A/N: Writer's block is real ya'll (Yep, that's my Okie coming out)

Have you voted in the Fangies yet?

Chapter 7: Nawlins

EPOV

The last time I'd been in New Orleans, it had been a very special trip for Pam and me. It was her fourth birthday and she wanted to see Disney on Ice. Well wanted is putting it mildly. In actuality, she begged me, threw tantrums when I would act ambivalent about taking her, then ecstatic when I finally relented and booked the trip. We stayed in a little boutique hotel down in the French Quarter and gorged ourselves on "binnays" as Pam called them. And when I took her to the Disney on Ice monstrosity, she was, of course, dressed as Cinderella and was so excited I thought she was going to pee herself.

I never thought I would be a 27 year old widower happily taking my four year old daughter to some ridiculous Disney on Ice show, but I loved every moment of it. I loved watching the excited look on her face as her favorite characters would skate onto the ice, loved buying her the silly light up tiara that she just had to have because it matched her outfit and I even loved that she managed to get cotton candy all over her mouth and lips.

I probably didn't appreciate times like those enough, but in retrospect, those were the days that made my life. It was her smile, her laugh and her obnoxious chitchat about dresses and dolls and all things inextricably girly. What I wouldn't give to have all of those things back in my life like they were supposed to be.

The five hour drive to New Orleans with Rasul did, however, afford me at least a couple of hours to rest and get my bearings back. We switched places at the midpoint so that he could get some rest as well. And as we approached the city, we began to make some plans. Apparently he had been a busy man while I was out cold.

"I made a few calls, and the Shreveport PD is no longer in charge of the investigation, we are. Shreveport PD did everything by the book, Amber alert, investigating leads, etc, though they're police work left a lot to be desired. But this is now FBI jurisdiction." Rasul informed me.

"Why now?" I asked spitefully. "Why after over 48 hours is the FBI just now getting involved?" I continued.

"Look Eric, it doesn't work like that. Kids go missing every day in this country and the FBI doesn't always immediately get involved. I'm your friend and you called me." He wearied with a slight edge to his voice. I immediately felt bad for my accusing tone.

"Look, I'm glad you did call me though, because it sped up the process." He said in an understanding way. He was driving so he didn't look me in the eyes and I couldn't really gauge him that well.

"While you were sleeping, I was in contact with some of my colleagues, Agents Lattesta and Weiss who are taking the lead on this case. Their intel, along with my own suspicions, lead us to believe that this case has not only crossed state lines, but also international lines." Rasul acknowledged.

My jaw fell slack and I felt the blood drain from my face. I didn't really know what to think, but in my mind I was imagining that lowlife scumbags had taken my daughter and the Stackhouse woman out of this country to be passed around like rag dolls. I've watched Dateline and 20/20 and all those fucking shows about human trafficking, so what they would do to an innocent little girl and a beautiful young woman wasn't too difficult to imagine.

"Stop Eric, I know where your head is going. Let me explain." Rasul implored.

"Then fucking explain. Because right now I'm freaking the fuck out picturing some pedophile fucks touching my little girl, then me going on a murderous rampage, killing anything and anyone who had a single thing to do with it, including motherfucking Bill Compton." I seethed.

"I know, I get it. Trust me, just listen. " He consoled. "The FBI has been keeping an eye on Sophie Anne Leclerq for quite a while now. She's a known drug dealer in the New Orleans area. So when Bill Compton told me that he worked for her, I knew that it was a good thing because we've had her and her associates phones tapped for some time now." He began to explain. My mind wasn't eased at all by what he was saying.

"I don't fucking get it Rasul. If you've had their phones tapped, then why wasn't this kidnapping plot discovered before it even happened?" I asked in a malevolent tone. We were about 20 minutes from the city and I didn't want to waste time once we got there, so he needed to hurry the fuck up and explain this shit to me.

"It's not that easy, Eric. They may be relatively small time criminals, but they aren't stupid. They rely on pre-paid cell phones that can often be untraceable. It's not like listening to the radio. And besides all that, criminals don't typically speak so freely over telecommunication devices. They don't say things so directly. There is a reason that she's still on the streets." He explained. Logically it made sense, but as a person whose daughter was in the hands of some seriously sick bastards, his explanation did little to quell the rising beast inside of me.

"So what the fuck? What are we even doing then?" I asked throwing my hands up high enough that they hit the roof of the car.

"There are a lot of things that I've done so far that don't make sense, but trust me; I have my reason for doing them. About an hour ago while you were sleeping, I received a call from Special Agent Weiss. An associate of Sophie Anne's received a call from someone named Lochlan. I don't know all the details on this Lochlan person, but we're working on it. We did however record the whole conversation." Rasul explained, then reached into his pocket and took out his smart phone. He was driving, so he couldn't take his eyes off the road for too long, but he pushed some buttons on the phone, and then tossed it to me.

"Push the red button." He said.

I looked at him with a mixture of astonishment and confusion, but I did as he instructed. A gruff man's voice was heard followed by what sounded like a pre-pubescent tween boy ala Justin Bieber.

"Paul." The pubescent guy said.

"We have a fucking problem." Gruff man said.

"You're goddamn right we have a problem. Where is the girl? You've had her for two days now. You better bring get her here. You have until tomorrow." Tween boy said.

"Or what, Paul? What the fuck are you going to do. You are nothing but a slimy little parasite and you certainly don't fucking tell me what to do."

"Or what? I'll fucking tell you what. If you don't get her here by tomorrow, the next call I'm going to make is to Madden, and you don't want that to happen, do you? He'll fucking skin your pathetic ass alive." Tween said.

"Oh yeah? You won't do that because you and I both know that he's got Sophie Anne by the balls. I've got what you need; now you need to pay me before I deliver the girl."

"That wasn't the deal." Tween said.

"Fuck the deal. Here's the new deal. You wire $100K to my Cayman's account, and once I get confirmation of the deposit, I'll bring the girl." Lochlan said.

"That's 50 grand more than we originally agreed upon. I'll have to talk to Sophie about this."

"You do that, but just know that the longer you wait the likelihood of her overall good health and general well-being decreases."

"Asshole." Paul said.

I can't be certain who hung up on whom, but that wasn't important. What mattered was that we knew that there was a price on the Stackhouse woman's head and that she was most likely being abused which also meant that Pam was also being abused.

If we weren't in a car, I probably would have punched my fist through a wall or kicked something or someone, instead I took out my anger on my hair.

"What the fuck does this mean?" I blurted which came out in pants because my heart was racing and I was finding it difficult to breath in the compact space of the car.

"It's fucked up, but we at least have a call that we can trace back to Lochlan. I'm waiting on Lattesta and Weiss to call me back with more information." He answered with a collected calm that kind of pissed me off.

"I get that, but did you not hear the same fucking call that I heard man? Their fucking hurting them!" I thundered. "In ways that I don't, no, can't even think about." I continued.

"We don't know that, Eric." He retorted and took his phone back and placed it in his pocket.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now? That motherfucker said that he couldn't guarantee her well-being. What exactly do you think that means?" Did he think they had both girls in a luxury suite at the Four Seasons? It was obvious what that meant, at least to me.

"It could be a threat, nothing else. Perhaps to extort more money out of Sophie Anne." He replied.

"No." I said adamantly. "You know that's not the case. You can't sit there and tell me that you believe your own words." I replied back in anger.

He didn't say anything in response; perhaps he knew that what he was saying was nothing more than lip service to placate me.

He continued to drive and the silence between us was welcomed. It allowed me to sort through my jumbled thoughts. Perhaps Rasul was right; maybe it was just a threat. I wanted to believe that, but in my heart and my gut I knew that wasn't true. That realization only served to ignite the urgency in our actions all the more.

As Rasul pulled up to a large mansion in the Garden District of New Orleans, his phone began ringing. Apparently he was speaking to agent Lattesta, but since I was only privy to Rasul's side of the conversation, I couldn't make out what they were discussing, since all Rasul said was, "Yes" and "Uh huh" affirmations.

"What was that about?" I asked once he had ended the call.

"Lattesta received an interesting call from a SOCA agent." Rasul said.

"What the fuck is SOCA?" I asked.

"I'll explain later. In approximately two minutes FBI and SWAT will be here to raid this place. Intel says that Sophie Anne and Andre Paul, the guy from the phone call, are both inside." He spoke laconically which made me feel somewhat reassured despite the chaotic circumstances.

"You and I are going to wait until our agents bring out Sophie and Paul, then we are going to have a little chat with them." He said with a knowing grin.

Just as Rasul said, two minutes later the property was surrounded by law enforcement from various agencies. They moved so fast and entered the high end dwelling with exacting speed and skill. Within a few minutes, they had apprehended both targets and about four additional people one of whom looked strikingly like the Stackhouse woman.

"You have no right!" screamed a red-headed woman whom Rasul later told me was Sophie Anne. "I want to see your warrant!" As Miranda rights were given and the scene calmed down a bit I was able to decipher who the big targets were and those of whom were merely the house service workers caught in the crossfire.

The woman who looked like Sookie Stackhouse was being questioned by Rasul, though she was inconsolably sobbing, to the point that Rasul wasn't getting any answers. As he left her handcuffed and seated in the back of someone's police cruiser, he made his way over to a very young looking pale man who I discovered was the infamous Andre Paul. I wanted to go directly over there and get some answers, since he most likely knew the most about the Lochlan character. But I trusted Rasul and I knew he would take care of it. Plus there was just something about the sobbing young woman that called to me. My intuition and instincts were telling me that she was the key to all this, that she knew something critical.

"What's your name?" I asked her with a calmness that shocked even myself.

"Hadley." She stuttered through her sobs.

"I'm Eric Northman." I introduced. She looked up at me as she was seated inside the cruiser and I was standing in the door which was ajar.

"You probably don't know me, but I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself." I started. "See Hadley, my five year old daughter was taken, kidnapped, by some sick motherfuckers. You probably know who I'm talking about right?" I asked with a leveling stare. She didn't respond or even acknowledge that she knew anything. The girl had a pretty decent poker face.

"Do you have kids?" I asked her and she shook her head yes which seemed to cause a whole new wave of sobbing. "Then you probably know, or maybe you don't, that a parent would do anything, kill anyone." I said with a pointed stare. "To protect them."

Hadley looked up at me and I could see the understanding in her eyes. I don't know what her role was in all of this, but I could see the protective glint in her eye. She understood me.

"My cousin is Sookie Stackhouse." She admitted which didn't really surprise me.

"Why was she kidnapped?" I asked her directly, because I knew that she knew what the motivation behind all of this was.

"I don't think I should say anything else. I want my lawyer. " She quivered. It was all I could do to not jump in the cruiser and strangle her. Demanding a lawyer so that she didn't have to answer my questions. My daughter and her cousin didn't have the luxury of having someone beside them to look out for their best interests, and this woman demands a lawyer? It infuriated me. She knew something, everything and she refused to because she was too selfish. But just as I contemplated jumping in the cruiser and squeezing the life out of the woman, Rasul called my name.

"Eric, we just got a lead." Rasul said as he was jogging over towards me. "What?" I asked.

"We've located Lochlan."