I do not own Hawaii Five-0 or any characters. No copyright infringement intended.

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Chapter 4

Drenched purposefully by a large bucket of ice-cold water, Danny woke sputtering and he instantly began to shiver in what seemed to be a dank shed or small garage. He coughed and spat out blood tainted water while more dripped down his chest and shirt to soak his pants only to then puddle beneath him on the floor.

Shocked back into consciousness, he had technically rejoined the world but his mind remained murky and sluggish.

"Whu ..?" He coughed and then winced as pain shot through his head. His wooziness was odd and leaving him feeling disjointed for a vague awareness that he might have been drugged. But every panted breath seemed to shatter his sore left side and he groaned as more bruised parts of his body abruptly awakened.

Furiously blinking his eyes did little to clear the fog in his head or the haze across his vision. No, he'd absolutely been drugged at some point. Now night-time, he shivered once more as he tried to understand what was happening. He seemed to be sitting in a chair in the middle of small room with a hard-packed dirt floor. One dim, bare light bulb hung directly over his head from the dilapidated ceiling. The bulb was swinging back and forth in a cold nighttime breeze which only added to the shadowy distortions.

"What .. what's going on?" Freezing cold and in pain, Danny stared in confusion at the two men who were standing in the small doorway. With the dark moving shadows, their faces were difficult to see but one had obviously doused him with the water based on the metal bucket he still held in his hands. It took Danny just a few seconds longer to remember the attack and then Mike.

Ill temper replaced confusion as Danny's teeth chattered uncontrollably and he struggled briefly to test the much too tight bindings. But besides feeling weak, he was firmly fixed to a strong chair. He couldn't hide his painful groan as he tried to look around the small room which was obviously used for storage based on the old tools and hodge-podge of junk. His slightest movements were sending sparks of pain shooting through his head and he was soon sagging wearily in the chair with only the bonds holding him up.

"Nice digs." The silence was deafening and Danny closed his eyes to take in a careful lungful of air before breaking it with the sarcastic remark. He sniffed the stale air that carried a moldy scent and nodded with a false appreciation. His tone quite clearly indicated though that his two captors were the reason for the stench and their faces darkened in a mutual anger.

"Yup. Very, very nice."

Peering up, he could just see the bruises on one man's face and he huffed out a somewhat pleased sound. His eyes fell to the tight fingers the man held around a long rakish slice on his arm and Danny knowingly quirked his lips to a sardonic grin. "Slip somewhere?"

The one holding the bucket slapped his hand hard against his colleague's chest to prevent the furious response much to Danny's continued pleasure. The reaction also clearly indicated who out-ranked the other between them.

Studiously ignoring the man intentionally increased the growing rivalry and Danny cocked his head teasingly at the one calling the shots. "So?"

"Good evening, officer. Sleep well?" He taunted Danny in return before tossing the metal bucket to the side. It hit the wall with a loud tinny clang before rolling away into the darkness.

"Actually. No." Swallowing hard, he had to mutter around a swollen lip, sore chin and chattering teeth. The drugs had also left his throat dry and Danny grimaced when as a cough rattled his head. "So. Tell me. What can … I do .. for you?'

"Ah, so polite. But it's not for us. At least, not directly." The chuckle was ominously dark as a gun silently appeared in his line of sight. They worked for a sickly brilliant man and his plan was diabolically smart as they toyed first with the Detective and then the child. Between the two and their relations, they would eventually get what they wanted.

"Our esteemed boss, Mr. Curtis, would like payback and a little something that was stolen from him. We're here to oblige his request. I suggest you tell us where the key is as soon as you can bring it upon yourself to remember." It was time for the bruised man to bounce on his toes in anticipation and he smiled eagerly from Danny back to the barrel of the gun.

Danny scowled as he wracked his aching brain to place the vaguely familiar name. "Curtis? Who ...? What key?"

There was an aggravated sigh and a shuffling of clothing with a dull flash of metal. The click was fast but the shocking harsh snap of the gun firing in the small room made Danny gasp first. It was wholly unexpected. On the heels of the sound, he felt as if he'd been punched as his body rocked briefly of its own accord in the sturdy chair. The pain was much too slow to kick in but when it did, he slumped over wheezing for that new startling excuse. Without warning or pretense, he'd been methodically shot.

"What? What are you doing .. what do you want!" Scrabbling against the arms of the chair, his fingers nearly embedded themselves in the wood. Stunned by the sudden attack, he couldn't believe what had just occurred as blood oozed out from the deep wound in his left side. It wasn't immediately life threatening, but Danny momentarily lost his ability to think or even breathe as the new pain flooded his system.

"A key. A small silver key as if for a lock-box." Rolling his eyes at having to repeat himself, the man sighed as if exasperated. His next words were a slow drawl as he leaned forward with his hands on both knees and addressed Danny as if he were a child.

"And if you must know, I'm making a statement and providing you with motivation." He paused and waited to watch Danny gag through the rising tide of pain. He waited impatiently until Danny slowly looked up again to meet his cold eyes.

"You need to think hard now. The key! Think on it, Detective. I suggest you think on it because of what will happen if you conveniently decide that you can't remember." The man chuckled again menacingly and Danny's eyes almost adopted a real shade of fear as the next words were offered.

"Think on it or besides you, one of these little girls will pay the price." He grinned as he opened the door wider and held his finger up as if listening. Then Danny heard it faintly on the breeze. There was a child crying …no, truly almost screaming off in the distance.

"Ah, there she is now. At least one of them."

The bruised man had relaxed during the verbal altercation. He was suddenly happy and lighter on his feet. What he added to the conversation almost made Danny's heart stop; in fact, he was sure that he'd forgotten how to breathe when he heard the final word. "But it begs the question, doesn't it? Which one?"

The threat was left dangling on the cold breeze and Danny's stomach clenched in fear. Which one? He looked from one face to the other and couldn't read their expressions. It left him needing to ask and admit his uncertainty which he did between stammered words as so many terrifying thoughts raced through his head.

"Which one? What .. what does that mean? You kidnapped the girls? Why would you do that?" Emotionally charged, Danny's face was devastated as a series of bright lights unexpectedly lit the small space and he winced away as he was blinded by the flash of the camera.

"Photos for your partner. So he knows we aren't playing any games this time." Part of Curtis's game included keeping the detective in the dark about the girls and if they'd taken one .. or both. Their instructions were specific for Kasey Pearce; though, if Grace Williams had been easily accessible, they would have taken her too. As it was, she was no where in sight and only divine providence had kept her safe that afternoon.

The two men shared their own satisfied look as Danny's sudden reaction proved their skirmish an initial win. If he knew, he would talk for fear of the children's well-being. They would have even more intelligence in their arsenal as demands were made back to Five-0 and the FBI. And if he truly didn't know, the detective was indeed expendable at the end of the day.

"It means just that." The bruised man goaded once more with a very sly smile. Still fingering the cut on his arm, he watched as the detective began to worry the ties wrapped around his wrists. "Which one? Can you guess?"

Hardly listening, Danny was struggling in vain against the sturdy chair while the soft cries echoed on the breeze. It rocked in place but firmly remained whole to keep him seated and trapped. "They're just little girls! Who are you people? What the hell do you want!"

Stepping forward, the man whom Danny had managed to punch at the Ramirez's house, nonchalantly reached up to turn the light off. His promise was almost solemn as he plunged the room into darkness. "For the record, we'll see who slips the next time."

Danny's eyes were slow to adjust to the darkness from the imprint of the flashes from the camera. Breathing noisily in through his nose, Danny's head dropped forward on his chest when the door slammed and the lock sounded home on the outside of his man-made dungeon. He didn't care about anything at that point except for the faintly whispering sobs. "Who is that? Who do you have in there .. and why?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, Detective? Maybe it's little Kasey Pearce or maybe your own little Grace. Or hell, we might have both kids right now locked up in that house. But does it really matter?" The ugly laugh was not exactly the last he heard as Danny was left to himself. Their presence lingered on the outside before another low promise was offered.

"I wouldn't worry too much; Mr. Curtis will fill you in .. soon. Very soon."

Left to whisper worriedly to himself, Danny felt a new panic beginning to rise. "No, no, no." Wracking his mind, Danny began to doubt what he remembered at the Ramirez's home. He had lost so much time lying unconscious or sedated and Grace could easily be here along with Rebecca. Both children could have been abducted and he had no way of getting to them; and Mike could be dead as the memory of his friend falling in a bloody heap came to him in living color.

And no, it didn't really matter which child it was; yet it did. "Grace." He sobbed her name under his breath as their footsteps left him. The child's cries continued to faintly reach him from the main house. He struggled again until a sharp pain stopped him and then, he felt it; the fascinating warmth as his shirt filled slowly with his own blood. It seemed to spread faster to counter the cold chilling wetness of his already water-soaked shirt.

"Shit. This can't .. be happening. Shit." Sobbing through chattering teeth, Danny shook his head in disbelief and to clear the rising cobwebs from his brain. Remnants of the sedative were still in his system and now he was losing a steady trickle of blood. He could feel the warmth spreading from his shirt and down to his pants. He needed to get his act together and find a way.

"Curtis. Kasey Pearce. No .. he can't be here. He's in jail." He muttered under his breath as he finally meshed together the pieces. Everything that the Ramirez family thought they had conquered had in truth, come back to challenge their family again. "Frank Curtis and Becca's mother. This can't happen."

Curtis was the dangerous mobster Frank Curtis from Las Vegas. He was the man who had relentlessly tracked down Rebecca and her mother for months on end before the child had been returned to her father and the Ramirez family. In the process, the powerful mobster had succeeded in killing Rebecca's mother and then had attempted to kidnap the little girl. At the time, he had been after a thumb drive full of client data for a large, profitable international gambling ring. There also had been a small stash of diamonds which Rebecca had so coveted for her mother's sake.

Frank Curtis had almost taken Grace in error because of their close physical resemblance. As consolation for that failure, he had abducted an older teenager to appease his high-stakes clients, but it also had stoked his temper. That teenager had nearly died at his hands as well.

In the end, Five-0 and the FBI had captured the man, brought down his ring, the child trafficking attempt, and he'd been jailed. A good judge and better jury had seen to that. The takedown had impacted his business, destroyed a few of his special clients and rendered him ruined. In fact, the criminal was still supposed to be in jail that very minute and Danny's brain back-fired as he tried to reason out what was happening.

All he could process was that Curtis was somehow out and looking for retribution as well as another precious object perceived stolen by Rebecca's damaged mother. A key .. to what, Danny had no clue. Trying to stay conscious and breathing steadily to uselessly control his much too rapid heartbeat, Danny didn't even know if Mike Ramirez was alive. Now there were the girls that seemed to be in the deadly mix: Grace, plus Rebecca. Curtis would terrorize them all for this key and be rabid about getting what he felt was divinely his to have and hold.

Unable to control his breathing, Danny's heart seized in fear as he struggled painfully against the bonds that held him in the chair. He didn't know who's small voice he was hearing and both girls very easily could have been taken while he did nothing and Mike Ramirez lay dying.

Haunted by the distant cries and sobs which eventually faded away, only one thing was very true - it didn't matter. Because, they had taken at least one of the little girls.

~ to be continued ~