Point of No Return (15 page)

Fuck. I snarled at Berkman, snatched my phone off my desk and stomped over to the end of the room. Taking a deep breath and trying to sound calm, I hit Kira's number.

He answered with, "Hey, sexy."

I smiled, despite my mood. "Hey, baby."

"Let me guess," he said with a sigh. "You'll be late tonight."

I sighed as well. "Yeah, this Tomic case is about to go down." I took a deep breath. "Kira, he phoned me directly. Tomic called
me
."

There was silence for a moment, and then a quiet,

"He what?"

"He phoned my cell."

"Matt…"

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"You said you wanted to know," I countered. "So I'm telling you."

He sighed and growled. "Fuck."

"Don't worry, babe," I said, trying to soothe him.

"Berkman isn't letting me leave HQ. If Tomic wants me, he's gotta go through about a thousand cops to get me."

Kira's voice was quiet. "Do you think he'll try?"

"Honestly? No, I don't," I told him truthfully. "We won't know what his game plan is until we hear back from him. But Berkman isn't taking any chances."

Kira sighed again. "Thank God one of you has the sense of self-preservation."

I huffed at him. "So you know I'm safe, okay?"

I could hear the smile in his voice. "Yeah, baby.

Thank you."

I could also hear background noise. "Are you driving?"

He snorted. "Yes. Hands free, Officer." I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see, but then he explained,

"I'm closing up for Chris again tonight. I'm on my way there now."

I looked at my watch. Six o'clock. I didn't realize it had gotten so late. "I can't believe you'll be less than a block away, and I can't see you."

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He laughed. "It's a shame. I kind of hoped you'd join me again tonight. There are no security cameras in the showers…" he trailed off suggestively.

I groaned, and he chuckled.

"Or I could fuck you on the mats, on a weight bench…"

I groaned louder, and he laughed.

"That's cruel," I told him. "I'll get you back for that."

"I sincerely hope so," he said with a laugh. "Okay babe, I just pulled up. I gotta go. Call me anytime to let me know you're safe."

"I will," I promised.

"And Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

I grinned. "You need your head read."

He laughed. "Wake me when you get in."

"I will." Smiling into the phone, I said, "And Kira?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you too."

* * * *

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When I walked back into the office, Kurt and Tony were back. They'd brought Chinese food with them, so we sat and ate while they relayed their meeting with Pavao Tomic.

"He didn't say a word," Kurt said, "until we mentioned the phone call and the jacket."

"What did he say then?" I asked with a mouthful of food.

"Nothing," Tony said. "But his eyes went wide, and he got real pale."

"Was he
scared
?" Mitch asked.

Kurt nodded, spearing another mouthful of food with his fork. "Shitless."

"He's scared of his twin brother?" I asked incredulously.

"Scared of what he's capable of," Tony told us. "We told him he's not responsible for anything his brother does, but if he knows something and doesn't tell us, he'll be charged as an accessory."

"What did he say to that?"

"He was silent for a long while," Kurt answered.

"Looked all sorts of uncomfortable, then he said he didn't know anything, but even if he did, he wouldn't say." Kurt looked at me and said, "He said he'd rather do life in solitary confinement than rat on his brother."

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Then Tony interjected. "But it was like he said that because he knew his brother would kill him if he talked."

"Did he say anything else?"

"Only that he's sorry for whatever his brother does,"

Kurt said, shaking his head. "He said we should take the threat very seriously."

Tony threw his empty Chinese container in the bin.

"It doesn't matter much, because the sick son-of-a-bitch is going down. He can spend forever in a cell with his brother."

Over the next hour or so, I pieced together the timeline from the information the Croatian authorities sent through and tried to concentrate on the files in front of me, but my mind kept wandering to Kira.

"You've got that 'I'm so in love' look on your face again." Mitch laughed.

I grinned at him and glanced around. I saw no one was paying much attention to us, so I asked, "Got a sec?

Can we talk?"

"Sure," he answered.

I got up and led the way to the stairwell, suddenly very nervous about what I was about to tell him.

"What's with the secrecy?" he asked, then answered his own question. "Oh, this is the big secret thing you've been trying to tell me for the last few weeks?"

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I nodded and took a deep breath, struggling to know where to start.

"Jeez, Matt," he said. "You're really freaking out.

You know Tomic can't get you in here."

I laughed nervously. "Ah, that's not it," I said. "It's about Kira."

"What about her?"

"That's just it, Mitch," I started to say. "Kira's not a her—"

Cutting me off, someone yelled out from inside our floor. "Elliott! Seaton!"

We jumped to our feet at the panicked tone. Mitch pulled back the door to find one of the guys on our floor looking for us. "Berkman wants you. Now! Now!"

His urgency set us in motion, and we raced to the boss's office at the opposite end of the floor.

"Where the hell were you?" he roared at us.

It wasn't him I looked at. It was Kurt and Tony.

They were both pale white, and their eyes were wide.

Something was very, very wrong.

It was then that I noticed the laptop hooked up to a larger TV screen. We only used this set-up when we were watching live footage online, but needed a bigger viewing monitor.

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"Ah, Detectives Elliott and Seaton," the now familiar face said on the screen. Tomic. "So nice of you to join us."

All eyes were on the screen. It was a low resolution recording, as though he was videoing this via internet video chat, and the wanted man smiled, pure evil.

Berkman told us, "It's a live internet feed. He can see us through the webcam and hear us, like we can see and hear him."

My heart was thumping, my adrenaline was spiked.

Tomic grinned. "You have something I want. I have something you want, something you all want."

The screen panned to the side, and my heart

stopped.

Literally stopped.

There on screen, huddled on the floor in some

strange room, were Mitch's girlfriend Anna, Tony's wife Evie, and Kurt's girlfriend Rachel.

They had tape over their mouths, their hands were bound together. Their faces were tear-streaked and frightened, and the room around me erupted.

All men were on their feet. There was noise and swearing and yelling, but I couldn't seem to hear over the blood pounding in my ears.

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"Uh-uh," Tomic clicked his tongue, waving his finger at the screen. "I'm not done yet. I have one more surprise." Then he looked off screen and told someone to,

"Bring in contestant number four."

And my stomach fell to my feet.

No. No, no, no. Please dear God, no.

One of Tomic's men brought in someone with what looked like a pillowcase over their head.

We couldn't see the face yet. But I knew who it was.

I recognized the shirt.

The gym shorts, his work uniform.

His hands were tied together behind his back. He was pushed to his knees, and I couldn't breathe.

Tomic ripped the cover off his head. There was blood dripping from a cut over his eye. Tomic laughed.

"See someone you recognize, Detective Elliott?"

He grabbed Kira's face in his hand and shoved him toward the camera. "He's a fighter, this one. Took down three of my guys."

Someone beside me whispered, "Frankie?"

Tomic laughed again. "His name's not Frankie, is it, Detective Elliott?"

Everyone in the room turned to stare at me, but I couldn't seem to think. And my lungs wouldn't work right.

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Tomic growled into the screen. "Tell them what his name is."

I had to force the air out of my lungs so I could speak. "His name is Kira."

Just like that, my life as I knew it was over.

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Chapter 15

No one blinked. No one breathed.

Tomic's face closed in on the screen, and he

blinked. "Have I got your attention, gentlemen?"

The screen went black.

"He's gone," a voice yelled out, confirming the call was disconnected.

Berkman was a flurry of action, barking orders, tracing internet connections, patrols to houses, other family members; Pavao Tomic was on lockdown and every available man was on the street. "We need to know where they're being held! Now, now, now!"

The entire building around us blurred into action.

The four of us didn't move.

I stared at the black screen, rendered incapable of moving, blinking, thinking…

Mitch spoke first. "He's got my Anna."

"And Evie."

"And Rachel."

I looked at them and swallowed. "And Kira."

* * * *

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I wasn't sure how long after, a couple of minutes maybe, Berkman had other detectives asking us questions about the four hostages—their whereabouts, who they were with, who saw them last, possible witnesses. It shouldn't have been different when it was one of our own, but it was.

The detectives assigned to question us were good cops. We knew them. We out-ranked them. We were better at doing this than them. We were the best at what we do, yet there we sat, useless. Lost.

"When did you speak to Frankie last?" the detective asked.

"About six o'clock," I answered mechanically. "His name is Kira…"

Detective Cortez looked at me and nodded

sympathetically. "Where was Kira tonight?"

"He was closing the gym for Chris." Like my mind was swimming through mud, I remembered… "There's surveillance at the gym. The main floor is covered with CCTV." I stood up, telling him, "We need to pull the surveillance!"

Cortez put his hand on my shoulder. "We'll get it."

He darted out of the room.

Then I looked at the other three. Mitch, Kurt, and Tony.

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Tony sneered at me. "Frankie?
Frankie
is this Kira you're seeing?" His tone was biting, and his stare was pure disdain. "Never would have had you pegged as a fag."

My blood ran cold, and the room erupted around me. Everyone was on their feet, chairs and tables were pushed and shoved. I was trying to get my hands on Tony, but Mitch had me, pulling me in the opposite direction.

I could see Tony struggling in Kurt's grasp, and I hoped like all hell he got free so I could punch the crap out of him.

"Enough!" Berkman's voice boomed. "That's enough! You wanna kill each other?" he yelled, then pointed to the blank screen. "Then Tomic's already won.

We stay together on this, because it's the only way we'll win." He stared at me, then at Tony. "Do I make myself clear?"

The four of us nodded, all breathing heavy. I glared at Tony. "Call me that one more time. I dare ya."

"Elliott!" Berkman reprimanded me. Then he turned to Tony. "One more derogatory comment outta you, Milic, and you'll be back on the beat. Understand?"

"We've got another incoming call," someone interrupted.

A tense silence settled over us, and the TV screen blinked on, earning our full attention. Tomic appeared on

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screen with a sinister smile. Even he could see the tension between us, the way we were on opposite sides of the room. "Didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

Tomic looked directly at me. "I take it your coworkers didn't appreciate being lied to. They had no idea who Kira was, did they? They didn't know it was a
man
, did they?" He shook his head. "It took a little bit of snooping. I must admit, I wondered who the girl was you were sneaking around with. It wasn't until your little weekend away together that I realized it wasn't a
girl
at all."

I could feel my blood boiling, and it wasn't until I felt Mitch grab my arm that I realized I was inching closer to the screen.

Tomic laughed. "You should tell your boyfriend not to make it so…" he trailed off, trying to find the right word.

"…
unpleasant…
for himself."

He moved to the side then, allowing us to see

behind him. The women were still huddled, clinging to each other and crying. Kira was now on the floor beside them. He was on his knees, kind of facing side on. I could see then, his feet were taped together. He had blood dripping from his nose, over the tape covering his mouth, and more blood coming from the gash over his eye.

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