Savior

Chapter 72

-xx-

"What do you mean – her ring is missing?!" JJ gripped her purse as she stood from her chair in the waiting room. "Did you tell Hotch? They have Jade in interrogation right now."

Derek nodded as he ran a hand over his face. This night was proving to be longer than they all expected. "Rossi is checking her belongings. Do you think she'd be stupid enough to take it?"

JJ shrugged. She turned towards the windows leading to the parking lot. Emily was pacing back and forth with her cell phone to her ear. "We'll find it, Derek."

He was about to open his mouth when Emily stepped through the sliding doors. "Fred Hanson just showed up at Clooney's."

JJ's face dropped at the words. The blonde turned to her best friend and watched the emotion play across his features. "Derek," she warned.

"Morgan, Cate needs you here," Emily reminded as she neared the couch to sit. "Hotch has been informed as well. They're on their way."

"We're closer," he muttered. He shoved a hand into his pocket to pull out his keys.

JJ stepped in front of him as he took his first step towards the doors. "Derek," his eyes flashed with anger as he looked down at the blonde. "Think this out first. You can't be there for Cate if you do this."

Derek placed a hand to the blonde's shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. "Look after her for me," he asked softly before stepping around her and out of the front doors. JJ exhaled and dropped her head.

"What do we do now?" Emily asked from her spot on the couch. She had her elbows on her knees and rested her head in her hands. "Do I follow him?"

Jennifer shook her head. "Give Hotch a heads up that Derek's on his way. It's not going to end well."

"And," Prentiss asked. "What are you going to do?"

The blonde shrugged, trying her best to keep her emotions in check. "I'll reach out to Garcia – she should be in the office by now. I'll get Cate's sister's number and let her know what's going on." She pursed her lips, fighting what she really wanted to say. "We're going to stay here with Cate."

The justification in the petite blonde's voice made Emily nod. "Okay," she said as she stood from her seat. "One of us should be in with her at all times."

JJ blinked away the tears brimming her eyes – she was so sick of people screwing with her family. They had suffered too many losses in the years that she had been on the team. Derek deserved his happily-ever-after and she was not going to let someone ruin that for him.

She nodded before stepping up to the nurse's station to ask for entry to Cate's room.

-xx-

Hotchner

Derek rolled his eyes as he slid the phone to disconnect the call again. It was the third time Hotch had tried to get in touch with him since he left the hospital. Aaron Hotchner could not talk him down now.

"You can't help Cate if you do this," JJ's words rang in his ear. Derek slammed his hands off of the steering wheel and let out a frustrated yell.

He was ending this once and for all. This family thought they were powerful – they had no idea what Derek was capable of. He would go to the ends of the earth to make sure they kept away from Cate. That woman had been through enough in the past few years. He was not going to let them put her through more.

Jareau

Morgan sighed as his cell phone lit up in his lap. "JJ," he answered harshly.

"Derek?"

He closed his eyes and gripped the cell phone tighter in his hand. "Hey baby," he replied softly as Cate's voice filled his ear.

"Where are you?" She sounded so tired. Her voice was raspy, and he was sure it had to do with the light handprint left on her throat.

"I need to take care of something."

She sighed. "Please don't."

Her sniffles caused him to lift the phone from his ear. His heart was telling him to turn around and let Hotch and Rossi deal with the eldest Hanson, but his mind was telling him to end it all now. "I need to do this, baby."

He could hear her attempt to adjust herself in the bed, and he smirked at the grunts that came out of her mouth. "Come back," she begged. "I'm so tired."

He closed his eyes for a moment; he knew he should have never left her, but he needed to know what Fred planned. What that monster orchestrated had against his fiancée.

Derek needed to find that ring. He only prayed that she had yet to realize it was gone. He laughed in spite of himself – hopefully she didn't notice that several of her nails had broken when she tried to fight back.

"I'll be back soon, baby."

"Promise me," she cried. "Don't do anything stupid."

He pursed his lips. It wasn't stupid to put away a man who was hell bent on ruining her life. "I promise, Catie."

"I love you."

He smiled as he turned the wheel, pulling up to Clooney's Bar. "I love you, Catherine. More than you will ever know."

It pained him to hit end on the call. Derek placed his cell phone on the center console of the truck before stepping out. He chuckled; he could see the agent in the stakeout car picking up his cell phone to most likely call Hotch.

He took one last deep breath before walking in to the rundown bar. It only took seconds to spot the gray haired man sitting at the bar. His tailored suit was an easy find in the main room.

Derek strode to the man in question as the bar and watched as he laughed when he picked up his glass of scotch. Derek reached out to smack the glass out of his hand, sending it flying over the bar.

Fred stood in a huff. "Who the hell do you think you are?" he asked as he turned towards Derek. His face slowly split into a smirk. "Ah, Agent Morgan," he cooed. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

Before Fred could figure out what was going on, Derek had him slammed down against the bar top. He had one arm twisted behind him and Derek's forearm across the back of his neck. "You know damn well why I'm here."

Fred Hanson laughed. "You must have me confused with someone else," he answered gruffly.

Derek applied more pressure to his arm. "Nah," he replied. "I've got the right piece of shit."

"Did something happen to your sweet girlfriend?" Fred taunted, but cried out when Derek kept twisting his arm behind his back.

"Who did you hire?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Agent," he answered.

Derek could sense someone standing behind him. He slowly turned to look over his shoulder, all while keeping pressure on the two points on Fred. "Looking for this?" the man asked with a laugh. A smirk crossed his face as he lifted Cate's engagement ring from his pocket.

He fought with himself mentally as to how to react; keep Fred where is he or lunge for the ring. A ring can be replaced – but letting Fred go could become costly.

Derek Morgan got the last laugh as Rossi stepped up behind the man holding the ring and clicked off the safety on his gun. "You should be giving that back. I don't think that's your size," the Italian said.

The man sighed and dropped the ring out of his hand. Derek released Fred's arm and caught the diamond ring, all while keeping pressure against Hanson's neck. He tucked the ring safely in his pocket before turning back to Fred Hanson.

"Morgan, we've got 'em," Hotch ordered as he stepped up to the bar.

He nodded but could not seem to pull his arm away from Fred. He fought every urge to kill the man where he stood at that moment. "Derek, let him go," Rossi urged as he cuffed the man in front of him. "It's over."

They turned to the man face down at the bar laughing. Derek grabbed him by the hair to stand him up. "It'll never be over, Derek. She put one son in jail, but I have another who'll finish the job."

Aaron slapped the cuffs on Fred's wrists as Derek stepped into his face. "Touch another hair on that woman and I will put you six feet under. Is that understood?"

He fought every urge to smack the smirk off of the older man's face. "I'm sure Pauly touched more than a hair," he added smugly.

Hotch tightened his grip on Fred as soon as Derek landed the punch. The black man turned on his heel and started out of the bar. He never turned back until he reached his truck.

-xx-