Page 49 of Begging for Mercy
Sam grabs my wrist before I can leave. “Don’t follow him, Mercy.” His eyes turn steely as he scans my body, taking in the tiny bruises and scrapes from my scuffle with Zane in my front yard. “He hurt you. A man like that doesn’t deserve you.”
I pull my arm free from his grasp. “I’m not some prize for you to win, Sam, and you can’t make me want you. We’refriends,” Ireiterate, hating how hard he flinches. “Maybe we should leave it at that.”
Kane whistles, and I flick him off. “Stay out of this, Reaper.”
He pushes the table back, spilling our drinks as he makes room for himself to stand. “No, no, Siren. I told you to call me Kane.” The gun is still in his hand, but at least with Zane gone, he’s not aiming it at Sam. “Kane,” he emphasizes, stepping around the table and pulling me into his arms. The barrel of the gun presses against my temple and he grins at the sight. “You’re going to scream it when I’m balls fucking deep inside that sweet pussy of yours, beautiful.” Dragging the gun down the side of my face, he taps it against my lips. “Kiss it, and I’ll forgive you.”
“You’re a fucking psycho.”
“I’m crazy about you.”
Theclickof a bullet loading into the chamber makes my heartbeat stutter. But Kane hasn’t moved—it’s Sam, his gun suddenly buried beneath Kane’s chin. “Move the gun,” Sam orders calmly, “and you can keep your head.”
“How generous of you.” Just when I think he’s going to listen, Kane pushes harder, knocking the metal against my teeth. “Kiss it, Mercy,” he rasps, his head tilting back from the pressure of Sam’s gun. He stares at me down the bridge of his nose. “Or your boyfriend’s going to die. Zane will drag you from his arms and force you to watch as he buries a dozen bullets into his body—afterhe skins him alive.” Smiling, Kane chuckles darkly. “People think that I’m the scary one, but Zane… He doesn’t give a fuck how badly it hurts. I’m merciful compared to him.”
Police sirens sound in the distance, and I quickly kiss the tip of Kane’s gun to end this idiotic stalemate once and for all. He grins, putting his weapon away and backing off. “See? Was that so hard?”
The loudcrackof Sam pistol-whipping Kane in the face makes me scream. Before I can process what’s happening, Sam’ssuddenly kneeing Kane in the gut and dragging me out of the restaurant.
Kane’s maniacal laughter follows us out the door. “Keep her warm for me, Sam.”
We’ve barely made it a few steps out of the restaurant before Sam pulls me into an alley and pins me against a brick wall. His chest heaves with each breath he takes as he buries his face in my neck. Trembling, he puts the gun in my hands and squeezes my fingers around the handle. “I need you to promise me something,” he rasps, digging the barrel into his gut. I try to pull it back, but just like with Kane, I’m outmatched when it comes to strength.
“Sam, don’t?—”
“Promise me that if I ever—” His voice cracks. “If I ever hurt you, Mercy?—”
“You won’t!”
“Promise that you’ll kill me.” His body trembles as he drags in a shallow breath. “Please.I can’t—I can’t live with knowing that I’ve hurt you.”
The answer is so simple that I’m astounded Sam doesn’t see it. “Then don’t hurt me.” I grab the back of his neck and pull him in for a hug, the gun wedging painfully between us. I keep my fingers off the trigger, but alarms ring at how close he is to pulling it himself. “Okay? It’s that easy.”
“It’snot.” He sighs into my hair. “Just promise me.”
If it gets him to move the gun, then I don’t have a choice. “I promise.”
“Say the whole thing.”
Sighing, I repeat the entire phrase. “If you hurt me, I promise that I’ll kill you. But you won’t hurt me, Sam. I trust you.”
He exhales harshly and drags his mouth across my ear. “I’m good enough to eat your pussy, but not good enough for anything else, is that it?”
Anger and frustration boil in my blood. I dig the gun deeper into Sam’s stomach, knowing it has to hurt, but beingso fucking tiredof this bullshit. “I thought you were okay with being friends!”
“I thought so too!”
Our voices echo against the bricks, drowned out by the police cars screeching to a halt by the curb. Sam lifts me up off the ground and carries me deeper into the alley, then through a parking lot until we get to his pickup truck. He opens the passenger door one-handed and sets me down on the seat before sprinting to the driver’s side. The gun’s disappeared from sight, but I have no illusions that it’s gone for good.
He starts the car and drives off, speeding down the road and weaving through traffic. “I thought I was okay with being friends.” Running a hand through his hair, he chuffs. “Until I saw the way he looks at you.”
I watch as conflicted emotions cross Sam’s face, each one more tortured than the last. “I don’t want him to have you, becauseIwant you. I thought I could take things slow and give you the kind of dating experience you deserve, but—” He grips the steering wheel tightly. “We don’t have that kind of time. Now he wants toshareyou.”
My body ignites at the mere mention of being shared, and I press my thighs together. “You seemed like you had fun.”
Sam clenches his jaw. “Yeah. You did too.”
We cross half of the city in silence. It gives me time to think, but I don’t trust the thoughts running through my head. Kane’s mouth was greedy and insistent, but so was Sam’s. Zane’s was?—
