Page 34 of Four Times Forever

"I hear floor sex is pretty amazing too. I'll be your bed, you get on top," I panted.

"Then we'll never get to the store." She shuddered as she pulled away as if breaking our connection was a chore.

Ann-Marie looked back at me with a smile that I knew promised so much more as soon as we got into that car, and I hurried forward to kiss her against the door, before popping it open. My dick retreated into my body when we almost ran smack dab into three bulky men with a familiar burn stamp on the back of their hands.

Chapter 26

Tyler

The Colombine family symbol.

Shit, I should've known better than to assume that today would be like any other day within the last month. I shielded Ann with my body as the one in front with a face like Freddy Krueger produced a gun.

"Go. Lock yourself away and hide," I said to my wife without taking my eyes off either of these thriller movie character knockoffs.

She knew what to do. Get the gun and aim like I taught her. As soon as she left my side, however, the second guy stepped around and pulled his weapon on her. Now, I was only one man. I couldn't exactly shield her from all three of them. But I wished the fuck I could bite that fucker's hands off. I could hear my wife's teeth chatter. Smell her fear.

"Your problem is with me. She's got nothing to do with this," I reasoned while backing up to get closer to her. They just kept advancing, shutting the door behind them.

"Think it's best if she stays. Might help you co-operate." The middle man shifted his gun from side to side.

If it was just me against them, I would take the chance. The opportunity to seize the gun in front of my face was so close, so fucking easy. But I couldn't risk a bullet going off and hitting her.

"Man, she's pregnant. Please." I had a line, a certain moral code even if some might argue that I had no moral compass at all. But I didn't harm children and women. Period.

The fucker with the gun on my wife clicked off the safety to make sure I understood that they didn't share the same moral code.

"What is it that you want? Who are you?" My arms were spread out behind me, shifting Ann-Marie's body so that her head was in line with my neck. If I moved, she moved with me. Pretty sucky defense.

The silent one snickered and the middle one joined him. "That's a good one. You saw the tattoo."

I clicked my tongue. "Gotta say, man. When three bulky strangers show up in your doorway while you're with your pregnant wife, you're not really paying attention to details." I shifted my eyes slightly from the gun to the back of his hand and reacted as if I was seeing the tattoo for the first time. "Ah, the Colombine team. What can I do for you? Do I owe you money? I doubt it. Whatever you think I've done, I haven't. I don't know if you've heard, but I left that life a while back. I'm a reputable businessman now. Family man." I raised my hands.

"Yeah, and at night when the world is asleep, I grow two wings on my back and fly around with a fucking magic wand like a fairy," the middle one snarled.

"I mean, you won't get any judgment from me," I shrugged.

The silent one snickered again. But the middle one bared more of his teeth and swore, throwing the gun closer to my face, influencing the others to get their guns closer to my wife. Okay, so maybe no jokes then.

"I'm serious about the whole reputable businessman, family man thing, though. I'm confused about what it is that I might have done. I thought we had an understanding a while back. I don't mess with you, you don't mess with me. All debts paid. All that shit. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember our word being worth more than gold in this business. What is it? Did one of the people who used to work for me do something and try to blame it on me?" I straightened my shoulders.

There was a shift of doubt in the middle man's eyes. He was determined, though. "Yeah, we thought we had an agreement too, but you broke it."

I let out a sigh that even I was buying. "You're losing me here, fellas. As I said before, I don't know what you're talking about. Now, I'm sorry if you got some bad information, but as you can see, it's just me and my wife here. No security has come out to accost you. You're the only ones with guns. Don't you think if I was still mixed up in all this shit, there would be a shoot-out by now?"

His gaze shifted, but his hand never faltered. One wrong move and it was bye-bye head, which would leave my wife to handle them and that was just a no-no. They looked up and around for cameras. There was a low growl from one of these cavemen foot soldiers. Seriously, the Colombine family couldn't do me the honor of facing me themselves? They were who I was preparing for. Not Quasimodo and his two bo-peeps. Yeah, they were more experienced foot soldiers, but foot soldiers nonetheless. It was disrespectful.

The Quasimodo one, also known as the silent one, raised his gun as soon as he spotted a camera and shot at it. I hissed under my breath. These fuckers were costing me money and ruining my fucking house. Not that we'd be able to live here once they were gone. They were leaving, one way or the other.

My wife yelped.

"It's okay, baby," I reached behind me to comfort her.

"No, it's not okay, baby," the one with the gun trained on her mimicked. "It's far from okay."

"Yeah, depending on your husband's answers today, your day might not be looking so great," Middle man, Freddy Krueger's look-alike, said.

Don't talk to her. Don't you dare talk to her. I growled inside my head, wanting to snatch the gun from his hand as my wife's fear bounced off my back, her breath dampening my shirt.

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