Even though Angel had long since resumed his human visage, the prisoner still looked at him with an expression of sheer horror. So much the better, Angel thought. If the guy was scared of him, then it shouldn't take too much effort to get him to tell everything he knew.

"Wh.., What are you?" the kidnapper stammered out.

"Right now," Angel replied, "I'm the guy that's asking the questions. You're the one that's going to be answering them. Do we have our respective positions all sorted out now?"

The prisoner nodded dumbly.

"Good," Angel said approvingly. "Why don't we start with something simple, like your name? I like to know who I'm talking to."

"Josh Maxwell," came the reply. Then, without prompting, he blurted out, "That McBride woman never told me that you was monsters. She just said grab the girl and bring her back. She didn't say nothing about no monsters."

"Don't you just hate that?" Angel asked companionably. "Now why don't you tell me everything about the job that Daria McBride was paying you for?"

"He's not really gonna drink my blood, is he?" Spike's comment had obviously shaken Josh more than anything else in the whole affair.

Angel shook his head. "I doubt it," he mused. "A little too thin for his tastes. Start talking Josh."

&&&&&&&

Rose was starting to regain her equilibrium. "I'm sorry I fell apart like that," she murmured. She was still plastered to Spike's side. Not that he minded.

"I think you're entitled, babe," he said affectionately. He tilted her head back, and his eyes hardened. Rose's throat was bruised from the rough handling meted out by her would be kidnapper. "If I'd known he'd marked you up like that, the little bastard wouldn't have made it downstairs in as good a shape as he's in."

"Are you always so, vindictive?" she asked. He was starting to scare her a little.

"When someone I care about gets hurt," he replied. "And in case it hasn't sunk in through that pretty mop of yours, I care about you. A lot." Something that had been niggling at the back of his mind came to the surface. "The night you.., came back, your friends had a little chat with me. They said that you'd tipped the scales in my favor again, or some such. Do you have any idea what they were talking about?"

"My friends?" Rose queried, puzzled. Then the light bulb lit up. "Oh. I'm not sure," she said slowly, myriad images running through her mind. But in her heart she was sure.

"Fibbing?" Spike quirked an eyebrow at her. "I'm disappointed in you, pet. Don't you trust me?"

"With my life," she said. "And with the other things that are even more important. I don't trust anyone the way I trust you, Spike."

"Then why won't you tell me?" His lips brushed across her temple.

Rose wiggled out of his grasp and went to look out the window, as was her habit when she became agitated. "I was going to talk to you when you got done with work that night," she started.

"You do that every night, nothing unusual in that," he remarked, going to stand behind her. Then, the other shoe dropped. "You were going to dump me, weren't you?" he accused.

"It didn't look like things were ever going to change," Rose said miserably. "I thought it would be better for you if I just left you to get on with your life. So that maybe you could find someone else and be happy. I just wanted you to be happy."

"That song sounds a bit familiar," Spike murmured in her ear. "As I recall, when I sang it, you called me St. Spike the Martyr. Doesn't suit you any better, sweetheart."

"But don't you see, love?" Rose turned around in his arms to face him. "It was after I made that decision that they decided in our favor. It might have been a test. To see if I loved you enough to give you up."

"They can read minds?" Spike wasn't all too sure that he liked the sound of that.

"Sort of, if they really concentrate," Rose answered. "But with me, I think it's probably a little, or maybe a lot, easier. Because we used to be connected."

"Do you miss it?" Spike wondered aloud. "Miss being a part of them? Running things and making the decisions?"

Rose shook her head. "Sometimes I feel a little guilty because I hardly even think about them any more." She tipped her head up to kiss him. "I like being part of us."

"I think I could bring myself to agree with you on that one." He bent his head to kiss her again when Angel walked in. "Do you practice at that or what, you great bloody nit?"

"It's my life's ambition," Angel growled. "I lay awake thinking of new ways to annoy you, Spike. How are you doing, Rose?"

"I'm all right," she mumbled, avoiding his gaze. "I'm sorry to be such a nuisance."

Angel looked up as though asking for divine guidance. "What do you do with her when she gets like this?" he asked Spike.

"I'd tell you," Spike replied. "But if you try it yourself, I'll have to start breaking bits of you off. What did your little friend have to say?"

"Not much more than we'd already guessed," Angel answered. "Daria McBride hired him, and a handful of other people to keep watch on the place, to see if they could catch sight of the two of you coming or going. They also tapped into the phone lines. When our boy heard Rose ordering for delivery, he called up Daria who told him to grab her." He grinned. "You scared hell out of him. He thinks you want to drink his blood."

"Probably wouldn't agree with me," Spike remarked. "Speaking of eating. If you're over the wiggins, luv, why don't you dig into that food?"

"The delivery man," Rose said out of the blue. "The real one, I mean. Do you know what happened to him?"

"Daria's hired help just hit him over the head before he got here, pulled him out of the van at a stop light," Angel replied. "He's probably all right aside from a headache. And the company's been called so they can retrieve their van."

"I guess that's one more item on the list of dos and don'ts," Spike observed. "Rose, don't answer the door anymore. You let one of us do that. Of course, it wouldn't of happened in the first place if..,"

Angel looked out the window and saw that the sun was finally setting. "I'll go shopping," he sighed. "You take care of her."

"I always do," Spike said. He tossed Angel his wallet, but Angel tossed it back.

"You didn't use to have a problem with spending my money," he remarked. "Rose, why don't you make out a list for me?"

&&&&&&&&

Daria was pacing the floor impatiently. That idiot should have been back with Rose long since. What was going on? If the little weasel tried to double-cross her, she was going to decorate the basement room with his guts. The thought that something had gone wrong never once occurred to her. But why didn't the moron at least call?

&&&&&&&&

Rose was eating her hard-earned and slightly squashed lunch, and without protest. Not because she was all that hungry, the episode had left her profoundly unenthusiastic about food. But to please Spike.

"Spike?" Something had just occurred to her. "Won't Daria be expecting that man to come back with me?"

"One would think," he answered, then, his eyes lit up. "And the sorry little sod's already late. The bitch is probably climbing the walls."

"And maybe we can use it to bring her out into the open," Rose suggested. "Have him call her with some message to meet him somewhere else, maybe."

Spike picked up the phone and rang to ops, which always maintained at least a skeleton crew. After a few minutes, he hung up in disgust. "No one's there. The ponce probably sent them all running off to grab the bounty hunter's surveillance crew."

"But if we don't do it soon, won't she know that something is wrong?" Rose asked. "The longer it takes, the more suspicious she's likely to be."

"And she's not exactly a trusting soul to begin with," Spike added. "So, precious, do you think you could dampen down you delicate sensibilities long enough to go down to the cells with me?" He reflected a moment. "We ought to be able to buy some time by delaying the pick-up. The main thing is to convince Daria that her boy has you, and wants a better deal."

"I wish we'd thought of this before Angel left," Rose murmured. "He might not be too happy with us taking matters into our own hands."

"Then he should've thought of it himself," Spike stated. "C'mon pet, time's wasting."

&&&&&&

When Angel came back, his apartment was empty. What the hell, he thought. Where could Rose and Spike have gone? Spike was supposed to be taking care of Rose, and that particular task was one he'd trust his grandchilde with more than any other person on the face of the earth. So where had they gone? He called up security and talked, with them for a minute. Then, he hung up the phone and headed for the cells.

&&&&&

"I know you've got to have a number for the McBride bint," Spike commented. "Because you had to have just to let her know about Rose's phone call. So what you're going to do now is give the bitch a ring and tell her that you've got what she wants, but the price has gone up."

Josh tried to put on a defiant front, but the memory of Spike in game face wondering what his blood tasted like haunted him, and probably would for the rest of his miserable existence. "You don't know what she's like," he muttered, refusing to look the vampire in the eye. "If I try crossing her, I might as well just dig my own grave."

"Looks like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place then, mate," Spike replied in friendly seeming tones. Then, his eyes narrowed and his voice hardened. "You're already on my personal shit list as it is. First, for trying to grab my lady, and then, in the process damaging a body that I care about more than my own. So I guess what you have to ask yourself is, which one of them am I more likely to survive having pissed off? The bounty hunter bitch who ain't here, or the vampire that is."

Josh started sweating profusely. He'd heard of what had happened to some people that had crossed Daria McBride, and it wasn't pretty. Then, he remembered how Spike had looked when he threatened to drink his blood, and that wasn't pretty either.

"Trust me, Josh." Angel's voice came from behind the bars, where Rose stood. "You really don't want to piss Spike off. Did you know that he got that name from torturing people with railroad spikes?"

The prisoner paled noticeably, and Spike flashed his grandsire a quick grin of thanks. So the pouf was going to come through this time, was he? Spike handed Josh a cell phone. "You really want to make that call," he advised. "And try to make it convincing."

"You're going to want me to set up another meet, aren't you?" the aspiring criminal forced out, trying to calm down.

"Good point," Spike agreed. "Your call, Gramps."

Angel winced at the appellation, which, though technically correct, was hardly flattering. Then, a grin spread slowly across his face. "The Hyperion. Do you know it?"

Josh nodded, swiping at his sopping brow with a sleeve. "Yeah, I know it. There used to be some sort of weirdo private investigation company there." He looked at Angel and put two and two together and what little calm he'd had deserted him again.

"Why there?" Spike wanted to know.

"Because I lived in the place for years," Angel explained to him. "I know it inside and out." He turned back to Josh. "You have her meet you in the main lobby."

Josh took the phone in a trembling hand and punched in Daria's number. "Ms. McBride?" He flinched and reflexively jerked the phone away from his ear for a moment. Then, he puffed up his chest and got cocky. "Listen to me for a change. You didn't even tell me that the broad I was snatching was guarded by a couple of monsters. The job was a lot harder than you told me it'd be, so my fee is going up. Uh-uh. This time I'll pick the place. You know the old Hyperion hotel? You meet me in the main lobby with double what you promised me and I'll hand over the goods. Well, if you don't want to deal, I'm sure that a ritzy looking place like Wolfram and Hart could make me a better offer. When?" He glanced at Angel and Spike for guidance. Angel held up both hands, the fingers splayed, then closed them and held up two more. "Midnight, yeah, midnight, the main lobby of the Hyperion. And if you're late, I blow with the dame and you never get your hands on her." He switched off the phone with a grateful sigh. "You guys better see to it that you get her before she gets me, or I swear I'll come back and haunt you. She is royally pissed."

"That makes two of us," Spike remarked.

"Make that three," Angel chimed in. "Don't worry, Josh, I'll make sure you come out of this alive." An evil grin crossed his face. "I'll do even better than that. I'll make sure that you have a nice well-paying job when it's all over." The grin got even more evil, if that were possible. "One that you won't dare quit, either."

Spike's grin suddenly matched his grandsire's. "You sure you ain't been out gettin' some?" he asked. "Because that idea was worthy of Angelus himself."

Angel bowed grandly. "Now why don't we get out of here, and work out the details?" he suggested. "We only have a couple of hours before we have to get our new employee to the meeting place."

The little Q'xlzr demon from the next cell pressed against the bars. "You get bounty hunter tonight?" it asked eagerly. "Then you let I out?"

"What in the holy hell is that thing?" Josh cringed back into the corner of his cell. "Easy money, my ass," he muttered.

&&&&&&&&

Daria had a smug, self-satisfied look on her face. The weasel's demand for more money didn't really bother her. The whole point of having money was to spend it on buying things to make her happy. And having Rose in her power was going to make her very happy. Besides, she had no real intention of letting him get out of the deal alive anyway. The Hyperion had been standing empty for months now, and had such a reputation that even the most desperate homeless people shunned it. It would be a long time before anyone found Josh's body. If they ever did.

&&&&&&&&&

"But you'll be there to protect me," Rose said, wrapping her arms around Spike's neck. "And she's less likely to think that it's a set-up if she sees me there."

"Out of the question," said Spike firmly, gently disengaging himself from the twining arms. It wasn't that he didn't like it, but it did make it almighty difficult to think straight. "I don't want that bounty hunter within a country mile of you, sweetheart."

Rose cast an appealing glance at Angel, since her lover was proving so difficult. "Angel, you know I'm right," she pleaded. "Reason with him."

Angel was torn between agreeing with Rose that the plan was more likely to work with her there, and agreeing with Spike that Rose should be protected at all costs. "I don't know," he said uncertainly. He looked at Spike. "If we brought Wes and Gunn along, that would be four of us that would protect her at all costs."

Spike threw up his hands in defeat, but spared a glare at Angel. Then, he looked back at Rose. "If you get us killed, I'm never speaking to you again."

Rose put her arms back around him. "Of course you will, darling," she murmured lovingly. "But we're not going to get killed."

Spike kissed her quickly but fiercely. "Promise?"