Chapter Two

"Have you heard from them yet?" Russ queried. "A ransom demand, hang-up call - anything?"

"Nothing," Steve said grimly. It was almost 1:00pm. Steve couldn't bear to picture what his family might be going through...but he could think of nothing else. "It's been over six hours now," he added.

"Does Jaime have a tracking chip?"

Steve shook his head. "No - in fact she had some rather unique suggestions for where Rudy could put it."

"If Jaime was taken for ransom," Russ theorized, "you'd have heard something by now. If it was revenge, they'd have just killed her. But with the kids...I'm guessing the kids were taken for leverage."

"Jaime would do anything to keep our kids safe," Steve agreed.

"Exactly."

- - -

Now that Jaime knew about the camera, it was the most visible part of her new world. She stared angrily - defiantly - at the lens, silently waiting for what might happen next. Surprisingly, nothing did. Twenty minutes later, Jaime was still shivering but she refused her captors the satisfaction of any other response.

Finally, the speaker crackled to life once more. "You will return to your children; you have three minutes."

Was it a trick? Jaime didn't wait to find out. The door at the top of the stairs was unlocked and she made her way through the kitchen and down the hall alone and unimpeded. Suddenly, there it was - in a tiny, recessed nook in the wall - a phone! She was being timed, but Jaime only needed a moment to dial her home number at bionic speed and set the receiver down (just slightly off the cradle) before rejoining Jenna and Adam.

- - -

Steve swooped up the phone before the 2nd ring, to hear...silence. Instinct told him to keep quiet and he was soon rewarded by the sound of a door creaking open...and Jaime's voice.

"Get away from my kids - now," she was saying through what Steve could tell were clenched teeth.

Trace this call, he mouthed to Russ, who was on it immediately.

"Get away from my kids," Jaime repeated - and the temporary sitter left. Jenna sped to her mother who hugged her tightly. "Are you ok?" Jaime asked.

Jenna nodded, clinging to Jaime's side. "I was reading. Adam is sleeping. You're all wet."

Jaime smiled at her daughter, determined to leave the morning's horrors in the basement. "I took a shower." She was no closer to learning the kidnappers' identities or what they wanted but when she was in this room Jaime's main focus was keeping her children calm...and safe.

"Here's the address." Russ handed Steve a slip of paper.

"They're almost two hours away," Steve noted, already halfway out the door.

"Steve - wait! Hansen's team'll be here soon; you might need them."

"Give them the address and send 'em in to bat clean-up. I'm outta here."

- - -

"Let's go," a new gunman ordered, just after Jenna laid down for an afternoon nap.

"If she wakes up and I'm not here, she'll panic," Jaime explained. "Whatever you need can wait an hour."

The gunman scowled. "You come with me...and we'll let her sleep. Start causing trouble and she'll be coming with us."

"Don't. Touch. Her." Jaime rose to her feet.

"I knew you'd see it our way."

Steve sped toward the address Russ had given him, praying he wasn't already too late. What kind of monsters would take a baby and a three-year-old, even if it was only for leverage? He couldn't conceive it. The only thing Steve knew for sure was that once he found them, it would be the kidnappers who needed prayers.

Once again, Jaime was seated inside the concrete shower - alone and in total silence. Worried about her babies and just plain tired and angry, she finally stood up, trying for any sort of reaction or response.

She got one. Jaime was once again doused with a stinging spray of ice water, but this time she stood her ground, her eyes shooting daggers at the camera. The water blasted her again and Jaime stubbornly crossed her arms.

"What do you want?" she asked. There was no answer, and she stepped out of the shower and moved closer to the camera. "Answer me, dammit!"

The answer was not one she wanted to hear: the heart-rending cry of a frightened child, directly above her.

"Mommy!"

- - - - - -