“Keep screaming and it will only hurt worse. If you behave, I’ll slit your throat clean, but if you don’t, I’ll make it painful.”

  The taste of blood and tears choked me. My scream came out a desperate gurgle as I struggled on the bed. He pressed against me and I just wanted it to end. But then he stopped moving and he released his grip. His body jerked twice before he crashed to the ground. He was no longer on me. Nothing was holding me down.

  Carlos stood on the top step, and Hector stood behind him. In Carlos’s hand was an assassin’s gun with a silencer on the tip. Hector walked toward the corpse and kicked it over with his foot. Carlos stuck the gun in his waistband. Feebly, I tugged at my jeans. With patience, Carlos pulled my jeans up and fastened them the same way he had after we made love in the woods as teenagers. I pressed my face against his warm chest.

  “Do you know this man?” asked Hector.

  He lifted the mask, revealing a face I knew well. It was a face I had kissed. A face I had stared into as he’d taken his pleasure from my body after our dull dates.

  I sobbed, “He’s Lieutenant Sheriff Aaron Drake.”

  Hector covered the lifeless face again.

  “Carlos, you two have to get moving,” said Hector.

  Carlos pressed his lips to the top of my head and moved away from me. I almost reached out to pull him back. He started pulling clothing out of closet and shoving them into my bag. Hector stepped away, his phone to his ear. I wasn’t paying attention, but I heard him say, ‘clean up’ and my address in Spanish.

  Carlos zipped my bag. “Where’s your car?” he said to me.

  “You’re taking her car?” questioned Hector.

  Carlos nodded. “Just to get my bike from the pound. Do you have bolt cutters in your car?” Hector shook his head as Carlos continued. “Do you need help?”

  “No,” replied Hector. “Someone’s coming to clean this up.”

  A sob escaped me, drawing both their attention. I sat on the edge of my bed.

  “You better take my car,” said Hector. “I’ll pick it up later.”

  Carlos nodded. “Maria, you must know I will take care of you.”

  I looked into his eyes knowing what he said was true.

  Carlos led me away.

  Carlos

  Now that Emilio had money, he did everything in life with style. There was a time when he was poor like the rest of us, but not anymore. The redwood two-story cabin hidden in the woods looked like a picture from a glossy brochure. It had an A-frame roof with floor to ceiling picture windows that faced a crystal blue lake.

  “That’s not a lake,” said Maria. “It’s a pool made to look like a lake.”

  “Crime does pay,” I chuckled.

  Maria shot me a sour look.

  “Too soon,” I said.

  She shoved her duffel bag into my arms, and I carried our stuff into the cabin. I didn’t have a bag except for the food from the gas station store we’d stopped at on the way. I’d borrowed some of Luis and Fernando’s clothing instead of risking precious time driving to my apartment. It didn’t matter to me anyway. They wore nicer clothes than I did. But the fit of the pants was off; I could have used another inch to cover my ankle. I looked like someone’s poor relation trying to impress a well-to-do party guest. At least I was still alive and able to dress badly.

  “You’re not going to believe the bathroom,” said Maria.

  She was in better spirits since leaving Mesa. We’d headed far north for Oakland Springs, which was fifteen miles past Whiterock Lake. The farther we drove, the more relaxed Maria became until finally, she fell asleep. With her head tucked on my shoulder, I wanted to kiss her, but I kept my eyes on the road. In the morning, she woke up and smiled as the car turned down a private road and headed toward a picturesque view.

  I stepped into the bathroom and made a low whistle at the shiny clean interior. The bathtub looked like an indoor pool. Set in the floor, it had to measure six feet around and had several Jacuzzi jets. I started pulling off my borrowed clothes. I thought Maria would protest, but she smiled.

  “Good,” she said. “I was going to tell you stank and needed a bath.”

  I flung my sweaty T-shirt onto her head.

  She pulled it off laughing. “You brat.”

  “Are you joining me?” I smiled. But I knew I couldn’t charm her with my tattered face. After days of fighting to stay alive, I looked like I used gravel for a washcloth.

  “Carlos, I thank you for all you have done,” she said, “but this will be a hands-off friendship.”

  At least we were friends again. I shrugged as I pulled at the jeans.

  Maria quickly left the room. She called out, “I’m going to cook you some real food. No more fluorescent cheese curls until you heal.”

  I filled the tub to my chin and tried to swim in it like a poor kid pretending their bathtub was a pool. I knew this because I’d been a poor kid. I forgot my troubles and splashed water over the edge, making a slippery mess on the floor.

  “What are you doing in here?” Maria stood in the doorway, her hand covering her eyes. “You’re giggling like a little girl.”

  I splashed a wave at her. “A girl? I’m no girl. Open your eyes and see.”

  Maria sighed and hid outside the door. “Food’s ready,” she said. “Come on and eat.”

  My stomach growled when I heard the mention of food. I hopped out of the tub and hurried to get dressed, my muscles feeling limber from the heat easing away the soreness. Maria stood in a small kitchen off the patio that faced the lake. The kitchen was larger than mine, but it only had a small fridge, a microwave, and a mini wet bar.

  “Is this the kitchen?” I rubbed a towel over my wet hair.

  Maria laughed. Her eyes smiling, she placed a dish of spaghetti and meatballs on the small circular table.

  “No, Carlos. This is one of the kitchens. There’s a larger one upstairs.”

  I let out a breath as I sat down to a hot meal. “I wonder if precious Luis knows about this place.”

  I loaded my fork with pasta and watched pretty Maria hurry back and forth looking for glasses and napkins. Her phone vibrated on the table. She stopped in her tracks and we watched the phone flash the word ‘WORK’ as it shook again.

  I grabbed it and started pulling the wretched thing apart. Maria ran over to try to stop me, but my fingers were too fast. While she hollered, I removed the SIM card and dashed outside to throw it into the lake.

  “Why did you do that?” Maria shouted, her hands in fists at her side. She glared at me.

  I wondered if she would push me in after it.

  “Maria, you’re a deputy. You know they can track you.”

  She smacked her hand against her forehead in frustration. The problems we thought we’d escaped came rushing back toward us.

  “I didn't think of it,” she replied. “I didn’t remember. And I know these things.”

  Her lower lip trembled and soon her shoulders were shaking. I held her tight and soothed her with reassuring words.

  “Maria, it will be okay,” I promised her. “You’re not alone in this. I will stay with you until we’re sure it’s safe to go home.”

  Her eyes couldn’t hold back the tears. “And what will happen after that? Who will stay with me after this over?”

  “It’s okay,” I whispered.

  “It’s not okay,” she cried. “You don’t understand how alone I’ve been. I’m ostracized by the people I want to help, and now, I know the few people I thought were on my side are evil, too. The mayor is a cold-hearted killer and the deputy I dated tried to rape and kill me. Full of wickedness, each one of them.”

  Her tears flowed as Maria clung to me in anguish. I moved us back into the living room and guided her to a large tweed sofa with a geometric blanket that looked warm and comforting. I wrapped it around us as I hugged her.

  “Maria, you don’t have to be alone. I want to be with you.”

  Her crying slowed, and I brushed wisps of her deep honey colored hair away from her beautiful face. She had it in a clasp, and I reached around her to let it down. Her lovely hair cascaded over her shoulders, and I leaned in to smell its clean scent.

  She pulled away slightly. “Carlos? I don’t know if we should try this again.”

  “I’ll never hurt you,” I pleaded. “Not again. Not ever. I’ve missed you ever since I sent you away. As bad as things are right now, I feel at peace being here with you because… I love you.”

  Maria wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her lips against mine. I pulled her against my body, enjoying the way her supple curves rubbed against me. Over the years, I had been with very few women after our break up. I just didn’t have the heart for another because I only wanted Maria.

  She threaded her fingers through my damp hair. Maria didn’t push me away again. I kissed her harder, and each time, she pressed against me. She tugged my shirt open and her hands explored my body. I helped her pull off her T-shirt, then her bra. She wiggled out of her jeans and panties, then reclined on the couch. I took a moment to gaze at her body. My eyes followed the curves of her small waist as it widened into her full, sexy hips. Hypnotized, I watched how her breasts lay on her chest and jiggled when she caught her breath.

  My cock hardened at the sight of her beauty. I leaned over her, and whispered, “Do you?”

  “Do I what?” she asked, avoiding my eyes.

  “Do you love me?” I asked.

  Smiling, Maria kissed my mouth, but I pulled away. I had to be certain before I gave up control.

  “Carlos,” she said as her hand caressed my battered cheek. “I never stopped loving you. It’s only been you, and always will be.”

  I cupped her full breast in my hands, tilting the hard cocoa-colored nipple to my waiting lips. I licked it and then twirled its hardness into my mouth. Maria whimpered as I sucked harder. I pulled her close, touching her tight tummy and rubbing her smooth skin with my hand. Toying with her, I made her writhe under my familiar touch. I had memorized her body years before, during so many moments after our first time. Her first time. And now, I knew I had been the only one who mattered.

  “Carlos,” she murmured as she reached for my jeans and unzipped my fly.

  I pushed them off my legs.

  “I hope you have a condom?”

  “I’m sure there are plenty of condoms in Emilio’s house.” I laughed.

  And I wasn’t wrong. Naked and unembarrassed, we laughed as we explored each room, pulling open drawers and rummaging inside. We found a full box in the master bedroom lying on the bedside table.

  The room was huge, overwhelming, and decadent. The bed was the most obnoxious statement to masculine excess I had ever seen. The headboard and frame were made of large pieces of stripped, crisscrossed branches and an animal hide served as a cover.

  Gingerly, Maria touched it. “I don’t think it’s real. I hope it’s not real.”

  “We don’t need it.” I ripped it off, leaving the cotton sheets behind.

  Maria flopped onto the king sized bed, and I dove onto it next to her. I winced, remembering the beating I had received. She froze and looked at me in concern.

  “Oh no, mamacita,” I said. “Nothing is going to stop what we’ve started now.”

  I pulled Maria into my arms and she held her body against mine, laughing.

  She lay on her back, and I kissed a line of kisses up her thigh until my mouth nestled in her sweet curls. I tongued her slit gently and her became breathless. My favorite moments were spent tonguing her until her laughter turned into panting moans. She came with a shout, leaving my face wet with her juices.

  But I wasn’t finished. I wanted her messier and begging for my cock.

  “I want you, but you need to tell me you want it, too.”

  She squirmed on the sheets and opened her legs wider, inviting me in.

  “Please, Carlos. I want to feel you inside me again.”

  I rolled the condom down the length of my heavy cock. Now, the only pain I felt was from waiting to enter my love. I thought I would explode the second I pressed my tip against her hot, drenched pussy. I pushed and pulled my way into Maria as she tossed her head and moaned with pleasure. She pressed her sweet hole harder against me as I pushed down into her. We rocked our bodies together until we met in a long-desired embrace.

  My body was weary, but hers soothed my longing as I moved over her. She was my sweet girl again. The one who had saved me with her devoted, unselfish love. I would never throw it away again. I pressed my face into her silky hair and listened to her panting as her climax rose. Her nails pressed into my back and she clenched around me tightly. I tried to make it last longer for her, but I couldn’t. Her lush body was all I desired, and my lust made me weak for her. Maria wrapped her legs around my hips as my movements became wild and jumpy. Groaning, I banged into her as if we could join bodies and be one forever. A heightened sensation tingled across my body and then the release hit so strong as I came into my lovely Maria. She felt it too as she held me close and stroked my sweaty hair.

  “Ah, Maria,” I whispered against her ear as she cuddled me. “Why did we wait so long?”

  Chapter Nine

  MARIA

  The smell of bacon tickled my nose as I woke to a dazzling autumn day. Outside the bedroom window, a starling had nested under the window and its babies chirped until Carlos got up. It took me two days to appreciate the loud chirps in the wee hours of the morning. It was a wonderful change from the gray and dirty Northside. This was the closest I’d ever come to living a fairy tale life, complete with a prince downstairs making me breakfast.

  Carlos swore just before a frying pan clattered to the floor.

  “Do you need help?” I shouted from the cozy bed.

  “No, you stay put,” he huffed. “I’ve got it.”

  I smiled and stretched underneath the down comforter as I wiggled my toes. I just wanted this moment to last as long as it could. I wanted this to be my life in an idyllic paradise far away from the world’s troubles and terrors.

  “You eat bacon, right?” asked Carlos.

  He stood shirtless in the doorway, balancing a tray piled high with breakfast food. He was so handsome standing there in only his boxers. His dark bangs swept across his left eye and he winked at me. I almost melted. Smiling, I sat up as he carefully approached the bed. His muscles flexed when he placed the heavy tray down beside me. His cuts and bruises were fading into his warm olive skin, and he no longer moved in pain.

  We’d gone through two boxes of condoms and had to search for more. My skin tingled as Carlos sat on the bed close to my body that was naked under the sheets. I squirmed to get closer to him.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, pushing the lock of hair out of his eyes.

  “I am but...”

  Leaning toward him, I wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pressed my lips against his parted mouth. Carlos was the man I had loved since childhood and it would never change. I didn’t know I would grow up and fall in love with him. As a child, I liked him in the innocent way kids like each other. I had been a tomboy and I was able to run fast and hit a ball. We liked to play the same games and spent our days together running up and down the streets playing with sticks, rocks, and whatever scraps we could turn into toys. I never thought there was anything different about Carlos until the kids on the playground teased him about his good grades and shabby clothes. I didn’t understand why, and convinced myself it was only jealousy.

  I put the plate aside and reclined on the bed, letting the sheet slip away. Staring at my naked body, Carlos bit his lower lip, but then he looked away.

  “We should eat first,” he said.

  I reached for his hand and placed it on my breast. My nipple hardened under his fingers, but he still hesitated.

  “I wasn’t thinking about food,” I said. “I have other things on my mind.”

  Carlos pulled his hand away, and a subtle pinch of doubt formed at the back of my mind. Had I rushed him hoping he still loved me with the same passion he had so long ago? Maybe his interest was only physical?

  But I brushed those thoughts aside, focusing on the logical problem before us. I knew what was troubling him because it was troubling me, too.

  “What are we going to do?” I asked. “We can’t stay here.”

  “Why not?” he replied. “Why not for a little while longer?”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11