“No. Just hold it for me,” I said and moved toward Bart. Ms. West sat on the bed, and in her usual ladylike manner, crossed her legs.

I hit Bart in the face with everything I had, left and right, left, and right again, but it didn’t faze him. Then he hit me so hard that I fell to the floor. “Sure you don’t want me to shoot him for you, Mr. Black?”

“No!” I shouted and got up. “I can take him!”

I rushed at Bart and he hit me again, and I went down again. This time he didn’t wait for me to get up. He dove on top of me and wrapped his hands around my throat. I tried to pry his hands away, but his grip was too strong. I jammed my thumbs in his eyes and pressed as hard as I could until he let go. I pushed him off of me and got to my feet.

Bart was still on his knees, so I grabbed his head and rammed my knee into it over and over again. I looked around for a weapon to use against him. There was a fireplace in the room where there never was one before, and a poker sitting in the rack. I grabbed the poker and wrapped it around Bart’s neck. I put my knee in his back and pulled as hard as I could. Bart struggled to get away, but he couldn’t. His body went limp and fell to the floor. And just to make sure he was dead, I jammed the poker in the back of his head.

“I knew you could take him, Mr. Black,” Ms. West said and got up from the bed. She walked toward me and handed me the gun, and we started out the room.

When I opened the door and stepped into the hallway, Diego Estaban was there and he started shooting at me. He had Cassandra kidnapped once, and I killed him for it. I pushed Ms. West back in the room. “Wait here.”

“Whatever you say, handsome,” she said and pushed those pouty lips of hers together. It made me want to forget about Diego and kiss her.

Diego was a punk that I never had any respect for, so I walked boldly down the hall as he continued to fire at me. When I got to him, I snatched the gun from his hand and backhanded him to the floor. I stepped on his neck and put one in his head. I heard Ms. West giggle that giggle. I turned to see her sashaying down the hall. The way her hips moved made me want her. I reminded myself that fuckin’ her wasn’t why I was there.