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The title is just a Bon Jovi song and is no indication of where the story is heading. I think.

Spoilers: None directly, but events happen after TS

Rating: TV14

Disclaimer: All characters are JE's, I'm only borrowing them for fun

You Give Love a Bad Name

Chapter 10

I tried to sit up as I grabbed Lula's hand, not quite believing what I was seeing.

"Lula?" I asked just to be sure I wasn't having a hallucination.

"Yeah, it's me. I was hoping to see you again, although to tell you the truth, I would have preferred it to be outside."

"Outside of what?"

She sat down next to me. Only now did I realize we were in a bare room, with only a mattress on the floor. Plain concrete walls. There was a small, boarded up window at the far side of the room. From its position, I guessed we were in a basement. The only light came from a naked bulb that was dangling from the ceiling.

I was so excited to see her, I gave Lula a spontaneous hug.

"I've been looking all over for you!!!"

Lula looked tired and dirty, as if she hadn't slept or showered since I'd last seen her. But there were no blood or bruises on her that I could see. There was a foul smell in the room.

She hugged me back briefly, but then pulled back.

"Yeah, well, I've been dying to see you, too. You better keep your distance though, I smell bad." She threw her arm out, gesturing towards the room "Welcome to my new place. Ain't it fabulous?"

"Where are we? And what happened?" I had to lean against the wall behind me because the room wouldn't stop spinning.

"I dunno. You were brought in a few hours ago, I think. It could be days, I have no idea. I thought you were dead at first."

"And what happened to you? What's with the phone calls?"
Lula shrugged "I was told what to say. Didn't make sense to me. I was just glad I got a chance to tell you I was still around, you know. I was trying to get in a secret message or something, but the phone was always yanked away from me before I could come up with anything." She sighed.

"Do you know who's keeping you here or where we are?"
Lula shook her head no.

"There is food twice a day through the kitty door. I never see no one. Whenever they want me to make a phone call, everyone but me is covered up." She was pointing towards a door almost completely in the dark. "And if you're wondering about the smell, the bathroom is a bucket in the corner." She shuddered and I almost gagged at the thought.

"Don't worry." I said, putting my hand on her arm "Ranger will find us, I have this tracking device and I…" My eyes wandered down my chest "Shit!"

I'd been strip-searched. The mike and the panic button were gone. My clothes were still the same, but they looked like they'd been taken off and put back on, they didn't feel right. This was a very eerie déjà vu. The same thing had happened when I'd agreed to meet Scrog, he'd stun-gunned me before he'd stripped me. "Fuck!"

"That about sums it up." Lula said.

I was trying to stay positive. I had found Lula! Granted, I hadn't been able to free her yet, but I knew she was alive and well. One thing at a time!

"We have all of RangeMan and Trenton PD looking for us. They won't be long!" I insisted. Lula scoffed but didn't say anything. As if she'd given up hope.

"We've been looking for you since the moment you disappeared! You had us all worried. Tell me what happened." I wanted to keep her talking, I couldn't stand to see her so down.

Lula looked down at her hands. I've only ever seen her cry once, but I thought she was close to it now.

She sighed again. "You'd locked the car. So I was waiting for you to get away from the cops…"

My hand was still on her arm, and I squeezed it lightly.

"So then this guy Ernie stops right in front of me. I barely recognized him, must have lost like 50 pounds. And he starts talking about how long it's been and all, and I'm just thinking what the fuck?"

So far it was what I'd been expecting. I wasn't all that interested in learning what had happened right away and more interested in having Lula get it off her chest. I believed what I'd said, it could only be a matter of time before Ranger or Morelli found us. Probably, Ranger had started searching for me when I hadn't come back inside after a few minutes. Maybe even sooner, when Tank or another merry man reported the commotion.

My unconscious body had probably been pulled out of Woody's car and into the back of another within a minute, a driver ready to go. Had the merry men been able to follow me out of the Maison's parking lot even? Where they even now surrounding the house, coming up with the best strategy to storm in? God, I hoped so. I'd been awake only a few minutes and already I could feel Lula's desperation spill over to me.

"I'm thinking he tazed me, because I can't remember anything for a while, until I woke up in his trunk." Lula continued "When the car stopped, I was trying to get into a position to kick out, until I realized my hands and feet were taped together and I had a hood over my head. So all I remember is being pulled out of one place and shoved into another." She sighed. What she didn't have to say was how scared she must have been. I could read it on her face.

I was trying to come up with an explanation for any of it, Lula's abduction or mine, but nothing I could think of made sense. Who were we? What good were we to anyone involved?

Thinking made my head hurt worse. Lula leaned back so we both had our backs against the wall. I couldn't imagine how she must have felt, being alone in this hellhole for days, with only a bucket to fill to break the monotony.

"And don't think I haven't tried to get out of here. That door is a lot more solid than it looks."

I followed her gaze to the door in question. I'd take her word for it. I was praying for our rescuers to come for us soon. If I'd have to spend more than an hour in this room, I'd go insane, I just knew it.

"We found Ernie." I told her.

"Hunh" Lula said.

"Me and Ranger were out on Stark and got a tip. Then Ranger persuaded him to tell us about you and the part he had in your kidnapping. We were this close to closing in on you." I touched my thumb to my index finger and held my hand out for her to see.

"Well, I'd say you're as close as you can be now."

"Yeah," I sighed "We had a great plan until I fucked it up and got myself caught."

I couldn't blame Lula for not getting excited about our efforts to find her. In the end, where had it gotten us? True, we were together now, but so far, her situation hadn't improved much.

What had happened to Ranger's backup for the backup? The only explanation I could come up with was that it had all happened within a minute or so, before any of the merry men had a chance to react.

I'm not a touchy-feely person. Mostly, I express my feeling through food or sarcasm. But I put my arm around Lula's shoulders to lend some comfort. She slumped against me. It hurt to see her so down, usually nothing ever dampens Lula's spirits. Okay, there'd been this one time, when a crazy boxer, Ramirez, had cut her up and tied her to my fire escape as a sick present for me, but that was an extreme situation.

Although I'd slept most of the day, I was feeling very tired. I wasn't looking forward to sleeping on a dirty mattress, but Lula was with me and with any luck, we wouldn't have to hold out the entire night. Or the entire morning, whatever time it was.

A metallic scratching sound woke me up and I had a long moment of disorientation. I knew who the head on my shoulder belonged to, but why was it on my shoulder, that kind of thing.

Lula and I must have fallen asleep sitting up. I don't know how much time'd passed; there was no natural light in the room. The scraping sound must have come from the kitty door in the only door of the room; I could make out two bowls on the floor that I hadn't noticed before. Room service, I thought grimly.

Why were we still here, where was Morelli? I didn't doubt for a second that he'd been searching all night. Ditto Ranger. I hoped Woody had been shot with the same tranquilizer that'd hit me, that he was okay by now.

Lula was still asleep and I didn't want to wake her, so I tried not to move. The cold from the wall had crept into my body and I felt sore and stiff all over.

I needed to use the bathroom. I needed a shower. I really wanted a comfortable bed and a boyfriend to snuggle up to. And thinking about all those things made me want to cry. What was taking them so long?

Lula stirred and lifted her head.

"Damn, I'm sore." She groaned. "No offense, Girl."

"None taken." I said. "I know my shoulder can't stand up to Tank standards…" When totally desperate, start kidding. Humor can at least keep you from crying.

It seemed to work, Lula smiled "That man in fine."

I nodded my agreement and contemplated telling her how much effort Tank'd put into finding her, how much he obviously cared about her, but what good would that do at the moment? I made a mental note to tell her shortly after we were rescued, so that she had the right idea about him.

"Breakfast is here." I announced with a nod towards the door. "Do they ever talk to you?"
Lula shook her head "Like I said, I see no one, I hear no one, I talk to no one. This here is lumpy oatmeal, and it's all we get until there's a big hole in our stomachs again. Water will follow in a little bit."

I didn't feel like eating at all, since it would mean using the bucket at some point.

Just then a key turned in the lock, the door opened inwards, the breakfast bowls were pushed against the wall and a man entered. At least I thought it was a man, hard to tell in the baggy cargo pants and sweatshirt and hooded head. He was pointing a gun at us. Another man followed. Different color scheme, same clothes and hood. The second guy wasn't armed, or at least didn't hold a gun.

"You, white girl!" Number two said, looking at me "Get up."

I didn't want to go with him, but I really didn't want to get shot or beaten either, so I slowly got up. Every muscle and joint in my body protested against the movement, but I tried not to wince. Lula looked up and we locked eyes for a long moment. "I'll be fine." I said although I had no way of knowing.

Number Two had stepped closer and took me by the elbow. Number One was keeping his gun leveled at me, stepping back far enough to be out of reach.

I was pushed towards the door and thought about bolting until I saw another figure with a gun in the hallway past the door. There was enough security here to keep royalty safe. I still didn't know why anyone would go through so much trouble to detain me or Lula.

The only thing I was pretty sure of was that we weren't held by the hooker killers. Nobody'd ever mentioned kidnapping, the victims were always killed right away. So probably we weren't going to be killed by a serial killer. That didn't mean we weren't going to get killed though. My cheery thought for the day.

All three guys had successfully disguised their identity, so there was hope, I figured. If they were just going to kill us, there was no harm in letting us see their faces. The fact that they didn't want us to be able to identify them had to mean we were going to live. At least until Rangeman or the cops would find us. 'Hurry up, Morelli!' I thought as thug number three was waving his gun towards the stairs.

I was escorted upstairs, where all windows were boarded up. It looked like a ranch-style house, but there was no way of knowing for sure because big metal file cabinets were blocking the view from the basement entrance to the rest of the house. The only way for me to turn was right, into another small room. Two windows were boarded up from the inside with plywood. There were three metal chairs in it, some wooden boxes that looked like Army ammunition boxes, and a picnic table on wobbly legs. Just like downstairs, the only light came from a naked bulb hanging from the ceiling.

I was pushed down onto one of the chairs by one of the three goons; I didn't turn around to find out which one.

The door closed and I was alone in the room. I wasn't cuffed or gagged, so I could have moved around freely if I wanted to. I didn't see any sense in it though. I could see the entire room, and there was just the one door I'd come in through. No doubt it would be watched. Maybe I'd get some answers now. I cared less about what they'd do to me and more about why they'd do it. Okay, I did care a lot that I wasn't going to be killed or raped. But I had to know why Lula and I were being held.

I strained my ears to hear anything on the other side of the door. There were muffled voices for sure. Was that a car engine I heard outside?

Some kind of commotion, I was sure of it. I couldn't make out any words, but voices seemed agitated. There was a single gunshot and I jumped to my feet. I heard a door bang; there was shouting. Hope fluttered in my stomach.

Suddenly, a voice I recognized. "Lester!!!" I screamed, a hundred percent sure it was him. It had to be him!

I would have stormed out of the room, except I didn't know how many of 'them' were there against how many of 'us', and for once I stayed put.

No more shots were fired, but it sounded like a fistfight now. Then silence for what seemed like a long time.

Then the door's room flew open and I saw Lester.

I would have been overjoyed at the sight of him; except his hands were tied behind his back and duct tape was covering his mouth. His left eye was swollen shut and he was bleeding from a wound on his head. My heart sank and I plunked back down on the chair.

Lester was pushed and kicked into the room and fell to the floor a few feet in front of me. At the same time an armed men stood behind my chair and leveled his gun to my temple. I froze.

A second gunman came in and kicked Lester. I winced, and the gun was pressed against my head. Okay, I got it, 'Don't move a muscle!'. It took all my willpower to not jump up and come to Lester's aid. I knew I couldn't actually help him, but I wanted to protect him. Stephanie Plum, mother hen.

He looked up and his eyes widened when they found me. I couldn't make out whether he was shocked to find me here or horrified that I was threatened with a gun.

"Sonny!" the guy behind me yelled.

"All clear!" Came the response from somewhere in the house.

I didn't want to believe Lester'd come on his own. That was not the way Ranger's men operated. The more likely scenario was that Lester was a decoy, sent in to divert our captors' attention.

The man towering over Lester produced another gun and looked up for a moment before he leveled it at Lester and shot. I screamed before I could stop myself, before my brain could process what my eyes were seeing, that a small tranquilizer dart was sticking out of Lester's neck. His eyes closed and he went limp.

Apparently, his attacker had sought some kind of permission from the guy standing next to me. So that would make 'my' guy some sort of a leader. And both he and the guy who'd replied spoke accent-free English, from what I could tell. I didn't know if that was useful information, but I stored it anyway.

Two men in Army fatigues came in and dragged Lester out of the room by his arms. His attacker left behind them.

The door was slammed shut and I was alone with the guy and the gun to my head.

Other than the name that was yelled and the response to it, no words had been uttered. I was scared and panicking, and I feared my mouth would develop a mind of its own and start screaming and cursing at any moment now, so I started chewing my cheek.

Time, I just needed some time!

Another single gunshot disturbed the quiet. I flinched and silently prayed 'Please let Lester be okay, please let Lester be okay.' I didn't want to believe they'd render him unconscious and then kill him, that seemed to humane. He had to be okay!

Gun guy next to me didn't move. I thought he wasn't one of the three guys that had 'escorted' me out of the basement, but I wasn't sure anymore. They all wore black ski masks or hoods, only their eyes were visible. And I hadn't seen a pair of friendly eyes among the lot.

Once again, the door opened. A man in a suit entered. No disguise for this guy, he was about 5'9" with black, slicked-back hair and almost black eyes. He wore an expensive-looking grey pinstripe suit and leather loafers. He had an air of luxury about him and he somehow looked familiar. I just couldn't place him.

He sat down in one of the chairs facing me and smiled unpleasantly.

Probably he was what I'd been brought up for. Showtime, so to say. He wasn't holding a gun, although he could have been heavily armed under his suit jacket. Besides, I was held in check by the gun still pressing into my temple. It wasn't like I was going to attack suit guy.

His smile didn't reach his eyes, and I didn't think it was supposed to. He had the kind of eyes that made you look away real quick, there was something disturbing in them.

He waved a hand and the gun was taken away from my head.

"At last, we meet." He said, and I couldn't quite place his accent, he didn't sound local.

I didn't know how to react. Should I go all Jersey on him, ask him who the fuck he was and why he was holding Lula and me against our will? Or should I go all Ranger on him and just silently stare back? Which way was most likely to keep me alive?

Who was I kidding, on my best day I couldn't imitate Ranger's poise, and I was about as far removed from my best day as I could get.

"What do you want from me?" It was out of my mouth before I could decide.

He continued to smile in his eerie way.

"I apologize for the way I asked for this meeting." He said, all polite and calm.

"But it appears your employer has a rather tight reign on you. I thought it best if we talked without his presence."

Huh? My what? Vinnie? Vinnie'd never had any kind of reign on me. Clearly, he didn't mean Vinnie. That left…oh boy. Oh no. He couldn't possibly think…

"I believe you would much rather work for me." He continued. "But where are my manners, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Frank Torlione. I believe you were recently in negotiations to join my competitor's organization?"

Torlione. Why did that name sound familiar? I got the nagging feeling that I knew this guy.

"You want me to work for you?" I asked. I just wanted to keep him talking while I was trying to place him. He thought I was a hooker working for Ranger. Under any other circumstances, I might have been happy to learn our little ploy'd worked so well. Unfortunately, it seemed to have worked too well.

"You would make a fine addition to my organization, yes."

New York accent, I was pretty sure.

Mental head slap! New York accent, pimp, evil eyes! This was the second guy Ranger'd singled out right from the start, along with Vega! I remembered his picture now, Frank Torlione, from New York. At least I had the accent right. Only we'd never established contact with him, we'd been focusing on Vega. When Tank was checking out connections, he'd only ever come up with Vega. Well, Ranger, good news, I found our second suspect. Only in a slightly different way then we'd discussed.

I was starting to believe what Joe was constantly telling me, I had a knack for finding trouble; I was a magnet for it!

'Okay, Stephanie, keep him talking.' I told myself, trying not to hyperventilate 'Buy time until the troops arrive. Couldn't be long now, if Lester's appearance was any indication.

"What do you want with Lula?"

"Ah yes, Miss Lula was brought to my attention a little while ago. She will not be working with you. There appears to be some unfinished business between her and an associate of mine."

He was driving me nuts with the way he talked. And who was he talking about? What unfinished business? Lula would have told me if she was in some kind of trouble.

He waved his hand "But let's focus on you again. Please do not take last night's accommodations as an indicator of things to come. I can assure you things will be much more comfortable for a permanent employee. Jerry here," he motioned at the man standing close to me "was merely trying to keep you safe until I'd have a chance to talk to you."

He was creeping me out. I could sense that all his polite talk would disappear if I even appeared to be rejecting his offer. I had no trouble imagining him beating the shit out of me or shooting me. That fake smile would probably never leave his face.

That pretty much ruled out telling him to go fuck himself. But what was the right thing to say?

Torlione looked at his watch.

"I apologize, I have another meeting to attend. Why don't you think my offer over and tell me your decision this afternoon?" He stood. "It really would be in your best interest to accept though."

Hah, as if I hadn't figured that one out.

"Can I use the bathroom?" It was the only thing I could come up with, other than curses and choice words about his mother.

He looked shocked. "But of course. I am terribly sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. Jerry will escort you to the facilities."

He didn't fool me for a second. You don't grow up in Jersey without meeting your share of slime and evil. And Torlione was both. As creepy as I'd thought his picture was, the real thing was downright scary.

He nodded at Jerry and left.

Jerry nudged me with the gun and guided me out the door, down the hall that was now free of filing cabinets, and into a bathroom. I had a moment of panic when I thought he was going to stay with me, but the pushed me further inside and closed the door. I collapsed onto the closed toilet.

The room was rather small, as wide as the tub on the far wall. The window above the tub was boarded up, big surprise. The toilet and the sink were as white as the tub; the dirty tile floor might have been light blue at some point.

I did have to go urgently, so I took care of that first. Then I peeled off my slutty clothes and started the shower. If I could just stand under the hot water forever, I'd be happy. I just didn't want to leave this room ever again.

I was still telling myself that everything would be fine, I just had to buy some time, then I'd never have to lay eyes on Torlione ever again. Morelli would sort it all out; he'd arrest Torlione and do his thing. By this time tomorrow, I'd be at my parents' house, eating cookies.

I stood under the hot spray and was trying to make sense of it all. We'd been focusing on Vega, Torlione had never come up again. One of his men must have been watching us that first night at the club. I didn't believe for a second that Torlione wanted me to work for him. Probably he was trying to muscle Ranger off his turf.

But what about Lula? Had he been telling the truth about her involvement?

My head started hurting again and my stomach was growling. Other than towels and soap, there was nothing in the bathroom that would even come close to a weapon, I was helpless.

I fought back tears of desperation that were threatening to come out. If I started crying now, I'd never stop.

But I had to face the reality, Lula and I were fucked if we didn't get help, and soon.

TBC