Chapter 6

There was no blood. That was about the only good thing that David could take away from the scene. That and the fact that the arsenal Don kept in his SUV was untouched. With no sign of Don or Liz in the area surrounding where the SUV was found, odds were they'd switched cars. The vehicle was now forensics' domain and they were back to waiting. The techs were on the traffic cams again, trying to spot a vehicle leaving the area. David knew that even with the lower levels of traffic at night it was probably going to be a crapshoot.

He rubbed his hand against his eyes before clenching it into a fist and bowing his head. "Damn it."

"At least we know Warner was probably still alive when they changed cars. There would have been no reason for Eppes to take her body with him if she wasn't."

If that was McGowan's idea of a comforting thought, he needed a refresher course. David's phone rang and he answered it automatically.

"Sinclair."

"David? It's Liz. I had to shoot Don." There was a slight hysterical edge to her voice.

Adrenaline started pumping the moment David recognised Liz's voice. "Liz? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine... He didn't hurt me." There was a pause before her second sentence that David filed away to question her about later. "I've called an ambulance."

"Where are you?"

David noted the address and started hurrying towards their sedan.

"He's bleeding a lot, I need to put pressure on it." Liz sounded shaky. "I'm okay, really. I'll see you soon."

She hung up and David slid into the driver's seat. Before McGowan had even put on his seat belt David was starting to put the sedan through its paces, lights and sirens turned on. The drive went by in a blur, David cursing the slower cars who took too long to get out of their way. Liz had shot Don. Don was possibly dying. Despite the huge surge of relief that David felt knowing that Liz was probably okay, his stomach was sinking. He didn't want to arrive on the scene and find out that Don was dead. Or to face Don and look at him and see the man who had taken his own agent hostage, who had threatened his own girlfriend instead of the man he respected the hell out of, his boss.

David's cell rang.

"Sinclair."

"It's Colby. Bomb squad have disarmed the bombs, we're just about to go in."

"Okay, be careful. Liz called a few minutes ago, she's okay, but she had to shoot Don. Ambulance is on its way."

"Shit. I'll let you know what we find."

Please let them find Robin alive and unhurt.

The ambulance and two LAPD units had already beaten them to the parking lot when they arrived. Another FBI sedan pulled in behind them, two agents getting out. The flashing lights from the vehicles lit the place up. Liz was sitting sideways in the back seat of one of the units, feet hanging out the door to rest on the pavement and a blanket wrapped around her. The EMTs were just about to load Don into the ambulance, so even though Liz was the higher priority to David, he checked on Don first.

"What's his condition?"

One of the EMTs shook her head, blonde hair swaying with the movement. "Not great, he's lost a lot of blood."

Don appeared to be unconscious, blood darkening his black shirt and his skin pale. A wave of worry washed over David, despite what he knew.

The inquiry of what hospital they were taking him to done and answered and an agent ordered to go with the ambulance as Don was a prisoner, David hurried over to the squad car, glad to see that McGowan had hung back and not approached Liz. He evaluated her as he approached. Her right knee was jiggling up and down and she was shaking slightly. The eye makeup she was wearing had smudged from the tears that still looked like they were working to escape. He couldn't see any bruises or cuts. There was blood on her shirt.

David crouched down in front of her and extended his left hand, letting her make the move to grab it. There was blood under her short fingernails, somebody obviously having given her something to wipe her hands off. He squeezed lightly, letting her lower their hands to rest on her knee. She sighed, the sound indicating that she was barely holding the tears in, before looking off into the distance to try to regain some control.

"You okay?" David asked softly.

She took another breath before looking back at him and shrugging with a pathetic half smile. "As much as I can be, having just been taken hostage by my boss and then being forced to—" her breath hitched, but she continued on, "—shoot him."

"You think you're up to walking me through it?"

Liz gamely nodded, releasing his hand, trying to regain some of her composure and think like an agent rather than a victim.

"Yeah, but have you found Robin? What Don said..." Her jaw tightened as she looked up at the night sky, control tested again. "He said..." Another breath. "He said that she had never looked so beautiful, naked and helpless."

"That sick son of a bitch."

David had to agree with McGowan's words, the low burn of anger that had started in his gut when Colby had first called him starting to simmer.

"We don't know yet," David answered. He didn't want to give Liz any more information until he got her version of events. She wasn't just an agent, she was a witness and a victim and he didn't want to influence her recollection of what had happened in any way. "Tell me what happened at the house."

She took a deep breath. "Colby got there about the same time I did. All Don had given us on the phone was the address. I thought he was just pissed at being woken up, you know? We went into the house, he was standing in the bedroom, behind the bed, like he was looking at something. He told Colby to check out the kitchen and me to join him. He moved aside when I came around the bed and stepped back. I couldn't see what he'd been looking at, what he wanted me to look at. Then he had his arm around my neck and my gun at my head." She mimed the action.

Over the minutes that it took Liz to walk them through what happened, David felt both the anger and dread in the pit of his stomach grow. Don had made no attempt to use any distress words and there had been no sign that he was under duress. The failed marriage proposal and blaming Liz even made some level of sense, although why he'd waited a month to take it out on both of them was a mystery.

"He pulled up here...and I knew that he was going to kill me. I think I said just about anything at that point to try and stop it." The remembered fear was in her voice, her eyes far away, seeing the car and the gun all over again. "Don's—his face—" She shook her head and gave a shrug, brow furrowing. "He was blank. Didn't say a word, other than to tell me to get out of the car. And even that, his tone was flat, you know? He forced me ahead of him and then he pushed me. I fell and I knew that it was my only chance. I pulled my backup piece turned and fired." She shook her head again. "He didn't even try to shoot back. I found the keys and unlocked the cuffs and then called the ambulance and you."

"Liz, you did the right thing. You had no choice," David reassured. His cell rang and he answered, standing up and walking away a couple of feet. "Sinclair."

"We've got Robin out. She's on her way to the hospital. Nikki's with her," Colby said. "She'd been stripped to her underwear and tied to her bed." There was a lot of anger in Colby's voice and David closed his eyes. "She said it was Don."

No. This couldn't be Don. The problem was that he knew it could. The stabbing, Pete Fox's death, buying the motorcycle, his questioning of his job and the failed marriage proposal, all were almost enough by themselves to be triggers or indicators. Together, they were almost an explanation.

"Was she assaulted?"

"Her cheek's bruised but otherwise, I don't know. There's nothing obvious. She's pretty traumatised. Saying it was Don was the only thing I could get out of her. How's Liz?"

David looked back towards her, her head now bowed and her hands clenched together tightly. "As well as can be expected. She says he didn't hurt her." David wasn't quite so sure now that he believed her. There'd been the hesitation on the phone and if there was a sexual component to what had happened she might not want to admit it. David didn't want to admit that it could be a possibility either. He finished the conversation with Colby and then joined McGowan and Liz again. "They've found Robin. She's pretty traumatised." He crouched in front of Liz again. "Liz...did anything else happen?"

"What do you mean?" The slight, almost imperceptible wobble told David he was probably on the right track.

Please let it not be rape. Both Robin and Liz.

"Did Don assault you in any way?"

She blinked slowly and sniffed, restraining the onset of tears again. David put his hand over hers where it rested in her lap, moving slowly to give her the time to tell him to back off, giving it a squeeze of support when she said nothing.

"When he got me out of the SUV he pinned me against the side of it. He ran the muzzle of the gun down the side of my face and put the gun against my chest. He kissed me and grabbed my ass." She'd been staring into the distance again, lost inside the memory. Her focus came back to the present, onto David. "I stomped on his foot and he backed off. That was when he told me what he'd done to Robin."

"Nothing else?" David asked gently.

"No."

While David was incredibly relieved that it hadn't gone any further, it was bad enough that it had gone that far. And they still didn't know how far it had gone with Robin. How the hell did we miss this? It couldn't have happened in a vacuum, there had to have been other signs.

"You didn't do anything wrong." He gave one last squeeze of her hand and stood up. "You know what happens now. They'll have to investigate the shooting."

"I know the procedure," Liz said. "I'll be fine. Go and figure out what the hell happened here."

David looked away at the sound of more cars pulling into the lot, forensics and other agents. David spotted the Assistant Director in Charge getting out of his car and sighed. It was time for him and Agent McGowan to report this catastrophe.

"What?" Nikki asked as Colby shut his cell.

"Liz called David. She's fine, but she had to shoot Don. There's an ambulance on its way."

Nikki shook her head, hands on her hips and lips pursed in frustration and anger. "How the hell did things get this screwed up? Our boss planting bombs in his girlfriend's house, doing who knows what to her and taking another agent hostage?" She shook her head again. "I keep on hoping that it'll be like Edgerton or something, but the more we go on... Hell, after what happened with Ian I'd told Don that if I was ever in that situation, I wanted him to be the one on the other end. Ironic, huh?"

"I know." Knowing that Liz was okay unfortunately did not relieve much of the guilt Colby felt at not being able to stop Don taking her hostage in the first place. It had forced Liz into a situation where she'd had to shoot the man who was both her boss and ex-lover.

"Agents," the agent in charge of the bomb squad called. They walked quickly over to him. "We don't know whether there'll be further devices in the house—" he held up his hand when Colby started to protest against being forced to remain outside, "—so one of you can come in with us initially while we clear the rest of the house."

That was a better compromise than Colby had expected. He didn't give anybody else a chance to volunteer to go in, joining the bomb squad team as they got ready. He followed behind as they entered through the front door, checking the lower storey of the house. There were no more devices, but there was a red stain next to the couch which looked recent. Red wine if Colby was any judge, after having seen the empty bottle in the kitchen. They climbed the stairs to the second storey, clearing the rooms. The final room was the only one on the second storey to have a light on and Colby thought that it was going to be where they'd find Robin. Adrenaline flooded his system and his gut tightened as they approached the room.

"It's okay, ma'am, FBI, we're here to help," the first agent to enter the room said, his voice gentle.

Colby rushed forward, wanting to get into the room as soon as possible. As the last bomb squad agent left the doorway he got his first glimpse. It was Robin's bedroom and she was tied to her bed. She'd been stripped to her underwear and gagged. Colby stopped in the doorway, unable to believe that Don could have done this. A wave of sickness and disgust rolled over him as the anger that he'd felt since Don had held a gun to Liz's head in front of him ramped up.

"We're clear," the agent in charge of the bomb squad said.

The word unfroze Colby and he hurried over to Robin. There was bruising on one cheek and her eyes were red and swollen from crying.

"It's okay, Robin. You're safe now," Colby murmured soothingly, hoping that the tone would do more work than the words would. He pulled a knife from his pocket. "I'm going to get the gag off you, and then we'll work on getting you untied, okay? You're safe, I'm not going to hurt you."

She nodded so he moved his hands slowly but steadily towards her face, not wanting to make her skittish with the close contact. A second or two sawing with the knife and she was free of the gag.

"There you go. Let's get started on those hands. Robin, can you tell me whether you're hurt anywhere?"

He looked at the scarf tied around her hand before deciding where to cut. It looked like it was digging into the skin and it would probably be better for the EMTs or the hospital to remove the material from around her wrist. Not having a response from Robin, he looked back down at her face. She'd started silently crying. Shit. Nikki appeared on the other side of the bed.

"Hey, Robin," she said softly. "It's going to be okay. We'll have you out of here in a few minutes." Nikki then sent a grim expression in his direction, knowing just as well as he did that it was going to be a long time before it was okay, even if what they could see was all that had been done to Robin. They cut Robin's wrists away from the headboard in silence. The minute Robin's arms were free she retracted them to around her stomach in a half hug, the crying picking up intensity as she twisted half onto her side. It was hard to see the normally composed prosecutor so traumatised.

Gesturing for Nikki to try to get through to Robin, Colby started on her ankles.

"Robin, Robin can you hear me?" Nikki asked softly. "I need to know who did this to you."

A small, insanely hopeful part of Colby was saying that she wasn't going to respond 'Don'. It would be someone else, some stranger that had done this, and the stranger would have forced Don to abduct Liz. There'd be a reasonable explanation for Don's behaviour.

The crying slowed for a second as Robin rasped out, "Don." The shudders at admitting that vibrated throughout her body, juddering her ankle as he was trying to cut it loose.

"You're safe," Nikki said, but there was an edge to her voice, brought on by the confirmation of what they'd both hoped against.

Both of Robin's ankles were now free and she curled up into a ball. The EMTs that had been waiting approached, starting to evaluate her. Nikki remained perched on the side of the bed, a comforting hand on Robin's shaking shoulder.

"Hey, Miss Brooks, do you think you could walk down the stairs? It'd be a little easier." The EMT gave her a small smile when she nodded, sitting herself up. "Let me just put this blanket around you first." He wrapped the silver blanket around her snugly and she caught hold of the ends, making sure that it would stay wrapped. Colby was encouraged to see her being somewhat responsive to the situation.

Robin's legs nearly collapsed when she stood up, but the EMT caught her, supporting her as she made her slow way out of the room. Her face was blank and her eyes looked lost. She was very clearly in shock and traumatised.

"How could the bastard have done this to her?" Nikki hissed after Robin was out of hearing distance. "I want to kill him myself right now."

"Look, I know how you feel, but it's not helpful at the moment. We need to remain focussed on finding out what happened. I need you to go to the hospital with Robin and be her support. See whether you can get anything out of her, but be gentle."

Nikki took one final look around the room before nodding. "This is just messed up."

Colby couldn't agree more.

TBC...