Chapter Three
Matt walked into the conference room, which was serving as their office. He looked down at the case file, and felt bile rising slowly up his throat. He had to start watching what he said to Aiden, he was a loose cannon. In fact he seemed worse than the last time they had this chat. Matt placed his hands on the table that stood in front of him, and tried to force the bile back down.
"Matt, are you okay?" Lia asked, she felt so bad for him.
The entire team knew he was still in love with Emily, but they had let it go. It was now as clear as the day Matt announced to the entire unit that they were dating. That man was so in love with Emily, that Lia's heart ached for him right now.
"No, I think I'm gonna be sick," Matt said, running off toward the bathroom.
Frank walked in, after watching Matt run in the opposite direction.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Frank asked.
"I don't know, I can tell you this. If something happens to Emily, Matt will never be Matt again," Lia shook her head, and sniffled at the tears that threatened to spill.
"What does that mean?" A man from behind them asked.
"What does what mean?" Lia asked, fear written on her face.
Frank stood protectively next to her.
"What you said about Flannery," the man said, a look of anger and disgust on his face.
"Matt is in love Emily, and he probably always will be," Lia said, as she took a step backwards.
"Yeah well if that's the case, then why did he rip her heart out?" the man asked, the anger becoming more noticeable.
"They were both hurting, I'm sure Matt wanted to fix things between them," Lia said.
"Yeah, well if he lays on finger on her, I will show him what it feels like to get his heart ripped out," the man said.
This was all Frank had to hear. No one talked about his best friend like that, not after he watched him drink himself into a four hour puke fest.
"You need to step back, and step off, otherwise your boss, Agent Riley is gonna hear what you just said," Frank said, anger piercing his deep blue eyes.
"Oh let me guess Flannery is your boy huh?" the man said.
"Yeah, and who the hell do you think you are to Emily?" Frank asked.
No one had noticed that Matt had came back into the room.
"I'm her fiancee, names Michael Waltz, I head the D.C. HRT Team," Michael said, his expressions changing, knowing Matt had heard what he said.
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Emily shivered, as she pulled the blanket up around her neck. The one thing she hated about D.C. the nights where so cold. Had Matt really flown to D.C. to save her. Emily wanted so badly to believe that, but believing that meant that he had to still care for her. He had made it obvious that he didn't before she left for D.C.
Tears reached the corner of her eyes. She bit her lower lip, and refused to let them fall, she had cried enough over that man, she didn't need to cry over him anymore. She had Michael, he was such a great guy. He had stayed by her said, as she shared her painful history with Matt. He had held her hand, as she cried over the man one last time. Yet, she still felt tiny butterflies in her stomach at hearing Matt's voice. Hearing him trying so hard to save her, she had to be strong, for Matt. He was trying so hard, maybe there was something there to save.
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"Matt, Em never wanted you to find out that way," Lia said, as she slowly began digging herself a hole.
"Excuse me what?" Matt said, anger showing in his eyes.
"She begged me not to tell you," Lia said, fear resurfacing on her face.
"You knew about this, and you didn't tell me. I thought we were friends, I thought we were close enough to look out for one another," Matt said, his fist drilling straight into the table.
"Matt we are friends," Lia said.
"Oh, am I just not as good a friend as Emily huh? Did I not deserve to know?" Matt screamed at her, as tears formed in his eyes.
He had spent so many nights convincing himself he was over her. He didn't need her in his life, to be happy. It was for shit, but he said it enough to finally start to believe it. He wanted to get over her, he wanted her to be happy, even if that meant he was supposed to be unhappy.
"Matt I care about you, your my friend. Yes of course you deserved to know, but it's Emily's personal life, if she didn't want me to tell you, then it wasn't my right to do it anyway," Lia screamed back at him.
She felt bad afterwards, she knew he was hurting, and she was just making it worse. All the commotion got Duff's attention, and he entered the conference room.
"What's going on?" Duff asked Frank quietly.
"Matt just found out, Emily's engaged to some HRT Dillhole. He also found out that your girlfriend knew about it the whole time," Frank said.
Duff turned to face him.
"Lia knew, and didn't tell him," Duff said, as he went to grab Lia's arm.
Frank grabbed Duff's shoulder and stopped him, just before he made contact with Lia.
"Let them work it out. You two can have at it, after we get Emily out safely," Frank said.
"I cannot believe you Lia," Matt said, sitting down, his head falling in his hands, and his body began to shake violently.
"I think you guys should step out for a minute," Lia said, as she caught a glare from both of them.
Lia sat down next to Matt, and rubbed his back.
"I know you were trying to listen to Emily's wishes, but damn, I'm trying to save her, and all I can think about is that asshole's hands all over her body. It makes me sick," Matt said, as he finally started to calm down.
"I know, when she told me, she said he was a great guy. That guy didn't resemble anything close to a great guy. You, your a great guy," Lia said.
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Emily finally started to move around. Her wrist was throbbing in pain, she thought it was broken. She walked back over to were the phone had been sitting, and much to her surprise, she saw the phone still sitting there.
'Had Aiden been so pissed that he'd forget to grab it' Emily thought.
She figured now was as good a time as any. They needed information, and Emily wanted to give them whatever she thought she knew. She grabbed the phone off the receiver, and hit the redial button.
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"Flannery, calls coming in," Jonah yelled into the conference room.
"Damn it, he's half an hour earlier," Matt yelled, putting his earpiece back in.
"Hello, Aiden?" Matt answered.
"Matt?" Emily's voice cracked.
"Emily?" Matt asked, surprise in his voice.
"Yeah," she said, weakly.
"Emily are you okay?" Matt asked.
"I'm in a lot of pain, but I think most of it is from bruises," Emily said, through gritted teeth.
"Okay, how did you get a phone?" Matt asked.
"Aiden left it," Emily answered.
"Okay, do you know where your at. Can you see anything, that can help us find you?" Matt asked, sincere concern in his voice.
"Umm...I remember passing a lot of trees," Emily said, she hated that she wasn't helping more.
"Okay, well Jonah thinks Aiden could be holding you in a warehouse, in a wooded area, so that could help explain that," Matt said.
"I'm definitely in a warehouse," Emily said, as a shiver covered her body, and her teeth chattered.
Matt had something he needed to say, and he didn't care who was listening.
"Em, did he hurt you?" Matt asked, he couldn't force the words from his mouth.
"I'm not sure what you mean, he beat me up pretty good when he got me here. After you last conversation he through me to the ground, I think I might have a broken wrist," Emily said, and then she knew what he meant.
"Did he hurt you any other way," Matt said, through gritted teeth.
"No, at least I don't think so. I was out of it for a while," Emily said.
"Okay, Em, I need you to hang in there, I'm gonna get you out of there," Matt said.
"Shit, I gotta go, I hear him coming," Emily said hanging up the phone.
She tried to run back to the wall, but her legs hurt to bad.
"What in the hell are you doing up?" Aiden said, as he pushed her down to the ground.
"I was cold," Emily said, as she lay shivering on the ground.
"Oh, well I don't give a damn, you don't get up unless I tell you to," Aiden said.
He stood over top of her, and stared into her eyes.
"Hmm...I think you need to learn a lesson, I don't think your taking me seriously," Aiden said, as he paced for a minute, thinking about what he could do, to make her learn.
"Aiden please," she pleaded with him.
She felt like giving up, her body hurt, but at the same time, she had mentally promised Matt to hang in there.
Aiden walked back over to her, and looked at her again.
"You'll learn," he said, as he kicked her as hard as he could in the stomach.
Emily yelped in pain, as tears cascaded down her face. She felt like throwing up, but she knew that would only make things worse.
"You gonna get up again bitch?" Aiden all but yelled at her, as he watched her body shake violently from the tears spilling from her eyes.
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A half an hour later
"Aiden, look I've been talking with my higher ups, but it's going to take some more time," Matt said, although the furthest thing from his mind, was giving this psychopath immunity.
"Yeah well I've changed my mind," Aiden said, holding a gun firmly in his hand.
"I've decided, that I want to kill Agent Lehman. The bitch just won't listen, and she sure as hell won't shut up," Aiden said, the gun shaking in his hand.
Fear shown on Matt's face.
"Now Aiden, you don't wanna kill Emily," Matt said, as he heard her whimper lightly.
His heart broke all over again. If he hadn't been such an asshole, she wouldn't have left. She wouldn't be in this trouble if it wasn't for him.
"But I do, I want to kill one of you, so choose, her or you," Aiden said.
"Aiden, if you kill one of us, they'll lock you up again, only this time you won't get out," Matt said, stating a clear fact.
"Well why do you think my gun has two bullets in it, huh?" Aiden said.
Lia tugged on Matt's sleeve, and pointed to her screen.
"I think I've got a hit on the number," Lia said quietly.
Matt shook his head to let her know he heard her.
"Aiden, listen to me, I don't think you want to hurt Emily or me. I think your coming to terms with the fact, that there is no way out of this for you," Matt said, giving the team to pack up there they're stuff.
"Maybe, but either way, one of you will die. Now either you can chose, or I can just shoot Emily now, save both of us the trouble," Aiden said.
"Now Aiden, you don't want to do that," Matt said, as Lia helped him get a vest on.
"But it is, see it's brilliant," Aiden said.
Matt covered his earpiece with his hand.
"We gotta hurry, this psycho is gonna kill her if we don't," Matt said, as he hooked his earpiece into Lia's wireless com-system.
"Well let's move out," Jonah said, as they all started for the exit.