Kevin struggled to get to his feet. He was at the point where he wanted to saw his arms off just to be free of the handcuffs. He could no longer feel his arms or the majority of his upper torso, and he was sick and tired of being useless. He, along with Howie and Brian, had watched the whole terrible ordeal involving Nick and AJ unfold in real-time via the iPad screen. He had heard the desperation in AJ’s voice and seen the terror in Nick’s face. He had also seen the drugs being slipped into the bottle of vodka right before AJ drank the whole thing. He had seen the sobs racking Nick’s body as the knife had cut through his skin. He had seen absolutely everything, and he hadn’t been able to do a single, damn thing about any of it. Even now, all he was able to do was stand by and watch as Nick and AJ were returned to the room. The inability to take control of the situation was slowly doing him in, and he didn’t know how much longer he was going to be able to keep it together.
“Help AJ first!” Kevin barked at Brian and Howie as they scurried forward. He knew that he sounded like a drill sergeant, but he couldn’t stop himself. He needed to do something.
“Dear God, please let him be alive. Please let him be alive.” Dutifully following his cousin’s instructions, Brian prayed quietly to himself as he knelt down beside AJ’s lifeless body.
Brian placed his face close to AJ’s nose and tilted his head to get a clear view of the younger man’s chest. After what seemed like an eternity, AJ’s chest rose and fell in rapid succession; he was alive. “He’s breathing! He’s alive!” Brian’s announcement was shrill; a strange mixture of intense panic and relief.
“Thank God.” Howie made the sign of the cross over his chest and raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Let’s get him off of the floor.”
Brian nodded wordlessly and quickly positioned himself behind AJ’s head. He hooked both of his arms under AJ’s armpits and waited for Howie to secure his hands around AJ’s legs. Brian dared a quick glance at Nick while he waited for Howie to move into position and immediately wished that he hadn’t. The look on Nick’s face was so sad and guilt-ridden that it made him want to cry.
“Ready?” Howie’s question drew Brian’s attention back to the task at hand.
“Yeah.” Brian nodded his agreement. He got slowly to his feet; adjusting AJ’s weight in his arms as he and Howie carefully lifted him off of the floor and laid him back down on the nearest cot.
“Now what?” Howie looked to Brian for guidance as he repositioned AJ’s hands at his sides. All he wanted was for AJ to open his eyes; for him to give them some indication that he was going to be okay. “Should we, like, prop him up?”
“Try wetting one of those washcloths and putting some cold water on his face.” Kevin suggested. “Maybe the shock of the cold will help to bring him back around.”
“They drugged the shit out of him, cuz.” Brian shook his head at Kevin as Howie grabbed one of the washcloths off of the floor and moved towards the tiny sink. “I doubt that a little water is gonna make a difference.”
“I don’t see you offering up a useful suggestion.” Kevin challenged. “At least I’m trying.”
“Here.” Howie returned from the sink and handed Brian the wet washcloth. “Why don’t you take this to Nick?” Howie picked up the second washcloth from the floor and shot the Kentucky born cousins a warning look. “You two need to cool it. We can’t start fighting.”
“Fine.” Brian took the cloth from Howie’s hands and brushed past Kevin without so much as a second glance. Howie was right; the five of them couldn’t afford to start fighting. Still, he was in no mood to deal with his older cousin at that particular moment.
“AJ’s okay?” Nick drew his eyes away from the floor as Brian sank down next to him on the cold cement. “He – he’s not ...?”
“He’s breathing.” Brian fumbled with the wet square of fabric in his hands. He could tell by the wounded look on Nick’s face that the blonde was blaming himself for what had happened to AJ. “You’re still bleeding.”
Nick shrugged. “I’m okay.” He could feel the tears beginning to re-build in the corners of his eyes as Brian began to gently dab at the blood that was still oozing from his temple. “I should have been paying more attention. I should have noticed that those assholes had put drugs in the vodka.”
“Nick ...” Brian couldn’t quite decide what he wanted to say. Nick always did this; he always held himself responsible for things that weren’t his fault. “... you – you had no way of knowing. Even if you had managed to notice what was happening, you wouldn’t have been able to do anything to help AJ anyway.” Brian winced as Nick suddenly sucked in his breath and jerked his head away from his touch. “Sorry.”
“Is it really bad?” Nick let out his breath and tried to force himself to relax as Brian once again began to dab at the wound on the side of his face. “How deep is it?”
“It’s pretty deep, but I don’t think that you’re gonna need stitches or anything.” Brian gingerly wiped away the last streak of blood from Nick’s face and peered intently at the cut on his temple. He was pretty sure that the newness of the wound was making it look worse than it really was, but the sight of the angry, jagged cut still brought tears to his eyes. “You might have a scar though.”
Nick shrugged. “I don’t think the fans will mind. I hear some of them even have a preference for guys who can rock a good scar.”
Brian snorted with laughter as he stared back at Nick’s lopsided grin. This was the Nick that he knew; the Nick from his past who had been his biggest supporter, the Nick that he had somehow managed to lose sight of over the course of the past decade. Brian’s laughter suddenly caught in his throat as he watched a new trickle of blood seep out of the fresh cut on Nick’s face; he could have lost him.
The reality of their situation was finally starting to sink in, and the growing realization was making Brian’s heart beat erratically in his chest. These men needed them alive, but they definitely weren’t afraid to hurt them. Once their captors had had enough; once they had made enough money, Brian knew that they wouldn’t think twice about killing them. Their abductors may have disguised their faces for their ‘show’, but they hadn’t bothered to hide their identities when the cameras weren’t running. These men had a definite plan, and it clearly didn’t involve the five of them making it out of his room alive.
“It’s okay, Bri, I’m still here.” Nick forced a small laugh as he watched the expression on Brian’s face change. There had been a time when he could have easily read Brian’s mind based on a simple expression, but he was struggling now; trying desperately to figure out why Brian suddenly looked so sad. “It’s just a stupid cut.”
Brian swallowed hard and forced a short laugh of his own. It was obvious that Nick had yet to make the connection; that he was still hoping against all hope that the five of them weren’t going to die within the confines of these four walls. Not knowing what else to do, Brian raised the washcloth to Nick’s face and quickly dapped away the few fresh drops of blood. “Stop smiling; you’re making yourself bleed.”
“Are you worried about Bay, about Leighanne?” Nick could feel his fake smile starting to waver as he allowed Brian to clean his face once again. For the past ten years, Nick hadn’t properly given Brian’s concerns a second thought, but now he was desperate to know what was going on in the older man’s head. “I wonder what the girls are doing. Do you think they’ve seen the website?” Nick’s mind suddenly jumped to an image of his pregnant wife. His stomach flipped. “Can stress cause a woman to go into early labour?”
~****~
“Are you sure that we can’t get you a glass of water?” Nate watched as the overly pregnant brunette lowered herself onto the couch. Her face was flushed and she was definitely having trouble catching her breath, but Nate wasn’t quite sure if that was the result of her pregnancy or if her shortness of breath was due to the fact that she had been screaming at him for the past five minutes. “Do you need a minute?”
“What I need is for you to find my husband!” Lauren placed her hands against her swollen stomach and glared at the two detectives sitting across from her. She gestured wildly at the laptop that was open on the coffee table; at the real-time video of Nick and Brian huddled together on the ground. “He’s right there on the fucking Internet! Go and find him!”
“Lauren, honey, you need to breathe.” Kristin dropped down next to Lauren on the couch and patted her lightly on the arm. Her friend’s ragged breaths were starting to alarm her. “You’re going to go into labour if you don’t calm down.”
“How am I supposed to calm down when Nick has been captured by some lunatic who thinks it’s okay to drag a knife across his face?!” Lauren dissolved into tears and sagged against Kristin’s shoulder. She was well aware of the fact that her over-active hormones weren’t helping the situation, but she had long since lost all control of her thoughts. “I’m going to be a single mother! I’m going to be an ugly, fat, widow with a baby!”
“Okay, first of all, you’re not ugly or fat.” Rochelle leaned forward from her position in one of the two armchairs that were stationed next to the couch and shoved a bottle of water into Lauren’s shaking hands. “Second, you’re not going to be a widow because Nick is not going to die.” She leaned back against the paisley printed cushion of the chair, folded her arms across her chest, and looked pointedly at the detectives. “Right?”
“Right.” Julie hastily jumped in. “Nobody is going to die.”
“You can’t be sure of that.” Lauren wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand before chugging almost half of the bottle of water. “And I’m totally fat; everyone says so.”
“If, by ‘everyone’, you mean the Internet trolls who like to run their mouths on your Instagram posts, then you can direct their attention to me so that I can tell them to shove their comments up their ...” Leighanne cast a sideways glance at Baylee before she finished. “... butts.”
“Sure, mom.” Baylee rolled his eyes. “You tell those haters to shove their comments up their butts. That will really make things better.”
“Baylee, I really don’t need any attitude from you at the moment.” Leighanne let out a long sigh in an attempt to keep from lashing out at her son. Her nerves were shot. “I can always put you on a plane back to Georgia to stay with your ...”
“I’m not going home!” Baylee exploded. He sat forward on the couch and glared at this mother who was sitting next to Rochelle in the other armchair. “Dad has been fucking kidnapped! If you think that I’m getting on a plane and going home to a babysitter while you stay here to help figure out where he is then you’re all kinds of bat shit crazy! I’m not a little kid, mom! I deserve to be here too!”
“Watch your language!” Leighanne snapped. She closed her eyes briefly to compose herself. “If you can’t behave yourself, then you will be sent home. The other ladies agreed that you were old enough to be a part of this discussion, but right now you’re not demonstrating to me, or to anyone in this room, that you’re mature enough to handle what’s happening with your father.”
“That’s because nobody can tell us what is happening with dad!” Baylee flung himself backwards on the couch and turned towards Leigh who was sitting next to him. “Can you please tell my mom that she’s being unfair?”
Leigh smiled softly despite her own internal worries. The older Baylee got, the more he reminded her of Brian. The young teenager may have had a good ol’ southern boy exterior, but he was a fighter on the inside; fiercely protective of the ones that he cared about the most. “I’ll back you up if stop dropping f-bombs while your mother is in the room.”
“He does bring up a good point.” Rochelle interjected. She was still looking expectantly at the detectives. “How is it possible that the NYPD hasn’t uncovered any new information? It’s been ages since you called me to let me know that my husband had been kidnapped by a psychopath. In that time, the five of us somehow all managed to find flights into a city that is in the process of digging out of a massive snow storm, Nick has had his face slashed, and AJ has been forced to drink himself back into alcoholism. How can you sit there and tell me that there has been enough time for all of us to endure irreversible suffering, but not enough time for the police to determine the location of a video feed that’s being broadcasted live over the fucking In-ter-net?!”
Julie cringed inwardly at the blonde woman’s words. She had no answer. Well, she had no answer that would make the situation any better. She had plenty of responses that would make the situation worse.
The NYPD’s top-rated ‘hackers’ were working around the clock to try and determine the origin of the video feed; to pinpoint an IP address that would lead them to the location of the Backstreet Boys. So far, they had come up empty handed. Whoever was in charge of the video and the NetPhantom Twitter account was highly skilled; apparently even more highly skilled than the elite, hand-picked members of the NYPD’s cyber crimes unit.
“Ladies, you have to give us a little more time to ...” Nate cut himself off mid-sentence. He let out a strangled grunt as his eyes picked up rapid movement on the laptop screen. It was happening again.
“What? What are you ...” Kristin, too, cut herself off as she followed the male detective’s gaze. Her stomach dropped. The next poll had just appeared on the screen and the votes were already pouring in.
“Why is this happening?!” Lauren once again dissolved into sobs as she read the question. “I – I just can’t – I just can’t watch anything else happen to Nick!”
Phantom @NetPhantom (1 min)
It’s time for another game! Which @backstreetsboys is a liar? Cast your vote now!
Chapter End Notes:
So sorry for the delay in updating! Life has been a bit crazy lately; no time to write, even though I want to! I hope everyone who has been reading is still with me. :)
