pull over!”
“I said no, Avery.”
We drove through the night in silence. In the early morning Eli pulled into the parking lot of a large department store. He killed the ignition.
“You have some money, right? Please tell me the cash wasn’t in the trunk too.”
I glared at him, still angry from before. He didn’t wait for a response.
“Go inside and buy me some clothes. I can’t keep driving around in my undies like this. Any extra large shirt will do. And a pair of jeans. Size thirty-four by thirty-six. Now go!”
I climbed out of the pickup and reluctantly walked into the store. I’d been running from the law for thirty-something hours, and it felt strange and exotic to find myself back in the everyday world of shopping carts and fluorescent lights.
I went straight to the bathroom to inspect my appearance. When I saw myself, my jaw nearly dropped. My face was dirty, and my hair was a tangled mess. My T-shirt was tattered and stained. I splashed water on my face and did my best to tame my wild hair. Then I went straight to the women’s section and picked out some new clothes for myself.
The men’s clothing area was nearby. I didn’t walk over there immediately. There was so much on my mind. If Eli really didn’t want me, this would be the perfect time to walk away from him.
Make a clean break. He goes one way, I go the other.
There was no way Eli would risk coming inside the store, with its security cameras and “loss prevention specialists.” By now his face was probably on every news program in the state. He would be instantly recognized.
I glanced at the doors. This is it. I’m walking away.
But I couldn’t. However Eli felt about me, it didn’t change the way I felt about him. I would help him escape, whatever it took. I owed him that much. I grabbed two of the ugliest shirts I could find, along with a pair of blue jeans that were a size too small. If nothing else I could put the squeeze on him.
Finally I threw in a pack of boxer shorts and a bag of socks for good measure. The clerk gave me a funny look when she rang up my purchase, but she didn’t say a word, unless you count the price of purchase.
As I walked outside the store, weighed down by several plastic bags full of our loot, a green sedan pulled in front of me. The passenger window rolled down, and Eli leaned over from the driver side.
“Need a lift?”
I grinned and jumped in.
6.
As the sun rose, I began to recognize the streets we drove past. We were back in Shiloh. We went by my high school, a long brick building with an American flag waving in the front. So much had changed in my life since graduation, but the school looked exactly the same, rooted in my past.
Suddenly I realized where Eli was taking us.
“You’re going home?” I asked. “Are you crazy? It’s bound to be swarming with cops.”
“I want to see it,” he said. “We won’t stop.”
At the property line of the Rutherford estate, a thick green wall of thorny shrubs rose to block our view of the grounds where I had spent so much of my childhood. The shrubbery used to be so neat and trimmed at perfect ninety-degree angles, like a real wall, but the shrubs had been left to grow wild and shaggy with no one left to prune them.
The gardeners had all been let go weeks before we were forced to fire the butler, Maurice. That one hurt. Maurice had served Eli all his life.
When we reached the front gate, Eli left off the gas and coasted by, craning his neck to catch a glimpse of his lifelong home. Sure enough, several police cruisers and unmarked detective cars were parked around the center fountain, which had been turned off. The grass was dead. A sheet of plywood was nailed up where the SWAT team had kicked in the front door when they came to take my stepfather away for a crime he never committed.
Soon could see no more of the Rutherford estate through the walls of shrubbery. Eli sadly shook his head but kept driving.
“Where to now?” I asked.
“Time to see an old friend,” he said.
We crossed the railroad tracks. Like a lot of Southern towns, Shiloh was extremely segregated, and now we drove down streets where most of the black residents lived. The homes were older and smaller, though most of them were well-tended. We pulled into a dirt driveway in front of a cute little wooden house painted white, with hunter green shutters. Flowers spilled out of the flowerbeds. The yard was full of kitschy lawn art from garden gnomes to pink flamingoes.
“Where the hell are we?” I asked. “And what are we doing here?”
Instead of answering, Eli pulled straight up the driveway and right into the open garage. I was entirely baffled. We got out, and he pulled down the garage door cord, then walked the stone steps to the front porch and knocked. I heard shuffling inside, and the door cracked open.
It was Maurice, our old butler. The expression on his face went from shock to joy to fear and back to joy within seconds. He pushed open the screen door.
“Well, I’ll be! Get in here, y’all!” he said, motioning for us to enter.
It was strange to see Maurice wearing regular clothes instead of his black tuxedo. Once we were safely inside the small
cottage and the door was shut, Maurice gave Eli a heartfelt hug. He bowed to me formally, then smiled and hugged me, too.
“I stayed up to watch the news last night. Y’all are all over the TV,” Maurice said with worry in his voice. “You are in deep, deep trouble Mr. Rutherford.”
“I was in deep trouble before,” Eli said.
“But this is real serious,” Maurice said. “Here, let me get you some coffee. No sugar. You thought I’d forget, huh? But Mr. Rutherford, with all due respect, what the hell were you thinking? When folks break out of prison they never stay out for long. They always get found in a day or two.”
Too Big Taboo Bundle: Naughty Brats, Forbidden First Time, Man of the House Page 10
