"Come on, Vaughn, man up."
"This isn't about being a man, Jeff. This is about me leaving going out with some sort of a conscience."
"You're helping me sneak a captured federal agent across the border. Having a conscience should be the least of your concern. I'd worry more about getting the job done and me possibly thinking about letting you walk than some stupid conscience."
Hotch can hear Hinders and an unknown voice above him as he drifts back into consciousness. He's exhausted and nauseous from the drugs and the concussion- so many emotions and physical feelings are running through him at the moment and all he can focus on is the unfamiliar voice.
Vance. Am I officially being held captive by two men now? Hotch thinks quickly. He decides to relax his body as much as he can and fake unconsciousness. It'll give him at least a couple of minutes to an answer or two to the millions of questions running through his head. He knows very few things at this moment- he has to be laying on his stomach with his hands handcuffed behind his back, the vehicle Hinders stole is parked and the Taser burns and throat are acting up again.
"Give me ten minutes to at least check over his injuries and then let's go, Jeff," Vaughn begs. "I'll just pick up the pace and get you over the border about half hour before dawn."
"I'm not going to be dropped off over the border with daylight being so close. Just take him inside to the basement and then you'll get your five minutes to check on Hotchner before I kick his ass for kicks. Do it now," Hinders states. Hotch can hear his captor walk away from the trunk and then a heavy breathing from who he believes is Vaughn. A cold, smelly cloth is suddenly wrapped around Hotch's eyes before he is lifted upwards and onto his feet. Vaughn grabs both of his arms from the back and begins to guide Hotch in a direction away from the car.
"You got the beer I asked for? Hell, I need a drink while check the news and radio station for anything from the FBI." It's Hinders again off in the distance and Hotch can't place how far away or where. Vaughn pulls him off in another direction again and Hotch finds himself tripping off a couple of rickety stairs and a door threshold. The smell of alcohol and oddly turkey makes him beckon forward and vomit on what he hopes is the kitchen floor.
"It's ok, it's ok," Vaughn whispers quietly. Vaughn pulls Hotch to the left and warns, "I'm taking you down a flight of stairs so take it nic3e and slow, alright?" His second captor doesn't wait for a response from the agent and quickly leads Hotch down the stairs, tripping and falling onto Vaughn ever so often. At the last step, Hotch is pushed down onto a squishy, smelly bedding inches from the floor. The blindfold is pulled from his eyes and Hotch blinks a few times to see a skinny bald head man with a deep beard kneeling in front of him.
"I'm going to check your injuries," Vaughn states brightly. He reaches out to touch Hotch's forehead but the agent turns his head away and scoots back on the bedding until his handcuffed hands can touch the wall. Vaughn sighs and quickly presses his hand against Hotch's forehead. "Listen, Hotchner- Jeff would rather torture you until nightfall if I wasn't here. He's too lost in his own world to remember that you need to be alive to work as leverage. If you die, Agent Rossi won't have a proper reason to chase Jeff."
"If I'm dead, Dave won't stop until Hinders is dead, regardless," Hotch replies sharply. "Why bother help? You're still helping him."
"Look, Jeff is blackmailing me into doing this- he has a lot of things against me to do so. Since I already know that Jeff is going to kill me as soon as I get you guys over, I'd like to do at least one good thing before die," Vaughn explains as he starts pulling at the straps on Hotch's Kevlar vest. The first strap doesn't elicit any pain but the second strap shifts the vest onto the taser wound and Hotch feels a burning, sharp pain worse than he had ever felt since being kidnapped. Hotch bites down a whimper before looking up weakly to Vaughn.
"You're bruising and bleeding pretty bad here and you have an incredibly high fever," Vaughn glances down to Hotch's thigh, "Same on your thigh. There's bruising on your throat as well- he worked you over pretty good. I'll bring down your fever and give you some bandages over your wounds. Just hope Hinders doesn't touch your bandages, ok?"
Hotch lifts his head slightly and mutters, "Fine….can I ask you a question? How long have I been gone?"
"Two days, Hotchner."
Two days? Oh God! Hotch hears a stair creak and spots Hinders standing at the top of the stairwell. Hinders takes a swig of the bear and calls out, "You done yet? I'm feeling like kicking some ass right now."
"Give me at least five more minutes with Hotchner," Vaughn yells over his shoulder. He narrows his eyes at Hotch and finishes, "And then unfortunately he's all yours."
Salt Lake City
"Matt!"
Cruz sighs and turns around to see JJ running up the building stairs towards him. He had been speaking with the Utah State Police Commissioner about road closures and squad placements on the border when JJ had screeched to a halt in one of the team's SUV, jumped out of the driver's seat and ran ahead of Blake sliding out of the passenger seat. He shakes his head as she approaches him in disappointment of actually thinking the BAU's best team would actually follow his orders.
"None of you slept, I assume," Cruz mutters at JJ as she holds out a list of addresses towards him. Blake comes to JJ's side and replies, "We tried."
"You mean toss and turn for a few hours and then work the case?"
JJ scoffs at Cruz's tone and states, "We started talking about the case and suddenly the idea of Hinders having allies between New Mexico and Port Gamble came to mind. I'm not talking about men who he just met- I mean allies who may also still have a beef with Rossi from Port Gamble. Garcia searched for every man and woman that worked in Port Gamble during the case and she found four of them leave in the Southwest- two of them being relatively close to the Nevada border. We need to focus all of our attention on the border and even consider shutting some areas down."
"You want to me shut down the Utah-Nevada border without any confirmation that Hinders is taking Hotch in that direction at all? How do we know that he isn't heading north to Wyoming, Idaho or even turning around back to Arizona?"
"Matt, the last phone call we got had him heading towards Nevada," JJ pleads, " We've been studying Hinders and the profile says that he taunts Rossi to follow-"
"For all we know, he could have called Rossi and then gone a completely different direction, Jennifer," Cruz sighs, "I'm sorry, but I just spoke to the state Police and we've decided to cover all four borders unless something else happens. I'm so sorry, but no."