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Chapter Four: Dangerous Times (Kevin)

“Tell me about the day the world ended.”

Which time do you want to know about? I don’t even know where to start answering that question. I’m not really all that sure I want…I’m not sure I’m comfortable talking about this with Kristen here…no offense. Maybe you could…no, it’s okay. Never mind. Stay. I’m okay.

Where should I start? I’m not sure what I should talk about.

On your knees

The beginning, I guess?

I said on your fucking knees

That wasn’t the worst, though. The worst came later.

I…don’t want to talk about that. Not yet. I’m not ready…

The beginning then.

***

“It’s too cold out here,” Nick announced for the third time in four minutes. I swore he had the attention span of a goldfish. I don’t remember who it was that said that originally, but it really stuck with me. Once around the bowl and it’s a whole new world!

I didn’t answer Nick. I’d already had this conversation once and it wasn’t even exciting the first time. So I continued staring down the pedestrian mall walkway as if it would make the others show up faster. All three of them were late. AJ, I expected to be late. And Nick, if I hadn’t stopped in to the arcade to collect him and the kids, I’m sure would have been as well. Maybe Hannah would have gotten him here on time, I suppose. But Howie…I expected better out of Howie. If nothing else, I thought he would have gotten back to Stereo King before they closed. All I can say is that it was a good thing that Nick and I had been a little bit early and I’d been able to pick up Howie’s gift for him.

I glanced at my watch.

If they got there in the next two minutes, we’d probably still be able to make it on time. Any later and we’d have to forgo--

“You’ll have time,” Hannah assured me, placing her hand over my watch until I looked over at her. “Don’t worry,” she smiled knowingly. “You’ll still have time to get back to the hotel and change into more…interview-y clothes.”

I knew she was right, but I also knew from experience that if we were late it would impact the whole mood of the interview. I hated making a bad impression, especially when that impression would be passed on to others. It was also critical that these interviews went well and we got a positive response from people. It had been too long since we’d released any new material, and we had faded from the public’s attention. That wasn’t an entirely bad thing, of course. I, for one, did not miss the constant screaming whenever I went anywhere in public. While I loved meeting fans when it was only one or two of them at a time, I wasn’t sure I was ready to face the crowds again. But if we wanted the new CD to succeed, we needed to get ourselves back out there in a positive light.

“Or maybe you and Nick should go on ahead and I’ll wait here for the guys,” Hannah suggested as she saw that I was still not convinced. As she moved her hand away from my watch, I snuck a glance at it.

If they were there in the next minute and 30 seconds…no, I wasn’t going to do this again. I was tired of being the one to take on the responsibility for all of them. I didn’t want to do it anymore; they were old enough to take care of themselves. So what if we were late? It didn’t matter. “No. We’ll go as a group.” Even as I said it, I felt compelled to look at my watch again. If they were there in the next minute and 15 seconds…I had to remind myself that it didn’t matter.

Jenny tugged on my coat sleeve. I peered down at my little blonde niece. “It’s too cold out here,” she announced. I glanced over at Nick, who was conveniently looking the other direction. As if he hadn’t put her up to this. I sighed and glanced around. Most of the stores had already closed, but I noticed that there were a couple guys heading into the Stereo King so it appeared that it was still open. Maybe the clerks would let the kids stay in there for a few minutes.

“Why don’t you guys go inside,” I suggested, pointing her toward the store. I looked over at Nick. It was tempting to tell him to stay here and wait for the others, but he had Jordan riding on his back, and it really would be best if both kids got in out of the cold. And there was no point in any more of us to stay out here. I nodded at Nick and pointed to the shop. It didn’t even take a word for him to reach out and take Jenny’s hand and head off toward warmer territory. Floridians. “Watch outside for when the others come,” I called after him, knowing full well that he wouldn’t. “I’ll come in and get you when the others get here,” I told Hannah, letting her know that she could go inside as well.

“You sure you don’t want some company?” she asked, though I could see that she really wanted to go inside, too. Unlike Nick, at least she seemed to feel guilty about leaving me out in the snow.

“No, go ahead. It’ll only be a few minutes.” It had better be only a few minutes. I glanced down at my watch. If they were there in the next 30 seconds, I wouldn’t even lecture them in the car.

But, of course, they weren’t there in the next 30 seconds.

It was two minutes and 24 seconds later that Howie came rushing up.

“Sorry,” he apologized, out of breath. “I didn’t notice the time.”

“It’s okay,” I sighed, trying not to let my disappointment in him show. I knew it wasn’t really that big a deal, but…I just hate being late.

“Where are the others?” he asked.

Warm, that’s where they were. I told him that AJ, Brian, and Leighanne weren’t there yet, but the others were inside. When he started to head inside, I handed him his box and let him know that I’d already gotten it for him. I also gave him the 2-way that Gerard pawned off on me earlier. “Wait here for the others will you? I’m going to get Nick. At the very least the three of us can still get to the interview on time.” I knew I was sounding pretty irritable, but honestly by that point it had started snowing harder and I was getting cold, wet, and fairly pissed off by the others’ tardiness. I just wanted to get inside, dried off, and to that interview.

It’s amazing how quickly your priorities can change.

I pushed open the door to the Stereo King and groaned as I noticed that the others weren’t even waiting near the door. Nick should have been watching, ready to go the moment the others caught up to us.

Now I was going to have to go through the store looking for him.

Or not.

“Hey, Nick, time to go.” I called out. When he didn’t answer, I got just that much more irritated. “Quit playing around, Nick. We need to get on the road.” When he still didn’t answer, my temper grew even shorter. I started heading to the back of the store, silently cursing the youngest member of our group. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. He had better be dead back there, or I was going to kill him. He never listened to me.

As I approached the back of the store, though, I started getting a really bad feeling. Surely, even if Nick were purposely ignoring me to piss me off, Hannah would have given him away. Or one of the kids would have giggled and blown their cover.

It was just me being paranoid, I convinced myself. I was falling into one of Nick’s stupid little traps. He’d managed to keep the others quiet and they would be waiting right around the corner to jump out at me. Get a big laugh at my expense.

But something really didn’t feel right. I hesitated for a moment before turning the final corner into the back of the store.

Nobody was there.

My stomach started feeling even more unsettled as I headed toward the counter.

“Nick?” I called out again. “Hannah?”

Where the hell was everyone? I was going to really kill Nick if he was just messing around. But even if it was Nick…where were the clerks?

Something was very wrong. I could feel it in my gut. It felt as though someone were creeping up behind me.

Instinct warned me a moment too late.

“Don’t fucking move.” A voice hissed in my ear a moment before I felt cold metal press against the back of my neck. I wished that it actually was Nick playing a sick prank, but I knew even he wouldn’t go this far. I held my arms out to my sides so that the man behind me could see that I was unarmed. After a few moments I felt the metal move away from my skin. “Very carefully reach up and unzip your coat.”

Keeping my movements calm and steady, I did as he told me, not even questioning why. The gun at my head was reason enough. As was the leg that I spotted sticking out from behind the counter. I figured it belonged to the store’s clerk. I wondered absently if the man was dead or just unconscious. I prayed for the latter.

As soon as I had my coat open I held my arms back out to my sides. In a way I wanted to turn to see who it was behind me, but instinct told me the less I knew about the guy with the gun, the less likely he was to pull the trigger. If I couldn’t identify him, he’d have no reason to kill me.

“Real careful I want you to take your coat off and drop it.” Again I did as I was told. “Good boy.” Like I was a dog, I fumed silently, but made no outward signs that it bothered me. The guy behind me speared my coat with his foot and slid it across the floor into a small pile of winter gear. I noticed Nick’s Bucs jersey in the pile as well, so I wasn’t entirely surprised when the guy ordered, “Now the shirt.” I hesitated only for a moment and felt the gun pressed to the back of my neck again. I scowled but quickly unbuttoned the shirt, slid it off, and let it drop to the floor. I waited to see if he was going to make me remove my undershirt as well, but he didn’t seem concerned with that. I figured he was probably just nervous about any bulky clothing--in case I was harboring a weapon or something. He was, however, concerned with my belt. I scowled but pulled it from my jeans and let it drop. “Boots, too, cowboy.” I reluctantly kicked off my boots. I was fairly glad that I had pawned the radio off on Howie. Maybe he’d realize what was happening and be able to call for help.

“Now real careful like, let’s get you in the back with the others.” The guy behind me kept kicking my legs as I walked toward the door along the back wall, but I somehow managed to keep my balance. My temper was starting to really boil, but I knew I had to play it cool.

I wanted so badly to ask about the others, but didn’t want to speak in case it would set the guy off. I prayed that Nick hadn’t gone and done anything dumb and gotten himself hurt, and that Hannah was able to keep them and the kids safe.

When I pushed opened the back door I heard a voice coming from the farthest room. “Hey!” It was Nick’s voice. “Leave her alone! Just take the money, you don’t gotta do that.” Part of me was proud of him for protecting the others, but I was so afraid that Nick’s hot-headedness would get him killed. I needed to get back there. If we could all just keep our cool, we’d get out of this unscathed. “Get away from her!” I cringed, trying not to imagine what was going on in that back room. But I knew I had to get there before things got any worse.

I started to walk faster, but the guy behind me kicked me even harder in the back of my knee and I found myself sprawled on the ground. The guy stomped his foot down on my back and leaned down, pressing his weight down, painfully, on my spine. “Don’t be a hero, just walk nice and slow,” he warned me before removing his foot so that I could get up again.

“We haven’t got time for that,” a voice I didn’t recognize snapped from the other room. “Leave her be. We can have some fun after we get this damn safe open. Damn it, Kid. What the fuck is taking so long?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t…I’ve never opened it before. I don’t even know if it’s even the right…” I could hear a young man stammering.

“Just be quick about it. We want to get out of here.”

“I say we take her with us,” the first guy jeered.

“No!” Nick cut in. “Just take the money an--” I don’t know what stopped him mid-sentence, but when he suddenly went silent I feared the worst.

“I think we take you, too,” a third man said, a low menacing laugh following his words. “What do you think, tough guy? Think that’d be fun?”

“Leave him alone!” I heard Jenny’s determined little voice yell and my heart leapt into my throat. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to those kids. It took every ounce of willpower not to take off running to get to that back office.

“Jenny, stay back, honey,” I heard Hannah’s voice wavering.

“Hey, honey, I’m hooome!” a familiar voice called from behind me. From inside the store. I moved one inch closer to having a heart attack. Instinctively, I turned my head to look over my shoulder to look for AJ. Before I could even think about yelling out to him, I felt something cold and hard slam into my face and I felt the world spin as I collapsed back to the ground, my vision reduced to thousands of little black dots. I could feel blood dripping from my chin and was dimly aware of people moving around me. At least one stepping on me.

“I told you ‘lock the door’, you idiot!” I heard one of the men scold another one.

“There wasn’t a damn key!”

I was dragged to my feet and shoved forward. I almost fell again, but someone caught me. Whoever it was half-carried me back toward the showroom. As soon as I regained my balance I tried to pull away from my captor.

“It’s just me,” Nick whispered in my ear. I looked over my shoulder. Indeed it was Nick, looking pale but otherwise okay. He winced as he got a look at my bloodied face. “You okay?”

I started to nod, but was cut short as we heard a loud popping sound from the storeroom. A gunshot that almost drowned out a surprised yelp.

AJ.

I pulled away from Nick and we both ran the last steps to the storeroom, skidding to a halt as we reached the door.

“Shit, St--Joe, you weren’t supposed to kill nobody,” one of the other gunmen hissed. With a great sense of dread my eyes lowered to the floor. To the body. My breath caught. There was no suggestion of life in the body. There would be no emergency surgery to remove the bullet from his brain. Just like that, a life was over.

“Oh, God…” I heard Nick gabble and then felt him move back away from me. “Oh, God…” I could tell he was a hair short of getting hysterical and spared him a glance and held up a hand to calm him. Not that he didn’t have perfectly good reason to be upset and frightened, but it wouldn’t help anything.

Gerard would still be dead on the floor.

And AJ would still have his hands raised in defense as he stared, mouth agape, into the barrel of the gun.

“Make a sound and I blow your head off,” the man with the gun warned, needlessly.

“I had to shoot him. The mother fucker had a gun. I had to do it,” the gunman justified his action to the other one.

The first one nodded his head. “I know but…shit…we get caught now, we’re screwed…” He moved over to where the body was sprawled lifelessly on the floor. He kicked the gun away from where it had fallen at our bodyguard’s side and bent down to pick it up.

“Make sure he don’t have another one on him, either,” the one holding the gun on AJ directed. The one referred to as Joe. The other guy had started to call him something else, I’d noticed, so I doubted Joe was his real name, but for lack of anything better to call him it worked.

The one getting Gerard’s gun scowled but started poking through Gerard’s pockets and patting him down searching for any other weapons. I saw him pulling Gerard’s wallet out and pocketing it, but said nothing. It didn’t feel real yet, that he was really dead. Murdered. My eyes flicked over to where Joe was still holding the gun on AJ.

He looked over at me, coldly. “You. Come here.”

I hesitated for only a moment before he swung the gun toward me. I nodded and moved closer. At least the gun wasn’t on AJ anymore.

“Get his coat off him. Real careful. Do anything stupid, I shoot your friend.”

I clenched my teeth as I saw the gun swing toward Nick, who froze like the proverbial deer in the headlights. I wanted to tell the man to just keep the gun on me, but figured that would only let him know that he’d guessed right that I was more worried about the others than for myself. A concern that grew far stronger as I heard what sounded like a muffled scream coming from the back room.

“Hannah!” AJ started trying to pull away from me, but I grabbed his shoulders and stopped him.

“Don’t,” I warned, even though my instinct was to rush back there as well. Doing so, though, would probably get us killed, and wouldn’t help whoever had screamed. This guy Joe was already going to go down for murder, so he’d have nothing more to lose by killing us, too.

As I pulled AJ’s coat from him and let it drop to the floor, Jenny and Jordan burst into the room, clearly frightened by something behind them. Joe lunged out to grab them, but Nick caught them first, pulling them close and wrapping his arms protectively around them. As Joe’s attention swayed from us, though, AJ broke away from me and made a dash for the back hall.

“AJ no!” I tried to grab him, but it was too late. Joe swung the gun toward him. I swore in that moment I could see his finger twitching on the trigger. There was no time to think about the consequences; I leapt forward, knocking him off balance.

The man bellowed an obscenity as the gun flew from his grasp and we toppled over. For a moment I was frozen. Had I just done that? God. He could have…he was reaching for the gun. I had to get it first! I reached out my arm, grabbing for the gun that was just out of reach. At least I was on top.

Unfortunately, he was situated slightly better than I, and was able to get his hand on the gun first. I grabbed his wrist, trying to force him to let go.

Unfortunately, I forgot about the other guy.

“Kev, look out!” I heard Nick call a moment too late to do anything about it. I felt something strange hit me in the back of the neck and felt every muscle in my body instantly contract. I tried to fight it, but the resulting pain was too great and I had to just give in and curled my body into a fetal position, trying to ease the strain on my muscles.

“Oh that is just fucking awesome,” I could hear the second thug babbling. “I never seen one of these up close…”

My muscles started to relax, but I was afraid to move. I wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, so I was afraid that if I moved it would happen again.

“Kev?” I heard Nick ask in a really small voice.

“I’m fine,” I assured automatically, although I wasn’t sure that was true. I hesitantly shifted my arm to try and see where the gunmen were.

Joe had gotten the gun back in his hands and was now getting back up. The other one was standing over me. “Don’t move or I shoot you again,” he warned, gleefully sounding like he wanted to do it anyway. Shoot me? I’d been shot? I did a mental check of my body and aside from a bit of lingering discomfort I didn’t feel pain. Realization dawned. Gerard must have had his taser gun on him. I relaxed considerably knowing what had happened to me.

I tensed almost immediately again though as AJ was shoved back into the room, followed by Hannah. They were both pushed over to where Nick and the kids were. “We almost done in there?” Taser Guy asked.

“The stupid shit can’t get the safe open,” the new thug on the scene replied. “Fuck, we gotta get out of here. We’ve been here too long.”

“So let’s just go, then,” Taser suggested.

“Not without the money,” Joe insisted. “We ain’t leavin’ with nothing.”

“So we take her with us,” the third guy countered, and I just knew he was leering at Hannah.

“You fuck—“ AJ lunged at him.

I heard a gun fire and the world stopped for just a moment. Then everything went into hyper drive as I jumped to my feet and tried to get to AJ, sure that he’d been shot.

Fortunately, he hadn’t. But the gun was aimed at him and his arms were spread out to his sides in surrender. “Don’t move, asshole. That was just a warning shot. You move a fucking inch and you’ll join your friend there.”

“I think he should anyway,” Taser announced, aiming the taser gun at him. I had to do something to get their attention off of AJ. I glanced around, trying to figure out my options. “Bam!” Taser yelled, crazily as he pretended to fire. Thank god he wasn’t the one with a real gun.

Hannah moved closer to Nick and the kids and he reached out to pull her closer still. The four of them huddled together as if it made them safer. The gun was still aimed at AJ, though, and that scared the bejesus out of me.

“Just…let her and the kids get out of here, okay? You’ve got me as--" I stepped forward, trying to draw their attention off of the others. And maybe get them out of there in the process.

The gun swung toward me and I could see that Joe was pissed off enough to actually shoot.

“On your knees,” he ordered, his eyes flashing.

I shook my head. “Just let th--"

“I said on your fucking knees!” He stepped closer to me, shoving the gun under my chin for a moment before grabbing my shoulder and trying to force me to get down.

I took a deep breath, for a moment regretting that I’d drawn all the attention to myself. I lowered myself carefully to my knees. Joe stepped around behind me and I felt the cold metal pressed once again to the back of my neck. I could feel it shaking ever so slightly from Joe’s rage. I heard a little clicking noise coming from the gun and was sure I was about to die.

“Everyone just chill,” the third guy said. “Take it easy and we’ll all be out of here in a few…” He paused a moment and held up a hand to indicate that everyone else should stay quiet, too. “Quiet…I think someone else is in here,” he hissed. “I’m gonna…” he turned and headed back down the hallway. “Yo, Hatch, you got it open yet?” The door shut behind him. Joe motioned for Taser to go get whoever else had come into the shop.

I heard a loud crash as whoever it was dropped something. I risked a glance up toward the security mirror in the corner. Howie!

“Howie get out!” I yelled to him, not regretting it even as I felt the gun slam against my head again, knocking me back to the floor. I heard a loud bang and felt something hit my face.

“No!” I heard Hannah scream as chaos erupted around me. I was too numb to really process what was happening at first. But then I felt someone lifting me to my feet again.

“You were hit?” Nick asked, peering at me worriedly.

I reached up and wiped the new blood from my cheek. The gun had gone off, but I couldn’t have been shot--my face was hit, not the back of my head. My eyes went to the floor and I could see that a little bit of the floor had been shattered by the bullet. I’d probably been hit by the debris. I shook my head carefully, still feeling shaky. “No, I--"

“Don’t fucking move,” Joe ordered, pointing the gun at us again. For the first time I noticed that he looked rather frightened. That didn’t make me feel better in the slightest. Quite the opposite, actually. Frightened people will do desperate things. I held my hands out to my sides so he could see them and know I wasn’t threatening.

“He still hasn’t got the stupid thing open,” the third guy came storming back into the showroom. “Stupid kid says that the combination must be wrong or something. Dumbass. He had the keys, though.” He tossed the keys over to Taser. “Go lock the fucking door, huh?”

“We can’t stay here. That guy has probably already called the cops. We gotta go,” Taser announced.

“Not without the fucking money,” Joe returned, through gritted teeth. “We ain’t doing this for nothing.”

“Fuck!” Taser cursed and headed back toward the front door.

“Don’t you leave,” Joe called after him.

Taser mumbled something indistinct, but I suspect not even knowing what, I didn’t miss anything.

“It would really be for the best if you let us all go,” I tried reasoning with Joe, keeping my voice calm and hopefully soothing. “If the police come and you have hostages, it would be a lot worse for you.” Joe only glared at me, but I went on. “I’m sure he has already radioed the police. They are probably on their way. Trust me, it will be a lot more trouble then it’s worth for you to hold us here. And you can focus your efforts on…getting the safe open. You won’t have to worry about if one of us is going to try an--"

“Besides, you keep us here, security is going to beat you up!” Jenny cut me off, stamping her foot and crossed her arms across her chest as she bravely stepped out from behind Nick. Though I did noticed that she had his t-shirt clutched pretty tight in her hand.

Joe’s eyebrows furrowed as he glanced at her. “Security?” he asked, looking at Nick appraisingly. If he recognized Nick, or the rest of us, we were going to be in even deeper trouble. Fortunately, these guys didn’t strike me as the sort that would be fans, so we still had a chance…if they didn’t pick up on the clues that had unwittingly been dropped that perhaps we weren’t their average holiday shoppers. At least we hadn’t on the covers of any major magazines recently. I also figured if they hadn’t recognized AJ (in my opinion anyway the most…distinguished looking of us…) we were probably in the clear. So far.

“They’re already on their way here, I bet,” Jordan announced, as he peeked out from behind Nick, not nearly as bold as his sister.

I caught Nick’s eye as he gently grasped Jenny’s arm and pulled her back. He nodded slightly at me, likely realizing the same thing that I had. He stooped and whispered something in Jenny’s ear before nudging her back behind him. The interaction didn’t go unnoticed by Joe.

“What’s this about security?” he asked.

“She means the police,” Nick smoothed it over.

“No,” Joe shook his head, eyeing him suspiciously. “I don’t think so.” He looked at me. “You said something about this guy radioing the police. Why would you all have a police radio?”

“He’s on the force,” Nick replied quickly. I hoped that Joe didn’t catch the slight questioning sound in his voice.

Joe snorted. “That guy? I seen his reflection, you know. That weren’t no cop.”

Nick looked quite smug as he replied, “You don’t think so? Why else would he have a police radio?” I gave him a warning look. Last thing we needed was for him to piss this guy off more.

“The point is,” I stepped in. “I really think it would be for the best if--"

Suddenly Jenny let out a blood-curdling scream.

I whirled around to see what it was, only to see her fleeing toward the back hallway.

Jordan, on the other hand, was frozen to the spot. Staring at Gerard’s dead body.

Oh God.

“Jenny!” I called out, heading after her. I saw Nick picking Jordan up and turning him away from the sight of the body.

“Damnit, get her back here,” Joe bellowed at me.

“Jenny, sweetie?” Hannah called as she hurried after us.

“No! You stay!” Joe called, but it was too late, she was already following me into the back hall, AJ on her heals. I wanted to tell him to stay with Nick, but we had more to worry about. I saw the third guy standing at the door at the far end and he turned as he heard us coming. He raised his gun and pointed it toward us.

Jenny screamed again and turned around, trying to find a way to escape. She opened the only door between us and the thug and disappeared down a flight of stairs. “Jenny, don’t go down there,” Hannah called after her.

“Stop there,” the guy ordered as he started toward us. Hannah had already started down the stairs after Jenny, but AJ and I stopped, blocking the door. At least Hannah and Jenny would be safe. At best, there was a way out down there. At worst, they were at least away from the guys with guns.

“It’s okay,” AJ assured him, holding his arms up defensively as the gun was aimed at him. “We weren’t trying to get away. The little girl just saw a dead body, man. Chill. Just let them go down there. She’s just a kid, she’s scared…”

The guy seemed to consider for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, okay. There ain’t no way out that way anyway.” He licked his lips, looking back down to the basement again. “The kid can stay down there, but I want the girl back up here.” I felt AJ tense beside me and shot him a warning glance. He nodded slightly, but I could see the rage building. “You,” the guy looked at me. “Go get her and bring her back up here.”

I hesitated for a moment. “Can I get Jordy and let him go down there? The little boy,” I clarified. The guy said that there wasn’t a way out that way, but at least that would be getting the twins away from the guys with guns. Besides, Jenny would probably be scared down there all alone.

The guy licked his lips nervously and glanced downstairs, then back at me. “Yeah okay. Fine. He can go down there.”

“Go get Jordy,” I urged AJ before turning back to the thug. I knew I was pushing my luck, but I had to try. “I think Hannah should stay down there, too. You know. Keep an eye on the kids. The others should go down, too. The fewer people you have to deal with up here, the better, right? I mean…you won’t have to keep watching us all if they’re all downstairs.” His eyes narrowed and I had the feeling that I’d blown it. “You can keep me up here. You’ll still have a…hostage handy.” Hostage. That certainly had been among the last of my worries when we’d left the hotel that morning.

AJ returned, carrying Jordan, who was clearly terrified and was clinging to AJ with what appeared to be a death grip.

The guy frowned. “Yeah. All right. He can go down. And you. But you got sixty seconds to get the girl back up here or I shoot your friend in the other room there.”

I swallowed. That wasn’t how it was supposed to work. “No. Let the others go downstairs. Keep me up here. I won’t give you any problems.”

His glare hardened. “You ain’t calling the shots, and I don’t trust your ass. Now get the fuck downstairs.”

Shit.

“Kev, go,” AJ urged me, giving me a nudge. I glanced back at the storeroom door, feeling guilty about leaving Nick to fend for himself upstairs. If luck were with us all, though, it would only be a few more minutes before the police showed up and this thing was over.

Of course we’d still be late for our interview.

I can’t believe we missed that interview. It was really important, you know? It was supposed to--

You don’t care about the interview, do you? Sorry.

I’m just not…I think we’re out of time, doctor.

Session’s over.

First assessment: Patient is avoiding discussion and dealing with what he finds to be the more painful memories of his ordeal. Upon further discussion with his wife, it appears as though any time he gets close to talking to her about anything, he will change the subject or stop talking altogether. At her request, I have scheduled a couples counseling session in addition to his follow-up appointment.

***

Author's note: I apologize it took so long to get this chapter out--it was the chapter that would not end. lol. Thanks for your patience! I'll try not to take so long next time. Constructive criticism is always appreciated!