John was sure he heard something moving above them. He loosened his hold on Jessie and pulled away to look at her.

"Did you hear that?"

She didn't hear anything but his heartbeat, at first, then she tilted her head to the side and listened harder. "Sounds like there's someone up there." Her eyes widened with fear. "You think they came back for us?"

"I don't know." He answered honestly. "Stay here, okay." John stood up, ignoring the pain that ran quickly through his entire body and walked under the trap door. "Hey!" He yelled. "Anyone up there?!"

He backed away when the trap door opened. When he saw it was Krieger he moved and stood in front of Jessie.

"Come to finish the job?" He asked sarcastically.

"No," Krieger said simply. He threw down their two duffel bags and the backpack. "I put water and whiskey in there too." He said nodding towards their bags. "Wait, there's something else." Krieger walked quickly down the hall to one of the other offices and yanked the first-aid kit off the wall. He walked back and dropped it down through the trap door. "Probably not much in it."

"Why are you doing this? If you want to help us, why not just let us go?"

"It's complicated, kid, and I don't have time to tell stories. I have your cell phone...in three days I'll call someone for you. Who do you want it to be?"

"We could be dead in three days," John said angrily.

"You're right...but either way someone will find you. Who do you want that to be?"

"Bailey Malone."

"Okay. I give you my word that in three days Mr. Malone will know exactly where to find you." He looked past John to Jessie. "Sorry about all this, sweetheart. I'm usually smarter when it comes to choosing an employer and a job. I fucked up...it won't happen again. You won't have to worry about Langston anymore...I owe you that." He looked back at John. He wasn't sure he wanted Jessie to hear what he was going to say next, but it wasn't like she could leave the room or anything. "Langston, he...uh dumped...took...he took your Father's...he uh...took the bodies down to the docks. I'll let someone know they're there...he won't be there long."

John looked down at Jessie, fresh tears ran down her face, he cursed silently as he faced Krieger again. "Thank you, for that." It was both sarcastic and genuine.

Krieger nodded in understanding. "I meant what I said...three days." He closed the trap door and put the rug and desk back in place. He sighed in relief as he left. The knot in his stomach was starting to unravel.

John gathered everything Krieger had thrown down and kelt down in front of Jessie. He cupped her face in his hands and wipe the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. He leaned in and rested his forehead on hers.

"I know it's hard, Jess, but we have to be strong if we're going to get through this."

Jessie took a deep, quivering breath and nodded. "I'll try, John. I just...I can't believe...I wish this was just another one of my nightmares."

"I know, Jess." He kissed her forehead and pulled her into a hug.


Bailey paced back and forth, anxiously, as he waited for C.S.U. to finish going through Patrick's penthouse. 'How could things go so wrong, so fast.' He thought angrily. He glanced over at Robert, who was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, talking to himself. He was angry, terrified and lost, and Bailey couldn't help but feel for him, because he felt the same way. He went over and sat next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll do everything we can...we won't stop until we find them."

"Yeah? That's just great, Bailey..." Tears welled up in his eyes and rolled slowly down his face. "What if they look like Sal did when you do?"

Bailey didn't know how or want to answer him, so he stood up and began pacing again.

Nathan came down a few minutes later with a C.S.U tech.

"There's not much, but we found some blood upstairs." The tech told Bailey.

"In the den...by the t.v. and DVD rack." Nathan added.

"We're putting a rush on everything, Agent Malone, we'll have the fingerprints sorted out and the blood identified in a couple of hours. We also found the tip of a tazer electrode embedded in the bottom of the front door."

"So...they hit John with the tazer at the front door, he would've of opened it for Boston P.D., while Jessie was still upstairs...after the movie. The blood must be her's."

Bailey suggested.

"Or...if she put up a fight, maybe the blood belongs to one of them."

Bailey nodded. "Let's hope so. Nathan gets on the phone and tells Sam and the others to get back here. We need to double-time it and track these guys down. I think they'll play with them for a while, but they most definitely have no intention of letting them live." He turned to the C.S.U tech. "You guy's just about done here?"

He nodded. "They're cleaning up now. I'm gonna run this down to the lab and get it processed." He said holding up a small box of assorted plastic bags containing the evidence they found.

"Thank you." Bailey put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Call my phone directly...as soon as you know anything."

"Will do, sir." The tech nodded and hurried out.

"Hang in there, John," Bailey said quietly. "We're coming."


Krieger was sitting in the back room of the Red Dragon playing solitaire while on his third beer when Langston came in smiling. He clapped Krieger on the back, sat down across from him and finished off his beer. He pulled out a thick, yellow envelope and pushed it towards Krieger.

"Final payment, as we agreed, and I threw in half of Lewis'. Though it didn't go down exactly the way I wanted it...it's been a pleasure, Tommy."

Krieger picked up the envelope and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. "We need to dump the van."

Langston nodded. "Agreed. We'll drive it out to the construction site by Foxborough Estates...they've stopped working when they ran out of money, so it's pretty much abandoned at the moment. We'll touch it, then I'll drop you off at...well, wherever it is you want to go. Let's go out front and get something to eat first, I'm starved."

"Yeah, sure."

When they got to the abandoned construction site Krieger followed Langston to the furthest point of the area and parked the van behind a half-built structure, that probably at some point will be an apartment building.

"This should be good enough," Langston said getting a container of gas out of the trunk of his car. He walked towards the van and stopped short, almost dropping the container. "What the hell are you doing, Tommy?"

Krieger had his gun pointed at Langston's head. "You fucked up, Roy. All those people we killed...you hired me to help you get back at the man who tried to have you killed...you told me it was because you were going to take over his Father's businesses and he wanted them for himself." Krieger lowered the gun to Langston's thigh and pulled the trigger. He stepped closer after he fell to the ground. "You tried to molest that girl...that's why they wanted to kill you-"

"Jesus Christ! Why does it matter?! You got paid." Langston said through clenched teeth as he put pressure on his bleeding thigh.

"Because had I been there, I would've killed you myself...and to top it all off, you had the wrong man pegged for it. I killed innocent people for you...because of you-"

"Innocent? Whores, thieves, gamblers, soldier's of a known crime boss, and the crime boss himself...Patrick O'Doyle...they were not innocent."

"Maybe not, but they were innocent of any wrongdoing when it comes to you...and those two kids...the only way I'm gonna be able to forgive myself, Roy, is to kill you." He pointed the gun at Langston's head again.

Langston put his hands out as if he could stop the bullet. "Wait...more money...I'll give you more money! I'll double what I already gave you!"

"I don't want money. I want a piece of mind and I want to do what Sal Minucci tried to do nine years ago. You deserved everything you got, Roy...everything except your life..."

Roy Langston opened his mouth to protest, but he was shot dead before he could utter a sound. Krieger had hit him dead center, right between the eyes.

"You were already dead, Roy, it just took nine years to catch up with you."

Krieger put Langston's body in the van, soaked it in gasoline and set in on fire.


Tbc...