Gene crashed down the door with a force, exposing the dirty and gloomy house that belonged to Oliver Sarouche and his gang of skinheads. Motioning for the others to step inside, Gene began to walk in with Alex, Ray and Chris on his tail.

"Back-up officers," Gene called, "you lot stay 'ere. Make sure no-one else gets in or out and I'll call yer when yer needed."

"Guv," they mumbled, nodding as the four detectives began to walk through the house. It was eerily quiet, almost as if there was no-one there.

"Living room," Gene instructed, nodding towards the shut door. They all pulled their guns out, hearts pounding. It was quiet. Too quiet.

Pushing open the door, the other three followed Gene into the living room. It was empty. Ray and Chris prowled around the room, listening for any signs of movement as Gene quickly darted out and scanned the rest of the house. He returned, catching Alex's eye and frowning.

"You think maybe they're not 'ere, Guv?" Ray suggested.

"They're here," Gene said darkly, "I can feel it."

Alex sighed, leaning against the wall next to another door.

It was then that it happened in an instant. There was a burst of shouting and sneering as the door sprung open, nearly catching Alex as she leapt in shock. Gene, Ray and Chris turned round at light speed, guns out and ready to shoot. But something stopped them.

Gordon, Stone, Jaspers and Turner were all pointing their guns at the three male CID officers, and Oliver Sarouche had grabbed Alex, holding her in a vice-like grip with his left arm around her neck as his right arm held a gun to her head.

"Nobody moves!" Sarouche seethed. "Or she gets it!"

Alex whimpered in fear as her gun clattered to the floor. Gene's heart was pounding. They couldn't hurt Alex. They just couldn't. Not again.

"Let 'er go, yer bastard!" Gene fumed. "NOW!"

"Drop your weapons!" Oliver yelled. "All three of you! Drop them! Or she gets it in the neck!"

"Gene," Alex whimpered as Oliver pressed the gun firmly to her head, his grip tightening as he pushed her solidly backwards into his chest.

"Guns down," Gene ordered, throwing his to the floor, "now! Ray! Chris!"

"Guv!" Chris protested. "Yer can't…you can't let them hurt her…"

"THAT'S WHY I WANT YOUR GUNS DOWN, DIPSHIT!" Gene thundered as Ray and Chris dropped their guns to the floor, panicked breaths escaping them. Gene turned his full attention back on Alex as the four thugs chuckled nastily, two standing either side and slightly in front of their leader. Oliver was the central point in this line-up; the focus. The one that was threatening Alex.

"Don't hurt her," Gene said quietly, "just don't…"

"I should've known you and your cronies would've cottoned on eventually, Hunt," Oliver spat maliciously, ignoring Alex's squeaks of fear, "you just couldn't drop it. You even had to bring her along, which I must say has made my job one hell of a lot easier. It means I don't have to come looking for her."

Oliver turned his face to look at Alex, and then softly kissed her cheek in a slow, torturous manner. "Do I, sweetie? You're right here, aren't you baby?"

"What do you mean?" Gene growled, repulsed by Oliver's behaviour towards Alex as he saw her visibly shudder. "What do you want with her? Leave her alone!"

Oliver smirked, his handsome face transforming into one of hate and anger. "Turner, Stone! Go and get rid of those back-up officers outside. Tell them if they don't leave, all four of their precious detectives will be dead within the next minute."

"Will do," Turner sniggered cruelly, sauntering out with Stone as Gordon and Jaspers laughed nastily, their guns still pointed at Gene, Chris and Ray.

"Oliver," Alex swallowed, finding her voice at last, "Oliver, please…let me go. We can talk about this…"

"Oh shut your gob, you two-timing bitch," Oliver spat at her, causing Gene to take an involuntary, protective step forward that was dragged back by Ray, "did I say you could speak, whore? Did I? DID I?"

Alex whimpered as he roared in her ear.

"YOU'RE ALL THE SAME!" Oliver boomed. "Women! You're all whores!"

"What happened, Oliver?" Alex whispered, her neck bruising from the force of Oliver's arm. "What happened to make you want to kill all those women?"

"Shut it, slag," Oliver rumbled, trailing the gun down Alex's body, "before you make me do something I really don't want to do…not in front of your friends…in front of him…"

Gene's blood boiled as Oliver traced the gun over Alex's breasts, his tongue darting out and licking her neck, causing the bile to rise in her throat.

"We'll all have a go, won't we lads?" Oliver sneered as Gordon and Jaspers jeered appreciatively. Gene had had enough. As Stone and Turner came back in the room, nodding in satisfaction at Oliver, Gene knew he had to keep them talking. It was the only way to stop them hurting Alex.

"Make yer feel big, does it?" Gene growled. "Assaulting women like this for no reason? Make yer feel like men?"

Gene could tell in Oliver's eyes that he had hit a nerve. Oliver's lips clenched together in fury as his eyes became on fire.

"No reason?" Oliver seethed. "I had reasons, Hunt! I had reasons to do what I did! Those women deserved it! Those cheats asked for it!"

"You so pathetic that you can't keep women or something?" Gene continued, anger flaring in his body as Ray and Chris stared in awe. "So, like your scumbag mates 'ere, you resort to using the rohypnol drug. You drug the women before you rape and kill 'em!"

"They deserve it," Oliver insisted, the gun back pressed against Alex's head as her breathing became erratic and panicked, "they're all cheating whores! Even her! This tart right here, your precious little Alex. This slag was opening her legs for you when she was meant to be with me!"

"She was not!" Gene yelled back. "Don't talk about her that way! What the fuck is your problem? Let her go! She dumped you, boo-hoo, move on yer sad twat!"

"Shut your gob, pig!" Gordon boomed, advancing on Gene with his gun.

"OI!" Oliver cut in, startling Alex. "You move when I say, got it? Get outside, keep a look out! Jaspers, go with him! Stone and Turner, keep your guns on these pricks. Make sure they don't try anything. Not that they would, with their precious whore being held at gunpoint!"

"Alex isn't a whore," Gene growled as Gordon and Jaspers walked out.

"She is!" Oliver sneered. "She's just like the others!"

"What others?" Ray piped up. "What happened, Sarouche? Why were these women you murdered such whores? What did they do?"

Alex stared at him, thanking him through her eyes. They had to keep Oliver talking. They had to get him to talk to discover what this was about and find his weakness if they wanted any hope of getting out of here unharmed.

Oliver's lip trembled as he kept Alex close to him. Gene, Ray and Chris were frozen to the spot with Stone and Turner's guns on them. Stone and Turner themselves turned to Oliver, waiting to see what he would do.

"Whores," Oliver spat, "the lot of them. It was her fault. All her fault."

"Whose fault?" Gene prompted him, trying to weaken the bastard.

"Hers," Oliver snarled, "Miranda Lawrence. We were engaged. We were going to be married. I loved her. I loved her. Blonde hair, long legs, funny personality…but she ruined everything."

Oliver was visibly shaking with fury now, tightening his grip uncomfortably on Alex. "She cheated on me. Whilst we were engaged. With that tosser, that twat you kept interviewing as my darling Alex told me. That Mitch Roberts."

Oliver shook his head thunderously. "I was furious. I knew one day I would have to get her back, but I started to date other girls. Girls that looked like my Miranda. Blonde. Late twenties to early thirties. Victoria Wentworth. Hayley Dickson. But they all dumped me, like Miranda, which must have meant they were cheating."

"Not necessarily –" Chris interjected before Ray elbowed him and glared at him.

"And when Gordon's girlfriend Ruth Anderson dumped him," Oliver fumed, "I knew she was a cheating whore too. That's when I knew it had to happen. These cheating, blonde bitches had followed Miranda's example. I had to do something about it."

Oliver laughed cruelly, tracing the gun over Alex's neck. She shivered and recoiled, tears prickling in her eyes as Gene watched protectively and furiously. "I got Victoria first. She often walked home alone…it was the perfect opportunity. A splash of rohypnol in her drink at the pub and by the time she was walking home, she was out of it. The rope fitted in my pocket perfectly. And the job was done. I had sex with her before I killed her. One more time, to remind her of what it was like before she dumped me."

"You raped her," Gene rumbled, disgusted.

"She got what she deserved," Oliver sneered, "and the adrenaline didn't stop there. I had noticed my colleague, Jessica Hampton, whoring herself about to blokes a lot over the last couple of weeks, but she never gave me the time of day. I knew I had to take her next. She looked so like Miranda. Blonde. Long legs. Dazzled men. She even shared the same birthday. I just knew it was right."

Alex's breathing softened. It was working. Stone and Turner had lowered their guns lazily, figuring that Gene, Chris and Ray wouldn't try anything. Oliver himself was weakening. They had to keep him talking.

"After I killed Jessica, Gordon had gotten abuse from Ruth's friends for harassing her. The little tramp was making out that my mate was in the wrong…so we agreed together. I let the lads in as they helped me get the rohypnol drugs and started to use it for their own benefit too. I took Ruth. She too looked like my Miranda. I fucked her to show that she couldn't fuck with my mates. I killed her."

Oliver laughed nastily, rubbing his face against Alex's as he kissed her lecherously once more. "And it was after that when I saw her again. Miranda. My beautiful Miranda. But when I saw her on the arm of that tosser Mitch I had to do it. She…she didn't scream as much as the others when I did it. Because she loved me! She loved me…"

Oliver was shaking violently, overwhelmed with the memory. "I thought I was done. I had killed Miranda. I had killed three other women that resembled her. I had won." Oliver paused, biting his lip nastily. "But she knew. She knew. That Ellie Parker. My blonde ex from years ago. She had seen me with Miranda and when she found out she was dead…put two and two together. And when I saw her go to your lovely police station…I knew what I had to do. Stone hated her. She was his step-sister, but meant nothing to him. I claimed vengeance for myself as Ellie too had dumped me years back. I had beaten these cheating, blonde whores. I was ready to move on."

Oliver turned back to Alex, running the gun down her stomach and trailing over the skin by her hips and dangerously close to where he shouldn't touch her.

"Then I met Alex," Oliver smirked, "gorgeous, beautiful Alex. I thought I would start afresh. A brunette, a new face…I thought you could be the one, sweetie pie. My mates…they took things too far. They didn't realise how serious I was about you. They thought you were another conquest. Another sex object. Another murder."

Oliver traced the gun back up to Alex's breasts as she whimpered in fear. "But you weren't. I liked you. I wanted you. They got jealous. They drugged you. They used drugs against me, resulting in our crash…"

Suddenly Oliver's stare became icy. Furious, livid, dangerous. "And that's when you did it. You proved what a whore you are, showing me it's not just the slutty blondes. You dumped me for him. Gene Hunt."

Gene shuffled uncomfortably as Alex's eyes begged him to save her. Chris and Ray's jaws dropped as they stared back and forth from their female DI and their Guv.

"I knew I had to bide my time with you," Oliver sneered, "you're so well protected, aren't you baby? But I couldn't get out of practise. I hunted down another whoring ex – that Hayley Dickson. I proved to myself that I was still the one in power. And now…murdering her has brought me you. My clever Alex, my gorgeous little cheating slut. You'll be my last conquest, sweetie. Seal it with a brunette bitch."

Oliver kissed her roughly. "GORDON! JASPERS! BACK IN 'ERE AND WITH ME!"

Alex gasped as she saw the two thugs re-enter the room, grinning lecherously as they slapped palms with Stone and Turner and then opened the door where the five of them originally burst through from. Inside was a bedroom. Alex screamed.

"What?" Alex panicked. "No! Please Oliver, please! I didn't dump you for Gene! I…"

"Shut up, slag!" Oliver fumed, letting her go from his grasp so he could smack her across the face. "Turner, Stone, keep those three dicks in here! Gordon, Jaspers, with me. I'm finishing what I've started!"

"ALEX!" Gene roared, diving forward only to be pushed to the ground by Ray and Chris as a gunshot burst through the air, narrowly missing them.

Oliver cackled as he began to manhandle Alex out of the room.

"GENE! GENE, PLEASE! HELP ME, GENE, PLEASE!" Alex screamed, tears streaming down her face as Oliver forced her into the bedroom, eventually resulting to hauling her over his shoulders. "NO! NO! GENE!"

"ALEX!" Gene hollered as he got up and charged, being caught and swung backwards into the wall by Stone and Turner, toppling over Ray and Chris. "ALEX!"

Gordon and Jaspers howled with laughter as they slammed the door behind them, locking it. Alex's muffled screams could be heard as Gene, Chris and Ray scrambled to their feet and made to run forwards to save her. However, they were stopped by the looming forms of Stone and Turner clicking their guns.

"I wouldn't move, pigs," Stone sneered, "not if you want to get out of here alive!"

"Bastards!" Ray seethed as Chris' heart raced. Gene clenched his fists and his heart broke into shattered pieces when he heard Alex's terrified scream for help as Oliver did what he wanted with her.

Gene couldn't take it. He ran forwards furiously, yelling for Alex.

A gunshot rang out.

Blood.

And a scream of absolute agony.