Page 5 of Duke

Goddammit, he even made my mind wander.

I mentally scolded myself, instructing my lust-ridden libido to check itself before it wrecked itself, told my knees to stiffen up, and forced my mind to focus.

They would absolutely hack off your pretty little manicured fingers, he’d said. Well that wasn’t going to work for me, since I happened to be allergic to having my fingers chopped off. Or anything else, for that matter.

Focus, Temple, focus.

I unbuttoned my blouse to show a little extra cleavage, and fluffed my hair. And yeah, you bet your ass I noticed Duke noticing me. And, yeah, I also noticed the way his khaki cargo shorts tightened at the zipper just a little when I plumped my tits—good to know I affect him, too.

The footsteps were right outside the door, now.

Duke was standing to the right of the door, so when it swung open he’d be able to swing that weight bar into the opening. The annoying part of the scenario was that Duke was wielding the weight bar like a quarterstaff. Annoying, I say, in that it was a full Olympic bar, weighing 45 pounds, and he could swing it around like a wooden stick.

And, BTW, don’t give me thatyou’re just a spoiled little blonde bimbo so how would you know how much an Olympic barbell weighsshit; you don’t maintain a body like mine without spending almost as much time in the gym as I’m sure Duke does so, yeah, I know how much an Olympic bar weighs. I can clean it with eighty pounds on the bar, too. Not much for Duke, but he’s three times my size.

The door opened, and a man stepped through, two more right behind him. The first guy took three steps into the room before he saw me sitting on the floor, gag gone, bonds cut, blouse showing cleavage and a hint of bra, hair mussed like I’d just been fucked—yeah, he stopped in his tracks.

I’ve still got it, bitch.

The two men behind him bumped into him with a chorus of curses.

“How you are like this?” The man in front asked, confusion mangling his English. “And where is—?”

Whack.

I cringed, and then gagged. Because FUCK. Duke had swung the bar as hard as he could, and it had connected with the poor guy’s skull like a baseball bat connecting with a watermelon. Similar red wet spray, too. I vomited on the floor in front of me at the sight of the wreckage that had once been a man’s skull, but I didn’t have time to even really register that I’d upchucked before Duke was in motion, the bar now held in a wide grip, like a quarterstaff. One end smashed into a belly, and then it was whistling around the other way and taking out a knee with a sickening crunch, and then too many things happened at once for me to track.

One guy managed to gut through his ruined knee to draw a gun from his waistband and squeeze off a round with a deafening report. I heard concrete shatter and saw the wall to Duke’s right explode in a spray of slivers and dust—a missed shot, thank god.

“Dumb idea, dipshit,” Duke said, his voice as calm and cool as you please, sounding amused, even.

Whack.

This time the bar’s tip cracked into the shooter’s chest, knocking him backward, then rotated and began arcing downward. I looked away, then, because seeing that once was plenty for me.

I heard the sick wet crunch, though.

I also heard another gunshot, heard Duke grunt in irritation, and then I heard yet another now-distinctive crunch, that of a human head turning into hamburger.

Oh god, I should not have thought that. Should not have—shit.

I puked again.

“You can open your eyes now, Fancy,” Duke said. “They’re all dead.”

“I’ll keep them closed, thank you very much,” I said, trying my damnedest to sound like I wasn’t as traumatized as I felt.

“Suit yourself. Might step in something nasty, though.”

I had my eyes squeezed shut and my hand clapped over them; I extended my other hand in front of me for him to take. “Can you…lead me out? I really don’t want to see that.”

“Oh.” A pause. “Right. Guess you’re not used to this shit, are you?”

“Used to what, deconstructed human skulls?”

He chuckled. “Deconstructed human skulls. Huh, never heard it put that way before.”

“No, for your information, I’mnotused to that shit. And if you are, then I’m sorry for the life you’ve lived.”