Damon is driving through the early evening traffic. He keeps checking the rearview mirror, trying to be discreet about it but Elena picks up on his body language quickly.
"What is it?"
"We have a friend. Five cars back, inside lane. They've been on us since we left the marina," he gives her a quick glance.
Elena adjusts the passenger side mirror. "Jeep?"
"Uh huh. Want me to lose them?"
"I'm not exactly an expert on this shit Damon but it must be about your story. Maybe we can lead them somewhere and get the jump on them?"
"I can only see the driver but that doesn't mean someone isn't ducking down in the backseat."
"Pull over here."
"What!?" Damon eyes snap to hers.
"Come on, Damon. Maybe I can get one of them to follow me? Then you can come up from behind and force him to talk to us."
Against his better judgment, Damon pulls the car to the curb near the outdoor mall's entrance. Half a block behind them the Jeep does the same.
Elena gets out of the car then pauses on the sidewalk a moment to light a cigarette. Coughing slightly, she rarely smokes, usually only when she's at the pub with her friends sharing a few drinks.
She intentionally drops her bag and when she stoops to pick it up, she casually looks over her shoulder to see the man getting out of his car, crossing the street a half block away. Although determined, Elena can't deny she's scared and nervous but a little exhilarated too.
She then strolls into a mall. It has a promenade design, with a moderate crowd of shoppers and movie-goers. Although she doesn't want her pursuer to know she's aware of his presence, she can't help herself and looks back again, just in time to see the dark-haired man slip through the crowd behind her. Elena breathes a sigh of relief when she catches sight of Damon tailing after him. Turning off the main concourse, she ducks into a narrower walkway between shops.
The man follows and soon closes the distance, seemingly ignoring her. As he passes beside her, she catches a glint of steel inside his jacket.
Having seen the man get closer to Elena, Damon approaches lightning fast, knocking him away from her with a sweeping block, capturing the guy in an arm-lock.
They struggle and the man frees himself long enough to pull out his gun and take aim. The first shot goes wide Damon slams his hand into the guy's face like a piledriver, and spins him against the brick building. As hard he tries to knock the gun from his hand, the man refuses to drop it.
"Be careful, Damon," Elena stands out of the way, her heart pounding like a jackhammer against her rib cage.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
A slug goes through Elena's chest, she slumps against the wall, a trail of blood marking her descent.
When Damon turns his head, the man gets the jump on him, knocking him on his ass with a hard punch to the solar plexus. Before he can react, the man grabs his gun and runs off.
Damon immediately runs to Elena. She's conscious but very pale. She grips at his tee shirt, "You have to leave, you can't get caught."
"No, I'm not leaving you," he tugs his phone out of his pocket and calls 911, then slips off his tee-shirt to apply pressure to her wound.
"You have to, you need to find him," her grip loosens.
"No," he shakes his head back and forth. "I'm not leaving you. Help's on the way, just hold on." He takes her hand, and squeezes it as he leans in to whisper in her ear, "I love you."
It's the truth, there is no more doubt...
At his touch, her dilated eyes meet his. "Elena," he repeats her name with more and more urgency. The seconds slide by and then she takes a breath while he holds his.
She opens her eyes and tries to smile at the sight of him.
Damon emits a thankful sigh and reaches up to touch her flushed face. Her eyelids flutter as she skitters the edge of consciousness.
"Elena!" Damon calls her back to him. She blinks and he watches as her pupils dilate and grow sluggish. Reflexively she squeezes his hand and does not feel it when it slips from his.
"No... no... Elena?" Damon's features contort to reveal a visceral pain he's never experienced before.
Before he can say or do anything, he hears the siren and sees the flash of light as the ambulance pulls into the alley, stopping a few feet from him.
"Help her," he pleads as the EMT's rush to Elena's side. Soon they have an IV started, quickly transfer her to a litter and lift her into the ambulance.
"Where are you taking her?" Damon asks, his foot bouncing nervously against the pavement. His heart is pounding so hard he wonders if the man can see his chest move.
"Morton Plant," the EMT replies as he's climbing into the back of the ambulance.
When they turn away from him, as much as Damon hates to go, he moves into the shadows and runs out of the alley just as a patrol car stops at the entrance of it.
"Please…can you tell me where I can find Elena Gilbert?" Damon asks breathlessly, "She was brought in by ambulance."
"And who are you? I can't give information out to just anyone," the nurse explains, "There are laws."
"She's my girlfriend, please I was with her when she got shot, please?" Damon pleads with the woman.
"I can only tell you that she's being examined right now. I'll ask the doctor to talk to you when he has a moment."
"Thank you," Damon retreats to take a seat in the waiting room. He wants to wait; he wants to see for himself that she'll be okay but he knows that the police will show up to question him. Gunshot wounds are required by law to be reported to the authorities.
Although it hurts like hell, he steps through the sliding glass doors without so much as a backward glance.
As he drives away from the hospital, his anger deepens with each pound of his heart. She could be hovering between life and death for all he knows and it's his fault. He shouldn't have allowed her to be any part of this. But Elena Gilbert has always been stubborn, she wouldn't have let him push her away, she would've fought tooth and nail. With all his heart, he hopes she'll fight just as hard to survive.
Mr. Silvestri...
When the sound of her voice suddenly pops into his mind, he slams on the brakes, makes a hard U-turn with only one destination in mind.
Damon reaches the edge of the compound when he spies several cars. Dahlia's men are all over the place. He swallows hard, wondering how he's going to get through her level of security. And, he wonders what's going down that so many men are patrolling the property?
Suddenly a van pulls up to the front entrance and he doesn't know what to expect. Seconds later, the passenger door flies open and a man leaps out, the vehicle explodes microseconds later and the flames mean that it takes Damon several precious seconds to be certain whether the man is alive or not.
Several of the men run towards the burning van, he takes advantage of the chaos and makes a mad dash, ducking inside Dahlia's place just as more gunfire erupts. He knows that Dahlia had to have heard the shooting and is determined to speak to her before she can get away.
If she hasn't already.
But she doesn't run.
Instead, when he turns around and finds himself staring at her, she holds his gaze and slowly lowers her weapon.
Damon blinks but the apparition doesn't disappear. He came here to get some answers. It becomes clear very quickly however that there's more going on here than meets the eye.
"The woman I love is laying in a hospital bed with a gunshot to her chest, now you're going to tell me what the hell is going on," Damon closes the distance between them.
"I'm sorry about that, but you should have listened to what I told you on the boat," she waves a pistol at him.
"I don't care about your damn gun, all I care about is Elena, now tell me," Damon growls. In a fraction of a second, he springs into action, shooting his right leg out in a straight line and sweeping her feet out from under her, causing her gun to skitter across the floor.
The sound of footsteps approaching from his left distracts Damon for a few seconds and when he turns around again, Dahlia is gone.
"Damon, you just couldn't leave it alone could you?" Ric appears, urging a couple of his men to secure him. "Transport will be here in four minutes."
"You? You're behind this?" Damon glances upward, his mouth pursed but slightly open and loose. His eyes are fixed as if he's looking at something behind Ric's head. He blinks, trying to wrap his mind around this. "All this time I've been trying to find you and you're the fucking mastermind!"
Part of him is terrified to believe what he's seeing is real...The reality of the guns aimed at his head clearly signal that he isn't hallucinating.
"It was an inside job?" Damon is disgusted. "All of this, the embezzled money, the building contracts with low quality materials, all of it you knew? Why would you feed me information? How is this possible?"
"Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. I needed your story or threat of a story to flush out a few rats," Ric replies without blinking. "Take him away," he turns to his men then he strides off without so much as a hesitant look at Damon. Mason follows him while Damon's led out of the building and into another van.
He closes his eyes, all manner of emotions race through him competing for dominance but one thought crystallizes in his mind. He has to get away, he has to see Elena to touch her again and reassure himself that she's alive and what's between them is real.
"This is quite the impressive file," Mason remarks as he walks up to Damon's cage. "You have a lot here; you never suspected your buddy was at the center of it? Tsk, tsk, you should have left it alone, the first time you and I crossed paths," he smirks at him.
Damon's face contorts in rage while his hands curl into fists.
"You know the chances of you making it out of here are slim to none; and your little girlfriend, she'll be taken care of as soon as I can get to her," Mason informs him. "I may be willing to make you a deal if you play your cards right..."
Damon spares him a glance at that, his sardonic expression making it perfectly clear what he thinks of any deal he might propose.
"Take him," Mason says, gesturing to two of his men. They drag Damon from his cage.
Mason doesn't pay attention to how much time passes when Damon's dragged back and tossed inside, landing with a thud on the floor. He's pale and there is blood streaked over his faces from bruises and cuts.
"Are you in a more agreeable mood now?"
Damon's eyes flicker up to his and his mouth tightens in fury. He thought of Elena during the beating and that made it not so bad.
Mason kicks his cage and gestures for his men to take Damon out again. Mason turns to a black box that is resting on the table in front of him. He opens the lid, extracts a vial and then a syringe. Then much to Damon's surprise, the syringe slips from his hand, his eyes roll back and he drops like a stone to the floor along with both of his men and then the lights go out.
"Let's get you out of here," comes a voice. Then he hears the click of a lock and is urged out of his cage and blindfolded.
"What's going on?" he asks, floundering blindly as he's led away.
"Later," the woman's voice replies.
She takes his hand and tugs him down the hall. They'd gone some distance when he realizes they're outside.
"Now get out of here and stay out of this," she shoves him a vehicle.
Now more alert, he finally recognizes the woman's voice - Dahlia.
Damon doesn't know where he is but is given a room and instructed to shower. Quietly he steps out of his room and walks up a short flight of stairs. He's on a boat moored at what looks like a private dock.
Reaching the top, he comes face to face with Dahlia cleaning a weapon with a bottle of bourbon at her side. He glances away from her, taking in the rest of their surroundings while she watches him.
He returns her stare, but her gaze is almost unreadable. Damon isn't sure whether he wants to throttle her or thank her.
"You seem to have a long reach, Dahlia, do you know anything about Elena?" he takes a seat when she gestures at the deck chair next to hers.
"She made it through surgery and is in the intensive care unit. From what my contact told me; she has a good chance."
Damon closes his eyes and falls slightly awkwardly into the chair.
"Here, you look like you could use it," she hands him the bottle.
"Thanks," he mumbles and throws back a long swallow, grimacing at the burn as it goes down. It's good bourbon.
"I'm sorry about all of this, we should have had more back up in place," Dahlia admits to Damon.
"How are you involved in all of this?" he looks at her pointedly.
"I'm with the FBI, I've been undercover for months now trying to get what we need on the corruption in this city."
"Ric?" Damon shakes his head. "He really had me fooled. I still can't believe it- all this time..."
"Actually, he's the kingpin behind all of it. He kept you on a string, feeding you bits of information to keep you off his back as it were..."
"I never suspected anything," Damon takes another gulp before handing it back to her.
"This isn't over yet but we're very close. I'm going to need your cooperation."
"What do you need me to do?" He waits for her to speak with his breath caught in his throat...
;)
Chapter title: 'The Evil That Men Do' by Iron Maiden.
Thank you all so much. You're all incredible.
Have an amazing day. We'll see you next time.