Disclaimer: Usual stuff, don't own Numb3rs or the characters.

A/N: Thank you to all of those that have read and to those who have taken time to review. Your support has been appreciated.

Chapter Twenty Four – Yearned

"Here we are." Xavier said.

"Where exactly are we?" Jasmine asked, confused.

"This is where we are going to dump our FBI problem."
Jasmine looked around, all she could see was an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. "I don't get it."

They got out of the SUV leaving an unconscious Colby locked in the trunk. Jasmine followed Xavier to an area behind the warehouse which was located in a slight valley. They walked down an incline to where a large hole had been dug. Xavier sighed with satisfaction.

"Ah my boys have done good."

"What are you talking about?"

"All in good time, first we need to find out exactly what the FBI know about our little operation." He turned on his heel and strode back to the SUV.

"Rise and shine Agent Granger." Xavier hauled Colby out of the trunk dumping him in a heap on the ground, he then took a bucket from one of the half a dozen men that were standing around and threw the contents of ice cold water over the stricken agent.

Colby had been vaguely aware of an immense pain, but he had chosen to remain oblivious to it, preferring a state of blissful ignorance. This had just become impossible when some kind soul decided to throw ice cold water over him, bringing him completely round and therefore causing him to face the pain, when he opened his eyes he realised just how much trouble he was in.

"Ah there we go. Agent Granger, we've not met, but I believe you know my girlfriend and I'm Xavier Heller." He pulled Jasmine to him and laid a possessive arm over her shoulder.

Colby looked from the man he recognised as Xavier to Jasmine. "You're welcome to her."

"Oh that's not nice Agent Granger. Here I am being civil and you say that about my girlfriend. Not to worry, I'll enjoy your punishment in the end. In the meantime I need you to tell me what the FBI know about our operation." Colby tried to keep the look of surprise off his face, but clearly failed. "Well that answers that one, you obviously didn't know that Jasmine was part of the business."

Turning his head to look at her, Colby asked. "How could you do it? After everything you told me about Rutherford?" It was costing him a great deal of his diminishing energy levels to remain conscious let alone ask questions, but he needed to know.

"Oh, she told you that she didn't know about Jason's drug deals and you believed her? That's priceless. She was the brains behind his operation, just like she is behind mine."

"I'm so sorry Colby, I wanted to get out, you were my chance, but when you believed Jason over me I knew that there was no way it would work out. Xavier offered me an opportunity to make a lot of money, then I could leave the country and have a fresh start somewhere."

"Bitch." Was all he could manage.

Xavier's face darkened, he looked ready to kill Colby there and then, Jasmine laid a hand on his arm. "It's alright Xavier, he has good reason to hate me. I put him through a lot to try to get his attention."

"The wreath, glass, knife and bomb were you." It was a statement, not a question.

"That's right, I was trying to get close to you. I even set up Jason so that he would kidnap me, admittedly you weren't supposed to be there or get hurt, I am sorry for that."

"You are one crazy lady." He managed to say before passing out again.

"He's no fun." Stated Xavier. "We still need to get out of him what he knows. It's good that the FBI don't know about you, obviously, but we need to know if they are aware of the extent of our supply and who our dealers are."

"He is clearly seriously injured, why don't you leave it, lets just get out of here."
"No! I will not leave it, I have invested a lot of time and money into this, I will not just abandon our operation if there is no need to do so."

"I will not stay here and watch you torment this man. If you are going to kill him then you should do it."
"Oh no, straight forward execution is too good for him, I plan to make sure he suffers, after all he hurt the woman that I love."

"What are you going to do to him?"

"Like I said, you will see."

"I'm going to wait in the car I want no part of this."

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Jasmine got back into the SUV and watched as the heavens once again opened in a torrential downpour. Xavier and all of his men took shelter in the warehouse but they left the unconscious Colby to the elements, he was getting soaked and there was nothing she could do to prevent it. When she cornered Colby in the car park outside the restaurant and asked for his help because she was in trouble, she hadn't been lying.

When she had realised that her plan to get out of the life she had found herself in wasn't going to work she had hooked up with Xavier, she had known that the man was obsessed with her and very well connected, with her brains for business that meant she could make a lot of money. At first it went well, then someone got stupid and added strychnine into the ecstasy, when she found out she had tried to get Xavier to destroy the batches, but he would hear none of it. The money he was making had gone to his head. Then the deaths started and Jasmine had got scared and decided to go to Colby, tell him what had been going on and take whatever punishment she was due. Unfortunately he had dismissed her fear and wanted to take her straight to the FBI and there was no way she could go in without first telling him what she knew and getting his agreement that he would help her avoid jail time. She had thought he might help her get into witness security. When she saw the hurt and anger etched on his face that was when Jasmine realised that the man she cared for would never help her.

In some ways she couldn't blame him, he had been betrayed. He was a man of honour and integrity so it would never have sat well with him if he had helped anyway.

Jasmine had yearned for a normal life, preferably with Colby. A house, kids, a dog even, someone to cook for and take care of, someone who cared for her as deeply as she for them. As usual she had gone too far.

When she had seen Colby with the woman and little girl she had seen everything that she couldn't now have. She had to admit she was jealous. The woman was beautiful and the little girl clearly adored Colby. That woman had exactly what she had dreamed of her whole life, but she had thrown it all away.

Money had become more important to her than anything else. She had grown up poor and struggling, that was not a life she wanted for her own children when she had them so she had set about finding a way to make money. When she met Jason she realised that she stood a better chance of achieving her goal in the States, the pickings were much riper. He had been easy to manipulate and for a time they did very well, but then she started to realise that it wasn't all about money, she wanted her children to grow up honest so she left Jason.

She couldn't believe her luck when she met Colby, he was a good man and would make a good Dad and role model for children, just not hers. It saddened her to realise what she had thrown away.

Looking out the window she noticed that the rain had stopped and Xavier, with his men, had formed a circle around Colby's inert form. She feared for his life, but she also feared for her own. She had to now ask herself what meant more to her, Colby's life or her own.

She watched as Xavier once again bought Colby back into the land of the conscious and this time got right in the agent's face, grabbing him by his shirt to pull him into a sitting position. If she knew anything about Colby it was that he would take what he knew to the grave with him. She needed to decide what side of the fence she was on and stick with it. Watching Xavier haul Colby to his feet to stand face to face with him and then toss him down on the ground like a rag doll, she made her decision.

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Colby was cold and wet, what the hell was going on? He opened his eyes to a grey sky over head and found himself being pulled into a sitting position by his shirt causing pain to scream down his back. That couldn't be good.

"What do the police know about my operation." Snarled Xavier.

"Everything." Colby spoke through the wall of pain.

"Somehow I doubt that Agent Granger, otherwise you wouldn't be here with me, I'd be in prison."

"The arrest warrant is in the works."

"Again, doubtful, I have contacts inside the justice system, I'd know if a warrant had been issued."

"Well since you have all the answers you don't need me so I can be on my way."

Xavier started to lose his temper, he had never had someone behave so calmly when they're life was in danger, using both hands on Colby's shirt he pulled him to his feet so that he was looking straight into his eyes.

As Colby was hauled up the pain in his body became almost overwhelming, his whole body was screaming out in agony, he gritted his teeth determined not to give his tormentor the satisfaction of reacting. If Liz were here she'd probably comment on his stubborn streak again, but it had served him well in the past.

"You are full of shit, Agent Granger. I am going to enjoy getting rid of you. Jasmine is too distracted with you around, I want her focus to be on me, you have to go." With that he threw Colby back onto the ground.

This time the pain was too much and the blackness took him once more, at least the agent couldn't feel any pain whilst unconscious.

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Don and Gary's teams were working flat out reviewing every bit of footage they

could get their hands on.

David had located an SUV that was caught on a camera leaving the area where the original car had been dumped but even with Amita's picture software they were having a job confirming if the driver of the SUV was Heller.

"Hang on." Said David. "What about getting a picture from a reflective surface?"

"We can do that, but what surface, where?" Asked a frustrated tech. He realised the seriousness of the situation, he had got to know Colby well and wanted to help, but having all these agents breathing down his neck was beginning to annoy him.

"Roll the tape back again." Said Amita. "David might be on to something."

The tech did as he was told and then played it again.

"There, look. He is pulled up next to that other car, is that a reflection in the window?" Asked Amita.

The tech looked closer. "You know I think it might be." He quickly isolated that area, carried out some enhancement of the picture then ran it through Amita's software. "Got it, that's definitely him."

"Now all we need to do is track it on the other cameras."

"Yeah if only it was as easy as that. We can't see a registration plate so we're going to have to take the tapes from the cameras down the street one at a time and look for the right SUV. Not to mention when it comes to junctions if we don't know which way they've turned we'll have to search through the next camera in every direction. It's gonna take a while so you may want to put some coffee on." The tech said.

"Charlie may be able to help, he can use traffic flow to assign probabilities to each route that they may take, based on amount of traffic and escape routes. We have to assume that this Xavier is going to want to get out of the city quickly."

"That sounds like it could help, can you ask Charlie to do that?"

"Yeah, sure." Amita replied and hurried out of the room.

Charlie listened intently as Amita explained what they needed. "Yes, I can do that, it's straight forward enough." He pulled his laptop in front of him and started pulling up various systems and typing furiously.

Don watched, amazed and grateful once again for his brother's single mindedness. It didn't matter what the situation he was always willing to try to help. He had no idea how happy his brother was to have him on this one right now. Colby was family and was missing yet again. This was all too familiar and Don hoped that it had a happy ending, preferably with Colby walking away relatively unharmed and Xavier in cuffs. He cringed at this last thought, he knew it was unlikely Colby hadn't received further injuries from his argument with the car. Don's shrink would be impressed that he was thinking along the lines of putting Xavier in cuffs as opposed to putting him in a box in the ground for a permanent vacation from life. In the past his methods had been less than by the book, he had no doubt he would do whatever it took to get Colby back alive, but he hoped for a positive outcome that didn't involve him having to fire his weapon and take someone else's life.

"Got it. These are the optimal routes for Heller's escape out of the city limits." He handed the information to Amita who hurried back to the AV lab with it, she knew time was of the essence and the sooner the tech could narrow down which footage to search the quicker they would find Colby.

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Jasmine got out of the SUV, having made the decision about what she should do, now she needed to find a way to do it. Looking around she discovered this was going to be no easy task.

Xavier had seen her get out of the vehicle and he beckoned her over to him. "Time to get rid of this thorn in our relationship once and for all."

"If you love me you'll leave him here for the FBI to find and we'll go now." Urged Jasmine.

"I do love you, which is why I am going to make him," he pointed to Colby. "disappear permanently. Now if you protest too much I'm going to think you still have feelings for him and I'll be forced to deal with that."

"I don't have any feelings for him, I'm just a little nervous about being here so long, I've seen how this team work and they're like no other FBI unit I've come across."

"Message received, we'll dump the problem and be on our way. The FBI will be so busy trying to figure out where he is that they'll not come after us." He pulled her into what he thought was a reassuring embrace. As he did so she covertly slipped her hand into his jacket pocket and removed his cell, placing it in her own.

Xavier indicated to his men to take hold of the unconscious agent and they dragged him round the side of the warehouse to where the hole had been dug.