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I shouldn’t have opened the envelope. What had I been thinking? My fingers were shaking so badly that I could barely hold on to the paper.

“They were here.” AJ had hauled himself to his feet and was pacing anxiously around the yard. “They’ve found our hiding place. We’re sitting ducks!”

I stared down at the image in my hands and struggled to hold back the tears. Why was this happening to us? We had just figured out how to be happy. The picture had clearly been taken by someone in the crowd during the first leg of the In a World Like This tour. In the picture, AJ and I had our arms slung across each other’s shoulders; our eyes trained on Brian as he joked around with a girl in the audience. We all looked so excited to be on stage, so thrilled to be back together and doing what we loved. The thought that we might never be on stage again was enough to push me over the edge.

“I don’t think – I don’t think that I can do this.” The tears were sliding down my cheeks as I struggled to get the words out. I watched as the thick drops dripped off of my chin and landed on the glossy surface of the picture in my hands.

“What can’t you do?” Brian shuffled closer to me on the lawn and pulled the picture out of my still shaking hands. He placed the paper face down on the ground and looped his arm over my hunched shoulders.

“All of it.” I dropped my face onto Brian’s shoulder and allowed him to hold on to me like I was a little boy. “I can’t run, I can’t hide, and I can’t fight.”

“You have to.” Brian’s voice oozed determination. “We don’t have a choice.”

“They’re going to find us. They already have!” I sobbed. The depression was beginning to set in. “What’s the point of putting off the inevitable?”

“We don’t know what’s going to happen.” Brian sounded slightly less sure of himself. “You have Lauren to think about.”

“She’ll find someone else.” I was completely overcome with self-pity. “She’ll move on to someone better than me.”

Brian wrapped his other arm around me, pulling me closer. He tightened his grip, his fingers digging into my back. I was sobbing shamelessly now; the tears running down my face as I finally allowed myself to digest the severity of the situation. It had seemed almost like a game at first. The implications hadn’t seemed real. I had secretly been enjoying the fact that the five of us had been spending time together, that there hadn’t been any wives or kids around to make things complicated. Now that the reality had hit me, it had hit me hard. I was going to die. We were all going to die.

“Nick, you don’t have a choice.” Brian repeated his earlier statement. “We have to do this together.”

I couldn’t even bring myself to respond. Instead, I returned Brian’s embrace and squeezed my eyes shut. He smelled the way that he always did, like Old Spice. It was a scent that I would forever associate with him, a scent that consistently reminded me of my early teenage years when the two of us had roomed together on the road. I felt like a big, blubbering baby and the embarrassment warmed my face as the tears continued to fall. I was a grown man. I was almost someone’s husband. I had to pull myself together.

“Nick …” AJ had once again taken a seat on the lawn. “… Brian’s right.”

Cigarette smoke began to intermix with the scent of Old Spice and I lifted my head off of Brian’s shoulder. AJ was sitting across from the two of us, blowing smoke into the air and staring at me in concern. I slowly withdrew myself from Brian’s grip and leaned back on my hands, stretching my legs out in front of me. The heat from the sun was already beginning to dry my tears.

“You didn’t really mean it, did you?” Brian looked anxious as he addressed me. “You know that you can do this. You know that you have to fight.”

“I don’t know.” I dropped my eyes to the grass and began plucking the blades out one-by-one with my fingers. “It may be easier to just give up; to let it happen.”

“What do you mean?” AJ demanded. “How is giving up easier?”

“It will just draw things out. If we keep running and hiding and fighting, we’ll prolong our suffering.” I paused and twirled a blade of grass between my fingers. “If it’s going to be over, I just want it to be over.”

“We haven’t even had to fight yet.” AJ argued. “If one of us chooses to give up, it will be over for all of us. Like Brian said, we have to do this together.”

I let the blade of grass fall to the ground and redirected my attention towards AJ. He was inhaling sharply on his cigarette and waiting for me to respond. It was easy to see that he was scared. It was also easy to see that he didn’t want to give up, that he didn’t want to leave his little girl behind.

The pressure was building behind my eyes; I could feel a headache coming on. I knew that it was all or nothing. I knew that I would be killing my friends if I chose not to run and hide and fight back.

“There you are!” Tony burst through the backdoor and into the backyard, causing us all to jump and AJ to choke mid-exhale. “What are you three doing? I didn’t even see you come back.”

“You didn’t see us running for our lives?” Brian shot back. “You didn’t see the car that was following us?”

Tony looked at the three of us in turn, a smile pulling at his mouth. “What car did you think was following you?”

“The dark grey one.” I snapped. “The one that was driving real slow.”

The smile on Tony’s face grew. “The one with the elderly couple inside?”

“What?” My anger immediately dissipated, and I could feel my face warming in embarrassment for the second time in the past ten minutes. “What elderly couple?”

“I’m talking about the elderly couple in the grey Toyota who were following the garbage truck down the street.” Tony smirked. “They stopped to ask me for directions while I was crossing the street to come over here. Apparently, they’re looking for their son’s new house.”

I turned away from Tony and glanced back and forth between Brian and AJ. They both looked positively mortified. AJ was directing all of his attention to the remnants of his cigarette, and Brian had resumed my task of plucking single blades of grass out of the lawn.

My face was on fire; I couldn’t believe that the three of us had overreacted in such an outrageous fashion. We must have looked like complete fools sprinting down the street and diving into the backyard. This whole situation was getting the better of all of us. We were acting on impulse instead of thinking things through; a course of action that was sure to get us all killed.

“Did you think that someone was after you?” Tony was struggling to control his laughter. “Is that why you’re camped out on the lawn?”

“Someone IS after us!” I snatched the photograph off of the lawn and pushed myself to my feet. “This was taped to the back door.” I stomped across the deck and thrust the print into Tony’s stupid, smirking face. “I thought that you were supposed to be watching the house.”

The grin left Tony’s face as he turned the paper over in his hands. “You found this here?”

“I just told you that it was taped to the door.” I could feel myself becoming agitated. Didn’t this man listen?

“This doesn’t follow the M.O.” Tony was talking to himself now; mumbling almost incoherently under his breath. “I don’t understand …”

“What’s not to understand?” I demanded. “The psycho who is trying to kill us was here and you didn’t see him!”

Tony lifted his eyes from the picture and stared daggers into my face. “They’ve always gone through the police. All of the other pictures have been emailed to the station. Can’t you see what’s happening? Their behaviour is escalating; they’re becoming more brazen.”

“So, what does that mean for us?” AJ had gotten to his feet and had joined me on the deck. He folded his arms across his chest and stared at Tony expectantly. “Are we just supposed to sit here and wait for the creeper to come back?”

“I need to call this in.” Tony pulled his phone out of his pocket and began scrolling hurriedly through his contact list. It was as if he hadn’t even heard AJ’s demand. “I don’t understand how I didn’t see them …”

“What about Kevin and Howie?” Brian stepped up beside me in order to direct his own question at Tony. “They’ve been gone for almost three hours.”

“They’re in town.” Tony dismissed Brian’s concern with a wave of his hand as he brought his phone to his ear. “Joey’s with them.”

“They should have been back by now.” Brian insisted. “Have you spoken to Joey?”

Tony was quickly becoming exasperated. His eyes were practically in the back of his head as he began a rapid conversation with whoever had answered the phone. After a few, clipped, one-word grunts, he disconnected the call and turned to Brian. “What do you want me to do? Detective Eaton is on his way over.”

“I want you to call Joey and see if Kevin and Howie are okay.” Brian mimicked AJ’s pose; crossing his arms over his chest. “I want you to do your job.”

“Fine.” Tony sighed and once again began scrolling through his contact list. He pressed his thick finger against the screen and raised the phone to his ear. “I’m calling him. Are you happy?”

I caught Brian’s attention and rolled my eyes. This guy sure was a piece of work. I couldn’t help but wonder if the police would let us request some new bodyguards. Maybe they would even allow us to bring in a few members of our own security team.

“What is it?” AJ’s voice interrupted my private exchange with Brian. “What does that look mean?”

I flicked my eyes back to Tony. He had lowered the phone from his face, and he was staring at the screen with a look that was impossible to identify. It took him almost half a minute to pull his eyes away from the screen and to address the three of us.

“Joey isn’t picking up.”