Nine

Alex continues to resist, to no avail, he is too strong. They come upon a door, that she has to admit, she never noticed before. He scoops her up easily with his left arm and opens the door with his right hand. He reaches in and flips the switch still holding her tightly, using his foot he closes the door. He carries her most of the way down the stairs. He sets her down but continues to keep a tight hold. She turns away from him and she sees before her racks and racks of wine bottles.

Taking her past the wine racks he suddenly stops, he then turns her to face him, she thinks he is ready to let go, but he doesn't, he grabs her with minimal force by the arms and pushes her against the wall. She looks up into his eyes, eyes that she adored when he made love to her. He takes a step back as he hears quiet sobs from her, her eyes are filled with tears, "Come on, don't cry, please don't cry?" He asks imploringly.

She sniffles as she struggles once again to break free. Yes, the hands she saw that first day are going to snap her like a twig. Hands that caressed her, gentle soft hands, "Sorry if my emotional outburst is disturbing to you....you sick mother fucker," she kicks him, feeling a boot covering his shin. "You're just as sick and depraved as the rest of them, how could I have been so stupid!" She screams as she continues to struggle, "Let go of me!"

"Detective Eames!" He exclaims, she immediately stops and looks up into his eyes, "Alex, I'm not going to hurt you….but we have to make it look that way."

"You? It was you all the time?" He loosens his strong grasp but still has his hands on her arms. "I knew it was you," she says not able to look him in the eye. He remains quiet for a moment, she takes a quick glance at him, he tilts his head to the left and offers a silly smirk. "Alright I didn't know," she says admitting the truth. She expels a long breath as her body relaxes. She feels as if a giant load has been taken off her shoulders, she looks up into his eyes and smiles. Suddenly, but he is not surprised, she places her hands on his chest and pushes him, "You son of a bitch." She says through clenched teeth. "Why?" Uncontrollably she kicks him again.

"Stop that!"

"No, damn you!" She expels a short breath, "You, you never said anything," she says angrily.

He lowers his head staring at his boots as if the answer is there, "I wanted to but I....I was afraid that if I did that someday, someway you, or I would say or do the wrong thing and then it would be over for both of us." He caresses her cheek, wanting to kiss her, "I'm sorry."

"Shit Bobby," she catches his eye, "Is it Bobby?"

He nods, "Yes, Robert Goren special agent for the FBI," he flashes a smiles that makes his eyes sparkle.

She smiles in return, "Damn you are good, how? I mean," she coughs. "So my instincts weren't that far off."

"Who did you think it was?"

"Cliff."

"I thought so, ok," he runs his fingers through his hair, "We don't have much time. There is some major shit going down tonight. To start with, Albert has poisoned you and Cliff in Victor's eyes," he pauses as he bites his lip, "Cliff is dead and I had no choice. I had to volunteer to....shit," he says exasperated.

"I....I....oh my God this is a night mare."

He nods his head in agreement, "Tonight, the night that I have waited for has finally arrived."

"The big boss is coming?" Alex asks.

"No, there is no big boss, it was Victor all the time, I just found that out today. He fooled everyone into thinking that there was someone over him, but there never was. I have all the proof I need and tonight all this madness will end. The entire operation will be destroyed."

She is elated that his job is over and she has the proof as to who the killer is, "Albert is the killer," Alex states plainly.

"Never put much thought into that but as they say anything is possible, he is one sick bastard."

"His bedroom," she lowers her head. "I hated the fact that you went into those meetings after dinner but it gave me the perfect opportunity to search their bedrooms. No one would even think to look at them but....I remembered hearing in a seminar once that all serial killers keep trophies. He does, he has photos of the girls in two albums one were they appear dirty and one where appear clean, not sure but it is my assumption that they are dead when he took the photos of them looking clean."

He continues throughout to hold onto her arms, lightly. "So he takes photos of them before he kills them and after."

"Yes, he is very proud of the fact that he has cleaned the world of these woman, the four women that were murdered were in the albums. Inga, Greta and Sonja were going to be next, their photos were the last three in the dirty book."

"Well maybe with any luck someone will blow his head off tonight and save the tax payers a shit load of money."

"Unfortunately I don't think the feds will give him to us."

"We can't worry about that now, we have work to do." He once again pushes her up against the wall. "I'm going to tell you some things and all I want you to do to respond is blink your eyes and continue to struggle, you now like when you were kicking me, oh by the way that hurt."

She smiles, "Good."

"Behind me is a camera, no audio, see the red dot?" She blinks. "Victor's paranoia had him convinced that someone was stealing his wine, so he installed a camera."

She struggles slightly, "So we have to put on a show."

"I wasn't brought into this operation as a criminal with a history of violence, our conversation shows Albert and Victor that it is not easy for me to do this."

"You think things through very quickly."

He picks her up and shakes her, "I try. I'm going to leave here soon and adjust the camera. All they will see, repeatedly is you on the floor." He takes a breath, "You see the door behind me?" She blinks. "As soon as the red light goes off I want you to leave this room through that door. It will take you to the west side of the house." He notices the concerned look on her face, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I'll meet you there in about five minutes." He steps back, "I'm going to pretend to choke you, I want you to fight me as hard as you can," he leans forward wanting to kiss her. "Pretend," she wants to smile, she holds it in. He grabs her by her throat and begins to count, "One, two, three."

"What the hell?"

"I have to count to at least 200, or about three minutes, that's about how long it takes to ah...."

She resumes her kicking and he resumes his counting. She struggles and pounds on his arms. After about three minutes of struggling, he says, "Ease up a bit on the struggling. Then go limp and slide down the wall, keep you head up so you can see the light and keep you eyes open." She kicks him one last time, she notices his frown. Then slowly her struggling stops. He holds her as she slides down the wall. She remains perfectly still, with a excellent view of the camera and the little red dot. She never knew he could move that fast, the light goes off and she too leaves the room.

Alex paces nervously around the side of the house, she remained within five feet of the door. She hears a noise to the right then she hears her name.

"Alex," she smiles hearing him speak her name.

"Bobby," she sees him emerge from the shadows.

"Yes," in the darkness they hug, he breaks the embrace, "I only have a minute. I haven't had the chance to speak to Angela," he removes a slip of paper and a set of keys from his pocket. He touches her shoulder, "I want you to take these things," he hands her the set of keys, "These are the keys to the cottage. I need you to call Angela from there on your cell, this is her number. All you have to tell her is that it's time." Alex frowns. "She'll know what it means. You stay there till she gets here." He notices her smirk, "Alex this is not the time to be a hero. Please just do what I ask, please?" he says so sweetly that she can not resist.

"Yes, yes of course. You're right," she pauses. "Bobby....what about the girls?"

"So far, they're fine." He pulls her in close and kisses her. He turns to look at the house, "I have to go, Victor is waiting for me."

She grabs his arm, "Bobby...."

He raises his finger to her lips, "I'll be fine," he lowers his hand, "Now go, go on." He watches her for a moment than makes his way back to the main house.

"Angela its Alex."

"Alex, where's Bobby?"

"He's in the main house. Too much to tell over the phone. Major shit going on here and he asked me to call and tell you that it's time."

"Stay put, we're on our way."

"Ok, see you soon." Angela disconnects the phone.

Alex closes up the phone. She begins walking aimlessly around the living room. The opening of the door startles her. Eric and Martin enter. Martin asks, "What are you doing in here? No one is supposed to be in here."

Eric points to the phone in her hand, "Who were you calling?"

She stands erect, "None of your business on both questions, I was never told I couldn't be in here."

"Well," Martin moves closer to her, "Let's see what Victor has to say about that."

"Albert was right she can't be trusted." Eric says as he grabs her by the arm.

Alex decides not to struggle on the onset of this captivity but as she nears the house she remembers that she is suppose to be dead, Victor and Albert wished it to be and Bobby was to be the one who was given the task of doing so. She begins to struggle but it is hopeless the combined weight of the two men outweigh her by over 100 pounds. She continues to struggle as they near the door to Victor's office. "Bobby," she says his name softly.

Martin releases his hold and opens the door hastily, it hits the wall. She sees Victor and Albert, she scans the room quickly, no Bobby.

The two men look up and are blatantly surprised. Alex tries to back up but Eric drags her into the room. "We found her in the cottage," Eric says as he tosses a cell phone to Albert. "She might have called someone."

Albert walks up to her and grabs her chin, "My dear Alex," he pinches in her cheeks, she tries to move her head away but she is unable.

Bobby where are you?

"Sweet, sweet Alex," he lifts her head up and she has to look in his eyes. Her first thought, spit in his face, she contains it. He moves his hand from her cheeks to her throat, "Why aren't you dead?" He squeezes on her neck, "Who are you?" She is unable and unwilling to answer, "You see Victor," he turns his head to catch Victor's eyes. "She is as I said, untrustworthy." He once again turns to face Alex. "Yes you are dirty and I will have to clean you." Alex does all she can not to faint. Bobby, where are you? Tears roll down her cheeks when she blinks her eyes. Albert releases his hold on her neck and grabs her by the arm. He looks to Eric and Martin, "Find Bobby," he looks to Alex whose head is bowed down, "We'll take care of them at the same time." Albert turns to face Victor, "You have any objections to that?"

Victor can only shake his head.

A/N: Depending on my mood Alex's fate has yet to be decided.

....BYE....