“I’ve never fucked a pregnant lady,” he said. “It’s too bad I’ll only get to do this once before I have to kill you.”
Burke, where the hell are you! Burke, please, please, please!
I wriggled and squirmed and did everything I could to try and make Snake think twice about taking me. If I was going to die, I at least wanted to make it as difficult for him as possible. After Snake got his shirt off and stared at me, he pulled out a knife and held it to my thigh.
“I have this over an artery right now and could end everything for you in a very painful fashion,” he said. “Or you can shut the fuck up and let me fuck you, and then you’ll get a bullet through your skull, with the rest designed to look like it happened before. Your choice.”
I slowed down. I wasn’t done fighting, but I had to play the part.
“Smart girl,” Snake said, putting the knife on a nearby dresser. “I guess you’re not as fucking stupid as—”
The door swung open.
“What the fuck?”
Chapter 22: Burke
From the minute Emily had entered the hotel, I’d followed her the whole way back.
When she entered, all she’d had to do was scan the environment a full 360 degrees and she would have seen me. Alas, she did not have the training I did to check her surroundings.
When she left, I continued to follow her. It was too easy, never once did I do anything to draw any attention to myself. She looked back a couple of times, but it looked like any woman being semi-aware of her surroundings.
But why didn’t I go up to her and say anything? She’d clearly come looking for me. She was clearly interested in talking to me. So why hadn’t I?
Because, as fucking bizarre and strange as it was to say, I was scared.
Yes, I would not say it a second time, and it was fucking strange to say, but it was true. That was how I felt. To realize the possibility of something serious could still be there, to realize I could still be involved with Emily, to know that I could be a part of my kids’ future…
I followed her the whole way back to her apartment. I almost decided to just give her the space to be. But with Snake being anywhere nearby, something told me I needed to go a little bit further.
And so, using the same elusive techniques that had worked before, I made my way up to her apartment and got to the front door.
“I guess you’re not as fucking stupid—”
Snake.
All thought went out the window as nothing more than instinct took over. It didn’t matter that my body was still suffering from the gunshot wound from before. Emily’s life was in danger. If she’s not already fucking dead.
I grabbed the door handle and rammed the door open. Not in the living room. The bedroom.
I sprinted, following Snake’s voice, the “what the fuck” that he yelled in shock.
I paused only to take in what I saw as soon as I entered the room. The fucking bastard was shirtless, standing over a tied-up Emily.
“Ah, Burke, your cheating girlfriend—”
I didn’t give him more than a fucking second and a half to speak. He was going to fucking die for everything that he’d done to DOM!
I tackled him to the ground, seething in pain as everything in my chest and shoulder seemed to catch fire. The tackle at least hurt Snake, though, because he cursed loudly, likely because his back had slammed into something hard behind him. I lined up a punch and hit him square in the jaw, but the victory was short-lived.
He bumped me off of him and into the bed, delivering a knee to the gut that, though not very powerful, stunned me just long enough that Snake got up and delivered another punch to the head. I rolled away, still trying to collect my bearings. Snake stood just inches above me, but I drove everything I had into his ankle, awkwardly knocking him down.
I hurried over and mounted him, dropping a sharp elbow into his groin. Stunning him enough, I clocked him in the face, drawing blood and leaving him temporarily immobile.
Using the chance, I stood up, found Emily—still clothed, thankfully—and undid one of her foot restraints. I then moved forward and got her hands undone about halfway before Snake yanked my legs out from underneath me.
“Get the fuck out of here!” I roared to Emily before turning my attention back to Snake.
We rolled and tussled on the ground. Only one of us was going to get out of this mess alive, and that wasn’t some dramatic statement. It was a simple truth—we both hated the other too much to let them live.
At one point, I thought I had the upper hand when I got a hold of Snake’s head and slammed him into the bedpost. He looked dazed and wobbled, and the side of his hair had blood all over it. But Snake was a motherfucker, a tough asshole that didn’t go down merely because he’d had his bell rung. He grabbed me and did the same to me.
Finally, I stood up and backed away. Emily had already left, thank God. I could die at this point, I didn’t care. Really, I hoped that she was calling the police, anything to trap Snake in. I’d gladly get arrested and face consequences for crimes I didn’t commit if it also meant that Snake wound up in jail.
But at the rate our fight was going, whoever did get arrested was likely going to jail for murder.
Snake delivered a wicked hook punch that
