Getting Away With You

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^*Danielle’s POV*^
“He’s not going to let them live forever.” Jimmy muttered darkly, and the words hurt me. Chase did have my parents, that was a known fact now. He had them, and he wasn’t just going to let them go, he was going to fight over them. He was going to fight us over them, but no matter who wins, people are going to be lost, and whenever I think of that, it’s like a stake to my heart. I could lose my parents, Jimmy, Brian, or even Matt, and the thought of losing Matt…that thought just made me want to curl up and die, and I probably would if anything happened to him. No, I know I would.

“He doesn’t have the heart to.” Matt whispered, and I leaned into him, wrapping my arms around him as the joking tone this morning had acquired quickly melting away with the seriousness of the crisis we were in. He wrapped an arm around me, and kissed the top of my head.

“Chase probably has them at that warehouse now, holding them hostage until we show up. That’s what it all is.” Brian began, looking around at all of us. “It’s one big trap.”

“But we’ve all gotten through him this far.” I said, trying to install some hope. “You guys have stood up to him, and fought back for once. Hell, Matt shot him in the head.” I said and they all seemed to realize what I was saying. Or at least I hoped they did. “Remember when I met you three?” I asked, because surely they did. “You all were trying to run away from the problem. But, once that problem got out of jail, and called Brian,” I looked at him. “You were ready to kill yourself just to get away from him.” I said and then looked at Matt and Jimmy. “And you two didn’t really want to face him either, but you pushed through that to protect me. You stood up to him for me, and you guys faced your one fear to try and save me from getting pulled into his game.”

“Even though you get drug into it anyway.” Matt kissed my temple, and I nodded with a sad smile.

“But…but what’s changed since that day? None of you have gotten weaker. You’ve stood up to a guy that you used to get pushed around by, and you feared so much to the point where you were basically walking corpses being controlled by him.” I just kept trying, not about to let anyone lose hope that they couldn’t fight Chase.

“She has a good point.” Matt said, looking over at Jimmy.

“But this is really it.” Jimmy said, looking at Matt, then at Brian. “This is the end of our road. If we go there, then we’re not coming back alive.”

“We can’t talk like that. We have to at least try.” Brian stated. “If we just sit around and keep dwelling on the fact that when we go to that warehouse, it’s a suicide mission with no hope that any of us will survive, we’re not going to get anywhere.” He said, and then took a deep breath. “Yes, it’s risky as hell, yes, it’s insane to go and give up your own life to save two people, yes, it can’t end well, but look at how far we’ve come. Look at how much we’ve fought Chase, and had the upper hand until he took Danielle’s parents. Face it, guys, he’s going to kill us sometime, whether we let him or not. I’d rather die knowing I possibly help Danni and her parents escape him, and they go back to their normal lives instead of dying knowing that I simply gave up.”

“Okay, you’re almost right, Brian.” Matt corrected him. “First, this isn’t going to be a suicide mission. We’re going to make it, one way or another. One bullet wound is nothing, as long as we win with our lives. Second, we’re going to take Chase the fuck down. I will make sure of that even if I have to do it myself. Danni’s right, we’ve been controlled by him for years of our lives. We’ve let him take the people we love away. We’ve let him control us. We’ve let him push us around and toss us like rag dolls with no sense of life. We’ve nearly given up our own lives to save his. We got to a point where we just didn’t give a damn anymore. I don’t know about you two, but I don’t want to let him have the pleasure of controlling me anymore. I want to give a damn now. I want to fight back for once.” Matt said sternly. “I’m sick of it, and you should be too.”

“I’m with Matt.” Jimmy agreed. “I’m fucking sick of everything he’s put me through too.”

“Yea, I guess you’re right. We do need to bulk up and get rid of him once and for all.” Brian said, apparently finally realizing that this wasn’t exactly a suicide mission. I sure as hell hoped it wasn’t.

“When do we go?” Jimmy asked, looking over at Matt.

“We need to get some things done, first.” Matt stood up, and went over to the nightstand, grabbing his phone. “We need to call Sonny and see if he can meet us there with a few of his guys because there’s no way that the three of us can do this by ourselves.”

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Matt had been very cautious on the phone, and had somehow told Sonny that he needed him to meet him at Chase’s warehouse through all of the coded talk on losing bags at the airport and needing to get them back. I asked what in the hell all of that gibberish was, but he just simply said him and Sonny had been working on some coded talk for a few years. I didn’t question it further. We had gone to Sonny house, and packed up weapons, concealed n clothing, and the sides of boots, and then we headed out for the warehouse that Chase had recently bought. I began over analyzing the situation as we drove towards the warehouse, Sonny right behind us.

“Danielle,” I looked over at Matt and he took my hand, squeezing it gently with a smile. “Everything’s going to be okay.” He smiled a little more and some comfort crept into me as he leaned over and kissed my cheek.

“Don’t worry Danni.” Brian said from the driver’s seat.

“Yea, everything’s going to go down so fast that we’ll only be here a minute.” Jimmy said, and I took a deep breath when Brian piped in.

“Unless something goes horribly wrong.” Brian said and Jimmy punched him in the shoulder, the sound loud enough to meet my ears. “Which of course, us being the smooth guys we are, nothing’s going to go wrong. Because, you know, we’ve been killing people for years on end, and-” Jimmy punched him in the shoulder again. “Not years, I mean we’ve killed a lot of people, and we’re not proud of it, but it’s been in more like one or two years-” Matt punched him this time, a lot harder than Jimmy had. “I’m just going to shut up.”

“I think that would be best.” Matt said, obviously agitated by his rambling on killing people in an attempt to try and calm my worry.

“You sure do know how to ease someone’s nerves, Brian.” I said, but I don’t think the sarcasm crossed over as much as I meant.

“Anytime.” He just smiled and Jimmy hit him again. “Okay, you have got to stop that.” He punched Jimmy in the arm.

“Ow!” Jimmy exclaimed, cringing away.

“Doesn’t feel too good, does it?!” Brian asked, taking one hand off of the wheel to rub his shoulder.

“Alright, both of you need to stop acting like children. Jimmy, stop hitting Brian,” Brian stuck his tongue out at Jimmy. “And Brian, shut the fuck up or I’ll come up there and punch you somewhere besides your shoulder.”

“Ha!” Jimmy declared as Brian glared at the windshield, mumbling something incoherent.

“My god…” Matt just trailed off, shaking his head.

“How have you put up with them?” I asked sarcastically, and Matt sighed.

“I don’t know. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that I’ve known them forever.” He said, wrapping one arm around my shoulder. If the little escapade in the car had done anything besides give Brian a bruised shoulder, it had gotten my mind off of the task at hand for a moment, but not for long as I began sinking back into my natural state of worry, and paranoia. Thoughts about a trap that could await us at the warehouse, the things that could go wrong, the way things could completely flip, putting Matt, Jimmy, and Brian’s lives at stake. I didn’t know if I could take losing any of them. It would leave me in ruins.

“We’re here.” I snapped out of my daze at Brian’s low words. Two words I didn’t want to hear now, or in a million years. I looked up at the building, finding it the same as we had left it when Brian got shot here just days ago. I hated this place so much. He picked up his phone from the console and dialed a number, hitting talk and putting it to his ear. “Press on.” He said, and hung up. Not a second later, two men in black ran from Sonny’s Hummer, and one went to the right of the building while the other went to the left, and then two more got out and stationed themselves at the door.

“Now we go.” Matt said, and I hesitantly followed him out of the car, as Jimmy and Brian got out as well. “Thanks for coming.” Matt smiled lightly at Sonny as he got out of his Jeep. At first glance, Sonny, Brian, Jimmy, and Matt didn’t look armed, but had watched them when we were at Sonny’s house. They had guns in their boots, holsters on their hips hidden under thin jackets, and one at the base of their backs in case of emergency, and silencers on as many of the guns as possible. I was almost afraid of them. Sonny seemed to be a bit jumpy, more jumpy than usual. He seemed almost nervous.

“Are you okay?” I asked Sonny and he smiled, patting me on the back.

“I have a machine gun strapped to my back and I’m about to go into a building to help four of my best friends get rid of a man that has taken my life away from me. I’m more okay than I’ll ever be.” He said and I sighed, not liking the way I had a gun strapped around my calf, but Brian and Sonny had insisted, saying I may need it, or I might not, but it was rather carry it and be safe, or leave it and die. I like living; therefore I had a gun attached to Velcro around the bottom of my calf.

“Let’s go.” Matt said, and just like that, it was on. We walked towards the building, and Jimmy opened the door, allowing Sonny in first, and Sonny drew a gun from his jacket, firing it to the left and right, and I heard two bodies dropping to the floor before I walked in behind Matt, with Brian right behind me. The two men Sonny had killed were two men I had recognized from when I had gotten taken from my bedroom not too long ago and brought here. Matt pointed at Sonny, then towards two double doors in front of us, and Sonny nodded, and moved forward silently, before kicking the door, and shot to the left before Matt pulled the gun from his jacket, and pushed Sonny’s shoulder down, the both of them avoiding a wild punch before Matt fired to the right, and another body dropped. It was all so quiet that no one could have known we were in the building. Jimmy, Brian and I walked on into the other room to find we were faced with two hallways. Jimmy tapped my shoulder, and I turned to look at him, so did Matt, Sonny, and Brian. He took Brian by his shoulders and pushed him over with Sonny, and pushed them both towards one hallway and they nodded before heading off, then he pointed down the other hallway, silently telling us that that’s where we went. Matt grabbed his shirt and pushed him towards the front doors as a noise came from there. Matt pointed at his eyes and then towards the doors, meaning to keep lookout and Jimmy nodded before getting the gun from his right boot and silently running towards the door. I looked at Matt, and he leaned down to my ear. “Stay behind me and keep an eye out. If you see something move, go for the jacket gun first, and shoot it, okay?” He whispered and pulled away from me and I nodded, giving him a thumbs up. I was on high alert as we walked down the hallway the and as we rounded the corner Matt turned to me, but as he did a guard walked out from a door and pulled his gun, but I was faster, and Matt got out of the way as I pulled the trigger, nailing the man in the head. Matt just kept breathing deep as he hugged me.

“You need to be more careful.” I whispered in his ear and he nodded as he pulled away from me. He motioned for me to follow him, and I did as we approached a door at the left of the end of the hallway.

“Brace yourself.” Matt whispered and I nodded. “Two guards are on each side, I got the left if you take the right.” He said and I nodded once more. He seemed to do a mental countdown before he opened the door. I turned left, firing a blind shot as he went right and did the same. Mine hit another man in black, and I immediately turned my gun towards a voice afterwards. There were two clicks as two of Chase’s guards across the room pointed their guns at Matt and I. I froze, as did Matt after he turned as well. It was Chase, standing about fifteen feet in front of us, Sonny and Jimmy were standing on the other side of the room, their hands down by their sides, still holding their pistols as two other men held guns to their heads. Then I saw them. My parents were both sitting on a couch, their hands cuffed in front of them, their ankles held together with multiple zip ties and their mouths gagged with bandanas, preventing speech as they both looked at me with teary eyes, my mother already going into hysterics even though they both had guards holding guns to their heads.

“Hello, Danielle. It’s nice to see you again though…Matthew, not so much.” Chase shrugged and I shook my head, my throat wanting to close off, not letting me talk because I was holding back tears and replacing my fear with anger. He took my parents, he’s lied to them, and he’s tore down the lives of so many people its unfathomable.

“Chase, why don’t you just give up already?” Matt asked, his gun still out in front of him, pointed right at Chase’s head.

“Matthew, you know me. You know I don’t give up without a little bloodshed.” Chase then sighed. “Now, Danielle, just put the gun down sweetie, and I will let your parents go.” I didn’t have time to think about Chase’s offer before Sonny cut in.

“No!” Sonny yelled. “Don’t do it, Danni! As soon as you put that gun down you’re open for fire, and they’ll kill you before you can even drop it fully. Don’t lower it, don’t put it down, don’t move an inch unless it’s to pull that trigger!” Sonny instructed.

“Shut him up!” Chase demanded in a harsh tone. Before anyone could say anything else a shot was fired into Sonny’s knee, and he fell, crying out as Brian as everyone in the room cringed except for the guards dressed in black and Chase. A guard came over and stepped on his neck, silencing his cries as his eyes shot open, tearing up in pain as he tried to remove the man’s boot from his throat.

“Chase, stop it! He has nothing to do with all of this!” Brian yelled, and before he could run to Sonny, the guard that had a gun to his head pushed him, then brought his knee up, catching his jaw as Brian fell to the ground, and he spit out a tooth, blood pouring from his mouth from the place.

“Will everyone just stop!” Chase screamed. “This is nonsensical! My god Brian, I don’t want to kill you, you’re my fucking step son for Christ’s sake, and Sonny’s my nephew! I don’t want to kill either of you, but don’t think that I won’t!” Chase threatened. “Now,” He turned back to Matt and I. “Danni, sweetheart, I promise you that if you just put the gun down, I won’t hurt you, and I’ll let your parents go.” He smiled. “I promise.”

“Don’t. Don’t do it, Danni, listen to Sonny.” Matt begged, but my parents….they never deserved to be in this in the first place. I dragged them into this mess when I threw myself in. They don’t deserve to be here. Before I could even act, there was a cry from just outside the door to my left, and a second later a guard came in, Jimmy in tow as he kept a hand wrapped around his bicep, blood seeping through his fingers. The guard pushed him to the couch, and Chase rolled his eyes.

“Goddamnit, Marshall! I told you to scare them if you saw them outside, not fucking shoot them!” Chase complained, and the man gave a guilty look.

“So the four guys roaming around…I probably shouldn’t have killed them, right?” He asked, and Chase ran his hand down his face.

“Well it’s too late now, isn’t it?” Chase asked sarcastically, and then sighed. “Brand, Justin, if they try and escape you don’t have that good of a shot at killing them from way back there, do you?” Chase said, and the two men that had guns aimed at Matt and I’s heads came forward, and I felt the barrel of the gun against my temple, making me want to just drop the gun and recoil, but I couldn’t. “Alright, Danielle, drop the gun, or I’ll kill you, and your parents, along with Sonny and James.” He said simply.

“Danni.” Matt said warningly. “Don’t. If you do it’ll be the end of this.” He warned, his voice pleading with me.

“You have three seconds.” Chase said, his tone beginning to scare me. “One,” He paused, and I felt my heart race. “Two,” I could feel my life already shredding apart. “Thr-”

“Wait!” I yelled, my throat loosening up enough to let me talk. “Don’t shoot, I’ll…I’ll put it down.”

“Oh god…” Matt trailed off, his tone breaking my heart as I knew exactly what I was doing. I slowly kneeled down, both hands up as I brought one out in front of me and down, placing the gun on the ground. I put my hand back up in defense as I stood back up, feeling the gun in my jacket pocket weigh heavily on me at the moment.

“Good girl.” Chase purred, his voice making me sick to my stomach. “What can I say, you should’ve listened.” I knew his words were coming, and just as I reached down lightning fast to my jacket, the guard caught the action and grabbed my hand, leaving me defenseless as I knew I was already dead.

“DANIELLE, NO!” Was the last thing I heard Matt yell besides my own struggles as words slowed down, and the world stopped revolving, and my mother started screaming, and a trigger was pulled. I didn’t feel anything hit my head, but it was like my heart had exploded. I wasn’t sure at first if it was my heart aching because I was dead, and I couldn’t tell Matt I loved him, or if it was because Chase had pulled a gun, and finally filled his wish of getting rid of me. Either way, my world went black as I fell to the ground, and just like that, I was gone.