Delayed by Nathan Kingsly (best manga ereader txt) 📕

but now, not the most important emotion saturating my veins. Fear, so consuming it would be easy to drown in it.

“Let my friend in, or I’ll take my frustration out on your girl here.”

Emma’s eyes are large on her beautiful face.

“How did you get in here?” I hiss.

He lifts his gun only to crash it into Emma’s face not a second later. Her cry of pain will never leave my ears for the rest of my life. She curls away, but he grabs her by the middle. She’s cradling her face that is now shadowed by her hair. My feet bring me a step closer to her. Ger twists us farther apart with his body and the gun in my face.

“Don’t make me tell you a second time. Open the door Liam, or I’ll give her a matching bruise.”

“Alright, please don’t hurt her.” It’s painfully clear that it’s a plea, and the smile that twists his lips claims the victory. He knows how desperate I’m becoming.

Walking backward, I only turn my body enough to unlock the door and swing it open. Brian leans against the wall next to the door, as if simply locked out of his room and waiting for someone to let him in. He's grinning before he even moves his head to look my way. He slithers in beside me, bumps my shoulder on the way in, catching me off balance. The scent wafting off his jacket smells of brandy and smoke.

How could this be happening? My only friend, at least who I thought had been my friend, teaming up with my enemy.

I watch with an odd sense of surrealism as he takes in the room and takes a seat on the bed as if he owns this fucking hotel. He could. I’m no longer sure of anything. Legs spread, one hand behind him holding him up, the other holding the gun out for show on his thigh. He chuckles as he looks between Ger and Emma. “I see you’ve started the party without me?”

“Why are you doing this?” I interrupt before Ger can answer Brian. “Why are you helping him? I thought you were my friend.” This almost feels like a bad dream. Ger, I can explain, but Brian? Why would he have a reason to want to hurt me?

Brian looks over, his brows raised as he shakes his head. “Your friend? Are you serious? You by the narrowest of margins tolerated me as your neighbor.” He sits up straighter, both hands now in front of him. “Three years, the only show of friendship you showed me was to hold onto your key. Don’t get me wrong, you made it a piece of cake to keep an eye on you.”

“You've been spying …"

"Keep your friends close but your enemies closer, and all that." He waves the hand with the gun in a circle before letting it fall limp again.

"Enemies? What had I ever done to deserve this?"

Brian opens his mouth, but it's Ger that speaks. “Meet the serial rapist that lived next door and my cellmate for a year and a half before being released.”

Emma jerks in Ger’s arms away from Brian, and they both laugh as her startled eyes meet mine. A bruise coloring her cheekbone. The hard edge of the gun split the skin, blood-smeared where her hand had been.

My hands tighten. I got her into this mess. I allowed her to be a victim. I should have convinced her to come home with me, having her in my own bed, safe, and away from my father's murderer and my friend, the serial rapist.

Her beautiful, once innocent eyes, boar into mine with terrified desperation. She's asking me all the questions one would want answers to in this situation, and I don't have them. Not with two armed psychotic men, and not where both of us get out of this alive. If it comes to it, if there's an opening, I'll make sure it's her that gets out.

Brian speaks again, breaking our silent conversation. “Hi, nice to meet you.” His smile shows teeth. Just like any predator ready to pounce. “You would have known this if you’d taken me up on trolling for women after work.” He shrugs and says this casually as if I could have stopped him, and it was my fault that I didn’t. Maybe it is.

“How are you out of prison?” I bite back instead.

“They could only make two counts stick.” He shrugs again with that toothy smile.

It makes my skin crawl with how blasé he states his crime. I swear I see the excitement of how singular the criminal system can be when convicting a criminal by his smile. Victims can get lost in the wheel treads of justice.

"Right then, now that we're all introduced," Ger says, right before he flings Emma out of his grasp.

Lurching forward, I attempt to grab her before Brian can. My fingers graze her arm before a fist punches into my back, dropping me to the floor. Getting up to my hands and knees, the cool steel of the barrel smacks me in the temple, flipping me onto my back. Ger laughs at his cheap shot. Grunting, I attempt to pick myself off the floor; my head pounds, with the ache of the blow and the screaming pleas of Emma.

She’s calling my name, but my eyes are blurry, and I can’t make her out. I grapple for purchase as I jerk forward toward her, and the figure I know must be Brian on the bed with her. My heart is beating its way out of my chest as I grip the edge of the bedspread and attempt to pull myself up.

Ger’s laughing somewhere beside me, speaking to me about how revenge is sweet, watching me on my hands and knees, but for once, he is the least of my problems. Emma, she’s the only thing that matters.

Another bash comes down on my head; this time, a burst of colors lights my vision before it slips