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The camera had been out of focus for the first scream, but then it seemed to automatically shift in and out until we were staring at a naked and battered Bailey Voss chained to a rusty bed frame, no mattress below her trembling body. The single spotlight above her bed cast a grim light onto the torture she’d already endoured.
“Tell her,” came a mechanical voice through the speaker, and I immediately shot a look at Kasey.
“Voice distortion wasn’t edited in,” he said in a small voice. “Keep watching.”
I turned back to see a figure step into view. He was covered in black pants, a black shirt that seemed to have odd padding and black gloves with a mask that looked similar to those used in fencing. Attached to the bottom of the mask was a speaker of some sort and I knew it had been responsible for the voice distortion. Kasey couldn’t reverse any audio editing because it hadn’t been done post filming. Fuck.
Bailey looked dead on the bed frame, and when the figure stepped closer and slowly began sliding the knife across her face, splitting the skin open, she cried out and tried to pull away. How had she survived all of this?
“Tell her,” the mechanical voice repeated and Bailey let out a small sob before trying to compose herself enough to choke out the line obviously given to her to say.
“This is Lake’s fault,” she sobbed out, tears mixing with the blood from the fresh cut down her face.
“Again,” the figure demanded, stepping around the bed until it was behind the metal frame, standing just over Bailey’s head.
“This,” she took a wheezing breath, “is Lake’s-”
Her words became a wet gurgle as the figure leaned down and slid the knife across her throat, causing blood to spurt from the gaping wound. The screen went black only a second later, plunging the room into a silence so thick with tension it was suffocating.
“Jesus Christ,” Cabot growled from beside me and we all seemed to let out a breath.
I turned to Kasey and tried to keep the tremor from my voice as I said. “Lake willneversee this.”
“You don’t fucking say,” he responded, glaring at me before closing down his wall of screens and typing in the command to make the blinds rise again. “I could have lived my entire life without seeing it myself.”
“We need to send this to the feds and Interpol.” I was trying to keep my head, but in that video was the very person who wanted to do the exact same thing to Lake. I shook my head trying to dislodge the images trying to form of her being chained to that rusty bed frame. No, I couldn’t fall into that nightmare right now. There was too much at stake to fall apart.
“Already done,” Kasey said. “Agent Geiger wants to meet with you to discuss the details of what we know. She’s already got Mal on board to fill her in on the case with the Pasternaks. Your flight is booked for first thing in the morning.”
The air was sucked from the room as both Fitz and Cabot took a step back. “I am not leaving Lake after seeing what that sick motherfucker is capable of.” I was trying to be calm, but heard the deadly menace of my tone.
Kasey stood up and stomped toward me, stopping when we were nose to nose. “You and Cabot are going because Lake is safe in this building. We brought her here for this fucking reason and you are going to pull up your big boy pants, kiss your girl good-bye, figure out who is doing this and put him in the fucking ground.”
My need to lay him out, right there in the middle of his office, faded when I saw the desperate plea in his eyes. Kasey, just like Lake, needed me on my game. He needed his commander at that moment and I knew I had to give him that. After all the shit these men had gone through with me and then to join me and help me, I owed them far more. But I would give them their leader back.
“Stand down,” I ground out and watched that mischievous spark flare to life in his eyes again. He took a step back and gave a single nod before returning to his desk.
“Cabot,” I barked, my tone causing both Cabot and Fitz to stand straighter. “Grab your go bag and meet me in the garage.” With a sharp nod he was gone and I turned to Fitz. “Are you able to analyze the video?”
His background in profiling as well as interrogation techniques made his stomach the strongest out of all of ours, but I couldn’t push him into rewatching the video over and over if his head wasn’t in the right place, and I’d watched him explode only hours before.
“Yeah, I got it. Kasey,” he said, turning his attention to the man behind the desk. “Can you send the video and the letters to my office computer? I’ll head down there and get started now. I already spotted some correlations between the details in the letters and what was done to Bailey.” At the mention of Bailey, Kasey seemed to turn a bit green, but he let out a long breath and nodded, getting to work.
Without so much as a glance back, I left the office and headed for my apartment to grab my go-bag and kiss my girl good-bye. My girl. I hadn’t been able to talk to Lake about what I wanted, but there was no denying she was mine. That conversation where I got her on the same page as me would have to wait until I was back from Quantico, but the second I was back through those doors, she’d know where I stood.
CHAPTER 27
LAKE
The shout and breaking glass had scared the absolute shit out of me from where I’d been hiding on the bed in the guest room. I’d come out just in time to watch Decker storm past to the bedroom and emerge in casual clothes, but fully dressed only to make some declaration that we’d be having a conversation before stomping out the front door.
I was still trying to reconcile the Hulk-like man who’d just left with the sexy lover only a short time before when Avery shuffled past me to the hall closet to grab the broom and dust pan. She set to work sweeping the shattered bowl into a pile while I stood frozen in place trying to understand what had just happened to cause the emotional whiplash I’d just experienced.
“You know,” she said, pulling me from my thoughts. Her back was to me as she swept methodically. “If you start a conversation, I’m not breaking the rule of leaving you alone.”
I couldn’t help but laugh softly at her loophole and sat on the barstool at the island. “I honestly don’t know what to say.”
“Yeah, that’s understandable. Decker rarely loses his temper. Used to be a real shit when we were kids.” She attempted to hold the dustpan and sweep at the same time, and I crossed the small space to bend down and hold it for her. “Thanks,” she said brightly, sweeping the shards into the pan. “He’s been closed up, tight as a drum since everything happened with our birth parents. But the explosions, when they finally happen, are legendary.”
