A/N: I am placing a trigger warning on this chapter just in case, it's nothing explicit but with how I've set things up I want to give that disclaimer. I love how ya'll have supported this story. Thank you so much!
Tris feels her stomach drop as she reaches the street in front of her office and realizes that Tobias is not there. She looks up and down the street to make sure she isn't missing him. Her heart is starting to beat faster realizing that she needs to get to Zeke and Harrison. If Tobias thought something was wrong when she didn't answer her phone he would have come to her office. She closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath breathing through her nose, she could do this, she had to just focus.
Tris looks in her purse and she has enough money to catch a cab. The fastest way to get to Zeke with no phone was to go straight to the restaurant to meet him and Shauna. They would probably already be there by now. She pulls anxiously a thread on the seat of the cab as he weaves through the traffic. She wanted this nightmare to end so she and Tobias and now their baby could get on with life.
When she gets to the restaurant she eyes every table rushing past the hostess to get to her friends.
"Hey, there you are, where's Tobias?" Zeke asks he and Shauna quickly realize that Tris is upset before she can even get a word out of her mouth.
"What's wrong Tris," Shauna asks grabbing Zeke's hand and squeezing it.
"Zeke, we need to go. I think something is wrong, Tobias never picked me up from work today" Tris explains the worry evident in her tone.
Zeke sees the look on her face and knows she's serious when he goes to reach for his phone, Tris interjects. "I've been calling him for the past 45 minutes and he's not answering".
"Shit" Zeke curses. "Shauna, I need you and Tris to go to our house and wait for Harrison and I to get there. Do not let anyone in and text me as soon as you get inside and lock the door."
"Zeke, I left my phone at the restaurant Tori and I were at for lunch," Tris says as Shauna quickly gets up and grabs her purse.
"Don't worry about it right now. Use Shauna's phone to call your parents, tell them to stay in and call me". Zeke instructs as she heads out of the restaurant.
Shauna and Tris follow Zeke's instructions with Shauna telling Tris that everything was going to be okay. On the way, Tris uses Shauna's phone to call her parents and Tori and tells them all to lock their doors until Zeke gives them further instructions. Natalie and Andrew want to come to Zeke and Shauna's house immediately but Tris tells them to stay put for the time being.
As soon Shauna and Tris are safely in the house, Shauna double checks all the doors to make sure they are locked and resets the alarm.
"Shauna, I have to get to Tobias," Tris says while Shauna makes them both a cup of tea.
"No Tris, You can't, you playing right into what he wants" Shauna pleads,
"I can't let anything happen to him, he only went after Tobias to get to me," Tris says defeatedly.
" We need to let Zeke and Harrison do their job, He could hurt you when he gets his hands on you," Shauna says sternly.
Tris sighs heavily, she knows Shauna is right. She has to protect the baby, but if there is any way she can protect him she will. She can't lose him. There was no way fate would be so cruel, as to finally give them everything they had missed out on being apart to snatch it away so quickly.
"You know Tobias will not want you to put yourself or the baby in harm's way. Al is unstable Tris, I know you having been working to defend yourself but don't take an unnecessary risk.," Shauna says pulling Tris into a hug. Tris lets a few tears fall but then pulls herself together. She takes a deep breath when she and break their hug.
Even though Zeke and Harrison were working on tracking Al down and looking for Tobias, Tris felt like the ball was in Al's court and they were waiting for him to make the next move. Tris ends up falling asleep in Zeke and Shauna's guest room. She clutches a pillow tightly praying that Tobias is alright.
He calls Harrison to tell him to meet him at Tobias's office and arrive at the same time. Zeke quickly fills Harrison in. The building security had been briefed on the situation months before so A quick flash of their badges is all they need to gain access to Tobias's office.
"Damnit," Zeke says as soon as he sees the note on Tobias's desk.
He has Tris, I have to follow his instruction or he will hurt her. I'm going to try to leave a trail for you to find us.
"Why does he think Al has Tris?" Harrison asks.
"I'm not sure but it might have something to do with Tris losing her phone earlier today. Let's get a trace on Tris's phone. Maybe we can catch a break if he hasn't dumped it yet."
"Do you think his car is here? He couldn't have had Tobias go far. The guard said when he saw Tobias around 5:30 he was going to pick up his fiance. It's only been a few hours"
Zeke and Harrison make their way to the garage and immediately see Tobias's, Range Rover. Additional officers have arrived now and are gathering the security camera footage as well as tracing Tris' phone.
Harrison peers inside the window and sees that the doors are unlocked when he pulls the handle. Zeke sees the keys are on the seat along with an envelope and another note with an address.
2223 Thomas Lane, I'm taking the train to a bus and then walking. I have to leave my phone he'll trace with the phone app we have installed on our phones.
"It looks like he had specific instructions to follow to this address." Harrison sighs. "We've got to play this right. We know he doesn't have Tris but he probably has Tobias now. We could risk him killing him if we send in a swat team."
"Agreed, We need to scout this location with unmarked officers and vehicles first. If its where I think it is, this is a rough part of Chicago, run down. Lots of abandoned houses" Zeke replies, pulling out his phone to call his captain.
Zeke knows his best friend and knows he's been armed since Al went off the rails, he moves to the passenger side of the door and opens the glove box. As he suspected, Tobias had taken his gun from the glove box. He lets out a sigh. He had to find Al and Tobias before things escalated. There was no doubt in his mind Tobias would kill Al if he had the chance. It would be self-defense but Zeke didn't want Tobias to have that on his conscience. He and Harrison needed to end this now.
Tobias slowly opens his eyes and groans, his head is throbbing and it feels like he has one hell of a hangover. He instinctively goes to touch his head but he quickly realizes that his hands are bound as he gingerly goes to touch his forehead and his leg is shackled to a twin bed against which he's lying. The events of the previous evening come back to him and panics while thinking about where Tris could be. Whatever Al gave him had to be strong. He had no idea what time it was.
As his vision comes into focus he realizes he's in a dark room with dim lighting, the room feels cold and damp, and the air smelt rank. He reasoned it was probably the basement of the house Al lured him to. There was no way Al could have moved his far if he was completely unconscious. All of the small windows of the basement had been boarded up except or one which was enough to give the dim light so he could see. There was a slight crack in one of the boards of another window that cast a faint light so he could definitely tell it was now daylight and probably midday though he still had no idea what time it was. There's a bucket beside his bed, and Tobias noticed that there was a set of stairs across the room that probably led up back to the main level of the house. There were also two other beds in the room. One was in a darker corner across the room and the other closer to where he was sitting. This place makes Tobias feel as if his skin is crawling.
There's a large board with many things including scraps of paper, a scarf, a pair of panties, and random photos pinned to it. He gently eases himself up off the bed and has just enough slack on the chain to his leg to get close to the board.
"What the fuck?" he murmurs to himself as his eyes run over all of the things on the board.
There were pictures of him and Tris much like the ones that had been sent to her phone but there were also older photos of them from college. There were individual pictures of him and Tris as well as the women that Harrison had shown him pictures of that were Molly James and Myra McKinney. There were even pictures of his soon to be ex-wife Lauren and him in New York. How the hell had Al been following him all these years, how did he even know it. And suddenly a comment that Al made the night before comes back to him. "Don't you remember me?" Tobias still had no idea what he was talking about. He couldn't recall ever meeting Al before that day Tris went to break things off formally with him.
Tobias feels sick to his stomach, the pain increases in his head and he moves to sit back down on the bed. God, how was this happening right now? He had to find Tris. He would die before he let Al hurt her or their baby.
Suddenly, He realizes that there is movement in the opposite corner of the room. His heart quickens as he takes a closer look in the direction of the noise. He can make out that there is another bed but on the floor looks to be someone curled up against the wall with their knees pulled close to their chest. His chest tightens but then he quickly realizes that it's not Tris. He does notice that it is a woman, she has dull brown hair and seems petite in stature like Tris. From how she is sitting, Tobias can tell that she looks thin. She too looks as though she's shackled to the bed but her hands don't appear to be bound.
It doesn't necessarily make him feel good but he was going to kill Al with his bare hands if Tris was chained to a bed.
"Do you know where we are?" he asks quietly. He gets no response and he tries another approach.
"I don't want to hurt you, I just want to get us out of here. Do you know how long you've been here?" Still, he gets no response. If she was being held captive in this basement by Al she was probably leery of men. Tobias realized he was going to have to soften his approach.
"Maybe you could just tell me your name. My name's Tobias".
She lifts her head and Tobias gasps as she speaks her name.
"My name is Myra," she says softly.