EroticReverie

Lark Avery

"I hope you know what you're getting yourself into little girl." said the guy not much older than me. I gave a tight smile at his condescending tone as I reached for the small duffel bag full of money, completing my first exchange.

"Pretty little thing like you? What do you need money for? You should find yourself a nice rich man to take care of you. Like me." He winks and I keep my tight smile on my face. 

"No thank you." I say and grab the bag, but his hand doesnt release it just yet as he looks me over. 

If he was a big timer, one of the top players I was warned about, then maybe I'd have been more polite. But he was no better than me. We were pawns, the expendables. We were doing small time deals, for small money compared to what others did. Compared to what I wanted and needed to do. 

I snatch the bag and stand. 

"It better all be there." I say, without checking, just wanting to get out of this musty smelling basement. 

"and if it's not , sweetheart, what are you gonna do?" He laughs at me. I fucking hate it when men laugh at me. 

"Paint the walls with your fucking brains when I blow your fucking face off." I saw with a fake sweet smile. 

"It's been a fucking pleasure." I bite out, turning, leaving him slack jawed.

-----

I make my way back to my car. Look around once I get inside and open the bag. I count the money. 

I count it again, my teeth grinding as my blood pressure climbs. I count it a third fucking time, flipping through the tightly pressed bands of cash. 

"FUCK!" I scream and slam my hands on the wheel. I take the bag, dashing into the abandonned warehouse and back to the basement. 

I scream athe top of my fucking lungs when there's nothing but a small note on a god damn post it stuck to the center of the table in the empty basement. 

"Should've counted it." ...is all the note says.

He shorted me twenty thousand dollars out of a hundred. I curse up a storm, hot tears running down my face. I was so fucked, so fucking fucked. I knew I couldnt go back home without the fucking money, I couldnt leave with a hundred grand worth of drugs, and come back with only eighty thousand. 

What other choice did I fucking have? Where the fuck would I come up with 20 thousand dollars by tomorrow? 

I swipe my angry tears and walk back to my car, throwing the fucking money in the passenger seat and slamming my door shut. 

I was so god damn fucked. 

-----------

I drive the two hours back "home". To the fucking broken down boarded windows drug den I live in with fourteen other people. But not for long, not after Thomas gets home and asks me for the fucking money to give to HIS dealer. He was going to kill me. Thomas was going to fucking murder me. 

"cmere sweet tits" Suzie says as I walk in the door. Suzie is twenty six, and looks not a day younger than fifty from all the drugs she's done. She's fucking harmless to me. But she's just as bad as the guys when it comes to the things she calls me. 

"You got money in dere?" Frankie asks, picking a scab between his toes and I wince, not answering and shoving my way over two strangers passed out on the broken wooden stairs, stepping over them, and pushing my way up the stairs to my room. 

"she thinks she's better than us!" Suzie yells after me and I ignore her.

"just wait sweet tits! just you wait! you're gonna fall from your pretty tit graces soon enough!..use that young pussy while you can !" she yells and I slam my door, throwing the locks shut one at a time, dropping the duffle bag on the floor and then crying before I even lay down on the egg crate cushion the floor. 

I've been living with Thomas and the others that come and go, most of them live here for barely anything at all. I pay Thomas, to have my own room, because if I didnt, I'd wake up with hands groping me in places that I dont want to fucking be groped, or roll over on a fucking needle in the middle of the night. 

I lay there the rest of the day, only going to the bathroom, starving and not eating at all before I force myself to fall asleep.

I wake up in the morning to pounding at my door. 

"Lark!" Thomas yells, pounding like hell on my door. 

Immediately I'm in panic as I push off the floor, wearing nothing but the oversized sleep t shirt I had on and a pair of worn out panties, among the only three pairs that I have. 

"coming!" I call as I throw open the locks.

All but one is unlocked already, and I unlatch it and Thomas stands there, his jaw set and angry as he looks down at me. 

"You add another lock?" he grinds his teeth. 

"uh , yeah, sorry, I...I have the key, I was going to give it to you" I say, turning and walking over to the small closet reaching on the top shelf and turning to walk it over to him, but he's followed me and I turn right into him. 

"What'd I tell you about not liking my fucking doors locked unless I got the keys?" he asks.

"sorry Thomas" I say and lift the key, hodling it out.

"where's my money?" he asks and snatches the key, shoving it into his jean pocket.

"in...the bag" I say, pointing to the duffel by the makeshift bed on the floor. 

"you count it?" he grumbles, walking over.

Fuck. fuck. He's going to kill me.

"Thomas....I..." he pauses and turns , raising a brow.

"It's...twenty short." I say and he turns fully back to me now.

"What do you mean it's twenty short? Twenty dollars? You buy yourself a bag or something?" he asks and I shake my head, because god, I fucking wish it was only twenty dollars short. 

"The guy...he...he fucked you over. There's twenty k missing. " I say and Thomas's eyes wide.

"What?" he asks, cocking his head as if he didnt hear me right.

"I went right back...he was gone, he was fucking gone, and he...he didnt give you all the money" I say and Thomas walks over to me. 

"you better be fucking joking kid" he growls. 

I'm shaking, my body trembling, and my head shaking as I reply. 

"I'm..n-not...i'm sorry Thomas" I say and he growls. Turns. Stomps over tot he bag and dumps the money out on the floor. I watch him count it, chewing my nail as I watch. Thomas throws the band of cash at the wall. 

"you stupid fucking cunt!" he yells at me and I jump, backing against the wall before he even gets near me, but he's on me in a matter of two seconds and I flinch as he grabs my jaw hard and I yelp. 

"where the fuck is the rest!?" he yells in my face, spit flying on my cheeks. 

"I dont know! That's all he gave me!" I cry. 

"and what the fuck do I tell Santos!? Huh?! What the fuck do I tell Santos when he comes to get his fucking money!? Huh?!" he yells and then slaps me so fucking hard my ears ring, my face stining my hand flying to my face.

But Thomas grabs me and I scream and he pulls me from the wall and then slams me against it again, my head knocking against the wall as I cry. 

"Thomas please!" I cry. "I'll figure it out!" I cry, wincing from the pain, but then Im slammed again, then slapped again, then grabbed again and throw to the fucking floor.

"YOU SAID YOU HAD IT! YOU SAID YOU COULD FUCKING DO IT!" he yells so fucking loud that the air vibrates and I tremble and he looks down at me. 

"I dont have twenty fucking k to fix your fucking mistakes!" he yells and he paces angrily back and forth across my room, a few dwellers in the hall watching Thomas lose his shit on me. 

"I'll get the money...I don't know how, but i'll get it" I cry, shaking and Thomas stops and looks at me. 

"WHEN?! In the next ten minutes?!" He yells at me and I feel my lower lip shaking. I'd fucking begged Thomas to let me do this. I'd begged for a way to make money. I wasnt even getting paid for this run. This was a test, and i'd completely fucking failed. I'd begged him, and id talked him into it, flirted my way into being given a shot. Because it didnt matter I was seventeen and Thomas is thirty two..he still wanted to fuck me. Not just because I had a pussy, or just because I was pretty, not even because I was young, it was because Thomas knew I was a virgin. I'd told him as much the first time he asked if I needed a "Good fucking" one night when he came into my room with me crying. 

"I dont know" I cry. "I dont know" I repeat and he walks over, hauls off, and smacks me again. 

"you're gonna get me fucking killed!" he yells, slapping me again as I scream his name, nobody trying to stop him as more people gather in the hall to watch the commotion. 

"please" I cry. Another slap, and I'm pushed to the floor, my body half on my sorry excuse for a bed as Thomas climbs ontop of me.

"Yeah, well, i aint fuckin dyin without gettin what i deserve from you" he grins sadistically and I shake my head and plead with him as Thomas grabs my tits, squeezing them through my shirt.

"Thomas please" I cry, trying to buck , to kick him off of me, but I only get myself hauled over onto my stomach and pinned down, my panties yanked down over my ass, fabric ripping as I scream, crying as Thomas maneuvers himself, trying to get his fucking cock out. He punches me in the back of the head, my vision going black, my head spinning as I try to focus my vision again.

"That's it, you just fucking stay still" he growls and I hear his zipper. My legs are kicked apart by his knees as I try to push up. 

"thomas, no" I plead as he pushes me right back down. 

"I said shut up and stay still" he growls and I sob.

"please don't, please" I cry, thinking of all I'd done to get to this point, all the awful men i'd avoided, to keep my body to myself, the one thing I could control, the one thing I always owned no matter what. I think of the boy last year, in my foster home who'd tried to rape me in my own bed, and how I'd stabbed him in side and ran. Taking nothing but my knife with me, and never looking back. He'd been my foster parents, actual son. They wouldnt take my word over his. I wasn't stupid. But apparenty I am stupid, because not counting that fucking money was about to cost me the only thing I had left of my own. 

"thomas!" I scream. "Please, no!" I cry as I feel him, his cock is prodding at me, as he tries to shove himself inside me, but I fight, twisting, turning as much as I can. 

"Thomas." a calm, collected male voices says. Thomas stops. 

"What the fuck do you...." he pauses. "Santos." he says and I whimper. 

"Get off the girl Thomas." he says calmly. My heart nearly stopping in my chest. 

"I was just-"

"Just about to rape her?" the male voice asks. Santos? He never comes to collect directly. He always has someone else here to do the pickup. 

"Get. Off. The girl." Santos says.

"she lost your fucking money, i was teaching her a lesson" Thomas says as he pushes off me, pulling up his pants and I crawl across the small cushion on the floor and back against the wall shaking, my ripped panties on the floor next to where Santos is standing. My eyes travelling from polished black leather shoes, up dark black pants, a trim build, and he's in perfectly matched shade of black dress shirt, sleeves rolled up, gun pointed at Thomas. My heart stops, and then stops again as I lift my eyes to the mans face. 

Such an inappropriate time to appreciate a man for his face, but he's the hottest man I've ever seen. well over six foot, tan skin, brown eyes, dark facial scruff, and a tattoo on his neck, black ink, that matches the plain black tattoos on his forearms. My eyes go back to the gun.

"Did you just say you lost my fucking money?" Santos asks Thomas. Thomas shakes his head.

"Not me...her." he nods to me and I look to Santos, who doesnt even look at me.

"Sounds to me like YOU lost my money Thomas....and it sounds like maybe YOU are the one that needs to be taught a lesson." Santos says and I swallow hard, there's two other men with Santos, both dressed similar, all three of them pointing guns at Thomas. 

"I didnt lose it, she lo-"

"Who'd I give drugs to Thomas? You or her?" Santos asks. 

Thomas is silent, the gun Santos has in his hand is lifted, aimed higher, right at his head.

"Me, you gave them to me." he says.

"Right. So it's YOU who lost my fucking money. And YOU are the one who is going to get me that fucking money. Do you understand?" Santos asks.

"yes" Thomas answers, sounding like he's about to piss his pants.

"You have one week to get me my fucking money." Santos says, looking around the room, to the duffel bag. 

"All or nothing Thomas. In one week, I better have 100 grand in my fucking hand or you'll be.....well...you won't be. Cause i'll make you swallow  a gun and pull the trigger. Do you understand Thomas?" Santos asks him . Thomas nods.

"I understand." 

"Good" Santos says and lowers his gun, reaches behind him and tucks his gun back into his pants. 

"you." he says, snapping his fingers and pointing at me, and I shake with a new fear. Fuck. He's going to kill me.

"What's your name?" he asks and I pull down at my t shirt, that is barely covering my thighs.

"La....Lark Avery." I say. 

"Get your things." he says. 

"I...what?" I ask, blinking. 

"You're coming with me." he says, and Thomas scowls, looking at me, and shakes his head at me. 

Did it matter if I stayed here to get raped by Thomas and then killed? Or just flat out killed by the sexy fucking drug dealer? OR maybe he'd do worse than rape me. 

"I'm sorry, I'll...I'll help him get the money, I promise" I say my eyes filling with tears. Santos looks at me. 

"No. Thomas will get me the money. You'll come with me." he says. 

"...as...collateral?" I ask and Santos looks at me, his eyes flicking down to my bare legs and I stand on shaky legs.

"No. You wont be coming back here." Santos says and I my heart drops. He's going to kill me. I'll never come back here, i'll never go anywhere.

"Please...don't kill me" I beg.

Santos brings his eyes to mine. 

"I don't kill women. I also don't rape them." He looks to Thomas. 

I stand there, looking to Thomas, looking to Santos and don't even know what's going on.

"Has he raped you before?" Santos asks and I shake my head. 

"You get to keep your dick then Thomas. Congratulations." Santos says and snaps his fingers at me, then waves me towards him. 

"Come on. Get your things." he says and I look around, I grab the plastic bag in the corner with my clean hand washed underwear, only two pairs, and a few pairs of shorts, and a few tank tops, and grab the shorts and tank top I had on yesterday and then grab the ratty beat up dirty shoes on the floor near my closet. 

Santos cocks a brow, says something under his breath in Spanish and then gestures for me to leave the room. 

The two guys with him, escort me out of the house, to a blacked out suv waiting right at the curb and I almost trip on the busted sidewalk when I hear a gun shot. Spinning around my eyes raise to the window, I see Thomas for a split second before he drops. There's blood on the broken window and I nearly collapse. 

Two large sets of hands keep me standing as I tremble.

He'd killed Thomas. Santos fucking shot him.

The men speak in Spanish as they open the door hauling me into the back, then getting in the front. 

What did Santos want with me? If he wasnt going to kill me?

I watch him walk out of the house, Santos looking over his shoulder, carrying the duffel bag of cash,  with a look of disgust on his face and over to the SUV opening the door, getting into the back with me. 

"You shot him." I whisper as the car pulls away, and Santos rolls his sleeves back down.

"I did." he says and lifts his eyes to mine.

"Your money." I say, unable to speak in full sentences. 

"I'm sorry, please" I say and his brows pinch.

"What do you think I'm going to do you Lark Avery?" he asks and I just blink, his gaze giving me goosebumps all over. 

"I  ..don't know."  I say. "Kill me." 

"I told you. I don't kill women." he says.

"Then why did you want me to come with you?" I ask quietly. I shouldnt be questioning him right now at all, but I dont understand it.

"Because, anywhere is better for you than that fucking shit hole." he says through gritted teeth. 

"But I have nowhere to go" I say. 

"You'll stay with me." he says and I swallow.

"what? I...."

"I'm not interested in killing you Avery. And im not interested in hurting you at all. You're young, and you need help. So I'm giving it to you." he says. 

"But...why?" I ask. His brow cocks.

"Why not?" he replies and I just shake my head.

"What do you want from me in return?" I ask.

"Nothing. You can stay with me as long as you wish, or for as little as you wish. I'm just offering somewhere to sleep where you dont need seven locks on your doors, or have to worry about someone trying to fucking you while you scream no." he growls. 

I swallow. 

"I wont fuck you either." I say and his brow raises.

"I assure you, I have zero desire to fuck you Lark Avery. Little girls are not my fucking type." he says.

"I'm seventeen." I say. 

"Exactly. You're a fucking child."  he says. 

"you can stay with me till you get on your feet, or stay with me till whenever. I dont really care. but you'll stay with me where it's safe, till you're able to be safe on your own." he says.

"Why do you care? I lost your money." I say. 

"I dont know why I care Lark Avery. I just do. And you didnt lose my money, that piece of shit bleeding out on your sorry excuse of a mattress , was the one responsible. YOU Lark Avery...are done running drugs as well. If you want to make your own money, you do it honestly." he says and my brows pinch.

"That's hypocritical." I say with a huff and a slight twitch of his lips hints that he's amused. 

"You'll have no reason to need to run drugs. While you stay with me. I'll see to it, you have all that you need. But if you want to save money, to move out, to get your own space...then you'll do it earning an honest living. You're young, i'm giving you an opportunity. So take it. There's no need to end up a fucking criminal. There's enough of us out there, and you clearly don't make a good one anyways." he says. 

"that's rude." I say with an eyeroll, more amusement turns his lips.

"You always count the money Lark Avery. Always."