Darkness. Cassandra was starting to get used to it and was a little afraid when it would end. When she had been young she had cried for the light, even when Rick had admonished her because crying would only make the periods of darkness last longer she couldn't help it. Right now she wasn't so certain the light was going to mean something good.

She tasted vomit on her lips as she started to come back to consciousness. Her head was sore and felt like it was stuffed with cotton. The floor beneath her cheek felt rough and cold and she couldn't remember why she was lying on it. She tried to move and felt her throat constricting as a thick rope tightened about it with the gesture. She attempted to gasp for air and realised there was a gag about her mouth preventing her taking a breath through her mouth or screaming.

Someone's hand seized her scalp tightly and she froze up.

"Stop struggling you stupid bitch I don't want you dead yet," a man's voice snarled at her.

The voice was distorted but she couldn't work out why, it sounded almost like it was echoing against something.

The mask. Cassandra recalled it with a jolt of fright. A pair of demonic faces focused on her. A demon driving the nozzle of a gun deep enough into her unconscious brother's skull to bruise. She remembered the voice ordering her to come quietly or watch Rick's brains get blown away, it had been distorted then too. Something in the design of the mask made the voice sound hollow as it bounced off the material.

She tried to ask about Rick, tried to sound out his name so they would know what she meant but her voice was just a distorted muffle.

"This is insane, why don't you just put a bullet in her already?" another man queried.

Cassandra heard the nerves in his voice. She fell silent and still as she tried to listen in on their conversation. She couldn't move anyway, her hands were knotted together at her back with a piece of the rope linking to a noose about her neck and her knotted feet, any movement caused the rope at her neck to tighten.

"Because she doesn't die, he does," the first man retorted sharply.

"That fucking asshole downstairs shot me in the arm."

"Well you can take it out on him in a moment," came the moody reply.

Cassandra felt his hot breath against her face as he lowered his mouth to her. "I have a few more things to do to your brother, then I'll come back to you," he vowed.

She heard him standing and started to yell as she heard him walk away. Where was Rick? What did he mean? A light switch clicked and she felt the darkness fall on her. She yelled and swore into the gag and fought against the ropes until her vision blazed with red beneath the blindfold and she was forced to stop before she choked herself into unconsciousness.

As she shivered and her heart hammered against her chest she tried to tell herself to get it together. She was still alive and from what the man had said she had to assume Rick was too. That was something. That meant they had a chance. She couldn't panic, that wouldn't be any good to either of them. She tested her bonds at her hands tentatively and winced as her throat burned with the rope rubbing against it. There was no give there then.

Cassandra considered her surroundings. Was there something in the room she could use? She was blind in here, even in spite of the blindfold she could feel the darkness of the room. Well that was alright, it meant the blindfold didn't really put her at a disadvantage. She wondered where the hell she was as she tasted vomit again. Her head was swimming and it was difficult to push back the headache building there. They had knocked her out the moment she had surrendered to them. She didn't even remember leaving Horatio's house and couldn't say how long she had been unconscious for.

She couldn't move too far, they had her feet and hands up in the air, slackening them would just tighten the ropes. If she rolled she wouldn't make it the whole way round, not with the way her limbs were. Cassandra filled with frustration as she wondered again where she was and why exactly she was alive. She thought of what Gillian and her mother had suffered and the feeling of sickness worsened. Rick had sheltered her from the worst of it, it was why he had identified the bodies of their family, he wouldn't have Cassandra viewing the bodies or even the photographs of the murder scene. Cassandra had been left to imagine most of it although the press had been quick to share some of the gory details. No one had gone too fast but Gillian had especially suffered.

Cassandra thought about Rick again. She couldn't lose him too. He was the world's biggest pain in the ass sometimes but he had always looked out for her and tried to protect her. He hadn't always succeeded but she couldn't blame him for that, at least he had tried, at least he cared .Even when Rick didn't give a shit about anyone else he still loved his sister. Sisters, he had loved Gillian just as much and his young niece too. Cassandra wasn't losing him too.

The call had come through from Detective Mac Taylor in New York. Jasper Silverstone was survived by a mother, father and a younger brother- Josh. His parents were still in the city but Josh's whereabouts were unknown, apparently he travelled often and his parents weren't concerned about his absence until they had been told about their older son's fate.

Horatio had asked Mac for a photograph of Josh and Mac had obliged grudgingly. It was just after nine when the picture came through and was received by Maxine who phoned to confirm what Horatio suspected, it matched the man in Gillian's photograph. By then Horatio, Ryan and Frank had departed to find Jose Salaz, Felix Curiel's right hand man who, according to DNA, trace and Calleigh, had been shot by Rick in Horatio's home. It was the man, Ryan's informant from the drugs' bust had insisted was involved in the Garrett business. There was an alert out on him to all units, they needed him lifted fast it had already been seven hours since the kidnapping and Cassandra and Rick's chances of being found alive were sinking.

Frank had tried to dissuade Horatio from coming but had given up after receiving a glower from above Horatio's shades.

Frank rode with Ryan in an unmarked navy car whilst Horatio followed behind in another unmarked black car, better to be discreet when trying to find gang members. The usual haunts were being checked out whilst Horatio had decided to risk an encounter with Felix Curiel and head for La Plaza de Paradisa, a pool side club he was known to frequent. As far as Horatio was concerned Felix could be just as good as Jose.

The DEA were back at the docks, waiting with patrol in case Felix or Jose tried to head for the water. They were also checking security footage in case they had taken Cassandra and Rick there.

They knew what vehicle to look for, a black jeep with tinted windows, CCTV footage from a couple of Horatio's neighbours had caught it speeding out of the neighbourhood. With the tinted windows it was a loose lead, there was nothing to confirm who was in it but there had been no other vehicles around that time of the morning.

The morning was hot and the sun blazed down on them as they drove. Horatio paid it no heed until they reached the La Plaza de Paradisa almost forty minutes later. It offered up an oceanic view boasting itself as a pool side club during the day with a nightclub that spilled out onto the beach at night. Horatio tensed as he saw the bikini clad women barely concealed with sarongs, fishnet shrugs and long, thin, open cardigans, lining up already to get entrance, hoping to catch the cocktail breakfast special. As he stepped out of his car his blue gaze fell on a young blonde in the queue, clad in high rising shorts and a red bikini top with large, round shades and plain flipflops. He smelt the salt of the nearby ocean and with it the faint odour of palm trees.

"H?" Ryan looked at his boss quizzically. He disagreed with Frank, feeling Horatio had every right to be here and figuring the redhead might be the only one who got Jose to deliver on information.

Horatio withdrew his stare from the blonde and let it fall on Ryan, though it went unseen behind his sunglasses. "Let's proceed Mr. Wolfe," he said calmly.

Horatio tugged out his gold badge with his left hand, favouring it over his right as his arm still stung from the bullet scrape. He had a bandage on it and two wrapped about his feet hidden beneath his socks and shoes, as much a hindrance as an aid.

Loud, lively dance music blasted from the club as the doors were opened along with a welcome waft of air conditioning.

"Miami-Dade Police," Horatio announced to the bouncers on duty, "gentlemen step aside we have official business here."

Horatio didn't wait for a response, he just kept walking, not even vaguely intimidated by them.

"I wouldn't," Frank snapped at them warningly as one made to protest. Frank let them see a glimpse of his holstered gun along with his badge as he followed through with Ryan.

The club was dark inside and quiet save for the music. The real party was outside back by the pool. They bypassed chairs stacked on tables and a curious bartender, heading past another group of bouncers to the pool party.

There was one large pool, a hot tub and several cabanas out the back, all raised up so everyone could see the soft, white sand of the beach and the turquoise shimmer of the ocean. Scantily clad waitresses in bikinis served out drinks alongside muscular men in bathing shorts.

Horatio made a beeline for a face he recognised although he had never been directly acquainted with its owner until now.

Felix Curiel was an average sized man with a lithe build. Somewhere in his forties, his intimidation came from the deadness in his brown eyes, the scar at his lip coupled with the minute pink scratches on his hands and the tattoos of skulls and flowers on his arms. From what Horatio recalled, rumour said the skulls were for the men he had murdered and the flowers were the women he had raped and then killed.

Felix was seated between two women at a raised private cabana with two guards on duty. They looked at Horatio with immediate disapproval and he looked back unflinchingly.

Horatio poised himself in the middle of the steps leading up to Felix who sat splayed back in a wide lounge chair like a lazy king on his throne.

"Mr. Curiel good morning to you," Horatio greeted with a forced politeness. Every part of him was itching to grab the man and demand answers but he knew it would get him nowhere, Felix Curiel wasn't a man easily intimidated.

"And you are?" Felix queried with a bored expression.

Horatio offered him a smile, he knew Felix knew who he was, he had rounded up enough drug gangs to get a reputation amongst them, never mind being one of the very few six feet tall redheads in Miami. "Lieutenant Horatio Caine," he retorted. "I met the acquaintance of one of your friends this morning, Jose Salaz. He was good enough to pay me a house visit, do you know where he might be so I can return the favour?" Horatio tugged off his shades with both hands and gave the gang boss a serious stare.

Felix let out a mocking laugh at this prompting his bodyguards to laugh also. "Lieutenant was it? Why should you think I know this Jose hmm?"

"Cut the crap Curiel," Frank snarled impatiently, "everyone knows he's your right hand man."

"Right and why should he visit you?" Felix answered with another question as he held Horatio's stare.

Horatio discreetly studied Felix's tattoos and wondered if any were for Balthasar, Christine or Gillian Garrett. "Concluding business I believe but maybe you don't know because surely your business with the Garretts is done now."

"With the who?" Felix quipped. "Lieutenant you're asking a lot of questions here I'm not feeling motivated to answer."

"Well maybe you'll feel more motivated at the station," Horatio went in for the kill.

Felix laughed again but his eyes had taken on a cold, angry gaze. "I have no desire to go there and you have no reason to take me."

Horatio smiled again. "Jose Salaz, your second in command, caught up in murder but in the wind. Yet here you sit, didn't think you needed to fly did you Mr. Curiel? We got a few of your men for drug dealings a few days ago, turns out one was here without valid paperwork as well, he had a lot to say about Jose then. He had a lot more to say this morning when we found he had a a couple of traffic violations against him too along with a car theft charge and we decided not to deport him but to send him to Miami jail where a few of his friends, or is it your friends, would learn his reduced sentence came from informing."

Felix tensed up in his chair as he waited for Horatio to continue on.

It was true what the lieutenant said, an anxious move played by him when he had looked into the informant who had been helpful to Ryan and given up Jose's name. He had gotten the man dragged up out of bed and in for questioning quickly. At first he had been accusatory, demanding to know why he had mentioned Jose but not enough for them to find and arrest him, accusing the informant of withholding information. Horatio had demanded the truth telling him they knew all about Jose and Felix's business with the Garretts and implying that the police force knew more than it did. When Horatio had mentioned the gang working with an outsider to take down the Garretts he had struck gold. Threatening the man with imprisonment over expulsion as a reward for his informing had sealed the deal.

"Felix Curiel you can come for questioning willingly or I can arrest you now," Horatio offered. "Jose took care of the reporter Erica Sykes and the social worker Mrs. Burke, and Jose paid a visit to my house but you were at the Garrett House Felix. The one consistency is your friend."

"You have no proof, just the squawking of a man trying to get citizenship!" Felix snarled.

Horatio shook his head. "It's enough for questioning Felix and you know it but believe me I have more."

Felix scowled at him hatefully and pointed at him with one finger. "You're bluffing Caine," he snarled.

There was a jingle as Frank tugged out a set of cuffs. "Sounds like you want to make this an arrest Curiel," he snapped.

Ryan kept his wary stare on the two bodyguards, fearful that they would try something stupid. Everyone was watching them having long given up the pretence of subtle eavesdropping.

Felix studied them curiously as he considered his next words. "You want something," he realised, "or you would have arrested me already."

"On your feet," Frank snapped, "we've no time for this crap."

Felix stood and waved his bodyguards and Frank down as he did.

"Alright, I'll come," he offered, "and you can ask your questions."

Horatio placed his sunglasses back on. "Good."

Rick felt pain all over. The worst was in his head he supposed but it was hard to tell. He was blind and it had taken a few moments of panicked blinking to realise that he hadn't lost his vision but was in fact wearing a blindfold.

It was as he was trying to work out his current situation that the attack came.

Rick let out a yell of pain as he was struck in his right thigh by something hard with enough force to bruise. When the swing came again only this time into his kneecap causing it to crack he almost threw up with the pain that seared through him. "Jesus Christ!" he hissed out angrily.

Rick realised then what way he was restrained. His arms were stretched out on either side of him whilst his legs were slightly apart, and his wrists and ankles were tightly fastened to a wall. He felt the panic rush over him at the thought. He was bound in cuffs in the dark again, how and why in the hell was this happening?

The next blow was hard and fast to his lower regions. This time the vomit came, an involuntary reaction to the shock and pain. His mind hummed with the hurt and his vision blazed red and then black as a ringing filled both his ears.

"You hurt me, I hurt you," a male's voice taunted him.

"Careful," another voice scolded. "He needs to stay alive."

"Why? I thought you said he had to die," the first voice commented in irritation.

"He does," the second voice responded calmly, "but by their hand. She got my brother killed and now she's going to share that pain, she's going to get her brother killed."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Rick hissed out, his voice too angry for fear.

"He asks a good question," the first man remarked mockingly. "You wait all this time for that, why?"

"I didn't know," the second man murmured. "This family and it's constant secrets and lies, you all deserve your deaths."

Rick considered a response but he didn't get the chance as he was struck again, this time in the ribcage.

"I want to fuck him up a little first, he's going to die anyway, right?"

"Right but we don't have much time. Lieutenant Caine is a smart man, he's going to figure out pretty quickly where we are and it's important he does."

"Yes, this place wasn't the brightest choice was it?" the first voice queried sullenly.

Rick heard the sound a match being struck followed by the puff of a cigarette.

"Shut up, it's the way it has to end!" the second man responded angrily. He sounded unhinged.

Rick felt part of his shirt being lifted up and let out a hiss of pain as the flame of the match was pressed against his flesh.

"Hmm the pig should die slow," the first man murmured without concern. "He's the worst kind too, turns on his own, did you know that?"

"Do I care?"

"I thought they were your family."

"Not mine idiot. He's going to die slow, the lieutenant will come looking for them, open the door and then it's bye big brother. He can die here just like mine."

"Huh, you don't think he might yell and warn them?"

Rick hissed again as this time the cigarette was pressed against him.

"Pig's got some nice scars, hey, who did this to you?"

Rick ignored the question as he shrugged off the pain. It was easy, cigarette burns weren't exactly new to him although he had to admit it had been a few years since he'd last felt the burn of one.

"He won't yell, I'm going to gag him in a minute, soon as I finish setting up the trap."

There was a heavy sigh. "Well alright, I can keep hurting him until then, right?"

"Right, I want her to hear him screaming. Is this why Curiel sent you along?"

"Si, I like to cause pain, there's something nice about the way men scream when they're truly frightened. I think this one's going to take a lot." Rick tensed again as his shirt was tugged open with enough force to break the buttons. "All these scars, he's used to pain. Is the little blonde like that too? Will I have time to hurt her? She's soft, smells of the sea, I like to cut up soft skin."

Rick filled with horror at those words. He knew who the man had to mean. How could they have her as well? He vowed never to forgive Horatio if Cassandra was here too and hurt. How could he let them get her?

"No," Rick snarled out before he could help it.

"Hmm, I think I might big brother, unless you amuse me for long enough."

Horatio stared across the interview table at Felix, trying hard to maintain his calm.

"I'll give you Jose," Felix offered with a sinister smile, "but you don't get me because I wasn't involved."

"I don't buy it," Horatio retorted.

"No and it's not what you want, is it?" Felix glanced up at the clock to the right and smiled. "Hmm it's almost noon Lieutenant, a morning spent already. Time can be so fleeting for some."

Horatio turned cold at his words. If there were any doubts over Felix knowing about Cassandra and Rick they were banished with that remark.

"Jose took something from you, didn't he?" Felix mused. "He doesn't often do that, he prefers his business is conducted in the one area."

"He wasn't alone, just like you weren't."

"Oh, and who were we with Lieutenant Caine?" Felix queried calmly as he spread his palms across the table.

Horatio played his hand at last. "Josh Silverstone." It had been an educated guess until the labs had confirmed a link between Marissa's DNA and some of the unidentified DNA left at the Garrett massacre. As Marissa and Jasper weren't in the system it was no surprise no link had ever been identified.

"I don't know anyone with this name," Felix dismissed.

Horatio gave him an icy smile. "He's a father with a lethal grudge," he retorted coolly. "A smart man like yourself until the news of his brother's murder set him off. This wasn't planned Felix, this sloppiness isn't like you. Two of your men are dead in my house, easily identified, he cost you them and he helped lead us to you."
"He's a brother with a lethal grudge then," Felix corrected with his own taunting grin. "What must it be like to lose one's brother so horribly, can you know that pain?"

Horatio tensed, the truth was he did know that pain but there was no way Felix could realise that.

Felix' grin widened. "I suppose he just wants to share it, to gain some...empathy."

Horatio's grin vanished as he realised what Felix was driving at. "And where might he do that?" he queried carefully.

"What do I get for that?" Felix queried. "A promise that you won't bother me with this business again?"

"You know I can't promise that," Horatio retorted calmly.

"You haven't arrested me yet," Felix reminded him.

"No but I'm about to. It starts with the drug charges Felix, then it's murder, do you want to add aiding with two more kidnappings and murder to it, which includes the kidnapping and murder of a police sergeant?"

Felix tensed in his chair and gave the lieutenant an ugly look. "You don't have anything," he snarled, "just theories."

"We have a confession, we have DNA, we have your men dead in my house, we have your drugs and we have evidence of Garrett's drug deals."

Felix drummed his fingers on the table restlessly. "I had nothing to do with your bedtime visit. I didn't authorise it," he insisted.

"Then how do you know Jose took something from me?" Horatio demanded.

Felix paused as he realised his error and he scowled at the lieutenant. "Alright, he let me know after the stunt. I told him to get the mess cleared up fast. Getting involved with cops is always foolish but you're right, Silverstone was set off by the news of his brother being found, it's driven him mad. I had plans to cut him loose later but you can have him instead. I tell you where they are and you don't try and pin this on me because I have nothing to do with it, deal?"

"Deal."

"The Garrett House, the boy has a sense of irony, feels someone else's brother should share his brother's fate."

Horatio blanched and hurried from the room without another word. "Get him his rights read," he snapped to the officer standing on duty, "he's under arrest, Frank has the details."

Horatio kept running, on and on until he was outside in the car park sprinting towards his car. Ryan saw him go and gave pursuit.

"H what's going on? What did he say?" Ryan called as he followed.

"They're at the house Ryan," Horatio called back as he unlocked his car, "which means the cops guarding the place are likely hurt if not worse and we are on borrowed time."

Ryan got into the car beside Horatio, panicked eyed as he watched his boss turn on the engine and begin speeding out of the car park. Ryan tugged out his phone and dialled Frank, knowing they would need backup.

Horatio took the time to contact Natalia as well and alert her to the possible danger to Marissa.

Neither of them had considered anyone would be foolish enough to return to the Garrett House. It was too obvious and it was under guard. Except there was only a token presence of officers there, the chief had gotten ratty and ordered it so as the place had been checked top to bottom by Horatio and the others and was no longer an active crime scene.

Once Ryan had relayed the details to Frank he pocketed his phone and looked to his boss again. "Why are they there?" he pried.

"Josh Silverstone," Horatio answered bluntly, "Jasper's younger brother and Marissa's father."

Ryan's eyes widened with surprise. "What? Why? I don't...I don't get it." Ryan realised he was wrong. In a warped way there was some sense to be made out of it, like why Marissa had always been spared.

"I'm not sure either," Horatio confessed. "I've been thinking it through, trying to guess how it happened. I think he came looking for Jasper one day and traced him here but the trail went cold at the Garretts. He met Gillian, Cassandra was probably in Cuba, certainly she was away from the house."

"And he fell for Gillian?" Ryan queried doubtfully.

"Well they had an attraction of some sort, that we know. I don't know that he told her who he really was or what he was doing. Perhaps that led to a fallout or perhaps Balthasar Garrett interfered as he did with Cassandra and Jasper only not so finally. Rick and Cassandra never knew the identity of Marissa's father and she's five now, I'm speculating that maybe Josh didn't know about her either. Maybe that's why Gillian suffered the most."

Ryan frowned at the thought, it was morbid but it did make sense. "The kill was angry and personal," he murmured. "An act of revenge then? An angry outburst at finding out he had a daughter and he'd already missed out on five years of her life?"

"Perhaps. He didn't do it alone. He was in it together with the Red Death, sometime between Marissa's birth and now he found them, they realised they had a common enemy and they conspired. I have no idea yet how. Felix Curiel wanted Balthasar dead for intruding on his drug territory and he probably wanted to make an example out of him. He and Josh did it together, which kept them together. Josh has been exploiting that relationship since in an attempt to get to Marissa. He had Erica killed to frame Rick and Cassandra, then the social worker was killed as an obstacle to Marissa but she hid and he couldn't get her in time."

"Why has he taken Rick and Cassie then?" Ryan demanded.

"He was like Cassie, he didn't know Jasper was dead, he assumed something bad had happened probably but he never had it confirmed until now. The realisation has driven him mad because he had Balthasar in his grasp and he never learned the truth and it was Gillian he made suffer, Balthasar was Felix's kill, so Josh can't get Balthasar for Jasper's murder but he can get Cassie. Jasper was Josh's brother and he was murdered in that house, killed for being married to Cassie, although I'm sure there is more to it that we will never know. Rick is Cassie's brother, he's going to kill him."