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“M-money,” she said.

“How much?”

“I—uh,” she choked. How much was her virtue worth?

“Come on, girl, I’m at your mercy.”

“Four hundred,” she said recklessly, the shame coming fast now, at last. So it’s come to this, Tanya? Haggling over her own body. She was the worst kind of woman in the world; she was disgusting. Only for Amari. It’s only for my baby, and then never ever again. He’s rich, going off that watch, unless it’s fake…

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when the man opened his wallet and started counting out bills.

“That’s five hundred,” she said when he stopped and flipped the wallet shut. Her hand closed fast around the money and put it in her purse.

“I know.” He pinched her chin and wiggled it. “Now you won’t stick that little knife in me.”

“How do you know about my knife?”

“It jabbed me when I picked up your purse.”

Five hundred was half of what she really needed but more than she had expected to get. But there was still a problem. It seemed Mister Bailey had the same thought.

“I’ll talk to Eugene,” he said, reading her mind.

“Talk about what?” she said breathlessly. In a fucked up way this was all working out perfectly.

“How much did he ask you for? Twenty percent?”

“Forty.”

“Don’t worry about him,” the tall man said. He cupped her chin again and Tanya could have sworn she saw kindness in his eyes.

“Why are you really doing this? Don’t take offense but you don’t seem like the type.”

She pushed his hand away. Getting soft on a “trick” was how a girl got played. “I’m here for a good reason, you don’t need to worry about it.”

“You should have a man taking care of you,” he said. “You’re telling me you can’t find a man to keep you from a place like this?”

“I don’t need a man to keep me anywhere. I don’t rely on anybody but myself. I’ve lived in hell and the only thing that got me out was me .”

He pulled on her lower lip gently. “What’s an angel doing in hell?”

“Surviving.” Stop talking so much.

“You have a kid?”

She raised her chin. “Yeah.”

He watched her close. “Boy or girl?”

“Boy,” she whispered.

“Your son is home right now, waiting for you.”

“No,” she said. “He’s actually not.”

His eyes shuttered. The change seemed to come out of nowhere. A dark mood swallowed the man up and suddenly he was retreating. Some honorable instinct, or maybe he just wasn’t feeling her anymore, whatever it was it spelled DANGER for her plans. Though she had the money.

Half the money.

“You should be with your boy,” he said.

He couldn’t know that Amari wasn’t waiting at home. If he was, she wouldn’t be here at all.

“Wait,” she said.

“Just keep the money— it’s alright.”

“Wait, Mister Bailey. Hold on a minute.You need this too. Right? That’s why you came here and talked to me.”

“Maybe,” he rasped.

“That’s right. So come here…”

He allowed her to pull him closer until their bodies were touching again. He stared down at her, and she stared up at him through her eyelashes. Her heart was pounding. Again she had the thought that once he must have been very handsome. His features were harsh and chiseled, except for the melted side of his face that made her a little sick to look at.

But she’d been wrong about him. He wasn’t so bad at all.

The ugly man stroked her waist. Lower, his hands circled. Lower.

“You better be sure, chocolate.”

Why not walk away now? She should take the money, call Bee, and go home with her pussy unbreached. She should thank God for putting this nice man in her path and saving her from a lifetime of regret.

But Tanya had sold her soul to the devil long ago. And forgetting his face, and his race, and every horrible thing he stood for, it had been a very very long time since Tanya had laid down with a man. His big, rough hands began squeezing her ass again, flipping up the dress to play in her pussy, again...

They entered the room and he backed her into the wall. She moaned as he knelt and pulled her panties down. The gusset was creamy and stuck to his fingers as he balled it up.

“Wait.” He stood up and took the Kimber out of his waistband, laying it on the table.

“You were strapped the whole time?” She asked nervously.

“ ‘Course.”

He knelt again, pushing her knees apart. This. This was his favorite fucking thing. Her pussy juice gleamed like pearls. Saverin slung one leg over his shoulder and parted her center, his body reacting to the sight and scent of a female, waking up old urges.

“Okay?” he grunted.

In reply she buried her fingers in his hair and jerked his head forward. I like this chick. He sucked long and slow on her clit.

“Oh!” she cried.

For the first time in months Saverin felt alive, electric. It was probably a peahead move to suck off a hooker he’d just met– but consequences meant nothing to a man who had escaped death at his own hand. He was ready to feel everything tonight. Already, gripping the girl’s ass and holding her in place as he tongue-fucked her, he felt better than he had in months. Honing in on her button, he had the pleasure of feeling her clutch up tight, then orgasm all over his tongue, her cream squirting into his mouth. And it tasted like what? Strawberries.

The girl was shaking head to toe when Saverin let her leg fall gently back to the floorboards. He was shaking, too. He was panting like a dog. Her taste was all over his lips.

“I can’t b-believe you did that,” she said. “Nobody ever did me that.”

She might be younger than she looked. How much younger? Surely no less than twenty. He cupped her throat, feeling her pulse beat rapidly under his fingers. She was fucking gorgeous. He began tugging open his jeans.

“You got someone lookin’ out for you downstairs? A man or something?” he asked roughly.

“No.”

“You like to live dangerous?”

She put up her chin. “I can defend myself. Everybody says this side of town is scary for us, but I’m not afraid.”

Her eyes told another story. She had to be skittish coming in here to trade her body with these rough confederates downstairs. These men were as like to beat and rape her as pay her pennies for her services. It happened all the time. Eugene himself had been known to take his extra cut in pussy whether the girl was willing or not. The thought had Saverin in a rage already.

He shouldn’t give a shit. This girl here wasn’t nothing to him– she wasn’t even his race. Not long ago he’d warned his cousin Roman of the dangers of “polluting” their bloodlines with these females. And look at him now.

Hypocrite.

But it was all lies, everything he had ever believed was such a fuckin’ lie.

Beast kissed beauty, very gently, very softly. And she stroked his hair, threading her quick little hands all the way through it. The touch of a woman was unlike in every way to the indifferent prodding of a gun.

“Would you have fucked that redneck?”

“No,” she said.

Saverin pictured her bent over, tensed up while the fat warty bastard thrust between her silky thighs. He gripped the girl tighter, surprised at the rage that descended over him. “What a waste.”

“I said I wouldn’t have.” She stood on tiptoe and put her arms around his neck again. Her kiss was deep and soft.

“You got a rubber on you?”

“I got one, hold on…” She fumbled in her purse and slapped a wrapped condom in his hand. “I’m flattered,” he said, turning it over.

“It’s the right size, ain’t it?”

“It’ll have to be.”

The smell in the room was terrible. There was a bed, but it wasn’t more than a dirty mattress. He was sure they had given her the worst room in the place.

The girl cleared her throat and he knew she must have smelled it too.

“What do you reckon?” he asked her. “Live skunk, or dead porcupine?”

“I’m thinking both,” she gagged.

He pulled her forward and pushed his nose in her neck, taking in her scent to block out the odors coming off the mattress. Her ass was thick and round like a peach, but her waist was small and tight. I forgot they made women like this.

She smelled so good. She felt even better. Her body was made to be soft and curving everywhere he was hard. She would be softest in the middle…Just as he was getting into it, pushing her dress up, a wave of stench crossed him up again. The girl broke off, choking.

“It’s comin’ from the window!” she exclaimed.

“Fuck this. Let’s go to my truck.”

“What?”

He pulled up her dress. “Outside, my truck.”

“In the parking lot?”

“It’s cleaner than this place.”

“I’m meeting my ride real soon,” she said uneasily.

“Tempting as it might be, I don’t plan to run off with you,” Saverin assured her dryly.

“But…doin’ it in the parking lot? That’s too public.” She shook her head.

Fuck.

“Nobody’s seein’ inside my truck. It’s darker than this place and likely bigger.” He frowned, moved again by a strange chivalrous jab of conscience. “I wish we could get a real bed, but we’d have to leave here for that. I live ten miles over yonder.”

“No,” she said. “I can’t go to your house.”

“The truck it is then.” He paused thoughtfully. “Unless the smell of raccoon shit turns you on…”

“Ugh!”

Heads turned as the pair walked down through the taproom where cliques of blue-collar locals were taking the edge off a long day. The smell of Jameson and Coors hung like a visible fog. A George Jones hit wailed from the juke box.

The bar had filled up noticeably since Tanya and the Green Eyed Giant went to do their business, and the number of people now crowding into the taproom took Tanya by surprise. Folks drinking and gambling and smoking down the dirty hours. She could swear a hush fell over the room as she and the man cleared the stairs. She didn’t recognize anybody, but then again she kept her eyes trained on the floor. Nobody I know , she assured herself . If they see me working at the Appletree tomorrow, I’ll just say it wasn’t me.

Eugene came bowling out from behind the bar. “My money?”

“Excuse me?” said the man at Tanya’s side before Tanya could open her mouth.

Eugene stared up at Tanya’s client and went white as milk. “Ah! Er–Bailey… I didn’t recognize you,” he stuttered.

“Do you mind?” Mister Bailey said in a hard voice.

“I didn’t see she was with you… Take a drink on me, son. I’m sorry about your brother, by the way. And your Pa,” he added hastily.

“Thank you.” The tall man nodded curtly and pushed forward with Tanya.

Wow. Okay.

What happened to your brother ? She wanted to ask. But she kept quiet.

Saverin had parked parallel to the trees. He led the girl carefully around the side of his truck that faced the woods. “See? Only thing that can see us is the possums.”

“It does smell better than the room,” she admitted.

“You bet.” He opened the back seat door and hoisted her up, facing her as her legs dangled off the seat.

Both paused, taking a moment to absorb their new surroundings. Nobody could see them unless they came poking through the brambles.

Tanya swallowed hard. It was about to happen. She was about to cross the point of no return and have sex with someone for the second time in her life. All her life she heard it was a sin– a terrible, dirty sin. After him you have to do it again. With somebody else. You can’t get all that money in time.

“What’s the matter?” he said, laying his big warm hands on her thighs.

“Nothin’.”

“Don’t let that bastard scare you. You’re safe if you’re with me.”

“Is there any way,” she asked nervously, “I can get the whole thousand?”

He stared down at her.

“It’s not for myself,” she hurried on, struggling through her pride and the deep shame of it all, afraid she might be overplaying her hand, but needing to make her case anyway. “I have to get this money by Friday. I don’t want to go back inside when we’re done here.”

His fingers closed on her thigh as if the very thought angered him. “You owe somebody or what?”

She hung her head. “Something like that.”

“Well, hell.”

“Nevermind. Let’s just g-get this over with.”

“We can work something out,” he said slowly. “I might…need you again. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Let’s focus on right now,” she whispered, putting her arms around his neck. It was a tentative victory and she didn’t want to do too much.

“Yeah,” he said, raising her chin for another kiss. “Tomorrow.”

As their lips locked, he remained standing, jerking open his belt and freeing his cock. Don’t look at it, don’t look at it. But she did look, and it made her light-headed. It looked big . He pulled her dress straps down and hissed in approval before taking a heavy dark titty in his mouth, fixated on the nipple. “ Yes.” He sucked harder, dragging her close with one great powerful arm. “Yes, yes…oh, darlin’...”

He loves this. Tanya ran her hands through his silky soft hair, which was very thick. It fell loose in shiny black waves to his shoulders. She leaned back, letting him feast on her breasts as much as she wanted. In a delirium of pleasure she admired his strong, broad shoulders which were hard as rock from deep layers of muscle. Now this was a man.

“Damn, those two just ain’t right,” he rasped when he finally let her titty drop from his mouth. He didn’t stop his attack on her chest, though, rubbing his thumbs over the nipple, cupping, squeezing.

“You like them?” Tanya whispered.

“Love is the word.” He nipped her neck.

She laughed. “Hey, chill.”

“Grab my dick,” he grunted. He straightened to give her access. “Stroke him up.”

You can do this, Tanya.

But she didn’t need much convincing; she was lost in the moment as much as the stranger was…and his dick was big. Reaaaaaal big. Instinct made Tanya scoot forward in the seat, amazed how juicy her pussy was. She was actually liking this. Love is the word.

The moment her hand wrapped around his dick, he got hard as a steel pipe. He jerked up her dress and put his thumb to her pussy. “Wet,” he murmured. “You’re wet for me…that’s right. That’s right. You like getting your clit rubbed and sucked…But it’s time to fuck now.”

I’m really going to do this. Where was that condom…right…

“Put it on me,” he murmured.

She did that for him. Her baby daddy Colton’s voice popped into her head. Don’t ask me to use a condom.

Another bad decision. And here was another one. Wasn’t it?

She had known Colton for years through church, and he treated her like dirt from the very beginning. But this stranger was something else. Tender but rough. Like he knew how to please her; like he wanted to please her… It was hard to explain. He took her mouth again in a dark kiss; they were both lost in each other, swept away by the unexpected heat and attraction.

“You’re my man tonight,” Tanya whispered, not knowing what possessed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and returned the feverish embrace with everything she had.

He dragged her towards him, held the condom tight around the base. Oh my God. Here it comes. She tensed as the tip of his dick brushed her entrance. Oh. Oh God, this is really me. I’m really doing this. She was panting. So was he. It’s so fucked up that I’m enjoying this. He rubbed the tip around in her juice, then…

OH!

She screamed into his shoulder, trembling.

“You need a second?” he asked gently.

“No,” she gritted.. Feels so good…boy don’t stop…he CAN’T stop…I need this too. Oh, shiiiiit….

“I can take him, baby,” she gasped.

“Good girl,” he said raggedly. “You’re good. You’re perfect, my sweet doll… Let me in…” He thrust. Thrust. Thrust. Woah….

Tanya rolled her hips and let him have her, have everything. Then a strange thing happened. He cried out and pulled her even closer, shoving her head in his chest and leaning over her hair in a tight bear hug as his thick weapon-sized cock pounded her insides through the condom.

“Wait baby wait,” she whimpered, bracing a hand on his stomach. “You’re so big. Oh GOD…”

“Don’t make me stop,” he snarled. But he did slow down, and he stroked her waist until she nudged him back into a rhythm again. “Okay?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry…”

“Sorry for what? It’s alright.”

He’s nice. He pressed her down flat on the backseat. He hiked her thighs up, wider. Sloppy sounds of fucking. She was wet. So, so wet…

He slammed into some deep inner button and Tanya saw stars and planets bursting across her vision. She gasped and clawed at his broad, muscular stomach. What the fuckkkk.

Then suddenly he cursed and pulled out.

“What?” Tanya whispered.

“The condom. Fuck!”

“What happened?”

“Fucking thing came off. ”

Tanya sat up. “ What ?”

“BAILEY!”

The roar had the effect of a gunshot. Both of them jumped. The man stepped away from Tanya immediately, his hand flying to his waistband. He swore again.

“What– who is that?” Tanya hissed, sitting up and tugging down her dress. Condom fell off. Condom fell off. That voice doesn’t sound friendly…Condom FELL OFF!

“My gun– where is my gun?” the man barked.

“Your gun?”

Then they both looked at each other as it struck them at the same time that he’d left it in the room.

“Oh shit,” said Tanya.

“Well of all the cack-brained…Doggone it!”

“BAILEY!”

“Sweetheart, feel under that seat and tell me if you see anything.”

“See what?”

“Just do it.”

Tanya crawled deeper into the cab and fumbled under the driver’s seat. Her fingers touched something metal and cold. “I got something,” she said.

“Hurry, now.”

She had pulled the item nearly halfway out when she realized what it was. She dropped it like a live snake– not the brightest thing to do.

“Is that another gun ?”

“Hand it to me. Don’t worry, it ain’t loaded.”

Tanya passed him the little pearl-handled derringer. “That looks like my mama’s gun.”

“That was my mama’s gun,” the man said, flicking open the chamber. “Not loaded– figures.”

They both looked down at his dick, which was still hard… and wet.

Condom fell off.

“BAILEY! Come on out,” the voice called in a mocking singsong. “We heard you was looking for us!”

The man– Samwin Bailey, or whatever it was– stepped back from Tanya and, looking in her eyes, pulled the condom out of her pussy with two fingers. The thing had ripped. His monster dick tore it up like tissue paper.

Tanya inhaled.

“We’ll deal with it later,” he said tersely. He jerked up his jeans and buttoned them. “Fun’s over.”

Tanya looked over her shoulder. Right. Through the tinted glass of the back windows she saw four figures approaching. Four men. And from the way they walked, they looked drunk.

Alarms blared in Tanya’s head. Some shit was about to go down. Tanya jumped down from the back seat, her legs wobbling. Her pelvis was loose and still ached. She righted herself in the pile of weeds the truck was parked in, grabbed her purse and held it close.

“I’ll talk to ‘em. You just head back inside,” the man said. He wiped his sticky hands on his jeans and his eyes hooded. “You on the pill or something?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Just my fucking luck.”

“Are you serious?” she said furiously. “I got enough problems, mister, I don’t want your damn baby either!”

“Hush,” he snapped, squinting through the windows and checking the derringer again for bullets. Tanya shut up. To hell with this shit. She needed to get out of here and find a drug store…and a clinic.

STD tests cost money, even at the clinic , that annoying sensible voice in her head said.

This was so bad. She could feel the man’s warm sperm inside her. A thin trail ran down her leg. Bad, bad, bad! What if she got pregnant for real? What if she got AIDS?

“Come get your trouble, Bailey!” the drunk man shouted, and fired his gun in the air.

“INSIDE,” Tanya’s trick snarled at her, shoving her hard in the back so she stumbled. “Through the trees. Now. Wait for me.”

Inside? What if he didn’t make it out of this gunfight? There were four of them, and only one of him.

Not my fight, mister rich redneck. Sorry. She had Amari to think about. She was going the fuck home. This mountain beef had nothing to do with her! This had been a disaster from start to finish.

Make it to the main road, then call Bee.

She’d keep to the treeline and sneak down the sloped parking lot through the shadows. Then she’d call Bee and wait in the trees until she saw the Ford focus. After making sure she wasn’t pregnant or about to get some disease, she’d go home and never, ever do this wickedness again.

But she was still five hundred dollars short of what she needed for Amari. The other five hundred was in his pocket, and he had promised…

“What about the rest of it?” she asked with a boldness she didn’t know she was capable of.

He stared at her. It was like a sudden ugly thought had crossed his mind. Tanya didn’t like that look, not one bit.

“I see now,” he said, leaning close into her face. His scar was like a crater swallowing up his human features. Tanya froze in fear as he grabbed her shoulders suddenly, dragging forward her by force until they were nearly nose to nose. “You’re on the link with the Snatch Hills– you set me up.”

“Let me go! You’re hurting me!”

“You connivin’...” he flung her away and she caught herself against the side of the truck. He seemed even taller than before, his arms looking huge and deadly. Tanya’s knees were jelly, but she stood her ground and fired back, “It was your idea to come out here, not mine. You’re out of your mind. I don’t know who those men are– back off me!” She remembered the knife in her purse.

“He’s got a girl back there,” one of his opps jeered from behind the truck. “Bring her out, Saverin. Maybe we can share.”

Ha ha ha.

“See?” Tanya snapped. “They don’t know me, like I told you!” Her fingers felt around her purse. Where is that damn thing?

“You’re a great actress. If you ever stop whoring, try Hollywood. Get out.”

“And what if I’m pregnant?”

His eyes were murderous. “Pray you ain’t.”

“I hope they shoot you,” she choked. She beat a rapid course into the trees, holding her purse to her chest. She stopped only to kick the heels off, and with them dangling from one finger she hurried down the bushy slope barefoot with only the moon to guide her.

She’d have to get the money some other way. This was never gonna happen again. What the hell had she been thinking? She felt utterly humiliated.

“Hey, cousin,” sneered Hiram Snatch as Saverin stepped around the vehicle. “It’s been a while.” He pointed his CZ straight between Saverin’s eyes. “Put that thing down.”

Saverin did not put the pearl-handled Derringer down. “Four on one,” he observed. “Got enough backup with you, Hiram?”

“Don’t you worry about the boys,” Hiram said. “I’m just here to make you nervous, Bailey.”

“Do I look nervous?”

Hiram’s expression lost some of its smugness. “Roman says it’s peacetime now, but you’re declaring war in front of everybody.”

“You scared or what?”

“He paid us off handsome, your cousin did. Made sure we’d take our licking and forget what the McCalls and Baileys did to us. I agreed to his terms, but if you go around talking big, that means you’re in violation and we can respond accordingly. Consider this a warning shot.”

“Who learned you all those big words?”

“Shut the fuck up,” snarled Hiram. “I never liked you Baileys, you know that? If it wasn’t for Roman I’d have crunched you like a tick soon as they finished sewing your face back on.”

“Was it you who shot my brother?” Saverin demanded.

“No,” said Hiram. “No, it wasn’t me that popped little Sammy’s head like a grape.” His voice lowered. “But it was you that lit the fires at the meth lab, Bailey. You killed my brother Johnce. Cooked him like a fucking turkey.”

“Did I?” said Saverin coldly.

“Never hurt a fly, our Johnce. Innocent as a lamb, he was.” Hiram’s eyes flickered. “Mark my words, Bailey. One day there’ll be a reckoning from us. And it will come when you least expect it.”

BLAM!

Saverin crashed backward to the ground. The world shut off.

The four Snatch Hill men gaped at each other in shock.

“You asshole,” Hiram roared, grabbing the scruff of the quivering man next to him. “Who the fuck told you to shoot?”

“It was an accident,” the man sputtered. “This d-damned gun…always doin’ that…”

“Go check if he’s dead,” Hiram barked at his third cousin, who was barely fifteen. The Snatch Hill leader glanced nervously at the doors of the Turnkey, which was now crowded with witnesses. Hastily he stuffed his pistol away. Shit. If it got back to Roman that he’d shot down Saverin Bailey, they would be as cooked as Johnce.

“He’s alive!” the boy called from Saverin’s motionless body. “It got his ear, like.”

“Motherfucker,” said Saverin. “That was my good side!”

“Fucking lucky son of a bitch,” Hiram exhaled. Then he turned and clocked the man who’d fired across the jaw. There was a dense popping noise and his cousin screamed. “Get a better gun,” Hiram snarled. He glanced up to the bar. That motherfucker Eugene was coming out with a shotgun— along with damn near seven or eight McCalls.

Plus, Saverin was getting up.

“Let’s go,” he said to his cousins, and they got out of there quick as chain lightning.

“How did it go?” Bee asked as Tanya folded herself into the passenger’s seat, shivering from head to toe even though the night was near to sweltering.

“Let’s go home.”

“You okay? You damn lucky I was hanging around– I almost went in there after you. Something just didn’t feel right!”

“I’m fine, Bee.” Tanya showed Bee the folded bills. “See? I got what I came here for.” She shoved the bills back in her purse and pulled down her dress. Between her legs felt wet and sticky.

“Tanya, you’re shaking! What happened?” Bee laid a concerned hand on Tanya’s, then felt her forehead. “You sick?”

“I’m just fine. It just got a little spicy up there at the end is all.” Tanya swallowed. “I need to go to the drug store.”

“Oh my God,” Bee said, her eyes like dinner plates. “The drug store? Why? What happened?”

“Bee, please– don’t ask me no questions,” Tanya begged. “This was a big mistake.”

“I told you it would be,” Bee said angrily. “I told you that you should try another way to get the money. Look, Tanya, look! I drove to the ATM in Goldsville and got some cash out from Durk’s account. Here! And don’t tell me anything but yes , because I won’t hear it! I never should have helped you do this tonight, I knew it from the very beginning, but I went along, Lord Jesus help me.”

She handed Tanya an envelope of cash.

“No, Bee,” said Tanya, horrified. She pushed the envelope back. “Didn’t I tell you I don’t want your money?”

“I can’t have my best friend selling herself to the devil when I can help!”

“Bee, come on!”

“I mean it, Tanya. Don’t push me, ‘cause I’ve made up my mind!”

Tanya didn’t know what to think. On the one hand she was grateful to her friend; beyond grateful. On the other, she worried what would happen to Bee if her husband found out.

Tanya held the envelope tightly, her conscience at war. In the end she put the envelope quietly in the side compartment. She’d text Bee that it was there once she was home.

There are so many good people in the world. She just couldn’t let Bee, who didn’t have a stroke of meanness in her body, take the fall for her mistake. After all, it was her fault she’d lost Amari.

Tanya looked out the window as the night blurred past. Somewhere out there her baby was asleep– if he was still alive.

She swallowed down the panic and the fear. The disappointment. The urge to scream. She hoped tonight hadn’t been for nothing.

I have to get to him…No matter what it takes.