A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 17: Pursuit

"Taylor, there you are."

Sawyer walked up to Taylor, who had exited his SUV and walked over to where the others were.

"Sawyer, have you heard anything?" Taylor asked, gazing at the police cars around them. "Was this for sure Hyde's doing?"

"We're not sure yet, but I don't doubt he had something to do with this," Sawyer frowned. "Is Christian here?"

"Ms. Steele convinced him to stay at Escala," Taylor grimaced. "It was too dangerous for him to come here with so many cops around."

"That was probably a smart move," Sawyer nodded. "Though I can't imagine how Christian must be feeling right now. Is he being updated on the situation?"

"Yeah, I just texted him," Taylor held up the phone in his hand. "He's understandably frustrated there's been no news."

"Tell me about it. I hate not being able to have anyone on the force I can trust enough to bring Hyde's information to," Sawyer frowned, lowering his voice as he glanced around the area. "If we're not careful, this could potentially turn ugly."

"Once the FBI agrees to take a look into Hyde, all this discretion right now will be worth it," Taylor said assuredly. "I'm sure Ms. Steele will appreciate it when this is all over with."

Sawyer looked over his shoulder, gazing through the small crowd of police officers milling around. "Where is Ana? She was right behind me a moment ago."

Taylor looked around too, but he couldn't seem to locate her either. "Shit."

In an instant, the two of them set off into the crowd, calling Ana's name and looking around for any sign of her. The bright flashing police lights accompanied by the night sky and the chatter surrounding them made it difficult to identify anyone, and Sawyer began to feel a bit nervous.

"Miss Kavanagh," Sawyer found her roommate talking to a guy next to a police car. "Have you seen Ana?"

Kate blinked at him in surprise. "Oh it's you," she said, obviously recognizing him. "I think Ana's inside."

Sawyer wasn't sure why Ana would go back inside the apartment, but he thanked Kate before turning to head back into the building.

As he hurried down the pathway toward the building, he saw a female cop wearing a windbreaker and a police cap passing by. "Excuse me, Officer - have you seen Ms. Steele?" he asked.

"No," she said without stopping and without a glance in his direction.

Sawyer stared after her. There was something odd about that woman. He began to follow her. "Excuse me? Officer?"

She didn't turn around, and Sawyer continued to follow her, moving faster to catch up. "Officer, can you stop for a moment? I'd like to see your badge."

Once again she didn't respond, and Sawyer reached out to grab her arm, spinning her around. In the flashing red and blue police lights, he recognized the face of Elizabeth - or rather, Eliza Karovsky.

"You," Sawyer whispered.

Before he could react, Elizabeth suddenly yanked her arm from his grasp and sprinted away toward the street, dodging and pushing aside anyone in her way. Sawyer immediately ran after her, and the others in the area all watched in surprise.

"STOP HER!" Sawyer yelled so the other cops would hear, and he pointed at Elizabeth. "She's impersonating a cop!"

In an instant, all the police officers understood the situation, and they began to race toward Elizabeth as she sprinted toward her car, yelling at her to stop.

"Taylor!" Sawyer shouted, stopping and turning around to gaze through the crowd for him. "Taylor, where are you?!"

He didn't see Taylor, but what he did see made his whole body freeze up: in the distance, beyond the police car lights, was the dark figure of a man running toward the street. He carried someone in his arms bridal style, and Sawyer immediately knew it was Ana.

Sawyer didn't know how he knew, but he knew beyond a doubt that that was Ana, and the man carrying her was Hyde.

Fuck!

"Hey!" Sawyer shouted, running toward Hyde, which was the opposite direction everyone else was running in. "Hey, stop!"

The dark figure that was Hyde ignored him as he reached a car and the trunk popped open. He shoved Ana into it before slamming the door shut.

"STOP!" Sawyer yelled at the top of his lungs, but it was too late - Jack had jumped into the front seat of the car and drove off, tires squealing in his wake. Sawyer reached down for his holster, but realized he had left his gun in his car.

Shit!

"Sawyer!" Taylor suddenly ran up to him. "Was that Hyde?"

"Yeah, he took Ana," Sawyer panted, turning left and sprinting toward his car, which was fortunately parked nearby. "I'm going after them."

"I'm coming with you," Taylor insisted, running beside him.

"No, you need to update Christian on what happened," Sawyer said firmly. "He's going to freak out and try to go after Hyde, and you have to keep him in check. I'm going alone."

"I'm not letting you go without backup," Taylor insisted angrily.

"I'll be fine. I've been trained to do stealth missions," Sawyer snapped once they reached his car. "Stay here and call Christian - I'll keep you updated."

"Sawyer!" Taylor shouted, but Sawyer ignored him as he got into his car and turned on the ignition, peeling off in the direction Hyde went.

Sawyer could see Hyde's tail lights in the distance, and he accelerated so he wouldn't lose his quarry. He gripped the steering wheel tightly in his fists, his jaw clenched; anger and guilt burned inside his gut, making him extremely on-edge. He had taken his eyes off Ana for only a few moments, and now she had been kidnapped by the very asshole they were trying to avoid. How could he have been so fucking stupid?

He glanced down at the passenger seat and saw his gun there along with his bulletproof vest. He immediately grabbed the gun and shoved it in his holster, and glanced back over at the vest - clipped to the upper right side was a small black box.

A bodycam.

Sawyer felt relieved to see that he'd remembered to keep one on him. That would definitely come in handy once he got to where Hyde was heading.

~Ana~

For some reason Ana felt too exhausted to open her eyes, her lids heavy like they were made of lead. She was curled up on what felt like a hard surface covered in scratchy material, and the air around her felt hot and stuffy; every so often her body jostled, as if the whole place was moving. Eventually, Ana managed to open one eye, and she saw a dim red light behind her illuminating the inside of the small enclosure she was in.

A car trunk.

Ana's groggy brain finally registered what was happening, and gradually she began to remember how she had gotten here: she'd been ambushed by Jack and Elizabeth behind her apartment building, Jack grabbed her from behind, and Elizabeth put a cloth to her mouth, causing her to pass out.

I need to get out of here.

Still weak from the chloroform, Ana tried to raise her arm and search around for the emergency pull tab so she could escape. But the whole car jostled again, and Ana's arm fell back down limply onto her stomach.

Gritting her teeth, she tried lifting her arm again, but the whole car turned sharply, causing her to be knocked back, and suddenly the car came to a stop, jolting her.

Fear suddenly settled in Ana's heart when she heard the car door slam shut and the crunch of footsteps on gravel coming closer. Before she could gather what little strength she had to try to fight her way out, the trunk opened and the silhouette of Jack stood above her against the night sky, the cool air from outside practically hitting her in the face.

In a moment, Jack leaned down and reached for Ana's head, and before she could properly react he had begun to tie an old dirty rag around the lower half of her face so as to muffle her mouth. Ana tried to squirm away, but Jack roughly grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled, causing Ana to whimper in pain.

"Stay still, or I'll start ripping chunks of hair out of your fucking head," Jack growled in a low threatening voice, still with an iron grip on her hair, and Ana froze. She had heard Jack angry before, but this murderer man-handling her sounded almost possessed. Ana knew what Jack was capable of, so she felt keen to follow his instructions. She kept as still as possible while he finished gagging her mouth with the filthy rag.

"Now get out," he hissed, and he let go of her hair so he could grasp her biceps and pull her roughly out of the trunk. Ana landed heavily on the ground, which was a gritty brown-colored gravel.

Run.

Ana knew she had to try to escape, but she still felt weak from the chloroform, and she couldn't pull herself upright. The next moment, Ana heard the click of a gun being cocked, and her heart froze in her chest.

"Get up," Jack hissed, grabbing the back of Ana's shirt and practically yanking her to her feet. He then pushed the gun to her ribs, hurting her to the point where she winced. "Now move."

Reflexively, Ana began to walk forward with slow uneven steps, Jack directing her from behind. Since it was so dark out Ana couldn't see where they were going, but she could tell they were no longer in the city - there was just a large stretch of highway behind them and bare fields surrounding them, and she was able to make out a large outline of a building they were walking toward. Once they got close enough, she detected the stale scent of hay and saw the weathered wood of a large barn door.

Jack pulled it open before shoving Ana inside, causing her to stumble slightly. He then grabbed her arm and pulled her over to a nearby post in the middle of the large empty barn.

"C'mere," Jack growled, pulling her along roughly before pushing her back up against the post. He then brought her arms back behind her so her wrists crossed, and after a moment Ana felt him tying them with something that felt rough and hard.

After he finished tying her up, Jack wordlessly made his way out the door, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and dialing someone. Once he was gone, Ana immediately began to struggle with her bonds - they felt like they were made of hard plastic, and she looked over her shoulder to see multiple zip ties binding her wrists together. Ana fruitlessly tried pulling her arms apart, but they were bound too tightly.

Shit.

Ana's mind went to Christian, and she desperately hoped she would get to see him again. Taylor and Sawyer had been in the vicinity when Jack had taken her, so she hoped they had seen something. However, she had no idea how long she had been unconscious, and for all she knew, she had been missing for many hours and they had no idea where she was.

This is bad.

Ana continued to pull roughly at the zip ties binding her, but they didn't budge. The dirty rag around her head was also tied too tightly, even as she tried to rub the knot against the wooden post she was tied to. The position she was in was awkward, and the wood splintered against the back of her head, but she continued to rub against the post, hoping desperately to get the rag off.

"Nice try bitch."

Ana stiffened before glancing over at the barn door, where Jack reentered. It was dark in here, so she only saw his silhouette, but he reached up above his head and pulled a string, causing a lightbulb to flicker on. It was very bright compared to the darkness Ana had been engulfed in, and she squinted before looking away.

"Do you think I'd be so stupid as to allow you to escape?" Jack went on, walking toward her, but Ana refused to look up at him. "We're too far away from anyone and anything that could possibly help you, Ms. Steele. Though I suppose now that we're inside there's no point to having this anymore."

Jack stepped in front of her and grabbed the dirty rag around her face, yanking it off. Ana was pulled forward by the force of his grab, but the rag was off her face now, and she spit to get the gross taste of it out of her mouth.

Jack didn't say a word as he stood over her, and Ana eventually looked up at him, meeting his eyes. His face was gaunt and pale, and sweat glistened on his forehead as his dark eyes remained fixed on hers.

"…Are you going to kill me?" Ana whispered after a moment. She was at least thankful her voice didn't shake, despite how frightened she was.

Jack let out a low, sinister chuckle. "I would certainly like to, considering the fact you've ruined everything I'd been working toward for years," he said quietly, the danger in his voice making Ana shiver. "But don't worry. I won't kill you… yet."

The lilt in his voice made Ana sure he was trying to frighten her, and Ana felt rage build up inside of her body in addition to her fear. "Why not? Are you afraid to murder me like you murdered Elena Lincoln?"

Jack's face fell into an evil scowl, and he immediately grabbed her throat, squeezing it tightly and forcing her chin up. "Don't go around talking about things you couldn't possibly understand," he growled, his mouth inches from her face. "The plan I had put in motion after murdering Elena would have been perfect if you hadn't fucked everything up. Now I have to improvise."

He squeezed one more time before finally letting go of her throat, and Ana coughed and gasped for air.

"Why?" Ana panted after a moment. "Why did you frame Christian? Why do you hate him so much?"

She wanted answers, but mostly she wanted to stall Jack as much as possible so he wouldn't hurt her again. Or do something worse.

"You really don't know, do you?" Jack sneered. "You thought you could stop me even when you don't know the whole fucking story? You've always been a dumb bitch."

"I was smart enough to figure out what you did," Ana shot back. "And you're terrified I ruined your chance to send Christian to prison."

"Sending Grey to prison was only part of the plan," Jack countered, an angry glint in his eye. "You truly don't know who that man is, do you?"

Ana felt a queasy sensation in her stomach, but quickly pushed it away. "I know that he's innocent," she said firmly. "And you're a murderous psychopath."

"He's a sadist," Jack spit out, as if those words were acid on his tongue. "He's a sick fuck who ties up women and beats the shit out of them for his own sexual pleasure, and for years he's presented himself as a respectable public figure while hiding his true self from the rest of the world. But not anymore."

Jack moved over so he was at Ana's left side, his hot breath centimeters away from her ear, causing her to squirm away. "Elena Lincoln was necessary in my plan, Ms. Steele. She's the one who seduced Grey as a teenager, teaching him how to harness his sadistic tendencies into sexually exploiting women. He'd been doing it for years under her guidance, and he'd managed to hide it from the world… until now."

Jack slowly walked behind Ana and came around on her other side, causing her to shiver. "I don't just want Grey arrested, Ms. Steele… I want him to be humiliated. Exposed. Ashamed. And Elena Lincoln's death will be the catalyst of the truth coming out into the light, bringing that sadistic asshole the public humiliation he deserves."

Jack finally stepped away, and Ana felt as if her whole body had been turned to stone.

A/N: Uh oh… what's going to happen now?

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