For Souless666 thanks for your review and Sara may be gone or is she?"

Chapter 10 Taking Charge

Mark noticed her tense at the screaming man on her phone. "I'm not running away Josh I swear I'll come h0ome please leave them alone please. I know Josh please give me 20 minutes that's just it" she looked around "I don't know where I am."

Mark had, had it with this Josh punk this guy was racking up some serious ass whopping points. Suddenly Mark grabbed the cell phone from Cynthia. He listened to the other man. "You little bitch I don't know if superman is in town the next time you try and leave me I'll do what you daddy should have I'll kill you're worthless ass." Josh was drunk. "Is that so boy? You touch my girls and I'll put my foot so far up yo ass that you'll taste my boot leather for a month." Mark hollered into the phone almost cracking it from holding it so harshly. He looked at Cynthia and she plastered herself up against the door. Her face was void of color she looked ready to pass out. Her eyes wide. This was what his friend Paul White would call the perfect "BOO" moment. If he said "BOO" one or two things would happen she'd kill over or jump out the truck and run for all she was worth. Neither of those he wanted so he kept his "Boo" to himself. He was about to give her, her cell phone. Quickly snatching it out of her reach she withdrew her hand as if he were going to bite her.

"Mark please take me home, please he's going to hurt them."

"The hell he is" Mark growled Strut was his case. Mark was going to do more than hurt that son of a bitch if he as much laid a hand on his girls. Mark started his massive custom built truck and peeled out onto the highway.

The scenery passed in front of Cynthia's window at over 100 miles per hour. "My turn is a block away." She said swiftly making sure he did not pass her small street like he did before. Mark pulled in to her drive and got out before she could even hope to stop him. He walked around and swung her door open and stuck his hand out palm up. Cynthia had no idea what he wanted.

"Come on I overshot your driveway I don't need you hitting the ground it ain't leveled. Cynthia looked down pass Mark's hand and saw what he was talking about. Getting up into the truck even with the running board was hard now the running board was at least two feet from where she would have landed in the grass. She took his hand and he helped her out and on to solid ground. Mark turns ON Cynthia. "Right now all he wants to see is you. If I go in there with you he's liable to snap and do something he'll regret. You go on in there but slip the lock so it can't lock like we used to when we'd let each other in the house after our parents went to bed. Do you remember how?" Cynthia nervously nods her consent.

Cynthia walks around to the other side of the house to make it look as if Mark dropped her off down the street. She puts her key in the door and it is instantly swung open. "I told you I was coming I could not leave you and the girls."

"Where your boyfriend, he sounded real brave on the phone."

"He's not my boyfriend. Where are the girls?"

Josh advanced on her before she could duck he backhanded her "Damnit woman, don't lie to me your brother told me how's that big jackass is the father of them girls. I'll teach you." Josh yells, he grabs her wrist and slings her in to the bookcase.

Pain spread through Cynthia's body as she hit the bookcase trying to get to her feet and dodge falling books. "Where are the Girls?" She screamed

"Why you trying to turn them against me? I love you Cynthia and I love them too." Josh walks over he bends down and takes her chin between his fingers. Examining her damaged lip where she had made him hit her. "I'm sorry darlin."

Cynthia hated when Josh called her darlin there was only one person on this planet that she liked to call her that and that person was Mark. "Don't call me that just tell me where my kids are."

Josh grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up. "I love you" He punched her "I love you don't you know that" those girls are mine and you are mine, I love you. He lets go of her hair and starts beating on her with both fist crying and screaming his love for her and "their" kids. Cynthia tried to protect herself by scrunching in as tight into the corner as she could. She knew she was starting to lose consciousness when Josh's screaming sounded far away then all went black.

Josh was suddenly tapped on the shoulder. He swings around to tell one of his bastered step children to mind their own business and is punched in the face so hard he doubles backwards and lands on the floor near Cynthia.

Josh is stunned as he shakes his head to clear it he noticed the rather large man standing in front of him glowering down at him. "Stay down boy It's safer down there. Now, I'm gonna ask you once. Where the hell are those girls?" Mark asked. He'd had to brake the lock to get in Cynthia had accidentally let it close before he got to the door. When he'd heard her screaming he'd wanted to knock the thing down and kill this sorry son of bitch that now sat at his feet.

Josh Just stared at the man. Josh jumped to his feet. "That's none of your damn business. Hey out of here before I have you aress… "

"Wrong" Wham "Answer" Wham Mark punched Josh again this time giving him a one two combination as he spoke.

Even with his secret of immortality this shit was hurting something awful. Josh backed out of the big man's reach. "OK" Josh says a little breathless from the shots to the gut he had just received. "Their---in---the cellar—just---through there" Josh pointed with one hand to the kitchen whilst he continued to hold his painful ribs.

Mark called Hudson as he walked toward the cellar door. "Yeah I'm in the Strut House get your boys over here if I bring him in he'll never make it to prison." Hudson assured Mark that his men were on their way. Mark reached the cellar door it was locked from the inside.

Strut looked over at an unconscious Cynthia he reached inside his back pocket and slowly stood bracing himself against the wall. Now in a standing position he looks at the guy trying to talk his stupid step daughters out of the basement. This guy was a Hero and in Struts book on the matter Heroes died young messing with him. He Josh Strut he was immortal and he had lots more class than this roughneck and more smarts. He looked down his pain leaving at a unnaturally rapid rate. He was almost 100. He closes his eyes and can feel his power rising within. "All Better" he says to himself out loud.

Josh walks toward the kitchen Mark turns around hearing movement. They glare at each other Josh stops his forward movement and starts backing up away from an advancing Mark. "You're gonna stop popping on her that's number one. Two, you're gonna sit down and we are going to wait for your escort."

"I will do no such thing you see you come any closer to me and I'll" Mark was now standing right in front of him. Josh was not going to let this man intimidate him. "Get out of my face. I don't like people in my face." Josh backed up a little too far and fell over Cynthia he lands in a sitting position on the other side of her nearest to the wall she moaned gaining both men's attention. Josh reaches for Cynthia's hair. He looks up at Mark who is staring at his hand as it hovers over her hair. "You made me do this to her" Josh says as he bends his head. The basement door cracked a slight crack and Mark turned around to see if the girls would come out of the basement.

In that split second Josh whipped out an ugly looking switchblade and held it near Cynthia's neck Mark turned around as he heard the thing open. Mark quickly put on his unaffected facial expression. Inside he swallowed the lump of fear he felt for Cynthia. Mark tore his eyes off the weapon to look Josh in the eyes. He spoke with a calm he surly didn't feel but this was one of the things he'd have to account to his years in front of the WWE. "Put the weapon down Strut. This has nothing to do with her. You knew you'd get caught sooner or later. No one man can do the crap you have done and threaten all the people you have threatened and expect to get away Scott-free don't add to your already long list of stuff."

Josh looked into the man's eyes he wanted to see fear he wanted the guy to leave he wanted the big man to at least quiver a little. This guy was a freaking stone face no expression at all. "You forget something I can't just kill her I have to put the blame on someone else."

Mark did back away a little. He used a move he had learned from Hudson years after he left The Texas rangers. To Strut it looked like Mark was pulling up his pants Mark quickly held Strut at gunpoint. "Josh put the blade down." Mark was prepared to shoot Strut right between the eyes if he breathed wrong holding that blade.

Josh now faced a calm looking man holding a very deadly weapon to his forehead. Though Josh would not die from the shot it would take longer to recover. Gunshot wounds hurt a hell of lot worst when they healed well he really didn't heal per say his tissue just recollected it's self and whatever was missing reappeared. Another immortal he knew had almost gone crazy because of the pain. Josh didn't want to have to disappear and claim another identity. He lowered the blade away from Cynthia and laid it on the floor with a sigh. This was as close as he would ever get to family life. The man that took him in loved him like a son that man's friendship with Cynthia's father had loads to do with his marriage how much he would never know, but he would keep his wife and little family he couldn't have kids of his own so this was as close as he would ever get and he intended to keep it. "You mind pointing that thing someplace else I put the knife down I'm no threat to you. You right I don't need another false charge against me."

"Nice one you think I'm a fool or something" Mark takes the knife and folds it up with one hand as he continues to point at Josh. "Stand up slowly I don't want you getting no more stupid ideas."

"I am innocent, you know it looks worst on paper than it really is I mean..."

"Save it, you're just a name to me boy. I do believe you're guilty as sin and you ain't exactly proved by your actions that you are no better than that paper says you are. Now walk over there and sit on that couch."

Josh continues to stare Mark in the Eyes as he walks over to the couch and takes his seat. He looks over at Cynthia who has just moaned again. He sighs lowering his head. He had to think of a good way to get away. If he ran this guy would shoot him. If he stayed he'd have to take longer going through the system looking for the perfect low life to pay off to get him free and cleared. It was too late he'd have to pay his way out. "I don't know how much my word is worth too you I can imagine not much but it's all I have I won't hurt her again I promise. It's just I know who you are. You show up and surly you can understand I'm a little off when it comes to my little family and then she disrespects me I thought she had left me again. I had to put her in her place. It was nothing personal."

Mark was still holding his weapon and he wanted so much to just blow this asshole's brains all over the couch but those girls were peeping out the basement door. He took great relief in the fact that they had got away from him. He was the father of two girls in their late teens. "Your word don't mean shit to me Strut. But you hurt her again and I get wind of it I promise I'll hunt you down and end your existence. You better believe me, when I tell you I'll make good on that promise if need be."

Josh jumped to his feet Mark stanced weapon ready there was a knock at the door and in walks Dan.

Dan walks in and takes in the whole room Vikki comes in behind him she walks over to Mark and pushes his arms down. The gun is now pointed at the floor. Dan moves over to Cynthia Mark re-hoisters his weapon and moved over blocking Dan. "I'll handle her you just get Strut out of here." Mark bends down and gently picks Cynthia up she opens her eyes meeting his gaze he sets her down on the loveseat. Mark crouches down in front of her. "Are you ok do you need med attention?"

Cynthia watched as the man and woman from the parking lot walked Strut out in hand-cuffs reading him his rights. She gazed back at Mark. "No, I'm sorry I tried to slip the lock but he closed it before I could grab the catch. The door is still standing how did you get in?"

"I owe you a lock"

"If any one owes anyone it's me, and I owe you my life. He's never been quite that drunk."

Hudson walked in "Mark I have something for you. I know that Victoria may have told you that you don't have a job but that's not true. Vince called he says he wants you in Detroit and since we have wrapped Strut and all but fed him to the Feds we're done." Hudson didn't do long speeches and he was ready to just hand Mark the new contract it was a annual bonus and a higher position covering three new states that had accepted NIA as a government cover for the Government Company that Hudson ran his only boss being the President of the United States. "You still work for me or not?"

"Yeah, like you always say our mission is larger than all of us. If I quit that don't stop cops from going bad." Hudson showing no outward expression handed the contract to Mark and told him to look it over and hand it in at the next meeting.

"You're wife maybe out and mad right now so if I were you I'd get home before she gets released I paid her bail. He says over his shoulder as he walks back out of the house. Once outside he lets go a sigh of relief. His son still wanted to work under him.

As Mark stood replaying what Hudson had just said. Cynthia looks away he leads her gaze back to his with his finger under her chin. "Cindy you know what he is talking about?"

"I think it would make more sense if Hudson told you." She says "Beside I don't know her." Cynthia smiled at him and pointed outside where Hudson was getting into his vehicle. She didn't want to say what she felt because she didn't want jealously to cloud her version of the truth Hudson would tell it like it was she had not been in the room when Sara turned him away. The thought of his own wife turning her back when he needed her the most infuriated Cynthia to no ends. She had pushed Mark away script or no script she did not go after him therefore she did not deserve him. But at the very least she did not turn her back on him when the end result could mean his demise.