Chapter 10

SPOV

A dreamless sleep and a day off left me feeling energized. I went to the gym and felt good with the progress I was making, but by the time I was showering and changing my spidey senses were tingling. In the afternoon I met with Midge for a coffee and chat, nothing really new going on, he was a bit nervous because a new guy had shown up who was obviously, in his words, a hard case. When I laughed at the description he gave me a murderous look.
"Chica you do not laugh at people like him"

"Oh, maybe I know something you don't, tell you what see if you can send me a photo of this big, mal hombre?"

"You'll see, then you won't laugh"

I had a sneaky suspicion this big, bad man might be Hector, well I'd have to wait and see.

It was later than I realized as I returned to the bar, I was sensing immediate danger, I squatted down to try and look through the front window, ah shit, Morelli was there with Henri! I so did not want to have to talk with him, so I backed away and headed back down the street and took a left down the alley, I wanted to get to the garage, but then realized I didn't have the fob. Maybe if I waited long enough Morelli would leave. After an hour I was getting cold, I'd tried to look through the window again but there were too many people inside to get a good view, in desperation I text Stryker "Meet me at door to garage, please" then almost ran to get there. Stryker was just opening the door.
"What the hell is wrong?"

"There's a man in the bar that is really bad news for me, please I can't be seen by him"

"The hot shot cop with Henri?"

"Yeah"

"You in trouble with the police?"

"No, nothing like that, he's an ex that I don't want seeing me"

"Well too late for that, he stood staring at your photo and told everyone who would listen that he's your fiancé"

"No way, that's a lie"

"Okay, how we going to do this, because this way only leads into the bar, and he's still there"

"Shit, all right I'll go up the fire escape, can you open the door up there for me?"

"I'll open the door one flight down, it's too high for you to be climbing up there"

"Thanks, see you in five"

With that as a plan I made my way back along the street and then around the alley to get to the back of the bar. As I pushed through the gate into the yard a hand came out and went across my mouth and I felt and heard the zing of a stun gun. I think my last thought was shit.

RPOV

I'd flown down to Washington and spent two days there, for some reason the analyst thought that there could be a victim that we were missing, the only data he was basing this on was a time line, he thought we should have one between our number two and three, so I'd combed through all the data there was on missing people. It was a waste of time; I didn't know which area of New Jersey to look at, what the victim would look like and the profiler was no help, according to him the victims were totally random plus the body hadn't been found yet so it could have washed out to sea. By the end of the second day I was getting annoyed, tired and frustrated, and I hadn't made any headway. I was also getting a nasty feeling in my gut. It was weird but having had contact with Steph recently it was as though our connection was strengthening. I wasn't at all surprised when Stryker called.

"She's gone, we can't find her, Hector, Midge and I have been everywhere and asked everyone"

"Stryker slow down, start at the beginning"

"There was this loud obnoxious cop here at the bar, came in with Henri, he kept calling her Cupcake and then Stephanie. Hell he was darn right rude to everyone, and then I got a call from Melia saying she's outside and can't be seen by this cop, saying he's her ex. So I tell her to come round the back and she can come in that way, but she didn't arrive. The cop went and seeing as the bar had emptied I closed up. Funny thing was I bumped into two guys looking for her as well, Hector, who said he was one of your men and a kid called Midge who said he was her friend. So we hit the streets, Hector found her bag in a skip a couple of blocks away, phone inside was smashed, but we've got nothing"

"I'm on my way back, tell Hector to alert Santos, but to keep Blake out of it, he'll understand"

It was morning by the time I got to the bar; flights had been delayed because of weather, and then delayed because a passenger didn't turn up so the airline spent nearly an hour getting their luggage off the plane. I was beyond tired and so worried I was nearly loosing it. I had to push the idea of her being held by those murderers at the back of my mind. We all met in the bar, seeing as it was too early to open.

"Anything?"

I knew they would have let me know, but I had to ask.

"Hector is chasing down traffic cameras, Midge is calling in contacts on the street and Stryker and I have been talking to anyone who might have been around here at the time"

Santos stopped and looked at his phone.

"Midge found a couple of ladies who were on the street, they may have seen something"

I got up but Stryker stopped me.

"No offence Ranger, but dressed like that aint gonna get those ladies to talk to you, let me and Midge do the talking"

I had to agree, I always dressed in a suit for meetings in Washington and hadn't had a chance to change.

"Stryker call back straight away. Santos where's Hector?"

"Up in Stephs apartment, I'll call him down"

I passed Hector on the stairs; he gave me a thumb up, as if that would help. I stood in the middle of the apartment; I was looking for the search papers she'd done. I spent an hour looking for them, I was cursing her for finding such a good hiding spot, and then worried that maybe they weren't even here. When I accidently dislodged the base of the shower with my foot I knelt down to replace it, and I spied the papers, that was a good hiding spot Babe. My phone vibrated in my pocket, maybe some good news?

"Yo"

"Ladies saw a scuffle, two men dressed in black, heads and faces covered, carried something into the boot of a black car, problem is they don't know what type of car let alone plates, but we'll work with it"

"Thanks Stryker, I'm gonna hit the streets for a while, I just don't know what else to do"

I hoped for her sake Steph hadn't come to while in the boot, she'd struggled with any closed in spaces after the whole coffin and cupboard incident, add to that the fact that she was in a trunk before being thrown off the bridge, well let's just say she struggled being in small spaces. I spent the afternoon and evening walking around the area, she wasn't here; she was in a different location, but where? I almost got to the point of thinking if I followed my sense of her I'd find her, yeah I know, stupid but that was how desperate I was.

"Santos can you take me back to the house to change and pick up another car?"

"On it"

Back at the house I needed to vent some emotion so I hit the gym first, I was in a red haze just pounding at the punching bag, I didn't even feel the needle hit my arm, I just felt my sight go black and my muscles relax, then nothing.

When I realized that I must have been asleep I tried to open my eyes, shit that light was bright, and I could here voices.

"He is going to be one pissed off man, so be warned"

"Why'd you do it?"

"We have an unwritten rule between the core team, when one of us looses it the others sedate him. He needed to sleep and center himself"

Of course I remembered what I'd been doing when he'd hit me with the sedative and then I remembered why I needed it, I sat up suddenly, my head regretting the sudden movement. Santos held me steady and put a hot cup between both my hands.

"Drink, then we'll talk"

I drank down the black coffee, feeling the kick of the caffeine hit, slamming the mug on the table I stared at Santos.

"Primo, you know I had to do it, so don't go all Ranger on me, it aint gonna work"

"What the hell time is it?"

"Nine in the morning"

I struggled with that one, I'm sure it was after nine when we got here, then it hit me.

"I've been out for nearly 12 hours?"

"Sorry about that, you tried to get out of my hold and I kinda gave you too much"

"Steph?"

Stryker took up that gauntlet.

"Nothing, we've hit everywhere, hospitals, police stations, even just about walked the Hudson, look Ranger, no news is good news, Santos was telling me about some of the crazy situations she's got herself into, and how she gets out. She's feisty, she'll get back to us"

"God Stryker I hope you're right"

I didn't add that if she didn't I wouldn't know what to do. We spent the rest of the evening and most of the night chasing ghosts. I had Stryker finding out where Tilly had gone, Santos seeing what Blake was up to and I was looking for the cop, Henri. I'd reported the situation to Tank and he assured me that Morelli was tucked up in his own bed, he didn't say if he was alone or not