"Get up," Shawn heard a voice. Rollins' voice. But he felt like he couldn't open his eyes.
"I said get up!" Shawn was suddenly hit with something and he jerked awake. It was the gun he'd grown so used to.
He was then being lifted into the front seat. He tried to look outside, but he was kept with his face against the seat. Longmore put a blindfold on him. He felt himself being pulled out of the car.
Loud noises filled Shawn's ears. Cars, traffic, buzzing life sped by him. They seemed to be somewhere in a city, or a highway, but he couldn't be sure because of the blindfold. He then heard laughs. They had to be in a city, he heard people walking, talking. But he had no idea if he was still in Santa Barbara.
"Come on, walk faster," Rollins said in a low voice. He pushed Shawn forward with his gun when he nearly tripped. "Look, we gotta move, and fast. If you don't hurry up, maybe you'll just happen to have another bullet in you."
Shawn straightened up and walked quickly. The sound of people faded away. They must have been in an alley, nobody had seemed to have seen them or called the police.
A small creak rang out, and a scraping noise. Shawn decided there was a large door opening and he was shoved inside.
The sound of duct tape came, and he was once again in a chair. He sighed in relief as the blindfold was lifted.
Shawn scanned the room. It wasn't anything fancy, not by a long shot. It seemed to be a sort of warehouse. The walls and floors were gray concrete. There were a bunch of metal shelves, some wooden tables, and a few doors that led somewhere, he couldn't tell. Boxes filled the room. He noticed one said "Ship To: Santa Barbara". He noticed that it was opened, however. Hopefully it had just been received, which would mean they didn't leave the city.
He turned his focus back to Longmore and Rollins.
"What could possibly be your plan now, huh?" He called out. "You've got the money, what are you gonna do with me? We both know that if you shoot me, my body will turn up somewhere, in some way. But there's no way you can keep me like this forever."
"Shut it," Rollins growled. "Now, what we're going to do with you is use you. The police know you, they trust you. We tell them you're okay, right? Show them. But that won't get us much, now will it? Asking for any demands would either compromise our location, or, if we picked things up, there'd be an ambush. Einstein here isn't smart, but I'm not stupid."
"Did you just call him something sarcastically and then continue on to say what it meant?" Shawn shook his head. "Don't you know anything about comedy, man?"
"You were told to shut it," Longmore glared. Shawn raised his eyebrows at first, since he hadn't killed him before, but quickly made a blank face when he saw the pure hatred in Longmore's eyes.
"So we will show them you're okay. And we did duct tape a chamois to your bullet hole. But, if that thing comes off, you can still die of blood loss. So we give them a chance to find you, but you can still die," Rollins continued. "If you survive, well, we won't be far. More importantly, I won't be far. You're gonna work with us. You'll help us get to some things within the police. And, if you tell anyone, in anyway, whether it be through hints or whispers, I will shoot you. And if you try to go against that, there's more than enough people in this city that I can take. Innocent people. So, what do you think you're gonna do? You're gonna work with us, is that right?"
Shawn sighed. This wasn't a case anymore. There were no small, unnoticable details for him to find, no set answers on what was going on anymore. He had no choice. He couldn't get anybody shot.
"That is right," Shawn looked down at the floor.
"Well, we better get started then," Longmore handed Rollins an iPad. Something was attached to it though, and Shawn knew they weren't stupid enough to let the wifi be tracked. It was probably something to make that very difficult.
"We got ourselves a signal scrambler here, alright?" Rollins pointed at the device. "So you are gonna take this and make a call on that FaceTime app. It will be to whoever your friend was. Now who was that?"
"He means whoever you called Donut before," Longmore specified.
"Gus," Shawn lit up at the idea of seeing his best friend again, but then remembered that it wouldn't be the same. At least, not for him. Gus would have to see the normal Shawn if this was going to work. Otherwise, somebody would get hurt, whether it be him or somebody else in the town.
"Yeah, him," Rollins nodded. "And you're going to tell him that you're okay, alright? Say you miss him, don't worry, all that stuff. Then you're gonna whisper that you think you know a way out, alright? Longmore and I will be yelling in the other room, so don't even think about trying to turn that camera for him to see us here listening. If you even tilt that one inch, to show anything about where we are, you will get shot. Understand?"
"I understand," Shawn replied. Rollins then unattached the tape from Shawn's right arm and handed him the iPad.
Shawn went to FaceTime and entered Gus' email. He watched as Rollins and Longmore went to one of the back rooms.
"Remember, we're still right here," Rollins warned, and shut the door. He then heard them start yelling, and took his opportunity to call Gus with the app. He sighed. He hated lying to his best friend, and he'd usually try to add hints, but it would show sometime and someone would get hurt. He tried to appear calmer when Gus picked up.