Ink Me

by Anna J. Evans

Don’t think about dead people, don’t think about death, period. You and Aidan are going to be okay. Just give them whatever they want and—

  “Get a good look girl, I ain’t shy,” Jake said. Summer’s eyes immediately dropped to the ground. What had she been thinking? You didn’t make eye contact with a man like that, you hauled ass out of his presence as quickly as possible. Too bad Aidan was still bound, they were both naked and neither of them in much of a position to haul ass.

  “Listen, I don’t know what you came back for, Kelly, but you’ve already been reported to the police—”

  “Shut up, homo. You don’t talk unless I say you can talk and you never talk to my woman,” Jake barked.

  “I’m hardly a homo, man. I’m in bed with my—”

  “You talk again, homo, and I’ll shoot your butt-fucking dick off,” Jake said. The click as he armed his weapon and pointed it at Aidan was the loudest sound Summer had ever heard. Her breath caught in her throat and she prayed with everything in her that Aidan would keep quiet. Sure, it hardly made sense to call a man caught naked with a woman a homosexual, but you didn’t argue semantics with a man like Jake, especially when he had a gun aimed at your groin.

  She shot Aidan a pleading look, but he wasn’t looking at her, he was looking at Jake with an expression on his face that clearly conveyed his disdain. Shit, he was going to talk, he was going to be a stubborn son of a bitch and get shot. He took a deep breath, obviously preparing to speak, but Summer beat him to it.

  If he wouldn’t do his best to keep himself in one piece, she would do it for him.

  “Please, I told Kelly when she was here before that I would give her whatever she wanted,” Summer said, deliberately letting her voice waver. Men felt less threatened by a woman and even less threatened by a weak, emotional woman on the verge of tears. “That offer still stands. I’ll give you all the money in the safe and I won’t—”

  “See, I told you she had a lot of money, baby. Didn’t I tell you that?”

  “Shut up, Kelly. You’re still on thin ice with me,” Jake shouted, actually turning the gun on her as he spoke. Kelly whimpered and covered her mouth, her bloodshot eyes wide and terrified.

  The man would turn a gun on his own girlfriend and not bat an eye. That didn’t bode well for either Summer or Aidan making it out of here in one piece. Frantically, Summer’s mind raced, searching for a way to distract Jake and Kelly long enough for her to reach Aidan’s gun. It was still sitting neatly on top of Aidan’s clothes on the floor at the end of the bed. It had been covered with a few pillows earlier in the evening, so no one would be able to see what she was reaching for until it was too late.

  And then what? You’re going to draw down on him and shoot to kill? You don’t have the skill to shoot the weapon out of his hand before he gets a shot off at you or Aidan. Are you really ready to kill another person, even a person like Jake? Isn’t that why you tried to untie Aidan in the first place, because you don’t think you have what it takes to use a gun on anything but a target?

  “Don’t move, bitch,” Jake said, swinging the gun back in Summer’s direction.

  “I was just going to get my robe,” Summer said, exaggerating the sob that rose naturally in her throat.

  Keep him off guard, keep him thinking that she was a terrified little woman who he had no reason to fear. Then she’d get the gun and put a few bullets in his chest. She suddenly knew, without a doubt, that she would kill both of the people in front of her if they gave her no choice. She and Aidan had a hell of a lot to live for and she wasn’t going to fail him or their family by being too weak to kill for the right to that life.

  “You don’t need a robe, girl. You can tattoo naked as well as you can with clothes on,” Jake said, stepping further into the room, his eyes settling on Summer’s bare breasts.

  She shivered under the force of his gaze, her skin feeling as if it would crawl off her body, but refused to cover herself with her arms. The man was looking at her like a meal to be eaten, not with anything she recognized as lust and her gut told her he would be more excited by her fear than the sight of her naked body. Besides, if Kelly was his type, the man liked big, buxom women, not tiny things with boyish figures. Summer had never thought she’d be grateful for her barely there breasts, but at the moment she thanked god for them.

  “Jake, baby, couldn’t we just get the money and go? If they’ve really called the cops—”

  “They didn’t call no cops.”

  “There’s an APB out on Kelly right now. I used to be on the force and you can be damn sure every cop in this state is looking for—”

  “I said no talking, homo. I guess you want to get shot.”

  “Please, baby, don’t shoot him. If you fire the gun somebody’s going to hear and then we’ll get caught for sure. I don’t want to go to prison somewhere and never get to see you again,” Kelly said, her words coming out in a breathless rush.

  Summer silently thanked Kelly. For a second there, it had looked like Jake was really going to pull the trigger, but now he hesitated.

  “Nobody would hear if some dumb bitch hadn’t lost my silencer,” Jake said, shrugging off the hand Kelly had put on his arm.

  “I’m sorry. He shot the gun out of my hand. I swear to god. You think I’m lying about how this happened?” Kelly held up her right hand. Summer gasped before she could help herself. Kelly’s hand was covered in blood and her thumb not much more than a bloody stump. Surely Aidan would have told her if the officers had found part of a thumb on her studio floor.

  “The rest of your hand is already on ice down at the station,” Aidan said. “If you hurry, the med team might even be able to reattach it for you before it’s too late.”

  So much for trusting him to give her all the facts. Summer knew she should have stayed with Aidan and the officers after she gave her statement. Disgusting or not, she would have liked to have known there had been a body part on her floor. Not to mention exactly where that body part had landed so she could scrub down the wood a few thousand times.

  “You’ll never be able to fight that kind of forensic evidence, Kelly,” Aidan continued. “The best thing you could do is turn yourself in.”

  “Shut up, homo! Nobody’s turning anybody in.”

  “They’re going to catch her eventually. It would be better if they could see the state she’s in. It might help her case.”

  “My case? I don’t want to have a case. Fuck, baby. You said we’d never get caught, you said that—”

  “Shut up. He’s just fucking with your head.”

  “Listen, Kelly, it’s obvious you’re on something tonight. That can go a long way to getting you a good deal and it’ll be even better if you voluntarily turn yourself in. Just go down to the station—”

  “Nobody’s going anywhere!” Jake screamed.

  “Please, Aidan—” Summer began, but he cut her off before she could finish.

  “Let them run a blood test, Kelly, to show exactly what you’re on and how much of it you’ve—”

  Kelly screamed as the report of the gunshot filled the room, but Summer suddenly found herself incapable of making any sound at all. Every last bit of air seemed to be sucked from her body as she watched Aidan’s shoulder explode in front of her eyes. Bits of frayed rope, blood and what could very well have been bone splattered across the right side of her body, but she hardly noticed the sting as something sharp flew into her eye.

  All she could think about was catching Aidan, stopping the momentum of his body before he hit the hard floor.

  “Don’t touch him, girl, or you’re next. I owed him one for Kelly, but I’ll shoot you too. Wouldn’t bother me at all,” Jake said, his voice calm, more in control than it had been before. It seemed shooting people soothed his savage beast.

  Summer gritted her teeth and tried to still her shaking hands as she watched Aidan’s head hit the floor with a dull thud. He groaned as he made impact, squeezing his eyes shut against the pain. Finally he opened his eyes,
blinking rapidly, breath hissing out through gritted teeth. He seemed to be holding on to consciousness, but his gunshot wound was bleeding way too freely for her tastes. He’d only been on the floor a few seconds, but blood already pooled around his left shoulder. He needed direct pressure applied to the wound and professional medics on the way to help him, ASAP.

  “What do you want? Just tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you,” Summer said, slowly easing herself to a standing position at the edge of the bed, her hands held up in plain sight.

  “I already told you what we wanted, bitch.”

  “Fine, I’ll do the tattoo and give you everything in the safe.” Summer ran her shaking hands through her hair in what she hoped was a distracting gesture and shifted a few more inches to her left. She was slowly but surely getting in a better position to reach for Aidan’s weapon and that knowledge brought her a small measure of calm.

  Shooting was going to soothe her savage beast as well. She couldn’t get her hands on that gun fast enough. She was going to kill Jake, make sure that motherfucker was sorry he had ever been born. He’d not only shot the man she loved, but done it when he was tied up and completely helpless and he was going to pay.

  It’s your fault he’s helpless. If you hadn’t wanted to play that stupid game, if you both had just gone home—

  Summer willfully silenced the voice in her head. There was no time for second-guessing herself. She had to get to the gun, take care of Jake and Kelly and get Aidan medical attention. She had to get him help, make sure he wasn’t going to bleed to death. That was all that mattered.

  “Summer, I’m okay,” Aidan whispered.

  “I hear a homo talking. Didn’t you get it, homo? Or do you need a bullet in your big mouth to shut you up?” Jake barked. His voice was so deep that when he yelled the sound vibrated across Summer’s skin like a very unwanted physical caress.

  “Please, Aidan. Just be quiet. I don’t want to lose you,” Summer sobbed, turning to look toward where Aidan lay on the floor and taking another half step backward. Close, she was getting so close. One or two more steps and she’d be close enough to squat down and grab the gun.

  “That’s good advice, man. I’d listen to your bitch,” Jake said. “Then maybe you’ll live to let her tie your homo ass up again. Hell, maybe she’ll even want you to tie her up after she’s been fucked by a real man, not some pussy-whipped faggot.”

  Jake’s eyes shifted back to Summer’s bare breasts, then slid down to her pussy and finally back to her eyes. He examined her with an air of detached interest, not lust, but his look made his intentions clear. He might not find her attractive, he might not even be in the mood for sex, but that didn’t matter. He was in the mood to be the big fucking boss and Summer had a horrible feeling that fucking her was part of what would really do it for old Jake.

  Shoot a few people, steal some money, slap his girlfriend around and rape a stranger and Jake would go home with the warm contentment of a job well done. He was a sicko, all right, and Summer felt the last bit of doubt fade away. She was going to kill this man if at all possible, and sleep all the more peacefully tonight knowing one violent bastard had been removed from the face of the earth.

  Chapter Six

  “Jake, you’re not going to fuck her, are you? You promised you wouldn’t this time, that if I got the tat it would just be me and you from now on,” Kelly said, her voice catching as she prepared to break out into tears.

  “You didn’t get the tat, so we’ve got no deal, honey.”

  “Please, Jake, I’m going to get it tonight, right now. Don’t fuck that bitch, don’t—”

  “Shut up, Kelly. That’s the last time I’m telling you,” Jake whispered, his eyes moving from Summer to glare at the woman next to him.

  Summer shuffled another half step back as he looked away, her heartbeat speeding as she spied the gun out of the corner of her eye. She wasn’t more than six inches away, but now she could see that the weapon was snapped into Aidan’s holster. Would she be able to unsnap the heavy leather restrains, release the safety and arm and fire the weapon before Jake figured out what she was up to and fired first? Her chances didn’t look good, but she had to try.

  The way Kelly had said this time didn’t give her the slightest bit of comfort. They’d obviously robbed before and Jake had raped someone, at least one someone, during the robbery. Summer could safely say she’d rather spend the night in a locked coffin filled with maggots than have Jake’s dick in her. She just couldn’t, wouldn’t let that happen, especially not in front of Aidan. If he had to lie there on the floor bleeding and watch her being violated, she knew it would eat away at him forever.

  She loved him too much to let him live with that, not if she could do anything to keep it from happening. Slowly she shifted her weight and toed a pillow out of the way with her boot, clearing the last obstacle from her path. Now she just had to find the right time to go for the gun.

  “Go get her tools, Kelly. I’ll get our girl warmed up and ready to work.”

  “Jake please, don’t, I—”

  Jake calmly transferred his gun from his right hand to his left and then backhanded Kelly with his right. Her head snapped back at an angle and she stumbled, but didn’t fall. Jake, unfortunately, managed to keep his eyes, and his gun, trained in Summer’s direction the entire time. The man had a real gift for ambidextrous abuse.

  “That hurt, Jake. I already got my fucking hand shot up. Did you really have to—”

  Jake lashed out so quickly Summer never saw the second slap coming. She flinched as Kelly’s head snapped back a second time. When the other woman recovered her balance and righted her head, her nose was bleeding freely, running down into her mouth.

  “Now, you want to think again about what you’re going to say?” Jake asked, his voice smooth as silk. Strangely, each burst of violence seemed to soothe the man, even as it escalated the tension in the room by leaps and bounds.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll go get her tools. I think I remember which ones she was going to use.” Kelly’s voice sounded oddly nasal, like a kid with a stuffed up nose, making Summer wonder if her nose was broken, not merely bloodied.

  The woman was on her shit list, big time, for trying to shoot her and bringing this man into her studio in the middle of the night, but a part of her still felt pity for Kelly. What the hell must her life be like if a man like this had convinced her that he was a good catch, someone worthy of having his name tattooed on her ass for all eternity?

  “That’s my good girl, now give me a kiss.” Kelly leaned over and eagerly gave Jake the requested kiss, which he accepted with enthusiasm, despite the fact that the blood running from her nose smeared across his lips. Sick fuck. Maybe he enjoyed the taste of blood. Summer didn’t want to stick around long enough to find out.

  His eyes weren’t closed, but he was momentarily distracted by the tongue tangling with his main squeeze. Summer didn’t know if she’d get another, better chance to reach for the gun. She squatted down and reached for the snaps on the holster, not moving too quickly so as not to attract attention, but not too slowly either. She might only have a few seconds, she had to get the gun in her hand, had to—

  “What the fuck are you doing, bitch?” Jake asked, breaking the kiss and aiming the gun at the center of Summer’s head as she knelt beside the bed. She could try to duck down, get out of range, but how long would it take him to leap over the futon and be on her? Not long, not nearly long enough. She had to stall, had to find a way to keep him from pulling that trigger.

  “I just wanted to get some clothes to put on,” she sobbed, trying to force tears from her eyes as her breath heaved in and out of her chest. Damn it, she could usually cry at the drop of a hat. Pampers commercials made her tear up, for god’s sakes, so why couldn’t she manage a few of the real things now, when she was probably more scared than she’d ever been in her life?

  “I told you, you don’t need clothes. Those boots are plenty. I’ve never fucked a bitch
in boots before. Fucked this whore once who liked to wear those crotch-less panties, but never—”

  “I’ll kill you, you motherfucker. If you touch her, I’ll kill you,” Aidan said, his voice disturbingly breathy, but his blue eyes clear and lucid.

  The knot of fear in Summer’s chest tightened as Aidan’s eyes darted from hers to the gun on the floor and back again. He knew what she was up to and he was going to try to help the only way he could by providing a distraction. She could only hope that he could keep from making Jake angry enough to open fire again, and that she could get the gun free before she attracted Jake’s attention a second time.

  She’d convinced him she was mostly harmless for the moment, but the instant he saw the gun in her hands all bets would be off. She had to be ready to make the most of the chance Aidan was trying to give her.

  “You’re not going to be doing anything except bleeding if you don’t shut up,” Jake said. “Go on, honey, get the stuff while I show the homo how a real man fucks a bitch.” Kelly turned toward the door of the main studio room with a nervous look over her shoulder. She met Summer’s eyes for a split second, long enough for her to read the regret in the other woman’s face before she disappeared into the other room.

  Great, she picked this moment to acquire a conscience. It was way too little, far too late.

  “Come on over, Summer. Let’s see what that naked little pussy of yours looks like up close.”

  “I swear to god, I’ll cut your dick off and shove it down your throat, you faggot,” Aidan said, his voice stronger. Summer unsnapped the first strap under the cover of his shout and then reached for the second.

  “I think you’ve got us confused. You’re the only faggot I see in here.” Jake’s voice was soft, but ripe with menace as he moved toward the side of the bed where Aidan still lay bleeding.

  “Takes one to know one, right? Come on, Jake, you’ve heard that line about protesting too much, right? Only a big, flaming fag would feel the need to accuse a man who obviously just finished fucking a woman of being a homo.”