Disclaimer: yea yea you know the drill...
A/N: Okay so its a long chap cause you guys were so patient with me, thanks again. Also this chap should prolly be rated M cause of language but theres not much of it.
"Oh, my, god. You're screwing the nanny." Max said in a disbelieving voice. She really couldn't believe it, he was a man-whore but come on, that's just too… cliché. She turned at put a hand on her forehead. "I mean, he's not even your kid. That's just disgusting, she's, what, 17, 18?"
"K-Kyra, I don't know what you're talking about." He didn't look confused. More panicked than confused but Max wasn't watching him.
She rounded on him and gave him a humorless laugh. "Don't bull-shit me Darien. How stupid do you think I am, seriously?! All those late night work 'issues' and 'problems'. The only 'issue' is you just can't keep it in your pants."
"You knew?" He walked up to her and towered over her, almost as if it was supposed to intimidate her. Yea, right.
"Of course I knew. How could I not know?" She pushed him, hard. She needed him away from her now. "Oh god what was I thinking? I've been so stupid."She pulled open the door to leave but he shut it before she could open it all the way. She had a sudden flashback of Logan doing the same thing. The only difference was she would willingly break this man's hand in four different places and not even bash an eyelash in his direction. Instead she rolled her eyes and pulled the door open with more force, making him stumble backwards. She walked down the corridor but felt him pull her then push her up against the wall. He had his hands on her upper arms and he was looking in her eyes. She just stared him down.
"What are you going to do, huh? Are you going to leave me, is that it?" he snarled. There was no love in his eyes; it was almost like looking at a whole different man.
"What, you want me to stay? When you could have all of those pretty little things? Please." She pushed him again but this time he was harder to shove. "Get off me." She said pushing again. He still wouldn't move.
"No. First you have to hear me out."
"I've heard enough. This whole relationship was a mistake. I'm leaving." With that, she did the first thing that came to mind. She kneed him hard in the stomach and he went down.
Max hurried up to her son's room and opened the door. He was sitting on the floor with his new toy, a plane, looked military but she made no comment. She pulled out her cell phone and called Logan. He didn't answer so she left a message saying that they needed to talk and she would be over soon. She also told him to pack his bags and she would explain everything when she got there. Then she turned to Jason and picked him up, grabbed his medicine bag and walked down the stairs.
Darien was waiting at the front door.
"Move or I go through you, you chose." She said angrily hugging Jason closer to her body. He still had the toy in his hand.
"Where are you going to go?" He asked with a smirk.
"Home." She said for the first time in five years. She tried to push past him to open the door but he blocked it.
"Home? And where might that be?" He looked amused. She wanted to kick him so hard he would have children.
"With Logan." She stated before she knew what she was saying. She looked down, deep in thought for a moment and then looked up with a smile on her face. Darien had only seen that smile when she watched Jason and even then it came rarely, he was taken aback by it. "That's where it's always been."
Darien's smile faltered. "That bastard I let in my house? That's the brat's father?" He looked a Jason, who had remained quiet the whole time. Max stayed quiet.
"The wedding's off." She said finally and made to open the door but stopped when she heard a gun chamber click. She looked at Darien but he wasn't holding a gun. She heard another click behind her and she turned.
"There is no way in hell you're leaving me." Came Darien's voice in her ear as she turned on about 20 armed men surrounding the entry hall. She dropped her hand. "I'm so sorry it had to come to this but, well, you see, it wouldn't look good if you left me and I had some, other, plans in mind for the wedding. Okay Max?"
All Max could do was stare at the man. How the fuck did he know her name? She nodded and felt Jason whimper and snuggle closer to her body, if that was possible.
Jason was in his room and Darien had put a 24 hour watch on him. Max sat in his study, hands in her lap and waited. She was going to kill him. She resolved that there in the entry hall when he had pulled 20 guns on her baby. When he did that he signed his own death warrant at the same time.
He walked in, head high, and she thought of all the things she could do to that neck and keep him alive long enough to watch him suffer. But she waited. She wanted to know why. Damnit, in the past she would have been okay with just killing him and moving on but this was deeper. This just got so much more personal. She crossed her legs and leaned back against the chair resting her hands across the arms of the chair. She looked more relaxed than she felt.
Darien sat down behind his desk and looked at her. She glanced at the guard at her right, then the one at her left. There was one behind Darien and presumably another behind her. So, he knew what she was capable of.
"You do realize that I could probably take down all of you muscles without breaking a sweat and before you even knew what hit you." A statement, not a question.
"Oh, I know perfectly well what you're capable of, Max." He stressed her name and as he did so she felt a handcuff go around her arm and then the chair.
She pulled at it. No budge. She glared at the guy who did it. "I think I'll kill you first." She said softly to him with a warm smile. He looked unsettled but she turned her attention away from him and back to Darien, who said, "I know everything about you. I always do my homework."
He looked amused and she was hit with the urge to wipe the smirk off his face. "You know, Logan was expecting me about thirty minutes ago. He'll probably go to the police."
"Baby, I own the police-"
"Don't call me that."
"-You know that." Said Darien, the smirk hadn't wavered. "Now, what's going to happen is I am going to send you over to Logan's hotel, you are going to tell him to leave town and never come back, and you are going to come back and we are going to get married in a week. Do you understand me?"
"Yea, I understand, what I want to know is, why?"
"Because I love you and I want us to be happy." He said in a forced voice. "And if you don't then I will be forced to use unpleasant measures towards your son. All of which end in his death." Oh yea, he was going to die a very slow, very painful death.
"Yea, yea," she said putting up a façade and waving her free hand. "I get that part, it's a bad guy thing, saw that coming a mile away. What I don't get is why you don't want me to leave. I'd be out of your hair, you could, you know, screw whoever you wanted and we could just move on with our lives." That so wasn't going to happen. He was the living dead; he just didn't know it yet.
"Because I need you-"
"How sweet."
"-and the brat is leverage. You are ruining my plans but that can all be fixed." He said with a wave of his hand.
She stopped. "Plans? What plans?"
"Ah, first you get rid of the brat's father, and then we can talk."
Max walked up to the door and stopped. She looked down the hall. Thug one (The bastard who handcuffed her) on the left, thug two on the right. She lifted her hand, balled a fist as if to knock and hesitated. The door opened anyways and Logan made as if to hug her but stopped.
"What's wrong?" He asked concerned.
"Nothin'." She smiled and pushed her way in, closing her eyes while her back was turned to him and took a deep breather. She had thought about telling him the truth, of course she had but she had to weigh the facts. He wouldn't leave if he knew the truth. He wouldn't let that happen and the end result could mean her son's death. Max loved Logan, but this wasn't about just them anymore. She would protect her son at all cost. She turned on him and he looked puzzled.
"But when you called you sounded… scared." He said with a frown.
"Come on Logan, I don't get scared." She stated bluntly. She hated putting up this act and lying to him but she just couldn't do anything else. She had no other options but she did need his help, she just didn't know how to get it. She set part of her mind formulating a plan but for now she had to stick with the original.
"Then why did you tell me to pack?" he asked.
"Because you're going to leave on the next plane back to Seattle. You have to be packed to leave." She turned around and started fumbling with whatever she could find.
"Then why did you sound worried when you called?"
"Oh that, that was just nothing." She said dismissing it with a wave of her hand.
"That wasn't nothing. I've never heard you sound like that before."
"Darien and I, we just had a fight that's all. You know, wedding stuff." She said, still not looking at him but now looking at his suitcase.
"Did you fight because of me? Were you going to leave him?" She closed her eyes. He gave her an opening that she didn't want to take.
"Why would I leave him, I love him." She said in a cold voice.
"You loved me."He said quietly and she could feel the tears she never cried build up in her eyes. She blinked them down. They would come out now.
"Also, on the plus side, he's great with Jason," yea right "and the staff all love him." Well, the women anyways. "And besides," she said, rounding to face him. "He had enough money to support us and he can pay for Jason medicine."
"I could too."
"Now you couldn't."She said, taking a step forward. "The money for the meds barely makes a dent in Darien's monthly paycheck but it would make a crater out of your yearly one. You couldn't afford it even if you wanted to. Maybe if you hadn't sold out Jonas…" she let the though die. She could see that he wasn't budging but she didn't need to yet, she still needed a plan. And then the perfect one came to her.
"You will be compensated for your troubles-" she started.
"You think that's what I want? You think that's why I flew over the entire country to find you, why I spent the last 5 years looking for you? Because I want money?!"
"No. But every man has his price, Logan, you know that." She said as if it was a commonly known fact.
"I don't!" He yelled pointing at himself.
"Why are you here Logan? What do you have here?"
"I have my son."
"Fine. You can have him." She paused. "After the wedding." It was a good plan, as she saw it. If she couldn't get away from Darien, she could at least get her son away. She looked into Logan's eyes and saw him staring at her in shock.
"What's going on?" he asked finally.
"Nothing is going on."
"You wouldn't just give up your son just like that. You wouldn't because of what they did to your mother at Manticore."
"I never said I was giving him up. He'll visit me too."
"Since when has that been enough?"
"For who?"
"For anybody."
"Logan," she said softly. "I've had him for five years. You've had him for a day."
"You're not seriously telling me that you're willing to give up your son for this guy?"
"Deadly serious. Every time I look as Jason, all I see is you. It would be best if you took him the time being. So I can settle down with Darien."
"I refuse to believe this. You can't be serious." This time it was his turn to look away but then he looked back. "What does he do?"
"'Scuse me?" She stopped the facade for a moment.
"What does he do? As in, for a living."
"I don't see how this-"
"His occupation, what does he do for a living?" He was yelling now.
"He's... a lawyer. What does this have to do with-"
"What kind of lawyer?"
"God Damnit Logan."
"What kind of lawyer?"
"Criminal defense. Big cases. Lots of money." She said annoyed. "What. Does. This. Have. To. Do. With. The. Situation?"
"What did his parents do?"
She sighed and gave in. "They owned a big chain of hotels before the pulse. Somehow they managed to keep their money so they are filthy rich. Why does this matter?!"
"I don't believe you love him." Stated Logan. "I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that that you love him and not me."
A/N: Yay two pluses, long chapter and a fast update. what can I say, I'm amazing.
Reviews be nice, thanks to all.