A huge, big, massive thank you to Nikki, who made my Christmas with the most incredible trailer for this fic. You can view it on YouTube under: SVU || Dust and Bone Trailer (2016) by Nitty_Skitty
And if it weren't for this delightful motivation this chapter probably wouldn't have come until the New Year!
Here is your Christmas present - just in the Nik of time hahahah see what I did there?
X
She hears tussling, bodies colliding, a struggle of limbs as she scrambles into a sitting position. She looks up to see Elliot getting slammed against the car door and she doesn't have enough traction so she falls back from the force.
"Get in the car," she hears Tony rasp.
She is searching avidly for anything resembling a weapon but it's too late, the doors are opening and both Tony and Elliot are piling into the front seat. Her fingers graze the car floor as they frantically curl around the metal cuffs. She sits up quickly, slipping a bracelet over her wrist and the other into the car door but she doesn't lock them closed, just shields them from view.
Tony hits the accelerator before she has a chance to steady herself and she grips onto the door handle, her shoulder thudding into the side door from the force. They gain a few miles down the road before the tension-filled silence is broken.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Tony whispers under his breath.
A few beats pass before Elliot responds.
"The bitch was giving me lip," Elliot rasps back as if he were waiting for this.
"You know better - in a public place.." Tony shoots a look towards Elliot. "Security cameras, witnesses - the fuckChase," he rasps. "You do realise what this means.."
Elliot gives Tony a sideways glance.
"We're going further for the dump," Tony spits.
She watches the expression on Elliot's face register this new piece of information.
"Tone.." Elliot counters with a heavy exhale. "Listen.. she wouldn't have been in view, let's just stick to the original plan - you know what happens when we go off script."
She can tell by the timbre of Elliot's voice that he's trying to placate the scenario but when no response comes from Tony the air in the car grows ripe with tension.
Her eyes move from Elliot's profile to the back of Tony's head and that's when she feels the car begin to steadily accelerate. Her fingers grip onto the door handle and she sucks in a weighted breath, knowing the tension in the car has changed considerably.
"We drive to Dayton tonight," Tony mutters under his breath.
Olivia strains her ears to overhear what is being said.
Did he just say Dayton? Dayton, Ohio?
"I know a guy, we sleep one night and we're back on the road first thing."
Her breath is staring to quicken, her pulse thrumming in response because that's another four hours on the road at least - tonight alone.
"Ton-" Elliot tries.
"Then tomorrow," Tony cuts Elliot off with a rasp, "we head further south for the dump - Louisville or Lexington maybe.."
"And what.." Elliot scoffs. "We just take her in with us tonight? Introduce her to your friend then cuff her to a radiator all night?" He rasps. "Your friends not gonna talk?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Tony rumbles before turning towards Elliot. "We put a bullet in her head before the nights out - she can sleep it off in the trunk. Then you won't have to worry about her giving you anymore lip."
Olivia's pulse starts to thrum as she watches Elliot lock eyes with Tony. She knows it then, Tony's waiting for a reaction from him, almost as if he were testing the waters to see how he would react to the prospect of her imminent death. Suddenly the power between them shifts and a slickness returns to the base of her palms.
Elliot finally turns away from Tony and it hits.
All bets are now suddenly off.
The plan has changed, everything they had discussed in the trailer was now redundant. She isn't going to be choked to death and buried alive in a shallow grave to eventually escape, she is going to be shot - point-blank, execution style before the night is even out.
"If we didn't have such a long ride ahead of us, I'd shoot the bitch right now," Tony mutters his fingers curling earnestly over the leather of the wheel, "but we don't need the smell of her rotting flesh permeating through the trunk all night do we?" He rasps towards the darkened road ahead.
Olivia's eyes are trained on Elliot, he looks ghost white now and her eyes are starting to prick with tears because she can feel it, he is shutting down - losing hope, he knows their options are heavily limited and any chance of communicating new plans with her are shot to hell. She watches red heat start to creep up Elliot's neck and she's seen this version of him before, the one that gives up, the one that gives in, the one who realizes he has nothing left in the tank and physically and emotionally folds his cards well before the game is over. It was the same look she saw after Jenna - the same one that's haunted her ever since.
She knows it's up her to her now, she has just been given an expiration date – four hours,and she can either spend it praying for her salvation or she can shock the system, go in half-cocked, rogue - literally wipe that look of surrender clean off Elliot's face because she'll be damned if she has come this far just to come this far.
Her heart is hammering in her chest because she knows she is about to act and it's the same bout of adrenaline that was pumping as that iron rod plummeted down on Lewis over and over again – it's the same surge she felt as she clicked that revolver against her temple once, twice - three times. It's the same cortisone-fuelled state she would wake up in nightmare upon nightmare, dripping from his sweat, still feeling his breath, his hands, his skin marking hers as his memory continues to torment her from the grave.
She sucks in a jagged breath, a tear slipping down her cheek, her throat constricting with phlegm as she shakily removes the cuff from the car handle before locking it around her other wrist. The car beneath her is doing 110 down a deserted highway and she is trembling as she shuffles forward until her knees touch the back of the seat. She is watching Tony's steady gaze in the rear-view mirror, her heart hammering in her ears but it's the moment his eyes lift up to meet hers that she flicks like a switch.
Her bound hands fly over the back of his head yanking his neck violently backwards. Tony's hands fly off the wheel immediately grasping her hold as the metal chain restricts his throat. The screech of breaks and loss of the steering wheel causes the car to skid wildly off it's axis and she can hear Elliot yelling. She tugs his neck tighter causing Tony to gag, spit and choke against her force. The tyres hiss and her wrists burn against the metal force, her stomach churns in response because all she sees is Lewis now. She calls out against the spinning car, her cries getting muffled by upholstery as she sobs into the seat in front of her because it's nearly over, she thinks - no more, no more, no more, no more- after this there will be no more and it's like she's spouting a mantra of refuge and surrender.
The car glides as if it's on ice now and she can still feel clawing on her wrists but she just gnaws down on her lower lip with a muffled cry waiting for final impact. She hears distant cries of Elliot calling out to stop but she's unable release Lewis, unable to allow a single breath to fill his lungs and when the car finally comes to a weighted stop it's three painstakingly, silent beats before blinding headlights and a blaring car horn sends them careening full force into blackness.
TBC
Merry Christmas.
