Sorry its taken so long. I've been on vacation and my creative side has taken a hiatus :/ I'll try to be better in the future! Hope you're enjoying things!

-8-

It was only about four a.m. when Taylor started to feel really sorry for himself. He was almost to the point of being stupid drunk and he felt like a fight. It didn't take much for Taylor to feel like a fight, but tonight, it'd been a record time.

Maggie had looked amazing. Her hair was absolutely silky smooth and she had smelled wonderful. Her eyes were dangerous and so vivid that it was incredibly hard for him not to stare.

Not that she'd notice. His inner self growled. It was increasingly nauseating watching the couple together. Arthur's eyes didn't stray from Maggie one bit - despite all of the curvaceous, beautiful women floating around the bar that night. One reason why he's a better man than me. He thought pitifully.

What made it even worse was that Maggie barely looked at him. She'd always looked at him. Despite who she was talking to, whatever she was talking about, her eyes would drift to his and she'd smile in her wonderful way and wink. Her body was always in tune with his as well. He felt her presence just as much as she had felt his, but tonight, it seemed like that had disappeared.

Its all him now. Taylor thought. He's taken everything from me. He lit up a cigarette, with the inhaling smoke, he felt his chest rise and fall, but the smoke wasn't the only thing toxic brewing inside of him.

Ah, but you let her go. A very different voice inside of him sang.

He huffed and inhaled deeper, his eyes having a hard time focusing on the ground beneath his feet. Where was he even going?

We weren't married. I was young, stupid, how could she expect me to-,

You were her friend. You said you loved her. And you do. You didn't shove that hooker off you when she latched herself to your dick. You never asked Maggie on a date. You never told her your true feelings. YOU made this bed, now lie in it.

Taylor felt a growl rising in his chest. He wanted desperately to wrap his large hands around something and squeeze the life out of it.

Fuck you. His own voice growled back.

Good one. The other voice replied.

Taylor increased his speed, pounding away at the blocks before him in no certain direction. Finally, when he was breathing hard and almost sweating he looked up and noticed he was in Maggie's neighborhood.

He walked to the front of her small house and saw that the light in her front room was on. His cognitive thought process was a little dim right now, and he chose to ignore the smart ass voice that was telling him, rather, screaming at him to turn around and go away. You wont like what you find here.

He took out his key ring and took the key in his hand for Maggie's house. It took him a while, cause the lock kept moving, but he finally inserted the key and twisted the lock open. He gripped the handle and turned the knob slowly and deliberately, fighting the urge to fall over and go to sleep. He drank more than usual tonight. Not that a "usual" amount for Taylor was normal, by any means, however, he drank more than was necessary for him to get drunk.

He didn't want to get drunk tonight. After seeing Arthur's hands on Maggie' back or his fingers entwined with hers or lightly brushing that delicate skin just below her neck which smelled delicious when she was aroused - he shook his head to clear the thoughts away. No, he hadn't wanted to get drunk when he saw all that, he'd needed to.

He closed the door softly behind him and walked in his silent way through the foyer to the front room and sat down on the couch.

"Why are you here?" The voice said again.

"I don't know." He replied pitifully.

"Taylor." The voice said and he looked up, only to see Maggie wrapped in a purple silk robe that hung loose, but clung delicately to her small breasts. The nipples were hard beneath the fabric and Taylor smiled in a devious way. Then, as his eyes followed down the rest of her body, he noticed the gun in her hand.

"What's that?" He growled, nodding towards her hand.

She lifted it up and looked at it, "A Kahr MK40 pistol. What does it look like?"

"Why do you have a gun?" He asked groggily.

She sighed, "I'm currently holding it because I heard someone scraping at the lock - only to find a drunken behemoth on my couch instead of a burglar. The reason I bought it was because I didn't know how often some rival of yours or Matty's would try to come at me to get to you. I was ready to put a bullet in someone if it meant protecting you guys." She looked down at her hand, "I don't like it, but I have it anyways. They wont stop to think about what they are doing," She sniffed, "So why would I?"

Taylor nodded grimly, he understood what kind of stretch that was for Maggie. She was quite possibly the most caring and loving person he'd ever known and she'd never hurt anyone unless her hand was forced. She was so beautiful and so perfect in that moment, and yet he could feel her sadness. She was also dangerous.

"You ok?" He asked.

She looked back up at him with tears in her eyes, "I'm fine Taylor, but I still don't understand why you are on my couch at four o'clock in the morning."

"I went for a walk." He pouted.

She just chuckled and shook her head, "Go home Taylor. Please?" She sounded a little desperate and he could feel the tension rolling off of her in waves.

Taylor's eyebrow rose. He saw her in the little robe, obviously nothing on underneath, and wondered. It was one thing to talk about feelings, but with him and Maggie much didn't need to be said when their bodies were involved. They always sensed each other's feelings and emotions and were able to solve things on a different plane compared to most people. He stood up and walked towards her and he could see everything written all over her body. The way she stood, the flush of her cheeks and the glow on her skin, but worst of all was her smell. She smelled wonderful, but there was hint of something else, perhaps someone else.

A growl rose in his chest and he took a step towards her bedroom. Maggie was standing in the doorway and she put up a hand, but he didn't stop.

She saw his eyes, molten brown, almost black, and positively empty of any emotion other than rage. She planted her feet and raised the gun to chest level. Taylor stopped, absolutely shocked.

"Stop." She said in a strained whine. Her hands were shaking and he could hear the horror in her voice. "Stop right there. You better leave, now Taylor, because there is no fight for you here. Go find someone else to fight, to fuck, and to ruin, because I'm not doing it anymore. And its not his fault. Don't blame this on Arthur." Tears were falling down her cheeks, but her grip had steadied. "I will not hesitate to shoot you if you come at me with that look in your eye again. I'm not some fucking slut you control. He's not some gang banger trying to push you out of your turf." She spat, trying to control the emotion in her voice.

Maggie was horrified by the look in Taylor's eyes. It was rage, hurt, and terror all rolled up into something black and pitiless inside of him. It didn't help that he was drunk beyond recognition and that if he really wanted to, he could over power her and snap her like a twig.

"So just stop." She said. "You're drunk and you need to stop." She was openly sobbing now, keeping the gun raised, while the tears poured down her cheeks and the whines breaking through her clenched teeth.

In that moment, Taylor hated himself. He was the king of pushing back every single self-reflecting thought that crossed through his mind since he was born. He's never felt guilty for anything he'd done in his entire life, but in this moment, seeing the little girl he loved, tears streaming down her cheeks, with her entire body shaking - except the grip on the gun - he was terrified of what he'd become.

His features softened and Maggie saw it too. She saw his face go from rage to pain in a split second and all he did was turn and walk out the door.

Maggie crumpled to the ground, the gun slack in her right hand and she sobbed, silently, as horrifying thoughts raced through her mind. She'd never seen Taylor display emotions as such and it horrified her. Would she have shot him? If he came at me, maybe. If he went after Arthur? Absolutely.

The admonition horrified her and tore her heart to pieces, she stared down at the gun and laughed bitterly. The safety was on. She stumbled up, leaving the gun on the side table of her couch and grabbed the bottle of wine and her pack of cigarettes. She went onto her porch and started drinking straight from the neck lighting one cigarette after another. Her thoughts wandered...

His eyes were empty of emotion, even towards her and it broke her heart. He was ready to let jealousy destroy their friendship and her happiness. How could he be so selfish?

For the first time in her life, Maggie truly hated Taylor Reese.

The recipient of such hatred was cold sober as he ran through the streets of New York. The cold wind was whipping at his face and drying the tears he refused to acknowledge.

Something had broken inside Taylor Reese that night, watching as the woman he loved pointed a gun at him. She hated him. There's no other reason for it. All of the dark, vile things in Taylor's soul crept up from the recesses of his mind and took hold of his heart. He'd never let anyone in like that again. He'd never trust, never feel, never allow anything to penetrate as deeply as she had. He couldn't let that happen. People depended on him to be that dark, pitiless creature that showed no mercy, and for the first time in his life, Taylor truly felt like he wanted to be that creature.

The next morning Matty was sitting at his table with the boys all around, some recovering from the night before. They're eyes were a bit bleary and all of them were tired after partying the whole night through. Except for Taylor.

Taylor sat at the table with sunglasses on and a cigarette hanging limply from his lips. He hadn't said a word to anyone and Matty was sure he hadn't slept.

Matty was about to open his mouth when his front door came crashing open. All the guys jumped up alertly and pointed guns toward the front door.

Arthur came flying in and stood in front of Taylor. His eyes were wide and he looked thoroughly pissed off.

"What the fuck is your problem?!" Arthur growled, directed at Taylor.

The men all put their guns away and sat down, obviously Arthur wasn't there to fight any of them, and he hadn't been deterred by the guns anyway.

"You selfish, cock sucking son of a bitch!" Arthur bellowed at Taylor, when Taylor didn't even acknowledge him. "What did you fucking do to her, huh? Are you that pathetic that you take out your anger on her? She hasn't done ANYTHING to you and you treat her like shit!"

"Whoa Arthur," Matty said, standing slowly, "Calm down."

"Calm down?" Arthur chuckled and shook his head. "Well he obviously didn't tell you where he was last night then, huh?"

Matty, Marbles, and Chris all looked a little dumbfounded, tracing their eyes back and forth between Taylor and the enraged Arthur.

Arthur calmed slightly, but in a voice no one misunderstood as being deadly serious, he said, "I don't care what you do to me." He growled, "You can hate me, try to ruin me, hurt me, I don't fucking care, but you leave her alone, damnit! She's suffered enough because of your fucking selfish immaturity!"

Taylor mumbled something and everyone looked over to him.

"What was that?" Arthur spat.

In a flash, Taylor leaped up and punched Arthur solidly in the kidneys. Arthur stumbled slightly but regained his footing and took a swing at Taylor, who effortlessly dodged it.

".." Taylor bellowed. "I don't care about you, I don't care what you do, and I definitely don't care about that fucking cunt."

Arthur took another hard swing at Taylor, who did not expect it this time, from a man who was leaning over in pain, and received a deafening punch to his jaw. He faltered back a little bit and then spat blood on Matty's $8000 tile floor. A growl of rage bubbled up from his chest and he lunged at Arthur who was happily ready for this confrontation.

The rest of the guys were still slightly dumbfounded and did not even understand what was happening. There were a flurry of blows from either side, until finally Matty jumped up and grabbed Taylor with Chris's assistance. Marbles grabbed Arthur and pushed him back.

"I swear to God Taylor, I will fucking kill you if you ever pull shit like that again." Arthur screamed while Marbles attempted to hold him back.

"HEY!" Matty bellowed which knocked everyone out of their fury, except for Taylor who was just standing calmly behind him, with an empty look in his eyes. "What the fuck is this about?"

Arthur wiped the blood from his lips and looked at Matty with a fierce glare. "Ask him." He nodded towards Taylor, who was still as stone. "I'm sorry Matty for interrupting your breakfast. But keep him away from me and Maggie if you don't want a corpse on your hands." He growled and left the house promptly. They heard the motorcycle catch and then fade into the distance as Arthur roared away.

"What the fuck?" Marbles said absently, looking at the slammed door and then back at Matty, Taylor, and Chris.

"Yeah, you said it. What the fuck?" Matty grumbled and looked back at Taylor. "Care to explain?" His smile was light and joking but the returning glare from Taylor, made his skin crawl.

"No." Taylor said, grabbing his jacket and leaving as well.

There were a few more moments of silence and then Chris finally spoke, "Did that seriously just happen?"

Matty chuckled, "Yeah, it did. I'm impressed. Arthur's not the candy-ass we thought he was. If this thing with Taylor ever falls through, I'm pretty sure we have another enforcer on our hands if he can take a beating like that and still be standing."

"No, seriously..." Marbles said, "What the fuck?"

Matty nodded, "I'm gonna go after him." He said, grabbing his jacket as well, "Call Maggie, make sure she's ok."

"On it." Marbles said and picked up his phone.

Maggie left her phone on the nightstand, not wishing to speak with anyone just yet. Arthur had gotten up around seven, noticed Maggie wasn't in bed and came out to find her. When he saw her on the patio, a crumpled box of cigarettes and a half empty pack next to two and a half empty bottles of wine, he ran over to her and tried to ask her what had happened.

With much prying he got the story out of her after a few hours and left her crying her eyes out on the patio. He didn't intend to make Maggie think that he was abandoning her or that he didn't want her, but he was overcome with rage. He needed to fuck somebody up and it was going to be Taylor.

Maggie had stopped most of her tears - or else ran out of them - and had pulled herself together enough to shower and eat some pieces of bread. She still felt drunk and didn't exactly feel like stopping. She was happy that she had a carton of cigarettes stashed away and didn't have to leave to go get anything. She felt twice as beat as she looked.

She spent the rest of her day, on the patio, continuing her steady drinking and smoking binge, hoping the toxins would simply give her brain damage and she could forget about what happened.

When she heard her door open, she was afraid to turn around to see who it was.

She felt the warm hand on her shoulder and the soft kiss on her cheek and she was happy to feel Arthur behind her.

She looked back at him, smiling weakly and drunk, and her mind came to a screeching halt as she saw what happened to his face.

"I'm sorry I didn't come back, but I went to the hospital to have some things checked out." Arthur said, kneeling and wincing as he went down in front of her. He pulled her into him and kissed her chest and neck softly. She took his face in her hands and she winced. His nose was bruised as well as a shiner on his left eye, his lip was split and swollen and she could tell he was moving a little more gingerly than usual.

"What happened?" She asked, horrified.

"I got mugged." He said lamely.

"Don't lie to me please." She said, painfully.

He sighed, "Me and Taylor got into it about you. He jabbed me in the kidneys and then I lost it."

She misunderstood the statement, "He did WHAT?" She growled.

"No, stop." Arthur said. "Please, its over between me and him. I don't want it to last any longer than it has to. I love you and I care about you and thats what matters."

"I can't believe he-," Maggie started to shriek, but Arthur simply put a bruised hand over her lips.

"It doesn't matter. Please?" Arthur begged. He smiled weekly and kissed her cheek, "Can we just go watch a movie and I'll get hopped up on pain killers and you can baby me?"

She looked at him sternly, "This isn't over." She growled.

He looked up at her softly, "Please Maggie. This needs to stop somewhere."

Her features softened and she kissed him lightly, "Ok puss, lets get you up and over to the couch so you can rest while I pamper your every need."

She helped him over to the large comfy couch and helped him lay down. She got some ice for his face and some rum to ease the pain. She slipped him some pills that she said was Ibuprofen and he soon fell fast asleep.

Maggie felt a little bad for slipping him the vicodin, but he needed rest and she needed to talk to Taylor, both things she knew would not happen if Arthur was awake and cognizant.

She arrived at Taylor's apartment just as the sun was starting to fall in the sky. She felt apprehensive but her heart was empty of any emotion except anger. Taylor had fucked around too long and she was sick of it. She had no idea what she would say to him, but she figured it would come to her soon enough. She was tired of it. She was tired of him.

She walked up to his door, which of course was unlocked and let herself in. Taylor's apartment was essentially the entire third floor of the building. He has his things set up so it seemed almost compartmentalized, yet it was still spread out and open. No one could hide or steal a thing without Taylor noticing.

Then from the "front room" area, she saw the back of Taylor's head as he sat on the couch. He didn't turn or make a sound of acknowledgement when she entered and it pissed her off. She approached him, now starting to feel little tendrils of fear curl up her belly. When she got directly behind the couch, she saw what was distracting him.

There was a mass of blonde hair over his crotch making sucking and pleasurable whimpering noises as it bobbed up and down. Maggie looked at Taylor who was dispassionately staring at the muted TV. He was obviously more entertained by the silent figures running about than the mouth around his cock.

"Taylor," Maggie said tonelessly. The girl's mouth popped off of his crotch and her perfectly made up face glared at Maggie. Maggie met the girl's glare without feeling and directed her conversation at Taylor, "We need to talk."

"I'm busy." He grumbled, sipping his beer.

"Not very." Maggie scoffed and she saw Taylor's mouth hitch up in the corner.

The blonde stood abruptly, show casing her bulbously fake body in a tiny outfit and teetering on four inch stilettos, "Listen bitch," Very Jersey, "Get outta here before I bust'ya head. He's mine now and he don't want nuthin' to do with you anymo'."

Maggie felt the beginning of a massive head ache if she listened to the high pitch keen of that stupid whore any longer, "Get out." She said without emotion.

"Oh yeah?" The girl laughed, smacking her lips, "Why don't'cha make me?" She giggled and looked down at Taylor, who was still just staring at the TV. The girl was pissed off that this guy had the nerve to bring her in here and promise her a great lay and then just let this bitch ruin all the fun.

However, the annoyance didn't last long because it was soon replaced by pain when Maggie grabbed the girl's bleach blonde roots and tugged at them. The girl squealed in pain for Taylor to help her, but he did nothing as Maggie dragged the skank across the floor, yipping and crying, and then tossed her out the front door which she promptly locked.

She turned, full of fury to go back over to Taylor and beat the living hell out of him, but he was already in front of her, the half empty bottle hanging from his hand.

"What the fuck do you want?" He growled, the empty look was back.

Maggie faltered slightly, terrified of this thing that replaced her old best friend. However she stood her ground and stared him down, "How could you..."

He was silent.

"No." Maggie corrected herself, "How dare you assault my boyfriend! Who the fuck do you think you are? You can just come around and fuck with my life as much as you want? Taking, taking, taking until there's nothing left of me? Is that was you fucking want?" She snarled.

He just chuckled, deep in his chest, "He came to me."

"Yeah but I know you threw the first punch, you fucking slime-ball!" She yelled.

"I don't need to listen to this. Get the fuck out."

Maggie took a few steps towards him, "Oh no Taylor Reese, you don't get to kick me out, you piece of shit! How da-,"

"GET THE FUCK OUT!" He finally bellowed. That halted Maggie who stood there, dumbstruck, at a loss for words. "I don't need to listen to this shit anymore." Taylor growled. "I don't care about you fucking that piece of shit and I don't care about you." The last word was said with such vehemence that it knocked Maggie back. Seeing the pained look on her face, he continued, "So what? Because I fucked you I have to love you? News flash, Maggie, you ain't my type. I fucked you because I wanted to, not because there was some grand plan for us to be together. So get the fuck over it." He snarled right back watching as she became smaller and smaller. "I don't care about you. All you were is a lay to me," He growled, "Just a lay and some stupid bitch that couldn't make any real friends at school so all she could do was fuck around with a bunch of guys who wanted nothing more to fuck her and drop her."

"The guys care about me," She said weakly.

Taylor just laughed menacingly, "So what if they do? The slut only fucked the one who got her really hot. Isn't that right? None of them made your pussy wet like I did, did they?" He was silent, "DID THEY?" He shouted and threw his beer bottle at the wall just a few feet right of her head.

Maggie was shaking and the crash of the bottle caused her to shriek. She looked back over at Taylor and couldn't stop the tears from falling down. He had closed the space between them in the time it took for the bottle to fly, crash into the wall, and slide down. When she looked back up, he was towering above her and for a moment Maggie actually feared for her life.

This utter blackness was behind his eyes. This blackness was not something she had ever seen in him or anyone before.

She assumed it was the same look as when a lion pulls down a zebra and goes for the jugular.

She swallowed back her sob and met his gaze, though not in defiance, but rather more like a deer in the headlights.

All of these animal analogies were starting to make her head swim, along with the ripples of emotion rolling off of her and Taylor, when he suddenly grabbed her shoulders and lifted her to his full height, her feet dangling off of the ground.

He was staring at her, his big black eyes and his smile tight and closed lipped. He looked like a shark. Maggie shuddered in his hands.

"Did they, sweet Maggie?" He grumbled.

"T-T-T-T-Taylor, put me down." Maggie said meekly.

He put his mouth to her ear and whispered huskily, "Are you scared?" He smiled feeling the ripple in her body. As much as Maggie should have felt scared, Taylor could say just about anything in that baritone voice and make your toes curl. But the affect quickly wore off when he spoke again, "Or are you hot for me?"

"Please?" She squeaked.

"No." He said curtly and crashed his lips onto hers. His teeth nipped at her mouth and tongue and his body pressed her against the wall to free his hands. Her fear was delicious and he could tell that some part of her was still aroused.

Maggie couldn't shake the feeling of dread coursing through her veins. She was pushing up against him, but she felt that with every push against him, he just put more of his weight onto her. She was whining in protest against his mouth, but it was extremely complicated to get anything coherent out. It was also impossible to forget that despite Taylor suddenly turning into the Prince of Darkness, he was also still an amazing kisser.

She felt his hands go up underneath her shirt and thats when Maggie was brought back to reality.

She loved Arthur.

She loved Taylor.

But not this Taylor.

Who was this guy?

She squirmed a bit more, feeling his erection press through her and the fear began to grow. She managed to get one of her legs between his so she did the only thing a girl can do when being over powered by a man more than twice her size. She drove the knee home, only hard enough to incapacitate Taylor, not enough to damage anything.

He gasped when her knee connected and he stepped back, letting her fall to the ground, her body landing in the bits of broken glass and beer with a thud. Maggie screamed again, feeling the tiny bits dig into her uncovered skin. Taylor stumbled backwards and dropped to his knees, growling in anger deep in chest.

Maggie feared what would come next. She was a bit dazed because of whatever the fuck was happening plus she was covered with blood. The glass didn't hit anything major, but it sure as hell hurt and it made a fucking mess.

When it looked like Taylor started regaining some function, Maggie tried to regain composure and stand up, but it was hard. Her legs and arms felt like they had no solid bones in them and her head was spinning from her life.

Just then the door slammed open and Maggie looked up to see Matty in the doorway. "Oh what the fuck?" He said, sounding almost frantic. "Taylor, what the fuck is wrong?" He said, watching Taylor try to stand up without wincing. He turned and saw Maggie.

Now in all of Maggie's years, Matty had always been rather pale, but when he saw her, in what Maggie presumed to be one of the worst situations ever, he absolutely blanched and almost went transparent.

"Jesus Maggie we need to call an ambulance!" Matty yelled and dropped to her side and pulled out his phone.

"I'm ok." She said softly. She looked up at Taylor who was leaning against the wall, still trying to get his breath back. "Nothing bad, just a bunch of superficial cuts. They'll have to dig a bunch out of me, but nothing major." She smiled weakly.

"I'm calling an ambulance." Matty growled punching in the number and while it rang he glared over at Taylor who was starting to regain color.

Matty communicated with the EMTs who got Maggie trussed up and carted off to the hospital to await a doctor who could pluck out all the itty bitty pieces of glass embedded in her skin. As they carefully walked her away and got her secured in the back of the ambulance, Matty turned back and walked over to Taylor.

Taylor saw the look on Matty's face and scowled right back, "I'm not in the mood Matty." Taylor growled.

Matty back-handed him as hard as he could possibly manage, "Taylor, you're my brother, but thats my sister in there. And right now..." He stared at Taylor's seemingly calm face and shook his head with a deep resentment, "Right now, you don't even deserve to be punched like a man." He spat and walked away.

Taylor was left with nothing but his anger and literally, though not the first time, blood on the walls.