“AJ, are you kidding me? They’ll never do it,” Nick scoffed before turning onto his belly on the lounge chair. “Hey, can you get my back?” He held up the bottle of sunblock. “You know how bad I burn.”

AJ lifted a brow. “Do I look like I want to touch your back? Hell, no. Now, come on, Nick. Brian’s got that competitive streak, so we know he’d do it. And it would be funny as hell to see how the two of them try to beat each other out.”

“I bet Brian would beat Howie, anyway, so no bet. I don’t care.” Nick slapped the lotion onto his back. “I’m trying to relax here, so if you could just take your lame ideas somewhere else, that’d be great.”

AJ hmmphed. “Don’t let me stop you from being a grump. Some people have no idea how to have fun.”

“Excuse me,” Nick began in a prissy voice. “Did you just say that I don’t know how to have fun? Because you would be so completely wrong. I know how to have fun more than you could ever know. I could have fun so much that you would be blown away if you ever saw how much fun I was having. You would-”

“Yeah, yeah. Tell it to someone who cares.” AJ waved it off and stood. “I’ll just leave you and your lazy, no fun ass right here. Maybe Kevin will take me up on the idea.” He patted Nick’s shoulder. “I hope you enjoy yourself in Lame-O Land.”

Nick watched him walk back into the hotel and rolled his eyes. “Right. Like Kevin would ever take him up on that stupid bet.”

***

“Did you actually think Kevin would take the bet?” Nick shot AJ an “I told you so” look before continuing down the steps. “Please. Kevin would never do that. I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out by now.”

AJ shoved his hands in his pockets before he gave in to the temptation to wring Nick’s cocky neck. “You just wait, Carter. I’ll find someone to be my partner in this, and then you’ll be the one crawling back to me on your slimy belly like the lowly bug you are. You’ll apologize up a storm and beg me to take you back. And you know what I’ll say? I’ll tell you that you were the one who didn’t want to be part of my plan. You won’t be allowed back.”

Nick froze on the bottom step. Slowly, he turned to face AJ, annoyance filling his eyes. “Fine, Mr. I’m so sure I have a fucking awesome idea. We’ll just see.” He held out a hand. “I’ll take that damn bet. A thousand on Brian.”

“A thousand, eh?” AJ’s brows lifted above his sunglasses. “You’re on.” Slapping his hand in Nick’s, they sealed the deal.

***

“Hey…Brian…Need…2…talk…2…you.” Nick painstakingly texted the words to Brian. He hadn’t quite figured out how to work the new phone he’d just bought the day before, since the stupid thing ended up beeping at him for no good reason sometimes. “Call…me—Damn it!” His message had just been deleted. “Fuck it.” The phone buzzed in his hand. “What the—Oh.” He pressed a button, praying it was the right one. “Hello?”

“Yo, Nick! Are you busy?” Brian’s voice was cheerful, and Nick wondered if Brian had actually gotten his text.

“Uh…no. Did you get my text?”

“Huh? No. When did you send it?”

Nick checked his watch. “Like a minute ago.”

“Nope. Was it important?”

“Well, I sort of wanted to talk to you about something. But, it can wait. What’s up?” It wasn’t often Brian called him up out of the blue these days.

Brian was quiet for a moment. “Are you and AJ doing something that I should know about? Kevin called me today and said something.”

“What? What’d he say?” Nick desperately hoped Kevin hadn’t given it away because there would go his chances at AJ’s money.

“Nothing.” Brian’s voice grew suspicious. “What are the two of you up to? You’re not in trouble, are you? Because that’s the last thing we need right now.”

He hated when Brian got all self-righteous. “Dude. Chill. It’s not bad. You’ll find out soon. I can’t tell you more than that.”

“Uh…okay.” Now, Brian sounded confused. “But it’s not bad, right? You’re not breaking the law or anything?”

Nick giggled. “No! It’s fun. You’ll see soon! I swear, dude.”

“Okay. Well, I gotta go. I have to pick up Baylee from his friend’s house. I’ll see you next week?”

“Next week?” Nick was confused until he remembered they were due back in LA to discuss the final cut of their new album. “Sure. I’ll see you then.”

“Don’t do anything stupid or dangerous until then, okay?”

“Yes, Dad.”

Brian muttered incoherently and definitely sounded a lot like Kevin before he spoke again. “Take care of yourself. ‘Bye, Nick.”

Nick hung up then stared at his cell. He’d been wrong, and AJ had been right. Not that he was going to tell AJ that, of course. But this was definitely getting to be fun. Messing with Brian and Howie was more interesting than anything he’d done in a while.

***

“What are you hiding, Nick?”

Nick ignored the question. “So, how’s Kris? And the baby?”

“Answer my question first.” Kevin was doggedly insistent. As usual. “What are you and AJ hiding?”

“Why do you care, Kevin? You’re not even part of the group anymore.” And then he wished he could take back the words when he saw the look on Kevin’s face. “Kev, I’m sorry. I didn’t-”

Kevin shook his head. “No, you’re right. I’m not part of the group, but I’d hoped that I would still be considered part of the family.”

“Well, duh. Of course, you are!”

One bushy eyebrow lifted. “Okay, then. As such, I think I should know what you and AJ have up your sleeves. AJ came to me last week with a bet or something, but he didn’t get to tell me what it was.”

Nick rolled his eyes then spotted his bag coming around on the conveyor belt. “That’s probably because you stopped him before he could.”

“Fine. I did. I admit it.” Kevin watched as Nick pulled his things off the conveyor then turned to walk out of baggage claim. “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell me what you have planned.”

Nick shook his head. “Uh-uh. No way. You told Brian something was going on. There’s no way I’m gonna tell you. You might go off and tell Howie, too.” Realizing what he’d just said, he slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Howie, huh?” Kevin’s eyes narrowed. “So, he’s involved in this scheme, too?”

Nick got busy digging his iPod out of his bag. “I didn’t say that.”

“Nick.”

The headphones were tangled, so he set about untangling them as they walked. “Nope. Nuh-uh. I said nothing.”

“Nick.”

“Aha!” The wires were successfully freed. “Sorry, Kevin.” He snapped them on his head.

“Nick! You’re going to tell me. Now.” Yup, there was the Kevin glare.

Nick turned the music up. “I can’t hear you.” And, pushing open the door to the parking garage, he gave Kevin a wicked grin and stepped out.

“Damn it, Nick!”

***

Kevin stared at the bottle of Perrier in front of him and wondered. The Backstreet babies were up to something, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. He had to admit that, without him around, Howie and Brian were the next likely victims-to-be of major pranks, courtesy of one, Nick Carter. AJ may have come up with the idea this time, but you could bet your ass that Nick was going to tweak it to make it worse.

Once upon a time, it had been Brian with all the ideas. Kevin had to laugh at the idea of his cousin being the one pranked this time. He would be so spitting mad.

Sipping from his glass, he thought about the whole thing. He should stay out of it. Really, he should. It just wasn’t fair, though, if Howie were left in the dark. Howie usually didn’t take pranks too well.

***

Howie wanted to take a nap. He really, really, really wanted a nap. He didn’t call himself Sleepystreet for nothing. It had been a long day, and there were still eight hours until it was over. Maybe.

When his phone beeped, he sighed. And the calls never ended. At least this time, he thought as he picked up the phone, it was a text and not a real live person calling. No conversation needed this time, he thought. No Howie needs to be alive and perky and nice and sweet and-

“What the heck?” He stared at the message and frowned. What was Kevin talking about? “Howie. Rotten fish. Soon.”

He read and re-read the message several times. After a minute or so, his memory flickered. “Oh, no!”

***

“Normal people don’t do this, guys!” Brian complained from the backseat of Nick’s car.

He was currently tied up and blindfolded. He’d been rudely awakened when Nick and AJ had stormed into his hotel room, roughly tied a black cloth around his eyes, and tied his feet together. He’d heard Nick giggling hysterically as they’d carried him out to the car.

“Don’t mind us, gentleman,” he’d heard AJ say to who he assumed were other hotel guests and workers who’d probably been staring at them. “We’re taking him to his surprise party. Whoops! Cat’s out of the bag, Brian.”

“Surprise!” Nick had added gleefully.

He’d bumped into Howie when they’d shoved him into the backseat. Howie had already been there and was none too happy.

“Did you see this coming, Howard?” Brian asked him now. He was glad they hadn’t been gagged on top of everything else.

“Kevin sent me a text yesterday about rotten fish,” Howie muttered angrily. “I’m going to kill both of you!” he added, calling out to AJ and Nick up front. “I’m going to strangle you and hack you to bits and pieces. Then, I’ll burn those bits and pieces and no one will be any the wiser.”

Brian stifled the chuckle. “I’ll help you out, but, uh, that sounds a little too bloody for me. Maybe we could drown them.”

“Nick wouldn’t drown. He’s a fucking fish in water.” Howie was definitely sounding like Grumpy the Dwarf.

The car stopped then and, still laughing hysterically, AJ and Nick hauled both of them out and leaned them against the car.

“We’ll untie you now. But only if you promise not to kick us or run away,” AJ announced.

“I’ll kick you, all right,” Howie threatened. “And then I’ll strangle you. Get me out of this ridiculous stuff.”

“Me, too,” Brian added. He’d been paying attention to the sounds around them and had a pretty good idea where they were. “I think this is going to be fun, actually.”

“Fun?! Brian, I swear, I’ll get you, too!”

Brian tee-heed a little. “Keep your pants on, Howie D.”

There was a strangled shriek from beside him, and Brian fought not to laugh harder. Howie was definitely pissed beyond belief, and, when Howie got mad, there was no telling what was about to happen.

“There you go, Brian.” Nick untied the ropes around his hands and feet, and Brian yanked off the blindfold. No, he definitely wasn’t surprised by their surroundings. He just didn’t know why they were here.

“Thanks, Nick.”

“What are we doing here?” Howie frowned at the tracks surrounding them as people zipped around them in go-carts. He aimed a steely glare at AJ and Nick. “You dragged me to a frickin’ go-cart track? For what?”

Brian cleared his throat carefully. “Uh, Howie? I think you and me, we’re supposed to race each other.”

“So we had to be blindfolded to bring us here?” Howie’s prissy voice was in action.

AJ grinned. “Come on, D. You know you’d never have gotten up at eight in the morning on a day off to come out here.”

“I don’t know how you and Nick are actually awake before ten on a day off,” Brian muttered and was ignored.

Nick spread his arms cheerfully. “You and Brian will be racing each other on the hardest track they’ve got here. I bet AJ a thousand dollars that Brian will beat Howie. No offense, D.”

“Jerk.”

“A thousand?” Brian sputtered. “That’s really flattering, but a thousand dollars?”

“But, if Howie wins,” AJ continued, “Nick will give two thousand to your lupus foundation, Howie. How’s that sound?”

“Hey! What about the Heart Club?” Brian wondered, insulted.

“That wasn’t in the original bet!” Nick exclaimed. “That’s cheating, AJ! You’ve given D actual motivation to do this! That’s not fair!”

Howie paid no attention to him and, grabbing Brian’s hand, dragged him towards the tracks.

***

“I can’t believe I actually thought this wouldn’t be bad,” Brian muttered to himself as he maneuvered his go-cart around the curve. “There’s no way Howie’s gonna win, though.” He pressed his accelerator harder. “Come on, come on, come on,” he began to chant under his breath as he started to gain on Howie’s cart.

Howie didn’t care that he’d been woken at the crack of dawn. He didn’t care that he’d been blindfolded and tied up—okay, that was a lie. But it didn’t seem so bad if he were to receive a couple thousand dollars for his foundation for beating Brian. Not that kicking Brian’s ass at go-carts was easy to do.

He gritted his teeth and called over his shoulder, “You’ll never win, Bri! Give up, now!”

“Screw you!” came the reply.

“I hope you’ll enjoy embarrassing yourself,” Howie called back. “You are going down!”

As the finish line came into view, both men leaned forward, just a little, and pressed down harder on the acceleration. There was a fine trickle of nervous sweat down Brian’s back. He hated losing, and he was not going to lose this time. Not to Howie anyway. Howie who didn’t even really care usually about winning or losing at any sort of game—except real estate.

Unfortunately, Howie had enormous motivation this time.

“Damn you, AJ,” he whispered.

***

“And that, Baylee, is why you never let AJ or Nick talk you into doing anything that they’ve bet on,” Brian told his son as they walked down the street.

Baylee clutched Brian’s hand and looked up with a curious look on his face. “You lost?”

“Uh, that’s what I said,” Brian replied.

Baylee’s face scrunched up into a frown before his features lightened and a rolling laugh erupted from him. “Daddy’s a loser! Daddy’s a loser!”

“Nick and AJ. You are so dead.”