Brothers part 2
"She said what?" Chris questioned harshly, taking in Vin's tense posture and worried expression.
Tanner shook his head. "I can't think in here." He motioned to the partying crowd.
"Let's go." Larabee stood, tossing a pile of bills onto the table and instantly the others followed suit.
Outside, the quiet of the parking lot was a welcome change.
"What's going on?" JD questioned as they walked toward their cars.
"Vin caught up to our mystery woman," Buck explained, handing the younger man his keys and leaning against Chris' truck.
Chris frowned, but didn't say anything.
"What'd the lady have to say?" Josiah asked, looking at Tanner.
Vin repeated the short conversation to them.
"So she meant us," JD commented when the sharpshooter had finished. "We're brothers, eh?"
"And trouble is ahead for one of us?" Nathan sounded skeptical as he looked around at the group.
"But who?" Buck wondered.
"She didn't say," Vin shrugged.
"Did she mean right now?" Nathan asked.
"I don't know what the hell she meant!" Vin snapped angrily, his frustration boiling over. "She didn't say who or when or what kind of danger. She just warned me and disappeared, dammit!" He raised his fist wanting to strike something but found nothing and dropped it back to his side.
"Uh, guys?" JD spoke up tentatively.
"What?" Chris growled, glaring in Dunne's direction.
Worry shrouded the youngest member of the team, clearly visible to his leader.
"What is it, JD?" Chris asked again, his tone softening slightly.
JD shifted and motioned to the cars around them. "Shouldn't Ezra be here by now?"
Silence followed his question.
"Shit." Chris reached for his phone. "Vin, you and Buck stay here. Nathan, you and JD hit his condo and Josiah and I will check the office."
"Wait," Nathan held up both arms for everyone to stop. "What if we're overreacting? We don't know anything about this woman. Are we really going to take her seriously? Ezra's probably just taking his time."
Shaking his head, Chris held up his hand for quiet. He paused, looking at the phone with disgust and dialed again. "He's not answering his cell," he told them, focusing again on the small device.
"And we all remember what happened the last time this chick showed up," Buck reminded.
"Smoke and mirrors, tricks and hypnosis," Nathan countered. "Maybe she gets her kicks playing head games with us. For all we know, Ezra's gonna pull into the lot here any minute now."
"There's no answer at his place either," Chris interrupted, putting his phone away. He looked at Nathan. "I don't understand what happened to Ezra the last time this woman showed up, but I know it was real. I'm not taking a chance that it's just a game this time."
"Fine," Jackson conceded with a resigned shrug. "Let's get going then."
Vin leaned against his jeep watching as the others took off. Beside him Buck continued trying to reach Ezra by phone. "Come on, Hoss. Answer." The ladies' man mumbled as he started pacing restlessly.
"They doubt me."
Vin spun toward Aislinn, startled by her sudden appearance. "Might help if you gave us real answers," he pointed out, wondering where she had been hiding.
Aislinn shrugged gracefully. "Some will always doubt what they can not understand."
"Oh. My. God." Buck stopped in midstep and stared. "I was beginning to think you weren't actually real."
"I am." She nodded, looking uncomfortable with the extra scrutiny.
"You mind telling us what the hell is going on?" Buck asked directly. "Where's Ezra?"
"I don't know."
"Then why are you here?" Vin asked.
"I can feel your connection," she glanced from one man to the other. "I can feel him."
"I can't believe this." Buck shook his head and turned away to make another phone call.
The slim figure stiffened, her eyes flashing with anger but her voice was controlled. "Do not ignore my words. He needs you…all of you." She turned to go but Vin grabbed her arm and pulled her close.
"What do you feel?" he asked softly.
She studied him a moment, reading him carefully before answering. "Pain," she whispered. "Pain. Uncertainty. Fear." She looked down and then back up, emotion visible in her eyes. "He fears for you."
Vin watched in stunned silence as Aislinn backed away. He reached forward to stop her but felt as if he was moving in a fog, like time had slowed for everyone except her.
"Why?" he wanted to ask, but words wouldn't form. Where was she going? Why didn't she stay and help them. Why did Ezra fear for him?
"I can't help you any further," she explained. "Follow your instincts." Her voice sounded muffled as she continued moving out of the light. The effect made her seem to fade before his eyes.
"Vin." Buck's voice snapped the world back into regular time.
Tanner shook his head, trying to clear it.
"Was it a smart thing to let her go?" Wilmington wondered out loud.
Vin shrugged. "I'm not sure we could force her to stay, said she couldn't help us any more." He turned to the taller man, "did you call Chris?"
Buck nodded. "Said to meet them at the office. See if we can figure out what's going on and go from there. I'm gonna run inside to let Inez know that Ezra needs to call if he shows up."
Watching as Buck jogged to the door Vin suddenly shivered, unsettled by the overwhelming knowledge that Ezra wasn't showing up anywhere on his own.
"You're not looking so hot."
Ezra opened his eyes to find his captor sitting on the bottom step only inches from him. He hadn't heard the young man descend into the basement or noticed when the light came on. He ignored the kid's sarcastic grin and closed his eyes.
"Oh no, we're not playing that game." Rory grabbed Standish by the arm and hauled him upright.
Ezra cried out, pain ripping through his aching body. He tried to struggle as he was dragged further into his dank cement prison but the kid was surprisingly strong.
Rory dumped him roughly, leaning him against the cinder block wall. Ezra moaned, his arm throbbing as if it were slowly being crushed under a heavy weight while his shoulders burned from being bound. His fingers felt like a hundred needles were being driven through them. A hand slapped his face twice. "Look at me."
Opening his eyes, Ezra glared at the boy squatting in front of him. "Tanner?" he rasped.
Rory frowned. "Yeah, I know that you stupid shit. You think I didn't know who the hell I was grabbing?" He continued to rant as he stood and walked to the other end of room. "Tanner, you put my brother in the slammer and now its time to pay the price." He turned his back and started messing with something on a small workbench.
Confusion flooded Ezra as he tried to sort out what he'd just heard. The kid thought he was Tanner? Then Vin wasn't here. Vin was safe. Relief quickly replaced the grief he'd been feeling but fear bloomed larger. If his assailant found out he really wasn't Vin would the kid just kill him and go after Tanner again? Ezra swallowed with difficulty, whatever happened he couldn't let this boy find out who he really was.
Rory looked at the tools littering the tabletop and focused on the gun. He could end it quickly and be done with the whole task. He touched the cold harsh metal and felt a little sick inside. Keith wanted it to be slow and painful. Looking over his shoulder, Rory could tell Tanner was already in pain…but was he really suffering? He looked down again, his eyes traveling between the knife and the gun and grabbed the knife.
Ezra was ready when his captor returned.
Rory squatted again, holding knife in Ezra's face. "I could make this simple." He smiled.
His prisoner showed no reaction. "Or I can make this complicated."
Still no reaction. Rory twirled the knife with one hand and pushed Ezra's head against the wall with the other before placing the cool blade against Ezra's neck. He leaned forward, pressing lightly. "Think you're cool, Tanner?" he asked. "Think you're a big shot for throwing my brother in prison, making him think you were his friend and then turning on him and bringing him down?"
Ezra's mind raced through cases, trying to narrow in on one where Vin had been their main undercover man and trying to show no fear as the weapon dug deeper into his skin.
"Answer me!" Rory demanded, the blade drawing a thin line of blood.
"I was doing my job." Ezra managed, in a hoarse whisper.
"Your job?" The knife moved quickly, ripping through Ezra's expensive shirt and exposing his bruised chest. Ezra flinched as the blade slit his skin. "You think my brother deserved that?" Rory asked angry that Tanner did nothing more than flinch at the action.
Ezra knew he was asking for trouble but he needed time… for the Team to figure out what had happened to him and to keep this not quite bright but very dangerous kid from actually checking the ID in his back pocket and finding out that he wasn't Vin. "Which one was your brother?"
Rory looked at Tanner incredulously. The smart ass didn't even remember?
"Keith Rounds," Rory shouted, moving the knife across Ezra's chest, slicing again. "You remember him now?" He jumped to his feet and angrily kicked out at Tanner, connecting with his midsection. Tanner doubled over and Rory struck again.
The attack came fast and hard, surprising Ezra's dulled reflexes. His head slammed back into the concrete as his vision exploded with bright light and then faded to darkness.
Rory kicked again and again before he realized that Tanner was unconscious. He stopped and stared down at the slumped man. Breathing heavily, he suddenly felt sick to his stomach as his eyes took in the damage he'd done. Tanner laid awkwardly, his bound arm swollen and bruised. Matted blood caked the agent's hair where Rory had knocked him out earlier and dark bruises were visible along the man's ribcage. Rory could see where his foot had connected, where more bruising would soon form. The shallow cuts he'd inflicted on Tanner's chest were bleeding freely now.
Rounds bit his bottom lip and stepped back. He wasn't sure what he'd expected once he actually had Tanner captive but looking at the man now made him nervous. His anger fading, he tried to remind himself that this was the man who'd betrayed Keith. It was his job…his duty to make him pay for that deception. His eyes focused on a gash on Tanner's cheek, torn open and oozing. The blood dripped down the side of his face and across his chin. He felt a moment of guilt and then shoved it away.
"You deserve this," he spat harshly, kicking the unconscious man again, as if to convince himself he was right.
Vin paced the office suite, counting his wide strides. Ten steps from Chris' office to his desk, fifteen to the main door and six to the break room, then he started again, all the while his mind racing through possibilities about what was happening with Ezra.
Nathan sat at his desk unconsciously tapping a pen in time with Tanner's steps and scrolling through recent prison releases on file. Josiah stood; blankly staring at a cold cup of coffee while Buck and Chris huddled over files at Buck's desk, trying to search out any threat to Ezra.
Everyone jumped when JD burst in. "Got 'em" He waved a handful of tapes and headed towards the conference room.
The others followed, watching as he popped the first tap into a battered VCR and flipped the television on. "This is our best bet. I had Harry cue it up already," he explained. "It should start right about the time Buck called Ez."
When they returned to the federal building and found Ezra's Jag still in its parking space Chris had immediately sent JD for copies of the night's security tapes.
"Which one is this?" Josiah asked.
"The garage," Dunne answered without looking at the profiler. He picked up the remote control and hit the fast-forward. "Everything looks fine until here," he said, revealing that he'd already watched the tape with Harry. He pressed play and the group watched as a young blond kid shuffled into view and stood beside the elevator. Wielding a crow bar, he twisted the weapon nervously while he waited. JD fast-forward again.
"He's not even wearing a hat or anything to shield his face," Buck pointed out.
The man on the screen shifted and JD punched play. They watched then as the elevator door opened, anger growing as the suspect blindsided Ezra before he was even able to step all the way out. One solid hit and Standish crumpled to the ground where the kid scooped him up in a fireman's carry and moved out of camera range.
"Shit!" Buck slammed a hand on the table. "Where the hell was security?"
"Rewind it," Chris ordered. No one spoke as the tape ran backwards. Finally it started again.
"Stop there," Vin interrupted. The shot was fuzzy but they could see the assailant's face fairly well. "Seen that kid before," Tanner stated confidently.
"On a case?" Nathan asked, his earlier skepticism gone.
Vin nodded. "Think so." He stared at the screen a moment longer. "Yeah, one of mine.
"Start pulling files." Chris sighed heavily. "Get a call in to authorities, too, kidnapping of a federal agent."
Josiah nodded. "I'll do that."
As the others quickly headed out to their tasks, Vin leaned forward and grasped the chair in front of him.
"You okay?" Chris questioned.
Vin met his concerned gaze. "I don't know," he admitted.
"No weird flashes back in time or anything?"
Tanner chuckled, though he knew Chris was serious. "No, just…"
"What?"
"Nothing." Vin shook his head. "I can't put it in words. I know this is about finding Ezra right now, but somehow I feel like it's about me."
Larabee raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"This Aislinn thing, I think she really could feel him and she said he fears for me… Why?"
Chris looked back at the TV, the picture of their suspect still frozen there. "You think it's because he's from one of your cases?"
The sharpshooter shrugged. "Possibly. Like I said, it's hard to explain. I just need to find him. I don't think he's in good shape right now."
"Let's do it then."
TBC...