“Come on, come on,” Nick muttered to himself anxiously, finger resting against the key in the ignition of the van while his eyes scanned for movement in the dark. 

In a flash he saw three men barrelling towards him and he started the van. The back door flew open and everyone jumped in, throwing a black lump to the floor just as Nick tore down the street, tires squealing. 

“What took you guys so long?” he demanded to know, looking at them all in the rear-view mirror. 

The smallest pulled off his ski mask and sighed, “We had a bit of a struggle but nothing to worry about.” 

“What do you mean Brian? Did anyone in the house hear you?” Nick turned right around in his seat to look at his friend.

“Will you watch the road?” Brian asked calmly, reaching out to physically turn Nick’s head in the direction of the windshield, “When Howie walked into the bedroom the dog was there!”

“I thought the dog stayed in the dog house every night! AJ you said the dog was always in the dog house!” Nick exclaimed with an exasperated sigh.

“Not tonight apparently,” AJ shrugged from the back where he was putting away some lock picking equipment. 

“So what happened?” 

Brian ran a hand through his hair then sat down on the floor of the van beside the black lump, “It was growling and stuff, so Howie hit on the head. We think he’s probably unconscious.”

“Most likely dead though,” AJ muttered from the back.

“Wow, we killed the dog, that’s fantastic,” Nick said sarcastically as he turned right off the main road onto a secluded side road. 

Nick had been friends with Brian, Howie, and AJ for years. They’d always run small time scams together (over the phone pyramid scams, email scams, and the sort) and were very good at doing it.

The money came rolling in, and they spent it willingly. But, the old adage that some things were just too good to be true really was true. Over time, the money started rolling out, and they started encountering in the same people multiple times, who were quick to go to the police.

That led to a serious reassessment of their careers and a consideration of going into legitimate business.

A hot tub store was what they all decided on. The only problem with that was that hot tub stores required merchandise, a wholesaler, and a showroom. In order to get all of those things they needed money. Sure they’d made lots of money before but it was pretty much gone. It was all spent on useless things like game consoles, cars, pinball machines, and the occasional escort. 

It all came down to one conclusion: they would have to do one more job before the hot tub store could be in business. 

Keeping in mind that pyramid scams took time and planning (and they needed money now) they all brainstormed as to what they could do to make some serious cash fast. It was Brian who ultimately came up with the idea they went with. What better way to make fast cash then a kidnapping?

Brian had a part time job mowing the lawn and weeding for some big shot music producer, and when he found out that the guy had a daughter (who was a serious daddy’s girl) they chose her as their candidate. He would pay a lot to get her back; they would take the cash, give her back and open up the hot tub store. Everything would work out in the end. 

Nick stopped the car and got out, moving around to the side to open the sliding back door. The girl wrapped in the black sheets was starting to move slightly so they hurriedly got her out of the van and into the house. They’d made a room to keep her in with boarded up windows and locks on the outside of the door. They only hoped that her father would pay up quickly so they didn’t have to keep her around long. 

“Home sweet home,” Nick heard AJ say as the other guys walked into the house, heading straight for the kitchen. 

“Look, you got the short straw so you got to drive the van. I think that because of that she should be your responsibility,” Brian said as he helped Nick get the girl onto a mattress on the floor. 

“What?” Nick asked wide eyed, “You’re not going to help me at all?”

“I didn’t say that,” Brian rolled his eyes; “I just mean you can be the one to bring her food and see if she has to use the bathroom. You’ll be the liaison officer,” he joked.

“Fine,” Nick sighed, not surprised that they would give him everything else to do once the majority of the work was over. That’s how it had always been. 

Brian left the room and Nick was left alone with their captor. He removed her from the blanket, hearing her groan as the drugs they’d given her started to wear off. 

“Shhh,” he soothed, brushing her blonde hair back. He could only imagine how scary it was going to be to wake up in a strange room, in completely darkness, and not know what was going on. Once he’d freed her from the sheet he put it over top of her then quickly left in case she woke up. The last thing he needed was for her to see his face. 

Nick closed the door and locked all of the locks so she wouldn’t be able to get out, “I think this is the stupidest thing we’ve ever done,” he muttered to himself before going out to the kitchen to get some breakfast.

Elena lifted her head off the bed, her eyes frantically scanning the room to see where she was. The last thing she remembered was lying in bed when she heard a noise from outside the door. Her dog Fred had gotten up and was growling at something, then out of nowhere someone ran in and covered her mouth and that was the last thing in her memory. 

She knew that she was in trouble. She was in a dark room, still in just a tank top and panties, but covered with a black sheet. She recognized it as being from her bed. She couldn’t believe she’d been kidnapped; it wasn’t as if she was an important person. Her father was not only one of the best music producers in the US, but also ran a rather successful record company, which really meant nothing because he was the famous person, not her. And even though her father had a lot of money, if there was one thing she knew about Kevin Richardson it was that he wouldn’t part with a cent of it. She was worried for mainly that reason. She knew that her dad wouldn’t fork over a penny for her. He would probably call the police, and do everything they could to get her back without having to pay a ransom. That was just the way her father worked. The point of making money was not to go and throw it all away.

With a grunt Elena lifted herself up off of the mattress and started blindly walking around the darkened room. She felt the walls, and the floor, trying to figure out what kind of place she was in. From what she could tell it was just a normal bedroom. Vinyl floors, painted walls, a closet door, and windows. Feeling along the edges she could tell the windows were covered by wooden boards. Desperately she pulled on the boards as hard as she could, but she was not able to get any of them loose. 

“Hello?” she called out repeatedly as a last resort, hoping that maybe her kidnappers would come and see what she wanted and she could make a break for it.

In the living room Nick was attempting to sleep on the couch. His body was too long for the couch, so he tried the chair but again his long arms and legs made it almost impossible to get comfortable in any position.

The room where they were keeping the girl was actually his bedroom. Of course it had been the other guys’ idea for them to use his room to keep her in. “It’s closer to the door,” they’d told him with complete seriousness. He knew that in reality though they chose his room because they knew he would give it up without too much complaining. Nick hated to admit it but he was a complete pushover. 

He tossed and turned on the small space, frustrated when he heard her call out again. She’d been yelling for the better part of an hour and it was starting to grate him. He’d been up all night kidnapping her and now she was disturbing his sleep. With a sigh he got up off of the couch and made his way over to his bedroom where Elena was apparently wide awake. 

“Shut the fuck up already!” he yelled, pounding on the door.

It suddenly went completely silent on her end and he figured she was shocked to suddenly hear someone when it had just been her, seemingly alone, for so long. 

“HELP!” Elena suddenly started screaming at the top of her lungs and Nick let out a frustrated yell in return. 

He walked the short distance to the hallway where Brian’s bag lay and grabbed the ski mask he’d been wearing earlier that night. He pulled it over his head then walked back to Elena, undoing all the locks on the doors. He threw the door open, sending a stream of bright light into the face of the unsuspecting girl. She couldn’t see anything anyway because of her eyes adjusting to the light but if she could, she’d see quite the sight of Nick standing there shirtless, in his boxers, with a ski mask on. 

“If you don’t shut the fuck up I’ll cut out your tongue! I swear to God!” he yelled, with absolutely no meaning behind his threats. He could never hurt anyone, let alone torture some girl he’d never met but blind threats meant more when the person you were dealing with had never met you either. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she apologized profusely, trying to get her eyes to focus on the man in the doorway. She could tell he was tall, and broad like a football player, but there wasn’t much more she could decipher from that.

“Just shut up,” Nick repeated, “I’m trying to sleep.”

Elena rolled her eyes, heaven forbid she interrupt his beauty sleep, “Will you at least tell me where I am?”

“Of course not,” he scoffed, “You’re here, and you’ll stay here until your dad coughs up some cash.”

She knew it, she knew she was going to die here, “My father isn’t going to give you a penny,” she told him honestly.

Nick was momentarily worried that she might be telling the truth. What if there was no money coming? He was slightly concerned more about going to prison than about not being able to open the hot tub store, “Of course there is, your family is loaded.”

“My dad is loaded,” she corrected, “and he likes to keep his money for himself.”

Nick gulped loudly, and he knew she heard it too, “Whatever you want to think, fine. Now, if you’re quiet for the next couple of hours so I can get some shut eye maybe I’ll bring you some food.”

Elena laughed, “Yeah right like I’ll eat anything you give me! It’s probably poisoned!” 

“Why would I poison you? That would sort of defeat the purpose of you being here. I could have poisoned you at your house,” Nick deadpanned.

It was a good thing it was dark so he couldn’t see her blush with embarrassment. It was getting lighter though and Elena could see him pretty well through the light now. She stalled him for a few moments by stumbling over some words, long enough to get a real feel for what he looked like (despite the mask), “I guess you’re right. Okay fine, I’ll be quiet. Enjoy your nap,” she relented. 

“Thank God,” Nick muttered and moved to close the door.

“By the way,” Elena called out and Nick looked back into the room, “Those are some mighty distinctive tattoos you have. It’ll make it really easy for me to help identify you to the Police, so thanks for that.”

Under the mask Nick’s eyes went wide and he slammed the door shut quickly, “FUCK!” he yelled out, kicking the door a few times. He hadn’t even thought that he wasn’t wearing a shirt and even though she couldn’t see his face he could be eventually identified by his multiple tattoos. 

He knew it was true; he’d seen it happen on America’s Most Wanted. He was screwed. He only hoped her memory was not as good as she boasted it to be.

He knew she was doing on purpose, he just knew it because it was so typical of a spiteful, hateful, evil bitch. Every time he would start to drift off to sleep she would start yelling again. He’d given up going down there long ago, not having the energy anymore to go running down the hall to yell at her.

‘Why couldn’t this music guy’s kid been a boy? Why did it have to be a woman?’ Nick grumbled to himself, the other guys were probably snoring away in their bedrooms upstairs and he had yet to sleep at all. AJ and Howie both worked in the evening, and Brian had the day off so he didn’t expect to see any of them downstairs any time soon. 

He finally relented and got up; throwing on a random hooded sweatshirt that had been lying on the back of the chair. Nick rubbed his eyes as he made coffee, throwing the filter and the coffee into the maker before dramatically pressing the button. Once it was made he poured out two mugs, topping his off with cream and sugar. He thought for a moment then walked over to the locked door, unbolting everything before putting the mask back on.

“Do you want some coffee?” he asked the girl who was now lying on the mattress (Brian had been smart enough to remove everything from Nick’s room save for his mattress– where his stuff was now remained a mystery.)

“What kind of kidnapper are you?” Elena asked, finding this guy so bizarre. It was like he wanted more than anything to be a tough guy but at the same time was offering her beverages and snacks like it was tea time at Buckinham Palace. (If Buckingham Palace smelled like sweat socks and stale beer, that is.)

“Do you want coffee or do you want nothing? Take your pick.”

She sighed and sat up on the mattress, “Yes, fine, I’ll have some. I take milk.”

“I only have cream,” Nick informed her.

“You don’t have milk?” she asked, genuinely surprised.

“No, I don’t. This isn’t a fucking restaurant!” he could not believe the audacity of this girl. Sure she was rich and probably pampered but seriously, when your kidnapper is offering you luxuries you don’t complain. 

“I’ll take what you have, keep your panties on!” Elena barked and she saw him visibly flinch. She was a good reader of people, and she knew exactly what type of person he was. He wasn’t in charge of this operation, he wasn’t the kidnapper he was the sidekick. The sidekick never thinks for his or her self. They’re told what to do, and Elena knew that this guy definitely spent a lot of time getting told what to do. Those were the types of people she crushed on a daily basis. 

He shut the door then grabbed the mug that he’d poured for her (resisting the urge to jerk off into it) and left it just inside the room. 

“How will I see the mug?” Elena questioned.

Nick let out a frustrated sigh and shrugged his shoulders, “How do blind people drink coffee?”

“Touché,” she said, hoping she would have been able to trick him into getting her some light. Maybe he wasn’t as big of a pushover as she thought. 

“What?”

She chuckled, “It’s French, it’s used to acquiesce a point as true.”

Nick scoffed, “Yeah I knew that, I meant what for…oh never mind! Here’s your coffee I’ll be back to check on you later.”

Elena moved to grab the mug as he closed the door and she smiled to herself as she heard him bolting it back up. If her father wasn’t going to pay her ransom (like she knew he wouldn’t) then she would just have to get herself out and she knew exactly how she could do it. She didn’t know who the real kidnapper was like but she had a feeling she could wear that guy down in no time. If there was anything valuable she’d learned from her father it was how to be cutthroat and find the weaknesses in even the best of people. 

“What the hell does acquiesce mean anyway?” Nick grumbled to himself as he sipped his coffee at the table. 

He couldn’t believe she’d managed to manipulate him so well, and so quickly. He wasn’t sure if he should mention it to Brian because he didn’t want to seem like even more of a chump than he normally was. The girl had seen his tattoos (probably somehow memorized them) and could completely confuse him with her fancy, educated words. He’d expected her to be frantic and scared but he was fairly certain he was more afraid of her than she was of him. She was too smart for her own good (or maybe his own good) and that worried him. He didn’t want to have to use plan B. 

When they were thinking up the arrangements for the whole thing Nick had suggested just using a room, no restraints. He, of course, didn’t want to hurt anybody. Regardless of that Howie had gotten things like handcuffs and blindfolds just in case things got out of hand. The only thing they had that Nick wasn’t allowed to touch was Brian’s gun. It was off limits, and only a last resort. Brian for some reason didn’t trust Nick with that kind of firepower. Maybe it was that time when they were kids and Nick shot Brian in the face with a pellet gun that deemed the younger man unreliable. Sometimes when Nick noticed the scar on Brian’s cheek he laughed to himself secretly, and didn’t feel guilty.

“Good morning,” Brian said and Nick jumped a foot out of his seat with shock. He hadn’t heard anyone up, let alone anyone enter the room.

“Actually it’s after noon,” Nick pointed out, “Why are you up?”

Brian shrugged, “Just couldn’t sleep,” he said as he opened the fridge.

“There’s coffee.”

“There’s no milk,” Brian interrupted, turning to look at Nick, “Why didn’t you buy more?”

“I didn’t use the last of it!” Nick defended, “Whoever finished the container should have bought more.”

“Whatever Nick,” Brian rolled his eyes, “Just get off your ass and go get some today. I’ll give you a list.”

Nick glared at Brian’s back as he turned away and sighed. Nick do this, Nick do that, Nick buy milk, Nick watch the girl, Nick don’t leave your dirty underwear on the bathroom floor, all they had were demands. He felt like Cinderella, the next step was for him to be on the floor washing the individual tiles with a toothbrush. He needed to start standing up for himself, he’d let them rule his life for…well, all of it.

“Why don’t you go buy milk?” he asked, puffing his chest slightly as if to show Brian he meant business. 

Brian simply rolled his eyes at the blonde, taking a bite out of a piece of bread, “Shut up. Just go buy milk,”

“Yeah okay,” Nick nodded with a sigh, so much for standing up for himself. 

“Have you checked on her?” Brian asked, motioning towards the door.

“Yeah, I brought her some coffee earlier, she seems okay,” the blonde shrugged.

Brian eyed him suspiciously for a moment, “Don’t let her get the upper hand okay? I know how you can be, especially with women. Don’t let her take advantage of you. We’re giving you this opportunity to prove to us that you’re going to be a valuable salesperson at Tiger River Spa and Jacuzzi.”

“Tiger River?” Nick asked, holding back his laughter.

“AJ came up with it; both Howie and I liked it.”

“I think that name is stupid,” Nick said honestly, “Thanks for asking for my input.”

“We just figured you’d never be able to make up your mind on a name anyway,” Brian shrugged.

“Wow, you sure are lucky you’re my best friend or I might start to question the amount of confidence you have in me.”

Brian reached over and ruffled Nick’s hair with a smile, “You love it, besides even if you did get mad what would you do? Second guess me to death or just apologize to me for getting angry?”

“I’d try to second guess you to death first,” Nick warned, trying to sound stern. 

“Ooh, I’m scared. I’ll make you out that grocery list.”

Nick nodded and put down his mug, getting ready for another day of being Cinderella.

Nick strolled up and down the aisle of the grocery store, meticulously checking off things from the list that Brian had given him before he’d left the house. 

Long ago he had developed an excuse, reasoning, for all of the abuse he took from his friends. It was a fairly reasonable explanation in his mind: he hadn’t had a job in a very long time. Even though they were making good money with their scam business, everyone held down part time jobs. It was less conspicuous that way and really you couldn’t be conning people all of the time or you’d draw attention to yourself. It was a seasonal gig, a six months out of the year type deal. Howie, AJ and Brian didn’t want to be sitting on their butts for six months doing nothing so they had jobs to do in the meantime. Part time jobs, or full time jobs, weren’t for Nick. He simply wasn’t good at them. He had his three friends and those were really the only people who he got along with and that understood him so he frequently argued with other employees and managers at what jobs he had managed to get. After a string of getting fired and quitting numerous jobs Nick had decided it was enough and for the time they weren’t scamming people he sat on his butt every day and did nothing. He watched soap operas, he watched talk shows, and just sat. 

It annoyed Brian to no end that Nick did nothing. The house that they all lived in belonged to Brian. His mother had died when he was a teenager and she had left him the house, so they didn’t pay very much rent. They did pay rent though, and Nick missed his payments a lot. He was sure that if Brian ever gave him a bill for all of the times he missed rent, or utilities, it would be at least a year’s worth of salary for a regular person. 

Because of that, the housework was left up to Nick including the grocery shopping. He didn’t completely agree with it, and wished that every now and then when AJ used the last piece of bread, he would just go buy another one on his way home from work. Instead they would ignore it and let Brian flip out, or just add it to the list of things posted on the fridge for Nick to get from the store. 

He threw four loaves of bread into the basket (they went through bread faster than the homeless guy outside the Publix went through booze) and continued down into the cookie aisle. Nick stopped in front of the cookies, looking over them. None of them were really big cookie eaters, but if he remembered anything from his past girlfriends it was that girls were. Comfort food they called it, he preferred to think of it as ass padding. None the less, he thought to himself that maybe Elena would like some. He knew that buying her something from the grocery store was probably completely wrong, and against some sort of kidnapper code of conduct, but he felt bad for her. He’d hated the idea from the beginning, and still hated it now. If she was right and her dad wasn’t going to pay then she was going to be with them for a while, so why not make her comfortable?

“Brian doesn’t have to know,” he said to himself as he threw some Oreos into the basket. 

He continued to shop, picking up a few more things before heading home to unpack it all. As he pulled into the driveway he realized that both Howie and Brian had gone out but there was another car by the garage, one that made him cringe. There wasn’t a person on Earth that Nick hated as much as Carrie Martinez. She and Nick were the same age and back in middle school she and her friends would torment him to no end for every reason imaginable. Now though, she had somehow managed to use her feminine wiles to blind AJ and convince him to date her. 

Date, he scoffed internally, they didn’t date. They stayed in and had sex while she got high, which was their routine. 

Nick picked up some of the groceries from the trunk of his car and brought them inside, listening for a moment to see if he knew how much time he had before Carrie would be downstairs. He didn’t hear any noise so he put down the bags and leaned further out the kitchen door into the hallway. 

Nick jumped as he suddenly felt a hand snake around his hip and reach down, squeezing his crotch. He yelled and spun around, surprised to see Carrie standing there in nothing but her underwear. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” he snapped and she giggled lightly. 

“I was wondering what it would take to break your concentration,” she shrugged. 

Nick growled, “Don’t ever touch me,”

“Awe, do you still think girls are icky?” Carrie asked condescendingly. 

Nick glared at her and shook his head, “No, just you.”

Carrie chuckled to herself then sat down on the kitchen table, eyeing him. Nick tried to look away but regardless of how much he loathed her, she was still a woman in her underwear and he was still male. Carrie grinned evilly and slowly opened her legs, watching Nick’s eyes graze downward.

“Gotcha,” she laughed, snapping her legs closed.

“Fuck you,” Nick defensively crossed his arms over his chest, “That’s not even funny.”

She continued to smile, looking Nick over, “You know what I think is funny? I’m the only person you can stand up to.”

“What are you talking about?” 

“Admit it, you can’t say ‘boo’ to Brian, and the other two use you like their personal man servant. So out of everyone in this house, it’s me who you can actually talk back to,”

Nick rolled his eyes, “And I suppose you’re going to tell me why you think that is.”

“Of course,” she grinned, “You don’t want Brian mad at you because that might ruin the fantasy that someday he’ll realize that he’s gay too, and want to give you the cock you’ve been craving all this time.”

“Get out!” Nick roared at her, having to resist the urge to pick her up and toss her out the door. He angrily left the kitchen and stalked down the hallway towards his room, forgetting that he wasn’t currently occupying the space. 

“You don’t scare me,” Carrie shrugged then got off the table and followed him. When they reached Nick’s room she raised her eyebrows curiously, “Why is your bedroom locked from the outside?”

“I uh, I, got, uh, a dog! Yeah, I got a dog and it is mean, really mean,” he said. His bedroom was off to the side, just off the living room on the main floor so unless you went to it you wouldn’t have to walk past it. AJ must have anticipated that Carrie would be nowhere near Nick’s room because if she had been it would mean that one of them was dead. 

Carrie eyed him suspiciously, “Let me see it.”

“No,” Nick told her, keeping his eyes on the door in hopes that Elena wouldn’t make a sound. 

“Let me see it,” she repeated more sternly, knowing that Nick could only take so much before he would crack. 

“The dog is ugly anyway,” AJ’s voice interrupted and Nick let out a sigh of relief. 

“Oh, I didn’t hear you come down,” Carrie said, slinking over to him. 

“Let’s leave Nick alone so he can unpack his groceries,” AJ told her, pulling his girlfriend away from the area completely. 

Nick leaned his head against the wall, glad that he didn’t have to try to talk his way out of the situation. He wondered for a few moments if Carrie was the only one who thought he couldn’t stand up to Brian because he was gay. He would hate it if his friends thought that too because he wasn’t, but saying “boo” as Carrie put it just gave him too much stress and nervousness. He avoided confrontation all together. Which is why when they were doing their scams, Nick was never out in the field. The other guys would go door to door, they would call people, they were real con artists but Nick, with his inability to talk anyone into anything was the numbers guy. He crunched the numbers, told them what needed to be made, made sure they had convincing materials to get people to believe them, and he did it all without having to interact with anyone. He liked things better that way.

He finished unpacking the groceries and put the things he’d gotten for Elena off to the side. He was worried about giving them to her but knew that it was no time like the present. With Howie and Brian out of the house there would be no one to interrupt or tell him he shouldn’t have gotten her anything. 

Nick stared at the few small times before mustering the courage to bring them in to her. He unlocked the door then put on his ski mask before knocking lightly. Without waiting for a response he walked into the dark room, wondering what she was doing. 

The light from outside shone on the mattress and Nick realized he couldn’t see her anywhere. 

“Hello?” he asked curiously, stepping into the room. Out of nowhere movement caught the corner of his eye and he turned just in time to catch Elena’s arm before she hit him in the head with the coffee mug from earlier. He held onto her wrist tightly until she dropped it and it broke into two pieces as it hit the floor, “Did you honestly think you were going to knock me out with a mug?” he asked. 

“Well, yeah,” she replied, moving away from the door. 

Nick was about to give her the things he’d got at the store when he realized it had been all day since he’d brought her coffee, “Do you need to, you know, go?”

“I need to go home!” Elena sighed, “And yes, I need to go.”

Nick nodded then reached just outside the door for one of the blindfolds that Howie had pinned up on the wall (he was always prepared). He put it securely over Elena’s eyes then led her to the room just next door, otherwise known as “Nick’s bathroom” which consisted of a toilet, a sink and a little shelf for him to put things like his toothbrush on. 

“The door doesn’t lock,” Nick informed her, “so don’t bother trying. I’ll close the door but don’t take too long. Tell me when you’re done.”

She had been in there for a while before Nick decided to knock on the door. 

“Is everything alright?” he asked and he heard her say no, “What’s wrong?” 

“This is so embarrassing,” Elena muttered, “But uh, I sort of started my period.”

Nick winced at the sound of the word and its implications and wondered what the problem was, “So?”

“Well I don’t exactly have anything with me,” she said and a light went on above Nick’s head. 

“Oh,” he nodded and thought for a moment, “I’ll uh... I’ll see what I can do.”

Nick closed the door again, thinking to himself that he didn’t want to go back out to the store, especially not for tampons or whatever it was that she wanted. Nick secretly wanted to kill Brian for getting them into this. No, getting him into this. The rest of them didn’t have to deal with her being a smart ass, or trying to hit them with mugs, or making them go get her feminine hygiene products. 

Nick checked the door quickly then moved down the hall, all the while keeping his eye in that direction. He didn’t need her to realize he wasn’t standing next to the door anymore and try to bolt. Once he got to the front hall he spied Carrie’s purse sitting by the stairs. He did a quick check to see if anyone was around then picked it up, looking inside. 

“Bingo,” he grinned, pulling out a little clear makeup kit that had some tampons inside. He heard a noise from upstairs so rather than take them out he just took the whole kit and brought it back to the bathroom where Elena hadn’t tried to escape, “Can I open the door?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Elena said, feeling like this would put her at a disadvantage in her manipulation but after all, she did get him to do something for her. She had thought about making a run for it, but she didn’t know what was outside of the room and whether the guy had a gun.

Nick opened the door and tossed the bag inside. He heard quiet for a few moments before Elena finally whispered through the door, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he told her, leaning his head back against the doorframe.

“Have I mentioned that you’re a terrible kidnapper?” Elena questioned as Nick walked her back from the bathroom. 

He took the makeup kit from her hand and stuck it in the pocket of his sweater and nodded though she couldn’t see him for the blindfold, “A couple of times yeah.”

“Well it’s true. You should be meaner or something.”

“Do you want me to be mean?” he asked and she shook her head negatively.

“No, it’s just hard to hate you when you’re being nice to me,” she admitted and Nick took off her blindfold as soon as they were back in the room. 

“It’s okay to hate me still, I hate me,” he made sure she was sitting on the mattress then turned on a high power flash light, illuminating the room, “This is for you,” he said, putting it on the floor so the beam hit the ceiling and spread.

“Why keep me here in the dark only to give me a light?” she wondered, looking at the bright blue light.

“It wasn’t my idea to keep you here in the dark, I think it’s stupid. Even if you see what colour the walls are, I doubt you’ll be able to identify us from it. I didn’t like the thought of you sitting here in the dark all day so I bought that. But,” he stressed, “Make sure the light is never pointed towards the door, and if you hear the door unlocking never assume it’s me so keep the light off.”

“So there’s more than one of you?” she asked. 

Nick groaned, frustrated that he had revealed more information to her, “Never mind, just do it. I’m not telling you for my safety, it’s for yours.”

“Alright,” she nodded, “Thanks again. Like I said, it’s getting sort of tough to hate you,” but not tough to know I’ll have you wrapped around my finger in no time, she thought to herself. 

“I also…I mean, I’m not sure if you like them or whatever and if you don’t it’s fine but I bought you these,” he tossed the Oreos in her direction, watching her face light up with a laugh. 

“You bought me cookies? Are you trying to fatten me up so you can eat me?” she joked.

Nick turned red, taking her words slightly different than they’d been intended, “No, actually you could use a little meat on your bones,” he slapped himself in the head, once again having spoken too much, “Just forget I said anything, it’s easier that way.”

“So I should just ignore you like your friends do?” she asked and Nick wondered just how much she really knew. He hadn’t revealed anything to her before, she already knew there were other people in the house.

“What do you mean?” he played dumb. 

“The walls in this place are kind of thin, it seems like it’s an old house. I know this is your bedroom, I know one of your friends bosses you around, and I know it must be annoying to have to listen to the two of them upstairs having sex in the middle of the afternoon. I’m not stupid; I’m paying attention to everything that goes on. I plan on getting out of here,” she said bluntly. She definitely had Nick worried, she could see from what little light there was that he was sweating. Sure he was trying to be sweet with the light and the cookies, but she would be more than happy to see him in prison for kidnapping her. 

“How did you know this was my bedroom?” he asked first of all.

“I heard you stuttering like a fool about a dog right outside the door. Maybe rather than a blindfold you should have invested in some earmuffs or something if you’re that concerned about me hearing things. You know, egg cartons work great for sound proofing a room. I learned that from my dad.”

Nick’s demeanour suddenly turned dark and he snapped at her, “I’m not a fool!”

“Right,” Elena said sarcastically with a nod, “You just let everyone believe you are! If you were smart, you wouldn’t let everyone walk all over you.”

“I don’t!” he challenged.

“What do you think I’m doing right now? Hell, I’m your captive and I’m telling you off and you’re letting me!”

Nick wanted to hit her, he really did. He had never wanted to hurt a girl as much as he wanted to hurt this one but she had a point no matter how much he didn’t want to admit it, “You can’t possibly understand what it’s like to be in my position.”

“Why not?” she asked curiously. 

Nick glanced around quickly then walked into the room, shutting the door behind him, “You’re rich. You’ve got everything you could ever ask for. You live in that mansion, with servants and cooks and shit. I have to struggle to keep my place around here. More and more I start to see them leaning towards getting rid of me. Not killing me you know, just sending me on my merry way. I don’t like people yelling at me, I don’t like people telling me what to do but I don’t know what else to do. I don’t want to make someone angry.”

“You’re not much of a people person are you?” 

He shrugged, “No, I guess not.”

“You know,” Elena leaned back on the mattress, wondering why she was going to give this loser advice, maybe she felt sorry for his situation more than she wanted to let on, “It’s not candy and roses for me. I have two parents who have very aggressive personalities and much like you found myself constantly being picked at and poked at, and I just learned to stand up for myself. You see the house and it isn’t mine, the cars which aren’t mine, the money, still not mine, and you assume my life is great. It’s not! I get told what to do constantly, just like you do. I get told what to wear, how to talk, my parents monitor everyone I talk to, everything about my life. I’m twenty years old and I have a curfew. What is so great about that?”

“It’s not great,” Nick admitted with a shrug, “I guess looking at your world we only really see the shell, and not what’s inside.”

“No one ever does,” Elena said sadly. 

“I really shouldn’t be in here talking to you,” Nick quickly grabbed what he’d brought in, and the pieces of the mug then opened the door, “I’ll see you later.”

“I’ll be here,” she grinned cheekily. 

Nick nodded then closed the door, locking everything back up. He knew he shouldn’t have talked to her for so long but it seemed like it was the first real conversation that he’d had in a long time. Sure, she’d called him a fool and essentially weak but it was a lot less than he normally got. She actually had some good advice, and he knew it. He should be getting stronger with every jab that Howie, AJ or Brian got in but instead he just folded to their demands. He never used to be such a pushover. Well, he’d always been a pushover, but never such a big one. 

Growing up Brian was Nick’s neighbour and despite their age difference they would play together after school and during the summer. Every time they would play outside it would be the same. Brian would tell him what they were playing, he would tell him what character he was going to be, how he was going to act it out, and what specific things he was not allowed to do. Rather than complain that Brian was bossy Nick went along with it. After all, he didn’t want to hurt his friendship with the older boy.

They didn’t start hanging out with AJ and Howie until Nick was in middle school. Every time Nick got beat up, he would turn to the other three to seek retribution for him. So for each time they beat up a bully who’d hurt him he would do something for them. Get them candy, give them his pogs or trading cards, steal from the grocery store and generally be subservient. It was now an old habit that Nick couldn’t get out of. He always felt like he owed them something and they always made it seem like he did. 

He didn’t though, he knew that. He needed to listen to Elena and stand up to them. If he had just done that in the first place she might not even be there. He might have been able to convince them that it was a bad idea. Instead, he’d gone along with it like he had done everything else in his entire life and now he was stuck; stuck in a position that could possibly have him spending the rest of his life in prison if it didn’t work out. 

Nick was in too deep and he knew it. He just didn’t know how he was going to get out of it without taking a stand. 

“Did you go through my purse?” 

Nick looked up from his daydreaming to see both AJ and Carrie standing at the living room door, “What?” he asked.

“You went through my purse!” she accused again and Nick subconsciously put his hand on his pocket where Carrie’s makeup kit was. 

“What are you talking about?” 

“My purse was open at the bottom of the stairs and the only person down here is you!” she yelled, noticing Nick protecting his pocket, “What’s in your hand?”

“Nothing,” Nick replied sheepishly but Carrie, who thankfully was now dressed, was quickly on him like a virus trying to pry his hand away from his pocket. They struggled but she eventually won after fighting dirty and bending one of his fingers back. 

“Ow! Fuck! Why would you do that?” he exclaimed, cradling his hand.

“Why would you take my makeup?” Carrie inquired, completely confused as to why Nick would need it. 

“You know how Nick is,” AJ said as he came over to them, “He was probably trying some of it on. Not really your colours though, buddy.”

Carrie glared at Nick, looking him up and down, “Freak. I told you he was gay,” she added to AJ then rushed from the room. 

“Thanks for defending me!” Nick snapped, pushing AJ’s shoulder. 

“Why did you have it?” AJ asked point blank. 

“Our little friend got her little friend and I kinda had to improvise,” he spoke in code but AJ seemed to understand. 

“Alright, but don’t do it again.”

Nick glared at his friend, “Don’t do it again? Why don’t you tell her to stay away from me? And how come she can get away with calling me gay and grabbing my dick and you don’t say anything?”

“Nick, get over it,” AJ rolled his eyes.

“NO!” Nick yelled and the smaller man was shocked to hear the blonde speak out. He had been expecting the next words out of his mouth to be ‘okay’.

“Alright,” AJ held his hands up in mock surrender, “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again,” something about the attitude of Nick’s voice made AJ realize that he was serious.

Nick was a few times bigger than him and although it had never happened, he didn’t want to fight him because he had a feeling he’d most definitely lose. He would give him the benefit of the doubt this time, but he needed to tell Brian about Nick’s sudden decision to be a man.

There was once a time in Brian’s life where he wanted to be nothing more than a successful lawyer. His father was a lawyer and even though he’d never met the man he had heard a lot of stories of his successes and strived to be like him. In the end though, he had ended up like the real version of his father; lying, conniving, slick, and determined. 

It was Brian who had come up with the idea for the four of them to start conning people out of their hard earned money. He was the idea man. He came up with the ideas, planned them out, AJ and Howie made them happen because they were the action men and Nick did the work that the rest of them didn’t have any interest in doing, he was the assistant. He thought Nick was better suited for the fast food industry (since he was very good at being told what to do) but he couldn’t even handle that much to Brian’s dismay. He sometimes wished that he didn’t love the kid so much. Howie and AJ had tried to convince him multiple times to get rid of Nick because he was the ball and chain tied to their ankles sometimes but Brian just couldn’t do it. He and Nick had grown up together; they had a bond that Brian just couldn’t break.

Making bonds was also the key to success in any good scam. They were then left with the conundrum of how to do that. It was, of course, Brian who came up with the brilliant idea. That key was landscaping. They all got jobs at landscaping companies, doing lawns and gardens and most importantly looking at the type of people who lived in prospective ritzy neighbourhoods. In the end they found out it was more brilliant than they’d originally imagined. Wealthy (sometimes even upper middle class) men had lazy wives. They would stay at home and give Brian, Howie and AJ prime opportunity to reel them in. Of course, Nick was excluded from his brilliance. The last thing Brian needed was that bumbling fool blowing it for them. He couldn’t convince a lion to eat him. 

Brian was even starting to question leaving Nick in charge of their hostage. He didn’t think she would get away, it wasn’t that. Physically Nick was very useful. If Brian were in the mafia Nick would be his bodyguard for sure. He was good for physically demanding work. There had been a few times where either Brian or the other guys had to rely on Nick to get them out of a tricky situation by roughing someone up. Although, if the person getting the crap beat out of them had any time to speak, it probably wouldn’t be too hard to get Nick to stop. That’s what was worrying him. Brian had a feeling that the girl was much smarter than Nick, and was going to trick him into doing something stupid. 

There was also something lingering (that Howie had brought up) that given Nick’s lack of success and extreme anxiety with women she might just have a feminine advantage over the young man. Women were good like that, it was something Brian admired. He only wished he could be as cunning as they could be sometimes. They would just have to keep a close eye on what was happening with the girl. 

Picking her had been easy. Brian had been hired to tend to the landscaping on her family’s estate. Every time he went over she would be there, laying poolside tanning or playing tennis in their backyard court. She was spoiled, and she knew it and Brian thought she would be a perfect target. He had some hesitation about the father. Kevin Richardson was a stern, straightforward, go getter who didn’t take bullshit from anyone. Anyone, but his wife; she was the means to success. Kevin wouldn’t want to part with a cent but Brian knew that Dana Richardson would not let her daughter stay kidnapped for very long. 

It had only been a day since Howie had sent them the ransom note, but the activity outside the house as Brian pulled up in his van was a flurry of policemen and FBI agents. Little did they know that the van pulling up the driveway was the same van that carried their daughter off just a few days prior.

Brian adapted a wide eyed, shocked expression as he stepped out of the van and was immediately approached by the police wondering who he was. 

“He’s just the gardener!” Kevin said, waving off all the commotion. 

“Everyone is a suspect right now,” Agent Morris said and Brian just pretended to not know what was happening. 

“I don’t understand... a suspect?” he asked, looking innocent. Nick had suggested that he shouldn’t go to work, but that would only draw attention to them. An employee suddenly absent at the same time as a crime was instantly suspect to the investigators. 

“Mr. Richardson’s daughter was kidnapped late Sunday night,” Morris explained, looking Brian up and down. His coveralls were green and had the insignia of the landscaping company on the chest. He would probably check out through the FBI’s computers. He’d never been arrested so they had no reason not to trust him.

“Oh my god,” Brian gasped, “This is the first time I’ve been here since last week, I had no idea.”

Morris looked to Kevin for some sort of recognition that Brian was telling the truth.

“I told you! He’s just the gardener! Now can we start looking for the real culprit?” Kevin demanded, annoying that they were taking time to question someone as insignificant as Brian. 

Agent Morris nodded then turned his lanky frame back to Brian, “Alright, but I want you to take my card. If you think of anything you might think we’d be interested in just give me a call day or night.”

“Absolutely officer,” Brian smiled inside as the Agent cringed at the incorrect term, “I don’t know what I could possible know, but if I think of anything at all then I’ll call you right away!”

The FBI seemed to buy his innocence and Brian was pleased. Not only was he cleared (for now) by the girl’s father, but he had a perfectly good reason to hang around the house and listen in on everything that was going on. 

He took out his tools, casually watching the officials working around him. There were dogs trying to pick up scents, people from the neighbourhood being interviewed, and cops just chatting amongst themselves. 

Brian picked a spot close to the open French doors where the Richardsons sat talking with Agent Morris and woman who he could only assume was the man’s partner. 

“We have a team working on looking for evidence on the ransom note,” Agent Sampson said, writing notes in her little notebook, “They haven’t sent us anything else, and we don’t have any other way of contacting them other than the drop off point for next week so we’re sort of hoping they make contact with us again.”

“It’s not going to matter because I’m not going to pay,” Kevin said firmly, running a hand through his short hair. 

“Don’t say that!” Dana snapped, “We are too going to pay that’s our daughter!”

“I’m not giving in to these people! They’re not getting my money and they’re returning her unscathed and that’s just the way it is going to be!” he was firm and steadfast and that worried Brian a little. 

He trimmed the rose bushes, the hedges, cut the grass, and did everything on his list of duties before it was time to pack it in. 

Brian had acquired a lot of valuable information from his day at work. The police had no ideas as to who was behind the kidnapping and no leads, which was perfect. They wanted to keep it that way. It seemed as if so far they were getting away with the whole plan. On the downside, Kevin had absolutely no intention of paying the ransom. Dana was trying to talk her husband into it, and maybe Brian assumed that she had more swing that she really did because he wasn’t going for it. Terrorists, he’d called them, and Kevin Richardson did not negotiate with terrorists. He was kind of like the United Nations. 

That would be a problem; Brian was banking on the wife talking her husband into paying the money. He would have to discuss it with his partners but he was thinking that some more serious measures would have to be taken. They would have to prove to Richardson that they meant business and that the ransom note wasn’t just idle threats. It was a setback, but it was a minor one, and nothing they couldn’t overcome with a little thought. 

The entire way back to the house Brian considered what he would be willing to do for the money. If the police had let on while he was there that they had any leads, he might let her go. She didn’t have anything on them, and if Kevin wasn’t going to pay and the police were anywhere close to finding them it would probably be worth it. No one would suspect them afterwards so they could just pretend it never happened. That was always a possibility in case anything changed in the future but for now the only thing they had to contend with was the money. How did he make Kevin give them the money? 

It was Tuesday, the deadline on the ransom note specified Monday. He had six days to make plans.

“So you don’t think he’s going to pay?” Howie asked, his voice hushed as he, Brian and AJ sat in the kitchen discussing what Brian had overheard at the Richardson’s that day.

“I’m really beginning to think he won’t,” Brian admitted with a heavy sigh, “Maybe we should abandon the whole thing just drop her somewhere and let her find her way home?”

“Fuck no!” AJ snapped, shaking his head, “We’ve come this far, and we’re going to get that asshole to pay!”

“How do you propose we do that?” Brian questioned in an exasperated voice. 

AJ thought for a moment, a million different ideas swirling in his head but he had to choose the correct one, “We show him that we’re not just screwing around here, and that his daughter is in serious trouble.”

“I’m still waiting for some inspiration here. It’s easy to say that we need to show him, but how do we do that?”

“Well,” AJ rubbed his chin, “If he sees she’s in rough shape he’s going to want to get her out of here as soon as possible.”

“Hold up though,” Brian held his hands up in front of him, “It’s going to look suspicious if we start following up asking for cash at this point. The deadline hasn’t even passed yet. We should wait until Monday and find out whether or not he pays before we actually go ahead and do anything rash.”

“No, waiting would be wrong!” AJ shook his head, “We need to be ready to move the second we don’t have the money. When Howie knows they’re not coming he sends the pictures, or video or whatever we decide on, of his daughter battered and broken and the guy will feel like the worst person on earth.”

“I don’t know,” Howie said sceptically, “You heard what Brian said about him thinking we’re terrorists, what if that just pisses the guy off more?”

“You have to trust me on this one, he’s not going to want to see his poor little daughter’s face mangled,” AJ said confidently and Howie’s eyes went wide.

“Is there really no other option here? Kidnapping is one thing but assaulting a defenceless girl is something completely different. Would any of us even have the balls to go in there and hit her?” Howie asked and Brian knew he was right, “It’s a very big step to go from kidnapping someone to trying to harm them; a step equalled out in many, many, years should we ever get caught.”

“Really, I agree with Howie,” Brian sighed, “I only thought of maybe sending him some photos of her tied up, not hurt!”

AJ rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, “Do you honestly think he’s going to see some photo of her with one of Howie’s lame blindfolds and maybe a gag and think to himself that he has to pay immediately? Highly unlikely, from what you’ve told me about him he’ll probably think to himself that she’s got no bruises, doesn’t look sick or malnourished, so she’s probably alright and he can put off paying for a little while longer. We need to make a statement here!”

“Brian, I completely disagree, but in the end it’s up to you,” Howie conceded, throwing his hands up. 

Brian ran his hands over his hair, weighing their options. As much as his heart agreed with Howie, his brain most definitely knew that AJ was completely right; sometimes being in charge of an operation required rash decisions.

“Alright AJ,” Brian nodded and he tried to ignore the disapproving look on Howie’s face, “We’ll go with your suggestion but it’s all up to you. Howie will be in charge of the processing and mailing but nothing more than that.”

“No problem,” AJ shrugged, “I’ll just get Nick to do it.”

Brian’s nostrils flared, “No! You know he won’t do that!”

“It won’t take much to make him.”

“I said no,” Brian repeated sternly, “You know how Nick feels about that, he won’t hit her. You want this to go down; you’re going to do it yourself not try and pass of responsibility to someone else.”

“Fine,” AJ told him, not wanting to argue about it. He had no problem with walking in there and roughing her up a little. She wasn’t someone he knew or cared about, and he figured that Nick would probably feel the same way but Brian knew all, and Brian said no so that was the only option he had. 

“Speaking of…” Howie spoke up, changing the subject, “Have either of you noticed that Nick is acting awfully strange?”

“How is he acting strange?” Brian wondered, but AJ was quick to interrupt.

“He yelled at me yesterday!” AJ said with shock apparent in his voice, “I think taking care of the girl has gone to his head.”

“No,” Brian disagreed, “That’s not like him. There must be something else. He snapped at me over some milk, but went back to his old ways fairly quickly. Maybe he’s just in a bad mood?”

“Maybe he’s worried that if something goes wrong with this entire scheme he’ll end up sharing a cell with his father,” Howie suggested and the three of them quieted and looked between each other as they thought about the implications of the sentence. 

“This is Nick we’re talking about; do you actually think he would look that far into it?” AJ questioned. 

Nick cleared his throat as he entered the kitchen, not having missed much of their discussion once he was brought up as a topic, “You know you should really wait until I’m not in the house before you start talking about me.”

“We were just expressing our concerns,” Howie explained. 

“Not once has it ever crossed my mind that I would end up in a cell with my father,” Nick shook his head and went over to the fridge to see about a drink, “Besides, my father got downgraded to minimum security for good behaviour. If we were arrested we’d be in maximum security prison.”

“I’m glad you have so much confidence in our little operation here,” AJ said sarcastically.

“I never said were going to get arrested I’m just saying what would happen if we were,” Nick shrugged and took a sip from his glass of orange juice, “What are you guys doing in here all secretive anyway? Are you having meetings without me?”

“Of course not,” Brian shook his head, “It’s just coincidence that we’re all in here.”

“Sure,” Nick said, letting it go as usual. He knew that they were up to something but he also knew that it was highly unlikely that they would let him in on what it was. 

“We were just all in here talking, and we thought something might be up with you,” Brian continued, watching Nick carefully. 

“Nothing is up,” Nick sighed heavily, “I just need to get out of this fucking house. It’s driving me crazy.”

“Is watching her getting to be too much for you?” Howie asked, generally concerned about whether Nick could handle all of the responsibility. 

“No!” Nick shook his head, wishing they had a little more confidence in him.

AJ scoffed loudly, “You might not be so bored from being in this ‘fucking house’ if you got a fucking job and actually did something with your life other than sitting on the couch jerking off to soap operas all day.”

Nick whirled around, glaring at AJ, “This coming from the guy who takes sick days so he can stay home and fuck his dirty ass girlfriend while she snorts lines off the dresser. Give me a break! What’s the point in me getting some stupid part time job when the whole reason we’re doing this is so we can open our store?”

“What?” AJ asked through his roaring laughter, “You actually think we’re going to let you in on this?”

Nick’s expression turned from anger to complete shock, “That’s what the plan has been this entire time. The four of us are doing this, otherwise why the fuck are we here right now?!”

AJ continued to laugh while Howie looked around equally confused and Brian looked embarrassed, “I don’t know what you’ve been hearing or who you’ve been hearing it from but as far as the three of us are concerned you are a complete liability to our store. That’s why you have not been part of anything we’ve done from the building, to the sales pitch, to the wholesaler, to the fucking name!”

“You’ve done all that? You already have the building, and a wholesaler and all that shit?” Nick asked, his jaw lax, “Brian? What is this? What is he talking about?”

Brian looked down at his interlaced fingers on the table then back up at Nick, “I’m sorry I didn’t know how to tell you but we thought it would be best if maybe you weren’t involved.”

“You shouldn’t have led him on,” Howie scolded Brian with a few shakes of his head. 

Nick ran his hands through his hair, looking around the kitchen for answers he knew he’d never find, “I see how it is. Fuck you guys for using me like that,” he whispered, grabbing his sweater from the back of the chair Howie was sitting on.

“Nick, wait!” Brian protested, standing up to head Nick off before the door.

“You lied to me,” Nick said, hurt evident in his voice.

Brian threw his hands up in the air, not knowing how else to explain things to his oldest friend, “That’s what I do.”

Nick took one step out the door then turned back to Brian, “Not to me,” he whispered then left the house, letting the door slam behind him.

“He’ll be back,” AJ said confidently as Nick took off away from the house.

“I’m not so sure,” Brian sighed, looking at the screen door still. 

“Let’s get back down to business,” Howie suggested, trying to ignore what had just happened. They’d broken Nick’s heart, and from the looks of it they’d broken Brian’s spirit in the process. For all the times that they had protected Nick from bullies at school there was one person they could never protect him from, and that was his bully at home. That was why Brian never gave up on him, and why he always had him over to his house even when AJ and Howie were over hanging out. Any time Nick’s father would beat the hell out of him and he would run away he would go next door and Brian would shelter him for the night. Brian had become a self appointed saviour, and they knew that by betraying him Brian felt no higher than the man who had ruined Nick’s adolescence. 

“I should have had more faith in him,” Brian groaned as he sat back down at the table.

“Nick’s a big boy Brian,” Howie told him, “He’ll be okay.”

“I hope so,” Brian said, looking towards the door one last time.

Nick rolled his eyes at the incessant doorbell, not taking his eyes away from the television in front of him. He stretched out on the floral patterned couch with no intention of getting up and getting the door. It was prime time television, all of his favourite shows were on and he wasn’t about to miss it.

“Mom, answer the door!” he yelled as the ringing changed to knocking and still no one opened the door.

“Is there a piano tied to your ass?” his mother yelled from the bedroom and Nick rolled his eyes. 

He slowly made his way to the door of the small house, somewhat surprised when he opened it to see Brian standing on the other side. 

“How did you know I was here?”

“Your mom may have moved, but only a couple blocks away,” Brian said with a chuckle.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, glaring at his former best friend.

“This is ridiculous, it’s been three days. I came to tell you that we’re sorry and we want to let you in on the store,” Brian explained. It had taken some serious convincing but he’d managed to get Howie and AJ to agree to let Nick work for them as a stock boy or in the retail end of the shop, but they wouldn’t agree to give him a partnership in the business. 

“Well I don’t need your pity. I don’t want or need shit from you,” Nick told him stubbornly.

“Look, we feel shitty about what happened and we wanted you to work at Tiger River.”

“Just so you know that is the worst name I’ve ever heard in my life. People are not going to come to your stupid store because it has such a lame name. I had so many better names in mind but no one even asked me,” Nick said. He’d been practicing all of the things that Elena had told him he needed to do, and had found that it was really easy to stand up to people who you knew couldn’t do anything to you. Brian wasn’t his friend; he wasn’t going to lose him as one if he talked back to him so he wasn’t stressed about ‘saying boo’ to him.

Brian crossed his arms across his chest, not having expected it to be such a challenge to get Nick to come back, “I’m sorry to hear you feel that way.”

“Well I do,” Nick shrugged, “I’m tired of you and your friends walking on me. You’ll see pretty soon how difficult it’s going to be for you guys when you don’t have me to shit on. You’ll see how hard it is to keep the house running smoothly when Cinderella’s gone from picking up after everyone.”

Brian laughed, “You make it seem as if we needed you. You were a convenience to us. You were just a butler.”

Nick’s mouth pulled into a firm line, “Where’s my stuff?”

“In the garage,” Brian told him, “We’re getting that money on Monday, and none of it is yours so I would recommend you get your shit and get out of my house as quickly as possible, and if you speak one word of what’s going on at the house to anyone, I’ll kill you. That’s not a threat Nick, I will slit your fucking throat, and I don’t care.”

If there was any truth to anything Brian said Nick knew it was that. Brian didn’t do well with snitches, so if Nick squealed about Elena or any of their plans, he had no doubt that he would be found dead somewhere, “You know I wouldn’t do that. I’m not the one that can’t be trusted here, I’m not dishonest.”

“I don’t know you at all anymore,” Brian said, “You’ve completely changed in the past couple of weeks.”

“For the better,” Nick added.

“Right, because living in your mom’s double wide that you two like to pretend is a house, sleeping on her twenty year old couch and doing her errands is really a step up from what you were doing before.”

“Touché,” he replied, reminded of his conversations with Elena and her use of the word. 

“Do you even know what that means?” Brian asked condescendingly.

Nick grinned, “It’s French it acquiesces a point as true,” he said cockily.

“Who are you?” Brian was completely clueless as to what had gotten into Nick.

“I’m finally myself,” Nick shrugged.

“Until your dad gets out and comes back here and you’ll end up back at my house because you know as well as I do that you can’t stay here.”

Nick moved to grab the door, ready to close it, “Thanks for your visit, I’ll come by and pick my stuff up later.”

“I’m sorry things have gone the way they have Nick, I really am.”

“You’re a really great liar Brian.”

Brian looked up at Nick and smiled, “You’re right, I am.”

Nick slammed the door and quickly pressed his forehead against it. His heart was going a mile a minute. He never thought he would actually be able to do it, to stand up to someone. Physical defence had never been a problem, it was like second nature but having to verbally do it was another ballgame entirely. It took quick thinking, wit, and smarts, and Nick was fairly confident that he did okay. Brian seemed to be put in his place and he was happy about that. They would see soon enough how much Nick really did around the house (he was Cinderella after all) and they would come begging. 

For now though he would have to go gather his things and find a cheap place to live, and a job. Brian was right in saying that Nick couldn’t stay with his mother. For some reason the woman was still married to the man who called himself his father. The same man who for years constantly abused both of them to the point of hospitalization. It came down to laziness for her, but Nick had long ago made it clear to his father that they would never see each other again. Even though they lived a few blocks away, they were not father and son and never would be and for that reason Nick couldn’t be camping out on the ugly floral couch come parole time. 

“Why didn’t you make up with him?” his mother’s angry voice broke his thoughts and Nick turned around to see her standing in front of him, arms crossed across her chest, looking pissed off.

“Why should I make up with him? He’s the one who was an asshole!” Nick defended. 

“What money was he talking about?” she asked, ignoring his statement, “If you were supposed to be coming into some money then go back there and apologize to him!”

Nick sighed and shook his head, “No! There’s no money, there never was. They never had any intention of letting me in on their stupid store.”

“Just when I thought you were good for something…” she grumbled and headed to the kitchen to grab a new pack of cigarettes.

“You should know better than anyone else that I’m not!” Nick said as he walked back towards the couch and the television.

He watched the TV until the news finished and he realized just how late it was. He needed a smoke, but most importantly he needed to go get his things from the house. Night time was going to be the perfect time to avoid the risk of seeing anyone he didn’t want to see. Plus, he only needed to get into the garage so they probably wouldn’t even know he was there. 

Nick grabbed his keys and a sweatshirt and drove the short distance over to Brian’s. He opened the garage and immediately started emptying the boxes with his name on them out of the small garage and into the trunk of his old blue Geo hatchback. 

He didn’t have a lot of belongings. All of the furniture that was in his bedroom had belonged to Brian, so it was just the rest of it that he needed. It didn’t take long to fill his car with what was left for him. It was kind of sad for him to see that everything he owned in the world fit in his small car. 

“Shit, my clothes,” Nick muttered, realizing that the bag he’d been living out of since he moved out of his room was not among the boxes. 

It was in the house. 

“I need to leave the keys anyway,” he reasoned to himself as he let himself into the house. It only took a few seconds to find the black garbage bag full of his clean clothes but Nick felt himself strangely drawn back to the room that used to be his. 

He was unsure about whether he should say goodbye to the girl. In the end though, she might like to know that he was leaving for good, and she probably wasn’t going to get Oreos and flashlights for the next few days. Not that she wouldn’t have already figured that out since it was Saturday night and he’d been gone since Wednesday. 

Against his better judgment Nick grabbed the keys off the wall and unlocked the bedroom. When he opened the door it was complete darkness inside, he couldn’t see or hear movement which he found very peculiar. 

“Are you asleep?” he whispered into the pitch black, stepping into the room. He wished he had a flashlight, or that she had it on. 

“I thought you were gone.”

Nick’s head snapped in the direction of her voice, alarmed by how strange it sounded. It was almost as if there was something in her mouth keeping her from speaking. 

“I came to say goodbye…are you okay? Where’s your flashlight?”

“Also gone,” she replied and Nick started to feel slightly worried by her speech.

“Did something happen?” he asked, trying to keep his voice down just in case someone was awake upstairs.

“I think they know my dad isn’t going to pay,” Elena whispered in return and he could hear how frightened she was through her tone. 

Nick walked outside the door quickly and grabbed a flashlight from the linen closet. It was always there in case of a power outage, which happened pretty frequently in the old house. He turned it on and went back into the bedroom, shining the light around until he found Elena sitting in the corner of the room. 

“Oh my god,” he said once he got a look at her face which was badly bruised. Her speech had been muffled by her fat lip, and she had dried blood caked under her nose and down her chin. 

“They had me read this speech begging my family for the money and recorded it,” she explained, glancing up into the light of the flashlight. 

“Let’s go,” Nick said suddenly, reaching out his hand for her.

“What?” Elena questioned, completely confused as to what he was doing. 

Nick took a quick glance around to make sure that no one was there then turned back to the girl, “We’re getting out of here,” he said, pulling her up off of the floor. He couldn’t believe that they would hit her. If he had been there he would have killed them. He had a distinct feeling that it was AJ’s doing, and it made him seethe with anger. His entire life he’d seen his father bully and beat his mother so there was nothing worse to him than someone who would dare hit a woman. They would pay for it, or rather; they wouldn’t be able to pay. There was no way they’d get the money if they didn’t have a hostage.

“Since when did the sidekick become such a leader?” Elena asked with her voice full of emotions. She couldn’t believe that he was going to take her home. She would have never expected it from him, and she was impressed to say the least.

“Well, some bitchy rich girl talked some sense into me,” Nick said, scooping Elena up into his arms after he sensed that her legs were a little weak. Probably from a lack of food, being hurt, and just sitting in a room for days. He wasn’t even concerned that as soon as he stepped out of the door all of his ski mask wearing would be worthless. She’d be able to see what he looked like, and potentially turn him in when she made it back home but he didn’t care anymore. 

He quietly made his way through the house and out to the car, speeding off into the night and hoping that they would have a few hours before anyone discovered that Elena, their meal ticket, was missing.

“You know I don’t even know your name,” Elena said, looking at the man beside her as he drove down the street seemingly without a direction in mind. 

“It’s Nick,” he replied, keeping his eyes on the road. 

Nick had absolutely no idea where he was going, just like Elena was starting to think. He knew he couldn’t go back to his mother’s house, and he couldn’t think of somewhere else safe to go. 

“Nick, are you taking me home?” Elena asked hopefully but the look on his face told her otherwise. 

“I can’t,” he told her honestly, “Your entire house is crawling with cops. They’ll arrest me and I’m sorry but I just can’t.”

“I’ll tell them you found me!” she promised him, wanting more than anything for him to start driving towards her house. 

“That won’t work,” Nick sighed, “They’ll find a way to frame me for the whole thing!”

“The cops?”

“My friends.”

“Some friends you’ve got there,” she scoffed. 

Nick nodded, “Yeah I just discovered that recently.”

“So where are we going to go?” Elena questioned, looking over at him curiously. 

“I can only think of one place,” Nick sighed and made a right-hand turn in the direction of a friend’s house. Patrick wasn’t really a friend, not even an acquaintance but he knew that if anyone would take him in no questions asked, it would be him, “We’ll lay low for a little while then you can just walk away and show up at your house with no memory of what happened.”

Elena looked down at her hands and sighed, as much as she wanted to go back home right then she didn’t want her rescuer to end up in prison, “Alright, but not for long. I really want to go home.”

“You’ll be home before you know it,” he assured her as they continued their drive deeper into the slums of the city. After a few minutes they pulled up in front of a rundown looking house in a neighbourhood that most people of Elena’s stature would not even get out of their cars.

“Where are we?” Elena asked her voice lined with nervousness, making it apparent that she was afraid of the area.

“I know someone here. He’ll put us up for now,” Nick said, leading her out of the car. They walked up to the dilapidated house and Nick knocked soundly on the door. They waited for a few moments before the door was snapped open only enough for the door chain to be taut. 

A rough looking face appeared in the open space, looking at them sceptically. Though he looked like he was easily over 40, in reality the man on the other side of the door was not even 30. His skin was pale and sallow, his green eyes sunken and bloodshot and a mop of ginger hair atop his head was greasy and unruly.

“Long time no see,” Patrick said gruffly. He grinned at Nick, showing off a set of rotten, stained teeth.

“Yeah sorry I haven’t been by in a while,” Nick shuffled his feet and looked down to the ground, “Do you think I could crash here for a little while?”

“That your girlfriend?”

Nick shook his head and made sure to keep Elena slightly behind him, “No, she’s just a friend. We just need a place to stay for a bit.”

“You got cash?” 

Nick sighed, “No, but you know I’m good for it Pat.”

Patrick looked from Nick to Elena and gave her a very obvious once over. He didn’t seem too shocked to see Nick standing at his door accompanied by a girl wrapped in a sheet and covered with bruises, and had a hard time believing they were just friends, “Yeah alright.”

Nick was relieved when the door shut and they both heard the chain being unlocked. Nick held a hand under Elena’s elbow and pushed her into the house, ignoring the overwhelming smell of dirt, body odour, and drugs. 

“Where are we?” Elena asked, looking at Nick with wide eyes. 

“She wasted?” Patrick asked and Nick looked back and forth between them before nodding.

“Yeah, look I can’t really go into details but we need to lay low for a bit.”

“Cops aren’t looking for you are they?” Patrick was quick to ask.

“No, no, nothing like that,” Nick dismissed, “You won’t even notice we’re here.”

“Why am I absolutely sure of that?” Elena muttered, glancing around into the dirty kitchen where a foot tall pile of dirty dishes was teetering perilously over the sink.

Patrick nodded then slunk back to the other room, “Your old room is free!” he said behind him and Nick started leading Elena by the elbow again, this time upstairs.

Nick made a pit stop on their way to the bathroom to grab a towel and soak it in water to clean up Elena’s face.

“What the fuck is this place?” Elena asked once they had walked into a bedroom which she was sure hadn’t been cleaned since the last time Nick had apparently stayed there.

Nick sighed; “I used to hang out here sometimes…” he trailed off.

“Is this a crack house or something? Did you hang out here sometimes to do drugs?” Elena exclaimed, trying to keep her hands off of every dirty surface around her.

He was going to deny it but it was pretty apparent just by their surroundings that he would make a liar out of himself. The dresser had burn marks all over it from hot spoons, and an ash tray filled with spent roaches was sitting next to the bed, “Fine, yes, I used to hang out here sometimes and do drugs. What are you, my mother?”

Elena’s faced showed nothing but disgust as she looked over at Nick, “She obviously didn’t do a very good job if she let you come to a place like this.”

Nick glared at her and moved away to sit on the bed, but not before brushing the comforter clean, “You don’t know jack about my mother or why I would have found myself in ‘a place like this’ so mind your own fucking business!”

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” Elena held up her hands in defence, “I’m just a little overwhelmed by this whole situation. I was kidnapped, then just when I thought I was free I end up still kidnapped and being held in a house that smells like an armpit!”

Nick chuckled sarcastically and shook his head, “Newsflash baby but you don’t smell a whole lot better than this house.”

Elena gasped incredulously, “Excuse me?”

“You’re standing there in your week old panties and your dirty, sweaty tank top wrapped in a blanket that was on my fucking bed for a good month before we wrapped you in it and you think you smell like roses and potpourri? I’m sorry if you don’t smell it, but I do and it smells like shit.”

Elena pulled the blanket off of her with a squeal of repulsion, balling it up and throwing it at Nick’s head, “You’re disgusting! At least I have an excuse for smelling bad, kidnapper! What’s yours?”

“I don’t smell,” Nick corrected with a shrug as he leaned up against the wall coolly. 

Elena grunted then reluctantly moved to sit down next to Nick on the bed, making sure she grabbed the sheet back from him so she could sit on it, not knowing what could possibly be on the sheets on the bed, “Fine, you’re right, you smell fucking great.”

“How’s your face?” Nick changed the subject, turning his head to look at her.

“Gross,” she pouted and reached up to touch the tender skin under her eye. 

Nick picked up the towel he’d grabbed earlier then reached over to wipe away some of the blood from under Elena’s nose. She recoiled quickly, pulling away from him. Without words Nick held up his hands letting her know she was okay then handed her the towel so she could do it herself.

“I’m so sorry they did that to you,” Nick said with a sincerity that she could never deny was the absolute truth. 

Elena gingerly wiped her nose clean then looked over toward her so-called captor, “Where were you? You disappeared.”

“It’s a long story. Basically, I left because I was being cheated. I had no idea that they were going to do this. If I had known, I wouldn’t have left.”

“It’s not like you would have stood up to them,” Elena muttered, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

“No,” Nick stopped her, reaching over to put his hand on hers, “I would have. I’d have killed any one of them who I saw lay a hand on you.”

“Thank you,” Elena said, looking down at his hand on hers. Her mind suddenly took a turn from grateful to scheming and she started thinking of how she was going to get herself out of this mess, “It wasn’t too different from my regular life though.”

“What?” Nick asked his eyes wide with surprise.

Elena quickly formulated a lie in her head, using her best acting skills to look solemn and forlorn “My dad…he’s got a terrible temper.”

“He hits you?” he questioned, his hand moving to her arm protectively.

“Sometimes,” she whispered, squeezing out a lone tear dramatically.

Nick’s eyes glazed over with a strange expression as he held back his anger about this new information. He was completely unaware that Elena was lying through her teeth, and his insatiable urge to help the damsel in distress clouded his thought.

“Then why do you want to go back there?” 

“It’s…” my home, my family, my dog, my money, my car, “My mother. I can’t leave her there alone. I can’t just leave her!”

“I’ll try to get you home as soon as I possibly can,” Nick assured her, rubbing her back soothingly.

“Thank you,” Elena choked out another tear then threw her body against Nick, hugging him tightly.

He was clearly shocked at first, but understanding where Elena was coming from knew that she was afraid for her family as well as herself. He hugged her back, pressing his cheek to the top of her head.

“As soon as I can,” he promised her softly.

Sunday morning. One day left. 

“I’m going to murder him.”

The way Brian seethed his sentence Howie had no doubt in his mind that he was telling the absolute truth. For the past hour they’d sat at the table while Brian paced back and forth seeing red, with steam pouring from his ears. 

It was Howie who was first to get up that day and when he ventured downstairs he immediately felt that something was off. There was just something about the house that seemed different. He checked that the doors were closed, that everything that was supposed to be out was out and while walking through the living room he spotted Nick’s bedroom door open. Not something that would normally be unusual but given the circumstances it sent crippling worry through Howie’s spine. When he ran over to find that Elena was gone, it was seconds before AJ and Brian were awoken and they’d been discussing it ever since. 

They would have never expected Nick to take off with their captive; it was as likely as a bear becoming a vegetarian. 

“Brian, let’s just sit down and think about this,” Howie said calmly, watching his friend pace like an angry tiger.

AJ laughed, “Think about it? Hell no! I’m with Brian; let’s kill the stupid son of a bitch!”

“Son of a bitch,” Brian repeated, turning towards his partners in crime.

“That’s what I just said,” AJ furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what Brian was getting at.

“No, no, Nick really is a son of a bitch! He doesn’t have any friends, where else could he have possibly gone?” he questioned, reaching for the phone.

Brian dialed a number quickly then waited for someone to pick up on the other end. 

“Who is he calling?” AJ wondered, watching Brian on the phone.

“I think he’s calling Nick’s mother,” Howie said, the two of them watching Brian curiously.

“No answer,” Brian said, turning the phone off, “Suspicious.”

“You don’t honestly think that he would take her from here then drive her two blocks away down to his mother’s house, do you?” Howie asked with a laugh.

“This is Nick we’re talking about,” Brian reminded him and they all nodded with the realization that it was indeed a possibility. 

“I really don’t think he’s at his mother’s,” Howie sighed and leaned back in his seat. They had a real problem on their hands.

“You know,” AJ spoke up, “We don’t really need to worry just yet.”

“Why’s that?” Brian asked curiously, not stopping his incessant pacing.

“Well, we have until tomorrow to find him and even if we don’t…as long as Richardson doesn’t pay, we can still send him the video and we’ll have more time to find Nick before the next drop off time.”

Brian laughed and shook his head, “And what if Nick is bringing her back to her parent’s house today? Then there will be NO money at all! We have to find him right now and make sure she doesn’t have any contact with her parents or the police!”

“Why do you think he wouldn’t have already brought her back if he was going to anyway? He’s a huge pussy, I can’t see him being in any rush to bring her back home,” AJ responded, knowing that Nick couldn’t have made that much of a change in his personality since the girl came around.

“I know Nick,” Brian said, thinking of all of the memories he had of the weak-minded boy he used to be and the still gullible man he’d become, “He will be afraid of the police, and he won’t want to go there right away. But I know what he’s probably thinking, and he’ll hide out for a bit until he thinks we won’t find him, then he’ll probably just let her go. Either way she’s getting back home, and we’re fucked for the money.”

Howie thought about what Brian was saying and for him it just didn’t seem to add up, “Then tell me this, almighty ‘Nick whisperer’, how long do you honestly think it’ll take for her to convince him that it’s okay to let her go?”

“Not very long,” Brian said with a shrug and a chuckle. When his own words sunk in his eyes went wide and he grabbed his keys off of the counter, “We have to find him, NOW.”

The three of them bolted into action and ran out into the driveway towards Brian’s car. 

“Should we split up and look?” Howie asked, pulling his own keys out of his pocket. 

Brian nodded, “You two go together look everywhere that Nick has ever hung out in recent years. I’ll check out his mother’s, and places that we used to go when we were kids. Maybe he would try to hide somewhere that he thinks we would have forgotten about.”

“Keep your cell phone on,” AJ instructed as he and Howie took off on the hunt. 

Brian watched them leave then made his way back into the house and up to his bedroom. He walked to his desk and, using his keys, opened a small drawer at the bottom. He sighed as he took out a small Smith and Wesson, .40-caliber pistol. He had never been a fan of guns, nor did he ever think there was use for them until a particular occasion where one of their schemes was uncovered and a man (who had just lost all of his savings) came after them. He had literally hunted them down, and since then Brian felt the need to keep the gun handy for protection. He never thought there would be a time where he would need it to threaten one of his oldest friends. He checked the gun over quickly, making sure it was loaded and the safety was on before shoving it in the waistband of his pants. 

If Nick wouldn’t hand her over quietly then he would just have to make him. 

Brian’s first stop was at Nick’s mother’s house. He didn’t believe that he was going to be there, but he needed to retrace all of the places that Nick had been the day before. He pulled up in front of the Carter residence, and noticed that Nick’s car wasn’t in the driveway. 

“Well, he’s not here,” he said to himself as he got out and made his way towards the door. He knocked a few times, looking in the side window to see if there was anyone moving. Just when Brian was about to give up and move on to his next idea the door swung open and a very dishevelled Jane Carter stood before him. 

“What do you want? You keep knocking!” she snapped without even looking to see who it was at the door. 

“Nick here?” Brian asked, trying to keep his eyes off of the half dressed middle-aged woman in front of him.

“No, that little low life didn’t come back last night!” she said in an aggravated tone, “He took all my smokes, and didn’t buy me any more or leave me any money, not even a goodbye!” 

“Oh, he didn’t? I’m surprised, I gave him his rent back when I came over yesterday,” Brian lied, knowing how much any money meant to the woman since welfare was more worthwhile than a job to her. (No need for him to wonder where Nick got it from.)

Jane gasped and wrapped her housecoat tighter around her body, “He lied to me! He always gives me something to tide me over. He’s usually such a good boy. Is he doing drugs again Brian?”

Brian shrugged, “I’m not sure, he and I haven’t really talked much lately. Although judging by the way he’s been acting it wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Well when you find him, make sure he buys me a carton of smokes!” she growled then slammed the door shut.

Brian sighed, not having gotten any information out of the woman. She didn’t mention anything worthwhile. 

Getting back to his original plan, Brian decided to check out all of the places that Nick used to hang out when he was a kid. It was unlikely that he would have taken Elena to a school or a skate park but stranger things had happened. 

He searched high and low, in everywhere he could possibly think to look. He called hotels and motels and started asking if Nick was a guest even though he knew that Nick had little to no money. Nothing panned out with his calling around so he decided to make his way back home to see what AJ and Howie had dug up. Obviously they hadn’t found anything more than he did since his cell phone hadn’t made a peep, but they might have a better idea of where to look next. 

When he pulled into the driveway he saw that the other two had just arrived and waited for him to get out of the car. 

“Anything?” Howie asked and Brian shook his head. 

“I looked everywhere I could possibly think of that he’d ever hung out before,” Brian let out a frustrated sigh and the three of them headed into the house. 

“We even saw Shannon!” AJ piped up and Brian looked up at him, surprised to hear that name. 

If there were one person in the world that Brian would be okay never seeing again it was Shannon. Nick had started dating Shannon when he was 17 years old, his last year of high school, just months away from independence. Their relationship was an interesting one; in fact it wasn’t too different from AJ’s current relationship. They would walk together and talk together at school but no one would have known they were dating until they got back to one of their houses and fucked like they had been tasked with single-handedly repopulating the world. 

Being window neighbours with Nick during that time period was awkward. It had started as a physical relationship, which then turned into an addictive one. Shannon’s Brother Patrick was a drug dealer and hooked the two teenagers up with anything they could ever want. Shannon was more of a pot smoker, but Nick being as weak as he was it wasn’t too difficult for Patrick to turn him from a little innocent marijuana, onto crack and eventually heroin. The thing that bothered Brian the most even to that day was that Shannon never tried to stop him. She never reprimanded Patrick for turning her boyfriend into a drug addict, and she never asked Nick to stop using heavy drugs. Brian sometimes thought that she liked Nick better when he was high. He’d even witnessed her pull a needle out of Nick’s arm when he was too wasted to do it himself.

The boy then turned from soft spoken, reserved, and naive into an aggressive, violent, and malicious person. As much as Brian wanted to see Nick stand up for himself more often, he didn’t want it like that. He also didn’t like the way Nick was pulling away from him, and turning into a bully. 

Brian wanted his old pitiful Nick back. He wanted the kid that he could verbally push around, but never physically touch. It didn’t take much to get Shannon to leave him alone, she was happy with a few hundred dollars. Patrick was a completely different story because Nick was his meal ticket. Patrick was willing to take money in exchange for Nick’s “freedom” but the sum was far from pocket change. To make the cash Brian enlisted the help of his friends to pull off his very first scam. It was enough, to free Nick from Patrick’s grasp and send the boy to rehab. 

Sometimes Brian blamed Nick for the way his life turned out. If it weren’t for Nick, he could be the lawyer he had always wanted to be. Instead his tuition was what they used to pay for the supplies for the first operation. He often felt like the only reason he kept Nick around for so long was because of all he’d gone through to help him in that year. 

Brian’s attention moved away from the past and onto the conversation that AJ and Howie were having about their trip. 

“Hold on,” Brian stopped them, “You said you saw Shannon right?”

“Yeah,” Howie nodded, “We stopped by the 7-11 he used to work at because he was still friends with that one guy, and we thought someone may have seen him. Anyway, Shannon was working there and she recognized us right away. It took us a couple of seconds to figure out who she was but when we did we asked if she had seen Nick, but she said she hadn’t.”

“No, she knows to stay away from him,” Brian said, thinking out loud, “There’s something right there on the tip of my tongue that I feel like I’m missing. Maybe something his mother said?”

“What did she say?” AJ wondered.

“I don’t know, not much. She said Nick didn’t leave her any money, he took all her cigarettes, she asked me if he was doing drugs again, I’m not sure what my brain is making of all of this.”

“You think Shannon was lying about not seeing him?”

“No,” Brian shook his head. He grunted then sat down at the table, smacking his head with his hand. 

“His mother asked if he was doing drugs again?” Howie asked, sitting down beside Brian, “I think I know what your brain might be trying to tell you.”

“What?” Brian’s head snapped up and he looked at Howie attentively.

“We saw Shannon, his mother asked if he was doing drugs, all of these things have one very distinct thing in common,” he drew it out, letting them all in on his lengthy thought process. 

“Money? Do they have money in common?” AJ asked, tired of listening to Howie go on and on. 

“No,” Brian’s eyes lit up as he figured out what Howie was getting at, “Patrick! They have Patrick in common! Where’s one place we would never have thought to look for him if we hadn’t seen Shannon? Patrick’s house!”

“You really think Nick would take her to a crack house?” AJ asked with an uneasy laugh.

“Do you think that if he showed up anywhere else with that girl wearing nothing but her underwear and beat to all hell that they wouldn’t start asking serious questions?” Howie retorted, “Not only that but her face has been all over the news, someone would have said something.”

“Not Patrick though, he’s probably too out of it to even realize who she is,” Brian stood up from his seat and once again grabbed his keys, “We have to talk to Shannon again, we have to find Patrick! He has to be there!”

From the floor Nick stared up at the ceiling, listening to Elena breathe quietly on the bed. 

She hadn’t wanted to lie down, or sleep but it hadn’t taken long before she’d gotten too tired to stay up and her body forced her to close her eyes. Nick took his place on the floor and let her have the bed since it was the gentlemanly thing to do. Things had gotten weird with her when they were discussing her home life. Nick was getting sort of uncomfortable with the way that Elena kept hugging him, and touching him. He almost thought for a few moments that she was coming on to him.

“Don’t be stupid,” Nick muttered to himself, knowing that there was no way she would have been coming onto him when he was essentially holding her hostage against her will.

“What?” Elena suddenly asked and Nick looked up, surprised that she was awake, “What did you say?”

“Oh, nothing, I was talking to myself,” he explained, “I thought you were asleep?”

“I can’t sleep,” she shrugged, sitting up on the bed, “The sun coming through the window is too bright.”

“It is bright,” Nick agreed, unable to stop himself from checking her out quickly. It was hard not to, despite the fact that she definitely needed a shower. Her tank top was low cut, her panties were nearly see-through and she was in no way modest. Whenever she stretched, or leaned over, or so much as looked in his direction he couldn’t keep himself from taking a quick look. 

“What time is it?” Elena asked, not blind to the fact that Nick’s eyes were somewhere other than her face. 

He checked his watch quickly then looked back to her, “Noon,” he answered while mentally doing a countdown of how much time they had before Elena’s father was expected to hand over the cash. Twenty-eight hours and it could all be over, “I found some shorts for you to wear,” he added, handing her the clothing.

Elena untangled herself from her sheet then got up to look out the window, making sure that Nick got a huge eyeful. She stretched her arms above her head, pointing her hips in his direction before slowly siding on the shorts. If she knew anything about men it was that she could get what she wanted by using sex. Nick would be no different, she already had him wrapped around her finger by telling him that she was abused, and she knew that it was only a matter of time before she had him taking her home. Get him turned on then he’d be putty in her hands. 

“Does my face look really bad?” she asked, turning towards him. 

Nick made a point of glancing at her face as if trying to see if there were anything then shook his head, “No, it’s not too bad. Just tell people you’ve taken up boxing.”

“Ha, ha,” Elena said dryly, leaning against the wall as she looked at Nick down on the floor. It was time to pull out the big guns, “I can’t stand the thought of going home and letting my mom see me this way – this ugly.”

“You’re not ugly!” Nick immediately told her, glancing up with a surprised expression, “I don’t know why you would think that!”

“My face is just a bunch of bruises, I’m ugly!” Elena sighed, her eyes welling up with tears again.

“Oh, please don’t cry,” Nick begged, getting on his knees. He crawled towards her a little, not wanting to have her cry anymore because he didn’t feel like being her tissue again, “Haven’t you run out of tears yet?”

“You don’t just run out!” she wailed, getting herself worked up into a full out bawl, “I’m ugly and it doesn’t matter when I go back because they’re not going to want me!”

Nick stood, holding his hands out precariously in front of his body to try and calm her down, “Of course they’ll want you! You look fine! You’re absolutely beautiful!”

Elena sniffed dramatically, and rubbed her eye with a fist, “You think I’m beautiful?” she asked in a whiny tone.

“Absolutely,” he reiterated. 

“Are you lying to me? Just telling me what I want to hear?” she questioned, her voice small, unsure and full of unshed tears.

Nick shook his head, “I’m a terrible liar,” he said with complete honesty, “I think you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever laid eyes on. You’re the type of girl that guys like me only dream about.”

Elena looked up to him with glossy eyes, “What do you mean?” she wondered, seriously curious about his implication.

“You’re…” Nick struggled for the right words, not quite knowing how to answer her, “Perfect. I know obviously everyone has flaws but I haven’t found one in you that can’t be seen as a good thing too. I’m not very good with talking, and saying what I mean, and I wasn’t very good in school or at my jobs but you’re completely different. You’re smart, and you say exactly what you mean and never hesitate. You’re not afraid of stepping on people’s toes or risking anything just to be yourself. I can’t do that. I’m afraid of what other people think of me. I only wish I could be as strong willed as you are. You really walk with your head up, you’re independent and feisty, and I bet a lot of women wish they could be as confident as you are. I know right now you’re feeling a little down in the dumps but from what you’ve told me about your life when you’re not being held hostage it seems like that’s the type of person you are. You’re a gorgeous girl; you have a great body, and a great personality. I also think that... considering your not-so-great home life you’ve really become a strong person,” Nick’s voice got soft and he fiddled with a fingernail on his index finger, “Not everyone is able to do that.”

Elena gasped, surprised to hear Nick’s rambling confession. She had never in her life had a guy say things like that about her. He did comment on her body but not until after he’d talked about her personality, her will, and her strength. She was completely shocked and felt slightly guilty that she was trying to use this guy who obviously saw the best in people over their blemishes. He was so insecure about himself, but he’d just proven to her that he was the type of person who cared about everyone. It was completely opposite to his outward appearance. 

“Is that why you don’t like it when women get hit? Did someone hurt you?” Elena asked, moving toward to touch Nick’s arm.

Nick pulled his arm away from her grasp and took a seat on the bed, “Is it not okay for me to just not like it?” he asked.

“Why are you afraid to answer my question?”

“I’m not!” he snapped, looking up at her with an annoyed expression.

“You don’t need to get defensive, I’m not going to think any less of you if you tell me the truth,” Elena said softly, thinking to herself that the truth might just put a kink in her plans. She wasn’t so sure if she could be the bitch anymore if he was going to keep being the sweetest guy on the planet. 

Nick took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “My dad used to be really great,” he smiled slightly, thinking about memories past, “He would play catch with me, he would take me to the park, and play trucks and stupid stuff like that. Dad worked nights at a factory so he was always home when I got home from school. Then there was a machine accident one day and he got blamed. The guy who got hurt sued us and everything. The company he was working for fired him, and we lost the lawsuit and in a blink of an eye pretty much everything was gone. The only thing we still had was the house because it was in my Grandfather’s name and paid in full. In my mind, that’s when my dad died. I have no memories of him after that. I only know of some drunk who looked like him who beat up my mother, and then me when I got old enough to try and protect her. I ran away for a little while when I was sixteen and when I came back he beat me to within an inch of my life. I called the police and that was the first time he went to prison. It wasn’t for long, but by the time he got out I was gone. Then one day he saw some woman who looked sort of wealthy and he tried to steal her purse and she turned out to be an off duty policewoman who just happened to have good fashion sense. He’ll be up for parole in two months though, and he’ll probably get it.”

Elena was torn. This guy was nothing like she’d expected. She knew that he was weak and gullible but she never wanted to know the reason behind it. Now that she knew why he was the way he was it was hard for her to take advantage of his weaknesses. He accepted her faults and she wanted to exploit his. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her sentence having more than one meaning since she was sympathetic towards his situation but also sorry for her actions.

“Don’t be,” Nick dismissed her, “You and I are the same, we’re both victims. Has your dad always had a bad temper?”

Elena knew she was in trouble since Nick was asking about her story, she didn’t want to have to convince him that she was like him it just wasn’t fair. She thought quickly, trying to figure out a way to get out of the conversation. Rather than try and change the subject Elena went for the extreme. She walked up to Nick who was still sitting on the bed and pressed her lips to his, obviously catching him off guard. 

She had expected for him to push her away (successfully changing the subject) but his hesitation only lasted for a moment and he was soon kissing her back. The kiss quickly went from chaste to frenzied and she moaned as soon as she felt his tongue against hers.

Nick’s hands went to her hips, holding them tightly before pulling her onto the bed to straddle his lap. He pulled at her tank top as she ground her hips against his and as soon as her breasts were exposed he moved the attention of his kisses downward.

Elena’s hands went through his hair, yanking roughly at the ends while continuing to rock against his growing erection. Her hand then went to the zipper of his shorts and she moved to the side, lying back on the bed to give him a chance to get them down over his hips.

Nick covered her body with his, his mouth seeking hers out again while he frantically yanked down her underwear. As soon as they were down he wasted no time in thrusting into her and setting a fast pace.

No words were spoken, only pants and moans as they pushed each other over the edge. Her fingers dug into the flesh of his ass and Nick cried out as he tried to hold back his orgasm.

Taking the upper hand Elena flipped them over so she was on top controlling the pace and she felt powerful watching his face contort with pleasure as he came, his back arching up off the bed.

She was still mounted on top of him as he came down from his high and Nick wasn’t sure what he should do next. He didn’t have too many quickies and wasn’t sure if he should make sure she got hers. She helped him with the decision though, getting up off his lap without another word.

He groaned as he felt himself slip from her body and he looked awkwardly around the room, feeling a little out of place.

Getting up off the bed, Nick pulled up his shorts and buttoned them, regretting the rash decision he’d made to have a quickie with his hostage. He didn’t know what to say to her, or whether she wanted him to say anything. He moved over to the window, looking out at the street below. The street wasn’t busy (not too many people would dare go for a walk in this neighbourhood), the only action was people walking straight from their cars to their doors. Movement down the street caught his eye and Nick looked, watching someone walking towards the house.

“Fuck me!” Nick said loudly, his eyes going wide as he stared out the window, pulling the curtains tight so he was only looking out of a crack.

“Excuse me?” Elena asked, not watching his actions, “I just fucking did was that not enough for you?”

Nick turned to her with a confused expression, “What?” he asked then he realized what she meant, “No! God, I didn’t mean I wanted you to fuck me I meant fuck me like we’re in trouble!”

“In trouble?” she asked, her curiosity peaked.

“I just saw Brian walking up the sidewalk,” he breathed, fear catching in his voice.

“Who’s Brian?” Elena asked, standing up off of the bed. 

“The man who’s probably here to kill me and take you back,” Nick answered, grabbing Elena’s hand. He hurriedly helped her put what little clothes she had back on and pulled her from the room, taking a moment to listen for any movement on the bottom floor. 

“What do we do?” Elena asked in a whisper, holding tightly onto his arm.

Nick took a deep breath and turned towards her, “We run.”

“So what’s the plan?” Elena asked, keeping her voice hushed, her hands still tightly holding onto Nick’s bicep as they stood in the hallway. 

Nick looked down at her, his face full of uncertainty, “I never said there was a plan.”

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes, “You sounded so assertive just now I figured you might have something in mind.”

A look of deep thought spread across his face for a moment before he shrugged, “Running was my plan.”

Elena’s frustration was cut short when Brian’s voice suddenly rang out though the house, calling Nick’s name. 

Taking action she reached up and grabbed Nick’s face in her hands, forcing him to look at her, “I need you to think fast,” she insisted, “Is there a fire escape? Can we go on the roof? You know this house; you must know another way out!”

Nick nodded and thought hard about what she was asking. The time he had spent in the house was not the best of times, usually he was stoned, or sleeping, but most times both. He had to sort through a lot of memories to think of the actual house and not the events that happened in it, “There’s a dumbwaiter!” he suddenly announced, still sure to keep his voice hushed. Nick grabbed Elena’s hand before she even had a chance to question his intentions, “I remember Patrick telling me this story when I first started coming here. This house is over a hundred years old, Victorian or something. There are fireplaces on each floor, so the builders put in a dumbwaiter to get firewood up from the cellar. I don’t know why I remember that, but it must have stuck in my mind for this very moment.”

They walked lightly across the hardwood floors, very aware that Brian was not far away looking for them and listening for signs of life. Luckily for them, apart from being old, the house was huge. Run down, but huge. There were quite a few winding hallways so if they were lucky they’d make it out unnoticed. 

They quickly reached a cut out in the wall and Nick pulled a latch open to reveal the tiny elevator.

Elena looked between the small space and Nick, “There’s no way you’ll fit in there!” she gasped.

“I’m not going in there, you are, without me,” he explained.

“If you’re going to start making plans at least let me in on them!” she requested while Nick helped her into the dumbwaiter.

“You’re going to go all the way down into the basement, there’s a door that leads outside, go right when you get to the sidewalk and run as fast as you can. I don’t know who is out there, whether Brian brought Howie and AJ so whatever you do don’t look back just run. Keep going and you’ll get to the marina, you should know how to get home from there, I imagine. Go home, and I’ll meet you there.”

“The police are there though,” Elena started to protest but they were both distracted by noise coming from the direction of the stairs.

“The police will be there waiting, I’ll find a way to lead him there. Good luck!” he told her. Nick was about to shut the door when Elena suddenly leaned up and kissed him. Not to change the subject or because she felt sorry for him but because she wanted to.

“Be careful,” she instructed as he shut the door, sending her on her way. 

As fast as he could Nick got away from the area, not wanting Brian to see where he’d come from and find out about their escape route. Just as he turned back into the main hallway he came face to face with his best friend turned enemy.

“Oh, there you are!” Brian grinned, and Nick knew that despite his casual demeanour he was angry. Brian had always told him that he couldn’t lie to save his life and now was his opportunity to find out whether he was right. 

“I thought I heard someone calling me,” Nick smiled back, approaching Brian slowly.

“Where is she?” Brian came right out, avoiding any other niceties. 

“Who?” he played dumb.

Brian laughed, shaking his head at Nick’s poor effort, “You think you can con me? I’ll ask you one more time, where is she?”

Unbeknownst to Brian, he was playing right along with Nick’s spur of the moment plans, “She’s gone. Man, what a bitch, she took off once we got here. I guess being around here was a bit too familiar. I got high and fell asleep.”

The moments after his first attempt at a lie were tense; Nick was worried that Brian would be able to see right through him and Elena would never get away.

“Why does that not surprise me?” Brian asked sarcastically, sighing, “Why did you take her in the first place?”

Nick tried not to let out a breath of relief but instead used Brian’s training to keep going, “I don’t know, I thought maybe if I used her as a pawn you would let me back in on everything. I didn’t think she’d be so conniving.”

“I haven’t heard anything on the news about her being found,” Brian commented, his voice laced with a touch of scepticism. 

“Maybe they’re keeping it quiet thinking that we might be out looking for her…like you are?” Nick suggested, making his way towards the stairs. He needed to keep moving and get away from Brian’s experienced eye. He was worried because he’d started to sweat along his hairline, stress consuming him as he tried to think on his feet – a quality he was not known for. 

Nick walked down the stairs quickly, afraid that Brian might kick him down the stairs. Despite the older man’s calm disposition Nick knew better, he’d seen him in action before. He knew Brian was mad, he knew that he was in serious trouble. 

“How about we go back to the house and discuss what we should do about this?” Brian suggested as he followed Nick down the stairs. 

“Why?” Nick asked, his guard dropping slightly. He had a feeling that Brian was a lot angrier than he had originally thought and he didn’t know what might happen if he went back to the house with him. 

Brian seemed to be losing a big of his edge, obviously stressed about his current situation beyond his normal amount of control, “Because Nick, you’ve really done it this time and I am not about to just let this go.”

“Maybe you should be out looking for the girl?” Nick offered, walking into the kitchen. 

“There’s something really fishy about this whole thing,” Brian said, approaching Nick. 

Howie yelling from the yard caught both of their attention and they listened as the other man yelled for Brian, completely out of breath. 

“What the fuck is going on?” Brian yelled out of frustration. 

Nick knew that Howie had seen Elena, and figured that AJ was probably still chasing her. Thinking fast he grabbed a pot out of the sink and hit Brian in the back of the head, watching the shorter man fall to the ground in a slump. Nick dropped the pot, wondering what he had to do next. He quickly ran to the front door and locked it to keep Howie out then picked up Brian’s limp form. He carried him out the side door, still listening to Howie trying to get in through the front. Brian’s car was only a few feet away, but so was Howie. As long as Howie stayed at the door, Nick figured he’d be able to at least get to the car and throw Brian in. 

He took the chance and ran out to the car, swinging the door open and getting Brian inside before Howie noticed him. 

“Nick!” Howie yelled, running towards the driveway as Nick ran around the car and into the driver’s seat.

He locked all of the doors just as Howie reached them then searched Brian’s pockets for the keys. He wasn’t distracted by the banging on the windows because he was on a mission, which was successful when he pulled out a key ring with the car keys dangling from the end. 

“You know Howie, I never liked you,” Nick said through the window as he started up the car. Howie got one good hit to the window in, cracking the glass but just as quickly Nick had pulled away. 

He wasn’t sure how far Elena had gotten on foot, but was confident that she was well on her way to her house. Just to be sure he used the time that Brian was unconscious to look for her, to make sure that he wouldn’t get to her place before she did. 

Nick pulled up to a stoplight, frustrated that he was stuck at a red when he was so close to the marina. He briefly glanced in the rear view mirror and did a double take when he realized that Howie was coming up behind him in his car with AJ in the passenger seat and he didn’t appear to be slowing down. The impact as the smaller car smashed into the back of Brian’s was intense and Nick lurched forward in his seat while Brian was knocked directly to the floor. Obviously when Howie had come up for the idea to try to run Nick off the road he hadn’t kept in mind that unconscious Brian might not be wearing his safety belt. 

Nick took off through the intersection against the red light (which was luckily free of traffic) with the Geo behind him hot on his tail. He had to trust that Elena had made it to her house. If AJ and Howie didn’t have her then she must be there. It was his time to shine; his perfect opportunity to prove that he was as capable as anyone else. Now all he had to do was get AJ and Howie to follow him to the Richardson’s mansion and from there figure out how he was going to clear himself from any involvement. 

He wanted them caught, but didn’t want to screw himself in the end. After all, he wasn’t ready to be sharing a cell with Carter Sr.

Elena’s legs and lungs burned as she tore down the sidewalk, every now and then jumping out of the way of people and other obstacles. As soon as she made it out of the house she had been spotted by Howie and AJ, and just as Nick had told her she ran and hadn’t looked back. She knew she lost the man who was chasing her after a few minutes but couldn’t make herself slow down. The only thing keeping her going was a little adrenaline, and a lot of fear.

She must have been a scary sight for anyone walking down the street. There she was, dressed in nothing but a dirty tank top and a pair of shorts. Her long blonde hair was greasy, and she was shoeless. She was pretty sure she’d have all kinds of little rocks imbedded in her feet but still she kept running. 

A left turn and suddenly the average road turned into one far from average. Mansions lined the road behind gates on both sides and Elena knew she was almost home. She couldn’t keep herself from bursting into tears at the thought, slowing her down slightly, but she kept running. The past week of her life had definitely been the worst, and the most confusing. She’d been kidnapped in the middle of the night, held captive in the dark with only the village idiot to take care of her wearing almost nothing. From there she’d developed a strange friendship with the man who would eventually try to save her. She had no respect for Nick when she first met him, he had kidnapped her after all, but now she’d somehow ended up not only having a very awkward quickie in a crack house but had developed some feelings for him. Whether those feelings were real or just because of the strange situation she’d been in, she wasn’t absolutely sure.

Elena was worried that something might happen to Nick; it was then that she realized that she really did like him. She certainly didn’t love him – it was too soon for that, but she wished that they would have more time together. He was the type of person that she needed, her complimentary opposite, and she thought that he might feel the same about her. They levelled each other out. What he was missing she had and what she lacked he made up for, they seemed to go together quite well. That and he was the best quickie she’d had in a long time. 

Finally she could see her house around a bend in the road and she powered through, using whatever energy she had left to sprint to the finish. When she reached the gates though, she was disappointed. She had expected the place to be swarming with police officers like Nick had told her it would be. Instead, the long driveway was empty. No police, not even a single car was parked outside of her house. 

Her legs were weak and could barely carry her as she slowed to a walk and kept going towards the house. She couldn’t understand why there was no one there. Nick had specifically said the place would be crawling, where was everyone?

She finally made it to the front door, huffing and puffing as she fought to catch her breath. She reached for the door handle, almost crying out when she realized that the door was locked. No cars, the door locked, no one was there! Elena rang the doorbell repeatedly, hoping that there might be some sign of life. 

Nothing.

“Come on, how no one can be home?! There’s always someone home!” she yelled, pounding on the door with her fist. 

Elena fell to the ground in front of the door and broke down into sobs. In the back of her mind she was worried that Nick would get Brian there and with no police and no help in sight she would be kidnapped all over again and never see her family again. She did all that she could do, she sat, cried, and waited. 

Then in the distance she heard an engine in the distance and excitement rose up in her throat. There was definitely a car coming up the driveway. Someone was finally there! She rose to her feet in a flash, wiping tears away from her battered cheeks. She nervously shifted from foot to foot, wondering why the car was driving so fast. The first car came to a squealing halt when a second, more familiar vehicle, came racing down the drive. The feeling in her stomach was not a good one; she knew that something was not right. It was confirmed to her when Nick got out of the driver’s side of the first car and ran towards her. 

“Where is everybody?” he asked frantically but Elena was too busy looking past him to the other car where Howie and AJ were getting out. 

“Follow me,” Elena instructed, grabbing Nick’s hand. She pulled him towards the back of the house where the guest house was, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before,” she groaned, quickly digging inside a planter. She pulled out a small box with the key inside, hidden for the times that she came home late and didn’t want to disturb her parents with a knock on the door. 

“Why are we hiding?” Nick demanded to know as soon as they got inside the guest house, “Where the hell are the police and your parents?”

“Shut up,” Elena said as she bolted the door behind them and pulled him into the bathroom. 

“Why are we in the bathroom?”

“Do you ever stop asking questions?” Elena rolled her eyes, “We’re in the bathroom because there are no windows in here. When I got here there was no one around! I have no idea why, but everyone is gone! Shouldn’t they be here trying to find me?”

Nick took a seat on the toilet and ran his hands over his face in frustration, “How could there be no one here,” he groaned.

“You’re the one who said the place would be ‘crawling’ with cops!” she quoted him. The two of them quieted down when they heard the glass of a window breaking in the main room. 

“They’re going to kill us,” Nick whispered, staring at the door as if it was going to suddenly open any second. 

“Don’t say things like that!”

“I should have known though,” Nick continued, ignoring her last statement, “Nothing ever works out for me. Nothing I ever do is successful. I should just come to accept that I’m a failure; a worthless failure. I should let them kill me, I’d be better off.”

Elena couldn’t take his negativity any longer, walked over to him and slapped him clean across the face, “I said don’t say things like that! Things don’t work out for you because you don’t believe they will and you don’t try! You actually tried this time! You came up with the plan, and you executed it! You can’t expect everything to go perfectly; life doesn’t work like that so now we have to figure out what we’re going to do; now that the people who are trying to kill us are very close to being successful.”

“I can’t believe you just slapped me,” Nick held a hand to his cheek, surprised by her actions.

“Get over it,” Elena said bluntly and he nodded, showing their give and take chemistry at work.

“Well,” Nick prompted, feeling comfortable enough to give his assessment of the situation, “Speaking of things that probably won’t go perfectly, if I can take a moment to judge your abilities to run for your life. Your first move wasn’t exactly the best. I definitely wouldn’t have come in a room with no windows. How do you expect us to get out? We’ve kind of trapped ourselves in here.”

She bristled, knowing he was right, “Well they also can’t get in through a window!”

“No, they’ll just use the door,” he deadpanned.

“Oh... I didn’t even think about that,” Elena said in a small voice, moving to sit down on Nick’s leg, “I guess we’re fucked.”

“Yeah,” Nick nodded, “You should really leave the illegal things up to me in the future.”

“There’s a future?” Elena wondered, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

Nick shrugged, clearly trying to be nonchalant, “I’d like there to be, if we’re not dead.”

“I’d like there to be a future too, if we’re not dead,” she said, smiling slightly. 

She found they always had their best moment right before things went sour, and this time was no different. They were quietly sitting together (on the toilet) waiting for something to happen. They’d been hearing noise outside the door for a few minutes, some shuffling and the occasional voice, and finally there was a knock. 

“If you don’t come out,” Brian’s voice spoke, “I’ll break down the fucking door.”

Elena looked to Nick for guidance but he was at a complete loss, “We’ll be right out,” he answered with a defeated sigh, wondering when Brian had woken up and discovered they were at his place of work. 

Nick helped Elena off of his lap and held her hand as they walked slowly out of the bathroom where Brian, Howie and AJ were waiting for them. 

“Isn’t this sweet,” Brian commented, looking down at their hands. He turned to the other two and told them to go start the car and wait for him, “I just have to take care of this and then I’ll join you.”

A sickening feeling rose in Nick’s throat as he watched AJ and Howie walk out of the guest house, over the glass they’d broken to get in. Nick had always thought he could trust Brian. Brian had saved his life after all, but thinking back to all of the things that his friend had done for him and what he’d done in return he knew that if anyone was feeling betrayed it was Brian. Now his actions were impossible to dictate. Brian would never be his friend again, even if somehow they made it out of this alive. He was his adversary, and Nick could tell from the look in his eyes that he never wanted to see his young friend again, no matter what the consequences.

The former friends stood across from each other in the guest house, staring one another down.

“Just walk away Brian,” Nick suddenly spoke, “Walk away now and we won’t say anything. We’ll just pretend it never happened.”

“Oh, you’re ‘we’ now? Well excuse the shit out of me,” Brian laughed and shook his head, “You know Nick you’ve really impressed me this weekend. For years you’ve sat on your ass and done absolutely nothing but watch television, eat chips and play with your dick and suddenly you are standing up for yourself. I couldn’t figure out why, I’ve been wracking my brain thinking about it but now I know…it’s her! I should have expected it. You are such an easy con. You’d do anything for a little pussy. Look at Shannon! She said snort this, smoke that and I’ll help you find a vein and you did it because you thought she might blow you at the end of the night if she wasn’t passed out. I bet this chick had you eating out of her hand, probably found all of your many, many, weaknesses and exploited them. Did you tell her your life story, Nick? Did she make you feel sorry for her, the poor little girl that she is. She broke you when you saw that AJ had roughed her up a bit, didn’t she? She hit you right where it hurts when she saw how you reacted.”

“Shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about!” Elena shouted anxiously, feeling like Brian was a little too close to seeing right through her. 

“I beg to differ,” he smiled, “I know Nick very well. He’s shit when it comes to talking to girls. The only time he gets girls is when they’re drunk or desperate. Since you hadn’t been drinking I’d say you were desperate. You did very well, you got out and he even let you come home! Also, I really have to know. How did you ever train him to lie so well? I’ve been trying to teach him since I’ve known him with no results but today he almost pulled the wool over my eyes – almost. I wish I had known that all it would take was some pussy and he’d actually put a little effort into it.”

Nick looked from Brian to Elena, wondering whether what Brian was saying was true. He wanted to say he was lying but the things he was saying felt like they could be true. Had Elena really been conning him? It wouldn’t be the first time someone would have convinced him to do something. He started putting together all of the pieces in his head all the way back from the first day he’d met the girl. She bossed him around, she had tried to dominate him the whole time then suddenly that ended and she became as sweet as pie, flashing her assets in his direction and telling him her deepest, darkest secrets. In his mind he had chalked Elena’s mood change up to her warming up to him, but what if in reality she was just using him?

“He’s lying!” Elena said strongly, watching the gears turn in Nick’s head, “You have to believe me!”

Brian merely smiled sinisterly, “Don’t you remember what I always told you, Nick: Who is going to believe a con?”

“Everyone,” he replied softly, sighing heavily as he turned to look at Elena, “If she’s good.”

“See? She’s just another person who uses you!” Brian shook his head, “I was the only person who ever took care of you and you ruined that!”

Nick ignored Brian, keeping his eyes trained on Elena, “Did you lie to me?”

Elena’s eyes filled with tears and she nodded her head, “You have to understand though! You had kidnapped me; I had no reason to trust you! I never thought that I would end up really liking you!”

Nick ran a frustrated hand over his face and through his dishevelled hair, “I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“I’ll help you out,” Brian offered, “We get rid of this bitch and you come back with me and we’ll sort this all out together.”

“I don’t know…” Nick replied sceptically.

Elena gasped, “You don’t know? You’re not actually considering letting him kill me! When the police get here he’s going to pin it on you!”

“The police aren’t here!” Nick grunted, his hands running through his hair again.

“You thought they’d be here full force?” Brian asked curiously, “The ransom drop is tomorrow at 7 in the morning, four hours from here. They’re more than likely in a hotel across the street waiting for us to show up for the money so they can arrest us.”

“I’m such an idiot!” Nick groaned, looking at Elena with remorse before making his way across the room to join Brian, “I’m sorry. You have to forgive me, it was a mistake.”

“Don’t apologize to him!” Elena yelled, “You’re going to go back and he’s going to kill you too! He just doesn’t want your body here because it’ll lead the police back to him! He’s not telling you the truth Nick; he’s not your friend!”

Brian rolled his eyes, “Shut up,” he snapped, pulling his gun from his coat. He held it up confidently, pointing the barrel directly at Elena. 

“What good is killing me?” she asked, her breath coming in pants as she realized how close to death she really was, “It defeats the purpose of kidnapping me in the first place.”

“You’re right, it does, but the kidnapping didn’t exactly go as I had wanted it to,” Brian explained, “So now I have to get rid of the evidence.”

He cocked the gun but just as he went to pull the trigger a hand came out and pushed his to the left, causing him to shoot a vase full of flowers.

Elena screamed, putting her hands to her ears. She had thought for sure she was done for and now Nick was on the floor wrestling Brian for the gun. If there was one thing Nick was better than Brian at it was physical force. It didn’t take too much to get the gun, and a few potent punches to Brian’s left temple left him unconscious for the second time that day. 

Nick sat on Brian, breathing heavily from the struggle. He never intended to let Brian kill Elena. He was upset that she had lied to him but he understood the kind of pressure she was under. She wouldn’t be the first woman to try and use her feminine wiles to escape a hostage situation. She had absolutely every reason to lie to him and try to get free, but Brian didn’t. Brian lied to him constantly, for no reason at all other than he knew he could. He wasn’t about to let him kill Elena and go back with the guys so the three of them could go to town on him. He may have been dim-witted, but not completely stupid. 

“I got the gun,” Nick said with a chuckle, standing up off of the floor. He made his way towards Elena who was still crying with her hands held tightly over her ears. Almost getting shot was just a bit too much for her to handle after her whirlwind week. 

“DROP YOUR WEAPON!” a loud voice suddenly rang out and in shock Nick turned, gun still firmly in his hand. He was wide eyed as a second shot rang out without warning, knocking him off of his feet and to the floor with a thud.

Elena screamed and dropped to her knees beside Nick, “Don’t shoot!” she screamed, her voice cracking. Throwing herself towards his body she kept a protective arm over him. 

“Are you alright?” a uniformed police officer asked as he rushed over to her side. 

“You shot the wrong guy! He just saved my life!” Elena cried desperately, “Arrest him!” she added, pointing to Brian who was slowly starting to come around on the floor.

The officer turned to his partner and pointed to Brian, getting the other man to take care of it before he picked up his radio, “This is Officer Daniels, I need an ambulance at the Richardson house and call the FBI, let them know we found her.”

“I feel weird,” Nick spoke from his spot on the floor where Elena was putting pressure on his wound.

“Shush,” she coddled, “Stay quiet, and stay still, you were shot. Help is on the way.”

“I got shot? Really?” he asked before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.

The story slowly started to unfold as the medics arrived to tend to Nick. Two uniformed police officers had been stationed just outside the house if by chance there was any sign of Elena. Just as Brian had predicted, the FBI and her parents were waiting at the drop spot for the exchange of her for the money. As it turned out, her father was going to pay after all. She couldn’t help but smile when she learned that despite how cheap he was, he was willing to give his money away on a whim, for her. 

The officers had received a call about a fender bender just down the street so they had left their post for a short time to check things out. They had left just seconds before Elena had run up the driveway. By the time the police cruiser pulled back up to the house AJ and Howie were headed out to the car. They were arrested on the spot once the police noticed the two damaged cars, and how suspicious it was to see two random young men racing from the back of the house. They were questioning the two of them when they heard the shot coming from the back and raced out to see Brian lying on the floor and Nick standing over Elena with the gun. It was instinct to disarm Nick, so Officer Daniels took a shoot first, ask later approach. 

Nick was loaded into the ambulance and taken to the hospital while Elena was allowed to get cleaned up and change into some real clothes before her parents arrived. 

Just when Elena thought she could cry no more her parents arrived with the FBI and she had never been so happy to see anyone in her entire life. They hugged tightly, and cried, and Elena looked at her father with an appreciation she could not even begin to express. She had doubted him, she had thought that he would never pay her ransom no matter what her mother or anyone else said. He did though; he was ready and willing to pay the ransom. She could be in a position like Nick, feeling nothing but hurt and anger towards her father but she didn’t, she loved him because he’d never given her anything but the best of the best. 

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Kevin whispered, running his hand over his daughter’s now clean hair. 

“I thought I’d never see you again,” Elena admitted, having thought earlier that day that her life was over. 

“The FBI said they shot the kidnapper?” her mother questioned, still wiping away her own tears of joy.

Elena quickly shook her head, “Actually no, they shot the hero,” she corrected, wondering aloud how Nick was doing in the hospital.

“Well if he’s the hero then we should go pay him a thank you,” Kevin suggested and Elena’s face lit up. 

“I’d really like to do that.”

A tall man dressed in a suite walked up to the, interrupting their moment, “Excuse me ma’am do you mind if we ask you a few questions?”

Elena nodded and followed him over to a couch. 

“Would you be able to identify the men who kidnapped you?” he cut right to the chase. 

“Yes, the three men who you arrested are the men who were keeping me.”

“Just the three of them, there was no one else?” the man asked as he jotted down notes.

“Yes, there were only three. There was no one else.”

She went into further detail about how the three men they’d arrested had taken her, held her hostage, beaten her, and ultimately tried to kill her. She left out the fourth man as if he had never existed; he was a mere bystander who helped save her after she had escaped from the clutches of her evil kidnappers. When the FBI realized that the man found in the guest house was the gardener, whom they had originally cleared, and the other two worked for the same landscaping company they didn’t ask any more questions after that. It was clear cut to them. The men who they found were the only men that Elena was fingering so their investigation was pretty much complete as far as finding out who had taken her. 

“Is it okay for me to go to the hospital now?” Elena asked and after getting the okay she and her parents got in the car and headed to see Nick. She was nervous as they approached the desk and asked for his room. 

“Are you here to pick him up?” the nurse asked and Elena looked at her with a confused expression. 

“He’s leaving? He was shot in the neck; you’re just going to let him go?”

“His request,” the nurse shrugged, “We told him he should have someone come pick him up.”

“Where is he now?” Elena wondered and the nurse rattled off a room number. 

When they made it to the room Nick was sitting up in bed with a large white bandage covering the spot where his neck met his shoulder. At the sound of the door he looked up, surprised to see Elena and her parents walk through the door. There were police officers in his room earlier, and they had taken his statement about what had gone on in the guest house. He only hoped that everything he said matched up with Elena’s story. He found it incredibly ironic that one of the things that had cleared him from a majority of suspicion was his lack of employment. If Brian had convinced him to work for the landscaping company too, he wouldn’t be a free man right now. Instead he was just some guy who lived at his mother’s house down the street from where Elena had been held captive. He was an innocent man by their standards.

“What are you doing here?” he asked curiously, not having expected to see her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she demanded to know, hands going to her hips.

“I can’t stay,” Nick said with a sigh, “I don’t have insurance, I don’t have a job, I can’t afford this room. Hell I can’t even afford the gauze keeping me from bleeding out.”

In a flash Kevin had walked over to the bed, putting a hand on Nick’s shoulder, “You’re not going anywhere. It was the police who shot you with no warning, so they will be paying your medical expenses. You saved my daughter’s life, the least I can do is call my lawyers and have them get your bills taken care of.”

“Wow, thanks,” Nick said, never having experience charity quite like that before. 

“Like I said, it’s the least we can do. Well, we’ll let you two visit for a bit,” Kevin said, looking back to Elena quickly before turning to Nick, “I’ll be sure to leave my information with the people at the desk so don’t you worry about a bill. Take care of yourself. Maybe we’ll see you around some time?”

“Maybe,” Nick nodded, wincing when he realized it wasn’t a motion he could really manage with the hole in his neck. He was still surprised that after all the rumours he had heard about this man being uptight in reality he was normal, like anyone else.

“Oh, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of him,” Dana chuckled, closing watching the looks that her daughter was giving the young man, “Let’s go,” she said, pulling Kevin outside the door. 

“Your dad doesn’t seem like a bad guy,” Nick commented as he sat back on the bed, patting the spot next to him so Elena could join him. 

“He can be very generous sometimes,” Elena admitted sheepishly as she sat down next to him.

Nick sighed, “I’m trying to convince myself that I know why you lied to me when I was nothing but honest with you but it’s hard.”

“All I can tell you is that I’m sorry, and I hope you can forgive and forget.” 

“I can, and I have,” he said honestly, “I just kind of hoped you were like me.”

“I am,” Elena said, “You were a victim and I am too, just in different ways. Just because I lied to you about some things doesn’t mean you should never believe me again. I was under a lot of pressure, and thought I would never see my family again.”

“Did you lie to the police?” he wondered, “They didn’t seem to think I had anything to do with it. I pretended not to know the other guys so I was hoping our stories matched up.”

“I told them you weren’t involved, that you were just a guy I met along the way. They seemed convinced once they figured out that Brian worked for us.”

Nick smiled gratefully, “So we can move on from all of this right?” 

Elena kissed his temple and laid them back in the bed, “We definitely will.”

“You think everyone will believe our story?” 

“Everyone will,” she nodded.

Nick looked over at her sceptically, “How can you be sure?”

“Ask yourself this question,” Elena prompted, tapping him on the nose quickly, “who is going to believe a con?”

“Everyone,” he smiled, “If she’s good.”

“Am I good?” Elena asked, putting her head on his uninjured shoulder. 

“Oh yeah, you’re good,” Nick agreed, sighing as they settled back into the bed. He felt like he was finally free of all the people who had held him down for years, and now finally had a chance to be good for his own benefit. No longer would Brian be able to knock him down, he would have Elena there to hold him up. 

“You have to promise me one thing though,” Elena said, rubbing Nick’s arm soothingly, “No more kidnapping girls and falling in love with them okay?”

“I hear that only happens once,” he replied with a smile. 

FINIS