Chapter XVIII: PIN—Personal Idiot Number

"Hand me that piece of paper," Dylan ordered Stephanie, never taking his eyes off of Therese as he pointed down. "Let her go," he said to man holding her, "She's too chicken to do anything."

The brunette bristled at the comment but she knew she wouldn't try anything. She quickly reached down and handed him the slip with the account numbers on it. The second abductor then grabbed her again and put his gun to her temple. It was still hot from the fired shot and she jerked her head away. "What?" the man growled. "I thought you would like it the second time around." Stephanie twisted her head up to see Colin Jenkins, her stalker from almost six years ago, the man who had no qualms about shooting Therese.

"H-how?" she stammered.

"Shut her up," Dylan ordered and he pulled out his cellphone and began dialing numbers. "My Cayman Island account," he said down to Therese, who was still pinned under him. She concentrated on his fingers as Bergeron pressed numbers on the phone. When this was over, she would have his account number and his PIN. She would get their money back…and then some. If she couldn't remember the numbers, she'd at least know based on his finger movements.

"You really sound sick," Therese asked, attempting to get him to talk. She had a thousand questions of how and why.

Dylan faked a cough. "Jamie's stupid enough to fall for it…or maybe I'm that good of an actor."

"Doubt it," Therese muttered.

"What?"

She chose not to repeat her snide comment and change directions. "How did you know our account balances?"

"Let's say Jenkins found another criminal hobby in prison."

"Then why not transfer the money yourself?" she asked.

"Because we needed the PIN numbers," Bergeron replied in a condescending manner.

"You do realize how redundant that is? PIN stands for personal identification number," she snapped back with a desire to annoy him.

"Shut up," he growled and raised his hand to threaten. She said nothing else and repeated the numbers in her head that he had already entered.

When the transfer had taken place, he clapped his phone shut and stared down at her with a wicked smile. "Why?" she simply asked.

"I was paid handsomely by a third party and now I get your money," he replied as if making small talk but then his tone angrily changed. "You're the bitch that got me fired from the best job of my life. If you had kept your mouth shut in the investigation, I wouldn't have been let go. Then, I get hired on again and you treat me like I'm pondscum. Yeah, you made nice, inviting me over for dinner. Your husband's a better person than you are. At least he tried."

"That's why you agreed to do this? That's so childish," she replied, realizing that he would be one of the best people to break through her security system. This was part of exactly what he done for Pendleton in the firm and what he was 're-learning.' He must have found a way to access every client's system, including hers.

"Not when I walk away with your money, her money," he indicated Stephanie, "payment for the job and the satisfaction of torturing you and Stephanie. I'll be kicking back in the Caymans in less than twenty-four hours and I'll never have to lift a finger to work again. This, uh, third party knew I was only one of two people who hated you enough to do this."

"You went all the way to Istanbul to do that?"

"I have friends. I called them and they rerouted the call back to Atlanta. Brilliant, don't you think?" Dylan flashed her a grin, one that had melted many women's hearts. "I can't believe you didn't like my clues. I thought you'd enjoy a trip down memory lane." Therese could only stare in perplexity. "What? You didn't find in your research that I was a senior in the same high school when you were a freshman."

She tried to squeeze her hands into fists to control her rage but the tendons wouldn't work from where he had her pinned, that is, if she could have made a fist from her fingers growing numb. She couldn't believe she had missed that. Only his record from the time he was fired by Pendleton was a concern. "And asshole up there? How'd he get out?" she asked, having to change the conversation before her rage exploded into a major migraine.

"He made parole," he replied, as if she should have known.

"And I'm sure you know why we weren't informed," Therese sarcastically asked.

"I took the notice from your mailbox and Colin lifted hers. Once again, brilliant, don't you think?" There was that same smile.

"I guess he's skipping the country, too?"

"Exactly."

"And what if I call the FBI in to stop you?" the blonde asked with a cocky grin.

"By the time you convince them of what happened, we'll be out of here. And if you do and we get arrested, when we get out of jail, you better be watching your backs every second of the day and, this time, I won't stop at your husband, but I'll target your children. It'll be more fun than sending you around the world and listening to you squirm." He took a big breath. "Now, I'm going to get up from here and you're not going to move until we are out of that door. Then, you're going to wait thirty minutes before you attempt to leave the site."

Therese would always look back on this moment as probably the stupidest move she ever made, even stupider than when the golf pro that she had been escorting was almost stabbed. When Dylan rose and backed away from her, a police siren sounded and he glanced in the direction of the noise. She drove her foot into his crotch as hard she could, sending him backward, clutching his groin, and dropping the gun. It was too dark to see their guns but the snubnose attached to her calf would do just as well. She snatched the weapon from its hiding place but hardly got it aimed when Stephanie was thrown across their path. The brunette slid into one of the columns and Therese aimed her gun at Jenkins. His weapon was trained on her as well. "I've shot you once, Blair, and I'll do it again," the tattooed man snarled.

"And don't think I won't return the favor," she quickly replied and began backing up where she could watch both of the abductors. Stephanie hadn't been knocked out and she raised herself to a sitting position against the column to wait. Therese hardly knew what move she was going to make next. There were several intense minutes in which Jenkins and Therese squared off and the only sounds were Dylan's moans. Just when she thought her head would explode from the tension, she saw a dark figure dragging itself across the floor behind Colin. From the shape, she hoped it was Shawn. When he was close enough, he violently rolled into the back of Jenkins legs. Therese dropped to the floor in case the gun fired but the man only fell backward over Shawn. There were four places she needed or wanted to be—taking Jenkins' gun, protecting Shawn or Stephanie, stopping Dylan from recovering, and going to Kevin.

The only person conscious enough to do anything was Jenkins. So Therese pounced on him to find his gun but she found herself under his weight. From the way he wrestled with her, he didn't have his weapon. "Stephanie!" she screamed, having no idea Shawn had been nailed in the gut with a flying elbow and was attempting to recover. "Get the guns!"

Stephanie looked around her. There were a total of five guns lying around the floor in the dark and she couldn't see any of them. When she heard gurgling sounds that sounded like someone was being strangled, she realized what Jenkins was doing to Therese. Hurrying over, she accidentally kicked one of the guns and then grabbed it. By the time she had it aimed at Jenkins, a recovered Shawn had his arms looped around Jenkins neck and was pulling him off of Therese, who was gasping for air. She immediately struggled up and rasped, "Have you got the guns?"

"I only found one," Stephanie replied right before she was knocked into Therese. The brunette flew across the floor and the weight on her tried to wrestle the gun away. She bit into the man's shoulder as hard as possible and he howled back, falling away from her. Therese was now up and she stomped on Bergeron's chest, from where he had pulled away from the VP. "Here," Steph heavily breathed and tapped Therese's leg from where she lay with the only gun anyone could find in the dark. The agent readily took it and pointed it squarely in Dylan's face.

"You won't kill me," he laughed.

"No, but don't think I won't," she had to stop and take a gulp of air around her dry, pulsing throat, "be anything like your partner and put a hole through any other body part. Steph, help Shawn."

"Already on my way," she replied through her teeth as she pulled herself up from the floor.

"No, take this," the blonde hoarsely stated and carefully handed the gun off. "Shoot'im if he moves." Therese was only steps away from where Shawn and Colin were still wrestling. A well-placed kick stopped Jenkins long enough for her to pull Shawn off of him. His wrists were bound and he was limited in what he could do. Both of them would have wrestled until exhaustion or until Colin finally got the better of him. "Shawn, find the guns," she ordered, not aware of how much of a beating he had already taken but only aware of the duct tape across his mouth. In one swift motion, she ripped it off and he howled in pain. "Sorry," she muttered, turning away from him and to her target.

Therese could smell revenge and she landed a few kicks to Jenkins ribs. She jerked him up by the front of his shirt and punched his face until she felt a presence pulling at her. "Therese!" Shawn called. "THERESE!" he shouted and, this time, he got her attention. She stared at him as if she couldn't comprehend where she was at or who he was. "I've got him now," he said and indicated her Beretta.

"Police! Freeze!" Five heads jerked to where they heard the shout to find several flashlights trained on them. "Put the guns down!" Shawn and Stephanie looked down at their quarry and then back up at the flashlights before carefully putting the weapons down and away from them. Police began to swarm the area. Therese and Shawn were pulled away from Jenkins and Stephanie away from Bergeron. The security agent began to immediately protest but other police personnel threaded through them and began to cuff the culprits. Stephanie and Therese were stunned that the police were here and no one was arresting them. Shawn assumed that the girls had set it up.

The police who had pulled them away were now checking on them but Therese shoved herself away and headed straight for Kevin, whom no official had seen yet in the inky blackness. She dropped down on her knees and pulled him to her for a long, hard hug. She then cradled his face in her hands, cooing over the bruises on his face as some kind person shone a flashlight over them. "Are you okay, sweetheart?" she asked, barely above a whisper as her throat was slightly swelling, and then realized he too had a piece of duct tape across his mouth. Her hands hovered over his face while she tried to determine the best way to rip it off. When he made a sound of impatience, she muttered an apology and ripped. "You okay?"

"Just tell me," he took a painful breath, "you didn't put my baby in hockey lessons?"

Therese laughed between the tears and pulled him to her again. He was going to be okay if that was all he was concerned about. "No, sweetheart," she said with a laugh that hurt.

He moved his bound arms against her. "Can we get these off?" he feebly asked.

"Of course, baby." She started pulling at the plastic ties and realized they weren't going anywhere.

"I'll get something, ma'am," an officer said over her shoulder but Therese wasn't listening. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her keychain, finding the fingernail clippers and beginning to clip away at the plastic. She headed for his feet, dusty and cold, to cut the ties there as well and realized that Shawn's hadn't been tied.

"How'd you get so lucky to be tied?" she asked, caring less about the dirt as she rubbed his cold toes.

"Y'all got here before they could," he replied and she pulled him to his feet, wrapping her arms around him and caring less that he smelled like he hadn't bathed in over a week—which was exactly true.

"The ambulance is almost here," a policeman interrupted.

"I'm fine. I'll be alright," Kevin protested. "Sounds like you need to go as well," he added, softly rubbing his knuckles against her throat.

"Don't pay attention to him," she said to the officer, "he's delusional."

"I've been through worse."

"Shut up," Shawn interrupted. "If I have to go, you have to go."

The couple looked up to Stephanie and Shawn supporting each other. When the police had cuffed and led Bergeron away, the Michaelses had rushed towards each other. Shawn dropped his arms, hands still bound, around Stephanie and held her to him. "Are you really pregnant?" She was already crying silent, emotional tears and now she broke out into sobs as she nodded. "Really?" he excitedly asked.

"Yeah," she barely managed through gasping breaths.

"I don't believe it," he replied and pulled her closer. "Oh, if you're pregnant, we've gotta get you to the hospital. I couldn't see anything but it sounded like you took some lumps. We need to get you checked out."

Surprisingly, she nodded but then responded, putting her hands up to his face, "Looks like you could get checked out too." She ran a hand lightly over a knot that forming on his forehead above the temple. "They didn't…do anything…to you?" she asked, hardly able to voice her question.

"No, princess. Just a good beating. Kevin got it worse. It's nothing compared to some of the things we've been through," he replied with a soft laugh.

"What happened?" she asked, softly running her hand over his cheek.

"Well, the first time we escaped, he got pistol-whipped."

"What?"

"And when they started tying us up to bring us here, I got this really stupid idea—probably the stupidest thing I've ever done—that we could get away. Long story short, I got Kevin beaten," Shawn explained. Later, he and Therese would laugh at their comments, talking about the stupidest move they ever made and joking about how they were made for each other if they were partners.

"You smell horrible," Stephanie commented, "but I don't care because you're back with me."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't exactly the Ritz," he bitterly replied, more to himself than to her.

"You can tell me all about it later but, for now, we need to find something to get these off," Stephanie stated, reaching behind her to lovingly caress his hands.

"Looks like Therese's got something," he replied and they had then interrupted Kevin and Therese arguing about Kevin going to the hospital.

The agent carefully clipped the plastic ties as one of the officers announced that the ambulances had arrived. As they all began to carefully make their way to the front steps of the Parthenon, Stephanie leaned close to Therese. "How'd you know I was pregnant?"

"You are?" the blonde gasped.

"But you said it?" the mom-to-be asked.

"I just said it to keep them from hurting you. You really are?" Stephanie nodded and Therese immediately let go of Kevin to hug the brunette to her.

Nash only blinked as he watched the only overtly girlish act his wife ever made—she was hugging Stephanie, squealing, and bouncing up and down. "What did you say to my wife to turn her into a sixteen-year-old?"

"They're gonna have a baby," Therese squealed.

"Know I'm mentally hugging you from here," Kevin said to Stephanie, massaging his ribs.

"Thank you for the congratulations," she replied with a smirk.

"Wait," Therese suddenly said, bowing up. "You knew you were pregnant and you came along with me?"

"Well, I really didn't know," Stephanie said and then pulled Therese in close to whisper, "The last test was positive but they're not always right. Then I didn't start this month and I had to know. If it makes you feel better, I didn't know until we were almost here."

"But you suspected it and you still came along?"

"Hey, princess," Shawn interrupted, "you really need to get to the hospital."

"This conversation is not over," Therese said through her teeth but then genuinely smiled, "but that doesn't mean I ain't excited for you."

TBC…