Demi burst through Lauren's door, with Harry, Tori and a group of officers gripping their guns as they made their way through Lauren's apartment, praying for any sign of the Marine. Demi spotted blood on the floor, and prayed that it didn't belong to her best friend.
She slowly made her way towards Lauren's bedroom, passing the broken picture frame, and opened Lauren's door wider. Checking the bathroom and closet, she angrily yelled,"CLEAR!"
Demi frantically searched for Lauren and Camila, and tried to picture where Lauren would hide her girlfriend in a time like this. Not wanting to give away Camila's location, in case the abductors were lingering nearby, she searched quietly. Noticing the balcony, Demi was struck with an idea, and walked towards it quickly.
Lowing the guard rail, Demi pulled the fire escape down, and made her way up the steps quickly, checking every corner with her weapon trained for any slight movement she encountered. She made her way towards the roof, and climbed the ladder quietly, peaking her head over the top to see a bundled Camila crying silently as her body shook in fear.
"Mila!" Demi called making Camila jump in fear.
Camila jumped to her feet and ran towards Demi as she climbed onto the roof.
"Is she down there? Is she hurt? How bad is she hurt?" Camila sobbed hysterically.
Demi blinked back the tears forming in her eyes as she said,"She's not down there Mila. They took her."
Camila looked at Demi for a moment and then completely broke. She gripped her chest, and fell to her knees crying angrily. Demi could do nothing as her own sobs were fighting to rip through her throat, and fell to her knees holding Camila as they both cried helplessly.
Tori climbed up the metal stairs, and stopped when she saw the scene in front of her. Climbing back down, she made her way back into the apartment, and found her partner, explaining they only found Camila.
Harry cursed, and looked around the apartment, looking at the forensic team that was now enetering the room he yelled,"Start now and work fast!"
The teams hurried into the apartment and went to work.
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Clara ran into her daughters building with her husband and youngest children behind her, and frantically pushed people aside to enter the elevator.
Her family rushed inside as she was already desperately pushing the close button. No one spoke as their hard panicked breathing filled the air. Once the elevator doors opened on Lauren's floor, Clara threw herself out and rushed into Lauren's apartment pushing the forensic and police officers aside to see for herself what had happened.
Her eyes ran over the apartment and took in the broken glass and blood on the floor, and the sob she had been holding in, ripped out and she shouted,"WHERE IS SHE!"
The officers in the room looked down, none meeting her eyes, and she thought the worst. Tori stepped forward, and said,"Demi and Camila are in Lauren's office. They'll be able to explain whats happened."
As soon as the words left Tori's mouth, Clara and the rest of the Jauregui's were rushing into the room panicked.
Taking in the crying Camila, and tear stained Demi Clara asked shakily,"Where is she? What happened?"
"She was taken." Camila whispered hoarsely.
"Taken?!" shouted Clara horrified.
"There's a ransom note." Demi stated angrily, and thrust a paper in a clear bag towards the mother.
Clara took it with shaking fingers, and read the note feeling rising panic.
Dear C&M Jauregui,
We have something you want. You have something we want.
If the sum of 2 billion dollars is not transferred in three days to this offshore bank account, your dyke of a daughter will die.
You have three days.
Clara clutched the note in her hand angrily, and looked at her furious husband and said,"Well pay them. Just get her back."
"It's not that easy." Demi stated angrily.
Clara shot her a look and exclaimed,"We have the money, I just want Lauren back alive! They can choke on it for all I care! You will not stop us from paying this to get her back!"
Demi slammed her hands on the table in fury and yelled,"They aren't going to give her back Clara even if you pay!"
"How do you know that!" yelled Clara fuming in hysterics.
"Because, they could have chosen Taylor or Chris if it was about money." Micheal whispered as understanding hit him.
Clara stopped and looked at her husband in shock and said,"What?"
Demi sighed and said,"Think about it Clara. Taylor and Chris are much easier targets. It would be so easy to take them, but this was done by professionals, which means they wanted Lauren specifically. If this was about money, they would have taken Chris and Taylor to ensure you pay, but they took a trained Marine, after an evening with the mayor, and Police chief. They wanted Lauren Clara, and we need to find out why, because if you pay right away, they may kill her to not run the risk of us searching for her."
Clara covered her mouth and she started to panic.
"Chief we found something!" Yelled Harry excited.
Demi ran from the desk and made her way towards the shouts of excitement. She stopped at the broken picture frame, and looked at where Harry was pointing.
"There's device behind the frame. She had no reason to smash it, the noise only drew them to her, so there had to be a reason she smashed it. " Harry said lifting the frame carefully, and looked at the blinking red light coming from a small black device in the center of the frame.
"Get the tech guys here now. I want to know exactly what this is." Demi ordered angrily.
"It's a transmitter." Camila said hovering over Demi, finally glad to be of use instead of being curled up crying.
Demi looked at her surprised and asked,"Transmitter for what?"
"Can I look?" asked Camila urgently.
Demi handed her gloves and Camila put them on quickly, and then took the frame from her carefully inspecting the device.
"It's a Jauregui designed security transmitter. Once touched upon impact, it activates a video feed to the apartment. We need to go to Lo's office, and pull up her security system. We can see if it picked up her abduction." Camila stated urgently.
Demi nodded quickly, the two making their way towards Laurens office.
Demi was behind Lauren's desk said, "How the hell do we find this?'
"May I? I've spent a lot of time working with Lauren, and finding her hidden links shouldn't be too difficult." Camila asked pleadingly.
Demi looked at Clara, and saw a faint smile and nod of permission. vacating the seat, Camila pounced into the chair, and quickly started to search for the needed link.
"Found it!" Camila exclaimed excitedly.
"Shit it has security questions." Camila muttered dejected.
"Maybe there are some we can answer." Taylor asked hopefully.
Camila typed away at a breaking speed, and scrunched her eyebrows as she read aloud,"What is Camz favorite food?"
"Pizza!" everyone in the room exclaimed.
Camila chuckled sadly, and typed in Pizza.
"What was Camila wearing the day you kissed her?" Camila read quietly.
Clara looked at the heart broken expression on Camila's face, and smiled sadly at her daughters romantic nature. Her heart hurt for them both.
Once Camila answered the questions only she herself would know, a live video feed appeared onto the monitor and she was able to see every angle of the apartment.
"I'm in!" Camila shouted relieved.
"Rewind to the living room, around the time you called me." Demi ordered hovering over her, like the other Jauregui's.
Camila followed Demi's command, and they watched as Lauren surrendered her weapons, and took the beating the men harshly gave her.
"Oh my god!" Cried Camila and Taylor.
Clara cried tears of pain as she watched her daughters bleeding face hit the ground, while Mike and Demi felt ready to explode.
"Where's the audio?" asked Demi angrily.
Camila turned the speakers up as she rewinded the video feed again, and Lauren angry voice filled the room.
"What do you want!" Lauren spat through the speakers, making Mike proud at her fierce display of bravery.
"Your coming with us Jauregui." said a voice that sent Demi and Camila's head snapping towards each other for confirmation.
"The hell I am. What makes you think I'll give in so easily?" they heard Lauren spat loudly.
The next words made Camila gasp horrified at what really made Lauren give up.
"Because we know where your dyke girlfriend lives, and we'd hate to pay the bitch a visit." another voice the two woman recognized spoke angrily.
"Stop the feed." Demi ordered angrily, not wanting to hear them beat Lauren.
"At least we know who took her." Camila said crying tears of anger.
"What?! WHO?!" shouted Mike infuriated.
"Shawn Mendez and Austin Mahone. The two voices speaking were them. I would recognize them anywhere." Camila spat bitterly.
"This is has to be more than a club dispute. Those men where professionals, and Shawn could not afford them on his club salary." Demi said to herself.
Clara was about to speak, when they heard shouting in the apartment.
"I am the Mayor! Move your ass before I move it for you!" Shouted Ariana angrily.
The group entered the living room, and saw Ariana arguing with a group of officers, with a pissed of Normani and Alexa at each of her sides.
"Let them through! And all of you get out except Styles and Kelly! GO!" Shouted Demi enraged.
She knew that some of her men could not be trusted, having Austin and Shawn as friends, and wasn't about to let anything leak, especially now that they had a lead.
The three friends rushed to Demi and said,"What happened."
It took a few minutes to explain everything to them, and show them the video, which Alex and Normani each recognized the men's voices without Camila or Demi telling them. Once they stopped watching, Normani scowled and said,"What are we going to do?"
"We find her. There's a reason behind the three days, besides the ransom. Lauren's a Marine, so the government will want the feds in on this, but they'll demand the Jauregui's pay the ransom, and we can't let that happen or Lo will die." Demi informed them pissed.
"What the hell could be happening in three days that would benefit from Lauren's disappearance?" asked Alex towards Ariana.
Ariana closed her eyes in thought, and shot them open gasping.
"Congressman Phillips challenged Bea Miller to a debate in the city a couple of days ago. He's Shawn's backer, and a huge conservative when it comes to woman's values!" exclaimed Ariana angrily.
"I don't get it?" said Chris confused.
"He is arguing women are taking jobs from men, and their not as capable. Lauren is a Marine. She goes missing and he uses it to prove woman can't serve if they can't survive in a city like this one. Which is hypocritical, because no man can take on eight others, if it had been less than four, Lo would have wiped the floor with them." Ariana spat fuming.
"Styles and Kelly, I want you to discreetly look into the places the congressman could hide Lauren. It wont be at Shawn's because thats the first place we'd look, along with the first suspect. He's so arrogant he assumed we'd never point a finger at a congressman." Demi ordered determined.
"We want in on this." Normani said together.
"Your not officers." Demi reminded annoyed.
"Lo is in our platoon, and our leader. The Marines can work together to bring her back. We're still active duty, being on leave, so it shouldn't be a problem. Besides, with some of the guys being from the men's club roster, you don't know how many you can trust." Alexa added.
"Okay point made. I want to start searching places asap. I want tails on Shawn and Austin, and since we can't trust any of my guys not to leak, we need more people." Demi said annoyed at not being able to trust her men.
"I know some Military personnel that love Lo a lot and would be willing to help." Camila spoke up.
"How do you know them?" asked Mike surprised.
Camila smiled sadly and said,"I've been dating Lauren for months, and there was a couple dates she took me on that were places that mostly frequented by vets or active military. If you need trained bodies. I know where we can get them."
Clara and Mike looked at each other smiling sadly. They would get their daughter back f it was the last thing they did.
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Camila walked with Demi and Ariana into Granny's and motioned them to take seat anywhere. Camila made her way towards granny, and after greeting the woman like usual, pulled her aside.
"What's wrong dear." Granny asked worried.
"It's Lauren Granny. She's been taken, and there is a ransom out, but we have reason to believe the ransom is a smoke screen. We have less than three days to get her back before she dies, and we can't trust the police force besides Lauren's friends because they may be leaking information. Is there a way you can call any active or retired military persons with experience that may know Lo? Maybe they can help us get her back." Camila asked tearfully.
The old woman looked at Camila angrily and gave her a stern nod. She walked towards the front of the room, and locked the door, flipping over her closed sign.
Turning to the surprise vets in the room, she said,"We have a situation boys. One of your own's been kidnapped, and these ladies are looking for help to get her back."
A man in his forties called,"Who is it granny thats been taken?"
"Lauren Jauregui. Raven haired, pale skin, green eyed Marine comes here whenever she's on leave. She's been fighting in the war now for over two years, and served for four." Granny answered emotionally. She is very found of Lauren, and by the looks of the many men in the room, they recognized her just by the description granny gave.
"I can help, got some men from the Army than can help too." One man stood up looking ready for anything.
"I got four fellow Marines that would be interested getting one of their own back!" Shouted another man stepping up immediately.
One by one men and woman offered their services, and Camila knew she came to the right place.
Demi stood and said,"Many of you may have heard of me, I'm Lo's best friend Demi. I'm also the chief of police here, and right now I can't trust the men in my department, because many of them frequent that hell hole called the Boy's club. Any of you heard of it?"
"You mean that sexist shit hole run by Mendez? Yeah we know of it!" said the Army vet.
"He is responsible for taking Lauren along with a ex officer Mahone. They were there at her abduction, and will know her whereabouts. We need people not in the force to tail them, and see if they can lead us to where their keeping Lo. The other is responsible is Congressman Phillips. If you know of anyone stealthy enough to shadow that Marine without detection, that would be a big help. We are currently looking into his private property, to find any place he could be keeping her." Demi finished pissed.
"Marines can shadow Phillips, and the rest of us can shadow the others. We can call if we get any hits." the Army man gruffed sternly.
"Thank you. This is my card, pass them around to anyone that is willing to help. This is Mayor Grande. If you can't reach me, call her office and state your branch and name, and they'll patch you right through. Code word is Pizza." Demi finished seeing a slight smile on Camila's face.
The men talked amongst themselves for five minutes, before every one of them left the coffee shop.
"Thank you granny. So much." Camila said smiling sadly as her eyes glossed over with tears.
The older woman hugged Camila tightly and said,"I would want the same if it were my Timmy. Don't worry dear, Marines are made of stern stuff, and I know my boys and girls will help you bring her home safe. It's what they do."
Camila sighed into the older woman's embrace and said,"I hope so."