Warning: Rated T for strong language.

A/N: These next couple of chapters might be split in between both points of view. You will know when it changes. :)

Chapter 22

Lexie

Darkness.

That was all that Lexie saw. She shouldn't have been surprised that the moment she had been ushered into the car that it would be too easy to let her see where they were headed. She didn't know if she should take that as a compliment that they would be worried she would somehow get information back to where they were keeping her.

What they didn't know was that she had a photographic memory. Even though her sight was taken away from her, she could still use her memory to recall every turn they made. She was familiar with the surrounding area to at least know a pinpoint of the direction before it became foreign to her. Even at that point, altering to what direction and time in between could be enough to help them rescue her.

She just hoped that was the case. She had to focus on something to keep herself from panicking or thinking about what would happen whenever they got her to where they were taking her. She remembered what Mark had looked like thanks to the hands of the Russian's. She had nowhere near the same type of pain tolerance or strength to endure what Mark had endured.

She swallowed slowly thinking about each of his injuries and what he had told her. She knew that Mark had held back when he talked about what had happened during that time in Sergei's hands…which only made the fear in the pit of her stomach grow even more.

The thing about having a knapsack over her head keeping out her ability to see was that her other senses worked in a more heightened state. All she could focus on was slowing her breathing so she could count every turn and every second in between the next turn. Based on her memory and the fact that the drive between the hospital and wherever the car had stopped had only been about thirty minutes.

They were still in Seattle.

The car door next to her opened, someone—she didn't know who—yanked her arm, pulling her from the car forcefully.

"Move," the voice she didn't recognize instructed.

She tried not to trip over her feet as the man behind her continued to push at her back, clearly not happy with the fact that her steps were too small, and that she was moving too slowly.

Ever few minutes her new babysitter—since she recognized it was not Dimitri—was speaking to another of his members in their Russian tongue. His voice was gritty and rough like sandpaper. He clearly did not give her the warm and fuzzies being around him. She could feel the tension that already whomever this was did not like the fact that he was instructed to watch after her.

Just like she did with the car, she focused on everything around her. Noises from the outside. Two distinct sounds: birds and what sounded like water. That meant they were clearly more east from where they had been at the hospital.

She counted every left and right they made as they stepped into the space. The man behind her yanked her abruptly to a halt, his clammy hand gripping her tighter making the entire feeling unpleasant. As it was already, she was sure his iron grip would leave bruises on her wrist. She heard the creak of a door opened, before he pushed her forward again. She had only taken about six steps before he again brought her to a halt, turned her, and then pushed her making her gasp as she fell backwards on her bottom.

She sat their quietly not moving, as he grabbed each of her arms and tied what felt like coarse rope around each of her wrists to the chair. she had been forced to sit on. Once he finally released her, was when he removed the knapsack from her head. She squinted even in the dim light taking in her entire surrounds.

It wasn't much.

Her bottom lip fell open when she realized the room was the exact room in her dream. A pit formed in the bottom of her stomach, recalling what she remembered feeling and recalled from her dream. She now at least understood what had caused the red marks around her wrists. As it was already, it was scratching against her fair skin making it more and more irritated by the second.

The walls felt even greyer—describing her gloomy mood perfectly—as she looked around the room. She looked up at the one single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, only providing a sliver of light in the space. It was clear this room was specifically designed for two potential purposes: holding a prisoner and no doubt torturing said prisoner.

She looked back at the man standing in front of her, a smirk on his lips. His eyes told her that he understood exactly what she had just been thinking. As she took in his appearance, he was not an attractive man. He had dark hair, a crooked nose, and a scar that went from his eye to the temple of his cheek. It was clear it hadn't been tended to by a doctor properly to have left a scar as prominent as the one he had.

It was his eyes that were dark and cold that almost made her want to shiver involuntary. The way the man was looking at her made a chill go up the entire length of her spine. His eyes raked over her, making her want to hug her own arms across her chest and waist to shield herself from him—but that wasn't possible. The entire length of her body was exposed to him.

He leered at her. "You pretty thing, aren't you," he said more of a statement then a question. She knew when to keep her mouth shut. This was the moment. "You and I are going to have lots of fun together."

There was no mistake in his eyes and tone what he was hinting at, which only repulsed her even more. She stared resolutely back at his face, not showing him any of the fear. she was feeling in that moment. She had to be strong for Mark. Because she knew he would move heaven and earth to come and find her.

He will find you.

The man just grinned and offered a condescending smile. The door behind them opened, Dimitri standing in the doorway.

"Egor, come," Dimitri beckoned.

Egor.

"Da."

Even she knew that was yes in Russian. Lexie caught the movement behind the bulking man in front of her disappear leaving just the two of them. Egor took a step forward, leaning so close to her face that she could smell his breath. At least one stereotype of Russian's was true: his breath smelled of alcohol. If she had to guess, his choice was vodka.

She turned her head to not only avoid having to smell his breath, but to also create whatever space she could from his face mouth being close to hers. His finger came up towards the side of her face, his nail digging into her skin as it traced down her cheek.

"домашний питомец," he whispered to her, removing his finger and snapping up right.

She didn't know what he had just said, but she could tell whatever it had been was not one that was flattering. He was already looking at her like she was some kind of toy on Christmas morning that he just couldn't want to get his hands on.

He turned on his heel without another word or glance in her direction and slammed the door behind her.

Mark

Four Hours Since Lexie's Kidnapping….

In the four hours since Lexie had been kidnapped, Mark and Derek already had uncovered considerable amount of information. His instincts had been right about the fact that Lexie only seemed to be going willingly because the lives of others were in her hands.

He had sent copies of the video footage to one of the best speech readers he knew at the FBI who had immediately given him the transcript of the message. Dimitri had threatened her that if she hadn't gotten ridden of Alex the death of those in the hospital would be on her hands.

The bomb squad and bomb sniffing dogs had located enough C4 to take down the whole hospital. It wasn't a sophisticated bomb put together, just enough to go boom if they needed it. They swept the entire rest of the building clearing the place that everything was able to resume without any further issues.

It worried Mark and the FBI to no end that the Russian's had so easily gotten into the hospital and past their security defenses to place the explosive here. The fact they would have been willing to kill hundreds just escalated the game to a whole new level. Derek and Mark both knew that this was no longer something that could be ignored.

Their nine-year operation was about to come to an end. There was no longer the ability to take things slow and play for the long haul. They were like bugs that needed to be exterminated. They would pay severely for dragging Lexie into this. They wanted a war…they just got themselves a war.

Derek was already working on lists of all the known homes, business places, anything that could be used to take and hide Lexie. The list was long and would take days to get through, and both of them knew they did not have that kind of time. They had hours if they wanted to get her back and get her back unharmed.

Mark was seething inside. The thought that Lexie being in their hands made him sick inside. He heard stories about the way the bratva handled their woman. They didn't seem them as a treasure, but more as a play toy they could toss around and used as they pleased. How they pleased.

The Russian's liked to call their taste as passion, but their taste was more in unwilling rough dominant role. If any of them even laid a finger on her he would make their lives a living hell before he ultimately took their last breath. He shuddered involuntary as he recalled the moments with his mother. The hours in which they violated her so violently as she cried out. Just even thinking that could happen to Lexie made him instantly want to break everything around him.

"I need to ask…are you with me?" Derek asked.

"I'm fine," Mark replied, watching the footage again to see if there was anything he was missing from the first couple of times.

"I'd figured you would say that. The look on your face tells me you are thinking about doing everything the badge tells us not to do." Derek noted.

"I will do whatever it takes to get her back," he said simply.

Derek sighed. "I know. Just don't do anything that would cause you to lose yourself. You know Lexie wouldn't want that."

He grunted. "What Lexie would have liked would have been not to be taken in the first place. To not be involved with this and me at all."

"She knew the risks, Mark. She knew, and she wanted you anyway. She loves you. Hold onto that," Derek replied.

He had been about to open his mouth to rebut, when his phone rang. It was command finally getting back to them. He swiped the phone to the right, immediately putting it on speaker.

"Tell me you have something," Mark said.

"We're still working on it," said Tom on the other end. "How the hell did this happen?" he snapped.

Mark grumbled. "That's what I want to know. I told you if we pushed too hard too fast this could happen."

"I warned you that your distractions could cause us trouble," Tom replied his voice turning cold.

Derek held out his arm, keeping Mark from wanting to crush the phone in his hand as if Tom was standing right in front of them.

"Enough! This isn't helping. It's been four hours since she has been kidnapped. We have to have something," said Derek.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. "There's one thing," Tom resigned not liking to have to be the first one to back down from the standoff. "Our intel leads us to believe that Belsky isn't working alone."

"Who else? Another of the crime lords? Addison?" Mark asked.

"I can't confirm at this time. We just know they aren't alone," said Tom.

Mark pressed the mute button on the phone. "The mystery player, I think whoever they are...are in involved with taking Lexie too."

"I was just thinking the same thing," Derek agreed. "We still don't know who they are."

"Or, Command isn't sharing all of what they know."

Derek arched his brow. "You still think they are withholding information from us?"

He nodded without any hesitation. "I think there is a missing puzzle piece here and we need to figure it out."

"Hello!" Tom snapped.

Mark took the phone off mute, speaking back into the phone. "We'll keep working leads on our end. If you find anything out, give us a call back."

"Oh no," Tom interrupted. "Command is ordering that you stand down until a direct order is given."

"With all due respect, Tom, fuck that, and fuck you if you think I am waiting if I have a chance to rescue her," Mark yelled.

"Agent Sloan—"

"Either find me the intel and craft a plan or I am doing this with or without your approval," he cut off, his threat serious. He hit the end button not even waiting for an additional response.

"Well, if we weren't pulled from the case before, we certainly will be now." observed Derek.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't care. The only thing I care about is getting Lexie back safely."

Derek placed his hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "I know. We will. We will get her back."

He kept thinking in his head what had happened if he could have gone back in time and never met Lexie. If their paths had never crossed. Or, if he had just walked out of the hospital like he had planned too without ever breaking his one rule.

The thought felt like a parasite had been released in his brain. Like acid on his tongue. Who was he kidding anyway? She was just as lost as he was in that moment, that moment they had both laid eyes on each other. She may have been strong enough at first to just walk away, but he wasn't. She had already been destined for him from the moment they met, and there was no letting go of her now. He would do it all over again if he could, because there was no one or nothing else in the world that he loved more than Lexie Grey.

Mark exhaled. They had too. Because he didn't know what he would do if he didn't. He couldn't lose another person he loved. He couldn't lose her.

He had to clear his mind of these kind of thoughts and get back to the crisis at hand. Lexie was still out there and he had no idea what it was that she was currently enduring. She was counting on him to come and find her and that is what he was going to do.

Come hell or high water.

Lexie

Lexie didn't know how long it had been since she had been deposited in the room and tied to the chair. Her back was killing her from sitting in the hard wooden chair, and her arms were practically numb at being stuck in the same position for so long. Every time she tried to wiggle her wrists free, the coarse rope would only tighten and scratch making her skin burn even more. She could already feel some of her skin starting to break and bleed.

She had to figure that Mark was going crazy trying to figure out where they had taken her and whether they were harming her. For now, they just kept up the scare tactics…but she knew even that was coming to an end. They wouldn't be so patient for that much longer. They wanted Mark and they wanted him to suffer. That thought alone almost broke her.

Egor had been back two more times since he had first left her there. Every time he came back in the room under the pretense to check on her, she wanted to scream. She was still strapped to the chair there wasn't much she could do or even anywhere she could go.

His first check in was to let her know she had a chance to use the restroom. She would only be afforded two opportunities in a day. That fact alone made her fear grow at the thought that the evil man in front of her planned on keeping her for more days than she would care to want.

The second time was just to make sure she was ok, but the way his eyes roamed over her in the degrading manner they had, told her that he had other ideas on his mind. Her only comfort was that right now, whoever he reported too—most likely Dimitri—had other plans for her which meant that he was to leave her alone for now.

She didn't want to even think about when or if the time came that he was able to do the things that he probably wanted to do to her. She just had to hope that Mark found her before then.

She gulped.

During his second visit, Egor has spent more of his time coming around her and letting his hands linger on her skin as he made a show of checking her bondage. She tried to grit her teeth and close her eyes instead thinking about Mark. If it were Mark's hands, or Mark's words said to her instead of the man next to her. It helped for the most part.

When Egor left, and shut the door behind himself, she cursed in frustration, again trying to break out of her binds. She stopped, when this time she felt a little give around her wrists. In the bastard's attempt to feel her up, he had inadvertently relaxed some of her binds.

She bit her lip as she attempted to wiggle her wrists free. Her skin was red and raw. Every time she twisted her wrist left and right, she could feel more of her skin being scrapped away, and she tried not to let out the sob. She bared the pain as each twist loosened it just a little more.

After minutes, she felt a piece of the rope come undone to where she could grab it in her fingers and start to pull down. It started a whole other tug of war back and forth until she could have cried with relief. The feel of the ropes slipping from her wrists filled her with a new hope.

She rubbed at her wrists, hissing in pain at the rawness and the blood. She didn't have anything to clean or even cover then, but right now that was the least important thing. Right now, she needed to focus on getting the hell out of wherever she was.

She stood from the chair, using the back to hold onto until she was sure that she had her bearings and then slowly started to make her way to the door of the room. She rested her ear against the frame, but didn't hear any noises right outside of her room.

To her surprise, when she put her hand on the knob, it turned without any compliant. She didn't even bother hesitating, creeping out of the room they had kept her in. She should be offended they didn't lock the door, but at this point, if that meant her escape was imminent…she wouldn't give a damn.

She closed her eyes for a minute, going back into the depths of her mind to recall her steps into the place when they had brought her here. She might not have seen the pathway, but her memory recalled each turn and count of steps as if she had visually seen it.

When she was sure she got back to the larger open space that was closer to the entranceway, her breath caught in her chest. She now knew why they hadn't bothered to lock the door. There must have been a dozen of Dimitri's men just walking about the area. They were speaking in Russian so that she couldn't understand what they were saying. It didn't matter. There was no way she could continue this way and not get caught.

She didn't know of any other way to get out of here but the way she had come in. As she looked at all of the men milling about the room, they all looked just as big and dangerous as Dimitri and Egor were. The longer she stayed around here, the more she attempted to try different ways to get out of here, the more she realized she could be caught.

It didn't matter, she had to try. She had to get back to Mark.

She turned, but her feet stayed planted where they were.

Her heart sank when she saw his face standing before her. Egor.

"непослушный непослушный," Egor repeated twice.

His leering smirk was back and it made her stomach drop. It only took him a few strides, and he was at her side in seconds, his hands on her waist. Lexie immediately tried to pull away from him, but he was much stronger, taller, and determined then she was. He turned her, so her back was to his chest, wrapping his arms around her body so that her arms were pinned at her sides.

Every time the Russian's hand touched her, even as something as simple as a hand on her arm, he would find a way to turn that into grouping her in some manner. His touch made her want to puke.

She did the only thing she could think of to make it all stop and that was to stop fighting. She could already pick up on the cues that Egor liked it more when she fought against him. As she predicted, the moment she stopped fighting, his hands slowly started to fall from her waist, back to her side and thighs.

He leaned down, his lips by her neck and ear. She could have sworn that he actually just sniffed her. "You can't escape," he taunted softly. "Is stupid decision you made. Now, you must be punished."

He leaned back, grabbing a hold of her arm, as he started to drag her back down the hallway. He was taking her back to her cell, and she felt her heels get heavier and heavier with each step. It didn't matter how much she protested, he was much stronger and just dragged her along anyway.

He threw her back in the chair. He looked down at the rope that was laying next to the chair, tsking as he held it in his hands and back to her. There was that awful glint in his eyes, and it made her want to revolt. She could see in his mind he was thinking about tying her up and sex at the same time and she wanted nothing of the sort.

She bit down on her sob when he grabbed at her wrists and forced them back behind her back as he tied them again more tightly this time around. Once he was done, he stood back in front of her with a self-satisfying smile.

"There. Now…sit. Stay. I'll be right back."

Like she was some kind of animal. She let out a yell, as she stomped her feet only making him laugh that much more as he whistled and walked out of the room, letting the door gingerly close behind him.

She refused to cry. Crying wouldn't do her any good at this point, even if in this moment she was feeling completely helpless. She just wanted Mark. She wanted his hands on her, whispering into her ear that everything would be ok. That they would be ok.

"Mark, where are you?"

A/N: Here are translations for Russian words using in this chapter.

домашний питомец = "Pet" – This was used when Lexie was tied to the chair and Egor ran his finger down the side of her cheek when they first arrived.

Непослушный = "Naughty" – This is when he caught Lexie trying to escape.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter.