"That's not what I was talking about, kid," Eli said. He squeezed my hand and peered into my eyes with those smoldering dark eyes of his. "You saved me from her. From Patricia. There are things I never told you about her, things a girl shouldn't know about her own mother."
"Tell me," I said.
Eli sighed. "I wasn't able to leave her because she had blackmailed me. Somehow she got her claws on some information that would have probably destroyed the Rutherford empire. Even so, I was willing to walk away from all my power, all my riches, just to be done with her."
Eli shook his head and shuddered. I felt his hand tightening on mine.
"But then Patricia pointed out one thing I could never abide by. She said I would never see you again. That she would make up a bunch of outlandish stories to ensure I wouldn't be allowed within a mile of you at any time. My only daughter, taken from me by a vengeful woman. I just couldn't let her do that. So I made it work. I gave her one of the guest cottages and never went on that side of my property if I could help it.
"When my money disappeared and the guest house burned, I was sure that Patricia had set me up. I hated her so much, it blinded me to reason, and I couldn't see what was so obvious. But of course you did it. It all makes so much more sense. But how? How did you kill her?"
"I'll tell you everything," I said, "if you tell me what was so bad that Mama used to blackmail you."
Eli furrowed his brow. "You really want to know that?" he said. "Okay, but you first."
Suddenly Eli's face was illuminated by harsh white light. I turned and the light nearly blinded me. It was a flashlight beam shining from the road through the brush. The beam started shaking.
"Shit, they found us," Eli muttered.
He cranked the ignition and threw the SUV into first gear and put the pedal to the metal, speeding through the brush and onto the road. The police officer jumped to the side, the hood of our vehicle missing him by inches, his flashlight rolling across the driveway.
I squealed as we burned down the drive, unable to contain my excitement.
"Don't celebrate too soon," Eli said. "Let's just hope there's no barricade."
///
Of course there was. Two police cruisers were parked to block the narrow road. Eli cut into the ditch and barreled through the gap between the cop cars and the trees on the passenger side. Tree branches scraped the fender in such an awful sound it hurt my ears.
Eli slid us back onto the road. I heard a gunshot and then the back window of the SUV exploded, glass flying everywhere. Eli never slowed down, though, even as the police officers emptied their chambers while we sped away.
I heard their sirens and knew they were following us. Eli was driving the narrow mountain road like a man with a death wish, skidding around curves where flimsy guard rails were the only thing separating us from sheer drops of several hundred feet. As we rounded a bend, I accidentally looked down once and felt woozy, seeing nothing but black at the base of the gorge. It made me want to throw up.
He made a left turn too sharply and the SUV got away from him. We slid into the guard rail, and sparks flew from metal grinding against metal, but the rail held us and Eli was able to right the wheels and keep going.
The sirens were losing their immediacy as we put more and more distance between us and the police officers. Eli eased down to a slightly less suicidal speed.
I turned and looked over my shoulder. Shards of glass hung like stalactites around the edges where the back window should have been. The moon had come out, illuminating the road. We were hugging the steep mountain as we descended to the main highway. I was admiring the silvery sliver of moon when the helicopter rounded the mountain peak, its metal rotors sparkling in the moonlight.
"Eli," I said. "Eli!"
Eli glanced in the rearview mirror and cursed. He sped up again, as fast as Maurice's SUV would take us, but the helicopter was gaining fast. We came to the end of the narrow mountain pass and turned onto a slightly larger road. A few other cars and trucks were making the early commute to jobs in town, and Eli passed as many as he could, swerving past pickup trucks and a big rig, but the traffic kept him from driving as quickly as before. Which was not what we needed at all.
I kept looking through the back window. The helicopter was right on our tail.
Then we entered the tunnel and I could no longer see the helicopter, the view of the sky replaced by the low concave ceiling within the mountain. Suddenly Eli slammed on the brakes and cut the wheel. Maurice's SUV skidded to the left and slid to a stop in the middle of the tunnel.
"What the hell!" I shouted.
"Get out," Eli grumbled.
I stepped out of the SUV and saw the headlights of the big rig fast approaching from behind us. I heard the truck's air brakes whoosh and the tires squeal as it lurched to a stop. The truck door swung open and a huge bearded man climbed down from the cab.
"The fuck, man?" the guy said.
"I need you to switch cars with us," Eli told him.
"I don't think so, asshole," the truck driver said. "Get out of my way. I've gotta be in Raleigh by daybreak."
"Get in the car," Eli said. "I don't care where you go, but the semi is ours now."
"Fuck you, tough guy," the truck driver said.
The driver lifted his shirt and I saw a revolver tucked in his pants. The butt of the gun was jammed against his hairy belly. The man reached to grab the gun and Eli punched him in the face and snatched the gun away from him.
Eli pointed the revolver at the man's face. The driver's eyes widened with fear, and he raised both his hands.
"Shit, man, sorry," the driver mumbled. "Don't shoot, man."
Eli cocked the gun, and the driver trembled.
"You'll be fine," Eli said, "as long as you get in that car and get the hell out of this tunnel as fast as you can."
The man stood there dumbly until Eli raised the pistol above his head and fired. Dust and fine particles of ceiling rained down on the man's head. He jumped to attention and ran to follow Eli's orders. In his haste to get away, he hopped the low concrete curb and ran the driver-side headlight into the tunnel wall, smashing it. Then took off, out of sight before Eli and I had even gotten into the cab of the big rig.
Eli helped me up the step and I climbed across the driver seat, into the passenger seat. The cab smelled like an ashtray. Some fuzzy dice and a blue rabbit's foot dangled from a chain slung over the rearview mirror. Eli put the truck in drive. By the time we reached the end of the tunnel, we could no longer see the taillights of Maurice's SUV in the distance.
"Where to now?" I asked.
///
"Just check the glove box and tell me who this truck belongs to," Eli said.
"You're running up quite the debt," I said.
"Tell me about it."
"When are you going to pay me back?" I asked.
"Pay you back?" Eli asked, puzzled for a moment. Then he grinned, a wolfish gleam in his eye. "Oh, don't worry about that. I've got something special in mind for you."
"Oh yeah? Please, enlighten me."
"You trying to distract me, girl? Okay, fine. If we ever make it out of this alive," Eli said, "I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. First I'm gonna peel off those cute little panties of yours. Then I'm gonna smack your ass until it burns. You're a naughty little brat, and you haven't been punished near enough-not after all the bad things you've done.
"Then I'm gonna hold you down so you can't get away, and I'm gonna fuck your tight little pussy till it hurts. I'm gonna shoot you so full of cum, you'll beg me for more."
"That's big talk," I said, teasing Eli even as my clit tingled with anticipation. "Just don't get so excited you drive us off the road. You have to stay alive to pop this cherry."
"You're a virgin?" Eli asked, the truck swerving slightly.
"Does that change things?" I asked.
"Yes, it does," Eli replied. "I was planning to show you a little mercy. Not anymore. My dick is going to break you in half."
Despite everything I had been through, I was still hungry for Eli's cock. I was so unbelievably wet, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.
"Well, aren't you a brute?" I said. "Soon we'll see how tough you really are, macho man. In the meantime, do try and stay on the road."