A/N: Thanks again for supporting me this work and forgive all my mistakes...I don't own anything but them...Yes, Gina story continues and her life continues to parallel her mom's. Trigger Warning: Violence to the youth by an adult.

Caller reported a suspicious man carrying duct tape, rope, and a shovel.

Chief Deputy Clarington responded to the call.

It was the stocker at Lima Springs Hardware Store.

—LIMA SPRINGS POLICE BLOTTER

41

She knew her grandparents would never have let her come to Mrs. Banks' home given the circumstances and what she'd already put the elderly lady through. She had no choice but to sneak out once again.

"This is the last time I am ever sneaking out," she told Ricky when he picked her up in his dad's truck down the block.

"You know your grandparents are going to check on you. Before I left, they were checking on you every thirty minutes throughout the day. After this, they'll never let me see you again."

"I know they will check on me that's why I left them a note saying I needed to go home to take a shower."

"A home that's less than fifty feet from their house. They can easily walk back there and check on you there, too."

"And that's why I turned on the water and cranked up the radio really loud, plus they know how long it takes me to get ready for bed."

His look said he wasn't convinced that everything she did would convince her grandparents that she had not sneaked out again.

"Trust me. It takes me an hour."

"What if something bad happens and that hour turns into a prison sentence of twenty to life?"

"It's not like we are breaking in like last time. We are only coming to apologize for that and while you distract her, I will steal the tennis bracelet. What's the worse thing that could happen?" she asked.

He just shook his head at her. He knew how she struggled entering the first time. He doubt that stealing anything would be easy for the good girl who tried to be bad in order to do good.

She knew she could talk the talk, but she really was not cut out for a life of crime, even one designed to benefit Mrs. Banks. Once she managed to get the tennis bracelet and give it back to the Pratt family, she was finished do anything illegal for the rest of her life. And then, after Mrs. Banks passed away, Gina would tell her mom where she really got the tennis bracelet from and prove the drifter, Buddy Leibowitz, innocent. She really thought this was the best way to handle everything.

If something did go wrong, Gina really didn't want Ricky to get punished, so as soon as he parked the truck in Mrs. Banks' driveway, she told him to wait for her. When he shook his head know, she said, "I don't want to get into more trouble with your dad because of me."

Something flashed across his face when she said the last words to him. "I told my dad I was bringing you here. He's cool with it."

She didn't believe a word he was saying. "You can tell me anything. What is really going on with you?"

"I promise I will tell you everything later. I just want to enjoy every second with you while I can, Gina."

His words had the opposite effect on her and she could feel anxiety clawing itself inside of her. "What do you mean by that?"

"Let's do this first." He said with a voice that sounded almost thickened with tears.

She wanted to forget Mrs. Banks and the Pratts. She just wanted to hold him. "Ricky, I will always be here for you."

He hid his face in his hands.

She reached over and removed them and held his face in her own hands.

She could feel his tears.

"Ricky, please tell me what happened?"

He turned his face from her hands and told her, "I can't right now," before getting out of the truck.

She followed him until she caught up with him and reached for his hand. He took it and they walked hand in hand for a second until he reached around and slid his arm around her waist.

"I'm not going to push you, but please know that I am ready to listen when you are ready to talk."

"I know and I appreciate that, but I feel if I tell you everything, then it will make it real."

"I understand more than you can possibly know."

"If I don't tell anyone anything, then I can keep living my life like nothing has changed." He said his voice clouding with tears again.

She touched his face to comfort him. "You don't have to tell me right now, but you can use your poetry to express your feelings. When you are ready, I would be willing to read it."

"I can try, but I can't tell you the last time I wrote a poem. But when I do tell you everything, I want you tell me exactly what happened on that cliff when you were a kid when Mr. Menkins helped you."

"I will try to."

He wouldn't force her to, so he changed the subject since they were at the woman's house. "First we have a tennis bracelet to steal."

"Do you think this'll work?"

"I don't think, I know that you can do anything you set your mind to."

She was completely surprised by his words. "You have a lot of faith in someone whose only life goals are to be a Disney princess who talks to animals, sings, and one day marries a regular man with a daughter."

After telling him this, she gathered her courage and knocked on Mrs. Banks' door. As nervous as she was, she was not as nervous as when they were breaking and entering.

When she didn't answer, Gina decided that maybe she was in bed, but knocked softly again, and waited.

"She has been busy with almost stabbing a guy to death, running another man over in her nonexistent truck, and then having to confess to the sheriff department about all her misdeeds."

"That would wear me out," Gina agreed while laughing.

"Should we try again tomorrow?"

"Yes, straight after school so I don't have to sneak out because I have given that up." They started to leave when she thought of pun to express this. "I'm hanging up my sneakers, so to speak. Get it?" she asked while laughing. "Sneakers?"

Ricky laughed at her just as a crash sounded from inside Mrs. Banks's house. "Was that glass?" he asked. They were both worried about the elderly woman.

Gina tried the doorknob. "It's locked."

They tried to look through the window but couldn't see much for the curtains.

"Ricky, I am afraid she could have fallen and hurt herself."

"I am, too. We need to check on her. Let's go around to her back door."

Without even waiting for her to agree, they went around to the back door.

"It's unlocked," Ricky said, opening it and going inside.

They could hear someone tearing up the house, items falling and more glass shattering hit them. Ricky stopped Gina with an arm across her.

"Where is it?" An angry voice yelled at Mrs. Banks, and all they could hear were her tears.

Mrs. Banks' crying broke Gina's heart. "I don't know where it is. I could have sworn it was there."

"You are an old lying bitch," he said.

Gina was frozen, she knew she needed to call for help but a part of her wanted to run to Mrs. Banks and save her.

Ricky whispered to her, "Run and call 911."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm just going to make sure he doesn't hurt her until the cops get here."

She nodded, but a loud crash had the both of them rushing into Mrs. Banks' kitchen where she sat tied to a chair. A man more than twice her size towered over her.

"Let her go!" Gina shouted at the man who turned to her his face red with rage. She instantly recognized him and yelled. "Have you lost your mind, Chris Pratt!"

"Regina?" he asked confused about someone being able to identify him there.

"What are you doing here?" Before he could answer, she rushed forward, pushed him out of the way, and knelt in front of Mrs. Banks. "Are you okay?" she asked trying to untie her.

"I am not leaving until I get the damn tennis bracelet."

"You are doing this because of the tennis bracelet?" She was about to tell him where to find it, but she figured if she did none of them would leave the house alive.

"I told you that I was going to get it. I did, and then, I gave it to my mother. Remember, I told you that she's the sheriff."

Ricky kept his eyes on Chris, and Gina wanted to signal to him to run for help when she was suddenly thrown into Mrs. Banks' glass China cabinet just as Ricky ran to attack Chris in her defense. Ricky pummeled the bigger man with punches which stunned Chris causing him to stumble back.

However, while Chris was on the floor, he saw one of Mrs. Banks' kitchen knifes. She wanted to yell at Ricky to watch out, but before she could even get a chance she watched as Chris stabbed Ricky in his stomach.

When Ricky didn't fall down, Chris removed the knife and plunged it back inside of Ricky again.

This time Ricky grabbed the knife from Chris when he pulled it out a second time. He cut his palm, but he had the knife and tried to grab his stomach to stop the bleeding. Chris used Ricky's distraction to take the knife again, and that's the last thing Gina remembered before she fell unconscious.

Gina tried her best to remain conscious. But she kept slipping back under. The last thing she remembered were red and blue lights so bright they blinded her. She was woke long enough enough to hear footsteps and a man say her name before everything went black once again.

The state police brought Channing and Tina Alana to them in an ATV that looked like a small truck. Cedes told Hunter that she wanted one of those for their department.

"I thought you said our budget was the size of your baby toe." Hunter reminded her.

"It's actually smaller than that. I can still want and deserve great things."

"Oh. In that case, I deserve a drone with a camera and a new radio because these things are older than my right ass cheek."

Cedes watched as Tina quickly got off the ATV and ran to her sons. She couldn't help but notice that Channing did the opposite only looking from a distance as his wife hugged both of their sons and cried for several minutes.

Cedes walked up to them, not wanting to interrupt their family reunion, but she had to file her initial report. "Because it's getting late, I would really like to question the boys now, do you mind?"

Tina looked like she wanted to protest but changed her mind when she realized it was Cedes interrupting her time with her sons. "Sure. I just want to thank you, Mercedes for all you have done." She starting crying again and hugged her, too.

Cedes returned the hug. "Not thanks necessary, I was only doing my job, and I had a lot of help from your clever son who gave us the best clue ever." She smiled at Mack. "Sorry?"

"I was hoping someone would understand what I meant when those men showed up at the convenience store and were waiting for Mike, I knew I had to have a backup plan just in case he got injured or needed me to run."

"Sam and I were able to figure it out, so it was a genius plan." She looked over at Sam who was talking to Agent Wu from the DEA. They were loading the wounded agent onto a stretcher while they waited for the helicopter to airlift him to the hospital in McKinleyville. His rescue hadn't been easy because he had a broken arm, dislocated shoulder, and a sprained ankle. It took Jay, Martinez, and Hunter to help him climb the rope ladder that Mack had with him just in case his little brother fell inside the pit.

She was grateful they were there as well as Sam who saved her life again.

Every branch of law enforcement from the local police department that rarely came out to investigate anything, to her sheriff's department to the DEA, to the state police, to the DEA were represented.

Channing Alana was still not with his family. The DEA were questioning him because they had already found evidence of his hiring Tank. Which was crazy. He was able to steal and hide that kind of money, but stupid enough to leave a trail by hiring an assassin.

Alana had stayed on DEA's radar because of their long term investigation into the Weston family. The Ponzi scheme that Alana ran was probably a side deal involving the Weston's family money-laundering operations. From drugs to prostitution to running guns, there was no crime that the Weston family was not involved in.

What surprised the DEA agents was the fact that Channing Alana was still alive because no one steals from an organized crime family like the Westons lives to tell the tale. So, the DEA knew Alana had to have the money. It was what was keeping him alive because they would hardly kill him before they found it, but they wouldn't hesitate to torture and kill his family. That was probably why he never told his wife the truth.

Cedes had so many questions but she figured she would start with what happened before she and Sam arrived. "So, Mack how did Agent Wu end up in the pit?"

"I didn't know he was a DEA guy, and after someone tried to kill Mike, I thought maybe he was here to kill us, too, so I showed him where the money was and then pushed him in."

That's what she thought had happened. "Well, he should have identified himself and shown you ID, since he didn't, then he got what he deserved. I just don't know how he beat us here. How did he know where to find you?"

"He told us that he followed you and Sam and could tell by the map where you two were headed. He avoided you and Sam when you two were busy kissing he said."

Tina looked shocked at that last part.

Cedes tried to tell the truth, "We were not kissing. We were trying to capture the other two guys who were following us."

"He said you were both kissing that you didn't even notice him passing you on the trail."

Cedes decided to be honest. "We pretended to kiss but our lips didn't even touch, and while we doing this Hunter, Jay, and Martinez were able to apprehend the other two men."

"He said you two were K.I.S.S.I.N.G. Kissing."

Wes took that opportunity to speak up. "Yes, kissing, so we had to rescue ourselves."

Cedes felt embarrassed even though she knew what she and Sam were doing did not endanger the boys luckily because Agent Wu was one of the good guys, but it could have gone so wrong.

Mack didn't agree with his brother because his guilt was evident on his face. "Everything was all my fault, because I called the Weston family and told them I knew where the money was. I thought if they had their money back, then they would leave us alone, so me and Mom and Wes and Mike could be a family."

Cedes was only a mildly surprised he'd omitted his father.

"I only wanted to be with my mom and brother and of course Mike."

"It was not your fault, sweetie. I am sorry you think it was. You are actually my hero. I am sorry that you had to be." Tina told her son before hugging him to her tightly while crying in his hair.

"Also a part of me wanted to hurt Dad. The only thing he cared about was that money. He would rather give up his family than give up the money. I really wanted Mr. Weston to get it back, and maybe then he would leave my mom alone and I could return home. I know it was wrong, but—"

"Mack you have nothing to be sorry about. You should feel anger at your father, maybe he had a moment of weakness or maybe he'd been stealing it for years, but once you do that to a family like the Westons, there is no forgiveness. They would have killed him and possibly your whole family. Maybe as long as he had that money, he felt he was keeping everyone safe."

"What are you saying?" Tina asked her son.

"Dad knew they couldn't kill him because he was the only one who knew where the money was. They couldn't get to him, because he'd already been arrested, so to get Dad to tell them where the money was, they were coming after us. You and me. Dad found out and that is why he had Mike pretend to kidnap me. He knew I knew where the money was, too. He was scared I'd tell, and he couldn't let that happen, so he had Mike take me and left you alone pregnant and very vulnerable."

"Please tell me this isn't true," Tina replied the tears steadily falling down her face.

"Dad didn't care about your safety or we both would have disappeared with Mike. He didn't care if you lived or not. Also, he didn't know that the Westons would stop harassing him once I was abducted, and it was plastered all over the news. They were being watched too closely, and it would raise too many suspicions if anything happened to him or you, and the increase police presence, further deterred the Westons from enacting their revenge."

"Mack, how could you possibly know all of this?" Cedes ask hoping to give Tina time to compose herself.

"Mike had someone on the inside of the Weston family criminal organization. It could have been that DEA agent we pushed in the pit, but all I know is that someone kept an eye on things and made sure that my mom was safe. If she was ever in danger of a hit, Mike was going to take her and Wes whether they wanted to come or not."

When Mack slipped and said we pushed in the pit, Wes spoke up. "I promise we didn't know he was an agent or we wouldn't have pushed him," Wes confessed.

"But everything else is my fault, especially Mike almost getting killed. When I found out that my dad was getting out, I didn't want him to get the money he loved more than us, so I called the Westons, and they tried to kill Mike to get to me."

"No, I promise you Mike getting ambushed wasn't your fault. Tank was the one who hired those men not the Weston family."

"Oh, my dad is the one who hired Tank."

She could tell Tina was trying not to burst again into tears, but she had to be the adult and the only reliable parent her sons had. "What I don't understand is why didn't Mike tell me any of this?"

"Mom, we had to keep you and Wes safe. The less you knew the safer you both were."

"My hero." She hugged him again and then made it a group hug by wrapping an arm around Wes as well.

"Mack Alana you are the bravest kid I've ever met. Not only did you stay safe, but you also kept your brother safe, as well."

"Mike knew something was up when that guy tried to stab him at the gas station." His lower lip quivered. "That's when I told him what I did, but he didn't care. He wasn't even mad. And he didn't think it was the Weston family, either. He went to meet his contact and said if he wasn't back by dawn to clear out and don't come back. He would find me." He wiped his eyes with the back of an arm. "I did, but then I got worried. I thought they would go after Mom and Wes. That's why I took him, and I was coming to get you, too, Mom, but Dad came home before I could get you." His shoulders slumped. "I had to leave you there. I'm sorry. I was going to come back."

"I only have one final question: Why didn't you come to us directly instead of leaving vague messages?"

"I was afraid you would arrest Mike for kidnapping me even though he didn't really do it. And my mom could have gotten in trouble as well because she knew about it. I only wanted you all to find the money in the mine."

Tina looked at her son in amazement. "This doesn't even seem or feel real all of this is like some kind of nightmare, but I am proud of you Mack and Wes."

"You should be Tina, you have two brave and smart sons," Cedes said.

Mack still didn't believe her. Cedes swore that she would just have to spend the next few days convincing him.

"You're Gina's mom," he said from out of the blue.

"How do you know my daughter?"

"I have seen her at the lake during the summers. She's always nice to me."

"Nice that is not what you said. You said you liked her butt."

Mack quickly placed a hand over his brother's mouth. "Don't listen to him he must have some brain damage from almost getting set on fire."

"He really likes her boobies, and he didn't tell me this; he talks in his sleep." Wes said, his voice muffled.

Cedes wanted to laugh and was glad that Wes had gotten Mack out of his head by embarrassing him.

"So," Wes said, his mouth still covered by his brother's hands, "are we really brothers?"

They were interrupted when the helicopter flew overhead to come pick up Agent Wu and other news crews were beginning to show up to cover the story.

"Mercy!" Cedes turned to see Hunter running up to her with a serious look on his face.

"We have to go now."

"This better not be about Ralphie," she warned. When he put a hand on her shoulder, she got scared. "Hunter, tell me what's wrong."

"It's Gina."

Cedes and Sam commandeered a ride into McKinleyville on the medevac with Agent Wu, making for a very tight squeeze with both a nurse and a paramedic also on board the helicopter. Because Wu's life wasn't in immediate danger, the paramedic rode in front with the pilot.

She didn't get much information from McCarthy because her cell reception was spotty in the helicopter. The only thing she knew for certain was that Gina was being airlifted to Method with blunt force trauma to the head.

Cedes' couldn't take anything more. She only had a granola bar and water and little to no sleep. Her adrenaline had reached new heights and her blood pressure had to be high. She was running on fumes, and yet she willed the helicopter to fly faster with every fiber of her fading being. How much did she have to continue to take?

She was grateful that Sam was beside her and holding her hand. He had been through more than her, yet he was here by her side when she needed him the most.

When she could think rationally, she had the pilot patch her through so she could call her parents from the helicopter. Part of her was wondering where the hell her parents were when all of this was happening, then she began to worry that they were injured, too. Rationally, she could not blame them. Regina Grace Porter was her child and her responsibility and not her parent. And she knew her daughter and knew her parents were not matched to her guile.

Unable to hear most of what they were saying, she found out her folks were fine and that they were following the ambulance that was carrying Mrs. Banks to the hospital. That Ricky and Gina should already be at the hospital.

"Mom, please calm down. I don't need you two to have an accident. Why don't you meet Hunter and come to the hospital with him?"

"This is all our fault," her mother kept repeating over and over again. She was probably in shock.

Nothing she was saying was penetrating their guilt. Cedes could only hope and pray that Hunter would hurry and intercept them. Thankfully, McKinleyville traffic wasn't bad at night, so they should be fine. And although she had temporarily forgotten, her dad was in military intelligence and drove missions all through the Middle East. She was confident that he could handle a Tuesday night in McKinleyville.

Because there were more than enough law enforcement officials at the mine, Cedes ordered Jay and Martinez back to town to help McCarthy with the crime scene at Mrs. Banks' house. Another dead body. Since becoming sheriff of this county she had nothing but case after case after case. Who would belief a small town with their population would have so much crime.

The mayor and the DA were going to kill her and blame her, but Cedes didn't give a damn. She almost lost her daughter tonight. She still could lose her and Ricky. Nothing else in the entire galaxy mattered.

She texted Hunter to make sure he drove her Charger with her laptop and other essentials. Considering he had a mountain to climb down, he would probably arrive in McKinleyville in less than an hour if he double-timed it down the mountain and then drove at the speed of light. Thank God for emergency lights and people pulling over to let them pass and through traffic signs and lights.