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“Now, squeeze your nipples for me.”
Juan looked back and forth between Bruce and me. I didn’t understand how this shit could turn him on, but then again I realized he, like me, was just a big ole freak. I gyrated my hips, moving into my fingers. I could hear what I thought were sirens in the distance. But I didn’t want to falsely hope help was on the way, so instead I focused on working my fingers.
Bruce tucked the gun in his waistband.
Everything was happening so fast.
Juan lunged for him, and I pounced. I wasn’t about to leave this up to chance. If I had to die, I’d go down fighting.
We all tussled on the floor. There was pounding on the wall, and another shot was fired. Juan fell to the floor. Then there was more banging, this time on the door.
“Police! Open up now!”
Another shot rang out, I dropped back and felt a burning sensation at the side of my head. I reached up and touched my temple. I remember thinking, fighting naked really works up a sweat.
More time must’ve passed, but it felt like minutes to me when officers finally burst into the room. Shortly thereafter, everything became blurry. I started feeling light-headed.
One of the last things I remember is Bruce dragging my naked body by the neck as he held the gun to my head. “If y’all come any closer I’ll kill her, I swear I will! You see he’s already dead.”
Warped sounds quickly replaced voices. My fingers started tearing at Bruce’s arm that was squeezing my throat closed. The feel of steel against my temple should’ve been scary, but weariness washed over me so fast I had no time to feel fear. Bruce’s heartbeat was pounding loudly in my ear.
“Okay, okay, let’s calm down,” someone said.
I knew I was losing my mind for certain when I looked up and thought I saw of all things a TV camera pointed into the room. I smiled, knowing for sure dementia was settling in. For a split second I wondered if Juan was really dead. Then without any warning, blackness swallowed me.
When I woke up, I looked around. Everything was white and sterile-looking. I tried to ease up but the pounding in my head forced me back down. That’s when Charles appeared.
“You finally woke, I see,” he said.
The look on his face wasn’t sorrow, it was more like disappointment. I knew that he had found out about what I’d been doing.
“Where am I? How long have I been here? What happened? Is he dead? Oh God, what have I done?” I closed my eyes for a second, trying to regroup. “How did I get here? How’d you even find me?”
“Well.” Charles sighed. “Honestly, I saw it unfolding on the news. I was in Target with about a hundred other people in the electronics department. The evening news came on, and I saw a flash of you being carried out on a stretcher.”
I shook my head, trying to deny what I couldn’t remember.
“I couldn’t believe it either,” he continued. “By the time I got over there, witnesses told me some dude was holding his wife and her lover hostage. It didn’t take long for me to realize that it was actually my wife they were talking about.”
Charles touched my arm. “Nobody’s dead, that fool is in jail. The other dude is gonna be okay. A bullet grazed you. You’ll have to wear that headwrap for a few more days.”
I looked at Charles and closed my eyes. Tears that had been threatening to flow made good on their promise.
“Look, you need to rest, don’t think about that madness. Just get better so you can come home,” he said.
I instantly felt shame wash over me. “Can you ever forgive me?” I asked.
I watched Charles’Adam’s apple move as he swallowed.
“Done,” he said, and kissed my forehead.
I wondered how I could’ve been so foolish to think I needed more than what I already had.
Den of Pleasure
El refugio del placer
Niobia Simone
