A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the very, VERY late update. I've been uber busy setting myself up in Ireland and enjoying the great craic (aka IRISHMEN!) haha. But here's a chapter for you after all this time! I will try to update asap, I promise. I definitely kept you hanging for a while, huh? Thanks to Veritas rose, A Hotter Kiss A Better Touch, Sith Happens, BelhavenOnTap, dragonzfire718, Skyline babe, GoddessLaughs, kitkatbaby411, ivyshortcake and CrimsonKissMJ for reviewing last chapter. Cheers! xx IFHD

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Chapter 9: Shades of Gray

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"A Pistol To My Temple"

By: Scary Kids Scaring Kids

If I flew into a mountain
Burn myself to nothing
That would be something
Would it be enough?
A pistol to my temple
Pull the trigger like its nothing
That would be something, but it's never enough

This is all an illusion
What do you take me for?
It makes no difference what I do for you
I would give you my life but it just won't ever be enough

I hurt someone that loved you
Except that I felt nothing
That would be something, would it be enough?
I had everything you wanted
It shows to give you nothing
That would be something
This is all too much

This is all an illusion
What do you take me for?
It makes no difference what I do for you
I would give you my life but it just won't ever be enough
It makes no difference what I do for you
I would give you my life but it just won't ever be enough

I'm burning alive
With a pistol to my temple
If we don't believe this reason for living
Then we'll never know do I want to know?
If we don't believe this reason for living
Then we'll never know do I want to know?
If we just give up give into the pressure we're losing it all
We're losing control

It makes no difference what I do for you
I would give you my life but it just won't ever be enough
It makes no difference what I do for you
I would give you my life but it just won't ever be enough

(What I would do for you)

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Lita couldn't rid herself of the choking sensation that progressively formed around her throat. The ride to Luis' "lair", as it were, was a fleeting blur, her mind unable to grasp what had just occurred a mere half hour prior. She felt more than powerless to halt what had eventually transpired; either she went along with her brother's plan or risk exposing what she had truly done. Barely breathing as discomfort wholly engulfed her, she remained still as she sat on the passenger's seat of her brother's car. To her hidden distress and discomfort, Murphy had been thrown into the backseat of a midnight black SUV that now calmly drove behind them, guarded by a few of Luis' right-hand men. Feeling her brother's darkened eyes on her frozen form, Lita refused to meet his gaze as he sternly declared,

"I think we need to have a little talk, don't you?"

It was at that particular point that Lita realized that, for the first time in her life, she was genuinely afraid of her own brother.

Attempting to disregard the growing feeling of dread within her, Lita piped up immediately, keeping her voice strong and steady, "Why are you keeping him alive?" She shut her eyes, and then twisted her head away from Luis. From the constant training and briefing that she had undergone and received from Luis, it had been ingrained within her that these "Saint fucks" had to be obliterated from the face of the earth without a second thought and certainly no questions asked. So why were they keeping Murphy alive?

"Never you mind your pretty little head about that, little sis." The lightness of Luis' tone betrayed the diabolic glint in his dark brown eyes. He momentarily declined his head towards Lita's recoiled form. "First things first. Why are you fucking the prick when I sent you to kill him?"

Although she expertly masked her turbulent feelings with a stoic expression, a rush of panic coursed through Lita's veins. Sifting through her jumbled thoughts, she automatically blurted, "It was part of my fucking plan!" Thinking to add a little weight to her charade, she added with a restrained snarl, "Thanks for ruining it, asshole! I could've gotten all of the Saint fucks one by one if you had just let me finish my job!"

Actually taken aback by this less-than-polite response, Luis' eyebrows slightly raised. "What, you're angry at me?" He let out an incredulous scoff as he slowed the vehicle to a stop in front of his three-door, red brick garage. "I asked you to kill the bastard, not whore yourself out to him! It'll do you a lot of good to act with a little more dignity, you know." He gave his steering wheel a little shove with the bottom of his palm. "It makes me sick just thinking about all the shit you've been doing with him!"

"Fuck off, Luis. I don't need this righteousness bullshit." Lita feigned irritation as best as she could, eyes squinting. "How else was I supposed to lure him out in the open without him shooting at my face? You saw what they were capable of yesterday!"

Her older brother studied her for a moment, apparently finding some reason in her decisions. "Well, whatever. You don't need to do all of that seduction shit anymore or let that Paddy touch you again with his grubby hands." Kicking the parking break with a jolt of his leg, he finished with, "I'll take care of everything from here."

Lita gulped.

That's exactly what she was afraid of.

The faint slams of doors then caught her attention. Eyes darting to the dim, lamp-lit driveway, she spotted Luis' men exiting from their parked vehicle one by one. Her stare never breaking as she, too, exited the car, she then spotted a glimpse of Murphy's limp body being roughly pulled from the backseat. Masking her worry, she watched in silence as two men carried him out of the SUV, his feet heavily dragging behind him as they unceremoniously pulled him into the house. From what she could see, the Saint was semi-conscious, head lolling from side to side and eyes blankly blinking in visible disorientation. He sported a nasty gash upon the back of his skull, colouring his sweaty forehead and nape with dried, crimson liquid. Trailing behind the procession of Triad members as they made their way into the basement, Lita remained silent as she helplessly surveyed what her brother and his henchmen were planning to do to the Saint.

Without a word of warning, Murphy was dropped like a ton of bricks upon the chilled cement floor. With a pain-filled groan, he coiled into a pseudo fetal position, face crinkling in agony. It took all of Lita's self control to force herself to remain where she was and not run to his aid. Turning her head away from the Saint's writhing body, she heard Luis' calm footsteps as he sauntered towards the Saint. Then, in a move that made her visibly jolt upwards, he sent a shattering kick upon Murphy's ribs, causing the Irishman to groan in utter pain. He repeated the violent motion several times until Murphy rolled over to his other side, spattering out blood all over the grey floor in his wake.

Lita didn't know how much more she could take of this. She wasn't one to be squeamish; though in this particular case, she felt slightly light-headed. Coupled with a wrenching feeling in her stomach, her mind reeled in reaction to what was transpiring before her.

Luis crouched down and calmly rested his elbows upon his knees. With a sly smirk appearing on his pleased countenance, he coolly said, "Well, isn't it nice to finally meet a Saint?" Roughly shoving the back of Murphy's head, he spat through gritted teeth, "Not so high and mighty now, are you, you Irish fuck? What ya gonna do when nobody's here to help you out, huh?" When Luis received no reply, Lita cringed as she heard the violent impact of her brother's fist upon Murphy's skull. Contrary to what his visage exhibited, Lita knew that he had lost all of what was left of his minute patience. Jerking his head to the side, the leader of the Triads commanded in rage, "Tie him the fuck up! Now!"

Being under the mercy of any of the Triad members could and would never, ever be a favourable situation. Deciding that she could at least spare Murphy any more pain from being bound and gagged by any of Luis' men, Lita bolted towards Murphy's side before any of the Triads in the room could respond. Expertly catching the rope that her brother tossed to her, Lita bound Murphy in such a way that it would cause him the least amount of pain yet create the illusion of him being secure on the chair.

Their eyes met in a violent collision.

Lita's heart constricted as she recognized the emotion that shone bright and clear through Murphy's blazing blue orbs: betrayal. She had to somehow explain to him what was going on, to scream her thousand apologies about what had been done to him.

But most important of all, she needed to tell him that she had absolutely nothing to do with this.

Only the click of a pistol behind her broke Lita's stare. She was careful not to exhibit her erratic breathing and attempted with all of her being to calm her wildly beating heart.

This was it. Luis was going to do it.

Raising her head, she caught a glimpse of Luis coolly loading his M9 Beretta pistol, much to the sinister smirks of his accomplices. "One MacManus twin down, one more to go. Then we go for the motherload." With a flick of his wrist, the gun clicked shut and was fully locked and loaded. Luis momentarily studied his black weapon, the shining metal bearing his content reflection. He added with a hint of mirth in his tone, "Or should we say fatherload?"

Murphy was clearly unimpressed by what Luis believed to be his exhibition of wit. "Try ta think o' new material, ye dumb fuck, 'cause yer audience ain't laughin'."

Wide-eyed, Lita whirled her head around to face the defiant Saint, unbelieving that he had the audacity to taunt her brother even in his current position. Even though he saw the warning glare etched within her brown orbs, Murphy only threw the Triads a distasteful look. Openly berating him did cross her mind, but in the end, Lita managed to keep quiet. She feared that with that remark, Murphy had just hammered the last nail in his own coffin; and by the wrathful expression on Luis' countenance, she was positive that Murphy had just breathed his last breath on this earth.

"You don't need to see this."

Feeling a hand coil around her arm, Lita looked upwards to meet the gaze of Nathan, Luis' most trusted right-hand man and, from their teenage years, his best mate. Lita had once believed that this dark, spiky-haired bookworm counterbalanced her brother's often violent nature; but when he had joined the Triads a few years prior, the true, blackness of his heart became ever more apparent. Acting as though his innocent touch had burnt her, she recoiled from his form and hissed, "First of all, don't fucking touch me. Second of all, don't think you have the fucking right to tell me what to do, got it?"

Lita's last-moment plan had somewhat worked, for her outburst had gained her brother's attention. Though, when he dismissively waved a hand to Nathan to leave her be and readied his gun once more, she knew that he would have no second thoughts and absolutely no regrets about killing Murphy. As his silver pistol leveled with Murphy's bloodied forehead, Lita was almost unable to suppress the yelp that threatened to escape her lips. Just as Luis' index finger grazed the trigger, she said firmly, "Wait."

Luis' gun never moved from Murphy's head. Though, her voice had gained his attention, as well as Murphy's. The Saint's chest was visibly rising and falling, and this all the more angered her. With his patience growing thin through the moment of silence, Luis barked, "What?"

Straightening her back, Lita gently pushed Luis' gun away from Murphy's head. "We can use this Paddy as bait. Think about it." She now stood, unyielding, in between her brother and Murphy. "We're out for revenge, aren't we? How is killing this Saint fuck without the audience of his family members going to do us any good?" She wore a perfectly executed spiteful smirk upon her cherry lips. "Look, we want Il Duce and his other bastard son to show himself, don't we? So, let them know we have this fuck and get 'em to come here. It's the only way to get 'em out in the open while flying under the radar, don't you agree?"

For a split second, Lita thought that Luis was about to blow her brains out for what she had just done and confidently suggested. Though, a wide grin eventually appeared on his face after a few moments. Shaking his head with a laugh and playfully pinching her cheek, he commented lightly, "Well, brains do certainly run in this family, huh?"

She copied his pleased expression as best as she could, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "And if our fish don't bite," she swallowed, though finished strongly, "we wouldn't have any further use for him, now would we?"

Luis' twinkling eyes bore upon Murphy's form as he replied with a menacing smile, "Couldn't have said it better myself, sis."

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A/N: Hope you all liked that! It was very hard "getting back into the swing of things", so to speak, as I haven't written a word until, well, now! I hope my writing is still up to par. Will definitely work on it as much as I can. Don't forget to leave a review! xx IFHD