A Wrong Turn Towards Love

  A Wrong Turn Towards Love

  A darkly comedic adventure befalls a lone black woman that takes a wrong turn, which leads to murder, the Klan and a big sexy mountain man named Bodie. *Warning: graphic sexual descriptions, strong racist language.

  Editor:

  CeCe Monét

  Cover Art:

  Kim Chambers

  This story is completely a work of fiction. Characters – including their names, places and incidents are products of the authors’ imaginations or are otherwise used fictitiously. Any similarity from this book to events occurring in real life – including locations, or persons living or dead is wholly coincidental.

  Copyright © 2013 Pepper Pace.

  A Wrong Turn Towards Love. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever, except for short excerpts appearing in book reviews. For reprint or excerpt permission inquiries, please contact the author by e-mail at [email protected].

  First published and distributed in the United States of America in August, 2013 in an anthology with CeCe Monét entitled; Seduction: An Interracial Romance Anthology – Volume 1. Copyright © 2013 Pepper Pace.

  ISBN-13: 978-1497360792

  ISBN-10: 149736079X

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1 4

  CHAPTER 2 10

  CHAPTER 3 15

  CHAPTER 4 18

  CHAPTER 5 22

  CHAPTER 6 28

  CHAPTER 7 33

  ~EPILOGUE~ 37

  PEPPER PACE BOOKS 40

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR 41

  AWARDS 42

  Chapter 1

  Bodie’s night was going just fine until he heard JD say; “Hey what’s that black bitch doing in here?!”

  Bodie didn’t bother to look up. He lit a cigarette and sipped his beer silently. It had been a long day and the only thing he wanted to do was to drink his beer and mind his own business. Somehow he was beginning to suspect that this wouldn’t happen.

  “Damn! Look at that ass…”

  “I ain’t never went for dark meat but…”

  “…going to end up turning this place into a jungle music club…”

  Bodie tuned out the sound of their low jabbering. He told Merle to bring him another bottle and then he took one last draw off his cigarette and squelched it out.

  His eyes were red and fatigued. He had been working all day on an old junker until his arms and shoulders had begun to feel like two boulders in an old lady’s brassier. He had come to Stubby’s to unwind to the relaxing drone of the familiar recycled conversation that went on night after night. Someone would ask about which car he was currently working on and then they would commence to making small talk to the back drop of a Merle Haggard tune playing over the juke box—or if someone got nostalgic then it was George Jones amidst tearful exclamations of ‘how much it hurt to lose him to the pearly gates’.

  After a brief respite from the speculations over the newcomer, Bodie thought he might get his wish for some uncomplicated conversation. And then he heard the one word that he hadn’t wanted to hear; “Fuckin’ Niggers.”

  “Man, she’s alone; in OUR joint. She must want some of this white meat!”

  “Yeah,” JD agreed. “I’d give her a ride on the ol’ kielbasa sausage.”

  “More like cocktail weenie-” Merle laughed.

  Bodie got up to take a piss and then he was out of here. He wasn’t testifying on anybody’s behalf. Besides what was a black woman doing in a bootleg joint at one am alone? Though he did have to amend that question since Stubby’s was a general store up front and only a bootleg joint in back. But he never met one single person that thought a general store would be open for operations after midnight…so again, what was a black woman doing back here?

  After relieving himself of the two home brews that he’d just ingested Bodie returned to the back room, only this time the sight before him finally captured his attention enough to actually stop and watch.

  JD’s dumbass had approached the woman and she was indeed black; a chocolate with no milk, a coffee with no cream-type-of-black. Bodie gazed at her with interest. She was a little thing, no taller than 5’5” but she was fierce. She had one hand on her shapely hip and the other pointing at JD, and she was giving him HELL!

  He smirked and then went back to the bar to pay his tab. The rest of the fellas were howling at JD’s expense.

  “Hey Bodie, man? You leaving? This is the best show of the night,” Merle chuckled.

  “Wasn’t looking for a show, just a few beers,” he commented, leaving a good tip. He then walked past the angry woman and a red faced JD who was still trying to salvage some dignity.

  In his truck Bodie quickly forgot about the ruckus as he searched for a CD to play. Nothing suited his taste so he turned on the radio to the oldies channel. He hadn’t lived in the era of the oldies music that he so loved, but at the age of 32 Bodie had never developed an interest in the progressive, or alternative music that most people in his age group listened to. A nice Chicago tune was playing and he began humming while he pulled out of the lot.

  He suddenly hit the brakes with a screech. Through the rearview window he caught a glimpse of the woman stalking out of the door…though he didn’t care about that, but he also saw Sully Pranger skulking along in the dark trailing her in the woods.

  Sully was an odd fella, kept to himself mostly, but he had been known to raise seven kinds of hell when the mood struck him.

  Also, Bodie knew that he had some definite ties to the Klan. The other fellas in the bar might talk a lot of shit, but Sully skulking around in the dark was a different matter.

  Bodie did a U-turn, being sure to keep the woman spotlighted in his headlights.

  She was pissed at that. But at least Sully disappeared.

  Bodie got out of his truck, engine still running.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” The woman demanded when he was standing a few feet from her.

  Bodie peered into the darkness of the woods but Sully was gone. He gave the woman his attention. She was so petite that he towered over her, but she didn’t seem the least bit intimidated.

  “Thought you might need some help.”

  The lady blinked, appalled at the nerves of this man.

  “You were just in that bar. I could have used some help then.”

  “Looked like you were handling yourself fine to me.”

  She walked around him. “I don’t need your help, thank you very much!”

  “You having car problems?” he yelled after her.

  “Yes. And I already called AAA. They’re sending someone right out,” she said without looking back.

  “No they ain’t.”

  She stopped and gave him a hard look. “What are you talking about?”

  Bodie headed back to his truck. Sully was nowhere to be seen and frankly, the lady was a bitch. He wasn’t pressed to help her.

  He climbed into his truck yelling over his shoulder. “Because I’m the wrecker in these parts and I didn’t get a page.”

  “Well you can’t be the only tow truck around here!” She called out.

  “Yup.” He shut his door and drove off.

  ~PP ~

  Bodie wasn’t even a mile down the road when he did another U-turn. His mama always said, ‘God don’t like ugly.’ Also, he guessed he’d be pretty pissy too if he stepped into an all black bar and someone gave him shit.

  He pulled back into the parking lot searching until he spotted a beat-up Honda Accord with a slightly less cocky woman sitting behind the wheel. Bodie got out of his truck and gestured for her to roll down her window. She did, seeming relieved.

  “What’s wrong with your car?”
>
  “I don’t know. I’ve been having problems with the transmission. But every time before when it stopped I’ve been able to get it started.” She glanced into the woods. Bodie looked over in that direction but didn’t see anything.

  “Well pop the hood and let me see what you got.” He peered inside. “Turn her over,” he yelled.

  She tried but it was dead.

  “You got gas, right?”

  She rolled her eyes but hid it quickly. “Yes; I just pulled over and put gas in it.”

  “Great.” He mumbled. He slammed the hood shut. “Listen, I’ll drive you down to the Holiday Inn. In the morning I’ll come back and tow the car to the garage.”

  She glanced again out towards the woods and then back to Bodie, hesitantly. He smiled then stopped because that would likely scare her more. He wasn’t used to smiling and figured it would look strange on his face. He knew that his height and build intimidated some. He reached into his wallet and pulled out his wrecker license.

  “Or if you like, I can just come back with the tow truck. It might take me an hour or so-”

  She opened the door quickly while keeping her eyes on both Bodie as well as the woods beyond him.

  “You got a fear of the woods?” he asked, scratching his goatee. She shut and locked her car.

  “No; a fear of people running around in the woods wearing white hoods.”

  Bodie’s expression grew fierce. “That would be Sully Pranger; him and his buddies are playing games. The Klan don’t really suit up unless its parade day.” They had probably heard about the lone black woman at Stubby’s and decided to have some redneck fun.

  She gave Bodie an amazed look. “There’s really Klan here?! I mean I just thought you all were just a bunch of rednecks…” The ‘you all’ comment was not lost on him, but he had to admire the fact that she was more outraged than afraid. She quickly climbed into the truck and then he did as well.

  “I apologize for those boys in there. You smack their faces and put ‘em in their place and they’ll leave you alone.” He’d had to do that pretty often, hadn’t he? Especially when he was a kid. Back then it was other hate-filled names that he’d had to fight over. Bodie started up the truck and this time an Eagles tune was playing. He reached up and cut off the radio.

  “Oh let it play. I like The Eagles.”

  To his credit, Bodie didn’t find it strange that a black woman listened to The Eagles. Good music was good music. He turned the radio back on.

  “So what brings you to our neck of the mountains?”

  She was huddled into the corner prepared to leap from the truck at the first sign of danger. “Well. I was on my way to Richmond to visit my Grandmother.”

  “Richmond? How did you get up on the mountain?”

  She gave him a horrified look. “You mean I am actually on a mountain?!”

  Bodie’s brow arched. “Yup.”

  She stared at the road. “I pulled off the highway to get something to eat and to fill up the tank. I guess I got turned around. I kept driving until I saw the store and stopped there to make a call.” She gave him a frown. “But I don’t think that was a real store…”

  That was some big turnaround. He didn’t bother to explain that Cobb Hill was dry and that she’d just stepped into an illegal bootleg establishment—though illegal was a stretch since the police also frequented the establishment. His hazel eyes moved to lock onto her brown ones. “You’re traveling to parts unknown, in the middle of the night…in a car that’s prone to transmission problems?” The statement didn’t leave any confusion to his thoughts on her level of stupidity.

  “It’s a long story,” she replied stiffly at his implied insult. She shook her head and stared out her window. “Just wait until I tell grandma that I got lost in the mountain with a bunch of good ‘ol boys running around in white hoods.”

  Bodie was starting to like her. She wasn’t easily intimidated. Not even Sully’s pals in the woods did much in the way of breaking her. It must have made Sully feel even more stupid than he should by wearing that dumb-ass costume out in public.

  “Well my name is Bodie. I apologize for driving off earlier. If I knew those fools were playing around in the woods I would have never done it.”

  “Well…thank you for coming back. My name is Shaundea, or just Shaun. I’m sorry if I came off like a bitch. I’ve been driving all day and most of the evening. When I stopped at that bar some guy just started in on me. I told him I wasn’t interested but he tried to block me in! Where I come from when you jump at somebody like that it means you want a fight.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “Chicago.”

  After a few moments they pulled into the parking lot of the Holiday Inn.

  “I hope they have vacancies,” she said distantly.

  Bodie shrugged. “This isn’t the busiest place in the world. I doubt if they’ve ever been to capacity.”

  “I don’t know,” she mumbled while walking to the entrance. “People on this mountain have a funny way of treating black folks.”

  Bodie felt a streak of defensiveness but squelched it at the memory of this ladies plight. ‘Course it was her own lack of good judgment that left her in such a predicament. He followed her inside just to make sure that she didn’t run into any more trouble.

  Bodie watched her as she checked in. Cute. Dark. Curly black hair that appeared wild and natural. Big black eyes like a does and plump lips with voluptuous attributes on her small frame.

  She turned to him and smiled genuinely. “I want to think you Mr. Bodie. I don’t know what I’d have done in these boonies by myself. Damn AAA!”

  “Just Bodie. And to AAA’s defense, I may need to update my pager with them. Hell it’s been years since they’ve sent anyone my way. Most people that need me already know me. So…Shaun, I’ll come by tomorrow about eight? Then we can take it from there.”

  She gripped the key card to her room and then waved at him and got into the elevator.

  On the drive home Bodie lit a cigarette. He seldom smoked unless he was drinking in a bar or maybe after sex…if he stayed awake long enough to light up. But sometimes when he had things to think about he did it. And tonight Miss Shaundea from Chi-Town had given him lots to think about.

  The last lady that had spent any real time on his mind was DeeDee. But she had gotten tired of the mountain and the simple life that he loved so much. She had gone off to Lexington or was it Louisville?

  Well there was no way he was leaving the mountain that he loved, especially for the fast paced life of the city. He liked fishing off his deck, getting his hair trimmed every other Tuesday and taking his mother to brunch every Sunday. He liked the fact that the old men still played cards on the worn old table in the post office where they kept the air conditioner running even when it wasn’t really hot out. He liked that his kindergarten teacher still remembered him and every one of his brothers and sisters and didn’t mind chastising any of them if she thought they deserved it. How could any other place stand up to this one?

  He pulled into the driveway of a very big cabin style house. His grandfather had built the main portion of the house but when no one else in the family wanted to take it on he had moved in and completely modernized it without taking away any of its original integrity and beauty. Eight years later it was still a work in progress; one that he enjoyed so much that he constantly made updates and improvements. Everything had been modernized from the kitchen with its stainless steel appliances to a Jacuzzi in the back yard gazebo.

  Bodie wasn’t rich but he couldn’t think of anything that he’d want that he couldn’t get—and what he couldn’t get was not something that he wanted. It was almost 3 am but he wanted a hot bath before bed. Even though he had a huge stand-a-lone shower in his master suite, he seldom used it. Who in their right mind would choose a shower over a whirlpool bath?

  He lit another cigarette as the jets hit his tired body. That girl was something different in these parts. Pretty and feist
y—not too bright maybe but she had the backbone of a bear.

  Chapter 2

  Shaun showered and pulled on her panties and a bra. She would have washed out her undies in the sink but didn’t think they’d be dry by morning.

  She didn’t have any change of clothes with her, actually hadn’t thought about it when she was skipping town. Damn Craig! Damn him to hell! Grandma didn’t even know she was even coming so no need to worry her. And she didn’t care if Craig was worried.

  She stretched out on the bed exhausted, calculating how much money she had on the credit card…not enough to cover a transmission job. Grandma didn’t have money like that, either. And what were the chances that Craig would wire her money after she had walked in on him with her friend Patrice and had thrown a mini fit? Actually he probably would wire her money but she’d give a Klansman a hand job before she’d take anything from him!

  Shaun sighed. No big deal. She’d dump the car and hop a bus if she had to. She would have to pay that cowboy something, though. He said she was on a mountain. She’d never heard of any mountain just outside of Richmond Kentucky. He was probably pulling her leg.

  She yawned. It wouldn’t surprise her if he was getting off on putting one over on her—just like that fool running around in the woods wearing the white hood—probably too poor to afford the robes—and not stupid enough to don a white bed sheet. She wasn’t so much afraid that he might actually be a Klansman but that any fool who dressed up like that just to scare her was just not right in the head.

  And what about that freak in the bar?! What would make him think that she would want his old saggy ass?! The only person in the entire place that she’d even look at twice was Bodie and that was only because he was as big as a bear and had real muscles and not just fat masquerading as a physique. He was also kind of brown; tanned like maybe he was more than white even if his hair was that funny yellowish brown that seemed brown in certain light but then later blonde. He had hazel eyes that stood out and a goatee that surrounded real lips and not just a slash in his face. Yeah he was cute but she had no interest in white men, especially not some country bumpkin.