“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.