A/N Things get a little tense here. :-)
The afternoon light filtered through the sheers in the sitting room as Jamie finished the initial draft of their report on a laptop. He heard Eddie in the bedroom and the door was ajar so he quietly stepped over and peered in, watching her. She was carefully adjusting the pink rose bud in its makeshift glass; it was fully bloomed and now a shade of deep pink. She raised it up to her nose for another whiff, closing her eyes as she enjoyed the fragrance. It reminded him of how she looked when she was being kissed and made him smile. He rapped lightly on the door. "Hey Eddie, can I come in?"
"It's open." She said setting the glass back down on the nightstand.
He leaned against the door jamb, a coffee mug in one hand. "I took a stab at the report. You getting your stuff together?" He was already beginning to miss living with her, even if it was under the pretense of the UC.
She folded a top and set it down in to a tote bag. "Yeah, if we get this thing wrapped up we might be out of here by tonight so I thought I should get my bags squared away."
"Including the rose?"
She looked at him and smiled self consciously. "Maybe. Are you making fun of me, Reagan?"
"Who? Me? When?"
She eyed him playfully. "I know it's silly. I just haven't had fresh flowers or roses in a long time." She sighed. "It wasn't something Biff ever did."
He promised himself if he ever met the man he'd re-arrange his teeth with his fist. "I never said it was silly."
"Whatever. Besides, it's still going strong. Roses are like that you know—beautiful and tenacious."
"Sounds just like somebody I know." His eyes locked with hers and his voice was tender and sincere.
"I wish," she huffed out a laugh. "But I thought I could take it home and set it on my vanity." Her smile returned as she tucked a pair of shoes in to the bag. "What did you think of Eric's final session this morning?" she looked over at him from under her eyelashes.
"Tantric sex and the female sex drive? Oh, yeah, every guy wants to sit through four hours of that especially after last night." His tone was light and facetious.
"Hey, I'm not the one who had the big reveal that you're now my boss."
He took a sip of coffee. "I haven't event taken the job yet. You are not working for me."
Eddie rolled her eyes as she zipped up the bag and stepped over to him, a hand perched on her hip. "Then again, it might be interesting to sneak around with the boss." Her voice was playfully suggestive as she reached out for the coffee cup from his hand and took a sip. "Think of all the cool places for a secret tryst." She leaned in closer to him, handing the mug back. "Renzulli's desk…"
He chuckled. "That office has windows and I don't think I could work on the desk again."
"The back seat of the squad car..." She whispered. Looking in to his eyes she could see that he was actually considering it. She laughed and walked around him to collect her purse, tucking her service weapon in to it, her voice returning to the business at hand "Ok, Jamie, I'm ready to head up to Eric's room. Are we good?"
He felt nervous about the strategy. He didn't like the idea of Eddie meeting Green in his hotel room because it was isolated, but he went along to get along. It was her call on this one. "You sure you don't want to wear a wire?"
"For the umpteenth time, no, I'm too worried that if he makes me, and he's really up to something, it will do more harm than good. As long as I'm under cover it gives me an out."
"So does being a cop." He pointed out. "But you've got a recording device, right?"
"Yeah, right here." She patted her handbag and gave him a wry smile. "My UC, my rules."
He agreed with a nod and restrained sigh. "Alright, I'll wait here and I'll send you a text in one hour. But if I don't get a reply within three seconds I'm coming to break the door down. Understood?"
"Yeah, I got it. Don't worry." She headed for the door and was gone.
Jamie stood by the door and listed to the sound of her feet as she walked to the elevator. He looked at his watch. They were due to check in with Danny and Baez by four o'clock—one hour away—so he settled in and decided he would pack his belongings and wait. As he walked over to where his bag sat on a luggage stand, something caught his attention out of his right eye. He stopped and looked back in to her bedroom. The glass on the nightstand was empty.
The rose was gone.
~~00~~00~~
Eddie stepped off the elevator and on to the eleventh floor and walked to Eric's room. She knocked softly and waited. When there was no answer she knocked again. "Eric? Hey, it's me, Eddie." The door opened slowly and revealed the room was dark with the drapes pulled. She squinted trying to see. "Eric?" She asked as she stepped inside, one hand on her purse.
Within in an instant the door slammed behind her and she felt the cold tip of a muzzle pressed against her temple. Eddie froze as fear shot through her. Whoever it was stood slightly behind her. "Please don't hurt me," she pleaded as her voice quivered. "Eric? Is it you? Come on, don't do this! We're friends! I'll give you whatever you want. Is it money? Here," she held her purse out, "Take my wallet. Jamie and I can get you whatever you want. I promise." She stood and began to feel herself tremble. "Please…"
A dark male voice whispered against her ear. "We're going to get a lot more personal than that, Mrs. Reardon, so you better get used to pleading."
~~00~~00~~
Down the street, Danny walked up to the mock Conelectric van they were using as a command post for the operation. He climbed the stairs and walked in, handing Maria one of the two coffees he was carrying. "Anything yet?"
"No, they're not supposed to call until four."
"I don't like it. When was her meeting with Green?"
Maria looked at her watch. "It started at three."
Danny let out a breath. "Well, we haven't heard from Jamie so at this point it must be going to plan." But his gut told him otherwise.
~~00~~00~~
Jamie paced the room glancing down at his phone. It had been forty five minutes since Eddie went up to Green's room. He was supposed to send her a text at four, but he felt uneasy and worried about a setup, especially since she wasn't wired. He decided fifteen minutes wasn't going to make a difference so his fingers tapped out a message against the screen of his device. He pressed 'send' and waited.
Seconds passed but there was no reply. He decided to send the message again, just in case the first one didn't go through. He waited….but, again, she never replied. He knew he should wait but his blood was running cold and his instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong. "Screw it," he muttered to himself as he reached in to his bag. He pulled out the Glock and slid the magazine out to double check the rounds, slamming it back in with the palm of his hand and a loud click. He reached around behind himself and secured the gun in his jeans, hidden underneath his sport coat. He found his shield and placed it in his coat pocket and headed for the door.
~~00~~00~~
Eddie lay sprawled out, her hands hand cuffed above her head and her feet tied at the ankle. Silver electrical tape had been wrapped around her head, covering her mouth. She squirmed but was unable to move. She struggled to see what he was doing, but could only see shadows and hear noises. Suddenly the dark figure leaned over her and she could make out what was in his hand. A syringe.
He leaned over her face, speaking just above her mouth, his lips nearly touching her skin, only separated by the tape. "Don't worry. You'll only feel a prick."
She tried to move but the restraints were too tight and she felt the needle slide deep in to her arm. Her back arched in pain and tears welled in her eyes.
"Don't fight it," he murmured against her cheek. "You're worth a lot of money now. Men that I know who have paid for blond hair and a body like yours are willing to pay a king's ransom." His other hand traced the muzzle of the gun from her shoulder down over her chest, touching her breast, and down over her abdomen. "Jamie's a lucky man. But he'll get over it. They always do with the right incentives."
Eddie began to feel the effects of the drug. A fog began to cloud her head and she felt drowsy, her eyelids drooping and slipping closed. She couldn't focus and could tell her motor functions were impacted.
"That's it," he whispered. "Get used to it. You'll beg for it once you get to where you're going."
She felt the tip of the gun on her thigh, sliding between her legs. She tried to shake her head, to scream, anything, but it was pointless. She was paralyzed by the drug and fear. As her consciousness faded she felt sick and sleepy and then everything went black except the sound of his voice.
"Show time."
~~00~~00~~
Jamie stepped off the elevator on the eleventh floor and walked quickly to Eric's room. He knocked urgently, his fear overriding his judgment. He was on the verge of blowing their cover but he didn't care. He used a fist to pound on the door and officially ended the UC. "Eric Green, open up! This is the police!" The door remained shut but he thought he detected a sound. He leaned his head against the door and pressed his ear to it. And there it was—a muffled groan.
Jamie reached back and pulled out the Glock. He aimed it at the door lock and fired once, twice and then a third time. Chunks of wood, metal and plastic blasted out from the door jamb like shrapnel. He raised a foot and kicked it in, and the door burst open in to the room.
Positioning the gun in front of him, he stepped inside. "Police!" He called out frantically. It was dark and he couldn't make anything out with the drapes closed and the lights out. "Eddie?" he called her name as he cautiously stepped further inside. He hated hotel room raids because a perp could be anywhere and he could hear his own breathing. He reached for the wall light switch but nothing happened.
And that's when he noticed it. In the bedroom, on the floor, leg's tied at the ankle on the other side of the bed. "Eddie?" His voice was softer but shaking as his heart pounded in his chest.
He stepped around the foot of the bed, where he found Eric Green, bound and gagged. "Eric…" Jamie gasped as he bent down and struggled to remove the ties. "It's ok, I'm a cop. What the hell is going on?!"
Eric twisted and turned as Jamie freed him from the plastic zip ties. "Oh my God, it's Roger!" He was trying to catch his breath, stricken with fear with a deep wound bleeding on his forehead. "He's gone insane or something!"
"What do you mean? Where's Eddie? Where is she!"
"Before Eddie got here, Roger knocked me out and tied me up and when I came to he said he was waiting for her."
Panic gripped every cell in Jamie's body. "What did Roger say? Where'd they go?"
"I don't know! I don't know!" Eric scrambled to his knees and reached for a lamp on the nightstand, Jamie still aiming the gun on him. The lamp turned on and filled the room with light. "I don't know what's happening! I swear to God!" His trembling hands went up in the air.
Think, think, think….Jamie's head raced to try and think where Roger would take her. He pulled out his phone and punched his brother's number. "Danny it's me! It's not Green! It's his business partner, Roger!"
Danny's voice was reassuring but concerned. "What do you mean?"
"I found Eric tied up in his room and he said his partner was here, waiting, and took Eddie! But he doesn't know where!"
"Ok, don't panic. He'd have to subdue her somehow to get her out of the hotel. Think…you've been there three days so you know the hotel. Where would you go to sneak someone out?"
Jamie's mind worked at frantic pace…think, think, think. "It would have to be somewhere quiet with easy access to an exit where he could get her out without anyone noticing it."
"He'd have to get her out in something like a car. The parking garage! Go now and we're on our way!"
Jamie headed for the door, yelling to Eric as he left. "Call 911!"