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The blonde woman is clearly the one in charge of this operation. She slams her burner cell phone shut, and turns to the man.
“Leverage was made with LAPD. They have 24 hours to free Everett, and they get both sergeants back. They have 48 hours to free Everett, but they’ll only get one back. After 72 hours, LAPD is down two sergeants.”
The man nods. “So, which one are we sacrificing first?”
Their two kidnappers stand in front of them, turn to look at them and ready to speak to them for the first time since their captivity.
The woman begins. “The boss wants out of jail. We only need one of you for leverage. So, which one of you do I spare?”
“Yeah, right,” Tim retorts, voice scratchy and dry. “You’ll take whatever we say and use it against us.”
The woman shrugs. “So be it. I guess I can just pick. But I’m not a monster. If you give me a good reason to spare one of you, doesn’t make any difference to me. So, are we flipping a coin or are you going to share?”
Their answers come at the same time.
“Him.”
“Her.”
The woman chuckles, looks to the man with a knowing look and a raise of her eyebrows. “Why did I have a feeling that’s what you’d say? Y’know, this could be fun. Let’s make it a game. Convince me. Go. You first,” she says, pointing at Tim.
“This isn’t her fault. She has nothing to do with this. Everett wants payback on me.”
She pretends like she considers, then points at Lucy. “You.”
“If Everett wants to hurt Tim, the best way is for him to hurt me.”
“Lucy,” Tim hisses, eyes wide, shocked she would say such a thing.
“It’s true!”
“She’s pregnant.”
“What? No. I’m not. I’m not! He’s just saying that so that you’ll spare me.”
“She’s lying.” Tim tries.
“Tim. Stop.”
“I mean, anything is possible, right? The way we go at it.”
“Oh my god. Can you not tell our kidnappers about our sex life?” Lucy hisses under her breath. “And didn’t your therapist tell you about sacrificing for me after the breakup?”
“This is not the same thing!” Tim exclaims. “Jesus, Lucy, your life is on the line here.”
“So is yours!”
“Ohh, a breakup? Now this is getting juicy,” the woman says, raising her eyebrows. “Got your own little telenovela going on, huh?”
“Yeah, well. We only recently got back together and now we’re here, so,” Tim grumbles, “seems like it.”
The man, sitting down on a chair and kicking his feet up, frowns. “It can’t be that recent if you’re already living together.”
“He asked me to move in the day we got back together,” Lucy states, even as Tim shakes his head at Lucy offering up such details as if these are her friends.
The woman’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “That’s awfully bold. And you said yes?”
“Yes.”
“Well, who broke up with who?” the man wants to know.
“He broke up with me.”
“Lucy, why…” Tim mutters.
“He broke up with you? And yet you forgave him and agreed to get back together and move in all at once? That’s… actually, insanely romantic.” Tim and Lucy share a subtle look, noticing her change of mood at their story. “You know, you two are kind of a cute couple. How’d you two meet?”
“They’re both cops,” the man grumbles. “How do you think they met? All right, for god’s sake, can we stop asking them about their love story and figure out our plan, here?”
She doesn’t respond to him. “Right. So, at work?” she asks Tim and Lucy.
“My very first day,” Lucy agrees. “He was my training officer.”
“Oh?” she asks, interest piqued. “That sounds… forbidden.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Tim says quickly, always protective of Lucy and their perceived power dynamics and how it could come across.
“No, it wasn’t,” Lucy agrees. “Actually, he was married. And an asshole.”
“Lucy!”
“You made me walk alongside the shop!”
“You’re never going to get over that, are you?”
“Okay, so I assume wifey number one exited the picture. But if he’s such an asshole, how’d you get from that to a romantic proposal on the beach?”
“He wasn’t really an asshole. He was a good guy who had been hurt too many times. I had to push and pick at him to get him to show it, but I knew it from the beginning.”
“She’s the first person who never gave up on me,” Tim supplies. “My parents included.”
Tears appear in the woman’s eyes as she clasps her hand over her heart. “Now that is beautiful. So, you were… just coworkers for a while, then…”
“Well, we were friends for years, burying the feelings, until it all started to come to the forefront when we went undercover as a couple.”
“Huh,” the woman says, looking at the man. “I saw something like that on one of my soap operas.”
“Right, yeah. So anyway, we kissed for, y’know, ‘practice’, almost slept together, got awkward and uncomfortable around each other until my boyfriend at the time-”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. Boyfriend?! You just said you almost slept with him,” she says, pointing at Tim. “You mean while you had a boyfriend?”
“Yeah, well, not our finest moment,” Lucy agrees with a grimace.
“That is… intense.” She thinks, and nods. “You must have had a very strong connection.”
“So you’re admitting now that the practice kissing was all a ruse?” Tim asks, forgetting himself for a moment and falling into the discussion.
“Of course, it was!” Lucy declares the obvious. “Have you ever seen me practice kissing anyone else before going undercover? I definitely didn’t make out with Nyla.” She turns back to the woman. “So anyway, my boyfriend at the time – one day he asked me to move in with him and I knew I did not want to move in with him.”
The man speaks now. “Wait, but meanwhile, you move in with this guy in a day?”
“He’s different.”
“He’d just broken up with you!”
“A year earlier,” Lucy corrects. “We’d just gotten back together.”
“Literally one minute before I asked you,” Tim counters, unintentionally proving the kidnapper’s point.
“Okay, so you get together,” the woman guides the story back on track. “You’ve been friends for years. And yet, you break up?”
Lucy shrugs, glancing at Tim.
“I thought… I thought she was better off without me. And that it would be the ultimate punishment for myself to lose her.”
“That’s…” the woman trails off, considering. “I’m not sure if that’s absolutely horrible or somehow, romantic. In a tragic way? Sort of Romeo and Juliet?”
“Horrible,” Tim assures her. “It was horrible. I regret it every day.”
“But it’s okay, because then we got back together, he asked me to move in, and less than a year later we’re engaged. I guess, though… we’ll see if we make it to the wedding,” Lucy says pointedly, glancing down at her restrained hands.
The woman’s eyes are teary. Her gaze drifts down to Lucy’s hands, as well, and notices her ring.
“Tell me about the ring.”
“What?” Tim asks, surprised and confused.
“We’ve been trailing you. We know you lost it and that detective found it for you and brought it back to your house.”
Lucy raises her eyebrows, surprised at that.
“It’s an antique,” Tim admits. “The jeweler, he asked me to tell him about Lucy, what she means to me. I told him all about her, and he brought these rings for me to choose from – I picked this one and turns out it belonged to a couple who had a story very similar to ours. Friends for years, had some hard times but made it through.” Tim realizes something. “Could’ve done without this hard time right now.”
“But, you’ll make it through,” the woman says with a nod, as if she has forgotten she is the one who put them in this predicament.
“I didn’t know that,” Lucy says to Tim, touched.
“Of course you didn’t. I never got a chance to tell you. We got kidnapped literally seconds after I put it on your finger.”
“We really did kind of kill the momentum there,” the woman says with a frown and a sigh, turning to the man. “You know, we could’ve let them have a little more time in their moment. Oh, shoot, we should’ve asked them if they wanted their picture taken before we drugged them. That could have been our cover, then at least they’d have photos. Maybe we should let them go?” she asks.
“What?” the man asks, confused. “Let them go?”
“I mean, they almost cheated on her boyfriend-”
“And his girlfriend,” Lucy supplies.
She raises her eyebrows, seemingly somewhat impressed, “on both of their partners because the drive to be together was so strong.”
“We can’t just let them go,” the man reasons.
“Ugh,” the woman bemoans. “I’m in charge here, remember?” She turns to Lucy specifically. “Men in the workforce, y’know? Always think they have to take over for a woman. It’s so hard to be a woman in power. You know.”
Lucy nods. “Uh, yeah. Yeah.”
“They broke up, got back together, moved in together immediately – so romantic- only to finally get engaged and we… ruined it, didn’t even let them have their moment.”
“If we let them go,” he reminds her, “Everett will find someone else to go after them.”
“Also, we have a dog at home,” Lucy adds, sensing she’s appealing to the woman’s emotions. “All alone. Lonely. You know, he was my dog first, then Tim adopted him when I couldn’t keep him, back when we were just friends. Now he’s ours.”
“Oh!” the woman exclaims, hand to her heart. “That is so poetic. I love dogs. I have three babies myself! Okay, that’s it. We’re letting them go. For the dog’s sake. He’s probably alone at home.”
Lucy nods. “Yes. Yes, he is.”
She pulls out her knife and begins to free Tim and Lucy from their restraints. “Okay, hurry. Go. If anyone asks, you escaped.”
“You’re really not doing good at this job,” the man huffs, though he doesn’t seem to care much himself.
Tim looks at Lucy, confused. “Is this really happening? And are we just walking out of here and letting them get away with this?”
“Um, yes, we are!” Lucy returns. “We can worry about all this later, after we’re safe.”
The man asks the woman, “And Everett?”
“Oh, screw him. I know a guy who’s incarcerated with him. He owes me a favor. He can take care of him.”
“… like, kill him?”
“Shhh,” the woman reminds him, nodding her head at Tim and Lucy. “Cops.”
Tim looks at Lucy. “Seriously? They’re planning a murder, and…”
“And we’re leaving,” she says, taking his arm and tugging him away. “I love you, Tim, but maybe let’s let the integrity slide this time.”
“Oh, wait!” the woman calls out after them. “Can I come to the wedding?”
“Uh, maybe let’s not push it?” the man retorts. “It’s gonna be full of cops.”
“Okay, yeah. Right. You could name one of your kids after us!”
“Sure,” Lucy agrees absentmindedly as she continues to head for the exit.
“You don’t even know our names. My name is-”
“Don’t tell them your name!” the man cuts her off.
“Right, yeah. Okay, best wishes you two!”
“Thanks!” Lucy replies, before grabbing Tim’s hand and scurrying off.