Brothers in Arms
A Haven fanfic
By Jeannine Trevizo
Chapter 3
-x-
Nathan and
Duke strode through the doors of the Good Sheppard Church expecting anything.
All Nathan really wanted to do was search the place, maybe if they had to ask a
few discrete questions; nothing that would let whoever had Audrey know that
they were on their trail.
Walking
through the church, Nathan focused on anywhere they could have stashed her. His
mind thought of basements and closets and underground cellars, trying to recall
every location on the grounds of the church that Audrey could be being held.
Pointing
towards the Rev’s office, Nathan headed back to the space where he had
confronted Reverend Driscoll more than once. If there was any evidence that the
Rev’s people could have been responsible in kidnapping Audrey, he hoped to find
it there. And if he was really lucky, they’d find her there too.
Duke looked
around the space, remembering the last time he’d searched the place, but this
time things were different. He wasn’t looking for a list this time; he was
looking for something that would lead them to Audrey.
He just
hoped that she’d be alive when they found her.
Duke didn’t
even want to consider that thought, but he was a realist. If she was as much of
a threat as Driscoll and his father thought she was, someone might have decided
not to wait for him to do it and taken the initiative to kill her. Of course,
even if he might consider that could be at all a possibility, he was a smart
enough man to know that even suggesting the idea to Nathan was tantamount to
walking into a lion’s cage wrapped in red meat. So he said nothing and kept
searching, hoping that they would locate anything that could help them find Audrey.
Coming up
with nothing in the church Nathan turned and stalked towards the back of the church
and yanked open the door that headed to the auxiliary building, recalling more
than once instance of being there hunting for answers that had only led to dead
people and heartache. He desperately prayed that it wasn’t going to happen
again because he didn’t know what he’d do if they found Audrey, only to find
her…
Shaking his
head to force the morbid thoughts from his mind he moved to the next building. Pulling
on the door he found it locked, and Nathan gave Duke a look that told him that
his not so above board skills were being called into use. Sighing Duke fished
out a credit card from his wallet and proceeded to try and jimmy the lock along
the door jam. After a few minutes of maneuvering the handle suddenly turned and
Duke was able to swing the door open.
Nathan gave
Duke a half smirk before he slowly entered the
building. The last thing they needed was to get shot at for breaking and
entering.
Finding the
coast clear Nathan waved Duke in behind him and they started searching the
space. As they moved from room to room, Nathan felt more and more anxious.
They’d yet to find any trace of Audrey and he was becoming concerned that he’d
made a mistake… What if it had been someone else, someone not affiliated with
the Rev that had taken her and his immediate reaction to look for her here was
only costing him more time in his search?
His mind
preoccupied with his fears for Audrey’s safety, Nathan was brought up short
when he was confronted with someone on the opposite side of the door to one of
the back rooms as he opened it. His hand almost reflexively went for his gun
but he stopped himself, knowing he was on the property illegally and him flashing his gun and badge wasn’t how he wanted to start
what could be a perfectly reasonable discussion…
“What are you
doing here?” a middle aged guy aggressively asked, a suspicious look in his
eyes as he took in both men where they stood in the auxiliary building of the church.
“Conducting an investigation. We’re checking the grounds…” Nathan said with as much authority
as he could muster, under the circumstances.
“For what?”
“Rats,”
threw in Duke quickly, causing the man before them to glare at them.
The guy was
a local, Nathan could tell, but the man’s name escaped him. But the way he was
looking at him and Duke he knew without question that he was definitely a
follower of the Rev’s and more than likely part of the band of zealots that had
decided to start taking matters with the troubled into their own hands.
“You’re a
traitor and you’re a freak,” the man spat finally, his eyes looking from Duke
and then landing on Nathan. “You should leave, now…”
Nathan
jerked at the insult and swiftly took three long strides to tower over the shorter
man in front of him. It took all his self control to keep from grabbing him by
his collar, shoving him against the nearest wall and demanding he tell him
where Audrey was.
“Look, if
you want to interfere with an official investigation,” he said darkly, making
the man before him shake slightly nervously, “you can
do that and I can take you down to the station for obstruction and let you sit
overnight in a cell. Or you can get out of my way…”
The man cowered
and then slowly stepped aside when he saw Nathan lay the heel of his hand on
his service weapon, the threat obvious in the movement.
Once he
realized the man wasn’t going to cause any more problems, Nathan and Duke continued
to search the warehouse, sweeping through the space quickly yet thoroughly and
then moved on to the storm cellar and the basement. After looking at every
cubby space, closet and cellar on the property Duke and Nathan came away with no
clues, no Audrey and nothing to tie Driscoll’s people with Audrey’s
disappearance.
Discouraged
that his primary suspects didn’t look to have taken Audrey, Nathan swore under
his breath and hurried out of the last building and headed for the Bronco
causing Duke to rush to catch up to the determined man before him.
“Now what?”
asked Duke as he quickened his pace.
“We’ll go back
to Audrey’s place. There has to be something there that will give me something
to go on. I didn’t even look before…” Nathan remarked, his mind frantically trying
to come up with someone else with a motive to abduct Audrey.
With that
Nathan got into the vehicle leaving Duke to scramble to get into the truck. As
soon as Duke was in the vehicle Nathan had the engine running and was pulling
away from the curb. Driving back to the Gull Duke found himself wondering how
long Audrey had been missing and how far behind the kidnappers that put them.
“So when do
you think they grabbed her?” questioned Duke, trying to figure out what they
were working against.
Nathan
turned to regard him and frowned. She’d been gone when he’d arrived, on time
for their dinner date. But he had no idea when between her leaving him earlier
in the day and when he’d arrived for dinner she’d been taken. Of course, if he
hadn’t been out of his mind with worry for her he would have better assessed
the scene and figured out how long she’d been gone. He mentally kicked himself
for being so stupid as to have not paused for even a moment to truly appraise
the scene rather than just blindly take the obvious lead he’d been given and
gone storming off to confront Duke.
“Not sure.
When I got there she was gone and I didn’t look…”
“Why were
you there anyway?”
Nathan
didn’t say anything and instead drug his left hand through his hair, bringing
Duke’s attention to the clean expanse of Nathan’s forearm. He was sure he’d
seen that damn tattoo there when they’d been on the boat. Where it had gone, he
had no idea. As he stared he recalled again the shock he’d felt when he’d seen
it thinking that he was done for. Now though… well he still had no idea what
the hell was going on, and he hated it.
Nathan
caught Duke staring at him, the look in his eyes almost… fearful and snapped at
him, “What?”
“I… it was
there…” Duke said finally, nodding at the arm Nathan was now pulling down to
grasp the steering wheel once again. “I swear to God I saw it…”
“What was?”
“The tattoo.”
Nathan
looked at him blankly for a moment before he looked back at the road and made a
right turn, taking the quickest route to the Gull by heading through the
downtown.
“The labyrinth tattoo. You know, the one on the person that’s supposed to kill me,”
Duke replied, frustrated once again at Nathan’s dismissive attitude towards the
tattooed man who he’d been told was going to kill him.
Nathan knew
about the damn tattoo; every time Duke had tried to get Nathan to help him
figure out who the man was with the symbol that was going to kill him,
something else more important came up. Now having thought he’d seen it on
Nathan he didn’t know what to think…
Duke
squeezed his eyes closed for a second, wondering for what felt like the
hundredth time if he’s just imagined it under the train of the moment…
“You saw it
where?” Nathan asked, confused and a bit concerned; first Audrey was kidnapped
and now Duke’s was talking about the man meant to kill him…
“On the inside of your lower left arm when you were threatening to shoot
me.”
Nathan slammed
on the brakes hard, bringing the truck to a jarring halt in the middle of the
road. Duke raised an arm to brace against the front dash at the sudden stop and
then he saw Nathan staring at him, stunned.
“What?”
Nathan questioned quietly as he processed what Duke was saying. His eyes bored
into Duke, trying to gauge whether the con man was trying to play him or was
lying, but all he saw was trepidation and confusion. “You saw the tattoo on
me?”
“Yeah. Freaked me out. I really thought that I was dead…” Duke
explained, recalling how that one simple sight had made him question his future
existence as he’s stared up at Nathan’s gun.
“But…”
Nathan said, trailing off as he looked at his arm and saw nothing but
unblemished skin, “there’s nothing there.”
“I know. Weird. But then, this is Haven, right?”
Nathan
paused again, staring at his arm uncomprehendingly before putting his foot on
the gas and starting the truck up again. He contemplated the situation as they continued
to drive to the Gull. Duke had seen the tattoo on his arm; the one Valerie had said
would be on the man who would kill him. But Nathan had no interest in killing
Duke, at least as long as they both stayed on the same team…
Of course
if Duke ever did try to follow in his father’s footsteps and kill Audrey, he
would make sure that Duke joined his dad six feet under.
He wondered
if that had something to do with it; in that moment he’d been so very tempted
to pull the trigger. Maybe…
Glancing
over to Duke in the passenger seat Nathan saw the look on the other man’s face;
he was waiting for some kind of sign that he had actually been paying attention
and had heard him.
“Right,”
Nathan acknowledged, knowing that it was becoming more and more true every day.
Nathan
drove through Haven, breaking more than a few traffic laws as he tried to shave
minutes off the time it took to get to Audrey’s from the church. Again, he
berated himself for having not gone into true professional mode and done more
than a cursory search of her apartment. If he had, maybe he wouldn’t be playing
catch up now and he would have already located her…
Duke
watched the expression on Nathan’s face darken again and wondered what was
going on in his head. He knew he was worried for Audrey and he wasn’t the one
who’d shown up at her place and found out she was missing…
“So, why
were you at Audrey’s tonight?” Duke asked suddenly, remembering Nathan’s
evasion from earlier.
“I was
meeting her...” he started and then realized that even that simple comment might
be more than he wanted to tell Duke right now.
Before Duke
could question him further on his reason being at Audrey’s, which he suspected more
than likely had something to do with the discarded jacket and tie in the truck,
Nathan’s phone rang and he hurriedly dug it out, hoping that whoever was on the
other end had good news for him.
-x-
Dwight stood
staring, still bewildered at the damage before him.
He had no
idea what had been there, but he knew that whatever it had been, someone had
been willing to do just about anything to get it, even something as revolting
as....
Sighing he
opened his phone to call the boss and let him know that his search for Audrey
Parker had taking a strange turn.
- End
Chapter 3 -
A little
longer this time… I have a lot of things I’m trying to build in here and as I
do that I’m figuring out more of the plot. I’ll keep posting as frequently as
the chapters come, so I appreciate your patience. And as always, all thoughts and
comments are appreciated. Thanks for reading! Ms. J.