A/N: I'm so sorry I've been so absent lately! I've been so incredibly busy that writing fic just gets pushed to the back burner. I found some extra time and tried my best to punch this one out for you guys! It's not the best, but it's something. I'm trying! I really am! I hope you guys like it. I don't own svu or its characters. Enjoy!
"Don't even think about it."
The next thing he knew, there was a needle in his neck and Liv was stirring on the bed beside him. Ronnie pushed his head back against his shoulder, tightening the hold around his mouth. He wanted to flail and kick out of it, but he was frozen as the knife drew delicately across his Adam's apple and towards his jugular vein.
"Pops," Ronnie said, just loud enough that it woke Liv from her slumber. He glanced over at her, barely able to see her face out of the corner of her eye as she shifted and woke, staring up at the ceiling before she was alerted to their presence. The sharp intake of breath told him she saw the predicament and the way she sat up slowly, but didn't try and stand, told him she saw the knife pressed against his neck.
"One slice and he bleeds out," Ronnie directed towards her. Rafael trembled at the malice in his tone and nearly stumbled over his feet when Ronnie walked backwards with him. Chet passed by them with his rifle, pointed directly at Liv, who raised her hands but still didn't move. Ronnie pushed him back towards the fold out couch and he caught himself with his hands and a knee, looking wildly around at both of the men.
"If either of them moves or say anything, shoot 'em in the head, dad," Ronnie eyed them both and sheathed the long, sharp knife in the back of his pants, pulling his button shirt over it. Chet waved the gun at him towards Liv and he swiftly crawled up next to her, where she grabbed for him, yet never taking her eyes off the old man.
"Ya'll lost?"
Amanda was immediately put off by the man standing on the porch. First, he was barefoot, standing on a thin layer of snow and cold wood, and didn't look the least bit affected. Second, he was oddly chipper for one in the morning, which wouldn't have bothered her if he hadn't been wearing a fake smile when he greeted them. Lastly, his aura was giving her weird vibes. Like, supremely weird vibes that she only ever got from cho-mos and murderers who weren't sorry for their crimes.
It also irked her that they hadn't even made it onto the porch before he was standing outside in front of them. The front door was cracked open behind him, producing no light, leaving them unable to see if there were any other occupants with him.
"Hi, I'm Detective Amanda Rollins with the NYPD," she greeted with a smile. Her poker face was fairly good, and there was no reason for this man to think she was bothered by all of these things. Her senses were on high alert, and it was hard to suppress the urge to question the hell out of him because they were there for other reasons.
"NYPD? You realize this is New Hampshire, little darlin'?"
Her smile dropped a little, "Yeah, well, my fellow detectives and I are looking for a few friends? I don't know if you heard about the plane crash- "
"Yeah, we heard. Terrible thing. Radio said one dead and two missin'. Must a been your friends I take it?"
She nodded, "Yeah. We've been looking for them for a few days but haven't found anything. Have you seen anyone by chance? Heard anything?"
"No," he shook his head and leaned against the railing of the stairs. Amanda watched the older man, keenly aware of the body language. He was a difficult man to read. "If they are alive, somehow, they won't make it another night in this mess. Either the weather or the bears will get 'em."
"Bears?" Carisi, who had been standing back with Finn, walked up. The man's expression changed ever so slightly when he locked eyes with Carisi. It was so minute, had she not been a trained detective, it would have slipped by her easily.
"Yeah. We got 'em out here. They can be real nasty. I hope your friends don't run into none of them."
That wasn't an answer any of them wanted to hear. Amanda squeezed her gloved hands, looking around the outside of the cabin. "Why do you keep your car under a tarp?"
She gestured towards it and he straightened a bit, a tight-lipped smile forming, "Keep it clean. It's an old truck. Don't need it gettin' all messed up with the snow and such. Look, it's late and I'm sure you folks wanna get back into town. I got an early mornin' huntin' tomorrow so I need to get some sleep."
Amanda nodded slowly, disappointment and suspicion intermingling in her mind. There was something seriously off about this man. He was secretive and evasive; she could tell he was hiding something the moment he closed the door to his dark cabin behind him.
"Alright. Well, if you want to, we have a search party forming tomorrow in town. You seem to know the area well…maybe you could help out?"
"Sure thing. You gonna be headin' it up?"
"Yes," she nodded, her eyes still roving along the outside of the cabin. She knew Finn and Carisi were doing the same, and she had to guess they were having the same feeling she was. This man was so…odd. The way he stood outside, in strikingly cold weather, barefoot and staring at her like he wanted to eat her alive.
"Well then I'll definitely be there, darlin'."
Amanda didn't smile. She stared at him with a blank expression until he turned on his heel and bid them a goodnight. She tried seeing inside the house for the two seconds she was able to but was met with darkness. As the door shut, the hope she had dwindled, but only slightly. Something was off.
"He's weird and he's lying."
Finn's voice broke her of her thoughts and she turned to face both men. Carisi was leaning against the car, staring at the exposed tired under the tarp and Finn had his arms crossed over his chest. It was a look, one she was familiar with, he pulled when he knew someone was avoiding. He used it right before he struck.
"I know he is," she nodded and glanced back at the house, "Let's go."
"You know them?"
Ronnie waited to speak until he saw the tail lights of the car disappearing into the thick of the woods. Liv and Rafael stared down the barrel of the gun, not answering him as he came around to stand behind Chet, who was unwavering. Rafael, who had moved to sit beside Liv, clutched her hand that had wrapped around his bicep. He was the first to speak up, albeit quietly.
"Yes."
"Ya'll work with them in the city?"
He nodded and he felt Liv squeezing his arm, reminding him not to answer too many questions. How she was able to think so clearly under this kind of pressure, he wasn't sure. He was glad she was able to though, because his mind was a jumbled mess of panic and fear colliding.
"I think that dumb broad out there believed my bear theory. Ya'll make it a habit of hirin' dumb bitches in the city?"
"She's not as dumb as you think," Liv whispered, voice oddly calm despite being at a huge disadvantage. Ronnie grinned and walked up the edge of the sofa bed, knees pressing into the mattress as he leaned over. He peered at them both, his eyes just barely visible in the darkness.
"Alright," he breathed and stood back up, gesturing towards Rafael, "Let's get started."
Before both of them could even share a look, Ronnie was dragging Liv from the bed by her arm. It happened so fast, Rafael barely had time to respond. The barrel of the rifle was between his eyes. He kept his eyes trained on Chet's, seeing Ronnie struggling with Liv, who was kicking and cussing and giving one hell of a fight.
He balled his fists into the sheet as his vision began to double. He cursed internally, knowing whatever had been injected into his neck was starting to take effect. His limbs felt heavy and his eyes were beginning to close. He struggled, blinking rapidly to try and keep them open, but by the time Liv was being dragged out of sight, kicking and screaming, down the hallway, he was falling back onto the mattress, vision going black and passing out cold.
"Let go of me! Let go of me you fucking bastard!"
Liv growled when she managed to get her leg high enough to kick Ronnie in the jaw, and then yelped in pain when she was all but thrown against a large dresser in the room and his booted foot connected with her stomach. She curled up in pain, but didn't keep her eyes off of him.
"Bitch," he spit out and rubbed his jaw, reaching over to grab something off the top of the piece of furniture. She knew it was futile, but she pushed up as much as she could and tried to crawl away to put some distance between them, but he just grabbed her bad ankle and pulled her back. She struggled as he drug her across the floor, but being twice her size and with pain radiating through her legs, she struggled to even find the strength to try begin to try and get the upper hand.
"Fuck," she said as he grabbed her by the neck and hauled her up, cutting off her air supply for a second before he slammed her back against the wall. She was dazed, and her vision swam for a terrifying few more seconds. The feeling of cuffs around her wrists brought her back. She yanked at them, the steel biting into her skin as she desperately fought.
Ronnie pulled back, a disgustingly pleased look on his face as he watched her. After a moment, she stopped, realizing he was enjoying it. She blew the hair out of her face and fixed him with a deadly glare.
"God, I can't wait to lay into you," he whispered, leaning down and running a rough hand across her cheek. She turned her head, but he was faster, grabbing her jaw and yanking it back to look at him in the eye. "Be a good girl. I'll be back in a while. Dad's gonna watch you…make sure you don't try and run off and be a hero for your lil' boyfriend in there."
She stopped cold, her mind having completely blanked on Rafael.
"What are you gonna do?"
Ronnie sneered and stood up, shoving her face away. She looked back and sat up, "Don't hurt him."
"Shut up."
"Don't you dare hurt him!"
"You better shut the fuck up!" He rushed back over to her and kneeled in front of her, grabbing a handful of hair and pulling her forward until her bound wrists prevented her from moving anyway. Her arms and back burned, but she would be damned if she let him know that.
"You keep talking, and I swear to God I'll make him bleed out for days. Now keep your mouth shut and maybe I won't make you eat his tongue."
He pushed her back and stood. Liv, wide eyed, didn't say anything. She stared at him as he left the room and only when he shut the door did she collapse back against the wall. The words he left her with turned her stomach, she had to stop herself from losing what little food she had in her stomach.
…maybe I won't make you eat his tongue.
"You're hunch better be right, Rollins."
Amanda turned back to Fin, who was shining his flashlight all around him as they walked through the woods. They were getting closer to the cabin, just barely seeing light in through the snow flurries that whipped past their faces.
"Trust me. He's hiding something. I know it has to do with Liv and Barba."
"Even so, we couldn't have parked closer?"
Carisi's words were shaky, and she did feel a little bad that he wasn't completely covered up, but she couldn't risk it. They had to walk on foot if they were going to do this. Fin scrambled up next to them, muttering something about fucking raccoons, before he faced his flashlight forwards towards the snow covered trail.
"We're almost there."
Amanda pulled her coat tighter and pushed on, leading the two men back towards the cabin where she had a feeling something was amiss. She only hoped they wouldn't get there too late.
When he came to, the first thing he noticed was the unbearable, striking pain in his arms and shoulders. His vision was blurry, but when it finally became clear that he was staring a deer carcass, skinned and strung up, did he too realize his wrists were bound over his head by cuffs, attached to the ceiling of this dark, hot room.
He looked up, blinded by the light hanging over head as his feet struggled for purchase on the ground. The toes of his shoes barely grazed the concrete below him and with every movement he made, the pain in his arms increased.
How long had he been here? He looked around, seeing polished metal tables and sharp instruments. The space wasn't very big. And it was so fucking hot in here. He could feel the sweat running from his scalp down the back of his shirt. He looked up, squinting into the light, noticing the red bruises circling around his wrists. He moaned in pain, wriggling around in vain.
"Fuck," he whispered, breathing harshly. God, where was Liv. The last thing he remembered was seeing her being dragged across the floor. Her screams still echoed in his head, which was still spinning from whatever the fuck was put in his system. He wondered where she was. Hopefully, still conscious and kicking someone's fucking ass right now.
"Hey there Sleepin' Beauty."
Rafael jerked at the sound of Ronnie's voice, looking around until he came into his line of sight. He was wearing an apron with rust colored stains, twirling a knife between his fingers. He shivered at the sight, which seemed impossible in such a hot room.
"I was wonderin' when you were gonna wake up. I liked watchin' you sleep, though."
Rafael didn't say anything, his breath stolen from the fear coursing through his veins.
"Where is she?"
He was proud that his voice didn't shake, but he could hear the pleading tone behind his words. Ronnie looked away and down at the knife, gripping it more firmly in his hand. When he didn't answer, Rafael pressed again, this time louder and more demanding.
"Where is she?!"
Ronnie smiled and walked closer, stopping just inches from him. Rafael could feel his eyes tracing down his body. The knife lifted and touched his skin, causing him to jump in response.
"All it would take is one cut right here," he traced the blade across the exposed skin, just above the belt. He flinched away, teeth gnashed together as he willed his anger to calm down. The urge to kick his face in was great, and although he was at the perfect advantage to do so, that almost spelled certain death. He had to buy himself some time. He had to know where Liv was.
"Your blood would drain fast and it would be easy to harvest your organs from this position," Ronnie continued, drawing the knife back across and then up, lifting the shirt as he went. The blade dragged harshly against his skin and he shivered involuntarily, closing his eyes the farther up it went. He sucked in a breath when it traced his nipple gently. Ronnie was transfixed by the sight. Eyes glazed over, mouth parted. He inched closer and Rafael bit the inside of his cheek when he felt the man's breath against his skin.
"You're a handsome man," Ronnie whispered and then suddenly, quickly, slashed the knife down the right side of his abdomen, just deep shallow enough to produce a thin line of blood that didn't seep from the wound. Rafael cried out and jumped, causing him to swing a little as his toes left the ground. Ronnie turned away and slammed the knife on the table, running a hand over his face. "You're lucky, you know. The ugly ones are easy to kill. Just slice and dice, but you…and your girlfriend? I almost…I almost wanna keep ya'll for a while. Ya'll could be like my pets. Momma never let me have pets growin' up."
Rafael watched as Ronnie cleaned the blade with a stained rag that had been used to clean it before, it looked like. Rafael was beginning to wonder if the blood belonged to just deer. The answer, as Ronnie turned back to him and grinned from ear-to-ear, was looking more and more like a no. His stomach sank as the pain from the slash mark across his abdomen started to grow. It burned the closer Ronnie stepped towards him.
"You have a pet growin' up?"
Rafael didn't answer, even pursing his lips in refusal to do so. Ronnie didn't like that, and his breathing picked up as the blade came back up to trace the belt buckle. The clinking of the metal sounded so loud in his ears, combined with the harsh breaths escaping between his parting lips. He couldn't stop himself from shaking and he felt beads of sweat beginning to form on the temples of his forehead, despite the freezing temperatures outside.
"I always wanted a doggy. A black and white one. Like one a them collies. The smart ones. She woulda been my baby. But momma liked cats," he hissed, digging the tip of the knife into the leather strap of the belt. He flinched back, dragging the tips of his shoes against the concrete.
"She'd always get real sad when they went missing. Every time one would disappear, she'd get another one. We musta gone through 'bout twelve of 'em. She never knew I was the reason why they were all disappearing."
Rafael looked up, his wrists burning and his arms on fire. The cuffs were attached to a metal pipe that ran along the ceiling, and he clung to the tiniest bit of hope as he subtly tested the strength of it, feeling it dip with added weight. If he could lift his feet off the floor and tug, he could probably rip the pipe clean off. It wasn't sturdy at all. That was if Ronnie wouldn't kill him within the next few minutes.
"I'd lure them around to the back yard," Ronnie smiled and turned back to the table, his boots dragging along the wood, "Tie 'em up and do all kinds of things to 'em. Experiment. Get my hands dirty. I needed to feel the blood on my fingers. I needed to taste it…"
Rafael took a shuddering exhale, his mind running back to that platter full of meat he didn't eat at dinner. Ronnie had been adamant that they try it, but neither him nor Liv did, and he thanked God, because now he knew that wasn't deer meat. It probably wasn't even animal meat, at all.
"I always got joy out of killing animals. Cats, dogs, birds, pigs, cows…anything I could get my hands on. But nothin' compares to my first person. It was a rush like you wouldn't believe. Even now, twenty years later I still get a rush. Makes me all giddy and happy."
"Please," Rafael finally said on a shaky breath, "Please let us go."
He swallowed the lump in his throat when Ronnie turned back to look at him. The knife was still in his hand but it was at his side. Rafael felt a bead of sweat run down the side of his face. It was freezing outside, but the heaters surrounding him was making it feel like a sauna.
"We just want to go home."
Ronnie shook his head, "I can't do that. Ya'll know who I am. I have to kill you."
"No," Rafael shook his head, "No. You can let her go. Just her. You can keep me. You can kill me and eat me or whatever you want to do but…she has a son at home. He's only five. Please. If you can't let both of us go, then just let her go."
Ronnie tilted his head and considered him. Rafael watched as the man ran the blade between his fingers, the sharp tip twisting into the pad of his thumb. He stared until Ronnie met his eyes again, and he saw there, for the first time since they'd crossed paths, some sort of emotion in his eyes.
"I had a son once. He was five when he died."
Rafael nodded, urging him to continue. He had hit a spot and he was going to run with it. It was like he did in court, when he found a weak spot in a defendant and he pushed and pushed until they broke. It was a tactic that proved successful many times in the past, good or bad, and he prayed it pulled through now.
"How did he die?"
Ronnie flared his nostrils and his eyebrows furrowed, like he was trying not to cry. Rafael wondered how a man so damn giddy at the thought of killing him and eating him for breakfast the next morning, could flip and turn into a man filled with so much sorrow at the thought of his deceased child.
"Cancer. Got it when he was three. Died two days after his fifth birthday."
"I'm sorry," Rafael said softly, feeling a twinge of remorse for the man. Not enough to stop thinking about breaking the pipe nearly suspending him in the air. He glanced up and tried to alleviate some of the pressure in his arms.
"His momma took off when he was four…couldn't take it. I killed the bitch when I found her three months after his funeral."
"That's terrible…that she ran off. It must have hurt your son to lose a parent."
Ronnie nodded and Rafael continued, "You wouldn't want that to happen to another little boy, would you? Wondering when his mom was going to come home? Wondering why she never does?"
A tense silence fell between them. Rafael didn't dare move an inch as he watched emotion after emotion flit across Ronnie's face. He looked so overwhelmed after a moment, that he tossed the knife on the table and stalked towards the door.
"I need to think."
Rafael turned his body the best he could, watching Ronnie open the door to the snowy, freezing cold outside. He shivered as the blast of cold air hit his sweaty skin. Ronnie opened his mouth to say something, eyes darting across his strung-up body for a few seconds, before he shook his head and closed the shed door, the sound of the heavy locks echoing in the small room.
Rafael waited until he heard the muffled sound of the door to the house opening and shutting before he moved, using the his body weight to tug at the metal pipe over his head. It bent and creaked and screeched as he tugged on it continuously. He groaned as his arms burned and stretched, holding his weight as his feet left the floor.
Sweat and bright light burned his eyes as he watched the pipe separate from the wall little by little.
