Wreckless Page 4

  “Put her in the bathroom. I don’t want to have to look at her face.”

  He took her in and sat her down on the cold tile floor. She wiggled into a corner next to the tub, pulling her legs to her chest. Maurice felt horrible. Saundra looked and acted like a scared child folded up in the corner. Tears were steadily streaming down her face and her eyes were red. Her face was completely wet and the duct tape around her mouth glistened. There were no shoes on her battered and dry feet. Saundra mumbled. Maurice took the tape off of her mouth so she could speak.

  “Pa - pa - pa - please don - don’t kill me,” she stuttered.

  “I’m not going to kill you,” he promised. Maurice looked over his shoulder, then back to Saundra. “I’m going to get you out of here. I don’t know how yet, but I’m working on it.”

  Saundra cried harder. She didn’t believe him. Why would he help her now? She felt certain that he was telling her what she needed to hear to calm her down.

  “I thought you would be happy about that,” he said.

  “You - you’re lying,” she said. “Don’t lie to me! Oh, my God! My mother, my brother -- they’ll never see me again. They’ll wonder what happened. I won’t be able to tell them. Oh, God! I don’t want to die! I promise I won’t tell anybody. Please! You’ve got to believe me!” she begged.

  “Well, we don’t believe you, so just shut up!” Jasmine said. She walked around Maurice and stretched the tape back over Saundra’s mouth. “Why would you take the tape off her mouth? Do you want her to scream?” she asked.

  “She was trying to speak. I can’t hear what she need to say with tape around her mouth, Jasmine.”

  “Who cares what she has to say?” she said, walking out of the bathroom.

  Maurice followed her, “You know, you need to show more compassion. Where is your humanity?”

  Jasmine turned to him and took off her shirt, wiggling out of her jeans and flipping off her shoes.

  “What’s human about compassion? I’m tired of that, it never got me anywhere so compassion no longer lives here,” she said.

  With that, Maurice was convinced she was pure evil. Jasmine claimed that it was all an accident, but she acted as if it wasn’t. Besides, he’d seen the rage in her when she burst through Teresa’s bedroom door.

  Her panty and bra set was lace, see-through, and matching, which would’ve turned him on in an ordinary situation where he wasn’t repulsed by the girl.

  “Would you like to do the honors?” she said.

  “You know what? I’ve got just the thing to set this off.” Jasmine’s eyebrows arched, intrigued by what he meant. “There is a bottle of Lanson Champagne in the trunk of my truck and I saw an ice machine on the first floor on the front side.”

  A smile creased her face. Jasmine was in Heaven. Looking into his eyes was more than a dream for her now. To have the pleasure to experience his smile and sexiness was all she ever wanted.

  “I’ll go get it,” he said.

  “No,” Jasmine said softly. “I’ll go get it. When I get back, I want you comfortable and waiting for me. We’ve got more than enough time to enjoy each other and still get rid of our problems.”

  She walked closer to him and kissed his lips. Her arms stretched around his neck and she embraced him, bringing him closer. Going along with it, Maurice put his arms around her and kissed her like she was the love of his life. For more than half a minute, they stood in each other’s arms kissing. Maurice was the one who came up for air because had it been left up to Jasmine, she would’ve never stopped.

  “Come back,” she said, going in to kiss him again.

  “The champagne,” he whispered.

  Jasmine giggled. “Oh yeah. I almost forgot.”

  “That quick?” he said.

  “Yes. I tell you no lies. You sure know how to mesmerize a sista.”

  Giving him a quick kiss once more, she grabbed the ice bucket off of the bathroom counter, stepped back in her black jeans, buttoned up her shirt, and went out the door barefoot leaving her shoes in the room. Annoyed, Maurice walked to the window and watched as Jasmine went down the steps. He hurried into the bathroom and took the tape off Saundra. Once her hands were free, she rubbed her wrists, which were sore with indentions where the tape had been wrapped tightly. Maurice pulled the tape off of her mouth.

  “Where’s Jasmine?” she asked.

  “I sent her to get champagne and ice. Now listen, we are about to make a run for it. When I say go, I need you to run to my truck’s passenger side. I’ll be right behind you. This girl is crazy, so you can’t mess this up. This might be our only chance to get you out of here alive.”

  Saundra nodded.

  “Come on, put her shoes on,” he said.

  Saundra did as she was told. They went to the door and he saw Jasmine close his trunk, all smiles with the champagne in her hand. He waited for her to walk around the side of the building to the front. When she was no longer in view, he counted to ten. When he reached ten, he opened the door . . .

  “Go!”

  Part 5

  Saundra took off running down the steps to the passenger side door. She pulled the door handle and it opened. She climbed in. Maurice hopped in the driver’s seat and stuck the keys in, waking up his engine.

  “Put your seatbelt on!” he told Saundra.

  She didn’t hesitate, instantly buckling up. So did Maurice. As he rounded the corner quickly, he came to a staggering halt, almost running Jasmine over. She stood in front of the car with the ice bucket full and clutched in her fist. Immediately, everything dropped from her hands.

  “Where do you think you’re going, MAURICE?” she yelled.

  The crazed look in her eyes let him know Jasmine had checked out. She seemed like the type of girl to kill herself trying to hurt somebody else. Out of horrified terror, Saundra screamed;

  “Run her over!”

  Maurice hit the gas petal, his tires spun, and the truck swerved side to side before shooting off. Jasmine jumped out of the way, making an effort to save herself before becoming a part of the road. She rolled to a hard stop and screamed as she rose to her feet.

  “Ugh! You want to play games, huh?” she yelled into the midnight air.

  Jasmine ran to Teresa’s car and got in. She took off after Maurice and Saundra, desperate to catch them. When she got her hands on Saundra, it would take an army to get her off. Not only had she ruined Jasmine’s night, but she ran off with her man.

  “Why does everyone want to take my man from me? You can’t have him!” she yelled, rounding the corner and seeing the truck further down the road. Jasmine’s foot took the petal to the floor board. The car caught speed and went past forty, then fifty, then sixty. She was flying down a state highway like she didn’t have a care in the world. Teresa’s corpse rolled in the trunk of the car. Jasmine could hear it hitting the front and then rolling to the back.

  “Don’t worry!” Jasmine yelled, as if Teresa could hear her, “You won’t feel a thing,” she snickered.

  Thoughts of murder ran through her mind. She imagined digging Saundra’s grave. This time, if Maurice wanted some alone time, Saundra would have to be dead first.

  Jasmine was delusional; she actually thought Maurice had taken interest in her. The kiss he’d given her before she left the room put her in wonderment. With a one-track mind, Jasmine’s speed increased as she hit eighty by the time she caught up with the GMC Sierra.

  Maurice looked in the rear view mirror. “This girl is nuts,” he said. “She’s caught up with us already.”

  “That’s because you’re driving the speed limit!” Saundra shouted. “Who drives the speed limit when a maniac is after him?”

  “It’s dark on this road; what if we hit a deer or something?” he said.

  “Look, I love all of God’s creatures, but if it’s just chilin’ in the middle of the street, then go around him! We are the only ones driving this late, so punch it, man!”

  Maurice did a double take at Saundra. The
scared feeble woman was no more. There was a rush over her face and she was focused on survival. Maurice increased his speed, leaving Jasmine behind. She still had a nice gain on them, but Teresa’s car was no match for his GMC Sierra.

  “What’s your role in all this?” Saundra asked. “I mean, it seems to me you were in this with her. I thought you were going to help me, then all of a sudden you hand me over to her. What’s up with that?” she said.

  “Didn’t I get you out of it?”

  Saundra looked behind them, Jasmine was getting closer. “Not really,” she said. She shook her head and threw her hands up, “Okay, I get it. You’re helping me out now, but you weren’t at first. I need to know -- did you help her kill Teresa?”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “I’m not, but I don’t know about you,” she said.

  Maurice gave her a stern look, cutting his eyes at her. He sucked his teeth and shook his head. He could understand how she felt, so he cut her some slack.

  “I would never do anything like that,” he said. “If I was a killer, you would’ve been dead.” He cut his eyes at her again. Saundra’s eyebrows rose. “Yeah, that’s right.”

  “You know, Teresa and I talked on the phone every now and then. She approached me when I was on my way to the car one day. Teresa’s a beautiful girl, so of course, I talked to her. We exchanged numbers, but we didn’t talk on a regular basis. With me on the football team and in the fraternity, I didn’t have much time. Neither did she. Whenever I saw her, she was doing a fundraising event or with her sorors. There were many things to keep us occupied. It was only two weeks ago when we started getting closer. I took her to a drive-in movie and we went bowling. A couple of days later, there was a party on campus I met up with her at (where I met up with her). We left that night together and I drove her home. Then there was the auction event.”

  Maurice’s eyes went to the rearview mirror Jasmine was catching up, then she lost speed and fell back. It had taken them an hour to get to that motel. Jasmine handpicked it because she wanted to be far away from civilization. As he drove, the night seem to grow darker and darker. The only thing he could truly see was the road in front of him and the blur of the trees from the woods on the side of the road as they passed them. Maurice continued with his explanation.

  “A couple of days after that, we took my two nephews to the aquarium.” Maurice smiled remembering the day. “They tried to hit on her,” he laughed. “Telling her she was fine and all that.” He shook his head. “Those boys are just like their daddy. We had a good time. I felt like we were growing a relationship, but neither of us wanted to move fast into anything.”

  He cleared his throat and continued. “From then on, we continued to see each other; doing different things, going different places. Then today, she called me over to her house.” He paused thinking about it. “When I came in, she had a fire lit and some wine. I had a beer. We talked for a brief minute and drank. Then she got up and grabbed my hand.” His eyes were searching the rearview mirror again. “We went to her room and she seduced me.”

  Saundra folded her arms and twisted her lips, as if he needed much seducing. She knew his reputation. He was a ladies’ man. Maurice caught the side look and smirked.

  “We had sex, but a few minutes into it, Jasmine comes bursting through the door singing a Whitney Houston song. It was crazy. I was wondering what was up with this chick. I mean, I knew Teresa had a roommate and I had seen Jasmine before, but from afar. I never knew she had feelings for me. I think that’s high school, anyway. We’re grown. If you like me, ask me out.”

  Saundra was appalled. Jasmine needed medical attention bad. “So, what happened?” she asked.

  “When Jasmine saw me, she freaked out. It was like she thought Teresa had betrayed her somehow. Like I said before, this wasn’t the first night we’d been together. Jasmine went crazy; immediately, they started fighting. It was too wild, so I put my clothes on and left.”

  He watched Saundra for her reaction.

  “So, that’s it . . . you just left?” she asked.

  “Yeah. What was I supposed to do? It weirded me out.”

  “How about pull them apart?”

  “Yo, I didn’t know what was going on, so I left. About thirty minutes later, Jasmine called telling me Teresa was dead. She basically threatened me to help her or she would tell the police I did it. And with me being the last person seen with her, it wouldn’t be hard for them to suspect me. We know people go to jail all the time for something they didn’t do.”

  “It all happened so fast,” he continued. “Then when you came over, you were just getting in her way. She drugged you and tied you up. By the time I got back, you were already tied up in the closet. There is no way I could continue with Jasmine’s plan.”

  “What exactly was her plan,” Saundra asked.

  Maurice gave her a quick look. “To bury you both in these trees out here.”

  Fear struck Saundra as she quivered and looked out to the wooded area. “How much longer ‘til we get back?” she asked.

  No sooner than the words came from her, the rear of the truck was hit hard. The GMC Sierra swayed from side to side, Maurice trying to keep a hold of it. Saundra screamed and looked behind them.

  “She’s on our tail!” she yelled.

  Jasmine rammed the truck again, but this time, keeping the car steady on the bumper. The back of the truck lifted and was now sitting on the front of Teresa’s Chevy Malibu. The GMC Sierra lost traction and spun out of control.

  “AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” Saundra screamed.

  The truck ran off the road into the trees. Dirt particles flew up from the tires and the truck flipped over on its side. It slid to a stop, smoke coming from the engine. Jasmine pulled to the side of the road. She got out with her blade in hand. There was no wind in the air. Barefoot and out of her mind, Jasmine talked to herself.

  “See what you have done? I never wanted to hurt you, Maurice! I love you.”

  She walked into the trees to the truck. There was movement inside; then she saw Saundra climbing out of the passenger window.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Jasmine said.

  Seeing Jasmine kicked up Saundra’s adrenaline. Hopping off the side of the car, she sprinted deeper into the woods. As she ran, the thought of not going too far didn’t cross her mind; only getting away from Jasmine. She stopped and hid behind a tall oak tree. Her breathing was rapid. With her back against the tree, she closed her eyes momentarily and took in deep breaths.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Jasmine taunted. “Oh, come on. You didn’t really think you could get away from me, did you?”

  Jasmine took her flashlight and pointed it in front of her. The light hovered over the tree Saundra was standing behind. She held her breath. As much as she wanted to pray, she couldn’t make a sound.

  “You’re never getting out of here alive,” Jasmine threatened.

  Saundra shifted her weight from one foot to the other, breaking a tiny piece of tree branch. Jasmine ran towards the sound and the flashlight temporarily blinded Saundra before she could run. It didn’t take much for Jasmine to catch her.

  “Aaaah! Let go of me, you maniac!” Saundra screamed, tussling and trying to shake Jasmine off.

  They fell to the ground. Jasmine got on top of Saundra and smacked her face. Her hands weighed down on Saundra’s throat. It was her time to die.