His cell phone ringing seemed louder than usual as Chris grabbed for it, automatically registering the time as five a.m. "Larabee," he answered with a bit of growl in his voice. Slightly hung-over and leery of early morning calls, Chris wasn't thrilled with getting the call and even more upset with the news the caller gave. "Damn!" he cursed, not even trying to be quiet and hurling one of his boots across the room, narrowly missing Vin, who was pulling on jeans and dragging a shirt as he stood in the doorway.

Vin did not react with a wise-crack as he recognized the seriousness of Chris' expression. "Cowboy?" he questioned.

"Get dressed and get the others!" Chris ordered, grabbing his jeans, shirt, socks and dressing as quickly as possible.

Vin tossed the boot Chris had thrown to Chris and left without a word. Vin pounded up the stairs while simultaneously putting on his shirt, socks and boots.

Nathan was already up and dressing; Josiah nodded to Vin and went to fetch Ezra as Vin searched for Buck.

In less than a minute, Vin and Chris met at the bottom of the stairs. "Buck come back?"

Chris frowned at him. "He's not here?"

"No."

"Hell!" Chris cursed again, storming outside to check his Ram.

"Vin, catch!" Josiah called as pants, shirts, shoes and socks rained down the stairs as Josiah carried Ezra over his shoulder, answering the question in Vin's eyes. "Easier this way."

Vin grunted, passing on the clothes to Nathan, and following Chris outside.

Chris opened the door of his Ram and found Buck sprawled on the front seat, snoring. Chris shook him, "Buck!"

Buck snorted, but didn't rouse until Chris and Vin were both shaking him.

"What?" Buck's eyes were still unfocused.

"Get in the Explorer, we have to get going!" Chris and Vin had to practically drag Buck to Nathan's car. Buck's coat fell out of the Ram and a paper dropped out of the pocket; Vin snatched the coat and the paper.

Josiah was in the back with the still sleeping Ezra and Chris and Buck slid in the middle seat while Nathan drove with Vin beside him in the passenger seat; each man tense with anticipation of bad news

"Travis called," Chris supplied. "Two of his men are hurt and JD is missing."

Vin growled and Josiah and Nathan were shocked.

Buck only seemed to respond to one piece of information. "JD's missing? He's missing? How could this happen, Chris! I knew they couldn't protect him! They kept us away and now he's missing?" The anger in Buck's voice increased with each statement.

All efforts to calm Buck were in vain; and in truth, every one of the others were angry and shocked as well. They lapsed into grim silence except for the half-asleep Ezra's protest of mismatched garments he was given.

The drive to Travis' mansion seemed to take forever, each man antsy to get to working on the case.

"Did your men say anything?" Chris demanded when they arrived, cutting Orin's apologies short.

Buck glowered at Travis.

Travis looked over at Buck then back at Chris. "Temple isn't conscious yet. Peters . . . Peters only said one word before he passed out: Buck."

"Me?" Buck was surprised. "He said my name?"

"Excuse me, Sir," a policeman motioned to Travis and he said, "I'll be back, Chris," giving a worried backward glance at Buck as he left.

Buck grabbed Chris's shirt. "Where do we start, Chris? Where is JD? Where could they have taken him?"

Josiah pulled Buck away gently. "Buck, I know you're upset . . ."

"Upset? Josiah, upset? The kid was snatched again! Again! From right under Travis' nose, how the hell did that happen? Travis couldn't protect him, I knew he couldn't protect him!"

The despair on Buck's face was matched by the despair on the faces of the other agents as they searched for clues and found nothing pertinent.

"Travis has a security system," Ezra mused, now fully awake and dismayed to find JD missing again. "And it doesn't seem to have been breached."

"Inside job?" Vin queried, jamming each of his hands in his jeans as he often did when thinking. As he pulled his right hand out to slap at a fly, a piece of paper fluttered to the ground. "What? Oh, Buck, this fell out of your jacket earlier. Some kind of address."

"What? This isn't mine." Buck protested.

Ezra said impatiently, "We don't have time for your paramour's address or your little black book, Mr. Wilmington."

Buck was staring at an address in bewilderment. "This fell out of my shirt, Vin?"

Chris and Vin exchanged worried glances. "Where were you earlier, Buck?"

Buck rubbed his head. "I went . . . JD . . . needed to see JD . . ."

Both feeling bad vibes, Chris and Vin grabbed Buck and hurried to the car. "Ezra, stay here with Josiah . . . Nate?"

Nathan caught the meaningful glance Chris gave Buck and followed the men to the car. "I'll drive, Chris. Where to?"

"Corner of 13th and Mockingbird."

Nathan frowned, not recognizing the location but as they grew closer, Vin paled.

"Shit! That building has been deserted for the past couple of years . . . but before that . . ." and Vin was out of the car and running, while Nathan screeched to a stop and Chris and Buck followed hurriedly after Vin. Vin had busted through the door, revealing an eerie spotlight shining in the middle of the room.

As if in slow motion, Chris noticed incongruously, the dim lighting, two baskets of white flowers on the side of a coffin. And in the coffin . . .

Buck's screams shattered the silence as he ran, fell to his knees, screaming over and over. "JD! No! JD!"

And it seemed the hearts of four men stopped beating.

TBC