MORNING
JEROME

Rage twisted his handsome features as he listened to her beg for his mercy. The lust that had surged through his veins slaked for the moment. His desire to possess her body mind and soul had throbbed incessantly within him until he had given into his lustful demands. Even now as he watched her struggling to crawl away from him, trying to modestly shield her naked, battered body from his eyes, the desire to possess her again began to burn within him.

She would disappoint him eventually – they always did. The fight would leave her and she would lay beneath him like a dead thing – not even trying to please him. It would be her own fault she would die. Displeasing him would only make her the next in a long line of women who apparently preferred other men. He could always tell. This one was more of a fighter though, maybe she would last longer. He knew that she was just the consolation prize. The real prize would have been the hellcat that had almost been his.

He smiled as he remembered the woman at the jogging track. She would never have tired of him, he was sure of that. He could see in her eyes that the fight would never leave her.

Turning his attention back to the blonde woman that cowered in the corner of the room, he smiled evilly as he approached her.

Understanding now what was going to happen to her the young woman steeled her spine and tightened her lips into a thin line refusing to cry out as he dragged her to her feet by her long blonde hair.. Never before had she regretted a single act of human kindness. She knew with certainty yesterday’s gesture was going to be her death. All she had done was help an injured jogger into his car. Anyone would have done it. The last thing she clearly remembered was helping him into his truck.

She had woken here, tied to the bed and naked, save for the three rings that adorned her wedding ring finger now. She didn’t understand why they were there. Every time she asked him he hit her so in the end she did the only thing that seemed sensible to her. She stopped asking, but she never stopped fighting against him. Fighting him anyway he would, begging him not to even as he violated her virgin body.

Tears flowed freely down her face as he threw her onto the bed. She watched him approach her again terror reflected in her battered face. She may only be seventeen and naïve in the ways of the world but even she could see his intentions. She would not allow him the satisfaction of seeing her fear. If nothing else she would keep that tiny scrap of dignity.

She allowed her body to fall limply against the bed, disassociating herself from the pain she knew that would follow. Bile rising in her throat, her teeth pressing so hard against her swollen lip that she actually pierced the bruised flesh as he fitted his body to hers again. Abusing her. Violating her. All the while she lay beneath him like a rag doll. Her tears, streaming from tightly closed eyes the only sign of her distress. Effectively sealing her own death.

AUSTIN FBI OFFICES
ASHLEY

Ashe let the cool water splash against her face, shocking blood back into her unnaturally pale cheeks. She took a slow, steady breath, then another. Bit by bit, she reclaimed her control.

The door opened behind her. Ashley stiffened, embarrassed at being caught so off balance. She knew there was precious little room for weakness among a team this elite. And while she was less than enthusiastic about her new surroundings, she'd be damned if she'd be the team's albatross.

"Sparky? You okay?" Kelly's concerned voice eased the tension in Ashe's body. Kelly, at least, she could trust.

"Not really," Ashe said, her voice still taunt with renegade emotions. "Kel- I don't think I can do this. This case, those girls. . . and we just got started."

"It's okay, just take a few minutes and calm down. I know you've seen burn victims before. Hell, you've recovered more than your fair share. So what's bothering you?" Kelly asked, leaning against the sink as she studied her friend.

"This is different. Those girls aren't some shut-in who couldn't make it to safety, or an accidental death. Somebody did that to them deliberately." Ashe started pacing. She'd always done her best thinking on the move.

Kelly crossed her arms and pinned Ashe with a steady gaze. "You're right. This is different. This is everything that's obscene about human nature. And *you* are one of the select few who actually have a chance to do something about it and make the world just a little bit safer."

"Oh please. If you start waving a flag, I really am gonna get sick." Ashley's words lacked any real venom and she stopped stalking around the room like a caged wolf.

Kelly grinned at her. "You ready to face them? Larabee wanted to introduce you to your partner."

"A partner. Great. My sponsor to the Good Ol' Boy's Club?" Ashe scunched up her nose at her reflection in the mirror. She was still pale under her light tan, but at least the ashen- she grimaced at the pun, tone was gone.

"Remind me to thank Rory when I see him again. Which, for the sake of his pension had better not be for a long, long time."

She straightened and prepared herself to go find her new partner. It was less effort than she'd thought it would be. As she followed Kelly back into the bull pen area, a handsome black man she recognized from the briefing broke off his conversation with two other agents and moved toward them.

"Good luck, Sparky," Kelly said as she abandoned her friend.

The man nodded in greeting to Kelly, then turned his attention to Ashley. "We didn't really get introduced before. I'm Nathan Jackson. You'll be riding with me for the first couple of weeks." He extended his hand.

Ashley shook the offered hand politely and said, "Ashley Sparkes."

"So do I call you Ashley, or Sparky?" he asked nodding toward where Kelly was already squaring off with Buck over something.

"There are five people outside of my family that call me 'Sparky.' And four of them have saved my life. So unless you've taken a bullet for me, or pulled me out of a burning building, Ashe'll do just fine."

Nathan raise an eyebrow at her. "You need rescuing that often?"

Ashe grinned at him, relaxing as she saw the humor behind the mock concern. "Only on really special occasions. And hardly ever without some sort of advanced warning, like- oh say, a really big fire. And seeing how I've traded in my air-pack in order *to* pack. . . I'm thinking my days of collapsing roofs and smoke inhalation are over."

"Around here, you can never tell what's gonna happen." He grabbed his jacket from his desk and headed toward the door. "C'mon, Chris figures you should still have some sway in the path lab. We're supposed to see if they have anything for us yet."

AUSTIN FBI OFFICES
JOHN

John sat at the conference table, still going over the file folder in front of him. Chris sat at the opposite end. Finally John looked up.

"Your team up for this? You've got a few that are still a little green here."

"They'll be fine." Chris replied, his voice slow and measured. "I hand chose my team. They can handle it."

"Good," John replied. "Then we chose the right team to work this. Now, let's get some strategy down." John moved down to the far end of the table. He and Chris spent the next few hours laying down the groundwork for the investigation.

FBI OFFICES
KATHRYN

Kathryn headed out of the conference room shaking her head sadly. She noticed Ashley's drawn features and knew that was the first time she had realized those had been real living breathing people, that is before that apparent serial got a hold of them. She also knew the importance of keeping the press in the dark about the murders. If they found out the press would have a field day. She sat back down at her desk and tapped the eraser end of her pencil on the steno pad she had carried into the conference room.

A thought came to her. "Same color," she muttered.

"What'd ya say?" Vin asked across his desk.

She looked up and held his gaze steady as she spoke, "They all had varying shades of light blonde hair, all the way from almost silver to a golden. I think our serial has a 'taste' shall we say, for blondes," she finished and raised one eyebrow.

"Looks like it, but we can't be for sure about that yet."

"I know, but it's a start," she threw back at him and opened the file. She leaned back in her chair as she studied all the information that was available at this current time from the Georgia detectives. She reached for her pencil and steno again and started scribbling down her own insights from the case. Due to her family connections around the state she made a mental note to talk to some of her contacts. She knew that Chris would not be pleased with whom she would make contact with but she was a detective and that is at the heart of what she did for a living for almost three years. She knew the serial, probably, was very shrewd and preyed on a woman's natural nurturing instinct, which in turn was the victims downfall. She desperately hoped the one that turned up missing today was just someone that wanted to be alone, and not the next victim.

WAREHOUSE DISTRICT
TEMPEST/DESIREE

She knew without doubt that this was the only way out of her living nightmare without giving into the peace of death that her body craved. She steeled her spine, firming her resolve. Even in the midst of her despair she realised that after he had tired of her, he would find another victim. She couldn’t think of herself now, because she knew that she was gone, lost to the world she had loved. She had to think of other families, the other women who were destined to suffer the same way he had made her suffer. She drew her bruised lips together, her tongue finding the raw bundles of nerve endings that had once housed teeth. Nothing would let her give in before she had at least tried to get help.

Struggling, her body wrapped in the tattered remains of a sheet, bent double, her injuries lancing white hot pain through her belly whenever she moved her legs, she moved slowly towards the car that was idling in the driveway. Her mind focussing on each movement step by step. He had stolen so much from her. Her family. Her innocence. Her future. Her body. But she would be damned if he was going to steal her mind and her integrity. If it took every ounce of strength she had, no other girl would suffer what he had done to her.

Crawling painfully into the trunk of the car she hid herself under a rumpled paint splattered tarpaulin. The smell of paint making her gag. Sinking into a hazy darkness she drifted in and out of consciousness. Already losing her tenuous grip on her short life. The movement of the car scraping jagged edges of bones the grated against each other painfully. Life ebbing painfully from the organs damaged beyond repair. The only thing tethering her to the mortal plane was her determination to deliver the precious clue she had absconded with to someone who could help others.

Ezra drove his jag quickly and efficiently through the streets of Austin. Nathan sat in the passenger seat beside him and Tempest and Ashe sat in the back seat their soft voices the only noise in the car aside from the occasional staccato burst of static from the police band radio. A bored male voice reported the whereabouts of a missing vehicle and requested that it be investigated. The message while heard by the occupants of the car was immediately disregarded as irrelevant. By all but one of them.

“Agent Standish” Ashe spoke urgently “Answer that call”

“We don’t do stolen cars Agent Sparkes” he spoke dryly

“Please” she leaned forward in the seat searching for her folder “It belong to one of the suspected victims”

Without waiting for her confirmation or denial Ezra lifted the handset and responded to the call. Directing the car quickly and efficiently to the location. Deep in the warehouse district, the car wedged into a tiny laneway mere inches wider than he car itself. All four agents approached the car warily, guns draw, eyes scanning the area nervously. Nathan and Ezra moved quickly to the front of the car, finding it empty, the keys on the seat. Nathan lifted the keys from the seat, he held them in his large hand. Ashe and Tempest working towards the back of the car paused as they had a faint banging coming from the trunk.

Looking at each other they reached a mutual decision.

“Nathan” Ashe spoke quickly holstering her gun she held out her hand to him “The keys”

“What’s wrong?” he frowned as he threw the keys to her

Ashe quickly slipped the key into the lock and opened the lid. Her eyes filling with tears as she saw the contents of the trunk.

“Oh My God” Tempest murmured from over Ashe’s shoulder.

“Please” Desiree murmured softly her face and lips swollen grotesquely “Please stop him” she sobbed as Ashe ran gentle fingers over the battered woman’s body. Her medical training fighting to overcome the horror she felt at the younger woman’s appearance.

“Please stop him” she smacked at Ashe’s hands ineffectually “His” she pressed the ring in her hand into Ashe’s hand “This is his” she murmured

ASHLEY SPARKES
WAREHOUSE DISTRICT

"Nathan! I need you back here!" Ashley's training kicked in, over-riding the initial shock. She looked past the horrific crime, coolly cataloguing the horrific injuries. "Ezra- get an ambulance here! Now!" She snapped, not caring that she was bossing around senior agents.

Shoving the entrusted rings toward Tempest, she set to work. There wasn't room in the small trunk to examine her closely, and Ashe couldn't risk pulling her free without the proper equipment to care for the shattered body.

Nathan's strong hands were next to hers, gently testing broken bones. Sure fingers seeking the immediately life threatening injuries.

Ashe met his eye and shook her head. It didn't look good. The girls pulse was weak and thready. Her breathing was labored, and Ashe didn't need an x-ray to tell her that a rib had quite likely caught one of her lungs.

Crooning a soft lullaby as she worked, Ashley ghosted fingertips across a ruined cheek. The strong features were still evident on the right side of her face, but the left was one massive bruise. The bone structure underneath was destroyed, even the eye socket and browline. Keeping her touch light and steady, she gently checked for concussions. Her stomach knotted at what she found.

A soft hitch in the girls breathing wrenched Ashe's professional distance from her. Some bastard had done this intentionally. Taken a beautiful, vibrant girl. . . Ashe choked back the bile that was rising. There wasn't time. Not now. But she memorized his crimes for when there would be.

"Here," Tempest said, interrupting Ashe's dark thoughts of justice. She held out the small first-aid kit she'd recovered from the trunk of Ezra's car.

Ashe looked from the tiny kit to the massive injuries they fought to control and very nearly started laughing. Not in a relieved 'laughter-is-the-best-medicine' kind of way. But the sort of laugh David must have given when he got a good long look at Goliath. "Thanks," she said lamely, realizing Tempest was still waiting for some sort of response.

"Look, can you do me a favor?"

The other woman nodded, averting her eyes from the girl in the trunk. "What do you need?"

"Talk to her."

"Talk to her?" The other woman seemed surprised.

"Ashley," Nathan's tone was urgent. "I need you."

Ashley moved to help him, then answered Tempest. "Yeah. Talk to her, sing, whatever. Just let her know she's not alone, and that she's safe now. This is gonna hurt, and I don't want her thinking she's still with the bastard who did this."

The blonde woman paled slightly, but did as she was asked. Ashley immediately tuned out the soft droning. She freed a pressure bandage from its sterile wrapper and nodded to Nathan. He braced the girl's leg tightly, while Ashley tried to staunch the blood. The renewed pain brought a reaction from Desiree, and impossibly, she began to struggle again.

Tempest's words shifted into a soft song too quiet for Ashe to quite catch, but Desiree relaxed into the drowsy melody. The rhythmic touch on her hair was the first gentle caress she'd felt since her nightmare began, and it became a lifeline for her.

How long they labored over her, Ashe wasn't sure. The familiar motions were almost hypnotic as she and Nathan worked feverishly to save a life that had already decided to slip free of the blazing pain living held. All she knew is one moment they were alone in the alley, the next- the scene was crawling with people.

Medics, forensics, agents, and local police. All of them crowding in and taking over. Reluctantly, Ashe stepped back and let the paramedics assume responsibility for the young girl. Part of her wanted to stay in the ambulance and continue her efforts, but that wasn't her responsibility anymore. Besides, Nathan had caught the slight movement she made toward the ALS vehicle. He shook his head slightly and whispered, "They've got her. You belong here."

She nodded and fell silently into his wake as he walked back through the crowd to where Chris was speaking with Ezra, but her thoughts remained with the girl.

Larabee wasn't happy. That was obvious, even to someone who'd only just met him. He shook his head several times and seemed to be having a heated discussion with Agent Standish.

"And there was no one in the area?" She heard him say as they drew closer. "Did you at least check the buildings?"

"That's my fault, Agent Larabee," she volunteered, drawing the ice-cast look in her direction. "I found the victim. We got side-tracked after that."

"I'm glad that you found her alive, but we have to think about the next woman he targets. Or the next. Who popped the trunk?"

Ashe chewed at her lip. "I did. I heard thumping coming from within the trunk, and investigated."

"Did it occur to you that the trunk might have been rigged? Or someone other than the Martin girl?" Chris was exasperated. This case had the potential to blow up in their faces and he was baby-sitting a couple of damned rookies.

"Chris," Nathan said when his new partner didn't offer a defense. "The call came in over the open channel. This guy was long gone before we got here. And- we have a living witness now."

Ashe was grateful for Nathan's rescue, she couldn't trust herself to speak. What was she s'posed to do? Fire a couple rounds into the trunk before she opened it, just to be safe? She didn't care what her paystub said. FBI. . . Austin Fire. . . It all came down to protecting lives. And she'd be damned well before she let an innocent suffer when she could help.

There was just no fucking way. She squared her shoulders and met Chris' eyes. "Anything else?"

"We'll discuss remedial procedures later. I'm not filling out the paperwork 'cause one of my agents got themselves killed. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," she ground out. Then turned on her heel and stalked away as fast as she could.
JERRY
WAREHOUSE DISTRICT

It appeared that his desire to stay and watch the discovery of the vehicle had been vindicated. He lay on the roof of the warehouse almost a block from the alley where he had parked the car. His binoculars trained on the car. It wasn’t coincidental that he left the car there. He had worked on the production line of the now defunct company that once occupied one of the buildings that flanked the car. This building had a perfect line of sight for the whole alley and the front entrances of both warehouses.

Two hours after he had parked the car in the lane, and several passes of a local police car a late model Jag pulled to a stop. It was almost comical for him to watch the four people climb out of the car approaching it with their guns drawn. All signs of humour disappeared from his visage as he watched the two women lift the trunk of the car. Disbelief etched his face as he saw the contents of the trunk. He swore a blue streak and his vision flooded with a angry red haze as he realised that his own plans had been compromised.

Struggling to maintain the rage that filled him at the girls subterfuge and audacity he continued to watch. His eyes narrowed as he watched his victim and her saviours, a sudden realisation struck him. The woman with the ice blonde hair was his prize that got away. So easily it could have been her in the trunk of the car. Immediately losing interest in the two men, his eyes shifted the to the other woman, a plan slowly forming in his mind.

Standing quickly he cast one final glance over the scene in the lane, what appeared to be dozens of police officers and paramedics trampling the crime scene into submission. Smiling to himself he realised that he may have more time than he thought, thanks to the inept police techniques. His mind catalogued the tings that he needed to remove from the house before he destroyed the evidence he left behind.

He watched his house burning a white hot fire that lit the land for miles around and listened to the sound of sirens approaching in the distance. Knowing that he didn’t have much time before the fire department arrived, he took one final glance at his latest home before he climbed into his fully laden truck and gunned the engine, his mind now on the task ahead of him. It didn’t matter to him that they were both police officers. That was inconsequential to him.

What mattered to him was the slaking of the lust that surged through his veins.

Either of them. Both of them. It didn’t matter to him. They would pay for stealing her from him. They would pay for saving her soul at the cost of their own.