- Text Size +
“What’s taking them so long?”

Kevin looked at his watch. Not even a minute had passed since the last time that he had checked the time. He was growing increasingly agitated and significantly more impatient as the seconds ticked by. AJ and Nick clearly weren’t taking the situation seriously. If they were at all concerned about Howie then they wouldn’t have been dawdling.

“Kev, what do you think is taking them so long?” Brian turned away from the window and repeated his question.

“Do I look like a mind-reader?” Kevin snapped. “They’re probably goofing off; having a fucking snowball fight in the street.”

Brian pursed his lips and pushed a stream of air out through his nose. He felt that his cousin was being unfair, but he didn’t have the energy or the courage to tell him. Fighting with Kevin was useless; it always had been, and it always would be.

Turning his attention back to the window and the snow-covered streets, Brian could feel the uneasiness settling in his stomach. It was true that AJ and Nick were often unreliable, especially when they were together, but Kevin had it wrong this time. Brian had heard the worry in Nick’s voice when he had delivered the news about Howie’s car. The two of them may have drifted apart in recent years, but Brian would always know when Nick was upset, or worried, or angry, or scared. The blonde’s tell-tale mannerisms and vocal inflections were forever etched in his mind, whether he wanted them to be or not.

“I’m going to find them.” Kevin abruptly stood up and reached for his jacket that was draped over the back of the couch. “Text me if Leigh calls back while I’m gone.”

“What?!” Brian once again turned his attention away from the window. “Don’t be stupid, cuz. What are you gonna do? Wander around the city until you find them?”

“Nick sent me a text saying that they were walking.” Kevin shrugged his jacket over his shoulders and began to rapidly wind a scarf around his neck. “So, I’m gonna start walking towards the hotel and check every single bar and restaurant with an ‘open’ sign along the way. I’ll bet you a thousand bucks that they got tired of trudging through the snow and called it quits at the first bar that they saw.”

“Nick sounded worried, Kev.” Brian licked his lips and forced himself to look his older cousin in the face. “He cares about Howie way too much to not take this seriously.”

“It’s unbelievable.” Kevin crammed his toque onto his head and narrowed his eyes at Brian. “You don’t even like Nick, but yet you still feel the need to defend him. When are you going to start holding him accountable for his behaviour?”

“You’re one to talk!” Brian shot back. “When are you going to stop jumping to conclusions based on his past behaviour? You always assume that Nick is the one who has fucked up before you know the facts.”

Brian was struggling to keep his emotions in check. He didn’t want Kevin to know the hurt that his words had caused. Of course he liked Nick; he loved him. The fact that Kevin apparently didn’t know that caused Brian’s stomach to swell with a different kind of anxiety. Nick knew that he still cared about him, didn’t he?

“Besides, I like AJ and I trust him to keep Nick in line.” Brian added, rolling his eyes. “The snow has probably just slowed them down.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then I’ll be back in no time.” Kevin shoved his feet into his shoes and rolled his own eyes to mock his cousin. “Like I said, let me know if you hear from Leigh.”

“Kev, why do you ...”

Kevin stepped out into the hallway and closed the apartment door before Brian could finish. He bypassed the elevator and hustled towards the stairwell, taking the stairs two at a time and hurrying out the side door into the rapidly falling snow. The wind stung his cheeks and he immediately pulled his scarf up to protect his skin from the harshness of the weather. His cousin’s behaviour had annoyed him, and he took his anger out on the snowdrifts; stomping down on the growing piles with shattering force.

As irrational as the feeling was, Kevin hated it when his little cousin took anyone’s side over his. Kevin was the one who had brought Brian into the band. He was the one who had made Brian rich and famous. Without him, Brian would be nothing more than a typical southern dad with a mundane job, a stay-at-home wife, and a couple of kids. In Kevin’s mind, the situation was clear-cut; Brian should always show loyalty to him because he was the only reason that the world even knew who Brian Littrell was.

“Children; they’re all a bunch of fucking kids.” Kevin mumbled to himself as he strode purposefully into the wind. “It’s like I have six little boys ...”

Kevin stopped grumbling as he caught sight of the headlights. The SUV was slowing as it approached him; the ‘TAXI’ sign on the roof was dark. Kevin shuddered as a blast of wind rocked his body, and he slowly raised one of his gloved hands into the air. If this cabbie was crazy enough to be driving around the streets of New York City on a night like this, than he would be crazy not to accept a ride. Besides, maybe the driver would have some idea about which bars were the most likely to be open on a night like this.

“Hey ...” The driver rolled down the window as he navigated the vehicle up alongside the curb. “You’re getting in the back.”

Kevin’s eyes narrowed. Why had the man just phrased his words as a statement as opposed to a question? Kevin quickly took in the man’s disgruntled face, his eyes lingering on the strangely shaped welt in the centre of his forehead. It looked as though he had just taken a hit to the head.

“Nah, man, I’m good.” Kevin held up his hands and took a step backwards; his shoes sliding on the icy sidewalk. He had quickly changed his mind; now he felt as though it would be crazy if he did get into the cab. “I don’t need a ride.”

“You sure about that?” The driver grinned and nodded his head towards the backseat.

The backdoor flung open to reveal two men; one with his hands bound and a pillowcase over his head and the other with a gun in his hand and a smug expression on his face. Kevin’s stomach dropped. Even without seeing the other man’s face, he knew that it was Nick. He had danced alongside that lanky frame for decades. There was no way that he was mistaken.

“Get in.” The driver nodded towards the backseat for a second time. “Get in, or my buddy is gonna put a bullet in your little brother’s head.”

Kevin’s heart was racing just as fast as his brain. He dared a quick glance up and down the street. It was completely deserted; all of the storefronts were dark, and the curtains on the upper apartments were all drawn against the storm. If he were to run, he would have nowhere to go and nobody to help him. If he were to run, he would almost certainly be leaving Nick for dead.

“Let’s go.” The man in the backseat spoke for the first time. He raised the gun to Nick’s temple and cocked it into position for good measure. “That wind is cold.”

Kevin watched as his youngest friend’s body flinched in fear. Nick jerked his head away from the barrel of the gun. He knocked the side of his face against the SUV’s tinted window in the process and let out a small whimper.

“It’s okay, Nick.” Kevin took a deep breath in an effort to keep his voice steady. “I’m getting in the car.”

“Welcome aboard.” The driver laughed as Kevin reluctantly hoisted himself into the backseat. “Make yourself comfortable. It’s gonna be a long, slow ride.”

As soon as the words were out of the driver’s mouth, the second man shoved Kevin back against the final row of seats and twisted his hands behind his back in one well-practiced motion. Kevin hadn’t planned on fighting back, but he wouldn’t have had time to react even if he had wanted to. The second man painfully clasped a pair of handcuffs around Kevin’s wrists as the driver pulled away from the curb. The pillow case followed immediately after the handcuffs had been secured; covering Kevin’s face before the car reached second gear.

Kevin gasped at the sudden lack of oxygen and instinctively twisted away from his assailant as the pillowcase tightened around his neck. What was happening? Who were these people? What did they want with him and Nick? Kevin’s mind immediately jumped to Howie after his last thought. What if these men were also responsible for Howie’s car accident?

“Don’t fight it, Kev.” Nick’s voice was small; muffled, defeated. “They’ve already got us.”

Kevin let out a ragged breath and tried to force himself to calm down. He needed to think. He needed to determine why this was happening. If he could somehow piece together what these men wanted than maybe he could figure out what to say in order to convince them to let him and Nick go free.

The driver had referred to Nick as his ‘little brother’; a term which suggested that their abductors had more than just a basic understanding of who they were. More importantly, Kevin had been picked up on Brian’s street; another indication that these men had done their research. This wasn’t a random attack. Although he was unsure of the men’s motive, Kevin was sure that he had been targeted.

The first, and the most logical, conclusion that Kevin could come up with was that their abductors were after money and were planning on holding them for ransom. Unfortunately, their captors didn’t seem to care about concealing their identities. This was the fact that was making Kevin’s blood run cold. These men were clearly smart enough to have planned out their abduction, so they would have made a conscious effort to hide their faces if they were at all worried about getting caught.

The other reality that was turning Kevin’s blood to ice was the fact that AJ was missing. If these man had, indeed, already captured Howie than it was fair enough to assume that they were after all five of them. So, why hadn’t they abducted AJ and Nick at the same time? Had the two of them, for some reason, not been walking together? Had AJ somehow managed to escape? Had AJ tried to fight back and; subsequently, been killed in the process? Were these two men part of a larger group? If he and Nick were already caught and AJ and Howie were missing than what did that mean for Brian?

Kevin squeezed his eyes shut against the darkness of the pillowcase that was covering his face. The thoughts were rattling around in his head; tugging at his sanity and threatening to give him a migraine. He needed to turn his mind off for a minute and regroup. He needed to take control, but for the first time in his life he had no idea how he was going to take over the situation.