Okay, sorry all for how late my update is at getting out. I would have posted long before now but life and a throat infection also add in the fact of the holidays kept me well occupied but I did find time to pen out Chapters 8 and 9 so here they are. Enjoy

I also changed Marcus's back story a bit. the one I had originally wrote was a long time ago and so it didn't fit with the current story path I am telling so I edited it slightly but I haven't made the changes yet, that will be done later. So if any of you have questions or are confused send me a PM or review

Devon McBride had sat in the broken shillelagh for most of the night and was enjoying the company of a few fine ladies that were at the bar. Until a ghost from the past walked into the bar.

It had been many years since he last saw his friend even though he tried to leave the organization they were brought up by he held nothing against him. He had thought about leaving after they had thought Marcus was dead but decided to stay on and now he was apart of Declan's inner circle. And had his own crew to manage here in steelport.

He had followed Marcus and his friend down to the docks to see what they were up to.

"what are you doing here?" Devon said to himself as he watched Marcus and the other man take photos of the docks as Syndicate guards loaded crates and containers onto a cargo ship.

He was distracted by his phone as it buzzed with a text.

D- The old man wants you to call in ASAP!

"shit" he muttered as he looked back at Marcus and then left to return to his car.

LINE

Marcus and Pierce were taking pictures of the cargo that the Syndicate were loading Pierce was working the camera while Marcus looked through binoculars.

"looks like there moving...stuff" said pierce as he snapped a few more pictures

"oh, good job detective shall we call it a day then" Marcus said sarcastically as he shook his head.

"hey man, do I look like I have x-ray vision." pierce replied

"calm down mate, I'm just screwing with you." Marcus said as he put the binoculars away.

"come on we should go before they see us" Marcus said he turned to leave before he was stopped by pierce.

"Hey, look at this" pierce pointed out a van that had just pulled up and two guards jumped out along with a huge giant of a man and pulled a girl wearing blue jacket that said FBI on the back from the van they took her to the ship.

"what the hell why do they have a fed and what are they hiding" Pierce said and looked to the boss.

"I don't know but we need to find out more about whats going on here, see if you can dig up any information on this place and what they're hauling out." Marcus then got a sudden feeling and looked behind them but saw nothing.

Pierce noticed and asked "what is it" trying to see what he was seeing.

"nothing, come on we need to leave before we get spotted" Marcus carefully backed away from there spot as they made their way back to the car.

Devon who had almost been spotted was hiding behind his cover as he waited for the two to leave, once they had gone he ran for his car. He knew he had to report what he had discovered but on the other hand was reluctant. He had always been a supporter of Marcus even when he betrayed the group and blew the deal all those years ago he had tried to defend his actions to their boss but almost ended up receiving the same fate. To discover after all these years that his best friend was alive, well it made him feel like there could be a second chance for him. Devon decided he needed to find out more about what his friend was up to before he reported this to the old man.

Arriving back at the penthouse with Pierce Marcus had walked into the office on the main floor to lay out the pictures they had taken on a planning board the saints had set up. While organizing the photos Shaundi entered to greet them.

"hey, what took you guys so long to get back" she said as she leaned against the desk on the other side of the room.

"we had to make sure we weren't spotted or followed" Marcus said, he looked to Pierce who had finished with the photos "see if you can dig up that info tomorrow"

"you got it" pierce said as he left

That evening Marcus had decided to go for a run down in the new gym they had on hand. When he entered he was greeted by the sight of Shaundi doing her yoga and Pilates routine he took a moment to admire her rear as she was unaware of his entrance or at least that's what he thought.

"might as well take a picture if you stare any longer." she said as she moved into the next position. Next thing she heard was the click and flash of a cell phone camera. Snapping a look between her legs as she looked at Marcus with a un amused face he just shrugged in response.

"hey, you said to" he said putting his phone away and walking towards the treadmill

"ya well that's the last thing I need is you staring while I'm in a compromising position.

"uh, huh and what do you call last night then eh." Shaundi blushed slightly as the events of last night came to mind and suddenly caused a wave of heat flow through her body.

"If you expect to keep getting any in the future you'll shut up and keep the ogling to a minimum" she said as an idea of sweet revenge came to her. She stood to get her water and towel and walked past Marcus who was focus on changing the song his music player. Shaundi gave a little sway and said as she walked by "I don't know about you but i'm just beat I think I'm gonna go take a nice hot shower" she finished as she was about to walk out. "okay you do... what!...shit" she turned to look to witness Marcus trip on the treadmill. She covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. Marcus was quick to recover but not quick enough to play it off like it was nothing.

"smooth one, you big lug" Shaundi said while Marcus just smirked at her "Big lug eh" he turned off the treadmill finishing his run and once again looked at her with a lustful predatory look in his eyes. Shaundi turned to dart out the door but Marcus gave chase and was closing on her as he chased her into their room. Shaundi let out a playful laugh as she ran but soon shrieked as she felt two well built arms pick her up and carry her off towards the shower.

"now lets see about getting you clean shall we" Marcus said as Shaundi struggled over his shoulder

"hey, no fair" she protested but soon gave in and let him win. setting her down right outside the door to the bathroom she just gave him a small wink as she opened the door and began to remove her clothes in a trail towards the shower as Marcus did the same. What she did not expect was for him to be right behind her when she entered the shower she turned just as he pressed her up against the glass of the shower. Letting out a gasp as the cool glass sent a chill up her spine as it made contact with her bare skin. The heat from the water mixed with the chill to create an intense feeling within her as Marcus moved to lift her as she wrapped her arms around his neck and legs around his waist. They soon fell deeper into their passions as they took a lengthy shower ending with both collapsing on there bed completely exsuaghted.

It was around two in the morning when Marcus was shifting and turning in bed as his mind was assaulted by his nightmare. "No, no leave her alone no!." shocking himself he shot up covered in a thin layer of sweat as his tried to slow his breathing, he looked around to regain his bearings then looked to Shaundi lying next to him. She was still sound asleep for that he was thankful he didn't want her to see him like this. The full moon gave the room a soft light that highlighted her naked form he sat there watching her sleep, studying the tattoo that ran from her hip along her ribs to her back. Running his hand softly along her hip so as not to wake her he grabbed the covers and pulled them up to cover her. Leaving her with a soft kiss on the head as he carefully got out of bed and found a pair of casual pants and headed for the only thing that could help him at this hour, the bar.

Grabbing a bottle of the first thing he found, he took it and a glass and sat on the main couch in front of the windows that looked over the pool area. For the next hour he sat there in silence just drinking glass after glass. Over the years it had helped him to suppress the memories and feelings that found their way to the surface of his mind. But the last few times it had seemed to be having a lessened effect on him.

Shaundi shifted to get closer to Marcus feeling the chill of the loss of body

heat. When she realized that he was gone. She sat up to look around and found he was not in the room She got up and put on her robe to go look for him, she then realized that him being up this late meant that he probably had another nightmare. In the last year or so they had been together he had similar nights where he could not sleep and she found him drinking his problems away. She knew it didn't work and he knew it didn't either. True enough she found him sitting on the couch she stood there thinking of how to help him, Deciding to go to him and talk.

Hearing movement and the soft padding of feet behind him, Marcus turned to see Shaundi in a light silk robe, her hair slightly mussed from sleep, but looked as beautiful as ever.

"There you are, whats wrong" she said as her face held a slight look of worry.

"sorry, I couldn't sleep" he said turning away from her hoping she wouldn't pry further.

Shaundi's concern only grew as she approached and sat next to him, bring her legs up to cuddle next to him as he put an arm around her. She grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Marcus you can talk to me, please tell me whats wrong" she said softly

Marcus sighed and finally relented "it's nothing I just feel like this is too much for us. That this life of constant danger is getting to be too much for all of us. Maybe Johnny was right maybe I did lose sight of what was important." Marcus sighed as he shook the troubling thoughts from his mind he couldn't dwell on his troubled thoughts now. Tomorrow the real work would begin.

"Hey, I beleave in you we can get through this, I still have my fears but that doesn't mean i'll run from them now." Shaundi said as she gave Marcus a light kiss on the cheek and took his hand with the intent of bring him back to bed.

They returned and quickly fell asleep once more, After getting up and having a quick shower Marcus had gone down to meet with Pierce who had shown up with some info on the docks.

"Hey man I heard back from one of my contacts about whats going on at the docks. So check it out the syndicate are moving tons of weapons and money out of the country they've cleared out there secure stash houses and putting it on boats to ship out. My contact couldn't say for what purpose but he said that if they were moving this much merchandise then something big is going down." Pierce said

"What about that girl we seen being moved onto that boat?" Marcus asked

"well all he knew was that she is a former fed that was investigating the syndicate but was kicked out cause of some incriminating tips that got planted on her system."

"well now she sounds like the perfect person to help us we need people who know the syndicate."

Wait were going to get a shitty fed." Shaundi asked surprised

"ah don't be jealous that were getting a new girl"

Shaundi instantly looked to Pierce and gave him an icy death glare that caused Pierce to back away in fear.

"Alright you to we got work to do" Marcus said getting the others focused back on the task at hand. Pierce with a glance towards shaundi looked back at the planing board "what's the plan then, how do we get on the ship and get this fed out" Pierce voiced as the others thought about a plan. Marcus was the one to speak up.

"Well best I can tell is they have patrols around the docks and men at the gates, anything that comes in is either searched or under guard so we can't get in that way. Will need to create a distraction and come in from the water by boat." Marcus said as he finished his plan and turned to Shaundi and Pierce who both gave him an impressed look. Marcus raised an eyebrow. "what?"

"It's just your plans never tend to be that subtle" Shaundi said with a cheeky smile.

Marcus feigned offence "i can have my moments, lets just do this." Marcus said as he continued on with his plan.

The plan was to have some of the saints create a distraction by making the syndicate goons think that they were hitting the docks while Marcus Shaundi and Pierce came in by boat and boarded the cargo ship. With any amount of luck they would be able to slip in and grab Kinzie without being seen.

"is it too late to reconsider this plan" Pierce said as Marcus steered the boat towards the ship as the sound of gunfire and the thud of smaller explosions echoed from the docks.

The distraction worked the syndicate fully believed that the saints at the docks were the true threat.

"Alright were on let's do this" Marcus said as he started to climb up and onto the ship followed by Shaundi and Pierce.

Once on the ship they made their way to the lower holds they only met a few guards along the way until they entered the cargo holds which were filled with drugs money and weapons, much like the plane that they had escaped from.

"Man, these guys sure can move tons of product" Pierce said as he inspected a crate of drugs.

Marcus was also inspecting some of the weapons crates, something on the shipping label caught his eye it was the shipping company used Trans Global shipping. "No.. can't be." Marcus said aloud which drew the attention of the others,

"whats wrong?" Shaundi said coming up beside him.

Marcus was pulled from his trance "uh.. nothing it's nothing come on" Marcus turned and continued on.

Shaundi raised an eyebrow and looked back at the crate but decided to leave it be.

Making it through the cargo hold they came to the room that was reported to be holding Kenzie they shot the lock and quickly entered to find no one but Kenzie tied to a chair with a bag over her head.

Pierce pulled the bag off as Marcus approached "you Kenzie Kensington?" Marcus asked

kenzie just stared at the three individuals before her, she knew who they were she had read their files at the FBI "Maybe, who wants to know" she asked in reply.

"we heard your no fan of the syndicate and we figured are interests are in line, what do you say." Pierce said

"I'm not sure still trying to decide if your here to kill me or not." a smirk pulled at Marcus's face " I already like her she's got good instincts." Marcus said

"well I hate to interrupt but we should be going like now" Shaundi said as she watched the door.

"She's right let's go" Marcus said as he motioned for Pierce and Kenzie to follow as the group made their way out of the ship.

Re entering the cargo hold they came under fire all four scrambled to find cover, with Marcus and pierce taking cover behind some crates on the left of the hold and Shaundi and kenzie taking to the right.

"See I knew this wouldn't go as planned, My plan would've worked" Pierce said as he kept his head down.

"oh shut up will you" Marcus said as he fired back at the syndicate guards that were trying to push towards them. They were forced to return to cover as Shaundi and Marcus shot back each time.

"we need to move or we're gonna run out of ammo, I only got one clip left" Shaundi yelled over the return gunfire.

Marcus was trying to sort out an escape plan in his head until he noticed the crates him and Pierce were hiding behind were the weapon crates from earlier. He smiled and broke the wooden siding on one of the crates. Inside were a range of weapons.

Marcus grabbed two assault rifles and a shotgun from the crate. Handing one of the rifles to Pierce "Here mate, whats say we give'em a taste of these." Marcus said as Pierce took the rifle and loaded it "Now that's what I'm talking about." Marcus turned to Shaundi and threw her the shotgun since he could not cross the gap between them.

"Here luv, catch" Marcus yelled. She caught the shotgun and loaded it. "you always give me the best gifts." She replied as she gave him a grin and gave her pistol to Kenzie. "here watch my back" Kenzie took the gun with a wide-eyed look "I was never good with shooting" She said with a bit of worry creeping into her voice.

"It's easy just point and squeeze the trigger, nothing to it" Shaundi said.

Now that they had better weapons the saints could start to push back towards the exit. Marcus peeked out of cover to try to get a fix on where the syndicate were exactly. Quickly returning behind cover after almost getting shot.

"okay, we got two on the upper catwalk and four at the other end of the hold by the door." Marcus said to Pierce as who nodded in response as he was returning fire.

Pierce returned to cover and looked to Marcus "why don't we split up and try to move up maybe we can get a better angle on them." Marcus thought for a moment and agreed.

"Shaundi you and Kenzie flank right, will go left" Shaundi nodded and began to move while him and Pierce were already on the move.

Fireing as they moved they pushed up towards the center of the hold. One of the Syndicate tried to rush Both men and was cut down quickly. Once in cover agin they provided cover fire for Shaundi and Kenzie, who also took down a syndicate guard.

"well that wasn't so bad" Marcus said as he now had to figure out how to get past the remaining guards blocking their way.

"So what now." Shaundi said as she looked across to Marcus.

"I'm thinking" Marcus replied as he looked around for something they could use.

"I got it" He said as the others just gave questioning looks. Marcus dove to a nearby crate that he had seen on his way in, opening the crate and grabbing what was inside and returning to cover by Pierce. "what you get" he asked Marcus held up two grenades in response.

"nice" Pierce said as he took one. Shaundi provided cover as Marcus and Peirce got ready. Pierce threw his grenade at the two guards on the catwalk at the same time as Marcus threw his towards the two remaining guards behind the crates.

Two deafening exsplosions rang out as the the guards from the catwalk were thrown over and landed in a pile of drugs and the other two behind the crates were thrown to the side killed instantly.

Marcus and the others stood to inspect the damage. "well job well done than eh, come on let's go before more show up" with that said all four saints ran for the exit and found themselves back where they had come aboard.

"alright no time to hang around jump" Marcus said as he looked back for pursuers.

"What!?" came the simultaneous reply from the other three.

"ya, see it's easy" Marcus said as he pushed pierce over the side of the ship and was rewarded with the sound of splashing water.

Kenzie was next as she jumped. When it came time for Shaundi Marcus was hesitant to help her along as she glared at him. "Don't you even dare" she hissed as he approached.

"sorry love" he said as he pushed her and then jumped over himself.

In the water below they swam to the other side of the harbor docks and climbed up.

Back on shore Pierce and kenzie were both trying to get the water out of their clothes while Shaundi was the image of anger and beauty but for now mostly anger lots of anger. Marcus tried to give a reassuring hand but was shrugged off "don't even, we're not speaking right now" she said as she began to ring water out of her hair.

"ah come on look cheer up there are fireworks." Marcus said as the grouped looked at him holding a detonator. "i grabbed it from the crate of explosives, couldn't just leave all that hardware in their hands." he said Pressing the trigger and soon followed a large thud as the ship bulged a bit in the center then erupted in fire as the hull cracked in two. Fire and smoke-filled the air.

With the show over they made there escape.

Loren was not a happy man he had just learned of the saints raid on the docks and the escape of agent Kensington he had ordered all other shipments to the alternate site until the saints could be dealt with. His thoughts were interrupted by his assistant " Mr. Loren the senator is on the secure line." in that moment Loren grabbed his secure phone and took the call.

"Senator how may I be of service this time." Loren said

"don't play games with me Phillip, you told me you would handle the saints and that they did not pose a problem to our agenda." Senator Hughes was generally a decent woman to deal with but when she was faced with incompetence she became very unfriendly for the offending party.

"It is nothing a mere set back nothing more" Loren responded calmly reaching for his lighter.

"set back, you call full on firefight and the destruction of millions in hardware a set back !" Hughes yelled.

Loren frowned at the way he was being addressed if it wasn't for the fact that she currently had the advantage over him he would not be dealing with her.

"your time is up Phillip, I have activated the stag initiative and given orders for them to begin deploying to steelport. Effective immediately." Loren paused as he was not expecting such a heavy handed response to a problem that clearly did not need such measures.

"I do not think we need involve your pet project in this can still be handled discre-" Loren tried to say but was cut off

"No, you had your chance once stag arrives you will give assistance to them in any way possible am I clear." there was a tense pause as Phillip tried to weigh his options but found that he had no choice.

"Very well Miss Hughes" with that the line went dead. Loren turned in his chair to look out the large windows that gave him a perfect view of the city..his city.

AN: next chapter will be up shortly. Just have to polish it a bit.

I changed the Kenzie recruitment mission a bit cause it seemed very lame to me and well I needed an action bit. Let me know what you guys think.