Chapter 6

Trigger Warning – Violence, language, Torture

Ac·cept·ance

NOUN

the action of consenting to receive or undertake something offered:

synonyms:

acknowledgment · admission · compliance · consent · cooperation · recognition · receipt

"Vanessa Mayer! NYPD!" Police loudly knocked on the door to the former defense attorney's apartment.

There was no response. Everyone looked at each other, then to Murphy.

"Knock it down!"

One officer forcibly with one kick, broke the door down. They were met with a casualty in the entryway room. Amanda knelt feeling for a pulse, but it was absent. It was obvious that he had been there for some time due to rigor mortis setting in. She looked up at Lieutenant Murphy, silently shaking her head. Several officers made the way into the apartment with their guns drawn. The similar scene unfolding before them. The apartment was yet again ransacked.

The stove was still on. Noticing, she quickly ran over to the burner, turning the knob. The last thing they needed was to have the apartment catch fire. The all too familiar scent wafted the air. BBQ Billy yet again.

Suddenly there was the sound of rattling coming from the hallway. Everyone was silent.

Amanda began to walk towards the hallway. Murphy grabbed her shoulder, insisting that he go first. She gave him a questioned look.

"Humor me." He responded.

They opened the door to a bathroom. The room was dark. With his flashlight he aimed it in the room. The room had a large abundance of wires all over the tile floors. The shower curtain shifted again. He went to step forward.

"Wait. Make sure those cords aren't plugged into anything." Amanda warned. It would be quite a trap to pull off, but Lewis had a vendetta against their whole squad. It wouldn't be so farfetched that he would want to take out as many as he could. "Cut the breaker." Amanda Yelled back to the officers.

One of the officers heard, rushing towards the gray panel. He started to flip all the switches. The lights to the other rooms shut off immediately.

She waited for the officer's okay before going in, pulling the curtain back revealing Vanessa Mayer naked and bound with electrical cords. It was a chilling sight.

"Vanessa!"

The young women, battered. Blood and burns collaged against her pale complexion. Her eyes were widened in terror. The water in the tub was tinted a pale red. They had to get her out of there.

"He, He."

She could barely talk; her voice was scratchy knowing that her vocal cords were probably sore from screaming. They knew the basics of what had transpired. The details of it were likely graver.

"Vanessa it's ok. Were going to get you to a hospital. Hey call a bus!" Rollins comforted her then yelling out to the others. Declan grabbed a towel off the holder to place over her. As they lifted her out of the tub for her to be out of the water, the full extent of her wounds were shown. It was difficult to get a hold of her in a part where there wasn't some sort of burn or cut. Lewis was intending for her to either bleed out in the bathtub or for hypothermia to take place. Vanessa's body shivered. They rushed trying get the cords off of her so that when transport got her they could get her to the hospital sooner.

"Rest of the apartment is clear!" Shouted another officer.

Amanda was relived at the fact that they hadn't found Barba's body.

"Vanessa, where's Barba?" Amanda asked. She had to make sure that he was still alive.

"Took him." Her voice was barely able to get out. Amanda felt guilty being so insistent after all that the young women had endured.

"God Damn it!" Lieutenant Murphy shouted in frustration, punching at the wall beside him.

Vanessa's phone began to ring which was conveniently placed on the bathroom counter. Her eyes went wide. They all knew who was on the other end.

"Hello, William. This is Lieutenant Murphy head of SVU."

"Lieutenant. Is Amanda next to you. Put her on the phone. Now!"

Murphy motioned the phone to Amanda. She looked at the phone then up at him. The look he gave her was apologetic almost. Amanda took the phone, not before placing her phone near the speaker, using her video camera app to record the conversation.

"Hi, Amanda. It's been a while. "

"Where are you?"

"Oh Amanda, why make it that easy. How's everything going? Heard you had some rough goings recently."

There was no way that he knew everything that had one on in the last few months. Lewis was a good bluffer and sometimes an even better liar. It made her furious, almost wanting to curse off the son of a bitch and hang the phone up. Of couse they couldn't do that. They had to play this game.

"Lewis. Why? Why Barba?"

"Come on Amanda, you don't give yourself enough credit. How's my little redhead doing? It was as if Vanessa could hear him through the phone because she whimpered more. What that women had to experience was barbaric. Even with the number of towels on her she shivered uncontrollably.

"Matter of fact I wouldn't mind having another bouncing blonde." Amanda's stomach lurched when Lewis laughed. The gift-wrapped soft threat even frightened her. To think if Lewis had shown up at her door, or when she had been walking home. Letting her thoughts run wild to imagine. It made her pulse quicken. She wouldn't let him control her emotions like that. Fuck, she hated this guy.

"Stop the games Lewis."

"Oh I'm just getting started." With the last sentence, the phone hung up.

Olivia was sitting at her desk. She rubbed at her eyes, then continued her hand to the back of her neck, trying to massage the stiffness. She hadn't slept, how could anyone right now. After Murphy and Rollins had gone to Vanessa's apartment, she had been a sitting duck at the precinct. She practically clung to her radio, listening to all the channels, awaiting an answer.

"We're pulling street cams and security footage from near the apartment. Lieutenant says Taru traced the incoming call to the cell we found in Vanessa's apartment." Finn spoke to her. Olivia listened, but it was stuff they already knew. Even if they got that trace, Lewis would ditch the phone immediately. He always seemed ahead of them For almost a full hour she had listened to the recording non-stop. Just waiting to hear a code 140 over the static. But it never happened.

Murphy just walked out of his office carrying some folder, headed for the elevator; Olivia quickly approached him. "How is she?" Olivia asked. She knew just the basics. Murphy had been hesitant on going into detail. The amount of coddling she was receiving made her feel powerless. She needed to know. Maybe there was something useful that could help.

Olivia could tell that her new boss had felt ambushed, but he folded a little. "She is still in surgery right now. They think that she will make it." Olivia's mind wondered on how many stitches were being sewn and how many burns being treated. Murphy and Pollins both had red stains on their clothes, so knowing that it wasn't pretty. Lewis was escalating.

"We are running out of time. I need to find Lewis." She blurted out.

"Listen I understand." Murphy quickly tried to diffuse her, attempting to weaving around her.

She interrupted him. "No, you don't. You know what he did to you, you know what he's done to others?" The stress was getting to her. Now her outburst was fully in view of the precinct. Passerby voices got silent, their attention going straight to the two of them."

"Seargent you are out of line."

"We have a mass murderer on the loose who has taken our District attorney. You act like you couldn't give a damn!"

"Liv! Maybe you should get some sleep." Nick got between them. Olivia knew that he was only trying to have her not get fired. Murphy had given her so much slack. It wasn't fair of her to blame him for Lewis being unable to track. She felt herself becoming irate, like a pot boiling over. It's as if Elliot had possessed her momentarily.

"Amaro is right. The intelligence detail will take you back to your hotel." Murphy wasn't going to play into the antagonization nor the charade.

"Lieutenant Murphy I'm fine."

"That's an order. Don't you see what's happening, he's inside your head. That is the assault he's enjoying right now. He's counting on that. Go back to the hotel, clear your head. We are going to get this fucker."

He was right, everything he said. He didn't sugarcoat it from her. It was eating at her, to the point it made her sick. She is standing on the sidelines to a game she should be in. Was it because she knew that somehow this was her fault? That if she hadn't made herself such a threat to him, that Lewis wouldn't have gravitated to her.

Lewis tapped the side of his captive's face with his gun.

"Comfy?" Lewis taunted. Rafael eyes shot daggers at him. The duct tape that covered his mouth prevented him from truly giving him an honest response. His lips were chapped from the adhesive on the duct tape being removed and reapplied. His adrenaline had faded long ago, his eyes wanted to shut.

They had been driving for what had seemed like hours, switching cars and clothes on the way.

"Ah, this will do."

Rafael tried to protest after seeing their destination, his eyes widening, truly scared.

"Don't worry Counselor. "The fake consoling then being tagged on with a laugh. "Our girl will be here soon".

A/N- A huge thank you to my readers for sticking with me. I am enjoying writing this as well as my other stories.