Mute

Showdown in the corral

-------------Content warning: Violence and strong language ---------------------   

     This was torture. He was being forced to not only take the pain but now he was forced to watch Sam’s piercing blue eyes cry out when her mouth could not. He could hear it, ‘save me Jace.’ There was nothing he could do.

        “Deacon stop it!” Jace could at least throw words at the man if nothing else. “You have me, why mess with her too?”

        “Why? Because I can. Because the people around here need to see a very clear message from me. f**k with me and you are f****d yourself!”

        “I swear, I’ll go to prison for what I am going to do to you.” Jace growled. He spit in Deacon’s face. Deacon let out a scoff as he wiped his face clean. Before he could do anything more approaching sirens could be heard. Jace laughed deep, despite the screaming pain in his chest, Deacon’s face slowly turned a deep red. “What are you going to do now Deacon?”

        Deacon craned his neck to see out the barn door, the deputies already starting to flee towards their cars, the rope holding him suspended slacked. Jace took an opportunity and jerked down hard on the rope, rotating just enough to catch a deputy around the neck with his arms.

        Everything blurred for a minute, the troopers screaming for guns to be thrown down. Druggies firing back at them, the cops returning fire. The sheriff ducked, or really fell back into the tack room. Tweaker shot the deputy dead that Jace had hung on, they fell to the ground with a hollow thump.

        Jace struggled to get his arms free of the dead deputies neck and frantically searched for the cuff keys as shots rang all around. He finally unlocked the last lock and flung them away with the rope. He pulled the deputies gun and shoved the extra clips in his back pocket. He ducked a bullet whizzing past his ear and just caught Deacon dragging Sam through the door in the side of the barn they had entered through.

        “Sam!” He screamed her name over the noise, his gaze shaking as he spun around trying to see her. He caught a flash of her eyes before having to cover from another couple of bullets. He saw the Sheriff looking for a desperate move adjacent from him, and a split second later the man bolted for the barn door.

He turned to shoot the Sheriff but the tweaker that had hidden in Jack’s stall shot at him causing him to cover up again. f**k this, tweaker showed his face to shoot again and met Jace’s bullet in the forehead.         He had just turned to catch the Sheriff again when a higher pitched rifle shot rang out, he glanced up to the second floor of the house. Jason was perched in his bedroom window with a hunting rifle in hand.

He hand signaled that there were men fleeing in both directions. Then he flashed the daughter sign and signaled left. Jace nodded, he couldn’t wait for the troopers to cross the driveway and both yards to get to him before he went after Sam and Deacon.

        He skirted the barn door and hugged the wall, he peered around the corner of the barn once outside, he couldn’t get a clear line of sight. He glanced quickly to Jason. Cellar, left, coral. He nodded. Just like being back in the service, on with the s**t show. He gripped the gun tight in both hands and pushed on over to hug the cellar walls.

        The wood coral fences didn’t give good cover but he caught Deacon’s movements as he forced Sam along. If he timed it right, in a split second he was on the move again. He used the bottom two boards of the fence to vault over the rest and come crashing down on Deacon. The impact he made from behind sent Sam to the ground several feet away.

        “Sam. Run, go now!” He shouted as he fought with Deacon over the knife. Deacon threw Jace off of his back with a yell, but the force and Jace’s hand still on the knife as well sent the blade spinning through the air. It sank nearly hilt deep into the old wooden water trough’s side, water slowly leaking out around it.

He saw Sam scurry under the bottom board and run into the arms of an approaching trooper. At least she was safe now. His eyes locked on Deacon, then the knife and back. He was on one knee, holding his heavily bleeding side, Deacon had recovered back to his feet.

        “I told you Deacon, I am going to kill you for doing that to her.” He wasn’t sure where this strength was coming from, or the ability to focus his vision either but right now he’d take any help he could get. He gripped his fists tight in anticipation.

        “Come on big boy, you feel froggy just jump!” Deacon motioned with both hands, flicking his fingers to motion Jace to him. Little did he know, he was already a dead man when he laid a hand on Jace’s little Sam.

        They flew at each other, locking up like a pair of bulls locking horns. Deacon broke first and used the free hand to punch Jace again in the cut running down his ab muscles. Jace growled in pain and grasped at the cut for a second before exploding into Deacon with an upper cut.

        Deacon staggered away from him in a circle, holding his fractured jaw. Two strides and Jace had him by the throat in both hands from behind, he fell back with his knees firmly rocking into Deacon’s spine from the impact of the ground.

        “F***!” Jace swore as he rolled away back to his feet. He hurt like a son of a b***h but he wasn’t done yet. He grabbed Deacon’s left arm, locking it in an arm bar until he heard it snap. Deacon screamed like a little girl a he struggled to his feet in pain, not done yet.

        Jace stalked him, until Deacon turned to him just enough. He rushed him, lifting him with his momentum. He shifted Deacon’s broken arm over his shoulder and crumpled the man to the ground with a pile driver from hell. He knelt over Deacon on his knees pinning him down as he beat the man’s face in at will.

        He owed him; two bullet wounds, countless cuts, and worst of all the pain he had to watch on Sam’s face. He saw red, but not in his eyes but the blood on Deacon’s face. He stopped, his hard deep breaths shaking him with each one. He forced himself up, one last thing to do.

        He left Deacon semi conscious lying on the dirt and staggered over to the water trough. He jerked the knife from the wood, water flowing out and mixing with the dusty dirt. The blood and mud squishing under his feet as he forced Deacon up onto his knees. He held the bloody head up by the hair and bent down near Deacon’s ear, falling down on one knee in exhaustion.

        “I told you Deacon. You wouldn’t listen to me. Now the people around here are going to see a different message. You are finished and so are the drugs in this part of the country. This is MY territory now!”

Deacon let out a short garbled cry as Jace used his own knife to nearly cut his head off. The knife fell from his hand as he let Deacon’s body fall to the mud. Sam, he had to make sure Sam was fine. He rose to his shaking legs again, turning for the gate rather than climbing the fence.