Eddie's hands shot up, his mind threatening to go into panic mode. He had to maintain his composure here though, or his wife would pay the price.
"Woah woah," he said. "Take anything you want, alright? Just please don't hurt her."
"Well, while you do have some nice stuff in here," the thug holding Anne at gunpoint said as he moved into the room, his friends right beside him, "I'm afraid we're not here for any of that."
"Then what do you want?" Eddie said, keeping his tone even.
"It's our understanding that you met with a... let's call him an old colleague of ours recently," the man explained. "We simply wish to make sure that he didn't share any sensitive information with you."
Thinking quickly, Eddie offered his answer.
"I'm pretty sure that he was planning to, but he didn't exactly get much of a chance."
The man nodded, a smirk coming over his face.
"Well, I suppose that you won't mind if my guys here go through your stuff and make sure that you're telling the truth?" he questioned. "After all, can't be too careful when it comes to some big shot reporter possibly having any of our trade secrets."
As much as Eddie hated this gross invasion of his and Anne's privacy, he knew that he had no choice but to comply. He gave a slight nod, and the other two men immediately went their separate ways, going through different parts of the house. Soon, the sound of belongings being overturned and scattered about could be heard from upstairs especially, and all that Eddie could do was stand there and wait the situation out.
While he did, he looked into Anne's eyes, trying his best to ignore the still smug look of the man who had a gun pointed at the side of her head. The look on her face was one of confusion and terror, though at the moment, it seemed to be more of the former. She clearly didn't understand why this was happening to them, and it seemed almost like she was searching his face for answers. Her look became so guilt-inducing that he eventually had to avert his eyes out of shame.
If he had just heeded her advice before...
Eventually, the other two men returned to the room.
"There's nothing here," one of them said.
"Search the man himself," the gunman ordered, gesturing in Eddie's direction with his weapon. "Some of these reporters tend to keep their secrets pretty close to the chest, after all."
Reluctantly, Eddie complied, raising his hands in the air to make their job easier. With any luck, once they realized the fruitless nature of their mission, hopefully they would simply leave. After all, he'd made a point to dispose of the paper the man had written the initials on after showing it to Peter earlier, so if he just played things convincingly enough, it would all turn out okay in the end.
The gun that remained up against his wife's head reminded him it could turn otherwise at any moment.
"He's clear," the man to Eddie's right said once they completed their search.
The gunman shifted his gaze back in Eddie's direction.
"I'll ask you again, just to be safe," he said. "Did the man you met last night tell you anything?"
"No," Eddie reiterated. Given how much these people were pressing them, he was growing more and more certain that if he did reveal what he knew, he and Anne both were as good as dead.
The gunman slowly nodded, looking off to the side as if he were thinking. His eyeline then matched back up with Eddie's.
"Thank you for your cooperation this evening, Mr. Brock," the man said, giving Eddie just the faintest hope that this might be over soon. "However, before we go, there is one more way that you can prove you're telling us the truth."
He then nodded in the direction of the other men, who immediately proceeded to grab Eddie and pin him to the ground before he even had a chance to properly resist. Once he did try, he quickly realized that it would be a pointless endeavor; the men holding him down were both at least his size, if not bigger, and every bit as strong as well.
"Leave him alone!" Anne cried out.
"Oh, don't worry, miss," the gunman sneered. "If all goes well, we shouldn't have to do anything to your husband. You, on the other hand..."
He then shoved her down, sending her head into the side of the couch before hitting the floor.
"Anne!" Eddie yelled as the gunman came over to her. "Don't touch her!"
The gunman let out a sigh as he bent down to Anne, who slowly managed to look up again.
"You know, when the boys here were trashing all your stuff earlier, you hardly even flinched," he observed as he slipped his gun back inside his jacket. "However, you strike me as the kind of man who, if he is holding onto information, would be more than happy to give it up in exchange for your woman's health and wellbeing."
"I swear, if you touch her, I'll..."
"Enough with the pointless threats," the man said as he reached back inside his jacket, this time pulling out a set of brass knuckles and sliding them onto his fingers. "Now, I'm going to ask you the same question again, and every time that I don't feel that you're telling the truth, well...you can probably guess."
Eddie struggled again as the man grabbed Anne by her hair, jamming his knee into her back to keep her pinned. She let out a groan of pain in response.
"Now, are you absolutely sure that you don't know anything that you shouldn't know?" the man asked.
Eddie peered into his wife's eyes, observing her expression, which was now more fearful than ever. Part of him considered telling them the truth, but his gut told him once again that if he did, it would only seal their fates.
"No," he finally answered, "He didn't tell me anything, I swear!"
The man appeared to consider his response as he let out a sigh. Then, in one quick motion, he struck Anne on the right side of her face with the hard metal on his hand, her head slamming back down to the ground.
"ANNE!" Eddie cried out. "Stop, leave her out of this!"
"Don't worry man, that was just a light blow; you know, a little love tap," the guy tried to reassure him, even as Anne could only barely stir. "Now, let's try this again, shall we?"
"Let her go you monster!" Eddie cried out. "I said I don't know anything!"
"Uh uh uh," the man said, waving his finger. "No trying to answer before I ask the questions."
He then struck Anne in the side of the head again, this time higher up and with more force than before.
"NO!" Eddie cried out, struggling harder against those restraining him. "I swear, I'm going to kill you for this!"
The man started to say something else before the sound of police sirens in the distance could be heard. He then quickly put his brass knuckles away, drawing back out his gun as he motioned for the men to leave out the back.
"Just keep tonight in mind in case you ever think about any more late-night rendezvous," the man said, training his gun on Eddie before quickly following his companions out the back door. Once the men were clear, Eddie rushed over to his wife.
"Anne, baby," he muttered. He turned her over, her body remaining limp as he did. He then put his pointer and index fingers to her neck and was relieved to feel a pulse. Still, her head had looked better, as the right side of her face was already swelling significantly from the blows of the brass knuckles.
"Hold on, baby," he muttered.
Seconds later, the police rushed into the house.
Peter flipped out of the way yet again before immediately grabbing the metal whip coming his way, yanking it forward. The man holding it came along with it, allowing him to deliver a punch straight into his face and sending him flying. He removed the metallic weapon from the guy's hand as he did. The big guy then came at him again, but Peter's spider sense alerted him well in advance this time. He ran to meet the guy head on before sliding underneath him, shooting a web. He then webbed up along his backside and towards his midsection, binding his arms together in a thick patch of the stuff. Then, just for good measure, Peter picked him up and tossed him over by his ninja counterpart, the big guy crashing through a nearby wall as a result.
"You guys give up yet!?" he called out, looking back and forth between the ninja guy and the now whip less individual. However, before they could answer, his spider sense went off. Barely a second later, a loud creaking noise could be heard, followed by the sound of something breaking. Peter looked around, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly where the primary danger was. The fight, which had lasted a while, had torn through a significant chunk of the surrounding levels.
His spider sense then rang out again, and this time, the threat was much more obvious as the room started to tilt. Realizing for the first time the extensive nature of the damage, Peter quickly ran up, ignoring his foes and jumped through the nearest window. Working quickly, he fired several webs, sticking them to the building next door. He scurried along until he had covered most of the backside of the building, which now seemed at least a little more stable.
Sliding back in through the window he'd exited through, Peter made his way back to where his enemies had been and was sadly not surprised to find that they'd used the distraction to escape. Putting the matter aside for now, he turned his attention to scouring the surrounding floors for civilians. Most people had likely made their way out after the fight had entered the building, but there somehow always seemed to be those who stayed behind.
This situation proved no different, as Peter went on to find seven individuals across three different floors. He worked as efficiently as he could, knowing that his webs wouldn't do the job forever. Plus, as significant as the structural damage in certain areas, the top floors were liable to come down on top of the rest of the building. Going one at a time, Peter thankfully found nobody injured, which allowed him to work much faster.
He was down to the last civilian when his spider sense went off again, and this time, there was no questioning why: the building's collapse was imminent. Scooping up the man, he leapt out of the building through another window he'd busted through during a prior rescue, shooting a web to slow their descent. Coming to a rest on the ground a sufficient distance from the building, Peter set the guy down just in time to watch as the building's top three floors collapsed down on the others, producing a domino effect on those directly below. It didn't end up being a complete collapse, but the building was still beyond saving now.
Turning his attention to the few civilians surrounding him, Peter moved towards them.
"Is everyone okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay," a woman spoke up.
"Are you kidding? None of us are okay!" a man came yelling. "Look what you and those guys did to our building!"
"I was trying to protect you," Peter spoke up, though the words rang hollow even to him.
"Then why did you have to drag the fight here!?" the guy yelled. "Why couldn't you have taken it somewhere else? Most of us need our jobs here, and now we don't have them because of you!"
A couple of the others tried to settle the guy down, moving him away as he continued venting his disgust. Peter could still hear every word though, and he turned back, observing the devastation before him. His webs were still latched onto to the back wall but were only barely holding it from collapsing down and caving in the full bottom half of the building. For several seconds, he just stared at it in bewilderment, almost as if he were trying to decide if what had transpired was even real or not.
The sound of police sirens shook him from his daze. Deciding it would be best not to stick around for questioning, Peter shot a web, yanking himself up and away from the scene. He didn't go far though, soon landing on a flagpole higher up, where he could still see the devastation.
"Parker, what did you do?" he muttered to himself. He still couldn't believe it; normally he was so much more careful, always looking to do exactly what the angry civilian had pointed out: keep his battles away from the people as much as possible. Now that he had settled down and he could replay what had transpired in his head, Peter realized now that he had hardly even considered civilians during the whole mess. He'd been so zeroed in, so focused on taking down the bad guys that he'd paid no mind to what was going on around him. It wasn't like he had a perfect record when it came to property damage, but still, this was preventable. He was better than this. How could he have been so blind, so irresponsible?
Even more disturbing, however, was how much he seemed to have ENJOYED the fight. Before he could dive down this line of thinking too much, however, the sound of his cell phone ringing shook him from his thoughts. Pulling it out, he observed that it was Eddie. Part of him didn't want to answer, but knowing his friend and coworker, he was likely to persist until he finally responded, so he figured that he might as well do it now.
"Hey man," he responded, "listen, now isn't..."
"Peter," Eddie spoke up, and even from that word, he immediately knew that something wasn't right. "I... something's happened."
"What is it?" Peter questioned. "Are you alright?"
"No, not at all," Eddie answered after a brief pause. "It's Anne."
I know this chapter was pretty dark, so... yeah, things will get rougher before they get better. Anyway, thanks for the support, as always!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support." Psalm 18:18