{Emily}

I was woken up abruptly from my sleep by my cell phone ringing. What the hell? The last time I checked it's Saturday! I want to sleep in and go to the gun range again now that Anna's finally letting me go back there.

I looked at the date on my alarm clock and the time and felt grumpy. It was 7 am and it was indeed a Saturday. Finally after the third ring I picked my cell phone, saw it was Toby calling and answered it. "Hello?"

"Somebody sounds grumpy today," Toby said.

"Yeah if you got woken up at 7 am on a Saturday you'd be grumpy too!" I snapped.

Toby chuckled, "Okay then. I just wanted to call and let you know we're going out on a date today."

"Okay first of all, don't we already go out on dates?" I asked, "And second, why the hell are you calling me at 7 am in the morning just to tell me this?"

"Well to answer your first question technically we don't go out on dates as of late. We just hang out at each other's apartments and it's been a while since our first actual date," Toby answered. "And to answer your second question. I called so early because I wanted to hear your voice and give you plenty of time to prepare. I'll pick you up at 1pm today for our date."

"That's nice, I'm going back to sleep and I'll see you when you pick me up later!" I said. I hung up the phone and went back to sleep.

***

{Toby}

When I hung up the phone I couldn't stop laughing at Emily's reaction to me calling her so early in the morning. I had a feeling she would react that way. That part of the phone call was a prank but the other part of the phone was true. I decided that I'm going to take her out on a real date again like I did before.

I decided to hang out with Jason before the date and I told him what I did. Even though he thought it was funny he said, "You do realize Emily can kick your ass into next week if she finds out you pranked her right?"

I nodded. "Yeah I know which is why she's not going to find out."

"Aww is somebody afraid of their girlfriend?" Jason teased.

I didn't hesitate with my answer. "Yes, yes I am."

Jason paused. "Seriously? I was kidding you know!"

"Yeah I know," I said. "But I've seen what she can do as far as fighting someone goes. She did beat the crap out of Susan the other day when she touched her because she didn't want it. If you've seen what she can do, I think you'd be afraid of her too."

"But then why are you so obsessed with protecting her?" Jason asked.

"I'm scared for her, true she can handle herself in a fight but when she gets too confident with it and that can kill her," I said. "I mean a couple of weeks ago she got over confident in her abilities when she was training and lost a lot of blood from it! So I'm afraid of her and protective of her for that reason."

"I see," Jason said. Suddenly his phone started ringing. He pulled it out and looked at the number and his eyes went wide. "Ah Toby, I have to take this outside."

I raised an eyebrow. "Alright then."

I didn't question why Jason had to take his phone call outside but I figured it must be important for him not to take it in front of me.

After fifteen minutes had passed Jason came back inside. He seemed kind of annoyed. "Sorry Toby, but I just got called into work. I gotta go, I'll talk to you later."

I nodded. He turned around and left. I had asked him a couple of times in the past what he does for a living and he said his job was a police officer so I understand when he gets called into work on a Saturday. I would hate to have a job that I'm always on call for. That's why I like my office job even if it is kind of boring sometimes.

I passed the time by watching Tv and reading a book. Finally the time rolled around for me to go pick Emily up.

***

When I picked Emily up she gave me a curious look. "So where are we going?"

I smiled. "You'll see."

I was going to take her to a nice restaurant. Once we pulled up to the restaurant, I helped Emily get out of the car. The restaurant was a formal sit down one. Good thing I told her how to dress for it. I made sure to call her back around the time I knew she would be fully awake and told her.

The dress Emily was wearing really fit her figure. It was a black dress with the skirt going down to her knees at least and there was a slit going up her thigh. She wore black high heels on her feet. I had to control myself as much as possible because she looked so sexy and I just wanted to pounce on her when I saw her.

We went up to the hostess and I gave her my name and she led us to a private room. The room was set up with a table in the middle of it and two white candles on the table across from each other. There was a bottle of champagne on the table. Everything was set exactly to my instructions that I gave to the restaurant the day I booked the room. I wasn't planning on proposing to Emily or anything like that. I just wanted to have a nice romantic dinner with her.

Emily whistled.

I turned and smiled at her. "Yeah I know, it's romantic isn't it? I figured a romantic date like this would be a nice change of pace. Don't you think?"

She nodded.

I took her hand and helped her to get seated like a perfect gentleman. The date went off without a hitch. We sat and talked about random things and ate our meal in peace.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Then I decided to take Emily to a bar for a drink. That was a mistake because as soon as we got to the bar there were at least five different guys that decided to hit on her regardless of the fact that she had a boyfriend standing next to her.

After a while Emily got so annoyed with getting hit on that she asked for us to leave. However, right after we left the bar a man about my age came over to us with a creepy smile on his face.

"Hey sweet cheeks, you wanna come home with me tonight?" The guy asked.

She gave him a look of disgust. "Eww! No thanks, besides I'm already out with my boyfriend."

She pointed to me and the guy growled, "Oh you mean that guy? He doesn't look as handsome as I do! Not to mention I'm filthy rich! I can treat you right for the rest of your life!"

Emily gagged. "Gross, no thanks! I don't know you and once again no thank you. I'm good."

"Aww come on!" The guy whined. He shook his head. "You know what? I'm just going to take what I want by force!"

He took a couple of steps towards Emily and normal people would've taken a step back but not Emily. Emily stayed right where she was. She didn't look afraid, she looked more pissed off than afraid.

The guy got right in her face and smirked. "So you do want to go home with me don't you?"

Emily gave him an evil grin. "No, I just wanted you to get close enough for me to do this."

She took a swing and landed a punch to the guy's gut, sending him flying into a nearby wall. Good thing he didn't crash into the glass door that was next to the wall because that was the entrance to the bar. The guy got up and dusted himself off. He snarled, "Do you know who you just did that to?"

She shook her head and fired back, "Nope! And I don't care, when a girl says no she means no especially if she has her boyfriend with her! Now fuck off and leave me alone!"

The guy shook his head and scoffed, "Tsk, tsk that was a bad move little kitten."

My eyes went wide when I saw the look the guy was giving us and I knew what that look meant. It meant that he was in a gang and he was going to be calling his henchmen to back him up.

I cursed underneath my breath. "Shit!"

It was a good thing that I brushed up on my fighting skills. I hadn't been stalking Emily as much lately because of that. Well, at least if I'm going down I'm not going down without a fight!

It was as if on cue as soon as the guy pulled out his phone and a young woman poked her head outside the restaurant we were standing by. Her eyes went wide when she saw who was standing in front of us. "Oh boss it's you! If you're going to start a fight can you please do me a favor and take it to the parking lot out back?"

The guy turned to the young lady and smiled. "Sure Sally I can do that."

"Thank you and have a nice day!" Sally said before promptly turning around and going back into the restaurant.

The guy chuckled, "Well then, you heard her, follow me and if you two even think of trying to escape before I've dealt with you we will find you so you might as well get it over with now."

Emily and I both groaned and followed the guy to the parking lot. Emily went from groaning to being excited. "It's about time I got into an actual fight instead of a fake one!"

The guy paused and looked at Emily like she was crazy. "Huh?"

By that time Emily started cracking her knuckles and she placed her purse on the ground and took off her shoes, she readied her fighting stance. The guy cracked up, "Aww isn't that cute! The little kitten thinks she's a Loin!"

"I don't think I'm a Loin, I am a Loin and you have no idea what I can do!" Emily sneered.

"Fine then, since you have a death wish…" The guy pulled out his phone and made the call for backup. It turns out that his goons were waiting in the shadows ready to go.

Ten men that looked like bodybuilders dressed in black t-shirts, black pants and black gym shoes surrounded us.

"Wow, aren't you a beauty!" One of the guys goons said.

"Hey! No gawking at my future girlfriend!" The guy said.

"Sorry boss, couldn't help it!" The same goon said.

Emily didn't wait for the goon and his boss to stop talking before she charged at the goon and punched him hard in the gut, sending him flying backward. The guy got back up and dusted himself off. "Normally I don't hit a woman, but if a woman hits me first then I fight back!"

The guy charged at Emily and took a swing. Emily caught the guy's fist in her hand. She pushed him back and let go of him and another guy took the opportunity to try and land a kick to her back but failed when she jumped out of the way.

While half of the guys were fighting Emily the other half turned their attention to me. I managed to dodge two of the guys' punches and kicks. Fighting five guy's in a row was going to be a challenge because I hadn't done this in a while. But I surprised myself by keeping up with every attack that was thrown at me. The next thing I knew is that the men that I was fighting were either on the ground howling in pain or dead. As a matter of fact, I managed to kill two people during that fight.

Emily managed to kill all five of the guys she was fighting. Once all of the guys who wanted to be Emily's boyfriend goons were disabled he didn't seem surprised for whatever the reason. He laughed, "Now that's interesting because I think you're the girl I'm looking for! As I said before you have no idea who you're messing with. My name is Simon Charles."

"As I said before, when a girl says no she means no! Especially when she's out with her boyfriend!" Emily snarled, "Get that through your fucking head!"

Simon Charles laughed again, "Since you don't know this, I'm a member of Elites. I work for the famous lab called A- Circle. Have you ever heard of that place?"

Emily narrowed her eyes and hissed. "You're not taking me back there if I got something to say about it! As a matter of fact I do have something to say about it!"

"Aww well it sucks to be you, because you are going back there 32401!" Simon Charles said, "But not yet, Dominic told me to deliver a message to you."

"And what might that be?" Emily said.

"The message is that you have very little time to enjoy your freedom because once you are brought back to A- Circle you never EVER have another chance to escape!" Simon Charles exclaimed. He turned to me. "And you must be Emily's boyfriend am I right?"

I nodded. "Yes, and?"

"Dominic wants you to know that you have his approval to 32401 and when she is brought back to A- Circle you'll be brought back with her," Simon Charles said.

"Hell no!" Emily roared. "I'm not going back there and Toby isn't going back either! So fuck off and if I have to fight A- Circle's army to keep myself away from A- Circle I will!"

He burst into laughter. "Oh wow my goodness 32401 you're a hoot! You'll fight the whole entire army just so you don't have to go back. You do know that's impossible right? Because from what I know of you're the weakest link of A- Circle. You barely have any abilities at all! And yet for some reason Dominic wants you to be the next leader." He shook his head. "Tsk, tsk, oh well whatever Dominic wants, he'll get, just keep that in mind. Goodbye for now."

After he left, Emily pissed and to the highest degree of it. "Un fucking believable!"

"Yeah Dominic is a stupid motherfucker if he thinks he can capture you that easily!" I said.

"Well that's part of the reason why I'm upset," Emily said.

I blinked. "Huh?"

"The other reason I'm upset is that I didn't get a chance to use my gun," Emily said.

I frowned. "Seriously? This guy puts a hit out on your life and you're upset because you didn't get a chance to use your gun?"

She shrugged. "Well yeah. Anyway, now that that's over, let's go home."

I nodded. We headed back to the car and as we were heading back home I couldn't help but think of a game plan to protect Emily now more than ever. I mean sure I'm afraid of the girl but I love her because she's crazy. At the same time I worry that she might think she's invincible. Thinking that way can wind up getting you killed if you're not careful.