Chapter 10- No Compliance

Cabe stood impatiently. He wasn't one for pacing. He was, however, worried for his would be assassin.

And that bothered him.

"Checking all of the cameras in the vicinity. It'll take a while to get all of the traffic cameras," Walter said. He looked up from his laptop to look at Cabe.

"Got something to say, kid?" Cabe asked, staring back at the young man.

"I'm just wondering if we should be trying to save the life of someone who came to this city to kill you. That doesn't sound like someone we save," he said.

"We don't pick and choose, kid."

"The greater good-"

"You wanna talk greater good? Let's talk," Cabe said angrily. He crossed the hotel room they had rented in a different hotel so they could get the work done without being in the open. The garage was still potentially a bad place to be. So here they were. "The greater good in the scenario is not Leah. It's not me. It's the dozens, hundreds, if not more, people that the Irish mafia will target. It's the dozens, hundreds of people that the Irish mafia has killed. The cases with no closure. The possibility that Leah would turn states evidence is reason enough to find her and save her life. We don't walk away from that."

"You don't know that she'll turn," Walter said, trying to point out the other side.

"I do," Toby said, interrupting their conversation. "I'd give a 0% chance that she'll turn. She's about saving herself, otherwise why be an assassin?"

"She saved Cabe," Paige pointed out.

"Yeah, why is that? Can't just be a rule she has. She's an assassin. Assassin's don't have rules," Walter said.

"An assassin that wants to live to old age has rules," Cabe said. "It doesn't matter why. All that matters is that she made a choice to save me and now her life is in danger."

"Why kidnap her?" Sly asked from the other side of the room. "Why not just kill her?"

Cabe had been trying to figure that out since he realized she was gone. "Good question. Might help us find her if we can answer it."

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" Paige asked. They all looked at her. "Rule #6."

"Always keep evidence," Sly finished for her.

"She told them she has evidence on them. They want it," Walter added. "So they're going to torture her."

"They're going to kill her, Cabe. A person can only resist torture for so long. The efficacy of torture is for another conversation, but it can, in some circumstances, be effective. She'll flip before the end of the day. I give her 4 hours, 5 tops. She's dead if we don't find her before they flip her. Maybe before then," Toby told him.

Cabe nodded. He had no way of knowing what she had experienced in her long life. Maybe she was used to torture. Maybe she wasn't.

"Once the guy from the motel is stable, I'll talk with him. Maybe I can get something from him to find out where she is," Cabe said. He looked at his watch.

The clock was counting down.

Leah Hudson knew two things for certain as she waited while one of the goons, whom she had learned was named Chris, tied her to a wooden chair.

One: She was too old for this job.

Two: She was going to die at the hands of three witless apes.

Fuck.

Chris grinned at her as he stood back to admire his handy work. He had already punched her about three times. Between that and having her head smashed into a car, she was working on a horrible migraine. Leah hoped she'd throw up on his face.

Instead, she spit blood at him. It didn't hit his face, but it did, at least, land on his shoes. Leah was going to have to work on her aim.

"Don't just stand there and grin, dipshit. You better get to work because I don't have all day," she quipped.

As she expected, Chris responded by backhanding her.

These idiots were nothing but predictable.

Leah couldn't say she had ever been tortured. She had been beaten up a few times in her life, but tortured? Nah.

This was going to be a new experience.

Fuck.

When Chris turned around, Leah tested the strength of her bonds. Unfortunately, this witless ape was apparently good at tying knots. It was going to take a lot to get her out of this.

She sighed. This was nowhere near close how this day was supposed to go.

She thought back to just this morning, when she flew from New York to Los Angeles. She thought back to her simple mission: kill Special Agent Cabe Gallo.

Gallo. Where was he? Was he still alive? Did he get hurt?

Was he looking for her?

Leah did notice that there were only three goons now, which meant either Cabe had gotten one of them, or he was off doing something else. She hoped Cabe had shot the bastard.

Cabe.

This was all his fault. With his handsome eyes and handsome face and handsome voice.

Leah was no teenage girl. She hadn't been in almost 30 years. She was a grown woman who took care of her needs. She shouldn't be so…gooey over a man. Not to mention, she was about to be beaten and tortured. Now was not the time. And yet, even as she was strapped to a chair and bleeding, she couldn't get his eyes out of her head.

She should have just killed the bastard and been done with it.

But a voice in the back of her head reminded her that even if she had killed him, Andy still would have had her killed.

At least this way when she died, she wouldn't go to hell knowing she had killed a good cop.

The head goon, the guy who had approached Leah at the car and attacked her in her hotel room, walked up to her slowly. She didn't know his name, so she preferred to refer to him as goon #1.

Leah tilted her head. "Hello goon #1. Ready for some action?" she asked.

He half smiled. "Andy warned me you like to talk."

She laughed, which made her cough. The woman shook her head. "No, just stall."

"And what exactly do you think you're stalling for?"

"Half the fun is not knowing. Consider it something to beat out of me," she joked, throwing in a wink at the end.

Goon #1 replied with a swift right, hitting her left cheek brutally.

She swung her face back around to look at him. "Oh come on. Surely Andy also mentioned that hitting me isn't going to do anything?"

The guy looked blank.

"Oh, he didn't warn you." Leah tutted. "Typical Andy. He always leaves things out. Well, I'll tell you this. Better warn you now than have you waste a few hours. I've been beaten before. Hurt. Badly. I don't give things up. It's going to take a lot to get me to talk. Speaking of, what exactly do you think I'm going to say?" She was wondering why she was here instead of dead already.

The goon laughed. "Oh, did Andy not tell you?" He grabbed her face with his left hand, digging his fingers into her cheeks and leaned closer to the woman. "You're going to tell me where this so called evidence is. And then I'll end your pain. Until then, this is going to hurt." He pushed her face back as he let go.

Taking a few steps back, the goon waited as the other two men brought out a contraption.

Leah hoped the fear didn't show in her eyes.

They were going to shock her.

Fuck.

Leah Hudson began to pray that the man she had been sent to kill was looking for her.

Otherwise, she was fucked. And not in the good way.