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Chapter Twenty – June 6

-- Olivia --

I woke up the next morning feeling as if I had been run over by a cement truck. The only time I had felt worse was when Aaron had laced my drink with roofies. I moaned and winced at the bright light that flooded our room.

The night before was hazy. The last thing I remembered was coming off the karaoke stage. I had drunk more than I ever had in my entire life. Somehow it was easy to keep downing liquor in Rochelle’s company.

“Good morning wild child.”

I winced as I turned my head towards the doorway. Nick was already full dressed, peering in at me with a little smirk on his face.

“Oh my god,” I moaned, pressing my palms against my temples.

“Want some aspirin?”

“Yes,” I moaned.

I heard the sink in the bathroom turn on. A moment later, Nick handed me a glass and an aspirin.

“Did you have fun last night?”

I felt myself blush. “I…don’t know. Yes?”

“Do you know how you got home?”

“Not really.”

“AJ and I scoured downtown Tampa to find you two.”

“AJ was here?”

“Yeah, Rochelle and AJ actually stayed in the guest room last night. I haven’t seen them yet.” Nick grinned. “But I don’t think they’re still sleeping.”

I realized I was wearing one of Nick’s t-shirts; a gray one that said Hershey’s. I looked over at him.

“You puked on that cute little shirt you were wearing. Then you tried to molest me and then you passed out,” he explained. “I put you in that shirt and got you in bed.”

“I’m never drinking again,” I said with a sigh. I went to lean back; an intense pain shot across my back. My skin felt like fire.

“Oh!” I cried out, my hand flying to my back. Nick’s grin widened.

“I’m going to guess you don’t remember that part of the night either,” he said.

“What? What part? What did I do?”

His eyes danced. “You got inked.”

“I what?”

Even though my head felt like it was about to crack open, I stood up and made my way to the bathroom. Grabbing my hand mirror, I turned around and lifted my shirt. I gasped.

Centered on my lower back just above my butt was a red heart with Nick’s name written in white cursive. Black scrollwork looped off of it going in either direction.

“Oh my god. I got a tattoo!” I cried out.

I have an intense fear of needles. Hunter used to tell me that tattoos on women were the ugliest thing in the world. It was the only thing him and my mom agreed on. Because of my fear, I assured both of them that I would never get a tattoo. And now here I was after a crazy drunken night. Inked.

The first thought that went through my head was whether my wedding dress would cover the tattoo. After a quick calculation, I assured myself it wouldn’t show. My skin was red and raw; I couldn’t even imagine the pain that came from getting such an intricate and large design.

I looked up to see Nick hovering in the bathroom door. His hands were braced on either side of the frame. He was smiling; I was pretty sure the look of horror was still on my face. I glanced into the hand mirror; I was right.

“My mom’s going to kill me,” I said. Nick laughed.

“She doesn’t like tattoos?”

“Not on her daughter!”

“Well can I voice my opinion?”

I glanced back over at him. His smile grew.

“I think it’s incredibly hot.”

I looked at it through the hand mirror again and took a deep breath. I adored Nick’s tattoos but it just seemed so weird to me. I didn’t remember even walking into a tattoo parlor let alone lying there with my ass hanging out while some guy went to work.

“Well it could be worse,” I said.

“Yeah, you could have had Brian’s name tattooed on you.”

I looked over at Nick, my nose wrinkled. He laughed and walked into the bathroom. He reached around me and opened the medicine cabinet.

“Lean over the sink,” he instructed. I looked at him in surprise; a thousand dirty thoughts ran through my mind. He clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“I’m going to put some ointment on so the burning feels better,” he explained with a smile.

Blushing I turned around and lifted the shirt. A second later I jumped as his fingers applied cold cream to the area. The rapid change from burning fire to cool felt amazing. I let out a soft moan. When he pulled his hand away I turned around and kissed him.

“Thank you. That feels much better.”

“Good.”

I noticed something in his eyes that I hadn’t before. He seemed…distracted.

“What’s wrong?”

He sighed.

“We need to talk.”

“Did I do something else stupid last night?”

Nick shook his head. “No. It’s about Hunter.”

My eyes widened which only hurt my head more. My fingers wrapped around the end of the sink.

“What about him?”

“I bumped into him last night.”

“Where?”

“In one of the clubs that we went to looking for you. He was asking people if they had seen you.”

I studied Nick from the top of his head to his toes; he didn’t seem to have a bruise on him.

“What happened when you saw him?”

Nick sat on the edge of the tub, resting his elbows on his knees.

“He mentioned Aaron.”

“What?”

“I threatened to kill Hunter if he came near you or Brooke and he said that he could see where my brother gets it. I didn’t get a chance to ask him what he meant. He got lost in the crowd.”

“So, what does this mean?”

Nick took a deep breath and looked up at me. “This means that I’m calling the police.”

-------------------------------------------------

Two hours later we had just said goodbye to AJ and Rochelle when an officer pulled up to the house. Nick showed him into the living room. The first thing Nick did was text Angel for a copy of the photos. Once she wrote back that they were successfully emailed, the officer brought them up on the laptop. They were even grainer on a bigger screen.

“Your sister didn’t approach him?” the officer questioned.

“No. She didn’t realize until afterwards when she was reviewing the pictures.”

“The last time you saw your brother was in Cozumel, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any reason to believe that he is still alive? Has he tried to contact you?”

“No.”

“As for Hunter Ryans…you have a restraining order against him?”

“Yes.”

“Has he made any threats towards you or your family?”

Nick seemed to skip over the part where he told Hunter he would kill him. “Before he disappeared in the crowd he made a motion as if slitting my throat.”

My eyes widened. Nick had skipped over that part when he was telling me about his little “chat.”

The officer leaned back, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Your brother’s body was never found, right?”

“Right.”

The officer sighed. “You’ve got to understand that the possibility that your brother could have jumped off a lighthouse, survived, and ended up two countries away is a little hard to believe. It’s also hard to believe that a guy from Wisconsin would somehow get in cahoots with him.”

“What are you trying to say?” Nick asked, a hard tone creeping into his voice.

“I’m saying that I will file this report through our precinct and follow up with you at a later date.”

“That’s it?”

“If you see Mr. Ryans or Mr. Carter anywhere around your property, don’t hesitate to call us. If they contact you in any way let us know.”

Nick and the officer stood up at the same time. The officer closed his laptop and held out his hand. Nick shook it, but I could tell from the muscle ticking in his jaw that he wasn’t satisfied.

After Nick had shown the officer out he returned to the living room. He punched the back of the couch then smashed his face into the cushion. He looked like an ostrich.

“I feel like I’m in a fucking episode of CSI,” he said, his voice muffled from the cushion.

I walked over and placed my hand on his back.

“I’m sorry Nick,” I said quietly. “This is all my fault.”

He looked up in surprise. “Your fault?”

“If it wasn’t for me Hunter wouldn’t be bothering the crap out of you. And you’ve got to admit, all this crap with Aaron started in Las Vegas.”

Nick shook his head. “No, crap with Aaron started years ago. And it’s really not Hunter I’m worried about. It’s my dumbass brother.”

I wanted to remind him that he was the one that had lost it at his “dumbass” brother’s funeral six months ago, but I thought better of it.

“So what’s our plan?” I said.

“Our plan? My plan is to keep you and Brooklyn safe. I’m not leaving the two of you out of my sight.”

“How is that going to be possible?” I said. “We have wedding plans to finish and you’re doing preliminary meetings for the new album. Plus, if people see you holed out here like a hermit, that’s going to bring more attention to the situation. We have security all around this house and people that can go with us where we need to go.”

Nick looked doubtful, but I could also tell he knew he didn’t have much choice.

“I don’t like not having control,” he admitted. Tears sprang to his eyes.

“And if anything happens to you or Brooke I won’t be able to live with myself.”