Never Tear Us Apart
Chapter
Fourteen
Greta and Noah finished off their breakfast in silence, waiting for Brady to come out of the bedroom. But, Brady never did. He stayed inside the room going over what little information and evidence they had on Stefano's current scheme. Greta busied herself with other things while Noah called home to Louisiana to check in.
A long time passed, and Greta was starting to worry about both of her friends. It wasn't like Chloe to leave and stay gone this long, and she knew it wasn't good for Brady to lock himself up alone. She went to the door of the bedroom and tapped on it lightly. "Brady... Brady..."
"Come in..."
Greta opened the door slowly and looked at him with concern. He was sitting in the middle of the bed surrounded by documents and files. "Hey... Were you planning on eating your breakfast or should I just put it in the fridge?"
He looked up at her and shrugged slightly. "I'm not hungry..."
"Okay... So, do you want to talk about whatever just happened?"
"No, I don't... Is Chloe back yet?"
Greta shook her head and frowned at him. "No, she's not. Are you -- are you okay?"
Brady sighed loudly and looked back towards the piece of paper in his lap. "I don't think I am."
"I'm sorry, Brady... I'm so sorry. I -- I don't know what else to say..."
"You don't have to say anything. This isn't your fault. You're just another one of Stefano's victims. Just -- tell me when my wife gets back, please."
Greta nodded and walked out of the room shutting the door behind her. She walked back into the living room and found Noah sitting on the couch flipping through a magazine. She took a seat on the other end of the couch from him and sighed loudly. Noah put the magazine on the coffee table and turned to look at her with sympathy.
"You look -- upset..."
"I am upset. I feel like -- I feel like this is my fault somehow. John is dying, Brady and Chloe are -- Well, I don't know if they're fighting or not, but something is wrong. And, your brother..."
Noah shook his head and managed a weak smile in her direction. "Princess, there was nothing you could do..."
Greta had tears brimming up in her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "I could have told somebody about Stefano, about the notes, about everything... I should have never made Chloe lie for me... Maybe if everyone had known earlier, they could have stopped this before it happened."
"You can't think that. Listen, I don't know this DiMera guy as well as the rest of you do, but I have a feeling that nothing would have stopped him from doing this. You could have told the whole world, broadcast it on CNN, and it probably wouldn't have changed anything. As for Jake..."
"Oh God, Noah... If anything happens to your brother, and it was because of something I did... I will -- I will never forgive myself."
Tears began to slowly fall down Greta's cheeks and Noah scooted closer to her to speak in a reassuring tone. "Don't say that... Jake is a very smart man, and he knew what he was getting himself in to when he took that assignment. He knew the risk he was taking, and so did I. No matter what happens, it's not your fault."
Greta bowed her head solemnly, her tears still falling. Noah didn't know what it was about this woman, but he felt the need to take care of her, to wipe her tears away and to make her feel safe again. As much as she got on his nerves, which was quite a lot, he had an instinct to comfort her.
Noah used his index finger to tap her chin and force her to look back up at him. He smiled at her and reached across to the coffee table to grab a couple of tissues and hand them to her. Greta smiled gratefully and dabbed at the warm tears that made lines down her cheeks.
"Thank you... Thank you for -- for being here."
"You're welcome, Princess... Just don't take the blame for all of this anymore. You're a good person, I can tell that about you. You would never do anything to hurt an innocent person, so none of this could possibly be your fault."
Greta sniffled slightly as she dabbed the tissues under her eyes. She nodded and then looked back at Noah with a warm smile that lit up her face. "You know, you're not so bad some times... In fact, you're actually kind of nice."
Noah chuckled and leaned against the back of the couch. "Wow, thanks, that was almost a compliment."
"You're welcome... But, don't get used to it." Greta winked at him which caused Noah to laugh again.
"Don't worry, Princess, I won't."
Their moment of playfulness was interrupted by the sound of the bedroom door opening and Brady walking in. He still looked as miserable as he had just minutes ago, and he spoke up with a question.
"Chloe -- She's not back yet, is she?"
Greta shook her head as she checked the time on her watch. She hadn't realized how much time had passed since Chloe had hurried out the door to go get aspirin, and she immediately understood Brady's concern. "No, she's not... And, it's been over an hour and a half."
"I know... I lost track of time because I was so busy, and then I just looked at the clock and I realized how long ago she left."
"Hold on, I'm sure she has her cellphone with her. Let me call her before we call out the cavalry."
Brady nodded slightly and watched as Greta grabbed the phone from the table at the side of the couch. She dialed Chloe's number and waited through four rings, but got no answer, only Chloe's brief voicemail message. She waited for the beep and left a message for her friend.
"Hey, Chloe, it's me... We're getting kind of worried about you, so please call and let us know that you're okay."
Greta hung up the phone and shrugged in confusion. "Voicemail, I just got her voicemail..."
Brady put his hands on his hips and nodded, his face scrunched up with worry. "I'm -- I'm going to go look for her. This neighborhood isn't that big..."
Noah stood up quickly and motioned towards the door. "I'm coming with you... Just in case."
Greta also jumped up off the couch and followed the two men towards the door. "Well, I'm not staying here alone, that's for sure... Let's go."
The trio quickly made their way out of the townhouse, and found that they didn't have to travel far to find their answer. They were walking out in front of their building when Greta spotted the brown leather purse on the ground. She crouched on the ground and picked it up along with some of the contents that had spilled on to the sidewalk.
"Oh my God..."
Brady and Noah stared at her sadly, and Brady asked the question that he already knew the answer to. "It's -- It's Chloe's, right?"
Greta nodded and held up the cellphone and Chloe's wallet that had been on the ground. She shoved the contents back into the purse and walked towards the other two men. "Maybe -- maybe she just dropped it... or..."
Greta stammered, knowing that she was just trying to come up with something better than what was the obvious answer. Brady shook his head, his jaw clenched in anger. "No, she's gone... He took her, and now she's gone..."
Brady turned away from them and put his hands on the wall of the building. He had to shut his eyes and take deep breaths to keep himself from finding something to hit or throw. His entire body was trembling as his mind raced with so many different thoughts. He already felt like a failure, unable to save his father thusfar, or even get near Stefano DiMera. So, instead of backing off, DiMera had raised the stakes. It cut like a knife through his heart, proving that this was just another game, one that Stefano intended to win, one that only he knew the rules to.
There was a long silence as Noah and Greta watched Brady try to find a way to deal with what he was feeling. They looked at each other, lost in confusion and fear, and Noah was the first one to speak, directing a mournful question to no one in particular.
"Jesus Christ... What next? What could possibly happen next?"
Greta felt a tear fall out of one eye and she turned to lay her hand on Noah's arm. She stared up into his blue eyes and spoke solemnly. "I don't think any of us want to know the answer to that question."
~*~
Chloe felt her skull throbbing intensely, the pain from the blow to the back of her skull, quickly spreading throughout the rest of her head. She had been knocked unconscious in front of the townhouse, and now all she felt was the pain and the darkness. Her eyes fluttered open slightly, trying to adjust to the dim lighting of her new surroundings.
She was on a small, uncomfortable bed shoved into the corner of a room with stone walls. The only other piece of furniture besides the bed was a small table next to her bedside. She ran her hand through her hair, over the back of her head, finding a large lump where she had been struck by the man on the street. Thankfully, there was no cuts or blood to be found anywhere.
Chloe stood slowly, nearly toppling over as everything began to spin around her. She put her hand on one of the walls until she could maintain her balance, her head injury obviously making her a bit unstable.
There was a large grey metal door on the opposite wall from her bed and Chloe walked over to investigate it. She found quickly that the lock was built to keep somebody in, and not to keep somebody out. Her hands dug into her pockets to look for something to pick the lock with, but she came up completely empty.
She returned to sit on the edge of the bed, laying her throbbing head into her hands with a sigh. Her mind raced with a million different ways that she could have prevented this from happening. She should have brought her gun, she shouldn't have gone alone, she should have done *something*, but it was too late for 'should haves'. Chloe had definitely not expected to be Stefano's next target, assuming that he was more interested in Greta, or even Brady before he was her. Obviously, she had assumed wrong.
Time passed, and she was stirred from her misery by the sound of a key turning in the lock. The door opened and the man who had put her here walked in, staring her down as he came closer. Chloe opened her mouth to speak, but he quickly interrupted her.
"Don't say a word, Miss Lane."
"That's Mrs. Black -- Chloe Horton Black."
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Obviously, you don't know how to listen, Mrs. Black. I told you not to say a word."
Chloe glared at him angrily and crossed her arms over her chest. "And obviously you have no short term memory... I told you once before that my name is *not* Lane. Now, who the hell are you?"
"The boss warned me about you. Said you might be a little feisty..."
"The boss? I assume we're not talking about Bruce Springsteen... So, who are we talking about?"
He shook his head and began digging in the inside jacket of his pocket for something. "I'm not here to play 20 questions with you. You'll have your answers soon enough. In fact, he's coming to pay you a special visit very soon. And, he wants to make sure you don't try anything brave, so I'm supposed to give you this... It will keep you from causing too much of a ruckus."
As he spoke his last two sentences, the man pulled out a syringe filled with a light greenish liquid from his pocket. He began tapping it to prepare it as he walked towards Chloe's bed.
Chloe backed up against the wall, shaking her head in denial. "No, don't... Please don't... I -- I won't try anything. I won't. Just don't drug me..."
He sat on the edge of his bed and shook his head as he prepared her arm for the injection. "No amount of begging is going to help you. I've got orders to fulfill..."
Chloe tried to struggle out of his grasp, but it was too late. He drove the needle into her arm and Chloe yelped out in pain. He emptied the syringe into her and then stood up to walk towards the door.
"Sleep tight, Mrs. Black."
Chloe laid her hand over the place where he had stuck her with the needle. The room began to spin around her and her whole body began to feel slightly numb, weakened from whatever drug she had been injected with. She eased herself down on to the bed, searching for the pillow to lay her head on. Her desperate need to escape her captivity was suddenly pushed aside for the desire to close her eyes and sleep.
~*~
(Later)
Chloe felt fingers brushing through her hair, but she kept her eyes shut tightly. She was afraid to open them, afraid to see who those fingers belonged to. A familiar voice broke through her sleep, trying to wake her from her dreamless rest.
"Wake up, Chloe... Come on, wake up..."
She didn't move an inch, hoping that if she stayed asleep he would go away. His fingers grazed her cheek and a cold chill ran up the back of her spine. If she wasn't so weak, she would have moved away from him, but the drugs in her system had made all her limbs seem to work in slow motion.
"Oh Chloe... I've missed those beautiful blue eyes so much... Wake up so I can see them..."
Chloe's stomach churned as he laid his hand on her shoulder and then let it travel down her arm. She tried to resist it, but her eyes opened anyway. When she saw who was facing her, the blood in her veins froze, but her facial expression seemed knowing, like she had expected this all along.
Her voice came out weakly, barely above a whisper. "Phillip... I knew it... I just knew."
He smiled at her, his lips turning into a twisted version of his normal smile, one that seemed completely out of place in this situation. "I told you we'd be together, Chloe. Forever."