I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. You’re such a clown. How are things up your way in North Carolina?”
“Good. No power loss or anything like that. However, there was some minor flooding, so they canceled summer school. These niggas love to cancel school for any given reason.”
I giggled. She was a third-grade teacher, and as much as she went on about how dedicated I was when it came to my job, she had the same bleeding heart I did for her students, which was why she taught summer school when most teachers would’ve chucked up the deuces for the summer.
“Well, enjoy your day off from work and the holiday tomorrow,” I acknowledged, popping a K-cup into my Keurig machine.
“You too. I’ll call you again a little later.”
“I know you will.”
“Bye, you little demon.”
“Bye, bighead,” I responded before ending the call.
While my coffee brewed, I stood in a daze, thinking about how I just knew I’d be home with Butta, waiting out the hurricane. Instead, I’d had multiple steamy sex sessions with a stranger.I couldn’t help but wonder if he saw me as a ho for fucking him on the first night and then again the next morning.The way he had me on my knees swallowing nut like it was cherry Kool-Aid, I wouldn’t blame him if he did.
Kareem had unlocked a freak level inside me I never knew existed. I wanted to be everything to him and more, and I’d never been the type to bend over backward for a nigga, but Kareem had me wanting to do cartwheels for the dick. He turned me on in a way no other man had ever come close to. The slick ass way he talked. The way he sounded like Lloyd when he called me shawty. His rock hard, tatted body. The way he handled my curves as if he’d studied the roadmap to my body. Shit, even the way he held eye contact when he was deep in me had my pussy dripping just thinking about it.
I wondered if thoughts of our steamy session would replay in his head for the next month like I knew it would in mine. His dick would forever be engrained in my memory.His ass probably doesn’t even take me seriously.Everybody knewGeminis had two sides, and I’d be a fool to trust a big dick and a Gemini.
After mixing up the pancake batter, I walked into the living room to turn on the TV to check the news for the latest weather report. There was a commercial on when a breaking news report cut through.
“There has been a report of a tragic crash involving a prison inmate bus that was on the way to Sumterville. Jacksonville Highway Patrol says the driver of the bus swerved as to try not to hit a downed tree, causing the bus to veer off the roadway into a deep ditch. We’re being told that the officers on the bus succumbed to the crash, and twenty-one inmates were on board the bus that was on its way to Sumterville, ten of whom were transported to hospitals. The eleven remaining inmates are missing and not known to be dead or alive. JHP and the state and federal police are searching the area for them.”
The news showed photos of the bus accident and mugshots of the eleven inmates who were missing. The last thing I expected to see was Kareem’s face staring back at me from the TV screen. I didn’t know my body could lock up and have my knees shake at the same time. My eyes bulged with terror. What I saw shook me to my core. No matter how hard I tried to pry my eyes away from the mugshot on my TV screen, I couldn’t. My heart tried to beat its way through my chest with every breath I drew in. The reporter’s voice suddenly became drowned out by the sound of my ringing heartbeat in my ears.
“What the fuck . . .” I mumbled, dropping the remote to the floor.
My head was swimming with thoughts. Would he hurt me? Would he let me go? I couldn’t unlearn what I knew, but if I came at him whooping and hollering like a crazy person, he’d probably kill me. He hadn’t hurt me thus far, but he’d also lied about his so-called “accident.” He said it was a car, not a bus.And he damn sure neglected to tell me about his criminal record. Good wood or not, Kareem was an escaped felon. As a public servant, it was my civic duty to report him to the authorities. After all, I couldn’t afford to go down for aiding and abetting a criminal.
Panic surged through me just thinking about all the ways things could go left if I didn’t play it smart. I couldn’t shake the idea of the police notifying my family that an escaped felon had murdered me and the toll it would take on Soleil and our mother.
No. I couldn’t die. There were too many people counting on me to help them. But what good was I if I had no fucking idea how I’d even help myself out of my situation? All I had to do was get his black ass the fuck out of here. Once he was on the other side of that door, I’d call 911. Problem solved.
My eyes traveled over to the baseball bat that had somehow rolled underneath the coffee table. I darted over to pick it up, wrapped my hand around the grip, and squeezed it tight. There was no way I was going to roll over and die without going out with a bang. I crept over to look down the hallway, stopping dead in my tracks the moment the bathroom door swung open, and steam seeped out. Kareem’s relaxed gaze fell upon mine, and he shot me a flirtatious smirk. I didn’t return the gesture. I was too shook to play coy.
“I don’t smell no food cookin’, and whatchu doin’ with that?” he inquired nonchalantly while pointing to the bat clutched in my hand.
Before I had the chance to respond, we both turned our attention to the TV when the news came back on air. His gaze darted from the bat in my hand to the news report on the TV. The reporters were still talking about the bus crash and the missing inmates.
He slowly shifted his eyes back to me. “Sawyer, it’s not what you think . . .”
I aimed the bat at the TV. “What the fuck do you mean it’s not what I think? It’s clear you broke out of prison and came here! Here, Kareem! Are you trying to ruin my life? I can’t get caught up aiding and abetting a fucking criminal!” I yelled, feeling a range of emotions flooding my body.
“Where’s your phone, Sawyer? Did you tell your sister about me? Did you call the police?”
“What if I did?” I asserted, trying to stand my ground.
“So, you gon’ call the law on a nigga, shawty?” he inquired, voice low and dark as he leaned his head to the side in a way that made my heart skip a beat.
“I—I?—”
“When you do, make sure you don’t leave out the part where I beat that pussy out the frame too.”
Still speechless, I shifted my weight from one foot to the other while folding my arms across my chest. His statement made me wonder if I’d had all the information up front, would I have made the same decision to sleep with him multiple times? When I didn’t respond promptly, he spoke up again.
“And just so you have your fuckin’ facts straight, I didn’t break out of nowhere. I wasn’t driving the bus when it crashed, and I damn sure didn’t piss Mother Nature off. That bus accident gave me and my brother a second chance at life, and we took that shit without hesitation.”
