Burning Passion

CHAPTER 148: SAVING NIKKI (Twenty-One) and the Past 

"SPECIAL CHAPTER EDITION: ENCOUNTERS"

(This chapter contains an act of violence)

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Theo wanted to take down every man in this room. He needs to wake up Nikki. And once Nikki wakes up, he has to make a plan to get out of here. Theo began screaming.

"Nikki! Wake up! Nikk— ugh!" He groans when and pain surges on his back.

Theo was smashed by a baseball bat on his back. They pressed him to the floor, groaning as waves of pain throughout his body after they hit him hard on the back.

"Shut up! Or you want another beating?" derided by one guy, and he kicked Theo in the stomach. 

It was when Nikki woke up and witnessed what the guy did to Theo. She screamed. "Theo! No! Don't hurt him!" 

Nikki attempted to run toward him, but Brandon snagged her by the waist. She kicked her foot, screaming. "Let me go! What are you doing? Why are you hurting him?" 

"Shut up, you bitch! You better stay unconscious!" 

Nikki continues struggling from Brandon's hold. She yelled, "Why are you doing this? If you want to take revenge on me, don't involve him!" 

Brandon beam. It amused him how these two cared for each other. It made him confirm they are in a relationship. It is fun to play with lovers, torturing one after another. However, it also made him recall whether his brother confesses to this girl. That day Jonathan died, he told him he's going to court the girl he likes. And that girl is the one in his grip. He'll make sure she will suffer later.

Recalling the painful death of his brother, Brandon threw Nikki on the settee and pointed the knife at her. 

The girl shrieked and hugged her legs. But she is shooting a furious glare at him, which the more it excites deep inside him.

Brandon grinned madly. He asked Nikki, "Tell me. Before my brother died, was he able to confess to you?" 

"I—" Nikki swallowed the lump in her throat. The guy seems to completely lose his mind. He was already a scary person when she met him in the cemetery a while back. But now, he is like a madman. 

"Answer me!" Brandon demanded, shouting as he lost patience when no response he heard. 

"Stop yelling at her!" Theo shouted. Gaze never left at Nikki, he attempted to get up, but a foot pressed him back to the floor.

The man crouched on the floor, grinning. He patted Theo's face three times and said to him, "Stay still and watch, lover boy!" He then laughed along with the other men.

Theo clenches his fists when these bastards are only playing with them. He has to think of a way to escape. But first, he needs to take down each of them, beat them up, most especially the guy standing as boss.

Nikki gulped once again before she replied to the guy. She bit her lower lip and stutter, "Jo— Jonathan is a good friend. I didn't kill him." 

"Fuck! That's not what I am asking you, bitch!" 

Nikki shudders when Brandon thrusts the knife to the sofa, so close to her shoes. Horrified, tears began rolling down her eyes. She glanced at Theo, he who pressed down on the floor. Every time he attempts to get up, they will beat him, kicking anywhere on his body. 

Theo meets Nikki's gaze. The tears that flooded her eyes wrenched his heart. He badly wished to embrace her and protect her. 

In the same way, Nikki's chest tightened with the pain she felt every time Theo kicked or hit by the object. However, the guy gripped her face and yelled at her.

"Answer me!" 

Nikki gathered the courage to reply to the guy over her fright. "I… like him only as a friend... So, I refused him to be my boyfriend..."

Her mouth shivering at the same time, her body trembles. She saw how the guy's eyes glaze with anger upon hearing the words from her mouth. She doesn't want to lie. Because all along, it was Theo she liked even before she met Jonathan. 

Meanwhile, it seems Brandon completely lost sane. He yanks Nikki in the arm pushes her on the sofa, pinned her down. The girl is resisting, kicking her foot, and worse; she bit his arm. 

"You bitch!" Brandon slaps Nikki. 

She feels when her head, spinning around. For a while, she was in a daze before she slowly came back to her senses, which Theo is screaming and calling her name.

"Asshole! I'm going to kill you if I get a chance!" Theo threatens the guy who only beams at him. Brandon was delighted when he reacts like that.

Theo tried to get out of their grip on his arm. He used all his strength and ability; he learned, as self-defense, to resist their hold. He gave a good kick to the other guy and clutched the other guy's arm. He's screaming with pain, but Theo remains to wring his arm while he kicks every guy that attempts to seize him. 

Someone is about to smash him with a bat. He grabbed the guy he's holding in the arm and used him as a cover. That guy hit on the head, promptly losing consciousness. Theo shoves him on the floor. He leaps, spins his body, and lands a kick into the guy holding a baseball bat. Perfectly hit in the face, the guy dropped the baseball bat and reached for his bleeding nose that fractured. One more time, Theo spun his body and gave the guy another kick. 

Brandon, on the other hand, was pissed when his men cannot do anymore, but one by one he is taking down. 

"Bullshit! What are you all doing? He's just alone!" he yells at the remaining two men, but still, Theo knocked them down.

Watching that the guy was distracted, Nikki used all her strength to push him and tried to run to the corner. But Brandon grabs her by the hair. She cried out.

"And where do you think you're going, huh?" Brandon yells.

The guy shoves her on the sofa. Nikki shrieked. "Let me go!" 

She struggles, fighting to get free. A shiny cold thing she lay into it. It must be her luck. Nikki holds the knife and thrust it into Brandon's thigh.

Seeing this, Theo rushes toward Nikki and grabs Brandon by the shoulder. Instantly, he throws his knuckle into the guy's face. With that force, Brandon staggers to his feet. But it does not satisfy Theo. He thrust his knee into Brandon's stomach. The guy kneeled on the floor, holding his groin when Theo followed a second kick into that part of his body.

"Fuck!" He cried out as he received pain not only from the punch and kicks but also from his knife stuck in his thigh. "Bullshit!

Not wasting time, Theo holds Nikki's hand. "Let's go, Nik!"

Together, they run outside that room, but quickly hide when more men are waiting down below. They all looked up when they heard their boss yelling.

"Search for them, idiots!"