25  

The two of us kind of stood there in silence before opening up that thirteenth step and removing the gun from its long resting place. It was wrapped in a handkerchief monogrammed with her father’s initials on it.  Parker held onto the gun for a few seconds before looking over at me, “Let’s go downstairs.” He said. His voice was beginning to crack.  I nodded at him and followed him back down to the living room where we had kept everyone waiting for a very long time. A look of relief washed over Kevin’s face as I came into view. They were probably all worried that something had happened to me and the way things had been going for the last week or so, that worry was more than justified.

“Where have you been?” Linda asked. I didn’t notice until just then, that my friends were in handcuffs all sitting on the sofa. “I was starting to get worried.”

“You have what you want, let them go.” I said.

“Are you okay?” Kevin whispered to me.

“I’m fine. I didn’t know they had you guys tied up down here.” I answered, growing angry that Parker neglected to tell me about that.

Linda approached her husband and gently took the gun from him as if it were a newborn kitten, “So, this is it?”

He nodded in reply as she continued to look at the weapon like she had never seen one before which was curious behavior for someone who carries one for a living. “All this trouble for this thing, I almost expected it to be made of 14 Karat gold or something.” She smiled as she held it up to the light for a better look.

“Now we have it, nothing can happen to her anymore.” He said as he took the gun from his wife and wrapped it back in its familiar blanket.

“So, now that you have what you want, can you let them go? If you throw me the keys I’ll do it myself so you can get out of here.” I asked, hopeful that this time I wouldn’t be ignored.

I glanced over at Howie, AJ and Kevin. They all looked worried and of course they would be. They had no idea what was going on. “Its okay guys…” I tried to reassure them, “This is Bella’s son. They don’t mean any of us harm.”

“If that’s true, then why are we still handcuffed?” AJ had a point.

“Parker…” I said as he and his wife continued to look at the gun almost in a trance. “If you give me the keys I can unlock the cuffs.”

He finally took his eyes off of the gun and placed them firmly on me. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know too much. You’ve read and seen too much.” Now Linda had her gun aimed at me. This was not good…not good at all.

“I told you man…I get it! Alright? If I was you and I was trying to protect my family, I would have done the same thing.”

“It’s easy to say that now Nick, but how do I know the second we leave, you don’t pick up the phone and call the police?”

“Dude, you ARE the police!”

He shook his head and this time he held up his gun at me too. Wow I was being held at gunpoint from the front and the back. Does that make one doubly likely to die? Or maybe I could actually duck and they’d hit each other. Her, I knew nothing about but I had faith in him. I didn’t think he had it in him to kill an innocent man, make it four innocent men, in cold blood.

“Please, just let us go, we won’t say anything.” Kevin said in his sickly calming voice. Everyone who knows Kevin knows it’s an act and beneath that calm voice lays the man who will beat the holy crap out of you once he tricks you into thinking he’s perfectly fine with what’s going on at the moment. Believe me; I have been tricked by that voice many times.

Parker turned the gun on Kevin as he faced him. “We don’t even know what you’re talking about. Only Nick does.”

Uh…I don’t see how that’s going to help my cause, but…okay.

“And I know he won’t say anything. You have what you came for supposedly, so take it and leave. We’ll act like none of this ever happened.”

“You all seem like really nice guys and I’m so sorry you got stuck in the middle of my family’s mess, but it’s not that simple Kevin.”

“So, you just plan on becoming a cold blooded murderer then? I guess the apple really doesn’t fall that far from the tree.” Yup, once again the words came out of my mouth before my brain had time to shut me the hell up.

“Nicky enough… He didn’t mean that.” Howie said trying to calm our now agitated captor.

“Yes I did.”

“And you said you understood, I knew you were full of shit!” Once again the gun was turned on me. I am sure Kevin was happy about that. At least he didn’t have it wiggling in his face anymore.

“I do understand.” I’m not sure where this speech was coming from. Maybe I had watched a little too much TV, but whatever the case I wasn’t stopping.

“Then why would you call my mom a cold blooded killer? You said you would have done the same thing.”

“Who said anything about your mom being a cold blooded killer? I was talking about your grandfather. Isn’t that what he did? He shot his own children and wife down for no apparent reason. Maybe out of fear or anger, who knows? To this day isn’t that one of the things that haunts your mother? And now you plan on doing the same exact thing. That’s the tree I’m talking about, your grandfather, not your mom.”

I could tell he was marinating in the words I had just said. His inner struggle was making its way to his face. If he was alone, it would have been a perfect opportunity to jump him since his mind seemed to be a million miles away, but unfortunately he wasn’t alone. “Parker, we have to figure out what to do. The longer we wait the worse it will be.” Linda said, never putting down the gun she had aimed at me.

He glanced over at her as if he was leaving our fates in her hands. I know it sounds weird and maybe a little harsh but for a split second I pictured Leighanne. Brian would glance over at her like that all the time when he was left with a tough decision having to do with us all. Thank God this isn’t her otherwise we’d be dead…at least I would be. Wow, it’s funny what you think about in times of crisis.

“Let us go.” I decided to say something before the momentum I had built up was lost. “Don’t do something you know you’re going to regret for the rest of your life.”

“I need something…some kind of reassurance.” Parker or Tommy said. It’s funny but looking at this man was kind of like looking at a set of twins. It was so easy to tell when he was Parker the policeman or Tommy, the kid who just wanted to protect his mother. I was happy to see Tommy shine through again as he placed his hands down at his side and looked over at me.

“Okay fine, what do you want?”

“I want you to burn the house down.” I admit I wasn’t expecting that.

“Come again?” And neither was Kevin.

This time Tommy looked over at Kevin and said it again, “I want you to burn this house down to the ground.”

“Why? What exactly will that accomplish?” Kevin asked.

“Well for one it’ll erase all the evidence that could potentially be found, but most importantly it’ll erase the past.”

“So, you think just by burning down this house, your mother will forget everything that’s happened and she’ll be able to move on from this? Dude, if that’s all it took I would have become a pyromaniac a long time ago.” For some reason that made him laugh.

“I like you Nick.”

“Thanks Parker, I would like you too if your wife wasn’t holding my friends and I at gunpoint.”

“You’re not burning down my house.” Kevin said that pretty adamantly as if he weren’t handcuffed to a random couch being held at gunpoint by random rogue cops.

“What would your mother want you to do Tommy?” I asked him, trying my best to stay calm in this situation. I have to say I was doing a damn good job since I swear I thought I would have shit my pants ten times over by now. Maybe I should, perhaps that would get them out of here.

“I told you not to call me that!”

“Sorry.” Oops. “I meant Parker. Would your mom want you to kill us all or have you burn the house down?”

“My mother is so far gone now Nick, she probably wouldn’t even care one way or the other.”

“Maybe we should go ask her then.”

“Nicky, what are you doing?” Howie said very slowly and cautiously.

“Yeah, Nick…maybe you should shut up.” AJ finally decided to say something. I was worried Linda had removed his tongue.

“No, I think it’s a good idea.” I have to admit all of us looked over at Kevin in shock when he said that. I really thought out of them all, he would be the one to go ballistic. Maybe he does realize that inside I do know what I’m doing. I have a firm grasp on reality and am more than capable of handling all kinds of situations, although if Belle was Looney tunes now, she could very easily tell her son to kill us all. I had more faith in her than that.

“My mom would be too overwhelmed by seeing all of you.”

“Then just take me.” I volunteered. I can’t believe I just said that.

“No, it’s my house so I’ll go.” Kevin was quick to say. I saw that coming from like ten gabillion miles way.

“I should go Kevin.”

“No, and that’s the end of this discussion.”

“You can’t treat me like I’m a child. I need to see this through.”

“I know it means a lot to you Nick but this isn’t a game. I’m not letting you leave with someone holding a gun to your head.”

“He’s not going to hold a gun to my head.”

“Excuse me…” Kevin and I both looked over at Parker.

“Shouldn’t I be the one to make that decision, if it’s going to be made at all?”

“Parker, we don’t have time for this…” Linda said impatiently waving her gun around as she did. I still wasn’t sure about her. I couldn’t tell if she was a good guy or a bad guy. Maybe she was the one convincing him to do all of this and he was her puppet on a string. “Can’t you see they are just trying to distract you?”

“Actually they do this all the time.” Howie responded.

“Okay, Linda you’re going to stay here with these guys and Nick and I will take a drive over to see my mother.” Ha! I knew he was going to pick me. Everyone picks me!

“I don’t like this.” Kevin grumbled. It’s not like I was a big fan of the idea either but I really think this was the way to do it. Plus I wanted to meet this woman, even if it was against my will.

“Once I talk to my mom about things we’ll figure out what to do from there.”

“Can’t you just call her? I’m sure she has a phone, right?” Howie asked. It seemed like a logical question. “This way, no one has to go anywhere.”

Parker wasn’t listening to Howie at all as he grabbed my arm and ushered me to the front door, “We are leaving…don’t try anything stupid any of you or you won’t be seeing your friend anymore.” He warned but we all knew he was just talk. I was more worried about his wife. Now if any of them pissed her off, I have a feeling there would be hell to pay.

Once we were in the car he seemed to calm down some. Maybe he had to put on an act for his wife or maybe with my luck, he was just bipolar. “My mother is my life.” He admitted to me as he handed me the journal to hold onto while he started the car. I guess I could have jumped out and made a run for it, but I didn’t see a reason to. I have a feeling this was just a road to the ending of this story and one thing was for sure, this story needed to end. Too many people have been suffering for far too long.

“I know man. I get that, really I do.”

“I would never have done anything like this if it wasn’t about her.”

“I know.”

“I’m not sure why I’m taking you to her, it’s not like I’m going to tell her what I did.”

That comment made me breathe a sigh of relief because that was my thought once I volunteered to go. I knew he wouldn’t be telling her exactly how he came across her journal. “So, mom I kind of broke into this house and held the people in it captive…oh this is Nick Carter by the way. He’s a famous Backstreet Boy, yeah he’s one of the people we are holding hostage. We were just coming over here to see if you thought it was a good idea to kill them or do you think it’s a better idea to just burn the house down or I know…we could put them in the house and THEN burn it down!” Yeah, I don’t see that conversation happening.

We sat in silence for the rest of the very short drive to his mother’s house. It was a very cute place. A ranch style house set far off from the street behind a few huge trees. I could see myself owning a house like this one some day. She was sitting on the front porch as we pulled up to the door, humming a song while she rocked in her rocking chair.

“There she is.” He said, motioning for me to give him the journal. He left the gun in the car. I figured he would do that as well.

When she saw her son approaching she stopped humming and smiled but then when she saw me her face went a slight shade of pale.

She looked just the way I pictured her to look as a grown woman. Her hair was just the faintest shade of grey which offset her sparkling eyes. She looked like the very same Belle in all the pictures that were strewn around Kevin’s house; the only difference was her age. Her spirit was still there though, I could tell just by looking at her.

“Hi mom.” Parker said as he gently reached down to her and grabbed her in a hug. Her gaze never left me as he did that.

“Honey, who is this?” She asked finally.

“This is Nick Carter mom.”  She stood up, walked over to me and placed her hands on my face in a loving way.

“You look so much like my Tommy. I had a brother…he looked…”

“I know ma’am. I’ve seen his pictures.”

She was looking at me straight in my eyes. Normally I’m very uncomfortable when people do that. I’m always the first one to look away, but not today. I found myself staring right back at her in awe. I can’t explain how connected I felt to this woman. Why she meant so much to me, it was almost supernatural in a sense, even though we were both firmly right here and now.

When she placed her arms back down at her sides, Parker handed her the journal, “Mom…it’s all over. Now no one will ever know what happened.”

She grabbed it and looked at it in disbelief, “How did you find this?” She asked her son as she sat back down clutching it in her arms the way that I had earlier.

“That’s unimportant, all that matters is, your secret will be safe forever, isn’t that right Nick?”

I looked over at Parker and nodded but was immediately drawn back to Belle who took my hands in her own, “You were the one that found it, weren’t you?” She asked nodding her head to her journal which she had placed on her lap. I allowed myself to sit in the chair right beside hers as she continued to hold my hand.

“Yes, and I hope you don’t mind that I read it. I know it wasn’t mine to read but I had no idea who you were. I thought it was just a random journal.”

“I’m glad you did honey. I needed to tell my story to someone it might as well have been you.”

“I’m not going to tell anyone what happened…” I started to say, but she stopped me. I think deep down inside she knew.

“How about I make us all some iced tea and we can sit and talk about it.” She smiled at her son and then at me. “It’s time to talk about it so I can move on with me life.”

“I’d like that very much.” I said to her as Parker made a call to his wife to tell her to let the guys go.