Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

15. I'm fine, how are you?

At Iris's apartment, Vincent had helped Sina and Mila to hide, having JT follow in the car and take them.
He figured the clean up was to kill the loose ends, since that was what any good criminal would do.
He listened to the door being picked and opened then closed. He watched through the vent in the wall, as a man walked past, going into the bedrooms looking under the beds. He waited in the dark, the door to the closet opening and heavy boots climbing the stairs down.
The man had a handgun lifted, as he looked around, walking all the way in, seeing the pink bed covers and beds.
Before he could check under the beds,
Vincent grabbed him and wrestled the gun out of his hand. He pressed a piece of tape over the man's mouth and pulled a pillow case over his head. Then he used the rest of the tape to tie his arms and legs to a chair he shoves him into, and stood back, impressed with his record time.
He had Catherine's perp tied up in a neat little bow for her.

Outside in the lobby of the building, a task force was busy getting ready to go up and arrest Sam, having traced his cell phone to Iris's apartment.
Tess and Walanski were bickering back and forth about him arresting the wrong person and Cat's suspension.

Joe shushed them. "Alright, Unit. 1 Charlie, 1 Charlie, looking for -?" he looks at Cat.

"White male, mid twenties, medium build, brown hair, presumed armed, definitely dangerous. He might have two little girls as hostages." She takes out her gun the same time Tess and Walanski do.

"Let's go, let's move," Joe says to the point leader, who starts to walk forward.

Cat reminds them of the knife tattoo on Sam's arm and they quickly make their way up the stairs to the third floor, Joe telling Cat that he hopes she's right and she nods. She is.
Her cell phone rings and she stops in her tracks, falling behind. She doesn't recognise the number so she answers with a curt, "Chandler."

"Hey, it's me. I got the guy who did this." Vincent breathes into the phone.

"What?"

"Don't worry, he's conscious, okay. How long 'til you get here?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm at Iris's. JT has the girls."

"Okay, we're already here," Cat says hurriedly. "You need to get out now."
She hangs up the phone and rushes to catch up with the team.

They break the door down with a battering ram, and Vincent looks up towards the ceiling of the basement. He is in panic mode. There was only one way out, and then a small window with steel bars. There were police cars and sirens everywhere and he huffed in annoyance, rushing to the middle of the room. He was a sitting duck. He used a chair to stand on and watched them stream into the apartment through the vent. He couldn't see Catherine so he jumped down again. He needs to hide. Or break out.

Cat went straight for the closet, looked inside fleetingly and then yelled, "Clear!" as loud as she could.

"Hey, this place is empty, what's up?" Joe says, coming up to Cat's side.

"He must have heard us," she says, "he must be somewhere in the building."

"Alright! Fan out! Let's go! Let's go!" Joe yells to the rest of the team. "Search the rest of the building!"

Vincent heard all of this, Cat diverting them, but he was already changing. He was scared, trapped, and he was shaking the bars on the window, grunting and growling.

Cat waited until the others were out before she went into the closet and rushed down the stairs. She kept her weapon ready, hearing Sam mumble under the pillow case.
She saw Vincent with his back to her, and her eyes widened. He was still trying to pull the bars apart to get out. Sam managed to rip the tape loose around his hands and was pulling the pillow case off.
Cat jumped on him, pushing him down, both so he wouldn't see Vincent and to stop him from running. She punched him and sat on his legs, and she kept punching.
Vincent heard this and swung around, leaving the window to go to Cat. He went straight for Sam, growling.