Updated faster than I originally thought, I hope all of you enjoy xoxo
Edit: Thank you ThatOneRedfield for pointing out Knot's name mistake, thanks!
The two of us glared at each other for a moment, both breathing heavily until Nadine lunged forward first. She went for a haymaker, which was easy to telegraph. I stepped out of the way and countered with a roundhouse kick aimed at her lower back (right at the kidneys). She was prepared, she spun around and was trying her best to stay close and land some elbows and punches. Nadine was so hotheaded that she was throwing blind techniques at me. She spun around to perform another spinning crescent kick while I ducked it and followed up with a spinning hook kick.
She stumbled back, baring her teeth in irritation. "You think you're better than me?" She roared.
I said nothing; I only opened my palms and invited her to throw the next punch. The difference between us was I was professional trained in martial arts, she was taught more of a street fighting style.
She went for a front kick/roundhouse kick combo, which is also easily telegraphed. I blocked both kicks with my arms, reinforcing one behind the other. As she readied herself for a sidekick I bent over and snuck a scorpion kick right over my head, striking her right on the forehead. She grunted, dazed and frustrated. That was another thing; I beat her when it came to flexibility. Our stamina was evenly matched, because she lunged at me again, this time leaping while enclosing her fist. I tried to hit her with a spinning back kick, but she struck me on the shoulder blade. I fell forward but was quick on my feet to get up. As Nadine came at me again, I thrust my leg up, my foot over well my head and brought down my combat boot for an axe kick. Nadine tried to get out of the way, but I still caught her on the chest (I was aiming for her collarbone, which would of broke under the impact). I was so focused on the target that I missed her chambering her left hand for a punch. She got me right on the nose.
Now it was my turn to stumble back. I could feel the warm blood pouring out of my nostrils, running down past my chin, but I didn't have time to tend to it. I was starting to get angry now, and the sneer on Nadine's lips wasn't helping. Sam was on his hands and knees as he watched us fight, but I couldn't find Nate. Nadine used my distraction to try and hook kick my temple, but I blocked it and punched her leg down as she tried to bring it up again. Before I could land a palm heel I heard the sound of crashing wood from overhead.
"Nadine!" Nate came down with a punch, landing on top of Nadine and causing the wooden floor to crumble beneath our feet. All four of us fell through and landed on a stone cliff side.
I rolled to the edge, stopping myself with my boot before I completely fell over. I got to my feet and saw Nate crawling for Nadine's discarded pistol. She kicked him in the gut, but Sam got to it first.
"You're fast, but you're not that fast," Sam said, standing up and pointing the barrel of the gun at her.
"Hey forget about her, we got to get out of here before they-"
As if on cue, Rafe and more Shoreliners ran around the corner. My breath hitched as I saw Rafe, both of our eyes locking intensely. Sam caught Nadine around the neck with his forearm and pointed the gun at her temple. Rafe held up his gun, while Nadine's men (Knot and Orca) did the same. Nate told everyone to calm down, but the tensions were through the roof.
"Well, this is interesting," Rafe commented lightly, his eyes still on me, his expression unreadable. I could feel myself growing weak under his stare, just like I had ten years ago. I averted my eyes guiltily.
"Nate and Sam patrolling the island with my wife," Rafe laughed humorlessly. His eyes raked over me, meaning to cause ill harm with his words. He knew I was crumbling beneath his stare and this entire situation. At this point I was visibly shaking and I couldn't hide it.
Nate glanced over at me in disbelief while Sam still held onto Nadine (I couldn't see his expression). I clenched my eyes shut. My worst fears were realized, he was going to expose everything out in the open and in front of everyone.
"What?" Nate questioned in hushed astonishment.
"Darling, you didn't tell them?" Rafe pressed, oh he was enjoying this. "Danielle and I have been married for the last, what, twelve years?"
"We've been separated for ten years, Rafe!" I cut in shrilly.
He shrugged, still aiming his gun at us, "well, the marriage was never officially annulled, so we're still legally married, sweetheart."
"I thought you said your marriage was over!" Nadine interjected, her tone dangerous and raspy (from Sam's grasp on her neck).
"No, we're just estranged, but not by choice." Rafe responded, walking closer to us.
Sam's eyes were on me, practically begging that this wasn't true. I couldn't hold his gaze, it broke my heart too much. Nadine took the opportunity to elbow Sam and reach for the gun, the bullet shot off into the air but seeing Rafe and Nadine's men advance made him drop the gun. I was about to intervene but Nadine got the gun first, and we were terribly outnumbered so I stopped.
"Drop your gun," Rafe demanded, looking at Nate.
He obliged, his eyes on me. I glared at Rafe, knowing it was pointless. I wiped my bleeding nose with my forearm, wanting nothing more than to fling my blood over at him (as gross as it sounds I would have felt immense satisfaction from it).
"No, no, you see, Dani here left me ten years ago and was in hiding until recently," Rafe continuing explaining, "I couldn't even describe how surprised I was to see her in Scotland going after Avery's treasure as well. I should've known you were working with them, and fucking one of them too, am I right?"
"Rafe!" Sam warned, taking a bold stance forward.
How did he even know that? Rafe was very good at reading body language and situations, but he really hit the nail on the head. My cheeks burned hot with anger and embarrassment. I wonder if he had gathered that Intel from someone from Shoreline or God knows where. He was good at that, too. Rafe shrugged again, his gun lowered as he strolled around us, trying to assess the situation in his mild, cocky manner. I glowered at him, finding his tone unfair (considering him and Nadine being an item was quite obvious).
"You know exactly why I left-" I started.
Rafe held up a hand to stop me, "I'll deal with you later, Dani." Rafe replied evenly. He was now standing by Sam, eyeing him. Sam was much taller than him, and wasn't backing down. "Sam, I guess you knew this moment was coming, huh?" Rafe recoiled his hand holding the pistol, and struck him across the nose with it.
"Rafe!" I yelled. I got on my hands and knees to help Sam, gripping him by his shoulder to lift him and get a better look at his face.
"Hey, c'mon man!" Nate interjected as Rafe held the pistol up to his face to stop him. "You already got us, take it easy. Come one, you're a business man let's just work out a deal," Nate suggested.
"Oh a deal, oh yeah I'd love to hear what you have in mind!" Rafe replied as he stomped on Sam's face, knocking him to the ground again.
"RAFE!" I stood up and was about to hit him when Knot took a step forward with his rifle pointed at me. I lowered myself down again, now trying to tend to Sam's broken nose. It was busted at the bridge, leaving a mark and a trail of blood to match. I wasn't sure how much I could do, considering my nose was pretty screwed up too.
"You can go ahead, I'm listening," Rafe answered, shooting me a triumphant grin over his shoulder.
"You want to find Avery's treasure? We'll help you find it," Nate gave me an untrusting side-glance, and it tore me up inside. I guess I was excluded from this deal.
I helped Sam up to his feet as he held his nose in pain. I steadied his shoulders with my hands as he swayed back and forth. He seemed a little reluctant for my help, but he was in too much pain to protest. He kept his face buried in his calloused hands, not even bothering to look at Rafe.
"In exchange I let you live, and take Dani off your hands? You see, the misses and I have some unfinished business," Rafe added, giving me another mischievous look. I shot him the most wicked look I could manage.
Nate looked at me again, working his jaw in thought. "Yeah, that and a small cut." Rafe laughed at Nate's deal, I shot him another nasty look. "Just enough to buy their freedom, okay?" Nate finished, gesturing to the two of us.
"His freedom? I know about Dani owing Simmons, but Sam?" Rafe asked, genuinely puzzled.
"Nathan-" Sam began. I looked up at him, noticing that he appeared to be guilty about something.
"He did time, our time. The guy who broke him out, Hector Alcázar, he owes him a lot of money." Nate explained, gesturing to his desperate looking older brother.
"Whoa, what the hell are you talking about, Nate? Hector Alcázar died in a shootout in Argentina like six months ago," Rafe chuckled, "I'm the one who got Samuel out."
My jaw dropped as I glanced over at Sam in astonishment. He kept his head bowed as Nate did the same. My heart began to speed up in my chest. There was no way that could be true, no, no way. I wouldn't accept it. My life was being threatened by the madman Louis Simmons to find this treasure, and so was Sam's. Right? He wouldn't lie about that and actually try to take most of the cut to pay back a dead man when my life was actually at risk. Right?
"Oh, wow. What did he tell you two?" Rafe asked, the shit-eating grin on his face spreading wider and wider. "Sam? What kind of story did you cook up? Alcázar? Really? You lied to your baby brother, and your love toy here?" Rafe pestered Sam in a cynically playful tone.
Sam averted his eyes to the ground, looking like he'd be crushed under the weight of his guilt. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest now I swear it could be seen from under my tank top. My chest felt like it was closing up as my eyes began to well up with tears. I started backing away from Sam, shaking my head in silent disbelief. No, it just couldn't be true.
"We're wasting time here!" Nadine shouted.
"Wait just a second!" Rafe barked, turning his attention back to us. "The thing is, Nate, I never stopped looking for Avery's treasure, and I just kept running into these dead ends. Then I hear that our dear old friend Samuel Drake, an authority in Avery is alive, and somewhat well. There was no breakout, I bribed the prison warden, and your brother he just waltzed right out the front gate. We spent the last two years tracking down the second Saint Dismas cross. And you know what? He did it all with me?"
"You're lying…" I piped up, the words choking up in my throat. Rafe shook his head, the grin still plastered on his face.
"No… that's bullshit…" Nate added.
"Sam? Care to refute?" Rafe asked.
Sam looked at us with heavy eyes, "Nate… Dani…"
Now Nate was backing away, "no, Jesus, no… no…" He looked over at me and shook his head. Nate had been lied to by the both of us.
"That treasure was ours, it was always ours-" Sam started, reaching out his hands for his brother and me. I continued to step back away from him as Nate pushed him away.
"I left my life for you!" Nate yelled.
I wiped my tears, now intermingling with my bleeding nose, "you lied about your life being in danger…"
"You lied about being married to Rafe," Sam countered, though his tone wasn't rude.
"I didn't lie, I just didn't bring it up! MY life is actually in danger and you lied about owing the treasure to someone else? How could you do this to me, Sam!" I cried. "If Simmons catches me I will be dead! What about my freedom?"
Rafe laughed lightheartedly and clapped his hands together in amusement. "We're just clearing the air today, aren't we? Hey look, Nate, Danielle, if it's any consolation, he duped me, too. He pulled a Houdini on me, he brought you, and managed to seduce my wife somehow, and that old man back in the mix, and I cannot lie Sam, that really pissed me off. Well, it's all behind us now."
"You don't deserve it," Sam nearly whispered to Rafe, his tone menacing.
"You do? Last I checked we're all a bunch of thieves digging around where we shouldn't."
"Rafe?" Nadine interrupted.
"What?"
"One way or another end it, or I will." She replied in a deadly, low voice.
"Well you heard the lady. Nadine, be a dear and fetch my wife for me," he ordered Nadine nonchalantly.
Before I could react Nadine kicked behind the bend of my knee, brining me down to the ground. She wrestled me back toward her men with the gun pointed at my temple. In the middle of this Rafe held up the pistol at Sam.
"Hey, you miss one clue and you can kiss that treasure goodbye," Nate warned, "you said it yourself, you keep running into dead ends, why don't you face it, Rafe, you need us."
"Eh, you're right," Rafe lowered his gun. "Well you're half right, I just need Sam." Rafe rose his gun at Nate.
Sam ran out in front of his brother right as he pulled the trigger, I went to run at them but Nadine tightened her hold on me. Sam bumped into Nate, taking the bullet in his left shoulder. Nate fell backward off the cliff side.
"NATE!" I screamed.
"NATHAN!" Sam also screamed, trying to reach for his brother.
I struggled again, and Nadine dug the barrel of the gun into my skin. "Give me an excuse," she whispered harshly into my ear.
We started to scour the rest of the island, with Rafe forcing Sam to lead at gunpoint. I was grimly being led by Nadine, who grasped my bicep tight enough to leave bruises from her fingertips. I couldn't even stomach to look at Sam, and he didn't even try to look back at me. My legs felt like Jell-O and my heart felt heavy with grief. I had been betrayed by someone I cared deeply about, and Nate could be dead or seriously wounded. On top of all that Simmons could be anywhere, waiting for the right moment to strike and ambush me (I still haven't found the treasure or kept in contact with him, so he'd be in a murderous rage I'm sure).
I stumbled for a moment, nearly falling over. My bloody nose was starting to make me lightheaded. Nadine yanked me up harshly as the rest of the team slowed down to see what the commotion was about. The joints in my arm screamed in agony from Nadine pulling on them, but I did nothing. It wasn't even worth fighting any longer, I was already a dead woman anyway.
"Whoa, hang on there, Nadine," Rafe called, "let me handle her."
My eyelids drooped from heaviness, but I kept my eyes pinned on Rafe, not trusting a single move he made. He took out a piece of cloth and started to reach for my face, I leaned back.
"Will you calm down, Danielle? I'm trying to help you out here," Rafe gripped the back of my head gently so I couldn't lean back any further. I pressed the cloth to my nose and started to clean up the blood.
"Don't try to play the good husband act," I muttered venomously, but the cloth muffled most of my words.
"You're the one who left, remember?" Rafe replied, still cleaning my face.
"You were going to let Simmons kill me, I had no choice but to team up with the Drake brothers."
Rafe removed the cloth, and cupped my chin and tilted my head up to inspect if he got most of the blood. "There were other options, you know that, and sleeping with Sam wasn't really necessary."
"Neither is sleeping with Nadine," I mumbled.
Rafe studied me for a moment, looking unimpressed with me. He already knew that he had bettered us and won. I could see Sam staring at us from the front of the group, his expression forlorn and tired as Orca kept a rifle at the square of his back. This was quite a shitty conversation to have right in front of him, but Rafe wasn't one to be discreet.
"Touché," he finally said, releasing my chin.
"You know why I left." I added, my voice filled with contempt.
Rafe froze a moment, I could see a spark of unwanted interest in his dull eyes, "not here, Dani."
"It was perfectly justified for me to leave you, Rafe, and I'm sorry if it caused you pain, but I couldn't stand another minute in that house-"
"Danielle-" Rafe turned away from me, his tone on edge.
But I didn't let it go, I kept on advancing. "After what happened to Holden I couldn't live there any longer. There was no one to comfort me after he died, and for years-"
"Don't bring him up!" Rafe whipped around and pushed my backside against a tree. I was completely taken off guard, and shocked my his sudden aggression. He had never physically pushed me or anything before. I grasped the bark of the tree with my hands down by my sides, hanging onto it for dear others looked startled from Rafe's reaction, but didn't dare to move a muscle.
"You think I don't lie wide awake at night thinking about him? Or that I don't care? For years I blamed myself for what happened to Holden, and you running from me didn't help with things between me and my family." Rafe was furious, and his face was inches from mine, starting to turn red from strain.
I gazed up at him fearfully, trapped from the trunk of the tree. My mouth was far too dry to speak.
"He was my son, too, Danielle, and Goddammit, this treasure was the only thing I had after he died!" He leaned in very close now, our noses almost touching. "Nothing is going to come between me and that treasure, not even you, do you understand?"
I nodded hastily, not even realizing that I had started crying again. Rafe left me and told everyone to get a move on again, but I found myself frozen to the tree. Nadine ordered me to move but I still couldn't will my limbs out of submission. I was stupid to bring up Holden at a time like this, so I deserved what was coming to me.