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.