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Chapter Fifty Seven - January 22

It had never felt so good to be home. Unfortunately, I had one very important thing that I needed to do and it couldn't be done in Tampa.

I needed to go to L.A. to have a little chat with a certain 'someone.'

"Nick, what makes me think you're not going to L.A. on business?" Liv asked as I zipped up my duffel bag. I don't know why I had even bothered to unpack. Well, maybe I do. All my clothes had been pretty rank.

"Liv, business is my midde name," I explained. She snorted.

"We're not talking about Howie, here," she teased. I smiled.

"It's just a quick overnight trip. But, I am going to miss you."

"Well, we're going to miss you too," Liv said softly. I paused in my packing and headed over to her. She fell back against the mattress and kicked a leg out. I grabbed her foot.

"You don't play fair," she argued. I ran my fingers along the soft fleshy part of her underfoot. She let out a sound that was a cross between blow horn and hyena.

"Nick, you're going to wake the kids!" she gasped. I did it again.

"If you're gonna make noise, I can think of a better thing to do," I suggested. She tugged her foot back. With a smile, she shook her head.

"Uh-uh. You're the one that decided to take the red-eye out of here."

She had a point. I finished packing and spent several well-spent minutes kissing her against the doorframe of our room. My thoughts went right to those door jamb cuffs from Kentucky. I had no idea where she hid them...

"Nick," Liv whispered against my lips. "You're flight."

They would just have to wait for another time.

"Right, right."

I tiptoed into Brooke and Noah's room and gave them a soft kiss. Then I headed downstairs. Liv was right behind me.

Angel was sitting on the couch watching A Walk to Remember. She had a bowl of popcorn on her stomach and she was craning her neck around it, crying. She paused it and looked over at me when I set down my duffel and grabbed my keys.

"Where are you going? You just got back!" she said. I ran a hand through my hair. Ugh, telltale sign of a liar.

"I have a little business in L.A., so I'm just headed out there for the day. I'll be back late tomorrow night or early morning the next day."

That seemed to satisfy Angel. She grabbed a Kleenex off the coffee table.

"Be safe!"

I bit the inside of my cheek. It hurt, but it kept me from saying too much.

"I will!"

Liv's arms wrapped around my neck and she gave me one more kiss. She let go of me reluctantly.

"Nick, don't do anything stupid," she whispered. I glanced over at Angel and then back at her.

"I won't," I said.

There was nothing stupid about going to talk to the guy that knocked up my sister. We were just going to have a little chat.

That was all.

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I had tracked Matt down like a bloodhound. He was sitting across from me, albeit reluctantly, at this pizza joint. Even though it was the middle of the afternoon, the place was dark. Low-hung red lamps were the only source of light and I don't think anyone had bothered to change the bulbs in the forty years the place had been here. A couple bikers sat at the bar and a game of pool was taking place in a little side room.

"I needed to talk to you. Why didn't you answer my calls?"

"What can I get for you guys?" a waitress asked as she walked past.

"Rum and coke," Matt said.

"Diet Coke," I said. I saw him roll his eyes.

"Why didn't you answer my calls?" I repeated.

"Listen, Nick, there's nothing to talk about. I don't know why you flew all the way out here--"

I laughed. It wasn't a normal 'haha I'm Nick Carter' laugh. It was the beginnings of a 'I'm going to punch your face in' laugh.

"Angel's pregnant."

Matt grabbed a dried breadstick from the basket on the table and bit into it. Dried crumbs fell everywhere.

"Yeah?"

"Well, what are you going to do about it?"

Matt gave me a cocky smile. The waitress returned with our drinks. He took a deep, greedy sip out of his small glass. I didn't touch mine.

"Nick, how do I put this gently? Angel's...like a used bike. Everyone's had a ride on her. There's no way that kid's mine."

I felt kind of like a red version of the Hulk at that moment. My fist smacked into the table. A little bit of my Diet Coke sloshed out of the top.

"Angel is a good girl. When are you going to grow up and stop acting like you're five years old?"

Matt just laughed. He took another sip and then swizzled the drink with his breadstick.

"I never thought I'd see the day when Nick Carter got all 'family man,' on me," he said. He held up the two quotation fingers when he said 'family man.'

"Honestly, that might be what you want, but it's not what I want," he continued.

"Well, you should have thought about that before you took my sister to bed," I snapped. "She lost her modeling contract and she's living with me."

He tried to put on a sympathetic face, but he failed.

"Gee, Nick, I do feel bad. But, like I said, there's no way that kid's mine. You know models. They hop from one bed to the next."

I leaned forward. I felt a pathetic amount of heat from the dim bulb on the top of my head.

"So let's talk hypogenically. If Angel gets a DNA test and you are the father, what are you going to do?"

Matt removed the breadstick and took another swig of his drink.

"First off, it's hypothetically. Secondly, I'm not going to dick you around. I don't want anything to do with Angel. She's not my type of girl."

"So you'll just have a kid walking around this Earth and you don't even care?"

Matt laughed. "I probably have ten kids walking this Earth by now. It doesn't bother me. The way I look at it is that it's the woman's job to make sure it doesn't happen. If it does, then tough cookies for her."

I snapped. For one thing, his attitude was driving me crazy. For another, all I could think about was what type of random disease Angel had caught from this scuzz-bucket. I stood up and grabbed the front of his shirt.

"Woah, man. Take it easy," he said.

"No, I'm not going to take it easy," I said. He was hovering with his ass inches above the chair. I moved away from the table and pulled him with me.

Not surprisingly, I had caught the attention of the bikers. They had swiveled around and were watching us like hawks.

"Whatcha fighting about?" the biker yelled out.

"He knocked up my sister!" I called back. Matt opened his mouth to defend himself, but instead he just provided a perfect aiming point. My fist met his mouth and I watched with satisfaction as the blood began to pour out of his lip.

Of course, a punch can turn some people into Ancient warriors. Matt was one of those people. Once he recovered from the blow, he lunged at me and we went crashing into an empty table. I felt the wood splinter along my back as Matt tried to get enough leverage to return a punch. I managed to flip him to the side and get another hit in. I heard a crunch that I could only hope was his nose. He let out a moan. I pressed my hand against the wall to stand up.

That was a dumb move on my part. Even though his face was in agony, his legs were still in working order. He contacted hard to my groin.

Little stars danced in front of my eyes. I hadn't eaten, but I wanted to vomit. The pain was worse than anything I had felt in my entire life. This wasn't just me and the guys play fighting. This was a kick to end all kicks. The doctor was probably going to have to neuter me. I fell back down, clutching my junk, and praying to die.

In a weird twist of events, Matt kicking me in the 'no' zone was enough for the biker brethren to side with me. I don't know all the details, but the waitress who got me an icepack told me that he was taken into the pool room where he was ever so 'kindly' introduced to the pool balls. Then he was escorted outside and given a very un-friendly send off.

If I had been in better shape, I would have waited for the bikers to return. As it were, I gave the waitress a large tip for damages and a little extra for a free round on me the next time the bikers stopped in.

Then I went straight to the hospital.

I had heard that guys could die if they got kicked hard enough and I figured that I was in that category. Luckily, I was told that I was going to live even though I probably didn't want to have too much 'excitement' for a few days.

The way I was feeling, I didn't think I was going to have 'excitement' for a few years.

I ended up staying overnight at the hotel even though my business was done. I didn't want to go home limping like an injured dog.

After all, I still had my pride.

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"DADDY HO! DADDY HO!"

Brooke was standing in the open doorway hopping up and down as I yanked my bag out of the trunk the next morning. I laughed.

"Daddy's home!" I said. I was hoping some day she would remember that 'm-e' at the end of 'ho.'

I leaned down to pick her up and about screamed when her leg accidentally hit me. At the moment I didn't think it would take more than a strong breeze to send me through the roof.

Brooke's arms wrapped around my neck and I got a kiss. It made the whole thing worth it.

Matt had no idea what he was missing.

"How was your business?" Liv asked. I looked up. She was holding Noah in her arms and smiling with that look that told me she knew what I had been up to the whole time.

"Frustrating," I replied. Liv looked back and then shut the front door behind her. Whatever she wanted to say, she didn't want Angel to overhear.

"Did you kill him?" she whispered. I shook my head. "Not quite. But I think a bunch of bikers might have come close."

Liv startd to laugh, then stopped.

"Wait, what?"

I gave her the abbreviated, two minute version of my meeting with Matt at the pizza place. When I got to the part about getting kicked in the junk, her eyes widened.

"Are you okay?"

I gave her a crooked little smile. "Let's just say that the O-K Corral is closed for a week or two."

Liv rolled her eyes. "I don't care about that. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm just wounded," I said. All of a sudden I was hoping to score sympathy points. Liv was a great sympathizer. Or so I thought.

"I'd kiss it and make it all better, but I don't think that would help," Liv said with a sultry smile. She turned and opened the door. I closed my eyes and groaned.

She was right. That image didn't make it better.

It just might have made it worse.