Shuttered Truth

Ryan

"I can't believe we've kept her safe everywhere else and he snatches her out from under our noses in our own club," I roared and paced behind my desk. The security footage from the corridor to the toilets was playing on a loop on the large TV screen and each time Leona slumped in his arms I wanted to throw something.

"And why didn't Niamh raise the alarm?"

Michael sat beside Pavel in the two chairs on the opposite side of the desk and glared at me but didn't offer an explanation.

"At least Leona isn't alone with this psycho," Dónal said quietly and placed a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me. If anyone else had tried that I would have broken their arm but he was right. I was no good to anyone if my emotions got the better of me and I couldn't think straight. With Niamh gone and Michael apparently clueless it was up to me to lead the way here.

"Who is the guy who took them?" I asked, pulling out my chair. Dónal perched on the side of the desk as Pavel tapped on his phone, sifting the information coming to him from their intelligence teams.

"Gustav Rott."

"That's the director she worked on that documentary with...the one about the porn," Fionn supplied without looking up from whatever he was working on.

"But wasn't he her friend?" I asked and Fionn nodded.

"So he's working with Hawthorne?"

"It seems so. They obviously knew we had eyes on Hawthorne and so he sent Gustav to tonight's event to get him inside the club and close enough to snatch her," Pavel surmised.

"And Hawthorne?"

"In the wind. In the confusion of the snatch he slipped our surveillance net."

"Damnit..."

"The team have just swept the location they were going to use after the kidnapping but it's completely empty. They're moving onto his house."

"How long for the deep dive on Gustav?" Dónal asked.

"At least twelve hours," Michael replied.

"Dónal, reach out to the family in Germany. Give them what we've got on Gustav and see if there's been any activity around him. Tell them this is personal for our family," I instructed.

"Fionn, do the same with your contacts across the globe. All families, do you hear? Same message, this is personal for the Vincenzi family."

"I don't suppose your operatives are tagged?" I asked Michael and he frowned.

"Tagged?"

"With a tracker, in case of kidnapping?"

He shook his head. "I doubt anyone would consent to that level of invasion of privacy and without consent, it's illegal...you didn't tag Leona?"

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. "I wish I had. What about their phones?"

"Leona's was in the carpark and Niamh's is off, probably ran out of battery, but we could likely get a last location before it was shut off. That might give us a direction to follow," Michael suggested and Pavel tapped a message out to his tech crew.

"They've found nothing at Hawthorne's home. It looks like it was just a crash pad. No tech, no correspondence, nothing personal," Pavel reported.

"I need to report Niamh's kidnapping to my superiors and notify her family," Michael said and rose from his chair. He turned away and then back and ran a hand down his face.

"Look, I know you and I don't see eye to eye but it wasn't my call to put Miss Roach out there as bait. I didn't think Niamh was right to do what she did but I didn't speak up and so I'll do everything I can to get Miss Roach back alive and well. You have my word."

We gave each other curt nods and then he left.

"Pavel give me something...anything."

"A security guard at a private air strip has reported a plane carrying two females and one male where one female was unconscious taking off within the last fifteen minutes. We've got agents on their way there to see if they filed a flight plan and to see if there is security footage so we can confirm the identities."

"Shit so they may be out of the country...half way to god knows where."

Dónal came back into the office carrying a tray of coffee and sandwiches.

"Courtesy of our resident submissives. None of them or their Doms will leave until we find Leona so I told them they could crash at ours. Our cousin in Germany is checking up on Gustav and will report soonest."

I didn't really have an appetite but I knew I needed to stay alert and so I grabbed a sandwich and a coffee and used the activity to quiet my mind.

"Why would Gustav be involved with this?" I asked, turning my chair to face Dónal who was on the couch.

He chewed for a few seconds and then sipped his coffee. I could almost hear the cogs in his brain whirring.

"Unrequited love?" he suggested.

"What, he's in love with her so he decides to hand her over to a serial killer because she won't love him back? And how did he come into contact with Hawthorne anyway?"

"For that matter why didn't Hawthorne just take her in Germany instead of stalking her there, following her here, stalking her some more and then finally taking her?"

The door to the office opened and Fionn came in. He scooped up two sandwiches and a coffee and sat back in the chair he had before.

"I have the footage from the carpark but there's something off about what happened. Now, hear me out before you jump down my throat...you especially, Pavel. Why didn't Niamh just draw her gun and shoot Gustav when he'd already put Leona in the boot of the car and there was no danger of hitting her instead of him? Why did she just climb in and go with him?"

"Let me see?" Pavel stood behind Fionn who played the footage again. I watched on the large TV screen.

Gustav comes through the door with Leona in his arms and heads for his vehicle. He opens the boot and lifts Leona into it. Niamh comes out through the door and his head comes up and he speaks to her. He rounds the car and opens the passenger door and Niamh gets in. No struggle, no violence. Fionn was right, it didn't add up.

"Why did he take her too? He could have used her own gun on her and killed her or he could have just left her there since he'd already exposed himself to the security cameras it didn't matter that she could identify him." I commented and Pavel nodded.

"Zoom in on his face when he speaks to her. I might be able to lip read what he says."

Fionn did it and Pavel stared closely at the laptop screen.

"No...it's not possible," he turned away and sat back in his chair, staring up at he now still picture of his boss.

"Pavel, what did he say to her?"

"He said, Good evening Mistress, it's good to see you in person after so long. Please get in and we can get out of here."

The door to the office opened just then and Michael walked in. He was frowning and looked a little pale.

"I've just got off a video call with Niamh's parents..."

"How did they take it? Looks like it was rough," Dónal stood up and threw his napkin in the bin.

"I checked and double checked but the woman we've been working with for the last year is not Special Agent Niamh Flaherty. They showed me a recent picture of their daughter and it wasn't our boss. They thought their daughter was working on something that wouldn't allow her to contact them. I didn't know what to say so I said it must have just been a mix-up at my end."

"Sit down, Michael...eat," Pavel pulled him into the empty chair and slid the tray of sandwiches over to him. Michael stared down at them and began eating one, obviously on auto-pilot.

"We think perhaps Niamh is involved with the serial killer. Watch this footage."

Michael watched the carpark footage and Pavel told him what Gustav said to her.

"Are we thinking now that the real Niamh was killed so that our imposter could take her place and get assigned to the case?" Michael asked and Pavel nodded.

"We're going to need to pull in a lot of resources. We need to go back over all the evidence of the previous cases to see if there is any connection to the fake Niamh. We must have been close to catching the killer otherwise why would they insert her into the investigation. It's a big risk," Michael commented gulping down the coffee.

"It was us," Dónal said quietly and we all turned to him.

"They got worried when we starting looking for Callie's killer. Start with the evidence from Callie's murder, something there has to have been the catalyst."

"Yes, that's a fair assumption. They'd been killing for almost two years before that so it's too much of a coincidence not to be significant," Michael agreed.

"I'll get onto our team straight away," Pavel got up and strode out of the office his phone already to his ear.

"I have to go and report this to my superiors. They might want to send in a new team lead," Michael rose but before he could turn away I raised my hand.

"Tell them we won't agree to that. The team we have is more than capable of handling this and we don't want anyone put in above you. Tell them we want you to take over," I stated strongly and Michael stared at me.

"Do you?"

"Yes. The evil you know is better than the one you don't...and besides it'd take too long to get anyone else up to speed."

Michael gave me a grin, "so now I'm evil?"

"Go make your phone calls but no new team members."

He gave me a nod and then left.

"Not so good for our girl," I rested my elbows on my desk and scrubbed my hands over my face.

"Who the hell is the serial killer, then?" Fionn asked and I shook my head.

"One of the three...all three of them?"

Silence fell between us.

"I don't care, if I'm honest. All we need to focus on is getting Leona home safe and well. Let Michael and his team try to figure out the rest."

The next hour dragged as the three of us kept vigil in my office with Pavel and Michael bringing snippets of information as it was gathered. Nothing was giving us a location on Leona and the longer she was gone the more chance there was she wouldn't come back. I quashed those thoughts rapidly. I wouldn't contemplate Leona dying...I just wouldn't.

"Bloody hell," Fionn suddenly exclaimed and I sat forward.

"I've just been sent this link to a live feed," Fionn explained and the TV screen sprang to life. We seemed to be watching a studio apartment of some kind. There was a bed and...oh my god, it was Leona shackled to the bed. Gustav stood one side and Nigel the other. Nigel seemed to be helping her drink something out of a mug.

"Get Michael and Pavel," I called to Dónal. "Have we sound, Fionn?"

We sat and watched and listened in stunned silence.

"Is she watching?" Nigel asked and Gustav shook his head.

"I heard what you were saying and he's right I do love you and so does he but you don't love us, do you?" Gustav asked and Leona's eyes widened as she swallowed

"I don't understand, I thought..." Nigel frowned at Leona and then Gustav.

"She never said it, did she?" Gustav asked and Nigel sighed.

"No."

"You've fallen for those Vincenzi brothers, haven't you?"

Leona stared at him and he shook his head.

"It's ok...you don't have to answer. It was obvious every time you were with one or all of them."

"You've been watching me?"

"She gave us access to the security feeds so we didn't see everything but we didn't have to."

"Nigel, we can't say that we love her and then watch her die, even if we're prepared to die too. It's not what she wants and that's not love. She's right, Mistress has had her fun now we get to do something that might make up for what we've helped her to do."

"You aren't to sacrifice yourselves for me. I won't allow it."

Gustav bent and placed a kiss on her forehead and Nigel kissed her cheek.

"We love you Leona enough to let you go. Live a full and happy life. Those cameras are streaming live and I've sent the link to your Vincenzi brothers. If Fionn is as good as he seems to be he'll trace it back to the source, here and they'll come and get you. All we have to do is keep you alive until they come."

"Drink this. Best to keep your strength up."

"Fuck...can you do it, Fio?" I growled and Fionn stood.

"I need my laptop but yes, I think I can."