Coldest Degree

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Red Eye or CSI: Miami!

Chapter Ten

"Looks like we've got a visitor, huh, sweetheart?" sneered Jonathan Weiss, placing the tip of his blunt knife to Lisa's chin and trailing it down her throat.

He ripped the tape from her mouth and she bit back a scream.

"What do you think we should do with him?"

"Leave him alone!" Lisa cried. "Leave Jackson alone! He has nothing to do with this!"

"Actually, my dear, he has everything to do with this. He's the reason that you're here with me."

"Liar!"

With his foot, Weiss gave Jackson a swift kick to the abdomen. The former manager lay motionless on the floor. Lisa moaned as if she had been the one kicked.

"Stop it! Don't hurt him!"

"Really? Then who should I hurt? Do you think he'd mind if I killed you while he lies there? Do you think he'd mind if we had a little bit of fun?"

"You're sick," Lisa whispered, quivering in her chair. "Why can't you leave us alone?"

"You know too much to leave. Besides, it's because of him," he paused and kicked the defenseless man again, "that I spent three years in prison. He hurt me, so now I'll hurt him. And then I found out that a little girl changed the great Rippner's mind. You helped turn him, and now you're paying for it."

"Please don't…we can pay you… Jackson can pay you, just let us live…"

"I can't do that. Stop your sniveling or I won't let you live long enough to say good-bye to your precious Jackson…"

Lisa's head dropped after he released her chin and her green eyes dimmed. The end was near for her and Jackson. Despite her attempts to free them both, she knew that they would both die in that basement. Weiss would kill them both. There was no hope left anymore.

"The back door is broken," announced Eric Delko over a radio.

"Mr. Rippner is already here then," responded Horatio's voice.

"Should we go in?"

"Proceed, Eric."

Two teams entered the house silently and made their way down to the basement. Horatio's team headed down the wooden steps first.

"Miami-Dade PD, drop your weapon! Drop your weapon!" shouted Horatio, his gun trained on the only figure standing. An unconscious body lay on the floor beside the man.

A muffled scream alerted them to the presence of a frightened and hurt woman. A quick glance confirmed that it was a very much alive Lisa Rippner. She was painfully bound to a chair and her mouth sealed with a harsh hand.

Jonathan Weiss smiled at the police and continued to hold the knife in his grasp. Lisa's cries grew louder and more agitated and her eyes darted towards the floor and the police several times. Suddenly, Weiss dropped the blade and it entered the body on the floor. Lisa gave a mournful cry and closed her tearing eyes.

"Hands in the air! Keep them where I can see them!" barked Horatio, stepping closer towards their serial murderer.

Calleigh separated from the group and hurried over towards Lisa Rippner.

Eric was on the radio again. "I need two ambulances or a Medivac ASAP at 4080 Breezeway. We have serious injuries and blood loss."

"It's going to be okay," Calleigh reassured Lisa as she carefully clipped and marked the other woman's bonds. Every bit of evidence that she could collect from the distraught woman would help cement the killer's place in jail.

Lisa's frail body was shaking with sobs.

"Jackson," she muttered pitifully. "Jackson!"

"We've got a pulse!" Delko shouted from the floor beside the bleeding, dark-haired man.

Calleigh finished freeing Lisa, who rushed to the side of her fallen husband with surprising speed. Jackson Rippner was bleeding from both a head wound and from the knife stuck in his chest.

"No, Jackson," moaned Lisa, grabbing his hand and pressing it against her cheek. "You have to wake up. Damn you!"

She reeled back and slapped him across the face. "Wake up! Wake up, Jackson!" she screeched.

"Hold her back!" Horatio called and hurried over to pull the hysterical young woman off her dying husband.

"No! No! Jackson!" she cried, struggling to return to his side.

Eric was applying pressure on the chest wound while Calleigh attended to the head wound.

"Calm down, Mrs. Rippner," Horatio said softly.

"No! Let me see him! Jackson!"

"Mrs. Rippner, we need to let my team work on him."

"He's my husband! Jackson! Let me see him!"

"You're hurt and so is he. Now is not the best time for either of you."

"And you're making things worse!" Lisa retorted angrily. "It's because of you he's hurt. If he dies, then it's your fault! Now let me see him!"

Lisa jerked free from Horatio's loosened grasp and returned to Jackson's side. She grabbed his hand again and sat on the side opposite of Eric and Calleigh. "Jackson, look at me. Please…"

"Help is on the way," Calleigh reassured the distraught woman, who was weeping. "It'll be okay."

Lisa was bleeding herself, but she did not seem to notice her wounds as she clung to her husband. She swatted away anyone who attempted to touch her while she was with Jackson. Finally, after a few tense minutes, the paramedics arrived.

Jackson was placed on a stretcher and lifted from the ground. Lisa still held his hand and moved to follow him when Horatio Caine stopped her. "You can't go with him. You need to come with me so that you can be processed and treated. Without you and the evidence you carry, the man who hurt you, Jackson, and all those girls will walk. Do you really want that to happen?"

"No," Lisa whispered hoarsely. "No, I don't. But I don't want to leave him. He never left me…"

"He's going to head directly into surgery. You would have been parted anyways. Come with me and we'll see him as soon as possible, okay?"

Lisa relented and followed Horatio out to the ambulance waiting for her. The Medivac was already in the air, Jackson safely aboard.

Once Lisa was in the ambulance and lying on the stretcher, her wounds got the better of her and she collapsed into the inky blackness. She had pushed her body beyond its limits in order to survive for the past two weeks. It had taken its toll on her and for the first time in days, she slept peacefully.

Author's Notes:

Sorry about the delay in updating. Life spun out of control last week. I also went back and edited chapters 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 before finishing this one. The epilogue should be up on Tuesday. Thanks for reading/reviewing!