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A/N: Short but VERY IMPORTANT chapter!

Seventeen: Private Hells

Xanny tightened her grip on the fabric around Ritchie's neck. He had turned his head, watching the newcomer, as if Xanny wasn't even there, with a gun to his head. Seth, for his part, had managed to get out his own pistol, but had no idea which way to turn it.

The man was their age, maybe just a little bit older. Smooth features, thick black hair that curled around his head and a little down his neck, a pleasant smile, white T-shirt and jeans, nothing threatening about him, other than the fact that he had his long, muscular arm wrapped tightly around Augusta's neck, and a gun pointed at her temple.

"Well," he said, stepping into the room, using his foot to push the door shut behind him, "I guess since no one is ready to introduce themselves, I'll start. I'm Salvador. Now, you must be Seth Gecko," he said, looking at Seth, "and you're Ritchie," toward Xanny's hostage. He looked to Xanny. "Not quite sure about you two girls, though. Although you look familiar." This was directly at Xanny. "Do I know you?"

Xanny held tight to Ritchie's neck. She pressed the gun a little closer to his head, even as she was looking at Salvador, and said, "I don't think so."

"You sure? You seem awfully familiar."

"Maybe I just look like the girl you're threatening to shoot," Xanny said, keeping her voice level. "She's my sister."

"Twin," Augusta managed.

"Ah," Salvador said, casually, as if they were chatting at an office Christmas party. "No, that isn't it. Were you in a women's correctional facility in Chicago? My sister was there, Rosemary was her name...ring a bell?"

"Rosemary was my cel-mate," Xanny managed, glancing briefly at Seth, making sure he was keeping his distance. The look of utter confusion mingled with barely suppressed rage was almost amusing at that moment.

"My sister," Salvador said with a smile. "Yeah, I remember now. But your hair was kind of a dull red then, wasn't it?"

"Yeah." She cleared her throat. "Listen, um...Salvador? I'm sorry to be rude, but we're in the middle of something, so could you tell us why exactly you're holding a gun to my sister's head?"

"Oh," as if he'd forgotten what he was doing, although his body certainly hadn't, as its grip never wavered, "I'm sorry to be rude, but my business is with these guys," he gestured briefly with the gun to Ritchie and Seth. "Seems like you have business with them, too."

"Kind of. Do you think, maybe, since your business is with them that maybe you could not put a gun to my sister's head?" she asked, keeping it polite without being too sweet about it.

Salvador smiled briefly. He had the kind of smile that only came with teeth-whitening treatment. "I would in a heartbeat, um...."

"Xanny."

"Xanny, but Seth over there seems to be hesitating about aiming his gun at me as long as I keep this gun on her, so I'm going to have to say, no, not right now."

"You know I watched Rosemary's back," Xanny said, a little sharply.

"Yeah, she spoke highly of you. And I'm really sorry, but if it's this sister of yours or me, you're going to have to understand my decision." Suddenly his dark eyes turned hard and he was glaring at Seth. "Now, Mr. Gecko, if you would please put your gun down."

"Considering the circumstances, you'll understand if I tell you to go to hell," Seth said, amazingly calm.

Salvador smiled again, charmingly. "I figured. Well, this is certainly a bit of a mess."

"Yeah," Seth said. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Salvador," Xanny said, glancing at Seth. "Weren't you listening?"

Seth opened his mouth to snarl a reply, but caught Ritchie's eye, and said, "No, I mean, what in the hell are you doing here? What do you want with us?"

"You remember Teddy, don't you?" Salvador said.

"Yeah," Seth said.

"He was a cousin of mine," Salvador said.

"Yeah, and?"

"And you killed him."

"Well, he did try to steal my brother's and my money," Seth said, very rationally.

Salvador shrugged. "I know, Teddy wasn't the most honest guy in the world, but he was family, and I can't let family just be blown away by a couple of shitheads like you and not do anything about it. Plus there was the fact that those boys of mine I sent after you were good friends, taking care of business for me, and you killed all of them."

"It was us or them, friend," Seth said, a bit harder. "I'm sure you can understand."

"Yeah, but still. It doesn't look good for me to let something like that go. Besides, what do I care about either one of you? Teddy was family, that makes him under my protection. Maybe if you'd bothered to find out a few of his connections, I could have taken care of the whole mess for you without all of this shit going down."

"Wait a minute," Ritchie said, his voice a bit more anxious than his usual calm tones, "those mafia boys were yours?"

"Yep," Salvador said. "I would have been with them if I hadn't had a previous appointment."

"But...you're Latin," Ritchie pointed out. "Teddy was Latin. Those boys were, well, they were...."

"Italian," Salvador confirmed. "I'm Latin on my mom's side, Italian on my dad's. I know I look a lot more like my mom, but still, blood is blood, and it's a lot thicker than water."

"Well, this is all very informative," Xanny said, still polite, "but I think we need to worry more about the immediate problem. Now, Salvador, if I can get Seth to put down his gun, will you take your gun off my sister?"

"I'll consider it," Salvador said.

"The only way I'm putting my gun down, Xanny," Seth snapped at her, "is if you take yours off of Ritchie."

"I can deal with that. But you'd better push your gun this way, because I'm not letting go of Ritchie unless he promises to get is ass across the room. Otherwise I'll be forced to hurt him."

"You hear her, Ritchie?" Seth said.

"Yeah," Ritchie muttered.

"You first, Seth," Xanny said.

"Yeah, Seth, you first," Salvador said.

"No way," Seth said.

"Fuck," Xanny muttered. She let go of Ritchie, shoved him from her as hard as she could. She pointed the gun at Seth. "NOW will you?" she snarled.

Seth tossed the gun down on the bed, it bounced briefly and Xanny had to reach for it. She heard a click, looked up and realized that Salvador had turned his gun from Augusta's head to Ritchie, and then to Seth, just to make sure.

Xanny reached the gun, pulled it back, stepped a bit closer to Salvador. "Your turn," she said.

Salvador let go of Augusta, who promptly flew at Xanny. Xanny caught her and set her down in the chair she had previously occupied.

"Okay," Salvador said, "now that that's taken care of---"

"Wait," Augusta said, recovering her breath and standing back up again. "What happens now?"

The Geckos glared at her from across the room. Xanny said, "What do you think, Augusta?"

"Mr. Salvador---"

"Just Salvador."

"Salvador," Augusta corrected herself, "look, you seem like a very rational... person. I'm sure we can work something out." She stepped closer to him, being careful not to get in his line of fire. Xanny put her gun on Ritchie and Seth, just to be sure they wouldn't try anything stupid.

Seth let out a disdainful noise. "What the fuck?" he said. "Xanny, you aren't going to shoot me."

"No, but I'll shoot Ritchie," Xanny said without blinking.

"I'll shoot you, Seth," Salvador said, with a nearly charming smile. He looked back at Augusta. "What do you suggest?"

"Well, there was no way for Seth and Ritchie to know about Teddy's connections with you. I'm sure they would have come to you if they'd known. And Teddy did steal from them. I mean, can you blame them for what they did? Really?"

"Not really," Salvador said with a sigh. "But still, you have to understand the thing about keeping face. I don't do this and my own reputation suffers, and that can't happen."

"I'm sure," Augusta said, and suddenly Xanny saw how all the years of being around Marcos was starting to pay off. "Look, those guys who attacked us at that hotel? They were going to shoot me as well, and I didn't do anything to your cousin. And I have a few connections myself, and then you would have had to deal with them, and on and on and on, and it would have just been a bloodbath. Can't we be rational people about this and negotiate something?"

"What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking an even ten million," Augusta said. "For them. For Seth and Ritchie. Compensation for the loss of manpower, apologies for the loss of your cousin. That's a considerable amount of money."

"Yeah, it is." He didn't seem terribly impressed, though.

"Augusta, what in the fuck are you doing?" Xanny hissed.

"Shut up, Xanny," Augusta said calmly. "I know what I'm doing."

"I don't know," Salvador said. "How can I trust you?"

"You can trust me," Xanny said, backing up Augusta in spite of the insanity of it. "Remember, your sister and everything?"

Salvador seemed to be considering. "These two get the hell out of the area and never come back. I'm talking Mexico."

"Fine," Augusta said, glancing briefly at the stunned brothers over her shoulder. "Fine, they were planning on that anyway."

"Only one problem," Salvador said. "How do we remove ourselves from this situation quietly?"

Augusta turned around. "Seth, are you paying attention?" she snapped.

"Absolutely," he answered.

"You're going to let us go. You're going to let us walk away from this. Salvador too. We'll just give him the money Marcos was getting ready to give to you---I'm sure by now he's got some of it. Salvador, you'll be my personal hero if you'll escort Xanny and myself back to our hotel. Wherever it is."

Salvador let out a little snort. "This is too easy," he said.

"You call this easy?" Xanny asked. "Easy would be to shoot everybody."

"I don't trust these boys," Salvador said.

"You got me there," Xanny said, sighing.

"Seth, give me your word you'll get your asses out of here and into Texas," Augusta said. "Otherwise, I'm just going to let Salvador shoot you."

Seth stared at them. For once in her life, Xanny had no idea what he was thinking. Whether he was frustrated that the girls were going to get away, furious that he was being threatened, or grateful that Augusta had somehow managed to save his and Ritchie's lives, she didn't know.

"Come on, Seth," Xanny said. "It's over. Let's just all go back to our own private hells, okay?"

Seth looked at her, meeting her eyes. He was not happy, but he seemed to be resolved to the situation. After all, there were guns pointed at him by people who seemed quite willing and able to kill him.

"Fine," he said.

"Your word, Seth," Augusta said.

"You have my word, Augusta," Seth said, even more calmly. "You guys leave, we leave. It's over."

"Good," Augusta said, "I'd kiss you goodbye, but under the circumstances, you'll have to understand why I don't."

Xanny raised her eyebrows in surprise as Augusta walked past them and out the door. "Come on!" she called from the sidewalk.

Xanny and Salvador looked at each other. Xanny shrugged, nodded at him, and Salvador backed out. She heard him going to the car, opening the doors. She looked at the Geckos one last time.

"Sorry, guys," she said as she backed out. "I really didn't mean for it to go down like this. Seth," and he met her eyes again, "I am sorry, you know. If I hurt you. It was never my intention."

He just nodded. She shut the hotel room door, dropped his and Ritchie's guns on the step outside the door, and climbed into the backseat of Salvador's car.

"Why did you do that?" Augusta asked.

"I can't take their guns away completely," Xanny said. "Come on, we have to leave them with some dignity."

Salvador chuckled. "That's classy, Xanny. Rosemary told me you had a lot of class."

"Must be the blood," Xanny said, smiling at Augusta. Salvador was a very nice man, she thought as they chatted on their way back to where Carl and Marcos were no doubt worrying for their lives. It was too bad he was a gangster. Xanny had had enough of gangsters to last her a lifetime.

A/N: Don't worry, it's not over yet.