Dane

"LILA!" Dane threw himself across the kitchen, wrenching the gun from Chris's hands as his gut twisted and he became a whirlwind, a fucking tornado of punishment on his brother. "Lila!" he roared, taking Chris to the ground, both of them struggling, fighting for control of the gun that Dane just prayed had to be cocked again before it would go off.

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"Fuck!" Chris had his teeth bared and was twisting, trying to get his legs around Dane to roll him, but Dane was too quick. He twisted the gun out of Chris's grip and threw it, bring his hand back in a right hook that took his brother in the temple.

Chris's eyes widened and for a split second his arms went slack. Then he blinked and cursed and started fighting again, but it was too late. Dane had him on the floor, hands around his throat. "LILA!"

"I'm okay! I'm okay!" she said faintly. "I just knocked my head on the counter. I'm fine."

A sob of relief tore out of Dane's throat, but then all his attention went on his brother, whose face was beet-red and swelling under his grip. Dane had cut off all his air, so he couldn't speak, but he was pounding at Dane's arms, wrenching his wrists, desperate for air.

Dane's teeth clenched and his face twisted. "You could have killed her!" he snarled. "It was me you were after you motherFUCKER."

"Dane—" Lila said quietly.

"I will kill you. I don't care what you did for me. I will fucking kill you."

"Dane, stop!"

Dane picked Chris up by the neck and slammed his head down on the floor and Lila gave a little scream. "Dane! Please! You have to stop!"

"Never. He would have killed you. He would have killed our baby. You're not a psycho, Chris, you're fucking worse! Because you know what you're doing is wrong and you were going to do it anyway, mother-FUCKER."

"Dane, please, stop. Don't kill him. Please. He's not worth it."

Chris's face had gone purple and Dane's arms were shaking, but rage tore through him like a wild-fire, eating everything in it's wake.

Lila almost died.

Chris almost killed her.

Because of what… sibling rivalry? "FUCK!"

"Please, Dane, I'm fine… Please," Lila sobbed.

"Get the gun, Lila."

She leapt off the floor and scrambled around them to the gun he'd thrown away.

"Do you know how to empty the chamber, Lila?" he asked, his voice oddly calm, even spit through his teeth.

"Y-yes," she said. With shaking hands she as Chris's eyes began to roll. His arms were losing coordination and Dane felt a sense of vicious satisfaction. There was a pattering on the floor, then Lila huffed. "It's done, there's no more bullets in it. Dane please—"

"Give it to me. Put it on his chest."

Chris was beginning to vibrate underneath him and Dane wanted to do it. He wanted to kill him. Something bloomed in his chest, a rush, a thrill, as he realized he was going to do it. He was going to kill his fucking brother who had almost killed his wife and their baby—

Lila shoved the gun on Chris's chest between Dane's knees and where his hands remained latched on Chris's neck. "Dane, please," she whispered, her hand on his shoulder. "Please. Don't do this."

A breath huffed out of Dane, and a strange noise as she kept saying his name and pleading with him, begging, softly.

Dane's arms trembled and Chris kept blinking, one of his eyes blooming dark red as a blood-vessel burst in his eyeball.

"Dane! Stop!" Lila shoved at his shoulder. "You have to stop! Don't become one of them!"

"No, Lila, if I leave him, he'll come for you—"

"STOP!" she screamed and, throwing her arms around Dane's neck, wrenched him sideways. It wasn't enough to topple him, but his weight shifted and his fingers slipped.

Chris yanked his head back and sucked in a hoarse, roaring breath again, and again.

"NO!" Dane bellowed.

But Lila picked up the empty gun that had slid to the floor and whacked Chris in the head with it, right behind his ear. He slumped.

Dane and Lila both stared, breath heaving, watching him. Dane still straddled him, but his hands were on Lila, pulling her back, out of the way, terrified that Chris would come alive and go for her.

Three breaths later, when nothing had happened, Lila sucked in hard and breathed, "Thank you, God." She knelt next to Chris and put a finger to his neck. "He's still breathing. Oh, thank you, God. Thank you."

"Lila—" Dane started, his voice low and dark, but his adrenalin had lowered, just a hair.

"Don't," she gasped, putting a hand to his face when he reached for her. "Just… don't."

"We can't leave him alive."

"We can, and we will. We're going to do exactly what he said, Dane," she said through her teeth, still staring at Chris's face, which was fading from purple to deep red. "We're going to leave him the business, and his people, and your… whatever. We're going to go and we're never looking back. We're having nothing to do with these people, ever again."

Dane chest rose and fell like a bellows. She turned to him, her eyes wide and shining with tears. "Please, Dane. Don't let them bring the fight back to you again."

He stared at her and the moment crystalized in his mind, as if it were a crossroads. He could see it… his choice, and the life that waited at the end of each path. One a quiet life with Lila and their children, a normal life, a real life. And the other… this constant fear, this ever-present threat. Always fighting.

And he didn't want it, he realized. He didn't want to live this way anymore. He'd had enough.

She was right.

"Thank you for stopping me," he said hoarsely.

"Oh, Dane," she fell into his chest and he staggered to his feet, pulling her with him, holding her, never letting his eyes off of Chris, keeping himself between them. But as she sobbed into his chest, his mind clicked each piece of the plan into place.

"We have to get out of here," he said. "Now."