Chapter Text
Rescue and Redemption
Chapter One
Schuylkill Federal Correction Institute, Minersville PA
“‘In other news across the country, former CEO of Pellegrino Industries, Mark R. Pellegrino, was found dead in his cell yesterday morning shortly before his sentencing hearing. Pellegrino was recently convicted of several federal indictments including embezzlement, extortion, drug and weapon smuggling, kidnapping, and murder. It is unknown at this time if suicide or foul play was the cause. No official statement has been made.
Mr. Pellegrino is believed to have been behind the death of well-known judge, J.T. Padalecki as well as his only son, Jared, five years ago. It was the murder of the younger Padalecki that finally brought Pellegrino’s house of corruption down in addition to putting several other members of his corporation behind bars for various offenses.
The international executive fought the charges but was finally convicted when unexpected evidence surfaced last year linking him to the judge’s and his son’s deaths. With his untimely death, it is uncertain what will happen to some of those already in jail who had turned state’s evidence on the man or how many of their own cases and convictions will be affected by Pellegrino’s unexpected death…’”
A remote muted the volume of the TV in the exercise room of the medium security federal facility. This late in the day the room was basically empty; the only occupants were a single inmate and the guard who’d been assigned to be his shadow after too many attempts had been made on his life shortly after his arrival five years earlier.
“Ain’t that the asshole that got your ass put here, Ackles?” the guard asked from where he leaned casually against the wall. Unlike many of the inmates in the place, this one didn’t give him or the other guards much trouble.
Oh, he’d come in with an attitude, and to this day he still had a certain cockiness to him when he let it out, but for the most part he stayed to himself, avoided the other prisoners, and didn’t talk much unless it was to his lawyer or the one guy in the dark suit that screamed ‘fed’ to the guards when he came to visit once a month without fail.
Schuylkill was a medium security institution and while they had their fair share of hardcases, most of the inmates were in for lesser federal offenses. In the case of Jensen Ackles, no one but the warden and the United Stated District Attorney knew the real cause of the man’s incarceration.
It was clear by the number of suits and pissed-off feds who had swarmed the prison the one time the guy was jumped in the shower less than three months after arriving that he was more than a petty criminal or embezzler. He had his secrets, and the rumors around the place between guards and inmates ranged from a terrorist turned informant to a drug runner to just a guy who pissed off the wrong judge by screwing with his wife.
The only thing everyone did know, and that was only because of what the guy had muttered while under the effects of pain meds after his shower attack, was that his incarceration had something to do with Pellegrino and whatever the hell went down five years earlier.
Placing the weight he’d been lifting back on its resting bar, Jensen Ackles sat up and reached for a towel to wipe the sweat off his face and neck. He stared at the now silent TV and felt an odd chill work through him as thoughts and memories of soft eyes and dimples came back no matter how hard he’d tried to forget them since landing in the federal lockup.
The ice-cold eyes and sneering face of the man responsible for the worst decision of his life, for the night that still haunted him, stared back at him until the picture flipped to an older photo of the judge he had never met; the judge who couldn’t be bought off, not even with his only son’s life at risk.
“Yeah,” he grunted, no longer interested in working out. “That was him. Guess someone got smart and figured out that even if they convicted him, he’d never spend much time behind bars. Pity it didn’t happen sooner.”
The guard followed his charge’s eyes to the TV screen where a picture of a tall young man with long floppy dark hair, hazel eyes, and a large smile was now showing. The picture looked like it might have been taken during his high school graduation.
The guard had seen a different picture of that same young man the first time he’d been in Ackles’ cell. The prisoner had been sitting on his bed staring at the photo, but when asked who the kid was, all the guy would say before closing off emotionally was ‘the best and worst damn thing to ever have come into my life’. Ackles had then slipped the picture into a drawer and the guard had never seen it out again.
“You ever gonna tell me what a guy like you did to end up in here, Ackles?” he asked, leading the man back to a cell that was isolated from the others in the building. “I’ve read your rap sheet so I know you fell on hard times after you were discharged from the army on a bum rap, but I’ve seen soldiers go bad for money or drugs and you just don’t really strike me as a guy who would go down that road…though you do have a hardass feel about you.
“You’re sitting in here on a 20-to-life sentence with a blacked out record on just why, and I’m guessing it had something to do with that dick that just got iced out in California.” He watched the lean, much thinner than he had been five years ago, man drop onto his bunk as the cell door closed with a noise that he noticed still made the man cringe. “What the hell did you do?”
Jensen looked at the guard, sliding his fingers under his pillow to pull out the worn and creased photo. “I killed both of us,” he replied quietly, closing his eyes and letting himself think about how something so simple had turned his world upside down and cost him not only his freedom but also something so much more important.
Barton College, Olympia, Washington 5 years Ago
“‘Take him tonight. Contact me again once you have him and don’t fuck up!’”
Jensen Ackles looked at his watch for the third time in an hour. How late could a kid study on a Friday night? What kind of geek was he stalking?
Finally the library doors opened, and his target stepped out into the cool night air. The boy paused, stretching his long frame, before slinging his backpack over his shoulder and trudging down the steps.
Everything about the young man screamed exhaustion, from his weary pace to the hand that pushed back through stupidly long dark hair. The kid was completely unaware of the shadow that was keeping pace with him as he headed across the deserted campus.
It was late October and the night air had a definite bite to it as Jensen easily trailed after the same young man that he’d been watching and tailing for over two weeks. He’d wanted to learn his habits and patterns but had discovered two things; first, this kid had no life outside of school, the library, and the small bookstore he worked in six days a week, and second, he was nothing like his father, high-powered judge J.T. Padalecki.
The job that the 28-year-old former Army Ranger had been handed was basically a simple snatch, grab, and hold. He’d been part of several of them since getting hired on by Pellegrino Inc. as a bodyguard and troubleshooter for the corporation’s slick-talking, high-rolling founder, but this was his first time doing a solo job. He was looking forward to proving to the man that he could do more than open car doors and shadow him at parties.
His background in Special Forces and black ops made him perfect for skulking around and shadowing people. It also made him the perfect bodyguard for a man with as many enemies as Mark Pellegrino seemed to have. This kind of job wasn’t his preference, but it was going to pay well and Jensen was determined to prove that he wasn’t the screw up some people thought he was.
Next time, however, he might pass on jobs that weren’t based in California because the damn weather in the Pacific Northwest was a lot like the wild mood swings his old man used to have before he got himself shot robbing a liquor store back when Jensen was only 13. In the two weeks since he’d been here, it had poured rain, been cold enough to nearly snow, been hot and humid, and then it went back to rain. Jensen had been in the rain forests of the Amazon and seen less rain and humidity than he’d dealt with since being told to tail, observe, and then kidnap one Jared Padalecki.
Tonight was clear but brisk. Since it was the Friday before Halloween most, if not all, of the students were off at parties, clubs, or nice and warm in their dorm rooms. Other than Jared, the campus appeared to be deserted. Jensen longed for the heat of the big black SUV he’d rented specifically for this op. Now that he’d gotten a good look at his target, he was glad he’d gone for a big vehicle instead of something compact since this kid was unbelievably tall and seemed to be all leg.
As he watched Jared cross the parking lot of the library, Jensen’s green eyes looked around to be sure they were still alone. He’d planned this part of the gig carefully. Kidnapping a person required privacy and swiftness. He had no doubt that he could handle the geek; he suspected the kid wouldn’t put up much of a fight and if he did, it wouldn’t last long.
Kidnapping innocent college kids wasn’t what Jensen had signed up for when he joined the army fresh out of high school at the age of 18 and then quickly moved into the Rangers. At 6’1” with a lean rangy build, his naturally fit form, speed, and agility made him perfect for the Special Forces unit and what came next. Of course the nightmares of the next few years led him to where he was now and why he was trying to ignore the little voice in the back of his head that had been screaming at him since he was hired by the wealthy and dangerous Pellegrino.
The shark-eyed man was slick and arrogant, and he made no attempt to conceal the fact that he made a good deal of his wealth in side businesses that were far from legal. That was why he surrounded himself with ex-Special Force soldiers as his bodyguards and troubleshooters.
The man himself had assured Jensen when giving him this assignment that no blood would be shed. The job was simply a way to twist the arm of the judge who was presiding over the case that could send Pellegrino to prison for a good 50 years or more. Pellegrino, of course, insisted that the charges had been trumped up and the local Beverly Hills police had planted evidence to frame him with.
Jensen didn’t believe that the charges were exaggerated or that the evidence had been tampered with, but he did believe the rest. He’d been part of other snatch and grabs and while he’d never actually seen the other men release their victims, he’d been told they had and he had no reason not to believe that’s what had happened. Anyway, it wasn’t like he could afford to lose this job because no one else would be willing to hire him given the crap his so-called ‘friends’ had spread about him after the last job in Africa went sour.
Unzipping his black leather jacket to give himself more room to maneuver, he increased his speed when he saw that they were getting close to where he’d parked his car with the hood up to add weight to the story he was about to spin.
He’d noticed the kid, Jared, had slowed when he must have gotten a phone call because Jensen watched him pull the phone out of his jacket to stare at it for a second before answering. He slowed up as well, feeling a bit surprised, since in all the time he’d been watching him, he’d seen the kid text several times, but this was the first time he ever actually talked to someone.
“No. No, I already told you that I’m not coming home for Thanksgiving…No, it being a holiday really doesn’t make a difference, Aunt Lara. Dad made his choice when he found out about me. I haven’t changed; his opinion of me won’t change, so why travel back to California just to make us both miserable while we pretend to be a nice normal family?” Jared’s voice was soft and carried a slight accent that could have been either Texas or some other southern state, but it was gentle enough to soothe ruffled nerves, and something about it also made the former soldier pay more attention as he listened to the words the kid was saying.
Jensen kept to the shadows as he moved around his SUV, making sure the doors were unlocked and anything he might need was within reach. He knew he had one shot at this. If he screwed up it was all over.
Jared…no, the kid…he tried to not refer to him by name since he’d been trained not to get too emotionally attached to any target, had stopped between the SUV and a huge tree to frown and Jensen swore that it had to be the first time he’d seen the kid without some kind of smile or grin on his face.
“I don’t really give a care what people will say about him if his only son doesn’t make an appearance. He didn’t care what people thought or said about me when he made that scene at my 21st birthday party after you so kindly passed on the rumors you’d heard about me.” He leaned against the tree to rub a hand over his burning, tired eyes while pretending to listen to his aunt rail and rant about how selfish he was being.
Jared was tired. Actually he was more than tired. He was beyond exhausted and just wanted to walk the rest of the way to his dorm, hoping his damn sex crazy roommate hadn’t locked him out again so he could get at least a few hours of sleep before work in the morning.
Between school, studying, and his job Jared knew he was burning the candle at both ends and it was only late October. If he kept this pace up, he’d be burned out before the winter break but he had just as much stubborn pride as his Dad and wouldn’t admit that he couldn’t survive on the less than promised monthly stipend.
At 21, the 6’4” college junior was still undecided about what field he wanted to major in since he’d flat out refused to go into law despite his father’s demands.
Knowing he’d already disappointed the older man with his lifestyle choice, Jared really no longer cared about the threats of being disowned or having to make his own way. He just wanted to do what he enjoyed and learn to find himself.
So with that in his head he finally just closed the phone, cutting off his aunt, a woman who hadn’t liked him ever since his mother, her sister, was murdered when Jared was only five years old.
“I’m my own man now and I will keep being a man that I like and want to be,” he whispered, taking a deep breath of the crisp cool air and starting to move when he suddenly realized he was no longer alone in the parking lot. “Oh…umm…hi.”
Jared had seen the short haired guy around several times in the last week or so, but since it was a busy campus and town, he just shrugged it off. He ignored the teasing comments from the girls at the bookstore that he had a secret admirer because no one with eyes that beautiful, green eyes that could go from jade to emerald in a moment, or with lips that could even make a straight guy wonder what they felt like, and Jared was far from straight, could be anything but heterosexual.
“Hey yourself.” Jensen had a couple of reactions to the shy smile that appeared when the kid noticed him. One side, his professional side, gave a silent fist pump because his target was stepping nicely into the trap. The other side…the side that he hadn’t paid much attention to in several years kicked him in the head for what he was about to do. “Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if maybe you could do me a huge favor.”
Jared was so tired that he had to bite back his initial instinct to respond that he’d do anything the hot guy in the black leather jacket wanted, but he caught himself and glanced around; something was nibbling in the back of his head, but he chose to ignore it. This was Olympia, Washington, not Beverly Hills, California. He was perfectly safe here.
“Uhhh, what do you need?” he asked; he knew he’d been working too much and studying too hard when a fast smile gave him a punch in the chest that reminded Jared of how long it had been since he let himself really look at a guy. “I’ve uh seen you around a lot lately. You new in town or to the college?”
Well that wasn’t something Jensen had expected to hear since he prided himself on his ability to keep from being seen by his targets unless being spotted suited him. “Yeah, you could say that,” he replied easily, stepping closer to motion with the small flashlight in his hand to the open hood. “I’m up here seeing the sights but it seems that I ignored one sound too many and now it won’t start. Could you hold this while I poke and prod under the hood? Unless you happen to be a whiz at fixing engines and can tell me what the hell’s wrong with it?”
The kid’s laugh was rich, full, and amused as he smiled with dimples showing. “Ask me to fix your cell phone or laptop, or ask me what star is where in the sky tonight and I can help…but the only thing I know about cars is where to stick the key and which pedal makes it go forward. But sure, I can hold a light for you.”
“Thanks a lot.” Jensen had figured cars wouldn’t be one of the kid’s areas of expertise, but he found himself lost for a moment in the comment about the stars. He held out the light and noticed the large but soft hands that took it shook a little. “Cold…or scared?” he asked while pretending to look under the hood for the problem.
“Tired,” Jared corrected without thinking, sliding his backpack off of his shoulder to ease the pressure from the weight of his books. He eased a little closer to hold the light more directly into what he deemed far more confusing than all the maps and pictures in his astronomy class. “Though it is a bit chilly tonight. I didn’t think to grab a jacket when I left my dorm this morning. Should I be scared of you, Mr…?” He let it hang as if trying to decide if he wanted to learn this guy’s name.
“Jensen.” His real name was out before the ex-soldier even knew it and he inwardly cursed himself for that slip-up. “And most people would be a little scared. A young good-looking guy like you…walking alone on a pretty empty campus…at night. You never know what kind of creeps you might come across.”
Jared snorted, amused at the thought. “Most of the trouble makers on campus don’t mess with me because I keep to myself…and they know I can hack into their computers if they do and cause all sorts of trouble for them. I’m good…but I appreciate the thought that you think I might be good-looking.” He dropped his eyes when deep green ones shifted to look at him. “I’m far from that.”
“Good looking, shy, a computer whiz, and humble. A very impressive package, Mr. Padalecki,” Jensen remarked smoothly, shifting his body just slightly forward so he’d be more in position to make his next move as the kid suddenly realized he’d used his name. Jensen let his tone change as he stared at his now wary target. “It isn’t the jocks or locals I meant that you should be scared of, Jared. That would be me.”
In the span of the four seconds it took Jared to realize the danger he was in and move to bolt, a strong hand had closed over his wrist, holding him in place, and that handsome rugged face had changed to hard and cold.
“Do us both a favor and don’t try anything stupid, kid.” Jensen tightened his grip on the wrist in his hand, stepping away from the front of the SUV to prepare a simple move that would allow him to get the shocked, frightened boy in a sleeper hold that would knock him out long enough to restrain him and get them out of the area. “The more you fight me on this, the more I’ll hurt you, and that’s not really what my boss wants or what I…goddamn it!”
The sudden flare of pain in his jaw took Jensen off guard. He’d expected the wide-eyed look of shock and fear; he expected some wild fighting or even some confused begging, but he had not expected the fist to his jaw or the knee that smashed his groin before the goddamn kid broke free of his grasp and began to run.
“So not a smart move, kiddo,” he growled, spitting blood and running after his prey. He quickly realized that while Jared might have some instinctive talent in defending himself, his common sense must have gone up in smoke because instead of leaving the heavy backpack and running into the clear driveway that would take him to the heart of the campus, the stupid kid had grabbed the pack and was trying to get lost in the thin clearing of trees off to the side of the library. “Rookie.”
Jared was cursing his own stupidity even as he tried to put distance between him and the would-be kidnapper as he ran among the scattered trees. Of course the hot guy would be a nut case. He should’ve clued in on that when the guy said he was good-looking.
Childhood fears were spilling back as he struggled to keep running while off balance with his pack of books. He couldn’t afford to lose them, but it was becoming increasingly hard to avoid falling in the dark woods.
He’d never explored the woods that surrounded the college due to allergies and dark memories. While he loved animals and plants, he hated actual woods and now as he tripped over a gnarled branch, Jared struggled to fight back tears.
“Damn it!” He felt pain slash over his palm when he tried to catch himself from falling by shooting his arm out and felt a sharp piece of bark cut him.
The woods were dark and unusually silent, but then Jared wasn’t sure he would hear anything over the sound of his pounding heart and harsh breathing anyway. He tried to look behind him to see if his attacker was following, but everything was pitch black.
He was confused as to who or why someone would want to kidnap him. He was just a college kid. It wasn’t like he was rich or had a famous…oh crap. “Dad.”
Now Jared was torn between panicked laughter and cursing his father for whatever the hell he’d done to piss someone off enough that they thought coming after him would work. Thinking that maybe he had lost the guy, Jared was trying to calm down, to get his thoughts to focus so he could figure out where the hell he was, when the air was suddenly driven from his lungs as a hard body slammed into his back, forcing him down to the ground with a grunt.
“That did not exactly help your case, kid.” Jensen’s voice was deep, gravelly, and hard when he growled into the boy’s ear, grabbing a handful of long hair to jerk his head back. “Pissing me off is a sure way to get yourself hurt or killed! Now settle…” He grunted as a scrambling arm tried to fly back and elbow him.
Jensen really didn’t want to do permanent damage to the geek, but the longer this went, the harder Jared fought him, the more tempted he was to break something that wasn’t vital.
“Get offa me, pervert!” Jared’s terror was building. He knew if he let this guy take him, the odds were good he’d be dead by the morning if this was a sex thing or by the week’s end if it did have something to do with his father. “Let go!”
“Not happening…and if you don’t settle the fuck down, I will go ahead and make you earn your keep for all the crap you’re giving me now!” Jensen snapped, jerking the kid over onto his back while pulling his 9mm Beretta from under his jacket. He shoved the muzzle under the boy’s chin and saw the wide eyes go even wider, but slowly his captive’s struggles stilled as if he got the point. “Now this can go easy or hard. You’ve already made this hard enough by running, not to mention actually drawing blood on me.”
“Give me another chance, asshole, and I’ll do more than draw a little blood.” Jared tried to sound braver than he felt, biting back a whimper of fear when his hair was yanked harder and the cold muzzle of the gun slid over his cheek slowly, almost like a caress. All of his bravado drained out of him. “Please…let me go. You…you don’t have to do this…whatever this is.” He voice was little more than a whisper.
The solider in Jensen, the one who’d signed up with the honest intent to do good, nearly gave in at the soft shaking voice and large wet and scared eyes, but the other side of him, the heartless cold professional he’d been turned into, shoved those urges aside.
“Yeah, I do.” He cocked his head curiously. “You gonna be a good boy now and come along quietly, or do I have to knock you out and then carry your ass outta here?”
Jensen was using his full weight to pin the boy to the ground, keeping his knees on his wrists until he could cuff them. He needed to get the kid back to the SUV and that meant the kid had to walk or get dragged. As he studied Jared’s face, he could tell the kid was scared, but not quite ready to cooperate so Jensen reached into his inner jacket pocket to pull out a small bottle and a rag. His timeline was getting seriously fucked up, and he didn’t have the time or the patience to beg the kid to come along quietly.
Jared had almost resigned himself to what was happening…until he saw the bottle and rag; he knew immediately what was about to happen. A flash of memory hit and before he or his kidnapper knew what was happening, he was thrashing and fighting wildly.
“NO!” he screamed, not even thinking that someone might hear him if he yelled loud enough. His thoughts were only on getting loose. He forgot about the gun or the dangerous guy holding him down. He forgot about all of that and could only recall the smell of the chloroform from when he’d been small as well as the feel of cooling blood as it pooled around him. “Get away from me!”
“Kid, I am so gonna kick your ass when we’re…son of a goddamn bitch!” Jensen didn’t see how a guy who was so skinny and gangly…so damn geeky…could be so goddamn wiry and strong. He was wondering if the kid’s freakish height had anything to do with it when he actually was flipped off of him in the burst of wild fighting. “Fuck it.”
Rolling to his feet with ease, Jensen lunged to take down the scrambling kid, ducking and grabbing a wild fist and jerking it behind his back. He was trying to ignore the curses and words being shouted while worrying that all the noise would begin to attract attention.
Grabbing Jared’s other wrist, he swiftly pinned them both at the small of his back and finally got them hooked with the set of cuffs he was glad he had stuffed in a pocket. Once he had both hands free again, he snatched a handful of hair and gave a disgusted curse of frustration before giving a swift and solid blow to the side of Jared’s head to knock him out cold.
“No job is worth this much hassle,” he muttered once the body under him fell limp. Jensen got to his feet, brushing himself off and using the toe of his boot to turn the now limp body over. A thin stream of moonlight coming through the canopy of trees allowed him to see the pale, dirty face streaked with tears and beginning to show bruises. He stared at the kid and wondered what had happened to the side of him that once would’ve been horrified by what he just did. Then he remembered. It was destroyed when his career went up in flames.
“Nothing personal, kid.” He spoke gruffly, pulling out his phone to snap a quick picture that he sent along with a text message that simply read, “Got him.” “You’re just a means to an end and it’s my job to make that happen. Hopefully you’ll be smarter when you wake up cause we’ll have a long time to play if you make this too hard.”
Looking around, Jensen spotted the fallen backpack and debated for only a moment before snatching it. He didn’t want to risk leaving evidence behind. He let out a grunt at the weight; were college textbooks made out of concrete? He couldn’t be sure which weighed more, the damn backpack or the kid as he lugged both back through the woods to where his SUV still sat.
A quick glance around reassured Jensen that the area was still deserted, so he carried his load to the vehicle, had a brief struggle with the rear door, and then muscled his burdens inside. He quickly but skillfully tied the boy up and using the already attached straps hooked to clamps inside the rear of the SUV. It would be impossible for the kid to move or jerk when he woke up. Jensen would debate putting him up front when he saw how well the boy behaved.
The kid’s strange reaction to the chloroform confused Jensen, but he quickly shrugged it off while slipping a heavy cloth into his captive’s mouth and knotting it tightly at the back of his head. Jensen gave a quick swipe of his fingers to push dark hair out of closed eyes. “Hope you’re worth the trouble, kid.”
TBC