Pay the Price

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:


Chapter 17 (Queen Bee)

"Found you." Trina peered through her binoculars, watching as a buxom blonde with a pixie haircut that she'd just received from a her hair stylist. Lindsay discovered through her res earch that Monica frequented the same hair salon at the same time each month, and today had been one of those days.

Monica was a tall piece of work in Trina's mind. Her clothing was sharp, she was dolled up with makeup that made her look like a clown; it was a personal preference with Trina, she preferred the minimalist approach when it came to makeup. She abhorred heavy makeup these days.

Monica sported knee high leather boots, skin tight red green pants and a fuzzy velvet shirt with long sleeves and a v-neck collar. The woman had black shades resting on her face and was apparently sucking on a sucker. "God she looks like a 1950s detective film cliché."

"Just think," Travis said with a low chuckle, "Underneath all that pretty and dolled up look lies the blackened heart of a dangerous and wicked woman."

"It's always the pretty ones," Lindsay said with a laugh. Trina rolled her eyes and Jason looked over, grinning from ear to ear.

"I'd let my beautiful lady handle me however she desires." Trina smirked at him and wagged her eyebrows.

"Don't worry Jason." Trina lowered the binoculars into her lap and her eyelids fell halfway. "I'm not into bondage or dominatrix stuff. Yet." Jason's face grew red and Travis's eyes widened. Lindsay let out a disgusted groan and shook her head. "But until then, I'll just leave you with the vision of me raking my nails down your chest and towards-oh look, Monica's getting in her car." Jason groaned softly and Trina was smirking at Lindsay's murderous glare.

"Could you not while your best friend is sitting in the car?"

"Sorry, you know I have to liven up the day a bit, all this staking out is dragging into a long, boring time."

"Fair point."

They followed Monica around the city, much to Trina's chagrin and annoyance. The woman was high maintenance, getting her nails done at one point and going shopping for new purses and shoes. Monica even went out of her way to try new hats out.

At one point Trina started to wonder if this was a game of distraction, but Monica gave no appearance of suspecting that she was being followed. "You know," Travis said after some time, "I'd like to remind you what I said the other day. The well groomed criminal is often less noticed than the dirty one. Looking at her, would you think she's a kidnapper or a torturer?"

"To be honest…" Trina cocked her head to the right and huffed. "Looking at her I might wonder if she's up to no good. She's trying to make herself look beautiful when she's probably just an ugly piece of shit on the inside. She's compensating, overly compensating for that ugliness."

"Do you just hate beauty?" Lindsay asked. Trina chuckled softly.

"No, I adore getting my nails done from time to time; but this is just too much. At some point you have to realize, it doesn't matter how good you look, true beauty comes from the inside."

Jason nodded his head and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Trina looks beautiful in the morning when she just wakes up, her hair's a mess and she might decide to throw on a sweater and baggy pants; but she's still gorgeous in every way." Trina blushed at the compliment and Lindsay nodded.

"Fair. I guess Monica is an example of how you can look so great and still not come close to being beautiful."

"Just so you know, Jason." Trina leaned forward, moving her lips to his ear and lowering her voice to a whisper. "I'm going to fuck your brains out after all this." His red face deepened and a goofy grin spread across his face.

Lindsay sighed heavily and brought her fingertips to her forehead. "Should I start announcing every time Travis and I have sex?"

"No, we know you do." Trina leaned back slowly and smirked playfully. "I'm just not afraid to be brash and bold."

"Okay, okay." Travis waved his hand in the air and looked back, his forehead was creased and his eyebrows were pulled to the center. "Let's focus here guys. We're tailing Monica, she's on the move again and it looks like she's on the phone with someone."

"Keep in range," Lindsay said urgently, "I'll hack her phone now." Travis nodded and Lindsay went to work, typing furiously.

Soon the call came through, the caller's feminine voice filling the car. "She's been whipped, beaten, flogged, and the video has been sent to Regina. She's so afraid of us killing her daughter, she still won't let the cops near."

"Too bad she doesn't realize her kid is right under her fucking nose," Monica said. Trina raised an eyebrow and Lindsay started to hum. "Burning up on the roof of that fucking courthouse she spends all her time in."

Trina jerked her head back, throwing her hand over her mouth. "Son of bitch." Someone was about to witness a mother's wrath, and that wrath would come once Cat was free. "I wonder how long she's been up there, or if they moved her there recently."

"What do you want us to do, Monica?"

"I'll be there in a few hours, just entertain yourselves for all I care. I'm starting to feel like I'm being followed, so I'm going to drive around the city a bit." Trina felt her blood run cold and Travis started to growl.

"So she thinks she's being followed," Jason muttered, "She's going to try and lead us around this city all day."

The caller cried out in alarm. "Do you think they're listening in to our conversation? Should we move the girl?"

"No," Monica answered, "I doubt there's anyone listening in to the call, I'm in my damned car." That was Monica's first mistake, and it was a relief to Trina's ears. She circled her finger in the air and whistled to Travis.

"She gave us the location," Trina replied, "Don't follow her anymore and make haste to the courthouse."

Lindsay disconnected from the call and checked the time on her watch. "Isn't Regina at work right now?" Trina breathed in deep and nodded. "How do you think the kidnappers even got Cat up there? How do they get up there? You can't just walk into the courthouse and take the roof access. Then there's got to be cameras everywhere."

"If there's a way up, we're going to find it." She had a feeling of what might have allowed the kidnappers to traverse the roof so easily. There was an old office building beside the courthouse, it was just a little higher than the courthouse building. It wasn't nearly as watched as the courthouse and had a fire escape in the back alleyway. "They could actually be using that old office building to get onto the courthouse roof."

"The building right next to the place?"

"Yeah, and it's almost touching the courthouse, so I can see how easily they could jump down onto the courthouse roof from there."

"Guess we're headed there then," Travis remarked, "A fight on the rooftops. Sun's starting to set, so hey, at least this time we're getting a rescue with a nice atmosphere."

Jason chortled. "You're just happy it's not another abandoned building." Travis snapped his fingers and pointed out at him.

"Damn right I am."

Trina hummed softly, closing her eyes as she considered the options here. It would be harder for Lindsay or Travis to help them on the rooftops. She could see Travis getting up there with his sniper, but that would be dangerous for him considering the city crowd. Nobody wanted to see a sniper climbing on top of a building.

"I won't be able to use you, Travis…"

He frowned and nodded, understanding. "That's okay, I prefer not terrifying dozens of people."

Trina tapped her chin carefully, her forehead creased as she questioned how the courthouse might not pick up a rooftop camera. "A lot of places have cameras on the roof. Lindsay, you think the kidnappers disabled those cameras?"

"If they have," Lindsay answered, "I'll turn them on."

"I'm wondering if you should. I don't want to alarm Regina while she's at work." Granted the woman was still going to know, and likely be pissed that her daughter was being held on the roof of where she worked. "Do you think someone that works at the courthouse would be involved?"

"It's possible, someone in security being paid to keep quiet."

Once they arrived at the building, Travis parked alongside a parking meter and Trina waited for Lindsay to access the cameras. "Huh, just like I thought." Lindsay tucked her hand under her chin and glanced sideways at her. "Rooftop cameras are turned off. Simply turned off, as if someone in the security room shut them down…"

As Trina and Jason exited the car, they began to grab their things from their trunk. "Trina?" Regina's voice startled her from behind and she turned to face the woman, who was holding a paper coffee cup in one hand. "What are you guys doing here?"

She cursed mentally, realizing Regina must be returning from her break. She could lie, but at this point she knew Regina and Thomas were well aware of what she was up to and the woman would likely see right through her. "Well, Mrs. Valentine…" Regina's eyes began to enlarge and Trina started to sigh. "I think you should just go back to your office and um…"

"You're tracking someone." Regina began to breathe heavily, her hand flew to her chest and she started looking around. "Someone's here? One of our kids? Here? How?" She winced and closed her eyes.

"We have reason to believe Cat might be at this location." Regina cried out, her hand rose to her mouth and fresh tears filled her eyes. "If you do anything strange, it could tip the captors off."

"I won't risk my daughter's life, Trina."

"Okay. So hold your breath, and trust that we're going to get her down."

"Down?"

Trina closed her eyes and brought her hand to her forehead. Jason may have glanced at the rooftop after she said that, because Regina immediately looked up at the top of the courthouse.

"N-No, she couldn't be. Not…Not up there." Regina dropped her coffee mug and ran for the doors of the courthouse, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Shit." Trina bounced on her heels and pat Jason's shoulder. "Come on Jason, we need to get up there. Now." As she ran, she extended her arm to the car. "Lindsay! Turn those rooftop cams on!"

They rushed around to the back of the office building and began to race to the top of the office building. "If they have guards posted there, we're in trouble," Jason commented. Trina understood, which was why she was trying to be as quiet as possible.

Lindsay's voice came over the radio. "Trina, I've turned on the cameras, but you are not going to like this. Cat is in bad shape, and if her mother looks at those cameras..."

"Fuck. She'll see her daughter anyway. She's already receiving videos from the kidnappers anyway."

"True. But I'm telling you right now, you're not going to like what you see."

"I haven't liked a damn thing yet, what are you trying to fucking say, Lindsay?"

"She's horribly mutilated. I can't tell where her wounds begin or where they end, every inch of her body is covered in blood. Yet somehow, she's still alive." Lindsay paused and Trina heard Travis groan. "Oh, and she's also pinned to a wooden structure."

Trina reached the top of the office building just as a guard poked his head into view. Thinking fast, she punched him hard in the face, grabbed the edge of the building and flung herself up. She growled angrily as the guard turned his head, then kicked him hard in the jaw, sending him back against an air vent.

Jason started to climb over the building so she reached down and helped him up. "Okay," he said, "Let's do this." They started walking to the other edge of the building that faced the courtyard, Jason stopped to kick the guard's head to knock him out.

Trina flexed her hand as she stood on the edge of the building, the wind blew her hair back and her eyes started to narrow as she fixated her eyes on the guards below.

There were about six walking around the rooftop, one of which was standing in front of Cat and smirking at the girl.

The sight of the redhead filled Trina with a sense of nausea that made her want to vomit the longer she stared at her. Cat was attached to a wooden X structure, her hands had been nailed to the cross and her ankles were tied in place with rope. Blood was streaming down her arms, her clothes were soaked and caked with fresh and old blood, her head was bowed and her vibrant red hair was soaked and fell in strings before her trembling face.

The girl's skin had darkened from being under the sun. Her lips were cracked and dry, and she looked like she was at death's door.

"Motherfuckers."

"W-Water," Cat said with a hoarse and raspy tone. "Please." The guard in front of her laughed mockingly and extended a water bottle to her, then proceeded to dump it out on the ground.

This further angered Trina, and throwing caution into the wind, she removed her handgun and fired a shot at the water bottle. Every guard froze and twisted their heads.

Storm clouds swelled above their heads, a sight Trina hadn't thought was so fortunate until now. She'd noticed before when glancing at her phone that the weather mentioned potential thunderstorms today, but it was such a small and unimportant glance that she didn't give it a second thought.

"I guess someone forgot to tell you that a storm would be rolling in." Trina cocked back the hammer of her gun and leapt down to the courthouse roof. "Now, who's first?" Jason rolled his eyes and leapt down with her.

Lightning flashed in the skies and Cat tried to raise her head. "I need water. I need it…"

"Hang in there," Trina said while wincing at her choice of words. Jason removed a rod that was attached to his belt, it had an extendable pole. He scowled at the guards, ready for a fight. "Too bad Monica can't be here for this fight, huh?"

Jason rushed forward, swinging the rod down onto the arm of one guard trying to ready his gun. Another was running towards Trina, so she aimed her gun and fired a bullet into the guard's foot. The guard dropped to the ground and she proceeded to strike him multiple times with the handle of her weapon.

Rain began pouring from the skies, soaking everything in its wake. The guards still standing started to move slower, their baggy outfits absorbing all the water. As for Trina, she was only wearing a tank top and thin jeans, so the rain wasn't causing much of an issue for her.

A grin swept across her face and her eyes seemed to darken. "Looks like the storm is here, boys and girls, let's party." The remaining guards encircled them, forcing Jason and Trina into a defensive stance with their backs against each other. One guard whipped out a pocketknife another was holding a long whip, likely used in the torture inflicted upon Cat.

The guard with the whip raised it, cracking it in the air. "Jason!" He turned, throwing the road out in front of her as the guard brought the whip down. The whip grabbed the rod and Jason pulled back, yanking the guard forward.

Trina lurched forward, throwing her knee up and striking the guard's nose and eye. Blood spewed from the man's nostrils and he collapsed onto his back, holding his face and groaning.

She then picked up the whip and proceeded to strike one of the other guards with it, causing them to scream in pain. "Doesn't feel too good, does it!" The guard dropped to his knees, holding his arm up as Trina brought the whip down again.

As another guard tried to approach her, Jason struck him from behind with the pole. The guard turned around and tried to swipe at Jason with the pocketknife, nicking Jason in the arm. Hearing him grunt, Trina looked over with worry. She saw blood oozing from his arm and screamed in anger.

"It's only a scratch," he tried to say. Too late, Trina tackled the guard and straddled his waist with her knees. The man looked up at her with wide eyes as she pelted him with punch after punch until the man's face was bruised and bloody.

"Trina." Jason put his hand on her shoulder. "Trina, I think he's out." She stopped striking the man, panting heavily and looking up at the wound on Jason's arm. It wasn't too bad, but she couldn't help to worry. "Can we get Cat down before Monica shows up, because I'm pretty sure she's on her way."

"Right." He helped her to her feet and she quickly moved over to Cat, who was leaning forward more and weeping bitterly. "How the fuck are we supposed to get those out?" She pointed to Cat's hands, pierced by what must have been a nail gun.

It made her sick to see Cat in such a horrifying situation, and she wanted to get her out as quick as possible. She reached into her pack that she'd brought up and pulled out some bandage.

Jason sighed. "Useless at this point."

"I know. You have something in your own pack that might help. That big wrench that's in there?" He looked to the duffel bag hanging from his shoulders and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe you can use that, grab the nail and just pull them out."

"Worth a try."

Trina waited for him to search through his duffel and she approached Cat carefully. The girl turned her eyes towards her, trembling with pain. "It's okay." Trina cupped her hand over Cat's cheek and curled her eyebrows together. "We're going to get you down. It's going to hurt, but the physical pain won't last."

"Help me."

"We're here now. You're going to be okay."

"I don't want to live like this."

Trina continued to talk to Cat, attempting to comfort and distract her as Jason went to work removing the nails from Cat's hands and wood. Cat cried out each time, then let her arms fall limp around Trina's shoulders. Trina closed her eyes and sighed as Jason sliced through the rope around Cat's ankles.

The girl's legs went limp and Trina felt as though she were holding a ragdoll.

They carried her close to the roof access door, which was next to the edge of the building. They set her down against the door and Trina began to wrap Cat's bleeding hands with the bandages.

Before she could scan for further wounds, she heard a shrill voice angrily scream above the thunder in the sky. She looked to see Monica rushing towards them, her face twisted in a vicious scowl.

Trina barely had time to react, having been taken by surprise, as Monica grabbed Cat and yanked her off the floor. Trina jumped to her feet and took a few steps back, standing beside Jason and watching as Monica put the tip of her switchblade knife to Cat's neck.

"Your hero mission ends here," Monica said with a snarl. Trina narrowed her eyes.

"I noticed the cameras had been turned off on the roof," Lindsay said over the radio. Monica's eyes darted down to the radio attached to Trina's hip and scowled. "Your doing? We found out that you worked security at the courthouse. Is that how you snuck by them every day?"

Monica growled again and when Trina tried to take a step forward, she pressed the knife against Cat's cheek. "Wait!" Cat cried. "Please. Please."

"This is for my sister," Monica sneered, "Thrown into prison for twenty years because of your fucking parents. They should have died that night. Regina was the worst of them you know." Cat started to whimper. Trina clenched her fists. "So we felt like it would be fitting to butcher her daughter right under her nose. If Cat were to die up here, she'd find out just how close her beloved daughter was to her. She'd realize what it's like to lose someone so dear to you."

"Everyone that you and your sister lost was not the fault of our parents." Monica sneered. "Your sister's boyfriend? Yeah he died because she decided to poison the food that day and didn't control the situation. Then your parents? You couldn't have controlled that."

"No, but we can control this." Monica started to turn towards the edge of the building. Cat screamed out in horror and Trina froze in place. The roof access door started to open and Regina stepped out, screaming at the top of her lungs.

Monica froze, startled as Regina swung her oversized designer bag through the air. "Get away from my daughter!" Monica released Cat, throwing her arms above her face. Cat stumbled back and Trina caught her in her arms, looking out as the purse struck Monica in the face.

Monica's body jerked backwards just as security guards bolted through the door behind Regina. Jason tried to grab Monica as she fell back over the roof, but he failed to reach her.

The woman's arms flapped in the air with her legs, her hair flew before her face and her eyes closed just as her body struck the pavement right beside Lindsay's car. Trina heard Lindsay and Travis scream over the radio, then proclaim about blood on the windows.

Trina stared down, pale faced and mouth agape. Her stomach churned violently as she slowly dropped to her knees. Jason knelt beside her and wrapped his arms around her.

Nearby, Regina ran for her daughter. "Catherine!" She scooped Cat up in her arms, weeping bitterly into her child's shoulder. Paramedics rushed onto the rooftop, surrounding them. Cat opened her eyes slowly, looking past her mother to Trina, who was screaming at the top of her lungs.

Down below, Travis was leaning out the window of the car and looking at the woman's purse, which landed directly beside his door. His voice came over the radio, shaky and clearly upset. "There's a notebook sticking out of the purse. It has the names of the victims and where they're located. I see where Robbie is…God I'm going to be sick."

None of them were expecting a death, certainly not Monica. Sure, none of them were the ones that dealt the mortal blow, and even Regina likely hadn't intended for Monica to fall over. She was trying to startle the woman, to protect her child; and protect her child she did. Only, the blow caused Monica to stumble back and step off the edge of the building. There was no avoiding it.

Still, more important, Cat was safe. Now, they needed to find Robbie and fast. Preferably before the psychopath behind all of this found out about her sister's demise. Because this time, she could blame her sibling's death on one of the parents.

The bitter irony perhaps was that Monica's death was at the hands of the parent that Erin likely hated the most during her time at the camp.


Cat made it through, barely. She looks like death worn over already, and Monica...yikes. Regina got her daughter back. I thought I'd give you this today because I have a pretty big exciting twist coming up in the next chapter so I want to get that out to you tomorrow. Chew on this: If Regina is the most hated of Erin's enemies, why is Robbie the one being tortured by her and enduring even more hellish things? We haven't heard much of Thomas's camp time but nothing is ever truly black and white. Until then...