“The plan was for her to get captured byhim. We’d injected a tracker in her arm so we could follow and get them both out. After her performance, she came back up here and changed and we went over the plans once more. She slipped out into the alley and disappeared around the corner. We watched her on the cameras until she was out of view but we were able to keep tabs on her with the tracker. Your partner, Monroe, had made her way to the bathroom but seemed to get out of your sight and slipped out after her. We weren’t too worried about her as we figured that Celeste was already taken before she caught up to her.
“We kept tabs on the tracker and were going to make our move to follow until we noticed that it stayed in that locationfor too long. We knew something went wrong and that’s when we knew that the plans were altered. We rushed out and you know the rest,” Larson finishes while he cracks his knuckles.
She came up with this whole damn plan and never once asked for my help. I’m the one person who could have either talked her out of it or helped her plan to be prepared for any possible scenario. They injected her with a tracker but he was two steps ahead and removed it so we couldn't find her. It dawns on me, though, that maybe I don’t know her as much as I thought.
Clearly, as she kept a tad bit of information secret about her being head of the Mafia. Would that have changed anything for me, though? Maybe, but something inside of me begs to differ. There’s my professional side that screams that this could never work, but the darkest part of me says to hell with it. She’s mine and I’ll be damned if I let anyone or anything take her away from me. The primal rage boils with the thought of her being taken and tortured. She might be powerful, skilled, and strong-hearted, but she’s not ready for this type of person and his mental state.
“So you thought it was a smart idea to let her get kidnapped by a psychotic maniac without any clue what he’s capable of? You handed her over on a silver platter to her own death.” I lose it, absolutely lose it. “She better still be breathing, because so help me, I’ll end every person in this damn room.”
“What are you going to do? Lock us up as you try to find her? You can’t even find Samantha. You think I was okay with my cousin signing over her death certificate? I lost my shit when she brought up the idea. I didn’t want any of this to happen. When Celeste has her mind set on something, she does not budge. She’ll make it happen with or without us!” Antonio raises his voice to match mine.
They let her do it. How grown-ass men twice her size cower down to her demands. She had no care in the world who she left behind. She set this all up thinking that she could get Samantha back. She didn’t trust us enough to let us close in on him tonight and knew more about this guy than she led on. She came over to my house and saw those documents, pretending to know nothing about the case but really she knew it all. The moment Samantha was taken, a part of her had changed. She’d warned me there was darkness inside her and she tried to let me go, but I wouldn’t let her. Darkness recognizes darkness and she wasn’t going to just get her back, she was going to endhim.
Every emotion, every moment started to make sense. I don’t believe she was with me solely to get information out of me. Her feelings were real but once she knew I was on this case, I was of use to her. Instead of asking me for help, she let me play the game.
“Why didn’t you tie her down and keep her here? You’re both twice her size and a lot stronger than her. You just let her walk out that door and now we’re standing here whilehehas three women doing who knows what.”
“You think we could defy her? We answer to her, not the other way around. Her word is law at the end of the day. As you may have figured out, she’s the heiress of the most deadly Mafia. To answer your question I’m sure you’re about to ask, yes, she took over her father’s position. She may be small but I can promise you, she can make any male bend the knee. This isn’t the first time she’s been kidnapped. She’s trained and more lethal than the one who’s playing God right now.” Larson picks at his nails with a knife as if nothing happened and this is just another day.
I hear Beckett curse under his breath at the confession of who she really is. The darkness finally comes to lightand there’s nothing inside me that wants to pull away from it. Even if she is as lethal as she claims, she isn’t prepared for what she’s up against and we need to get to her before the plan gets alerted once again. He carved the tracker out of her, already two steps ahead. Whether they like it or not, we have to bring the agency in. We would have more resources than they would.
“We have to report this. Our agent was taken and they would know something is wrong if she doesn’t show up to work after the event. We can only come up with enough excuses until they became suspicious. We report that both Celeste and Monroe disappeared. We’ll withhold what we learned tonight and use both sides to find them.” Clearly Beckett can read minds because he spews out the exact thing I was thinking.
I’m taken back, though, that he’s willing to withhold information. That’s not like him. Apparently, everyone is full of surprises tonight.
“What makes you think that we can trust you? Just because Celeste has taken a liking of you? How do we know you won’t turn your back on her once this is all over and come after her because of what she is? We aren’t saints, far from it. Your badge won’t protect you from what we are,” Antonio finally speaks up with every ounce of distrust.
He has every right to question my loyalty. He doesn’t know me, only that I work for the law. He doesn’t know that my feelings for his cousin are real and the depths I would go for her. Realization hits me at that thought. I chose her.
“I will end this world and go to hell if anything happens to her. Fuck the badge. She wants me to step away from it? Done. So instead of arguing back and forth if you can trust me or not, we have three women in the hands of the killer. You don’t have to trust me but we’re wasting time,” I level with him. “We need to shut this place down. One of your girls needs to report herabsence to us and we’ll report Monroe’s disappearance. We’ll go back to the station and see if we can gain access to the nearby buildings for any cameras as well as yours from the outside. We’ll be in contact and meet somewhere more private to go over the findings. We work together to get what's ours back.”
After another half hour of planning we make our way back down to the main floor. I haven’t had time to really grasp what just happened and what was just revealed. All I can think about are the photos of the victims who were tortured and left for us to find. The faces morph into her face and hot acid begins to boil in my throat. I haven’t felt fear in a long time, not since I was on my first mission as a SEAL. The thought of losing her makes me want to tear this whole place down and shred the bastard from limb to limb.
The music cuts and the lights turn on signaling the end of the night. Melodie approaches one of the undercovers as if trying to shoo him out the door but gives a code word indicating that there’s trouble. They pull her to the side and she reports the absence of Celeste. She had stepped outside and found her phone smashed in the alley. Beckett switches the channel to our earpieces so it’s connected to everyone and asks if anyone has seen Monroe. About twenty minutes later Special Agents police, and my director show just as expected and the investigation is launched into full swing.
Once the questioning has come to an end for the night, those who are here are sent home and I’m sitting on the couch finally alone with my thoughts, nothing but the moonlight shining through the window. The dark is where my demons like to hide and I bask in them, allowing them to flood in and take over my very being.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CELESTE
“Subtle and insubstantial, the expert leaves no trace; divinely mysterious, he is inaudible. Thus he is master of his enemy's fate.” - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
I’m starting to get restless waiting for whatever this guy has planned for us. There’s no doubt that he’s been torturing Samantha. From what I can see from here, she has marks on her body and she’s in this stoic state. She stares forward silently and hasn’t said much to us since we were brought here. This isn’t normal for her, most of the time you can’t get her to shut up. She has no fight in her. It’s as if she’s waiting for death to come and end her permanently.Hehasn’t been back since he gave us what you could call a meal and his chants.
There’s no way to tell how long we’ve been here but it feels like we’ve been down here for a few days considering we’re chained up and have nothing but time to dwell on. There’s no windows letting us know if it’s day or night and no clocks. The only thing I know is that when Iwas taken, it was near midnight. It’s like we’re in a real-life crime documentary. Three girls, chains, and torture. Who will be the one to get out and get help before the others are killed? There’s no way in hell it’ll be me; I won’t leave them here, even if it takes my life instead.
I shift from the nasty mattress and the sudden sting in my shoulder causes me to wince. My mind starts reeling as my plans have been altered. The plan was to get myself captured, the tracker was supposed to keep the boys close and get in and out with Samantha. We would then take The Jawbreaker and literally break him, but he's smart. I have no idea how he found the tracker, but he seems to always be one step ahead. There’s no doubt the boys have figured out they can no longer find me and now are most likely dealing with the FBI now that Monroe is in the mix.
I take the time of silence to run through the events in the alley and everything down here, but there’s so much in between I can't remember. He stuck me in the neck and the last thing I remember was instantly losing consciousness. Whatever he gave me was strong because it kept me out long enough to get me down here and tied up. He must have done the same with Monroe. But if she was following me, how did he have time to knock me out, cut out my tracker, and take her? Unless he had knocked us both out, checked us both, and then disposed of our things. I would pay money to get inside of his mind to see how it works.
The door unlocks from the top of the stairs and squeals open. There’s thudding down the stairs which snaps me out of the trance I was in and notice he’s back but pulling a horse trough and hose along with him. Once he gets to the bottom, he moves the trough to sit in front of me and places one end of the hose inside of it while he drags the other end to a faucet. He turns the handle and water starts spewing into the trough. I catch a glimpse of Monroe and her eyes are wide with realizationof what he’s going to do. My first form of torture is going to be drowning. Lovely. I’ve used this method a few times and it’s definitely effective for the weak but it’s going to take more to break me. I stay silent though because he doesn’t need to know that.
“Celeste, so glad you’re awake. I’ve given you some time to think about your sins. Tell me, are you ready to repent?” Hegives me a simple smile as he steps in front of me.
A laugh breaks free as I stare up at him. I can’t take this guy seriously. He truly believes he’s God or close to it and that we owe him any confession, apology, or whatever the hell he wants from me. My eyes shift to Samantha and she’s staring over at us with wide eyes and hands shaking. She’s terrified of what’s coming for me. I move over to Monroe and she’s stiff as a board giving me a look as if telling me not to provoke him and just give him what he wants but I won’t. It’s not in my nature.
“Hello, Oliver. Which sin would you like? I have many and it’s hard to just pick one. We can play a game, though. You give me a sin and I’ll give you one,” I challenge him.
