Infinite Fear (4 page)

“Cops!” I whisper. “We need to leave, now!”
This observation seems to sober Emmanuel up enough for us to try to
quietly make our escape.

“I’m going to check the perimeter!” A loud
voice calls, increasing in volume as the speaker draws nearer to
the back door.

“Go!” Emmanuel whisper-shouts, and I take
off. Only he wasn’t as sober as I had earlier given him credit for.
He loses his footing and slams hard into the shipping container. I
turn on my heel, encased in darkness, shielded from the cop’s
eyes.

Emmanuel is not, however.
He rights himself as the cop yells, “Stop! Down on the ground!” I
can hear the cop’s gun cock. Emmanuel lays on the ground and stares
straight at me. I look at his wide eyes, imploring me to run the
hell away. I hesitate. Leaving him behind was not part of our
plan.
But I do
. I
slink into the alleyway beside me and take off like a bat out of
hell towards the Camaro.

Running while looking over
your shoulder is a bitch
. I exhale deeply
when I land in the driver’s seat of the Camaro and drive off. I’m
so racked with guilt right now, I can’t see straight. I should
never have fucking left, that was a dog move on my part. I grip the
steering wheel angrily.

I drive the Camaro into the backyard once at
my house on the off chance that someone at the warehouse saw it
drive off. And then I lay awake. Downing whiskey after whiskey
after whiskey. Until eventually, I fall into a blissfully numb
sleep.

I wake up to the shrill ring of my cell
phone. The sun is high in the sky and the glare sears my eyeballs.
I don’t recognize the number, but I answer anyway. Emmanuel’s low
and cautious voice greets me on the other end of the line.

“Jay, it’s me,” he says quietly.

What do I say? How do I reply? How do you
talk to your best friend when you abandoned him like that?

“Don’t talk Jay, just listen. I’m locked up.
I need you to get to Eva and let her know,” he says pointedly. I
know what he means. He’s implying that I need to get the cash to
Julius before she spends it and Julius starts asking questions.

“Do you know when you’ll be out?” I ask, my
voice raspy.

“Not sure yet, you know how good the public
prosecution is. Jay, it’s alright, man,” Emmanuel answers.

I nod into the phone. He means that I
shouldn’t feel guilty. But his words can’t change that. As I hang
up the phone, my bedroom door flies open and in marches a very
distressed-looking Jade.

“Oh, thank God!” she yelps, gripping me in a
fierce hug. “I heard Emmanuel got locked up, and I thought you may
have been, too.”

“I was there, I should have been,” I say,
the guilt of it all causing me to avert my eyes down.

Jade whacks me solidly in the arm. “Are you
fucking crazy? You were not there, got it?” she scolds, glaring at
me angrily.

“I feel like I sold Emmanuel out,” I
say.

“Emmanuel is into way worse shit than you
are, and you know it,” Jade replies. “Anyway, what’s the sense in
both of you getting locked up? Don’t even pretend like Emmanuel
wouldn’t have done the same thing as you if he had the chance,”
Jade points out.

I think about her
words.
She’s probably
right
. “I have to go, Jade,” I say,
grabbing my jeans from the side of the bed. She gives me a
reassuring hug, and we both leave.

Chapter 5

As always, when I arrive at Eva’s house, the
porch is once again laden with random females. Eva, as per usual,
is less than thrilled to see me. This time, I have no bag of cash,
so she doesn’t leave her spot on the porch, instead just waits for
me to go to her.

“Where’s Emmanuel?” she spits as I ascend
the first stair. A few of her friends give me the same cold glare.
A few others seem to be salivating slightly.

“Locked up,” I say, looking down.

“What!” She squeals. “How the hell did that
happen?” She leaves her chair and digs her pointed finger into my
shoulder. “How could you let that happen?”

“I just- I don’t want to talk right now,
Eva. I just need the bag,” I say dismissively.

She storms inside, slamming the screen door
behind her and comes back a minute later carrying the bag, her face
hard and furious. “I kept Emmanuel’s cut,” she says.

“I’m sure you did. You better not spend it
all. He’ll be mad as hell if he finds out you did,” I warn. Just as
she’s about to start another verbal assault, my phone rings, giving
me the perfect out.

“Hello,” I say, walking back to the
Camaro.

“Hi, stranger,” Nina’s low and oh so sexy
voice comes over the line. “Are you busy?”

“I have something to do, but not after
that,” I say, my dick immediately responding in anticipation.
“Wait, how did you get my number? I don’t remember giving it to
you.”

“That’s a shame, I’m free now. Busy later,”
she says coyly, deliberately avoiding my question. “Maybe next
time.”

Fuck it, Julius can wait
an hour or two more.
“Well, look at that,
my schedule just cleared,” I reply cockily. I don’t push her on the
phone number question. One shouldn’t look a gift horse in the
mouth.

“I thought it might’ve,” she answers. It is
obvious in the tone of her voice that she knew from the very
beginning of the call that I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to
see her. “Do you still have my address?”

“I’ll flick through all of the numbers I
have here in my pocket,” I tease.

“Do that,” she answers. “And let’s hope you
find it.”

I finger the folder piece
of paper. There was no way in hell I would have lost that address.
I navigate the Camaro over to Nina’s, driving through several
questionable neighborhoods on my way. Emmanuel plays on my mind for
the whole journey. Pulling up to the modest apartment complex, I
suddenly find myself feeling strangely nervous about walking
up.
Performance anxiety? Me?
Screw that.

Nina answers the door a little differently
than I had expected. I’m not really sure what I had expected, but I
know it wasn’t a pair of worn jeans and a faded tank top. Still,
she exudes sexual prowess, and her obvious confidence is so fucking
erotic.

I’m at a loss for words,
but can’t risk looking like a slack-jawed idiot, so I do the next
best thing. I take two steps over the threshold and slide my hands
under the front of her tank top. Her eyes don’t leave mine, her
intense stare unwavering. The creaking of an opening door causes me
to forcibly avert my eyes from Nina’s. A timid looking middle-aged
woman peeks through the crack. Her eyes widen as she catches sight
of Nina’s bare breasts. Nina shoots her a challenging glare, topped
off with a snide grin. The shocked and probably appalled woman
promptly slams the door shut.
The girl is
pure evil.

“Do you usually operate with such reckless
abandon?” I say, grabbing her by the wrists and kicking the door
shut.

“Usually,” she answers lowly. Nina pulls her
wrists free from my grasp and backs against the door. I take a step
towards her.

“Are we playing rough?” I ask quietly.

“Only way I like it,” she jibes. “But if you
can’t handle it, then maybe I was wrong about you after all.”

“Oh, you weren’t wrong,” I reply, undoing
the button on her jeans. “In fact, you probably underestimate me.”
I grab her wrists, this time more forcibly. Using my one arm, I
lift her both arms over her head, pinning them to the door. My
other hand slides into the front of her jeans. Nina’s body
immediately arches forward, bringing the soft flesh right into my
waiting fingers. My dick threatens to rip straight through my jeans
in anticipation. Nina bites hard on her lip, as my fingers work
against the motion of her writhing hips, expertly building her to a
climax.

Then, moments before she reaches it, I pull
my hand away. Her eyes haven’t left mine, the penetrating gaze
stuck on me ever since I walked in the door. I see the challenge in
it as she attempts to pull her arms free. I hold them in place. A
small laugh escapes her lips.

I lean in and leave a trail of hot kisses
down the side of her neck, carefully adhering to the no lips on
lips policy. She leans in towards me.

“If you want from me what I know you do,
you’re going to have to release me,” she whispers.

“Why would I do that?” I ask lowly.

Wordlessly, she brings her
lips to my neck, and slowly works her tongue from my jawline down
towards my shoulder. My eyes close involuntarily.
Fuck!
She has barely
touched me.

“Imagine what I could do with my mouth, if
only I was able,” she says quietly.

No further explanation
necessary.
I drop her hands, which
immediately work at undoing my belt and jeans. I could come in my
jeans just thinking about Nina’s lips on my dick. Before pulling my
jeans down, she grabs them by the belt hooks, using them to flip
us, throwing me with a decent force against the door.

She kisses a trail from my neck down my
torso. My abs clench approvingly as she teases her lips straight
past my crotch and down to my thighs. My fingers lace through and
tug her hair, in an effort to divert her attention back to where I
needed it to be. She knows exactly where I want her mouth. And
that’s precisely why she’s playing this game.

Just as I think I may explode from the sheer
tension of it all, Nina, slides her mouth over me. I have never
worked so fucking hard to maintain self-control in my life! With my
hands still firmly grasping the back of her head, I move her mouth
in until she has absolutely all of me in it.

As I’m about to lose it, in
beautiful karmic revenge, she pulls her mouth away and slides her
tongue over her lips.
Holy fucking
hell
. Payback has never been more of a
raging bitch than right now. Just when I think my tolerance level
has reached its crescendo, Nina flips us back around, pulling me
hard against her. The situation has become critical. I need to get
inside this girl,
right fucking
now.

Just when I think all
control on my part is lost, my eyes meet Nina’s. Her eyes are still
completely fixated on mine. Determined, fierce, and making it clear
that she has me by the balls. And with her hand firmly clutching my
shaft,
she kinda does
. But more so, there’s a challenge in the way she’s looking at
me. One that dares me to make her scream my name.

I step back and she stands against the door,
a puzzled look on her face.

“Come here,” I say, taking
a step backwards. Nina shoots me a defiant glare, combined with a
cocky smile. I smile slyly as I notice her trying to even her
breathing out. She doesn’t like to give anything away.
Control freak, or just a good old-fashioned
freak?

I walk over to the haphazardly made bed and
sit on the edge, eyeing her expectantly. Just when I think my
attempt at gaining control may backfire and she may throw me out,
Nina saunters slowly over. As she is about to push me backwards, I
grab her by the hips and bring my lips to her thighs, trailing soft
yet purposeful kisses upwards. With the promise land in sight, I
slide my hands over her ass and pull her onto me. The look of
surprise registers first on her face, then pure, uninhibited
ecstasy.

Nina’s body grinds against mine, pushing me
further and deeper into her. Her fingernails rake against my back,
digging in each time my thrusts match hers. I try to maintain my
stamina, but I’m too far gone.We both are. She bites hard on her
lip to stifle a scream as her body convulses against mine. Seconds
later, mine does the same.

Chapter 6