Chapter 4, enjoy!

.

"I suggest you put it out of your mind, because you don't make it out of here alive!"

She snapped out of her reverie and quickly reached from where she sat on the shower floor, her knees against her chest and turned off the now freezing water, watching as it, tinged with the last of the blood that flowed from between her legs, swirled down the drain. She had no idea how long she'd been there like that, having fallen into a daze after scrubbing herself raw but now, shivering from the cold, she pulled her aching body from the tub.

In the bedroom she found a fresh nightgown – white cotton, identical to the one that Harlan had torn off her, in the large basket that sat on the floor of the closet. In fact, she noticed that the basket held nothing BUT white cotton nightgowns and was filled with them – no undergarments or clothing of any other kind; just dozens of thin, white cotton nightgowns and as she pulled one on over her wet hair and let it fall over her bruised, naked body, she found her thoughts drifting again.

"Did you ever see yourself growing old, with me?"

"I don't really see myself growing old…"

Why did her mind keep going back there, to their breakup, torturing her with reminders that she was destined to end up just as her mother had; broken and alone.

"But you weren't completely… we had each other…" she whispered as fresh tears streamed her face and she just as quickly wiped them away, wincing at the pain that registered when she touched her battered face.

"No time for wallowing…" she told herself as she shook the thoughts away. After Harlan had left, she'd lain there, her face bleeding onto the pillow while her lower half bled all over the sheets. She'd cried until she couldn't before she forced herself out of that bed and crawled to the adjoining bathroom to clean herself up. She could tell just by the way it felt beneath her fingertips that he'd done serious damage to her face but with no mirror anywhere in the two rooms, she could only imagine how bad it was. but if the swelling to her mouth that cause her speech to slur was any indication…

"You have to find a way out of here!" she knew that if she would have any chance of escaping, she'd need a weapon and her eyes began scanning the room, first settling on the blood stains on the comforter, then the restraints and finally the torn nightgown and she could hear her own screams replaying in her head. they made her shudder.

Let it out baby, that's just the way I like it…music to my ears!

He'd left hours ago and she was still in an incredible amount of pain and couldn't imagine being put through more once he returned. Drawing in a sharp breath, she forced her attention away from the bed and refocused on finding something to hurt him with but looking around the room, she could see that he'd been smart in planning to bring her here; the room was scantly furnished. No curtain rod at the window, not towel bars or shower curtain rod in the bathroom. The full size bed with the solid oak head and footboards that she could see had each been carved from a single piece of wood – no bars or posts to dislodge.

"Pity. I'd love to bash your skull in even worse than I did your demon son!" she mused.

Yes, Harlan had taken caution; he'd learned from the news reports about how she'd gotten away from Billy after four days and he wouldn't make that mistake. Aside from the bed that served no purpose other than what he'd brought her here for, there was no other furniture in the room. The tiny closet near the door; she'd noticed that the bar had been removed and the built-in shelf was of no use, still she opened it again thinking she might have missed something. She reached up and ran her hand along its surface, hoping that she would find something hard or sharp enough to attack him with but there was nothing, just and old, thin wire hanger that she quickly tossed back onto the shelf and slammed the closet door in frustration. This agitated the dogs and they began barking furiously, causing her to yelp as she nearly jumped out of her skin; backing away from the door while trying to calm her rapidly beating heart and when she'd backed herself into a corner, she sank to the floor realizing the hopelessness of her situation, wrapping her bruised arms around her knees that were pulled tightly to her chest, her whole body shaking as she sobbed and the dogs continued barking viciously while scratching at the door, eager to get to who they considered to be the enemy on the other side.

"Someone has to find me!"

.

"How the hell could I let her go out there alone last night?" Nick was sick inside as he began nervously checking his watch again – 2:45 and still nothing.

"Come on man, nobody lets Liv do anything" Fin reminded him "Stop blamin yourself!" Once again, facing the unknown, Fin found himself being the voice of reason when he just wanted to lash out at any and everything; just destroy something…hurt someone…turn this whole fucking city upside down until they found her. How could this happen again? Why?

"Fin, tell me this is a mistake!"Brian cried as he rushed into the squad room. "Tell me it's wrong man, she can't be…" He stopped when his eyes caught sight of the squad room that had been transformed into a command center and he sank down into the nearest chair, his legs being of no use to him, having quickly given out as reminders of last spring flooded him and he felt just as helpless all over again.

"We'll find her" Fin promised, not even sure how or if he believed it himself this time.

"So you know who took her?" he asked, full of hope

"Not yet, but we have leads" Nick answered

"What? The dead girl?" Brian cried

"We have every reason to believe that her husband is behind this" Murphy informed him "but since the girl had no identification on her and all we have is a first name, we're waiting on a fingerprints and DNA to tell us who she is. The sooner we know, the sooner we find the husband."

"And what if she's not in the system, huh? Then what? Liv is out there with some asshole and we don't even have the faintest idea of who he is, or where he has her…or of she's even still alive." He couldn't hold back the tears in his voice.

"Cassidy…man we can't think that way" Fin said as he put a hand on the younger man's shoulder to comfort him.

"Fin he left his own wife to bleed to death in an abandoned lot, he's got nothing to stop him from hurting Liv even worse…if he's even the one who's got her! How the fuck did we let this happen again?"

The team stood silently looking at one another, all at a loss for words until Amanda pierced the silence.

"Guys, we got a hit on the prints!" she announced as she stared at the computer screen. "Faith Marie O'Brien, 24. She's from Las Vegas, Nevada, been in the city since 2012 – at least that's when she traded her Nevada license for a New York State one…and surprise, surprise; she's got a record! Arrested twice last year for solicitation."

"The dead girl's a hooker?" Fin asked incredulously "What the hell is goin on here?"

"I don't know but we got a current address!" Murphy said "Amaro, Tutuloa, suit up! You two are following me to the apartment, with any luck we'll find the husband and god willing, Benson. Rollins, I want you tracking down family, friends; anybody who can point us in this guy's direction in case he's not there."

"Copy Lieutenant!"

"I'm going with you" Brian announced to Murphy

"Detective…"

"Don't bother trying to talk me out of it, just get me a vest. We don't have any more time to waste!"

"Fine! But stay the hell outta the way!" he ordered then turned to his officers "Let's go!"

See you guys soon with chapter 5!