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As you all can see, this is the next chapter and we are back to Annie's POV! So enjoy!

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Disclaimer is in Chapter 1: Who?

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Captured

Oh, this is not going to be good. Annie thought when she saw the evil smirk and maniacal gleam in his eyes.

"What am I doing here Stryker?" Annie asked and made sure to watch every single movement that Stryker and the one other man made. The second man stayed close to the door and rarely moved so Annie focused more on Stryker who tended to walk across the room and then pace to the other side as if he was trying to intimidate her with the fact that she was tied up and practically immobilized while he wasn't.

"What do you mean my dear?" Stryker replied with a seemingly innocent tone but Annie knew better.

"What am I doing here, tied up and not dead, and why are you recording this and sending the feed to my friends and family?" Annie clarified with an exasperated tone. Stryker continued to pace and smirk at her while taking in her extremely exposed body greedily.

"Well, I am going to make you realize finally that you love me just as much as I love you and your friends and family will realize this as well through watching." Stryker explained and Annie could not believe what she was hearing. All of this was happening just because this man "loved" her?

"You have got to be kidding me! You killed Eli, his brother, Gabriel and his parents, kidnapped my son and goddaughter, stabbed my friend, and nearly destroyed my best friend just because you think that I am in love with you?" Annie asked in outrage which in turn made Stryker chuckle.

"Think? I know that you love me; you are just too stubborn to admit it. So, I had to get creative to get your attention. It's your own fault that I had to go as far as I did." Stryker shrugged and took a step closer to her before pacing once more.

"How the hell is that supposed to make me realize that I love you?" She growled in return, her temper rising with each step Stryker took. Annie had never felt so murderous towards someone in her whole life.

"By reminding you that I existed! You stopped searching for me after I faked my death 7 years ago when you got married to Ryans!" Stryker yelled with a wave of his arms. Annie gave him a startled look and then returned to glaring at the man.

"Yeah because killing, attempting to kill, and kidnapping my friends and family is one way to get my attention and convince the woman you "love" to reciprocate!" Annie snarled as each person's face flashed in front of her eyes. The realization that all of the pain and suffering that these people went through was because of her made Annie want to go crawl in a hole and die after she ripped Stryker to shreds to avenge all of them.

"They were distracting you, holding you back from being with me." Stryker continued to try to convince her to see his point of view and all Annie could think of was different ways to kill him and not to throw up in disgust. It was clear that Stryker fully believed what he was saying and Annie wondered how he could have gotten this far in his delusions to think that this was the right thing to do.

Annie knew that Stryker had a slight attraction to her back in the NSA when she first started working there and that it grew to some form of fondness that the sociopath could muster as they were continually paired together thanks to their boss Agent Forrest. Stryker would ask her out every now and then during the 5 years she worked in their branch of the NSA and Annie always turned him down gently. She knew that Forrest would have continued to pair her up with him while she worked there and it would not have done Annie any good to upset Stryker by rudely telling him that it was never going to happen. So, Annie never knew how extensive Stryker's fondness for her went and how he would have mistaken it for love. But she should have realized it when Stryker still asked her out even though he and the rest of her coworkers knew about her engagement to Elijah Ryans and her quitting about a month before the wedding.

"Well, if I haven't already told you this clearly before, let me say it again: I am not interested in you in any romantic or intimate setting at all and doing what you did will not make me change my mind at all." Annie replied but that didn't faze Stryker at all.

"You say that now, but by the time we depart in two days you will have changed your mind. And with your admission your family will have no choice but to allow you to run away with me so we can live our lives in peace." Stryker stated and Annie scoffed at him.

"You doubt me, my sweet Annie?" This time she smirked at Stryker.

"Oh, you have no idea you psychopath." She replied and earned a chuckle from Stryker.

"Alright, I'll bite. Why do you doubt me?"

"For one, if you really did love me we wouldn't be here. I would be living my life, as would Elijah, his brother, Gabriel and his family. You would have been happy with the fact that I was happy even though I wasn't dating you. That is when you truly love someone, when you put their happiness above your own. Not destroying their lives and their friend's just because you want them to like you back. Secondly, even if you did succeed at brainwashing me into thinking that I loved you, my friends and family would still hunt us down and try to save me because they know that I was under Stockholm syndrome not true love. And thirdly, I will never, ever, fall in love with you: Stockholm syndrome or not." Annie answered. Stryker furrowed his eyebrows in agitation but he maintained his happy persona.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you 'never say never'?" He stated.

"They have tried but I never listen to them." Annie countered with a bigger smirk. Unfortunately, Stryker mimicked her when she was trying to piss him off, to get under his skin.

"Another thing I love about you, you always have a quip." Stryker responded and Annie lost her smile and made it clear that she didn't believe him that he loved her and was disgusted by the man.

"Why such a sour face, beautiful? I thought women were flattered when they were complimented by handsome men like me?" Stryker closed the distance between her and him and began to twirl her hair with his fingers.

"I have met and worked with handsome men before and you are clearly not handsome." Annie stated trying to remain impassive and not react to how close Stryker was to her.

"Ah, that feisty tongue of yours, I wonder how it tastes?" Stryker's breath raked over her face and when he placed his hand on her exposed waist, Annie shivered in disgust. However, Stryker took that reaction entirely different and covered her mouth with his. Then his tongue invaded the inside of her mouth. Annie, kindly in turn, bit down hard on his tongue. So hard, that Annie tasted his blood that she immediately spat out as soon as Stryker pulled away from her.

Stryker recoiled and put distance between them once more. He chuckled after he touched his tongue to fully comprehend that he was, in fact, bleeding. After this, Stryker went up to Annie and smacked her right across the face. So hard, that her mouth was bleeding too because her teeth cut the inside of her cheek. Then Stryker punched her twice in the abdomen that knocked the air out of Annie. She coughed up some of the blood from her mouth at each hit.

"I see that the drugs are still affecting you so that you aren't thinking correctly which means you are clearly not ready to go through my test for you. I think a good night's rest is in order, say good night to our audience Annie." Stryker sighed.

Test? What test is Stryker talking about? Is what Annie thought but did not voice aloud. Instead, she focused on reading Stryker's facial expression, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Annie didn't reply which made Stryker shake his head and take out this remote from his pants' pocket.

"Don't worry, my dear, no one will assault you while I am gone. To make sure that you don't try anything stupid like escaping and getting hurt, I am leaving one of my more trusted employees to watch you." Stryker motioned to the second man in the room Annie had all but forgotten about. She took this time to finally look at Stryker's second in command as Stryker clicked a button on the remote and left.

The man was tall and muscular, a standard really for mercenaries. He had short, spikey blonde hair and hazel green eyes. The mercenary was also wearing black cargo pants stuffed in black combat boots with matching black shirt covered by an also black vest probably filled with ammo, knives, and other smaller caliber guns as he held an M16A4 assault rifle in his hands. The man was casually standing by the door but Annie could tell that he was on high alert and would move quickly if the occasion arose. Overall the man was setting off bells inside Annie's head.

"Have I ever met you before? You seem familiar." She started up as their eyes locked.

"I don't know, you tell me." He responded nonchalantly. But nothing came to mind as to where she has ever met this guy before. So, she tried a different tactic.

"Are you really just going to stand there and let this happen to me?"

"Why not? Stryker is paying me to do just that and we are not close." The man replied in the same tone and added a shrug this time.

"Just because you are a mercenary does not mean that you can't have scruples. I've dated a mercenary maybe you know hi-" and that was when it dawned upon Annie on where she has seen Stryker's second in command before.

"I see you do remember me." Lucas stated. Lucas used to work for Harrison back when she dated him. Annie had only met Lucas once, it was on the night that Annie and Harrison found out their true careers and not the lies they were telling each other.

Lucas was the sniper who missed the man she was supposed to protect which gave her enough time to find his hiding place and cut him off mid escape. They had a shoot out before Harrison came running in and attempted to help Lucas by providing a distraction, just not the distraction he thought of. Harrison was going to shoot at Annie from the other side of the room, giving Lucas a way out without being in the direct line of fire. But when both Harrison and Annie peered over their blockades to get a better shot at each other, and then saw one another, both were stunned into inactivity. That was when Harrison and her decided to meet up at a separate location to talk. Annie's last image of Lucas was of him running as she tried to shot at him but not get hit by his, then, unknown partner.

"Lucas." Annie said evenly enough and Lucas nodded in greeting.

"Long time no see Annie? Or, as Harrison described you to us, Sarah Chadwick?" Lucas responded and this made Annie chuckle. She had almost forgotten about that past alias and all of the fun that she had as Sarah with Harrison.

"How did you start working for Stryker and for how long?" Annie questioned, praying that Harrison was not dead. She hadn't talked to Harrison for almost a year and a half now and as she knew, a lot could happen in a year. Annie also knew that mercenaries liked to stick to one group or as loners. Obviously if Harrison and Lucas were working together, they worked as a team and thus the only way Lucas would be working for Stryker now is if the team disbanded.

"Harrison retired from the game officially a little under a year ago, so I had to find a new employer or at least a crew. That's how I met Stryker; he called me shortly after I put out the feelers on my situation. I have been working for him ever since." Lucas answered readily which surprised Annie. She thought the man would have been a bit more aloof or defensive about her line of questioning.

"I have nothing to hide from the future wife or lover or whatever you will be to my boss." He stated as Lucas registered her confusion. Annie of course shuddered with each title that Lucas stated about her potential relationship to Stryker.

"I will never be those things to him, I would rather die." She insisted vehemently.

"Well then, I have nothing to hide from a dead woman." Lucas shrugged off.

"Then do you mind telling me about what Stryker is talking about when he said I was going to be put through a test?" Annie replied.

"You will just have to wait until tomorrow. You better rest up; you are going to need all the energy you can muster." Lucas responded but did not officially answer her. Annie tried different ways to ask him about it but he just ignored her and remained silent. So, Annie attempted to goad him into talking again but it was useless. Annie was left in silence as the two had a stare off until Annie finally fell asleep, not sure what lay ahead of her in the next couple of days.