Bow Down(76)
“Great. I’m not in the mood for reminiscing.”
“You looked so fucking cute buried in all your books. I thought you were such a nerd, but it got me hard as hell anyway.”
“I don’t want to hear it,” I said, lying. I felt myself remembering and knew I was on the verge of soaking through my panties already.
“Yeah, you do. Like the time I went down on you behind the philosophy section? You practically toppled the whole shelf. Your ass had words imprinted on it for hours.”
I smiled and crossed my legs. “I also remember a customer walked in on us just as we were getting dressed.”
He laughed loudly and nodded. “Scared the shit out of that old lady.”
I couldn’t help but laugh along with him. “I can’t believe she didn’t tell.”
“Probably thought she was losing her mind.”
I remembered that day very, very well. I had thought about it many times over the years. His tongue had felt incredible between my legs, and the fear of getting caught only heightened it. He had pushed me down onto a pile of books and had torn off my panties, eating my soaked-through pussy like wild.
I’d had to bit down on a paperback to keep from moaning. I wasn’t sure if he remembered that part, but I wasn’t going to remind him, either.
“Enough stories. Why did you say we’re in danger?”
He got suddenly serious as he turned onto Main Street, a few minutes out from the store.
“I can’t tell you everything,” he said. “Not yet at least,” he added quickly.
“I’m getting really sick of this mysterious act.”
“I got into some trouble in Mexico. That part is true.”
“Not surprising.”
“I got mixed up with a big drug cartel down there.”
“Camden,” I said softly.
“They’re no joke. I may do dumb shit sometimes, or at least I did, but those guys were on a whole different level.”
“What happened?”
“I started working for them. For the past few years I’ve been in their crew.”
I blinked, shocked. “How could you get involved with people like that?”
“I had no choice, Lace. You don’t understand how it all works.”
“Of course you had no choice. It’s never your fault, is it?”
“This was my fault,” he said darkly. I was taken aback all over at how serious he was. “And I take full responsibility for it. I’ve been paying off this debt for a long time. But it wasn’t my choice.”
“What does any of this have to do with us being in danger?”
“Something happened down south.”
“You didn’t bring them here, did you?”
He looked at me. “Not yet. But they’re coming.”
Fear stabbed through my chest as I stared back at him. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I wish I were.”
“What the fuck did you do, Camden?” I said, trying to bite back the panic welling up in me but failing.
“I did what I had to do. None of this was supposed to blow back on you guys.”
“What are you even saying?”
I looked up and saw that we were pulling into the bookstore’s parking lot. I couldn’t believe the drive flew by like that, but it had.
He cut the engine and looked at me. “As much as I hate it, you’re all in danger. I’m here because I need to protect you.”
“I don’t understand. Protect us from what?”
“The cartel is coming, Lace.”
I stared at him, his face hard and intense. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. It was just too crazy. There was a Mexican drug cartel out there hunting us down that wanted to hurt us? I couldn’t imagine a world where that was the truth. We were normal people that did boring, normal things. We didn’t get involved with drug cartels.
“Lace?” he asked.
“I have to go.” I opened the door and climbed out.
“Wait,” he said, getting out. “I’m not lying to you.”
“For once in your life?”
I saw his jaw clench. “You don’t understand.”
“Just leave, Camden. Just go away. I don’t know why you’re making this crazy story up about drug cartels, but I’m not buying it.”
He shook his head. “I’m not lying. You’re all—”
“In danger,” I said, cutting him off. “I get it. Just go away, Camden.”
I turned and left, walking into the bookstore.
It felt like I was tearing open an old wound walking away from him like that, but I needed to process what he was saying. It was true that I found his first story completely unbelievable, but the second story was equally implausible, if not more so. Still, why would he make up something so outrageous?