"Ahhhh! Jeez" Clay wakes up his jaw is throbbing the good thing with whatever it was they gave him to knock him out it also killed the pain. Now it comes flooding back into his face. He feels his nose its not broken but he certainly hurts.
His stomach growls. He realises how hungry he is. He can't actually remember the last time he ate!
He sighs and yanks on the chain once again in frustration, but there's no budging it.
He lays back on the mattress rubbing his jaw with his hand trying to ease the pain. He's wondering how long he's actually been here and How long he going to continue being here. What's going on in the outside world? Is anyone coming to get him? And where the hell he is?
The door opens the light coming in hurts his eyes. From the darkness he tries to focus
"You hungry Mr Spenser? Guess you must be by now" who ever this guy is they drop a bag with some burgers and fries on the floor "Hopefully we won't need to keep you much longer. Just better hope she cares enough to do something today! If not we may have to send her a reminder" he laughs
Clay doesn't speak as he tries to focus on the face of the person coming into the room. He can't make it out in the darkness with the light behind it.
The door closes and Spenser grabs the food it's something anyway that they're feeding him.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Hey boss I kinda need a word"
"Yeah sure what's up Sonny?"
"Errrrm its kinda private…." he coughs to get Jason's attention "Hey!" he smiles at Mandy. "sorry for this interrupting your lunch and all"
She smiles and sighs this is really not the lunch date she was hoping for.
"Who's the woman?" she asks
"The woman?" Sonny hesitates
"the one at the bar?"
"Oh! Her? errm just err no one!" He smiles "possible date you know" He looks away awkwardly
Mandy smiles "oh OK" but something about Sonny's body language doesn't sit right with her
"So, you want a word about what?" Jason pushing fries in his mouth
"errrm in private? like it's kinda personal" Sonny coughs "a delicate matter" he nods at Mandy. She's not sure she really wants to know.
"Really? oh OK sure!" Jason doesn't know what to make of Sonny's sudden need for sharing. "Can this wait till we finish our lunch?"
"Errr no kinda need to get it off my chest now! While I'm in the sharing game zone" he smiles
Mandy looks at Jason. Jason is confused he's never known Sonny willingly share stuff so this must be important
"You excuse me a minute?"
She smiles "Sure" she sighs. No this definitely is not the lunch she hoped for.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
They're at the back of the bar by the exit now
"Sonny this better be good I've left a steak burger for your sudden need to unburden your feelings"
"oh Jason trust me if I was unburdening my feels it wouldn't be to you, so don't sweat it, and trust me the steak burger won't matter" He hands him the napkin with the number. Jason's kinda relived Sonny doesn't want to share his touchy feely stuff with him but he's confused by the number on the napkin "What's this?"
"CJ .. " Sonny rolls his eyes " you need to call her" he stares at him "It was her, the woman at the bar earlier"
"What? Seriously? You're kiddin me right? "
"Mmmh mmm! Trust me I wish this was a joke but it's deadly serious"
"What's going on?"
"She showed me photos she's got on her phone. Someone's taken Clay" he gives Jason an angry frown "I'm telling ya Jason that woman, I swear to god, whatever she's involved in is NOT good for Clay! We need to get him back and fast"
"What the … who? Who's got Clay?" Jason can feel his adrenaline rising he picks up his phone and starts to dial "NO! stop! Use mine she said they're logging your calls "
Jason frowns "What?..."
"Use my phone. To call her"
"Shit!" now Jason's in a semi controlled panic
Sonny feels his tension "Hey Boss, hold in there we gonna sort this "Sonny reassures him "he family right we gonna get him back, Right?"
Ray comes over "What's going on?"
"CJ! She was here. Someone's got Spenser" Jason frowns at Ray
"This something to do with what you gonna fill me in on?" Sonny asks.
"I'll guess so.I thought I clocked her earlier and wondered what was going on. So, where's Spenser?"
Sonny shrug
"Who's he calling?" Ray frowns
"Guess!"
Ray shakes his head never been nothing but trouble round them when she's involved. He lets out a long sigh.
Mandy seeing them all gathered comes to where they are at the back of the bar "Something Wrong?"
"Yeah you could say that! Someone's got Spenser"
"Got Spenser? What? How do you know? Hang on what's going on?" she's really confused
"Errr I'm hoping I'm about to find out!" Jason sighs "then we need to get back to base" Jason dials the number "Ray get hold of Davis get her to get back there, tell Trent and Brock to go back too"
Jason can't work out what's going on but he needs to sort this
She answers her phone
"It's me…."
Mandy looks at Sonny. She's confused. "I'll head back see what I can find out".
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
CJ fell asleep on the bed for a short while. Sonny's tequilas got to her. OK she admits to herself probably not just the tequila probably the JD she fished out the trash when she came back as well.
She checks her phone "come on Jason where are you" she sits nervously waiting. Wondering if Sonny gave him the message by now "Oh god what if they've been spun up instead?"
She pours the last shot in the bottle of the JD into her glass looking at it she rubs her head. She looks at the photos on her phone of Clay, and sighs as she closes her eyes and necks back the last of the drink.
Her phone vibrates as it rings and makes her jump. At last!
" Hey…Jason?"
"Where are you? Where is Spenser?"
She goes silent at the sound of his voice taking a deep breath
"CJ? Are you there?... Answer me? Where are you?"
She gulps "You can't come here we need to meet"
"Where then?"
"I don't know. Can't be anywhere public or your house, they're keeping tabs on you"
Jason tries to think. He needs the fastest option "OK! ... Go to Rays I'll meet you there"
"Rays? Errrrm OK" she sighs and rubs her head getting herself together, she grabs her hat and shades before she leaves
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"You get to speak to her?" Mandy asks as she gathers her jacket and bag
"You need to go back and tell Eric we need to prepare. We need to find Clay"
"What did Sonny say?.. Where are you going?" she can't tell what he's thinking at the moment "Shall I come with you?"
"No! You go back the base. You need you to check CCTV around his apartment see if we can log his whereabouts, also check his phone see what calls he made or if you can get a location from it"
"OK" she nods "Are you going to see her" He doesn't answer "be careful Jason" she puts her hand on his arm
"I need to go. Sonny you with me. Ray we'll meet you at yours, there'll be no eyes on us there"
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
CJ takes a deep breath before she knocks on the door.
"Coming!" She hears a voice call out. Naima opens the door. "Oh!" she frowns at first
C.J takes off her shades. She gulps "Hi Naima. errm... I'm supposed to meet Jason here"
Naima bites her lip but doesn't say a word just makes a hand gesture to come in. She has no idea what's going on but knows it must be serious if Jason told her to meet there.
Naima is silent for a while. They both are.
"Can I get you a coffee?" Naima can smell the drink on her
"err sure that be great" she awkwardly smiles. She looks at the clock on her phone.
"Hurry up Jason" she thinks to herself
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Mr Spenser Hello again" the English guy smiles "I'll have to apologise as I'm sorry to say we are back where we began yesterday. Unfortunately we had no word from Catherine. To be honest I'm surprised, but... perhaps she's abandoned you after all?" he laughs
He gives the nod to Serge that he's been waiting for.
He punches Clay hard in the face, Clay's head rocks back. He grits his teeth and spits out the blood. Serge smiles as he rains in another blow straight on the same spot as before. The way this one catches him dazes him somewhat. The bruising on his cheek starts to swell up already.
"Again!" the English voice comes. It has no emotion to it.
Serge looks up as the voice sighs then nods. Again come the bang to Clay's chin he braces himself for it this time. He flinches his hands in the zips ties that are binding him to the chair. Though that causes more pain in his wrists but he keeps making a fist to try to concentrate on it and absorb the pain from his face. His nose is bleeding and is eye is cut he feels like he going to pass out. He's trying hard to resist and stay awake.
"That'll do for now. We don't want to kill him just yet. We still might need him" He bends down and looks in Clay's face "Mr Spenser are you still with us?" Clay can hear the English voice but it sounds distant in his confusion "oh dear I'm not sure he is!" he laughs "Hold him still" Serge grabs Clay's hair and pulls his now drooped head back exposing his face
"Smile again for me! … No?...Oh dear. Never mind that will do. I'm she'll get the message"
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Ray lets them in his front door as they arrive.
He enters and see's CJ he nods in acknowledgement at her.
He kisses Naima. She's worried "What's going on Ray?"
"I'll explain!" He sighs "just give me a minute"
Jason looks C.J up and down "You OK?"
She nods
"You look like shit have you slept?" he can smell the drink on her. He got use to ignoring it when she was drinking around him all the time but now he notices more.
She smiles and shakes her head "Not a lot" her lip trembles seeing him standing in front of her. What she really hoped was he would come to her, hold her and tell her it was all going to be OK, but she doesn't think that's gonna happen from his tone.
"I need that file back" she looks at him. He doesn't move "the one you deleted from the flash drive? I guess you saved it somewhere else?" she looks at him trying to read his mood "That's what they want to get Clay back"
He nods. He's not giving her any answers.
A cry of babies comes from the bedroom corridor. C.J looks up as Naima has gone to see to the noise. Still they hear crying "I'll go!" Ray disappears to the bedroom. He returns carrying Jaycee
She takes a sharp intake of breath and puts her hand to her mouth as she watches Ray hand him to Jason.
"What's he doing here?" she asks. It was hard enough making her peace with letting him go before she never expected to be seeing him now. It's thrown her emotions into turmoil
"Keeping him safe" Jason replies
She gulps running her hand through her hair she not sure what to do. God she needs a drink but there's gonna be no chance of that here. She tries to shut those thoughts out.
She looks at Jaycee trying to get him to smile at her. Jason turns him so he can't see her. She frowns
"So where's Spenser?"
"I don't know!"
"Come on C,J you gotta give me more than that! Stop playing games now this is serious"
"I don't know! I am serious "
"So, Who? Who would do this and why? You must know that?"
She nods " My guess Reuben Davis, He's English. Ex UK intelligence, trained with CIA for a while now works for… " she shrugs " who knows… both sides probably knowing him" Her hands are shaking now extra adrenaline starts to run through her or it might be the lack of alcohol "He use to work for my Father, under the radar intelligence gathering stuff. We all go way back" she pauses "He wants that list that was on that flash drive. There are others who want it too probably different agenda. I thought I'd given it to him when I got JC back but… I didn't know you 'd taken it off there!" She reading Jason's expression "Did you get it opened? "
Jason shakes his head "I was gonna ask Mandy to, but somethings didn't sit right with something she said so I didn't get it done. Why does he want that list so bad that he's going to all this trouble? What's on it?"
"Mandy!? Yeah she'd been seeing him, information sharing, Reuben I mean. I did warn her not to trust him, but I'm sure he's been feeding her info and bullshit stories. He can be very convincing"
"Forget Mandy! What's he want with that file?"
She laughs "That list? That list would put him at the top of the food chain" she gulps "There's names details, deals. Everything! Anyone who's been involved in dirty dealings CIA government, Navy you name it. Hell probably even the Whitehouse!" she sighs "He'd have control of all that information. He could make them targets for blackmail, extortion. There's some heavy-duty names on it. Serious power plays if you wanted to start world war three" She rubs her head its throbbing from all the stress now
"You've seen it?"
"Not all of it. My father had it specially encrypted so I can't open anymore. To be honest I don't know who will be able to open it without my father! I've seen extracts from time to time that's all"
"So when you say you and him go way back? You mean work? Right?"
"Yeah kinda when he worked in my Fathers office in Washington. Not directly so much more one or two projects maybe. Why?"
"Really Or do you mean more personal ...kind of way back… " She frowns confused. He takes his phone out of his pocket and plays the video he has saved on it. He holds it up for her to see. His face changes to a sneer "…. according to the date on it its not so way back?"
She swallows hard, closes her eyes and puts her hand to her mouth
"Oh! ... .You son of bitch Reuben" she bites her lip "Fuck!" this look of despair comes over her as she realises he's sent Jason the video he made of them in bed. She feels sick.
She screws her eyes tight closed shaking her head. She's trying not to look at the images he's holding in front of her. Pulling her hand through her hair she doesn't know how to respond as she rubs her forehead sucking in her emotions trying not to cry.
"Jason…." She gulps not knowing how the hell she can explain that. "Please ... I can explain .." she pleads
He hands JC to Sonny and now is up in her face. Ray's not sure what he's going to do so puts his arm out between them to hold him back. "Hey Brother steady" Ray scowls
"You know you disgust me." the way he says that sentence cuts through her like a knife
She closes her eyes running her hand through her hair pulling at it in frustration, trying not to cry. Jason doesn't look at her. She pleads with her eyes for him to forgive her but doesn't even acknowledge her. Switching his phone off he chucks it on the chair.
Sonny chews his toothpick and sort of smiles she finally getting her comeuppance for her lies. Finally Jason see's what she is. He looks at her with complete contempt "your dirty little tramp" he whispers to himself as he shakes his head. He looks at JC he's still holding on his hip "Sorry little man I didn't mean to say that"
"Jason … please … you don't understand I was .."
"Drunk? Yeah we get that! We've heard it before"
"What I was gonna say was I was trying to get my son… OUR son back" she reaches out for the baby but Sonny moves away.
Jason's angry now. He points at her and clenches his fist in front of her "Don't! Just don't!" he shakes his head "Look at you you're a mess "he sneers at her "You need help. Proper help. Normal people don't do this type of thing CJ!" He shakes his head he's so frustrated with her time and time again.
"This is how its gonna be. First we get Clay back. Then you're gone! Gone from me! Gone from Clay! and Gone from him" he looks at the baby "out of our lives and gone!"
She's holding every emotion back now anger, hurt and tears she grinds her teeth "Jason you don't mean that! You can't mean that? Please.." she begs him to listen but he doesn't want to know
Ray looks at Naima wondering if he should say something. She shakes her head.
"Watch me!"
Ray then looks at Sonny who raises his eyes. This is the first time they've ever seen Jason be like that with her.
Jason gets his grip back on the situation in hand "So you got a number for this guy? This Reuben"
She nods
"Call him. Tell you wanna meet. We need to know Spenser's still alive and you wanna see him. He's not getting that file till you've seen him, in person"
"He's never gonna let that happen. You don't know him, he knows every trick in the book!" she laughs off his suggestion
"Then You MAKE him! You do whatever you have to do for you to see Spenser alive! You understand?"
She nods. She rubs her head. She's hot and feels like she's losing it now and starts to shake. She has no idea how she going to make that happen.
.
Jason watches her looking her up and down. He bites his lip shakes his head "damn it!"he thinks to himself. Maybe he went too far on her. She looks fragile and broken now. Perhaps he needs to ease up
"you get yourself cleaned up. Make that call while we go back to the base see what intel we can pull there about Clay's whereabouts"
He takes Jaycee off Sonny and kisses him.
CJ puts out her hand to touch the baby's cheek but Jason pulls him away and hands him to Naima. She puts her hand to her mouth and holds back her tears. Naima for once actually feels sorry for her.
"You keep her away from him!" Jason tell Niama
"Jason Man …come on be fair" Ray steps in he thinks that's being a bit hasty "she is his Mother after all"
He glares at Ray "away from her you clear Naima?" Ray looks at his wife and nods "if you say so" Ray shakes his wondering if that's a step pushing her too far. He glances a pitiful smile at her but ultimately its not his decision and he will back Jason over her any day.
CJ shakes her head "Jason Please don't do this… " She's angry now. Raging inside. How dare he speak to her like that. Act like he has control over her. She holds back from a rant at him sucking in her tears of anger and frustration
Ray and sonny look at each other they also feel a bit sorry for her they've seen Jason rage at people before but his is harsh even by his standards but at the end of the day she brought it on herself.
"Jason Please..." she begs him but he's not listening " You want my help to get Clay back?" she stares at him "Then DON'T be like this! Don't do this!" She threatens
Her threat tone doesn't go down well with Sonny he's up in her face now staring at her eye to eye. Ray stands ready to step in just in case things go too far
"You get this done! Do you hear? You do what needs to be done to get Clay back" he still staring her in the face. He so angry "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? You get him back!"
Sonny's worried she's going to start playing games in a war with Jason. He just wants Clay back safe. "We don't get him back. I'm holding you responsible, and I'll be coming for ya! We Clear?"
She gulps she takes Sonny's threat seriously "Yeah clear" she nods
The Guys get ready to leave
"You gonna be OK?" Ray ask Naima
"Yep" she nods and Kisses her husband
"Any problems you call me OK?" He's worried he knows what C.J is capable of and He looks over at her silently warning her is she causes anymore trouble he'll be on her case too
They close the door behind them.
.
CJ slumps down in the chair trying to hold back her tears but she can't.
Naima watches her from the bedroom doorway. For the first time ever she really feels for her. She might deserve it but the guys were really hard on her.
CJ looks at her trying to garner some sympathy, but she's not having any of that. She takes Jaycee through to the bedroom without a word. No matter whether she feels any pity for her she won't go against what Jason said.
"Damn!" CJ can't focus. She has no-one on her side. Her emotions have been ripped to shreds. She closes her eyes putting her head in her hand she lets out the scream she's been holding in.
Time to re focus as her phone bleeps another message. Another picture of Clay is sent through someone holding his bloodied head back and he looks worse now
"SHIT!" She closes her eyes tight again! "I need out of here!" she's thinking I need a drink
o-o-o-o-o-o-o