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Chapter Quote:
"I'm going to put a hurting on him so bad, he's gonna wish his mama kept her legs closed."
~Luke Hobbs, Furious 7
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Chapter 17

Brandon

When Ember and Jace didn't pick up their phones for the twentieth time in an hour, we got in our cars to go find them. Jackson hopped in with me while Elena got in with Sam. The last time Ember had texted me, she said Jace was driving around because he'd had a lot on his mind, that something really upsetting had happened to him and he needed some time to cool off. I was unable to fathom what could be so upsetting to Jace because outside of us, he didn't seem to have anyone that he cared that much about. I knew he hardly had any family he was close to so I couldn't see him being upset over a family member, but it was still a possibility.

"They left the hospital two hours ago so they could be anywhere within a 130-something mile radius. That does not narrow down the search," Jackson muttered, more to himself than to me.

"Is there any way we can track Ember's phone? Or Jace's? Ask Elena," I said. Jackson did as he was told and a couple minutes later informed that Elena was already working on it. I'm not sure how but she was able to triangulate something that let us get a general location of where they were supposed to be. It was in the Angeles National Forest. It was a big area to search but I hoped that Jace would've stayed on the west side.

"Hey Brandon?" Jackson queried.

"What?" I answered shortly.

"I'm sorry for what I said, about you not being Ember's brother. You are."

"Well someone had to fill in Jack's shoes when he was taken. Ember told me he was alive, that you knew him. Well tell him this for me. I love him like a brother, I always will, but that doesn't mean I'm not mad at him for not coming to us when we were so close to him, when we had a chance to help him. Ember's going crazy knowing her brother is alive but is unable to see him. I'm going crazy knowing that my best friend, my brother, is out there somewhere and I can't do jack shit to help him, and even worse, he doesn't want us to help. I don't know if he doesn't trust us because it's been so long or-"

"He trusts you," Jackson interrupted. "He doesn't trust what's going to happen to him though. He's not really expecting to make it out alive in this fight with Lynch."

"Well maybe he would if he came to us for help."

"He never even expected you to find out he was alive."

"How did he fathom that? Brian never stopped searching for him with Hobbs and if Lynch was so dead set on getting Ember, she would've found out through him about her brother anyways. So what's the real reason he's not coming forward to us?"

Jackson was silent for a few moments before he answered, "He's been involved with a lot of things he didn't want to be and he's embarrassed about that. He thinks you guys would be disappointed in him."

"I'm disappointed he hasn't come to us for help. We know Lynch had total control over him whenever he did something. We're not going to be disappointed in him for that."

"Brandon, look, about Jack, I- whoa, whoa, whoa, pull over! I just saw Em's car!" Jackson exclaimed. I did a 180 degree turn in the middle of the road, pulling off to the side. We jumped out of my car with me chasing after Jackson. My eyes immediately went to the car but a quick glance told me that there was nothing, and no one, to be found there. I started looking around for evidence for either Ember or Jace. There were multiple sets of footprints around the area so I tried to follow them to see if any led to where my friends were, but none did.

"Brandon! I found drag marks!" Jackson shouted. I ran over to him. Sure enough he was kneeling next to marks in the dirt that were most definitely made my someone being dragged. I followed the tracks with my eyes to find a terrible sight before me.

"Jace!" I exclaimed, rushing down the slope of the hill to my unconscious, beaten up friend. I came to a skidding halt beside him. "Jace? Jace, answer me!"

All that came from him was a groan.

"Do a quick sweep of the area for Ember while I get him back to the car. It looks like the keys are still on him so you take Ember's car back to the safe house," I commanded. Jackson ran off while I struggled to get my unconscious friend up the hill back to my own car.

"Come on man, wake up and help a brother out," I grunted. "Damn dude, you look a lot lighter in person."

I finally got up to my car and in the passenger seat. Right at that moment Jackson came rushing back up to me out of breath, saying he couldn't find her anywhere or any sign of her. We jumped in our cars and sped back to the safe house. Jackson had called Elena and Sam on the way there saying we found Jace. He also told them to make sure we had medical supplies, that Jace was severely hurt. It didn't seem life-threatening, but some of those wounds of his would get infected if he didn't get them taken care of. Halfway there Jace started to wake up but not enough to actually make any sense in his mutterings.

Sam and Elena beat me and Jackson to the safe house and had already prepared a place to get Jace all taken care of. I gently dropped him onto the couch while Jackson started pacing up and down the room in extreme agitation.

"I'm going to take that as a sign that you two didn't find Ember?" Sam stated, taking off Jace's shirt. His abdomen was completely bruised and beaten, he had more than one gash. Sam suspected he had at least one broken rib, if not more.

"What happened?" Elena asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine. Until Jace wakes up we can't know," I said. "They weren't the only ones there. There were multiple sets of footprints and they looked fresh. Jace was dragged to the spot we found him in."

"Do you think Lynch has her?" Jackson demanded immediately, his pacing suddenly ceasing.

"That's what seems like the most logical explanation."

"I'll call Dom, see if he's heard anything from her. She might've escaped for all we know," Elena remarked. I could tell she highly doubted it but it was at least a flicker of hope at the moment. She disappeared into the next room while Sam and I sat next to Jace taking care of his wounds. Jackson paced up and down, rubbing the back of his head and acting overall completely agitated.

"Ember?" Jace croaked.

"Where is she?" Jackson demanded, rushing over to him.

"I don't know. She was-"

"Where is she?!" Jackson shouted, grabbing Jace by the shoulders which caused the latter to cry out in pain.

"Get off of him!" I barked, yanking Jackson off of him. "What the hell is your problem?"

"My problem is that Ember could be with Lynch or worse! My problem is that because he was having problems, he let her be captured by Lynch!" he roared.

"She went with them," Jace mumbled.

"What?" we all asked simultaneously.

"She joined them to stop them from beating me to death. She said that if they let me live, left me and her family alone, that she'd go with him. Lynch agreed. But after she left, two came back and beat the absolute shit out of me. I went unconscious and woke up here. I'm sorry, I tried to... I tried to stop her..."

"It's okay, you couldn't do anything," Sam consoled. "If she hadn't joined, they would've killed you both."

Jackson stormed out of the safe house, slamming the door behind him. Elena, who had heard the arguing, poked her head in briefly to order Sam to go check on him. I took Sam's seat to fix Jace up who had fallen silent, staring pensively up at the ceiling.

"It's not your fault, man," I told him quietly.

"I should've come straight back here. I should've brought her straight back here or had one of you come pick her up from the hospital. I led them straight to her. God knows how long they were following us."

"Why did you need to go to the hospital?"

"My mom texted me because she was sick with cancer and that she wasn't going to live much longer. She passed away earlier today which is why I was in a frenzy. Ember gave me the keys to her car and told me to drive. Just to drive. I wanted her to come because I love her and-"

"Did you tell her?"

"No, but I tried to. Just as I was about to, Lynch's men ripped me away from her. This is all my fault."

"No, it's not. No one thinks clearly when they're upset."

"Dom's going to kill me. I need to find her."

"And we will. Look, Jackson knows Lynch better than most. If he's hiding Ember somewhere, he can figure it out. And with how upset he is over her being gone, I have a feeling he'll figure it out as soon as he possibly can."
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Ember

Lynch blindfolded me when we got in the car so that I wouldn't know where we were going. But I kept track of the time, making a mental note that it was 1:38 in the afternoon when I was thrown in the car so when we got to our destination, I could look at his watch or some timepiece again and see how long it took us to get there. That was of course if he didn't take a detour to throw me off...

When we arrived at his desired location, I was gruffly grabbed and brought into a building. They took off my blindfold and I immediately looked at for a clock. There was one on the wall opposite me, reading 2:45. So it'd taken roughly just over an hour to get here so we couldn't be too far from LA. Then again LA was a big city so there were plenty of places to hide which would make finding me difficult for my family. Until they did, I had to play along with Lynch's game.

"Follow me, Toretto. I have something to show you. Some incentives, if you will, to make sure you listen to me," Lynch said, motioning at me with his finger. Kaiser gave me a rough shove in his boss's direction. We walked down a hallway with multiple side rooms. The first one he led me into was a plain bedroom with a single bed, a nightstand, a dresser, a small personal bathroom, and a mirror.

"Whatever stuff you need, clothes, makeup, feminine stuff, you can get tomorrow when Sloane takes you shopping. Money's of no object, so buy whatever. Perks of working for me, you know? Now let me show you something else. Come." The next place we went to was a massive garage that was situated in the center of the building. There were cars as far as the eye could see, and I had to admit, I was in love with all the cars I saw, particularly a black Ferrari.

"Whenever we go on ops, you get to choose whichever car you want to drive, whichever you think is best suited for the mission. You like what you see?"

"Which one was Jackson's favorite car?" I inquired. Lynch pointed to a black Ferrari. "And Jack's?"

Lynch pointed to the black Ferrari again.

"At least my brother has good taste in cars," I mused.

"Speaking of your brother, follow me," Lynch said. My heart nearly beat out of my chest. I was finally going to see my brother as my brother, not as someone he pretended to be. My new boss led me to a new room filled with jail cells. Only one was occupied. The prisoner had a crude, burlap sack over his head. His hands were manacled together, as were his legs.

"Jack?!" I exclaimed, rushing up to the bars. "Oh my god, Jack... why are you doing this to him?! I told you not to harm my family and friends if I joined you!"

"Oh he was here before we got to you so it didn't count when you made your request. He helped you stay away from me and must pay the price. As long as you work for me, he'll stay like this, alive and in here."

"And if I don't?" I growled.

"Then he dies. And you'll be the one to pull the trigger."

Jack made some muffled sounds but nothing comprehensible. "Why can't he speak?"

"He has a muzzle on, to prevent him from telling you ways to escape the place. He's already tried, on more than one occasion too."

"Oh god, Jack, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Turning to Lynch, I asked, "Please, can I have some alone time with my brother?"

"No."

"I'm not going to break him out. I'm not Supergirl with super-strength, I don't have the keys. I just want to talk to him, tell him how much he's missed and I don't want to do that in front of any other people. You got what you wanted, I'm working for you now. Please just let me talk to him. Five minutes."

"You have two. Better start talking." Lynch walked out.

Bringing my voice down to a whisper, I began talking. "Jack, I'm so sorry. I don't know how but I'll get you out, whether I get out or not too. This is all my fault... you're in here because of me. Maybe if I'd told you sooner that I knew who you were, none of this would be happening, or maybe it would be happening differently... Do you remember that night I rescued you from Lynch and his men after they found out you'd been helping me? Well when Sam and I went to talk after we talked to you, we took your water glass. Despite it being Rio, it didn't have condensation on it so we were able to lift your fingerprint from it. I had Sam run it through the FBI database for wanted people because I had a hunch about who you were. Well the other day I found out I was right. I'm sorry I didn't approach you about it sooner Jack, I just knew you wanted to tell me when it was the right time for you. I'm going to get you out of here if it's the last thing I do."
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