I hope that everyone had a good winter vacation (if you had one), and also happy new year!

Also, thanks so much for your support and kind comments.

This chapter was really fun to write, and a lot of shit goes down. Like 2 characters with a name die.

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"What the hell do you mean by that?" I heard a voice say. It echoed around my barely conscious head, helping me to slowly regain awareness.

Another voice chuckled. "I think you know what I mean." The replied. "And why not? It'd be pretty easy, wouldn't it?"

"I'm not about to fucking-!" The other started to yell before they were cut off.

"Sh, he's waking up."

I groaned and winced at the bright light shining next to my head. Upon refocusing my vision, I saw it was a lamp. I turned my head gradually to look at whoever was speaking. My eyes widened in confusion when I saw who it was; Smiles and Las Vegas. Las Vegas looked away from me with a pained expression.

Smiles was grinning at me. He was wearing a fancy suit similar to the one he was wearing when we'd skyped, and his platinum blonde hair was styled to the side. His heterochromatic eyes were filled with mirth. "Well, well, it looks like my cronies hadn't drugged you as bad as I thought!" He said with glee. "I thought that you'd be asleep for the whole night."

I remained silent, struggling to keep my expression even and calm. Despite his charming demeanor, I could tell that this was one twisted son of a bitch. I didn't want to provoke him in any way.

"You know, Ace, you and Card were playing it pretty safe back there. I was impressed, you knew that I wouldn't dare come after you in front of all those people, so you stayed near the crowd. Too bad that Shawn fucked up in the bathroom by pointing a gun at Roy here." He laughed, nodding his head at Las Vegas, who was doing his best not to look at me.

I tried to swallow down my fear. "...What are you going to do to me?" I asked, much more softly than I would have liked.

Smiles raised a condescending eyebrow. "Really? And here I though you were a Seven and a Half. You should be able to deduce something by your state of undress, shouldn't you?" He asked.

...State of what!? I suddenly came to the realization that I was inside a hotel room, my wrists tied to the headboard of a bed with red silk sheets. That, and I was ass-naked. I quickly moved my legs up to cover my junk, pulling fruitlessly on the ropes restricting my hands.

"There we go! A little slow on the uptake, aren't we?" Smiles chuckled.

My heart started racing as my panic grew. Why the fuck was I naked? And why the fuck was Las Vegas standing around pretending that I wasn't there? And where the fuck was Shawn?! My eyes suddenly caught on something sitting behind Smiles and Las Vegas. A camera. I desperately hoped that it wasn't going to be used for what I thought...

"Oh! You noticed?" Smiles asked, stepping aside to give me a better view of the camera. "If you're good, this will only get shown to Shawn before I gut him like a fish. If not... well, I think you know how fast this kind of content spreads on the internet." He said with a condescending grin.

I couldn't stop the look of horror that crept onto my face. "You mean you're gonna film me getting..." I trailed off, unable to say it.

"Raped?" Smiles finished. "If you relax and let it happen, maybe it won't be... but from the way you're hiding your unmentionables, who are we kidding?" He laughed. What a fucking creep! And I thought Shawn was fucked up! Wait a minute, Shawn!

"Wh-where's Shawn?" I asked as steadily as I could. I wanted to fucking hurl.

"Basement. I drugged him even more heavily than you, so he's going to be out of it for a looong while." Smiles explained. "Now, without further ado, let's get this party started." Smiles said with glee, moving his arms out towards Las Vegas. "I'm sure you've met your co-star Roy here. He might only be a Six, but he's got a big one." Smiles said suggestively. "So, get to it." He said, patting Roy on the shoulder. I gave Las Vegas a look of terror... he wouldn't... right? I thought we were friends! My fear grew as Las Vegas silently stepped over to the bed.

Las Vegas silently threw a side of the silk blankets over my lower half. He then glowered at Smiles in disgust. "You're even sicker than I thought. I'm not about to rape my friend!"

Smiles smug expression faltered, but was quickly replaced by an irritated smirk. "I thought you wanted to fuck him. I'm just doing you a favor here, but if you're not going to appreciate it-"

"You kidnapped my friend and are asking me to rape him! What kind of twisted favor is that!?" Las Vegas yelled. "Did you seriously think that I'd do it!? Do you even fucking know me at all!?"

Smiles expression became strained as he ground his teeth together. "Ah, watch it Roy, with that kind of talk you might get me pissed off." He said warningly. His smug ass smile returned to his face. "But if you're too soft to do it, I have a list of others that'd be happy to step in for you. Like a certain Leonardo Picket, perhaps?" He asked. Oh fuck no.

Las Vegas furrowed his eyebrows. "But I thought he was straight."

Smiles shook his head. "He's been known to experiment."

"You can't let that freak do it- he'll tear him apart!" Las Vegas protested.

Smiles rolled his eyes. "Well, who would you suggest? Oh wait! Let me guess; nobody, right?"

"Damn right!" Las Vegas replied angrily. "Just let him go! He's not even the one that you really want to hurt!"

"He's lucky that he's just getting off with this!" Smiles scoffed. "If Ace hadn't scored above a six, I would have had his throat slit open so that his blood would pour out onto Shawn."

Las Vegas looked at Smiles in disgust before quickly turning towards me. "Jake, I'm so sorry that this happened." He quickly muttered, trying to untie the ropes at my wrists. "I won't let this happen to you."

Before he could make much progress on the ropes, Smiles grabbed his shoulder and roughly threw him to the ground, which was impressive considering Las Vegas' bulk. "Rico! Thomson!" Smiles yelled sharply to the door, planting a foot on Las Vegas as he struggled to get up.

Moments later, two large armed men in suits entered the hotel room. "Yes, Mr. Alco?" One asked curtly.

"Take Roy here to a different room, and don't let him out until I say so." Smiles instructed, looking annoyed. That was the first time that I saw him wearing anything but a shit-eating grin.

Las Vegas' head snapped up at the words as the two men grabbed him. "What!? No! You can't-!"

"Can't what?" He asked, the condescending grin returning. "Sorry to say, but right now, I can do whatever I want, Roy. And if you're going to get in my way, I'll just have to do this without you." He added without remorse, waving mockingly as Las Vegas was dragged out of the room.

When the door closed, Smiles turned back to me, looking irritated as hell. "Now I'll just have to call Picket to take his place." He muttered. When he noticed my staring at him, he smirked sadistically. "Don't worry Cutie, we'll have this back underway soon enough... Aw, don't cry! The only real scars this will bring are internal... unlike Shawn's corpse." He crooned as panicked tears ran down my face.

What a fucking psycho! And he was about to film me getting... "HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" I screamed in fear, not stopping to think that Smiles probably had the whole floor bought out with only his cronies around. "HEEY!"

Smiles laughed. "Whoof! Those are some nice desperate screams you got there Ace! I can see why Shawn wanted to kill you! Personally, I'm more of a screams of pain kinda guy myse-"

"AAAUGH!" Someone's scream shot out, cutting him short.

After a moment of silence, Smile's smirk fell and he rushed outside the room. As soon as the door closed, I started to pull frantically on the knots of the rope. I froze when I heard two consecutive gunshots. Who was shooting!? Had Shawn somehow gotten out of the basement and found me?

My hope rapidly faded as I saw Smiles come back into the room... with Las Vegas leaning on him? "They should have fucking known better than to break your fucking bones!" Smiles hissed angrily, easily supporting Las Vegas' weight on his shoulder.

"Oh God, it hurts so fucking bad!" Las Vegas groaned in pain, limping badly with tears streaming down his face.

Smiles dragged Las Vegas over to a chair and eased him into it. "Alright, where does it hurt?" He asked, leaning over to carefully probe Las Vegas' right leg with his hand.

"AH! There, right there!" He yelped in pain as Smile's hand hovered over a spot right below his knee.

"Alright... I don't feel any swelling yet, but I'll call some more men up here to bring you to the hospital." Smiles said, not noticing Las Vegas' hands slowly coming up behind his head.

In an instant, Las Vegas grabbed Smile's head and pulled it quickly down towards his knee, which he brought up to make a loud thump against Smile's skull. Smiles groaned loudly and rolled off to the side, leaving Las Vegas room to jump up from the chair and run to the bed.

"You were faking it!?" I yelled in shock. The guy was fucking crying! How could he fake that?!

"I came from Las Vegas, remember? And acting is part of gambling!" He replied, making fast work of the knots holding my wrists.

As soon as my wrists were free, I sat up and hastily tied the red silk sheets around my waist. I didn't want to be running around ass naked- even if I had more pressing things to worry about. I then stood up. "Let's get out of here." I said, moving towards the door.

"Wait. First I need to check if he's uncon-" Las Vegas was cut short as a bullet whizzed by both of our heads and shot into the door. I looked back at Smiles, who apparently hadn't been knocked unconscious.

"Neither one of you move." Smiles hissed, clutching his head in one hand and his gun in the other. We did as he was told (I wasn't about to take my chances with a crazy gun wielding sadist). Smiles smirked. "Now Roy, be a dear and retie our friend Jake back to the bed." He instructed.

When we hesitated, he fired the gun again, the bullet once again landing in the door. "Move it." He said.

I thought for a moment. If I listened to him, I would be... violated. But if I didn't, I would be shot. Fuck. Las Vegas seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me, because he sent me an apologetic look before motioning towards the bed. Shit.

Trying to swallow down my despair, I walked back towards the bed and sat on it. Las Vegas slowly moved towards the other side of the bed, where he'd discarded the rope. Smiles warily trained his gun on Las Vegas as he moved. Which gave me an idea.

Smiles couldn't train his gun on both Las Vegas and me at the same time. Additionally, he seemed less likely to shoot Las Vegas than me, so if I created a distraction- which would require that I put myself in risk of being shot- hopefully Las Vegas would get the hint and attack Smiles. Then, we could wrestle the gun away from Smiles and turn the tables on him! If I could avoid being raped and save Shawn, it was worth a shot.

I suddenly stood up from the bed, making Smiles whirl the gun in my direction. "I'm not about the wait around to be tied up again! I'm not going to listen to you!" I said in a panicked tone.

Smiles scowled. "You know, I'm not against shooting you if you don't-" He suddenly got the wind knocked out of him as Las Vegas tackled him. Yes!

Las Vegas struggled to keep Smiles pinned, but wasn't able to get the gun from him. I moved out to help Las Vegas, but he yelled back. "Get out of here! I can't hold him for much longer!"

I frowned. "But-"

"He's going to shoot you! You need to go now!" Las Vegas insisted, barely able to stop himself from getting thrown off of Smiles.

"Ace, if you leave, Roy is getting shot upside the head." Smiles threatened menacingly.

Las Vegas head-butted Smiles on his still throbbing forehead. "He's lying! Go!"

"I'm not about to let you-!" I began to protest.

"Don't worry! He won't kill me! Just go!" Las Vegas yelled desperately while struggling to keep Smile's hand with the gun pointed away from me.

After a moment of hesitation, I regretfully spun around and opened the door, running down the hotel hallway as fast as I could. I tried to ignore the two shot corpses that lay a few feet away from the door, but couldn't help a cringe as my bare feet ran straight into the still warm blood. As I reached the end of the hall, I look desperately for the stairs; I had to get down to the basement! And then.... And then WHAT? I stopped running to think. Shawn was in the basement, but how would I get there? And would there be guards? Shit, of course there would be! Who was I kidding!? In which case... I needed something to defend myself with. Augh, but I'd lost my gun along with my clothes!

My mind buzzed as I tried to quickly think of ways to defend myself. Shit! Aside from Smile's gun, where had I last seen a weapon? I then paled in realization. Oh fuck... the corpses of Smile's cohorts. I peered back down the hall where the corpses were still oozing fresh blood onto the white carpet. Did I really want to go back there?

Fuck, it wasn't about if I wanted to or not! I quickly ran back down the hall and crouched by one of the corpses, unable to avoid stepping in the blood again. The guard's body was facing downwards, and if I remembered correctly, his gun was in a holster on his hip. I shakily tried to reach over to get the gun, but it was partially stuck underneath him. I took a deep breath and pulled on the man's side, lifting him enough to take the gun.

As soon as I got the gun, I stood straight up and backed away from the corpse, hyperventilating. Now my feet, knees, and hands were covered in blood. I ran back down the hall, not giving myself enough time to get too traumatized. As soon as I reached the end of the hall again, I looked around for the stairs (I wasn't about to ride the elevator naked, bloody, and with a fucking gun).

When I found the stairs, I checked to see what floor I was on. Floor 20. Fucking shit! I could only hope that none of the posh bastards at this hotel took stairs. I started to run down the stairs as fast as I could, trying not to trip over the bed sheet tied around my waist.

Luckily, I didn't encounter any posh or armed bastards on my way down the stairs- which was some pretty good news for a fucking change. It probably meant that Las Vegas was still wrestling with Smiles, preventing him from calling his goons. I jumped down past the lobby floor and ran down to the basement. When I finally reached the bottom of those long-ass stairs, I paused to catch my breath. As soon as my breathing regulated again, I carefully undid the safety on the gun I was carrying. Even though I lucked out on not running into anybody on the way down, I was positive that I would run into some armed guards down here, where Shawn was.

I stepped up to the basement door and slowly turned the doorknob. I sighed in relief when I saw that he wasn't locked, and pushed it open to reveal a dimly lit hallway. Luckily, there was no guard at the door. Unluckily, that was suspicious as fuck.

I walked through the doorway and started waving my gun in every direction, trying to catch anyone hiding in the shadows. Swallowing down a lump in my throat, I began to run down the hall, opening every door along the way to check if Shawn was there. So far, I had only been met with cleaning supplies and storage.

I went to open another door, but was stopped short by a gunshot followed by a blood-curdling scream. It came from the door next to the one I was about to check. Since Smiles said that Shawn was going to be tortured by him in the morning. Did that mean that there was another torture victim in this godamn basement!? Or had Shawn's torture started early! I didn't recognize the scream, but then I'd never heard Shawn shriek before either... so maybe it was worth checking out.

I slowly pulled the door open and crept inside. I jumped when I heard another scream erupt from close by.

"I'll ask again; where the fuck is he!?" A familiar voice yelled threateningly.

"I don't know! Please sto-AAAAH!"

"You have a fucking phone, don't you!? So call Bobby and then tell me where the fuck he is!" Yes! That was definitely Shawn!

I quickly ran through the entryway to where the voices were coming from, but was met with a bullet landing in the wall inches from my face.

"Jake! If I hadn't recognized your footsteps one second sooner-!" Shawn suddenly trailed off when he got a good look at me. "Why the fuck are you naked!?" He asked frenetically.

Shawn was still dressed in his suit, and aside from some bloodstains and dishevelment, he looked unhurt. The man strapped in the chair behind him, however, did look hurt. He had multiple stab and gunshot wounds in nonfatal places, leaving him to bleed out in complete agony. Additionally, the room was littered with around five corpses; all dressed up like the two Smiles shot upstairs.

I swallowed, then looked back up at Shawn. "So... you're not hurt?" I asked.

"That's my line!" He said, stopping briefly to shoot the man he was torturing in the fucking head before running up to me. "You're covered in blood! Is any of it yours!?" He asked in extreme concern.

"N-no..." I said, trying to tear my eyes away from the suddenly shot body.

Shawn's blue eyes narrowed in confusion. "What's wrong with..." He trailed off when realization hit him. "Ugh, sorry about that. Let's get the fuck out of here." He said,

I nodded. "Agreed." I said, following him out of the room.

"Are any of Bobby's men after you?" He asked quickly, grabbing my arm to lead me faster down the hallway.

"Not yet, but I'm sure they should be any minute." I replied, struggling to keep up. It had already been about fifteen minutes since Las Vegas started to wrestle Smiles, but I knew that he probably wouldn't be able to hold out much longer (I was surprised that he held out past five minutes against that maniac).

"Augh, you're too slow!" Shawn grumbled, trying to pull me to go faster without making me trip.

"Sorry, I just ran down over twenty flights of stairs to try and save your stupid ass!" I snapped back. And I was wearing a fucking bed sheet!

"Ah, fuck it." Shawn said, suddenly pushing me backwards and taking me up in his arms. He started running again (only fucking faster because he's a strong piece of shit).

I yelped in surprise, but otherwise didn't protest. I was being pretty slow, and we had to be as fast as we could in the moment. "Do you know where the hell you're going!?" I asked as he ran around various corners and hallways.

"Yeah, I memorized the exists of the hotel just in case something like this happened. There should be an entrance to the parking garage around here somewhere!" He replied, turning a corner to see an emergency exit sign. "There!" He said triumphantly. He paused right before the door, then looked me in the eyes. "There're probably some more of Bobby's men out there." He said seriously, putting me down. "So while I start shooting, I want you to run to the car and get it ready." He threw me the car keys. "Shoot anybody who gets in your way, and if you think that you can't make it, run away." He instructed.

I nodded. "Got it." I replied.

He narrowed his eyes. "And listen to me this time." He grumbled.

"Why the hell would I when our lives are on the line?" I hissed back.

He sighed in aggravation. "Nevermind." He griped. He then put his hand on the door handle. "You ready?" He asked.

"No." I deadpanned.

He let out a smile and rolled his eyes. "We'll be fine." He assured me. "Here we go!" He said, opening the door.

The next minute happened in slow motion. Shawn was right; there were at least ten of Smile's guys guarding the parking garage. As soon as they saw us, they pulled out their guns, but Shawn beat them to it by nailing three of them in the head with bullets. I ran past them all towards the Porsche, ignoring the multiple gunshots and yells coming from behind me. As soon as I reached the driver's door, I fumbled with the keys to unlock the car.

I was about to climb into the driver's seat when a bullet shot into the car right next to me. I looked behind me in a panic and saw guard holding his gun up towards me, clearly about to shoot. On instinct, I waved my gun out towards him and pulled the trigger, not bothering to aim correctly. For fucking once, luck went my way and the bullet imbedded itself in the man's shoulder, causing him to drop his gun and clutch at it, crumbling to the ground.

I looked back at the fight behind me and saw that Shawn had finished off the other six and was running towards the car. I climbed inside the car and started the ignition, quickly shuffling into the passenger seat (I didn't know how to drive a fucking stick shift).

A few seconds later, Shawn jumped into the driver's seat, went in reverse, and hit the gas. I cringed when we sped over a bump that was probably the man that I had shot. Shawn quickly shifted the gear into drive and sped down parking garage. And not a moment too soon; as we drove past the door that we came through, we saw at least twenty more men making their way out of it. Shawn completely ignored the tollbooth, picking up speed as he smashed the car through its pole, sharply rounding the next corner to the main street.

After the hotel was far behind us, Shawn stopped breaking every speed law known the man and slowed to slightly above the speed limit. The only sound in the car was our heavy breathing.

A couple moments later, I broke out into hysterical laughter; unable to fully take in what the fuck I'd just gotten out of. Shawn broke out into a confused grin. "You okay?" He asked.

"No!" I said, still laughing. "I'm traumatized, naked, and covered in blood!" Saying that just made me laugh harder. "Aaah, at least we're both alive and I'm still a virgin." I said.

Shawn's smile dropped. "What the fuck do you mean 'still' a virgin?" He asked lowly. "And not that it's bad on the eyes- but why the fuck are you naked anyways?"

My laughter stopped as suddenly as it began. I bit my lip contemplatively. Yeah, I would have to somehow explain what happened in a way that wouldn't make Shawn flip his shit. Sadly, that was probably fucking impossible...

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Well, that's definitely a more survivable 'cliffhanger' than last chapter.

R.I.P Thomson and Rico, hope you're doing well in gangster heaven along with your colleagues (What? you thought I'd kill LV and Smiles??? rofl no way, the day I kill my son LV is the day I jump off a cliff.).

Thanks again so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed it!