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.

~
P
_P
~

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.