Danny woke up to find himself, securely tied to some kind of wooden support beam, the ropes around his midriff, wrists and ankles cut into him sharply. He was appalled to find himself gagged, after a few futile minutes, trying in vain to free himself, he realised it was useless. There was no sign of anyone else, his captors or the girl.
His captors! God this was beginning to get more than humiliating, he was supposed to find missing people not become one. He imagined the jokes when he was eventually found especially Fitz and Sam! He would never live it down. He tried to get a proper view on his surroundings, small dark, basement, maybe?
Suddenly the door opened and Jim Moss walked in, carrying the unconscious girl he had spent the last day trying to find. The son, Jake hovered nervously in the background staring at Danny, who gave him what he hoped was a defiant look behind the gag. Just what did this sick bastard want? To make Freddy suffer then kill his girlfriend? He saw her face and was sickened by what the brute had done to her. She was covered in bruises and had several deep cuts probably caused by a pen knife. She looked very pale, and where her dress had been torn off, he could see her legs were bloody and bruised. Moss then threw her roughly down onto the floor like a rag doll. Danny could feel the rage boiling up inside of him, this guy wasn't human, and he wished he could do something but all he could do was stare helplessly.
Moss pulled up a chair in front of Danny and sat just facing him, for the thousandth time, Danny was left thinking just how creepy this guy was, he showed no emotion. "So you're Agent Danny Taylor" Moss pronounced the name carefully, reading from the ID that he had found on Danny. "How does it feel to be on the other side of the fence so to speak, not a very smart thing to do, getting caught is it?"
Danny wished he could shout, scream and tell this psycho exactly what he thought of him, unfortunately the duct tape was preventing him from uttering so much as a curse. Once more he struggled against the bonds that held him, trying to loosen the rope around his wrists; he was surprised to feel it give way slightly.
Finally Moss reached over and tore the tape off Danny's mouth, his son watching anxiously in the shadows.
"It's not a very smart thing to do to kidnap an agent" Danny stated simply. "They will undoubtedly be looking for me"
"That may be true Danny but they don't know where to look, even if that hapless young partner of yours finally managed to track down my call, they'll be too late now, we've moved. It's a very smart thing to do, I don't want money from the Blake's, but you, how much is kidnapping insurance at the FBI nowadays, enough for a nice holiday?"
"You're scum Moss they are still just kids, didn't any one ever tell you to pick on someone your own age. Those kids did the world a favour by shopping you"
Danny felt the full force of Moss's fist at that comment, he ploughed on undeterred as the blood began to run into his mouth, hopefully now that he had Danny he would use Danny as his punch bag and not the girl in the corner that was yet to move. "They'll find you and then you will go back where you belong, in prison! Rot in Hell!" Danny spat in his face. Surprisingly, Moss seemed unperturbed simply reaching up to wipe the mix of spittle and blood away. He got up to walk away but at the last minute delivered a crushing kick to Danny's ribs, who wheezed violently, all the wind knocked out of him. Laughing, he and Jake left the dark dingy room, securely dead bolting the door that imprisoned the captives.
Martin hit the steering wheel in frustration, they were right back where they started, and only now the situation had took an even more frightening twist, with the life of his partner at stake. Samantha sat beside him, also privately fearing the worst for Danny.
Jack had reassured them that Moss wanted Danny for a reason, otherwise he could have just killed him when he arrived at Jake's house. Samantha knew Jack was right, but until they had Danny safely back with them, she would worry, and she knew Danny was a strong character, he should be OK but something about this case was chilling her to the bone.
They were playing a waiting game, they didn't have the first clue where Danny or Daphne was, or where to start looking, Viv had made a start on places Jake or Jim had either rented out in the past but was so far drawing a blank. They had to wait until Danny's kidnapper's made contact and Samantha hated not having the upper hand. They had pulled up outside Freddy Jones apartment, and were just waiting to go inside.
"Come on Martin" Samantha sighed, "Sitting here moping is not going to help Danny or us" She stated pointedly.
"I just feel so useless Sam, we couldn't find Daphne and now the situation has got even worse, maybe if I hadn't wound the guy up on the phone, he might have just left Danny"
"Yeh right Martin, he would have left Danny alright. He would have left him dead" Samantha didn't want Martin beating himself up over this, it wasn't helping.
Martin finally managed to pull himself together and he and Sam went to go speak to Freddy to tell him they hadn't got any closer to finding his kidnapped girlfriend. It was days like this that made Martin begin to hate his job.