Goren stepped carefully onto the porch, listening to the boards creak under his weight. It would be a miracle if he didn't end up in the basement of the condemned building. He glanced off to his left, toward the ocean a hundred-odd yards away. Then he stepped up beside the front door, pulling his gun from its holster. Taking a deep breath, he kicked the door in and stepped into the darkness beyond it.

Standing off to the side of the door, he waited for his eyes to adjust to the dim interior of the building. Enough light filtered in through broken windows and gaps in the boarding to let him see the foyer. A stairway led up to the right, into the darkness of the second floor. In front of him was the reception desk. Sitting on the desk, leaning back with her ankles crossed, was Nicole Wallace.

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Eames had dozed off in the chair. It was easier to sleep than it was to be awake, when all she could do was focus on her hunger and her concern for her partner, who she knew would not have enough sense to stay away. No, he would walk his stupid ass right into whatever it was Wallace had waiting for him, and that worried her a great deal. But there was nothing she could do about it, and that only made her angrier. Her wrists were raw from struggling against the metal cuffs, and she could feel her blood, sticky on her hands. But the pain helped take her mind away from the hunger that stabbed at her gut. No matter how she looked at it, the entire situation just sucked!

She suddenly jolted awake. What was that? There it was again… a sound in the hallway. Fuck! Just when she felt herself slipping into oblivion…a sweet oblivion she'd been retreating to where Nicole Wallace did not exist, and she and Bobby did…

Bracing herself for another humiliating conversation, she sat tensely waiting, her tension increasing as the door slowly opened. But it wasn't Nicole Wallace who stepped into the room. She didn't recognize the silhouette. Great, Wallace had an accomplice now. Where did she dig this lowlife up from?

"Alex?"

That voice…she knew that voice… "Mike?"

Stepping closer, into the shafts of light that sliced into the room, Mike Logan dropped to a knee beside her chair. "Hey, are you ok?"

His hands touched her head, her shoulders…searching for injury…"I'm ok, Mike. What are you doing here? Where's Bobby?"

"I've come to get you out of here and make sure you're safe."

He pulled out a pocketknife and sliced through the cords that bound her to the chair. Quietly pulling out his keys, he found his handcuff key and released her wrists. "Where's Bobby?" she asked again.

"He's…being Bobby. He's gone after Wallace so I can get you the hell out of here."

"No…No, Mike. Is he crazy? We can't let him…"

Logan grabbed her face between his hands. "There's nothing you can do, Alex. Nothing except get him killed. Let him do what he has to do. If something happens to you, then all this will be for nothing. If you really care about your partner, you'll come with me and get the hell out of here. And I have no comment on the crazy part."

"But…"

"Come on." He grabbed her hand and pulled her gently to the boarded up window. Kicking out enough of the boards to make a hole big enough for them to slip out, he followed her from the room, down into the sand. "Glad it was a first floor room," he commented. "Come on."

He led her up the beach, away from the motel, toward his car. Once there, he said, "Let me see those wrists."

"How did you know where to find me?"

"Wallace led us here. She sent him an…interesting message, and of course he responded to it just like she knew he would. Brilliant plan, taking you as a hostage. That way she knew there was no way he wouldn't come, and you wouldn't be there to back him up, like you always are. But what she didn't figure on was that I would be with him. So, since I have obviously lost my mind, I am going back in there to back him up, but I want your word as a cop that you will stay right here and wait for us, or I won't go."

"Mike…"

"You want me to cuff you to the steering wheel?" She was quiet, glaring angrily at him. He shook his head. "Don't be stubborn, Eames. He made me promise that I would make sure you were safe, no matter what happened to him. Don't make me break my word or he'll break my body. Something bad is going to happen to him if I don't get in there. But I am not going, unless I have your word you'll stay here. There's some water and a couple of burgers in the back seat. Help yourself. Can I go now, or do I have to stay here with you to keep my promise?"

Eames studied him, torn between her loyalty to her partner and Logan's threat. Compromise…that's how she and Goren worked. "I'll stay here, but only for fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, I'm coming in. Got it?"

Well, it was better than nothing. Could they take Wallace down in fifteen minutes? He sure hoped so. All he knew was that he was losing time arguing about it, and he was anxious to get back to the motel. "How about twenty?"

"Fifteen, Logan."

"All right. Fifteen minutes."

He opened the glove box and pulled out a .38, handing it to her without a word. He turned to head back to the motel. "Mike…" He looked back at her. "Don't let him do anything stupid."

"Sure, ok…and you stop the sun from setting tonight." She gave him a look that made him as uncomfortable as any Goren had given him lately. "I'll do what I can."