Mike sat on the bed and glared at Briggs when he came back in with food. He hadn't said a word to Briggs as Briggs had cleaned him up. He knew he was going to be beaten later unless he could escape before then. He was emotionally exhausted. He didn't know what Matt had done to him, but he could tell that something was weird. He had taken a shower but still felt disgusting.

Briggs set down the food in front of him. "Okay, Mike. You need to tell me what's going on so I can figure out what's happening."

He just wordlessly shook his head at that and glanced at the food he knew he wouldn't be getting to eat. He didn't dare ask Briggs any questions, because he knew he'd be punished for it later. He ran a hand through his hair and made his way over to the window, looking outside at what was freedom.

It was getting darker now, and those who were outside were probably headed home. Headed home to their safe, normal lives, where they weren't being blackmailed by a federal agent to remain on the case-shit.

"I got you some food," Briggs said gently as he set it down in front of him.

"T-thank you," Mike stuttered as he gingerly took a bite of it. "A-are we safe here?"

"The owner's a friend of mine who knows damn well what'll happen too him if he squeals, so, yeah, and he's a fed friend too."

"Good," Mike said. He steeled himself. "Briggs...Matt tortured me."

"What happened?"

"I don't remember exactly. But I woke up and he was dragging me to this old abandoned hospital. He grabbed me, drugged me with morphine multiple times. I remember torture. I remember waking up too-" Mike's breath hitched at this. "God, Briggs. I'm such a failure as an agent. I don't know what happened but my pants were down…"

"Hey!" Briggs said. "You are not a failure of an agent. Matt is a devil who will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Do you remember anything from when you were unconscious?"

"No….please don't make me do a test. There's no point."

Briggs nodded, "For now I won't; it'd look weird anyway. I think we need to get you out of here."

"Clarke says I need to stay here...my handler. He says if I show up at Graceland he'll put me back in the case."

"Well, fuck. Clearly we can't rely on him as a form of support. I'm not letting you go to that meeting Bello mentioned; we're swapping boys at that meeting and I'm not losing you."

"W-what?" Mike looked up, expecting Briggs to say he was going to have to rough him up like Bello suggested.

"Yeah. I mean, there's a chance that you wouldn't get swapped, since Bello really likes me, but frankly this case is taking way too long. My contact in DC is unreachable too so we really need some help. Do you think Nathaniel is legitimate?"

"Yeah, but he's just a cop - what if we called Jakes?" Mike asked, filling a million times better as he ate.

"Jakes?"

"He's a DEA agent. You could send me out to call my social worker and I could call him instead. I checked him out; he's legit."

"I like it." Briggs sobered. "I really am sorry, Mike."

Mike nodded. "Just….just can you please not hit me before we go?"

Briggs ran his hand through his hair. "Okay."

"T-thank you...when do we do this?"

"Tomorrow morning. I want you to get some rest tonight."

Mike breathed a sigh of relief as he inhaled another bite of food. "T-thank you…."

Briggs blinked twice, realizing then how much the case had affected Mike. He shook his head. "Don't thank me until we're out of here." And until I can find an excuse to fucking kill Matt, because I think I know what happened to you and if I'm right…

## break ## - next morning

"Do you need to call your handler?" Briggs asked, handing out the phone. Mike took it, groaning.

"I should… C-can I go outside?" he asked.

"I guess. Just don't do anything stupid."

"Sure," Mike nodded, shooting another look at the food that he already knew not to ask for. His stomach rumbled, and he tried to remember when the last time was he'd actually eaten a good meal. He found he couldn't.

He hesitated a minute before calling Clarke as memories of what happened before his abduction assaulted him. Jakes! Maybe Jakes could help him. Briggs didn't know Jakes had talked to him personally, because they set it up to look like Nathaniel had. Hope lit up in his eyes for the first time in three days as he dialed the number.

"Hello, this is Jakes. Who is this?"

"J-Jakes, this is Levi."

"Levi! Thank God you're okay! We found out that the judge was dirty and put some bullshit paperwork to get you back with Braxton. It's not legit, you understand? You don't have to talk to him."

"O-okay… But I'm with him right now J-Jakes. I don't have anywhere else to go." Mike swallowed hard as tears started to prick his eyes and he brushed them away. Why the hell was he crying? He had been unconscious for most of Matt's torture so it shouldn't have bothered him.

Maybe it bothered him more because Briggs fucking ordered it.

"Where are you now? I can pick you up and get you into witness portection."

"I - I don't know…."

"Can you ask someone? I'll start tracing this call, but that might be faster."

"I-I'm using Braxton's phone…."

"Right….So you need to give it back to him. Okay, I got a trace. You're only about 20 minutes from me. Are you at the Hilton Inn hotel?"

"Yeah…"

"Damn that trace is accurate. Okay, what I want you to do is go sit in the lobby, where there are a lot of people, and keep talking to me. Why did he give you the phone?" Jakes asked. Mike could hear the man grabbing his car keys. Considering that it was 8:00 at night, he felt relieved the man had even picked up his phone.

"I'm supposed to call my s-social worker." Mike moved into the lobby and twisted his sweatshirt as he sat on the couch. He took steadying deep breaths, closing his eyes. It would be okay. He had the right to be upset, because Levi would be upset, so therefore he could act upset. Actually, it would look unnatural in his role if he didn't look upset.

"You can call him from my phone if you really want too," Jakes responded. "Are you holding up okay?"

"I g-guess… I just… I'm cold. And I don't have a really good jacket and I don't have shoes because I'm not allowed to have them, and I haven't eaten in two days, and I want to sleep, but I can't."

"Well, you can do all of those things when I get there," Jakes said.

## break ##

Jakes had managed to convince Levi to stay on hold long enough for him to get Naomi at the office. The office was actually closer than he was, and she was getting a raid. They knew they had Braxton at a place and he was going down. They had to get Levi out of there. God only knew what the poor kid had been through because of the bastard judge who had now been fired.

He was too damn young to be involved with all of this.

Jakes had requested the swat team to wait outside and let him go in and get Levi first. They were to wait at a location where they could see Levi and himself, but Levi could not see them. They didn't want a potential hostage situation and they all knew Braxton had the potential to be lethal.

"Hey, Levi. Can I get your help for a second?" Jakes asked as he approached the room, relieved to see the man sitting alone. The kid nodded, and left the cell phone on the couch as he made his way over. Jakes knew Naomi would see it because he'd mentioned where he'd told the kid to sit, so he didn't bother to confiscate it. Right now, he needed to get the kid out of here without Braxton noticing.

## break ##

Mike nodded as he followed Jakes, praying to God that the man wasn't working with the ring, because if he was, it was showtime over for Mike. He just needed a good night's sleep.

"Hey," Jakes said softly as he got outside and they got into his truck, "I got you a sweater."

"Thanks," Mike said, relieved as he threw the oversized hoodie on. "I… I c-can't date him anymore. I d-don't love him. Everyone wants me too, but I c-can't."

"It's okay. The judge who put you back with him was fired and arrested last week. We're working on taking down the ring."

"R-really?" Mike asked, breathing a sigh of relief. "I d-don't want to ask for anything because I c-can't pay for it, but… I n-need to eat something, I haven't eaten in almost two days and my blood sugar's getting low."

"Are you diabetic?" Jakes asked.

"No, no!" Mike said with a shake of his head. "I just - my blood sugar gets low if I don't eat."

"That's understandable," Jakes said. "Do you have any allergies or any preferences?"

"I c-can't pay for anything."

"That's okay. I'll pay for it," Jakes said as he glanced back at the rear view mirror. Braxton was going down.

## break ##

Charlie groaned as she made her way to the war room. She was the only one of them who could attend since she was undercover as a federal agent. Jakes had called her and said they'd rescued Mike but they weren't telling anyone where he was - she knew only Jakes and his immediate co-worker knew.

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, listen up," Jakes said. "We're here tonight because we've gotten evidence on this ring. An unnamed witness has given us all the evidence we need to take down some major players. We've also pinpointed their locations. We captured the fourth-in-command, Braxton Solverjano, tonight as well. That's not common knowledge so let's keep that to ourselves, okay?"

"So you don't want us announcing he was arrested?" Another officer called out. Charlie studied the people Jakes had picked. Everyone on this message had been hand-picked by Jakes and had worked with Jakes in some capacity, so she felt better about the raid.

"No, right now we're primarily focusing on getting the victims out safely and we don't want to get any names involved. Now, I know you've been briefed on how the ring is structured, but be careful with anyone who is between the ages of 18-25. Those are usually, but not always, the victims from the ring."

"How do you propose to tell the difference?"

"The leaders are all expected to be in one place with their boys. Bello should be there as well. We'll worry about that after we arrest them."

"So we're arresting everyone."

"Yes. Are we clear? Anymore questions? Okay, we're out."

## break ##

A/N: How's that for an action-packed chapter! I know, I know, we didn't get to see what happened with Clarke, but I promise you - that is coming in the next chapter.

A huge thank you to everyone for reviewing. Stayed up late to post - it's 12:15 a.m. here - so I'll reply tomorro

You might note that Mike didn't go to the meeting with Bello. Of course, the meeting hasn't happened yet…so there's that. Of course, if Mike gets lucky, Bello will get busted.

A special thanks to Guest (I love your ideas!), iceangel, guest, freedomrose, iwillneverbefound, and all my viewers.