Chapter Twelve

"Hey, how's your dad?" Mike asked as he saw Danny walking back into the surveillance room of the Montecito.

Shrugging as he sighed, McCoy sat down. "Aside from a ransacked trailer and a shiner?"

"What?" Cannon asked, thinking he heard wrong, "What's going on?"

Danny glanced around, making sure that nobody was eavesdropping. Leaning in, he said quietly, "I found out why he needed the money."

Giving his friend a look, Mike prompted, "Why?"

"He owes Roberto Menendez, it's some kind of extortion thing."

"Damn," Mike said, sitting back, "has he called the cops?"

"He won't," Danny replied, looking at the monitors, "he even lied to me, I had to get pissed at him in order to get him to level with me."

"Wow," his friend sighed. "You gonna tell Ed?"

"With everything that he's got going on right now?" The ex-Marine shot back. "Yeah," he continued, "'Ed, I know you are busy looking for your daughter who was kidnapped, but I need you to focus on me and my problems.'"

"He wouldn't see it like that," Mike said with a shake of his head.

"Whatever," Danny replied, his mood souring by the moment, "I'm not going to get Ed involved in this."

Sighing quietly Cannon turned his attention back to looking at the monitors.

Delinda walked outside to the back deck and found him sitting on a chaise lounge. Sighing softly, she walked over and sat down next to him and put a hand on his back.

"It's been eight hours," he said quietly. "Eight hours and we are no where closer to finding where she is than we were when we first started."

"Luis," she said softly, "you guys are going to find her."

"How?" He asked, turning to look at her, "Delinda, how can you be so sure about that? I'm not even sure about it."

"Because I know my dad wouldn't have you here if he didn't think that you wouldn't find her." Delinda stated. "Daddy wouldn't even be wasting time with having you involved, Luis."

Perez shook his head, frustration evident in his voice, "I just feel like I'm failing here, Delinda. I feel like I'm failing Ed, Sam, you... but most of all I feel like I'm failing that little girl. Ed is probably better off getting the CIA involved or something."

"Don't say that," the woman reprimanded softly, "the truth is, Dad probably does have some of his friends on this, but he also wants you on it. Nobody thinks you are Robocop or something, Luis. Everybody knows that you and your guys are doing everything you can to get Jasmine back."

"Sam," he said quietly, closing his eyes as he sighed deeply, "Sam looked like she had been kicked in the teeth when she saw that video."

Delinda closed her eyes as she remembered, nodding quietly, "Yeah," she agreed, "I think we all felt that way." Looking at her friend, she rubbed his shoulder gently, "Hey," she said, getting his attention, "I believe in you, okay? I have faith that you'll help us get her back. Pretty soon these idiots are going to get careless and they'll start leaving clues."

Luis gave her a soft smile and then hugged her tightly, "I think we have this the wrong way, Delinda, I think that I'm the one whose supposed to be comforting you and trying to get you to keep your sanity."

She laughed quietly as she shrugged, pulling back, "Everybody can use a friend."

Nodding, the man leaned in and kissed her cheek, "And you are a good one to have around." He sighed as he stood up, "I'm going to go back in and make some calls. You coming?"

Delinda shook her head no, "I'll be in in a bit, I want to stay out here."

Luis nodded as he walked back inside. Once she was alone, Delinda looked up at the sky and sighed deeply. Whispering softly, she said, "Please help us, mom. Make sure that little girl is okay and make sure that Dad and Sam don't go nuts, please."

After the phone call, Karla and Ritchie made their way to the abandoned apartment building they were supposed to meet Tam. Upon entering, they found a note from Jonathan stating that he'd be there later that night. Needing food to get them through the night, Marin sent Ritchie to the market while she put a very reluctant Jasmine into a room that had an old cot in it. After Phillips left, Karla felt a feeling of guilt and looked out a window and spotted a small grocery store across the street. Running over there, she bought a container of yogurt and went back to the building.

"Eat this," Karla demanded as she sat down on the dirty cot on which a handcuffed Jasmine lay.

"What is it?" The little girl asked softly.

"Food," the woman answered, stirring the warm yogurt in the container, "do you want it or not?"

Jasmine nodded as she opened her mouth to receive a spoonful of it. As Karla looked at her, she felt a twinge of guilt, seeing the girl's eyes taped shut with duct tape, her wrists handcuffed to the headboard and chains with shackles attached to her ankles. Sighing deeply, the woman shoved the spoon into the girl's mouth and fed her the yogurt, her eyes spotting the bruises and cuts on the girl's face and neck.

Without realizing how quickly she was feeding Jasmine, Karla was shaken out of her reverie by the sounds of the girl gagging and soon she threw up everything that was in her stomach. "You little bitch!" Karla spat as she quickly stood up, vomit in her lap. Enraged, the woman's eyes bored down on the child and with no further thought, her hand sliced through the air, landing sharply on the girl's face. The sounds of the child's screams piercing through the air as she slapped her a few more times.

Storming out of the room, she cursed repeatedly under her breath as she went out into the kitchen of the condemned house in which they were staying. Sighing, she grabbed a rag and held it under the running water of a faucet in the sink. Just as she got the rag damp, the phone rang.

Throwing the rag into the sink, she walked over and picked the phone up, "Treasure Chest."

"It's me," a soft, gravelly voice said.

"Hey," she said, her voice softening as she smiled. "Where are you?"

"At the place," he answered, "what's with 'Treasure Chest'?"

Karla rolled her eyes as she sat down on a chair, "Stefan said to answer the phone that way so it would sound like this is a business or something. Yet another one of his brilliant ideas." The woman congratulated her ability not to use Jonathan's name on the phone. During the planning stages of the kidnapping, everybody involved agreed to use different names when referring to each other on the phone.

The man chuckled softly as he ran a hand through his hair, "He and Xander giving you any problems?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," she remarked, "Xander's being an absolute idiot, thinking he's Mr. Big Shit, meanwhile, Stefan has been a no-show."

"Stefan's not there?" The man asked, his voice conveying surprise, "Where is he?"

"Who knows?"

The man sighed deeply, "Okay, I need to get off of this in case somebody sees me, I'll call you later tonight, okay?"

Karla nodded. Breaking the rule just this once, she said, "Jack, I love you."

Jack Keller smiled softly, "You broke the rule, Celeste."

"I know," she said, "but I wanted to tell you. I wanted you to know."

"I love you too, honey, I'll call you later."

The next sound that Karla heard was the dial tone.

Jack quickly stuffed the cell phone in his pocket and walked back into the living room where Ed and Sam sat. Looking at his friend and former partner, the man strode in and sat down on the couch.

"Who were you talking to?" Deline inquired, an eye brow cocked.

"I was checking my voice mail," Keller lied.

Nodding, Ed said, in a quiet voice, "I'm glad that you thought to do that, because your voice mail is much more important than the task at hand."

Sam sighed deeply, "Ed, please, the last thing I want is for the two of you to get into a fight. I just don't think that I can handle that right now."

"I'm sorry," he sighed, hugging her. Casting a look at Jack, he said, "I apologize. You are helping us out here and I should be more appreciative. I apologize."

Keller waved his hand, "No harm done, Eddie. Listen, I need to get out of here for a few minutes so I'm going to go get everybody something for dinner. Any requests?"

Jack's question was met with Ed and Sam shaking their heads mutely. "Okay," he sighed, "I'll be back later." That said, Keller grabbed his keys and walked out of the house, not looking back.