I heard something crack. Glass shattered nearby. Heat was scarring my feet. My face felt like I had an awful sunburn.

I opened my eyes and coughed hard. Smoke was everywhere, billowing from the fire in the corner of the room.

The fucking fire.

I came to myself instantly. The fucking cabin was on fire, and I was still alive. I was in pain, but the idiot hadn’t finished me off. I quickly got onto my hands and knees, blindly groping for the door.

Nearby, I heard someone groan. It was the other mafia guy, the one that I was in the process of killing when that bastard blindsided me. I crawled over to him and grabbed him, pulling him along behind me.

Out in the hall, fire forced me into the next room. Ahead, I saw the windows. I got to my knees, leaving the guy, and grabbed a lamp. I smashed the window then grabbed him and dragged him over.

I climbed out first and then pulled him after me, not really bothering to protect him from the glass shards. He groaned as he fell to the ground beside me. I coughed hard and felt like throwing up, but I dragged him along behind me as we got further away from the burning house.

“Piper!” I yelled. I looked around, but couldn’t see her. The mafia’s car was gone, but the truck was still there. “Piper!” I yelled again, and stumbled down toward the lake.

What the fuck happened? I couldn’t imagine how they found us so easily. General Maron wouldn’t have given away our position so easily and quickly. There was just no way that he had betrayed us like that. Maron may have been angry with my choices, but he wasn’t a genuinely bad man. He wouldn’t have given us up to the mafia like that.

“Piper!”

There was no response. I moved down along the lake and found a canoe overturned near the water. There were footprints but I couldn’t figure out what had happened.

“Piper!” I tried yelling her name a few more times, but there was nothing. Just a deep, deafening silence.

She was gone. I had to accept that and make my next move. I went back toward the house and found the mafia guy I had pulled from the flames. He was beginning to stir, so I kicked him hard in the stomach.

“Fucking bastard,” I said to him. “Where is your boss taking her?”

“Fuck off,” he said.

I kicked him again. “Start talking and I’ll leave. Don’t talk, and I’ll break your fingers one by one.”

“Fuck you, pussy.”

I got onto my knees next to him and grabbed his hand. He tried to fight free but I easily subdued him, shoving his face into the ground. I grabbed his hand again and took his pinky.

“Tell me,” I said.

“No.”

I wrenched it back and he screamed. I heard the bones snap.

I grabbed his ring finger. “Talk,” I said.

“Oh, fuck you,” he said.

I snapped that finger and he screamed even louder.

“It only gets worse,” I said. “Talk.”

“Warehouse,” he said through the pain. “Warehouse in Chicago. On the edge of town. Used to be for some shipping company, J&J shipping. Fuck, I don’t know the address.”

I let go of his hand and stood. “Thanks,” I said.

“You’ll never save her,” he sneered.

I kicked him in the teeth. His head snapped back and I kicked him again.

“Watch me try,” I muttered as I walked away.

The truck was still sitting there. I had left the keys on the dash, and so I climbed in and started the engine.

As I went to pull away, it hit me. The reason for all of this. I had to sit there for a second and stare out the window, feeling so fucking stupid and tired.

I climbed back out and slowly walked around the perimeter of the truck, feeling along the edges.

In the back left wheel well, I found it. Small and black with a red light at the top. It was a fucking tracking device.

I dropped it on the ground and crushed it.

“Fuck,” I growled, anger surging through me.

The mafia must have bugged Randy’s truck when they first ran into him. That stupid bastard didn’t realize it, and I didn’t think to fucking check. They didn’t get us the night we slept in the truck in the field because they were too far away and couldn’t get there in time. But the truck led them right to the cabin and everywhere else since.

Those bastards were probably waiting for their moment to strike the whole time. I was so fucking stupid not to see this from a mile away. They were finding us way too easily like it was no big thing. As soon as I got into the truck, I realized that there must be some kind of tracking equipment. Maron would never betray us, and that was the only other option.

General Maron. I had to go check on him and tell him what had happened. I pulled out, driving fast toward his house in town. I remembered where it was and I hoped he hadn’t moved since I was last there, though I doubted he had.

For a second, I wondered if I should have killed that mobster back there, but it didn’t matter. He was likely dead either way. The mob wouldn’t take him back, not after he fucked up this bad. Plus, those kicks to the face might have finished him off.

I drove fast, getting away from the burning cabin. Maron’s place was probably twenty minutes by car, clear on the other side of town in a nice little suburb.

As I got further away from the cabin, I suddenly heard sirens in the distance. I kept my cool and clenched my jaw as cop cars raced past me, heading in the direction of the burning cabin. I guessed some neighbors heard the gun battle and called them in. I was pretty fucking lucky that I wasn’t going to be there when they showed up.

I was tired and in pain, but that had never slowed be down before. I guessed that the wound on my arm opened back up, and I had a few other cuts that might need some attention. All told though, I was in pretty fucking good shape for a guy that was left for dead in a burning building.

That bastard got lucky. I assumed it was Tony, the guy that started all of this, but I couldn’t be sure. I never got a good look at him.. Still, it had to be him. The bastard snuck up on me and coldcocked me from behind because he knew that he’d never get a real shot at me. I know I definitely shot him as I went down, and that was probably what saved my life. I probably hurt him enough to scare him off.

But of course the twisted cunt set the cabin on fire. He had to burn down any traces of what happened, not to mention finish me off.

He didn’t gamble for a man like me, though. He couldn’t have known that I’d be up and ready to get out of that building. He couldn’t have guessed that I’d interrogate his piece of shit friend.

I was worked up into a rage as I pulled into Maron’s driveway, tires screeching on the pavement. His place looked quiet, and I prayed that he was home as I ran up the walk and pounded on the door.

There was no answer from inside. I pounded again, and still nothing. I grabbed the knob and turned, and the door opened easily.

Instantly, I got a bad feeling. I stepped into the house and heard a radio playing in a back room.

“Hello?” I called out. “General Maron?”

There was no response.

I stepped into the living room. It was how I remembered, clean and modern with nice furniture and pictures on the walls. I spotted a photograph of his little girl dressed up as a ballerina and smiling huge.

I turned the corner into the kitchen and stopped in my tracks.

General Maron was sitting in a chair at the table with a bullet in his head.

Blood was everywhere. I couldn’t tell what had happened, but it was clearly bad. Maron’s wife was lying on the floor near the stove, her body bent back, her mouth hanging open.

“Fuck,” I said softly, staring in at the scene.

There was a gun on the table, and I recognized it as Maron’s own personal weapon. It looked like he tried to defend himself, but he was too slow. Whoever came here finished him without thinking or mercy. I hovered in the doorway, anger rolling through my body.

Tony did this. I didn’t know how he did or why, but he killed them both. The bastard murdered my mentor and his innocent wife all because he wanted to get Piper back. That sick fucking psycho was going to pay. I smashed my fist against the doorframe. I was going to tear him apart limb from limb until he’s lying on the floor in front of me bleeding to death, begging for mercy. He won’t get any.

Just then, I heard a noise from the back room. I hesitated for half a second then went to the table. I grabbed Maron’s gun, checked the clip, and went toward the noise.

I was careful not to step in the blood. There was a hall off the kitchen that led back toward the laundry room. The door was shut and I heard another noise. Gun held level, I slowly pushed it open.

Sitting toward the back of the room was Maron’s daughter.

She blinked at me. “The bad men were here,” she said.

“It’s okay,” I answered, moving toward her. She flinched away. “It’s okay. I’m going to call for help.” I knelt down in front of her. “Do you understand?”

She nodded. She was maybe ten years old with frizzy red hair and freckles. The poor fucking girl.

“I’m going to call someone. But first, I’m taking you to your room. Is that okay?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Close your eyes. Close them tight.”

“Where are mommy and daddy?”

I shook my head. “Just close your eyes.”

She squeezed them shut. I took her and picked her up. I quickly left the room, ran through the kitchen, and took her upstairs. I found her bedroom and deposited her on the bed.

“Stay here until the police come, okay?”

“Okay,” she said. “I will.”

“Don’t go downstairs.”

“I won’t. Will mommy and daddy be back soon?”

“Yeah, sweetie. Soon. Just stay here.”

I didn’t have the fucking balls to tell her the truth.

I left her room, pulling it shut behind me. I walked into the master bedroom, found their landline, and dialed 9-1-1. I told the operator that there had been a murder at Maron’s house, gave her the address, and then hung up.

I went out front, got into my car, and left.

That was the real fucking shit back there. That was what really happened when the mob destroyed lives so fucking callously. This was real life and in the real world, there were always repercussions beyond what you could ever possibly imagine.

That girl’s life was destroyed because some mafia bastards wanted to get back at Maron. Maybe it was for helping me, I couldn’t say. But either way, that girl was going to suffer for it. Once all of this was over, I was going to do my best to help that girl. That was a fucking promise.

I couldn’t get sidetracked. I couldn’t get distracted. There was no way for me to help that girl if I couldn’t get through what was coming next.

I had to get Piper back, and I knew where she was. Tony had to pay for what he did to Maron and Maron’s family. Tony had to pay for what he did to me.

Most of all, Tony had to pay for what he did to Piper.

As I sped forward, Maron’s gun in my lap, I knew I didn’t have much time. I had to hurry to get to that warehouse before Tony did something I couldn’t fix.

I wasn’t going to lose anyone else. I wasn’t going to let Piper die.

I couldn’t let her die. She was everything to me.

I drove as fast as I could, pushing the old truck’s engine, rage pouring through me. I was going to tear Tony to pieces.

He had no fucking clue what was coming for him.