“So… you guys are some famous dudes, huh?” Gene asked the group of three men that sat before him on the floor. He sat on the large chair, legs propped up on the coffee table, picking aimlessly at his nails. “It’s really unfortunate that you guys had to find yourselves in this… predicament, but extremely fortunate for us, as you can understand why.”

A look of amusement etched across Gene’s face when he felt the piercing glare from the wounded member, “Oh, do I feel… animosity radiating off you?” he asked in a cocky tone. “You wanna do something big guy? C’mon, hit me with your best shot.”

“Don’t fucking tempt me.” Kevin growled out, trying to conceal the throbbing pain he felt.

“Don’t tempt you?” Gene repeated, “You’re in no way, shape or form able to do anything, so I can sit here and tempt you all I want, because you see this here…” he patted at the holster, which held his gun, “I will not only take it out and shoot you in your head, and believe me, I won’t miss, but I’ll also shoot those two fuckers that sit next to you. So you don’t fucking tempt me.”

Kevin could feel his blood boiling, but tried his best to contain his anger, for whenever his anger would flare up, so would the excruciating pain he was in.

“I hope they found those two assholes.” Bobby voiced out as he walked into the living room, “Adrianna said if they’re not back here in the next ten minutes or so, James is gonna send both you and I out to go look for them.”

Gene scoffed, “Yeah, and leave those two alone again with these guys? Doing just that got us to where we’re at now. James needs to take a fucking chill pill.”

Bobby chuckled, “Oh yeah? Well, why don’t you tell him that to his fa-” he faltered off the ending of his sentence upon hearing a car start, THEIR car start. Both he and Gene snapped their attention over towards the front door.

“What the fuck?” Bobby breathed out.

Gene shrugged, “Maybe they found them up above the lodge and someone came back for the car to go retrieve them or something.”

Before another word was said, James reentered the living room, eyes closed and hands massaging his temples. “Someone wanna tell me why the FUCK your guys’ car was just started up? What the fuck are they doing out there and where the fuck are they going?”

Bobby held his hands out in hopes to keep his partner calm, “Look man, we don’t know what’s going on out there, but we figure maybe they found them beyond the lodge and one of them came back for the car to go and get them.”

“I don’t like you guys figuring shit out.” James gritted out, “I want you guys to go out there and know what the FUCK IS GOING ON!!”

Gene quickly rose from where he sat and followed Bobby out of the lodge. As soon as they stepped out though, the car was reversing down the driveway.

“Where the fuck are they going?” Bobby voiced, more to himself as he fished his cell phone out of his pocket. Before he could punch the numbers in though, he felt Gene nudge his back. “What?” he asked as he turned to look at Gene, but instead found himself staring at his group of men, who were slowly walking up from behind the lodge.

His eyes drifted close in disbelief, “If all of you guys are standing here before me, please, tell me… WHO THE FUCK JUST TOOK OUR CAR?”

“Look man, if we were all out here, looking for those two, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.” Zach spoke out.

“So someone, anyone, just please enlighten me with what the fuck happened.” Bobby drew out, ever so calmly.

“Rocky here had gone MIA so we decided to send Zach to look for him.” Dennis began to explain, “While Richard and I continued to look for the two, we had heard a gunshot go off near the tool shed and that’s where we found Rocky knocked unconscious and Zach being held at gunpoint by one of them.”

“And exactly how did they manage to get a gun.”

All eyes had befallen on Rocky, who was still trying to collect his bearings. “Don’t fucking look at me like that, I had one of those fuckers until the other one decided to bash my head open with a fucking tree branch.” he glanced over towards the other three, “I don’t know where the fuck you guys were, but I almost had them.”

Gene scoffed, “So, which one of you assholes are gonna be the one to tell James exactly what happened?”

“The guy who almost had them.” Richard retorted as he shoved Rocky towards the lodge.

“Don’t fucking push me.” Rocky growled out, “I’m probably suffering from a concussion right now, and with my head pounding and shit, the last thing I need is for you to be pushing me around to do anything.”

Slowly, one by one, they all filed back into the lodge, each not anticipating the wrath James would surely bring down upon them. With their three hostages still on the floor, they were greeted by James sitting in the large chair, with Adrianna standing behind him, running her hand through his hair.

“What happened?” James asked coolly, his eyes still closed.

They all looked around at each other. Rocky then felt himself being pushed forward again, and he turned to glare at the group behind him. “We uh…” Rocky drew out shakily, “we ran into a few complications.”

“Just tell me what… the fuck… happened.”

“Well, I had one of them, but the other came behind and knocked me out. With a tree branch.”

“And then?”

Rocky glanced back towards the group, hoping one of them would step in and save him, “Um, I’m not sure what happened after that.”

“Considering the fact that you’re all here, standing before me, I can say it’s safe to assume that the two I sent you guys out to look for had gained the upper hand of the situation at one point in time, am I correct?”

“Yes.” they all answered in unison.

“I can say it’s safe to assume that the only way they had gained the upper hand of the situation is by wielding a weapon, a gun to be precise,” as he said this, he pulled out his gun, checking his chamber to make sure it was loaded, “am I correct?”

Rocky’s breathing hitched in his throat, “Yes.” he answered unsteadily with the others.

“Now, my only question is… who’s gun was it?”

Rocky’s eyes widened upon seeing James toy with his gun. He knew he had to speak up, because lying to James would only make things worse. “When they knocked me unconscious, that’s when they managed to take my gun.”

James simply looked up and stared hard at Rocky. “No shit Sherlock.” was all he said before he rose his gun and fired it, the bullet tearing right through Rocky’s head.

Both Howie and Brian jumped at the sudden sound of the gun going off, they both trembled at the initial shock of witnessing James shoot and KILL one of his own men. The rest of his men tried their best not to look down at their dead partner.

“DID ANYBODY ELSE LOSE THEIR FUCKING GUN?” James screamed as he rose from the chair, gun aimed at his group of men. When he got no answer, he tucked his gun away. “I guess nobody gets the fucking picture that TWO of our HOSTAGES just did a getaway with OUR FUCKING CAR!”

“James, we can take one of their cars.” Bobby spoke out, gesturing towards Brian, Howie and Kevin. “And we can go out and get them back.”

“Go out and get them back?” James asked incredulously, “Now, why would I do that, so you guys can go out there and just FUCK UP THE JOB AGAIN?!” Shoving his hands into his pocket, he fished out his cell phone, “Dispose of the fucking body and clean up that mess; hopefully this is a job you guys can’t fuck up.” he bit out before he walked away to make a call.

Howie tried his best to not look at the dead body that now laid beside him, but that inner part of himself that needed to be reassured that this was all real kept him glancing back. He felt himself gag upon seeing one of their captors, his eyes rolled up, the part of his head where the bullet had entered now sinking in, blood spewing forth from his orifices.

“Oh god.” he quietly choked out as he forced himself to turn at stare at Brian, who had his focus still trained on his cousin.

Brian glanced up, “Just, don’t look back.” he whispered, hoping his eldest friend wouldn’t freak out on him now.

Howie could feel a fresh batch of tears well up within his eyes upon realizing how real this all was, “I don’t want them to come back for us Brian…” he whispered back, “you heard James when he said that he wants to kill them, and seeing him kill one of his own men, he won’t hesitate to do just that.”

“Howie, I know it’s extremely hard to do this right now, but I need you to try and think positive, okay? Believe that Nick and AJ will bring us back help, believe that we will all make it out of here, alive. I can’t lose you right now, I need some strength too buddy, okay?”

Howie nodded, knowing Brian was right. “I’m sorry.”

Brian forced a light smile, “Don’t apologize. And just think, one man down.”

Again, Howie nodded. As Howie kept his back facing what was going on behind him, Brian took that moment to glance up and see what was going on. The men were now dragging the body out, leaving a streak of blood behind, to stain the stoned flooring of his lodge. He quickly fixed his gazed back upon his wounded cousin.