Russian was not an angry language. Despite it not being her native tongue Tess had been quite fierce about correcting him anytime he said so, though he still thought it was her soft tone that made it sound so much sweeter. But right now it sounded angry.

Because she was.

"-in front of a whole fucking precinct!" She shouted, not the first time she'd raised her voice, or switched back to English and just like every other she quickly flipped back, a conversation he didn't even attempt to decipher.

She would tell him when she was done and in the meantime he was fine to watch her.

Mostly.

It made his own gut hurt whenever her hand came to rest on her stomach, more every time she stopped herself; she'd told him it was half an act of comfort, half assurance that she wasn't repeating old habits. So the next time she did it he left his spot at the island to go up behind her and put his own over it, pleased by how instantly she relaxed but he could still feel her frustration. It matched his own. They hadn't left the district until two am but despite their efforts hadn't been able to find anything useful. Wherever The Butcher had gone was somewhere without cameras, and he'd either stayed there or had a map of where they were because he hadn't popped up on any. More likely he'd been given one because apparently technology wasn't his strong suit. Neither was subtlety.

They'd only gotten a few hours of sleep but they hadn't been restful ones, every time her breath hitched all he'd heard was her screaming, all he was able to picture the white of her spine as he cut her open. It wasn't like he'd expected her to not know what he was thinking but it still bothered Jay that she was trying to comfort him, but he couldn't deny that he needed it.

Just like he couldn't deny that when they finally found this prick he was going to kill him.

Unless Tess wanted to, he wouldn't take that away from her, just so long as he died.

Hopefully very painfully.

He'd never really been the vindictive type, of course he had urges but to date had never given into them, but that resolve was changing the more he learned about what Tess had been through. What she had done. Voight had changed his mind on that too but his Sergeants willingness to cross lines had actually made him more confused, understanding that sometimes it was necessary but unsure of how to make that call for himself. But not anymore. His line was crystal clear now.

Anyone that acted with malicious intent was going to get a taste of their own medicine.

Starting with The Butcher.

An aggravated breath brought his attention back to Tess and he quickly tightened his grip when she threw her head onto his shoulder, her fierce pout making him smile even as he wondered what had caused it. "Is Dimitri in on it?"

"No." She answered with clear annoyance, taking a deep breath before she pushed closer. "He just didn't feel the need to tell me Volya had gone insane and murdered his associates there because he hadn't thought he'd come here."

"Are the two related?"

"Someone's responsible for putting a half a million in his bank account."

Not the answer they were looking for and the kiss he pressed to her temple and the one she left on his shoulder could only do so much. But since neither of them felt like lingering on their current helplessness they only held each other for another minute before making for the elevator, but before they could get on Aelin blocked their way. And started yelling. There was no other way to explain the way she began yowling, loudly, looking Tess dead in her eyes as she did. His girlfriend also seemed confused, and hurt before she got that guilty look, surprising only him when she then dropped to her knees in front of the cat, bowing her head as she took the apparent dressing down. And when Aelin turned her gaze on him he automatically did the same, growing more convinced the feline was not entirely natural when she fucking nodded. After another minute of giving them a piece of her mind she sashayed into the elevator, chirping at them until they followed her, sharing a look to make sure they'd received the same message.

If Tess wasn't retired then neither was she, and she was done being left behind.

He didn't have a problem with that but his Sergeant wasn't as used to the cat and gave them an unimpressed look when she hopped onto Tess's desk. "Seriously?"

"Tell him." Jay said to Aelin, unable to hold back his smirk when Voight rolled his eyes as he waved at him, before they went wide with shock when she did.

Loudly, and somehow more rudely, even turning her attention to Adam when he snickered before he too fell silent, everyone watching as she made herself comfortable next to Tess's keyboard. And looking away when she cooly met each of their stares.

"That's fucking awesome." Vanessa whispered, grinning when Aelin nodded at her before they all turned their attention back to Tess. "Did you find anything?"

She took a moment to return their smiles before taking in their question, giving another one to the cat when she rubbed against her as her mood noticeably dropped. "Two weeks ago Volya apparently 'snapped', for unknown reasons, and killed everyone in his outfit- they've been looking for him since and had no idea he'd made his way here, which means he didn't go through their channels."

"So how'd he get here?" Kevin asked, staring at Aelin before tentatively reaching out his hand for her to sniff before he happily gave her some scratches.

"I was able to get footage of him sneaking off the tarmac at LAX- my guess is he used his own connections to hop into a cargo hold. And since I can't find anything of him leaving the city, or arriving in this one I'm betting he hid out in the back of a truck. On his own or with help remains to be seen."

"You can't think he's doing this alone. Especially with the timing." Hailey stated and though it was just a few months ago that the question would have angered him now all Jay felt was relief that the frustration in her eyes was on Tess's behalf instead of being directed at her.

"No. I don't."

It was a simple answer that didn't surprise any of them, but it did damper the mood Aelin had just lightened. And their morale only got lower when over the next few hours they weren't able to learn anything else. Tess was growing more convinced that Alexei was involved but she couldn't prove it yet, and didn't want to put Dimitri in an uncomfortable position by getting the information herself, so for now they were letting him think he'd gotten away with it. But that didn't make it easier when they couldn't find any leads on who was helping her would-be tormentor, or where he was hiding. And when Trudy came upstairs in the early evening holding a small cardboard box with what looked like Cyrillic scrawled on the side he knew things were about to get worse.

"A little boy just dropped this off." She explained, hesitating before she carefully put it down on Tess's desk.

"You sure that's safe Sarge?"

The Desk Sergeant gave Adam a deadpan look that would have made him laugh if his heart hadn't lodged itself in his throat wondering what was inside it. "No. I thought I'd bring up a Jack in the Box to my favourite people and just see what happens."

"You called us your favourite people." Adam joked but he fell silent when Voight stepped forward, like all of them tracking Tess as she broke away from where she was going over pod footage with Kim to look the little box over.

"What does it say?"

"Malen'kiy golub." She replied quietly, running her fingers over the corners before she took a deep breath. "Little dove."

"Like from game of thrones?"

She laughed at Adam's next question but it was short and sad and strangled, her pinched face going pale as she finally opened the flaps and lifted out-

A dove.

A dead dove.

With a scrap of paper tied around one of it's limp legs and something inside Jay started screaming when he saw how gently she handled the little bird, how she eased out the tiny usb that had been shoved down its throat. This fucker was sick. Sick and twisted and living on borrowed fucking time. The bullpen was silent as she checked the device for viruses before finally plugging it into her computer, turning the screen around so they could all see before she hit play and quickly stepped back. Stepped into him, an embrace he quickly wrapped her up in.

They were going to win. This was going to hurt, they were going to get hurt but they were going to win. He'd make sure of it.

But for right now he just had to make sure Tess was supported, had to measure her breaths and the rigidity in her back when the black screen flickered to life, had to feel how shaky her hands became as a worktable came into view. As the camera was set down and the soft trilling in the background turned to shrieking as a bird, a dove, that dove was placed down. Held down, its head forcefully turned towards the camera, the panic in the creatures black eyes clear as it's mouth was pried open and that usb meticulously placed inside. And then they watched it choke to death. The minute she'd seen the bird Tess had gone still and it was now her comforting him, the soft brushes of her thumb not soothing his rage but centering it. He'd done this on purpose. He would have had to take the damn usb out to load it with this fucking snuff film which meant he'd gone out of his way to hurt her and that… That wasn't acceptable. That wasn't going to go unpunished.

Jay registered that he let go of Tess, that people called his name as he walked away but he didn't stop, couldn't, not until he was standing at the top of the stairs outside, scanning the streets around them. Until he walked onto the pavement, the bite of metal slicing into his palm centering him even more. His own oath.

Jay would make him pay for what he'd done to her.

Him and everyone else.