AJ was relieved when Kurt decided to go do some questioning with Booker instead of him. This little break would give him time to regroup, call Karen and then think of a way to subtly sabotage this investigation. There had been reported sightings of Jeff in Oregon, so the stranglehold on Nevada had been eased up somewhat. It wasn't gone completely because Kurt believed the whole Oregon thing could be a false alarm. He was growing more and more paranoid and manic with each passing day. It was becoming increasingly harder for AJ to put up with him. He almost wished Jeff would come out of hiding and the two of them could duke it out. And even though he wouldn't say it out loud, he was kind of rooting for the psycho.

AJ's phone rang, bringing him out of his thoughts. "Hello?" he said, hoping it wasn't Kurt.

"Hello AJ," Mark said pleasantly. He sounded downright evil now. "I heard you were looking for me."

AJ sat straight up. "Why are you calling me Mark?"

"Because I'd rather deal with you than with Kurt. I mean, you're much more reasonable than he is. And let's not forget the fact that you care about his wife Karen more than he does."

"Listen, I don't know why you're with Jeff and I frankly don't care. You just stay away from Karen."

"Now you see, I would do that if I didn't already have her." From Mark's end of the phone, a woman let out a horrifying shriek.

AJ felt his world crashing down on him. He couldn't be one hundred percent certain if that was Karen or not, but he couldn't take any chances. She could have not run in time, or they had caught her trying to get away. "Let her go you bastard! What the fuck is your problem?"

Mark chuckled. "You want to know what my problem is? My problem is that I've taken Jeff under my wing and now I have to hide him in a basement because you FBI fucks don't know when to back off."

"Well what the fuck does Karen have to do with this?" AJ snapped.

"She's what I like to call a bargaining chip. Here's what you need to do Styles, if you want to guarantee her safety for a little while. You need to come back to James Lawson's house, only you need to come alone this time. If you even dare to try and sneak some back-up along, I will let Jeff have full access to Karen and I will make you watch him kill her. You got that?"

"Yes," AJ said with a nod. "I've got it." He hung up, slipped his shoes on and ran out to his car. The only thing on his mind was saving Karen. He knew that this could just end up being a trap of some sort, but he didn't care. If he could keep Karen from getting killed, then he was okay with possibly dying himself. He truly believed she was worth giving his life up for.

It took him an hour and a half to get all the way back to James Lawson's house. When he got there, he found James waiting for him on the front porch.

"Hello Agent Styles," James said. He had a huge smirk on his face. "It's nice you decided to come back so soon."

"You son of a bitch," AJ snarled. His hands were balled up into little fists. "You knew where Mark and Jeff were the entire time, didn't you?"

James nodded. "Of course I did. They were hiding in my basement. You and Kurt had no idea how well I played you." He grabbed AJ and pushed him up against the house. "Hold still for a second." He patted the smaller man down for weapons. "Good boy, you're really serious about saving Karen." He shoved AJ into the house as roughly as he could. "Too bad she's not here to be saved."

AJ's eyes widened. Son of a bitch, he had been duped again! "But when I was on the phone with Mark, I heard screaming…"

James chuckled. "That was courtesy of Rebecca Michaels, who could possibly be dead by now. I don't know for sure. We haven't risked opening the basement door because we know Jeff will try to get out." He forced AJ to go into the living room where Mark, Stacy and a group of people AJ didn't know were sitting. "Look what I found boys and girls."

Mark grinned at AJ. "Wow, you must really love Karen to risk coming back here."

AJ glared at him. "You don't even have her, you fucking liar."

"No I don't. Not at the moment anyway. But believe me, I will find her and kill her in a heartbeat if you don't do what we want you to do."

Every psycho in the room was staring a hole through AJ. He looked at each of him, wondering how these people slept at night. No, who cares how they sleep? I just need to keep myself and Karen alive. "What do you want me to do?"

James let out a whoop. "Now that's the spirit AJ!"

Mark nodded. "You're doing the smart thing Styles."

"Just tell me what you want so I can get out of here."

"Okay, okay, don't get all pissy. What we want you to do is simple. Tomorrow morning, you're going to tell Kurt you received a tip that Jeff and I are hiding out in the desert. You're going to drive him at least ten miles into that lovely desert and then you are going to kill Kurt."

"He's very problematic for both of us. Killing him will help everyone involved," Stacy said helpfully.

"And once you've killed Kurt," Mark went on, "you'll bury his body and then call me to assure me that the deed is done."

"And then what?" AJ asked, resisting the urge he had to throw up.

"Then you will take over as lead investigator in this case and you will find a way to call everyone off Jeff for good. Have him declared dead. Say he went to Europe or Mexico or fucking Africa for all I care. If you can do it AJ, then you have my word that we will not go near you or Karen for the rest of your lives."

AJ took a deep breath. He was nuts for even considering this, but what else could he do? It was too late to back out now. "Okay," he agreed. "I'll do it."

"Good boy," Mark said with a grin. He took the plate from the woman sitting next to it and held it out to AJ. "Pizza roll?"

"Uh…no thanks," AJ said slowly. "I should get going. I don't need Kurt to get suspicious."

James grinned. "Yeah, you need him trusting you for tomorrow. We don't want him getting suspicious of you before then." He sighed wistfully. "Just think though. After tomorrow, with Kurt out of the way, you can be with Karen all you want."

Mark snickered. "It's like a Greek tragedy or something. One man kills his partner to save himself and the partner's wife and they live happily ever after…or will they?" He and James began to cackle evilly, which prompted AJ to do the smartest thing he had done all day: he got the hell out of there.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Melina didn't remember when Jeff had unchained her. She had lost track of a lot of things. Right now, she was really only aware of two things. One: Jeff was literally running to the walls and bouncing off them. Being cooped up had caused him to go stir crazy, which was not a good thing when he was crazy to begin with. The other thing she was aware of was the fact Rebecca was dying a very slow death. Jeff had put the drill in her mouth and had left it on until her teeth were knocked out and her tongue was a mangled into tiny pieces. She had other holes in her body too, but none of them had killed her yet. They probably would eventually, but at the moment, they were just prolonging her suffering.

Suffering. Melina knew all about suffering now. It felt like it was the only thing she had ever known. But she was starting to realize that the moments she was able to escape inside her own mind, she wasn't suffering anymore. She wasn't hurting constantly anymore. It was nice. It was what she needed. She needed the escape, even just for a little while.

But Rebecca's pain filled moans wouldn't allow her that escape. They kept bringing her back to reality. Melina slowly crawled across the ground and grabbed Jeff's fallen knife. She was aware that he was watching her very carefully. "I need to do this, I have to do it," she whispered over and over again. "I have to escape, I must escape." She crawled over to Rebecca and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, I have to go away, I have to disappear," she said quickly, hoping Rebecca was conscious enough to understand. She let out a cry and brought the knife down into her foster mother's chest.

Jeff let out a surprised laugh. "Do it again! Do it again!"

Melina opened her eyes and slowly turned around to face him. "Melina is not home right now," she said slowly, not even really aware that she was speaking. "Please leave a message after the beep." She paused for a moment. "Beep."

Jeff just gave her a confused look for a moment before giggling and tackling her to the floor. "Well if you're not Melina, I don't know who you are then," he informed her. "And I don't care. It's time to make James and Mark pay for this crap. I'm going to have some spawn with you. That'll show them."