I was staring at the EMT with the walkie-talkie when someone crouched down next to my head. I turned to see a guy in shades with an FBI jacket. "Can you tell me your name, please?"

"Ryan Hodges." I had calmed down enough, so I wasn't crying anymore.

"I'm FBI Special Agent Stephen Mills, a friend of your boyfriend Marcus Sutton. Let me find out what's going on." He stood up to talk to the EMTs. Thank goodness, a friend of Marcus. He called them in? Is Marcus okay? Where the hell was he? I tried to look around, but I couldn't see anything. Everybody else must be in the front of the house. What was going on?

The FBI agent walked away towards the front of the house. Dammit. I had hoped to ask if Marcus was okay. I was scared to be left alone with the EMTs. I didn't know if I was going to be carted off to the local hospital anyway, even though I had demanded not to go there. If they tried to do that, I was going to have to run. I didn't care if I could barely out-race a turtle, I was not going to that fucking hospital.

"We're going to put you on the gurney and-"

"No! No! I am not going to the local hospital! I'm not getting on a gurney ! I have to get out of here! I don't know who else was in on this kidnapping but it's not safe for me!" I rolled over onto my right side and tried to push myself up.

"Whoa, calm down. Lay back down before you hurt yourself even more." The EMTs pushed me down once they took my right arm out from under me. Damn my Uncle Joe for dislocating my shoulder.

"The FBI agent will check things out, then he'll let us know where we can take you. Okay?"

I cried. Marcus's friend was taking care of things. I was so fucking relieved I couldn't help but cry. I nodded and kept crying. You'd think I would've run out of tears by now.

Marcus

I still couldn't see a damn thing but the grass. Through the grass I could catch glimpses of people congregating out on the street, staring at the drama. I guess they get tired of watching whatever reality show was on now. I heard movement and turned my head. Somebody familiar crouched down beside me, grinning like a loon.

"Hey Marcus, I know I had to cancel on our latest racquetball game, but you didn't have to go through all this trouble to see me again." I was so relieved I almost cried.

"Thank God you came though. Do you know where Ryan is and if he's okay?"

"I just talked to Ryan. He's hanging out with some EMTs right now."

Waiting with EMTs? Stark fear shot through me.

"What's wrong with him? Let me up! I have to see him!" I pulled my legs under me with my ass up in the air but Steve pushed me back down.

"Whoa, hold on there, Marcus. I can't actually let you up until the other agents and I determine who we need to keep in handcuffs. Just give me a little bit of time."

"Is Ryan okay, though? Is he hurt? Does he need to go to the hospital? Don't let him go to a local hospital. His dad and uncle are cops and he won't be safe at the local hospital!"

Steve nodded.

"Ryan told me the same thing. I told the EMTs to keep him here until I figured out where to send him. Now just stay here while I-"

"I've got a Learjet. We came here on a Learjet that's at the airfield. We can take Ryan to a hospital in that."

"Learjet?"

I nodded. "Yeah. When I had realized something bad had happened I borrowed the firm's Learjet to come here."

Steve patted me on the back.

"Stay here." Steve stood up and walked away.

Come on, get me out handcuffs so I can see Ryan. This was killing me. At least Steve was here and would sort through everything. Hopefully, quickly. I saw another car stop in the street. Oh no. It looked like a cop car, and two cops got out of it. The cops were shooing the residents out of the street back to the sidewalk on the other side. This was going to get interesting.

Steve walked in my line of sight, holding up his badge. He walked to the cops and it looked like the cops were arguing with him. I hope there were more FBI agents than Steve and the woman I saw. One of the cops waved his hand and pointed a finger at Steve. He was getting heated. I saw another FBI agent walk towards Steve. Good, there was someone else here. The new agent stood in front of the cops while Steve walked back to the house behind me. The FBI agent stood with his arms crossed as the cops pointed fingers and yelled.

I heard movement coming towards me, then Steve and the female agent were in my view. "Did your group happen to be wearing video cameras today or any recording device?"

"Yes. We put them on while on the plane. Actually they're probably still rolling." Bill came up with the idea, which was genius. For that alone, he deserved a one week vacation to anywhere in the world. The video and audio should completely exonerate us and get us out of here faster.

"Where's the pack? And how do you access the video?"

I shook my head.

"Bill's the one that set them up and put them on us. The pack is actually taped to my back, right under my hands."

Steve raised his eyebrows and shot me a smile.

"Well it's gonna hurt like a bitch to take it off, but we need to look at the video."

"Do it. All of us, Eric, Bill and I all were wearing recording devices."

Steve said something to the female agent beside him and she walked toward Eric. Steve bent down and lifted my shirt up.

"I'm going to take it off now." I didn't even have time to get ready. Steve ripped that tape off without warning. I didn't think I had any hair on my lower back, but I was wrong. Ow!

"I'm gonna see what we've got here. Just hold on."

I nodded. My shoulders were hurting. I hoped we could get out of here without any problems. I just really wanted to be with Ryan. Why was he with the EMTs? I tried to convince myself that if Ryan had serious injuries, he would have been at a hospital already. The fact that he said Ryan was hanging out with EMTs, surely meant everything was okay, right?