Convincing Bet

by K. S. Adkins

  He was good, a professional even. Rio needed me to live so Rio could get paid and he did what he set out to do. He convinced me. To say that didn’t cut deep would be a lie I couldn’t speak. The man who gave me back the reasons to live was only taking them right back away again. “You gonna miss this place as much as I am?”

  “I truly will,” I admit, “I liked who we were here.”

  When he didn’t respond, I waited until we stopped and took his hand as he led me to the dock to board. Twenty some minutes later when we were hand-in-hand at my car, he leaned in to kiss me and it took everything I had not to hit him. “I’ll follow you,” he says holding me close.

  “Okay,” I whisper climbing in.

  “Little Bet?” he asks quietly.

  “Yes?” I answer.

  “You know I love you, right?”

  “You’ve said so, yes.”

  “I’ll take care of you,” he offers, “I just need you to trust me when we get home. Trust me no matter what.”

  “You know I do,” I tell him hiding the lie from my features. His conscience is eating at him and fuck him, it should! “Let’s beat the traffic okay?”

  Nodding, he kisses me hard on the mouth then jogs over to his pickup. He drove a pickup too, figures. Throwing it in drive, I pull out in favor of the freeway and start the task of pulling favors. I’ve got about six hours to kill before I arrive back home and this girl had her own plans.

  The beautiful thing about being wealthy was I didn’t have to resort to violence. I just paid people to be violent for me.

  When she drove off it felt rushed and it felt wrong. The fire in her eyes was gone, the lust she had reserved for me for the last week and a half was gone, too. When I kissed her it wasn’t returned and it didn’t go unnoticed. Part of me wondered if she was done with me, refusing to give us a chance; she was going home and planning to forget me. Staying on her ass, I watch through the rear windshield as she makes a phone call. The call lasted maybe fifteen minutes, and then she tossed the phone onto the passenger seat. Grabbing my own, I dial her number (which I stole for a moment like this, of course) and hit ‘call’.

  “Bet Lennox,” she says on the third ring.

  “Rio Martin,” I respond.

  “Hi, Rio,” she says “Long time no talk.”

  “Speed limit’s seventy, little Bet, you’re pushing eighty-five.”

  “Maybe I’m in a hurry to get you home.” She says in a voice that is very at odds with a comment made to be sexual.

  “Maybe you’re in a hurry to get away from me,” I offer in return, “You writing off the island already?”

  “No,” she says switching lanes, “I know what’s waiting for me when I get back is all. I have a lot to do.”

  Again, it wasn’t what she said but how she said it. Now I was starting to worry that she didn’t trust me as much as she claimed to. “Anything I can do to help?”

  “Thanks for the offer,” she says quickly, “but it’s just loose ends. Once they’re smoothed out, it’ll be business as usual.”

  “Still want to live?”

  “Yes.”

  “Still want me?”

  “What do you think?”

  “Pull over at the next rest stop, little Bet,” I tell her, “I ain’t asking neither.”

  Disconnecting, we drive another four miles before we find one. Once we pull in side-by-side, I knock on her window and she unlocks the door for me without fuss. Climbing into her Range Rover, I don’t bother admiring it. I didn’t ask her to stop to talk about her upgrades, I asked her to stop so I could remind her how I felt.

  Reaching for her and resting my hand on the back of her neck, I pull her toward me gently. Kissing her mouth, I take my time licking the seam of her lips then gave her my tongue. At first she wasn’t receptive which is when I knew I was right that this felt wrong. But seconds later, her hands come up to cradle my face and she gives it to me.

  “Love you, little Bet,” I tell her, “Life’s gonna fuck with us, try to separate us but I always got your back. Stop pulling away from me and tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Stop talking,” she mumbles trying to kiss me again.

  “Knock it off,” I warn her, “You been bitchy all fucking morning and now you’re acting like I wasn’t just plowing you hours ago. The fuck happened between there and here?”

  “Life happened, Rio,” she says pulling back, “Since you convinced me to live I have two weeks of work to catch up on, bills to pay and new businesses to back. The amount of responsibility I carry is heavy, I don’t expect you to understand but that’s what’s waiting for me when I get home. Reality.”

  “Am I part of that reality?”

  “That depends.”

  “Depends on what?”

  “How good you can fuck me in this parking lot.”

  “You testing me, Bet?”

  “You want to pass, Rio?”

  God dammit, she was dodging me. I knew it, but I just didn’t know what to do about it. She wanted to fuck, I could see it and I also couldn’t help but to respond to it too.

  There was no saying ‘no’ to her, not now not ever.

  Even in this parking lot with her deflecting and holding something back from me, fucking her was the most important thing in the world.

  There was no way I was answering his questions. However, I was telling the truth when I said reality was waiting for me when I got home. I tried running from it, but it found me and now I had to deal with it. When he climbed in, I had intended on starting a fight to get him to leave but then I caught his scent and knew despite his betrayal, I still wanted him inside of me. Fuck having his heart, I wanted his dick and based on what I’d heard, an orgasm was the least he owed me.

  “Well?”

  “You’re pushing me, why?”

  “Because I can,” I tell him leaning forward. “You pushed me every day on that island and now I’m pushing you back. Don’t act like you don’t like it, because you’re dick says otherwise.”

  “My dick ain’t a rational thinker.”

  “My pussy isn’t looking for logic.”

  Right here, this moment, is the beautiful thing about Rio. Despite his claims to care for me, to want to save me, he does in fact think with his dick. I knew it and I was counting on it.

  “What’s your angle?” he growls.

  I don’t answer because not answering gets me what I need. Which is him stripping my jeans from me, followed by my panties. When his finger slips inside, I can feel myself getting greedy for him.

  “Answer me,” he says pulling my hair back. “The fuck are you playing at, Bet?”

  Pushing him back into his seat, I excuse the loss of his finger in favor of climbing over the seat to straddle him. The beauty of my vehicle is the blacked out windows. Not that I’d care if anyone saw us, they’ll know soon enough when it’s rocking all over the parking lot but an audience wouldn’t bother me. Why should it? After today, Rio will never get this pussy again, anyway. I consider this a going away fuck.

  Ripping his jeans open, I reach in past his boxers and wrap my fist around his dick to shut him up. It works but then the novelty wears off and he’s back to thinking he’s owed answers.

  “The hell is your hurry?” he asks trying to push my hands away. Thinking on my feet, or rather my knees, I impressed even myself.

  “We don’t have long before someone calls the police,” I tell him, “Aren’t you the one who could fuck anywhere? Even the bathroom if you were in a pinch?”

  “This is true.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Then jerking him harder, I wait for his slit to drip before I settle myself over his dick and slide down.

  “Right there, little Bet,” he moans while gripping my hips, “Fuck, you feel nice.”

  Not bothering with words, because I don’t have any that won’t ruin this right now, I continue to fuck his dick silently. I pay no attention to his perfect face, his toned stomach or his rough hands. Just his dick, th
at’s all I need.

  With our skin slapping and his words of praise, I feel it come on much quicker than I expected. He spanks my ass hard and with perfect timing I let it sweep me away. Several pumps and a “Love you, little Bet,” later, Rio fills me up with his come and his bullshit too. “Shit,” he moans riding it out. “Never letting you go.”

  Slowly climbing off and back into my seat, I dress myself and wait for him to leave. “You hungry?” he asks, tucking his wet dick back into his pants. Watching him do so pisses me off because he’s taking part of me with him. This asshole has no idea this is the last time I’ll ever come on his dick. He thinks he’ll be getting it again in four or five hours.

  “Actually I’m not. If you can hold out, we can order in when we get back?”

  “Sounds good,” he says reaching for me. Allowing him one last kiss, I fill his mouth with wasted emotion. Might as well give it to him, after this I have no use for these feelings anymore. “Drive the speed limit,” he says opening his door. As he walks over to his truck I wipe his taste on the back of my hand. I wish I could convince myself he tasted horrible, but I’d be full of shit. The fact was he tasted like my future.

  A future I was being denied.

  Something was fucking wrong.

  Everything that went down in her truck felt forced. Not the orgasms, oh hell no. Of course, I was too busy thinking with my dick to stop her from using sex as a distraction. Because that’s what she did. Watching her speed off the service ramp and back onto the freeway, it hit me hard.

  The way she fucked me was how I used to fuck other women, without emotion.

  My guy started to cramp wondering what brought that on. The night before we were fine, weren’t we? Before I can work out in my head my phone rings. Hoping it’s her, I don’t even look at the caller.

  “Yeah?”

  “No more pit stops, mother fucker,” says Adrian using a tone that was begging for an ass kicking. “I am not paying you to fuck her all over Northern Michigan.”

  “You tracking me?”

  “You? Please. Her, asshole.” He says, “No more games, you make one more unnecessary stop you don’t get paid.”

  Not giving me time to answer, he hangs up. “Fuck!” I yell inside the cab where only I can hear it. He had her followed; well that explains why he knew where to send me. Had I paid the smallest amount of attention to detail I would have got it.

  When my phone rings again, I’d had it. “What!”

  “The fuck is your problem?” asks Loyal.

  “You got some shitty timing, head case,” I tell him while I keep up with her driving like the devil’s on her ass. Oh wait, he is. Shit.

  “Need you home,” he says, “Well not me, ‘cause you give me nothing but heartburn but she needs you.”

  “She okay?”

  “Is she ever not okay? She misses you for some fucking reason. Be at Senior’s plot Sunday afternoon at two o’clock, or I will find you and hurt you. I don’t like it when my woman pouts.”

  “Junior doesn’t pout.” I remind him.

  “She does when you’re not around,” he says. “There, I said it.”

  Then he fucking hangs up on me, too.

  Dialing Bet, I expected her to pick up but it goes to voicemail. Trying again, the same. Hitting redial another four times she finally answers and it wasn’t pretty.

  “Really Rio?” she says, “What, you want to pull over again already?”

  “No,” I tell her, “I just wanted to talk.”

  “About what?”

  “Anything.”

  “I’m coming up blank,” she says after a brief pause.

  “I get you’re pissed about something and you got no plans to tell me what I did, but whatever I did I’m sorry, little Bet.”

  “You’re apologizing for something you’re not sure you did? Does that mean you’re guilty of something and I may or may not know what it is? Or, are you just covering all of your bases?”

  “The thought of you mad at me for even the smallest thing fucks me up,” I admit, “Driving separate blows too. I just want to be where you are.”

  “Why do you love me?” she asks, “What if I decide I don’t care for living again and want out?”

  “I love you ‘cause you got so much life in you, I just wanna be a part of it. Are you having second thoughts?”

  “Yes,” she says quietly, “A lot of them.”

  “Name ‘em,” I tell her, “Name all of ‘em. We’ll work through it, together.”

  When she stays quiet, I feel my nerves start to crumble. “Bet?”

  “Yeah, Rio.”

  “Don’t give up on me.”

  For the next hour, we both sat on the phone but neither one of us spoke. I wanted to tell her everything but stayed quiet. I owed her an explanation but waited too long to deliver it. This was the end, I fucking knew it.

  While Bastille’s Oblivion fills the silence between us, I fight back the tears. Not only is this song haunting me, it essentially sums up the last week with him. When I came to my time in Mackinac, oblivion was calling my name. At that time, I had lost the will to live. Then my idea of oblivion changed. Because of one man’s touch, his words and the way he saw me I wanted his kind of oblivion. Hours ago, my idea of oblivion was forgetting the world and moving forward with a man I knew for only a small amount of time but he had stolen my heart just the same.

  Because the man saw the woman I was desperate to be.

  His voice, when he asked me not to give up on him will torture me for the rest of my life. Since my epic loss, I found that I don’t forgive easily. I am so tired of being taken from that the slightest betrayal is unforgivable to me. Reminding myself that this isn’t a slight betrayal, that this was my life he was fucking with gave me the strength to disconnect the call.

  Wiping my eyes and clearing my throat, I call up the anger but it’s not there. Right now, I just…ache. Driving through Saginaw is a blur, the sporadic traffic jams were too. My heart was stuck on Rio and the way he changed my life only to destroy it all over again.

  Does he have any idea who he’s dealing with when it comes to Adrian Lennox? Stupid question, of course he does! He’s a fucking criminal too. I used to be in collections he’d said, the fucking prick. Scrolling through my phone I go to contacts, swipe cocksucker, hit call and record.

  “There she is,” he says on the second ring.

  “You’ve been a busy boy, Adrian,” I tell him while white-knuckling the steering wheel. His voice is almost a match to Alan’s and hearing it tears me apart. “The cop on a bike was a nice touch.”

  “Oh, come on now, Bet,” he laughs, “I always have eyes on you, you know that. Besides, that cop rides a bike for Christ’s sakes. He would have been happy with a gift card to McDonalds.”

  “How many more?”

  “This time? Just two. One of my guys followed you to the island, gave me your location and paid the rent-a-cop off. I think you know the other one rather well, judging by how protective he is of you.”

  “How much are you paying him to do this?”

  “Fifty large,” he says “Besides, he owes me anyway, he’s lucky he’s getting paid at all.”

  “What’s this going to cost to go away for good? No more bullshit, I want my life back. There’s a number, what is it?”

  “Six mill,” he says, “Plus one month with me in my loft, uninterrupted.”

  “Uh huh,” I say trying not to vomit, “What happens to Rio?”

  “Rio dies.”

  “I’ll be in touch,” I tell him keeping the emotion from my voice.

  “Never doubted you wouldn’t be, Bet. It’s business after all. You, of all people, don’t fuck around when it comes to business.”

  “Blackmail is pricey,” I tell him, “To think, all these years I busted my ass to build an empire when I could have just have just fucked my way to the top.”

  “It’s too bad I hate you, little sister,” he laughs, “We really do have a lot in common.�
��

  Disconnecting, I stare out at the road ahead and think. I had to force myself to think because the alternative was running this fucking truck into a ditch.

  Adrian plans to kill Rio and I found that I couldn’t accept that. But what I did have to accept was that for Rio, I was a job. I had to recognize that I went from a job to an opportunity. That opportunity turned into caring and that caring morphed into love. If Adrian called in his marker, Rio was a man who specialized in retrieving things not people and I would gamble he didn’t know I was the target when he agreed. While I was accepting all of these things, I knew that I would do what it took to spare him but still knowing when it was over I wouldn’t keep him.

  If Rio was all about money, he’d have taken the five hundred grand I offered and been done with me and disappeared. But no, he’s going along with Adrian for a mere fifty large. In keeping his word to Adrian, he had to know he’d lose me in the fallout. None of this made sense to me. He knew my history with Adrian, he knew I planned to destroy him. Why not just tell me? Help me? I know what it’s like to be under the prick’s thumb, we could have brought him down together. Rio chose to betray me instead.

  Punching in the number, I knew this was it, I just put the wheel in motion and there would be no going back.

  “Was hoping you wouldn’t call.” he says on the first ring.

  “I’m not calling about me,” I tell him, “I’d like to offer you two million for a job that will take place in about three hours.”

  “You alright, Ms. Lennox?”

  “Actually, no,” I tell him, “I don’t know how this works. What you need to know versus what you don’t but, the man I’m referring to is dangerous and you’d be doing the world a favor by eliminating him.”

  “What about you?” he asks “Would I be doing you a favor, too?”

  “This would benefit me most of all.”

  “How many unknowns can I expect?”

  “Four to six but, no more than seven. I’ll text you a current photo. Him first, the rest as you please. But I’m also sending you another photo of a man I want spared. My address will be in the thread.”