So, I realized I didn't put a question in the last chapter so I have nothing to answer here. Instead, let me give a nice big thank you to my two most dedicated reviewers; FairTaxGirl and SwedenPixie who have been with me since the beginning of this journey. I don't know either of you ladies in real life, but your support of this story has helped me see a whole slew of adventures Julie can take and they keep me motivated. Thank you so much, and thank you to all of my reviewers. Enjoy.

"Te Amo"

Chapter 11

Pov- Shilo

"So," Ryan said carefully after a momentary pause in our conversation. "How important is this girl to you?"

I gaze up at him from my place on the ground. After our short connection last night I'd fallen into a deep, dreamless sleep pressed against the bar's while Ryan played with my hair. I wasn't sure if he'd gotten any sleep, since he'd been back in the same position when I woke up.

"Very important." I said honestly. "She's a great friend and she doesn't deserve to be here. I owe her a lot."

He smirked at me. "She sounds like more than just your friend."

I took a moment to study him. We'd been talking easily for the last hour. Mostly he was asking questions about the things I'd done at RangeMan and my military work. I asked about details here. Things like window placement and doors. Together, we were planning escape paths. He was watching me with a serious face, but he didn't seem concerned by the fact that I might be in love with another women. "Would that bother you?" I asked. If we were going to get to know each other, we might as well get this point out of the way.

He reached through the bars and took my hand, running his thumb over my knuckles. "Not even a little tiny bit." He promised, his smirk blowing into a big grin. "You could be a Giants fan for all I care. I'm still trying to get over the fact that you're alive."

I smirked at him. The fact that I was originally from New York hadn't come up yet. We could deal with that later. "Then in that case, yes, Julie is my lover. We never really got around to talking about a possible relationship before all of this happened. Her father hates me; he doesn't trust me, and all of her big bad military uncles probably want to kick my ass."

"You're going to be doing a lot of ass kissing then." He joked.

I blanched thinking he probably meant that to be funny, but it sounded just about right. Assuming we all lived through this; I was going to have to watch my step around Ranger for a while. "That's if he'll even let me live in the same state as her."

The lock tumbled in the dungeon room door and we both turned to watch. Ryan let go of my hand, but didn't pull away from me as one of the Lynch's I remembered from last night came in. Another man entered with him, but I didn't recognize him.

The unknown man drew a gun and leveled it at Ryan, while Lynch unlocked his cell door and motioned him out. "Bathroom break." He said. "Hurry it up."

Ryan left and I noted with a hint of rage that no one accompanied him into the bathroom. Perverts! Once Ryan was shackled back in his cell, they repeated the process with me. Lynch unlocked the door, came in and undid the shackle. If it wasn't for the gun I'd have tackled him and beaten the shit out of him.

I stood on my own, wincing slightly at my tender ribs and did my business as quickly as I could. When I sat back down in my cell, I felt something poke me from the inside of my bra. No way, I still had my little pocket knife! I hadn't noticed it earlier, I thought I'd lost it when they searched us. I kept my face blank while on the inside I did a happy dance.

The tinny knife had been a gift from Wild on our first mission. Folded, the blade was only two inches long. Extended, that little blade could rule the world. It had already saved my life more times than I could count.

My shackle was snapped back in place and my cell door locked. Lynch and his unknown gunman were on their way to the door when Lynch's cell phone rang. Lynch opened his phone and we all listened to his half of the conversation.

"Boss?"

He was silent for a moment. I scooted closer to the side of the cell, back into my place near Ryan.

"Yes, Sr." Lynch said. "We're here now." He glanced over his shoulder and looked at us. "Which one?"

Oh dang. Looks like it was my turn for questioning. I turned my back on Lynch catching Ryan's eye, hoping I could do this without drawing attention to myself. I'd been lucky not to lose my knife once. I was willing to bet that luck wouldn't favor me twice so I didn't want to bring it with into my interrogation.

As easily as I could, I snuck one hand up the front of my shirt while Lynch continued to speak on the phone. I maneuvered the tiny knife into my hand and then dropped my fist into my lap. Ryan rose as eyebrow at me, but didn't speak.

"Alright missy," Lynch said, rapping on the door to my cell. "Boss wants a word with you."

While he unlocked the door, I took Ryan's hand, passing the knife to him. Hopefully, Lynch would think of it as a farewell gesture or something sappy like that. Ryan's face didn't show any shock, but I noticed his shoulders stiffen as he realized what I'd done.

Ryan took his hand back and dropped them into his lap. Lynch's partner followed him into my cell and leveled his gun at me, while my shackle was removed once again.

"Get up." Lynch ordered.

There was little doubt in my mind that they would pull the trigger. Not to kill, if their boss wanted to speak with me they wouldn't kill me yet, but it would be harder to escape with a bullet wound. I stood, keeping my hands at my sides and followed Lynch out of the cell.

I followed silently, the unknown man kept his gun pressed to my back insuring that I didn't misbehave. We climbed a set of stairs to the main floor. I was able to see light out of the window's, but the large yard was surrounded by a high brick fence so it was impossible to see beyond the property.

It had been dark when we arrived so I was guessing we'd been missing for about twelve hours so far. The house was beautiful, decorated in old wood antiques and columns. Large open doorways were done up in arches, and there were oil paintings on the walls, rich and clean. Except for the fact that a mad man owned it and there was a dungeon in the basement, it would be a nice place to live.

I was memorizing window placement, counting doorways. The front door had several large locks on it and I saw the control panel for a high-grade security system. We passed by a large central staircase that led to the upper floors and I wondered if Julie was stashed somewhere up there. The house was huge; she could be anywhere.

I was escorted into what looked like the master's study in a Sherlock Holms book. A giant oak desk worked as the focal point and the room was dotted with bookshelves. Standing alone in the center of the room was metal chair with wrist cuffs attached. Personally, I thought the prisoners chair threw off the décor of the room, but what did I know, I wasn't into interior decorating.

Lynch nodded to the seat and when I didn't move right away his partner shoved me forward. Lynch grabbed my arm and spun me around, sitting me down and locking both of my wrists to the arms of the chair.

"As far as hospitality goes this place sucks." I commented dryly.

Lynch grinned and then he backhanded me. "Hospitality is the least of your worries right now little lady."

I sneered at him, thankful that he didn't hit hard. I was sick of getting smacked around. They both left the room and I sat in silence. My chair was bolted to the floor so I couldn't try to move it. The windows in this room all had sensors on them, probably the whole house was wired. Would Ranger be able to find us? I wasn't sure how quickly they would be able to come after us. For the moment, we would have to rely on ourselves.

I'm not sure how long I sat there, long enough for the sun to rise and my ass to fall asleep. Finally, the lock on the door rolled and two men came in. I recognized one as John O'Donnell, the other was a stranger to me.

"Good morning Shilo." John said pleasantly, his accent was very thick. "Sorry for the locks, you understand I'm sure."

I understood that John was bat shit nuts.

"This is my youngest brother, Keith." He continued. "You've met before of course, but you were very young back then."

"Actually," Keith interrupted, stepping forward. "I've never meet the lovely daughter. I was charged with getting rid of the father. The babies were your responsibility. I did my job, plus two of yours."

I glared at him. Keith was an inch shorter, a little thicker in the shoulders and his hair was a shade lighter. He was dressed in slacks and a pressed shirt. His shoes looked spit polished and if I understood right, he was the one who'd arranged my father's car accident.

"Yes yes," John said, waving him off. "We've already established that the fire was unsuccessful. I've corrected that little mistake, now. They are both safely in our custody. Besides, perhaps young Shilo will be more useful than her brother was. It may prove fruitful that my fire didn't kill them all off right away."

As their conversation started to make sense, I found my signature anger management problem start to act up. I swear I can usually control it, I do yoga, I eat right, I try to keep a regular sleeping pattern. You try listening to the men who killed your family and not get mad. I was rapidly approaching RAGE level, and I hadn't been that mad in a long time.

They fell silent as they watched me. I stayed silent, keeping my body relaxed and my eyes narrowed. I'd spent a week as a POW a couple of years ago and found that my best offence was a strong defense. Once they know you'll talk, the punishments for staying silent usually get worse. Just let them try to break me!

"Did you get the chance to speak with Ryan?" Keith asked. "We thought you might enjoy a little family reunion time." He was taunting me.

"Here's the deal." John said, moving closer to my side. He put a finger under my chin and lifted my head so I was forced to look at him. I fought the little smirk when I noted the bandage where Julie had bitten him. "You're going to answer our questions and help us in any way you can. In exchange, your death will be quick."

Yeah right. John's beady little black eyes shook with excitement. He was practically getting off on the control of this situation. He would kill me slowly and enjoy every moment of it.

Keith moved forward and showed me a picture. It was of my grandmother Cleona. "Do you know who this woman is?" He asked.

I remained silent.

"This woman stole something from our grandfather." Keith continued, not put off by my silence. "We want it back." Behind him, I watched the frown on John's face grow. Clearly, I was not providing the show he wanted.

I thought back to what I knew about my great grandmother. She'd died when I was almost three. I'd seen pictures of her before. I knew she'd owned a house in Dublin, which had been sold after her death. I knew she'd loved horses, at one point she'd owned several. That was about it.

Keith held out another photo. This one showed a sterling silver necklace. Hanging from the chain was a solid gold Celtic knot made out of thin twisted pieces of metal. Nestled in the center of the knot was a large, green emerald. The necklace was beautiful.

"Have you ever seen this necklace before?" Keith asked. "Your grandmother was the last known person to have it. Do you know where it is?"

Here's the funny part. I couldn't remember having ever meet my great grandmother. Her house was gone; all of her things were gone. Anyone who would have known her was probably dead or so close to dead it wouldn't matter. Here I was, on the other side of the world, locked in a room with two men who were interested in a piece of her jewelry, twenty years after her death. Why they wanted the necklace I didn't know. Sure, it was probably worth a lot, the emerald was huge, but it was still a dead woman's necklace.

What's the kicker you ask? I actually knew where the necklace was. What were the chances of that? Now how did I use that information to insure that Julie lived? Could I possibly haggle for Ryan's life too?

"Why do you want it?"

Pov- Stephanie

I was the first person to lock eyes with Bobby as he swept into the emergency room. He wasn't a resident doctor, but all of the staff at the hospital here knew to give him anything he wanted when it came to RangeMan employees. He moved swiftly to my side, noting the tears on my cheeks and the over protective Hector standing guard at my side.

"What's going on Bomber?" He asked quickly, "Tell me everything."

I nodded. "Ranger's getting a gash on his head stitched. He'll be ok. Several of the men are being treated for burns, Vince was the worse. He'll need skin grafts and a lot of recovery time. Tank's next with a shoulder burn, the other's are superficial. Ram's banged up, Lester's already demanding to be released."

He raised an eyebrow when I hesitated. Why was it everyone could do the eyebrow thing and I couldn't? "What else?" He asked. "There's more."

I took a deep breath and jumped head first into the bad news. "Caesar's still missing. He was in the house when it went up, and no one saw him get out."

There was a moment of silence while Bobby digested that fact. Caesar hadn't been found yet, but it was obvious where his body would eventually appear. It would take firefighters a while to be able to search through the rubble of the house.

I watched Bobby take a deep breath and the tension in his shoulders relaxed a bit. No one handled death as gracefully as Bobby did. He'd clearly seen a lot of it in his time. He saw it as part of life, not the crushing end I always viewed it as.

After another second, he nodded. "Alright," Then he jumped back to the topic at hand, doing what he could for the living. "The guy's are already on the hunt for Julie and Shilo. They got a trace on Julie's phone and went to go look. I wanted to come here before I joined them."

I nodded. "You should see if the doctor will let Lester leave yet and take him with you when you're ready. He's itching to hurt someone."

Bobby nodded. "I know the feeling."

Bobby left to do his medic thing and I turned back to talk with Hector who was dutifully still at my side. He probably wouldn't let me out of his sight until Ranger was awake. "Let's make another round. As soon as we've talked to Ranger we can join the hunt for Julie."

He nodded.

We found Lester first. He was sitting up, looking spitting mad. He'd changed out of his hospital gown since the last time I'd seen him and was back in clean RangeMan clothes. I passed him a cup of the coffee I'd snatched from the cafeteria and he took it silently, nearly downing it in a single go.

"You alright?" I asked.

He nodded once. "Bobby's talking to the doc for me."

"She'll be ok Les." I promised, more to assure myself then Lester. I'd become better at handling hard truths in the last several years, but the thought of losing Julie had me running to denial land as fast as I could. She would be fine, because she had to be fine. There was no way that I'd let that wonderful girl leave this world before me. I would not watch Ranger bury his only daughter.

Next, we found Ram and Tank getting treated together. Ram was doped up on pain med's, so I let the doc work on him. Several of his burns had needed to have the dead skin scrubbed away and he had a collection of stitches.

Tank looked better. He'd refused strong med's, settling for a simple shot in order to stay alert, so that he could know what was going on. I filled him in on what was happening with everyone and the Julie hunt.

"Could you have Brown cut me lose too?" He asked. "Julie need's all of us."

I nodded. "I'll do what I can. Doc's probably going to put you in a brace to keep you from messing up your shoulder though."

Tank's eyes narrowed. "I've had worse. I want out. Julie needs us."

I promised to do what I could and refused to let Ram in the field. He was official benched until farther notice. I probably would have told Tank to sit this one out too except for the fact that I wanted Tank's help. Tank had known Julie her whole life; he deserved to help find her. Then there was the fact that I was afraid to tell Tank no.

I was about to leave the room when I stopped, I glanced back over at Tank and said. "Thank you. I didn't get a chance to say that earlier."

He gave me a small smile. "You don't have to thank me Bomber."

"You saved Carlos's life." I reminded him. "My boys still have a father because of you. Nothing I could ever do or say would be enough to show you what that means to me."

He nodded. "Ranger's saved my butt more times than I can count." He admitted. "I'd do it again, for any of them." There wasn't a doubt in my mind he'd do it again. Tank, Lester and Bobby were the best brother's Carlos could have asked for. The relationship between the four of them still astounded me and I'd had years to observe it.

I smiled and leaned over him to kiss his cheek. "Love you big guy."

Tank's phone was on the table near his bed and at that moment it started buzzing and ringing. I grinned. "That will be Lula. The nurse wouldn't let her up to see you yet. They want to wait on visitors until treatment's all done." I left the room as he answered the phone, giving him the chance to speak more privately.

Next, we found Connor. He'd been stitched up and checked over, if it hadn't been so late the hospital would have probably cleared him to leave already. After checking everyone in and making sure they were all still alive I'd spoken at length with Connor. He'd told me about meeting with Shilo and their walk over to Ryan's house.

"How are you feeling?" I ask him, offering him a glass of coffee.

He declined. "Fine, have your people found anything yet?"

"Not yet."

He sat back in his bed and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose like he had a headache. "I should have pressed Ryan into staying with me for a few days. I had a bad feeling about these guys after the first call."

"There's nothing you can do about it now." I told him, sharing a sound piece of advice I'd gotten from Ranger once. "Focus your energy on making the best of what we've got now."

"I've told you everything." He said. "I don't know what else could help you find them." He was quiet for a bit before he glanced up at me. "Do you really think these men will kill them?"

I shrugged. "I have no way of knowing. I don't even think Shilo knew why her family was a target in the first place. She believed that if they got caught there would be no way out."

"This feels like something out of a movie." He admitted. "I'm having a hard time believing that people actually do this crap."

I nodded along. It had taken me a while to get over it too. There were some messed up people out there. "Try to get some rest Connor." I told him. "We have arranged for security at your house once you get released tomorrow."

"You really think that's necessary?" He asked.

I nodded. "Until we know what's going on, we won't take any chances. You are now connected with two of the victims. You could wind up being a target."

There was a knock on the door and Bobby pokes his head in. "I'm heading out Bomber, Lester's coming with me. Tank's in a cast, and he's mad, but I'm taking him too. Ranger's up, he's asking for you. I've filled him in on some new info, he'll catch you up."

I nodded. "Stay safe." I told him. "Bring our girl home. We'll join you as soon as we can."

"Will do."

Then he was gone. I said goodbye to Connor and waved at Hector. "Come on, let's go find the Boss."

Ranger was sitting up when we walked in; the gash on his head had been stitched and covered with some gauze. A doctor was there speaking to him, but Ranger's focus shifted when he caught sight of me in the doorway.

"Babe,"

I moved quickly to his side and sighed when he wrapped an arm around my waist. I leaned into him and put my fingers in his hair, looking over the wound for myself. He still smelt like smoke, but someone had washed the blood out of his hair at least.

"How are you feeling?" I asked softly.

His hold on me tightened and I knew it was a stupid question. Since Bobby had spoke with him first, he would already know that Julie was missing. He was a nervous wreck who wanted to go out and hunt down his daughter to make sure she got home safe and punish the men who had hurt her. In front of the doctor, he said. "I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm fine." I promised. "I wasn't in the house. Hector wouldn't let me go in after you."

He nodded. "That was the deal Babe. You didn't know if I was hurt or not." He gave Hector a nod I understood to mean 'thanks for watching over my woman, again' I rolled my eyes, stupid men.

The doctor was trying to press Ranger into staying the night for monitoring. He was the only one in the room who thought there was even a slight chance. No way would Ranger stay here.

Just as suspected Ranger was standing up before the doctor had even finished. "No, my medic will watch over us. We're leaving."

"Ram's not." I let him know. "He and Vince need to stay here; I've banned them from field work. Vince may need to retire early. He'll have to see how he feels once his therapy starts."

Ranger nodded. "They'll be in good hands here. I'm leaving."

As far as I know I'm the only one who gets away with telling Ranger no, and even then my average is not high. So the doctor left the room, defeated, to get Ranger's release form's.

Half an hour later I slid into the back seat of a black RangeMan SUV, as Hector started up the car. Ranger was in the front seat, checking in with road teams on his phone. We were going to Haywood to get a full update, and then we would join the hunting party.

RangeMan was a flurry of activity when we arrived. Tank was running things at the office. I could see the outline of a brace under his shirt and his arm was in a sling. There was a dark scowl on his face when we stepped off the elevator, but it changed to business as he approach us.

"The signal on Julie's phone led us to a location only a couple of miles from Ryan's house." He said quickly, jumping right into the heart of our news. "The men found a collection of item's dumped on the street that belong to both Julie and Shilo, including her phone. We're trying to find cameras or witnesses who saw the van and can tell us where it went."

Ranger nodded along, as we followed Tank down to one of the conference rooms. Spread out on the table were the item's Tank had mentioned: Julie's phone, several knives that had to have come off of Shilo, two pairs of shoes and socks.

"Why would they take off their shoes?" I asked.

"How far can you run without shoes?" Ranger tossed back. "It's meant to keep them from escaping."

I nodded along getting what he was saying. No shoes would make running harder, but depending on who was chasing me I was willing to bet I could still run pretty far. A lack of shoes wouldn't stop Julie or Shilo.

"They're also unarmed." I added.

Tank nodded. "We found one of Shilo's guns in the backyard, Connor had the other with him. Our best guess now is that Julie lost hers in the house. I don't remember seeing it with her."

"You saw her?" Ranger asked.

Tank nodded; clearly, no one had gone into details about how Ranger had gotten out of the house after the explosion. "I found you in the kitchen with Julie." Tank explained. "Shilo was there trying to move the rubble that had trapped you guys. She couldn't move it by herself."

"How did she look?" Ranger asked, only those of us who knew him well would see the concern in his eyes.

Tank put a heavy hand on Ranger's shoulder. "Better then you did, she was awake at least. Her ankle was hurt though. She was having trouble walking, so Shilo was holding most of her weight. As we were heading for the front door, part of the second level came down and blocked their path. That's why they doubled back to the rear door."

Ranger frowned and I knew where his thoughts would take him. "She did save Julie's life, Carlos." I reminded him gently. "Yours too in the end. You can't blame her for this. Tank wouldn't have been able to carry you both out with his shoulder injured. He would have left you behind."

Ranger nodded because we all knew it was true. Forced into choosing, any of the men would have picked saving Julies life over Rangers. He would have expected them too. "Doesn't mean I have to like her."

I let the topic drop for now. However, I had a sinking feeling that if everyone came out of this alive we'd be seeing a lot more of Shilo around here. Hopefully, they could work out their differences for Julie's sake.

We had teams out looking in full force and since there was a confirmed kidnapping, along with a living witness, in Connor, to place one of the O'Donnell's at the scene the police were getting involved too. Now we just needed to know where to look.

Pov- Julie

I sighed and rolled over trying to find a comfortable position. My ankle hurt whenever I moved, but at least the swelling didn't seem to be getting worse. I'd slept uneasily all night, waking up every time a pipe groaned or the wind blew to hard. It was miserable. This place was miserable. I kept imagining Shilo dead in some room downstairs and my dreams were filled with knowing I'd failed to save her.

Eventually I'd dragged myself out of the bed and hobbled into the bathroom to soak my ankle. I laid on the tile floor with my foot in the tub and tried to think of some brilliant way to get myself out of this mess.

The cuff around my good ankle wasn't steel, but without a tool I hadn't a hope of breaking it and there wasn't anything I could use to pick the lock, I'd looked. The chain wasn't long enough for me to reach the large window in my room and even if I could it was bolted shut.

"Come on," I said aloud, thunking my head against the floor. "Think," Sitting here waiting to learn wither or not Shilo and Ryan were still alive was starting to drive me mad.

I heard the lock tumble on the door and quickly jumped to pull my foot out of the tube and stand. I was using the sink counter to pull myself up when Gavin walked in.

"Morning," He said.

I scowled at him.

"I brought food." He continued, offering me a hand up.

I ignored his offer of help and limped back into the bedroom. There was now a tray sitting on the edge of the bed, with a napkin draped over a paper plate. "Should I assume it's poisoned?" I asked sarcastically.

"Sorry," He mocked right back. "I'm all out of poison at the moment." He pulled the napkin back, revealing a sandwich, and pushed the tray closer to me. "It's peanut butter."

I looked him over once, then eyed the sandwich. I was guessing by how high the sun was that we'd been in captivity for at least eighteen hours. I was starving.

He pushed it even closer to me. "Just eat it."

I rolled my eyes and gave into my rumbling stomach. I ate a couple of bites and wondered if I could get Gavin to talk to me.

"Where are we?" I mused, glancing out the window. "I could smell the ocean last night."

"I can't tell you that." He said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"We're near Point Pleasant right?" I guessed.

He shrugged.

"Ok," I continued. "Can you tell me why I'm here at least?"

He shrugged. "O'Donnell's going to use you to make sure no one interferes with their plans. Maybe trade you for that moron Flynn. I don't really know. Ever since I got caught by you they don't keep me in the loop. Probably think I struck some kind of deal with you guys."

I grinned. "Sorry about the stun gun."

"I wasn't watching. I deserved it."

Silence hung between us for a few moments while I took another bite of my sandwich. What I really wanted to ask was if Shilo was ok, but I was afraid of the answer.

"Your friend's still alive." He said. "I figured you would want to know."

I nodded. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet, she's with a couple of the O'Donnell's right now. If they can't get any information from her it will only get worse."

"What will?"

"Her chances of survival."

"What is she supposed to know?" I asked. "She was only a kid back then. She was moved to the states. They can't expect her to remember very much."

He shrugged. "They might get something out of Ryan. He was older."

"Not by much."

Gavin took my plate once I was done eating and stood to leave. "Get some rest," He advised walking away. "You look like crap."

~Darkrose

Sorry this is kind of short. I needed to split it somewhere and this was the only place I liked. Next chapter should be up soon.

Question's 8 and 9 to make up for missing one- What's your favorite sandwich? Are you a Giants fan?

As always R&R let me know what you think.