A/N: I know it's been ages since I updated this fic but I finally was able to get this chapter out into words. If anyone is still reading this or looking forward to this, here ya go! I haven't given up on any of my pieces, I promise. I'm just slow to update them with my hectic schedule. I suggest re-reading this fic if it's been a while since you've seen it so this chapter makes sense. I don't own SVU or its characters and I hope you enjoy!

March 21st – 2:21 am

You could hear a pin-drop.

Liv sat staring at the phone on her desk, face blank and hands folded in front of her.

Carisi was staring out the window of her office next to Amanda, who had her face buried in her hand. Zeke watched all three of them, hands buried in his pockets and his leg bouncing uncontrollably. No one had spoken a word in what felt like forever. It was beginning to make him anxious.

"Get Dodds on the phone. Tell him I need to speak with him immediately. It's an emergency," Liv said quietly after another two minutes of silence, still expressionless and sitting in the same position, unmoving. Carisi made a break for his desk first, leaving Amanda to follow his path. She patted Liv on the shoulder reassuringly. "I'm going to call down at the hospital. Check-in on Lexi and Fin's security."

Amanda passed by Zeke without acknowledging him, leaving him alone in the office, which he wished she hadn't. This woman in front of him was clearly having a mental breakdown, heavily affected by the video she had just seen and the man she spoke to over the phone. Hank Abraham was a name he heard before, whether it was in passing at one of the safehouse locations or it was on the news.

Obviously, he had to be important enough if all of these cops were too shocked to even speak. He had a sinking feeling he just exposed someone important.

The silence lasted in the room for another thirty seconds until Benson stood up suddenly, hands rubbing over her face and a humorless laugh escaping her lips. She went over to her door and shut it, effectively cutting off the low murmur of Detective Carisi's voice from in the squad room. Zeke squirmed in his seat, knee bouncing anxiously. He'd never been around or alone with this woman before, and from his past experiences, being around someone with the authority she did, and with the way she was acting…he was almost positive he was gonna get his ass beat.

She came to a stop in front of her desk, hands cupped around her mouth while red eyes searched the floor the 2-way mirror in front of her, looking into the lit up, empty interrogation room in front of her. It was a full two minutes before she finally said anything.

"Hank Abraham…," she whispered. The words were spit with malice and contempt. "Hank Abraham is the leader of BX-9."

Zeke continued to stare, not knowing what to do. He wasn't free to leave, that was for sure, not that he would want to, but he wished he could right then and there. She was going through something he had no idea how to deal with. He wished the blonde lady would come back…

"You know what Hank Abraham did to end up in jail?" At first, Zeke didn't know the question was directed towards him until she glanced up at him with red eyes. She sniffed and looked at him expectantly. He shook his head after a few seconds, followed by a soft 'no', even though he knew perfectly well. Liv chuckled humorlessly again and stood facing her desk, hands shaking.

"Hank Abraham got busted with child pornography. He's a sick…sick man, who did something very, very wrong…and he paid the price for it."

Zeke didn't move, too focused on the calm tone she had. He could feel the anger rolling off her in waves and he had an inkling that she wasn't normally like this. She wasn't normally about to blow her fucking top. It looked like there was a bomb inside her that was about to go off.

"You know who sent him away?"

Zeke had a good guess, but he wasn't going to say anything. Liv didn't expect him to.

"Rafael Barba. He did his job…and he sent him away…," Liv reached out and grabbed her name plate, fingers running over the engraving of her name, almost reverently. Then, her fist closed around it, tightly. Her hand shook and her knuckles were white and Zeke tensed up at the sight.

"And now…," she muttered darkly, "…they're trying to repay the favor."

There were tense seconds that followed, quiet and filled with emotion, but eventually she dropped the name plate back on the desk and turned around, leaning against the desk. She looked at him, face blank, but eyes searching his. Zeke didn't turn away like he wanted to in the first place, because her gaze wasn't filled with malice or contempt.

"Help us. Please."

Zeke only nodded, too transfixed on the sense of impending doom that followed her words to say anything. They stared at each other in the tense moment before she was whisked away over to Carisi's desk, where Dodds had been reached on the phone. Zeke turned and watched through the blinds as she hunched over and spoke. He could hear her speaking and the man on the speaker sounded so angry and tired, like they all did.

He sat back and felt his stomach turn in knots, wondering what the hell he had just gotten himself into.

March 21st – 3:45 a.m.

Lexi woke up with a gun against her forehead.

It was dark and there was a bright light shining directly into her face. It blinded and disoriented her and she tried to move away, but strong hands kept her pressed into the bed, forcing her to stay still. So, she closed her eyes and scrunched her nose, flinching when her blanket was thrown off her legs, exposing her to the cold air.

"Wake up," a gruff, accented voice said in her ear, tugging on her left arm and nearly dragging her from the bed. She opened her eyes then, looking directly into a masked face and a gun that hovered close to her lips. She opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off with a hard smack across the face and tape over her opened mouth, pressing against her lips uncomfortably.

Tears slipped unbidden down her face as the terror spiraled through her body, forcing her limbs to tense, leaving them almost immobile. There was a hand in hair, pulling tight against her scalp and dragging her down to the floor, on her knees, where they hit the concrete with force.

A small, high-pitched groan slipped out from behind the tape, but that was the only noise other than the rustling of clothing coming closer. She leaned back looking up at two men who were holding clothes that looked too big for her. Before she knew what was happening, they had nearly ripped her gown off, and thrown the clothes at her, ordering her to get dressed quickly.

She did so without question, silently crying as she fumbled. The two men weren't looking at her in her underwear. Instead, they were looking out of the hallway and fixing the bed, doing their best to make it seem like nothing had happened. She slipped the pants quickly, holding them up as they slipped off her waist, and she tied the drawstring tightly, to avoid it further. She was still shoeless and her bare feet on the cool tiled floor was so uncomfortable, she was squirming.

But, that was really the least of her worries.

The masked man who straightened the bed produced his gun again and held right against her temple, getting down in her face. Lexi held her breath, tears still coming, but the sobs that wracked her body calmed considerably the closer he got to her face.

"You're going to follow us and not make any noise. You won't run, you won't ask anyone for help. You do as we say and we won't hurt you. Ok?"

Lexi hesitated, but nodded after a moment. "I'm going to take this tape off your mouth, but remember what I said."

She nodded again and held back a shocked gasp when the tape was ripped off her mouth, pulling a few strands of her hair with it. She brought her hand to skin, trying to relieve the burning sensation, but she didn't have time. The man roughly grabbed her by her arm and forced her to move.

They walked quickly out of the room and down the hall to the nearest stair well, unfortunately not running into anyone that may have been walking the halls. The nurses station they passed was dimly lit and completely empty, but she didn't dare let herself dwell on that fact. She had to do what they say to stay alive. She had no doubt these guys were BX-9 and for whatever reason, they were taking her somewhere to do something.

But, what? Kill her? If they wanted to do that they would have done that already. Which meant that she was possibly being used for bait. Or, even worse, entertainment.

It was a long trek down the flights of stairs, but they eventually made it to the ground floor and found themselves at an emergency exit door that had been propped open. There were a few stray wires hanging out of the box on the outside of the door, alluding to the fact that either one of these men were skilled enough to get around an alarm system.

They rushed her into a waiting car parked just feet from the door, pushing her none too gently into the backseat. She was squished between one of her captors and another man, who was unmasked but she couldn't see. Even in the dark though, she could see he wasn't dressed in thick, black clothing. It almost looked like he was wearing a suit, or what she thought was one with the help of passing street lights lighting up the interior of the car.

It remained quiet until they were out of the hospital parking lot and were driving through the nearly empty streets before anyone spoke. The man next to her reached up and turned on the car light, revealing his face to her. She gulped. If they were revealing faces to her, she knew she was going to be killed. There was no other way around it.

"Hello, Lexi."

She looked up at him but didn't say anything. Her eyes were probably wide as saucers, but she couldn't help the deer in the headlights look. He didn't look like most members and she concluded that he had to be one of the higher-ups within the group. It was almost near impossible he was one of the grunts.

"I'm Athos." Lexi furrowed her brow and he chuckled, "It's a code name. Security reasons, as I'm sure you understand."

He stared at her for another long second before he reached up and weaved his fingers through her hair, bringing his thumb to run along her cheek bone tenderly. She felt her stomach churning and she backed up just a fraction away from him, wanting him to stop. She averted her gaze though and stayed strong, pushing that feeling to the back of her mind.

"Do you know why you're here?"

She shook her head and she closed her eyes, a tear slipping down when his hand slid from her hair and down her neck, fingers tracing along the soft skin. She shivered involuntarily and bit her lip, wanting desperately to get away from him.

"You're here because you've caused me quite the headache, honey."

He moved his hand back and his thumb traced up her jaw and along her lower lip. Lexi moved her head to the side to try and get away from him, but she was effectively blocked in on either side. His tender touch turned into a harsh slap across her face, and before she could yelp in pain, he had a hand around her neck and was pushing her into the seat, cutting off her breath. She opened her mouth, gasping for air as tears continued to slide down her cheeks. She looked at him, at his face that she could now see in the passing street lights.

"If you hadn't opened your mouth, you wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have to kill you and you would have gone off to college. Left your old man and made a life for you somewhere, but you couldn't do that."

He slammed her head back against the seat and released her neck. She doubled over and coughed and gagged, feeling saliva run down her chin from how hard she was trying to regain her breath. She felt a hand in her hair, forcing her back up, and it slipped away quickly.

"Blindfold her."

She was able to glance at him one more time before her world went black again.

March 21st – 3:45 a.m.

She quit smoking years ago but bought a pack last night after she received the call.

Rita Calhoun used to go through a pack a day back when she first started working at the D.A.'s office and before she moved on to defense. There was so much work back then, when her and other ADA hopefuls, like Rafael Barba (who was also a raging smoker back then), and the only way to cope with that much stress was smoking or drinking. Of course, getting rip roaring drunk at your desk was unacceptable, so most people chose to light a Marlboro every twenty minutes while they poured over the endless piles of bullshit paperwork ADA's had to deal with.

She quit when she left, because her new boss told her it was a disgusting, unbecoming habit, and there was no way he would have her stinking up his office. So, she quit cold turkey and never looked back. Until yesterday, when her boyfriend of almost a year had been shot several times and barely made it through surgery.

Her nerves were frayed, she hadn't showered since then, and her appetite was barely there. The only thing she really wanted was a cigarette, and it was odd, since it wasn't a craving she had in nearly twenty years. There was no smoking by any of the exit doors in the hospital, but she had found a small little cubby hole in the wall, next to a breaker box where the cameras couldn't see her. It was shrouded in darkness and it allowed her to smoke and hurry back inside, up the stair well and back to her boyfriend's room so she could continue her watch over him.

It's where she found herself now, at nearly four in the morning. Fin's son would be back in the morning with his grandson to see him for a few hours, so she could go home, sleep, get a change of clothes and come back to be with him. He was asleep right now, passed out with the pain meds coursing through his system. He had smelled the smoke on her a few hours earlier, when she forgot to spray herself down with perfume, but instead of getting a lecture, she smiled when he said he wished he could 'puff on one of those bad boys'.

She blew smoke out into the night air, feeling a chill. She had forgone a jacket, feeling the need for some fresh, cold air, away from that stuffy hospital room, but she was regretting the decision. For late March, it was still very much freezing outside.

She was pulled from her mundane thoughts when a car came screeching around the corner, to this back entrance that was only reserved for visitors in this section of the hospital. The sound was loud and bounced off the large building and Rita pressed herself into the cubby hole, holding smoke in her lungs as it came to screeching halt by the door. For a moment, she thought that the masked men coming out of the car had seen her, and were coming for her, but they raced to the door, and a few moments later, there was sparking noises and the sound of plastic hitting the pavement.

She braved a peek out of her hiding spot when she was only met with the sound of a purring engine, and looking at the car, she could see the doors were still open, and the windows were tinted inky black. Her heart and mind raced, thinking of all the possibilities. She had no doubt this had to have something to do with the string of gang violence. Rafael Barba's re-disappearance solidified that, along with Fin's shooting. It was almost like they were bringing the city down with the crazy shit happening. She briefly wondered if they were here for Fin. A cold dread shot through her system at the thought. Were they there to finish what they had intended from the start? She had to stop her legs from taking off towards the door. She wanted nothing more than to fly up the steps and into his room to make sure he was ok, but she couldn't.

Those were masked men. They were here for something or someone and it wasn't going to end well for anyone involved. She had defended gang members before. They were deplorable, and she had lost most of those cases. Their cases were easily the most gruesome ones she could ever touch. She had stopped doing so a long time ago.

She stood there, pressed against the breaker wall for a few short minutes until she heard the door to the stair well bang against the hospital wall, and feet rapidly pounding on the pavement. She stuck her head out again, making sure she wasn't visible in the light. She could see that girl, Lexi, who had been in the car with Fin, being half carried and thrown in the backseat of the car, and suddenly, she was memorizing the license plate as the car sped off and around the corner of the parking lot.

She pulled out her phone and ran to the door, running up the steps and out onto the floor where Fin was staying. She wasted no time in flagging down a night nurse, who was texting away on her phone and told her to call the police while she ran to Fin's room. He woke when she threw open his hospital door and was confused as she checked him over for wounds.

"Rita, what the hell?"

"I have to call Benson." She was breathing heavily as she scoured her contacts and dialed Liv's cell phone number, knowing it was a long shot to try and get a hold of her. It rang several times before she gave up and slammed her phone down on the table, picking up his that had been recovered from the car. She easily unlocked it and surfed through until she came to Carisi's name, that had been spotted first.

He picked up on the first ring.

"Carisi."

"Carisi!"

Carisi was surprised to hear a feminine voice calling on Fin's voice, but it was a familiar one he couldn't put his finger on.

"Uh…who is this?"

"It's Rita. Rita Calhoun. Listen to me! I need you to write this plate number down."

"Rita? Why are you calling from Fin's phone?"

"It's not important. Write this plate number down now! That Lexi girl was just taken from the hospital by men in masks and they drove away in a car. You need to track it."

He listened intently, and although he was still confused, he scrambled when he heard about Lexi and picked up the nearest pen and paper. LX82U. He double checked with her, and asked her to reiterate, quickly waving over Liv, who was watching back the tapes that Zeke had bought in with Dodds, who was nursing a cup of coffee in sweat pants and a hoodie.

"Rita Calhoun just saw Lexi get taken from Mount Sinai five minutes ago by men in masks. She got the plate number."

Liv didn't even bother trying to flesh out why Rita Calhoun was anywhere near Fin at that moment in time, and looked to Amanda, who had already snatched the paper from Carisi and was typing a mile a minute on her computer.

"Is Fin ok?"

Carisi asked the question again to Rita, "How's Fin doing? They didn't get to him, did they?"

"No. He's fine. Just the girl. But I need extra security up here, now. The guards weren't even here when I got back to the room. I need a whole damn team down here, Carisi."

Liv, who had been close enough to hear her, took the phone from him, "We'll send down a few more guards. Until then, stay where you are. Did you call the cops?"

"I told one of the nurses, but I don't know if she did."

"I'm sending a few units down there. Lock the door and stay in there until the police get in. Tell them everything that happened. I'll keep you updated."

She gave the phone back to Carisi after hanging it up and leaned back against his desk, "Jesus. What the fuck is happening?" She shook her head, mind reeling now with Lexi taken from the hospital. There was a connection. There was no way there wasn't. She knew too much about the gang, about the whole situation.

"What I want to know," Dodds interrupted, swirling his cup, "Is how on Earth Rita Calhoun knows who Lexi is and why she's at the hospital with Tutuola."

Liv shook her head and waved her hand, "It doesn't matter. What matters is that whoever took Lexi probably took Rafael. I want every NYPD unit on this island searching for that car."

"Olivia," Dodds said loudly. Liv looked at him, teeth grit as she was interrupted, "We have discussed this. This case no longer belongs to SVU. While I agree with your call, you have no authority to make it."

"They just walked into Sinai and kidnapped a teenage girl who knows just as much about this case as we do! The FEDs won't move fast enough, you know that!"

Dodds leaned back against the desk where the computer they'd been watching was and rubbed at his sleepy eyes, "Liv, it's out of our hands. You shouldn't even be here right now. None of you should be. I'll personally put out the call and hand this video and the kid over to them personally, but I expect all of you to go home. Now."

The silence that followed was tense and Liv stood rigid in the middle of the squad room. She was tired and her hair was pulled back and her clothes were wrinkled and she looked so exhausted she could barely stand, but the determination was clear in her eyes.

"I'm not going home. I'm going to find Rafael whether you like it or not."

"I'll fire you if I have to, Benson."

"Then do it," she spat with so much venom it visibly shook Amanda and Carisi to their cores.

"Liv…I will do it if I have to."

Liv let the tension release from her body, deflating a bit. Tears welled up in her eyes as she stared at Dodds.

"You know what it's like to someone you love. You spent all that time in that hospital room, not knowing whether Mike was going to make it or not, and when he didn't, it broke you."

Dodds looked away from Benson at the mention of his son's name and shifted against the desk, arms tightening across his chest. Liv shuffled forward a few steps and stopped, a single falling down her cheek at the memory.

"I can't sit around and wait. Not when I know I can find him. Not when we have all this evidence that's going to go to waste if it's handed over."

Dodds closed his eyes and bowed his head. Amanda and Carisi watched the scene unfolding before them with bated breath. Liv wiped at the errant tear, "Please. Please don't make me go home."

The older man looked over at her, searching her reddened eyes and rumpled appearance. He sighed after a long minute and stood up straight, unfolding his arms from across his chest. He was a man of the law and he followed it to the letter. He never strayed from the proper course of action, especially in cases that exceeded their abilities. But the way Liv looked, so lost and determined and exhausted and full of fight…

It was another long minute of silence before he opened his mouth, his mind warring back and forth, even as he spoke.

"Find what you can. Lay low and under the radar. I'll talk to Agent Richards in the morning about letting you three officially work with them, but don't get your hopes up. Until then, keep your heads down and act normal."

Liv let out a shuddering breath, a slew of tears cascading down her cheeks at. Dodds came up to her and patted her on the shoulder as she composed herself, relief coursing through her system. She glanced back at Carisi and Amanda, who already back at their desks, working with renewed energy. She could briefly hear Amanda barking orders to send units down to Mount Sinai before Dodds pulled her aside.

"This goes against everything I've built my career on, Liv."

"I know," she said quietly.

"I didn't want to pull you off the case to begin with, I hope you know that."

She cracked a small smile, "Yeah, I know that. Thank you for this. You really don't know how much this means to me."

"Just do me a favor and don't get caught. This could have serious consequences."

"Trust me, I don't intend to."

Dodds chuckled and patted her shoulder one more time before walking towards the entrance, cell phone in his hand as he left the squad room. Liv waited until he was gone before she looked at Zeke, who had been sitting in her office, listening and watching them work for the past hour. He quickly looked away from her when they locked eyes.

Liv walked into her office and opened the file cabinet where she normally kept her purse and dug around for a few dollars. She hadn't been so nice to the kid when he first arrived, and it was obvious he was scared shitless. She came around to the couch and held out the money to him. Confusion passed over his young face and she nodded towards the breakroom.

"Get yourself some food and a drink and take a nap. You look like hell."

He looked up at her, unsurely, but she insisted until he slowly took the money from her. She smiled and turned on her heel, prepared to comb back over the video footage he provided them when he spoke up.

"You don't need my help?"

"That's why I told you to take a nap," she smirked at his confusion, "It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

March 21st – 5:20 a.m.

Money was tight and he was laid off work again.

That was the only reason he was there, he reasoned. He had a son to feed and clothe. That was his priority. Where money came from wasn't really a care at the moment. He wasn't proud of it, but he'd been dealing for a little while. An old friend hooked him up with a route and he was making decent cash for a while, until he was dropped. He wasn't low key enough for the job. His morals got in the way, especially when it came to dealing to kids not even old enough to get a driver's license.

When Alex Muñoz called him out of the blue one day, after a morning spent filing job applications everywhere he could think of, and offered him a huge lump sum of money to help with a problem, as he put it, he wasn't in the position to say no.

Not even after all that mess a few years ago, with Rafi, that sent Alex to jail for a fucked up reason and permanently put an end to all of their friendships. He convinced himself that he would never deal with Alex again. Not after almost going to jail for him. Not after being betrayed by him. His mind wondered to Rafi, and whether the man was alright or not. He saw the press conference and the news broadcast a few days later that he'd been found alive. He tried contacting him after that, to see if he was ok, but his phone number was out of service. After Alex contacted him, he tried calling Rafi again, wanting the man to talk some sense into him, but to no avail. The need for money won out more than the need for a talking, though.

He needed money and he needed it bad. He had a growing boy who told him not worry about getting him birthday presents that year, because he knew they were dirt poor. It put a bad taste in his mouth, his son knowing his dad couldn't provide for him like he should.

That was the only reason he was here. Not to mend a damn thing with Alex, but to earn some cash no matter what. He was desperate. Maybe, somehow, Alex knew that. Although, he wouldn't know how. He hadn't known until a few days ago that Alex was even out of jail to begin with.

Which also put a bad taste in his mouth. Eddie Garcia wasn't the smartest man to walk the Earth, but his mind was good for something. There was an underlying motive here that he couldn't pinpoint or didn't have the energy to. Part of him wanted to just forget about it, leave that part of his mind blocked off while he did this job for Alex. Part of him wanted to focus on it and pick it apart. He wanted to know why Alex called him of all people to take care of this problem. Surely, he knew plenty of people. Sure, it was always him and Rafi that Alex ran to when they were growing up, but he knew more people than both of them combined. Why him?

Why now?

Eddie shook his head and tried to quell the growing unease in his stomach as he knocked on the old apartment door in front of him. The building was old and in a bad part of the Bronx that he hadn't been in a very long time. He hadn't seen or heard any of the other neighbors on the way up to the fourth floor of this building either, which immediately put him on edge. Places like this, people left their doors open and had their guns on them, just in case they needed to pop someone or wanted to sell them something to get high off of.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when the door opened and Alex, bright eyed and smiling from ear to ear pulled him into a tight hug, slapping his back and laughing like it was old times. Like it wasn't weird he was wearing an expensive looking suit in such a shitty, rundown apartment building.

"Eddie. God, it's so good to see you man. Come in."

Alex moved to the side and gestured him in. Eddie smiled back hesitantly and looked around before he fully stepped into the room. The furniture was worn down and the walls were graffitied heavily. There was a kid, maybe mid-20's sitting on one of the beaten up recliners, cleaning a gun and watching him wearily as Alex closed the door behind him.

"How's your son? Doing good, I hope. Got those good grades? Makin' his pops proud?"

Alex slapped him on the back and walked around him, heading towards the small kitchen area. He pulled two beers out of the fridge and popped the tops on the edge of the counter with ease. He accepted the one Alex handed out to him, but he didn't drink from it. His mind was moving a mile a minute.

"Eddie, meet my associate Victor. He's my right-hand man. Very reliable. Reminds me of you," he laughed. Eddie nodded towards the kid who merely nodded back, eyeing him once more before focusing on the gun that was pulled apart completely.

"Uh…so you said something about a job?"

"Ah, yes, let's get down to it. Have a seat," he said and pulled Eddie around to the sofa. Alex sat back and propped his feet up on the coffee table, resting his arm across the back of the sofa. Eddie tried not to appear stricken by his old friend's behavior, but it was giving off the weirdest vibes. He briefly wondered if Alex was high on something or not, but he couldn't tell, and he had no time to explore it, either.

"I'm just going to cut to the chase here, Eddie. I know you need money, and I have a lot of it. I need you to do something for me and in return, I promise you, I can set you up for life."

Eddie furrowed his brow, "What do you mean?"

"I mean money won't ever be an issue again. I already have a bank account set up and waiting for you, with 500 grand sitting in it. All I need to do is slap your name and social security number on it, and it's yours."

It took Eddie a minute to process that. A good, long minute. He set his beer down on the coffee table and watched Alex take a few sips of his. A smug smile was on his face and Eddie could see no signs of lying in the man's posture. He glanced at Victor, who was putting the gun back together, slowly but surely. For a moment, the only sound in the room was the clinking of metal.

"Alex…what are you talking about? How do you have that much money? What…what kind of business are you doing to have that kind of money?"

Alex just smiled and sat up, putting his loafered feet on the floor, "I can't tell you that. I know it's weird because I just got out of prison. I would be asking the same questions if I were you Ed. But I can't answer that. And I need you to not ask anything else, because if you do, I can't guarantee that I can keep you safe."

"What- "

"Eddie. It's a simple yes or no question."

Eddie shook his head, overwhelmed with what was just said to him. He stood up and backed away from the couch, hand coming up to cover the back of his neck, "Alex…this is freakin' me out man. What are you saying if I ask questions I'm gonna get popped?"

Alex sighed and reached into his suit jacket, pulling out a sleek iPhone. Eddie watched him for a few minutes, glancing back and forth between him and Victor, who was taking his time putting the gun back together. Eddie wondered what was going to happen when the gun was finally put together completely.

His phone buzzed in his pocket unexpectedly and Alex slid his own back into his suit pocket. He smirked smugly up at Eddie and sipped his beer, tipping the rim at his pocket before bringing it to his lips. Eddie fished it out and saw a notification of a wire transfer from his bank with-

Eddie let out a shuddering breath, his heart nearly stopping in his chest at the number of zero's that lined up behind the number five. He swallowed the lump in his throat and looked at Alex, who was smiling like an idiot.

"There's more where that came from, Eduardo. Plenty more. You won't ever have to worry about Junior having what he needs ever again. You can get him out of that shitty apartment and move him into one of those park avenue penthouses. He can go to one of those private schools our moms always dreamed of sending us to. He doesn't have a poor childhood like we had. You can get him anything his heart desires…anything your heart desires."

Eddie's eyes watered, flash images of his son ripping into presents on his birthday with a big cake and all of his friends surrounding him, just like he wanted. He could see the huge smile on his face…the happiness that Eddie only ever wanted to see on his little face.

He looked back down at the notification until the screen went black and then looked at Alex, who had stood and come to a stop right in front of him. The man before him waited patiently as Eddie got a hold of himself, sniffing the welled-up tears away. Eddie was beside himself and still wholly unsure, but the promise of making rent this month and having a pantry full of food was enough to override that, despite his mind screaming at him that something was wrong.

He didn't listen to that little voice of reason, telling him to leave.

"So, I just do this job…no questions asked…and I'll have money for me and my son for the rest of my life?"

"For the rest of your life and his. I swear by it."

Eddie could feel a certain dread settle in his stomach as he spoke the next words, signing his life away to something he was sure wasn't good. But the money…that was good…that was something he needed, and Alex was going to make sure he got.

"What do I need to do?"

The last piece of the gun clicked into place and Victor cocked it, standing up from his place on the recliner. Alex cupped Eddie's face and smiled at him, "I knew I could count on you."

Alex turned him towards a darkened hallway, Victor walking in front of him and leading them both down the short walkway. There were two doors. Both of them were closed but the door at the end of the hall had light beaming out of the bottom.

"I have a little…pest I need you to take care of."

"What kind of pest?"

Alex nodded over Eddie's shoulder and Victor slowly opened the door, stepping into the blackened room. Alex's hand tightened on Eddie's shoulder, stopping him right in the doorway of the room before he could walk in. When the light flipped, Eddie was momentarily blinded before he was able to see.

His breath caught in his throat as he looked at the small, twin sized bed in the room, and his heart almost seized in his chest when Victor pressed the side of the gun against his chest. Behind him, Alex stepped up and spoke into his ear.

"I like to call it a snitch."