Missing

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: I'm going to have to slow down here with the Fall Semester starting, but hey, don't stop reading because updates will come on everything I've got going on. Here's what's going on this chapter.

Chapter 14 (Andre's Plot)

"Alright kid, you've looked pissed since we left that cemetery, what's going on?"

"Nothing." Andre shrugged as Gary parked in the garage. "I have nothing to say. Go ahead and kill my sister if you want, since I refuse to talk." Gary frowned at him and Andre quickly pushed open the door. The amount of anger and hatred in his heart was now far beyond that of anything he felt over the years.

Gary hung his forearm over the steering wheel. "Listen kid, just because you think you can act all macho-" Andre stopped in place and lifted his right hand, curling all fingers but his index.

"And one more thing." His head rolled to the right until he felt a pop in his neck. He then turned toward the car and his chest expanded. "I'm not ', I'm a twenty-seven year old man named André. Get it right." The man's shoulders fell and he closed his mouth.

Before Gary could respond, Andre entered the house. He had plans now, and Gary was too ignorant to figure it out. He'd become far too trusting that his control was strong enough that he could look away and expect Andre to be loyal.

Once inside, he slipped his hand into his pocket and looked over his shoulder. As he removed his hand, his fingers were clinging tightly to a small phone he purchased at Walmart.

During the drive he'd convinced Gary that he needed to by some itch cream for a heat rash. It was during this stop at the Walmart pharmacy that Gary went off to look for groceries, and Andre slipped into the electronics section to buy a phone and one of the Virgin mobile phone plan cards.

After the purchase, he went into the bathroom and set everything up. He wasn't going to expose Gary or Holly just yet, he wanted them to think he was loyal still-their discovery had to be on accident and not thought to be done by someone on the inside. If they suspected any of them of letting it out, then they would kill everybody-even Trina.

"I've got to be careful how I do this," he whispered to himself. He'd already sent text messages to Jesse from the phone, claiming to be Trina. This was due to the man having given Trina his cell phone number once before.

The next step was easy, during the text messaging he'd been able to ask Jesse for Sam's phone number as well.

"It's time for Cat Valentine to magically appear after nine years." He turned his head to the stairway and the corner of his lip tucked into a smirk. "Then Saturday, Trina's getting a day of freedom, and there isn't a damn thing Holly or Gary are going to do about it."

He rushed into the bathroom and turned on the phone, then glanced through the text messages. While looking once more for the news that confirmed Victoria's survival, his heart was racing. Somewhere, Jesse mentioned that Tori found Tori's niece, and Andre wanted that text message to be the first message Trina could find.

Holly was still gone, much to Andre's pleasure. "While the cat's away, the mouse's gonna play." His excitement grew as he stumbled across the text. It wasn't going to be easy explaining this to Trina, but knowing how close she'd grown to the man, he had a good feeling she'd cling to those texts and study them as if they were a part of the most enticing novel known to man.

"I can't believe you did this…" An hour later Trina was holding onto the phone with trembling hands. Her tear-filled eyes. In the dark, the phone cast a blue glow onto her face, illuminating the watery drops rolling along her cheeks. The bruises that had been inflicted on her were much lighter now, and as long as he kept Holly from doing anything in the next few days, Cat wouldn't have to worry about getting her all dolled up with concealer.

"That man is somehow important to you and he's shown up on a regular basis for two years now."

"I-I don't understand. You can't possibly pull this off…A full day? Where the hell are you going to be?" She cast her head upwards to him, shooting off a distressed glance. "What about Holly? Gary?"

"Gary's too trusting of me. You let me worry about Holly." His mind was already spinning with plans and ideas about how to deal with the woman. The biggest issue was that he needed a distraction. "They have nothing to hold over my head anymore, but we still have to be careful about this."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't put you or Cat at risk." He took a deep breath and lifted his hand, pointing to the phone. "You can see Jesse, I'll be around. You just cannot tell him where you're being held." She started to whine and he moved his finger up to his lips. "I said nothing about him finding out on his own."

Her body froze and her look of worry turned to confusion. "I don't follow."

"Simple. Gary and Holly know your case is being worked. As you see from those texts, Jesse is helping with it. If the police can discover your whereabouts on their own, and rescue you on their own, then that's better. If you were to run away or tell someone where you were, those two would suspect it was an inside job. That could throw you and Cat at risk. I don't want that to happen. This needs to happen naturally, I need time to work out a full plan…"

"So you want me to cooperate?" Trina pressed her lips together and her fingers tightened around the phone. "I've been held here for nine years, how much longer am I going to be here?"

"Not much, I promise you. The wheels are turning as I speak…" Trina's body began to tremble, and once more an inconsolable cry erupted from her lips. "Do you trust me now? Proof that not only is your sister doing everything in her power to find you, but she's the one that found Victoria."

"More than anything." Trina wiped her eyes and stared at the phone. "I want more than anything to see my little girl again."

"You will. Even if it kills me, I'm going to find a way." Andre crossed his arms and glanced to the phone, he was overcome with a sense of confidence and joy over beginning to atone for all the things he'd seen and done over the last nine years. "You didn't deserve this hell, Victoria didn't deserve to be born into it. None of us deserved this life…I've done some pretty unforgivable things in the last few years. Murder, theft, watching whenever Holly struck you, Victoria, and even Cat…"

"None of it's your fault, Andre." He frowned and set his hand to her shoulder. When she flinched, he pulled away.

"It says a lot that you don't blame me after all these years." Andre caught the distinct sorrow in her eyes. The only time there was any light was when she was at that café and Jesse was there, and he wanted nothing more than to see that light again. "I'm a part of the problem, still."

"Yeah, but-"

"You don't need to make excuses for me. I'm nothing but a henchman. A kidnapper. Your kidnapper." She quieted down and her muscles began to tense. "And if I die, I'm going to make sure the last thing I see is you and Cat safe."

"You're not going to die, Andre. You…you're not a bad guy-you're not evil."

"It may be hard to believe, but there's always grey area. In everyone. I'm your kidnapper, and that's what everyone has to believe."

"Why? What are you trying to accomplish?"

He closed his eyes and groaned softly as his heart pulsed heavily in his chest. "Getting you and Cat out of here alive is my only priority now." The rest didn't matter. Many of his actions had been done willingly and many things were done out of malice. While yes, he protected Trina the best that he could throughout the years, his hands had been tied many times.

"Sitting there, Trina. Watching a mother-" His breathing grew shallow and a tight knot formed in his throat. "Forced to watch her child grow up abused by a woman she didn't know was her grandmother…" Trina's arms dropped and her eyebrows pressed together. "No murder I've committed, no robbery I've done in Holly's name or any crime I've done could ever come close to the atrocity of that sin. Nothing forgives allowing or being involved in watching a mother abuse her daughter and granddaughter for nine years."

She extended the phone to him as though it were a peace offering, or a sign of trust. "The fact that you're willing to do this." His lips pulled back into his cheeks and he took the phone. "Shows that you're not a bad person."

"I'm their most trusted and valued henchman, Trina. I'm a kidnapper and a murderer, an accessory to their crimes. Even if I can save you, even if I can save Cat, the world will always know me as one thing: Kidnapper. Psychopath. Killer. Criminal."

"Maybe so, but we know the truth. You came looking for me, you went looking for Robbie and Cat, and you found us." He shifted to the right and looked away, tensing at the memory of his sole manhunt nearly nine years ago. He followed Gary and snuck into the mansion, thereby learning the truth. "Whatever the reason, you had a hunch and you found us. Gary and Holly forced you to work with them. Yes you get angry a lot, and I know Robbie's wound up with a lot of injuries because of you, but you're not a bad person."

"No judge will ever see it that way." He didn't want to hear anything else. It was clear in his heart and mind that he was very much a darkened soul, because no one could do the things he'd done over the years and be good.

"At least…you haven't been driven insane like Robbie."

"Yeah. I'll come get you on Saturday. Once I've found a way to get Holly out of the way." It wouldn't be easy, but he knew he could find something. At first he thought to implicate Robbie of something, and to have Holly take the man somewhere that day, but he needed something better. As for Gary, all he had to do was force the man to allow this, but persuading him that nothing could possibly go wrong wasn't difficult. "Hey, they've seen me be loyal to them for nine years, Trina. There's no reason for them to suspect a damn thing."

"So what will you do?"

"I don't know yet." He stared down at the phone and ran his tongue briskly across his lips. "But my first step will be getting Cat to call Sam. That woman needs to know Cat's alive out there."

"You." Trina leaned back against the wall and her eyes darted around on the floor. "You want to give Jesse and Sam a reason to push harder to look for us?" Andre started to chuckle as Trina looked up to him with shock filling her eyes. "Letting me have a day with Jesse, letting Cat contact Sam? They're both going to know something's up."

"Yes, and they already are helping your sister try and look for you. Giving them something physical to trace, something to track, making sure nothing comes back to us that would give Holly reason to suspect an inside job…They will look for you, all of them. They will find you and Cat, and they will be your heroes."

"And you won't?" She raised an eyebrow and he shook his head.

"I told you already." Her lips fell and he pushed open the cell door. "I'm just a villain."

So Andre's got some ideas about how he can work things out, maybe anonymously help the investigators. What are your thoughts going into this chapter?