A/N: Another late night...story of my life...thanks for reading. Let me know what you think :)

Paige opened her eyes slowly, rapidly blinking as her eyes adjusted to the light now that her blindfold was removed. She tested the ropes on her wrists, wishing Sid had used handcuffs to restrain her, because she would have a better chance of slipping out of those or picking the lock. Ropes were tricky, but not impossible, it just meant she had to work at it more. If anyone else had grabbed her, she probably wouldn't even be restrained. So many of the men she dealt with underestimated her. One look at her blonde hair and body and they assumed she wasn't a threat. They didn't realize she was a better shot than them or could just as easily kick their ass. But Sid knew exactly who and what she was.

That was why he grabbed her.

He hadn't dared to grab her outside of Graceland. With a house full of federal agents whose schedules were unpredictable at best, it would've been impossible for him to figure out a pattern in their comings and goings.

It was second nature for all of them to check for tails and do heat runs, but the one thing they couldn't risk was giving up Mike's location. Which meant they had to be extra careful if one of them was going to visit Mike. It usually meant that two cars had to leave at the same time, unless they had eyes on Sid in another location. One benefit to him massacring his team that there was no one for him to trust. Sid was all alone in his vendetta against Mike. Sid's only ally was Carlito Solano, but Carlito had been in hiding since the day he had his father killed. Even Carlito wasn't arrogant enough to want to get involved with taking out a house full of federal agents so soon after killing his father and taking control of the Solano cartel. Another benefit to Sid massacring his team, was that he needed a new team. Briggs took a leave of absence from the LAPD, citing personal reasons. Sid most likely thought that West was grieving for his friend or shaken up that he could've died on the Solano compound. But what Briggs was really doing was lulling Sid into a false sense of security, while he planted a two federal agents to be a part of Sid's team to help monitor him.

Out of habit, Paige tested the ropes binding her wrists and detected that she could shift her wrists slightly. Slightly was better than nothing. It gave her something to work with. She slowly looked around the room, looking for anything she could potentially use as a weapon. She needed to know where the windows and doors were. She closed her eyes, trying to visualize all the points of entry so if she got a chance to move, she wouldn't waste time later looking for an exit.

"You're wasting your time," Sid said as he circled around her until he was standing over her.

He was trying to intimidate her. But she wasn't afraid of him. She had dealt with men far more dangerous than him. Not that Sid wasn't planning to kill her. But he wouldn't torture her. He might hit her around. But he wouldn't rape her. Wouldn't shoot her just for fun. He was too practical. Didn't want to get his hands dirty. It didn't bother him to murder someone. But it was all about practicalities for him. Even if he delivered the fatal shot to Lawrence, she was positive he wasn't the one that chopped him up. Whatever misgivings he had initially about working with Carlito were long gone. Sid had no problems profiting off human trafficking for the right price, but she still had her doubts about him getting his hands dirty.

Holding her head high, Paige met his gaze, refusing to let him think she was afraid of him. Although, as much as she wanted to laugh in his face, it would probably be a bad idea to taunt a man that kidnapped her outside of a coffee shop and planned to kill her. But, she wasn't faking it. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but she felt eerily calm and wasn't afraid at all. "I've got nothing but time," Paige said, keeping her voice even.

Sid yanked her hair, "It's too bad I'm married and committed to my wife, because we could've had some fun together."

Maybe she was wrong about him. Maybe he was even more evil than she originally thought. Swallowing the bile rising in her throat, she forced herself to keep eye contact with him. Just the idea of him touching her, anywhere, made her skin crawl, but she was too proud to let him see her afraid. Didn't want to give him any sort of power over her. "Thought you weren't involved in the sex trade part of the Solanos' business?" She needed to keep him talking.

"Aren't you a chatty broad? Is that what happened with you and Warren? He get sick of your mouth running? Because I got sick of his. I should thank you. Because whatever he did to piss you off made you give him up to me."

"I sent you to Sylmar to wipe out that trash, but I didn't let you finish."

"Don't talk about Mike," Paige whispered. She convinced herself she could do this. She was trained for this. She could placate men like Sid with her arms tied behind her back, literally. But Mike was her achilles heel. This was for Mike, but she couldn't handle Sid talking about him. It distracted her. Clouded her judgment. Made her think with her heart, not her head. Reminded her of how she betrayed him. Flooded her with guilt.

"Miss your boyfriend? You should've seen his face when I told him it was you. If I had known how important you were to him, I would've killed you in front of him, just so he would suffer more."

"Suffer more?" Paige asked before she could stop herself. Briggs had told her everything that happened at the hospital that night, but his details felt like a case report. Too afraid to ask Mike what happened, she found herself face to face with the man that tried to kill him, asking him for answers. Sid had nothing to gain by lying to her, but she wasn't fully sure she could trust him to tell the truth. Because making her suffer by reliving Mike's pain fed into his ego.

"I'm still not sure why Warren chose me. Out of all the men responsible, he chose to focus his investigation on me. He was cocky. Reckless. Scared. He said he wasn't, but he was. Especially when I wrapped my hand around his ventilator tube and squeezed." A ghost of a smile filled Sid's face, clearly enjoying the memory.

Paige blinked back tears, no longer caring about her earlier vow to not let Sid get under her skin. To not let him see how much he was upsetting her. But, she was stronger than this. Stronger than Sid. Mike was alive. Sid didn't win.

Paige shifted slightly as Sid walked around the room, ranting about Mike and how he had to pay. How he enjoyed making him pay. She winced slightly as her wrists dug into the back of the chair, but she kept moving her wrists back and forth, determined to weaken the ropes so she could free herself, trying to focus on that instead of Sid's words. She stilled as Sid turned around and walked towards her.

"He almost had me. But almost isn't good enough. Warren wasn't good enough."

"You're the one not good enough. You're trash. You're a cop. You're supposed to serve and protect. Protect. But instead you're a coward. Just kill me and get it over with! Unless you're too much of a coward to shoot me. I'm not enough of a challenge for you? I'm not in a hospital bed on a respirator." Paige knew she was treading on dangerous ground. But she couldn't resist baiting him. Her eyes flashed with anger, daring him to make a move.

Sid pulled her to her feet, shoving her against the wall. She spit in his face and he slapped her. Hard. Her cheek stung, but her pride wouldn't allow her to show weakness, swallowing the pain, she bit the inside of her cheek instead of screaming.

Sid pressed her against the wall and she took advantage of their position to knee him in the groin. She managed to slip one of her hands out of the rope and she sprinted towards the door, not even wasting a second to look back and see how closely Sid was trailing behind her.

Paige made it halfway to the door before Sid grabbed her wrist, and roughly threw her across the room. Her head hit the wall and she closed her eyes for a few seconds, visualizing the room in her mind. Succumbing to the pain wasn't an option for her. One window was five feet to the left of her and the other was on the far wall. The door was ten feet away. If she could grab the chair, she could hit him with it before breaking the window.

Her head was throbbing and she could feel blood dripping down her face, but she couldn't focus on that. Couldn't focus on the pain. She couldn't wait any longer. She needed to get out of here before Sid made good on his threat to kill her.

Paige wasn't sure how much time she had before Sid decided he'd had enough fun toying with her.

"Let him take me," Paige insisted. If they wanted to catch Sid, they needed to catch him off guard. Make him think he was one step ahead of them. Make him walk into their trap. And she was perfect bait.

"Not happening," Jakes said. "Briggs is - "

"I don't care what Briggs is working on." She had a lot of doubts about Briggs, but him clearing Mike's name wasn't one of them. It was his methods that she was concerned about. Not to mention his agendas. "Either help me or I'm going to do it alone."

"If anything happens to you, Mike - "

"Nothing's going to happen. I know he's watching me, Jakes. Sid's watching all of us. But I'm the only one he approached. He looked me in the eye and offered me condolences about Mike. Do you know how hard it was for me not to lose it?"

"Sid told Mike he was going to put down his friends, one by one. He's going to start with you."

"Let him. Let him get me alone. I guarantee you he'll grab me. I'll get him to confess and then you can arrest him and it'll be over."

"You sound like Mike."

"He was right, wasn't he?"

"You're more trouble than you're worth," Sid said, pulling out his gun.

"Let her go," Briggs ordered, walking into the room with Jakes right behind him. She didn't see Johnny or Zelanski, but she knew they were nearby.

Despite the fact that Sid ignored Briggs' order and pressed his gun to her temple, she felt safe. She bit back a groan when Sid roughly grabbed her arm, causing her head to hit the wall again before he pulled her in front of him, using her as a human shield.

Her eyes fluttered closed for a few seconds, but she used the adrenaline to stay in the present. "Shoot him!" Paige screamed as she struggled against him.

"Hold still or I'll shoot," Sid said, his fingers digging into her arm as he pulled her closer to him. "Drop your weapons or I'll kill her. Get blood all over that pretty blonde head of hers."

Paige stilled against him, not because he asked her, but because the room started spinning. She was dizzy and having trouble keeping her balance. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and focused on Briggs' face.

"You don't want to do this," Briggs said.

"Trust me, I want to do this. I don't have any regrets about what I did. My only regret is that I didn't shoot Warren myself. But mine was the last face he saw before he died."

Dazed, Paige turned her head slightly so she could see Sid's face when she dropped her bombshell. "Mike's alive. You're gonna rot in a jail cell and Mike's alive."

Stunned, Sid's hand faltered and Paige collapsed in his arms, falling to the ground as a shot rang out.

When she hit the ground, she turned to face Sid. He was sprawled out behind her, shot in the shoulder. His hand clutching his wound as he made a move for his gun. Paige pushed his gun away from him as she stood and ran into Briggs' arms, leaving Jakes to deal with Sid. She could barely think straight, but as much as she wanted Sid dead, there was a greater chance of that happening if Briggs could get a chance at another shot.

"I've got you," Briggs said, pushing aside her hair to look at her head wound. "Hey, Paige, kiddo - look at me."

"We got him?" Paige asked, trying to steady herself.

"Yeah, we got him," Briggs said.

Paige nodded slowly, "Good," she quietly said, before everything faded to black.

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