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“We shouldn’t have let Howie go.” Nick ran his hands through his already dishevelled hair as he paced the length of the room. “We’re horrible people! Horrible!”

“Yeah, well, what choice did we have?” AJ nodded his head at Kevin’s wounded shoulder. “Remember what happened the last time that we tried to take those two goons down?”

“Yeah, I know.” Nick sighed. He stopped pacing and focused his attention on Kevin’s shoulder. “I just meant ...”

“We know what you meant, Nick.” Kevin confirmed. “We’re just out of options.”

“They’re coming back for us anyways. I can hear their footsteps.” Brian winced as he straightened his back against the wall; as his skin pulled against the cuts on his chest. “Howie was right when he said that this is the final event, and I don’t think that they’re going to leave any of us out of it.”

As soon as the words were out of Brian’s mouth, the industrial sized lock clunked over into the open position. The two men stepped into the room; faces covered and weapons at the ready. The bigger of the two men stepped forward, causing Nick to take a step backwards so that he was more in line with AJ, Brian, and Kevin who were still sitting on the cots.

“Stand up.” The beefy man commanded. “It’s time for some of you to join Mr. Howie D. in the other room.”

Nick held his breath as he watched Kevin lead the way. The oldest member of their group got unsteadily to his feet; the pain flickering across his face as he propelled his body upright without the proper use of his arms or his wounded shoulder. AJ and Brian followed suit; both of them attempting to keep their faces neutral in a useless attempt to hide their fear.

For a brief moment, Nick considered trying his luck and lunging at the gun-wielding man standing in front of him. But the thought disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived. Nick knew that he would be overpowered almost instantly; that trying to be a hero would, once again, result in one of his brothers getting hurt. He had already made a stupid choice. Now, it was time to play by the rules.

“Carter, you’re coming with us.”

The muffled sound of his name drifting through the fabric covering the man’s face was enough to make Nick’s heart pound erratically in his chest. He couldn’t stop the tears that leaked from his eyes as the bigger man stepped forward and grabbed his arm; jerking him towards his partner who instantly secured his massive fingers painfully around his upper arm. Nick hung his head as he waited to be taken away. Of course, he had been chosen.

“And who should come with you?” Angelo stepped closer to the three remaining Backstreet Boys. He brought his hand up to his masked face and pretended to scratch his chin in concentration. “Does anyone want to volunteer?”

“I’ll go.” Kevin spoke up. He stared his largest captor directly in the eyes in defiance. “Take me.”

Angelo laughed. He leaned forward and returned Kevin’s stare; taking in his tightly bound hands and his poorly bandaged shoulder. What was it about this guy that made him so proud? It was obvious that he was scared. Why didn’t he show it like the others?

“I had a feeling that you would volunteer.” Angelo clucked. He turned away from Kevin and focussed his attention on AJ and Brian. “Of course, you know that means that I’m not going to pick you, now. I’m going to choose one of your friends instead.”

Brian bit at the inside of his cheeks to keep himself from breaking down as the massive man bent down to look him in the eyes. He couldn’t decide which option was worse; being chosen to go with Nick or being left behind. Either way, Brian was pretty sure that he was almost at the end. He had cheated death too many times in the past, and his luck had clearly just run out.

“How are those scars doing, Brian?” Angelo teased. He grabbed at the hem of Brian’s shirt and slowly lifted it upwards to expose the raw, red imprints. A wave of satisfaction engulfed him as he watched Brian’s face flush with embarrassment. “I bet they hurt.” Angelo reached out and ran the tip of his index finger along the ‘L’; enjoying the tremble that immediately overtook the southerner’s body as soon as he touched his skin. “I bet you wish that you had told the truth.”

“Stop touching him.”

“What’s that, AJ?” Angelo slowly moved his finger over to the ‘I’ on Brian’s chest. He glanced over at the heavily tattooed man to gage his reaction as Brian flinched under his touch. “Did you say something?”

Angelo watched intently as AJ balled his hands into fists. Although he kept his entire body facing forward, Angelo could see that AJ’s eyes were turned to the side; following his hand’s every movement. Just for fun, Angelo allowed his finger to trail down from the ‘I’ on Brian’s chest, to coast over his bellybutton, and to rest on the waistband of his jeans. His actions elicited a literal squeak from Brian as his body arched backwards in fear.

“I said stop touching him.” AJ repeated his statement through clenched teeth. If it wasn’t for the beefy man’s gun, he would have already tackled him. The contents of his stomach were slowly making their way up his esophagus as he watched the man’s swollen fingers trail their way down Brian’s body. “Don’t fucking touch him.”

“He’s okay with it.” Angelo grabbed a hold of the button on Brian’s jeans; circling his thumb over the top of it as he stared into the southerner’s now completely ashen face. The sight of the tears running down Brian’s cheeks stirred up a host of feelings that he couldn’t quite place. “You don’t mind, do you, Brian?”

“Please.” Brian swallowed loudly to keep himself from being sick. He was inches away from collapsing, but he knew that he had to stand his ground. If he passed out, there was no telling what the man might do to him while he was unconscious. “Please ... just ... don’t.”

“Would it be better if I touched AJ instead?”

“Yes!” AJ answered before Brian could force his voice to work. “I don’t care what you do to me. I can handle anything.”

“Is that so?” Angelo allowed his fingers to drop away from Brian’s body. He took a step sideways so that he was now standing directly in front of AJ. He raised his gun and pressed it into AJ’s chest. “I don’t think you understand what I could do to you.” Angelo grinned. The hand that wasn’t holding the gun was already roaming across AJ’s stomach; his fingers splayed downwards. “I could do things to you that you would never be able to forget.”

AJ closed his eyes and willed himself to focus on his breathing. He was fighting to keep his body from shaking, to keep himself from experiencing the sensation of the man’s touch as his fingers moved lower and swept over him. His entire body clenched as the man’s fingers found their target and gave him a gentle squeeze. The barrel of the gun was starting to make his chest ache. He was going to vomit.

“You’re coming with us and Nick.” Angelo breathed into AJ’s face. “Maybe, we’ll all have some fun ... together.”

AJ let out a long, unsteady breath and opened his eyes as the man removed his hand from the lower portion of his body and curled his disgusting fingers around his upper arm. He still had the urge to vomit as he tripped forward to join Nick and the other man. Nick, too, looked to be on the edge of being sick. AJ could see the younger man’s Adam’s-apple bobbing with the effort of keeping his emotions in check. Things were escalating too quickly now, and AJ’s mind was reeling as he struggled to keep up. Suddenly, the prospect of dying didn’t sound so bad when it was compared to the notion of being violated.

“Let’s go.” Angelo motioned for Carl to start leading Nick out of the room as he jerked AJ into position. He ignored the questionable look that his younger brother gave him through the slit in his face mask. “Howie’s waiting for us.”

Carl silently complied with his older brother’s instructions, despite the fact that his own stomach was churning. Angelo was taking things too far. His brother’s violent outbursts were starting to scare him. It was obvious that Angelo was getting a lot of pleasure out of terrorizing the boy-banders, and that he was allowing his need for dominance to dictate his actions. For the first time since they had put their plan into action, Carl found himself wishing that all five of the Backstreet Boys were already dead. If they didn’t kill all of them soon, it was becoming glaringly obvious that his brother would take their torture to a level that he had never even considered.

Baylee’s entire body was burning with shame. He could hear his mom and the other women talking around him; like he wasn’t even there. But, he was there. He had just witnessed the same actions that they had all seen. He wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t naive. He wasn’t a little boy who didn’t understand the implications of what had just happened to AJ and his dad.

Baylee watched in silence as Nick and AJ were brought into the room where Howie was waiting for them. He fought the urge to cry as, one by one, AJ and Nick had their feet shackled to the floor only a few feet in front of where Howie was standing with a rope around his neck. He listened as Howie pleaded with the two men to stop. He bit his lip as Nick sank to the floor sobbing. He turned his eyes away from the screen as the bigger of the two men leaned his face dangerously close to AJ’s and ran his hand across his chest for the second time.

“Baylee, maybe it’s time for you to ...”

“No.” Baylee cut his mom off before she could finish. “I’m not leaving.”

“I don’t want you to see – I don’t want you to watch if ...”

“If what?” Baylee challenged. “I don’t want to see that either, mom. If they touch any of them like – like that again ...”

“They won’t.” Kristin interjected. She looked quickly at the television to make sure that the man had backed away from AJ before she continued. “It’s just a scare tactic. It can’t actually be anything more than that. Right?”

“Jesus Christ, this is getting bad!” Nate glanced down at the computer monitor as he pulled his bullet-proof vest on overtop of his heavy sweater. “These guys better just be trying to scare them ...”

“I think it’s pretty safe to say that all of them are already scared shitless.” Julie holstered her weapon and checked to make sure that she had tucked her phone into her pocket. “This lead has to come through.”

Nate snorted in agreement. The Cyber Crimes unit had narrowed down the location of the money transfer to five possible banks within the Hempstead area. Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to reduce the radius in order to limit the choices even more. Now, it was up to him, Julie, and the rest of their team to find the account to which the money had been transferred. Once they had the account, they would have an address. And once they had an address, they would hopefully have both kidnappers and all five Backstreet Boys. If they got really lucky, they would end up with all five Backstreet Boys still alive.

“Does everyone know where they’re going?” Julie directed her question at the small group of detectives clustered around her desk. “Like we discussed, SWAT will be following Nate and I to the Bank of America at Westbury Plaza. If any of you find the account at your branch, you need to call us immediately so that we can redirect the SWAT team. Are we all on the same page?”

“There’s no waiting on this one.” Nate added as the group of detectives nodded their understanding. “If your team finds the address, you move on it right away. Backup will be less than five minutes behind you.”

“Detective Hurley is right; minutes are going to make all the difference for this one.” Captain Castelo picked up the conversation. “We need to move quickly, but we also need to move smart. These guys aren’t stupid. If they were, it wouldn’t have taken Cyber Crimes as long as it did to intercept that money transfer. This is probably going to be our one and only chance to bring these men out of this situation alive, and I do not want to have to explain to the media circus milling around outside that we fucked things up.”

“Let’s move!” Julie nodded at Captain Castelo to indicate that his message had been fully received. She took one final look at the laptop screen; her heart breaking at the sound of Nick’s sobs. It’s two hours to Hempstead, and we don’t even know if we’ve got that much time left.”