Before you read, a gentle reminder that this is tagged as angst, so do with that what you will. Enjoy!
Jamie didn't know how long he had been sitting in a back pew of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The only sign that time had passed since his arrival was the gradual change in lighting within as it went from afternoon to night outside and the church gradually became darker.
Thankfully, there weren't a lot of people who tended to go to church on Monday nights, so he had been left alone with his thoughts. Something that he was sure others, specifically his family, wouldn't say was a good thing. Archbishop Kearns had tried to speak to him at some point, but Jamie wasn't exactly the source of stimulating conversation at the moment, so the other man had eventually given up, departing with a promise to say a prayer for Eddie's safe return.
And that therein was the root of his problems and the reason that he was here tonight. The past few days had been nothing short of hell for him and Jamie would've been lying if he said that his faith was still strong through it all. From the second he had gotten that phone call early Friday morning to when they had sent him home from the precinct this morning, the foundations of it had been crumbling. One person could only take so much before they started to question everything they had been taught to believe in growing up.
He had been at the house helping with the search for Eddie all day Friday and Saturday, running on purely adrenaline and caffeine from the breakroom coffee pot. McNichols and Fleming had both point blank ordered him to go home and get some sleep Saturday night, stating that he couldn't come back until he had slept for at least five hours. In his subconscious, Jamie had known they were right, that mistakes were often made, and details missed, when officers were running on fumes, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He had gone home to a painfully empty apartment and collapsed on the couch. He had fallen into a fitful sleep for maybe four hours total out of pure exhaustion, but that had been it.
He had returned to the two-nine early the next morning. McNichols had been skeptical but hadn't pushed when he lied and said that he'd gotten the five hours of sleep she had told him to get. Jamie had immediately attached himself to a search party to continue canvasing the neighborhoods for someone who might have seen what had happened and could help him get his Eddie back.
The discovery of Badillo Friday morning had confirmed his worst fears, that Eddie had been the target of the initial attack and kidnapping all along. The subsequent revelation that Badillo couldn't give the detectives any information right away due to the extent of his injuries had not been reassuring in the least. The fact that Badillo had been disposed of nearly as soon as he was taken was all the proof Jamie had needed to feed his darkest fears. That Eddie had been taken not because of some old case she had worked on, not because she had pushed things too far by getting personally involved with a new case, not even because of her father's misdeeds, but because of him. And that the people behind this were punishing her for his own missteps instead of just taking it out on him. It was a fear that had lurked in the back of his mind for years, one that very rarely came to the forefront.
Jamie had thrown himself into the investigation, even though he knew that the detectives and his bosses were trying to keep him as far away from it as possible. He hadn't answered any of the calls or texts from his dad, Pops, Erin, or Danny, and had skipped church and Sunday dinner yesterday too. He had only sent off a quick text to his dad stating that he wouldn't make it to dinner before continuing to assist with the canvases. Lena had been the only person he had actually spoken with outside of the precinct since Friday, and that was mainly because he knew that she would likely be out of the loop on the investigation otherwise.
Maybe that was what had brought him here tonight. The disruption in one of the only constants in his life, his Sunday routine, and the fear that maybe this time it wouldn't work out for them in the end. He had lost so many people close to him, whether it was a result of the job or simply bad luck, but Jamie knew that if he lost Eddie there would be no bouncing back from it. Sure, he would still have his family; his dad, his grandpa, Erin, Danny, Nicky, Sean, Joe, and Jack, but even they wouldn't be able to fill the hole that would exist if Eddie was gone.
At the same time, Jamie found himself questioning what the reason behind all of this could possibly be. What kind of God would let a person, or a family, suffer so many tragedies in one generation? With his Grandma Betty and his mom, cancer had been what had taken them from them. With his brother Joe, it had been corrupt cops. Vinny had been the victim of a setup by a gang while they were on tour and Linda had died in a helicopter crash transporting a patient. All of them gone far too soon. He wasn't sure he would be able to bear it if he lost Eddie and she became yet another person he loved on that list. A list that he would've done anything to shorten.
He had had a similar loss of faith after Vinny had died, something that he had eventually reversed after talking with the department's chaplain after the takedown of Los Lourdes. He had come here tonight not to try to recover it, since he hadn't lost his faith yet, but instead to say a prayer to those he had lost that they would protect Eddie and bring her home to him. Heck, he had even said a prayer to her dead brother, since he knew that Eddie had been close with him before he died. Jamie didn't want to see what it would do to Lena if she had to bury another child.
He stared down at his hands, where he held his mother's old rosary. He had already prayed the entire thing twice, sending up prayers to those above between sets as he did so. He studied the beads, slowly turning them in his hands as he let his mind drift away.
It wasn't like Jamie had anywhere to be right now anyway. McNichols had called off the canvases that morning, much to his dismay, and Ferguson had subsequently sent him home to wait for news, telling him that he would be of no use to anybody on the job until Eddie was located anyways. There had been no news from Danny about Badillo in any of his texts or voicemails, so it wasn't like he could go ask the other man what had happened anyways.
Detective Lenin had called him that afternoon, shortly after Jamie had arrived back to his deserted apartment, to give him an update on the case. He hadn't said much, but he had told him about how TARU had managed to trace the phone call that Danny had received Sunday night from the kidnapper and the subsequent raid that had been conducted late that morning. Unfortunately, Eddie hadn't been there, but they believed she had been.
Lenin had asked if he could stop by his apartment, obviously having heard he'd been ordered home, so he could discuss where the case was at some more, since Danny and Baez had left the site of the raid to follow a lead. Jamie's blood had run cold, and he had immediately forgotten the other man's previous words, instead jumping to any and all possible worst case scenarios.
When the detective arrived, the grim look on his face had not provided Jamie with reassurance in the least. They had gone into the living room, sitting down before Lenin had given him the entire rundown of where they were at so far. He seemed to believe that Danny might have a theory about how to find the person responsible, but the other detective hadn't seen fit to share it yet and Jamie didn't know what exactly had been said in the phone call Danny had gotten from the kidnapper, but he suspected that it probably had already provided Lenin and his brother with a motive.
Then Lenin had given him the worst news yet. Eddie hadn't been found inside the abandoned warehouse they had raided just a few hours earlier, but based on what they found inside, it seemed she had been there recently. He hadn't provided much for details, only stating that they had reason to believe the blood found on the scene was hers and that their responsible party had made sure to leave a message to ensure that no doubt was left in their minds about it.
This had been the point when Lenin pulled out his phone, swiping through it in silence before seeming to find what he was looking for. "Reagan, I want you to look at something that we found on the scene, okay? I need to know if these belong to Eddie."
He had frowned, not quite certain what the other man was asking. "Sure, but what do you mean you found something that might belong to her? Is it something that CSU isn't certain on?"
Lenin had sighed. "Kind of. Your brother said that he was certain they belonged to Eddie, but I need to verify with you to be certain."
He had slid his phone over to Jamie and his heart instantly dropped in his chest. The image currently pulled up on the detective's phone showed a pair of rings covered in blood, sitting on what looked to be some sort of object that was also soaked in blood, although the picture was too close for him to make out what it was. Either way, he recognized them as Eddie's wedding and engagement rings even with all the blood. He could still see the look on her face when he had given her that engagement ring and told her that it had been his mom's, the shock and amazement that he would trust her with something so important. She never would have taken either of them off, especially not that one.
His mouth had gone dry, so much so that he had to swallow a few times to gather enough saliva to speak. When he did, his voice still came out hoarse and raspy. "Yeah. Those, those are Eddie's rings alright. She never would've taken them off."
Lenin had taken his phone back, looking sad. "That's what your brother said, but I was holding out hope he might be wrong."
They exchanged very few words after that, both standing up and Jamie walking Lenin to the door. Lenin had paused halfway out though and told him that Badillo was awake, and Danny was talking to him right now, so hopefully there would be more by the time he got back to the squad. Jamie had simply given him a nod and the other man had departed, Jamie shutting the door and locking it behind him.
After that, he had stood in front of the fireplace for a while, studying their wedding picture that was proudly displayed on the mantle and remembering what had been the best day of his life with fondness. He wasn't sure how long he had stood there, lost in memories, but eventually his eyes had drifted over to where his mother's rosary was sitting on the nearby bookshelf. Jamie decided that it wasn't like it would hurt anything if he went to church for a while. After all, it wasn't like there was anything else he could do at the moment, and he had missed yesterday's services.
That brought him back to the present, where he noticed an elderly man lighting one of the remembrance candles up near the front of the chapel before making his way into the sanctuary off to the side. Hopefully he wouldn't be lighting one of those candles for Eddie anytime soon.
Jamie let himself think about where they could have been today, if only Thursday night hadn't happened. Lenin had told him he had spoken with one of the SVU detectives that had been interviewing Eddie and had found out that she had been their top candidate, so he had very little doubt that they would've been celebrating her upcoming promotion. Eddie would have been so excited.
Maybe they would have celebrated by going out to dinner, where she would've groaned about how much she already hated riding a desk and how she didn't know how she would make it through five months of it, while Jamie just smiled and tried to convince her that it wasn't all that bad. Eddie would give him that look that told him to humor her and maybe they would be planning how to share the news of their impending parenthood with her mother later that week. Then, on the way home, he would've convinced her to stop in a store and get one baby thing, no matter what it was, to convince her that this was real, their baby was doing well, and that things weren't going to go wrong this time.
Or maybe they would've just stayed home for a nice little night in and talked about anything and everything. Their baby, how Sunday dinner and telling his family had gone, how Lena would take the news, her potential promotion, etc. Something nice and cozy and so sickeningly domestic that he found himself longing for it.
Jamie could practically see what could've been in front of his eyes. Then he blinked, and it was gone. He shook his head and looked down at the rosary in his hands again. He reminded himself that that wasn't going to be his future anymore, he didn't even know if he would be able to hold Eddie in his arms again, if he was honest with himself. Their baby, the one whose heartbeat had been so strong and who had been so wonderfully healthy not even a week ago, was almost certainly gone. And Jamie knew that even if he did get Eddie back, the knowledge that she had lost this baby after he had finally gotten her to be excited instead of scared would destroy her.
He refocused on the rosary and shifted it so that he was holding the cross at the end in his hands. There was no point in thinking about what could've been now or longing for a future that would never happen. And there was very little left that Jamie could do right now besides pray, so he recentered himself, sent up another prayer to his mom to protect Eddie and their baby if still possible, and started in on the Apostle's Creed again. I believe in God, the Father almighty, …
The first thing that registered was the throbbing pain in her head. It was followed closely by a searing pain in her left wrist, the ache in her shoulders and the dull pain where the cuts on her arms were starting to scab over, but the massive headache was the first thing that Eddie was able to grasp onto as she came to in a dark, enclosed space.
She was fairly certain she had a concussion, although she couldn't exactly be sure what had caused it. The board they had used to speed up the effects of the sedative when they had first taken her was a likely candidate, but if she had to guess, Eddie was going to go with the absolute bitch of a punch that she had taken from one of her captors.
She had realized pretty quickly once she had woken up in that suffocating warehouse with her hands and legs securely fastened to a chair with duct tape and zip ties that there was more behind this than a simple ransom demand. If they wanted money, her captors were barking up the wrong tree, but she couldn't be sure if that was their motive or if it had something to do with Jamie's family, since her partner was nowhere in sight. Badillo's absence had made her frayed nerves stand on end even more than they already had been.
Eddie hadn't had to wait long to meet some of the men that had kidnapped her and done God knows what with Badillo. They had come to chat and 'have some fun with her', as they put it, only a few hours after she had woken up and an hour after she had conceded that there was no way she was going to get out of her restraints on her own. Fortunately, 'having some fun' seemed to mean verbally abusing her and taking their anger out on her rather than where her mind had initially gone, a small mercy which she was grateful for.
What she hadn't expected was to recognize the faces of some of the men who appeared. Some were complete strangers, while others she recognized from various crime scenes throughout the years. All were still wearing their badges. Their brazen attitudes and the fact that they didn't seem to care that she could see their faces and identify them had made the sinking feeling in Eddie's gut drop like a rock. If they didn't care that she might be able to identify them in the future, that meant they didn't plan on her living long enough to do so or they were planning something that wouldn't end well for her, meaning this was no simple ransom.
Among the obviously dirty cops that she recognized, a few surprised her. One had been the desk sergeant from the two-nine just last night, which Eddie realized meant that she and Badillo had had no chance. Others, like Ryan Bello, she had only met in passing at crime scenes. She wondered how long it had taken for someone to notice that they never made it back to the house or if Jamie had been the one to raise the alarm when he woke up and she wasn't there or answering her phone this morning.
The one that seemed to be in charge she didn't recognize. She was able to piece together from the way the others spoke to him that his name was Adam Murphey, but the name didn't ring a bell. Whatever his issue with her was, he didn't make it clear initially. Instead, when the whole party had arrived, he had emerged from the crowd and approached where Eddie was thoroughly tied down, reaching out to stroke her face.
"Such a pretty face," he whispered. "A shame it's going to go to waste."
She recoiled as far as she could in disgust, a variety of worst case scenarios running through her head at his comment. He had smirked and turned back to the onlooking crowd.
"Boys. Why don't you have a little fun with Officer Janko here for a while? All your frustrations from today, from the job, at your wives, your kids, those perps, everything. Just let it wash over you and let go." Murphey gave a bone-chilling smirk. "It's not like she's going to be able to do anything about it."
Eddie felt her body turn cold and once again realized that whatever their motives were for taking her, they didn't appear to be planning to leave her alive at the end of this. Fortunately, while Murphey's words had ignited waves of excited whispers, no one approached her. It was almost as though they were scared, and no one wanted to be the one to throw the first punch.
Murphey apparently wasn't a fan of his men's hesitancy, because out of the corner of her eye, she saw him give a snap of his head to Bello. To his credit, the other man looked like he very much wanted to be anywhere else, but he still approached her. Bello paused, studying Eddie with a critical eye as he stood in front of her. She saw the shift in his eyes seconds before he threw his first punch, an uppercut that whipped her head back and had her tasting blood.
That seemed to open the floodgates, as the other men started howling with glee and hurling insults at her while Bello continued to throw punches. Slut. Whore. You're only still on the job because you've been fucking a Reagan all these years. You took what should've been mine. Eddie had gotten used to insults being thrown at her over the years, starting when her father had been arrested and then once she had started on the job, so she let them roll off of her without even letting them sink in.
Unfortunately, it was a little harder to ignore the physical attacks being leveled at her. Bello went at her for a while, before another man that she didn't recognize stepped in and took his place. She tried to get out of her restraints once again in an attempt to fight back, even though her earlier attempts had been useless, but to no avail. The new man seemed to take pleasure in watching her struggle, before he started attacking her as well.
Throughout it all, Eddie kept silent, not wanting to give the sick bastards any sort of pleasure from hearing her pain. So, she grit her teeth and stared straight ahead, not letting an ounce of sound escape from her as the hits started to pile up and the pain grew.
She was granted a brief reprieve from the abuse as her current attacker seemed satisfied with his efforts and took a step back without someone new filling his place for once. Sadly, it seemed like the next guy, another one that was unfamiliar to her, was just pausing for dramatic effect. He gave her a smirk as he shrugged off his suit jacket and handed it to another person standing nearby.
Eddie felt rage boil up inside of her. This was all some sort of sick game to them, using her as a punching bag and obviously not intending to let her leave alive. And after the past few hours, the smirk she was receiving was what put her over the edge. As he approached, she spit at her latest attacker, surprised when the blood landed on his nicely cleaned dress shirt and a little bit on his face.
The entire room went silent as the man froze, the smirk instantly dropping off his face as he slowly reached up to wipe the blood off in disbelief. Eddie gave him a bloody smirk from where she was still restrained to the chair. She might not be able to give as good as she got right now, but that didn't mean she was going to let them get away with this lying down.
Eddie knew even as she said it that this was probably going to be a death sentence for her but couldn't bring herself to care. They obviously didn't intend to let her go, so what was the point in self-preservation? Might as well give them as good as she was getting. "Oops, looks like you've got a little bit of something on your shirt there too, buddy," she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness and sarcasm.
The man's eyes flew up to her in rage and she saw them darken. There was just enough time for her to realize he was flying at her before her head snapped sideways and she saw stars.
Eddie felt her body slam into the floor as the chair she had been sitting in tipped over with the force of the blow and let out a groan at the impact. Everything was spinning and darkness was starting to creep in at the edge of her vision, but she fought to stay awake. She wasn't a medical professional, but she knew enough about head injuries to know that losing consciousness was something to be avoided at all costs. And given her current situation, she wasn't sure that she would wake up if that happened.
The rest of that night had been a blur. At some point one of them had broken out a knife and started slashing at her arms where she wasn't tied down, but Eddie barely noticed the pain. She had distanced herself in her mind from the events occurring and was trying to focus on just staying awake.
The one thing she was thankful for was that she hadn't put in for modified duty at the start of her tour yesterday like she had considered, especially since the desk sergeant who would've gotten that paperwork was part of her captors. Eddie had no doubt in her mind that if they knew about her pregnancy, they would've been trying to make her lose the baby by kicking and hitting her stomach. For now though, they seemed to be satisfied with using her face and upper body as a punching bag. She very much doubted that her sweet little rainbow baby, the one she had finally started to dream about, was still alive after everything that had gone on in the last twenty four hours, but at the moment she chose to cling to the small possibility that she was wrong, and they would both make it out of here alive. It was the only thing that would keep her sane throughout it all.
Sometime after darkness started to fall, they started to trickle out, going home to play their expected roles of adoring husbands and fathers now that they had taken out some of their frustrations. Murphey had barked at one of the men to make sure she wouldn't expire, since that would ruin their fun, and then left with all except for two of them. Between the pain in her head and the blood running into her eyes, Eddie couldn't make out the face of who it was, but one of the remaining men held a bottle of water up to her lips and fed her a few slices of bread. It wasn't much and she normally wouldn't have even taken it, but if there was a chance her baby was still alive, she needed to eat to keep it that way. She also wouldn't be able to do much if she died of dehydration before help came or they got sloppy enough for her to escape.
Various ones had come back throughout the day Saturday to go for another round, including the detective that she had spit on, and then again Sunday. Eddie was covered in dried blood by Sunday night and was distantly aware of the pain coursing through her body, but at this point she had separated herself from it to the point that it almost felt like she was an observer of her own torture. She knew that couldn't be a good sign, but it was the only thing that was keeping her mind from snapping. Unfortunately, her bindings were still tightly secured, not even the slightest bit loose.
Murphey, the apparent leader, reappeared Sunday night. He had a couple of other men with him, but they stopped once they stepped inside. Eddie felt a sinking feeling start to come over her. Murphey had yet to physically hurt her, but she knew he was the mastermind behind the entire scheme, since all of the other men seemed to defer to him like he was in charge. The cool smirk on his face as he approached her told her that he was done playing his little psychological games and had decided to up the stakes.
Murphey knelt down in front of where she was sitting in the chair, studying her with a critical eye and taking in her injuries. Eddie tensed her arms in an attempt to loosen her restraints and return the courtesies she had been extended all weekend but was unsuccessful.
He curled his lip in amusement at her attempt. "Now come on, my dearest pet. Don't tell me you're looking to leave so soon."
Eddie gave a half shrug as best as she could. "I mean, if you're offering, I wouldn't say no."
Murphey let out a bark of amusement at that. "We both know that's not going to happen. No no, it's my turn to play tonight."
He reached into the small bag he had brought with him and took out a knife, a lighter, and what looked to be a burn phone. Eddie felt a sliver of fear start to creep up her spine at the sight of them. She had no idea what his plan involved, but it didn't look like something she wanted to try.
She swallowed, glancing around to see if there was something that she could use to free herself, even though she had already done so a hundred times and come up empty. "I hate to disappoint you, but one of your buddies already did the whole knife thing the other day."
The look in the man's eyes as he smirked at her sent more slivers of fear into Eddie's heart. There was no remorse at all. If anything, he looked like he was having the time of his life.
Murphey flicked the lighter on, both of their eyes instantly being drawn to the small flame, and held his knife over it. "I know. Jacobs has always had a thing for sharp objects, but I noticed that the cuts are starting to scab over. We can't have that. Besides, the fun is only beginning."
The knife in his hand started to glow red and he studied it before deciding it was hot enough for his liking. Without warning, he reached out and slashed over one of the cuts on her bicep.
Eddie let out a yelp as the hot metal cut into her skin and through the new tissue that had just started to cover it with a fierce burning sensation. It had been so sudden; she hadn't been able to mentally prepare herself for the strike or to bite back the sound.
Murphey seemed pleased by her pain, as he continued to slice at her wounds until her arms were a sticky red and black mess and Eddie tried to bite down on her whimpers. Once all of them had been reopened, he reheated his knife and started to press it down in random spots. Her arms, her ankles, her chest, everywhere except her face it seemed. Eddie wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
Eventually, he seemed to grow tired of his little game and reached for the phone that he had taken out earlier. He waved it in her face. "You know what game we're going to play now, Mrs. Reagan?"
Eddie felt her stomach drop through the floor. That comment alone was all she needed to know that this must have something to do with Jamie. She had had a sneaking suspicion it might Friday morning, but his little comment was all she needed to confirm it. And if he was planning what she thought he was, she couldn't let Jamie listen. "No. No don't do this. You can't let him listen. It'll kill him. Please."
Murphey let out an amused laugh at her plea. "As much as I would love to torture your husband more with this, he seems to be a bit difficult to get a hold of these days. Can't imagine why. But don't worry, we're going to get the next best thing."
She frowned in confusion. The next best thing? What could that possibly be? His beef was obviously with Jamie, so she couldn't possibly think of who else Murphey would be able to get to that his next actions would bother as much.
The man reached down into his bag and pulled out a balled up t-shirt. He rolled it around in his hands before he grabbed Eddie's head and forced it into her mouth as a gag and secured it with a strip of duct tape. "Now, you're going to be a good little girl and keep your mouth shut while the men have a conversation"
Eddie tried to let out a protest around the disgusting piece of fabric in her mouth, but it came out as a muffled whisper.
Murphey had only laughed and dialed the phone. His conversation with Danny was surprisingly brief and if Eddie was being honest, she had been half-expecting him to kill her and make Danny or Jamie listen while being able to do nothing about it. Of course, he had traced his knife along her neck throughout the entire conversation, which did nothing to calm her frayed nerves, and pressed hard enough to draw blood at one point. Eddie had let out a muffled scream as he drove the knife into her shoulder, but then the call was done, and the gag was removed.
He studied her as she glared daggers up at him and fresh blood started pouring down her arm over the dried stuff from earlier. His lips curled back in a smirk. "I'm afraid that's all the time we get to play together, Officer. Our time together has come to an end, seeing as your idiot of a brother-in-law can't even figure out where you are despite my serving it up to him on a platter. But don't worry. I'm sure that your poor husband will get plenty of condolences."
Eddie had barely had time to process what Murphey had said before she had felt the cool metal of another needle sliding into her neck and injecting something. This time, she had welcomed the darkness as it washed over her. She had been barely conscious as it was and although she was loathe to admit it, she would prefer not to be awake when they decided to kill her.
That had led her to wherever she was now. Eddie had no clue where she was or what they were planning, but she doubted it was anything good. Her best guess was the trunk of a car or van maybe, since it was dark, and she could feel movement. There wasn't a lot of space for her to move around, not that she would be able to do much anyways since her arms were bound behind her back and her ankles were taped together as well. There was a loose gag in her mouth that she managed to work out after a couple of minutes as well.
Eddie had no idea how long she had been out, but it must have been a while, since she could feel the dried blood on her arms cracking as she shifted to test the bindings. Her shoulder hurt like a bitch, but she ignored it as the zip ties cut into her wrists and the duct tape over them pulled at her skin. There were bigger problems to deal with at the moment than what felt like a hot metal spike being driven into her shoulder. Starting with whatever games Murphey was playing with her.
First, he played with her mind. Then he had his little insecure minions take out their anger on her. Then he decided to test out his knife on her and do some more psychological warfare by taunting Danny. Now he was taking her to a secondary location and who knew how long they had been driving. Eddie was over it. If he was going to kill her, he might as well get it done with. She was tired of this limbo that she had been living in for the past few days.
Eddie felt herself shift to the side and bump into the side of the trunk as the vehicle took a right. The ride went from being relatively smooth, a fact she hadn't even realized until now, to bumpy and uneven, almost as though they were going down a gravel or maybe service road in the country.
Great. They were going to kill her and throw her in a shallow, unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere. Or they wouldn't even give her that courtesy and would instead just leave her body in the woods for animals to feed on until some poor hunter or hiker stumbled across her remains months or even years later. Then all she would be was a Jane Doe, maybe kept in storage at a coroner's office, but more than likely buried in a potter's field.
Eddie tried to push the thoughts out of her mind, but they stuck like glue, latching onto her fear and bolstered by the cases she had worked on throughout her career of similar murders.
After what seemed like forever, the vehicle started to slow down and gradually came to a stop. There was the sound of doors slamming and the driver and passenger crunching through leaves. Eddie could faintly hear them arguing about something, but she wasn't able to catch the beginning of the conversation.
"-far away? That was murder, man." The speaker sounded as though he was a male, with a voice that was vaguely familiar to Eddie, although she couldn't place it through the pounding in her head.
"She's a loose end. We've got to make sure that we get rid of her somewhere no one would think to find her and where she can't be found for a long time." Eddie felt a chill run through her at the sound of Murphey's voice.
"Yeah, yeah, I get that part. But this is literally the middle of nowhere. I'm sure there are closer places that are also the middle of nowhere."
Murphey let out a snort. "There are. But those spots are where they're going to be looking for her. They'd never think to even look up here. Plus, I've got a contingency plan in place, remember?"
There was some grumbling from his counterpart. "I remember. He better be good at keeping his mouth shut."
There was the sound of crunching as the two men approached the back of the car. Eddie tensed up. If she was going to go down, she was going to go down swinging, hands and feet bound or not.
They paused outside the back of the vehicle. Murphey's partner did some more grumbling, leading Eddie to the conclusion that she had been out for several hours at least before she had first come to in the trunk. "All I'm saying is, if I don't get back to the city in time to pick my son up, my wife will have my head."
There was a sound like Murphey was giving the other man a few pats on the back. "Don't worry, we should be back in time."
Eddie heard the sound of a key turning the lock on the trunk before sunlight came flooding inside. While her first instincts had been to attempt to take them by surprise, the sudden change in darkness caused her to recoil and try to readjust her eyes to the light.
There was a laugh. "Well, what do we have here? Looks like I didn't give Sleeping Beauty enough to keep her out for the whole trip. Guess we'll have to fix that." As Eddie's eyes adjusted, she saw Murphey smirking down at her.
She tried to use her core and lower body strength to lunge at him despite her bindings, but her body failed to respond. It was almost as though she was moving through syrup, the way it was failing to move.
Murphey seemed to find her slow attempt at escape amusing. "Now now, Officer Janko. We've gone to all this trouble to make sure that you're taken care of and out of the way. Don't go doing anything stupid.
He nodded at his partner. "Grab the vial from the car. Give her a small dose, just enough that she doesn't try to do something while we move her. Tyler's going to want to play once we leave."
The other man, who Eddie had a feeling she should recognize but couldn't, disappeared and she heard the sound of a door opening. She started to struggle against her bindings again, since the second they stuck that needle into her she knew it was going to be over. She didn't know who this 'Tyler' was, but she also really didn't want to find out, based on the way that her past few days had been going.
Murphey's partner came back around to the open trunk, a drawn needle in his hand. At a nod from his partner, the man reached down into the trunk, tightly gripping Eddie's injured shoulder near the stab wound as she thrashed about in an attempt to avoid him. Her body was still not responding as quickly or urgently as she wanted to, likely the result of a concussion, so he was able to get a grip on her with relative ease. He pressed a thumb into her barely clotted injury and Eddie let out a hiss of pain, her body momentarily stopping movement.
The partner saw his opportunity and took it, stabbing her right above the injury with the needle and injecting its contents quickly before stepping back. Eddie could feel the drug starting to course through her system and felt the last tendrils of hope starting to drift away.
She thought of her mom, somewhere back in the city, no clue where she was or what had happened to her. Now Lena would outlive both of her children and despite her mother's somewhat difficult exterior, Eddie knew that this would likely be her final breaking point. She couldn't bring herself to think of if her dad even knew what had happened, but she hoped that her mother wouldn't blame Jamie for this.
Oh God. Jamie.
Eddie felt a single tear slide down her face as she thought of him. Both of her captors had disappeared briefly and weren't there to see it, something she was thankful for. But this, this would absolutely destroy Jamie. She knew how he thought, knew that no matter how many times people told him differently, he would blame himself for this. And that wasn't the case, at least not as far as she was concerned. Eddie may not know the exact reasons why she had been taken, but she did know that this wasn't Jamie's fault. The only person to blame for this would be Murphey and the rest of his gang.
Her body started to become heavier, but she stayed conscious, fighting back the darkness that was pulling at the back of her mind and edges of her vision. Murphey's partner reappeared from wherever he had gone to. Much to her surprise, he looked somewhat hesitant about everything. Good. Maybe he'll crack eventually and give Jamie some closure. He at least deserves to have that.
The man reached down and grabbed Eddie's good shoulder, maneuvering her around a few boxes that had been thrown in the trunk as well. As he pulled her forward to get her out, she tried to fight back, telling her body to twist and try to get free, but it refused to cooperate.
As she got closer to the edge, she also saw that the inside of the trunk behind the headlights had been reinforced with some kind of hard black plastic. Most likely an insurance plan in case she had woken up and tried to kick out the headlights in an attempt to raise suspicion from another driver or catch the attention of state patrol.
Murphey's partner pulled Eddie up out of the trunk, standing her on her own legs for the first time in days. Unfortunately, between the concussion, the sedative, and the sudden change in position, she almost collapsed immediately. The man caught her shoulder as her legs went out from under her and held her upright while he shut the trunk with his free hand.
Once the stars in her vision had cleared and she no longer thought she was going to pass out, Eddie tried to get a grasp of her surroundings. They were in a small clearing in the woods, surrounded by trees for what looked like miles, with a wooden cabin nestled into the edge of the trees. Murphey stood at the edge of the cabin's porch, watching her and his accomplice.
He smirked and Eddie swore if she ever got free, she was going to break the man's jaw, permanently wiping it off of his face. He gestured for them to come closer. "Come on now, he's waiting inside. All excited about getting something for his very own. Then we can head back to the city."
Eddie felt the other man's grip on her arm tighten as he stepped forward and half dragged her along with him, since her legs were refusing to cooperate. She felt a small surge of surprise run through her when he spoke.
"I'm sorry about this. I really am. I never meant for things to go this far," he whispered.
She barely had time to wonder what he meant as they approached the porch. Murphey's eyes glinted as he spoke again.
"The fun has only just begun, Reagan. Best of luck."
I promise this isn't the end, but next chapter we're going to return to Danny and see how the investigation is coming along. Let me know what you thought if you desire!