Hello all! Thank you as always for the incredible reviews from last chapter! I am super excited to see that you are enjoying the story so far! Please keep them coming! Also thank you so much to everyone who has added me as an author and this story to their alerts and favorite lists. I would like to warn people that this chapter does contain some bad language. It's nothing terrible, but I wanted to let you all know. Please enjoy!
Chapter Four
"Ooh what! I do believe you now owe me twenty or is it forty bucks, Stitch?" A young Hispanic solider stood from his position on the ground and slung his rifle over his shoulder.
Another solider with red hair and a scar across his eyebrow laughed. "No way, you hit that target! I call foul!"
At his words a third solider walked up to the one who had just shot and placed a hand on his shoulder; a clear smile on his tan face. "I tried to warn you, Stitch. No one here can out-shoot Javier Esposito."
Javier turned to his side. "Ah thanks, Jax. I'm touched."
Jax shoved Javier. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You should just be happy I put up with your giant ego."
The small group of soldiers shared a laugh, but their light attitude sobered quickly when a superior officer joined them unexpectedly. The three swiftly saluting their new arrival.
The officer returned the greeting without hesitation. "At ease men. You certainly can shoot there, Sergeant Esposito. Do you think you can do it again?"
Javier looked taken aback. "Uh yes, Sir. Can I ask why you want to know?"
The tall man smirked his dirty blond hair slicked back neatly. "I'm looking for a new sniper in my unit. We handle special strike missions and I want someone relatively new and…moldable."
Esposito stood in shock. Everyone he knew would kill for an opportunity like this. "Major, I…I don't know what to say."
"Nothing to say. I haven't offer it to you…yet. Now if you can shoot that target again, but this time farther out…I'll consider it."
Javier straightened. "You're on! Major?"
"Major Damon Calder, at your service." The Major observed Javier with critical grey eyes. "I like you, Sergeant. I hope you make that shot."
"Javi?" Beckett's voiced jarred Javier from the memory of the day he meet Damon Calder. Later he made that shot and became the youngest member of Calder's unit. If he knew how things were going to turn out though, Javier never would have accepted Calder's offer.
Javier swallowed. "Yeah?"
Kate's hazel eyes betrayed the concern she felt for her friend. "You said you were the reason our suspect is dead? What happened?"
"Undead…it would seem." Castle started loudly only to drift off towards the end after receiving an unamused look from his wife.
Javier collapsed heavily onto the edge of his missing partner's desk. "I was recruited by Damon Calder about a year into my first tour in Iraq. It was an incredible opportunity that I would have been mad to pass up. He ran a special forces strike team whose mission was to hunt and take out major threats to the U.S."
Castle and Beckett listened intently to Javier as he spoke, but they could tell he wasn't paying them any thought. He was wrapped up in the past, and the far off look in his eyes was how they knew.
"Six months in, Calder told me what was really going on. We had become good friends and he said he felt like he was able to trust me with the truth. Apparently, our unit wasn't just taking out threats to the U.S. Calder was taking bounties on our own people. And he was using us to do it! I was the only one in the unit that didn't know what was happening."
Javier took a shaky breath and finally looked at Beckett and Castle. "I have no idea why Damon thought I would be okay with being a mercenary for hire. So I found evidence in his tent one night and took it to the highest commanding officer I could find. A team was sent to arrest Calder and the others, but I was told Damon was killed trying to escape."
"So I guess the question is: did Calder actually die and someone is using his fingerprint as a message to you or is he back looking for vengeance against you." Castle asked quietly.
"I hope for Kevin's sake Calder is dead. The man had a short temper that you could not believe." Javier answered back just as quietly, trying and failing to ignore the feeling of dread that held his heart in a death grip.
Ryan's knee bounced up and down at a rapid pace, rubbing his hands together with anticipation the detective kept his gaze fixed on the staircase. It had been longer than half an hour since Kevin was left alone in the basement and with each second he waited his mind raced with scenario and scenario. He had to find a way to escape or at least find a way to contact his friends. Kevin knew he had to time this plan right. With Damon having superior height and strength an element of surprise was all the advantage that Ryan had.
The sound of a door opening brought Kevin to his feet. Crouching, detective Kevin Ryan readied himself.
"Everything is set upstairs, Kevin. Hopefully, you did the smart thing and I don't have to make things unpleasant between us." Damon's charming southern voice called as he descended the stairs with purpose; each of his steps creating an ominous thud.
The moment the tall man's black boots hit the floor Kevin made his move and darted forward lowly, slamming his body into Calder's middle. The two crashed to the ground with the force of the hit pulling a grunt of pain from Ryan's captor. Using the momentum Kevin sent a strong punch to the man's face. In instinct Calder blocked Kevin's next hit and pulled his gun free.
Ryan saw the flash of metal and swiftly knocked the gun out of Calder's hands; the sound of a shot ringing both of their ears. Struggling to keep the upper hand Ryan crawled for the weapon, but he was no match for the former military man's strength and was thrown to the side, landing on his back. Kevin groaned with the hard impact and tried to get up to make a run for it.
Damon saw Kevin pulling himself to his feet just as his fingers on one hand tightened around the handle of his gun. Calder kicked the side of Ryan's left knee and sent the detective back to the cement floor with a cry. Following up his attack Damon lunged for his captive and pinned Kevin under his body weight.
Detective Ryan thrashed wildly, but he could do nothing to dislodge the body on top of him. Suddenly Kevin stilled when Damon place the still hot barrel of the gun against his shoulder. The metal had cooled enough so that it wouldn't cause burns, but it did warm the skin beneath the grey material of the t-shirt Calder gave Ryan to wear.
Kevin glared at the now smiling man, turning his face away in disgust when Calder licked the blood from his own lip. "Nice right hook there, Kev. Hey! Stop struggling!" The mad man shouted and pushed more of his weight against the gun and Kevin's shoulder. "If I pull this trigger you can say goodbye to ever having a fully functioning arm again. Not so sure you can do your job too well with only one arm."
Ryan stopped trying to move with the threat and squeezed his eyes shut in defeat. The sound of both men trying to catch their breath was the only noise in the room for minutes. After Calder was sure he had a handle on Kevin again he stood and brushed at the dust on his shirt.
"Up!" Damon commanded; his gun never wavering from its threatening position, pointing at Ryan's body.
With difficulty Kevin stood, suffering from pain and exhaustion. His sight tilting with a sudden dizziness, Ryan reached out to steady himself on the wall. Calder watched him with a coldness and didn't wait for the detective to get his bearings back before gripping his upper arm and pulling him harshly up the stairs.
Roughly Damon pushed Kevin into a solid wooden chair that contained thick leather straps. Straps that were promptly latched over Ryan's forearms, holding him securely in place.
Kevin flexed his hands and tested the strength of his bonds while Damon moved casually to another chair at a table close to him and sat down, placing his gun on the wooden surface, twisting it so the barrel was still pointed at his captive with a smirk.
Choosing to ignore the clear taunt Kevin looked around and noticed for the first time the lack of windows and door full of locks keeping him trapped inside. The walls each were lined with soundproofing foam, making a chill shudder down the detective's spine. There was only a few reasons Ryan could think of why Calder would have soundproofed the cabin and none of them were good.
"Good news! It looks like your team found my finger print off your phone and they've already run it!" Damon called joyfully.
Calder's statement dragged Ryan's attention away from his surroundings. "How could you possibly know that?"
"I have my ways."
"You have your ways? You mean you have someone on the inside. A dirty cop!"
Damon's blazing eyes snapped to Ryan's equally angry ones. "That is hardly any of your concern."
"I think seeing as whoever is helping you helped with my kidnapping; I'd say it's of my concern." Kevin's voice was cold when he spoke.
Damon bit his lip, trying to control his temper. "You know, Kevin. You're starting to get on my nerves a bit. I'd suggest you stop talking now. Unless you don't want a chance to speak to your friends?"
Ryan blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?"
Damon leaned back making his front chair legs rise and enjoyed the fact that he reclaimed the upper hand.
Ryan shook his head slightly. "Fine don't tell me. But at least tell me this: what do you want with, Javier?"
Damon looked away and the sound of his chair dropping loudly racketed around the room. "What makes you think I'm after Javier and not one of the others?" Calder asked curiously. Whatever he was doing on his laptop forgotten.
Kevin leaned as far forward as he could. "Well Castle is a writer and by no means should have someone like you as an enemy."
Damon rose from his chair and started stalking towards his captive. "I don't know…he did kill my favorite book character."
Ryan ignored him and kept talking. "If you were after Beckett I'm the wrong person to use as bait; her husband would be better suited for that role. Taking all that into account and adding your clear military history that just leaves, Javier…my partner. Now I'll ask again. What do you want with my best friend?!" Kevin finished with his voice raised to a shout.
Damon finished the distance to his captive and griped his arms tightly; his fuming face only inches from Ryan's. "I want Javier Esposito to lose everything! I want to watch as he crashes and burns. I want to see him falling completely apart…and then after he has lost everything…I'm going to kill him." He seethed.
Kevin stared up at Damon in horror. "What did Javier ever do to you that would make you want to hurt him so badly?"
Damon didn't answer right away, trying to decide how much he should tell his leverage. "He betrayed my trust; ruined my life. He was my friend and he betrayed me. So I'm going to make him pay for it."
The tall man pushed himself away and walked back to his laptop, leaving a very confused Ryan to think over what was said. Damon eyed his captive and picked up a cell phone ready to make his next move.
Javier slammed his phone down and swiveled his chair around, brown eyes landing on his partner's empty chair unintentionally. Standing forcefully the Hispanic detective's chair loudly banged against the side of his desk, as he strode purposefully towards the breakroom.
Kate's kind eyes followed Javier's progress sadly. She watched her friend, but made no move to join him, wanting to let him have some space. However, after Esposito threw his coffee mug across the breakroom, its ceramic shards scattering through the air, she swiftly ran to Javier's side.
"Espo, you need to calm down! Do you want Captain Gates to pull you off this case?!" Beckett hissed, looking around the department for the captain.
Esposito stomped towards Beckett his hands clenched into tight fists by his sides. "You want me to calm down?! How the Hell am I supposed to calm down when my best friend is God knows where having God knows what happening to him?! Oh yeah and our main suspect is someone from my past so it's clearly my fault that Kevin is gone! Sure I'll calm right down!"
Kate lowered her gaze, gathering her thoughts, before looking back at a furious Esposito. "Look. I get that you're worried and I even understand why you feel the need to blame yourself. It's not your fault what has happened, but I get it. I know you want to be on this case…you want to be able to help Kevin, and if you get yourself pulled you will never forgive yourself. I promise you Javi we will do everything in our power to find Kevin and bring him home safe. You have my word."
Beckett's words seemed to get to Javier as he slowly released a breath, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. Kate saw this as a cue to continue. "What was the phone call about?"
Javier crouched down and began picking up the shards of his mug from the ground. "The call was from Lanie. She had hoped to trace the bullet she pulled out of our vic's heart but it looks like it was homemade; just another dead end! I was trying to track traffic cameras to see at least a direction they went, but someone disrupted the feed for the entire block of time. We don't even know for sure if it's Calder that has Kevin. It could just be someone's way of taunting me or…I…I don't know. Every single time I think we might get a lead it goes nowhere!"
"Wow what happened in here?!" Castle's surprised voice joined the two detectives suddenly. Javier glared at the writer from his crouching position. Unsure of what to do Castle sought out his wife's gaze for help, but she quickly shook her head ever-so-slightly. Castle cleared his throat and hoping to lighten the mood spoke awkwardly. "Did Captain Gates have someone paint? I'm not sure what it is but the walls just look...great."
Javier continued his rant after looking at the writer in bewilderment. "If it truly is Damon that has Kevin he's been considered dead and living under the grid for years. How are we supposed to track a dead guy?!"
"We'll find a way." Kate sad softly. "We just have to–"
Beckett's comforting words were cut off by Javier's cell phone ringing out. The ceramic shards forgotten Esposito stood from the ground and pulled out the small device. Frowning at the unknown number the detective tentatively answered. "Esposito."
"My, my, my, Sergeant Javier Esposito. It has been such a long time since I heard your voice. How has your perfect life been treating you, Traitor?" Damon Calder's smooth voice rumbled on the other side of the call.
All the color drained from Esposito's face as he felt the air knocked out of him. It was really him. Calder was alive. "Damon."
Noooo Cliffhanger! Muhahaha! I love cliffhangers! Remember that reviews make me write faster. ;) I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you think. Until next time…
