Next time Kim came to she was actually on a dirty mattress in the corner of the room. Her hands were tied with a zip tie behind her back. Her face throbbed as well as her head and she recalled with revulsion that Leona packed a mean punch. Though Leona only hit her several times, compounded with the previous concussion it was enough to knock Kim out. She imagined her face was indeed picture worthy now. She also imagined that Jack would be heartsick over it. I'll think about it later.

She wallowed in those miserable thought for a little bit, but she could not afford to fall apart right this moment. She had to rescue herself before Leona lost her marbles and decided to do something more drastic than slapping her around. She wouldn't put anything past that crazy woman. Kim figured that at most Leona had one person helping her. It might have been that she was alone altogether. She did not see or hear anyone else. Although, Leona certainly had some help getting out of the loony bin she was in.

She was never more thankful for her continued gymnastics and cheerleading practices than now. She wiggled her body and threaded her lower torso and legs through her tied hands, so that they were no longer tied behind her back, but in front. Next part was straight-forward, but also was going to hurt a lot: she need to break the ties. She pulled her hands apart as far as she could to make the zip tie taut. Placing her feet by the zip tie, she kicked as much as she could in the scrunched up position. She repeated it a couple of times, biting her tongue to prevent the screaming.

It hurt. A LOT. The tie dug into the skin on her wrists, cutting in and ripping it, and it felt like her hands were being broken, but she succeeded. It was not pretty. Her wrists were raw and bloody in some spots, but it did not feel like she sprained or broke anything. I'll think about it later.

She checked the door: it was locked and she had nothing on her to open it. She'd have to attack when the Leona or whoever came next to her.

She checked her surroundings to find anything resembling a weapon. There was not much. She had her scarf, boots, and a flash drive from Caitlyn still jammed into the pocket of her jeans. She looked around the room. Aside from the mattress, there was nothing else. Recalling one of the kung-fu movies she'd seen with Jack, Kim went to the mattress and checked it. YES, it was a spring mattress. Frantically digging with her bare hands and using remnants of the zip tie to catch the fabric, she ripped it and fished through the padding until she found the springs. She loosened them out and got two free from the mattress. It would have to do.

She could feel that the two days without much food were getting to her. She suspected that she was kept unconscious on purpose and the weakness she felt was not strictly from the concussion and hunger. Sooner or later, they'd have to come to either feed or to send another message to Jack and Bobby. She needed to be ready with her best when that door opened again.


The FBI was busy with the trace and lost all interest in interviewing either Jack of Bobby. Left to their own devices the two went back to the dojo, where Sledge agreed to meet Jack. When they got to the dojo, they were met by the unlikely group: Sledge brought Jeremy and Ricky with him, as well as two more men. Jack recoiled at seeing Ricky there, but Ricky's worried expression and defiant tilt of the chin told Jack that the other guy was not going anywhere. Jack merely nodded at him and turned to Jeremy.

"Why are you here? You should be in bed."

"I never lost a client before. It is still my assignment and I want to be involved." Jeremy was standing tall, but his proud stance was undermined by black and blue marks on his face.

"And you are OK with that?" Jack turned to Sledge, who was sitting by Milton and Bryn. Bryn was outright ogling all the fit men, fully ignoring Ricky.

"He is not going with us, but he can be our support team."

"OK. Milton, Bryn what to you have for us?" Jack was anxious for some bit of a good news.

"I was able to trace the signal to a the possible tower that transmitted it. Now it covers about a three mile radius area, which is a lot." Bryn snapped from her ogling and turned to Jack and Bobby.

"I pulled the map," Milton added in, showing the map on his tablet. "This the area Bryn is talking about."

It looked like a mass of green with some road on them and Jack was not sure how they'd be able to narrow it.

Sledge looked at it with Jeremy and his guys. "It has to be some sort of structure, where they keep her. In the picture it was obvious that the there is a cinder block wall behind Kim... It might be abandoned," Sledge said still studying the images.

"Water, gas, power!" Milton exclaimed. "If there is a structure, it should have some utilities running there. Or it used to have."

Bryn was pulling information as Milton spoke and soon she had a list of addresses on her screen. "I really hope that I get the free pass on all this hacking."

"I'll pay your legal fees if it comes to it," Ricky said and Bryn looked at him briefly.

"OK, here is the list of likely structures. Only two were are abandoned now, because there was no billing in the last three months."

There was a moment of silence and then Sledge sighed, "We'd have to split into two teams. I don't want to run the chance of them moving."

In the end, two of Bobby's bodyguards joined the rescue teams. Jeremy and Bobby went as the support and to be the drivers in case others were unable to do so themselves.

Before they left, Ricky stopped Jack. "Jack! ... Good luck out there." he stopped unsure and Jack understood. Ricky cared about Kim, but she was with him.

"Thanks... And thank you... for Jeremy and Michael... And for this as well... I know Sledge is the head of your security..." he did not get to finish.

"It's nothing. Sledge is miffed about almost losing his two men. And Jeremy's pride is engaged now. Plus I think he kind of likes her like a sister. This all... It was, IS, for Kim. I would... Well, you know... Just... bring her back, OK?"

The usual jealousy that consumed Jack when he dealt with Ricky was absent. He guessed that if Ricky felt even a fraction of what he felt for Kim, he could understand him better.

All Jack did in reply was nod.


Re: Jack Brewer

jbgirl: hey you guys, is it just me or was there silence from both Kim and Jack these past three days? is it true that her dad pulled her out of school? does it mean that he also would be leaving school?

bbelt: now that you mentioned it, yes, it is kind of strange. And Bobby was silent too.

jbgirl: she is not sick again, is she?

bbelt: she seemed healthy to me, but then she passed out in the gym. mb she is.

jbgirl: oh god, do you think she is dying?


When the door opened, Kim jumped into action. With the springs coiled around her fists she punched Leona in the face and followed up with a kick to the mid section. Leona fell, but Kim suspected she was not out for the count yet. Kim was not as strong as she could have been, but adrenaline carried her and she made run for the door.

Outside, she saw that she was in fact in some industrial building and she ran down the hall hoping she picked the right direction. She saw another door and ran towards it, when her progress was halted as someone literally jumped on her from above. She went down hard, her knees taking the brunt of the fall and she could not stop the tears running down her cheeks. I'll think about it later.

She scrambled up and turned to see that her attacker was a man. He held a gun pointed towards her and she stilled. Leona reached them by now and her cheek was red with angry looking marks from the coils. She came up to Kim and pulled her hand up to study Kim's impromptu brass knuckles.

"Clever girl. Not as useless as I thought you to be." Leona's admiring words were in conflict with her mad expression. She slowly lifter her eyes to look as Kim and threw a punch at her. Kim dodged and returned the favor, but then she heard the cocking of the gun and she stopped again. The man grabbed her from behind and pointed the gun at her temple.

"Oh, this is perfect!" Leona said happily and pulled a phone out. "This would be a great update on you to send to your men. You should see yourself: dirty, bloody, your face is so bruised and your hands... Well, they are just a mess."

Leona babbled describing all the perfect pain she would cause with her latest photography effort. Kim pretended to listen. Leona babbled more, and Kim pretended to act timid and scared and looked down and away. Leona stepped even closer and reached out a finger as if to tilt up her chin, and Kim was thankful to finally move.

One hand clad in spring coils was used to squeeze the guy behind her right in the balls. Gross, but so effective. When he flinched and yelped and moved his hand with a gun slightly away from her, she slammed her head back against him, her smaller size meaning she smacked him right in the nose with a satisfying crunch, grabbing the hand with a gun away and forward. She followed through with a head butt forward and managed to knock Leona a few steps back as she tried to instinctively to move away from the gun. Kim threw an elbow back at the guy and his hold on the gun slackened. She threw it away. Free from the hold on her throat, Kim kicked out at Leona and they engaged in a little fight. Leona was good and Kim was tired, but she was younger and she was fighting for her life. They would have gone for a little while, but then a loud noise startled Kim.

The gun! The guy must have got the gun again and fired. Kim instinctively lowered herself to the ground, just in time, because Leona kicked at her. Kim managed to grab Leona's foot and swung her towards the wall, when she heard the shattering of windows somewhere... The cavalry arrived.


Jack, Sledge and one of Bobby's guys were approaching what appeared an old storage building. Bobby was their driver and Jack appreciated that the guy, though he no longer had to drive himself, has retained some of the skills from his movie days. He parked the car and was stayed in it for the back up. They approached it slowly on foot and Jack, as the lightest and youngest, scaled the side of the building to get to the high windows. His view was that of the long balcony that went around on level with high windows. There was obviously the lower level and Jack needed to get inside. He was prepared to pry the window quietly, when he heard a gunshot.

Heart logged in this throat, stealth forgotten, he punched through the glass and threw himself inside. He could see the action below. Kim was fighting Leona and just at that moment grabbed her foot and threw her into the wall. But there was another figure crouching on the floor and he must be the one with the gun. Both relieved and terrified, Jack took a running jump from the balcony and fell forward. Distantly he heard more gunshots and shouts and prepared himself for the impact. He slammed into the floor with his shoulder and the pain was real, but manageable.

He jumped up in time to see Kim falling sideways and it was like the gym again... He shouted and ran towards her, hearing, but not caring about, the bullets and his sight zeroed on the golden haired girl.

It seemed like it took forever, but he made it to her side and picked her head up. It was bloody and the left side of her face was one giant bruise and bloody scabs. She opened her eyes - her left pupil looking larger than the right - and she smiled at him.

"I knew you'd come to rescue me..." she whispered.

"You don't need any help. You rescued yourself," he answered trying to chuckle, but what came out was an embarrassing sob.

Kim smiled again and lifted her hand to touch his face. He grabbed it - it was bloody, skin torn, and was she wearing some wire as brass knuckles? - and placed a kiss on her palm and pressed it against his cheek. "Let's get out of here."

She nodded her head and then her eyes rolled back and she fainted.

"KIIIIIIIM!"

A/N: sorry for the suspense. I'll go and hide now.