Show Down

Show Down
Logan's POV

My head rang with severe pain. It jarred through my skull and jarred through my jaw. I felt my teeth rattling inside my mouth, as if being continuously shaken by an invisible force in my head.
I opened my eyes with effort, groaning softly. My eyelid seemed heavy, beating pain to my brain as it rose inch by inch, until the room I was in began to take shape before my eyes—blurred a bit by the blood dripping to my eyes from a swell in my head.
“Wake up, fool,” Draco yelled beside me. I snapped my eyes wide open fast.
I started, my eyes jumping frantically about the place. The long stretch of wooden walls, the wooden floorboards, and even the wooden deck above us—likely a farmhouse in Sumpter County. I couldn't tell what area of the house we were in—but one thing was sure—it was empty. The wooden floorboards, walls, and deck stretched feet from us, claimed only by emptiness.
I made to lift my body, but something repressed me, forcing me to remain where I was. I dropped my gaze down to myself, staring at the stretch of thick rope that sucked into my belly and chest. My shoulders and wrists were aching and sore, my hands bound tight behind me. I couldn't see them. The steel plating of the chair's backrest pressing hard into my back. My spine screamed in agony, attacking every nerve in my back.
I winced softly, shaking off the ringing noise in my head. I shook my head right and left. Draco's loud voice jarred through my ears, sending another wave of agony through my eardrums.
“Do you realize that if your fucking plan does not work, then we are sunk? Totally sunk." He reiterated.
I winced, shutting my eyes to keep back a bit of the pain. When I opened my eyes again, I directed them to him, glaring hard at him.
“Why the fucking hell must you always yell?” I snapped at him.
Draco shrugged his shoulders in a rather unusual way, as if to mimic me. “I wasn't yelling. I was just reminding you that we were sunk if this doesn't work. All the crazy stunts you have put me through should count for something. Every inch of me is still aching terribly from the accident you pulled off,” he said.
“It would work. Just try to say nothing and follow my lead. We have to keep the bastard busy until help comes.”
“Are you sure, Ash—”
Our seats were near, and I could still move my feet a bit more freely than the rest of my body. I lifted a foot and slammed it down onto Draco's foot.
That shushed him up for good, because he was yelling, cursing out loud, and biting his lips in pain.
He glared at me after, fury dimming his eyes as they lingered on me. He raised his legs up to retaliate. The door opened, and his leg froze in the air.
Luca strolled in. I started on the chair, straining against the robe around my chest as I heard that familiar soft moan that I’d always recognize anywhere. The boy that took Rachel from college the other day dragged Rachel in by the hair. She groaned, low painful sounds that tugged at my heart. She staggered in while he kept pulling her.
“Don't fucking hurt her, fool,” Draco snapped at him, grunting with the whole of his jaw. His knuckles were white as he gripped tight to the steel arms of the chair, glaring at the boy.
“Okay, sir,” the boy grinned down at Draco. "How about this?" He grabbed tighter to Rachel's hair and began throwing her around. She screamed in pain, her voice loud now and far more painful than before. She staggered back and forth while the boy pulled her around by her hair. 
“Fucking stop, boy. Fucking stop, or I’ll kill you.” Draco yelled, straining hard against the rope binding him to the steel chair. The chair grazed the floor with sharp metallic squeals under him.
That fueled the boy’s acts, and he continued pulling her around by her hair while she screamed in pain. She couldn't even hold her head to soothe the pain, even a bit, as she was tied up tight too. The rope pressing hard against her body.
I gripped onto the steel arms of the chair tight as if I was trying to claw them off the rest of the chair. I shut my eyes from the sight.
“What happened to shutting up and letting me lead?” I whispered gently to Draco.
“But—”
“The more you yell, the more he continues to torment you by tormenting her. So save all of us the trouble and shut the hell up. Close your eyes and shut your ears. Endure it, and the boy would stop.”
Draco growled a grunt. Then there was silence from his end. I forced myself to will away Rachel's screams of pain while I grabbed tighter and tighter to the steel arms of the chair. 
When my eyes opened later, the screams had stopped. The boy still held onto Rachel's hair, but he didn't pull her around anymore. He just stood quietly with her behind Luca. While Luca sat on a steel chair just like ours, a gun dangled in his fingers.
The bright yellow light of the room brightened up his golden hair. Excitement twinkled in his eyes, and he carried his gaze from Draco to me. He rolled the handgun around his fingers. “Which one should I kill first?” he grinned.
“You have killed my nephews, Andrew and Cole. Shouldn't those make up both of our lives?” I grinned at him. I nudged my head to the side, demanding his opinion on that.
Draco snarled at me. “How could you say—”
“Remember, fool. Don't talk. Just follow my lead.” I whispered to him, slipping him another grin.
He grunted and hissed, throwing his face away from me. I returned my face to Luca.
“I can't, Logan. Just like I killed your elder brother. I have to kill you both too. Billy has saved me the stress of killing Cole. So I have just Briella's baby to kill, and then we are all square.”
“All because of what?” I scoffed lightly. “Because we killed your father and your brother.”
His face tightened now, a grimace stealing off his grin. He stood up on his feet, ambling slowly to us.
“Damn.” I cursed myself beneath my breath as I watched him make his way to us. I wanted to stall for time, not get him angry. I didn't want his fist on my face just yet.
He paused just before us. Strangely, he just squatted low before us so our eyes could level with his. “I don't give a fuck about my father and Nicolas and the fact that you tried to kill me too.” 
“Then what’s this for, then?” I heaved my shoulders as much as they would go to enunciate.
“Because you both indirectly killed my mom and cousins. Your killing my father and brother made the family vulnerable. Then your father and some other families annihilated them.” He yelled loudly. I saw his veins mapping out around his neck. He dangled the gun once more in his fingers, trying to scare us with its presence.
I grunted, shaking my head gently, “Both of our fathers were sick in the head, especially yours. So why should we children suffer for their sins?”
“That’s not for me to answer. When you get to hell, you can ask both of those bastards.” He lifted his upper lip in a hard smirk and leaned back on his feet. He dangled the gun around his fingers once more, with a bit more flair this time. Then, with expert control, he snatched the grip while it was still rolling. He pressed the muzzle hard against my forehead.
“No! Logan!” Rachel screamed.
I steered my eyes past Luca's big body and stretched my lips fully for a smile at her. I nudged my eyes lower a bit, in a gesture of assurance.
Her lips moved wide to scream again, but she hesitated, and they closed shut. Her face tightened as they locked on me. She mouthed something quietly to me, but the boy snapped her hair back, and a loud, painful groan split the room again.
I shut my eyes as I steered them away from Rachel, refusing to look her way so the boy won't hurt her again. I shifted my focus to the cold skin of the muzzle pressing against my head. Luca grinned down on me. But I knew he wouldn't shoot. He still had to torture us. Until then, he’d just be trying to scare us.
He moved the muzzle deliberately from my head to my chest. He tapped the gun against my chest. “Do you want to be shot in the chest or in your head?”
He froze suddenly, turning in the direction of a flurry of noise coming from the other rooms behind the door. Then loud, reverberating gunshots. About time, I thought in my head.
Luca withdrew his gun from my chest and turned sharply for the door. He peered out of the room, seeing just the lonely, empty corridors stretched away from him, and he eased quietly into the corridors.
His boy threw Rachel to the floor. She staggered for a moment before she hit the floor on her back with a loud smack. 
The boy grunted, then he ran after Luca.
“Rachel! Rachel!” Draco yelled, jamming his foot against the floorboard hard, as if that would get her to respond faster.
“I am fine, Draco,” she answered absently, wincing softly in pain as she struggled to sit up.
Draco threw his nostrils to the air, sighing heavily. With his eyes strung tight in pain, he watched her drag herself over the floorboards to the nearest wall. “Careful, Rachel,” he said, guiding her with his eyes.
She slumped her head against the wall, another quiet sigh escaping her lips.
I peered at the corridor, my eyes touring down the length of the floorboards as far as they could go—no one—empty. 
I turned to Rachel, my face dissolving into a smile for her. “Hello, baby girl. I know you’d like to catch your breath and rest. But we don't have quite the time for that now.” 
She lifted her eyes up to me, panting gently for breath. She shook her head, biting gently on her lip as if to bite back pain. “What, Logan?” she gritted the question through her teeth.
I nudged my jaw up at her. “Come, let me help you off your rope, and you help me off mine. When Luca comes in next, we have got to be ready for him.”
“Okay,” she answered, struggling up to her feet, guiding herself up using the wall.
My brows narrowed on her, quizzing the absent, almost emotionless look on her face. For some reason she sounded distant, as if she were speaking with some mere acquaintance and not someone she loved.
I still had my eyes narrowed on her—squished together as she meandered on unsteady legs to my front. She turned her back, taking her face from my view, and thrusting her bound hands to my face.
I shook off the thought from my head, forcing myself to concentrate on escaping. I bit down on the thick rope binding her hands with my teeth, my teeth untying the not-so-hard knot, the rubber skin of the rope bitter against my tongue.
It took nearly a minute, but the rope came loose off her wrists. She shook her arms and shoulders, shaking the rest of the rope off her body. She crossed to behind me immediately to untie me too.
Yeah. I grinned at myself, staring down at my body as the rope relaxed around me. I shook my arms, shaking off the rest of the rope from me.
The rope dropped around me as I jumped up from the steel chair. Pain screamed through the nerves in my back where the steel backrest of the chair had dug into my skin.
I shook my head to shake off the pain, and I hurried to Draco. Rachel was squatting behind his chair, untying his hands. 
I made her a slow, easy smile as I squatted beside her. I folded my fingers around her lean ones, taking the rope from her.
She yanked her fingers from under mine and dropped back from me, throwing her face away.
A low yet hard force slammed against my chest as I looked up at her, while she kept retreating from me, looking away.
Then I stared at my hands, almost dissecting them with my eyes. I couldn't understand what they might have done to her. I dropped the rope and rubbed them together against themselves, but they were just warm, not enough to scald her.
“Logan, untie me, damn it.” Draco yelled above the noise of the continuous gunshots outside. That snapped my mind back to the task. I quickly loosened the rope, freeing Draco. 
He jumped from the chair once he was free, sprinting fast for Rachel. He threw his arms in the air to hug her. She took some steps back, retreating from him too.
His arms hung in the air for a moment, then slowly he dropped them back to his side.
“I know I have wronged you, Rachel. And that you have every reason to be mad at me. But can you just please forgive me? I am sorry."
She bowed her head to herself for a moment. When she looked up again to him—to us, she had extended her gaze to me, just as I was rising gently to my feet; her eyes were firm and steady, fixed on us. Her small shoulders squared, making up a firm, determined posture. 
“If we survive this, I want us to go our separate ways, forget about each other, and go back to our previous lives before we met each other.” she said, her voice steady.
The gunshots rang louder from outside, but yet, the only thing that made it to my ears was her words. They were like huge blows to my chest that I couldn't dodge. They slammed right at me, hard against my heart. I staggered.
“Rachel, don't do this. I promise to fix things up. Rachel. I promise to choose you this time, and over and over again.” Draco begged, his voice so low I could barely string his words together. He drew closer to her, but she drew back. When she reached the wall, she turned away from him. He tried to reach for her hand, but she snatched her wrist back.
“Just let this go. You have my mom back now. You have your wife back. I will just keep coming between both of you.”
“What about me, Rachel?” I challenged her, reaching for her too, but she dropped back, moving away from me too. “I don't have anyone else but you. You are the only woman I have ever truly fallen in love with. I can't accept this.”
She flashed me a smile, as if to soften the sting of her cruel words. “You have to accept this, Logan. You have to forget about me, as I am trying to forget about you too. And you have someone, Logan. You have plenty of someones. You have a lot of girlfriends to come comfort you. I was just one in many.”
“No, that's not true.” I said. I had no idea we had pushed her to the corridor until a hand reached for her from the darkness beyond the flush of lights from the room that flowed beyond the door.
Draco was nearer to her. He kicked off the hand with his foot, and a voice that sounded like Luca's groaned loudly. A gun dropped, clattering noisily on the wooden floorboards.
Rachel froze, a quick, thin gasp echoing out of her throat. Her eyes wide, following as Luca and Draco lunged for themselves.
She couldn't retreat from me now. I snatched her wrist, drawing her to me. I pressed her face to my chest. She struggled around me, hitting her shoulders and arms on my chest to break free. I didn't let her. I couldn't let her see what was happening behind her—Draco and Luca lunging, charging madly for themselves, their fists swinging in the air.
I pressed Rachel to my chest and pressed my palm on her ears, blocking off the yells and grunts from her ears. She eventually realized what I was doing, and she quieted on me, relaxing into my chest.
Draco’s fist connected with Luca's jaw, sweeping his face to the right. That stunned Luca a bit, enough time for Draco to heave him from the belt up. He swung him into the air and slammed him hard onto the floor.
Rachel’s body shook around mine as Luca's big body hit the floorboards with a massive thud that shook the whole room. He writhed, jerking his back up from the floor, his arm arched back. Loud, guttural, and painful groans rippled from his throat.
The floorboards shook greatly beneath us, making Rachel vibrate around me. Boots pattered up the corridor, running fast for the room.
Ashton and his boys, a large group of them, pooled up by the doorway. Their guns dangled in their hands.
He winked me a grin, his eyes twinkling as usual to give his grin that mischievous flush. “Seems I came early enough before he could give you guys some whooping.”
“Seems like you did, man. Thanks. I owe you one,” I said.
His grin grew more, and he chuckled with the whole of his face. If there was something I had known about the big guy, it is that he likes to know someone owes him a favor. I have owed him plenty now, and one day the bastard was going to come to collect. I just hope I am able to pay by then.
Draco hissed at Ashton and his men. Then he charged fast for Luca, still writhing on the floor. Ashton pulled his gun, and gunshots rang loud, echoing over the wooden walls of the room. Bullets drilled into Luca's chest, splashing blood into the air from the bullet holes.
I pressed my palms harder on Rachel's ears. She trembled around me, the gunshots somehow finding their way to her ears. I pressed her face to my chest, keeping her eyes away from Luca's bloodied corpse on the floor, yet enough for her to breathe fine. Slowly, I led her away from the room.
Draco growled, his arms quivering as he turned to glare at Ashton.
“Why the hell did you do that for?” He snarled.
“To save you the trouble,” Ashton grinned again, throwing his hands helplessly to the sides. His eyes twinkled as usual.
Draco grunted, clenching his teeth. He ground them so hard against each other I heard them rattle as he grunted again, stomping after us, bumping past Ashton.