20 minutes earlier

The shot rings out as I bullrush Nick, and I feel a rush of blood and warmth to my head. But I don’t stop sprinting at full speed ahead.

Hesitation means death, even if I’m shot. No time to think about that.

This is for Krista.

This is for Rose.

I let out the loudest yell of my life as Nick fires two more shots, and I headbutt him like a mountain goat, slamming his chest into the wall.

He lets out a loud ‘ooof’ as I drive him into the wall, then find his arms and pin them above his head, taking care to make sure the gun is pointed straight up.

As I come face to face with Nick, I realize I’ve just witnessed a miracle: I’m still alive.

Nick’s eyes widen as I squeeze his wrists, and I’m overcome with a superhuman strength. He fires the gun a couple more times up at the ceiling. I bring an elbow down and knock him in the face.

He grunts and tries to hit me with a weak left. I twist his right arm until I hear a pop, and Nick screams in pain. I work my hands up his wrist until I’ve got his hand, and his fingers loosen on the gun, and I aid him in getting the weapon out of his hand, then toss it across the room.

“Please,” he begs.

I growl before I elbow him again, then knock him in the face with a swing of both of my arms together, still connected by the metal cuffs that he put on me, and he falls flat on his face. On his hands and knees, he crawls toward the gun. I grab him by the ankle and he screams as I pull him toward me, straddle his chest, and rain down blow after blow.

Rose.

Krista.

Krista.

Rose.

The handcuffs don’t stop me from delivering powerful blows. Halfway through, I stop counting how many times I hit him in the face. My knuckles are bloodied, but I don’t care. My chest heaving, I stand up and look down at his unconscious body.

My shirt is spattered with blood.

“Fuck you, Nick,” I growl. “You tried to kill me. You threatened Krista. Fuck you.”

I dig through his pockets and find the key to my cuffs, then unlock myself. I find my phone on the ground, and pick it up, keeping an eye on Nick all the while. He’s barely moving, but I can’t be too cautious. Who knows what this fuckhead will pull? I won’t make the mistake of underestimating him again.

I pick up the gun from the corner of the room, and Nick lets out another unintelligible groan.

“Are you trying to say something?” I ask, hovering over him with the gun.

“Areyougunak….” he mumbles, than takes a big breath.

“I’m sorry, I can’t understand you.”

“Are you,” he pauses for air, “gonna kill me?”

I look down on him blankly, gun at my side.

I point the gun at him and he turns his head. “Oh God. Please no,” he begs.

“Fucking pathetic,” I mutter.

But I don’t shoot.

That wouldn’t be right. And it’s not my style.

I unload the gun and stick the ammo in my pocket.

I kneel down so I can see every wrinkle in Nick’s sad, pathetic face. “I’m not going to kill you,” I say. “I’m going to do something worse.”

“W-worse? Than that? What’s worse?”

I stare at the helpless man, who just minutes ago tried to kill me. I touch the spot on my ear that feels warm, and a bit of blood sticks to my finger.

“You missed, Nick. You shoulda hit me in the face with that bullet. Because now—” I take deep breaths as I stand over his unmoving body.

The thought going through my mind is so weird—so fucked up—I’m ashamed of it at first. I push it out of the realm of possibility. Because it involves Krista, me, and Nick—and a whole lot of rope. Will Krista go for it? Maybe I should call the cops and call it a night right now.

But the truth is Nick needs to understand Krista belongs to me now. Not him. And there’s only one way for him to truly understand this deep in his soul.

I set the chair up so it faces the currently empty room on the other side of the double-sided mirror. Having worked in Midnight Ride for years, I know all of the tricks of this place, for better or worse.

Opening a cabinet, I snag a few leather straps and a pair of handcuffs, the kind the female dommes use on the the biggest guys who need to be tied up but might beg for mercy later.

I pull him by the hair and strap him to the chair. Using leather, I secure his ankles to the legs, and with the handcuffs I strap his wrists behind his back. I strap his neck in with another piece of leather so he’s completely helpless.

I lift his chin, and put tape on the tops of his closed eyelids.

“Open your eyes,” I command.

“Why,” he whispers. “So I can watch you kill me?”

“Like I said, I’m not going to kill you.’”

He opens his eyes, then tries to close them. He can’t.

“The tape is doing its job,” I say firmly.

“What are you...going to make me watch?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I check all of the straps and the handcuffs, making sure Nick can’t move. He’s battered, but I can’t be too sure.

Then I secure the chair using straps so it can’t be toppled over if he shifts his momentum from side to side.

“Why can’t I blink?” he asks, his voice desperate.

I lean down and tilt his chin so he’s looking me in the eye.

“Because I’m about to make you understand that Krista and I have a real connection. A love you’ll never have. And you don’t seem to be getting the point. So I’m going to show you.”

I find a scrap of paper and a pen in the cabinet, and I scribble down a few instructions for her. I slip outside and call down the hallway. Luckily one of my old buddies, Ryan, is the nightshift bouncer tonight.

He walks briskly down the hall until he sees the bloody shape I’m in.

“Holy shit, Damien! What the hell—?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to. I gotta ask a favor. Can you watch the guy in here for a second and make sure he doesn’t pull anything or try to escape?”

“Yeah of course, man, but—”

“Like I said, let me wash up. Don’t ask more questions. Trust me, you don’t wanna know.”

He nods, then comes in the room to keep an eye on Nick.

I head to the bathroom and the employee shower and wash as much of the blood as I can off my body. A lot of it is Nick’s blood, or my own from the bullet that skimmed my ear.

Fucking incredible that I’m still alive.

I put on my shoes and pants but not my shirt, which is trashed and dirty.

Before I head back to room 269, I stop in the room on the other side of the double-sided mirror and drop off the note with instructions for Krista. Then I head back to the room with Nick and Ryan. “I’ll take it from here. Can you do me one more favor? Wait in the hallway and when a hot brunette gets here, direct her to the room on the other side of the double-sided mirror?”

“Of course,” he says, and steps out.

Thank God for having old friends in the middle of this crisis. It’s ironic Nick took me to Midnight Ride to kill me. I suppose in his mind there was some twisted revenge involved in killing me here.

Now I’m the one getting revenge.

Just then, the door of the other room opens and Krista walks in, a little shy and seeming scared.

I pull out the microphone and say a couple of things to get her over it. She doesn’t know I can see her. I decide I’ll break that news to her when I go to her side of the mirror.

She follows the instructions I set out for her, stripping down to her panties and bra.

“Why are you showing me this?” Nick begs.

“I already told you. You’re about to witness what real love is. Maybe some day you can have some for yourself. I doubt it, though.”

I triple check to make sure he’s one-hundred and ten percent secure, and that his eyelids are firmly taped open.

He’s not going anywhere.

I grab the remote that clouds and unclouds the double mirror, and I stick it in my pocket.

Outside, I inhale deeply, then open the door to meet my love.

I’m stunned when I see her. I click the button to cloud the mirror. Nick doesn’t need to see this. My idea was childish. He doesn’t deserve to see us.

“Oh my God, Damien!” she says, then runs up and wraps her arms around me in a tight embrace.

“God damn, I missed you baby,” I say, holding her tighter than I ever have. I sniff her hair, she smells crazy amazing. I run my hands over her flesh and it’s hot to the touch.

“What happened? Why did you send me that weird text message?” she asks. “Why do you have your shirt off? I have so many questions…”

“Baby I need you to sit down for this.”

Her eyes gloss over and I guide her to a seat on the other side of the couch. “What’s going on?”

I put my hand on her thigh. “Fuck, I’m glad to see you,” I say before I can launch into my explanation of the past hour. I kiss her on the lips like it’s the last time I’ll ever be able to touch her again. And it some ways, I feel like I was granted another life.

“Baby,” I say, pulling away for a second. “I’m okay now. But Nick tried to kill me.”

“Holy shit!” She threads her hand through my hair like she’s been granted a second life, too. Tears stream down her cheeks and I think maybe this whole idea I have for vengeful sex is just wrong.

We wrap our arms around each other and make out. Her body pressed up against me feels amazing, her flesh against mine. She’s hot to the touch and my bare upper body is cold.

She runs her hand up the back of my neck until it lands close to my ear.

“Ow,” I growl, gritting my teeth.

“Are you okay? Holy shit, what happened here?” she tenderly touches my earlobe, examining the bloody part of my ear.

“Got shot,” I mumble.

“You got shot? With a gun?” Her mouth falls open, and I can’t help but smirk the tiniest bit at the ridiculousness of this whole situation.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Jesus. If you died because of me…”

“I would die for you Krista and now I know—at least I believe I know—why God put me through the pain of seeing my sister die. So I could find you, and save you. And nothing will ever happen to you now that you know me.”

“Know you?” she reflects back, wrapping her hand around the back of my neck. “Am I just some girl you know?”

I shake my head. “Okay. A little more than that, sure. Now that I’m in love with you.”

She leans in and kisses me tenderly on the base of my neck, and chills run through my body in all of the places chills run.

“I love you too,” she whispers in my maimed ear.

My erection presses into my jeans and I know what’s about to happen here is imminent. I need to tell her who’s in the next room.

“Baby wait,” I say as she reaches a hand under my belt.

“What’s the matter?”

I cup her cheek. “You know how we talked about fucking in front of people?”

“Yeah?” she answers, but I feel her voice trembling.

“Well I want to fuck you right now. I want you so bad. And I want to do it in front of him.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Nick’s on the other side of that double-sided mirror. I want him to know who you belong to now.”