I scribbled down words and recited them in my head; “I know that I can’t believe…” What can’t I believe anyway? Kevin had said that we should collaborate together, the five of us, to write a song about our lifelong journey towards success and how we’ve obtained it thanks to many people. I remember the good ole days of being a Backstreet Boy, before making it big on TRL and being plastered on walls of almost all of America’s young teenaged girls.

Alexander James McLean, who was only 14 at the time, was the first Backstreet Boy ever for Mr. Lou Pearlman, which was soon followed by Howard Dwyane Dorough, who was 20, and young blond bombshell Nickolas Gene Carter, who was amazingly only 12. Kevin Scott Richardson, my 22-year-old cousin was sought out by Pearlman, and there was one spot still remaining. My cousin made that “infamous” call that would change our lives, as well as the music scene of the world forever. That empty spot was filled by me, 18-year-old Brian Thomas Littrell.

I remember the struggles we had went through, the obstacles we ultimately overcame, and all the blood, sweat and tears we’ve shed in the beginning years before everything finally fell in it’s place. Although we had endured a lot, I can honestly sit back and say that I miss those good ole days, it’s all in the past now… THAT’S IT!!

I quickly grabbed my pad of paper and began scribbling down more lyrics to the six words I already had. “I know that I, I can’t believe… just what the past has brought me, to the man I want to be. And I know that we’ve have had some times, where we can’t forget the struggles ‘cause we have so far to go.” I smiled as I looked down at my work. Beautiful… simply beautiful. Not to sound conceded or anything, I just find it beautiful because it partially sums up our memories within lyrics. I couldn’t wait to meet up with the fellas to see what we got going on so far.

“Baby?”

I turned to the lovely voice that had whispered to me. There I find my best friend for many years, my beautiful wife standing there, with nothing but a smile upon her face. I rose from my seat and approached her, embracing her by the waist and pulling her close to me. I began to kiss her face gingerly, savoring the moment.

“Why you standing here all innocent looking?” I asked as I began to nip at her neck.

She began to laugh, my nibbling beginning to be too ticklish for her. Gosh, how I love her laugh, her smile, her voice, just everything about her. She placed her hands upon my chest to stop my attacks. She had a look of seriousness, but that angelic smile never left her face.

“I’ve…” she paused. “I need to ask you a few favors.”

“Favors?” I repeated. “Is this something I could take care of in the bedroom?”

She laughed as she playfully slapped my shoulder. Oh no ladies and gentlemen, AJ has officially corrupted my “oh-so holy” mind!

“No… first off, can I be straight up with you when I say that I want a bigger house?”

“A bigger house?” I’m not too sure why I was repeating all that she was telling me. “Why do you want a bigger house, I mean, isn’t this a good size?”

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t hurt to have more space. You could really use a bigger office area and we could use a room as a studio for you and the fellas… there’s just so much more we could do with a bigger house.”

“A bigger house hmm? Well… I suppose I could use a bigger office area, and a studio doesn’t sound half bad.” I looked down at her and smiled. “Your wish is my command my lady… you want a bigger house, then you’ve got a bigger house.” she kissed me. “one favor down, how much more to go?”

“Well,” she whispered seductively. “I think you and I need to go and do some major shopping…”

Shopping? Okay, we went from purchasing a house to shopping, it was really throwing me off! But, I didn’t mind playing mind games with the love of my life. “Okay, we’ll go and do some major shopping… it’ll be so much fun!” I cracked in a feminine tone. “What else babe?”

“Last and final favor… I need you to call your parents and tell them that they are going to be grandparents.”

Her last favor didn’t really register in my mind for some reason. “Huh?”

Instead of her repeating herself, she pulled out something from behind her back, showing it to me. It was that pregnancy test stick, and I could clearly see a “+” mark, indicating that she tested positive for being pregnant.

“You’re gonna be a daddy!”

The only thing I could do was grab her and lift her in the air, holding her close to me. Who’d ever thought that I, Brian Thomas Littrell, fifth member of the Backstreet Boys, would be the first daddy of the pop quintet?

I placed my hand on her swollen belly as I lowered my head down towards her abdomen, placing my ear on her stomach. I could faintly hear the baby rustling around within the womb. I began to gently rub her stomach and began to sing.

“There you are, wild and free, reaching out like you needed me, a helping hand to make it right, I am holding you all through the night. I’ll be the one, who will make all your sorrows undone, I’ll be the light, when you feel like there’s nowhere to run, I’ll be the one to hold you, and make sure that you’ll be alright, ‘cause my fear is gone and I want to, take you from darkness to light.”

When I finished Nick’s verse of the song, I placed my ear back down on Leighanne’s belly, noticing that the baby had settled down. I liked to believe that I was able to put our child at ease just by singing.

“I really want this one to be a girl…” she whispered.

I took my head away from her stomach and rose up towards her on the bed. She snuggled close to me and had placed her head upon my shoulder. “If it was a girl, what would you want to name her?”

“Hmm…” I thought the question over. “How about Litty?”

“There is no way I’m naming our daughter after our dog!” she laughed.

“Okay… how about Lily? I’ve always liked that name for some reason.”

“Lily Littrell? For some reason, I can picture people teasing her in school about her name. Sounds too close to alliteration.”

“What about Layla?” I asked. “That’s a nice name.”

“Layla.” she repeated to herself. “Layla Littrell. Not bad… I like it… by why are you only picking names that start with the letter ‘L’?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know, I’d figure that it’d be nice for our daughter to have the same initials as her mother. Okay, what about Betty Lou then? Betty Lou Littrell. That way, she has the ‘B’ from my name and the ‘L’ from your name.”

She crinkled her face, I love it when she does that. “That’s so… old English sounding. I’ve never really liked the name Betty Lou.”

“Well, we’re so busy here thinking up girls name that we ruled out the other possibility… what if we had a boy?” I questioned her.

“I was thinking about… Brandon or Brennan. Or maybe even Benjamin, Brody, Bruce, Bryant, Bradley…”

“Whoa,” I laughed. “What’s with all the ‘B’ names?”

“Well, I don’t know. I’d figure that it’d be nice for our son to have the same initials as his father.” she mocked.

She got me there. “Okay, I know this may sound crazy, but Nick thought of this idea, and for some reason the guys didn’t think it was a bad idea.”

“Oh no,” she groaned. “Nick had an idea and the guys didn’t think it was a bad one? That’s a first. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but enlighten me with Nick’s idea.”

“Okay… how’s about Hank? Hank Littrell?”

“Hank? Where did he get that name from?”

“He took the first letter of their names. ‘H’ for Howie, ‘A’ for AJ, ‘N’ for Nick and ‘K’ for Kevin. He said that way, we’d never forget about them.”

She laughed. “There is no way that we could forget about them, believe me. I was just thinking… since both you and I want our child’s name to have similar initials… if we have a boy, I feel that it’s only right that his name starts with a ‘B’ so he’d have initials like his father…”

“And if we have a girl, her name would start with an ‘L’?” I finished off.

She nodded, “How does that sound?”

“Anything you say baby sounds great to me.” I replied before I began to kiss her.

“Baby, please try to forgive me… stay here, don’t put out the glow. Hold me now, don’t bother… if every minutes it makes me weaker you can, save me from the man that I’ve become, oh yeah…” I belted into the microphone.

On key, the rest of the fellas jumped in singing in perfect harmony. “Looking back on the things I’ve done, I was trying to be someone, I played my part, kept you in the dark… now let me show you the shape of my heart…”

AJ took the second verse away, “Sadness is beautiful, loneliness is tragical, help me…”

We were at yet another venue doing sound check, our show was only an hour away. I looked out towards the empty seats in front of me and seen Leighanne slowly walking towards the stage. I simply placed my microphone on the ground and had jumped off the stage to meet her halfway.

“Where the hell are you going?” AJ sang instead of singing “I can’t win this war”. I didn’t reply to him, I just kept walking towards my waddling wife. Because of me the instrumental version of “Shape Of My Heart” stopped playing and the guys stopped singing.

“Take five guys…” I told them as I finally reached Leighanne, instantly placing my hand on her bulging stomach. “So, what’s the verdict?”

She simply smiled. “Well, I was thinking of Basil Thomas Littrell… how does that sound?”

I instantly knew that we were having a boy, didn’t take a genius to figure that out! Even though she wanted a daughter, I was glad that we were having a son instead. I kissed her passionately but suddenly broke the kiss. “Wait, Basil Thomas Littrell? I can see it now, people would be teasing him, pronouncing his name the way you would pronounce the cooking herb basil.”

She laughed, “Well, what do you have in mind then?”

I pondered. “How’s about… Bradley Thomas Littrell? Sounds strong if you ask me.”

“Well, we’ll think of names later, right now I think you have to get your butt back on stage, you guys have less than half an hour to complete your sound check.”

I shrugged, “Doesn’t matter anyway, we were on our last song. We kinda sped through it. Anyway, I was thinking about taking you out to dinner tonight after the show… somewhere fancy… just you and I and little sport here.” I rubbed her belly as I said that. “And we can discuss more about names for our son. How does that sound?”

Instead of giving me an answer, she kissed me instead.

“Alright, enough of that already! Break it up, break it up!” Nick bellowed as he gently pulled me away from Leighanne. “It’s time for me to talk to the soon-to-be mother.” he softly said as he took her hand and kissed it.

Leighanne chuckled, “Why, aren’t you just simply charming Mr. Carter.”

Nick chuckled as well, “I try, but foreal though… are ya’ll having a boy or a girl?”

“Take a wild guess Nick.” I told him.

He fell silent for a while, thinking it over. Geez, the man only had to choose between the two, he could either say a boy or a girl. Sure enough, a slow smile crept over his face, confirming that he had finally figured it out.

“This is freaking awesome man!” he exclaimed. “I can see it now, both you and I teaching him the fundamentals of basketball, while Kevin teaches him football, Howie can show him how to be pretty and AJ can talk to him about sex education!”

I crinkled my eyebrows with confusion. “You were doing great on the whole basketball and football thing, but you completely lost me at the looking pretty and sex education thing. While I would like you ALL to play an important role in my son’s life, is there anything else you could think of for Howie and AJ to do than to show him how to be a pretty boy and talk to him about sex?”

“Well, Howie could show him how to do his hair and AJ can…” he paused for a while, “AJ can…teach him how to sing or dance, I don’t know! You can’t really think of anything for AJ to do, because when you say his name alone, it just SCREAMS sex!”

“What’s this sex talk I hear coming from you Carter?” AJ blurted out on the microphone.

“See what I mean?” Nick questioned us, jabbing his thumb towards AJ. “That’s all the man ever thinks about, and think of it this way… you won’t have to dread that whole situation of explaining ‘the birds and the bees’ to your son. He’ll already have that covered for you!”

“Thank you Nick?” I said in a form of a question, I don’t know if he was just playing around or really being serious.

He smiled and beamed proudly, as if to say “my job is done”. “Well, did you guys settle on a name yet for the little guy?”

Both Leighanne and I looked over at each other. “Well, she thought of Basil Thomas Littrell while I thought of Bradley Thomas Littrell.”

“How about Brian Thomas Littrell Jr.? It’ll be great ‘cause he’ll have the same name as you and we can call him Jr. It’s perfect!”

I simply laughed. “How’s about ‘no’? I wouldn’t want to be referred to as Brian Thomas Littrell Sr., there’s just something definitely wrong with that picture.”

“One more question if you don’t mind me asking.” he leaned in towards me to silently ask me his question. “Who’s gonna be the godfather?”

I looked up at him and smiled, “Who better to fill the job than my very own four brothers of course?”

Kevin looked down at his watch for what must have been the hundredth time. He sat in a tight chair in the waiting room and began to impatiently tap his foot on the hard tile ground. All of a sudden he felt a hand snake over his and felt a gentle squeeze. He looked up to stare at the lovely face of his wife.

Kristin smiled, “Don’t fret so much Kevin… they’ll be out here soon enough.”

He grinned and just continued to stare at her. Never did he think that his little cousin would be the first out of the both of them to become a daddy. It wasn’t as if they were competing with each other, he just found it ironic that the two cousins of the group would be the first to marry out of the five of them, and now Brian would be the very first “Backstreet Dad”.

The doors to the waiting room busted open, revealing an anxious Nick and AJ, with Sarah not far behind. “Where are they?”

“In the room.” Kevin replied. “She went into labor not too long ago.”

“Where’s everyone else?” AJ questioned this time.

“Jackie’s in the room with Brian and Leigh’s mother, everyone else went down to the café with Howie.”

Both AJ and Nick relieved a heavy sigh, taking a seat across from Kevin. They had received a sudden call from Brian who sounded out of breath but excited at the same time. As they continued to sit and wait in the waiting room, they grew more and more anxious with every doctor or nurse that walked out of the delivery room, unfortunately no one approached them.

Finally, a male doctor walked out of the room and had consulted them. “I’m assuming you’re all here for Brian and Leighanne Littrell, am I correct?”

As if in unison, everyone snapped up from where they sat slowly walking towards the doctor. “Yes, we all are.”

“Well,” the doctor started off. “I am proud to say that Leighanne gave birth to a healthy baby boy with no complications.” he paused when he heard a sigh of relief. “Those who were in the delivery room before has cleared to make room for you guys to see Leighanne, Brian and the new baby boy.”

No one moved at first. They knew that they all couldn’t go in the room at the same time to see them. Jerald then spoke up and said that Kevin, Howie, AJ and Nick should be the first to go in and see them, no one disagreed. Without being told twice, the four of them made their way into the room, seeing an exhausted Leighanne on the hospital bed and Brian standing near her, his back facing all of them.

“Brian?” Kevin whispered, as he knocked on the door, they all began to slowly walk in further.

Leighanne was the first to acknowledge their presence and she gave a weak smile. Finally, Brian turned around, revealing the small baby boy his wife had just conceived minutes ago.

Within seconds the four of them crowded around Brian to see the new “Backstreet Baby”.

“He’s all over you two.” Howie cooed as he reached out to touch the baby’s small hands.

“Yeah,” Kevin agreed. “it’s hard to say who’s side he pulls off more.”

“What’s his name?” Nick asked.

Brian looked up at them and gave them a genuine smile, a smile only a father could give. “Baylee… Baylee Thomas Wylee Littrell.”

“No I can’t let you go, you’re apart of me now, caught by the taste of your kiss… and I don’t wanna know, the reason why I, can’t stay forever like this, now I’m climbing the walls ‘cause I miss you.”

I bent down and held the microphone out towards Baylee. “Take it away Baylee.”

“Take my hand and take my life, please don’t take forever.” he wailed out, causing all of us to just laugh and smile at him.

I held the microphone between us as we continued to sing. “If only you could stay with me now, just tell me what it is that keeps us from each other now… yeah, it’s coming to get me… you’re under my skin.”

As the fellas began to sing the chorus, I lifted my son up and held him in my arms. We finally released our most recent album, Never Gone, and now we were touring in small arenas. I know what you might be thinking, why did we exchange the larger venues for small arenas that were the size of a club? Well, we all decided that this album is all about the music. Sure, having dancers and a bunch of pyrotechnics go off was nice, but that was then. Things change, and we must change along with it. We wanted this tour to be very intimate, just us and the fans because we were finally back after two years hiatus and we’ve basically found ourselves with the time off. We’ve found a new respect for what we do, for each other and for those who have continuously supported us throughout the years no matter what.

When we completed singing “Climbing The Walls”, we began interacting with the fans who wereat the arena for sound check once again.

“This question is for Brian.” I looked out towards the fan who had addressed herself to me. “We all know that you’re the Backstreet Dad and Baylee is the Backstreet Baby, but I think we all want to know where do you see your son years from now?”

“Where do I see my son years from now?” I repeated. “You mean do I see him partaking a career similar to his dad’s?” she nodded. “Well… as you can see he has no fear of being on stage and belting out whatever he wants in front of anyone, so I’m thinking that it’s a sign. But to tell you the truth, I’m here to be his father not his mentor or someone to push him in a certain direction I’d like him to take. When he becomes older and if he finds himself interested in music, I will not hesitate to help him in anyway I can. I think that it’d be a joy to give my son the insight of the entertainment business and what his daddy does for a living, and hopefully one day we’ll be able to do a duet together or something.” I paused and smiled when I heard the fans go “aww”. “But um, that’s only if he’s interested in music; if he finds his interest in something else, I’m behind him 100% with whatever he decides to do.”

“I know many people have already asked you this question, but how does it feel to be a father and where do you think both you and Leighanne would be without your son?”

“Honestly, it’s great being a father. I wake up everyday, look at my son and think ‘geez, I’m getting old’! At times, I feel older than Kevin and Howie and I guess it’s because when you have a child of your own, you just find a whole new sense of maturity because you know that you are now the role model of this young one. It’s true when they say that a child becomes a splitting image of their parents, and I want to be the best father I can be to my son. At first I was skeptical when it came to changing his diapers, but now I enjoy it because I know as the years go on I won’t be doing that for him anymore, he’ll become a man all of his own. It’s just the simple things of having a child that brings me joy and has me thinking that there’s nowhere I’d rather be and nothing I’d rather do than to be here to be a loving husband and a caring father.”

“Where do you think you and Leighanne would be without your son?”

I paused for a while, I forgot she even asked that question, but she repeated herself. Honestly, I didn’t want to answer her question because I didn’t want to think about it. I don’t want to ever think about how Leighanne and I would be living our life without our son. “I don’t mean to be frank, but I’d rather not think about what it would be like without my son. I mean, he’s here with us and we thank God each and every day for the blessings He has bestowed upon us, and… what else is there for a father to say? To tell you the truth, I’d be nowhere if it wasn’t for my son, and I think I can speak on the behalf of my wife when I say that we’d be lost. But there again I would not like to think of this situations because he’s here with us and that’s all that matters. It’s my job as a father to protect him and always be there for him no matter what… I’d do whatever it takes, and that’s the bottom line.”

I looked down at Baylee as he looked up at me and smiled. Yup… I would do whatever it takes to keep my son here with us. “You guys ready for the next song?”

“When can the fans be expecting to hear a new single?”

“When is your guys album scheduled to debut?”

“Where and when will you guys kick off your tour?”

“What’s in the future for the group since Kevin Richardson’s departure?”

“Is there any chance at all he will be reuniting with you guys sometime down the road?”

Throughout the whole interview, I just remained silent. Normally we would expect to hear Kevin answer the bulk of the questions, but that’s not the case anymore. That role has now been passed on to Howie, the line goes from me, to AJ, to Howie, then Nick, and that’s where it ends.

A LOT of people were asking about Kevin, why he left and what lies in the future for us. I’m sure the fans were devastated, and it was indeed a hard decision to come by, but we all came to an understanding that he had more important things to attend to before the group. This wasn’t the end of the Backstreet Boys, nor did Kevin say that he was leaving for good and that was that. The curtain will draw to a close when we ALL mutually agree that this is the end of the road. The door will forever and always remain open to Kevin, we weren’t going to replace him. This journey started off with the Backstreet Boys, this journey will end with the Backstreet Boys. End of story.

“We’d like to thank you for your time and your questions, but it’s time to wrap things up.” Johnny announced, coming to our rescue.

I couldn’t wait to get home and into the arms of my loving wife. For some reason I just wasn’t me today, I feel completely exhausted and agitated, I don’t know why.

“Hey Rok,” Nick stopped me in my tracks, “Jay and I were gonna head back to the studio to review the tracks, you wanna come?”

“Nah,” I shook my head. “Maybe another time, I’m gonna head home to the wifey.”

“Aight then, check you later.” he said before he sprinted off towards AJ.

Howie came from behind and lightly grasped my shoulder. “What’s up Bri?”

“Huh?”

“You seem out of it man… you okay?”

I sighed, “Yeah… just been stressed, ya know? I just wanna get home to see my wife and kid… maybe that’ll take things off my mind for a while.”

Howie smiled and nodded, “Yup… family always brings us back home. Well, I’m gonna head on over to the studio as well, gotta make sure Nickolas and Alexander don’t go messing up the tracks.” we both chuckled, knowing that AJ and Nick would go and make changes without consulting anyone. “Call me if you need anything, alright?”

“Yeah man, see you later.”

“Babe, you look exhausted.” Leighanne said as Brian opened the door and walked into the house.

“Long day at work.” Brian sighed. “Long day.”

“Come sweetheart.” she was seated on the couch watching TV but had clicked it off as soon as Brian stepped into the house. She patted on the floor between her legs and he didn’t hesitate to situate himself below his wife.

He leaned back against her body, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath in. Leighanne kissed him on the forehead and began to play with his hair, her fingers dancing gracefully through his dirty golden locks. “Tell me all about it.” she whispered.

“I’d rather not.” he replied. “I just want to stay right here in your embrace… we’ll talk about it some other time.”

“Wanna take this to the bedroom?” she asked.

Brian chuckled, “Frisky aren’t we? I don’t think we should leave Baylee all alone, who knows what havoc we’ll be greeted with.”

“Don’t worry about that… he’s in his room sleeping. Plus, I’m not frisky, I was just thinking we’d take this to the bedroom so we can just relax… I’ll start up a warm bubble bath for you to soak your body in, we’ll lie in bed together in each other’s arms and just stare at each other for all I care. Whatever you want to do baby I’m all for it.”

Brian sighed again, as if really contemplating the choices over. All of a sudden he rose up off the ground and swept his wife into his arms, carrying her upstairs and towards the room. Surprised by his sudden action, she began to laugh at the way her husband was acting.

“Shh,” he whispered. “You’ll wake Baylee.”

He nudged the door open to their room and had placed her down upon the bed. They began to kiss passionately for a while when Leighanne finally stopped him. “Let me go get the bath running.”

“No, that can wait.” he whined, pulling her down on the bed again and snuggling up close to her. “Just stay here, we need a reason to get clean anyway. Lets get dirty.”

“Brian Thomas Littrell.” she laughed. “Where is my husband and what have you done with him?”

Just as they leaned in towards each other to kiss, they heard a loud crash that caused them to jump back.

“What the hell was that?” Brian silently asked.

They both got up from the bed and made their way out of the room, carefully looking over the banister to see what had caused the noise. As their eyes continued to roam they noticed that the window near their door was broken and there was shards of glass everywhere.

“Baylee.” Leighanne whispered as she began running down the stairs.

Brian followed suit, but he stopped at the shattered window, a brick with a letter attached to it capturing his attention. He picked up the brick and had dusted off the shards of glass, seeing “LITTRELL” written on the envelope in bold. He looked up at the window again and looked at the gaping hole the brick had created. He assumed that someone had just driven by and had thrown this brick at their window.

“BRIAN!!” Leighanne screamed.

Brian quickly turned towards his wife’s voice and ran over towards Baylee’s room to see why she was screaming. Once he got there he frantically looked around to see what the problem was, all he seen was Leighanne on the ground curled up by Baylee’s bed, clutching his blanket close to her. There was no one else in the room except for his wife and him, so why was she screaming? That was the problem though, there was NO ONE in the room except for him and Leighanne, Baylee was gone.

Brian turned around and began searching in the closet, hoping that maybe when he heard the loud crash he ran into his closet to hide.

“I looked in there already Brian.” she cried.

But Brian wouldn’t stop, he walked out of the room and began wailing his name, hoping that he would hear his son reply to him, but there was nothing but silence.

“Baylee!” he bellowed. “C’mon baby, answer me… it’s daddy.”

When he returned to Baylee’s room again, he seen Leighanne standing there, tears staining her cheeks. “It’s no use Brian… he’s gone.” she said as she literally broke down crying.

Brian quickly made his way over to her and caught her in his arms before she collapsed to the ground. They both sat on the ground for a while, Leighanne crying and screaming in Brian’s shoulder while he just sat there letting reality set in, his son was really gone. He remembered the brick that he was holding in his hand. He looked down at it and unwrapped the string that tied the envelope to the brick. He ripped the envelope open and out popped a folded note.

“Dear Mr. and Mrs. Brian Thomas Littrell,
In regards to the broken window, I am truly sorry for shattering it. I hope you guys can find it in your heart to forgive me.” ‘Broken window? He wants us to forgive him for a freaking broken window?’ Brian thought to himself. ‘What about my son?’ “In regards to your son, I’ll have you both know that he is in safe hands. We are very sorry for rudely interrupting your guys moment of intimacy, you guys may resume if you wish. I’ll be sure to contact you guys frequently to allow you guys sufficient amount of time to talk with your beloved son, feel free to contact me at 548-6949. In closing, I’ll leave you with the very words your son had said; ‘bye mommy and daddy!’
Sincerely, Paul”

Brian crumpled up the note in his hands. He let it fall from his hands and had rose from the ground, making his way over to the living room. Meanwhile, Leighanne remained on the floor and picked up the crumpled piece of paper Brian had left on the ground.

Brian returned and handed the cordless phone over to Leighanne. “Call 911 and give me the phone back when you’re done.”

“Did you know about this?” Leighanne questioned him.

“What?”

She got up from the ground and roughly shoved Brian away from her, throwing the crumpled piece of paper at him. “Who the fuck is Paul? What the hell are you doing with this letter Brian? Do you know who’s doing this?” she screamed.

“You think I’m apart of the reason why are son was kidnapped?” Brian fired back. “I can’t believe you would think that Leigh. That letter was attached to a brick that they threw at our window.” Leighanne continued to glare at him, as if accusing him for being the reason why Baylee was gone. He sighed, “Look, I need you to call 911 and then give me the phone when you’re done.”

Without saying another word, Leighanne dialed 911. Brian picked up the crumpled letter and began to read it again, why would someone leave their name and number after they committed a crime?

“They’re on their way.” Leighanne said as she handed him the phone.

Brian nodded and grabbed the phone. He opened the crumpled letter once more and looked for the number. Once he found it, he punched the digits into his phone. It began ringing, and with every second that passed by a sickening anticipation grew within him. Finally, someone answered the phone and he was greeted by nothing but silence.

“I knew you’d call.” a voice finally said after what seemed like forever.

“Where’s my son?” was all that Brian asked.

“He’s here with me… like I told you in safe hands. He says he misses you guys dearly, but I promised him things that took his mind off of you guys.”

“I swear to God, if you hurt him…”

“Hurt him? Who said anything about hurting the kid? You have got to be one sick bastard to ever hurt a child… like I told you before, he’s in safe hands, nothing is gonna happen to your kid.”

“Then why the hell are you doing this? Why did you take our son? What do you want, is it money or something? I’ll give you whatever the hell you want, just please give us our son back…”

“Brian, do you forgive me?”

He fell silent for a while. “What do you mean do I forgive you? You have my son you sick bastard!”

“I’m not talking about that… I mean, about the whole window situation. I’m truly sorry for breaking your window like that, I just didn’t want to leave you guys empty handed or anything. I felt that it was necessary of me to leave something behind for you guys, a name and number and such. It would’ve been pure torture for me to just enter your guys house, take something or in this case someone that belongs to you and leave you with not even a trace. Believe me Mr. Littrell, when the police arrive there and scope your house out, they will not find one single trace of evidence left behind. The only thing that would be out of place is the broken window, the open door and disenabled alarm system.” Brian had forgot that when the crash happened, their alarm system didn’t even go off to alert officials. “Other than that, everything is clean as crystal.”

“I’m asking you one more time, what is it you want?”

“Look, I’d love to stay and chat but I promised Baylee that I’d do something fun with him, and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do. Would you like to say something to your son before he goes?”

Brian remained silent as he heard Paul hand the phone over to his son. “Hello?”

Brian literally gasped. “Baylee?”

At the sound of her son’s name, Leighanne quickly jumped up and ran into the living room, putting it on speakerphone. “Baylee baby?” she cried. “Sweetie, this is mommy and daddy.”

“Hi mommy, hi daddy! I miss you guys, but Uncle Paul is gonna take me somewhere fun. When we get back I can tell you guys all about it, okay? I love you mommy and daddy.”

Leighanne began to cry even harder, “I love you too baby…”

“Baylee, listen to me…” Brian began but stopped when Paul’s voice came on the phone.

“Well, we’re gonna go now. I’ll be keeping in touch with you guys, and like I said don’t worry and stress over this too much… your son is fine and he will be for the time being. Until next time, toodles Littrells.” and with that the line went dead.”

Leighanne continued to cry as she pushed the speakerphone off. Brian clicked the phone off and had let it slip out of his hands, watching it as it fell to the floor. He looked up at his weeping wife and slowly made his way towards her. At first she backed away, but Brian opened his arms and had embraced her, and she couldn’t do anything but to fall into his arms and cry in his chest.

“Baby, look.” he whispered. “I can’t have you falling apart on me like this… I need you to be strong for me sweetheart… if not even for me, then for Baylee.”

“How can I be strong? This man has our son Brian… he has our baby.”

“I know Leigh, but I’m gonna get him back. Look, he’s took our son away please don’t allow him to take you away from me too… I need you baby… please?”

She fell silent for a while. After a long pause she finally looked up at him. “Brian?” she whispered, wiping away the tears that trickled down her face. “Get our baby back.”

Brian nodded, “I’m gonna do whatever it takes to get him back to us, I promise.”

“You think he got in touch with Kevin?” Howie asked as he pulled into Brian’s driveway, which was already covered with cop cars.

“Does that answer your question?” AJ asked as he pointed over towards Kevin who was walking back into the house.

Howie quickly jumped out of the car. “Hey Kev!”

Kevin turned around to see Howie, AJ and Nick approaching him. “Hey guys.”

“How’s he doing?” Nick questioned.

Kevin turned to glance in the house, “Not too good… Leigh’s a total wreck and Brian…he’s completely out of it.”

“Do they have any clue as to who did this or where Baylee’s at?” Howie asked this time.

“No,” Kevin sighed, shaking his head. “But the guy left a letter for them, and on it he left his name and number. Of course the cops did a thorough search on both the name and the number but came up with nothing. They even tried calling the number, but says it’s been disconnected. Brian said he had gotten through earlier and had even talked to the man and his son, but the number and name isn’t helping any.”

Nick walked away from them and walked straight into the house. “Brian?”

I turned around to the voice that said my name to find my best friend standing before me. He took slow steps towards me, as if scared to even come close. I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t, nothing would come out of my mouth. I just stared at him as he continued taking slow steps, but everything just broke when he opened his arms. Without thinking twice, I walked into his embrace, allowing myself to freely cry for the first time.

“It’s okay Bri.” I heard him whisper. “Everything’s gonna be okay buddy.” this time he choked, it was obvious he was fighting to hold in his emotions.

“I don’t know what to do Nick…” I told him. “I need to find my son, but I don’t know how I’m gonna do it…”

Nick remained silent, he was truly at a lost of words. “Whatever you decide to do, we’re behind you a hundred percent.”

The next day I sent Leighanne to stay with her mother, I felt that it would be better if she did. I did not want to seem as if I was pushing her away or anything, but I just couldn’t handle everything that was coming my way. I was determined to find our son, but how could I do that while dealing with my wife who was a complete mess?

The fellas decided to stay the night with me, to keep an eye on me or whatever. Howie, AJ, Nick and I were suppose to attend a radio interview today, but that was cancelled due to obvious reasons. I didn’t even bother to call Johnny, he called me instead and told me how very sorry he was and that I could take off as much time as I needed, he would deal with the press and fans.

I stayed up practically the whole night; visions of my son screaming for help plaguing my mind. But, when both Leighanne and I heard him on the phone, he sounded fine, as if he was really going to somewhere “fun” with a family uncle. That’s what bothered me the most, why would someone want to kidnap a child and treat them so kindly? You hear so many stories of kidnappers molesting and even killing their victims, but not this guy. Not Paul. That’s what really puzzled me, but at the same time I was very grateful that this wasn’t a case of molestation and murder, or as far as I know.

“Has anyone seen Brian?” I heard Kevin ask. I didn’t even say anything to let him know that I was here.

“Did you check his room?” that was Howie.

“Yeah, but he ain’t there.”

Things fell silent for a while, until I heard soft footsteps and a light knock on the door.

“Brian?” Kevin whispered, peering in through the cracked door.

There he found me, sitting on Baylee’s bed with his blanket grasped tightly in my hands. I heard him sigh as he walked further into the room, closing the door behind him. He sat down on the chair that was positioned across from me.

“Brian?” he repeated, trying to look me in the eyes, but I avoided him at any cause. “Brian, look at me please.”

When I did, he sighed again. I know he could see the redness in my eyes and the dark circles beneath them.

“I’m assuming you didn’t get any sleep?” he asked me.

I just shook my head. “Couldn’t.”

“Why are you doing this to yourself Bri? I know you want to find your son, hell we all do, but how can you expect to find him when you’re doing this to yourself? How do you expect to find him when you’re in this kind of condition?”

“I’m not doing anything to myself Kevin. I’m not gonna sleep until my son is found. How can you expect me to sleep when I know that he’s out there with some complete stranger?” I asked him. He said nothing in reply. “I shouldn’t have left him alone… he would still be here if I hadn’t left him alone and gone upstairs.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it Brian.” he firmly told me. “Stop blaming yourself for this, none of this is your fault, you hear me? NONE of it. You want to find your son, then stop tearing yourself apart like this. We will find him, and when we do he’s gonna want his daddy… and if you keep doing this to yourself, he’s gonna realize that you are no longer his father.”

I didn’t say anything to him, nor did I look up at him. What he was saying was the truth, but I just didn’t want to admit it.

“Look, why don’t you go and take a hot shower, okay? Hopefully that’ll calm your nerves and eventually put you to rest.”

I froze when he said that. The words Leighanne told me last night played through my head; I’ll start up a warm bubble bath for you to soak your body in… If only we hadn’t gone upstairs, Baylee would still be here with us. I can’t go through this again, what if something else happens?

“Brian!” Kevin exclaimed.

I snapped out of my trance and looked over at him. “Yes?”

“You were phasing out on me… c’mon, go and take a shower.”

I nodded and rose from the bed, walking over towards my room and straight into my bathroom. Once I closed and locked the door, I let my head fall back and hit it. I closed my eyes, but as soon as I did visions of Baylee and I flooded my mind. Visions of him and I singing “Climbing The Walls” at our last stop of the Never Gone tour.

Where do you think both you and Leighanne would be without your son?

I remember a fan asking me that question, and I had told her that I would never want to think about that. I remember telling her that we would be lost without Baylee, it’s funny how I stay true to my word. I never wanted to think about it because I was gonna make sure that nothing happened to him, nothing was suppose to happen anyway. Now, here I am without my son because I failed in making sure that nothing would happen to him.

“Don’t worry Baylee,” I whispered. “daddy’s coming soon.”

He stepped out of his bathroom and walked downstairs into the living room, where he found Howie cooking, AJ and Nick was sitting on the dining table eating the eggs Howie cooked, and Kevin was busy straightening up the kitchen.

“Anything?” Brian asked no one in particular.

They all looked up at him, shaking their head no. Sighing, he took a seat next to Nick who was finishing up his scrambled eggs.

“Here.” Kevin said as he placed down a plate of steamy scrambled eggs and bacon, with a glass of orange juice.

“I’m not hungry.” Brian muttered as he pushed the plate of food away.

“Look Brian, you gotta eat something.” Kevin argued. “You’re already not getting any sleep, don’t starve yourself now.”

“I’m not starving myself, I’m just not hungry right now.”

Before they could continue arguing, the phone began to ring. Brian immediately snapped up from where he was sitting and grabbed the phone. “Hello?”

“Did you have a nice shower Littrell?” the voice questioned.

“How do you... How did you…” Brian began to stutter.

“And what about the guys? They had a nice stay at your house? I’m sure they did because they are making themselves right at home why you suffer with insomnia and a eating disorder.”

“How the hell do you know this?”

“I have my sources Brian. Now tell me, why aren’t you sleeping and eating?”

“I find it hard to do anything when you have my son.”

“I see.” he mumbled. “Well, I called to let you know that I will be taking your son to the carnival, and I‘m sure if you ask those two gentlemen out of the five of you, they will be able to tell you where it‘s held.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just think of it this way, the carnival those two attended basically started off their career and friendship.” Brian automatically looked over at AJ and Howie. “Ahh, I see you understand now.”

“How the hell do you know what’s going on?” Brian snapped.

“Like I said Brian, I have my sources. Well, if I was you, I’d go on and ask those two how to get here. I’m not staying out here forever you know. Toodles Brian.” and with that, the line went dead.

Brian slammed the phone down on the counter.

“Who was that?” Nick asked him.

“Howie or AJ, I don’t care who gives me an answer but someone answer me right now, where the hell was the Latin carnival held at?”

“Orlando Florida.” AJ replied. “Why?”

“Okay,” Brian sighed. “I need you guys to stay here, I’m…”

“What do you mean you want us to stay here?” Kevin interjected.

“Look, I don’t have time to argue right now Kevin.”

“No one’s arguing with anybody, I just want to know why you want us to stay here.”

“I don’t have time to explain myself Kevin because that bastard has my son right now and I know where he’s at.” Brian exclaimed all in one breath.

Kevin remained standing there, arms crossed over his chest. “You are not going alone.”

“What the hell Kevin?” Brian cried. “You’re wasting my time, right now isn’t the time to tell me what I should and shouldn’t be doing.”

“Kevin’s right.” Howie said this time. “You’re not going at this alone… if you go, we all go. Simple as that.”

Brian continued to stare at them, unsure of what to say. He nodded and grabbed his car keys off the counter. “Okay, lets go.”

“I don’t think it was the smartest idea coming here with no security guards.” Howie muttered as they pulled into the parking lot of where the carnival was being held.

“I ain’t got no other choice… besides, ya’ll wanted to come along.” Brian replied as he turned off the car and placed his hat over his head. “Just pull your hat down and try not to look so conspicuous.”

They all did as Brian said and got out of the car, walking into the carnival.

“I think we should split up, we’re never gonna find someone at the rate we’re going.” Howie mentioned.

Kevin gave him a look, “Weren’t you the very one who said that you didn’t think it was a good idea for us to be here with no security guards and now you wanna split up?”

“Howie’s right.” Brian came to his defense. “If we continue searching like this we’ll never be able to find him. He already said he won’t be here all day. Lets just split up, we’ll meet back here if there’s nothing okay?”

They all nodded and parted ways, all except for Kevin.

“Kevin, can’t what you have to say wait till later?”

“It can, but I think it’s best if we stick together, we don’t even know what kind of man we’re dealing with here, and what if he…” Kevin paused in the middle of his sentence. He seen a tall man dragging a small blond boy by the arm, who was apparently throwing a tantrum and trying to escape the man.

Without thinking twice, Kevin dashed for the man and the boy, leaving Brian behind. Once he got close enough, he grabbed the man roughly by his shoulder and turned him around.

“What in the hell?” the man shouted as he felt someone grab him by the shoulder and whirl him around.

Kevin looked down at the young blond child, he looked nothing like Baylee.

“May I ask you what in the hell you think you’re doing?” the man asked Kevin, sizing him up.

“Look sir, I am sooo sorry.” Kevin tried to apologize. “I just thought you were someone I knew and I… I’m sorry.” he fished into his pockets and pulled out his wallet, giving the man a $100 dollar bill. “I hope you can forgive me, here’s for any troubles.” he took out a $50 dollar bill and handed it to the small kid, who was now wiping the tears in his eyes. “And here you go little fella, buy yourself something nice with that.”

The man just stared at Kevin in shock as both he and Brian walked away from them.

“What in the hell are you doing Kev? You can’t be doing that man, you’re gonna blow our cover!”

“What cover Brian?” Kevin snapped. “Our only cover is wearing these damn hats, I ain’t gonna blow nothing. I thought that kid was Baylee.”

Brian sighed, the kid did look like Baylee from behind. He wasn’t sure how he could remain so calm now knowing that his son was here with the man who took him away less than twenty four hours ago.

“Bri!” Howie called out, trying to make his way through the crowd of people to get to Kevin and Brian.

“Hey D., anything?”

Howie shook his head, “Nah man, there’s a lot of children around here that look just like Baylee. What does the guy even look like?”

Brian shrugged, “How should I know? I’ve never seen him before, all he did was give me a name and a number.”

“Where’s Jay and Nick?” Kevin asked Howie.

“I’m not sure,”

As Howie and Kevin continued to talk, Brian began scanning the area once more, he had to be here somewhere. Just as he turned to face Howie and Kevin again, a large man caught his attention. He was walking away from them and holding the hand of a blond child.

“When are you gonna take me to see mommy and daddy?” the boy asked the large man.

Brian’s eyes widened, that was the voice of his son, he knew that for a fact.

“Hopefully soon buddy.” the man replied.

Brian walked away from Kevin and Howie, who were still talking to each other and had failed to notice that Brian was now leaving them. He tried his best to fight his way through the crowd, but people just kept bumping into him, slowing him down. Suddenly he lost sight of the large man and his son, and he was left in the midst of people. Every where he turned he would see a large man with a child, as if they came out of nowhere to throw them off. Then, he heard their unmistakable voices.

“Lets go and give daddy a call shall we?”

“Okay!”

Brian turned and seen them walking away from the carnival into an alleyway.

“Baylee!” he screamed as he pushed his way through the people, running towards the alleyway. Just when he reached there, he saw no one.

“Baylee!” he continued to scream, praying that he would hear his son’s voice.

“Daddy?” he heard a small voice reply.

He turned towards where he heard the voice come from. “Bay?”

All of a sudden his phone began to go off, indicating that he had a text message. He took his phone out of his pocket and checked the message; it was a picture text from a number he didn’t recognize. When he opened the message, he gasped. It was a picture of his son smiling. All of a sudden his phone began to ring, he noticed the number that was calling him was the same number that sent the picture message.

“Where the hell is he?” Brian answered.

“There’s a picture of him, just took it of him a couple minutes ago, told him to smile for mommy and daddy. As I recall Mr. Littrell, I told you that I would be taking your son to the carnival and I told you where we were gonna be, not once in our conversation did I say that I would allow you to come and see your son, but being the nice man I am, I decided to let you see him, through a photo.”

“Stop playing fucking mind games with me.” Brian snapped.

“Temper, temper Brian… I, along with many of your fans were led to believe that you were a holy man, a man of faith and high morals. I’m not playing mind games with you, but you go on and believe what you want to believe.”

“Just please… let me see my son, let him go. I’ll do anything you want me to do, just please…”

“You know, you should never walk into an alleyway all alone, especially considering your status and all. I’ll be sure to have your son call you to check up on you, see if you’re okay.”

“What the hell do you mean?” Brian exclaimed, but there was nothing but silence, he had hung up.

Just as he turned around to walk out of the alleyway, he was greeted by a large man who dug his fist deep into the pits of his stomach. Brian found himself immediately hunched over, the pain taking over his body. Before he had time to recover, the man began to attack him, raining punches and kicks until Brian finally fell limp.

“Brian!” I heard a voice call in the distance.. “C’mon Brian…”

As the voice continued to coax me, I soon realized that it was Kevin who was encouraging me to do god knows what. I tried to open my eyes, but it was such a task. It felt as if someone had taken glue and had sealed my eyes shut, it was so heavy. Seconds later I was able to painfully pry my eyes open, only to be greeted by a harsh, beaming light and the faces of Kevin and Howie.

“The ambulance are on their way.” I heard Nick say as he crouched down by Kevin, looking me over.

Ambulance? Why the hell would they call the ambulance? And why the hell were they staring at me as if I was some… freak show? I tried to raise up off the ground, but I couldn’t move.

“Don’t move Brian.” Kevin advised me, I guess he could see my slight movements because I didn’t move much. “Just lie here and relax a little, the paramedics are on their way.”

“What happened?” I croaked, my throat was a bit dry and my voice was hoarse.

“We don’t know…” Howie sighed. “We were hoping you would be able to tell us. We searched the whole damn carnival when we realized that you went missing. AJ was the one who found you here in the alleyway unconscious.”

Unconscious? I licked my lips and tasted something bitter and dry. Blood. I licked my lips again and noticed that it was cracked, how did that ever happen? And that’s when it hit me.

“Baylee!”

Right when I got off the phone with Paul and turned to make my way back to the fellas, I was greeted by this… burly looking man who attacked me. From what Paul had last told me on the phone, there was no doubt in my mind that Paul had sent him to take care of me.

“Brian,” Kevin said, softly placing his hand upon my shoulder to prevent me from moving anywhere. “There was no one here when AJ found you and we didn’t come across anyone with Baylee.”

I soon regretted the sudden action of raising and screaming out Baylee’s name, the pain coursed through my body like you wouldn’t believe. Gosh damn, what did that man do to me? “No, you don’t understand… Paul took Baylee over here, he called me on the phone and everything, they were here…”

“But we’re telling you Bri… there’s no one here.”

I didn’t even notice that I began crying, I just felt so frustrated. “Kevin, he was right here… that man took Baylee into this alleyway. I was so close Kevin… I was right there, all I had to do was reach out and grab him, but I didn’t… I waited too long.”

“Brian, just please try to relax, you’re worrying us man. You can’t work yourself up like this, you’re already in bad condition.”

I looked up at them, I had forgotten that they had called the paramedics. “I can’t go to the hospital… we can’t be here, our cover will be blown.”

“Who cares Brian?” that was AJ who spoke this time. “None of us care about our cover at the moment, you were attacked for Christ sake.”

“And what are we suppose to say to the media AJ?” I fired back. “My attack will be all in the papers, and what are we suppose to say then? Look, lets just get back to my house and we’ll take care of everything from there… we can’t jeopardize ourselves like this…”

“Alright… lets go.”

My eyes widened. Did Kevin just agree with me upon something? All this time we were bickering and he’s finally agreeing to something I said?

“Kevin, are you hearing yourself?” AJ argued. “Look at your cousin, he’s injured and you guys are worried about blowing our cover and jeopardizing our careers?”

“I’m not worried about our careers, the last thing we need is the press getting up all in our business, all up in Brian’s business. He doesn’t need this right now… if you ask me, he can’t deal with this right now. So lets just take him back to his house and we’ll figure out something from there. Howie, go and bring Brian’s car around here.”

“Damn Howie!” Brian squealed as Howie continued to clean his open wounds with hydrogen peroxide.

Howie sighed and shook his head, “Cleaning off all this blood and dirt, it’s really revealing the damage underneath, and let me tell you it’s not pretty. You’re gonna have a hard time hiding that.”

Brian reclined back on the couch and had placed an ice bag on top of his head. “Holy cow, I feel like I’ve been hit by a Mac truck.”

“Rok, I think we should take you in. This guy could’ve caused you major damage, I mean, how are we suppose to know if he broke your ribs or not?”

Brian shrugged, “If I can still move and bend my body, I’m assuming nothing’s broken.”

“Yeah, but what if you have eternal bleeding or something? You don’t know.”

“Geez Nick, relax man. All I got is bruises and scrapes.” Brian winced when he felt a new wave of pain hit him. “And a sore body.”

“Are Nick and I the only ones in this house NOT being stubborn?” AJ asked no one in particular.

“Please Jay, you wrote the book on being stubborn.” Howie retorted.

“No,” AJ argued, “I wrote the book on being practical, there’s a big ass difference.”

Brian sighed as he took his ice bag off his head and readjusted it to another bruised area that was screaming to receive attention. “Can we all just shut up for a second? I’m getting a migraine!”

“You wouldn’t be having a migraine if you had only let us take you in.” Nick mumbled.

Brian shook his head and closed his eyes, there was no sense in fighting anyone right now.

“Okay Brian, what’s the plan?”

Just when he thought he would be able to get some sleep, in comes his cousin to ask him what the plan was. “What do you mean? How should I know?”

“Well, I argued in your behalf because you said that when we got back to the house we’ll do things from there.”

“I didn’t mean right away.” Brian whined.

“Well, we gotta think of something… I already told you we don’t know what kind of man we’re dealing with here, and that guy that did this to you just proved my point. I have a feeling that guy was just serving as a warning, who knows if you’ll be so lucky next time.”

“You call this lucky?” Nick snapped. “He got his ass beat down, and you fucking call this lucky? What in the hell is wrong with everyone?”

“Nick, would you cool it? The reason I say that is because Brian was in a vulnerable situation, that guy could’ve easily took out a gun and shoot him, and luckily that wasn’t the case. We just all need to be rational with what we do… have we forgotten that our status can only permit us to do so much.”

“So what are you suggesting we do?” AJ questioned.

Kevin fell silent. “I… I don’t know yet, but going out and doing whatever, especially by ourselves,” he looked at Brian when he said that. “isn’t going to help us with anything. Brian, whatever happens, you gotta be sure that you turn it over to the FBI.”

“No, screw that Kevin. I know how the FBI works, they take their sweet old time. It seems as if since it doesn’t pertain to them then they’re in no rush to crack this case. I already promised Leighanne that I would do whatever it takes to get Baylee back, and I meant it. This is between Paul and I… I don’t even know why I got you guys involved.”

“You didn’t involve us, we got involved because we wanted to Brian.” Howie replied. “We got involved because we’re brothers… it’s what we do, we’re obligated to help each other out.”

All of a sudden, the sound of a ringing phone filled the quiet and tensed air. Brian immediately went for his phone and picked it up, he heard nothing.

“Sorry,” AJ apologized. “It’s me.” he said as he walked off to answer his cell phone.

Brian sighed, trying to ease his racing heart. His body soon protested against his sudden actions, causing him to wince in pain yet again. Nick could only stare at him and shake his head, why wouldn’t people listen to him?

AJ walked back into the room, shoving his cell phone into his pocket. “That was Marcus, said Johnny called on an emergency meeting at Jive’s record building, he wants us all there now.”

“Great.” Brian muttered as he slowly pushed himself up off the couch. “Howie, could you grab me my sweater and jeans.” he grabbed his hat off of his side table and placed it on his head. “Jay, you mind me borrowing a pair of shades?”

AJ shook his head, “Nah dude, you can. But do you honestly think that’s gonna hide it from Johnny?”

Brian sighed, “It’s worth a shot.”

I tugged at the collar of my sweatshirt, it was starting to get a little muggy. Whose idea was it to hold a meeting in a room where the air conditioner wasn’t working? The five of us were seated at a long table, staring at an empty seat placed before us, we were waiting for Johnny to arrive. Behind us stood our individual body guards, shadowing us as if we came to see the president or something. My thoughts were broken when I heard the door open, we all turned to see Johnny walk in.

“Sorry I’m late,” he apologized. “had a little business to take care of.” he sat down in the empty chair, clasped his hands together and sighed. “Alright, lets just jump right into it. I called you all here today because of Brian’s situation.” he looked over at me when he said that and paused.

I tried to avoid his stare behind the shades but nothing worked, I could still feel it piercing me. “Is something wrong Brian?”

Everyone turned to stare at me, I can’t believe none of the guys were gonna come to my defense. “Um… no, why do you ask?”

“Well, I’m asking because I couldn’t help than to notice the attire you chose to wear to this meeting… it’s hot as hell out and the AC’s in here are down and you’re the only one decked out in long jeans and a sweatshirt… not to mention the hat and sunglasses.”

“He’s getting a cold.” AJ finally spoke up. I glanced over at him, relieving a sigh and silently thanking him, the only person to come to my rescue and try to divert the attention away from me. “You gotta understand Johnny, he’s going through a tough time here and he’s hardly getting any sleep or anything to eat. I’m sure you’d feel the same way if something was to happen to your daughter.”

All the attention was now diverted to Johnny, who continued to stare at me. Finally, he gave a small nod. “I probably would… listen, I’m no one to judge what you are going through right now Brian, but we can’t have you starving yourself and not sleeping… it’s not healthy.”

“Believe me, Kevin’s already given me the lecture.” I replied.

“Brian, take off your sunglasses.”

My heart stopped, he asked me to do what? “Look Johnny, the reason why he’s wearing it is because he has the dark circles under his eyes from a lack of sleep and the light isn‘t…” Howie tried to explain, but Johnny interjected.

“I understand that, and I would like to see for myself how bad this is getting.”

When I didn’t move to take it off, he leaned forward in his seat towards me. “Brian… you don’t know how serious this can get. Like I said, I am no one to judge what you are going through right now, but you’re not looking out for yourself and… well, someone’s gotta do it.”

“Yeah, and that someone is Kevin, Howie, AJ and Nick thank you very much.” I retorted.

“Brian, take off the sunglasses.” he repeated. “And that’s an order.”

The room had fallen eerily silent, not even a breath was heard. All eyes were on me, as if anticipating the moment where I’d take of the stupid shades. Hesitantly, I ripped the shades off, exposing my dark eyes to Johnny for the first time.

“What the hell is this?” Johnny asked no one in particular. “I was expecting to see dark circles, not a goddamn black and blue eye! What in the hell happened?” No one said a word, we all tried to avoid Johnny’s heated stare this time. “Someone better goddamn well answer me.” Still, no one said a word, and there was no way we could lie. “You can’t go around looking like this…”

“What in the hell do you mean I can’t go around looking like this?” I snapped. “What, my black and blue eye will ruin our image? Will my appearance ruin our careers? Better yet, will my appearance ruin YOUR career? Fuck you Johnny!” everyone stared at me at shock.

“That’s not what I meant Brian…” he tried to say, but I interjected him this time.

“Then what are you trying to say? Huh? Go on and say it Johnny, say how you really feel. All you fucking care about is YOUR image and the money. You don’t give a shit about us man!”

“I don’t give a shit about you? I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOU?!? That’s bullshit Brian, how in the hell can you stand there and say I don’t give a shit about you guys after all I’ve done for you. I put money out of my own goddamn wallet into your Backstreet Project and you say I don’t give a shit?”

“You see, that’s what it’s all about ultimately… money. And lets not even go there Johnny, because all the money you placed into us, you were gaining it right back because of us.”

“No Brian, I believed in you guys… I believed in you when no one else gave you the time of day to show the world what you guys could do. I practically gave my life to help you guys achieve your dream, I lived my life for the five of you.”

At this point, tears of frustration was running down my face, Johnny’s eyes were welled up. “No… we believed in ourselves when no one else did… including you.”

“So that’s it?” he asked me. “You’re gonna go out there and ruin it all for everyone because you’re only thinking of yourself.”

“I am not thinking of myself Johnny.” I replied. “I am thinking of my son.” I took my sweater off and heard them gasp when I revealed my bruises and scars to them. “Take a picture of this… maybe it’ll make you some money.” and with that I left the room.

“What in the hell was that all about?” Kevin exclaimed as he paced back and forth in front of his cousin.

Brian had left them and had driven back home, not wanting to stay for the rest of the meeting. He had other things on his mind, other things he could be doing than to be listening to Johnny tell him how he could remain marketable.

“You just told off our manager Brian, do you know that our fate lies in his hands?!”

“No, our fate lies in our own hands, he’s just there to reap off the benefits that come our way.” Brian corrected him. “But it seems like that’s all you’ve been thinking about lately too Kevin, our image, our career. Have you all forgotten that it’s MY son out there? Like I said, maybe it was best if I didn’t involve you guys, no wait, if I didn’t allow you guys to get involve, that way you guys can make time to save face.”

“Brian, are you listening to what you are saying? Everything that’s coming out of your mouth is ridiculous! You need to stop acting as if you’re the only one who lost something, we’re right there with you.”

“I don’t see you with a child Kevin! The day both you and Kristin conceive a child and this situation happens to you, then you come and talk to me. Until then, don’t you lecture me about how I should feel or act. This is my duty as a father, to do my all to protect my child, and you won’t understand that until you become a father yourself.”

“You think I don’t know how it feels? How you feel about everything?”

“No, you don’t understand…”

“WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!”

Both Kevin and Brian turned to a furious AJ. “Ever since we got here, all we’ve been doing is going at each other’s throats. What in the hell are we doing you guys? This ain’t suppose to be happening, especially during this time. Don’t you see what this guy’s doing to us, what you guys are allowing this man to do? He’s getting the best of us… we ain’t gonna have anything left to find Baylee. Enough is enough already… don’t let this guy think he’s got the best of us, cause he hasn’t. We just all need to understand where everyone is coming from and we need to work together instead of working against each other. Lets get it together guys.”

All of a sudden, AJ’s phone began to ring. He fished into his pockets and pulled out his cell phone. “Hello?”

“Nice speech Alex, couldn’t have put it better myself.”

“Who the hell is this?”

Brian immediately looked up when he heard AJ ask the person who called him who it was.

“I’d like to consider myself a personal friend of Brian’s, but the rate things are going with him, I think he begs to differ.” AJ looked over at Brian, he knew who it was.

“Where the hell is Baylee?”

“Why do you guys insist on asking the same question when I call? I’ll have you know that my answer is not going to change, he’s here with me. Now, I know you must be thinking why I called you and how I got your number in the first place, who cares about that? I made no mistake in calling you because I have a proposition for you Mr. McLean. Will you accept?”

“Keep talking.”

“Great. Well, as you know, as you ALL know, I have Brian’s son here with me. I’ll let you in on some… secrets that’ll bring you and ONLY you one step closer to retrieving Baylee. You’ll be considered the hometown hero, Brian and Leighanne will love you forever, and who knows… maybe you’ll take Nick’s place in the Frick and Frack relationship.”

“There’s nothing more I’d like to do than to get him back for Brian and then kick your ass you piece of shit.”

“These vulgar words aren’t necessary my boy. I’ve made you an offer, are you going to accept it or refuse it? It’d be a shame to know that you would let Baylee and Brian down.”

“No, believe me I’m taking up on it because once I find you, I’m gonna kill you. Why would I wanna pass up an offer like that?”

“Here’s the catch though. This proposition exists only between you and I. You tell anyone, it’s all over for you Alex, and I literally mean it, it’s all over for you. So I hope you’re thinking up a good lie to tell the guys about what we talked about once you get off the phone. I‘ll be watching you, and you‘ll be hearing from me a lot. Good day Alexander.”

“Yeah, fuck you.” AJ replied as he hung up the phone and shoved it in his pocket.

“What did he say?” Brian asked him.

AJ shook his head, “Nothing, just playing his fucking games.”

“Alex.” Brian said softer this time. “You wouldn’t lie to me right? You swear to me he didn’t say anything?”

AJ stared at him, his heart wrenching. He wish he could tell him the truth, but he couldn’t. It was in his best interest, as well as Baylee’s, not to say anything. “Yeah man.”

I couldn’t sleep. I found myself tossing and turning in bed, which was only causing me more pain. I couldn’t find a comfortable position to lay, my bruises were tender to the touch. My headache hasn’t gone away yet, I wonder if that’s abnormal.

I rose from my bed, forget sleeping already. My body was growing stiff and agitated from just lying there doing absolutely nothing. I got out of bed and began to quietly make my way downstairs, the stairs creaking with every step I took. Once I finally reached the bottom, I seen Howie sprawled out on the couch and Kevin sitting up right in the chair. AJ and Nick must’ve taken the guest room. The TV was still on, showing an episode of wildlife on the Discovery channel. Do I even need to say who decided to watch that channel? I grabbed the remote off the arm of the chair Kevin was sleeping on and clicked the TV off.

When everything fell silent, I heard silent whispers coming from the kitchen. Unsure of who it was, I slowly crept my way towards the dining room, peering into the kitchen only to see AJ and Nick sitting there, eating a bowl of ice cream.

“What are you guys still doing up?” I asked them.

Both AJ and Nick turned to look at me. “Hey Rok.” AJ greeted. “Want to join us?”

I stared at them and then looked down at their bowls of ice cream, Baylee’s favorite. “Sure.”

As I sat down across from them, AJ got up to fix me a bowl of ice cream. Nick remained silent as he began to stir the frozen dessert in his bowl. He finally looked up at me, looking me over.

“How ya feeling?” he asked me.

I shrugged, “A little better.” I lied.

Nick nodded and continued to eat his ice cream. AJ returned and had placed a bowl in front of me, I looked down and seen three scoops of French vanilla ice cream. I suddenly didn’t want it anymore.

“Brian, are you still depriving yourself of sleep?” AJ questioned.

I looked up at him, “I’m not depriving myself of sleep, I just can’t get any. I try, do I at least get any credit for that?”

“I guess. But you need to get yourself some sleep man, you’re starting to look like a walking zombie. And the bruises don’t help either.”

“Spare me AJ.” I sighed. “You’re starting to sound like Johnny.”

“Johnny wasn’t telling you this because he wanted you to remain marketable looking, nor am I. I’m concerned about your health, your well-being Brian, hell we all are! You’re just not listening to us, and I can understand why but you also gotta understand where we’re coming from. While you’re looking out for your son, we’re looking out for both him and you.”

I fell and remained silent. Since when had AJ turned out to be the mature and sensible one? He was the one that interjected when an argument broke out, not Howie. He was the one trying to talk some sense, not Kevin. “You’re right.” I finally said. “I’m sorry, it’s just…” It’s just what Brian? There’s no excuse for you to be acting this way, you can’t go on and blame it on your son. “I need to pull it together… for Baylee.”

AJ smiled, “There ya go. For Baylee.”

I grabbed my spoon and scooped up my ice cream, shoving it into my mouth. As I swallowed down the frozen dessert, I cringed as I felt it’s coldness slowly make it’s way down my throat. All of a sudden I felt this unbearable pain explode in my head, brain freeze.

“I can’t eat this.” I said as I placed my spoon back down into my bowl. “Wrong thing to be eating when you have a headache.”

“Do you want me to go and grab you some aspirins?” Nick asked me.

Yes! “Nah… hopefully it’ll put me to sleep or something, gonna try and sleep this damn headache off.” I replied as I rose out of my seat. “Well, thank you guys for this… late night dessert and conversation. You guys try and get some sleep okay?”

“Are you seriously telling us this?” AJ chuckled. “You’re the one that’s not getting any sleep, not us dude!”

“Well, you know what I mean. Goodnight fellas.”

“Look, if anything I really want you to keep an eye on him, at all costs. Take your eye off of him for a second, he’ll be on the streets looking for Baylee himself. We can’t have him getting attacked again.”

“Speaking of which, how’s he feeling?”

“I’m not to sure. His bruises look pretty bad, he refused to let us take him to the hospital, I don’t blame him. It’s just… we don’t know what kind of injury he suffered. Hopefully it’s just bruises.”

“Since when had Brian become the stubborn one?”

“His son is missing. Everything changes when it comes to a loved one, especially a child.”

“Which makes it all the more hard for us to guard him Kevin. He’s a father who lost his son, he’s willing to do whatever he can to get him back.”

“Look, I’ll take care of him on that level, I just need you guys to keep an eye on him, can you guys do that for me?”

“Yeah… we’ll do that.”

Kevin quietly walked into the room and made his way over to my bed. I felt his gently tap me on my shoulder, which only slightly aroused me from my sleep.

“Bri.” he whispered. “C’mon Rok, get up.”

I rose my head a bit from my pillow, “What is it?”

“Don’t you think it’s time to get up?”

I rose up a little further and yawned. “What time is it?” I asked him as I began to search for my alarm clock.

“It’s a quarter to three.”

I quickly shot up and reached over to my nightstand which held my cell phone. I ripped the charging cord out of it and checked to see if I had missed any calls, nothing. “Did anyone call my house phone?”

Kevin shook his head, “Nope.”

I sighed and relaxed, a bit. I couldn’t believe that I was asleep for this long, but at least they couldn’t complain about me not getting enough sleep anymore. I got out of bed and began to walk towards my bathroom, I suddenly stopped when I seen a commotion going on outside through my window.

“What’s going on?” I asked Kevin as I walked closer to my window to see who those people were.

“Security guards.”

“For what?”

“To keep an eye on you.” when he realized that I wasn’t going to interject, he continued explaining. “We can’t have what happened to you happen again.”

“You have got to be shitting me.” I exclaimed. “They’re not helping me Kevin, they’re only getting in my way of getting my son.”

“Brian, how many times do I have to tell you that we don’t exactly know what kind of man we’re dealing with here. He already sent one of his men on you, what if he sends someone to shoot you the next time? I know you’re looking out for Baylee, but you also gotta look out for yourself too. Why can’t you be smart and rational about this?”

“I know what kind of man he is Kevin. He’s a reasonable man, if I play by his rules everything will be okay, I’ll get my son back.”

“Do you honestly believe that? How can you put your trust and faith into the very man who took your son away from you Brian. You chose to believe that man over me, your own goddamn cousin?”

“That’s just it, he has my son so I gotta play by his fucking rules.”

“Listen to yourself Brian… you’re talking as if this is some kind of game that you actually enjoy playing.”

“There’s nothing else I can do.” I finally broke down, I was tired of always bickering with him about this whole situation. He will never understand how it feels to be in my position right now until he becomes a father and this happens to him. “Baylee’s life is now in his hands, and my actions help determine if I’ll ever see him again or not. All I have to do is what he asks of me, I can roll with the punches he throws, it’s nothing big.”

“What do you mean it’s nothing big? You’re putting your life at stake!!”

“What life?” I finally screamed at him. “I have no life Kevin... my life had been taken away the very day Paul took my son away from me… why won’t you let me get it back? My life is my son…”

Tears were streaming down my face. Kevin just stood there, finally and truly at a lost of words. As I continued to cry, I felt a pair of firm but gentle arms embrace me, bringing me up and pulling me into a tight hug.

“Kevin…” I whispered, “Baylee is my life... please, help me to get him back.”

“Bri,” he paused for a moment. Oh please don’t tell me he’s going to continue to argue his point, what more does he want me to say or do? “I’m gonna help you… we’re gonna get him back.”

Our “Kodak” moment was cut short when my cell phone began to ring. I quickly tore myself away from our hug and grabbed my cell phone off of my nightstand. I looked down to see who was calling, it was Paul’s old number.

“What the fuck do you want?” I spat into the phone.

“Daddy?”

Hearing that voice, hearing his voice, caused my mouth to fall agape and I let out a strangled gasp. “Baylee?”

“Hi daddy!”

“Baylee, are you okay? Where are you?”

“I’m fine daddy, I’m just riding in the car with Uncle Paul.”

I cringed when I heard him say that. “Where are you guys on your way to?”

“We were right outside, but I don’t know where we’re going now.”

My breathing became harder. They were right outside of this goddamn house and I could’ve done something about it, but I didn’t because I was too busy fighting with Kevin. My son was right there, right outside and I didn’t do anything.

“Daddy? Daddy are you still there?”

“Yes Bay, daddy’s still here.”

“Is mommy home? I want to talk to her.”

“No baby, mommy’s not home right now. She went to grandma’s house, but I’ll be sure to have her call you later, okay? Now, can you do me a favor and hand Uncle Paul the phone?” I seethed his name, but I also cringed when I said it. I couldn’t believe that I was referring to that man as “Uncle Paul”.

“Is this going to turn out to be a problem Mr. Littrell?”

“Is what going to turn out to be a problem?”

“Well, your son already told you that we were right outside your house a couple of minutes ago and I couldn’t help than to notice the small party you had going on for your entourage of security guards. I surely do hope it was a going away party for them. I really don’t want to have to deal with them, and I would hate to have to do something to your son to show you how serious this situation is.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t do anything to hurt my son; you told me you wouldn’t because you found that act sadistic.”

“Now, I know good and well I didn’t use the term “sadistic”, but I do remember saying that I wouldn’t hurt your son because it’s wrong. Just because I said that Brian, doesn’t mean I won’t have someone else do it instead. I said I could never do it, not once did I say that I could never have someone else do it.”

“You sick bastard, I swear to God if you lay one finger on him…”

“What are you gonna do Brian? Enlighten me! You tend to forget who I have here with me and who’s in control. Maybe something desperate needs to happen to make you realize that it is I who is in control, not you.”

I was beyond furious, but he was right. Right now wasn’t the time for me to act like a sarcastic bad ass. “Look, I… I’ll get rid of the security guards, can you just let me see my son?”

“When the hell has this become a negotiating situation? I’ll tell you what, since you have been such a good little boy these past few days regardless of what’s been going on and your able to ‘roll with my punches’,” my eyes widened when he said that. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, how does that sound?”

“Look, I don’t want to know no fucking secret, I just want to see my son and I swear to you, I’ll keep playing your fucking games until I have him back.”

“You think this is a game Littrell?”

“Why not? You’re doing a great fucking job with playing with my emotions.”

He laughed, “I like the way you think… come to think of it, I never thought of it as a game myself, but now that you were able to… clarify what I have been doing to you for these past couple days, it suit’s the situation so well. Bravo Brian. But I promise you, this secret I will tell you is better than you seeing your son. Wouldn’t you rather take the secret? C’mon Brian… make it less harsh on yourself, you know if you see your son it’s only going to wear you more down mentally.”

As weird as this may sound, he had a point. I think I would lose my cools if I was to see him, I’d bend every fucking rule this man had set out, hell, I’d probably get both me and Baylee killed. “Fine, whatever.”

“I knew you’d see things my way. Well, here’s the little secret… one of your brothers have kept you in the dark, but through it they want to show you the shape of their heart.” he continued to laugh at his corny phrase.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Well, that’s my secret. Read between the lines Brian, I know you’re a smart fellow. I’ll repeat it once more for you, one of your brothers are keeping you in the dark, but through it they want to show you the shape of their heart. Think about it Brian. And by the way, how are you feeling? I’m really sorry my man had jumped you like that, they don’t like you too much. Don’t think I sent him on you because I didn’t, I just have no control over how they feel. I have the power to tell them what to do, but I have no control over what they do. You can’t say I didn’t try to warn you.”

“Yeah, what a great warning that was.” I scoffed.

“Again, I am sorry for the troubles he has caused you, but like you said you can ‘roll with the punches’ I throw.” there he goes repeating what I had told Kevin earlier. “But I’m expecting that you will take care of our little situation now. I’ll be back to check. Goodbye Brian.” and with that, the line went dead.

Once he hung up, I shoved my cell phone and began to look around the room.

“What did he say?” Kevin asked me.

At first I didn’t reply, I was busy looking for the bug that was planted inside my house. “I need you to clear the security team, now.”

“Why? I already told you that they’re hear to protect you.”

“Look, if we don’t clear them out now something bad is gonna happen to Baylee. I want them off of my premises now.”

“Don’t you think you should tell the FBI all this? I mean, he’s threatening to do something to Baylee if we don’t clear the security team out.”

“The FBI already knows what’s going on. What more can they do now? Just because I tell them that the guy is threatening to hurt my son doesn’t mean they’re going to find them any faster. Just do me this one favor without any arguing please.”

Without another word said, Kevin left the room, hopefully to chase our security team and personal bodyguards away. Meanwhile, I continued to scan my room for the bug, but nothing seemed out of order. I even checked the places where they would put it, I’ve seen it in movies millions of times, but there was nothing. I don’t understand how this man is able to do this.

“Alright.” Kevin said as he walked back into the room. “They’re leaving now as we speak.”

“Are they seriously leaving Kevin or are you just telling me that? I can’t have you playing around with Baylee’s life.”

“No I’m not just telling you that, I told them the reason why they had to leave and they left.”

I nodded my head, still unsure if I should believe him or not. Why would I not believe my cousin anyway?

Kevin remained silent as he just watched me search my room. “Bri… what are you looking for?”

I signaled for him to remain quiet. “I’m looking for my wallet.”

“Up there?” Kevin replied, looking up at the ceiling as well.

Again, I signaled him to be quiet. “I know I brought it upstairs last night.”

I looked back at Kevin, I could tell there was so much questions he wanted to ask me. I took out my cell phone and began to type “the house is bugged” on the cell phone. I handed it over to him and placed my finger to my mouth, letting him know to keep quiet and just play along. He read the text I typed and nodded, handing my cell phone back to me.

“Look, if it’s not up here then I’m sure it’s downstairs. You can ask Howie, Jay and Nick if they saw it.”

That reminded me of what Paul said. “Kevin… do you think… never mind.” it was ridiculous of me to ask that question. I mean, what if Paul was only starting trouble, trying to set them up?

“Do I think what?”

Aww hell, I decided to ask him anyway. “Do you think that… Howie, AJ or Nick would be involve in something like this?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… do you think one of them could be behind all this, or at least know what’s going on, know more than I know?”

“Are you seriously asking me this?” he asked me. I nodded. “Do you honestly think that one of the three of them would be behind the kidnapping of your son? For Christ sakes Brian, we’ve known each other for years, how can you even think that?”

“Okay, not behind it, but do you think that one of them would know something about this that I don’t?”

“Brian, we’re all in the dark just as you are. To tell you the truth, I wish one of us knew something so we could be at least closer to getting Baylee back, don’t you agree?”

“True, but I wouldn’t agree with the fact of them keeping it from me.”

“Why would you think that anyway?”

“Paul told me something on the phone. He said that one of my brothers are keeping me in the dark, but they want to show me the shape of their heart.”

“Brian, you know he’s just messing with you. He’s trying to get you to believe something so that you’ll turn on us, please tell me you see that.”

After a moment of silence, I finally shrugged, “You’re right.” I lied. “He’s probably playing his minds games once again…”

Kevin nodded. “That’s all he’s doing, now go get ready and then meet us downstairs, we’re going out to lunch.”

I gave him an awkward look, “Going out to lunch? Don’t you think…”

“Yes,” Kevin interrupted. “We’re going to lunch. AJ and Nick are hungry and you don’t have much food in this house.” he said with a wink. “We’ll go eat lunch somewhere and then we’ll go and do some grocery shopping, okay?” another wink.

I got what he meant. “Okay man, I’ll be down there in a second.”

“Hello boys and welcome to Chili’s. I’m Sophia and I’ll be your waitress this afternoon. Here’s your glasses of water and I’ll be back to take your guys order in a few.”

“Thank you.” they all mumbled as they opened up their menus.

Every once in a while, Brian would glance up from his menu and look around, looking around at the many people that crowded this place, seeing if anyone looked odd. Once he made sure that the coast was clear, he placed his menu down.

“Look, we gotta watch what we say in my house, it’s bugged.”

“Are you serious?” Howie asked. “And what do we watch to say?”

“Plans. We do not speak of any plans we may have to get Baylee back, okay? That man is listening to our every word, and I’m not too sure if he’s watching our every step too, but I know he has someone who’s outside somewhere that just watches us. We just gotta be cautious with what we do.”

“So we have to go out every time we talk?” Nick questioned.

“No, we just gotta watch what we say verbally to each other in the house, other than that we’re gonna have to find another way to communicate our information to each other.” Kevin explained.

“But, what if we have to say something important and we…” AJ tried to ask, but was cut off when he cell phone began to ring. He pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and looked down at the number that was calling him. “Excuse me fellas, I gotta take this.” he said as he rose from his seat and answered his phone. “Hi mom.”

AJ began to walk away from their booth. He turned around to make sure that he was out of hearing distance. “What the fuck do you want?” AJ seethed.

Paul began to laugh, “You and Brian are beginning to answer the phone the same way. How are you doing Alexander?”

“Each day I’m anticipating the moment where I’ll finally kick your ass, and how are you doing fuck face?”

“I’m exquisite, thank you for asking. Look, I have something that I would like to ask you to do today, your first mission.”

“Are you kidding me? I’m somewhere with the guys, I can’t do anything right now.”

“I can clearly see that. Why don’t you go and take a walk outside.”

“For what?”

“Fine, have it your way. Just go by the door and look outside, you’ll see a black SUV parked outside.”

AJ pulled the phone away from his ear and walked towards the door, looking out and finding a black SUV parked out there. “And?”

“I want you to go to that black SUV.”

“For what? I can’t just leave this place, the guys will be suspicious.”

“You know, out of the four of you I thought I could count on you to do the job because you’re so good at telling lies, but I’m beginning to have second thoughts. Do you want to help Brian get Baylee back or not?”

AJ turned to look at the guys who were still talking to each other. “Shit.” he muttered. “Who’s in that car?”

“You’ll see once you get there.”

AJ turned once more to check if they were looking at him. Once he realized that they weren’t paying any attention to him, he hung up his cell phone and walked outside, making his way to the parked SUV. A man suddenly popped out of the SUV and rushed AJ.

“What the fuck!” AJ screamed as the man harshly grabbed him and began to pat him down. “What the fuck are you doing man? Get the fuck off of me!”

But the man didn’t listen. He continued to roughly pat AJ down and had grabbed him by the arm, opening the back door of the SUV and tossing him in as if he was nothing but a rag doll. AJ was going to turn to open the door and get out, but the three men that occupied the car told him otherwise.

“Hello Alexander.” a large man said.

AJ stared long and hard at the large man. He was a burly Caucasian man who sparsely had gray hair on his head. He looked in his late 40’s, early 50’s and he had a professional looking demeanor, it almost looked as if he was a family man that would not be capable to kidnapping a child.

“You’re Paul?” AJ asked in disbelief.

Paul simply nodded and smiled, “In the flesh.”

“You son of a bitch!” AJ growled as he tried to go at Paul, but the other two men who were in the car had grabbed AJ by the arms and had yanked him back, situating him in between the two of them.

“Temper, temper… I must say AJ, you are truly a rebel without a cause, but I like that about you.”

“Where the hell is Baylee?”

“Obviously not in the car, I couldn’t have him watch what we’re going to do.”

AJ looked over at the two large men that sat at both of his sides. “What the fuck do you mean you didn’t want him to watch what you guys are gonna do?”

“Will you stop asking so much questions so I can explain myself? Now, I have a job for you to complete. These two men that are seated next to you is your new personal bodyguard. These two men will watch every move that you make. Like I said before, this proposition only exists between you and I and I told you that you could not tell anyone about what we have going on, well, these two men are going to make sure that you do exactly that. Whenever I have a job for you to complete, they will be there to watch you and make sure you get it done, they’ll also be there when you fail to follow my instructions, and let me tell you the consequences aren’t so pretty.”

AJ felt himself tense up when the man on his right side slapped his large hand down on his shoulder. The man began to squeeze his shoulder, causing him to wince.

“So, here’s what I want you to do. As soon as you get out of this car, I want you to go back into that restaurant and tell the guys that you cannot stay, I’m sure you can think up a good lie to get yourself out. Once you leave the place, it is your job to go to the nearest bank and withdraw… hmm, how much do you say fellas? $1,000 for starters?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You want me to withdraw $1,000? Since when did this situation become a fucking ransom?”

“Since when did anyone tell you that this situation wasn’t a ransom? I’ve burdened Mr. Littrell enough don’t you think? I thought I’d be nice and have someone else pay so he won’t have to worry about it. The kid’s bail is set at $10 million.”

AJ’s eyes widened. Money was no object, and when it comes to his friend’s son, his brother’s son, he didn’t have to think twice. “Look, I’ll give you your $10 million today and you’ll give me Baylee in exchange right?”

“Now, where’s the fun in that? I don’t want you to pay me all the money today. I will tell you how much to withdraw and when to withdraw it until it finally equals $10 million. Now, I know this will be no problem for you since you’re a Backstreet Boy and all, you guys are made of money.” Paul reached out and had grabbed AJ hard by the back of the neck, yanking him from his seat and pulling him towards him. “I want my money by tonight, no questions asked and no negotiations set. If you don’t follow my rules and get me my $1,000 by tonight…” his hand moved from the back of AJ’s neck and snaked around the front. His fingers curled tightly around his throat and he squeezed hard, causing AJ to whimper and wheeze. “I promise to God you’ll no longer have that pretty voice to make you money, let alone speak another word. Got that?”

AJ simply nodded, the lack of oxygen causing him to become incoherent and unable to speak. “What did you say?” Paul spat.

He released his grip and AJ began to cough. “I said yes…” he wheezed. “I’ll have your money by tonight.”

Paul smiled and nodded, “Good… that’s what I like to hear.” he opened his car door. “Now, excuse yourself please.”

AJ quickly recovered and jumped out of the SUV. Once he did the car started up and left the parking lot. AJ just stood there, gingerly touching his throbbing throat. He was no longer sure if he would be able to do this. The money wasn’t the problem, it was the fact of not being able to tell Brian anything when he deserves to know everything and anything. But he was doing this for Baylee, and Baylee’s life, as well as his, depended on him and him alone.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Hey AJ, everything okay?” Howie asked his friend when he saw him walking towards their table again, noticing that his face was flushed

“Nah um… something came up you guys, and I gotta head outta here. I’ll catch you guys at home though.”

“Did something happen? Your mom’s okay right?” Nick questioned this time.

“Yeah, she’s fine. She said to tell you guys all hi by the way. But it’s other family business I gotta take care of real quick, call me if anything okay?” he hoped no one else would ask him anymore questions, he was finding it very hard to lie to the faces of his brothers. And he really hoped that none of them would call him, he just decided to say that to make his lie sound believable.

Once he realized that no one was going to ask anymore questions, he took it upon himself to quickly leave the restaurant. “Okay fellas, I’ll see you guys later.” and with that he quickly left, not even turning to look back.

How bad he wanted to tell them what he was doing, what Paul was making him do. How bad he wanted to tell Brian how close he is to obtaining Baylee for him. How bad he wanted to tell someone, anyone how he felt and what he was going through, but there was no one, he couldn’t tell a soul.