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** BRIAN **

I kept my eyes locked on Nick as AJ moved to greet Ashley. She was right; this was entirely our fault. What had we done?

“You do know her then?” Agent Adams looked at us rather warily. “I can leave her here with you? It seems as though you all have something that you need to sort out.”

“Yeah.” Nick snapped out of his trance before I could. “It’s fine. She’s our friend.”

“She is, is she?” Agent Adams raised his eyebrows. “Is there anything that I should know about?” He turned to Ashley. “Who threatened you?”

“I don’t know!” Ashley wailed. “After they left and I posted the note about discontinuing the story I got an email from someone claiming that they were going to kill my mom and burn down my business if I didn’t keep writing.”

Oh God, oh God, oh God! This was bad; really bad. I needed to sit down. I needed to vomit. I needed a drink.

“Do you still have the email?” Agent Adams asked. “I’m assuming that the threat that you received has something to do with them.” He nodded towards me and Nick.

“It has everything to do with them!” Ashley exploded. “If they hadn’t come to see me this morning then none of this would have happened!”

“We weren’t trying to hurt you.” My voice was shaking. “We just – We really thought that asking you to discontinue the story was the right thing to do.”

“What am I supposed to do now? I’m not going to jeopardize my mom’s life for the sake of some stupid fan fiction!” Ashley was becoming increasingly irate. She thrust her iPhone into Agent Adams’s hand. “The email is on the screen.”

The pudgy detective rubbed at his swollen eyes and sighed. He looked beyond confused. “I’ll see if my team is able to trace the sender. While I do that, which one of you is going to explain exactly how this online threat has anything to do with the five of you and my current investigation?”

“I will.” Nick mumbled. “This whole thing was my idea.”

“Wonderful.” The sarcasm dripped from Agent Adams’s mouth as he motioned for Nick to follow him out of the room. “I have a feeling that I’m going to need a stiff drink after you’re done with your explanation.”

I watched Nick slink out of the room with a heavy heart. Agent Adams was not going to be happy when he discovered what the two of us had done. We had all promised to keep the circumstances surrounding the accidents a secret. Of course, the two of us had also promised Ashley that we would keep her involvement a secret. So much for keeping our promises; we had let everyone down.

“Soooooo ...” AJ let out a low whistle. “I read some of your story ... it’s good.”

“Oh God!” Ashley’s face crumpled as she released a wave of fresh tears. “Could this day get any worse?!”

I hated it when women cried. The way their faces contorted in sadness made my heart ache. It didn’t matter if I knew them or not. So, when Ashley started to cry, I did the only thing that I could think to do; I crossed the room and pulled her into a tight hug.

Ashley responded by dropping her face into the crook of my neck. Her hair spilled across my shoulder and her breath tickled my skin as I held her close. I knew that Leighanne would have a shit-fit if she could see me with my arms around another woman, but I pushed the thought out of my mind as I slowly ran my hands up and down Ashley’s back. I had put her, her family, and her business in jeopardy. The least that I could do was offer her some comfort.

“I have to finish the story.” Ashley hiccupped into my shoulder. “I have no other choice.”

I tightened my grip on her slender frame. “I’m sure that the FBI will be able to figure out who sent the email. You should wait and see what Agent Adams has to say before you make any decisions.”

“My mom could die!” Ashley ripped herself away from me. “Don’t you care?!”

“Of – Of course I care.” I stuttered. “I didn’t mean ...”

“This is a hard time for all of us.” AJ interrupted. “I think I can safely say that Brian doesn’t want anything terrible to happen to your mom, but he also doesn’t want anything else to happen to any of us either. I don’t know how much he and Nick told you but ...”

“They told me that the events in my story have been coming true.” Ashley cut AJ off and shot me an apologetic look. “I can’t even begin to imagine how hard all of this must have been for you guys.”

“It hasn’t been easy.” Howie looked over at Kevin who was still lying motionless on the bed. “Some of us have had it worse than others.”

Ashley followed Howie’s gaze. She looked dangerously close to tears for the third time. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen! It was just fiction! I mean, everyone writes this kind of stuff about you guys!”

“They do?” AJ raised his eyebrows. “That’s – That’s weird.”

Ashley’s face was positively scarlet. “It’s weird now that you know about it”

“I feel as though I should read what you’ve written.” Howie admitted. “Do you mind?”

“Mind? Why would I mind now?” Ashley shrugged. “Your friends have already read it. Everyone already thinks that I’m a complete psycho.”

“Nobody thinks that you’re a psycho.” I nodded in AJ’s direction so that he would back me up. “Right?”

“”Right.” AJ confirmed. “You’re pretty talented. You should try writing a real book.”

“The only thing that Ms. Bass will be writing in the near future is the rest of her story. Her ... what’s it called? Fan fiction?” Agent Adams re-entered the room. His face was a mixture of exasperation and amusement. “According to Mr. Carter, her story is the key to solving this case.”

“You want me to finish the story?” Ashley looked from me to Nick to Agent Adams and back again. “How is it supposed to end?”

Agent Adams rolled his eyes. He clearly thought that the entire situation was absurd. “End it however you want. I don’t care what happens as long as you put someone else in a dangerous situation and soon.”

Ashley opened her mouth to question Dave’s instructions, but I beat her to it. “How exactly is Ashley continuing to write about us getting maimed going to help us?”

My question elicited another eye roll from the overweight man. “If Mr. Carter is correct in his assumption that whoever is targeting you is reading Ms. Bass’s story and copying the plot then the un-sub will likely continue to carry out whatever gruesome event that Ms. Bass writes next. Only, this time, we will have read the chapter before the un-sub.” Agent Adams explained his theory slowly, as if he were speaking to a room full of toddlers. “Ms. Bass will stay with the group until she finishes the story, or until my team is able to apprehend the un-sub; whichever comes first.” He turned to address Ashley directly as he delivered his final set of instructions. “You will always stay two chapters ahead of what you post on the site and you will always let my team read what you have written before you publish it online. Do you understand?”

“I don’t see why I have to uproot my entire life. I have a business to run and ...”

Agent Adams cut Ashley off before she could finish. “Ms. Bass, we have traced the IP address of the person who sent you that threatening email. It came from your restaurant.”

“It – It came from – from the Blueberry?” Ashley’s face had changed from beat red to sickeningly white. “I don’t understand. How is that possible?”

Noticing that Ashley was looking a bit unsteady on her feet, I shot my hand out and rested it against the small of her back. I had a horrible vision of her crashing to the floor and suffering a life-altering concussion; another terrible thing that I would unintentionally be responsible for.

“Until we figure that out, you will remain under the watchful eye of the FBI.” Agent Adams no longer looked exasperated. His face had turned stony; overly serious. “Do you understand what I’m asking you to do?”

Ashley nodded, her body swaying slightly against my fingers. “How soon do you expect me to have the next chapter written? I haven’t even started ...”

“As soon as possible.” Agent Adams clipped, not bothering to wait for her to finish speaking. “Someone has already been sent to collect your laptop and your personal belongings.” He turned to leave, but quickly changed his mind. “Who is the next target?”

“Excuse me?” Ashley appeared to be in a bit of a daze.

“In the story ...” Agent Adams was back to appearing exasperated. “Who is supposed to be hurt next? Have you thought that far ahead?”

“Oh.” Ashley slowly drew her eyes up to mine. She looked needlessly guilty. “Brian – Brian is the one who gets hurt next.”

“Ahhh ...” Agent Adams turned his attention to me. He didn’t look concerned, merely indifferent. “I figured as much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Nick charged. His face was turning blotchy; a sure sign that he was getting ready to unleash hell on the moody agent. “You’re supposed to be helping us and your best suggestion is that Ashley continues to write about us being tortured so that some nut-job can make her words come true?! When I told you my theory, I was expecting you to help us, to help Ashley. All you and your fucking team are doing is making everything worse! Do you really expect me to stand here and do nothing when I hear that my best fr – that Brian is about to get hurt? I’m not a selfish prick like you!”

Nick was on a roll. The words were spraying from his mouth in a torrent of anger and frustration, and Agent Adams was doing nothing to calm him down. The pudgy man was simply staring at Nick as though he were a spoiled teenager throwing a tantrum over his curfew. Instead, it was Howie who moved to comfort Nick; his brain sending the signal to his feet to move before mine had even finished processing the idea that I was next on the chopping block.

I caught Howie’s eye as he gently placed his hand on Nick’s shoulder and turned him away from Agent Adams’s expressionless face. It was obvious that Howie had heard Nick’s slip; that Howie knew that he had once again been replaced. The anger that radiated through our split second exchange shouldn’t have been surprising, but it was. It was no secret that Howie resented my presence, both in the group and in Nick’s life. Two decades ago, I had walked into a European recording studio and stolen Howie’s title as lead singer, and now I had just stolen another title from him; a title that probably meant more to him than all the lead vocals in the world. In Howie’s eyes, I had clearly just robbed him of his best friend, and I didn’t doubt that he would never forgive me for it.