A/N: I lied, there are 3 filler chapters.

Chapter 40- Different Beat

Gabriele Aiton paced back and forth along the front of his living room. He was feeling somewhat disturbed.

'It's been quiet,' he said, to no one and everyone. Only Louis was with him.

Louis looked up from the paper he was reading. 'Yes,' was all he said before turning his attention back to the news article.

Gabriele's plan had worked to a certain extent. Erik Lambourne had certainly gone off the rails, however, he had not really gone off the rails the way that Gabriele had anticipated. Or hoped. Now he was stuck with a serious dilemma. It had come to his attention, nearly a year before, that they he needed to do something to get rid of Erik but, at the same time, he needed to keep the older man's money. The only way he figured that this was at all possible was to make him hand it over and then kill him.

Easier said than done.

Erik Lambourne was a predator and did not turn to prey very easily.

This had become a problem and Gabriele was more than aware that there was no way he would ever bring Erik down on his own. He was too strong, too powerful and far too intelligent. Erik was a man who was more pleased with night than day, even seemed to see better when it was dark.

When Louis had told him about young Daae he knew that he could throw a spanner in the mechanism of Erik's usually controlled demeanour. It had worked. The man had gone completely insane but he had not turned to the company, nor had he turned to Gabriele... he had simply gone crazy. Now Erik was gone, a bonus, but Gabriele had no idea where the man kept his money.

He sighed and leaned against the fireplace.

Louis eyed him. 'What?'

'Do you want to get married?' Gabriele asked.

'I didn't even know you cared,' Louis smiled.

Gabriele rolled his eyes. 'Not to me,'

'I figured,'

'To anyone,'

'I suppose it's crossed my mind, yes,'

'Would you leave this life for the right woman?' he asked.

'Most men would do anything for the right woman,' Louis said. Sometimes Louis could be a little bit on the profound side. It always surprised Gabriele.

'I never wanted to get married,' Gabriele shrugged. 'Still don't,'

'Hmm,'

'What I'm thinking is that we need to draw Erik back out,'

Louis dropped the paper and stared up at him. 'What?'

'We need to get him to show himself,' Gabriele explained. 'He's been gone for nearly five months, we need to draw him into the open,'

'You're insane,' Louis said simply, standing from his seat. 'I'm going...'

'Louis!' Gabriele called after him. The big man turned around. 'Wait... listen... we need his money,'

'Should have thought of that before,'

Gabriele pushed his anger down. Getting angry with Louis was not good for a person's health.

'Like I said, I'm going,'

'Please, wait,' Gabriele caught up to him. 'Just hear what I have to say,'

'I don't want to,'

'Why not? I have an idea,'

'Yes,' Louis opened the door. 'You had an idea the last time as well and we both know how that turned out,'

Gabriele felt the sigh escape and Louis glared at him. Gabriele was Louis' boss, this much was true, but the way things were at the moment Gabriele had no control over him. He could not find him decent work with decent pay because they needed money to begin with. Gabriele didn't want to admit to them all that he had managed to squander most of the companies profits...

'We use her again,'

'Crazy,'

'Not crazy,' Gabriele said. 'Brilliant,'

'He'll kill you,' Louis stepped outside. 'You know that, don't you?'

'Not if I've got you,'

The bigger man laughed and began to walk down the steps. 'You don't think that he will kill me?'

'Not if we set it up right,' Gabriele followed him. 'Have a real plan,'

'You always have plans,' Louis spun around. 'Always... but they never seem to go quite the way intended,'

'Erik has nothing on you,'

'Are you joking?' Louis asked, staring down at Gabriele. 'Erik could kill me with a glance, Gabriele,'

'You're much bigger than he is,'

'Do you actually believe that that matters?'

Gabriele didn't.

'We have both seen him kill a man twice his size just like that,' Louis snapped his fingers. 'He will kill all of us,'

'Maybe he is hatching a plot against us now,' Gabriele countered. 'Maybe he is going to kill us anyway... he must know what we have done,'

Louis shrugged. 'Correction, what you have done,'

'We're friends,'

'Are we?'

'Of course,'

Louis smiled. 'I don't think so,'

'So where will your income come from, huh?' Gabriele demanded, beginning to get angry.

Louis paused, he seemed to be thinking about it. 'Go on then,' he finally said. 'What's your master plan, let me hear it?'

'We put the word out that we're going to kill her,'

'And you think that will drawn him out?'

Gabriele nodded. 'He loves her,'

'She's courting another man,'

'That won't matter,' Gabriele smiled. 'He loves her... he won't have just stopped loving her,'

Louis thought about this.

'We put a word in the underground that we are going to kill her,' he shrugged. 'It will draw him out,'

'And if he finds us before we find him?' Louis asked.

'We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,'

Louis laughed again. 'We won't know we've come to it until it's too late,'

'We can outsmart him,'

'We can't,'

'Help me Louis,' he said. 'Forget the company, just us, we'll split his money between us,'

'I'll help you Gabriele,' Louis finally responded. 'But not because I like you, because I am desperate for the money and don't even think that I'll take a bullet for you,'

Nadir let the sun wash across his body as he lay back on the private beach. He did not often befriend people at all but he had met a man of a similar background to him the last time he was in the Spain and he let Nadir use his home. Erik was sitting in the shade of a tree staring out silently over the span of the wide sea.

Nadir would often wonder what his friend was thinking. When the urge took him, so that he almost asked, he would remind himself that there was a high possibility that whatever Erik was thinking, Nadir probably did not want to know about it. The break away was what Erik needed, or so Nadir had thought, but as the time had past by Erik had grown more and not less depressed. Over the first month or so they had both enjoyed themselves, spending time drinking and gambling and seeing women.

Erik had proved that he could talk a frightened woman into his bed with a little charm and a lot of money. Nadir enjoyed this approach, there was far less attachment to be made, and it suited him that way. He would have thought that Erik would have felt the same way about it... but he obviously did not. It was not so much what he said but his attitude about it the next day.

Erik was still in love with Christine Daae and no amount of whores or drinking would change that. Nadir had realised a few things about his friend over the course of the last five months. Not least of all that, though Erik was a loner, he was most certainly capable of love and affection. Erik did not like to drink too much, not like Nadir, Erik also did not sleep at night.

Nadir had always known he slept better in the day, he just never realised that he barely slept at all of a night. Erik preferred the night. He spent the night with a pile of papers writing and closing his eyes.

Nadir did not ask.

He glanced back at his friend, his mask was glowing under the intensity of the sun, but his eyes did not shift and the blue of the ocean sparkled in his eyes.

'Erik,' he said, looking at him.

Erik glanced up but said nothing.

'You've been terribly quiet since you went into the town,' Nadir prompted. 'Anything wrong?'

'No,' he said simply and then let his eyes drift back to the waves.

'Are you sure?'

'Yes,' he did not look over again.

Nadir watched him for a moment longer, he saw how the sun caught in his sad eyes, watched the way the breeze blew his hair back. Erik did not seem to notice any of this, he was staring out intently, but he did not seem to actually see what he was looking at. If it was possible, Nadir would guess that Erik was staring right through the horizon.

Nadir stood and walked to his friend.

'Tell me,'

Erik glanced up at him, the shadow from the tree flinched in the wind.

'What's going on?'

Erik smiled but the act wasn't one of warmth. 'Why were you never a detective, Daroga?'

'Not enough action,' Nadir replied quickly. 'Tell me,'

'I need to go back,'

Nadir was stunned for a moment. Erik had vowed that it would be a cold day in hell before he returned to Paris. The man had been broken, crushed, he had lost what he loved, the only thing he loved, and Nadir knew how completely betrayed he felt.

Necessity.

'Why?' Nadir watched Erik's eyes. 'What's happened?'

'I went into the village this morning,' Erik said, seemingly ignoring Nadir's question. 'I went to see one of my contacts... he keeps me up to date, you know how it is?'

Nadir nodded, he did.

'He tells me that Gabriele Aiton is running low on funds,'

'Your source is good,'

'Yes,'

'And?'

'He is going to kidnap Christine and hold her until a ransom is paid,'

'He's really branching out,'

Erik frowned. 'I need to go back,'

'To save her?'

Erik did not reply. Instead he shifted his gaze from Nadir and back over the ocean. The Persian could see the waves crash in his eyes.

Nadir sighed. 'Are you trying to save her, Erik?'

He shrugged.

'She has her beau for that,'

At this, Erik laughed. 'Raoul De Changy is no match for Gabriele, you and I both know it,'

'You don't have to do this,'

'I do,'

Nadir sat down next to him, dug his hands into the sand. 'It might be a trap,'

'I think it probably is,' Erik sighed.

'And you still wish to go?'

Erik smiled. 'Just because he is trapping me does not mean that he won't go through with kidnapping her... and possibly... probably, killing her,'

Nadir knew about Gabriele Aiton and had recently learnt of Erik's connection to him. He hadn't been happy but what could he do? What was done was done. Nadir could not accept Erik as a murderer but refuse him as an extortionist. People made their money anyway they could.

It had been a cool night some months ago when Erik had decided he was ready to talk. Nadir had no doubt that the gin he had drunk was part of the reason for Erik's loose tongue but he also knew when his friend was deeply troubled.

He remembered it clearly. 'She betrayed me,' he had said.

Nadir had been half asleep when he spoke but the sound of Erik's deep voice had woken him up instantly. He had not replied, choosing to let Erik's mind take him to wherever they were going.

'She is in love with that boy,' he had continued. 'I saw them, they kissed, she told him she loved him... that they would be together,'

Nadir had not really known what to say.

'I've done many... awful things,' Erik's voice had pierced the night air. 'I fund Gabriele Aiton's organisation to make a profit, I have killed... I've done so much wrong in my life it's hard to find where the good in me once was,'

Silence.

'If, in fact, it ever really was,'

'It's there...' Nadir had said.

'I'm not sure,' Erik voice had slowly become lower until it was almost a whisper, as if he were talking to himself. 'The things I've seen, you know, they change you. The things you see make your perspectives change and sometimes you forget which way is up and which is down but truth be told, most of the time, I don't care anymore,'

Before Nadir could respond Erik had continued to talk:

'I love her,' his voice was soft now, sad but not broken. 'I gave her knowledge of me, I gave her trust, I helped her and ... look at me now,'

Nadir glanced at Erik sitting under the tree on the beach and brought his thoughts back from that night. Erik was looking to his left, staring at the cabin they were using.

'It's time for me to go back there,' he said, breaking their silence.

'Are you sure you're ready to face this?'

Nadir expected Erik to snap at him, berate him for questioning his judgement, instead he simply shrugged.

'I still have to go,'

Nadir nodded. 'Lets get our things together then,'

Erik did not move, did not speak.

'We can be back with in a month,'

Erik nodded.