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Chapter 2

"That's the fourth one this month," Alexander "AJ" McLean stated as he watched the news story currently playing on the television before him, interested in the top story of the morning. Recently, several women who had gone out for a night on the town had turned up missing. The police had absolutely no leads on where they went, but they had begun to suspect foul play. These incidents were too close together with too many aspects in common. The police had come to believe that they were looking for the suspect, a person that no one could seem to give a description of. It was almost as if this person had come from the sky and had taken these women with him whever ever it was that he was disappearing off to. The case was really baffling the local police. No matter how many pleas to the public they made, they were never able to learn any new information. AJ had never heard anything like that before in his life.

"What are you talkin about AJ?" Brian Littrell asked as he walked into the room where his younger friend was sitting on a couch, with the television on. Brian looked at AJ questioningly, taken back by the fact that AJ was watching the news. Since when did he watch the news? In the nearly eleven years that he had known this man, he had hardly seen AJ watch the news willingly. Something must have really grabbed his attention for that was the only explanation, even if there was nothing interesting on, he would not have resorted to the news.

"A forth girl turned up missing this month," AJ stated again, as he kept his eyes on the television, hoping to hear something new, something that he hadn't heard before so that he could try and put the pieces of this puzzle together. He was as drawn into this case as all of the local towns people were.

"And what am I supposed to do about that, J?"Brian asked as he sat down next to his friend, waiting for some sort of answer, though he knew he'd get exactly what he had expected. Some smart remark or one of indifference.

"I don't know, I was just telling you," he responded. Brian shook his head and looked at his heavily tattooed friend. His eyes went up AJ's arms which were completely covered with various tattoos. He could never figure out why someone would want to cover themselves with this form of 'art' in such a way as AJ had. It had reached a point of obsession long ago. There was something about them that kept AJ coming back for more. Sure, Brian had one of his own. One. Just one. AJ on the other hand lost count a really long time ago.

"What's up fellas," Nick greeted as he walked into the room to greet his fellow bandmates. AJ looked at his friend, sensing that something was different about him, or maybe something good had happened just by the way that he entered the room and greeted them.

"Look at that, some one's in a good fucking mood today! Get laid last night Nicky boy?" AJ questioned with a smirk on his face as the tall blonde entered the room. Nick ignored AJ.

"So what's goin' on?" he asked as he turned his attention to the television also, hoping that there was something interesting on. He'd only been up for a little while and was already bored out of his mind.

"Nothin'. Yo, you hear that another girl turned up missing this morning?"

"For real?" Nick asked as he looked over at AJ. "That's real close to the last one. What's it been? Like a week?"

"Yeah, I think they said her name was Alice or Allison or something like that. She went to a club with a friend the other night and no one's seen her since."

"Think the friend was jealous of this Alice girl and did something about it?" Nick asked. Brian shook his head. Why was he sitting here and listening to this conversation. It seemed that lately Nick and AJ had become the band detectives and Brian was getting sick of it. It was cute at first, it was something that they liked to do together, which was a welcomed change since the only thing they did together before was fight, but now it was beginning to get on everyone's nerves. When ever something happened, even if it was the smallest thing like some left a light on some where, Nick and AJ got involved and tried to track down the person that had left the light on. Brian closed his eyes and hoped that this was only a phase that was brought on by all the time they had spent on the road.

"Nah, this girl, the missing one, they said she was like a business type chick. The friend was the one that looked like she might be getting around some. She had this look on her face like she fucked everyone in the damn club ya know? So I doubt she had anything to do with it," AJ stated.

"Well, that takes care of that idea. What else to do you know about what happened?" Nick asked dropping his idea quickly. He wasn't in the mood to fight with AJ, just talk or consider all of the scenario's of a crime. That was always fun.

"Nothing and apparently, that's all the police know too. No one saw her leave with any one. It was almost like she just disappeared."

"People don't just disappear."

"No fucking duh."

"Bet you she was just tired of her life and wanted to change and saw this as her oppertunity to pick up and leave," Nick suggested with a shurg of his shoulders. "Maybe she was having some personal problems and just wanted to start a new life in a place where no one knew who she was."

"I dunno about that idea Nick, from the interviews, everyone said that she was a really responsible girl. Not the type to just get up and leave her entire life behind."

"So now there's a type?" Nick questioned.

"Guys," Brian said suddenly. "Look, I'm worried about all of this too but there really isn't anything that we can do except keep our eyes open for anything that might be able to help the police."

"Chill man, you don't need to get all pissy," AJ stated as he turned off the television. "We were just talkin' damn. It's not like we're gonna go after the guy. Shit, he's probably got a gun, I ain't gettin my ass shot."

"You alright man?" Nick asked Brian. The two of them had become close over the years. They had formed an extremely tight bond with each other, becoming almost brothers instead of just best friends. Brian looked over at Nick and saw concern in his eyes. For in the years that they had known each other, Nick had never seen Brian loose his temper that quickly.

"Yeah," Brian replied, forcing a smile to assure his friend, but he could tell that Nick wasn't buying it. "I'm just really tired. That's all man, nothing to be worryin about."

"You sure?" Nick questioned, knowing that something was bothering his friend, but also not wanting to force it out of him just yet. Nick knew that Brian knew that he could come and talk to him any time that he needed to and he would always be there to listen to him. It was the least he could do for Brian considering he'd been such a great friend to him all of these years.

"Uh-huh," Brian replied. Nick nodded his head.

"So what were you up to last night Nick?" AJ asked. Nick sat down on the couch next to AJ and looked at him a moment before answering.

"Nothin, I just went out for a drive."

"Bullshit, when you came in here you had that 'I-just-got-fucked' look on your face," AJ returned. Nick rolled his eyes at AJ's comment, not finding it the least bit amusing considering he had made a similar comment when he first came into the room. It didn't work then, Nick thought to himself, it isn't going to work now.

"Nothing happened, even if it did, it's none of your fuckin business dude."

"Hey, I'm just trying to make conversation, don't go and get all god damn defensive," AJ returned.

"Kev's gonna be here in a second," Howard "Howie D" Dorough announced as he walked into the room to see his friends sitting around, doing nothing. Brian looked up at Howie.

"What's he doin now?" Brian asked.

"I dunno," Howie answered. "I just saw him in the hall and he told me to tell you guys he'd be here in a second. He didn't look pissed though so you guys can relax," he stated looking from Nick to AJ. Nick and AJ relaxed a little, hoping that Howie didn't notice. It wasn't as if they had done anything that Kevin could have found out about, Nick thought, they'd just gotten into town. As far as Kevin was concerned, nothing happened and nothing was going to happen.

"Hey guys," Kevin Richardson, eldest member of the band, greeted as he walked into the room where his four bandmates were waiting.

"Hey Kev," AJ returned. "How've ya been?"

"Pretty good," he answered. "Ya'll ready to get to work?"

"No, but it's not like we were given a choice," Nick replied with a smirk on his face. Kevin turned and looked at the younger man. Over the past two years, nothing about his personality had changed, which Kevin oddly welcomed. He'd been so worried that things would be so different between them that they wouldn't be able to work together. Clearly he was wrong, and thankful for that.

"You're lucky I missed your shit or I would have killed you for that," he stated to Nick with a smile on his face. He shook his head and turned his attention back to the other guys, as many times as he had complained about how immature these guys could be, while they were separated, he found that he missed the constant bickering between them. Over the years, the fights and immaturity had just become a part of everyday life, no matter how much Kevin attempted to deny it, he knew deep down in his heart that it was true. Afterall, it was normal for families to fight after spending so much time with each other, and that's what these guys felt like to him, family; younger brothers; people he needed to protect and take care of. "Feels great to be back, don't it?"

"You've got no idea," Howie commented. "It's been weird, ya know?" Kevin nodded.

"We gonna sit here all day and talk or are we going to get ready to rock everyone's world with some hot new music?" AJ announced as he jumped up from his seat. "'Cause I'm ready!"

"Let's go," Kevin said.