3

Olivia jogged up the six steps to the brownstone three doors down and then stopped at the door. She knocked four times and then took a step back, right hand adjusting her pistol in her holster on her right hip that she had just put on, along with her badge.

She couldn't fight the feeling that something was seriously wrong, that something had happened, and that she would soon be waist deep in something significant.

Movement now on the other side of the door, a blurry advancing of whites and grays, the image of Mrs. Ethan coming further into view. The door opened and she was met with the five-foot-two woman with kind, blue eyes.

"Mrs. Ethan," Olivia breathed, trying a smile.

"Come on in, Dear. Theo and Grace and Isabel are all on the sofa in the living room." She closed the door behind her and the two began walking down the hallway. "I gave them something to eat—a couple of ham and Swiss cheese sandwiches—because they said they were hungry. But Theo didn't eat much."

"That was kind of you, Mrs. Ethan. Thank you for doing that," Olivia offered, peering over the top of her neighbor's petite frame as they walked and focusing on the upcoming living room.

The kids saw her and immediately all got up, running to her. She squatted and held them all in her arms, feeling and hearing them so happy to see her, yet more than emotional. She pulled away, Theo in the middle, and placed her hands on the girls' hips, looking at all three.

"Mommy went with a man," Isabel said first.

"What?" Olivia questioned. "What man, Baby? Who?"

The kids looked at her then, pure emotion on their faces. Theo's eyes were filled with tears.

Olivia stood and held out her hands. "Come over here and tell Mama exactly what happened." She led them to the sofa and they all got seated, Olivia perched on the edge on the end.

"Start from the beginning and tell Mama everything you can remember."

Mrs. Ethan sat in a separate recliner caddy corner to the three-sectioned sofa.

Olivia swallowed, watching all three of them. Grace moved into her, practically climbing on her lap, and buried her head against the brunette's chest.

"A man had a dog…" Theo started.

"Another man had candy and Theo wouldn't let me have any!" Isabel scowled.

"What did the man say?" Olivia asked. "Do you remember?"

Theo spoke up. "He said his doggie was friendly and I had Mommy's eyes."

Olivia smiled, trying to be patient. "What else, Theo?" She looked at the twins. "What else did he say?"

Theo's eyes filled with even more tears then. "He said his daddy died and it was Mommy's fault."

Olivia's heart rate increased then as she studied her son. "What else, Baby?"

Theo moved into her then and threw himself into her upper chest, holding her.

"What else, did he say, Theo? Please…" Olivia felt her own emotions then, so desperately trying to gather any information.

"He said he was thirteen when his daddy died. That he was getting paid back?"

Payback, Olivia thought.

"Then Mommy said to let us go and I think she went with the men." Grace offered against her.

Olivia looked up at Mrs. Ethan then, the old woman's face concerned. "Did they tell you anything?"

Mrs. Ethan shook her head. "They wanted to dial 9-1-1, but I thought I'd call you, Dear, and see if you knew what was going on first. I know only to use that number in an emergency and you're a police officer, so I thought calling you was better."

Olivia smiled. "And I'm glad you did."

"Mommy said to come to Mrs. Ethan's and call 9-1-1 and I wanted to," Theo sobbed now, "…but she said to wait…I'm sorry I didn't call, Mama…" Theo cried against her.

Olivia watched Grace's thumb go into her mouth then and Isabel moved closer to her brother, patting his back gently.

"No, Theo. It's OK. You did good, Babies." Olivia kissed the tops of their heads, their cheeks. She looked at Mrs. Ethan then. "I need to make a call to the station and let them know what's happening." Olivia nodded.

She started to get up but was met with her children clenching her hips, willing their mother's body to remain there.

"Is Mommy OK?" Grace's voice was tiny, high-pitched before her thumb returned to her mouth.

"I wanna see Mommy!" Isabel cried. "I wanted to go with her but the man said for us to go home."

"It's OK, my loves. You're safe and we're gonna find your Mommy. Don't worry." She looked down at them, beginning to struggle even more with her children's overwhelming angst. "Hey…"

The kids pulled away then and she smiled at them.

"OK? We're gonna find her."

The kids studied her and nodded and then Olivia moved to stand. "Stay here. Mama's gonna make a phone call to Uncle Fin." She slipped her cell phone from her back pocket and moved slowly down the hallway as she found the number and hit the green phone icon.

She entered the front sitting room—the townhouse a similar layout to her own—and then stood, looking out through the front window that was facing the street.

"Liv? Everything OK?" Fin's voice was instantly concerned.

She immediately felt a flood of emotion then, not believing that this was happening. But she needed to get herself together and keep herself together. She sniffed and wiped below her nose.

"Hey, Fin. Uh, no…we have a problem." She felt her mouth quiver. "It's Alex. I think she's been abducted."

"Abducted?" Fin's voice level rose. "Whatchoo mean, Liv?"

"Um…she was in the park with the kids and they said two men were there and the men told them to leave…and Alex…" Olivia took a deep breath as she closed her eyes.

"Slowly, Liv. Tell me…" Fin's voice was calm, soothing.

"…Alex is gone. Disappeared." Olivia pinched the bridge of her nose. "I think it might be …from what I can gather…a past case. Theo said the man said something about payback."

Her legs felt like jelly but this wasn't a time to fall apart. She cleared her throat and took another deep breath.

"I need a patrol car here and we're gonna take the kids back to the park to show us where it happened, see if we can find anything, any clues, and maybe they'll remember something more when we do."

"Yeah, and maybe someone saw something. A passerby. I gotcha, Liv. I'm on my way and I'll send a couple of unis. Do you need me to call anyone about the kids? Have someone come over and stay with them for afterwards?"

Olivia tried a smile, her lips shaking. "Call Casey…"

"Melinda can watch them," Fin offered.

"That'd be great. We're a couple of doors down, but we'll head to where she was…" a lump formed in the brunette's throat then and she took a short breath, gasping, "…where she was last seen."

Olivia nodded, almost trying to convince herself that this was procedural, just a case to be solved. Only what she felt was extreme trepidation in the pit of her stomach.

"Liv…I'll be there soon. Head over there. I'll call Melinda."

"Thanks, Fin," she whispered.


The TV was loud. The music was loud. Both blaring simultaneously. Booming bass from Reggaeton music and what sounded like a soccer game. Raucous laughter to her right in the near distance, the smell of food again—garlic? Corn? Beef?

The men were virtually shouting as they spoke, arguing about some players on the team, yelling every time something happened in the game. And there was another distinct smell, as well.

She definitely smelled marijuana, the smoke entering her own nose and lungs and that, in combination with the strike to her head, had her feeling woozy, dizzy, and slightly nauseated.

And she was thirsty. Her mouth felt dry, gritty, her tongue like sandpaper.

She continued to stare up at the ceiling, jaw clenched as she jerked her limbs once more in her restraints—what she realized now to be rough rope—teeth gritted, hoping that one of the times that she did so, she might actually get herself free.

But what if she did? What then?

There was nowhere to go. At least one of them had a weapon and she was defenseless against three men. She had no fighting skills, had never taken any self-defense classes, and she would never be able to dominate men whose mass was bigger than her, their size more muscular than her, and she knew that the idea was pointless.

She felt and heard movement then and looked at the foot of the bed where she was lying to see the young woman, arms folded, studying her. The woman moved closer then and stood to her left, Alex only watching her.

Neither of them said anything, only looked at one another.

She had a sleeve of black tattoos on her right arm, but not on her left, only a small cross on the back of her left wrist. Her eye make-up was dark and what she had initially thought was gothic, upon closer inspection now, she saw that it was just heavy, her lips a bright reddish mauve. Her gold hoop earrings glimmered slightly as she moved even closer, catching the small amount of light in the room.

"Where…" Alex cleared her throat and swallowed, "…where are we?"

The woman smiled then. "We're in Raul's mansion. The lap of luxury."

Alex studied the woman again.

"Hey, Rosa!" Raul's voice then. "Don't talk to her! Get your ass back over here!"

Rosa turned her head. "Shut up, Raul!" She looked back at Alex.

"Not a nice way to treat his girlfriend," Alex commented.

"I ain't his girlfriend. I'm Armando's girl."

"Still…" Alex looked over at the men at the small card table and watched as Raul got up and wiped his mouth.

He moved directly toward Rosa and then grabbed her hair at the back of her head and yanked it, beginning to drag her away from the area and toward the kitchen. "I said don't talk to her!" Once in the kitchen, he let her go with force, her middle back almost slamming into the kitchen counter. "And if you talk to me like that again…" he sat back down at the table and lifted what looked like a folded tortilla, "…so help me…Armando you need to keep your girl in check, bruh. No woman should be allowed to talk like that." He took a large bite and began chewing, his eyes now on Alex.

Alex looked back up at the ceiling, noting, for the hundredth time, the numerous cracks in the plaster, along with light brown water damage stains.

"And you…" Raul started.

Alex only continued to keep her focus above her.

"Hey, bitch. I'm talking to you!" Raul bellowed.

Alex turned her head then, glaring at him.

"Don't get any ideas about trying to get in good with Rosa. She might be a dog but she's a loyal dog."

"Fuck you, Raul!" Armando spouted.

A scuffle in the kitchen then, the two brothers beginning to wrestle, the card table screeching across the floor, plates being flipped, hands around necks. Then a punch was thrown—Raul to Armando—right in the eye, and then Raul's hands were around Armando's neck, beginning to choke him.

Rosa begged, pleaded, for Raul to stop, even going so far as to try to pull him off of her boyfriend, but Raul quickly shoved her away again. Then, as if nothing had happened, he let go of his brother's neck, backed away, and sat down once more, continuing to eat.

Rosa threw her hands in the air. "I can't do this!"

"Can't do what, Rosa?" Armando questioned.

Rosa grabbed her jean jacket and began putting it on. "I can't do this…this here with you…you have an innocent woman here, Raul." She grabbed her purse from the small sofa and slung it over her shoulder. "What are you gonna do with her, huh? You have her here now. What are you gonna do now?"

"What the fuck do you care, Rosa?" Raul questioned, lighting the end of a blunt and inhaling deeply.

"I don't care, Raul…" she looked at Alex, "…but it's not right. You said she has kids. You said you don't want her money. What then? We'll just starve her until she dies? Then what?" Rosa headed to the door and placed her hand on the knob and turned, opening it.

Within seconds, Raul was up, slamming the door shut and grabbing Rosa by her hair again. He dragged her as she held onto her scalp, to the small sofa next to the bed and shoved her onto it. He lifted his hand and brought it down hard on her cheek, her face jerking to the right, blood flying.

And then she was still, her head lolled to the side, resting on the back of the sofa. She was out cold.

Raul looked at Alex then and moved toward her, breathing heavily, arms slightly out, hands clenching.

"What do you want from me?" Alex questioned, feeling the tears in her eyes.

"What do I want from you?" He raised his eyebrows. "I want you to suffer," His mouth twisted, the anger spread across his face. "I want you to know what it's like to not be able to be there with your family. What it feels like when you don't have that choice." He squatted down next to her then and let his eyes roam along her horizontal body before moving his gaze back to her face. "I just want you to suffer." He raised his eyebrows and smiled. "That's about it." He placed his hand on her wrist then, letting his fore and middle fingers rest on her pulse point. "Tell me, Ms. Cabot…do you know how long the human body can go without food?"

Alex swallowed hard, the dryness making this action difficult, and she continued to stare at him, unwavering.

"Three weeks," he answered, smiling. He then let the same fingers begin to lightly touch her wedding and engagement rings, delicately tracing them. "But do you know how long a human can go without water?" His eyes pierced into her now.

Alex clenched her left hand, not wanting him to touch the jewelry that meant so much to her. Wishing he would move further away. The scent of garlic and pot on his breath was intense, overpowering, sickening.

"Three to four days, Ms. Cabot." He began to try and straighten her fingers then.

Alex clenched her hand tighter as he used his strength to try and unfold them.

"And then your organs start shutting down, one at a time." He pried her ring finger away from her palm then.

Alex felt her rings being pulled off as Raul forcibly dragged them down her finger. She gritted her teeth and felt the tears coming on again.

"I wouldn't cry, Ms. Cabot. You're losing water. You need all you can save."

Alex looked at him then, determination on her face. "Why do you want my wedding and engagement rings? I thought you were a drug lord like your father," she spat.

Raul laughed and slipped the two pieces of white gold into his front white, T-shirt pocket. "Do I look like I'm rich to you, Alexandra? Living here in this shit hole?"

Alex let her thumb run along her now naked finger, not remembering its absence ever feeling so foreign. He had her rings now—two items in her life that were replaceable materialistically, but not sentimentally—and it killed her.

She thought of Olivia. She thought of her children. She thought of her life and everything that they had built together and she couldn't help but close her eyes and let the tears roll down her face.


The kids had led them to the James Michael Levin Playground, a common spot for the ladies to take the kids. It was at 77th and 5th Avenues and not far from their home, but the kids had to cross Park Avenue, a heavily trafficked street, at a busy time of the day.

Still, they had taught them and the kids had used what they had learned and were now safe.

A team of officers, including Rollins, Carisi, and Fin had been canvassing the area, looking for clues, talking with park goers, trying to get any sort of tips they could—anything that would lead them to her wife's whereabouts. But so far, in the hour and a half that they had been there, no one had seen anything, no one had heard anything.

They stood on the sidewalk next to 5th street now, the kids having gone with Melinda a little while prior, and looked around at the traffic, the people entering the park.

"Dodds is probably gonna take you off the case," Carisi offered, looking around.

"Not gonna happen, Carisi. I'm staying on this one." Olivia took her small notepad from her back pocket.

Carisi looked up, pointing. "Street cameras might give us something if we look back at the footage." He looked back at Olivia. "What time were they here?"

"According to my phone, Alex called me at about 10:45 and we ended the call around 11." Olivia looked up at the cameras—counting four altogether—and then wrote those times on her small pad of paper, along with the locations of the cameras.

"So, figure she talked with the guys for about ten, fifteen minutes. Then we should look at the footage from 11:10 and on for any signs of her."

Olivia's eyes glazed over then and she thought of her wife being dragged into a car, against her will, possibly knocked out in order to do so, and she felt her emotions come on quickly, a lump forming in her throat.

"Hey, Liv…" Carisi put his hand on her shoulder and she jumped slightly, refocusing and looking at him, "…we'll find her…" He smiled, his blue eyes sparkling.

Olivia clenched her jaw and nodded then. "I know we will."

"Hey, Detectives!" a voice called from behind them then, about one-hundred feet from them.

Olivia and Carisi began jogging towards the voice of a rookie officer.

"We found some blood," he declared, hands on his hips, his eyes moving to the ground.

Olivia moved closer and squatted, inspecting the four drops of blood on the concrete.

"I don't know if it's something or nothing, but…" the officer began.

"We need CSU here to swab and test it," Olivia ordered before standing.

And her knees buckled then. As much as she had been trying to keep it together, to remain calm and professional in order to find her wife, she knew, mentally, she wasn't OK.

Carisi and the officer moved in quickly to catch her, holding her by the upper arms and waist.

Another officer came around the corner, holding up a baggie with, what looked like, a cell phone inside. "Found this in the bushes. Looks like someone stomped on it."

It was Alex's cell phone. She knew that Minions iPhone case anywhere. It was a gift to her from Theo just this past Christmas.

And then, without warning, her heart raced, a cold sweat broke out along her forehead and above her upper lip and a wave of nausea rolled throughout her body as the most unimaginable thoughts raced through her mind, wondering if she would ever see her wife alive again and if the kids would ever get to feel the love of their blonde mother again.