Hoyt couldn't believe what was happening as he watched Matt try to pull his hands out of the cuffs. Hoyt tried to feel around his own waist, he had a set of handcuff keys. Matt swallowed and leaned over and told him. "We have to figure something out, and we've got to do it fast."
Hoyt softly told him, "My belt loop on your side…keys…" was all he could get out before the corrupt cop turned around.
He told Matt, "Knock it off you two. Keep quiet."
Hoyt just leaned up and said, "He's struggling to breathe, that's all." Then Matt sat up and tried to keep an eye on which direction they were heading and fumble around to find the handcuff keys Hoyt was talking about. He found them and quietly pulled them behind himself and released them. Then he undid Hoyt's.
Then he asked the officers, "Look, I got hit in the side here and I'm going to be sick. If you don't want vomit in your car to clean up later as you try to hide all this, why don't you pull over for a second huh?"
The officer looked back again and Matt tried to make himself look as sick as possible. The officer told the one driving to pull over. He wasn't cleaning up any mess like that. As soon as he did and unhooked the door Matt took his legs and pushed it open the rest of the way knocking the officer on the ground. Matt grabbed him and his gun and when the other officer fired, he missed and Matt fired back striking him down. Hoyt then handcuffed the living corrupt officer and then moved to the passenger seat after putting the corrupt officer in the back. Matt got behind the wheel and they took off.
As Matt sped back to the winery Hoyt called over the radio for federal support. Another officer was already on scene but had found nothing they claimed and as Matt pulled up, sure enough there was no sign of C.J. or Telso.
C.J. kept creeping back toward the walls in this almost round room. She felt a mist falling around her and didn't know what it was, but she was growing dizzy. After about 2 minutes the mist stopped and Telso lowered himself in the room. He put his gun on a small table and told her to just relax, that they were just going to have a little fun.
She blinked and found herself up against the wall furthest away from Telso, he had a slight limp and she thought she could take him. No, she knew she could take him down, the room just needed to stop spinning first.
"That's clonazepam in case you're wondering. Well, my own version of it that is. You see, you get to remember everything. I plan to keep you for a while too. Now that your husband is dead, no one will come looking for you. You see, it takes time for me to find someone to replace Ricardo. When I do, then I will release you." He laughed then and added, "Well, sort of release you. You won't feel any more pain at least and by that time you will be begging me to do it. Unless I let you have the honors. I have had more than one tramp take her own life down here."
C.J. kept blinking, no, Matt was not dead and she was not dying down here herself. She just really needed the room to stop spinning and focus. She had surveyed the room and knew there were things on the wall she could use to defend herself. So she tried to maneuver her way around but tripped. He grabbed her and threw her on the bed and then put the wire around her wrists behind her back and told her, "let the games begin."
The federal officers wanted to treat Matt's injuries but he refused. Now with four people they set out to find both Telso and C.J. They ran into the storage facility and the room Telso was in earlier but found nothing so they ran back out. Matt ran his hand through his hair and this Agent Mackelroy asked if he thought she would run back to the chopper. Matt thought about that and told him he wasn't sure. The agents decided to head in that direction and Hoyt and Matt decided to stay around the buildings searching.
Matt was so torn up inside. He knew this monster had his wife and he had held her now for almost half an hour. His mind was taking him places he didn't want to go and it was getting harder and harder to focus. His nightmare was playing out right in front of him. Hoyt told him he was going to the main house, Matt told him to be careful. They both knew that splitting up might make this more dangerous for them, but they also knew time was working against them. They had to find C.J. as fast as they could.
Matt looked back to the entrance to that storage facility again and his eye caught something. It was underground mostly, but they had covered the top so it almost looked like a little hill. That was what C.J. was looking for earlier. His mind raced as he went back in. He decided to start in the room they found him taking Chris into. He remembered the newspaper report of the woman saying Telso had a secret room hidden so he started to search the walls.
C.J. struggled just beneath Matt's feet. She made it appear that she was subdued. He had chained her arms behind her and then injected her with something. She knew she had to think and act quick here before this set in, so she faked passing out. Telso looked confused and went over to the bed and started groping her just to see if she'd react but she didn't then he started to undress her. Although she wanted to throw up she didn't. She needed him on top of her so she could use her leg strength to fight him. He hadn't tied her legs down.
Once he had her partially undressed he got on top of her and bent down to kiss her. At that point she nailed him with her knee, took her other leg and pinned his leg down while she moved that knee up past him and pushed him back with her foot. He fell out of the bed and hit his head on the hard concrete floor.
She had yelled when she did that and Matt heard her. His heart was racing, "C.J! C.J! Where are you!"
She heard him and shouted back, "Down, Matt, there's…." Telso was back on top of her with his hand over her mouth but bleeding from his head.
"Shhh… no, no, no….you are just going to lay back and watch….that little injection should be kicking in right about now. He can't get in, don't worry. I'm sure my other friends in the police department will be along soon enough to haul him away." She was getting more and more dizzy. Telso then decided to torture Matt.
"Never seen a body look this good before, feels good doesn't it baby." Telso had slowly walked over to the steps leading out so Matt could hear him.
Matt had never felt this level of rage before, Telso was not getting out of this building alive. He searched and found the trap door, but it was locked. He looked around and found what would pass for a crowbar and broke the lock then jumped down into this little room. C.J. spun around on the bed and with her feet had knocked Telso to the floor. Matt jumped on top of him and had his hands around his throat. He started to choke Telso.
C.J. saw what he was doing and knew that if Matt actually killed this man out of rage it would take a piece of him that he would never get back. Despite the fact that what her husband was doing was the same thing she wanted to, she needed to stop him.
"Matt, please just don't kill him, I need you." She told him. Her words startled Matt out of his rage and he looked back down at Telso who appeared unconscious. Matt checked and found he still had a pulse and right now his wife needed him more so he got off of him and went over to her, untying the wire around her wrist and then taking her in his arms.
"I'm right here. I love you, let's get you out of here." He told her.
Telso had been faking again and neither Matt nor C.J. had seen him practically crawl back over to the table where he had left his gun. At the last second, C.J., being held by Matt saw him and in that last second pushed Matt to the side with both her hands and feet and grabbed his gun at the same time from where he kept it behind him and fired 5 times into Telso.
Matt had fallen to the floor and watched everything unfold. He got up quickly and C.J. dropped his gun. She was still on the bed, sweating and breathing heavy. She appeared on the verge of losing consciousness and he told her softly, "I'm right here, you got him. He's not hurting you or anyone else anymore. Honey talk to me. Don't go to sleep." She nodded and said she would try. He wrapped her clothes around her and put her over his shoulder to carry her up the stairs.
Hoyt came running into the small room and found the trap door. He had heard the gunshots and had his own weapon drawn until her heard Matt and C.J. talking. The federal officers came back and they were able to get EMTs to help C.J. get into an ambulance. Matt had never held her so tight or so close and found it a little difficult to let her go.