When Rowen reached the barn doors, breathing hard, he found the lock was open. By the look of the dirt, it was obvious that something, or someone, had been dragged outside at one point. A flash of Kevin's lifeless body being pulled through the mud appeared at the forefront of Rowen's mind and he hesitated. What if all that was left was blood...? What would he do then?

Rowen steeled his nerve. He couldn't know for sure until he saw with his own eyes. With a heavy pull, Rowen flung the doors wide open. The building was dark and quiet. Despite it being a barn, Rowen didn't even hear animals. The blocked windows shed no light into the room, and the sunlight from the doorway only reached halfway across the barn floor. With great fear for what he might find, Rowen took his first a few steps inside.

"Kevin...?" he whispered, afraid he would hear no response.

His fears were confirmed in the silence of the barn, but he decided he had to go further in. As Rowen looked around the empty space, he noticed a table with cuffs dangling from the sides. A small puddle of almost-dried blood was pooled in the center, indicating that the injured party had long since stopped bleeding. Rowen wasn't squeamish about blood, but he still couldn't bring himself to look any closer. He knew it was Kevin's. However, Kevin himself did not appear to be inside the barn. Making a full 360 turn to take in the wall of weapons, hay, ladder, and livestock stalls, Rowen's heart sank. The barn was empty.

Kevin wasn't here, Rowen finally admitted. He wasn't in the house, he wasn't in the barn... he wasn't anywhere. He was gone. Rowen had missed his chance.

As the urge to vomit with rejection surged up in his throat, Rowen covered his mouth. He stumbled back towards the barn doors, eyes glassy with dispair. Rick and Cliff stood by the doors with matching looks of worry. Rowen pushed past them and sagged against a tree.

"I'm so sorry," Rick said, moving closer to put a hand on his shoulder.

Rowen couldn't look at him. "I'd already lost him, hadn't I?" he said. "He was probably dead before we even knew he was gone..."

Cliff glanced at Rick and they hung their heads. They knew he was right. Whatever Dover had wanted with Kevin, they could be sure he had gotten it and disposed of him long before anyone knew anything. Though they hadn't had the will to voice it, they had known that their trip here to save Kevin would probably be in vain.

"I want to kill him..." Rowen murmured, feeling like every semblance of compassion had been torn away, leaving him a soulless carcass. "I want to stab him, shoot him, mutilate his fucking corpse, and hang his head on my wall."

"We can come back and take care of him when he returns-" Cliff started.

"No," Rowen said, hissing the word through his teeth. "I want to kill him now. I want his blood on my hands now. I'm going to wrap my fingers around his neck and squeeze until he's joking on his own tongue...!"

The other two men could see the crazed look in Rowen's eyes, and Cliff took him by the shoulder when he tried to storm towards the house. "And you will. I swear I'll help you get revenge for as long as it takes," he promised. "But not now. You're too emotional. You'll make a mistake and get killed. We need to plan this."

Rowen didn't want to plan it. He wanted to let his rage fuel his actions so he could make a bloody mess of the man who had murdered Kevin. But Cliff was right. They couldn't do it now. As much as he wanted to, as much as he needed to, they couldn't kill him now. In the state he was in, it would be suicide. Rowen owed Kevin more than that.

With trembling hands, Rowen gripped Cliff's clothing and nodded. "Fine," was all he managed to say. Rick and Cliff told him they would give him some time to calm down and left him to his thoughts. Rowen ran his hands through his hair, composing himself with a deep inhale. Focus, he told himself. He just needed to concentrate on reality, and not on... the past. He'd let that come up when the time came to right the wrong. For now, he was fine. Exhaling, Rowen started off into the trees.

He only made it a few steps when he heard movement behind him, something brushing through the hay on the barn floor. Rowen turned, suspicion in his gut. "Who's there?" he called. It might have just been a farm animal, but he couldn't be sure and he wasn't about to take the chance. "Dover?" he asked.

He couldn't see anything inside the barn. He turned on the flashlight of his phone and moved the light around. He didn't see anything. Rowen sighed and put his light away. Must have been a rat or something. He was turning away when he noticed something reflecting the light from the barn door. Rowen frowned and stepped towards it, turning his phone back on. There was a stall tucked into a dark corner of the barn that he hadn't noticed before. He flashed his light inside the stall and the words spilled from his lips like an overflow.

"Cliff, come quick!"

Dropping his phone on the barn floor, Rowen ran into the stall, falling to his knees in front of Kevin's limp form lying in a puddle of his own blood. He was pale, almost as grey as ash. Rowen couldn't tell if his chest was still moving. He pulled the teen towards him and cradled Kevin's head on his lap. Kevin's arms, previously wrapped out his stomach, fell lifelessly to his sides and Rowen could see the damage. He was bleeding heavily from both arms, and there was a knife embedded deep in his side. Rowen wanted to pull it out, but he knew it was probably the only thing keeping him alive at this point.

"Kevin, look at me. Open your eyes," Rowen urged.

Miraculously, he managed to pry his eyes open just a crack. "Rowen...?" he croaked, coughing up even more blood. It splattered and stained the front of Rowen's shirt; he didn't care.

"Yes, yes, it's me!" Rowen said, relieved to see him conscious. "I'm here to take you home."

Just then, Cliff hurried into the barn. "What happened?" he asked. Then he eyes landed on Kevin and he ran over. He pressed his hands over the bleeding wrists, looking almost as pale of his patient. "With wounds like these, he's bound to have lost a lot of blood already. If we don't get him to a hospital soon, he might not make it," he said.

"Then let's get him to a hospital," Rowen announced. He picked Kevin up, trying not to jostle him too much, and started towards the door. 

However, before he got there, Cliff grabbed his arm. "If you take him to the hospital, they're going to ask what happened," he warned.

"If you're worried about getting caught, fine. You're a doctor, why don't you fix him?" Rowen proposed.

"I don't have the right equipment. He needs blood, a lot of blood," Cliff objected.

"Then we take him to a hospital," Rowen growled, pushing past him. "If I get found out and sent to jail, at least he'll be okay. If you're scared, you don't have to come." 

Cliff following at his heels. "Rowen, you don't understand. Even if we get him to a hospital, he might not make it. He's lost more blood than most people can survive without, even at a hospital," he pressed. "Are you seriously going to throw your life away for a cause that may fail?"

Rowen's arms tightened around Kevin's rapidly chilling body. "You'd do it for Zane," he said.

Immediately, guilt crossed Cliff's face. "Of course I would," he said, looking at the ground. "I... I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."

Rowen wasn't going to lord it over him. They were all a mess right now. "If I lose what little life I have left, then so be it," Rowen said. "At least Kevin will have had a chance."

*******

If Zane could have paced inside the car, he would have. Where were they, he wondered. They were taking too long. After they went around behind the second house, Zane had lost sight of them and hadn't heard from any of them for over ten minutes. After another five minutes of waiting, he'd had enough. Quietly, he opened his door and stepped out onto the gravel.

"Cliff?" he called.

There was no answer. Zane started towards the back of the house where he'd seen them disappear. When he got close, he called again. "Did you guys find him?"

For the second time, no one answered him. He spotted a barn further into the trees, and realizing that must have been where they went, began making his way towards it. He had only gone a short way when he heard the crunch of underbrush. He turned around quickly, eyes scanning the trees. 

"Hello?" he called, taking a few steps back towards the house.

As he looked around, he spotted something in the leaves just around the corner of the house. When he got closer, he realized it was a pair of feet. Quickening his steps, Zane rounded the corned and saw Rick lying in the grass unconscious. 

"Jesus Christ," he swore, rushing forward.

However, before he reached the man, a hand grabbed the collar of Zane's shirt and yanked him back. Zane winced as he was thrown roughly against the side of the house. A pair of dark blue eyes stared down at him at the same time as a knife was pressed to his throat. Zane held perfectly still.

"Who are you?" the stranger mused, eyeing him curiously. "I know all about Rowen's military friend, and his adopted 'son', but I don't think I've had the pleasure of seeing you before."

Zane's shoulders went rigid as he came to the realization of who this man was. 

A smile cracked the smooth lines of Frank Dover's face. "Oh, yes, now I remember. I knew I recognized you from somewhere. You're the kid that Rowen's son kidnapped," he said. He leaned closer and Zane felt the blade tear at the first layer of skin on his throat. "Didn't they find you before you disappeared again 'mysteriously'? Not so much of a mystery now, I suppose."

Pressing his lips together firmly, Zane swallowed. 

The man's smile grew and he shifted the knife to Zane's cheek. "If you're here, that means Clifford Dine is here, and if Clifford is here..." Dover slid the weapon into his pocket and pulled Zane away from the wall. "Let's chat, shall we?"

*******

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