Chapter 48 - Teaser! (Patreon)

I still have several scenes left to write and no clue where to reasonably cut the chapter off yet, so chapter 48 will probably drop Sunday or Monday night.  In the meantime, enjoy this little glimpse of the chapter.  Feel free to speculate on where things are going :-)

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“I love you. There’s nobody here.”

“Please! No!”

Ok, it was beyond time to step in.

I wrenched open the door and took in the scene. Lori was pinned to a pinball machine wearing only her husband’s shirt, a pair of powder blue boxer shorts underneath exposing a lot of leg. Shane was pressed up against her, his hand between her legs as she cried in fear. I crossed the room’s length in a moment, kicking out Shane’s knee and forcing him to a knee, gripping him tightly around the throat with my left as I squeezed his throat shut.

“Let’s everybody calm down now,” I said soothingly. “Emotions are high. Shane is obviously drunk. So let’s calm, the fuck, down. Breathe, Lori. I won’t let anything happen to you. Breathe, please. In and out.”

Lori wiped furiously at her tears and took a few deep breaths, visibly composing herself, but nodding at me in thanks. I nodded back.

I heard some wheezing gurgles and I remembered that Shane might need to breathe, so I let up on my tight grip around his throat. He might have been trying to tear my fingers from around his throat, but I hadn’t really noticed.

“We really need to have a pleasant, but blunt conversation, or else however the fuck you want to describe this bullshit drama you’ve got going between you two is going to end up with people killed. Let me tell you, secrets like this, and poorly kept ones at that, have a way of coming out at the worst possible times,” I explained. “So, I think we should wait right here for Rick to come by and we can talk about this like adults who had to make hard decisions under terrible circumstances that quite literally could mean the difference between life and death.”