Too Big Taboo Bundle(15)

I recognized several of the women from my previous visits. We all  traveled from near or far to remind our loved ones they are not  forgotten. The sad part was, without even trying to, we also reminded  our men that life on the outside goes on without them. Kids grow up.  Lovers grow apart.



Not me and Eli, though. I would never abandon the man who raised me. Eli  always treated me like his own daughter, even though we're not kin.  Even after Mama was gone, and it was just him and me.



We always stick together, Eli and me.



One of the ceiling lights made a crackling sound and flickered on. The  harsh light cast a glare on the window, showing my reflection in the  glass. I swept back my long, brown hair and admired my best feature, my  stormy gray eyes.                       
       
           


///
       



I'm not a model or anything, but I always did to dress up for my visits  with Eli. Today I was wearing a black halter top, tight jeans and  two-inch heels.



My body was a little on the curvy side, and I had the kind of figure  that most guys don't seem to notice. I was a cheerleader in high school,  but the only reason I made the squad was because the petite girls  needed someone else whose shoulders they could stand on. That period of  my life felt like such a long time ago.



Eli rapped the glass with his knuckle. The harsh sound drew me out of my daydream, sending me back to reality.



"Hey!" Eli growled. "Over here, Avery. Focus."



"I'm listening," I lied.



Eli had much darker eyes than mine. They were glaring at me with such  intensity, I couldn't help but look down, breaking eye contact with him.  A big part of me missed the old Eli, the kind and sweet man who gave me  a home-the man I learned to call my father. But a secret part of me was  intrigued by the new Eli, too.



Those dark eyes, that prominent jawline covered in scruff. And the  tattoos. My god, why did he get those tattoos? Whoever inked Eli did him  no favors. The prison tats covered both of his arms like inky sleeves,  but the designs were nowhere near professional.



Between the muscles and the tattoos, to look at Eli you'd never guess he  used to be a venture capitalist. That he was a billionaire, right up  until less than a year ago.



Now Eli looked like the villain in a big dumb action movie. Which was  funny to me, since Eli was the smartest man I knew. If you believe what  the police, prosecutors, judge and a jury of his peers had to say, then  Eli was also the most dangerous man I ever met.



Tonight we were going to find out just how smart-and just how dangerous-Eli really was.



I knew it was wrong, but the way Eli looked at me sometimes, I might have been hoping for a little more.





2.



Eli's troubles had begun during my senior year at Shiloh High School. On  graduation night, as I walked across the stage, I glanced at the crowd  and found Eli standing against the back wall. He was beaming with pride.  But I couldn't help but also notice a look of sadness and resignation  in his eyes. I felt the same way. Soon he would be taken away from me.



Instead of going out and partying with my friends, I went straight home  following the ceremony. I didn't care about the classmates I would  probably never see again. I could only think of Eli.



Of course, this was before the government seized all of Eli's property.  We were still living in the immaculately preserved Georgian mansion that  Eli had inherited from his parents. His parents had inherited the  estate from their parents, back through several generations to his  great-great-great grandfather, Buford B. Rutherford, a decorated Civil  War general and two-term governor of the Virginia commonwealth.



Thousands of slaves once toiled in tobacco fields surrounding the  mansion that General Rutherford built in Shiloh. At one time, the  Rutherfords owned the largest tobacco company in America. When Eli took  control of the family fortune, he cut all ties to the tobacco industry,  re-investing in more lucrative and less problematic markets.



Eli had also transformed the farmland into a lush private park. When I  was a little girl and Eli was courting my mama, I loved nothing more  than to walk the winding trails of the Rutherford estate. Eli and Mama  walked so slowly, I grew impatient and skipped ahead, helping myself to  apples, cherries and plums from the fruit trees that lined our path.



Then we came to Eli's personal nine-hole golf course. He had designed  and built it to run alongside the green river that ran through the  family's estate.



"Will you teach me, Eli?" I asked.



"Sure thing, kid," he said. "Just as soon as your mother and I come back from our honeymoon."



Eli made good on his promise, and it became one of our little rituals-a  round of golf in the cool mornings before work and school.



Mama never joined us. She didn't care for sports. She was the most  beautiful woman I had ever seen, though, with long auburn hair, full red  lips and icy blue eyes.



Mama was so pretty and proper, you almost had to tiptoe around her to  keep from offending her Old South sensibilities. I'll never forget the  time I made the mistake of tracking muddy footprints up the stairs of  our wraparound porch. Not even mud inside the house-just a few brown  footprints on the white-painted porch. I had caught a bullfrog in one of  the smaller creeks on our land. In my excitement I had rushed home to  show my prize to our butler, Maurice.



"Maurice!" I cried, holding the bullfrog in both hands. I squeezed it by  the belly, its long hind legs dangling and swinging as I raced up the  steps. "Maurice, come look!"                       
       
           


///
       



The door opened and I froze in my tracks. It was Mama. The way she looked at me, I wished I could disappear under the porch.



"What's the meaning of this?" she asked.



"Nothing, Mama," I replied. "I just thought Maurice would like to see this frog of mine."



"Maurice is ironing the linens. You are not to disturb him."



"Yes, Mama."



"How would you like it if he disturbed you while you were playing or doing your homework?"



Truth was, I'd be thrilled for Maurice to interrupt me when I was doing my homework. But I couldn't admit that to Mama.



"I wouldn't like it one bit," I lied.



"But you did disturb him. Now Maurice will have to put aside his ironing  to mop up this mess you made. You have terribly inconvenienced him.  Even worse, now he must take time out from his busy day to punish you."



Mama cracked open the heavy front door.



"Maurice?" she called. "Maurice? Come down here this instant."



Maurice was a sad-eyed black man in a secondhand tuxedo. He knew not to  keep Mama waiting. Seconds after she called his name, he was trotting  out the front door.



"Oh, there you are," she said. "Maurice, escort Avery to the cherry  orchard and let her pick a switch. Then hurry right back, you here? I  don't have all day."



"Come along, little one," Maurice said, taking me by the arm and guiding me down the steps.



After we crossed the lawn, he took the bullfrog out of my hands and  placed him on the grass. "Now let's get this over with. Find the  smallest limb you can."



I pointed to one.



"Hmm, that one might sting something awful. Here, how about this little one over here? It might not leave such a mark."



I was trying not to cry as I imagined the spanking I was about to get. I  nodded my head through the tears, and Maurice snipped it with his  pocketknife. When we turned for the long walk back to the porch, Mama  was standing there. She was tapping one foot, but every other bone in  her body was stiff and silent as it could be. Mama watched our every  move with a look of cool indifference.



"Swat her five times, Maurice," Mama instructed. "Then clean up this mess before the mud has a chance to dry."



Then Mama turned to me, shook her head and frowned.



"I never dreamed you'd be such a troublemaker, Avery. Terminating the  pregnancy was a real option, you know. But I carried you through to  term. And this is my reward?"



Maurice patted my shoulder kindly. I bent over and put my hands on my  knees, waiting for him to strike. The switch hit the backs of my thighs.  I flinched at the stinging pain, clenching my teeth to keep from crying  out. When the switch landed on my skin for the fifth time, I tumbled  forward and fell onto the grass. I heard the door shut and knew Mama had  re-entered the house.



"Here, Miss Avery," Maurice said as he helped me to my feet. "Let's get  you out of those muddy shoes and up to your wash room so you can tidy  yourself up a smidge."