AUTHOR NOTE: THIS CHAPTER MAY CONTAIN TRIGGERY DETAILS FOR A CAGE FIGHT SCENE. THIS IS YOUR WARNING IF YOU CHOOSE TO PROCEED. THE REST OF THE STORY AFTER THIS CHAPTER ISN’T AS DETAILED.
“Okay. What was that about? What about her history are you referring to?” Gregorio questioned as soon as Agent Mikaelson left the office.
Patton had sighed and shaken his head, turning his wheelchair to make his way to his desk. “Nope. I already did enough damage, and I got my work to do. I’m going to go pull up the airport surveillance like she said and is okay with for the mayor. If you want more information on her, then look it up yourselves.”
Tammy looked over at Chris who had a scowl on his face. “What do you think?”
He shrugged. “Whatever it is, it was enough for Pride to have gotten involved and Wade knows as well. They do trust her, so we look into it so that we don’t get ourselves burned by not knowing. I think they believe they are protecting us by leaving us out of whatever she was involved in.”
“That’s how it goes, and it tends to blow up in our faces,” she pointed out.
“Yep,” he agreed, sliding over to his desk to make himself comfortable for another late night research project. This time on their new teammate.
The two each began looking into Myriam Mikaelson and were quickly engrossed in their computers. Before long, Tammy looked up over at LaSalle. “The Mikaelson family was pretty much the closest to royalty or like the mafia in New Orleans? The earliest mention of them is in the 1700s.”
“It seems that way,” he agreed from what he was finding as well. “Seems Pride had a hand in taking them down too when he was at the Sheriffs. I suppose he helped get her out if that was the case otherwise they wouldn’t be as close as they are. From what I have here, her brother is serving a life sentence for killing their other brother. Took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. She was fifteen at the time and a witness.”
“That had to have sucked,” Tammy murmured. “No wonder she doesn’t like talking about her family. I wouldn’t either with that on my shoulders. What happened to her parents?”
“Both parents are dead, but I can’t find how. All the official records here are redacted so if anyone knows, it’s classified, covered up, or unknown,” Chris sighed, frustrated as he hated being in that last category for anything.
Tammy eyed over at the empty desk across from her curiously. “You think she knows?”
He looked over as well. “Maybe. If she does, she doesn’t seem to want to know. If she doesn’t, she doesn’t want to look for the answers. She doesn’t like being in the city. She’s made that much clear. Look, let’s go home and get some sleep and start over with her in the morning. I think after learning all this, we owe her that much.”
The following morning when Chris, Tammy, and Sebastian reported back to the office, they were surprised to find that Myriam had not been there. Since her arrival, she’d always been the first one in before anyone. Hearing movement in the kitchen, Chris made his way there, but Dwayne came hobbling out with a coffee in his hand. “Hey! Aren’t you supposed to be at the hospital?”
“I was, but I was released last night. They got tired of my bitching, finally. Myriam was supposed to pick me up for breakfast, and she didn’t show. I thought maybe you guys got a job and texted Loretta and she dropped me off here. Since you all are here, I guess, no job?” he replied, looking around.
“No. No job that we know of,” Chris replied, glancing back at Tammy who was quiet and appearing concerned.
Dwayne looked over at his desk, trying to think about his friend. “Is Patton here? Patton!” he called out, limping his way to the man’s office. Finding him at his desk, he stopped to take a breather. “Did Myriam come to you for anything since she started here?”
Patton looked at him for a moment, hesitating as he glanced at the rest of the team. “Uh, yeah. She seemed paranoid the other day. She thought someone was watching her outside her place.”
“Myriam doesn’t get paranoid. That family didn’t survive 300 years in this city without having survival skills beat into each generation. If she felt she was being watched, it was because she was. I want you to go through every camera that even has a glimpse of the abattoir and run facial recognition on every person since the day of her return. It’s not a coincidence. I promise you that.”
Turning, Pride limped his way back out pushing Chris back around and pointed to Gregorio and Sebastian. “Come on. You guys are going with me to her house and checking out her house. If she’s not there, then someone took her.”
“Of course,” Chris agreed, moving to his desk to get his weapon, badge, and keys that he’d just put away. “I’ll get my keys!”
“No need. It’s not far. I can make it,” Dwayne waved him off as he limped out the door, leaving a confused team behind before they scurried to catch up.
“King! Where are we going?!” LaSalle questioned as their benched leader made his way around the corner with a very determined expression on his face. “I thought we were going to Myriam’s place.”
Dwayne smirked as he eyed his recruit and pulled his sunglasses up on his head. Stopping at a security gate, he eyed the camera and keypad. “We are, and we’re there,” he answered, keying in the code the girl had given him for such emergencies. “Come on.”
“This is hers?” Sebastian muttered. “I always wondered about it. What it was like inside. I can’t believe we’re going in.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve worked with her for the last week. You think she likes to advertise herself?” Pride responded as he led them down the servants’ entrance. Once through the kitchen and into the grounds, it began to open up. Immediately, the team drew their weapons at the scene before them. Statues knocked over, plants and pottery scattered in clear sign of a struggle and fight.
“Upstairs,” Dwayne murmured, hearing movement. “Her room is up there.”
Chris nodded as he took point to provide cover for Pride as they made their way up the staircase, following his directions and where the indications of the intruder appeared to be. Seeing the form from behind, LaSalle held up his weapon. “Federal agents. Stay where you are.”
The figure paused with a sigh. “If you know what is best for you, you will leave. This is family business,” the accented male voice responded.
“If you knew what was best, you would have remained dead,” Dwayne answered back, gesturing for the team to stand down. When the man turned around, they each were surprised and confused at the angry face that looked back at them.
“I would have, but you were supposed to make sure that my sister was never to return to this blasted city, to begin with!” Nicholas argued.
“She makes her own decisions, just like you and your brother did when you made this deal. What are you doing in New Orleans?” Dwayne asked.
“I heard of her return, and I had to make sure she’d be fine. I knew something would happen. Mikaelsons would never be in this city after what our father pulled and looked what happened. Where is she?”
“Myriam didn’t show up at the office today. That’s why we’re here,” Pride said.
Nick sighed, shaking his head with a smirk. “Okay. Who’d she manage to piss off then?”
Tammy and Sebastian couldn’t help but smile as they looked over at LaSalle who blinked.
“Besides yourselves, of course,” the Mikaelson elaborated. “I have no doubt she tried her hardest to get under each of your skins. Did she flirt with one of you, give you stickers for being good pets? Hm?”
“Why aren’t you dead?” Gregorio questioned instead, earning a smile in response.
“Ask Monsieur Pride,” he bowed before scowling at the agent and turning to look back into his sister’s room for any answer he might find. “And you haven’t answered my question. Who has she pissed off?”
Pride nodded to them, signaling that it was okay to give the man the information that he wanted. Sighing, LaSalle rolled his eyes. “Last night, the team was at the bar, and Myriam was there with a friend or a contact of hers. Not with us, that much was certain. She acted like she didn’t know us at all. Just that she knew we were cops. But Mayor Taylor came in, and she freaked out at seeing Myriam in town. They exchanged words, the mayor asked us to confirm her flight information, and that’s as far as we got this morning. We found she flew in from Nashville and made a spectacle of herself with TSA at the airport.”
Nicholas frowned as he tried to place the woman they were speaking of. “I vaguely recall her. But she ran in Cole’s circles. I think she has a thing for him, but he had his plans that didn’t quite include her, but you’d have to speak to him.”
Dwayne nodded and looked over at Chris. “I’d suggest having Cole brought over to NCIS instead of going there. There could be eyes at the prison that would report back to Mayor Taylor or any of her underground contacts that might have Myriam.”
“If word gets out that he’s alive, any deal that these two have goes up in flames,” Tammy pointed out as she nodded towards Myriam’s brother. “What exactly are the terms of it?”
Pride ran a hand over his face, stress dripping from the situation and pain from his still-healing injuries and movement he’d been forcing on himself. “Myriam’s complete freedom, even though there was no proof of her involvement in the family business. Cole faked Nicholas’s murder to push her leaving the city – that was on them, and their complete testimonies against their father.”
“Where is he?”
“Missing, presumed dead.”
“He’s in the wind. Bastard isn’t dead. Probably on the beach in some non-extradition country, sipping on margaritas,” Nick spat.
Chris glared over at the ‘dead’ Mikaelson. “Alright. I’ll have him transferred over. It might take a little while, but he needs to be there too because I don’t trust him either.”
Dwayne nodded. “I agree. He shouldn’t be here and has some things to account for. I’ll talk to him because I had been the one to set things up. Okay?”
“You’re not active right now Pride,” Chris reminded him.
“I’ll have Tammy sitting in with me. It’ll be alright!” he smiled. “Come on. It’ll be fun!”
“Famous last words.”
~o.O.o~
“You know, last I heard, covering one’s head and leading them to places unknown was frowned upon in our society,” Cole Mikaelson’s muffled voice rambled as he was lead into the garden area of the NCIS offices.
Nicholas was there waiting and watched as the hood was pulled off his brother’s head, and as he blinked to get his bearings, his expression shifted as he noticed who was present. “Oh, damn,” Cole muttered as he saw his brother. “What did you do?”
“I did nothing,” he replied. “Our sister was abducted during the night. What do you remember of Zahra Taylor?”
The NCIS team watched the look of confusion cross Cole’s face. “Zahra? She was a low-level nobody. What does this have to do with Myriam?”
“She is Mayor now and was not pleased to see Myriam in town last night,” LaSalle responded.
Cole’s face twisted in disgust. “Mayor?! Who the bloody hell did she sleep with to get that high on the food chain?”
“She slept with you back in the day,” Nick replied.
“Yeah, well,” Cole shrugged. “Look where I ended up for you and our sister. Mayor? Really? Um, well, if she’s involved, then she had her brother do the dirty work. He has a thing for underground fights. A lucrative business. Myriam would truly make him a lot as a headliner.”
Gregorio looked at the Pride as he appeared conflicted with the information and something else. “Wasn’t Loretta like good friends with Mayor Taylor? She worked on her campaign and everything.”
“Yeah. I don’t think she knew about her history though,” he admitted.
“But you did,” she pointed out. “You were hesitant to put your chips behind her at the time. I remember that.”
“I don’t like any politician, but yeah, I was familiar with her connection to the family, however small it might have been at the time. We all don’t have perfectly white backgrounds in a city like this Gregorio. But you do need certain types of connections, and you keep them as clean as you can because you do need friends to get information,” he reminded her. “I have friends in high and low places. They’re called informants.”
“So how do we find out where Taylor’s brother will have his fight and when?” Gregorio questioned.
“We can ask her ourselves,” Loretta suggested as she joined the group, her face solemn with the news she was hearing. She held up her hand as she anticipated the apologies to begin coming. “It’s not your fault or Myriam’s. Let’s get our girl home safely,” she said before looking over at the two boys. “Hello Nick, Cole. It’s been a long time,” she nodded to the fair-haired man, hugging him before moving over to hug Cole and lightly giving him a smack on the cheek. “You better still be behaving.”
“Yeah, yeah, ma’am,” he smiled, blushing as he rubbed his cheek.
She turned to look at the team. “Go on and speak with the Mayor. I’ll catch up with the boys here. Don’t worry. I’m fine. You find Myriam. You got that?”
The agents didn’t need another word as they headed out to city hall. Having been familiar faces around town with the mayor since her election, they were able to get into her office without fuss and were greeted with a friendly smile initially. “NCIS. What can I do for you today?”
“We are wondering if you may know the location of your brother, Tayshon?” LaSalle asked right off, getting to business.
Zahra frowned as she sat back in her chair. “I haven’t spoken to my brother in years. Why do you ask?”
“I suggest you consider rethinking your answer before we ask Mayor Taylor again. Because we already dumped your office and personal phone logs. We know you were in contact last night after you left Pride’s bar,” Gregorio said.
The mayor narrowed her eyes at the agent. “I have nothing to say then.”
“I strongly recommend otherwise because then you’ll be complicit in the abduction of a federal agent and after recent events with Agent Pride, you know how well that will look for the sitting mayor?” LaSalle replied.
“What federal agent abduction?” Zahra replied, confused.
“Agent Myriam Mikaelson,” Gregorio smiled. “She’s NCIS.”
Zahra let out a breath and paled, sinking into her chair. “No. You’re lying…”
Sebastian pulled up their team mate’s federal profile on his tablet and showed it to her. “She’s a high ranking agent, recruited due to her history in the city, so yeah. You’re about as fucked as they come so it’s best that you cooperate.”
“He uses the abandoned St. Anne’s church as a fight club,” she replied. “She’s probably being held there.”
“You best stay in town where we can find you if we don’t find her alive,” LaSalle replied. “It’ll be up to her what we do with you. You hear?”
“I got that,” Zahra sighed, knowing she was cornered by NCIS no matter what, and by a Mikaelson.
Sebastian paused as the team was heading by the door as well. “And don’t go making any calls to warn anyone. Your phone system went down about five minutes ago. Just thought you should know.”
On their way out of city hall, Chris texted Pride to let him know where the mayor suggested that her brother might be with Myriam. As he pocketed his phone, he looked over at Tammy and Sebastian as he climbed into their truck, who both had skeptical looks on their faces. “What?”
“You do know he’s going to try going to the scene in his current condition, and he’s still on medical leave,” she pointed out.
“And by the looks of Myriam’s brother, he just might force his coming along,” Sebastian added.
Chris sighed as he pulled into traffic and turned his lights on. “Yeah, well, I probably would too.”
Thankfully, the two were arriving the same time as the agents, and it had taken Pride a little extra time to move, even with Nicholas Mikaelson’s assistance. As they stayed behind the armed agents, the group slipped through the doors of the church, making their way through. What they found, left them speechless.
Myriam was inside a locked cage, with a male that the team didn’t recognize, in a fight with some spectators watching and cheering. They saw that she was already well bruised and bloodied, favoring her side as she blocked many punches that her opponent threw at her but it was clear that she was tired.
Before they could stop him, Nick pushed through the group and ran down the stairs to the cage, screaming for her to be released. This forced the team to announce their presence, but it only encouraged the crowd to push the fight to finish. The guy, turned to look at Nick and as their eyes met, there was recognition and fury in them as he pulled a knife out from his pants. He turned, ready to use it on Myriam but she was already on his back, her arms around his neck and hands planted on the side of his head. Using every ounce of strength she had left in her, she snapped twisted his neck until she not only heard but felt that destructive act before she fell with his body.
Unable to get up, she closed her eyes, just waiting for whatever was to come when she heard the chains open and felt herself being pulled into someone’s arms and lips pressed to her temple. Blinking, she opened them to find a hazy view of her brother that she was convinced was dead. She’d seen him shot by her other brother so many years ago, before she ran the hell out of town, hoping never to look back.
“Shh, Myriam. Rest now. We’ve got you,” Nick murmured, holding his sister tight as he looked back at her team, who stared at the two. “We have you.”