Ch. 3

There were no windows in the room, so Juliet had no way of knowing how long she had been in this place. But whether it had been hours or a whole day, she needed to get out as soon as possible. She examined the straps around her wrists, and realized that if they had been pinned wrist up then she could probably have unbuckled them. She tried to twist her hand around to a better position, but the leather was tight and she could barely move her wrists without pain, much less twist them all the way around. There had to be another way out of this mess, but after a few minutes of desperately trying to come up with another escape route her original plan seemed like the only option. So carefully rotating one wrist as far as it could go, she bit her lip and twisted it the rest of the way with a quick jerk. As hard as she tried to keep quiet, a small whimper escaped her as the delicate bones in her wrist bent and snapped under the pressure. She sat there for a few minutes, gasping in pain and trying to steel herself for what she had to do next, which she knew would be even less pleasant.

When she knew she couldn't put it off anymore without risking being discovered, Juliet carefully reached her fingers towards the buckle and began to unfasten it. Tears formed in her eyes as her broken wrist was stretched, and the bones grated against each other whenever she moved. And even when she got her wrist freed, she had to twist her arm again to unbuckle her upper arm. She finally got an entire arm loose, and quickly undid the rest of her bonds while trying to ignore the white hot flashes of pain shooting up her arm whenever she moved.

Once she had the use of her body again Juliet stumbled over to the door and was immensely relieved to find it unlocked. Poking her head into the corridor, she saw that it was empty except for a small table near the end, where a metal tray sat with the contents of her pockets placed on top. Her phone.

Her legs were numb and tired from being still for so long, but they were mostly working again by the time she reached the life saving device. Trying to use mostly her uninjured right hand, Juliet clumsily sent a text message to her partner. A call would be too loud. Carefully choosing the right words, she typed,

Shawn and I have been kidnapped. The Theft was much bigger than we thought, Please send help.

Juliet

she put the phone down as the message sent. It clicked softly as it hit the metal tray and she froze, before realizing that no one was close enough to hear.

Crouching low, she slowly made her way down to the end of the next hallway where a door stood slightly ajar. On the other side she could see faint daylight. She prayed that it wouldn't squeak as she gently pressed the fingertips of her good hand against the cold metal to open it. To her relief, It glided silently open, revealing what lay beyond.

Detective Lassiter was at this desk, trying to get work done despite worrying about his partner. He was trying to convince himself that she was O.K. when his phone buzzed. It was instantly snatched up, and his eyes scanned the screen. He saw that the message was from Juliet, and he relaxed slightly. If she was texting him then she must be all right. But then he opened the message, and he froze. Buzz, walking by, stopped as he saw the expression on his superior's face.

"Hey, detective. You ok?"

The voice snapped Lassiter back into reality and he turned to the younger man.

"McNab, tell the chief that I'm leaving and probably wont be back anytime soon."

"Where…?" he started to ask, before correcting himself. "Yes, sir." And he tentatively walked over to the chief's office as the gray haired detective marched out of the building.

As he slammed his car door shut and started the engine, his way was blocked by chief Vick striding up behind the vehicle and rapping on the window.

"Detective Lassiter!"

"Chief?"

The imposing woman looked incredulously at her head detective. "Where the hell do you think your going? Detective O'Hara already left today, you are not going too."

Lassiter heaved a sigh at the delay. This was only wasting his time while his partner was in danger. "I don't think she left, chief. I think she has gotten herself into a bit of trouble, I need to go help her now."

"I cant waste recourses on a hunch, detective. Give me proof, or get back inside."

Growling in frustration, he dug his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the text from Juliet. The chief's eyes scanned the message, widening as she read it. "Why didn't you tell me about this immediately?" she said angrily, straightening up. Don't go anywhere, we're going to send people after her as soon as we trace the signal." She grabbed the phone, but as she turned to walk back to the station it buzzed again. Glancing at the screen, she murmured, "Juliet." And opened the text. It dinged as it opened, and shock instantly covered her face. She slowly lowered the phone, and the detective's heart nearly stopped when he saw the expression on her face as she did.

Juliet peered into the warehouse where they had chased the thief to, and at the end a door stood wide open, sunlight spilling into the huge, dark room. Freedom was so close… then she remembered Shawn. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she had time to try and find him. But her mind was abruptly made up for her as the sound of a crash and a shout echoed from the hallway behind her. Her training instantly kicked in, and she was instantly sprinting across the concrete, dodging and jumping over crates of who knows what. Adrenalin quickly added to her speed as she heard people running out of the door she had just come from and began to gain on her. The fact that she was exhausted and probably concussed wasn't helping matters, and she hear the angry yells getting steadily closer no matter how hard she ran. She was so close… she was going to make it! But then her pursuers realized that they didn't need to play fair, and Juliet fell as a heavy metal stick flew hard into her back and knocked her forward. Dazed, she glanced up, catching a glimpse of a beautiful blue sky and a lungful of sweet fresh air before she was violently dragged backwards and thrown back to the ground. The door was slammed shut, and in the dim light the junior detective could only see the vague shapes of men crowding around her. Certainly she never saw the first blow coming, only heard the sound of the solid metal stick that they carried as it hissed through the air towards her stomach.

All the air in her lungs was forced out as it made contact and she frantically gasped for breath as pain shot through her. After the first hit, the others were quick to join in and soon Juliet was being pounded from all sides. She automatically tried to curl up into the fetal position to minimize damage, but strong hands grabbed her arms and legs, pinning her down and crushing her broken wrist as her captors beat her again and again.

Her screams of pain echoed through the warehouse for what seemed like hours, but in reality couldn't be more then ten minutes. When the noises of metal hitting flesh finally ceased, the huge room was quiet except for Juliet's choked sobs. The men hovered for a few moment and let her cry, but they were impatient. Two of them roughly grabbed her under the arms and hefted her up to her feet so that she stood shakily between them. She cried out in pain, and one of the armed ones smacked her with his weapon. Her entire body shuddered with the effort of keeping silent while the men laughed at her.

She was dragged back through the door, which she now saw was nearly invisible from the outside. Every few seconds, if she didn't move fast enough, she would get another hit from one of the men she assumed were part of the terrorist group. They seemed to be taking her a different way than the route she had nearly escaped by, and unfortunaly it was much longer. Finally the blonde detective couldn't take it anymore, and with a final strike to a broken rib collapsed on the floor, where she was subject to a dozen blows before her tormentors realized that they weren't actually helping.

"Get up." One of them said in a gruff voice.

Juliet blinked up at him through a haze of pain as she realized what he wanted and slowly pulled herself up. There was not an inch of her that didn't hurt, and blood was running into her eyes and down her back. She held back a wail of anguish as she put weight on her leg, which felt broken in at least one place. The dense metal of their sticks made for an incredibly powerful weapon and snapped her bones as easily as they would a branch.

Grabbing her once again, the men half dragged her the rest of the way to their destination. When they arrived, and she saw bars through the fog, she panicked. They had realized how useless she was to them, and now they were going to lock her up and leave her to die. She tried hopelessly to get free from the iron grip as their mocking laughter filled her head. But then a familiar voice cut through the noise, calling her name and bringing her back to reality.

"Juliet!"

She was pulled towards the voice, finally given something good to cling to.

"Shawn?"