Punk was just leaving Sean's when he got a call from the hospital, telling him he had to get there as soon as possible, which terrified him.
He of course, drove straight to the hospital, despite planning to go out and help the other guys on the force find the loose Albanians. He'd tried contacting Paul, to let him know what was going on, but it just went through to voice mail.
"I'm here… I'm here. Is she ok?" Punk asked, about to enter the room when a nurse stopped him, pressing her hands firmly on his chest to push him back.
"No… she isn't." She said, "You are not her husband. We… we searched up her files. She is not married. April Jeanette Mendez. You… you're not related to her in anyway." The nurse said, "I can't let you see her."
"Ok… I lied. I'm her ex boyfriend, but we have kids together. We're on good terms. I'm the only family she has around here. You gotta let me see her." Punk said, lifting his badge out from his pocket, "I'm with the force. I won't lay a finger on her." He showed her his badge as she looked at.
"Someone came into her room and cut the IV drip from her, and took the oxygen from her." The nurse explained, "We got her in time. She started to lose breath, and her blood pressure dropped tremendously." The nurse said as Punk ran his hands through his hair, "She is in no position to be in danger like this. So I suggest whatever it is that is going on, you get a hold of, because she is in no state to fight back." She said, "And I'm sorry, but intensive care units have a policy of family only. I can't let you in." She said.
"But is she ok?" Punk asked before the nurse walked away.
"Yes. For now." She nodded.
"I'm gonna… I'm gonna call for some cops to watch the room while I'm away. Would that be ok?" He asked her as she nodded.
"Fine." She nodded, walking away. He could only understand it was part of her job to have everything running smoothly. And he couldn't be mad with her not allowing him into the room, it was why he lied in the first place.
He looked through the window of the room at AJ, lying in bed, hooked up to different machines again. Her blood pressure was back to normal again as was her breathing. She'd been caught just in the nick of time, but this couldn't go on. She was suffering enough. This had to be taken care of. As soon as possible.
Once two other cops arrived to guard AJ's room door, Punk headed out in search for the remaining Albanians, to either kill them or put them in jail, depending on how it all went down. He had been called by another officer saying that they had tracked down where the Albanians were, so he headed straight to the destination… an old scrap yard, not far from AJ's house.
When he got out of the car, Paul was standing waiting on him.
"What took you so long?" Paul asked with other police officers around waiting to head into the empty scrap yard.
"One of they fuckers came in and fucked with AJ's wires. The hospital called me in. But I got two cops outside her door." Punk explained with an exhausted sigh.
"She's alive?" Paul turned to him quickly.
"Yeah." Punk said, looking at Paul, not taking the tone of surprise in his voice very well, "They caught her just in time. Thank God." Punk admitted, shaking his head and turning away from Paul who bit his lip anxiously.
"I think me and you should just go in." Paul said as Punk turned around to him with confusion.
"You serious?" Punk shook his head, "We don't even know how many of these guys we're up against. I think we should take all the back up we can get." Punk admitted.
"We watched them go in. There's only three." Paul said, "We can do it no problem."
"You feeling ok?" Punk shook his head. Normally it was Paul who was convincing him to take all the back up he could get.
"Fine." Paul nodded.
"I mean… you're pushing fifty, Paul. I don't want to have to fight these guys off on my own. We're facing three angry Albanians. I've killed some of their brothers, sons, dads and cousins. They aren't going to mess around." Punk said.
"We'll be fine." Paul nodded to him, "Listen up, you guys!" He yelled to the officers who had trailed to the scene, "Only come in if I call. If I don't, stay put. Got it?" He asked them as they all grumbled and nodded.
"You sure?" Punk said, not sure how he felt about this. It wasn't like Paul to let the bad guys have a one up.
"Positive." Paul said, "You're one of the best cops I know." He said as Punk forced a smile.
"Ok, let's go." Punk nodded as they headed into the dark scrap yard.
Pieces of junk lay all over the place. There was no order. It was just a huge clutter, with an open space in the middle of it all, where a car was parked, the black car that Punk had remembered the registration plate off of.
Punk was so busy looking around for three Albanians- which was pretty hard as it was dark and the place was filled with many places to hide- he hadn't even noticed Paul sneak his hand behind him and grab his only gun from his back pocket.
"They don't speak much English." Punk said in a quiet voice, "Should be fun." He chuckled a little.
"Well… well… well..." A voice cracked from behind a clutter of metal, revealing one of the wanted Albanian men, twirling his gun around on his finger as he looked over at Punk and Paul, "Look who we have here." He spoke in his rasping Albanian accent, glaring over at Punk whose fists had already clenched tightly.
"Where are your other little friends?" Punk asked, his voice echoing as two other men revealed themselves from the dumps of scrap, "Oh, there they are." Punk said in a playful voice, "Fun is over boys."
"Fun just began." One of the Albanians smiled, "How is your wife, huh? She no looking too good." He laughed.
"She's pulling through." Punk said, "Not that it's much of your business."
"Oh, it's all my business." He said, coming away from his two companions and coming closer to Punk, which was a very brave thing to do from where Punk was standing, "She was good girl. Not much fight in her." He began to circle Punk, "I can still taste her skin." He chuckled as Punk glared down upon him, "She was tight."
Punk grabbed him by his scrawny t-shirt, pushing him against the car whilst holding him up from his balance on the ground, "She told me you never touched her like that!" Punk yelled, looking into his evil eyes, "You raped her?"
"She good at keeping secrets then. Must have liked too much to confess, eh?" He laughed as Punk kneed him in the gut, hard, to which he rolled away on the ground, holding his stomach and coughing whilst the other two men pulled their guns out and pointed them at him.
As a cop, if anyone pulled a gun on him, he would of course grab his own, but when he reached behind for his, he realised there wasn't one there. He never went out without his gun. Never.
"Looking for something?"
Punk turned to Paul who had been rather quiet, watching him hold his gun out in front him.
"What are you doing?" Punk looked across at Paul who grinned whilst the two Albanians over in the corner helped their friend to his feet, staying silent with smiles on their faces as they watched Paul and Punk.
"Thought I was protecting you?" Paul asked, "Thought I was keeping you from the bad men?" Paul asked as Punk looked to his boss in disbelief, "When you came back from your year off, after your mom died, and you poked your nose in my business, I gave you a job, that didn't involve you doing much. In fact. April was never really in danger, I sent you out there, because I knew… I knew you'd just love to go out and fuck all of my operation up." He said.
"This is… you're to do with this?" Punk asked.
"I'm not just to do with this. I run this bitch." Paul said, "I got away with it because I'm a cop. Your boy Jamie… he works for me. And I see you've met my friends over there..." He smiled over to the three evil men in the corner, "Afrim, Ramiz… and Marco, the man who raped April."
"You… you done this?" Punk shook his head, "You set me up? You… you've been playing me this entire time?" Punk said.
"Oh, now he catches on, boys." Paul laughed, walking over to his three companions, "I wanted you out of this. When Seth took on the case, I knew he wouldn't be able to find them all. But then you came back and wanted in on it. So I made up this bullshit that you had to protect April. Her name came up on the system alphabetically. When you came back, with her, all loved up with babies on the way, and you realised she was still in danger, you stuck your nose in it again, and what did you do?" Paul said, "You took out the entire organization in the one night."
"You took them out with me." Punk pointed.
"No. I didn't. It was all you and Seth." Paul said, "I tried to warn my friends, but it was too late. And I couldn't blow my cover. I knew I had to protect myself and my name." Paul said, "I was angry, so I took you from the streets, spoke to Sam in Witness Protection and gave him the bullshit story I've been feeding everyone on the force with. I told him to keep you for a year to keep you safe, but really… me and my boys here were just planning." Paul laughed as Punk looked over at him coldly.
He supposed it made sense.
"I trusted you." Punk shook his head, "I thought you were my friend."
He did look up to Paul, almost as a father he'd never had. He'd been his boss since he was in his early twenties. He'd taught him a lot. Never did he see this coming.
"Oh, and it was me that clipped April's wires at the hospital. And the only reason those little brats of yours weren't touched, was because, killing their parents is going to be much more fun." Paul smiled.
Punk stood, looking on at Paul and the three smirking men, completely stunned by this revelation. How could he have missed this? More to the point… how could Paul have done this? He was the one that was really behind all of this. It disgusted him.
"What you gonna do, pretty boy?" Marco chuckled, "You own your own."
"Oh..." Paul almost forgot, "Your brothers girlfriend… she's on her way home from work, isn't she?"
"What the hell have you done to her?!" Punk yelled.
"Oh, nothing." Paul laughed, "She's just attached to a little something that will go off in about an hour. But no one's gonna save her. Because you'll be dead, April will be next, and your brother… well, we might just leave him to rot along with your little twins." He laughed.
"This is what you do?" Punk said, "You're cowards. All of you. Just take me. Just kill me. Leave April, leave my kids, leave my damn brother and his family alone. You're punishing them because I love them?" He asked, "You're… you're disgusting."
"I've been called a lot worse." Paul laughed, passing over Punks gun he had taken to Marco, "On you go, boys." He laughed, walking by Punk, "I'm gonna go visit April again." He smiled as Punk immediately pulled him back, not letting him escape, throwing him into the side of the car with so much anger, anger that gave him more strength evidentially.
But he didn't stand a chance. Marco and his two friends were already on him in seconds.
Sean had been sitting on the couch, on edge all night. He'd been checking on the twins and TJ every ten minutes, making sure nothing was happening to them like Punk had asked. He was so relieved when he heard Kerry come through the door.
"Kerry… Jesus Christ, thank God." He walked into the hallway, "So much shit is going on. Phil is..." He paused, watching Kerry stare over at him, standing still on the spot as he noticed her jacket looked a lot bulkier around the stomach.
"Kerry..." Sean walked over to her, looking into her teary eyes, taking the zip and unzipping her jacket, looking on at the timer in red digits, counting down alongside an explosive that was attached around her, not to be touched.