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** KEVIN **

I could hear Howie’s voice all the way down the hallway. Just like Brian became more southern when he was anxious, Howie became more Latin when he was mad. Over the years, my Spanish had improved simply from listening to Howie’s angry rants.

“Are you sure that you wanna go in there?” Justin nodded in the direction of the room that Nick and Brian were sharing as we neared the elevator. “You can always just come for breakfast with me and Eddie. I won’t tell anyone.”

I looked at the closed door and sighed. “You and I both know that I have no choice but to go in there.”

“Good luck.” Justin suppressed a smirk and clapped me roughly on the back. “Eddie and I will be downstairs if you need us ... or a drink.”

I let out a low chuckle as I rapped loudly on the door. “Thanks a lot.”

Justin had already disappeared in the elevator by the time Howie yanked open the door. He gave me a death stare as I forced a smile onto my face and stepped inside.

“Mornin’ y’all.” My smile faltered as I caught sight of AJ, Brian, and Nick huddled on the floor. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Nick drunkenly made Ashley post two new chapters of her story last night without realizing that she wrote about him getting shot. Howie’s convinced that Ashley is the person who’s trying to kill us, and Brian is ridiculously hung-over.” AJ hugged his knees and looked up into my face. “Do you need to know any more than that?”

“Good Christ ...” I turned to Howie. “Do you have anything to add to that lovely summary?”

“Yeah. The three of them are idiots!” Howie jabbed his finger at the group on the floor. “And I’m pretty sure that Brian and Nick are hiding something from us ... again.”

“Okay ...” I looked down at my cousin who was snuffling shamelessly into Nick’s shoulder. “Bri, do you wanna throw in your two cents?”

Brian pulled his head off of Nick’s shoulder and leaned it back against the wall with a soft thud. “I’m not in the mood right now, Kev.”

I couldn’t help it; I let out my standard sigh of annoyance and rubbed at my face. Why was it always so hard for the five of us to talk to each other?

“We should probably talk to Ashley and Agent Adams about the new chapters.” AJ looked to me for confirmation. “Right, Kev?”

Again with the stupid story! From what I had heard of Howie’s speech, I was in complete agreement with him. We all needed to forget about the idea that Ashley was able to control our lives with her ridiculous fan fiction and focus on surviving our next show. If Agent Adams and the rest of the FBI had any brains, they would be thinking the same thing.

“Fine.” I resisted the urge to let out another sigh. “Let’s go talk to Ashley.”

“Y’all can go. I don’t really have anything to say to her anyway.” Brian swallowed loudly and averted his eyes from my face.

“I’m just gonna hang out here with Brian.” Nick cleared his throat. “There’s no need for us all to go trooping down to her room.”

I looked back and forth between Brian and Nick. Howie was right; the two of them were definitely hiding something. They both looked, and smelled as, if they had drunk their weight in beer.

Everyone is coming.” I reached out to help AJ off of the floor. “No excuses.”

AJ accepted my hand and hauled himself to his feet. He looked down at Nick and Brian. “Nick, don’t you want to know your fate? The chapters are about you.”

Nick shrugged. “I can just read them for myself.”

“Can we please just get this over with?” Howie jerked open the door and stepped out into the hallway. “Some of us are not in the mood to spend any more time than is absolutely necessary with the rest of you.”

“Let’s go.” I snapped my fingers at Nick and Brian. I waited as Nick stood up and pulled Brian to his feet. The stench of stale alcohol intensified as the two of them fell into place behind AJ. I caught Nick gently by the elbow and glared at my cousin. “The three of us are going to have a little chat later.”

“Wonderful.” Nick mumbled. “There’s nothing like a Kevin lecture to get the day going.”

I pretended not to hear Nick’s comment as the five of us trudged down the hallway. I would deal with the fact that Nick needed to be limiting his alcohol intake once we had sorted out the minor issue that his life was in jeopardy.

Howie reached Ashley’s room first. He rapped quickly on the door and folded his arms across his chest. “This is so pointless.”

“I know.” I gave my support to Howie. “But just in case it isn’t, we need to talk to her.”

“Oh ... hey.” Ashley pulled open the door. “Sorry. I was just getting ready.” She ran a hand through her freshly blow-dried hair and tugged her tank top down over the waistband of her pyjama pants. “Do you guys want to come in?”

“We just want to talk to you about last night.” I led the way into the room. “If that’s okay.”

“Last night?” Ashley hurriedly began swiping clothes and towels off of the bed. She gathered an armful of magazines into her hands and deposited them on the nightstand. “What about it?”

“Well, I’ve heard that Nick let you do something that you shouldn’t have.” I sat down on the freshly cleared bed and looked at Ashley expectantly. “Is that true?”

“Uhhhh ...” Ashley’s eyes flew to Nick’s before coming to rest on Brian’s. “Ummmm ...”

“I’m talking about the chapters that you posted.” I addressed Ashley, but I narrowed my eyes at Brian. He was fidgeting with the wrinkles in his t-shirt, his eyes locked with Ashley’s, his face flushed. “You okay cuz?”

“Mmmmhmmm” Brian nodded, his face reddening even more. “I have a headache, that’s all.”

“Oh. You’re talking about that.” Ashley let her breath out in one long rush. “I was pretty drunk and Nick seemed to think that it would be ...”

I held up my hand to silence her. “I’m not concerned with any of that. All I want is a quick synopsis of what’s supposed to happen to Nick. I don’t exactly have time to read everything that you posted ... although it is very well written.”

I wasn’t lying. Ashley did have talent as a writer. It was just my opinion that she should focus on trying to write an actual book as opposed to wasting her time writing about us. I mean, it wasn’t as if penning fan fiction would help her writing career. Although, it had apparently done wonders for what’s-her-name who wrote Fifty Shades of Grey.

“I wrote that Nick gets shot by someone in the crowd. It happens during ‘Breathe’ while he’s standing on the catwalk ... almost immediately after Brian is stabbed by the psycho in the fan pit.” Ashley rushed. “It’s a direct shot to the chest.”

I closed my eyes for a brief moment. “Ashley, if you really believe that the un-sub is copying the events of your story then why are you increasing the intensity of the attacks?”

“It’s what the FBI told me to do.” Ashley lowered her eyes to the floor. “They told me to follow the storyboard that I established when I started the story. Agent Adams warned that I could set the un-sub off if I deviated from my initial plan. He said that the un-sub may start doing his own thing if he’s already seen the outline and he realizes that I’m changing the story to make it less violent. Agent Adams said that, if that happened, it would be even harder for him and his team to solve the case; to catch the person who’s been attacking you.” Ashley pulled her eyes away from the floor and stared directly into mine. “I just want to do whatever I can to make sure that you guys are okay.”

“I know.” I reached out and gently placed my hand on Ashley’s shoulder. The poor girl looked beyond stressed out. “This whole situation is just taking its toll on all of us. I didn’t mean to insinuate that you were making the problem worse. I’m just a little bit thrown off by the fact that you posted additional chapters without consulting us or the FBI.”

“It was my fault, Kev.” Nick stepped up to Ashley’s defence. “I was the one who uploaded the chapters. If you’re going to be pissed at anyone, you should be pissed at me.”

“What happens to Nick?” AJ interrupted. “The last chapter that you posted ends with him bleeding out on the stage.”

“I don’t know. I mean, I haven’t written anything beyond what Nick posted last night.” Even though she was answering AJ’s question, Ashley was once again starting directly into my eyes. “If I continue with the plot as I initially outlined it then Nick doesn’t make it.”

“And Brian?” AJ pressed. “What ends up happening to him?”

Ashley slowly shook her head. “I had kinda planned this whole Frick and Frack until the end type of thing ...”

“So, he dies?!” AJ was now on the verge of hysterics. “We’re gonna lose both of them?! I can’t – that just can’t – I won’t be able to ...”

“This is bullshit!” Howie shook his head. “None of this crap is going to come true.”

“It’s all come true so far, Howie.” Brian whispered. “Why can’t you just accept it?”

I steeled myself for another one of Howie’s outbursts. He looked ready to rip Brian’s head off with his bare hands. Fortunately for Brian, Howie closed his mouth just as quickly as he had opened it at the arrival of Agent Adams.

“The door was open.” Agent Adams strolled into the room looking less than impressed. “Ms. Bass, I see that you were rather busy last night.” He looked at each of us in turn. “I trust that you’re all up to date on what our little writer here has penned.”

“She’s just filled us in.” I took a deep breath. There was something about the detective’s face that was making me uneasy.

“Good.” Agent Adams swallowed what I assumed was the last few bites of a cherry flavoured Halls and licked his lips. “We need to talk about the show.”

“We’re not doing it.” I shook my head. “There’s no way that we can go ahead now. It’s too risky.”

“It wasn’t too risky when it was only Brian who was going to get hurt.” AJ interrupted; his voice eerily steady. “Why is it no longer a good idea, Kev?”

I knew what AJ was insinuating. We all did. Of course, just because we all knew what he was asking didn’t mean that it was true. I didn’t love Nick more than I loved Brian. At least, I would never admit to it; not to myself, and definitely not to the others.

“You’re doing the show.” Agent Adams’s voice boomed out through the silence that had descended upon the room. “We’re going to have agents stationed throughout the crowd posing as fans and venue personnel.” He nodded at Brian and Nick. “Nick will wear a bullet-proof vest, and you will both have earpieces that will be linked to FBI security. We’re going to need you to pretend that everything is normal ...”

“Don’t we get a say ...” I stopped as someone’s phone began to ring. “Whose fucking phone is that?”

“It’s mine.” Ashley hurried over to the nightstand and picked up her iPhone. She glanced quickly at the display. “S – Sorry. It’s – it’s my boyfriend, Charlie.” She hastily powered off the device. “I’m sorry ... I don’t know why he’s calling me so early in the morning.”

‘Charlie’.

The name was running through my mind on a loop. There was something familiar about the name. A thought, a memory, was struggling to push its way through to the front of my brain. I stared blankly at Agent Adams, watching his lips move. Howie was adding his two cents to the conversation, but I was no longer paying attention. I knew that what I was trying to remember was important, but I just couldn’t force myself to grasp the memory and pull it forward.

‘Charlie’.

“What does your boyfriend do?” I asked the question in the middle of the conversation; successfully bringing it to a halt.

Ashley looked taken aback. “He works for a grocery supplier that delivers speciality items to commercial locations. That’s how we met; he was delivering coconut flour to my store.”

“What does it matter?” Brian spoke properly for the first time since we had all entered the room. He seemed agitated, flustered. “Who cares what some guy who she sometimes goes out with does for a living?”

“It’s nothing. I was just ...” I shrugged and trailed off. The moment of opportunity had passed; the memory had slipped away. “I was just wondering.”

Although I had quickly zeroed in on the fact that my cousin seemed overly annoyed at the mention of Ashley’s boyfriend, I didn’t bother to ask how he somehow knew more than he should about the intensity of their relationship. I was too busy berating myself for not being able to remember something that I knew was important. Maybe if I had made the effort to dig a little deeper, I would have been able to make the connection.