Thank you guys for being patient with me! I wished I had been able to get this chapter up sooner, but I kept getting blocked every single time I tried to write it! Anyway, I made this one extra long for you guys as a thank you, and I hope you enjoy it!

Dimitri POV

I was the first car in the long procession of black SUVs, leading the way with the GPS tracking Rose's Apple Watch. McKenna was sitting in the passenger seat beside me, continually refreshing her phone, looking for news about Rose.

"We're going to get her," she said softly. "It's going to be okay; we'll find her."

"It won't be soon enough. They've already hurt her enough, and now she's going through it all over again."

"It's different this time. We know Gallagher has her, we know he can't obstruct justice and the case anymore. We're going to get her."

The red dot on the map stopped moving, and I sped up. We were going the opposite way from the house, heading back through the city and downtown. Traffic was slow with hundreds of people out on their lunch breaks, and I wanted to bang my head against the steering wheel. Our lights and sirens were on, but they didn't do much good when there was nowhere for cars to pull over to and no way to get through.

As we got closer to the coordinates of Rose's last pinged location, I could feel panic building up. Something felt off. It felt too easy. McKenna didn't say anything, but I could tell that she was thinking the same thing. Neither of us wanted to voice it and make it right though.

As soon as I saw the hotel, I knew that something wasn't right. They wouldn't be stupid enough to take her to the same hotel I had taken her after the apartment had been destroyed. I knew they wouldn't. The watch's pinged location pointed at the hotel though, and I pulled the car into a parking space, the lights still flashing. Other cars pulled in behind mine, also parking, and I could already see people looking out windows, trying to figure out what was going on.

"She's not here," I said once the other officers and agents got out of their cars. "Sweep the area, look for a black Apple Watch."

I turned away and headed into the hotel, hoping that one of the receptionists had seen something. There were two young men behind the counter, both of them staring at me.

I pulled out my badge. "Agent Belikov with the FBI. We're searching for this girl," I said, pulling out Rose's photo. "Have you seen her?"

The older receptionist looked away and didn't say anything while the younger reached under the counter and pulled out a small manila folder.

"I was told to give this to you," the boy stammered. "He said my life depended on it."

I snatched the envelope from him, ripping it open. Rose's watch was inside, as was another envelope addressed to me. I tore that one open too and unfolded the letter.

Belikov,

The Dragons have her now, and we're not giving her back. Not this time. Good luck finding her before she's dead.

I wanted to crumple up the note but knew that I couldn't. It needed to be kept as evidence and shown to the director of the FBI. I pulled out my phone again, dialing her number as I stormed out of the hotel.

"Petrov speaking," she answered.

"It's Belikov," I snapped. "We need to talk. Now."

Her office was on the very top floor of the tallest building downtown and filled with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. I sat at her desk, waiting, tapping my fingers impatiently. Officers and agents alike were still on the lookout for Rose, but with no new leads or rather no leads at all, the search was quickly becoming futile. Gallagher was smart, he knew how to keep her hidden, and every minute that passed was another minute that Rose was going through hell.

"Belikov," Alberta Petrov spoke as she entered her office and took a seat behind the desk. "What can I do for you?"

"Hathaway is gone," I said. "She was taken from her house this morning."

"And you know this how?"

"She called me. Told me that they had busted her car windows, drained her gas, and slashed her tires. There was no means of escape. The note on the windshield bore the emblem of the Dragons," I said. I pulled out the note from earlier. "She managed to keep her Apple Watch on her for a bit of time, allowing some tracking, but it was discarded at the hotel we placed at her for her safety a few months ago. This note was left with it, also bearing the emblem of the Dragons."

"The Dragons have been quiet for years," she mused. "Why now and why Miss Hathaway?"

"I believe it's for a vendetta against her father. He was responsible for a lot of the issues their organization fought when he arrested half of the leaders and got half of those that he arrested to turn on the rest of them. They sent a note claiming responsibility for the accident too."

"We both know that they weren't the only ones to send a note claiming responsibility though," she said. "So many people had vendettas against Ibrahim and Janine that it was impossible to weed out the fake ones."

"But none of them kidnapped Rose! And the Dragons have appeared quiet to us because they had a rat on the inside to help make sure they appeared quiet," I snapped. "Notice how Gallagher didn't show when Winchester did?"

Petrov arched an eyebrow. "That's a pretty bold accusation, Belikov. You're accusing another agent of secretly being part of a major crime organization, and that can't be taken lightly."

"I know exactly what I'm doing. Ibrahim took Gallagher under his wing, as he did with me, except Gallagher despised him for it. We both know that. He has never had a single nice thing to say about Abe, and he's continuously swept attention away from the Dragons. He's hidden evidence in Rose's case and made a disaster of it last time because he didn't want her found. Not when he was the one behind it."

"'Rose's case,' huh?" Her eyes were narrowed, and she sighed. "I know you made a promise to Ibrahim, to look after his daughter, but I think you've gotten too close to this, Dimitri."

"I need to find her," I said. "I made a promise to Abe, but more importantly, I made a promise to her. I need to find her."

I knew that I wasn't trying hard enough to hide my emotions, and I could tell by the look in Alberta's eye that she knew there was something more between Rose and me. She folded her hands in front of her and sighed again.

"I'm making you lead on this case, only because I know you'll continue looking for her whether I give you the permission to or not," she said. "And I would rather you have the resources of the force behind you than you go in and doing something stupid. But you need to be careful, Belikov. If we have one rat, I wouldn't be surprised if we had a second."

"As the lead, I want Winchester off the case. I don't know if he knew everything Gallagher was involved in, but he couldn't meet my eye earlier when we combed Rose's house, and there's no saying where his loyalties lie. I want him questioned and detained or suspended," I said, feeling brave.

Petrov arched her eyebrow again. "You do not get to make demands of the head of the FBI like this. However, on this occasion, I would agree with you. Go gather your team; I'll take care of Winchester."

She dismissed me with a nod of her head, and I walked out of her office and took the elevator to the floor below where I could start gathering more agents.

There were already a few gathered around a bulletin board that had been covered in evidence for Rose's case.

"Listen up," I snapped. The agents gathered around the board stopped talking and turned to face me. "You all know the statistics about the first 72 hours, so we need progress, and we need it now."

I pointed to two of the agents to the left of the board. "Rossi, Nichols, you two keep working on gathering evidence, finding links, making connections. Russo and Anthony, I want you two to go to the high school and get a record of every single student and faculty who wasn't present for part or all of today. We'll start interrogations in the morning. And Welch, you can start digging into everything you can find on Gallagher. I want all the deeds with his name on it on my desk by morning, along with anything else you might deem useful. Also, pull all of the known locations of other members of the Dragons, along with their known properties."

I turned to leave and was stopped before I had made it even five feet.

"Belikov!" Winchester reached out a grabbed my arm, pulling me to a halt.

I glared at him. "Unless you're going to tell me you know where Gallagher has Rose, then I don't want to hear anything out of your mouth."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't know."

"Didn't know he was part of a major crime organization or didn't know he was going to kidnap Rose, again?"

He looked away. "I didn't know," he repeated.

I scoffed and shoved past him. I didn't have time for his bullshit. Not when the clock was ticking down.

That night, my fax machine beeped, signaling an incoming fax. Two pages were printed off, and I stood to gather them. At the top of the first page was a note from Russo that I ignored as I scanned the attendance records from the high school.

A few of the names had been circled, preemptively crossed off as they were known stoners, and had been found on campus during their missed class periods. The list wasn't long, mostly students, except for a teacher on maternity leave, one reportedly down with the flu, and then my name. I scanned the list of students quickly. There were two names of immediate interest. Haley Pitman and Vasilisa Dragomir both missed all periods today.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Russo's number. It went to voicemail, and I barely waited for the beep to speak. "It's Belikov. Reach back out to the school and have them pull the attendance records for Haley Pitman for the entire year. Also, reach out and get a public defender at the office tomorrow in case anyone we question requests the presence of one."

I hung up and glanced at the clock. It was barely past 9, but I knew I wouldn't do any good by pacing my living room. I pulled out my bottle of melatonin and popped a few pills before retiring to my room. The bed smelled like Rose, and I prayed that the melatonin would kick in soon.

The office was more crowded today than it was yesterday, more agents gathered around working on evidence. They had been pulled from nearby jurisdictions to help with this case since it was high profile and needed as much manpower as possible. One of the offices had been designated as a waiting area for students to wait while we questioned them.

"Here's the attendance report for Haley Pitman, Belikov," Russo said, dropping a piece of paper on my desk as he passed. I nodded my thanks and took a sip of my coffee before looking down at it. She was marked absent for a week a couple of months ago, and then marked absent again for the past week.

Before I could contemplate the situation more, the elevator dinged, revealing Lissa, Adrian, and two more of Rose's friends. I saw Lissa look around the office, her gaze landing on me last as her lips turned up slightly. I stood and noticed Rossi doing the same. I waved him off and approached the four of them.

"Mr. Belikov?" Adrian questioned, and his eyebrows arched in surprise.

"Agent Belikov, actually," I said. "Thank you for coming in. We're hoping that we can ask you some questions about Rosemarie Hathaway."

"What about Rose? Is she okay?" Adrian's voice was filled with concern.

"Why don't you guys take a seat, and someone will be by to question you individually," I said, avoiding answering Adrian's question. If they didn't already know, I wanted to be able to watch their reactions closely when they found out. Rose's friends had been on our suspect lists at one point, as most friends and family end up on that list in cases like this. "Miss Dragomir, if you would follow me, please."

I led her to one of the empty interrogation rooms and shut the door behind me. I gestured to the seat, and she followed, looking slightly uneasy as she did. There was a camera set up, facing the seat, and I hit the button on it to start recording.

"This is Agent Dimitri Belikov questioning Vasilisa Dragomir on Wednesday, November 21, 2018. Miss Dragomir, you are not under arrest; however, I do want to inform you that you have the right to remain silent. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time. Do you have any questions?"

"What's going on? Is there something wrong with Rose?"

"Yesterday morning, Miss Hathaway was kidnapped. We've asked you to come in for questioning today to help shed any light or additional evidence that was missed, or if you have any information that might be useful to our investigation. Are you okay with proceeding?"

There was a look of shock on her face, and she nodded. "Of course. I'll do whatever I can to help. Do you have any suspects?"

"I can't talk about information pertaining to an open case unless it's information you're providing," I said.

She pursed her lips and nodded again.

"When was the last time you saw Miss Hathaway?"

"Monday night," she said. "She's been "seeing" some guy for the past couple of months for hook-ups, and she was spending Monday night with him. I don't know his name. I'm sorry."

"Did you have any contact with Miss Hathaway since Monday?"

"No, I haven't. Before she left, we kind of argued because I wanted her to bring her mystery guy to Thanksgiving, and she was annoyed with me pestering her about it. Rose didn't always make the best choices in random hook-ups, which was something I was always pestering her about. After the first time she got kidnapped," Lissa paused, choking up. "Sorry, it's just really tough to talk about."

"Take your time."

"After the first time, when she got back, she became reckless. She threw herself into partying and going out nightly, always hooking up with a different person. She had changed a lot. Before she was first kidnapped, she was in a long-term relationship with Brad Mayfield. He's a senior at the high school. The night she disappeared, she had gone away to seclude herself because she found out he had cheated on her on and off for the last eight months of their relationship. After that, she made it a personal rule not to sleep with the same person twice." Lissa shook her head, ruefully. "She was smart but reckless."

"Is there anybody you can think of that might want to hurt Miss Hathaway?" I said, almost slipping up and calling her Rose.

Lissa shook her head. "Everybody she knew loved her. Is it possible that it's the same people from last time?"

I quickly noted that Lissa had said the same people instead of the same person. As far as I knew, Rose didn't talk to Lissa much about what had actually happened during the five months she was gone.

"It's possible. Currently, that is our hunch, but whoever took Miss Hathaway last time was never caught, bringing us back to square one. Is there any other information that you think might be useful?"

She glanced sideways and played with her hands. "I don't know how important it is, but she seemed really shifty about her secret lover. She wouldn't tell any of us his name or really anything about him and was really protective over it. I don't know if you'd be able to go through her phone records or whatever to track a number, but he would have been the last one to see her, as far as I know."

"Thank you, Miss Dragomir," I said, standing. "This concludes our interview."

I made the motion of turning off the camera but kept it running, just in case.

"I hope I was able to provide useful information," she said.

"You did," I said. "We'll be reaching out if we have any more questions."

I showed back out to the waiting area where Adrian was still sitting, along with another girl that Rose had referred to as Sydney.

"Mr. Ivashkov," I said. "Please come with me."

He followed me, but I saw the look he and Lissa exchanged before doing so. I led him to the same interrogation room and checked that the camera was still running. I repeated the opening process as I had with Lissa once more. "Are you good to proceed?"

"Yes," he said. "What happened to Rose?"

"She was kidnapped yesterday morning," I said. "We are trying to gather as much information as we can to get Miss Hathaway back, safe and sound, as soon as we can."

"I'm an open book," he said. "I'll tell you everything I know about Rose if that means she can come home in one piece."

There was hurt in his features, and he rubbed a hand over his face.

"When was the last time you saw or talked to Miss Hathaway?"

"Yesterday morning," he said. "She texted me early in the morning, saying we needed to talk. She said she had something important to tell me but that she didn't want to do it over text."

He pulled out his phone to show me his text thread to Rose. The message he described was the last one showing on his screen from Rose, and other playful messages were displayed above that. Three messages had been sent to Rose following her message. The first was a simple reply to her message, saying they could get lunch or dinner and talk, the second one sent that night concerned that she hadn't replied yet, and the third was sent this morning, more concerned that Rose hadn't responded and that he was being asked to come in for questioning by the FBI.

"I didn't see her message until after class yesterday, but she didn't respond at all, and I was getting worried."

"How long have you known Miss Hathaway?"

"Since we were young. Our parents were friends, and thus, so were we. We grew up together, even lived next door to each other for a bit when we were in elementary school. She met Lissa in kindergarten, and we went from a duo to a trio. After her parents died, we became closer, and after Lissa's parents died, we became inseparable."

"You love her."

It wasn't a question, but he answered as if it were. "She was my first love, yes. She rejected me too. Said she didn't want to mess up our friendship by dating, in case something were to happen. And I still love her, I always have, but it's less romantic and more platonic now."

"You mentioned that you became inseparable after Lissa's parents died?"

He nodded. "Rose and Lissa had a huge argument after they died. Lissa seemed to blame Rose for a while and didn't hold back at lashing out. Rose took it hard, and it put a huge strain on their relationship, and I was there for her when she needed it. She didn't know what she had done to deserve Lissa's fury, didn't see how their death could be her fault. It was an intense time. I truly didn't think that Lissa was going to be able to get over it and pull her head out of her ass."

He cast a glance at the camera. "Nobody else is going to see this are they?"

"Lissa won't if that's what you're really asking," I said. "Other agents will."

"What was Lissa's reasoning behind blaming Rose?"

Adrian shrugged. "Her parents changed after they took Rose in. It was like they were completely different people. It stemmed from that. The month after they died, she refused to see any of us, and then one day, it had completely changed. She was being friendly again, apologized to Rose, and they started building their relationship again. It took about a year for Rose to trust Lissa again fully. And during that time, I was there for her, for whatever she needed."

I opened the folder sitting on the desk and pulled out a photo of Rose's house. "Do you recognize this place?"

"Of course. That's Rose's house. She moved out, officially, after they died, but that didn't stop her from going back there. She loved it out there. It was her safe place," he said. "Was she there when she got kidnapped?"

I nodded. "Yes, she was kidnapped from there. Again."

"You know there are cameras in the trees, right?" he said. "Surely Rose would have told you that."

"She mentioned there used to be cameras," I said, hesitantly. "Have you been there recently?"

He shook his head. "Rose doesn't like to be disturbed when she's out there. She goes out there because she needs the space and doesn't like to have anybody else out there. It's her space. It's the last joint thing she has with her parents too."

"Is there anybody you can think of that would want to hurt Rose?"

"Obviously the fucker who did this to her the first time," he snapped. "But everybody else loved Rose. She was always nice to everybody."

"Lissa seemed concerned about someone Rose was seeing. Do you know anything about this guy?" I couldn't stop myself from inquiring more, curious to see how much Rose had told her friends.

"You can cut the crap, Belikov. I know you were sleeping with Rose," Adrian said. He sighed and leaned back in the chair. "I mean, I knew she wanted you from the beginning, but I didn't think she would actually manage to get you."

"Did Rose tell you?" There wasn't a point in denying it.

"No, she didn't. I got concerned with the frequency that she was sneaking off and so I followed her one night. It didn't take long to connect the dots. I could see how you guys were looking at each other," he said.

I leaned over and switched the camera off for real and faced Adrian again as he continued talking.

"You both would sneak little looks at each other when you thought others weren't looking, and she would be staring longingly at you when she thought you weren't looking," he said. His face hardened. "Do you love her?"

"Yes, without a doubt. She's my everything," I said softly. He was the first person that I had admitted that to aside from Rose, and I relaxed slightly.

His face softened. "Good. She deserves something good. She loves you too, you know."

"She said she doesn't, not yet," I whispered. "That was the last face-to-face conversation we had. My last text to her was reminding her that I love her."

"Trust me," he said. "I've known Rose my whole life. She loves you. And you're going to save her."

Neither of us had anything else to say, and I ended the questioning, switching the camera back on for recording purposes. I escorted him back out of the room, where Sydney, Lissa, and the other guy were waiting.

"Ready?" Adrian said as he walked up to them. "Let's get out of here."

I pulled out a couple of copies of my card, handing them to the group. "If you can think of anything else useful, please, give me a call."

They filed into the elevator silently, only Adrian maintaining eye contact before the doors shut. I sat back down at my desk, trying to make sense of the new information that had been provided and that had been dropped off by other agents. I knew it was going to be a long night.

A week passed, and nothing changed. There were still no new leads, no new anything. I went back out to Rose's house to look around again for anything that might have been missed but didn't find anything new, just like the past six times I had been out there. I had checked the cameras as Adrian mentioned, but as I suspected, they were dead and had been for some time. ABPs had been released for both Rose and Gallagher, and all known properties were searched for any sign of either of them.

It took me three days of arguing with Petrov before I finally got permission to try to draw Gallagher out. The phone rang three times before it stopped ringing, and I could hear breathing on the other end.

"I know you have her, Gallagher."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, laughing.

"We know you're a part of the Dragons. We know everything."

"You don't know anything," he hissed.

The tech guy gave me a thumbs up. We had a location.

"We're going to find you. No matter how long it takes.

He laughed. "She'll be dead before you can get within a mile of the place."

The line went dead, and nobody had to say a word. We moved as one and were on the road within minutes.

The building was tiny and dark, and I silently used hand motions to send agents out in different directions. I pulled out my gun and kicked open the front door. Other agents were moving around the back, surrounding the building, making it impossible for an escape.

There was a bolted metal door that I immediately went to, while others searched the building for Gallagher. I yanked it open, revealing a dark room. Next to the door was a light switch, and I flipped it. A dim lightbulb illuminated the room.

"Roza!"

I ran to her side, immediately trying to undo the cuffs around her wrist, hanging her from the ceiling. Her wrists were caked in dry blood from trying to escape, and fresh blood slowly ran down her arms as I got the cuffs off. She sagged against my body, clutching my shirt.

"You're not real," she whispered. "You're not real."

"Roza, I've got you," I said, supporting her weight as I glanced around to see if there was anything else holding Rose down. There were chains around her ankles, but they weren't connected to anything.

"No, no, no," she whispered. "No, please, no."

"Rose, it's okay," I said. "You're going to be okay. I've got you now."

"No," she whimpered. "You're dead. They killed you."

"Roza, I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. You're safe now."

I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! Leave a review and let me know what you guys thought!