Reckless

Chapter 30

"I'm here," Toni urged. She cupped her brother's face with her hand, resting her palm against his cheek. "Hold on for just a little longer." Benny's eyes fluttered, his body teetering on the edge of unconsciousness. "Stay with me!," Toni begged. Her voice was full of desperation. They found Benny, but whether or not they'd be able to save his life was still a question.

The chair Benny was anchored to was large, the back too tall to accommodate a person of average size. Somewhere in Toni's mind, she registered just how premeditated this crime really was. Even if Lewis paid top dollar, which he likely did since he paid with stolen credit card numbers, the torture device chair still would have taken some time to build. It was custom sized to fit her brother's six foot six inch frame. This meant that Peter Lewis selected Toni's brother as his victim long before he impersonated an FBI agent and lured Benny away. He'd been planning this for weeks, if not months.

Toni was usually in a rush to get back to her son. But when her manhunt for the one of the escaped fugitives led her to Texas, Toni stayed an extra day to visit with her brother. She and Benny spent the afternoon running around a local park like children, playing horse on the basketball court and pushing each other too high on the rickety metal chained swings. Unfortunately, her fond memory of that day was now overshadowed by guilt. From the photos at the abandoned house, Toni knew Lewis saw them together during that visit. Just by spending time with him, she put her brother in danger. This was all her fault, she lamented, for not catching Lewis before he put this plan into motion.

Toni's thumb twitched against Benny's stubble covered cheek. She glanced down, assessing the sickening device he was strapped to. The chair sat on a flexible metal plate. There was some sort of pulley system underneath, making it so that he was forced to keep pressing down with his feet. If he let up the pressure, it tightened the collar around his neck. If he passed out or collapsed, he'd be choked to death. There was a large puddle of water around the chair, leading her to believe that the plate was originally held down by a large block of ice. As it slowly melted, Benny was forced to increase the pressure with his feet or be forcibly choked.

"Wait!," Rossi barked, stopping Luke before he could cut through the collar on Benny's neck with his pocket knife. "There's wiring running through the leather. If you cut through, it's going to set off whatever trap Scratch left for us."

Toni checked the ropes that were strategically knotted around Benny's wrists. Seeing no such wiring there, she began frantically slipping the knots loose. Rossi followed her lead, kneeling down next to her and working on the ties around Benny's ankles. There were rope burns on his flesh in both spots. The raw red markings fanned Toni's guilt along with her anger. She was going to catch Peter Lewis. And when she did, there would be no arrest. She was going to tear him limb from limb. Even a bullet to the head was too good for the likes of him.

Spencer and JJ were outside the room, communicating to Hotch through a radio. They found a trigger outside the room and Spencer was attempting to disable it. When Spencer's voice came through, saying that he cut the wire, Luke didn't hesitate. He began to slice through the leather collar around Benny's neck.

When Luke moved forward to get a better angle, he stepped down on the metal plate under the chair Benny was strapped to. A rumble issued from the doorway they used to enter the room. Rossi leapt up and dashed towards it. But he was too late to stop the heavy metal door from slamming down and trapping all of them inside. Rossi danced back, moving out of the way as a giant banner released from the ceiling. Toni glanced behind her just long enough to read the words painted on the thick fabric. It was the same bible quote Spencer used to deprogram her brother's imposter. Her conscious mind was distracted by the intense urge to free her brother. But she still registered the implication of what the banner meant. This whole situation was a trap. Lewis meant for them to find this place. Her brother wasn't his victim. He was bait.

"We've got to get him untied!," Luke shouted. "Now!"

Toni followed his gaze as she jerked the last knot on Benny's right wrist loose. There was a giant contraption above them. Toni didn't want to know what it was for. Even if all it did was fall on them, they'd all be crushed to death. She could hear Spencer's panicked voice through the speaker on Hotch's radio, telling them he deactivated the second trigger but he still didn't think they had much time. A moment later, Toni could hear both him and JJ as they started trying to pry the metal door open from the outside.

Benny sucked in a hard breath of air as Luke cut through the last bit of the thick leather collar. He gasped and sputtered before he spoke. "Get back!," he coughed. "I don't want you dying for me!"

"Shut the fuck up!," Toni spat back, earning her a smile from Rossi that she didn't see because she was too busy ripping through the knots on Benny's other wrist. As she jerked the last one loose, Luke and Hotch were already lifting her brother up and out of the torture chair. They all scrambled back, landing in a haphazard pile before Toni tripped over their legs and almost fell herself.

Toni screamed as the ceiling exploded. Giant metal nails rained down from the wooden boxes above the chair. They hit the ground with so much force, they even buried themselves into the steel plate below the chair. Toni slowly released the protective hold she had over her own face and head, blinking her eyes open and assessing the situation. Benny looked like he'd been through hell. But he was alive. And so was everyone else. Luke was smiling up at her. She met his gaze and smiled back. Then she rushed for the door. She could hear Spencer screaming and pounding on the other side of the metal. He must have panicked when he heard the loud explosion and her screams.

"I'm okay!," she hollered through the steel. "We're all okay!"

It took four men and two blowtorches before the metal door was finally pried open. Spencer paced back and forth as they worked, his anxiety making the time pass at an agonizingly slow pace. He darted through the opening while the metal was still hot. Spencer heard Toni's voice through the door, but actually seeing with his own eyes that Toni was alive and unharmed made his body flood with relief.

Toni was sitting cross legged on the floor, cradling her brother's head in her lap. There were circles under her dark eyes when she looked up at him. She desperately needed the time off that had been interrupted by her brother's kidnapping. Spencer made a silent promise to himself that once this ordeal was finally over, she was going to get some rest. Even if it meant turning both their phones off and locking themselves inside her apartment, he was going to make sure she took at least a day to actually recuperate.

Spencer had seen pictures of Toni's 'twin' brother. But seeing Benny in person was another matter altogether. To say he was big was an understatement. He was close to half a foot taller than Spencer, and outweighed him by at least a hundred pounds of muscle. His shirt was in tatters nearby, leaving him bare from the waist up. A scrap of fabric was hanging from the chair he'd been strapped to. Spencer guessed one of his colleagues had cut the rest off to assess his injuries.

From the neck down, Benny was almost completely covered in tattoos. Spencer tried not to stare, but he smiled slightly when he noticed the two that were matches to the ink Toni had on her body. On his upper left arm, Benny had stars in the shape of his zodiac sign. Where Toni was a Gemini, he was a Cancer. This made sense, given that he was just shy of eleven months older than her. On the other arm, near his wrist, Spencer spotted a heart that was half colored in red. It had P1 written inside it. Videogames were one thing Spencer wasn't well versed in. But he knew what the tattoos meant because Toni told him, player one and player two. As he watched Toni gently stroke her hands through the short crop of her brother's hair, Spencer felt an old familiar longing tug at his heart. Since he was a child, he always wished he had a family of his own. He was afraid to really allow himself to hope, but the idea that he might someday become part of Toni's was starting to form on the edges of his mind. It appealed to him more than he expected.

Spencer helped Toni up, holding her close as he backed her a few paces away from her brother to give the paramedics room to work. Benny was unconscious. He had wounds on his wrists and ankles, and nasty welts and bruises on his neck. But he was going to live, and that's what was most important.

"He's been stalking me for months," Toni whispered. "Lewis." Spencer nodded his head. He saw the same pictures Toni did, in the basement of that abandoned house. The idea that a madman was following her, and getting close enough to take photos, made him pull her tighter against his chest. "He had pictures of Romeo," she added. Spencer felt Toni's body go suddenly stiff in his arms. "What if this was all a trick? He lured us here so he could take my son," she gasped.

Since Romeo was not just hidden, but safe in the depths of the FBI headquarters, Spencer knew the chances of him being taken were almost zilch. Peter Lewis might be smart, but getting through FBI security was impossible even when the building wasn't on alert. Even if he managed to get into the building, JJ's husband Will was there. He wasn't an agent, but he was an accomplished police officer. He wasn't going to let Lewis just waltz in and snatch up Toni's son. Spencer attempted to assure Toni of all this, but none of it seemed to help ease her panic. Not only that, but Toni's anxiety quickly spread to the other parents on the team.

"You two go with him to the hospital," Hotch said, gesturing to Spencer and Luke. "I'll drive her and JJ back to headquarters." Spencer leaned into Toni's hurried embrace before he watched her rush out the door with JJ and Hotch.

The ambulance ride to the hospital was uneventful. Spencer sat quietly as the paramedics diligently monitored Benny's vitals. He was smart enough to know that he wasn't riding along just for moral support. Benny spent a fair amount of time in the presence of their most wanted fugitive. There was a possibility he might say something that would help them capture Peter Lewis. But Benny didn't stir during the ride. Spencer wasn't surprised by this. The effects of the scopolamine were still working their way out of Benny's system. Even if he hadn't been drugged, staying awake for hours or even days at a time trying to keep yourself from being strangled would be enough to exhaust anyone.

When they arrived at the hospital, Spencer and Luke were banished to a small waiting area outside Benny's room. Given that he'd been targeted by a serial killer, there really ought to be security at his door. But since both agents had a clear line of vision down the hall, Spencer felt Toni's brother was safe enough for the moment.

Luke stepped away, returning with the inevitable cups of watery hospital vending machine coffee. Spencer thanked him before he sampled his, cringing at the taste and wondering how the drink could manage to be both bitter and overly sweet at the same time. As he was considering a second sip, Spencer noticed a loud commotion coming from the entryway of the hospital. They were in the emergency room wing, so raised voices weren't necessarily cause for concern. It was Luke's laughter as he glanced around the corner that brought Spencer to his feet.

"You haven't met Toni's brothers yet, have you?," he asked. Spencer shook his head, resulting in another soft chuckle from his newest teammate. "Get ready," Luke suggested with a smile. "Because they're here."

Spencer glanced down at himself, chucking his rancid cup of coffee in the closest trash can before he attempted to straighten out his clothes. He stayed the night with Toni and they were in the middle of a casual breakfast when they were called in. So what Spencer was wearing were the cleanest items he plucked from his go bag that still looked reasonably clean. He was uncharacteristically rumped and wrinkled. And he was sort of hoping that the smell of sweat was strong enough to cover the lingering floral scent of Toni's perfume.

Spencer shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other as he watched Toni's two brothers interact with Luke Alvez. It was clear that they were more than just casually familiar with him. Luke was friends with them. Like everything to do with Toni's former partner, Spencer felt this put him at a distinct disadvantage. He wondered, and not for the first time, why Toni was enamored with him instead of the man she seemed to have such a long standing relationship with.

As the brothers greeted Luke, embracing him and slapping at his back, Spencer used that time to observe the two men. Like Benny, neither of them seemed to bear much physical resemblance to Toni. They didn't even look much like each other, for that matter. This made sense, given that they all had different fathers.

From their ages, Spencer was able to surmise that the younger looking of the two men was Matias. He was dressed casually, in comparison to his older brother, in jeans and a fitted shirt. His hair was long enough for the tousled ends to brush against his shoulders. Carlos struck a much different image in his immaculately pressed suit. He looked much like Spencer would have expected from a man that exclusively dated sex workers. His hair was shoeshine black, presumably to hide whatever gray he had, and slicked back from his face with so much product that it appeared to be glued into place.

"Who's this?," Matias asked. He gestured towards Spencer, who was hovering awkwardly nearby.

Luke's face lit up with a mischievous smile before he spoke. "This is Dr. Spencer Reid," he announced with unnecessary flourish. Spencer raised a brow at him, wondering what his colleague seemed to be finding so amusing. "He works for the bureau. He's the one that saved Benny's life today." Spencer felt the life saving was more of a group effort. But if Luke wanted to give him credit, he was going to take it. Especially in front of Toni's brothers. It wasn't until Luke added his last qualifier that Spencer realized what the man was up to. "...and he's Toni's boyfriend!"