Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Here's the next chapter. Thanks again for the reviews guys! Now here's the chapter where Derek beats the shit out of one of Penelope's abductors :) I'm realizing as I write this that Derek is taking on Liam Neeson from 'Taken' qualities.
"Jesus Christ!" Melvin shouted as he fell back inside his house. "What the hell is wrong with you, dude?" He tried to sit up but Derek put his foot on his chest and pushed him back down. Melvin tried to push his foot off his sternum, but he was so intoxicated it was fairly useless.
Derek gritted his teeth and glared viciously at Melvin. "You hired a man to find me and taunt me about Penelope," he said in a dangerous voice. "Where did you get the information about her? Who gave it to you? Or are you in on it?" He pushed his toe harder on the man's chest and glared at his scared face that was white with fear. "Speak you son of a bitch!" A ticking began in his jaw and he roared, "Tell me what you know!"
"Can I maybe get up first?" Melvin asked putting his hands up in surrender.
Grabbing him by his shirt collar, Derek pulled him up and slammed him into a wall. "You'd better say something good, or I'll be forced to shoot your foot the way I shot your little employee's."
Melvin's eyes widened and he gulped. He knew Derek was dead serious about his threat. "O-okay," he stuttered. "I was hired to help move your girl from Harold's apartment. I drugged her to keep her out until they got her to the final location. I shot her up with enough drugs to make sure she was so weak and unconscious they could easily control her. I swear to God that was all I did."
Derek removed his gun from its holster and put it to Melvin's temple. "You'd best think about swearing to me because it may be the only thing that saves your life," he hissed.
"You're nuts!" Melvin said in fright. "You crazy bastard –"
"I'm the crazy bastard?" Derek hollered. "You kidnapped an innocent woman simply for a madman's revenge against me. He was after me! Me! Not Penelope!"
"I'm just a middleman," Melvin argued. "I do jobs to pay the bills."
"You do jobs to get money to fuel your drug and alcohol needs," Derek growled. "My job is to hunt down psychopaths like you. I can have you thrown in jail and make sure you stay there for a very, very long time. So I suggest you cooperate with me and tell me where they took Penelope."
Melvin tried to throw up his hands in exasperation. "I don't know where she is! I just drugged her and took orders to have someone keep track of you and piss you off. I don't know a damn thing about anything."
As Derek studied his face, he realized that Melvin didn't know anything about Penelope's whereabouts. He was just a druggie who had helped Harold. Letting out a deep breath, he pushed the gun more into Melvin's temple and watched as he closed his eyes and trembled. "If I find out you're lying, you're going to wish you had never been born." Pulling him to a chair, he pulled his handcuffs from their clip on his belt and slipped it on Melivn's wrist; he then attached the other one to the chair. Putting his gun back in its place, he growled, "Tell me where to find Harold."
Melvin let out a yelp as Derek grabbed his head and yanked it forward. "Okay, I don't have a fucking clue where to find him, but I did meet up with them at the docks by the Potomac. They'd shoved her in a van and took her there. That's where I saw them last."
Pushing his chest roughly, Derek glared and said, "The cops will be here soon. Enjoy prison."
Ignoring his protests, he took the perp's phone because he knew the team would be monitoring his cell's activity. Dialing 911, he said as soon as the operator answered he said, "I have the location of Drake Melvin."
XXXXX
As Derek pulled into the private docks at eleven pm and got out, he listened to whatever sounds he could pick up. It was silent expect for the sound of the gentle rippling of the river. He pulled his gun out and moved stealthily through the buildings of boating equipment. He had no idea where he was supposed to start looking, so he would go systematically, building by building. The team was nowhere on his trail; he was somewhat sure of that. Unless they'd gotten a hold of Seth and in turn, Melvin.
If so, he'd have to hurry through his search.
Moving through the buildings, he discovered a trail of dried blood on the ground and he raised his gun and ran to follow it. The trail ended at two bodies that looked like they'd crawled a ways after being shot. They must have been dead since Penelope's abduction, judging by their skin coloring and the smell. Derek covered his face and went to the bodies, kneeling down to look at them more closely. He saw a phone poking out one of their pockets and he snatched it up greedily.
It had half battery life left.
Letting out a form of a relieved sigh, he hurried back to his car to find a safe place to go through the phone before his team found their way to the docks.
XXXXX
"Smile for the camera, darling!" Harold said brightly, holding up his phone to take pictures of her tied to her chair again.
"Fuck you," she spat weakly. Talking and breathing had become painful and her voice came out as a wheeze most of the time.
"You know?" he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "My boys have told me you're talking in your delirious state and that you've been saying 'Derek'…" he laughed. "It's pathetic, really."
"What's pathetic is your insistence on beating me without giving me an opportunity to fight back," she hissed. "Are you really that scared that I might struggle so much you can't beat me the way you want to?"
Her comment earned her a slap to the face. "How about a video?" he growled, bringing his phone up again and pressing the record button. Over his shoulder, he called, "Untie her." The man came over and untied her. Her wrists were sore and red. He grabbed her by the chin and kissed her crudely and she tried exerting all her strength to driving her fist into his abdomen. At least she could make him groan in pain. The worst part was it took the remainder of her strength from her.
"Hit her," Harold said cruelly.
"With pleasure," he snapped, clutching his gut in pain. He landed a smack to her face and she fell from her chair to the ground. "That feel good, bitch?" he hissed. "Feel that? It's the feeling of you losing everything. Mainly your life. Feel it draining from your body?"
She looked up at him and then spit at his feet. "Then what are you waiting for, you asshole?" she growled angrily. "An invitation? Are you too cowardly to kill me now?"
As he raised his foot to deliver a crushing blow to her abdomen, Harold halted him. "We're not done with her yet," he reminded him. "She needs to be alive when Agent Morgan gets here. If she's dead, sure he'll be devastated, but not as devastated if she dies right in front of him and he was powerless to stop us." Penelope began to laugh and the two men looked at her harshly. "What the hell are you laughing at you stupid bitch?" Harold snarled.
She shook her head. "He'll kill you," she murmured. "You're right; I won't live after this. But you won't kill Derek. He'll get you. And then you'll wish you'd never been born."
"We'll just see about that," Harold rumbled.
XXXXX
After Drake Melvin had been taken into custody, the team had gone to the docks where he'd directed them and looked around. Derek had most likely been there as Melvin had told him where to go, but there was no proof.
"Shit," Rossi said under his breath as he stumbled upon the two bodies. "Hotch!" he called. "We've got bodies." Looking more closely at them, he breathed out a sigh of relief. Derek couldn't have killed these men; they'd been dead for several days by the looks of it. Hotch arrived and looked at both bodies.
"Get CSI over here," he said, kneeling down to get a closer look at the bodies. "They look like they were just expendables," he added. He looked at the pockets of their jackets and cursed. If they'd had phones, Derek took them. When the forensics made it to the bodies, Hotch moved back to consult with the rest of the team.
"Anything over there?" Prentiss asked.
Rossi shook his head. "Nothing," he said tiredly. "He took the phones that the two of them probably had. We need to try Melvin again. Get his phone records. I want to see every call he's made since Harold appeared in Garcia's life."
Hotch nodded in agreement. "If we don't get anything from those, we're going to be stuck unless Derek finds someone else and leaves them for us to bring in."