I apologize the late update - I'm covering for my boss, whose on sick leave. Last week alone I worked 51 hours! But, non the less, thank you for your patience, grasshoppers. Here is your reward - a small chapter, with waaay too much happening :) Read on, and let me know if I overdid it with my waaay-too-tired-brain!
Baez slowed the car when they approached the building, they didn't know what was in there and Danny was craning his neck already to no good. They waited for a couple of minutes, until Salazar showed up with a couple of unmarked, dark Crown Vic's, probably the DEA, Danny thought, when they spilled out of the cars.
"Here we go," Baez said and sighed. She knew Danny didn't like the interagency cooperation, partly because of the fed's involvement in the Blue Templar case, that had caused Joe's death a few years back. Jamie's life had been in danger, too, she recalled from the file, she had read. "Play nice, Danny," she cautioned him before they exited their car. He only growled in response and closed the door harder than necessary.
"Detective Reagan," Salazar greeted and noticed his partner this time.
"Detective Baez," she introduced herself and shook his hand.
"O'Hara, Johnson, this is Detectives Reagan and Baez. This is SAC Dave Johnson and agent Gary O'Hara from the DEA," Salazar introduced the two men in charge. The SAC was deeply tanned and his teeth were glowing to the contrast with the scruffy, blond hair and the dark suit. O'Hara was about a foot taller than all of them and several inches wider over the shoulders. Danny glanced at the impressive mountain in front of him and nodded.
"Let's get to work," he said and nodded towards the building. Johnson and Salazar walked ahead after Danny and Baez, O'Hara signaled to a couple of men to get around the back and secure the exits. They had cased the area on a regularly basis, leaving no stone unturned because of their man inside.
"The layout is simple," Johnson started, "a long hallway, two doors on the left, one to the right, big assembly area dead ahead, rooms in the back," he said with a gruff voice. Danny looked back when a radio chattered. He really had to restrain himself for not running in there, looking for his brother and his partner.
"Backdoor secure, no sound or movement from inside," a voice said and O'Hara responded.
"Acknowledged. Stand by," he hummed with his sonorous voice. He looked at Johnson who nodded to Salazar and all of them readied their guns, leaning on the wall at the door. Baez turned the handle. Unlocked. She pushed it open and Danny went in followed by the others, guns up high.
Jamie was dozing on his side, him arm was numb from his weight, his head sore from the blow. It seemed like they had been there for hours already. Marcus Rivers had been an unexpected, but welcome surprise. His head hurt, just thinking about it. Eddie was lying in front of him, all tensed up, but calmer than before. They had both realized they could do just about as much as a teaspoon. She was working to get the tape of her mouth by rubbing her cheek on her shoulder. Jamie opened his eyes when she groaned and sighed in frustration.
"'amie!" she mumbled out of the corner, she had managed to loosen. She wriggled a bit and sat up, rolling her shoulders like she had done before. "'e gorra oo som'hin," she huffed when she tried to catch the little piece of tape between her knees. Jamie couldn't do anything but watch. He was too exhausted because of the banging pain in his head and his stomach was complaining about the lack of food. He watched her back as she struggled and finally she got the damn piece of tape off.
"Jamie, don't you dare fall asleep," she started when she turned to him again. Jamie could see the worry in her eyes and nodded. The door opened, apparently it hadn't been locked, Jamie thought. No backdoor. Eddie looked at the man that came in, recognition in her face. He glanced at Jamie for a second, but walked to Eddie. Jamie's heart started pounding away, he could see the greed and hatred in the man's face and he couldn't do anything.
"What the hell do you want from us?" Eddie asked and tried to wriggle backwards. Her voice was strong, filled with disgust. The knife in his hand sprung open and Jamie tried to move. The pain in his head was almost unbearable. He mumbled and Eddie looked at him with panic in her eyes. He, too, had a growing feeling of panic and he couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't lose another partner. Millions of thoughts and voices exploded in his head with Vinny's laughter.
"Let's go," the man said and kneeled in front of Eddie.
"Mm-mmm!" Jamie shouted Eddie's name in the tape, wriggling, moving, kicking and turning but he couldn't do anything. The man slid the tape on her ankles, folded the knife and heaved her on her feet. She didn't say a word, just looked at Jamie, frightened.
"Jamie…" she mumbled weakly and was pushed out the door. When the door was closed, but not locked, Jamie had a brief moment of rage and fury, trying to yell his lungs out into the tape, but eventually he had to rest his head back on the floor, because tiny dots were flying around in his blurred vision. He breathed hard, praying for Danny to find them and for Marcus Rivers to keep Eddie safe. With new energy he started to look around the empty room for anything that could come in handy.
Danny felt like punching the wall after they had cleared the building. The only thing inside had been a pile of burned cell phones and other tech. The SAC had nod said much compared to O'Hara, who, occasionally let out a four letter word about the absence of the undercover detective and their well-researched targets. Danny and Baez had been briefed on Marcus Rivers, and knowing his records as a decorated marine, made it a lot easier for Danny. He was too good for his cover to be busted on techs, he thought.
"Where could they be?" Baez asked, with the question directed at Dave Johnson, who seemed more collected than his subordinate, O'Hara. It was unlikely that the DEA had no clue, what so ever, to where the target of a operation might be.
"I would like to know that, too," Danny growled, still trying to play nice. Johnson looked at him, with weary eyes and nothing needed to be said out loud. "Baez, let's go," he glared at the DEA until he turned around.
"Where do you think you are going, Detective?" O'Hara said with his deep voice that articulated his enormous size.
"I'm going to find my kid brother and his partner," Danny called back. "Maybe we can even dig up an undercover NYPD detective as well," he said, ironically, as he walked to head out of the front door. Baez gave the remaining men an apologetic look and hurried along. When she came outside, she caught up with Danny.
"And how do you plan on doing that, exactly?" she asked speculatively when they entered their car. Danny shrugged, he didn't quite know yet. This time, Danny was driving, his state of mind reflected in the car.
"We'll start with the van," he said, hoping it could give them some leads to the whereabouts of this whole mess.
He couldn't just give up and wait for it to be his turn. Not when Eddie was on the wrong side of that damn door, Jamie thought. Somehow he had got himself up on his feet and was jumping around, looking for any kind of thing that could work as a tool. The room was tightly sealed off, even the single, tiny window had been barricaded. He jumped for the wooden chair to sit down, resting his tired body, and when he leaned back he felt it give a little. A tiny stray of hope shot through him and he was refueled with energy. Why hadn't he thought of this before, he wondered, as he grabbed the chair behind his back and tried to swing it into the wall. His heart was pumping hard again with the fear of what was happening outside the door. Once again he picked up the chair, channeling all of his strength to wreck it and he almost face planted the floor when it unexpectedly gave way. A few second later he was working the tape around his hands with the splintered leg. A couple of times it slipped and caught the skin on his wrists, but he only tried harder, while figuring out a plan of escape if the commotion of the breaking chair wasn't enough to attract attention and had him killed before.
Eddie had been placed in a chair in a bigger room while the man went to knock on a door. Shave and a Haircut – two bits, and the door were opened a few seconds later. A small man walked out and Eddie tried to hide the fear in her eyes, when they dawned upon the purple latex gloves on his hands. She was surprised for a second when she realized she looked at another Parson, just smaller. The resemblance was stunning, like she looked like her mother, this guy was definitively related to the Parson from the motel parking lot.
"Ed-eet Janko, I presume," the man said with a revolting smile, he was missing haft a tooth and his breath stank all the way over to Eddie.
"That's Officer Janko to you, dumbass," she corrected him and he nodded, impressed, when she put emphasis on 'officer'. He walked closer to the chair she was in and she couldn't distance herself further from him. "What makes a moron, like you, kidnap two off-duty police officers in bright daylight?" she asked and frowned at his nauseating bodily odor. He laughed at her, a short burst that sounded more like a cough.
"I hear that you were the one to shoot one of my men. That's just as bad as using my brother like a sandbag, if not worse. At least, he will still be able to walk without a cane," he grimaced. "But then… what do you know? I had you brought here, so you could be… how do we say it, Knuckles?" he turned to the man that had brought her in. "Ahh, enlightened, I think the word is," Ray grinned and walked to the door again. Eddie was frozen solid to the chair, not even daring to think or breathe. Ray turned around again like he forgot something. "Uh, you don't have to worry about your partner… he and his brothers will soon be reunited," he laughed again and walked out the door.
"You are lucky if you get to go to prison for this!" Eddie yelled at the door, confused and frightened, worried and scared. Danny. Her spine was tinkling, and her mind was racing. Was Danny walking into a trap? He couldn't be, she thought, when her eyes landed on the newly named Knuckles as he moved forward from the wall. Briefly she wondered about the nickname, but then she stuck to just staying alive at the moment. A faint bang echoed from down the hallway, from where Jamie probably still was lying on the floor all taped up and it caught the big man's attention. When he jerked his head sideways, Eddie pulled her right leg up and kicked out at his kneecap. It crunched and the big guy jolted forward, grabbing his knee, huffing and growling. Eddie jumped up, sprinted across the room towards the hallway. Her hands where still tied up behind her when she pushed open the door with her shoulder and she could have sworn out loud when Marcus Rivers walked out in front of her, completely unaware. They collided, Rivers falling backwards bracing both of them for impact with the floor. When they hit, he laid still for a second only to bring his hand to his pocket and pull out a box cutter.
"How nice to run into you here," he wheezed with little air in his lungs and a tight smile, irony in his voice.
"Where's Jamie? We have to get out!" she said as they both hurried to their feet.
"Can't go, but you should get out," he breathed in and quickly cut the tape on her wrist.
"Why not?" Eddie asked when she rubbed her sore wrists.
"I've been working on this for two years, I'm not just going to drop it," he replied and dragged Eddie by the arm, down the hallway. They both glanced over their shoulders when they heard a thrilling, characteristic click behind them and stopped dead in their tracks, three steps later.
"Give me an excuse," Knuckles said with his gun pointed firmly at Eddie, when they turned around, slowly. His face was read with anger, and he wasn't putting any weight on his left leg. He was clearly in pain, Eddie thought. He tracked the gun to the left, aiming at Marcus. He smiled and nodded.
"Knuckles…" Marcus started in an unfamiliar accent, presumably keeping up with his cover story.
"Copper," he replied, lifting the gun an inch. "Pig," he continued. "Traitor," he said with a lower voice while shaking his head in disgust. Eddie didn't take her eyes of the gun, even if it wasn't trailing her anymore. But moving around, would certainly catch his interests in her again. They were standing in the middle of the hallway. The nearest door was ten feet behind them, same distance to the gun in front of them. No other places to take cover.
"Police is on its way," Eddie tried, much to her regret, as the gun shifted to her again. "If you put the gun down and walk away, right now, you can get away clean," she continued. Jamie was always the best of them to persuade people with weapons in hands, he could even talk down the mentally ill, with knifes in their hands. She damned him for not being there right now. It was quite a predicament, they had gotten themselves into.
"Yeah, I'm sure of it," Knuckles grunted and pulled the trigger. Two shots shattered the silence in the hallway and echoed out, dying away. Two bodies slumped to the ground, their sticky, red blood mixing on the floor. The door behind them flung open, Jamie was leaning on the doorframe, drained for powers, looking at the two people ten feet in front of him. His world fell apart, at that moment. Another shot blazed through the air and whizzed past his ear. He focused once more and threw himself back against the wall, thinking hard. He grabbed the chair leg from the table and steadied himself. When the gun came into view, he slammed the wood down on it hard, pulled it over his shoulder and swung it again horizontally to the man's face. The gun fell to the floor, followed by the man a second later. Jamie threw himself at the gun, grabbed it and turned around the angry growl. For a second everything stood still, both of their hands on the gun between them, wrestling it away from the other. Jamie's eyes had almost every emotion in them. Anger towards the man he was wrestling, disgust by what he had just seen, fear of leaving his family mourning for the loss of another son, sadness for loosing another partner, for loosing Eddie. Three rounds went off between them, both with surprise in their face and both wobbled backwards.
I promise I will try to post next chapter in less than 7 days :) Till next time, guys!