Some of my earliest childhood memories are of my mom and grandmother singing, "Good Night My Angle" or "You're my little girl" to me. They are both very precious songs to me and one day I will sing them to my own children.

"Te Amo"

Chapter 13

Pov- Shilo

I woke stiff and sore to someone repeatedly calling my name. I rolled onto my back with a groan and nearly hacked up a lung when a coughing fit rattled through my chest. My ribs hurt every time I took a breath, but the pain was good, at least it meant I was still alive.

"Shilo?"

I tried to turn my head, towards the voice, and hissed as the stitches on my neck pulled. I knew I'd ripped several of them out and I could feel my own blood crusted on my skin and dried into my clothes. I took a couple of slow breathes and tried to straighten out. I'd passed out in a pile and my muscles had stiffened. Once I was lying flat, I did a mental inventory on my worst injuries.

I was sore all over and even without opening my eye's I knew I'd be covered in bruises, those would heal. I flicked my tongue out and winced at the rip in my lip, ouch. I tested each of my teeth by pressing my tongue against them, glad to see that none of them were loose. I stretched my arms above my head and winced as my shoulders popped. I was sore, but I was alright.

My biggest problem seemed to be my ribs. I was sure now that I'd cracked a few from the sharp sting every time I took a shallow breath. I was just hoping that I hadn't actually broken any of them. The last thing I needed right now was a shard of rib-bone piercing one of my lungs.

"Shy?" Dang this person was persistent.

I tried to answer and coughed again. My throat was dry and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. While I tried to wet my lips, I found another problem. I blinked my eyes open and found one of them still badly swollen, preventing it from opening all of the way. Not even the ribs bothered me as much as that. I hated having my eyesight compromised.

"I'm good," I managed to croak out when Ryan said my name for the third time. It had taken a moment for everything to start coming back to me. I remembered where we were, I remembered why I was in such bad shape. If there was a God watching over me, he'd give me the chance to kick Amos's ass before I died.

"I have some water." He offered. "Can you sit up?"

Water sounded really, really, good right now. It was definitely something to motivate more movement from my tired body. I blinked my eyes a couple more times and rolled onto my side. It was an uncomfortable task, but I managed to push myself up to a seated position. Ryan was watching me from his side of the bars that divided our cells, a clear bottle of water in his hands.

"You look like shit." He said.

I felt like shit. I was so worn out, I couldn't come up with a snappy comeback, and too focused on the water to care. I tried to keep my back straight so I wouldn't put any extra pressure on my ribs while I moved. I scooted very slowly over to the end of my cage and leaned against the cool bars. Moving the two feet needed to get here, had taken all of my energy and I lay back down harder then I meant to.

"How are your ribs?" Ryan asked once I'd caught my breath.

I stayed flat on my back, since it was the position that caused me the least amount of pain. "Cracked." I responded. "Water?"

"Open your mouth." Ryan answered.

I opened my mouth and felt a tiny amount of water slid over my tongue. My mouth was so dry the first few capfuls never even reached my throat. He repeated the process, until I could speak easier.

"Better?" He asked.

I nodded slightly. "Thanks."

"How did it go?"

I stayed still, keeping my eyes closed and my posture even. I didn't want to go into details about the beating I'd received. There was no need for him to suffer though the nightmares I would be having for the next month. "I'm fine," I promised, avoiding his question. "They let Julie go."

I kept my eyes closed, but I could hear the eye-roll in his voice. "You already said that. I meant, how did your beat-down with the O'Donnell's go."

"I know you did." I said sourly. Why couldn't he let this go for me? "I'm alive." That was what mattered the most. I'd deal with the rest later, on my own.

"That Amos," He hesitated and the tenor of his voice changed. I cracked open my good eye so I could look up at him. I caught the dark look that crossed his face before he looked back down at me and caught me watching him. "He didn't hurt you did he?" He asked carefully.

I was covered in bruises and fighting to breathe, obviously he had hurt me. I slowly lifted my hand and pointed at my swollen eye.

"That's not what I meant." He said gently. "I was guessing he was the one who worked you over. You'll have to explain your first run in with him to me sometime. He was way too eager to get his hands on you."

I raised an eyebrow. If he hadn't been asking about all of my cuts and bumps, then what did he mean?

Ryan sighed and looked down, avoiding my eyes while he spoke. "He didn't do anything more inappropriate to you did he?" He asked shyly. "He didn't touch you?"

Ohhh. That's what he meant.

"No Ryan," I promised meeting his gaze when he looked up at me. "I haven't been raped."

I visible watched him relax, some of the tension left his shoulders and he took a deep breath. Clearly, he'd been worried about that. "Good," He said. "I'm glad."

I nodded, sensing how uncomfortable he was with the topic, but unsure of how to change it. "Me too." When he didn't speak again I wondered what had brought up his question. Amos had clearly shown his distaste for me. Why would Ryan suspect foul play? "Why do you ask?"

He stiffened again and I gave him a moment to regain his thoughts and find his voice. "He mentioned that he was looking forward to you becoming his pet once this was all over."

I shivered and tried to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I'd put a bullet between my own eyes before I became any kind of 'play thing' for Amos.

A silence fell between us and after getting him to feed me a few more sips from the water bottle he'd gotten, I started wondering if Julie was back home yet.

"How long was I out?"

Ryan shrugged. "I'm not really sure." He said honestly. "My sense of time is all thrown off. There are no windows in this room. I'm not even sure if it's day or night time."

"It was late when they brought me down here." I said. "Probably eight or nine o'clock at night."

"You were asleep for quite a while." He said, thinking. "It's probably morning by now."

So, Julie was home already. I was sure Bobby would have looked her over by now. She'd be in good hands. I knew she wouldn't listen to my advice about leaving us behind. How long would it take her to find us?

"You should try and rest some more." Ryan advised. "Gavin mentioned that the O'Donnell's would be busy today so he doesn't think we'll be bothered."

"Could be a good time to try and escape."

"You can barely sit up." He reminded me. "Now is the time to rebuild our strength. Go to sleep, I'll wake you up if anything happens."

Pov- Julie

… "Mom?"

She just kept going. Chatting in my ear, on and on and on.

"Mom!" I said again a little bit louder, trying to get her attention.

Her voice just got louder too as she continued to rant. "I just don't understand why you want to be part of that life." She pressed on, like I hadn't even spoken. "It's so dangerous, dear. I know you want to be closer to your father. Carlos is a good man, you should get to know him, but you don't need to work with him, it's too risky. You should go back to school. Come back down to Miami, where I won't have to keep getting calls from your father, telling me you're in the hospital, or almost dead, or being chased by crazy people."

She took a deep breath and I seized the moment, jumping in before she could catch her second wind and start nagging me again.

"Mom, I already told you. I'm fine. I promise."

"This is the second time Julie." She said sharply. "Do you have any idea what I've been going through the last two days?" She asked. "Carlos didn't have any leads; the police haven't found anything yet. He couldn't tell me anything other than that you'd been taken by another mad man and he knew your ankle was hurt."

I shot Ranger another dark look. Why on earth, had he felt the need to call my mother? I'm surprised she wasn't already on a plane up here. Ranger was sitting in his office chair, while I sat perched on his desk. He'd tried to leave the room after telling me that I needed to check in with Rachel. I'd pointed a stiff finger at his chair and told him to 'take a seat.' If I had to suffer through my mom's worries so did he. This was his fault.

"Mom, I'm fine. I promise." I said again. "Bobby looked at my ankle; it's only a bad sprain. I'm even wearing a boot for it so it doesn't get worse. I have to go now, we need to get back to work."

When she spoke, her voice was softer and I was glad that it sounded like she was really listening to me this time. "Yes, Carlos mentioned that another girl had been taken with you after the fire. She hasn't been found yet I take it?"

I shook my head before remembering that she couldn't see me. "No, not yet." But, I would get her back.

"Check in with me soon ok?" She asked. "Promise me that you'll stay safe. Your hurt, let Carlos and his men find your friend."

"I promise mom," Not a chance. "I love you."

She sighed and I could just imagine her shaking her head and rubbing at her forehead. "I love you too baby girl."

I tossed my cell phone onto the desk once she'd hung up and gave Ranger another look. "Why did you have to freak her out? She always over reacts."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "She didn't over react. You were missing with little evidence to help us find you. She had every right to be worried and I promised Rachel I'd keep her informed while you were working here."

"You did?"

He nodded. "Yes, she called me after you announced that you wanted to move to Trenton. She knew she wouldn't be able to stop you so she wanted to make sure you would be safe here. I call her ever week and tell her how well your doing with your training. I also keep her informed of your more serious medical visits. She's your mother, she's supposed to worry about you."

Wow, I'd had no idea they were talking so much. I'd known my mother wasn't thrilled with my decision to come work at RangeMan, but it felt nice to know she was looking out for me in her own way.

"She loves you Julie." Ranger said.

I nodded. "I know."

There was a knock on the door and we both turned to look. Lester was standing there and he nodded when we looked up. "Couple of guys from TPD are here." He said. "They want to talk to you, Boss. Go over what they have."

Ranger nodded and got to his feet. "I'll be right there."

Lester nodded and left the room. Ranger kissed the top of my head as he passed me and helped me down off the desk. The pain meds Bobby had given me took the edge of my ankle, but it still hurt.

"Why don't you check in with Steph and Hector?" He said. "They're doing comp work. Maybe you can help them find this house."

I nodded and waited until he'd left the room. I pulled my jacket on and limped out onto the main floor. Everyone was still there, working hard. The sun was just starting to rise and I knew we were running out of time.

I stopped in the break room and grabbed a tray. I loaded up coffee and sandwiches for three before heading to Hectors office. Hector's office was a small corner room at the end of the hall. He had six computers and a string of monitors and usually every available surface was covered with bits and pieces of wire and other electronic whatsits.

Today all of the odds and ends had been swept aside so Stephanie could take over his table and counter space with tons of papers. Hector was rolling back and forth between two computers. The one that caught my eye was a map of the Point Pleasant area. Various markers, in different colors, were dotted on it.

Steph looked up when I came in and smiled at me. "Thanks," She said as I passed her some coffee. Hector took a glass without looking up and I found some free space near the door for the tray. Steph was bent over a printout of the same map Hector had, and she was marking it with a highlighter she'd pulled from behind her ear.

"What have you found?" I asked.

Steph started pointing to the map. She showed me the house, we knew the O'Donnell's were renting and a few others's she thought were worth looking at. There was a blue line that marked the part of the road trip I'd been able to see and had a few smaller blue marks trailing back to place's we might have entered the highway.

I watched them work for a bit and bounced ideas back and forth with Steph, feeling more and more lost as everything we looked at came up empty. It wasn't possible to check every house in Point Pleasant, and we were running out of time.

"Julie," Steph said after another stretch of silence. "You look beat, why don't you try to take a short nap? It might make you feel better."

We all knew I wouldn't be able to sleep right now. They would think it was because I was worried about Shilo. I knew, it was because my room would smell like her. I wondered from the office, trying to think of something useful I could do. I wasn't the best with computers and I'd already told the team everything I could remember about the house and the drive to it. I wanted to be out on foot, hunting with my own two hands.

When I stopped walking, I found myself on the fourth floor. I didn't want to go to my room. Instead, I looked across the hall and found the door to Shilo's room open. Not surprising, some of the men had gone through it when she first disappeared.

I wondered into the front room. All of the apartments on four were build the same. The front room led to a small kitchen, followed by an open dining/living room. Single bedroom in the back were the bathroom was also located.

Shilo's bags were all on the floor near the end of her bed. It didn't look like she'd unpacked much, then again she'd spent more nights in my room then hers. Some items were tossed on the bed, probably rejected while she packed to leave. I peeked into the bathroom and found a faint trace of her scent. I took a deep breath to calm myself, and to help me focus. There had to be something I was missing, some way to find her before it was too late.

I came out of the bathroom and nearly shrieked. Col. Lowry was standing in the bedroom. I hadn't heard him follow me in. He was absentmindedly staring around the room, but when I came out of the bathroom, his eyes swiveled to look at me. From the bags under his eyes, I was guessing he'd gotten about as much sleep as the rest of us.

"I'm sorry if I startled you." He said.

I shrugged. "I didn't hear you come in."

Col. Lowry and I had gotten off on the wrong foot from the start and he hadn't so much as looked at me since I'd gotten back. What would he want now? Had he known I was in here?

He walked out to the living room and I followed after him as he took a seat on the arm of her sofa. "I wanted to say thank you for what you've done to help us find Shilo so far." He said, his voice gruff. "I know we didn't exactly hit it off before."

I shrugged. "No problem."

When he didn't say anything I turned to leave. I'd only gone a couple of spaces before he spoke up, calling me back. "You care about Shilo, don't you?" He asked.

I took my time finding the right words to say. Shilo had never told the Col. about her preference for women and I didn't want to out her if she wasn't ready for him to know. "Yes," I finally said, because it was the truth. "I care about her a great deal. We've become very good friends these past few days."

He nodded. "I can tell."

His eyes ran over me and I couldn't tell what he was looking for.

"I know about her." He said softly. "About her preference for other girls, I mean. She's never mentioned it to me, but it wasn't too hard to find out."

I raised an eyebrow, wanting him to continue.

"It was obvious after Gina's death." He said sadly. "Anyone who knew her well enough could tell that she changed after that night. Although not many people know her that well. Has she told you anything about Gina?"

I nodded. "What she could."

"Sweet girl," He said. "Gina's death was a tragic loss for everyone on her team. Really, we're lucky any of them got out that night."

"Is there a reason you brought it up?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Just thinking aloud." He said softly. "I think that you'll be good for Shilo." He continued, surprising me. "She's been though more in the past fifteen years than most people experience in their whole lives. I know you think I don't care about Ryan, but that's not the case. I truly thought I was doing the best thing for all of them by splitting them up. I promised their father that I'd watch over his children if anything ever happened to him."

"Wouldn't you have been able to watch them better if they'd both been with you?" I asked. "Seems to me it's easier to care for someone under your own roof then across the country."

He shrugged again. "Maybe, it didn't protect Shilo. I was worried that my connection to their father might be discovered. That they might be tracked back to me if the O'Donnell's had ever suspected any of the children had lived. Ryan was easy to hide, but I couldn't get myself to send Shilo off with strangers."

"Why not?" I wondered aloud. "If it was so easy to ship Ryan away."

He leaned back a bit, relaxing more as he spoke. "Her mother approached me after the car accident that claimed the life of Shilo's father." He started. "Emily knew it was only a matter of time before the O'Donnell's came back. She knew there was little they could do to stop it. We were already planning to ship Shilo, Ryan and little Peter to the states. We were hoping that by moving them and changing their names we might be able to protect them."

"Is that why you were so quick to act after the fire happened? Emily already had you on standby."

He nodded. "I would have come for them in a few weeks anyway. Unfortunately, the O'Donnell's attacked faster than we thought they would. Emily was gone, and the children had no more living family to hide with. Emily would have wanted me to go through with our plan. Shilo was her only daughter, and although Emily would never have played favorites with her children, the plan had always been for Shilo to be adopted into my family. She looks just like her mother."

"You loved her?" I guessed. It was all over his face when he talked about her that the Col. had feelings for Emily.

He nodded. "Yes, don't get me wrong though. I married the love of my life. My beautiful wife gave me five boys and I never would have traded her. Emily was impossible not to love. She was uniquely sweet and unbearably kind even after all of the pain she suffered through."

"In the end it doesn't look like it made that much of a difference." I mumbled, falling into the cushion next to him. "We have no leads to find her, either of them."

Col. Lowry raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you giving up?"

"Of course not." I shot him a dirty look. "Just not sure what else we should be looking for. We've only got until tonight or they'll take her away. Once they leave in that plane I'll never see her again…"

I stopped and for a moment fought the urge to look over my head for one of those little light bulbs you see in cartoons when the hero get's an idea. The plane! Was anyone looking for the plane?

"We should be looking for the plane, not the house."

"You got an idea?" The Col. asked, but I was already moving for the door.

We couldn't find the house. It would take us too long to try searching all of Point Pleasant. You can't hide a plane, not easily at least. There were only so many places you could store a plane and even fewer where you could also take off in it. Why hadn't I thought of that sooner!

I hit the stairs moving as fast as I could and nearly tripped trying to throw the fifth floor door out of my way. I could hear the Col. chasing after me, but I didn't slow down to wait.

"Steph, Hector!"

Steph met me in the hall and I had half of the floors attention with my shouting. "What is it, Julie?" She asked. "Did you find something?"

I hobbled into Hector's office and jumped up onto one of his counters to take the weight off my ankle. "Don't look for the house." I started. "Point Pleasant it huge, it's a lost cause. Look for the plane. It's got to be a private plane, you can't easily take hostages on a commercial airline and you know Shilo will make a scene if they try. Look up any place nearby where you could store and take off in a small jet. I bet it's under one of the Lynch's names, and if not they probably have another Irish Pilot who's in on their deals. If we find it fast, we could even get Joe in place with TPD. We can catch them when they try to leave and take them all down."

"Good plan Julie."

I jumped; I hadn't noticed Ranger in the doorway. I'd made enough noise trying to get to Hector's office. I should have guessed he'd follow. Lester was with him and they were both grinning.

"I'll get looking." Hector said. "It is good plan, fewer airports then houses."

"We should call TPD and let them know our plan, see if they could add some force to a take down." Steph said. She glanced over at Ranger. "Want me to call them?"

He nodded. "Yeah, we'll need more people. This could go bad if it turns into a fire fight."

Pov- Shilo

"Do you think we're going to die?"

I raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Ryan. Neither one of us had spoken in probably four hours and I was wondering when his thoughts had taken a negative plunge.

"Statistically, the longer a kidnapped person is missing the higher the chances are for death." I said easily, trying not to let my own thoughts wonder down that path. The fact that our kidnappers hatted us and would be only to happy to take us out was an added bonus.

He sighed. "I figured you say something like that."

Shortly after I'd woken up Gavin had come in to show me the tape of Julie getting dropped off at Rangeman. I was satisfied that she'd been returned unharmed and grateful that at least part of my plan seemed to be working.

Then my thoughts turned to Julie, as they had been doing a lot lately. I hoped she wasn't mad at me. If I got out of this alive, I'd have a lot of groveling to do. Especially since it was starting to look like the only way we'd get out of here was for her to come and rescue my butt.

"I don't want to die yet." I said softly. I'd been in situations like this before, several that I considered to be more dangerous and less hopeful, but in everyone of them I'd been ready to die if it had come to that. Now I was being forced to rethink my own mortality. I'd never had someone to look forward to coming back home.

"You think she'll come?" Ryan asked.

I nodded. "I think she'll try. Julie's stubborn, she won't listen to me. She'll probably have to black mail her Dad into helping though."

Ryan chuckled from his side of the bars. "If we live through this I'm looking forward to seeing you suck up to this man. He sounds like a freaking nightmare."

"He's a good man." I said quickly. "He's just looking out for his family, all of them. He treats the men he works with like he's still in the Army Rangers. I don't blame him for distrusting me, I lied to him. Nearly got some of his people killed."

Ryan chatted easily for the next few hours and I added comments when it was required. Mostly I let my thoughts wonder. A while later the door to the cell room opened and Gavin came in followed by a couple of the other Lynch's, and Keith O'Donnell.

"Good to see your still with us." Keith said as he leaned against the front of my cell. "I was a little worried that Amos might have over done it, but you are one tough cookie."

I frowned at him.

"Hey, cheer up now." He said. "We're all going home. It's been a while since you've seen Ireland right?"

Now I started to panic. They wanted to leave right now? I was sure they'd stay a few more days and wait for their chance to grab Flynn back from TPD. These guys really were heartless, if they were going to let him sit here and rot.

When neither of us responded Keith nodded to Gavin and said. "Grab the boy," He nodded to another man and added. "Get the girl, tie them up good and get them in the van so we're ready to leave. I don't want them getting loose."

Ryan and I were both pulled from our cells and I tried not to fight while my arms were tied behind my back and a gag was stuffed in my mouth. Ryan was trussed up the same way and then I was pulled to my feet and shoved forward. We were lead back to the main level and out into a large garage. The same van that had grabbed Julie and I in was sitting there waiting for us.

Once again we were stuffed into the back and locked in. Ryan sat up quickly and started searching the door. He wouldn't find anything. I rolled onto my side and was trying to get my breathing under control. The gag certainly wasn't helping with my cracked ribs.

I caught Ryan's eye when he looked at me and he seemed to notice that I was having trouble breathing. He moved over to my side and spun around so he could reach my gag. It took a couple of pulls but he managed to get it off my face.

I coughed a few times while he twisted back around. "Thanks."

He shrugged his shoulders since his own gag was preventing him from speaking. I rolled onto my back and tried to see if I could get my arms free. No go. My ribs hurt to bad to try and fold my legs through my arms.

Ryan mumbled something to me and nodded at me.

"What?" I asked.

He mumbled again, but I couldn't understand him. Just then were was the sound of a door closing and we could hear voices outside of the van. I could make out at least four or five different voices and the sound of several car doors opening and shutting.

The van shook slightly as the doors were closed and then the motor hummed to life. Looks like it was time to go.

"Shit." I cursed. If they got us on a plane, it was all over. We needed to do something fast. "Ryan come over here."

I forced myself to sit up and grabbed the side of his gag with my teeth. It took several tugs and more creative swearing on my part but I managed to get the damn thing loose.

"Ick," Ryan said, pulling his head back as the gag fell around his neck. "You slobbered on me." Then he leaned forward and wiped his cheek on my shoulder.

I rolled my eyes and shoved him. "Next time I'll just leave you gagged then, ok?"

"Smart ass."

We both fell silent as the van rolled backwards and then settled into a gentle hum as it flew down the road. I didn't know what kind of time we had, but it was running out. Even if Julie managed to find the house, she wouldn't know that we'd been moved. We were on our own.

"So what's the plan now?" Ryan asked.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Come on," He said. "You're the military strategist here. You've got to have some ideas. Your Julie isn't going to be able to find us since we're not at the house anymore. We're on our own."

I nodded, good to see we were on the same page. "We need to get our arms free." I started.

Ryan nodded. "One second." Then I watched in mock horror as he twisted his arms above his head so that his cuffed arms were in front of him.

"Ick," I said. I'd seen people dislocate their shoulders before, but it was still gross to watch.

Ryan chuckled at me and rolled his shoulders as they popped back into place. "Never thought that little trick would come in handy."

"Where did you learn to do that?"

He shrugged. "I've always been able to do that. Dad and Theo could do it to." He leaned to the side and stuck his fingers into his pants pocket. He pulled out my tiny knife and fumbled with it a moment until he got it open.

"Let's see if I can figure this out." He said, holding the knife handle between his teeth and sticking the end of it into the lock on the cuffs.

"Have you ever picked a lock before?" I asked, while he wiggled the knife.

He nodded. "Yeah," He mumbled around the handle. "I lock myself out of the house all the time."

After another five minutes with no success, I was starting to think we'd need to come up with a backup plan. Then there was a small click and Ryan pulled his right hand out of his cuff. "Ha," He said excitedly and the knife fell into his lap. "I actually did it."

"Not bad for a civilian."

He rolled his eyes at me and started working on my hands, cuffed behind my back. I felt a sharp prick against my wrist and jumped. "Ouch."

"Sorry," He said quickly. "The blade slipped, it's only bleeding a little bit."

"Try not to slit my wrists before we get out of here ok?"

"Deal."

It didn't take him as long to get my hands free and once they were I wasted no time in unlocking my other hand and tossing the cuffs away. I was just starting to work on his second cuff when the van stopped. The front doors opened and closed and the van rocked a bit as its passengers got out and came around to the back. We'd only been in the van for twenty minutes.

"Quick up by the doors," I said. "As soon as they open them we're going to jump out. Run for the closest cover you can find and don't stop for any reason."

He nodded. "Are you sure you can run?"

I nodded even thought I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able too. "I'm fine," I lied. "Don't stop for me, just keep going. Even if I can't get out you'll know where I am. Get help and then come back for me."

He nodded once. "Alright, Try to stay with me though, ok? I think we'll have a better chance together."

"Ok."

The door swung open and I didn't take the time to look at who was there or what weapons they had pointed at us. I launched myself from the back of the van with everything I had and body checked the first man I reached. He fell backwards, head over ass, and I ran for all I was worth.

"Run!"

I heard a couple of gunshot's go off and lots of multilingual shouting. Ryan was right on my heels as we ran and I was trying to take in our surroundings. We were in a large warehouse like building. There was a small plane in the center, its motor already running while it waited for the O'Donnell's to board. The rest of the warehouse was filled with boxes and piles of other crap, several car's along one side, there was a second floor.

I felt a bullet fly past my head and dived to the right, taking off down another row of stacked crates. My lungs were on fire and the pounding in my head was making it hard to focus. There had to be a side door in here somewhere I could use to get out.

I stumbled rounding another pile of crates and went down to my hands and knees hard. I was gasping for air and knew that running wasn't going to work. "Ryan?" I glanced up and felt a sick sense of fear as I realized I was alone. When had we split up?

I could still hear men shouting and heavy footsteps running in my direction. I tucked myself between two large crates and sunk my teeth into my lower lip to try and quiet my ragged breathing. The footsteps softened as they neared my location. I closed my eyes and counted to ten, willing my lungs to slow down.

My breathing came easier and I didn't feel as light headed after another moment. I opened my eyes slowly, straining my ears to hear anyone nearby. When I opened my eyes, I found myself staring up the barrel of a gun. I raised my eyes a little bit more and found myself locking eye's with crazy old John O'Donnell.

"Hello dear." He said. "That wasn't very smart."

He waved his gun at me and motioned for me to get out of my hiding spot and stand up. Once again my arms were cuffed behind my back and John stuck me hard in the side with his gun as he shoved me forward.

Well this just sucks. I thought bitterly. I was running out of ideas and quickly losing hope that I'd get out of this at all. What was worse was I didn't' know where Ryan had gotten too. I hoped that he'd managed to find an exit. I could probably live with dying if I knew that I'd managed to get them both out of this mess.

John wrapped a hand in my hair as we rounded a corner and reentered the center of the warehouse. Several of the Lynch's were they're and I spotted both of John's brothers as well as young Michael O'Donnell in the group.

John, led me forward with a sick smile on his face, clearly proud of himself for having found me. He knocked me down to my knees once we'd reached the others and Keith rolled his eyes at us. "We should have just drugged them like I said." He said angrily. "This screw up is your fault."

"What do you care?" John shot back. "We got them back."

Them? As is both? Shit.

"Get them loaded on the plane now." Roy said, gruffly. "We need to leave."

As part of the group headed towards the plane, I caught sight of Ryan on the ground behind them. His lip was split open and there was a lump on his forehead. He was out cold and it looked like he'd been hit in the thigh. Blood soaked the leg of his pants turning the material black.

John passed me off to Gavin who took a gentler hold on my arms and steered me forward. He practically carried me up the stairs as I gave a last ditch effort to wiggle away from him. It was mostly pointless. I didn't have enough energy to put up a good fight.

Gavin spun me around and sat me down in a chair once we were on the plane, leveling a gun at me as he took the seat next to me. "Stay still." He said.

Ryan was carried past us and I turned to watch as he was stuck in a back closet and locked in. "Is he ok?" I asked, not expecting anyone to answer me.

"He'll live longer then you will if you don't shut up." Keith said before he backhanded me.

I scowled at him. I was really, really sick of getting hit.

"Want me to teach her another lesson?"

I shivered as Amos spoke up. I hadn't seen him in the group outside.

"Not right now." Keith said.

Everyone took their seats and buckled up and I felt the last of the fight leave me as the plan rolled forward. It was over. The plan turned towards the large garage door on the warehouse and I heard the motor pick up as we started moving.

Just then, the plane gave a short jerk and came back to a stop. Roy cursed and punched an intercom button on the wall. "What's going on up there?" He asked.

There was silence for a few beats and then I heard it. Sirens, lots and lots of sirens.

"Umm, Boss?" A voice spoke back over the intercom. "You might want to come and look at this."

~Darkrose

Let me know what you think. I really like where the next chapter is going, but this one was fighting with me a bit.

R&R Thanks for sticking with me this long and I'm sorry again for the delay in this.