Church Girl Gone Wild (9 page)

Panic set in as I glanced down to look at the time on my phone. It was after midnight. The kicker was that Momma Rose and Deacon thought I was on campus. I'd told them I'd volunteered to stay on campus overnight to help with freshman orientation tour for high school kids. Deacon couldn't stand Storie. I'd say it was because she was twenty-one and acting wild, but he didn't like anyone.

“Girl.” Storie stopped pacing long enough to turn toward me. “Are you sure the doors were locked? There ain't no glass on the ground or anything.”

I nodded and stopped with a blank stare on my face. “He took my car back.” I blurted it out before I realized who I was standing in front of.

“Who took your shit? Deacon? Deacon's bitch ass does not own you, Eva. Come on.” She chirped the alarm off of her Explorer climbing her tipsy behind in.

I opened the passenger side door. “Storie, we can't leave, girl; the police are coming.”

“And it ain't like they rushing to get here. We called over an hour ago. Get in and—”

“And it wasn't Deacon. It was Que, Professor Quinn. He bought it for me, we kind of broke up, and I think he just took it back.”

I dropped into the passenger seat and sulked into the neck of the big sweatshirt she'd given me. All my clothes were still in my car and I wasn't about to stand around outside in nothing but toga. I could see Storie's mouth hanging open out the corner of my eye.

“Damn, explains why he asked me for an invite then,” she blurted out after a few quiet seconds. “I guess we'll just have to go get your shit back. I'm pretty sure he'll give it to you. I doubt he'd want his wife seeing you this time of night.”

“Wait. You knew he was married?

“Girl, yes. I done been there, almost got shot, and instead of a T-shirt or a degree Dean Porter expelled me for giving someone Tylenol. She said I was distributing blah blah blah, some made-up shit.”

It was apparent I wasn't the only one keeping secrets from my bestie.

 

 

We pulled up in front of Que's place. I didn't expect the pang of jealousy that hit me. His car was parked beside what I assumed was his wife's. They had a cute two-story brick house with a little jetty and a small boat docked off to the side. My car was nowhere in sight.

“What are you waiting for?” I asked Storie. “Go ring the doorbell.”

“I'm waiting for Bear. I texted him on the way over. He should be here in a few minutes. Quinn might try to get stupid. You already know Mrs. Quinn stay locked and loaded. She didn't take too kindly to catching me with her husband. I'd hate for her to have a flashback.”

Shoot, I wasn't taking too kindly to hearing or even thinking about her being with Que. How many girls had he been with before me? How many of us was he seeing right now? Imagining him doing what we did with anyone else set my insides on fire.

“There he is.” She nodded toward the rearview.

A silver Acura pulled up behind us. Bear got out along with two other guys. I cursed under my breath. Dontay's tall frame unfolded out of the car followed by a skinny white guy. They lined up on Storie's side of the SUV like soldiers waiting for a command.

“Where's your car?” Bear asked looking through the window toward the house.

Storie answered for me. “We think it's in the garage.”

“Y'all think? So you don't even know if this nigga stole her car?” Bear all but growled at us through the window.

Dontay stepped in. “Don't worry about it. We got this. Y'all just stay here. Let us know if you see anyone coming.”

The guys crept toward the house splitting up at the garage. Dontay went around the side and Bear tried to look through the windows. I had the whole truck rocking from bouncing both of my knees up and down.

Storie stuck her upper lip up to her nose. “I can see now that I'll have to train Bear to not include his boys on a solo mission. I didn't know he'd bring Bumbles and Fuck Shit Up with him, my bad girl.”

“Who and what?” I asked her.

“Gracious, Eva, how the nigga staying in your house and you don't know nothing about him? Dontay and White Boy got a reputation for bumbling and fucking up all kinds of shit. Neither one of them wants to do right, but they done smoked up too many brain cells to realize they get caught out there every time they try to do wrong.”

An all-black car crept up to a slow stop behind us with its headlights out. We simultaneously swiveled our heads toward the back.

“The GPS shows it's in here.” A short, pale man who could have been a Napoleon impersonator got out and tried the doors on Bear's car.

“What the hell is all that?” I asked Storie.

She barely moved. “I don't know but I bet Bumbles or Fuck Shit Up did it. Hopefully they find whatever it is and leave before . . .”

There wasn't a breath taken between the two of us as we watched Napoleon take a small package out of the car. He leaned down and neither of us could see what he was doing. Flames licked at the inside of Bear's Acura.

“Yo! That's my shit. What the . . . Who the fuck?” Bear ran across Que's perfectly landscaped yard toward the street.

“Tell your friend I am not to be fucked with,” Napoleon called out.

The front door swung open and both Quinn and his wife stormed outside. My heart slammed into my lungs. Mrs. Quinn's hand was already reaching into the pocket of her robe. We could only imagine the size of the gun she was about to pull out of it.

Storie panicked. She threw the truck in drive and took off with the tires squealing.

“We can't leave the guys. What about Bear's car?” I sounded out of breath.

“They got legs. To hell with gettin' shot. If Quinn and wifey don't see us the guys can say anything and still walk away.”

 

 

The guys walked away all right. I'd just settled down from Deacon's religious tirade when it sounded like the garbage man was running a late-night pickup outside my window. These fools climbed out of my car looking like three urban desperados. Dontay tapped lightly on my bedroom door.

“I rescued your cat, ma'am.” He tipped an imaginary hat at me.

I giggled. “However in the world did you find my kitty?” “I kind of stole it back. You might have to scrape those not-so-nice people's garage door off your back bumper in the morning but you'll be fine.” He ran his tongue over his lower lip.

I ate him up in eyefuls, digesting every little detail. I let my imaginary fingers trace all along his lips while I replayed how good they felt at the party. He smelled like power and Armani For Him. How I never noticed all that before was beyond me, but in the few seconds we stood side by side I'd imagined our first date all the way to us walking down the dern aisle. The man looked flawless. So what if his ears were a little big? I could look past that.

My eyes were still watching that mouth of his. “I guess I should thank you for saving my
cat?
” I took a timid step toward him.

He stepped inside closing the door.

I got the teeniest bit of common sense at what was going on. “Deacon might—”

“He won't even know I'm home. Bear took my car.”

It was a good enough answer for me. Dontay started kissing his way up my neck as an incentive.

“Did you hear something?” I tried to dodge his lips. I couldn't listen or focus when they were on me.

“Think I just broke through my zipper. My bad, it happens,” he joked.

“Well then let me—”

Deacon came through my bedroom door with a team of police like he was on a holy drug raid. Que marched in with a smug look on his face.

“That's her.” He pointed in my direction. “She came to my house, broke in, and stole my car after I told her she couldn't borrow it anymore.”

I had to take five deep breaths before I could even try to speak and not blast Que with a thousand curses. The officers marched towards me with their gold badges shining against the black of their uniforms. At least a night in jail could be a night away from the ruler or another redemption service.

“Hold on boys. I think me and this here gentleman can settle this amongst ourselves. No need starting a paper trail,” Deacon announced.

Que immediately bristled up. “No, I want a paper trail. You ain't even seen my garage old man. I could care less about–,”

“About your wife asking why you gave this child a car or how you could stain her soul with the sin of the adultery you commit against your own marriage?”

All the anger drained from Que's face. His mouth twisted from side to side before turning into an ugly frown. The look he gave me to everyone else might have just seemed angry, but I knew better. Que was beyond pissed off and he wouldn't be happy until I paid.

Without a word he turned and stormed out slamming the front door on his way. Deacon looked from Dontay down to me in my tank-top and shorts. He wouldn't say or do anything in front of the officers.

“Strip,” Deacon said.

The sound of that single word rolling off his lips grated against my ears like rocks inside a tin can. He shuffled towards my bedroom door and quietly closed it before leaning back with a conceited smirk on his face. Dontay was frowning in confusion. He probably wasn't sure if he'd heard him correctly.

“Mannie, Chuck, give her some incentive,” Deacon casually addressed his hired henchmen.

The sound of theirs boots rushing across the room echoed the pounding of my heart in my ears. They each pulled their pistol and the taller of the two stood behind Dontay reaching around to hold his cheeks in his hand.

“Open your mouth nigga,” Chuck or Mannie demanded.

I didn't know who was who.

Dontay tried to yank his face away. His lips were balled up so tight they were going white at the corners.

The shorter officer punched Dontay hard in the side and I felt the pain for him. There was a short heated pause where I could have sworn he was calculating his odds on fighting. His lips opened just enough for the officer to angrily shove the barrel between them wedging them wide.

Deacon waved his hand his my direction. “You want to run around acting like a whore, I'll treat you like one. Now strip.”

The room clouded over from the tears filling my eyes. I hid behind them as they fell down my face, letting them block everyone from my line of sight. The sound of Dontay's heavy breathing around the metal barrel clanking against his teeth were the only sounds in the room. I wasn't close enough to hit either officer but I considered it. They could shoot Dontay and Deacon would say it was justified before I took two steps.

I clumsily pulled my tank-top over my head before letting my shaky fingers slide down my shorts. My skin blazed from the heat of every eye in the room on my bare body.

“All right stud. Your turn.” Deacon's voice was low and mean.

“Deacon, it was all my fault with the car please–” I whispered, bringing my arms up to cover my naked breasts.

“Mannie,” Deacon said completely ignoring me. “Help Eva lie down and get comfy while our stud gets ready”

I figured out Mannie was the taller of the two when he stepped away from his post behind Dontay and came towards me with a sketchy grin. His pistol was aimed towards the middle of my chest. I forced my feet in the direction of my bed silently wishing the gun would just go off and end all of this. The sound of Dontay's clothes sliding off washed over me in a wave of disbelief. I was suffocating all over again. The cold sheets pressed against my ass and I swung my legs up feeling awkward and exposed. Goose bumps rose all over my body as the bed creaked from the shaking of my shivers. The barrel of the gun made an icy trail from my big to towards my ankle. I shut my eyes to the world. As long as I was around Deacon, as long as he was alive I'd always be inside that box.

Heat pressed against my skin and I opened my eyes to Dontay leaning over me. The gun to the back of his head only made his expression all the more painful to look at. His arms were shaking as his fists dug into the pillow beside my head.

“I'm so sorry,” he whispered before lowering his eyes.

I followed his gaze letting out a sharp exasperated breath. The fact that he could even get hard with three other men in the room and a gun at his head was damn-insane. I rolled my eyes to the ceiling and back again.

“What are you waiting for Thumper?” Deacon asked.

Dontay's cheek clenched, he sat back on his haunches shaking his head no even though part of him was definitely saying yes.

Deacon shuffled towards Chuck pulling a pistol I never knew he had from somewhere underneath the back of moth-brown suit jacket. It was skinnier than the officer's guns with a longer skinnier barrel. I'd never seen a gun like that but it made Dontay curse under his breath. He came down over me nudging my legs apart in a single movement. There was the briefest most aggravating pain as he pushed his way into my dry skin. I dug my teeth into his bicep muffling my groans from pain. I wasn't gonna be able to pee right for at least a week. Dontay stopped moving as if he'd read my thoughts. His chest pressed against mine and I focused on the heat of his skin blazing hot against mine.

The sounds around me felt amplified in my head. A zipper went down to my right and somewhere to the right of that there was heavy breathing. I didn't want to see who was or wasn't jerking off to this. I for damn sure didn't want to see Deacon or his smug face.

Dontay swelled up inside me surprising even me when he was able to smoothly slide out and back in again. My only escape was by pressing my face into the side of his neck. He stroked and glided back and forth until I forgot all about our audience. It was only when we both came crashing back to reality that we remembered they were there.

“See boys what'd I tell you?” Deacon's voice broke through the haze in my head. “Everyone has a purpose. She's a natural. She can start tomorrow. Any of the boys at the precinct want something other than a financial hand out sent them my way. Need to get a few things understood first.”

I slowly pulled the sheets up to my chest covering myself. Dontay scooted to the edge of the bed with his back to me as Deacon escorted his uniformed dogs out into the hallway. A sigh of relief had swept over me when he didn't let anyone else touch me. But I still couldn't wrap my mind around everything that happened up to what Deacon hinted at happening.

Deacon shuffled back into the room with his face furled up. “Your mother was one of my top girls. You can exchange that little slut gift you have with people that can benefit the church or the
two of you
can leave my house right now as you are and not come back.”

I opened my mouth to say I don't know what but Deacon had turned and marched out of the room before I could find my voice.

“Fuck this, I'm out.” The muscles in Dontay's arms flexed as he pushed himself up off the bed. “Come on Eva, let's just leave. Your sister will be fine. He's done more shit to you in the time I've been here and he ain't laid a hand on her once. She'll be fine.” He lowered his tone to a hushed whisper. “We can come back and get her when we have a spot and some money. Look, you have to put you first, or you won't be alive to save the one you keep putting yourself second for.”

Dontay had the sincerest look in his eyes and his words as right as they were fell with on me with the sound of my world crashing down around me. I twisted and knotted the sheets around my fists untangling them and then wrapping them tighter each time. That's what Deacon was doing to my life. He'd give me a little freedom but every time I thought we could function like a normal father and daughter, he'd wrap some kind of hell tighter and tighter around me.

My lips were trembling and I couldn't swallow past the lump in my throat. I'd never left Leslie, never considered leaving her. But Dontay was right. I wouldn't be able to save her, if I didn't save me first.