A/N: I'm a terrible person for keeping you all waiting so long, I know. But life's been uber-busy lately and I'm only now just getting caught up. In any case, I appreciate your patience so very much, and am going to try and have the next chapter out to you within a week (it's already half written, and I have a long weekend ahead of me to give me the chance to punch it out). Once again, thank you to everyone reading/reviewing/following/favouriting this story. It keeps me motivated to write more, even when my schedule won't allow for it (my fingers were absolutely itching to get back to it last week). Oh yeah, and please don't kill me for this...
********** 10 **********
"We need to tell Lester," Jess said as everyone headed for their cars at the end of the day.
"We need to work out what exactly we're telling him to start with," Matt countered, opening the door to his SUV.
"Right, let's meet at mine and work out a plan," Becker offered. Everyone nodded their approval, and jumped into their cars.
Once settled at Becker's, they went over everything they had on the triplets. They were obviously following the team around the city, Jess and Abby in particular (Connor had fessed up to seeing one of the triplets near the flat he shared with his fiancée two nights prior, but hadn't made anything of it at the time). That brought the sightings up to several, which was enough to unnerve the Team Leader and his Head of Security. After much debating, they decided that it was safest for the group of them to stick together for the time being. Since Matt's place was the only one they hadn't seemed to have found yet, they thought it would be the safest. Leaving in pairs, as they had decided they would until the threat had passed, everyone headed home to pick up what they needed to last a while camping out at Matt's.
Thankfully, Matt's flat had 3 large bedrooms, which meant that no one had to sleep on the couch. Abby had raised her eyebrow a bit when Becker had followed Jess into one of the guest rooms to drop off their bags, but kept quiet as she smiled softly. It was nice to see her sister finally getting somewhere with the emotionally challenged soldier.
They all gathered in his main room and tried to come up with a plan. Matt and Becker would meet with Lester in the morning to explain the situation and see what he would recommend, but the idea of keeping everybody together was one that they would insist upon no matter what he said. Jess would scour the CCTV cameras around the city to see if she could find any other evidence of the triplets as well. If they could pinpoint their most frequented locations, maybe they could figure out their MO.
"Will you need to procure more equipment in order to do that?" Emily asked, once their general idea was laid out.
"No, I managed to grab some things from my flat along with my clothes. If I need anything else, I can get it from the ARC tomorrow." Jess smiled at her friend.
"So what can we do?" Connor asked.
"Yeah, we want to help," Abby stated, with Emily nodding furiously behind her.
"Once Jess finds them in the city, we'll need people to check out the places they go, and see if there's anything that we can relate back to Helen there," Matt said. Turning to Becker, he continued. "Abby, Connor, Emily and I will head out once we have locations, but I want you to stay with Jess. Between you feeling like you were being watched that one night, and the attempted delivery, it stands to reason that they're targeting her for something." Matt had a feeling that Becker wouldn't be leaving Jess' side anyway, but at least this was an order they could inform Lester about. Becker nodded solemnly, and instinctively shifted a bit closer to the petite redhead.
Everyone immediately got to work, helping Jess set up a temporary workstation in Matt's dining area. Connor helped her organize the tech aspect, while Emily and Matt moved his bits and bobs out of harm's way. Abby and Becker headed for the balcony to check out the sightlines. If the triplets ended up following them to Matt's, they wanted to know where they might be hiding and spying on them from. Before they'd even re-entered the flat, Jess and Connor had set to work with scanning the cameras in the city. The rest of the group started coming up with defense plans, along with organizing the information they had to share it with Lester in the morning.
Two hours later found them all enjoying Indian takeaway from a nearby shop. Abby and Emily had offered to pick it up, but no one wanted to give their pursuers the chance to find them, so they'd ordered in. They'd managed to find a quiz show on TV, and spent the next little while arguing over answers and bantering back and forth with additional information about most of the questions. It was incredibly normal, and they all relished in it after the few days they'd had. Unfortunately, each of them kept quiet about the fact that it only seemed to emphasize the severity of the situation, and how they were each fearfully awaiting the drop of the other shoe.
Jess was the first one to have the stress of the day catch up to her. About an hour after their late dinner, she was spotted doing the nod while leaning into Becker's shoulder. Surrendering to her exhaustion, she stood and bade everyone a good night, pecking Becker on the cheek just before moving towards the guest room they were to share.
"How's she doing, really?" Abby asked, turning to Becker once the door had closed behind Jess.
Becker turned his gaze to her, keeping his face neutral. "She's holding up as best she can," he told the group. "I think the fact that she'll never get to know her parents has affected her more than she's willing to admit."
"She does seem to be pushing herself harder than usual these last few days," Emily commented.
"Yeah, she's acting much more android than normal," Connor added, a very faint hint of humour in his voice.
"I just wish we could figure out who's behind those…people following us," Becker admitted, scrubbing at his face as if to shake out some cobwebs.
"Ummm, I think we've already sort of established that…" Connor trailed off, trying not to state the obvious.
"We don't know anything for sure, and I don't want us to jump to conclusions," Matt interrupted. "We'll get additional resources after we speak with Lester, I'm sure, and then we'll have an easier time getting to the bottom of this."
"In the meantime, perhaps we could help Jess, and you Abby, learn more about your families?" Emily offered. "I know you got to know them, but maybe we can find something new for you both."
Abby shot her a smile. "I'd like that."
As the group moved on to more casual conversation to end the night, Jess had cleaned off her makeup and changed into a pair of sleep shorts and a tank top before turning out the light and curling up under the warm sheets and comforter in the guest room. She almost felt a bit spoiled in the gigantic, extremely comfortable bed, but was too tired to really think on it. The only thing her brain could really focus on for the few seconds before she slipped into sleep was the fact that she'd be waking up surrounded by Becker's delicious warmth. It was enough to put a soft smile on her face as she drifted off.
What felt like a split second later, a hand over her mouth brought her straight out of her sleepy state, and she tried to jerk away from its source to no avail. Her legs were pinned underneath a bulky body, and the second hand of the person had grabbed and shoved her wrists overtop of her head, tying them to the bedpost using a plastic ziptie. She thrashed around as much as she could, but as soon as her hands were bound she knew she was in trouble.
The moon finally peeked through the clouds and lit up the bedroom through the large window that led to the balcony to allow her a glimpse of her attacker. Shaggy blond hair fell over what looked like hazel eyes, and a pair of thin lips were set almost angrily against a very square jaw. The man was built like an American football player, his weight firmly settled on Jess' legs as she stared up in fearful recognition. It wasn't the first time she'd seen his face, but it was definitely the first major close-up she'd had.
It was one of the triplets.
Before she could even think to do anything, the hand that had just tied her own reached behind his back and pulled out a fairly scary looking knife. Jess' eyes widened at the sight of it, before bringing her gaze back to his as he leaned closer to her face.
"Be still, little one," he whispered in a raspy voice. Her brow furrowed at the attempt at a sensual and soothing tone. "I have no desire to use this on you unless you give me no other choice. Now, I'm going to remove my hand, and if you value your life as well as those of the five others down the hall, you'll keep quiet as a mouse, understood?" When she hesitated, he brought the knife up to rest against the skin of her cheek. "Understood?" he asked in a harsher voice. She nodded quickly and closed her eyes as she felt the first tear slide down her cheek. "Good girl," he whispered back in his initial tone as he slowly took his hand away from her mouth.
After a few seconds of silence, Jess met his eyes again. "What do you want from me?" she asked in a voice so quiet that she herself barely heard it.
"It's not what I want, little one. She wants you brought to her." Jess raised an eyebrow in silent question, wanting to know more but not wanting to make him angry again. "She wants both of you brought to her. That's why I'm here."
"Both of who?" Jess asked before she could stop herself.
"Shhh," he whispered, running the side of the knife gently along her cheek. "Enough talk, little one." He paused, gazing at her thoughtfully. "She's not expecting me back with you for hours yet. I think I have time for a little fun before I make my delivery. Jess' eyes became the size of saucers again, and she started to open her mouth to scream when his free hand slammed down over top of it. She struggled desperately against him, trying to buck him off of her but he was far too strong. The tears were pouring steadily from her eyes now as she prayed for Becker to come in and save the day like always. She stopped moving suddenly at the feel of the knife moving from her cheek to her chest as it began to slowly cut through the fabric of her tank top. He worked the blade through the cloth at a snail's pace, tilting and twisting it so that the cold metal scraped against her the smooth skin of her chest in between slices.
Then, as if sent from above, there was a gentle knock at the door. Jess stiffened even more as she heard a soft voice on the other side. "Jess? Are you decent? Can I come in?"
The great feeling of relief she felt at Becker's voice was quickly erased by the feel of the knife immediately pressing against the delicate skin of her throat. "Not one word to tip him off," the man on top of her ordered. "Now you get rid of him or else I'll make him watch what I plan to do to you before I make you watch me cut his heart out of his chest," he hissed.