Chapter 21

            “AJ, what are you doing here?” asked Liz as she rode in AJ’s car with him to the hospital.  AJ looked over at her from the driver’s seat for a moment, and then turned his attention back onto the road. 

            “I was following you guys,” he said quietly, not sure he wanted to bare everything he knew about to her at that moment. 

            “Why?”  She was not going to let him get away that easily, she wanted answers, and she knew Stacie and Caryss would want answers too.  “Seems like a lot of people are following us these days.”  She was very bitter about what happened today, and even though she didn’t intend to take it out on him, she wasn’t bothered by the fact that she was. 

            “Liz, listen, I know you’re scared and upset, this situation is very confusing and I don’t blame you for being suspicious of my actions, but you need to understand that I am on your side and I’m trying to help Caryss, and you, not the other way around.”

            Liz sat there silent for a moment, watching the palm trees and cars as AJ drove past them.  She thought about how she was going to explain to Nick what happened and how she let Caryss get hurt.  Guilt plagued her as much as fear did, and she wasn’t sure what to do with these emotions.  “So explain,” was all she said. 

            “Laurie is my cousin,” he began, after taking in a deep breath.  Liz snapped her head around and stared at him, wondering how she didn’t know that.  “I’ve been helping her hide from Trevor and I have been helping her investigate what he’s planning.  When I saw Trevor outside the library I knew there would be trouble, and if I didn’t help you guys, there might not have been anyone else that would have.  I knew that my ‘cover’ would be blown and I’d have to come clean, but I didn’t care.”  He stopped and took another deep breath, waiting for Liz to say something. 

            “Does Nick know?”  She couldn’t think of anything else to ask at that moment, she was still trying to process all the information he had just given her.  Backstreet Boy by day, spy/private investigator/detective by night?  This is all so surreal! 

            “No, he doesn’t know.  I was waiting to tell him how involved Caryss is in this whole thing until I had more to go on.”

            “Funny, we were doing the same thing.”

            “She’s gonna be okay Liz.  Everything is gonna be okay.”  He turned the car into the emergency room parking lot of the hospital and pulled into a parking space. 

            “Yeah, right,” she yelled, emotion ruling her voice like an iron fist.  “How is it going to be okay when she’s being wheeled into the emergency room right now and we don’t know what’s wrong with her, Trevor is still out there and planning God knows what, and Nick has no idea what’s going on and he’s going to kill me and Stacie when he finds out we were lying to him and helping Caryss lie to him!”  She inhaled sharply and tears filled her eyes.  Alex cut off the engine and turned towards her, looking into her moist gray-green eyes.   

            “The police are going to be called you know,” she continued, still holding the tears back in her eyes.  “Caryss being ‘attacked by an assailant in an alley’; you know the hospital is going to call and a report will have to be filed.” 

            “Yes, I know,” he said quietly, watching her intently and never breaking eye contact with her. 

            “What are we going to tell them?  Maybe we should tell them about Trevor and all of this and they can help us!”

            “No, Liz, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said shaking his head.  Liz cocked her head to the side, questions burning in her eyes.  “If we turn it over to the cops now, the most he’ll get slapped with is stalking.  Unless he told that guy specifically to hurt Caryss, they can’t even get him on assault charges.  We need to continue this on our own.  Trevor is not going to back down, he wants Caryss and he will keep coming until he wins.”

            “What are you saying?  We dangle Caryss in the water and wait for the shark to come eat her?  That is never going to happen!  I am not going to put her in jeopardy like that!”  She was disgusted by what AJ was implying but outraged that he actually might be right.

            “Yeah?  And what if it’s the only way to stop him?  Do you want him to keep coming after Caryss, and probably now you and Stacie for revenge, or do you want him put away in jail for a long time where he can’t hurt any of you?  What we are planning is going to keep Caryss safe, she will be monitored the whole time and when it goes down, we will be right there.”

            “We?  Planning? What are you talking about?”

            AJ sighed deeply.  He really wasn’t ready to explain everything to her, but the situation had escalated so quickly he didn’t have much of a choice. 

            “I have friend, his name is Rick, and he works for the FBI.  He’s been working with me and Laurie on this.  Since Heal the Bay is a nation-wide organization, it technically falls in federal jurisdiction.  Since the gala is being put on by Heal the Bay that falls into federal jurisdiction.  And apparently, Trevor falls into federal jurisdiction as well.”

            “He’s got an FBI file?”

            “Yeah.  Look, I can’t go into any more detail right now so you’ll just have to trust me.  Let’s get inside and hopefully they will give us some information on Caryss.”  Liz nodded and opened the car door.  She stepped out of the vehicle and walked into the hospital without waiting for AJ.  He ran to catch up to her and when he did, he grabbed her arm and twisted her around so she was facing him. 

            “What do you want AJ?” she snapped at him, not meaning to but with all the emotions running through her she was finding impulse control a hard commodity to come by.  She knew it, and luckily so did he.  He pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her tightly.  She felt weak in his arms, no longer strong enough to keep her tears inside. 

            They started as quiet shudders, but soon her shoulders were shaking, her body trembling as violent sobs overtook her.  AJ just held her, stroking her hair and silently comforting her as best he could.  She leaned into him and cried, remaining that way for a long time, until she heard a familiar voice talking to her. 

            “Liz, she’s gonna be okay.”  Liz looked up and saw Stacie standing there holding a box of tissues.  She handed one to Liz and smiled.  “The ambulance ride was fun,” she joked, trying to lighten the mood.  Liz gave her a weak smile, as did AJ. 

            “When can we see her?  There is so much stuff we have to tell her, and you,” sniffed Liz as she dried her face with the tissue.  Stacie gave her a questioning look, and then shot one at AJ. 

            “Not here,” he whispered to her.  “We need to talk someplace private.”

            “Let’s go to Caryss’s room, we can ask the nurses to leave for a minute and talk there, that way she can hear what you have to say too,” suggested Stacie, curiosity pushing all other thoughts out of her mind.  Liz and AJ nodded and the trio walked down the hall to Caryss’s room, where AJ told Stacie and Caryss everything he had told Liz on the way to the hospital. 

            “Where’s room 315?  Which way do I go?” asked Nick impatiently as he approached a nurses’ station.  The nurse didn’t even look up; she just pointed her finger towards one of the halls.  Normally, he would have had something to say about it, but this time he took off running down the indicated hallway without saying a word.  He skidded to a stop as he came to room 315 and pushed the partially opened door open all the way.  He did not expect to see his band mate sitting in one of chairs next to Caryss’s bed. 

            “Nick, hi,” stammered Liz as she stood up from Caryss’s bed. 

            “What happened?” he asked as he walked to one side of the bed and looked down at his girlfriend. 

            “She’s sleeping right now; they just gave her more pain medication,” explained Stacie as she stood next to Nick.  “Why don’t you have a seat.”  She motioned to the chair behind him and he nodded and sat down.  He looked across the bed at AJ, random thoughts running through his confused and frightened mind. 

            “What happened?” he asked again, this time a little louder and with a little more force. 

            “I’m going to tell you, Nick, but it’s not going to make any sense at first so you just need to listen to everything I say before you say anything, okay?” started Liz, now wondering why she volunteered to tell Nick what was going on.  He looked at Caryss again, and nodded his head in agreement. 

            “Okay,” she continued, taking a deep breath before talking again.  “Before we met you guys at Mood the other night, we went to Laurie’s condo to talk to her about what happened with Trevor.  Trevor had told Caryss that she broke up with him and stuff and we didn’t believe him so we wanted her side of the story.  When we got there, she wasn’t home, but her door was unlocked so we went in.  Caryss found a note on the counter addressed to her, so she opened it.  It was from Laurie and she told her to be careful and there were some things she needed to know.”

            Liz stopped to catch her breath, which she found harder to do than normal. 

            “It’s okay Liz, keep going,” coaxed Nick in a very calm, mature tone.  She took another deep breath and continued.

            “Then she got a phone call telling her to go to the library on Figueroa the next day and look in one of the encyclopedias for something important.  We all went together and she ended up meeting Laurie in the bathroom who told her all this stuff about Trevor and this plan to get Caryss away from you and then she gave Caryss this envelope and left.”

            “He’s planning what?” Nick fumed, his face getting red and his voice getter louder. 

            “Nick, please just wait until she’s done,” said AJ softly.  Nick looked at him, still wanting to know why he was here in the first place.  He looked back at Liz, waiting for her to continue. 

            “So then she’s outside with this envelope in her hands and Trevor calls her asking if she’s talked to Laurie because Laurie took something from his office that is important and she lies and says that she hasn’t seen Laurie.  Trevor was sitting in his car watching her, knowing she’s got the envelope he’s looking for and knowing she had just gotten done talking to Laurie.  He says something about her having a nice time at the library and she knows he’s watching her, so we take off running into a candle shop and go into the back room to look in the envelope.  While Caryss is telling us what is going on, we hear someone trying to get into the back room, so we grab the envelope run out the back door into an alley.”

            Liz stopped talking and looked down at her hands, knowing this part was going to be the hardest to tell; this part was her fault.  Her eyes filled with tears and she looked at her friend lying in the bed.  “I’m sorry Car-bear,” she whispered, as the tears slid out of her eyes and down her cheeks. 

            “Liz and I were running ahead of Caryss,” Stacie said, jumping in to pick up where Liz had left off.  She knew Liz would have a hard time talking, mostly because she felt so much guilt for what happened in the alley.  “Caryss was wearing flip flops and couldn’t keep up with us very well.  We came out of the alley and ran into AJ, and it was then that we realized Caryss wasn’t behind us anymore.  We ran back down the alley and when we turned the corner we saw her laying on the ground and this guy getting up.  He grabbed the envelope out of her hands and took off; AJ chased him and got the envelope back but couldn’t stop the guy.”

            “Is that it?” asked Nick, looking from Liz to Stacie and finally to AJ. 

            “In a nutshell,” said Stacie.  “Caryss told us what happened in the alley.  She said that she tripped and cut her knee open.  She tried to get up and keep running but the guy came up behind her and shoved her back down.  She kicked him in the face but when she tried to get away, he grabbed her foot and twisted her knee until it popped and then she fell on the ground.  She doesn’t remember anything after that though.”  Stacie saw the horrified look on Nick’s face. 

            “So what did the doctor say?” he asked quietly, looking at Caryss’s covered legs trying to figure out which one was injured. 

            “Her knee was dislocated, she has possible ligament damage and she’ll need an MRI in a couple days.  She has to be on crutches or in a wheelchair because she’s not allowed to put any pressure on it.  Other than that, she’s fine.” 

            “Good,” replied Nick, the relieved tone in his voice obvious.  “What were you doing there?” he asked suddenly, looking at AJ with fire in his eyes. 

            “I was following them,” he said, pointing to the girls.  “I knew Trevor was watching them and I wanted to make sure they were safe.”  Nick looked very confused, so AJ expounded.  He explained his connection to the whole situation, and before Nick could ask, he explained his plan and how his friend Rick from the FBI was going to be helping.  Nick was silent for a few minutes, Stacie, Liz and AJ just stared at him, waiting for a response.  Finally he spoke.

            “I don’t like the idea of putting Caryss in harm’s way again, but I agree that it’s the only way to stop Trevor for good.  Does she know about all this?” he asked, pointing to Caryss. 

            “Yes, she does.  She has already agreed to be ‘the bait’ as long as she knows we and the police or FBI are close by,” responded Liz, speaking for the first time since her breakdown. 

            “So what now?  What happens next?” Nick asked, his heart starting to beat a little faster at the thought of what was going to go down. 

            “Trevor knows Caryss is hurt, he was still at the scene when the ambulance came and I know he saw Liz and Stacie with me.  I’m also sure he’s talked to his thug and he knows we still have the envelope.  He’s going to keep trying to get it back; he doesn’t want us to know what’s in it,” said AJ, standing up from the chair and pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.  “I’m going to call Rick and find out what we should do next.”

            He was on the phone with Rick for a good twenty minutes, then said good bye and turned back to Nick, Liz and Stacie.  “The first thing we are going to do is see what’s in that envelope.”  They nodded in agreement as Stacie pulled it out of her oversized purse and began to open it.  They had no idea that what they would find in the envelope would tear everyone in the room apart.