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Author's Chapter Notes:
Here is chapter 37. I hope it was worth the wait. If it makes you feel better i'm already working on chapter 38 and instead of waiting to post it, once it's done i'll add it on. Most likely towards the end of the week but maybe sooner. Thanks for reading guys! You all rock! :O)

37 

Where’s a phone when you need one?  

Kevin stopped his car at the top of the hill, expecting to see Jack parked there but surprised when nothing was up there at all. “What the hell?” He found himself saying; knowing that there was no way the man could have shaken him off on this small road. Taking a deep breath and letting out a frustrated sigh, he thought about turning around and backtracking. If he had managed to lose Roberts, there was no way he’d be able to pick up his trail that quickly. Suddenly he felt a sense of urgency, as if he was running out of time. The longer he waited to make a decision the farther Jack Roberts would be. His gut was telling him that Jack was the reason his two brothers were missing.

 

Instead of backtracking, he decided to get out of his car and venture closer to the wooded area on foot. Maybe Jack was up here but had hidden his car for fear of being followed. Making sure his gun was on him; he quietly made his way out of the car and methodically headed over towards the woods.

  

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

  

Jack watched from a safe distance as the detective got out of his car. He once again felt that rush of adrenaline course through his body. He was so close to where he had left those kids to die, he could almost smell the blood on the ground all around them. He had two options, he could forget about them and go or he could deal with Richardson now and just clean up three messes instead of two. He almost called his girlfriend to check what she would want him to do before thinking “Fuck it!” and making the choice himself. He knew that if he left it up to Ariana, she’d insist he leave Kevin alone. She was really beginning to piss him off. It was clear she was starting to let her feelings for this family get in the way of their plans and there was no way in hell he was going to allow a third brother interfere.

 

“He’s dead meat.” He said to himself as he made the decision to follow Kevin.

  

~*~*~*~*~*~

  

Kevin tried not to think about anything but pursuing his suspect. He tried not to personalize this case. Tried not to think about the number of times he’d been up in this particular area where crime scenes were almost as abundant as teenagers sucking face. “This is a great place to dump a body,” A medical examiner had told him on one of those cases. It involved a hooker found by two horny teenagers making out in a car parked only about two spaces away from where Kevin was parked now. Luckily there was no one on top of the hill yet. The night was still young. Those kids would all be flocking up to this place in a few hours, lying to their parents about going to the movies and getting a burger with friends. Had he ever taken a girl up here? As he was trying to remember a rustling sound coming from just ahead made him stop and move his hand to his gun.

 

He quickly moved down to a low crouch as he continued to slowly move towards the woods and the sound of groaning.

  

~*~*~*~*~*~

  

Scenes of her life played out in front of her as if she was watching a giant screen. It seemed so cliché and stereotypical to die the same way she had always seen people bite it in the movies. She would watch movies with her boyfriend and roll her eyes when the death scenes came up. “Just die already!” he would yell at the screen and she would playfully hit him on the shoulder.

 

Her boyfriend…

 

Patty forced herself to open her eyes; it seemed harder and harder to do with every passing minute. She wasn’t sure how long she had been up there. It was almost becoming a cruel joke that God would allow her to keep living as long as she had. Of course it would be fitting to be eaten alive by wolves or something, but she knew that once the sun went down and the night came, it was going to be the coldness of the ground to do her in. She was already freezing but she also knew it was most likely due to her blood loss.

 

Maybe she couldn’t open her eyes because she was afraid of what she’d see. The thought of seeing her boyfriend lying dead next to her wasn’t a very comforting image. He was making sounds earlier but then they stopped. She tried calling his name but he never answered, although she wasn’t entirely sure if she was managing anything above a whisper herself. Still, with all of her might, she opened her eyes. The sky above her was a blur of colors finger-painted in the air.  

 

Turning her head she could only see the back of Charlie’s leg. His shoe was dangling off his foot exposing his heel to the cold air. “Cha…” She had to stop and cough and found herself crying at the pain it caused.

 

She wanted her mother more than anything else at that moment. The thought of never seeing her mom again just tore through her worse than any pain ever could. “Charlie…” She managed to say, “Can you hear me?” she already knew the answer as more tears escaped down her face.

   

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

As Kevin got closer to the sound, he became certain it was a female’s voice. “Hello?” He whispered as he stepped over a log and into the grass. “Is anyone there?”

 

He carefully stepped around rocks and twigs as he heard the faint crying coming from just up ahead. “Hello?” he said with more authority in his voice.

 

“Help.” He heard just as he hit the small clearing.

 

“Oh God!” He said as he ran towards the girl who was lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood, holding her hand on her stomach and crying. He almost tripped over the boy who was by her side. He was on his stomach and seemingly dead.

 

“Everything’s going to be alright…I’m getting you some help.” Kevin knelt down beside the girl. A mix of shock and horror landed on his face when he realized for the first time who he was talking to. “Patty?” He asked as if hoping she would say no, he was mistaken.

 

When the girl heard her name she opened her eyes once again. “Charlie?”

 

“No, it’s Kevin…Richardson…you’re going to be okay Patty…who did this to you? Where is my brother?” He wanted to ask her a thousand questions but he also knew he couldn’t do that.

 

“Kevin? Charlie…he’s hurt.”

 

“I know, we’ll get him some help, where is Nick? Wasn’t he with you?”

 

“Nick…he took Nick.”

 

“Who?”

 

Patty let out a groan and closed her eyes once again. The now panicked detective almost shook her awake. “Patty, who took Nick?” he pleaded with her, but he knew he had to save her first so he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed 911.

 

Standing up he made his way over to Charlie and was just about to check for a pulse when he felt something hit him from behind. He fell to the ground and his phone went flying out of his hands as he heard, “I did…so what are you going to do about it?”

  

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  

“How do you know it’s a woman, dad?” Brian asked confused by his father.

 

Kevin senior stared down at the floor, knowing this day would eventually come but still unprepared for it. “Dad?” Brian asked, growing ever impatient, “Do you know who did this?”

 

“Have a seat on the bed son.” He said as he put his phone back into his pocket. A team was on the way over to dust Nick’s room for fingerprints, his house once again a crime scene. His children once again in danger because of a past that wouldn’t let him be.

 

“We don’t have time to just sit here so whatever it is you have to say, just say it.” Brian’s tone was cold and almost unrecognizable. Kevin knew it was only the beginning. His son would never look at him the same way again after today, none of them would.

 

“She’s the reason I left in the first place.”

 

“Were you cheating on mom?”

 

“No, well yes… but not really.”

 

Brian looked up at his father shaking his head and then stood up to leave the room, “I don’t have time to listen to any confessions you have now. We have to find AJ and Nick.”

 

“Brian, it’s not what you’re thinking.”

 

“Oh, and what am I thinking? Are you a mind reader now?”

 

“I cheated on your mom once in a moment of weakness long before any of you were even born.”

 

“I don’t understand what that has to do with this? Is this woman back wanting revenge or something? A fatal attraction type thing after all these years?”

 

“No, she died awhile ago.”

 

Brian crossed his arms defensively in front of him as if to ward off the story that was about to come out of his father’s mouth. “Then what’s going on?”

 

“It’s her daughter Brian…my daughter and your step sister.”

 

Brian let out a sigh and sat back down just as he heard the all too familiar sirens approaching the driveway.

  

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

AJ wasn’t sure exactly what to do once he hit Ariana, all he knew was he had to get the two of them out of there and quickly. He grabbed Nick by his shirt and just began to run, trying to ignore Nick’s wincing and groaning in pain. He knew his brother was still injured but there was nothing that could be done about that right now. He didn’t hit Howie’s wife hard enough to knock her out. That was a stupid mistake but he couldn’t help it. Deep down inside she was still Ariana, the woman that had been such a huge part if their lives all these years and now she was so much more.

 

Nick fell to the floor just as they reached the top of the stairs. “Get up buddy, we gotta keep going!” AJ said, trying to lift him up with one hand while turning his body to make sure she wasn’t coming yet.

 

“I can’t…” Nick said in a half cry.

 

“Yes, you can!” AJ was afraid that his brother was going to lose it. Who could blame him? He could tell the kid was going into shock if he wasn’t already, but there was no time to be soft so he lifted with all his might and Nick came off the ground with a sharp screech of pain.

 

“I think my ankle might be broken!” Nick choked through sobs.

 

“We have to go buddy, I’ll try to carry you, but we have to run now.” AJ turned his back to his brother who jumped on piggyback style. “Hold on tight Nicky,” AJ said as he made his way down the steps. He had done this countless times during a fire but never under circumstances even close to these. He almost wished they were surrounded by flames; it would have made things more mechanical for him.

 

Just as he made it down the flight of stairs he heard the sound of footsteps from up above. AJ’s heart quickened as his eyes desperately searched for a phone. He ran to the kitchen because he knew there was a back door they could escape from, but before doing that, he had the sense to go open the front door. Maybe that would trick her into believing they had left when they hadn’t. She was climbing down the steps now but it sounded like she was going very slowly.

 

“Hurry AJ, she’s coming. I can hear her.” Nick whispered in a panic.

 

“Shh…” He answered as they made it into the kitchen just as she reached the bottom of the staircase.

 

“Shit!” She yelled when she saw the door standing ajar and just as AJ hoped she would, she turned and ran outside.

 

“Do you see a phone anywhere?” AJ asked while still holding Nick on his back.

 

“No,” he answered with a sound of defeat in his voice. “She had one upstairs though, you think she has it on her now?”

 

Before he had a chance to answer Nick, he gently put him on the ground, “Hide under the table and I’ll be right back.”

 

“AJ, where are you going?”

 

“Upstairs to get her phone…I’ll be right back.”

 

“But J…let’s just get out of here before she comes back!”

 

“Nick, we need that phone so she can’t call for help and we can…sit tight, I’ll be right back.”

 

“What if she has it on her?” AJ didn’t stay to hear the last thing his brother said as he darted back up the stairs hoping she had left her phone where he had seen it drop after he hit her.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Howie walked into his house and threw his keys on the table beside the front door. He couldn’t believe his wife was a no show at the hospital. He ended up having to take a cab home, too proud to call Kevin or anyone else for help. She had let him down again, just like always. It seemed to be happening more and more often these days. When people would ask him about his relationship with the love of his life, he would lie and say things had never been better but that was far from the truth.

 

He suspected her of having an affair. She would take a mysterious phone call from a good friend down the road and then she would make up an excuse to run out to the grocery store or pick up dry cleaning.

 

At first Howie thought nothing of it. He figured part of marriage was trust and if he didn’t trust Ariana how could he expect she would trust him? When things didn’t change, he did what any other detective/husband would do.

 

He followed her one night.

 

She did end up doing a million chores just like she said she would and he felt instantly guilty for doubting her, until her last stop. She ended up at a coffee house talking to a man for a few hours. All they did was talk. They never held hands or left the location.

 

He thought about confronting her. Asking her who this mysterious guy was, but then he’d have to admit to following her in the first place. So, he let it go. He never fully did trust her after that and that was over a year ago.

 

He sat down on the couch and dialed her number once again. Here he was certain that she was with the mystery man now when she could be in trouble or something. Maybe she was stuck somewhere with a flat tire or got into a car accident. He’d never forgive himself for thinking the way he was.

 

On the fourth ring, it was about to go to voicemail when she picked up.

 

“Riri?” He asked as relief came over him that she wasn’t lying in a ditch somewhere.

 

“….lo?” There was a great deal of static on the other end of the line but he knew for sure the voice wasn’t hers.

 

“Who is this?” He asked, suddenly regretting his decision to make the call.

 

“Can…..ear me….we…ne…lp…lo?”

 

“Who the hell is this?” Howie asked again with more force this time when without a doubt he figured out the person on the other end of the line was a man.

 

“…ger….lp….hello?” The man said once again.

 

“I don’t know who this is, but this is my wife’s phone!” Now he was growing anxious. What if she was car jacked or something and some maniac was holding her by gunpoint.

 

“Howie?”

 

He heard his name loud and clear and was pretty sure he recognized the voice. “AJ?” He asked just as the phone cut out for the final time.