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forty

Mitch’s swing with the bat knocked me out for a moment, my previously concussed brain jarring inside my skull. But it wasn’t hard enough to keep me as weak as he thought. I just knew I had to find my way to Pippi, and he was my best chance.

He makes a move toward her, so I explode into mine. I won’t let him touch her.

With a loud roar, I spring up and rush him like I’m at a game.

Yeah, the pain surges through my ribs, but I ignore it while focused on my target.

Thrusting him against the wall instead of the boards, he screams like a bitch as my much larger body crushes him into it.

In one of his hands, he reaches for a knife on his belt.

Frustration crawls out of my chest when I realize I don’t know where he’s put my gun. No matter.

As I grip his wrist and twist it, he drops the weapon into my other hand, and I press his chest against the stones, holding the blade against his neck. My skin sears as healing wounds split open again, but I’ve got him now, and I’m not letting go.

Pen sidesteps us and dashes for the professor, who fumbles with her robes in the far corner.

“Ryan!”

I freeze at Pen’s cry. Before turning around, I put Mitch in a headlock with the sharp end of the weapon pointed at his artery. Kicking his feet out wide, I shuffle us to face the room. Adrenaline turns every bruise on my body into armor. Every rip, a reason to grip tighter.

Amanda has her arm around Pen’s neck with my gun pointed at her temple.

“I’d release him if I were you. This won’t be as slow and painful as I’d like, but I will shoot her.”

My breath seizes in my lungs, fear striking me like doom for only a moment.

Until I meet her whiskey eyes…

I have full faith that my girl can take care of herself; she only needs the confidence to do so. With only a tiny nod, I encourage her to act.

She pops her hip to the side, loosening Amanda’s grip on her, then slips away and shoves her in the chest, just as I dig the knife deep into Mitch’s throat and slash across his neck in a steady motion. His scream turns into a gargling wail. Then silence.

Pen grabs Amanda’s gun and flips it out of her wrist, aiming it at her. Without a moment’s hesitation, she fires a bullet in the woman’s forehead. The professor’s body stiffens, then slumps onto the floor.

Heated crimson flows over my arm as Mitch bleeds out all over me. Saturating me with his life force. Now gone.

Primal urges overtake my frontal lobe at the sight of the dead bodies surrounding me and Pen. Understanding she’s safe. I’m safe. And we have defeated the enemies.

I must bathe in their blood.

Her chest heaves as rapidly as mine, stretching the black shirt she wears across her round tits.

With a clang, I drop the blade to my side and open my bloodied arms wide as Pen rushes into them.

Pain be damned. I gather her up, spin us around, and lay her over the still warm corpse that oozes puddles of inky fluids.

His dead eyes stare at the ceiling beneath her beautiful body.

Hurriedly, her fingers work to undo my jeans as I rip hers down her sculpted legs. My cock is thirsting for her pussy, throbbing with an achy need only she can fulfill. And I want to do it on the man who almost took her from me.

“Please,” she begs as I lift her knees up and out, situating myself between them.

With a formidable shove, I enter her as we both yell obscenities that shatter the stillness in the damp room. “Fuck, baby!”

I place my hands on his chest and abs, then thrust inside her again, gritting my teeth as torn muscles scream from the exertion, but I go in rapidly and with more force.

In fact, my hips take on a life of their own, slamming into her relentlessly, as if my body is trying to bury the trauma inside her heat.

All she can do is cling to me and hang on.

Frenzied passion consumes me, thinking about almost losing her.

But she’s here, in my arms, and my soul is compelled to prove how much it needs hers.

She lets her head drop back until I can gaze into her mesmerizing eyes. “I wasn’t going to let him touch you. You know that, right?”

Whimpering, she nods. “I know.”

“I love you. Nothing will separate us. You hear me, Pen? You’re mine , from now until forever.”

Releasing a moaned lullaby, a tear slips over her rubied cheek. When I wipe it away with my thumb, I smear our enemy’s blood on it like war paint. The sight is so erotic, I grip both sides of her face until the redness stains our skin. An iron tinge coats the air around us.

Sweat drops from my forehead onto hers as I pillage her body on my savage sacrifice.

Quivers inside her caress my dick in erratic ripples until she opens her mouth wide to scream my name.

I lean forward and press my lips over hers to capture the sound, plunging my tongue inside as she trembles underneath me, rocking through her orgasm.

Seeing her reach heights of pleasure is the best thing I’ve witnessed, knowing I’m sharing this with her, my partner-in-crime.

My hand strokes her hair, then latches onto the nape of her neck, pulling her attention to me again. “You feel that, pink cheeks? That’s me conquering you on top of him. Let his soul watch me own what he never could.”

She holds my face as I do, shoveling my hips in deep and holding there, blowing my pleasures close to her womb. One day, I’ll fill it with my children.

Repeatedly.

Small taps of my lips on her nose elicit satisfied sighs from her throat. We catch our breaths as my cock still surges inside of her, leaking everything until it’s spent.

“Ryan…” she whispers, and I think she’ll tell me something romantic.

“Yes, my love?”

“I think there’s still someone here.”

I freeze, listening, but there’s nothing to indicate anyone around. Slowly, I slip out of her, and we adjust ourselves, situating our clothes. In one hand, I grab the gun from the floor, then slip my free one into hers, and lead her from the room.

We fumble our way down the hall in the pitch-black darkness. She’s smart and doesn’t make a peep while I hold my breath in case someone else lurks nearby. From previous Thriller Thursday setups, I remember the layout and hope that I’m heading in the right direction.

Almost stumbling over the rickety staircase, I freeze and glance behind us, but there’s only the yellow glow coming from the open door still flickering from the candle.

“Go,” Pen urges me with a harsh whisper.

I turn and guide her to the first floor, but the sense that someone is there and watching never leaves.

Between events, the lounge is empty, except for a few pieces of furniture covered in spooky white sheets that gleam in the shards of moonlight spilling in through tiny holes in the window coverings. The house is fucking creepy. And I don’t want to spend another moment here.

“It smells like mildew so bad, I’m going to gag,” Pen whispers, still keeping her voice down in case unseen enemies lurk around.

As soon as my hand hits the crystal knob for the front door, I fling it open and hurry into the rainy night.

Clean air flows through my lungs, and I huff in a deep breath, the adrenaline slowing its course until I ache from everything that happened.

My chest wounds seep underneath the bandages.

And the hit to my skull pulses with every pound of my racing heart.

“You okay?” I pull her with me toward the front gate.

“I-I think so.”

“We need to get to the hospital to be sure.” The gravel from the driveway crunches under my boots as sheets of frigid rain splatter down on us.

“Freeze! Hands in the air where I can see them!”

A blinding light blazes over us, and I drop the gun to the ground. Slowly lifting my arms in the air, I step protectively in front of my woman. Pen mimics my posture, and from the shadows, a few officers emerge.

One grabs my arms and the other throws me on the ground, then does the same to her. “Watch it!” I yell. “Leave her!”

The officer cuffing my hands behind my back pinches my shoulders closer together and grits out, “Can’t. You’re both under arrest…”