Chapter 3

Warnings for this chapter: Characterization may not be accurate. You can take that as you will. Thanks for reading so far, and I hope you enjoy.

Candice had seen plenty of scenic routes on her way through Chicago city, but this wasn't one of them. This was more like a disaster construction site, actually. The person who was driving smiled at her and gave her a quick wink. She looked back at the driver with a sinking feeling inside her gut: did she do the right thing? Should she have waited for Victoria to pick her up? She didn't know what it was that was telling her something was wrong, but it was telling her, nonetheless. She kept her eyes on the road ahead of her, only to realize that they were not heading to a hotel room-but rather a run-down shack. What was going on?

"Sorry to pry," she asked shyly, "but where are we going?" The driver remained silent. Not a good sign….

"We're going to my favorite spot." He retorted harshly. The man she had only come to know as 'Frank', seemed so nice when he had pulled his car beside the curb, yet now, he seemed more aggressive-more assertive, and dare she think it, more domineering than before. It almost frightened her in a sense. Suddenly without warning, he stopped the car-directly in front of the shack. Surely this couldn't be the right place. He looked at her, and gave her an evil grin.

"We're here….." he said to her. Her face took on a shocked expression as he pulled out his hand gun and commanded her to get out of the car.

"Wait-what? You-please put the gun down-…" He rose the barrel of the gun to eye-level, and stared straight at her.

"I said-get out of the car…." She wanted to scream for help, she wanted to run away….but realizing that Frank was dead serious about threatening to kill her without a second thought, she kept quiet and did as she was told; only wishing someone would recognize she was missing and come looking for her-before it was too late.

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Officer Turow had just finished questioning Hunter and already his mind was racing with a slight suspicion of his involvement in the murder. To him, it seemed too convenient that the two men had "accidentally" stumbled across a murder scene when the door was substantially unlocked. He didn't care about who the wrestler was-Hunter had to be there to unlock that door; unless of course, he had left it unlocked to begin with….

"Hey Turow," the M.E. called him over. Turow walked over to the corpse of the female victim, where the M.E. was standing.

"Have something?" He asked.

"Have a look at this," the M.E said, lifting the woman's skirt, "I found trace evidence of semen and vaginal secretions on the skirt and upper thighs."

"Well, she obviously had intercourse then, right? The secretions do indeed belong to her?"

"No," the M.E stated bluntly, "they belong to another unknown female. It appears to me your victim swung both ways, detective…." Oh great! Turow thought. Just what he needed-another crazy sex crime to deal with; as he looked down at the woman, he could see she might have been in her late 20's, and of medium build. The cause of death was by strangulation-due to the marks and ligatures around her neck and bruises on her wrists from being bound. The slicing of the jugulars was ruled out as being postmortem. Who the hell could do such a thing to a defenseless young woman? He was almost scared to find out.

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Shawn pulled out his driver's license as he and Hunter stood at the desk waiting to get a room for the night. Though Shawn was still too stunned over what they had discovered earlier in the evening, Hunter seemed to be holding his own. The desk clerk approached the computer sitting on the opposite side of the desk and typed in the information provided on Shawn's license. He couldn't believe it, he had wanted to have one last night with Hunter, and here they were, fleeing like fugitives from a murder that had happened right in Hunter's hotel room! Finally after a little while, they were assigned a hotel room-room number 112. At least it isn't on the top floor, Shawn thought. They headed down the hallway and into the room with no words spoken between them.

Once inside, Hunter dropped his duffel bag on the floor and before he could say anything to the Show Stopper, heard his cell phone go off. He answered the call hesitantly. "Hello?"

"Hello is this Triple H?" a deep voice inclined. Just who the hell was this?

"Yea, speaking. Who's this?" At first all he heard was silence, followed by a faint scream coming from somewhere in the background. He stood there in the middle of the hotel room, listening to what he presumed to be a woman continuing to make one horrible sounding scream over the line. "What the hell?" He questioned no one in particular.

"What? Hunter, what is it?" Shawn whispered over to him. Hunter motioned him over with a wave of his hand. Shawn walked over, only to see Hunter holding out his cell phone, as if wanting Shawn to listen in on the conversation. "Hunter, what are you doing? I'm not going to listen in-are you going mad?"

"Shhhh……just listen!" He did what he was told to and leaned in toward the phone's speaker in order to hear what was being said; but to his astonishment, there was nothing. All he heard was someone yelling on the other end. He looked up at Hunter irritably.

"Very funny Hunter," Shawn said, "that's so like you-listening to those 1-900 numbers-you know, that's very clever! I know what you want, so let's just get down to it-…" Hunter hushed the Heart Break Kid urgently, trying to tell him something was indeed wrong. "What?"

Hunter held his hand over the speaker. "What is wrong with you? Shawn-I'm being serious! You are sick, you know that!" He could see Shawn placing his hands on his hips, and rolled his eyes-Shawn just wouldn't give up, would he?

"Hey, at least I'm not the one calling those crazy sex numbers!" Shawn retorted. "Ya know, only you would do something as SICK as that!" Hunter would have turned around and cursed out the damn Show Stopper, but what he was hearing over the phone was preventing him from doing so. Not only was the woman screaming, but Hunter could have even sworn that he had heard the woman say at one point, 'Please, someone help me!' It sent chills down his spine to even think that this was real. Shawn, who had been expecting a rebellion of sorts, continued to stand there, almost daring Hunter to say something; but was shocked to hear nothing coming from his former lover. He walked over to him without so much as another word.

"Shawn…." Hunter whispered silently.

"Yea?"

"Go get the phone, and call the damn cops!" He glared at the older man, hoping he would get the hint this was no joking matter. Shawn's face grew blanched as he picked up the extension beside the bed.

"Hunter-why?"

Hunter glared at him while still listening in on his cell phone. "God damn, I think that's Candice-I think that's her screaming in the background. Shawn-just do as I say! Call the damn cops-NOW!" Shawn picked up the extension and dialed the three numbers as the man on the other end of Hunter's cell began speaking once again.

"You see Hunter, there are certain things that should be left well alone-and this lovely bitch is one of them!" Hunter then heard as the mystery man had apparently put the phone close to the woman so he could hear her pleading cries loud and crystal clear. Hunter's heart began to race as the man pulled back the phone. "You know who this is? Hmmm? Let me tell you then if you're too ignorant to figure it out! This, my friend, is Candice, you know, the biggest slut out of the WWE?"

"Let her go, you bastard!"

"He-he-he," the man laughed, sounding more pleased than before. "You think that is supposed to intimidate me? I don't think so. Ok Hunter, let's play a little game. If you can find me within the next oh, say….two hours from now, you find this bitch, and she lives. Don't find me, though, and she dies! Sound fair?" Hunter glared at Shawn for the longest time before saying anything. Shawn had obviously been put on hold to get in touch with an operator, so he did what he didn't think he'd have to do, he told Shawn to put the phone back on the hook. Shawn did so, and stood deadly still, waiting for Hunter's next request.

Hunter turned away from Shawn for the first time all night. "You want to play a game? You think you can play games with ME? The Game, Triple H? Let me tell ya something, pal! You don't play games with me! I will tear you from limb to limb-you got that? You'd better not let me find you or your ass is dead! You better not touch her-or I will make you suffer!"

"You think you can make me suffer? Oh, just you wait-Hunter-just you wait….." And then the line went dead. Hunter threw his phone against the wall and began pacing the room in an infuriated panic. Shawn was the first one of the two to speak.

"What in the world did you do that for? What is going on here, Hunter? -Who the hell…"

Hunter grabbed his duffel bag and headed toward the door. "Come on, we're leaving! Grab your bags, let's go."

Shawn lifted his bag off of the floor and glanced at Hunter questionably. "Let me guess, tonight's not gonna be the night-is it?" Hunter looked back at him in silence.

"Does it look like it? Come on-we need to get going."

"Where are we going now? I thought you wanted me to call-.."

"I'll explain on the way…" Knowing that was probably going to be the best possible answer he was going to get, he grabbed his bags and followed Hunter through the door, making sure to lock it on the way out.

To Be Continued…..

A/N: I know this is a short chapter; all of them are going to be short. Just for a warning-next chapter is going to be rather graphic; so stay tuned!