Just a little note: First, thank you all for the wonderful reviews! Second, if any of this is a bit confusing (ie. "Larissa" or who the kidnapper is in relation to Shay and Frank) please read "A Shock to the System" http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=734434
Thanks again!!!
Chapter Ten
Stepping off the elevator on the fifth floor, they were immediately met with hotel security. "Let them through," a voice yelled from further down the hall.
"Hello, Frank," the young, dark, bald agent greeted him.
"Pete," Donovan nodded as he guided Shay into the room with his hand at the small of her back. "Find anything," he asked, motioning for Alex, Jake and Cody to spread out.
"Sure," he said, frowning. "Prints all over the place, but we've yet to determine who they belong to. There is this..." he said as his latex gloved hand produced a videotape labeled "To Larissa". "It was found in the baby's crib."
He felt Shay's shoulder's slump when Pete said the words "baby's crib" and he unconsciously put his arm around her waist to steady her. "Play it," he instructed, tightening his grip on Shay in a form of support.
When the video played, it panned the very room they stood in, and paused on the prone form on Thomas Renquist laying on the floor, a steady stream of blood running from the gash at the back of his head.
"Daddy," Shay cried softly as she gasped and bit the knuckle of her right hand.
They watched as the camera filmed unsteadily when the person holding it set it on the dresser and aimed it in the direction of the bed. They caught a glimpse of someone's hip as they walked by the lens to the far side of the room. Several seconds passed before that person returned and sat on the edge of the bed in clear view of the taping camera. He was a handsome, Hispanic man, and all too familiar to the both of them. He was the one man who would use the name Larissa, and he was supposed to be dead.
Donovan let go of Shay as she slumped down on the bed and sat down beside her. She was shaking her head and repeating the words "it can't be, it can't be."
"D.J.!" she called and reached for the screen when the baby was brought down onto the man's lap.
"It took me a long time to find you after I discovered you were with child, querida," he said, hugging the frightened child to him. "I met with the doctor in Bucaramanga that diagnosed your condition. You did not think you could keep my son from me, did you?"
"But...you're dead," Shay said breathily and took Frank's hand. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
"You have given me a beautiful son, cara. Even if you are a lying puta, I do have to thank you for that," he admitted with a sardonic grin. "Now," he said, talking to the baby, taking one of his pudgy arms and waving it at the camera, "say goodbye to your madre because she will never see you again."
Shay heard the frightened cry of her son as the video stopped and the screen turned to black and she continued to stare at it. "This isn't happening," she said aloud, sure her words were the truth. How could it be happening? How could God allow that man to steal her child away? Her arms ached with the need to hold him and her heart ached from missing him. No, surely God would not be that cruel.
"We'll get him back, Shay," Donovan whispered as he pulled her into a comforting embrace and kissed the top of her head.
"He's all alone, Frank, with a stranger. He must be so frightened," she cried as she clutched his shoulder.
Frank almost groaned with the force of Shay's grip on his shoulder. "He's your son, Shay, remember that. He may be an infant, but he has your spirit. He knows his mother will come for him."
She looked up into his eyes and saw his own pain, his own grief, and still he found it within himself to think only of her. She placed a gentle palm on his cheek. "I love you," she whispered.
Frank covered the hand on his cheek with his own and smiled. "We'll talk about that later, mon cadeau," he assured her before he pressed his lips to her forehead.
Alex, Jake and Cody watched the display of affection between their boss and new teammate. None were too surprised with the realization that the relationship had progressed beyond a sexual affair.
************
Ten days had gone by without any success in tracking Espinosa. Too much time had passed between the time when Thomas had been attacked and when he was able to contact Shay. Espinosa managed to slip out of the country undetected.
"Cody, anything?" Donovan asked, descending the stairs from his office at the same time the outside door slammed. They had been working nonstop, checking out leads, hits from the internet and survey photos from the satellite Donovan and Thomas Renquist managed to have retasked over Colombia. In the meantime, he had barely a chance to see Shay or talk to her.
He was shocked when he saw her walk into the room; her father was holding her at the waist. She looked exhausted, dark circles outlined her eyes and she was beginning to look emaciated. She refused to eat and sleep was elusive.
"What are you doing here," Donovan asked as he moved to her side to take her hand. "You're not looking too healthy."
"Damn my health," she swore vehemently. "My child is missing and what has anyone done? Nothing! A big fat fucking zero!" She screamed and pulled her hand from his to pummel his chest.
"Shay, calm down," Jake pleaded, watching Donovan catch her fists and pull her within the confines of his arms.
She tried to push away but Frank would not let loose and she went limp in his arms. He pulled a chair out, sat her down and kneeled before her. "Shay, you know we're doing our best."
Shay nodded and hung her head. "I just can't believe we can't find him. I miss him so much, Frank." She snaked her arms around his neck and held him fiercely.
"Yes. But if you keep going the way you have been, he won't have a mother to come back to." He unwound her arms from his neck and pulled back enough to look her in the eye. "Now, you are going to go with Alex into the break room and you're going to eat something."
Shay began to protest but was cut off.
"And if Alex tells me you won't eat, I'll come in there and force it down your throat." He watched as an angry glint formed in her eye. He wanted to smile; it was the first sign of life he'd seen in them since D.J. had been taken.
"Try it and you'll loose a hand," she threatened.
He did smile then. "Give it your best shot, woman."
He helped her stand and watched as she walked off with Alex. She turned slightly, "If you ever call me woman again, you'll lose more than a hand."
"That's my girl," he said under his breath. Maybe if he kept her angry enough she would get her fighting spirit back.
"Thanks, Frank. She just won't listen," Thomas said from his position behind Cody. He was checking over the most recent satellite photos.
"Maybe we should rethink this," Donovan suggested, reading the printouts from the international wiretaps. Nothing. "We've been going on the assumption that he would return to Colombia because he lived there. Jesus. What else do we have on him?"
Jake read down the profile. "Nothing that would suggest..."
"What?" Donovan asked, coming up behind Jake and looking over his shoulder.
"Jesus, how'd we miss this? An Aunt in Nicaragua." Jake pointed to the monitor.
"Son of a bitch," Thomas hissed.
Donovan picked up the phone. "Retask satellite 12° 10' N 86° 15' W. Authorization delta zero eight six delta."
Meanwhile Thomas called his contacts within the CIA to check out the Aunt's last known location and now they were back to waiting for information.
************
"Aunt Emilita! Is there no way for you to shut him up?" Jorge screamed. He sat at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. The child had been screaming nonstop for days. It was enough to drive a saint to commit murder. That child definitely had his mother's lungs.
D.J. listened as the strange woman cooed to him, but his cries did not stop. He missed his mother and his grandfather. He knew that if he was not to be with either of them, then he should be with Jake, his godfather. He loved Jake. Jake always knew how to make him feel better. Well, except for the teething problem.
Furthermore, there was the new man with the fuzzy stuff on his face. Mommy called him Tiger. D.J. thought that was a funny name, but Mommy was always a bit funny when she was around that man.
He kicked at the woman who was changing his diaper and hoped his mommy would come for him soon.
************
"Managua, Nicaragua," Cody said interrupting the quiet of the nest. He handed the photographs that he printed out from the email he had just received from Thomas' CIA contact and handed them to Donovan.
The first photograph showed a small, rundown house. The second, a wide-angle view of the village the house resided. The third showed Espinosa exiting the house. So, he was there. The fourth showed an elderly, portly Hispanic woman with whitish-gray hair holding an infant. The fifth was a close-up shot of the infant. There was no mistaking the child. It was definitely D.J. He had the same sky-blue eyes as his mother.
"When do we leave?" Jake asked while he rifled through the second set of printouts Cody had handed him.
"Leave for where?" Shay wondered as she entered the room from the gym with Alex trailing behind her. She and Alex had been giving the punching bag a workout.
Donovan had insisted Alex shadow Shay's every movement, day and night for the past forty-eight hours. Alex had managed to put color back in Shay's cheeks and her face no longer bore that sunken look she had carried after D.J.'s kidnapping.
"Nicaragua," Cody informed her and regretted opening his mouth when Donovan shot him an evil look. Apparently the boss didn't want her going.
Donovan handed Shay the photographs and watched her face light up when she saw her son. She looked up at Frank with eyes that shone from unshed tears. "You found him." She threw her arms around him in a fierce hug.
"Yes, mon cadeau, and now it's time for Jake and me to reclaim him," he whispered in her ear.
Shay pushed away from him. "I'm going, Frank."
"No, Shay. It will be easier if it's just the two of us," he insisted.
Alex, Jake and Cody felt an argument coming on and silently left the room to give them privacy to yell, scream and shout at each other, if they so desired.
