Tyler looked like a man that had been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night...because he had been. He and Bonnie had called it an early night after a couple enthusiastic rounds of fucking. There was no sane person that would call what happened earlier 'lovemaking'. He could feel every bite mark and scratch that Bonnie had left behind. Likewise, he was certain that bruises would become visible on Bonnie by morning. She had been in rare form when he met her at the beach house that evening. He couldn't tell if she wanted to cry, kill someone, or perhaps a combination of the two while recounting Damon's efforts to find her rapist. Tyler had tried talking to her but Bonnie shut him down at every turn. She wanted to fuck or to be left the fuck alone. There wasn't a chance in hell that he was leaving her alone in that state.

The young man's day had been arduous long before his girlfriend asked to meet at the beach house. Richard knew that arguing with his son was a lost cause. Tyler had inherited the infamous Loiacono temper and stubbornness. Continuing to badger the young man would have only led to a physical altercation. Instead, Richard enlisted the help of his own mother. Tyler had spent the better part of the day with his grandmother, Roseanne. He had an unshakable bond with her. After the murder of her husband, she lived with Tyler's family for many years. She had managed her grief by doting on her grandchildren. Mason and Brady were still children but had refused to be coddled by their mother. Both boys thought they had to grow up in the wake of their father's death. Richard had nurtured that sense of responsibility in his younger brothers.

Tyler knew the score when his grandmother asked him to visit her. He drove out to her condo in Santa Monica to hear her plea. He would never consider raising his voice to his beloved grandmother. Tyler just had to listen to her gently explain the reasons why marrying Elena was the only option. However, Roseanne was the only one to offer him an alternative to a loveless marriage. She suggested that Tyler marry Elena now to ensure his child wasn't born out of wedlock. Afterwards, he could file for divorce with few consequences. Sure the Gilberts might be a little stung by the blatant rejection of their daughter but they had done a poor job of raising her in Roseanne's opinion. How had they raised a girl that had the audacity to look down her nose at the very business that financed her extravagant life? Tyler didn't want to marry Elena at all but he appreciated that Roseanne was the only family member that seemed to care about his happiness.

Currently, he was standing across the street from the hospital with a cigarette dangling from his lips. Part of him had wanted to ignore the dozen or so 'Smoke-Free Campus' signs he saw posted around the hospital. However, he was in no mood to be kicked off the hospital's property. Bonnie was in a weird emotional place and needed his presence more than she would admit. It didn't help that Damon was giving an award winning performance as an emotionally wounded man in desperate need of saving. The idiot didn't realize that Bonnie was minutes away from sticking a blade between his ribs to puncture his lungs. She had not forgiven him for the argument in his office. Bonnie wasn't the forgiving sort and she wouldn't soon forget Damon's insinuation that she wanted to be raped.

Tyler would be inside the hospital right now if he wasn't waiting for Brady to arrive. He had called his uncle about picking up food for Bonnie. They had been at the hospital for hours and she was hungry now. Bonnie would have been satisfied with something from the vending machines but none of it was healthy enough for her and the twins. The last thing she needed was to eat something packed with sodium. Her ankles and feet were already swollen. Fortunately, Brady was staying the night with Lucy. She offered to throw together a quick meal for the younger couple and Brady would act as the delivery boy. Tyler was grateful that Lucy thought to include him. He had skipped dinner earlier in favor of getting to Bonnie faster.

He scowled as he saw Damon walking across the street. Tyler had never known him to be a smoker so this wasn't a mere coincidence. He took a drag from his cigarette and glared at Damon. He wanted nothing more than to knock him the fuck out for hurting Bonnie earlier. He doubted the self-centered ass even knew how much harm he had caused. Damon had picked at a sore on Bonnie's psyche that had been festering for years.

"Smoking is a nasty habit," Damon said with some amusement in his voice. He was trying to start the conversation with some cordial banter. He held no illusions about what Tyler thought about him-right or wrong.

"You want to talk about cigarettes being a nasty habit while we're at the hospital because your mistress overdosed on prescription pills?" Tyler sneered.

The older man offered a crooked smile in response. He had actually expected Tyler to bring up his own drug use. However, it seemed that he wasn't at the top of his game now. Damon couldn't blame him for that, it was nearly 3 o'clock in the morning. He was exhausted, too. He said, "Touche…"

He studied Damon for a long moment and then asked, "What do you want, Damon? You hate me. You can't expect me to believe that you're standing out here to be chummy."

He took a moment to consider his words. Damon confessed, "No, you are right. I did come out here with a purpose. I need your help with something important…"

Tyler's dark brown eyes narrowed dangerously. Suddenly, he laughed darkly and said, "You've got to be out of your fucking mind. You can't believe that I would ever help you with anything."

"Bonnie…"

"You let me worry about Bonnie. I am more than capable of taking care of her. I can certainly take care of her better than you ever have," he snapped irritably.

Damon's amusement bled away instantly. He had spotted the hickeys on Bonnie's cleavage when she shed her cardigan in the waiting room. It had taken true willpower to stop himself from starting an argument with her and Tyler. However, Damon was aware that she was going beyond the call of duty even showing up at the hospital. He ground out, "I'm not talking about fucking my wife. Anyone with a cock can do that."

"And yet she's made it abundantly clear that yours will never do so again. You have a lot of nerve coming to me for help after the bullshit you pulled earlier. What kind of depraved asshole do you have to be to ask your own wife if she wanted to be raped?" Tyler growled.

He had been incensed when Bonnie told him what happened. Tyler had only calmed down when he realized that she needed him to talk her off the ledge. Bonnie wanted to cause Damon some bodily harm for saying something so despicable to her. The encounter left her all twisted up inside and doubting herself. Damon had given life to the poisonous lies Bonnie once believed about herself. It had taken years for her to believe that Klaus' actions weren't her fault.

Tyler's rebuke hit its mark because Damon visibly recoiled. He hadn't said the words to Bonnie but his thoughts had come across loud and clear. Damon wished that he could take that piece of idiocy back. She didn't deserve to be disrespected in such a hurtful way.

Damon said, "You're right. I was wrong for even thinking of that. I apologized to Bonnie, but I'm worried about her safety. I have every reason to believe this son of a bitch is still out there. He could hurt her again and that's not something I can let stand."

Tyler's expression was neutral. He wouldn't betray Bonnie by revealing anything to Damon. He snorted, "That's a piss poor excuse for your actions. That's not how someone that loves and respects her would react. When she told me what happened, I exploded. I wanted to murder him with my bare hands...I still do."

Damon saw his opportunity and seized it. "But she's your boss. Your options are limited."

He shook his head. "This has nothing to do with Bonnie being my boss. She's my best friend and she was hurting. She's still hurting. Whatever I'm feeling doesn't really factor into the equation. And trust me, I feel a lot about this fucking situation. I'll never stop feeling guilty for failing Bonnie the way that I did."

The older man frowned because he hadn't expected that answer. He asked, "How did you fail her?"

Tyler glanced at Damon for a long moment and decided what was on his mind wouldn't get him any closer to the truth. Frankly, Damon was the only person that he could risk telling these thoughts. No one in his family knew the truth about Bonnie's rape and Tyler would never burden her with his own emotions about her trauma.

"This is the only secret she ever kept from me. I was in Milazzo the summer this happened. I have to believe that's the reason Bonnie didn't tell me at the time. I was only in Milazzo because my old man didn't trust my self-control. He was worried that Bonnie and I were getting too close," he said with no small amount of self-loathing.

Damon didn't know much about what happened to Bonnie. She had offered precious few details to him. He wondered what the boy might be willing to reveal. "Were you...getting too close?"

He noted that there was no jealousy in Damon's voice. He only heard curiosity. Tyler nodded and said, "Bonnie and I both knew that she would have to marry for the good of her family. But that didn't prevent us from developing feelings for each other. And we were teenagers with too much unsupervised time on our hands...you can guess how that went. Since I found out what happened while I was away, I second guess every decision I made. I could have told my father to piss off...I was already 18-years-old at the time. He couldn't make me go anywhere. Or maybe if I had just used a little common sense after all the times he warned me about getting too close to my future boss. Some nights I dream about saving her, y'know? But then they're nights where my nightmares are..."

Damon swallowed thickly. Part of him wanted to know every detail, but looking at Tyler's broken visage gave him pause. Once again he was reminded of just how damn young Tyler and Bonnie were. As much as he despised him, Damon wouldn't wish that sort of pain on him. "You couldn't have stopped…"

Tyler cut him off and snapped, "You have no idea how it happened. If I had been here, I could have stopped it. I could have protected Bonnie. He would have never laid a single finger on her. Bonnie was such an easy target, she has this chameleon-like ability. She can fade into the scenery if you aren't looking for her. But I was always looking for Bonnie, my eyes were always on her. I would have noticed if she had gone missing for a couple hours. She couldn't have gone missing for 30 minutes without me looking for her."

He felt ill as he considered what Tyler told him. Damon had been working on the assumption that this predator had encountered Bonnie at parties or functions hosted by Giuseppe. It was the only way someone outside the family would have had access to Bonnie without guards watching her. "Do you know where I was…"

"Chasing your flavor of the month...Sybil," he muttered bitterly.

Damon thought back to that summer. Sybil had tried her best to become his girlfriend. She had a habit of showing up without invitation. Damon rarely sent her away because she was a damn good lay. However, he did remember that she and Bonnie mixed as well as oil and water. It had taken him awhile to realize that Sybil was jealous of her. He had all but dragged her out of Klaus' birthday party after she purposely dumped a pitcher of strawberry daiquiri on Bonnie. Sybil had accused him of ignoring her in favor of Bonnie because he was fucking her. Damon had scoffed at the notion because she had been sixteen at the time. He was only keeping an eye on her because she was too young to be at the party. Damon hadn't been blind to Bonnie's beauty but statutory rape had never been his thing.

Damon shook off his thoughts and said, "I know that you don't like me and the feeling is mutual. But I think we both have Bonnie's best interest at heart. I am not asking you to tell me anything. I know you would never betray her."

Tyler frowned at him. "Then what was all of this about?"

"I'm asking you to put an end to this. Whack the son of a bitch and I'll protect you...no matter the backlash," Damon offered sincerely.

"Backlash?" he asked tentatively. He wondered if Damon was perhaps closer to the truth than Bonnie thought. She was used to running circles around him, maybe she had missed something.

Damon said, "I've wracked my brain trying to figure out why Bonnie didn't tell Sheila when it happened and why she hasn't taken care of him herself. Bonnie is certainly capable of it and she has plenty of people that would kill for her without question. The hesitation has to be because this son of a bitch has connections. Well, I don't care how connected he is or who might be in his pocket. I want him dead."

Tyler sized up the older mobster and could tell that he was being serious. The offer was more tempting than it should have been. He was loyal to Bonnie and would always follow her lead. However, Tyler was only hours removed from holding her as she cried. She had questioned if something was wrong with her for not whacking Klaus. Tyler knew that Bonnie keeping him alive was about more than business. Klaus had infected her in some way. She gave him the benefit of doubt when he didn't deserve it. She gave Damon a similar amount of leeway. Case in point, he had acted like a complete asshole earlier, but she still showed up when he needed her.

Bonnie could be ruthless with her enemies. She was also the least forgiving person that he knew. However, she had a hard time severing ties with people that meant something to her. Klaus for all the pain he had caused her, was one of the few people that ever took the time to truly see her. He saw the loneliness and the brokenness that so many others ignored. He even shared his own loneliness and brokenness with Bonnie so that she didn't feel so alien. He held up a mirror and she saw some part of herself in him.

Her devotion to Damon was born in a similar way. She had always looked up to him because he was like an older brother. Damon treated her the same way that he treated Stefan. He was often busy, but when he wasn't they had his full attention. He taught them how to swim and surf when their families vacationed together. However, Bonnie developed a crush on Damon after he brutally defended her honor against a racist asshole. It was at that age where she was finally old enough to see behind the facade that Damon showed the world. He was just as broken and lonely as she was. His upbringing had destroyed him in the same ways that Bonnie's had destroyed her. She wanted Damon because she believed they were broken pieces that could fit together to make a whole. Once they were married, Bonnie spent years trying to make their broken halves work. However, the last few months had convinced her it was impossible.

Tyler took a long drag from his cigarette and then glanced at the darkened sky. "As much as it pains me to admit it, I understand where you are coming from, Damon. This prick should be rotting in the ground, but moving against him would be a betrayal to Bonnie. It would directly undermine her authority. Our history dictates that she would forgive me but it would change our friendship. There are so few people she trusts in this world...I won't do anything to make her lose another. When Giuseppe attacked her, I am the only person that she called. I never want to put her in a position where she feels there is no one she can call...no one that she can trust."

It wasn't the answer that Damon wanted but he could understand Tyler's position. It still hurt knowing that Bonnie hadn't reached out when she needed him most. He should have been the one to offer comfort and protection after what Giuseppe did to her. He was grateful that she had at least one person that she could look to for help.

He nodded and said, "I get it. Just...if it ever looks like she's in danger."

Tyler's eyes darkened and he said, "If I ever think he poses a danger to Bonnie I will carve out his fucking heart."

Damon believed the younger man's pledge. "Okay. If it ever comes to that...I'll back you up."

He said, "For now he's contained."

Damon still didn't believe that the man was in prison. However, Tyler had made it clear that he would toe the party line. Damon was about to go back into the hospital when something caught his eye. He frowned when he noticed a car driving down the street slowly. For a moment, he thought it might be Brady arriving with food for Bonnie.

Then the back window rolled down and a gun barrel appeared.

"Get down!" he yelled. Damon dove onto the ground as bullets began flying in their direction.

Tyler hit the ground with a thud. He laid there as the bullets flew over his head and glass rained down on him. He could feel a searing pain in his shoulder that could only be one thing. This wasn't the first time he had been shot and it probably wouldn't he the last time.

Damon heard the moment more guns entered the fray. He knew it had to be his security team returning fire with the assassins in the car. He felt the falling glass piercing his exposed skin. For a time, it seemed as if the shooting would never end.

Finally, tires screeched loudly as the car sped away from scene leaving destruction in its wake. Just like that the street turned eerily silent with only police sirens in the distance.

Heavy footsteps rushed in their direction.

Luke asked, "Are you okay, boss?"

Kai stood with his eyes toward the street looking for another threat. He was already on his phone calling for backup.

Damon slowly got to his feet. He frowned at the blood on his hands as his heart thumped rapidly in his chest. There was no doubt in his mind that someone had just made an attempt on his life.

Luke was concerned when Damon didn't say anything. "Boss?"

Kai glanced over his shoulder to see if Damon was okay.

He said, "I'm fine."

Tyler rolled onto his back with a groan and pressed a hand to his shoulder. "I'm not."

Damon finally saw the blood rushing out of Tyler's shoulder. He reached down and pulled Tyler up by his good arm. "Son of a bitch…the fucking cops are going to be all over this."

Luke frowned at all the blood and nodded at Damon. He said, "This went down in front of the hospital. There are bound to be security cameras covering every inch of this street."

The older man ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He said, "Get our people working on this. I want to know who the fuck is responsible, preferably before the cops know it. And get my fucking brother on the phone!"

Luke nodded and said, "I'll get into it now."

Damon looked at Tyler. "I'll help you across the street."

Tyler wanted to reject the help but he was feeling lightheaded. He said, "Thanks for warning me."

He snorted but didn't respond. His life would be easier if the little bastard had been killed tonight. However, Damon wasn't a maniac. The kid had not done anything to warrant death. Damon wasn't his father, he didn't make a habit of killing people simply because they displeased him. Damon supported Tyler's weight as they walked into the hospital together.

The emergency room was in complete disarray because of the shooting. Security was swarming all over the place.

He called out, "We need some help over here! My friend was shot."

A nurse rushed over with a wheelchair and called out for a doctor.

Damon helped Tyler into the wheelchair.

Tyler looked at him and said, "Tell Bonnie what happened as soon as you can. Don't let her find out some other way. She will lose her shit. She's...just trust me on this, yeah?"

Damon frowned at whatever Tyler had opted not to say. He said, "I'll head up there to see her now."

The nurse said, "A doctor should see you as well…"

Damon looked at the cuts on his hands and said, "I'm fine."

The older woman didn't look like she agreed but decided to focus on the patient in more dire straits.

Kai was Damon's shadow as they went upstairs to the ICU. Katherine had been moved there after her stomach was pumped. She hadn't regained consciousness yet but the doctors were optimistic.

He walked into a private waiting room where Bonnie, Zacharias, and Rose were waiting.

Bonnie noticed the blood as soon as Damon walked into the room. She gasped. "Are you okay?"

Zach was was out of his seat immediately. "What the hell happened to you?"

Damon sidestepped his uncle. "I need to talk to Bonnie first. Everyone else get out...Now!"

Zach, Rose, and Kai exited the room without protest.

Bonnie studied him worriedly and tried to find the worst of his injuries. She swallowed thickly thinking about how injured he might be. "What happened, Damon? Who did this to you?"

He tried to ignore the kernel of hope he felt because of Bonnie's concern for him. Instead, he took both of her hands into his and said, "I'm fine, Bunny. I got cut by some glass. There was a shooting across the street from the hospital. Tyler was with me at the time. He was shot but…"

All of her concern for Damon evaporated at the mention of Tyler. It seemed like something snapped inside her. Bonnie snatched her hands away from Damon as she began to tremble. She roared at him, "What did you do? You stupid son of a bitch, what did you do to him?"

Damon hadn't been prepared for this reaction but perhaps he should have been. He tried to pull Bonnie towards him. He wasn't sure if it was to comfort her or restrain her. He swore, "I didn't do anything. I swear on my life that I am not responsible for this."

Bonnie wrenched her hands out of Damon's grasp and shoved him hard enough to make him stumble. She growled, "Don't you touch me! I don't believe you. If I find out that you're behind this, I will fucking end you, Damon. You, your uncles, and the rest of your miserable fucking organization! I'll start with that drugged up whore clinging to life down the hall."

Damon stared at Bonnie in shock. It took a moment for him to wrap his mind around what was certainly a promise and not merely a threat. His eyes hardened. "You want to kill me, Bunny. I'm right here! Take your fucking shot."

Bonnie's fists were clenched so tightly that her nails broke the skin. She asked, "Where is Tyler?"

"Your boyfriend is in the emergency room getting treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder. He'll live," Damon spat bitterly.

Bonnie grabbed her purse and shouldered by Damon. "You better be right."

He watched as she stormed out the room. Damon picked up a chair and threw it across the room.

Zacharias walked into the room. "Don't get us kicked out of the hospital, nipote. Kai filled me in on what happened. I've already had security beefed up at the house. Do you think this was about you or Tyler?"

Damon glared because he was still ready for a fight. However, being the boss meant stowing his personal shit for now. He said, "I don't know. I saw the car slow down and then...bullets everywhere. I can't tell who the target was. Who would try to kill Tyler? He's not exactly a high value target."

"It's no longer a secret that he is seeing Bonnie. They've been fairly public lately. And she gave him the territory once controlled by the Molinari brothers after that shit with Jamie. His profile is rising even if people think it's because of their relationship."

Damon ran a hand over his face. He didn't know what to think. However, no matter the intended target this was bad news. There was also a chance that someone was trying to increase tensions between Damon and Bonnie's organizations. Her reaction spoke to the hair trigger she had where Tyler was concerned.

Zach moved closer to get look at his nephew.

"I'm fine. I didn't get hit," he muttered irritably.

He knew what was troubling Damon. It wasn't as if their conversation went unheard in the hallway. He began, "She was emotional…"

"She threatened to kill me. And you for what it's worth," Damon snapped. He wasn't in the mood to hear Zach defend Bonnie.

Zach noted his nephew's expression. "Don't go antagonising her now. I don't blame you for wanting to confront Bonnie about the threats. This sort of thing can't happen again no matter the circumstances. But you need to have that conversation when the two of you aren't spoiling for a fight. You can't afford to accidentally start a war with her when someone just tried to gun you down in the fucking street."

Damon wanted to rage at Bonnie but it would just drive a larger wedge between them. Of course she believed he might be involved with an attempt on Tyler's life. He had threatened the kid before. Even Stefan had been concerned that he might actually whack Tyler. However, none of that soothed the hurt of Bonnie threatening to kill him.

Zach asked, "Did you manage to see the shooters?"

Damon shook his head. "I saw the gun barrel and hit the fucking ground. I've got Luke working on getting surveillance footage. He was supposed to put a call into Stefan, too."

Zach nodded and said, "Good."

Damon said, "I'll be back."

"Where are you going?' he asked with concern.

"Worry about finding out who tried to kill me! Let me worry about my fucking marriage. Can you do that for me, Zio?"

Zach didn't think this was a good idea, but Damon was the boss. He was Damon's uncle and his consigliere. He could offer guidance and advice but it was up to his nephew to accept it.

Damon didn't wait for an answer before sweeping out the room. He needed to settle this with Bonnie now. He didn't like the bitterness building inside him. It felt poisonous. It felt like a sickness that could spread farther than either of them wanted. They both wielded too much power to let something like this fester.

He made his way down to the emergency room and tried to find Tyler. It turned out to be simple because he could hear Bonnie weeping. He whipped back the curtain and frowned at the scene in front of him.

Tyler stood on unsteady legs with his arms around Bonnie. He said, "I'm right here."

Bonnie clutched his blood stained shirt with both hands as she sobbed. Her breathing was erratic as she hovered near hyperventilation. "I don't know what I do if something happened to you, Ty. I can't...I can't...I can't…."

He murmured, "I'm fine. It was a through and through. I'm not going anywhere, Bon. Not today. But you gotta calm down for me, please. Think about babies..."

Damon watched as Tyler rested a hand on Bonnie's rounded stomach. He still wasn't happy about what happened upstairs but he had never seen Bonnie like this. Not even when Jamie had been kidnapped did she appear this undone.

Bonnie struggled to control her breathing but couldn't seem to do it. She gasped for air and shook her head.

Tyler said, "Come on. You can do it, Bon. Deep breath in through the nose. Like this...do it with me."

Damon could see that Tyler wasn't going to be able to keep this up for long. He had lost a lot of blood outside. He said, "Maybe you both should sit down."

They both looked in Damon's direction. Bonnie looked so incredibly lost. She quickly looked away and buried her face against Tyler's chest again.

"Damon's right. Let's sit down," Tyler said as he helped her sit on the side of the bed.

He said, "I'll go find a doctor...for both of you."

Tyler glanced in his direction and said, "Thanks."

Damon nodded and left them alone. As he walked into the hall, he saw the police headed in his direction. He knew the cops would be involved, but he never liked dealing with them. He muttered, "Fuck."

Two Hours Later...

Niklaus slowly reached for the gun tucked beside his bed. He had been asleep moments ago but was awakened by footsteps approaching his bedroom. He had set the alarm before going to bed hours ago. Only someone with the security passcode could enter without triggering the alarm. However, everyone in his family knew better than to enter the guesthouse without his permission. In short, prison had made him a little paranoid.

Elijah stood in the doorway after turning on the lights. He was dressed in a navy blue robe but he had a gun in his right hand. He said, "Wake up, Niklaus."

Klaus turned over and sat up in bed. He frowned seeing the gun in his brother's hand. "I nearly killed you, brother. What are you doing here at this hour?"

"We've been hit. A group of armed men targeted Kol's poker game ten minutes ago," Elijah said. His brown eyes looked almost black in his fury.

His older brother's words cleared any remaining cobwebs. Klaus' mind immediately went to their younger brother. Kol wouldn't have departed until after the game ended. He never trusted anyone else to handle the house's money. It was a practice that he had learned from their father. He asked, "How bad is it?"

"I don't know all the details yet, but Kol was shot. He's being rushed to St. Vincent's right now. Andrew and Henrik were supposed to be there tonight but Cary couldn't find them in the chaos. They might have left before the shooting started or they could be among the dead," Elijah replied as calmly as he could manage.

Klaus climbed out of the bed uncaring of his nakedness. He was going massacre whatever group thought it wise to attack his family. Klaus refused to consider that his little brother and nephew were dead. He wouldn't believe it until he saw their bodies. He started dressing and asked, "Did you try their phones?"

He said, "Hayley and Rebekah are doing that now. But that's not all...someone made an attempt on Damon Salvatore's life two hours ago. Tyler Lockwood ended up getting shot."

Klaus froze when he heard that Tyler Lockwood had been with Damon. He could think of only one reason those two men would be in the same place-Bonnie. He turned to look at his brother. "Was Bonnie with them?"

Elijah noted the immediate look of concern from Niklaus. However, he had other concerns. Someone hit the Salvatores first, and then someone hit their family. Outsiders could wrongly assume that their two organizations were warring with one another. They had been allied for too long for them to start killing each other without trying to negotiate peace. Even if Damon had learned the truth of Niklaus' actions, he would have demanded Elijah turn him over before resorting to unprovoked violence. No, someone was trying to spark a war. He said, "She's safe and sound from what I hear from our people in the PD."

He gave a tense nod and finished dressing. He said, "I have Lucy Bennett's number. She can get me in touch with their cousin. Maybe Andrew is with Cristian. They have been spending time together as of late."

Elijah said, "It is worth a shot. I would like to have something to tell our sister when she arrives. I have already sent armed guards to collect Freya and the children. Until we know what is happening, everyone is safer behind these walls."

Klaus didn't envy Elijah's position. Freya never wanted her children involved in organized crime. She would be livid finding out just how involved Andrew had become. However, that was preferable to her being inconsolable because of his death. Klaus forced that idea from his mind.

"What of Finn?" Klaus asked as he put on his double holster.

"I know that he won't agree to leave the rectory, but I've sent armed guards over there. They will protect our brother whether he likes it or not," he replied.

Klaus grabbed his jacket. "Good. A man of the cloth or not, he's still our blood and could be in danger."

Although, he had a hard time imagining someone depraved enough to kill a priest. There were certain lines that everyone knew not to cross.

"Where are you going?"

"I am going to go find Henrik and Andrew," Klaus said defiantly. There was no way he would let Elijah deter him.

The older man shook his head and said, "Take men with you. I have one brother heading to hospital. I don't want another."

Klaus agreed, "Alright. I'll call the minute I know anything about the boys."

Elijah stopped Niklaus and pulled him into a hug. "We will find out who did this, Niklaus. And they will wish that they had struck true the first time."

The younger man knew that his brother's measured words promised vengeance and death. The two men were never more alike than in moments like these. He returned the hug before picking up his phone on the way out the guesthouse.

He pulled up Lucy's phone and called her as he marched into the main house. He snapped his fingers and pointed to five men that dutifully followed him.

"Now isn't a good time, Klaus," Lucy said in a way of greeting.

He sneered, "Nor is it a good time for me, love. However, I am looking for my nephew. I am hoping he is with your cousin. We have something of a delicate situation on our hands. Someone made a move on my family tonight."

The line went silent for several tense moments. Lucy sounded wary, "I've been trying to find Cris for the last two hours. He's not answering his fucking phone. I was going to send someone over to his hotel."

"Where is he staying? I'll head over there," Klaus demanded.