Chapter 1. Taken
He had been about to walk home from the office when it happened. He couldn't help but think now when he was laying on his stomach on the floor of the van tied, gagged and blindfolded with an aching head, that the whole thing could have been prevented if Peter had just agreed to drive him home when he had asked for a ride. But Peter had said no, and here he was. He had no idea of who these people where. One thing was for sure and that was that they were brutal. He had only resisted right at the moment when they grabbed him but then they had hurt him, so he stopped. He was pretty sure that one of his ribs were cracked. It hurt a lot. But that wasn't the worst. It was his arm.
His arms were tied with thick rope, probably the same kind that they had put around his head and in his mouth to stop him from screaming, or talking for that matter. They had tied his arms hard, they had only been in the van for maybe ten minutes, but he already had trouble feeling his fingers. He intensely wished that he couldn't feel anything from his right arm. He was sure that it was broken. Adrenalin was still pumping through him, but he was sure that the pain would hit him much harder as soon as he calmed down. Thankfully the rope wasn't tied over the break, but close to his hands. It still hurt a lot.
Peter had found him to be annoyed today at the office. He had only been joking, but the FBI-agent obviously thought that he took it too far. That was why Peter had refused to drive him home when they got out of the office and Neal had asked.
"Come on, Peter. I was only joking before you know that right? You are an excellent driver."
"Well, the answer is still no, Neal."
"What, isn't the fact that I'm willing to step into a car with you now proof of how much I trust your driving skills?"
"Good night Neal. You have a nice walk. I will do you good." Peter had smirked and left him standing there feeling stupid.
That's where he had been standing, looking after Peter, when they came. It was at least three of them, he didn't really had time to see. It all happened very fast, almost like it had been rehearsed. Hands grabbed him and started to drag his arms behind him as they tried to get him down on his knees to be able to blindfold him faster. The worst thing was that he could still see Peter. He could see his salvation disappearing away from him, and he couldn't do anything to get Peters attention.
They got him gagged first, quick and effective, but they struggled more with his arms, and somehow he managed to slip them. For a wild moment he thought that he had a change to get away, but it was crushed as soon as someone got a hold of his hair and pulled hard. He fell backwards towards the ground, and then he noticed that they had already gotten rope around his right arm, and someone had been holding the other end of it. It straightened and he knew when he fell that something was bound to give away, and it was his arm. He had closed his eyes in despair as he felt the bone in his arm snap.
Tears came into his eyes and that was when he stopped resisting. When the blindfold came on he could still see Peter's blurry figure disappearing in the distance before things went dark. Ha was roughly dragged up and led to what he understood was a wan. He couldn't help but moan when they threw him face forward down on the floor of the vehicle. He had no change of breaking his fall and landed painfully shoulder first. He could hear the men jump in behind him and the doors closed. Someone got behind the wheel and the car started.
He flinched when someone put weight on his lower back to keep him still. Someone else grabbed his legs. No, just the left one. The anklet! They knew about the anklet. He was so screwed. The grip on his leg tightened as his pant leg were pulled up. He kept his leg still and let them cut it. Fighting wouldn't do him any good, and with his broken arm he wouldn't be able to do much anyway. Pain rushed through his ankle as they carelessly cut the anklet off, cutting into his leg at the same time. They didn't care that they hurt him. Cold air rushed against them, and he understood that they had opened a window and thrown the anklet out. That had been his only hope as soon as he realized that this was happening. He was getting kidnapped. But with the anklet on, Peter would find him right away. But not now. At least with it gone, Peter would know that something had happen to him. Peter would look for him. He would come! He just had to stay alive until then.
Now he was just lying there trying to stay as still as possible. His arm was throbbing painfully, and he wished they would release the bounds just a little. It was not like he could do anything anyway. They must have noticed when his arm snapped. He certainly had heard the break.
What frightened him more than anything else about the situation he was in was the behavior of his captors. During this whole time they hadn't uttered a single word, and that scared him. They were efficient enough so that they didn't need to talk to each other to get the job done. That told him that his kidnapping was planned in detail. They had chosen to grab him just outside the bureau and with Peter so close. It was a risky move from their part, but still they hadn't hesitated at all. Who were they? What did they want with him?
Whatever it was, it wasn't good.
- WHITE COLLAR -
Peter couldn't help but smirk a bit to himself when he saw Neal's face fall after he had been rejected a ride. That kid had been totally obnoxious today. He didn't know what was going on with Neal. Maybe he was just bored and restless. It was highly probable. But Peter had let it get to him, and the only revenge he had been able to come up with was making Neal walk home. After all it wasn't that far, and also Neal could use the walk to calm down.
The younger man hadn't done anything special to get Peter annoyed, it was just many little things. Peter suspected a few of them, if not all was aimed to actually annoy him. Neal had amused himself with seeing how far he could push Peter. He had seen through it though and had pretended to be fine with Neal's mischief's. Until now that was, making him walk home would give him some time to think through what he had done, and give Peter a relaxed car ride home to his wife.
Elisabeth had called him earlier saying that she was waiting with dinner until he got home. Another reason not to swing by June's place. El was waiting for him after all.
However as he got to his car he actually felt a slight bit of remorse. It was quite far to June when he thought about it. And Neal wasn't exactly dressed for walking any longer distances.
He started the car and decided to just drive and see if he could spot Neal. He couldn't. He was nowhere in sight, which was a bit strange when he thought about it.
He had to hit the brakes hard to not drive straight into a white wan that just had stopped in front of him by a red light. He had been a bit distracted looking for Neal, something that Neal definitely would have commented on if he had been in the car. It would have been pretty embarrassing to cause an accident like the one he had been really close to just doing. This was nothing he was going to tell Neal about, he would have a field day with it.
No matter how much he looked he couldn't spot Neal. He considered giving him a call, but decided against it. Elisabeth was waiting after all. He better hurry home now if he was going to get any food. He knew that she would give his dinner to Satchmo if he wasn't there on time.
- WHITE COLLAR -
Neal wasn't there when Peter got to the office the next morning. He had actually called Neal in the morning to ask if he wanted a ride, and to make peace. If Peter picked him up, Neal had to agree to not drive him crazy today again.
It was just that Neal didn't answer. He even tried him twice. Once when he was finishing up his breakfast, and then again when he was in the car, close to the exit towards June's. He got a bit annoyed again at Neal for not picking up. Was he sulking now?
Neal usually was punctual, but now he was an hour late. Peter called him again, with no answer yet again. He was just about to pull up Neal's anklet when Jones walked into his office, without knocking, which wasn't like him.
"Jones?" He questioned.
"Peter, I think we have a problem. You are not going to like this at all."
"Of course I'm not. What is it?" He paused for a second. "It's Neal, isn't it?"
"Yeah, Peter, it looks like he cut his anklet last night."
"What? Are you kidding me?"
"No… I wish i was. Why would he run now? He was no reason, right?"
"Of course he hasn't. And Jones, why the hell are you telling me this now?" Peter stood up. What the hell was Neal doing?
"I just found out myself. I just got the report from the Marshalls office, they are saying they have been having technical problems with Neal's anklet."
"Technical problems? But they think he cut the anklet?"
"Yes they do. It's just that it didn't send out an alarm like it is supposed to. They found out this morning."
"Which means that Neal has at least 12 hours head start."
"You really think he cut it?"
"No, I don't. Something else it going on here."
Peter rubbed his face. This was not a good start of the day.
"Get a team together. Let's find him."
- WHITE COLLAR -
"All right. Let's see what we got." Peter started as they were all assembled in a conference room ten minutes later.
"When was the anklet cut?"
Jones looked at his papers. "At 7:13." He answered, and Peter couldn't help but stare at him.
"Boss?" Diana said. "What is it?"
"That is just as me and Neal left the office. Why would he…" He trailed off, lost in thought. It was right after Peter had refused to drive him home.
"What happened?" Diana asked.
"Nothing, he asked me for a ride, and I said no." He shouldn't have said no.
"He cut his anklet because you wouldn't give him a ride home?" Jones stated with a smirk.
"No way." Peter said. "He isn't that stupid."
"It must have been right after we parted. I kind of changed my mind and drove to look for him, but I couldn't see him. I figured that he maybe went back up to the office."
"Let's check the security tapes. He must have done it within camera range." Diana said, and said and done, five minutes later they all gathered around Jones' computer.
Jones found the right footage on the second camera he checked. And what they saw shocked them all. Peter just stared at the scene that played on the screen.
"He was taken." He whispered out in the room.
- WHITE COLLAR -
