"Gah!"
"Would you stop your screaming? You're so loud."
Judy took a deep breath and looked into the sandy fox's eyes.
"Screw… you…" she muttered.
The fox only laughed, his teeth sparkling a deadly white, just a little too close for comfort.
"That's enough, Culpeo. I think you've done enough work with your claws for one day," Valerie purred from a nearby armchair she was comfortably draped over, her tail swishing the floor lazily.
The male fox immediately backed off at the command and perched on a nearby oak desk, leaving Judy to attempt to evaluate his latest work: several long gashes on her left side from just beneath her chin to the base of her neck.
"Don't worry about all of the blood, we'll clean it up," Valerie smirked as she watched the rabbit turn her attention from the wounds to the vixen.
"I'll try not to," the rabbit grumbled.
As horrific as it sounded, Judy had never been one to be deterred or sickened at the sight of blood, not even her own blood. She was an officer, after all, and had aided injured animals, aided an injured Nick, and even aided herself on more than one occasion. She had lost a lot of blood, she could tell from her seemingly permanent exhaustive state, but she still wasn't panicked at the sight of her own wounds or the mess Culpeo left with each inflicted injury. She was also near starving and surely dehydrated, but that didn't panic her either. She knew Nick was coming – it was only a matter of time – and she just needed to hang on long enough. Valerie seemed to pick up on this thought process with ease.
"You seem oddly calm," she drawled.
She sat with a nail file in paw, sharpening her own gleaming claws.
It had been approximately a week since the three had switched addresses from the warehouse to their current location, a week since Judy had spoken to Nick on the phone. She hoped he was okay, that he wasn't letting all of this affect him more than it should and that he would trust Judy's actions, but she knew that he probably wasn't handling the situation well, especially with the kids to look after all by himself. The thought of him alone and constantly looking for her pained Judy more than anything Valerie ordered Culpeo to do. Judy spared a glance at her left paw, her glittering engagement ring no longer present. Her heart ached at the sight, but she couldn't let those emotions show, as it would only fuel Valerie's ego further; if Valerie thought taking the ring meant she was breaking Judy and Nick apart, then Judy was going to prove just the opposite, so she had to pretend as if the ring were just another cheap piece of jewelry.
Judy still had no idea of her current location, but it was apparent that the new hideout was an office building, and an old one by the looks of it. There were several open windows, though, so Judy could actually see quite a bit during the day. They were in a small office located on a higher floor of the building, nothing but wispy clouds outside when the day was sunny. At some point during the day, possibly around noon, Judy could even make out the sound of what she thought was rush hour traffic in the streets below. If she had to take a guess, Judy would say they were somewhere in the outskirts of Downtown Zootopia where a lot of older office buildings had been left behind and forgotten as businesses grew to greater heights and began to converge at the center of the city. This was good, she thought, then her and Nick – and the ZPD, for that matter – were much closer together now.
"I've been through worse," Judy shrugged as she glanced out a nearby window. "I've had my throat practically ripped out, been attacked by animals five times my size, given birth to four kids."
Judy paused to chuckle quietly at her own words.
"Do your worst. Personally, the only thing awful about this situation is listening to you constantly talk."
Valerie looked up, disgust in her eyes, to which Judy met with an equally disdainful look. From across the room, Culpeo growled, but both the bunny and the vixen ignored him, their eyes trained on one another.
"You think you're funny," the female fox hissed, her voice dropping a few octaves in an attempt at intimidation.
"No, but Nick thinks I'm funny."
Another chuckle, this time a little louder, a bold confidence growing. Judy found that she was actually beginning to enjoy herself; if Valerie wanted a fight, she was going to get one.
"Apparently not, if he's so preoccupied with me," Valerie stated with a raised chin.
Judy only rolled her eyes.
"Oh, here we go again. 'Nicky's obsessed with me, Sweetie,'" Judy imitated in a sickly-sweet voice.
Valerie's eyes narrowed, and her fur raised on its ends in response.
"Watch it, bunny," she growled.
"Please," Judy scoffed. "Nick is a father of four, he barely has time to sleep anymore, much less sneak off to be with a snake like you. Try another taunt, because that one's not working."
Before Judy had even realized what had happened, she was on the floor facing the ceiling, still tied to a plastic office chair. The rabbit coughed slightly, as the force of falling backwards had knocked the air from her lungs. Valerie stood over her, huffing angrily.
"You think you're better than me?" the fox hissed. "You think you're better than me because you have a nice job, a fancy house, a family, and a predator to save your skin whenever you bite off more than you can chew?"
"Yes, I really do," Judy breathed. "I think you're nothing, Val, and I think you know that too. That's why you've got me tied up and hired some fox to beat me up when it amuses you. I think you're living in the past, and I think you need to get over yourself."
Judy didn't even flinch when Valerie lunged forward with a startlingly low growl, her freshly sharpened claws flying to grip Judy's throat; Judy only continued to stare the fox down.
"You took everything from me!" Valerie screeched.
"No, I didn't," Judy snapped back. "You took everything from yourself! You knew what you were doing when you scammed Nick, and you knew what you were doing when you wedged your way into our relationship and then quit the one job that was working out in your favor."
"You used me for your own amusement."
"Only because you were such a joke to begin with," Judy shot back. "You always have to make it about something else; it's never your fault. Now, you're doing it all over again, but this time, you have absolutely nothing to lose."
"But you have everything to lose," the vixen jeered, tightening her grip around Judy's throat with each word.
"My job, my family – they aren't going anywhere. I've got time to spare, Valerie, the question is when are you going to learn you're not winning here?"
"Don't piss me off, rabbit, I will kill you!"
"No, you won't," Judy smirked. "You're waiting for Nick to see me all bloody before you do anything fatal. That's the end game, right? Take me from my home, smack me around, then show Nick the damage? Even then, I doubt you have it in you to kill me. After all, you didn't have it in you to kidnap me or hit me, so what makes you think you can kill me?"
"You think Culpeo's here just to watch, Darling? He'll kill you the second I tell him to!"
"So, that's how this is going to go? Valerie, I'm usually not one to threaten with violence, but the moment I'm untied, you're going to wish you hadn't gotten yourself into this."
"What's a little bunny gonna do to a big bad fox?" the vixen laughed, her voice reaching a hysterical pitch as she did so.
"Wow, I knew you were dumb, but I didn't know I was going to have to spell everything out for you."
That did it.
Valerie pulled a loaded gun from the waistband of her jeans and took aim. Judy, practically staring down the barrel of the gun, remained completely still. Valerie watched and waited for a reaction, for Judy to break down into tears or beg for her life, but when neither one came, she growled loudly and fired the gun twice into the ceiling above. Plaster rained down on the two, and Judy sighed internally, slightly worried she had pushed Valerie further than the fox would allow.
"Culpeo," the vixen called angrily. "Get the phone and text Nicky the address. I'll get the rabbit. We're ending this now."