Race Against Time

I couldn't handle listening to it anymore. Her shrieks of pain and hearing them taunt her into fighting for her life nearly destroyed me. I knew she would be fighting her heart out, Isabella never went down without a fight. Levi was swearing in Gaelic, hitting a wall in frustration. Bruno was the only one seemingly calm.
"I'm not worried about Isabella or Aria", he said finally. We all stared at him. Was he nuts? They were risking their lives to take someone down, and he's not the least bit worried? He looked up, realizing what he said and held his palms out.
"Let me explain", he said. He had a very thick Italian accent and had his fair shares of appreciative glances and looks from the ladies here. Jerk. I raised my eyebrow at him.
"Aria was in Special Ops, she was trained to withstand situations like this. Isabella is trained specially in mixed-martial arts, or MMA as you Americans call it. They've both lived through traumatic situations, I know in my heart that they'll be fine, otherwise our boss would not let them go undercover", he explained. In a way, he was right. Levi was glaring balefully at him.

"I would agree with you, were it not for the fact that these men are psychotic. Isabella is only five feet, three inches and a whopping one-oh-five. She is only as strong as any hundred and five pound woman, country upbringing and martial arts training or no. Aria was military, I can see her being fine, but Isabella won't. She thinks she can do anything and everything, but she can't", he snapped. Scythe came in and waved me out. It was time for my break. I leaned back in my chair at my desk, eating a sandwich I had prepared earlier. I saw the note on my desk and opened it. Isabella was in now, so I could read it.

'Don,
I wanted to give you this note so that in case something happens, you know how much I've appreciated everything you've done for me. If I had a bad day, all I had to do was text or call you, and suddenly my day didn't suck so bad. Just so you know, while I was back home, you were all I ever thought about. It's odd that someone I had just met could change me in such a way. You are the only man outside of my family that hasn't run for the hills after hearing what's happened to me in the past. Without knowing it, you won over the toughest customer in America. Ian hadn't felt normal since the accident and you made him feel like those scars were invisible, like they didn't exist. It couldn't have been easy, but it touched him. I can't even put into words to how that made me feel', it read. I had to take a break to breathe.

'I honestly hate that I'm letting myself get worked up over someone, especially someone who doesn't even live in the same state as me, but it's happening. It's scaring the hell out of me, but it's happening. I don't even know what to call us, if I can even say us. Call it infatuation if you want. If I do live through this, then damn, I must look really stupid. If you don't feel the same, don't lead me on. If you do, then you already know I'm a package deal. I have my screwed-up family and past, don't we all? I'm not the helpless-in-love type, but I guess you already knew that, so you probably know based on this little note that I'm not very good at this. Just know that I really care for you and about you a lot, you've taken my world and everything in it and turned it upside down and backwards. I'll fight like hell to come back and I'll do it every time someone thinks I can't do something, like I'm sure Levi says I can't. I've already beaten the odds and proved people wrong. I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I know I won't get out without a few broken bones and some bruises. I also know I won't be the same mentally or emotionally. Don't give up on me, because I know in my heart I would never give up on you.
xx Isabella/Rambo/Lady Antebellum'

I read the note three more times before folding it up again. I stuffed it back into my pocket as some of the other detectives came by. It was time for me to go back in there now. Danny looked like he was about to cry. This wasn't easy on him, he was killing himself emotionally over this. I rested my hand on his shoulder and patted him up.
"How in the world can these bastards be so twisted?" he whispered. I listened in. Aria was silent, but there were blows. Alexis was screaming in pain. Lindsay was trying to hold back sobs. Isabella was whimpering in fear. The music was still going strong. I ran an audio scan to find out what they were using to torment them. Insane Clown Posse and Tech N9ne. Isabella was only scared of very few things; spiders, snakes, clowns, and being up high on something unstable.

"This is sick", I muttered. Suddenly, I heard screams of fear and crying. "Who is that?" I demanded. Danny ran a voice recognition scan. "Lindsay and Isabella", he replied, disgusted.
"Snake! Get it off!" Isabella shrieked. I could tell she was being broken down mentally. She could handle physical torture, but psychological torture was too much. How were they going to live through six days of this? Levi was staring emotionlessly at the equipment.
"How are they going to survive this?" he said.
"Through grit. We can't give up on them", Bruno replied. He was right.
"Stay strong, Lady Antebellum", I said to myself.