Chapter 1
Felix felt herself drifting in and out of consciousness, the room spinning as her head throbbed, the gash on her forehead having now stopped bleeding. Her arms were aching from the way she was cuffed to the old radiator. She knew exactly how she’d gotten into this predicament, she’d robbed the wrong person and had fallen fowl of the wrong crime syndicate. And this was how she was now bloody and beaten, cuffed to the ironwork in an unused room above their warehouse.
Shifting on the cold floor she groaned into the dirty rag that had been tied around her jaw to gag her, the pain from the bruised ribs almost unbearable. She lifted her head, trying to listen out for the thugs that had beaten her, but only hearing the sounds of the building creaking. After a while exhaustion took over and she slumped back against the cold iron, drifting back into unconsciousness as the blackness closed in around her.
The sounds of gunshots woke her, heavy footfalls running past the door to the room where she was being kept captive, panicked shouts that she couldn’t quite make out. Unsure at to what was going on she pulled herself up until she had her back to the radiator, her eyes darting along the wall at the sounds of a fist fight in the hallway. She heard bone breaking and a bloody curdling scream before it all went quiet, the only sound that of a single set of footsteps that gradually got closer until she heard the door handle rattle and the quiet click of the latch being released. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.
But it never came, instead a soft hand touched her cheek;
“Felix?”
That voice... it had been almost a year since she’d heard it, but it was unmistakable. Peering out through her puffy eyes she tried to focus on the person in front of her, a sense of relief flooding through her when she saw him. He pulled his knife from his boot and cut away the gag, rubbing her jaw before he spoke into his radio;
“Ops, I need a medic in the upper rooms, I’ve found a hostage!”
The radio crackled into life in response;
“Understood Agent Hiddleston, they’re on their way up”
He looked down at her broken and battered form, his hands working on the cuffs as he picked at the lock, the quiet click of the mechanism being released the only noise in the room. As he gently lowered her to the floor he rubbed her wrists, covered deep purple and yellow bruises where she’d been shackled for so long.
“Oh Felix... how did you get messed up in this?”
He could hear the sounds of the medic team running up the stairs, but noticed her lips moving as if trying to speak. Lowering his ear to her mouth he could just make out what she was saying;
“Left... pocket...”
Looking down he slid his hand into her pocket and grasped at a small piece of card, pulling it out and realising it was his business card that he’d given her all those months ago.
At that very moment the medics burst into the room, pushing him aside as they tended to Felix. He stood there hopelessly as he watched them rush around, shouting out medical terms that he didn’t fully understand. They attached an IV and loaded her onto the stretcher, hurriedly making their way out of the building and to the waiting ambulance.
Tom caught up with them as they were about to pull away, running up to the drivers side and flashing his badge and ID;
“Where are you taking her?”
“The ER at St Francis’s”
Tom nodded and stepped aside, watching as they roared off into the busy rush hour traffic, the lights and sirens clearing a path through the stationary vehicles.
~*~
It was almost 6 hours later when he was finally able to track her down, she’d been admitted under Jane Doe as she’d been unconscious when she arrived and carried no ID, but eventually he’d found her in one of the quiet recovery wards.
He slipped into the room silently, yet he saw her immediately turn towards him, a weak smile spreading across her face.
“Tom...”
He sat on the edge of the bed, glancing at the monitors as they took her vitals, the continual beeps and clicks of the equipment filling the void of silence.
“Felix... what happened to you? How did you get mixed up in this?”
She sat back, her hand weakly reaching for his. He wrapped his fingers around hers and waited as she explained;
“A friend needed money or she was going to be evicted, I’d been working the social circuit here in Chicago for a few weeks when she’d called me, and I had the perfect mark; someone who worked the wrong side of the law that would never call in a burglary... I did the first heist with no problem, fleeced the haul and was able to wire her the money in time”
She paused; just talking to him was tiring her out and making her throat sore. She nodded to the cup on the table and he reached for it, angling the straw to her mouth so she could sip the water and wet her dry throat;
“But I went back the next night, I’d seen just how much stuff they had and decided it could set me up for the next year... unfortunately I hadn’t counted on that being the night they were on site after hours...”
Her voice trailed off, tears welling in her eyes as she recalled the painful memories. Tom rubbed her arm gently wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pressing his lips to her forehead;
“You should have called me...”
She rested her head against his, they both knew it wouldn’t have happened, but she was pleased to see him there, knowing that after what they’d shared they had an understanding between each other’s career choices.
She nodded to the chair in the corner, a smile on her face as her eyes glazed over;
“Reminds me of that time we last met”
Ignoring her comment he could tell that she was growing tired, her eyes drooping as her breathing started to grow steady and regular. Setting her gently back against the pillows he watched as her eyes closed and she settled against the stark white hospital linen. His hands found their way to his pockets, touching the card that he’d pulled from her jeans back at the warehouse. He realised then that she’d know that she would be searched and have her belongings seized and taken into evidence, and that if they found his card on her it could have compromised his position. He rested the card back on the table, and with one final glance he stepped out of the room.
He was back early the next morning, no longer in his SWAT uniform, instead n Jeans and a shirt, his badge hooked around his neck whilst he carried his jacket over his shoulder. Nodding to the nurses he recognised a couple from the previous night, they buzzed him through and let him find his own way to her room.
Quietly pushing in the door he saw the curtain drawn around her bed, the machines pushed up to the door at the side of the room, the cables trailing into the next room. Immediately on edge he pulled the curtain aside, only to find the bed empty. Following the trailing cables he pushed into the next room and saw an elderly man sleeping. Looking to the mans hand Tom spotted that he had two monitors pinned to it and knew what Felix had done, having hooked up her monitors to the other patient as to not raise the alarm when she snuck out.
Closing the door quietly he stood in Felix’s abandoned room, looking around until his eyes fell to the chair. Something told him that she’d mentioned it for a reason, so he quickly ran his fingers around the seat between the cushions until they felt something. Pulling out the small piece of folded paper and carefully pulling it apart;
Tom
I’m so sorry but I had to go.
They’d only ask me questions and I didn’t want them to figure out the link between us.
I’ll call you in a few weeks, I promise.
Felix
He stuffed the paper into his pocket and made his way quickly out of the room, raising the alarm with the nurses that they’d had a patient go AWOL even though he knew she would be long gone by now.
~*~
After a week working on the investigation they’d come to a dead end, and it didn’t help that their star witness had gone missing from the hospital. Tom had exhausted all avenues of investigation and was rapidly driving his partner nuts.
“Tom, will you just sit down, if you pace along that carpet any more you’ll wear through to the bare cement floor”
Ben had just about enough of Tom’s silent moods over the last week, his usually carefree and chatty partner had become sullen and quiet;
“What has got you so wound up about this case? What haven’t you told me?”
Tom sat down in his chair and rested his head in his hands;
“The hostage from the raid... It was Felix”
“Who?”
“Felix... the jewel thief from last year... you know Felix...”
A spark of recognition lit within Ben’s mind;
“Oh...”
“Yeah. I went to visit her in the hospital the night of the raid and she told me she’d broken into the warehouse previously, she’d robbed them to send the proceeds to a friend that had been in trouble. She’d gone back the next night to finish the job but had gotten caught”
“And now she’d done a runner”
“Yeah”
Ben got up and opened the filing cabinet, reaching under the drawer and pulling off the large envelope that was taped to the underneath of it;
“Well let’s review what we found when we investigated her last year”
They had both spent their weekends after they’d met her trying to find out who she was, but all they’d been able to find was a few connections to New York before the trail had gone cold. Ben pulled the paperwork out of the folder and glanced over to Tom;
“Hey, you said she robbed them then sent the proceeds to a friend?”
“Yeah?”
“Well how many places would not only pawn goods without checking its origins, but also wire the money when usually you’d need ID to do so?”
Tom sat up in his chair, he knew immediately what Ben was getting at;
“Lets go, there’s only one place in that neighbourhood that is seedy enough to do that”
Two hours later they were armed with an address to which a person matching Felix’s description had sent the wire transfer to, a small convenience store in New York. They caught the last flight out that night, arriving in just what they were standing in.
“We should find a hotel” Ben looked around the airport for a courtesy bus to one of the big chains
“No need, I have a friend who’ll put us up for the night”
“A friend?” Ben knew that Tom had very few ‘friends’, but an awful lot of ex’s and fuck buddies from the East coast to West that he could call upon at any point that he was in need of a bed for the night; “Is this a friend where I am going to have to sleep on the couch whilst I listen to the two of you go at it like Energizer Bunnies?”
Ignoring his partners last comment Tom lifted his arm and hailed a cab, the two of them climbing in as he gave the address to the driver. The streets of the city were quiet that late at night and it didn’t take them long to get to their destination, paying the driver and sending him on his way, Tom glanced up at the building, pleased to see that the lights in the apartment they were heading to were still lit.
Making their way up the stairs Tom led the way, standing nervously outside the door until Ben gave him a nudge, making him press on the doorbell. They could hear voices inside and the sound of someone approaching, the latch being slid and the door opening a crack.
“Hi Jade” Tom said sheepishly
“Tom... what are you doing here?”
She looked through the narrow gap in the door, hiding the inside of her apartment from them.
“We were kind of hoping we could crash on your sofa... we’re kind of in town on unofficial business...”
Jade shuffled from one foot to another nervously;
“I kind of already have someone staying on my sofa...”
“Oh...”
They heard movement from further inside the apartment and watched as Jade turned towards it, a second voice coming clear;
“Jade, its ok, let them in”
Ben and Tom exchanged glances, they knew that voice. Watching as Jade opened the door they both stood in the doorway in shock;
“Felix...”
“Hi boys... you’d best come in... I guess we’ve got some explaining to do...”
Tom looked to Jade;
“Tom, I’d like you to meet my Sister...”