Logan Nash

I flick on the lights in my quiet midtown apartment, kicking off my shoes to pace across the woven carpet to my set-up.. I shrug out of my jacket and shirk my tie before dropping into the chair behind the series of high tech flatscreens.. The startup chime of the computers echoes loudly, cracking the silence and I wince with a jolt, jumping to turn the volume down.. "Shhhh-shit, shit, shit!"

With a few strokes of the keys I manage to find her.. Shelby Quinn.. There isn't much of an online presence for the intriguing little Marine.. But what I discovered surprises me senseless..

Not only was she the crowned queen of the state, she has a flawless military record and a set of commendations that put half of Iris' agents to shame..
Two purple hearts, multiple bronze ans silver stars, a legion of merit and a POW medal that causes me to think of her in a whole new light.. A light that I don't like because it forces me to feel something I had been trying hard not to feel.. Empathetic..

To think of her chained up in some foreign hellhole being treated like an animal is sickening.. She's so small.. So pretty..

Fuck!
Get it together man!

The sounds of quiet footsteps break my train of thought as they scuffle in the hall alerting me that Dallas is awake..
Soon, my niece appears in the doorway, rubbing her tired sapphire eyes and glaring fire at me in the way only a teenage girl can..

Her messy strawberry blonde hair piled into a bun atop her head and she pulls her fluffy pink dressing gown over her striped pyjamas as she squints at me in annoyance.. "What the hell, Logan! It's like- one in the morning!"

"Sorry Dallas, my meeting ran late and I had to take care of some stuff after.. Go back to bed.." I whisper loudly, shooing her with the wave of my hand..

She shakes her head, "Since I'm already awake can't we play a few rounds?"
Dallas nods towards the screen connected to the gaming console, blinking at me with hopeful big blue eyes that I find it difficult to say no to..

"Hmm- I still got work to do, Tex.. " I hum hesitantly and she huffs with an adorable pout, wearing me down easily.. She's got a face that's sort of impossible to say no to..

Goddamnit..

Dallas looks just like her mother and she uses that weapon against me on a daily basis.. She is a carbon copy of my soft-hearted older sister, Dixie, who had perished along with her husband, Houston, in a house fire when Dallas was just seven years old.. "Pretty please, Uncle Logan?.."

To this day I have no idea why Dixie and Houston decided to write my name down as guardian to their daughter in the event of their death..
They really dropped me in the fucking deep end that's for damn sure, but I did everything I could to make it work.. I learned how to braid Dallas' hair the way she liked, I learned how to tie her pretty pink ribbons into bows, paint her nails and sip make believe tea with her dolls..

All I ever wanted was to give her a normal childhood, but as Dallas got older, it didn't get any easier, puberty and a newfound interest in boys brought with them a whole new set of seas to navigate..

Nothing could have prepared me to become a single parent to a teenage girl and I feel like I'm always several steps behind, no matter what I do.. No matter how hard I try I can never give her what she really wants.. What she has always needed..

A mother and father...

Instead, she has me..

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that Dixie chose me.. In the tragedy of losing my sister, she gave me a gift.. A best friend..

But if I had a choice, if I could have seen the circumstances rearranged, I would have taken Dixie's place in a heartbeat..

I should have been me who died.. I was always the fuck up of our family.. The failure.. If I had been better, maybe everything would have worked out differently for Dallas.. Maybe my mom and dad wouldn't have died with disappointment in their hearts, maybe the place we came from wouldnt have seemed so terrible, and maybe the world would be a little bit better because Dixie would still be in it..

"Alright, just a few rounds but then you gotta hit the hay.. You got school tomorrow and I ain't in no hurry to be called into the principal's office on account of you sleeping in class, ya hear?" Dallas attends the best school my money can buy in the uptown district for her senior year, where she is an honour student, valedictorian as well as student body present and captain of the cheer squad.. Honestly, the girl has more extra-curricular activities than I can poke a stick at.. It mostly worries me how much pressure she puts on herself to be perfect.. All to make her parents proud.. To make me proud..

And I am proud.. Of course I am..
She's the strongest, sweetest little thing I know.. Tough as a rattlesnake and smart as a whip, afraid of nothing, with the potential for everything..

"Whatever you say, old man.." She grins at me looking pleased with herself, plopping down onto the sofa to sit cross legged before the screen as the console powers on..

"Hey now! I'm thirty-fucking-two!" I scoff in mock-horror as I toss one of the game controls to her and she rolls her eyes..

"Yeah.. Like I said.. Old.."

I shake my head at her in disbelief..
The disrespect..

"Well shit, ain't somebody a sassy little smartass.." The console hums and the latest unreleased edition of The Street Brawler game loads on the screen with a chirp to playback a heavy metal theme tune..

I may have 'borrowed' an advanced copy from the production company that makes the game.. For entertainment purposes only.. I'd never leak it.. Or sell it.. Well.. Not unless that company were investing their profits into shady syndicates.. Then I might consider it.. There are ethical limitations to the lengths I'd go to..

No, this hack was purely for fun..
I did it for Dallas..

"How'd your super secret meeting go? Did you get your balls back from that scary Security lady?" Dallas selects her character, a female berserker with slimy looking tentacles for arms in a black catsuit, with pointy ears, a tail and all..

So fucking weird..

"Yep, got both of em' back where they belong.." I chuckle, selecting a character for myself, an alien shapeshifter with mirrored skin and electric blades for hands..

Fucking ridiculous..

"Holy heck! These graphics are amazing!" She gushes over the quality of the game.. "Thanks for getting this for me, Lo-Lo.."

"Yeah yeah.. Happy birthday, Tex.." I smile at her.. Since it's past midnight she is officially the birthday girl.. Eighteen years old..

Where the fuck did all that time go?

Dallas is her own person, and truthfully she has been since she was in diapers.. Brilliant and fearless, the kid hasn't ever caused me trouble or given me reason not to trust her.. And in return, I try to give her everything she could ever need and I am honest with her.. As honest as I can be without compromising her future..

There are some things she doesn't need to know.. Things that would only keep her in Darkport, attached to me, when all I want is for her to go to college and be free to find herself..

"You're the best.." She praises sincerely, selecting a rooftop graveyard as our battle arena..

What even is this fucking game?

"Hey, who's that?.." She flicks a glance over my shoulder to the second screen on my desk to the article featuring a picture of Shelby accepting the pageant crown for Miss Pennsylvania..

It's hard to believe the smiling sweetheart on the screen is the same steely eyed Marine I'd met earlier..

"Ah.. Just some chick I met today.." I reply casually as the battle commences on screen and we both mash our control buttons furiously..

"Mega babe!" Dallas wolf whistles as he character demolishes mine with the squeeze of.ita slimy tentacles with a finishing move that has my alien's head exploding..
Blood and guts spary the screen and drip down theatrically..

"She sure as shit wasn't smiling like that when I met her, but-- Yeah, she's alright I s'poze.." I shrug, brushing off her curious compliment of the woman who had looked down her nose at this southern boy.. Whatever it was about me that had put her off from the second she laid eyes on me could be put down to good instincts on her part.. But just because she was right.. That doesn't make it any less bitter to swallow..

To know that she marked me out, immediately seeing me as not good enough for her.. Well, that fucking sucked..
And sure she had changed her tune when I played hardball.. But a woman like that would only walk all over a guy if he'd let her..

So I ain't gonna let her..

"God, please tell me she's not another one of your vapid bimbos.. Logan, when are you going to stop mackin' on these superficial barbies and take your life seriously.. You're going to end up all sad, old and alone.. I mean.. You are thirty-fucking-two after all.." Her blue eyes twinkle wickedly as she toys with me, making her fun at my expense..

"Hey! You watch ya damn language, Miss!" I frown at her like a hypocrite and she screws up her sweet pixie face fully aware of the fact.. "And it's not like that, she's not a Barbie, she's a Marine.. Wants me to help her with a job.. Her dad's missing or some shit.." I make an attempt to dismiss her digging as my character pummels hers into the ground and chops her tentacles into calamari, giving the second round victory to me..

"Oh.. Sorry.." She says, not at all sounding apologetic.. "So what's her name then, this Beauty-Queen-Marine?.."

I sigh in defeated frustration, since it's becoming obvious that Dallas won't be dropping the subject.. "Her name is Shelby.. Sargent Shelby Quinn.." Even the way her name tastes in my mouth is delicious, like sugar and seabreeze..

"She's real pretty.." Dallas scooches forward on the sofa competitively as the countdown for the third and final round commences..

"Yep.." I concede.. She sure is..
Shelby is pretty as hell with her almost cartoon-like wide doe-eyes and adorably diminutive stature, contrasted by her tough, take-no-shit attitude, tattoos and sharp tongue..

What a pretty little mystery that woman is..
A mystery that will remain unknown to me..

"So, are you gonna ask her out?.." Dallas smirks over at me, sizing me up with a smug honey-eyed curiosity..

"Nope.." I scowl, screwing up my nose at the suggestion.. There's no way the Army Barbie agrees to go anywhere with me unless it's to serve her own naive agenda and I have absolutely no intention of becoming her pawn.. She can find somebody else to do her dirty work..

"Are you gonna help her find her dad?" She purses her lips in frustration, infuriated by my short refusal..

"Nope.." Repeating myself I shake my head with an affirmative certainty..

"But you could-" With a sharp huff and an expression of exasperation she folds her arms over her chest to challenge me.. "Right?"

"I could.." My back teeth grind as I let out a tired sigh, her persistence pressurising into irritation deep down in the pit of my stomach.. "But I won't.."

She hits the pause button on our game and turns to me with a stern frown.. "And just why the hell not, Lo-Lo? It's the right thing to do--"

I lean back in my seat to pinch the bridge of.my nose, a tension headache already taking hold of my temples.. "Because, she doesn't know what she's asking for, and neither do you, Dallas, that's the end of it."

I've been here before.. I've seen what happens when the little guy goes up against Blackstar's CEO Tyler Bennings and it doesn't end well.. The dude is as dirty operator just like his daddy before him had been.. The whole family are a scourge on this planet and anybody who gets in their wayz gets burned to the ground..

After all, That's how I'd really ended up here.. I'd lost almost everything at the hands of the Bennings family and I'll be damned if I'll let them take anything else from me..

If Blackstar really does have Shelby's dad locked away in some underground hole, then the best thing for her to do would be to let him go.. Accept that she will never see him again.. Because the reality is that she won't..

Any effort to uncover Blackstar's secrets will only force Tyler into the position where he feels the need to cover his tracks and tie up loose ends..

That's when people die.. People like Dixie and her husband.. Houston had worked for Blackstar, he knew first hand the types of terrible shit that company was capable of, and when he spoke out against the Bennings, an example was made of him and his family..

My family..

"So, you don't think your new friend would help me?" Dallas gazes longingly at the screen, admiring the crowned beauty queen with a wistful sigh..

"Why, what do you need?" I frown.. "Whatever it is, I can help you with it.."

She jumps to her feet and races across to her school satchel that hangs from the back of one of the dining chairs, digging through it to find a crumpled piece of pink paper.. "No offence, Lo-Lo, but this ain't exactly in your wheelhouse.."

She hands me the flyer and I smooth out the rosy paper over my thigh to read it..
'The Miss Darkport Beauty Pageant'..

Goddamnit.. Not this shit again..

"Tsk..You don't actually wanna do this?" I click my tongue and shake my head but Dallas stares back at me in determination..

"The winner gets a two year Ivy scholarship and fifty thousand dollars! Of course I want to do it!" She throws up her hands dramatically.. "You always said I could do anything! Well I wanna do this!"

I hold up a fist to stop her.. "Now listen, Tex, I can pay for college and-"

"You barely make enough for.my Northbank High tuition, Logan.. How are you supposed to pay for Princeton?"

"I'll figure it out, Dallas, I always do.." I argue..

"It's not just the money.. " Her sky-blue eyes flick away from mine.. "Mom was Miss Texas for two years running.."

I sigh with the nostalgic flicker of a memory washing over me.. "Yeah.. Dixie sure did like her big hair and rhinestones.."

Thick watery tears begin to roll down her cheeks and she wipes them away with a miserable sniffle.. "I know you think pageants are stupid but- I kinda thought this would help me to feel closer to her.."

"You're killin' me with the tears and the guilt trip, Tex!" I groan..

"Oh pleeeeeeease Logan!" She presses her hands together in pleading.. "Just ask your friend to give me a few pointers.. She obviously knows about this stuff!"

"She's not my friend.." I mutter, turning around to hit the exit button on the monitor, wiping Shelby's image from the screen.. "And I don't want you prancing around on stage like some little show pony.."

She folds her arms and scowls back at me something fierce.. "I ain't never 'pranced' a day in my life.."

"And you never will.." I toss the game controller aside to end the conversation.. "Now get your ass bed, you got school tomorrow.."

Dallas huff's in disappointment.. "Ugh! Not fair! This isn't over, we'll be talking about this tomorrow.."

"No we won't.." I mutter as she disappears back up the hall, slamming her bedroom door closed..

Goddamnit..

I glance over the pageant promo flyer once again, my eyes scanning the bottom of the page where the event sponsors are listed.. One logo stands out among the others..

Blackstar..

"Fuck.."