Hi everyone. Weekend's here so I hope you're ready to do some reading. We're continuing where we've finished last time with that mysterious person suddenly coming in. So here it is. Enjoy.

Chapter 20

"Well, well… look who's here."

All of them turned to see the person that had just entered the room. Although he was wearing a mask, one could tell that he was middle aged, tall and had piercing blue eyes.

"Is this the famous Juliet Higgins?" The mysterious man asked and approached the woman. "I heard you had caused Burt a lot of trouble and pain."

"And I'd gladly do that again." She replied, glancing at Burt and sending both of them a sweet innocent smile.

The visitor started clapping his hands.

"Bravo! Apart from being beautiful, you're also smart and quick-witted. Good for you." He stated. "I wouldn't take you for someone who could successfully fight Burt here." He pointed to the kidnapper.

"Hey, you do remember the instruction was not to harm her no matter what." Burt protested at once.

"Yeah, I remember and you fulfilled this order really well, thank you. I'm very grateful for that."

Burt snorted at his words. "I would be grateful too if the money was finally transferred into my bank account."

"Don't worry. You'll get the money as promised."

"I hope so, Timothy." Burt said under his breath and smiled with satisfaction at the fact that he had revealed the man's name. "I have someone to spend it with."

Timothy instantly gave him a furious look and then turned his attention back to Juliet.

"I must say, Miss Higgins, you're much prettier than in the pictures they kept sending." He stated, briefly glancing at Burt. At that point he moved even closer to her, his face coming so near that she felt his breath on her cheek.

Juliet started feeling uneasy by the man's behavior. The first thing that sprang to her mind was to fight this man, for example by kicking him right where he would definitely feel it. If only she could do that. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like a good idea. One, the man had his ready for use gun on her and two, Burt's gun was pointed at Thomas and he could kill her partner at any time. So she decided to lay low for the time being and try not to do anything that could endanger Magnum.

"It's hard to believe that such a charming woman like you, would harm anyone." The man continued.

"I can assure you I am capable of many things that would bring one immediate pain and I'd gladly show you if you just put your gun away." Juliet told him with courage in her voice, her eyes cold as steel.

The man's instant reply was a shy grin. "Oh, I don't doubt you'd do that. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, I can't let that happen. Sorry." He said and at the same time his hand touched Higgins' arm and then his fingers deliberately very slowly slid down to her wrist.

She swallowed hard and gritted her teeth, sending him a death glare full of hatred.

That was enough for Thomas who suddenly launched forward. "Hey, knock it off! Leave her alone!" He protested.

As soon as he did that, he was given a painful blow to the head by Burt's gun.

"Magnum!" Juliet cried out in horror.

She was afraid something like that would happen. She tried to avoid it but knowing her partner, sooner or later it got to take place. She gathered her strength and was ready to launch an attack on their mysterious visitor, when she was being stopped by Burt who quickly jumped to her, grabbing her arms from behind and holding her in place.

The power of the blow made Magnum stumble. He felt a sudden dull pain in his head and had difficulty standing straight, frantically trying not to fall to the ground at once. He blinked a couple of times and finally seemed to be able to keep his balance.

"Geez, thanks, man. I think I just needed that." He spoke sarcastically. When he raised his head and looked to his left, he noticed the man staring at him.

"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?" Timothy slowly moved towards Thomas, not taking his eyes off him. "Isn't it the famous Thomas Magnum who claims to be the best private eye on Oahu?"

"Actually, I prefer to be called a private investigator. I don't know why people keep using that name but I see you've done your homework about me." Magnum said, trying to sound nonchalant and thus making the man focus his attention on him rather than on Higgy. He was ready to do that for as long as he could.

"I'm afraid your reputation precedes you, Mr. Magnum. I'm sure it's not the first time you heard those words. I've heard you're capable of many things and you're very effective." Timothy stated, standing now face to face with the PI. "There's one more important thing about you that you need to know."

"Which is?" Magnum asked.

"You shouldn't be here at all." The man whispered to him.

As soon as he said that, he punched Thomas in the stomach, making him bend in pain. At once, Magnum's previous injuries made themselves felt. For a moment there, Magnum saw black and it took him a couple of seconds before he recovered a bit. Unfortunately, he had a feeling it was just the beginning and it was going to get nasty really soon but he knew he had to do everything he could to catch the attention of those men. Just like he did in that camp in Korangal when he tried to protect Rick, TC and Nuzo.

Juliet was observing the whole situation with heavy heart and knowing her partner quite well, she instantly noticed what was Thomas' aim. She felt extremely guilty that he was doing this to keep her safe. If it depended on her, she certainly wouldn't let him. She thought she wasn't worth endangering his life. So when she witnessed another painful blow her partner had received, her whole body tensed and a loud "No!" left her mouth. She was ready to throw herself at the attacker but Burt's strong hold on her arms effectively prevented her from doing so.

Meanwhile, Timothy continued his attack on Magnum. "I was told about what you had already done here these past couple of days – that brutal attack on one of the guards and your frequent cheeky back talk. I see that you like taking the risk." The man said.

Magnum knew who gave the man all those details and glanced at Burt.

"Thanks." He told him with sarcasm.

"You're welcome." Burt replied, sending him a sweet smile.

As soon as Thomas looked back at their visitor, Timothy's fist met the PI's face very forcefully. As a result of the action, Magnum's head snapped back violently. He felt sharp pain and when he touched his lower lip, he found out that blood had already started trickling from the corner of his mouth. If he wasn't that weak and injured, he would fight this man or at least tried to do so but now he was aware that he stood no chance of defeating the opponent.

He glanced at Juliet whose face told him everything. She was clearly terrified, struggling in Burt's firm grip. When she met Magnum's gaze, she froze for a moment. They just stood there, both having a feeling that a silent communication was taking place between them. Like they knew what the other one was thinking.

Suddenly, Higgins shook her head. Please, don't do that, Magnum. She gut was telling her that if the thing continued, it would end very badly for her partner.

Thomas knew she wanted him to stop but he also knew that he didn't have a choice. He simply had to. Then he broke his gaze and took a deep breath.

"Is this the best you can do? I thought a great mastermind like you, would be much more impressive."

No more than three seconds had passed and Magnum received another nasty blow, this time it was aimed right at his chest. That was probably one of the worst parts of his sore body the attacker could choose because it made Thomas almost lose consciousness due to this unbearable pain. He felt awful, he could barely breathe and he wondered how much more damage this man had done to him. It seemed like every single part of his body was shouting at him that it needed rest or it wouldn't last much longer but that was definitely not going to happen. When Thomas' eyes dangerously started to close, Timothy grabbed him by the arms and shook him violently a couple of times to prevent him from passing out.

"On no, Mr. Magnum. I haven't finished with you yet." The man informed him.

Magnum came round after this action and Timothy noticed that with great satisfaction.

"Great. Now, how about we pick things up where we left off?"

Having said that, the man roughly pushed Magnum, who was barely standing, to the nearest wall, the same wall Juliet had climbed and fell down. The PI met the wall with a loud thud and felt like all the air left his lungs.

"Hey… since you're… the big boss here,… maybe you'll finally tell us… why you wanted… to kidnap my partner." Thomas spoke quietly, having a really hard time to catch his breath.

Suddenly, Timothy burst out laughing. For a moment there he sounded like a madman.

"Mr. Magnum, you're so funny, you know?" He said and then quickly got to the PI and held him against the wall.

He drew his head closer and whispered into Magnum's ear. "Too bad I need to take care of you right now. I really like your way of thinking."

Soon he grabbed Thomas' neck and wrapped his fingers around his throat.

"And there's one more thing you need to know – it's not me you should ask that question, I'm not the boss here." He added and went on to carry out his threat.

With each passing second, the man's fingers were tightening around Magnum's throat. One by one, each finger was depriving him of those valuable intakes of air. He was choking and as he was desperately struggling to breathe, he tried to kick his attacker and free himself from that iron grip but it was to no avail. Since there was so little air coming to his lungs and his brain started to be deprived of oxygen, Thomas completely lost his strength and he was barely standing there.

Timothy smiled triumphantly at the fact that he almost succeeded with his grand plan. Well, it wasn't entirely his plan. It was Burt who came to him when he and the boss had arrived the previous day. He told him how Magnum turned up here although the plan was to kidnap only the woman and how he acted after he had woken up in this place. Timothy was actually really curious about meeting the PI who despite being under heavy influence of the drug he had accidentally took in the drink, put all his strength into fighting the attackers in order to defend his partner.

"Time to say goodbye." Timothy murmured. "It was really nice meeting you, Mr. Magnum." He added before his grip tightened on Thomas' throat cutting off the air completely.

One of the last things Thomas' mind registered was Juliet's terrified scream "No!" coming from somewhere afar.

What a strange thing. She was quite close just a moment ago and now her voice seems to be miles away. A sudden thought flashed across his mind which desperately tried to stay focused but was failing miserably with each passing second.

His last thought was of Juliet and that by leaving her there alone he somehow failed her. At that moment his eyes closed, his legs gave in and he sunk heavily to the floor as he lost consciousness and impenetrable darkness surrounded him.

All this time, while Magnum was being choked, Higgins was doing everything she could to wriggle out of Burt's grip but it turned out that either the man was powerful like a strongman or eating so little for these couple of days affected her strength and ability to fight. She tightened her muscles, kicked and screamed, angry at her own inability to help her partner.

"Stop! Let him go!"

Her loud scream reverberated within the walls of the room just as Magnum's lifeless body collapsed to the floor.

"Let's finish the job, shall we?" Timothy glanced at Higgins and to her utter horror took out the gun and pointed it at Magnum. Slowly, he unlocked it with his finger, ready to pull the trigger.

"Hey! What's going on here?"

An angry voice came from the door. Everyone froze and looked that way. It turned out it was Nick who seemed to be quite irritated at the sight that greeted him there.

"I'm sorry…, I couldn't hold him back any longer." Tony mumbled, stepping from behind Nick. He was all red and sweaty, evidently nervous by the whole situation.

"I should have known you'd fail." Timothy growled menacingly.

"What?!" Nick raised his voice and turned towards the younger man. "How dare you go against me and my orders?!" He exclaimed and immediately a powerful punch was delivered to Tony's jaw.

The young man groaned in surprise and pain, stumbling backwards and then nursing the sore part of his face. Then Nick swiftly moved to Timothy who was still standing over Thomas' body and holding the gun.

"I asked a question. What's going on here?" Nick barked with impatience.

"I had to take care of things here." Timothy replied, casting a glance at Burt who was still restraining Juliet, glad that she stopped wriggling against him when Nick had come in.

"Since obviously you couldn't do it yourself." Timothy continued, now looking straight at Nick.

"Be careful with what you're saying." Nick warned him.

"Let me explain something to you." Timothy said, slowly approaching him and squinting his eyes at him. "It's not my fault you haven't done this job right. You were supposed to grab the woman only and you decided on your own about this PI. You brought him here and let him live despite his… remarkable ability to cause endless trouble and trying to escape. So I came here to end this once and for all." He stated and pointed to Magnum.

"Stay out of this. I took Magnum with me because I had a feeling he could be useful at some point." Nick explained.

"You had a feeling!" Timothy sneered. "That's very good! Maybe instead of feeling, you should start to carry out orders."

"Don't worry about me. Now, you've done enough here so it's time for you to leave." Nick told him through gritted teeth.

Timothy wanted to argue but at the same moment he got a phone call. He took out his phone and glanced at the caller ID.

"You have no idea how lucky you are. If it wasn't for this call, we would handle this differently." He stated with menace and with one last look at Magnum's lying form, he hurried out of the room.

Then Nick's eyes fell on Burt. "What are you waiting for? Get out of here too. Now!" He shouted his command loudly and in a voice that left no argument.

Burt was shocked and furious. He was so sure he would succeed that day. He promised himself that he'd get even with that woman. He knew that he couldn't hurt her physically according to the boss' order (and he followed orders unlike Nick), but he had a better idea. He figured out that since she obviously cared for her partner, deep hurting him would inflict much emotional pain on her side. The plan was simple and seemed to be quite easy – he talked to the boss' right hand as soon as he had arrived and described the whole situation in the right light, making sure Timothy decided that taking Magnum out of the picture was their only option.

"It's not over yet." He hissed with clenched jaw.

"Good, cause I haven't finished with you either." Higgins replied, meeting his vengeful eyes without any fear.

Meanwhile, Nick crouched down next to Magnum and took his hand to check for pulse. When he didn't find any, he moved to his neck. What really got him worried then was that it lacked one too. To tell the truth, it didn't look good.

Juliet was observing him closely with the corner of her eye during her conversation with Burt. She had a bad feeling. A really bad feeling that happened to occur only in extreme situations, exactly like this one. So as soon as Burt finally loosened his grasp, she jumped forward and ran to Thomas' lying form. She dropped to her knees and grabbed his hand, finding no pulse there.

At the same time Nick leaned over Magnum and put his ear close to the PI's face, checking if he was breathing. After a few seconds he raised his head and met Juliet's worried eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Juliet. I'm afraid he's gone."

Now that was very intensive chapter, wasn't it? And we've got another cliffhanger. What do you think may happen next? Is Magnum really dead? What is Juliet going to do if he's gone? You'll find that out in two weeks. Bye.