The taut rope snared his wrists, and no matter how hard he had tried to change the masked men's opinions on how he should be contained, it was of no use. He could feel blood pouring down his nose, he could feel a few broken ribs, and he could most definitely feel some legitimate fear. The warehouse had no signs of activity besides that of his captors. Speaking of which, he could not for the life of him figure out their weaknesses – they were all monotonous, trained professionals, and he was truly afraid to be around them. The reason being that they were trained to reject influences like the ones he tried to use. It was oddly satisfying to be the loser, for once.
"Tell us what we want to know." they screeched again, punching his face in the side. As he swayed back and forth, the man smiled, his tie stained red with blood. They weren't going to learn a single thing from him – had they even read his file? He manipulated other people; he wasn't manipulated himself.
"What might it be that you gentlemen want to know?" he cooed, spitting out a little blood from his mouth. He would need to clean up quite a bit when he left to get back to the office; he didn't want Lisbon worrying about the trouble he got himself into. He was the only one who could keep such big, dirty secrets from his coworkers; not only because he ensured that the others weren't able to.
"Don't play games with us, Jane. If you want to see anyone you love again, you better get talking."
"Oh? I don't love anyone. If you read my file, you would have known that my family died."
"Revenge, we know. Now, start talking, Jane."
"I don't really care if I die. But I'm sure you do, because your boss is probably going to kill you if I die."
"Fine; we see how it is. We'll get your loved ones in here and cut off each of their heads, one by one."
"I don't love anyone. You guys just don't listen! But I do know that you have a home to get to. I know that you've got a leukemic daughter who's only got a few weeks to live. I know that your wife passed away during childbirth, I know that you're only doing this to save your daughter. You don't want to kill an innocent person, do you?"
"We'll get her."
"And who might that be?"
"Your damn boss."
"She can take care of herself."
He was still swaying by the time the man in black had enough. Jane smiled again, but made sure to press his jaws together when he got another punch in the opposing cheek. He heard a few words about getting "her", and then a few of the spectating captors left. Probably to take her on; but he knew that she wouldn't come; at least, not without putting up a fight. And that woman had a lot of strength in her – Jane saw it in her eyes. She needed to stay safe and strong, with the team. He'd get himself out of this soon enough.
He had promised her that he would always be her knight in shining armor, though. He said that he'd always save her. What a joke that was. Jane felt ashamed in his current predicament; he felt like the helpless damsel in distress that needed a prince to come whisk her away. He needed to be that prince; he needed to be the one who was always there for Lisbon. It wasn't the other way around.
But he couldn't wriggle himself out of this situation. He couldn't admit defeat, though. Not without a fight. He obnoxiously called over one of the remaining men, and asked some rather personal questions. If he couldn't fool their boss, he could turn his comrades against him and bust himself out. If it worked.
"You know that he's not into you, right?"
"What are you talking about, you slimy bastard?"
"Oh, feisty! I mean that your boss isn't romantically interested in you. I can tell."
"Prisoners can't talk to jailers lie you. You've got some nerve, kid."
"I'm probably older than you."
The man walked away, hallway irritated. This was going to be too easy – the rest of the leader's men weren't emotionally trained.
"Alright, Cho. I'll be there in a few. Hey, do you know where Jane is?"
The officer's matter-of-fact voice never ceased to amaze her, because it hid him under his turtle-like shell even in the strangest of scenarios. He reported to her that he had not been sighted for the entire day, but it probably wasn't anything major. The man was most likely having an off-day, or something similar.
Still, she did sense that there was something strange going on… she hadn't seen the consultant for almost three days now. Jane always disappeared for his own strange reasons, and he wasn't required to come to work every single day like she was, but that didn't mean that he could go off traipsing someplace foreign. Besides… he was fun to be around. Light-hearted, jovial people always are.
Lisbon reached her car, got in, took out her keys, and put them in the ignition. There had been a murder report around the California Delta, so she was heading there now to inspect the prospective case. But it was always easier if Jane was around; maybe it would do them both a little good if he was away for a little while on one of his unofficial vacations.
But there was a dark tang in the air. She could taste it, smell it, and even feel it rubbing against her skin. Something had most definitely happened, and she was afraid to ask around or find out what "it" was, exactly. She turned the ignition, and readied her feet on the pedals. This was going to be a long day.
She slammed the door of her vehicle, sighing. Cases in the morning were the worst sort of cases. She made sure her gun was in its holster and began trudging over to where she saw Cho and Van Pelt standing over a corpse; the yellow tape was definitely nonexistent. That was quite strange; almost all of the homicide cases she had worked had the police involved as the guards of the crime scene. There was definitely a crime scene; where was the media?
She reached the others, and then noticed the sorry lack of notepads, as well as the body itself – Rigsby. But he wasn't dead; he had his eyes wide open, and he was breathing. He was looking straight at her. There was even some fake blood on him; it looked real from a distance, but up close it looked like some manmade substance.
"What's going on here? Jane's the one who's supposed to do the tricks, not you guys."
"That's the problem. He's been gone for three days, boss." Van Pelt said; a worried tone in her voice.
"And we knew that you wouldn't want to search for him out of the blue like a normal person, so we had to build a mini-conspiracy. Sorry." Rigsby got on his knees, wiped the dirt off of his red plaid shirt, and stood upright.
"Well, after hearing how worried you were on the phone, we knew this was the right move." That was Cho. Everyone was in on this except for her.
"For all we know, he could just be in Alaska or something. Why do you guys think he's in trouble?" Lisbon was seriously concerned about her entire team's welfare – not just Jane's – and hoped that this wasn't some sort of sick joke. That pang of dread she had felt in the morning was definitely a bad sign, when one paired it with the scene in front of her.
"He hasn't checked in, boss." The newest member of their team was also their scapegoat, but even she was sporting a rather fearful gaze behind her natural, simulated look. Van Pelt held views that Jane had often tried to challenge, but when it came down to it, Lisbon knew that she would be equally worried for her team member.
"All right, I'll bite. What do you have on his situation right now?" Lisbon was being fairly compliant with the whole ordeal; she had a bad night's sleep last night, and on top of that, it was the morning. She loved mornings, but could not deal with serious trouble so early. It was fairly obvious, and the team probably knew it. It was more than likely their reasoning for calling her out so early instead of later in the afternoon.
"Nothing. We were hoping you'd be able to help on that front." Cho stated everything in a monotonous tone. Sometimes, Lisbon would want to keel over and kick him in the knees, but not today. It was easier for her to stay sane if at least one person around her was calm, cool, and collected. Normally, that person would be Jane, but he was the reason she was so irascible at the moment. If he just stayed in one place, it would be so much easier to keep tabs on him. Jane was like a puppy in that aspect – he was so easy to lose the attention of, and he loved playing games.
She surprised herself with those thoughts. Maybe she did spend a bit too much time with him?
"We could always check out his place. He might have left something there." She wasn't too sure about there being anything even relatively personal on his property, but it was the only conclusion she could get round to making and it was definitely worth a shot.
"I'll lead the way."