"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Logan screamed, not stopping once he reached me, just shoving me back. I stood strong, though, no matter how much he scared me shitless. I wouldn't run, and I wouldn't fight. "Then after that, I'm gonna fucking kill James and bathe in his whore blood."

You know, Logan is a very sweet and adorable person most of the time. But he's like a mama lion- if you mess with his babies- Addie or Carlos- you're getting it. Suddenly the baby blue lip ring hugging his bottom lip wasn't a cute touch to his appearance, it was a deathly sign that this guy was a badass and he'll fuck you up.

"Addie, go in my room and call Daddy and stay on the phone with him and don't come out," I said to my daughter, who was standing beside the table in horror. I knew she shouldn't see whatever was about to happen, and Carlos' voice would make her feel safe. I honest to God thought I was going to be killed that night. She took my phone from the counter and sprinted into my bedroom, sensing the urgency in my voice. Yes, I was scared as all hell of this 5 foot 9, 150 pound man, but you would be, too, if you saw the fire in his eyes.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU?" Logan screamed, socking me in the cheekbone and making me stumble. I wouldn't fight back. I deserved everything he did to me, and if that included killing me, so be it. "I TOLD YOU THAT IF YOU FUCKED UP WITH JAMES IT WAS THE END!"

"There's nothing you can say to make me feel worse than I already feel!" I argued, but took the punch in the stomach that I received. I knew Addie must be afraid, hearing all this yelling, all this cursing from Logan. I hoped Carlos picked up the phone.

"YOU'RE A SICK MOTHER FUCKER!" Logan punched my cheekbone again, "YOU'RE AN ASSWIPE! YOU'RE SCUM!" somehow his punches didn't seem to hurt so bad- I guess I was just that numb to life at the time, because I had experienced Logan's wrath a few times. "YOU'RE A PIG! YOU'RE DIRT ON MY GOD DAMN SHOE!"

"Daddy, I'm scared," I heard Addie whimper from my bedroom, having gotten a hold of Carlos. It was a fatherly instinct that Logan himself had told me about- a mother or father, biological or not, can hear their child's cries and whimpers through impossible distances. Right now, I wished I couldn't.

The mere fact that he answered the phone when his caller ID said my name told me that he was perfectly fine with Logan coming to kill me. Maybe he even told him to. He was expecting Addie's call.

"I FIGURED YOUR HUSBAND BEING SICK AND HAVING TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR CHILD WOULD HELP YOU KEEP IT IN YOUR GOD DAMN PANTS!" Logan screamed at me, this time landing a fist into my mouth, making me taste blood. "YOU DON'T DESERVE MY CARLOS! YOU'RE FUCKING SCUM!"

"I KNOW," I yelled back, teeth bloody, I'm sure. I knew that I had a pocket knife in my back pocket, but I wasn't going to use that.

"AND HE HAD TO HEAR IT FROM ADDIE! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?"

"I KNOW, LOGAN!"

Logan's fist hooked hard onto my temple, making my ears ring.

"AND YOU LET HER WALK IN ON YOU!"

I stumbled and he took the opportunity to shove me to the carpet. Okay, I wasn't so accepting of this anymore.

"Daddy!" Addie screamed shrilly.

"STAY BACK, ADDIE!" I yelled through fighting consciousness. Logan knew exactly where to punch to make me pass out, and I knew it. I just had to keep my eyes open, or I may never wake up. I knew that Logan wouldn't hurt Addie if she came to me, but she didn't need to watch this. "GO IN MY ROOM!"

Logan's Chuck-Tailored foot pegged harshly into my side, making me roll away and curl up.

"I WARNED YOU OVER AND OVER! I TOLD YOU I'D SKIN YOU ALIVE!" Logan screeched, his foot landing hard in my spine and ribs. I was struggling as the breath was knocked out of me. I wasn't feeling so hot anymore. "BUT YOU DON'T THINK WITH YOUR HEAD YOU THINK WITH YOUR COCK!"

The blows stopped and I wheezed as Logan's foot rolled me to my back. The diamonds on the bottom of his shoe pressed to my Adam's apple, his eyes murderous on mine. My fingers clutched to his shoe, trying to get it away as it started to push, crushing my windpipe.

The stars in my eyes quickly started taking over, my fingers pulling with more panic now. He was enjoying watching me die. He didn't care that he would go to prison and leave Addie one father down. He just wanted me dead. I can't say I blamed him.

I was at the edge, about to let go. Suffocating was a shitty way to go, I have to tell you. You can feel the air around you, but you can't have it. You start to hear your heart in your ears. Your muscles give out. The stars in your eyes take over, and that sense of panic starts to fade to a strange calm.

But then my guardian angel came.

"GET OFF!" Addie screamed, little fingers curling around the toe of Logan's shoe and pulling up. She quickly realized that she didn't have time for that. She landed a tiny fist into Logan's crotch (I taught her that, never thinking it would save my life) which loosened Logan's foot just enough for me to shove it off of my throat. I rolled over, coughing, sputtering, gasping. "GET OUTTA HERE, LOGIE! I DON'T LIKE YOU ANYMORE!"

"Addison Riley, you need to go to your room and stay there till I come get you," Logan said through clenched teeth.

"GO AWAY! YOU DON'T SCARE ME!"

I started to be able to breathe and I opened my watery eyes to find that Addie was sitting protectively in the curve of my stomach, staring angrily up at Logan.

"You're dirt, Kendall!" Logan continued yelling at me. "Hiding behind a five-year-old! Unfair advantage!"

I felt Addie's little hand feel around in my back pocket and she retrieved my pocket knife- a switchblade that I used to open packages at work and I got into the habit of keeping on me. She very carefully unfolded it and held it up like a sword at Logan.

"GO AWAY, LOGIE!" she yelled at him bravely.

For the first time, Logan seemed to realize what was happening. He stared at the silver blade that my innocent daughter was using to protect me and his mouth dropped open a little.

"Addie," he said in astonishment.

"HIT ME INSTEAD!"

Logan's hand clapped over his mouth and tears filled his eyes. If I hadn't already been crying, I would have started then. My poor, brave, sweet baby was protecting me with her sword, sacrificing herself for me, standing up to the man she loved as much as her parents.

Logan whimpered and dashed away, but I didn't see where he went. I was too busy reaching up a shaky hand to pry the knife away from the child and toss it to the carpet a few feet away.

Addie's attention turned to me and so did her body. Her warm little hands touched my face, which I was sure was bloody and bruised, and her lip quivered.

"I tried to call 911 but I didn't know how," she said, dark eyes full of the purest tears one can imagine. "You couldn't breathe. I had to protect you."

I felt blood trail from the corner of my mouth down my skin, tears doing the same.

"It's okay, Daddy. Go to sleep- I'll keep Logie away."

I didn't want to, but I had no choice but to pass out then.


I was awakened an hour(ish) later by the sound of my daughter's crying, which cut through even the deepest of my unconsciousness. I pried my heavy eyes open to find Addie lying in front of me, curled up with my knife, back to my chest, my phone in her shaking hands. She had pulled my arm over her side and it lay between her arms, and my heart wrenched at the thought of Mufasa's death scene in The Lion King, where Simba found his body and curled up beneath his paw. Did Addie think I was dead?

"Where's Logie?" I heard Carlos asked over the speakerphone.

"I dunno, Daddy, but I'm scared he'll come back."

"You don't have to be scared of Logie. You know that."

"He killed Daddy," Addie whimpered. I could see that now Logan was a monster in Addie's eyes. Someone to be feared when he was one of the last people she should feel unsafe with. I wasn't afraid of Logan, though, although he just about killed me. I knew that he had it out of his system now and was safe(ish).

"No, baby, Daddy's not dead." Carlos' voice soothed every pent-up nerve, every pain, every waiting sob, and every fear I had, just as I knew it did for Addie and Logan.

"Yes he is."

"You have to find Logie and make sure he's okay." I knew that Carlos was afraid that Logan may have punched a wall and hurt himself or was sobbing in the bathtub.

"I can't leave Daddy," Addie whispered. She rolled around to face me and saw that my eyes were open now. She let out a relieved sigh and wrapped an arm around my neck, soothing the rest of my pain. "He's awake, Daddy, it's okay," she said to the phone.

"Good. Let's go find Logie, baby girl," Carlos said gently. Addie quietly got up, somehow looking so badass with her wild hair and pink dress, little feet bare with red toenails. She kissed my hair and pressed the knife securely in my palm, for "protection" before taking the phone and slowly walking toward the hallway.

Carlos and I both knew that Addie would never use the knife, and if she did, she wouldn't know that you had to use a lot of force to hurt someone with it. It would probably just bounce off of Logan- it was dull.

It wasn't as hard as I anticipated to heave myself up. My ribs hurt a lot and my face stung, but I would live. I probably should have gone to a hospital- I was sure I had broken ribs and maybe some crazy internal bleeding.

I decided that I wasn't as bad off as I thought and decided to get up.

I was unstable and wobbly, but I found my way to the kitchen.

I'm no doctor, but I don't think it's normal to cough up blood. Maybe it is after you just got the snot beat out of you. I had just reached the sink in time to start coughing miserably, a little blood spattering into the sink. My teeth and tongue tasted bloody and gross, and I felt a little chip in a back tooth.

I rinsed my mouth out, the water coming out pink with blood. Then I got a dish rag and wetted it with warm water and started to clean up my face, which I couldn't see but felt that pretty much the whole left side of my face was swelling and painful.

My back, around my ribs and spine, was painful and I was sure bruised.

It was about five minutes later when Logan entered the kitchen slowly, phone in his hand.

"And I can't BELIEVE you were gonna actually KILL him! In front of my daughter! Do you know how scared she was? JESUS, Logan, sometimes you have to think!" I heard Carlos lecture from the other end. Logan absently sat at the table, the phone on the surface. "And why would you go that far? I LOVE him, Logan, and you were gonna KILL him! You woulda gone to prison!"

Addie came in and she hugged my leg, her cheek on my hip. I knew she was hungry and tired, and once she saw that everything was calm, she would fall asleep.

I guided her to the table, across from Logan, where her cold grilled cheese was.

"You need to eat, pumpkin," I said softly, leaning down to kiss her hair.

"What did you think you would be helping by killing my husband? Huh? It's not like I suddenly don't love him!" Carlos kept lecturing. I was beyond happy that he kept mentioning that he still loved me. "And YOU would be in prison and Addie would be down a father and I'd be all alone, being sick and broke!"

Logan stared numbly ahead of the table at Addie slowly eating her sandwich. I know he was thinking about how much she was just like Carlos, and he was right. They were both tiny and brave and sassy and adorable.

"Now take care of him and I swear if you hurt him anymore I'll hurt YOU. And you know I will!"

Carlos then hung up and Logan stared at the phone's screen lighting up, rubbing it in his face that Carlos hung up on him.

"I'm gonna go," Logan said quietly, not looking at me. "Can I have a knife? A sharp one?"

"No."

"I have to castrate James. I'm a man of my word."

The sad thing is I can completely see Logan forcing a knife to James' testicles, James struggling to get away but being unable. It brought pain to me just thinking about it.

"What does castrate mean?" Addie asked, looking up at me.

"It means to cut off his balls," I said, not bothering to sugar-coat it.

"Eew," she said simply, nose scrunched up. I didn't know what was said between she and Logan, but she didn't seem to be afraid of him anymore and she didn't seem to be on-guard.

I sighed and sat at the round table between my almost-murderer and daughter.

"I still want you dead," Logan said simply to me.

"I do, too."

"Unfortunately, your husband says I can't make that happen," Logan retorted. "Maybe it's best to just hate your guts every single day and make your existence hell."

I shrugged and nodded, knowing that really me living could be worse than dying.

"But you're lucky that he's got a heart of gold, of your ass really would be dead," Logan said, still not looking at me. "But for some odd reason he still wants you alive. Furthermore, you're lucky as all hell that I know the power of James' seduction and although I'm not excusing your disgusting behavior, I know it's not completely your fault."

"Don't make excuses for me, Logan," I sighed.

"I'm not," Logan said simply, now looking at me with hard eyes. "But I know that he got me into bed with a single kiss and I let him fuck me into the next day even though I really wasn't into him."

I knew Logan was testing me. He was trying to see my reaction, see if I had real feelings for James. They really hadn't had sex and we both knew it.

"He's done and outta my life, Logan," I retorted. "It's over."

"It most certainly is NOT over. You've still got me to deal with and explaining to do to my Carlos."

I was silent, eyes on the table, feeling emotionally and physically exhausted.

"That nieve little bastard still loves you and by the sound of it might still want to patch things up. Too bad you're not going to try."

My eyes turned to his, confused.

"You're not gonna break his heart again," Logan said dangerously. "He's in such a vulnerable state, he can't be dealing with a cheating husband, too. The earlier you leave him alone, the earlier he can start to heal and see just who he's MEANT to be with."

"And who's that?" I growled.

"Me."

And suddenly it all made sense.

"FUCK YOU!" I was suddenly on my feet.

"Daddy!" Addie hissed, having been taught to scold me when I cursed since she was a baby, when I just couldn't stop.

"YOU'RE A MANIPULATIVE BASTARD! YOU'RE A BITCH! HOW CAN YOU ALMOST KILL ME FOR CHEATING WHEN THIS WHOLE TIME YOU'VE BEEN LOVEY WITH MY HUSBAND WITH REAL FEELINGS BEHIND IT? FUCK YOU!"

Addie was suddenly at my side, pushing at my leg to keep me from lunging at Logan and going for a round 2.

"NO! NO MORE FIGHTING! STOP IT!" Addie yelled angrily.

I was shaking now. This whole time I had been okay with Logan even kissing Carlos on the mouth because I had always been told that they were like BROTHERS. And come to find out, Logan was doing almost exactly what I had been doing with James, and Carlos didn't even know it!

"Calm your fucking tits, asshole!" Logan growled.

"SHUT UP, LOGAN! GET OUT OF MY LIFE! I TOLD YOU THIS ONCE ALREADY AND I'M SAYING IT AGAIN! GET. OUT. OF. MY. LIFE!"

"You're taking this all WRONG, Kendall!" Logan said angrily.

"Yeah? I am? CORRECT me, dear high lord sultan Logan!"

"I LOVE Carlos, but I'm not IN love with him," Logan said, eyes blazing. "He belongs with ME, because I can't cheat on him and hurt him. I can't break up with him! I can give him all the love he needs, because he isn't LIKE you, Kendall! He doesn't NEED sex! He NEEDS contact and connection! I'm his SOULMATE, Kendall!"

I knew that Logan was really spiritual and believed in the whole "everything happens for a reason" and "everyone has a soul mate, romantic or not". And if I understood right, he thought he was Carlos' soul mate, but NOT the romantic kind.

"You're wrong!"

"I'm not fucking moving in on your husband!" Logan grunted in frustration. "If I wanted him, believe me, I'd have him."

"YOU'RE RUINING EVERYTHING!" I yelled at him, eyes ablaze. Honestly, I was about ready to beat the shit out of him. "GET OUT OF MY LIFE, MY DAUGHTER'S LIFE, AND MY HUSBAND'S LIFE! YOU'RE JUST A BURDEN!"

"STOP FIGHTING!" Addie let out a shrill scream, hands over her ears, tears running down her freckly cheeks.

This got both of our attention and we paused, staring at her.

Logan looked up at me, gentler this time.

"We aren't helping anything by fighting," he said quietly as I knelt and pulled Addie into my arms. "We're destroying this little angel. She's going through so much and she's breaking."

I looked down at Addie, realizing that his words were true.

Addie's father was really sick and in the hospital.

Her other father and her beloved uncle were constantly fighting.

She saw a disturbing image of James and I in my bedroom.

She almost watched her father get murdered.

She had to save a man's life.

She was drawing scary pictures and didn't know why.

All she wanted to do was tell her beloved family about the letters she learned in school, and nobody but Carlos, who was in the HOSPITAL, would listen.

And now, once again, Daddy and Uncle Logie are screaming at each other.

"You have to understand that I didn't do this because I don't love Los," I said quietly, sitting on the linoleum and rocking Addie as she cried and help her ears, going to fall asleep soon. "I was in such a vulnerable state and I needed a Logan. James was there. And you're right- he's sexy and seductive, and it wasn't against my will that we did what we did. But that's all we did. And now James left and isn't coming back."

"I think I recall telling you the day of your wedding that if you ever hurt my baby, it's over," Logan said dangerously. "And you promised that you wouldn't."

"I know."

"Don't try to get him back, because he'll take you in a naïve heartbeat. I know him. I know that right now he's thinking about bright sides," Logan said. "Well, at least they didn't have sex. I'm sure James is better at blowing than I am anyway. It's good for him to get other experiences. At least James isn't a concern anymore. At least Kenny's sorry for what he did."

I knew he was right- that's how Carlos thought. Always the optimist.

"But he's wrong. There's no excuse for what you did," Logan finished.

"I know. But you can't keep me away from him."

"If you really loved him, you wouldn't try."

"You've never been in love, Logan. You don't know."

"You're wrong. I was in love with Los until well into your marriage."

Logan watched my face screw up in defensiveness and confusion.

"And I loved him, and so I wanted him to be happy. So I made sacrifices. And that's what you have to do. If you love him, let him go, and if he comes back, it's meant to be. He didn't come back to me, and that's how I know we're not supposed to be romantically involved."

"I really hate you."

"Ha. You THINK you hate me. But you don't know hate," Logan said bitterly.

"Get out of my house."

Logan nodded simply and stood from his chair. Addie was already asleep, curled up in my lap, and he gave an evil smirk.

"I'm a bitch, Kendall. You know that better than anyone. And I'm not afraid to hurt you even more. Los says I can't PHYSICALLY hurt you, but I can take that little girl away from you and destroy everything you know. So don't fucking push me."

"You're a psycho," I spat. Logan smirked and rolled his eyes.

"I have a man to castrate," he sighed. "I guess I'll see you in hell, baby."


Man. That got really dark. Um, yeah, I think the next chapter will be a happier one. And can you tell that this has happened between Kendall and Logan a few times before? Don't know if I made that obvious enough.

And Addie was just so cute? Innocent? Badass? I dunno, but she was SOMETHING in this chapter. I hope you liked it as much as I liked writing it. :D