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A/N at the Bottom

Chapter 25

The lid to the dumpster slammed shut as a hand clamped over Elizabeth's mouth while an arm went around her waist. She was lifted right off her feet by the man behind her. She knew it was a man not only by his height, but the feel of his body. Her first instinct was panic, which brought on a flood of adrenaline. That hormone coursing through her system triggered her flight or fight response which helped push the panic away.

In the time that he took three steps she had a plan worked out. It started with letting her muscles go lax. She wasn't trying to slip from his grip he had her too tight for that. No she wanted to throw them off balance. So instead of letting her body lean forward she slumped to the side, shifting her attacker's center of gravity. Caught off guard he stumbled crossing his feet and leaning forward to compensate. Behind the gloved hand she gave a feral smile. Perfect.

Elizabeth quickly raised her head and connected with his nose while at the same time bringing her elbow sharply into his solar plexus hard enough to make him grunt. In response he released her and she dropped to the ground. The moment her feet hit the concrete she pivoted swinging out her left hand, heel first, striking again at the broken nose trying to keep him in pain. Then she shifted her weight and kicked out with her left foot hyperextending his right knee making him stumble. Now if she needed to run he couldn't follow. She saw surprise in his eyes, as he pin wheeled his arms in an attempt to find some balance. Apparently he hadn't expected her to fight back. Too bad for him, that mistake was going to cost him an ass whooping. She cocked her left leg back and kicked him square in the chest with her calf giving the strike more power. Already off balance he went down and there was a loud thud as his head hit the ground and then nothing.

Elizabeth shifted into fighting stance ready to go again if necessary. Francis told her to keep the attack going until she had nothing left or her attacker was immobilized enough that she could get away. That was the point of all this training, not to kill anyone, but to make it so she could get away from whoever was trying to harm her. Her whole body was shaking and she was breathing hard, but she would fight until the end if necessary. When she realized he wasn't getting up Elizabeth quickly assessed her situation.

The area around the back door was dark, something she never really noticed before, another assailant could be hiding there. Waiting for her to seek the safety of the building. The entrance to the alley was also a potential trap. If her attacker had a partner they might be there waiting for him to carry her out. These thoughts went through her mind in the span of seconds. Frannie had trained her well, he said if escape wasn't the safest option then find cover. If she had been thinking more clearly she would have pushed the alarm on her phone, but right now she was still bracing for an attack.

The dumpsters would offer the best shelter. They were heavy and not on wheels. The truck that emptied them simply lifted them off the ground, so no one was moving them. There was just enough space for her to fit between them. Squeezing herself in she sat and waited to see if anyone else was coming.

Elizabeth had been in the back for eight minutes. Milo knew because he was timing it. Having sat with her during closing before he knew that not all her duties kept her out front. So they worked out an arrangement, every ten minutes she would peek out the window the cook passed the food through so he knew she was fine.

Nothing seemed off, but Milo was getting itchy. "I'm gonna go check on Liz." He told Sal just as their phones beeped. Snatching it up he saw an alert from Johnny telling them to be on the lookout for Sonny. He had attacked Courtney and then disappeared. The two guard exchanged looks before Milo hurried to the back. He found Tammy and Devon, but not Elizabeth. "Where is Liz?"

"She's not out front?" Tammy had just walked out of the office, so she knew her waitress wasn't anywhere in the back.

"She took the trash out." Devon pointed toward the metal door.

This was also not an uncommon thing for the waitresses to do. The entire staff helped one another especially during opening and closing. He'd seen Devon, and the other cook Roger, out wiping tables to help clean up at the end of the night. Still tonight was not a good night for Liz to be out back alone. Milo ran past them and out into the small alley.

He was in time to see a white sneaker disappear between the dumpsters, seeing the prone body he hit his alarm and pulled his gun. Back up would come, but not from Sal. His fellow guard would stay with Emily. Which was what he was supposed to do. Only gunshots would bring Sal to investigate.

Milo used the small, but powerful, penlight on his keys to sweep the back of the alley, since it was empty he moved over to the still body. Pulling the mask he saw a face he didn't recognize. The guy was out cold, with a broken nose, but still breathing. That left the mouth of the alley as a potential area of attack. So he stationed himself beside the dumpster closest to the exit with his back to the rear of the alley.

"Liz?" He said softly quickly peeking into the small space. He shined his light over her head and let it bounce off the wall to illuminate the space. He didn't want to blind her with the beam. She was curled up tight with her back to the wall. "Are you hurt?" No answer. With her face tucked into her knees he couldn't see if she was injured anywhere but her hand, and honestly that blood might be the guy who picked the wrong woman to fuck with. "Liz, can you answer me, please?" He tried again only to get more silence.

The squealing of brakes brought his head up and he recognized the two company cars that blocked the front of the alley. He also heard the engine of Jason's bike. "Jason's here." Milo tried, hoping for some sort of response. "She's in there." He told his boss. He was going to get his ass handed to him for this.

"What the fuck happened?" Francis wanted to know. He had been with Diane when the alarm sounded. He didn't think he had ever gotten dressed so fast in his life.

"She was attacked taking out the trash. Elizabeth was already out back when the alarm sounded. She was out of my sight maybe ten minutes." Milo wasn't offering excuses. The buck had to stop somewhere and he was it. She was attacked on his watch, which was inexcusable.

Johnny looked at the unconscious man. He had no idea who he was, but he was gonna hurt when he woke up. Liz had done great.

Jason didn't care about the attacker right now. Now he just needed to get his girl out from between the dumpsters so he could make sure she wasn't badly hurt. "Baby, can you come out?" Nothing. "Can we move the dumpsters?" He asked the guys.

"No." Francis knew it was useless to even try.

"Emily's in the diner, maybe she can get Liz out." Milo suggested.

"Go get her." Jason told the guard keeping his eyes on his girl. He was guessing she was in shock. This night was getting more fucked up by the minute. "Take him to the warehouse." He said pointing to the downed assailant. "Get all the information you can." Elizabeth didn't need to see him when she came out.

"I'll take that. I want an update." Johnny told his boss. Cody would do the actual interrogation.

"Will Nadine come out to the house?" Jason didn't think Liz wanted to go to a hospital. He didn't think Milo was lying about the time Elizabeth was out here, so they shouldn't be looking at a rape situation. Still he wanted her checked over.

"I'll call from the car." Johnny said hefting the body over his shoulder. Ritchie had arrived and he was keeping a look out. Johnny waited for a nod from the guard to say the coast was clear before throwing the guy in the hatch of the large vehicle. He whistled and Francis looked over. Johnny pointed up to the camera and Francis nodded. He would send Milo to get the footage when he returned with Emily. Tammy wouldn't object. She had been dating Sal for the last three years and knew how things worked.

Sal had Tammy, Devon, Emily, and Jesse sitting in the dining room. He wanted to be able to see everyone, thankfully no one else was in the diner, and hopefully none of the residents would choose now to enter or leave the building.

At Milo's alarm the guard immediately locked the front door and turned the open sign to closed. Next he sent out a message telling everyone to head to the alley after Tammy said that was where Liz was. He would assume that Milo had the rear secure unless he heard a gun discharge. While he wanted to rush back and offer assistance, they were trained to deal with situations like this. Emily was Sal's main concern so he stayed inside.

"Does this happen often?" Jesse quietly asked. This must be what he was going to report on. Only he still didn't know what had happened.

"No." Emily said wondering what was going on, and where Liz was. Her friend's absence had her worried. So much so that she didn't care that this situation was interrupting her date with Jesse. She could find another cute guy, but best friends were rare.

"How long do we stay here?" He wanted to know.

"Until we are told to leave." Emily said shrugging. She'd never been in a lock down situation anywhere but the mansion. "Do you need to be somewhere? Sal might let you go."

"No, I'm fine." Jesse told her going for the right level of concern. "How come your friend, Liz, isn't with us?" He saw fear come into Emily's eyes.

"I don't know." She said looking to the back where Liz had disappeared to. Milo came back, alone, which had her more worried.

"What happened?" Sal asked his fellow guard.

"Devon and Jesse go home." Milo said opening the door and waiting for them to leave.

Devon did so having already clocked out for the night. Jesse also walked out after saying good bye to Emily and telling her he would call her. Walking to the courtyard he saw the big black cars and looking around found an inconspicuous space to watch from. The more info he had the better.

"Elizabeth was attacked in the alley." Milo told Sal.

"Oh my god, how bad?" Emily was instantly on her feet.

"We don't know yet. We need your help to get her out of her hiding space." Milo told Jason's sister. "Tammy we need the security footage." He knew they needed to cover their tracks.

"I'll go get it and give it to Sal." Tammy said turning off the lights so that if anyone looked in they would see a closed restaurant. She also grabbed the dirty dishes from Em's table. It was important that the morning shift not know anything unusual happened.

"Come on." Milo said to Emily leading her outside. "Tammy is going to give the security footage to Sal and I sent Devon and Jesse home." The guard reported.

Francis nodded, but Jason didn't even look up. He was still trying to get a response from Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth?" Emily looking into the narrow crevice. Instantly Liz moved as if shocked and grabbed onto her friend. "It's okay." Emily said stroking her friend's hair. "It's okay. Jason is here now, and this is over."

Jason peeled off his jacket and carefully put it over his girlfriend. "We need to leave." They were vulnerable to attack here, and the cars would eventually draw attention.

Emily nodded. "Come on, we need to get you home." Carefully she helped her friend stand making sure Jason's jacket stayed around the shorter woman. Her clothes didn't appear torn which made everyone relax. "Which car?" Emily needed to know.

"Mine." Francis said jogging ahead and opening the door.

"Lean on me." Emily urged Elizabeth putting her arm around her friend's waist so they stayed stable. "You should call mom."

"It's handled." Jason said walking slowly on Elizabeth's other side, but not touching her. Johnny had sent a message that Nadine would come out when they called to say they were ready.

"We are almost there." Emily said in a soothing tone. Her friend was limping some and crying quietly, but she was holding it together. That wasn't surprising Liz was the strongest person Em knew. "Okay, step up." Emily said helping her friend into the big car. "Scoot over. Jason you should ride up front."

"I'll take your bike back to the Towers." Milo told his boss.

Jason handed him the keys watching while Emily got Elizabeth buckled in. "When Elizabeth is settled we will go over this again." His girl was hurt which meant their security had failed. He didn't think this was on Milo, he had sat in the diner and watched Liz close up by herself which included a run out to the dumpster. Still they needed to do better.

Milo just nodded and headed over to the bike.

Jason got in the car, in the front passenger seat, he buckled up and sent a message to Johnny to have Nadine head out. The Irishman would probably bring her, wanting an update on Liz. Their company doc would give the attacker a look over. He couldn't die, because Jason wanted to kill him. Johnny would also have an update on the Sonny situation, Marco was now in charge of that search and would have checked in by now. "Let's go." None of that mattered. Right now all that mattered was Elizabeth.

From the recessed store front Jesse took everything in. He had no idea what the person his boss sent was supposed to do. If it was a kidnapping, which would be the logical conclusion, it had failed. Which meant getting to Elizabeth was going to be harder. But nothing was impossible. The most important thing he could do at the moment was make sure that Emily didn't pull away from him. She was his way in. He expected her security to be tighter, but that was fine. There was still a way to make this happen, and he would find it.

A/N: A good friend, and fellow Liason writer, got some pretty nasty reviews on one of the sites for a story she is posting. While it is your right to not like a story that is being posted, its never cool to be mean. Ever. Those of us who write these stories are not robots pumping out words. We have feelings. We take our time and energy to craft these stories because we love Liz and Jason as much as you do. And we want to share that love with you. What we ask in return is not to get stomped all over if you don't like where a story is going, or you don't like how long it is taking to get to what you consider to be the point. Remember you are getting these stories in chapters, and character development takes time. So be patient while we unroll our tales. Before you post, especially if you don't like the story, ask yourself how you would feel if someone said those words to you!

Thanks for the reviews!