I slipped on my bra, twisting it around me. “You are my boyfriend. But I don’t think I’m supposed to have people here with me after hours.” For reasons that included the thing we just did on the counter.
The pounding continued. Javier took a step toward the door, determination righting his posture. “If it’s Steve, why isn’t he using his key?”
“Javier, please,” I told him as I pulled down my shirt and tried to make myself look presentable. “Go wait in the back and don’t come out till I tell you to.”
He didn’t move; his eyes were locked on the door. I wished I could see out the nearby window but there was an entrance blocking my view. I gave him a little push. “Go.”
He did so reluctantly, and I waited until he was out of sight, hiding in the hallway where the washrooms were, until I approached the door.
“Steve?” I asked. My hand went for the handle which was jumping with each knock. “Julie?”
I eyed the chain lock and decided to err on the side of caution and slide it across. Better safe than sorry. Then I opened the door.
There was an explosion of sound, of splintering wood and breaking metal. The door came off its hinges and hit me right in the face, slamming me into the ground. Before I could figure out what had happened, that someone had kicked the door open breaking the chain and the hinges, I was being hauled to my feet by the big brute whom I’d gotten kicked out. Tom had come back and his fingers were digging into my arms as he shook me.
“Where’s your messiah now, huh?” he cried out, face red, spit flying. He was even drunker than he was that day, and I turned my head to see three men behind him, all in their early twenties and jacked up as anything. These were not his frat buddies from before—he had brought reinforcements, men meant to f**k me up.
I tried to hide my fear hoping that Javier was dialing the cops from his hiding place. As good as he was at breaking noses, he wouldn’t stand a chance with these guys. They were out for blood…mine.
“Please let go of me,” I said, wondering if I could plead my way out of it. He responded by putting one hand at my mouth and squeezing it together. I cried out in pain and he leaned in close. “No one refuses me,” he snarled, and I wondered if knew what dangerous ground he was playing on. Like hell I wouldn’t press charges on him for assaulting me.
Then the realization hit me in the stomach like a cold fist. I couldn’t press charges if I was dead.
I was so temped to look behind me at the bar to see if Javier was still there, but it would only give him away. Tom pushed me into another one of the guys, this one built like an MMA fighter and over six feet tall. He grabbed me by the top of my head and forced me down to my knees. With his other hand he went for his belt buckle. I’d bite his dick in two, I hoped he realized that.
“You’re going to suck it, then you’re going to f**k it,” Tom squealed like an excited coyote. “Then you’ll do it to all of us until you learn not to f**k with me again.”
The man’s fist tightened in my hair until I was sure I was bleeding at the roots. He took out his erect penis, an ugly beast of a thing, bringing it toward my mouth.
Another explosion. Liquid splattered on my face. For a second I thought perhaps he blew his load too soon, but when I opened my eyes, I saw blood and the man toppled to the ground. I screamed and scrambled to my feet, turning around in time to see Javier striding toward us, his arm stretched out in front, a gun pointed at Tom. He remained meticulously focused on him, eyes not straying, not even to catch a glimpse of the gun that one of the other men was pulling out from his pants.
Without missing a beat or looking away, Javier turned toward the gunman and fired, his eyes cold and hard, boring into Tom. The other man was shot straight in the heart and he fell to the ground, joining the man who had been shot earlier. My eyes were torn between staring at their dead, lifeless bodies, the one man still with his dick hanging out of his pants, and at the other man who was turning around and making a run for the door. Javier shot him in the back and he went flying to the ground too.
“Javier!” I couldn’t help screaming. I had screamed his name earlier under such different circumstances. But unlike then, he acted as if he hadn’t heard me.
He marched right up to Tom, grabbing him by the collar and pointing the gun up under his chin.
“The messiah is right here,” Javier said, his voice impossibly calm and cool. “And he’s going to kill every man who has the intention of hurting this woman.” He jerked his head in my direction. Tom glanced at me as I stood there, shaking, covered in blood, in complete shock. I wanted Tom to suffer but I didn’t want Javier to kill him.
“Javier,” I whispered, not finding the strength to go louder.
“I’d like a real apology this time,” he went on, pressing his gun further into Tom’s chin. “Then you’re free to go.”
Tom was also frozen. His mouth flapped stupidly, sweat streaming down his forehead.
“Now!” Javier screamed in his face, the veins bulging in his neck. I was fairly sure Tom was going to die from fright and be all the better for it.
But he swallowed hard and looked at me, avoiding the intensity of Javier’s murderous gaze. “I…I’m sorry,” he said with a gasp as the gun dug in deeper.
“Louder!” Javier screamed, rage personified.
“I’m sorry!” Tom cried out.
Javier smiled. It was akin to a lion baring its fangs. “Good boy,” he said, then pushed Tom away from him. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”
Tom just stared down at his dead friends, the blood pooling around their wounds and seeping onto the floor. He glanced up at Javier, brows drawn together, arms shaking.
“You’re just going to let me go like that?” he asked in quiet disbelief.
“Yes,” Javier said. “You’re free to go. I always keep my word. Of course, I’ll kill you before you get anywhere.”
As quick as the bullets inside, he raised the gun and shot Tom square in the head, a tiny hole of blood quickly spreading out from the center of the wound before he fell to the ground. I was screaming again, lost in the sound of the gun, the reality of the moment.
This was happening. My Javier, my criminal. He was every bit as bad as I thought he was and suddenly it was real. Who I was pretending to be. Who I was dealing with.