Chapter 26

When Brian arrived to Baltimore, it was almost midnight—24 hours after Alexa had disappeared. When he stepped off of the airplane into the waiting area, Brian scanned the surrounding snack shops and bar areas for a television that was playing the news. The whole ride over, Brian prayed that Alexa would be found safely by the time that he had landed. Directly across from where he was standing, a small bar had the news playing softly. Unfortunately, it seemed that his prayers had remained unanswered. The feeling was actually a little bittersweet—bitter that they hadn’t found her alive, sweet that they hadn’t found her dead.

Brian sighed and slung the duffel bag that had been his carry-on over his shoulder. Though inside, his nerves were pinging like a pinball machine, he walked calmly through the airport. The last thing that he wanted to do was to draw any excessive attention to himself. He still didn’t know how he was going to get through the media vans and curious onlookers that had been stationed outside of Alexa’s sister and brother-in-law’s house, let alone the police. Technically, Brian didn’t have any more right to be there than the average nosy person. Only, he truly loved Alexa. Thinking that something bad could have possibly happened to her, that she could be alone, hurt, cold, scared or worse, was killing him slowly.

Brian stuffed his hands into his pockets and left the bar area with his head hung low. Tears that threatened to spill down his cheeks burned his eyelids. He didn’t know how he got here—to this place in his life. He had such moments of extreme elation and then utter depression. After so many years of the latter, he had finally been happy again—truly, completely happy. He had been so badly broken when his wife died. The only one that was ever able to make him let go and feel good again was Alexa. Then, he came to find out that she had been hired to befriend him. The jury was still out as to what exactly Alexa had been paid to do or how long she was employed by Jive. For the last two months, Brian didn’t think that it mattered how long she was paid to live across the street from him. The fact that she was paid by Jive at all and that she had kept that part of her life a secret from him was hurtful enough. Now, she was gone. No one knew if they would ever see her again and Brian was beginning to hate himself for walking away from her without a second glance back. He had felt betrayed and used, but if he was honest with himself, he’d also admit that he was almost relieved that the relationship hadn’t been as perfect as it seemed. It wasn’t that he was looking for a way out, but it was almost as if he was waiting for something to knock him backwards as if to prove that he was right all along—no one was allowed more than one soulmate.

He had heard rumblings around Jive in the months since he an Alexa had broken up that she had gone back to Ben and given every penny of the money that he had paid her back to him. So, in essence, she was never actually paid for anything. Brian didn’t deny that she loved him. He knew in his heart that she did and he hoped that she knew that he loved her, too. Maybe it all went back to him not being ready to love again, after all? Maybe it went back to still holding a piece of himself back, not fully wanting to trust, to give completely of himself and then be disappointed? He had ended up hurt in the end, but he had refused to let himself fall apart. Instead, he slept with too many women to keep count of--de-humanizing himself and every woman that he slept with in the process—which only kept him from falling apart on the surface. Inside, he was shattered.

It all brought him back to this—heartbroken, walking through the airport, praying that the woman that he loved, the woman that he had walked away from, the woman that he could have had at home with him with only a phone call—was found safely.

Brian suddenly found himself outside of the airport in the chilly Baltimore air. He walked over to one to the taxi cabs that were waiting in the arrival lane and climbed in. Suddenly, he realized that he didn’t have any idea as to where to tell the driver to go, all he had was a name.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have an address.” Brian told the cab driver, “but I’m really hoping that you’ll know where to go anyway.”

The cab driver knitted his eyebrows in confusion. “I’m a lotta things, Mister, but I ain’t no mind reader.”

Brian shook his head slowly and narrowed his eyes at the driver. “Listen, I need you to bring me to State Representative Lance Taylor’s home. Do you know where that is?”

The driver shrugged. “Sure, I do. People have been asking to go by there all day. Everyone wants to be in the middle of the action, but you don’t look like one of those busy bodies.”

Brian sighed and sat back against the brown leather of the backseat. “I’m not. I’m Alexa Owens' boyfriend.”

The driver narrowed his eyes at Brian skeptically. “If that’s true, then why didn’t you just get the police to escort you over there or something?”

“I don’t know how to get in touch with her family.” Brian replied. “Look, I’m kind of in a hurry. She’s missing, you know?”

“I just find it funny that you show up now. Almost 24 hours later. How do I know that you didn’t have anything to do with it?” The man asked. He was staring at Brian harshly.

Brian had never considered that he might be a suspect in all of this. Was it actually suspicious of him to show up after this long? Brian shook his head. “I don’t have anything to prove to you, but Alexa and I actually broke up a few months ago. I live in Georgia and I wasn’t sure if I should come. Let me ask you something, if a woman that you love with all of your heart ended up missing, whether either of you really knew how the other felt at that very moment, would you want to be sitting in a taxi getting grilled by the driver? Or would you rather be with her family trying to help in any way possible. Not to mention the fact that if I WAS involved, why would I want to go to that house where the police are waiting?”

The driver thought Brian’s answer over in his head. He knew that Brian had made sense, but he couldn’t help wanting to be a hero. “Okay,” the driver finally responded before turning around in his seat. “You win. It’s going to be hard to try and get through there right now, though.”

Brian nodded. “Just do the best you can and thank you.”

The driver nodded a final time and sped out of the airport and down the highway.

-----

The hours since Alexa had gone missing passed by slowly for Brooke and Lance. Every second that she was gone was another second of diminished hope. One person had already been killed, though no one seemed to know anything about him. He didn’t live in the neighborhood. He didn’t work in the capitol. He seemed to be a random stranger who had somehow obtained an invitation to the party that night.

The police looked into Colin Michaels only to find out that he was a struggling theater actor in New York. Other than the fact that they lived in the same very-large City, nothing else connected Colin and Alexa. It had been another dead lead.

The letter that had been left was littered with fingerprints, though none that matched anyone with a past criminal record. Brooke and Lance had gone over the sequence of events with the police repeatedly. Each time, nothing changed. It had only been a day, but the police were beginning to run into a dead-end.

Detective Jeffrey Morgan of the local FBI branch sat across from Brooke at her glossy, dark-wood dining room table. Detective Morgan was that detective that you only see in the movies. He was tall, dark and handsome. There was years of experience etched onto his face. He had seen things that most can only imagine from dead, mangled bodies to terrifying explosions; however, he hadn’t ever been involved in a kidnapping quite like this one. Alexa Owens was the young, beautiful sister-in-law of a popular State Representative. There was a note left, however, the kidnapper didn’t ask for random. He had, instead, cited revenge. After looking into Alexa’s background, she didn’t seem to be one that was involved in anything criminal or malicious. This seemed like a crime of passion, though, no one could say who was particularly passionate about Alexa at the current time.

“The note that was left after your sister’s kidnapping cited revenge, Mrs. Taylor,” said Detective Morgan softly to Brooke. “Can you think of anyone that your sister might have had some kind of a dispute with?”

Brooke shook her head and clenched her jaw tightly. She was tired of answering the same questions. Time was running out. If the FBI didn’t act soon, Alexa was going to be dead. She didn’t know much about the situation, but she’d heard about enough kidnappings to know that usually, they don’t end well. “No. I already told you no. She was pretty private recently. Not to mention, she’d been living in Georgia, so who knows?”

The detective nodded slowly. He felt terribly bad for any family in this situation, though he knew that he had to keep his own emotions in check. “I know that this is hard for you Mrs. Taylor, but please understand that we’re on your side. You’ve never mentioned Georgia before. Why was she in Georgia?”

Brooke sighed and wiped the fresh set of tears that were falling down her cheeks. “She was on this assignment from her former boss. She ended up quitting her job, but she met someone so she stayed down there for a while longer. Things didn’t end up working out.”

Detective Morgan’s ears perked at the mention of an ex-boyfriend, especially since the relationship had seemed to end recently. Lovers, husbands or wives, boyfriends or girlfriends—all domestic disturbances were a big contributor to violent situations. “You never mentioned a boyfriend.”

Brooke shrugged. “There was nothing to say. They were together. Now, they’re not. It’s over.”

“So, you don’t think that he could have had any involvement in this whatsoever?” The detective prodded, hoping that a light bulb would go off in Brooke Taylor’s head.

Instead, she rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Absolutely not. He’s kind of in the public eye himself. There’s no way. He’s a good guy.”

“So, you know him?” Detective Morgan questioned further. He didn’t want to lead her to an inaccurate assumption, but she had never mentioned his name. Alexa had been in Georgia, where she’d kept a private life, so it’s possible that Brooke didn’t know much about this boyfriend at all.

Brooke paled at Detective Morgan’s unspoken insinuations. Brian didn’t have anything to do with this. There was little that Brooke was sure of right now, but she was definitely sure of that. “No, I’ve never met him, but I know.

“Do you know his name?”

Brooke sighed heavily. “Yes, I do. Brian Littrell. Backstreet Boy. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?”

Just then, there was a commotion coming from the front of the house. Brooke sighed and shook her head. “We’ve been pretty good to the media as far as making comments, right?” Brooke asked the detective rhetorically. “You would think that they’d know that if we heard anything else we’d let them know.”

Detective Morgan glanced over at the television set that Lance was watching in the living room diagonally from where the detective sat with Brooke in the dining room. Detective Morgan scoffed and sat back in his chair. “It looks like you have some famous company.”

“What are you talking about?” Brooke asked as she turned around in her chair, confused. Brooke was shocked to see Brian attempting to walk up the sidewalk at that very moment. She didn’t have to meet the man that Alexa loved to recognize him. He was getting trouble from the police officers that were stationed outside of the house, but he charged through anyway. He was going to be lucky if they didn’t shoot him. “Excuse me.” Brooke mumbled to the detective.

“Mrs. Taylor,” Detective Morgan started as he followed behind Brooke to the front door. “I thought that you said that you didn’t know Brian Littrell.”

Brooke reached the door and stopped. She turned back to Detective Morgan and crossed her arms. “I don’t.”

“Then what’s he doing here?”

Brooke shrugged. “I wouldn’t really know, but I assume that it has something to do with him being in love with my sister. If you let me open the door so that he doesn’t get arrested, you can ask him yourself.”

Detective Morgan gestured toward the door and then stuffed his hands in his pockets. This night was starting to get even more interesting.

Brooke opened the door quickly and stepped out onto the porch. It was almost as if a hush fell over the crowd. Everyone wanted to get the scoop as to why Brian Littrell was trying to get into the Taylor’s house. “Hey!” Brooke called out to the two police officers that were demanding that Brian get off of their ‘crime scene.’ “He’s okay. Let him through.”

The young police officer stared back at Brooke. “Mrs. Taylor, do you really think that now is the best time for company?”

The older of the two officers looked at his young partner and rolled his eyes. “What my partner is so eloquently trying to say is that it’s a difficult situation and the last thing that we need is extra people getting in the way for a little publicity.”

Brian clenched his jaw and rolled his eyes. “I’m not here for publicity. I’ve already told you, I’m-”

Brooke walked over and grabbed Brian’s arm, causing him to stop mid-sentence. “He’s family.” She pulled Brian with her into the house.

When they were back inside with the door firmly shut behind them, Brian turned to Brooke. He was unbelievably nervous to be standing there, in Alexa’s sister’s house—especially under the current conditions. “I’m sorry,” Brian finally spoke. “I don’t mean to intrude. It’s just that-”

Brooke nodded and tried her best to smile. “I know. So does she.”

Brian nodded and sighed. “I want to help. If there’s anything that I can do.”

“Being here is good for right now, though the police might want to talk to you.” Brooke replied. Finally, without thinking, she embraced Brian tightly. This man had made her sister so happy. Brooke was then taken aback by her own thoughts. It was as if she had already given up hope of ever finding Alexa alive. “It’s good to finally meet you. I wish it could have been under better circumstances.”

Brian hugged Alexa’s very-pregnant sister back tightly. Tears welled up in his eyes at her embrace. He had seen a picture of Brooke before and had thought that they looked so different. Now, up close, he could tell that they had the same face—eyes, nose, mouth. For a moment, if he took the pregnant waist out of the equation, he could imagine that she was Alexa.

Just then, Lance walked into the room. He placed a hand on the small of his wife’s back as she reluctantly let go of Brian. “Honey, I know that you’re having a hard time, we all are, but you still need to try to take it easy. The last thing we need to do is take a trip to the hospital right now, right? It’d be an awful time to bring a baby into the world.”

Brooke sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Lance, this is Brian. Brian this is my husband, Lance.”

Lance shook Brian’s hand. “She’ll be glad that you’re here.”

Brian simply nodded and followed Brooke and Lance into the dining room.

Detective Morgan was sitting back at his place at the dining room table sipping a cup of black coffee. He looked up when Brian, Brooke and Lance entered the room. Without muttering a greeting, Detective Morgan set his mug down and turned to Brian. “Mr. Littrell, I’ve got a couple of questions for you if you don’t mind.”

Brian sighed. “Yeah, of course.” He pulled out a chair across from the detective and sat down. Brian had a rock-solid alibi. He had no reason to be worried about being questioned about Alexa’s disappearance.

“Mr. Littrell, where you last night around midnight?” Detective Morgan jumped right into his questioning.

Brian rolled his eyes and smirked. “I was at home. I had company.”

“Where is home?” The detective asked, though he already knew the answer.

“I live in a suburb outside of Atlanta, Georgia.” Brian answered. He then began drumming his fingers lightly on the table. He wasn’t nervous about being questioned by the police. He was actually nervous to answer the next question in front of Alexa’s sister and brother-in-law.

“And you said that you had company?” The detective prodded.

Brian nodded. “I did.”

“Can I have some names?” Detective Morgan sat back in his chair. He already had his home office checking Brian’s background information and flight records.

Brian sighed and clenched his jaw. He really didn’t want to get into this. He glanced over at Brooke who was sitting beside him.

Brooke noticed his nervousness and interjected. “Is this really necessary? He was across the country.”

“You want to explore every avenue, don’t you, Mrs. Taylor?” The detective replied, then turned back to Brian. “So, who were you with? What were you doing? What’s your story?”

Brian sighed again, then turned to Brooke. “Please don’t think that I’m a bad guy. I’m not. I just had this notion in my head about getting over your sister.” He then stopped, realizing that his explanation to Brooke was starting to sound like a confession. “No, no wait. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I-I was at a bar last night in Georgia. It’s called the Bulldog Pub. I had a tab running until close to midnight. Then I went home with a girl that I met. Then my friend, AJ—he’s also in the group with me—he stopped by because his layover flight to Orlando was delayed.”

Brooke let her body relax. For a minute, Brian looked like he was taking an unexpected turn. Brian and Alexa had been broken up for months. Who was she to judge what Brian did with his free time?

“You were with a woman?” The detective prodded. He watched as Brian nodded. “What was her name?”

Brian sighed and closed his eyes. “Man, I’m going to sound like an asshole. I don’t know. I had just met her. I was kind of drunk. You can call the bar. Get my credit card slips. There’s no way that I could have gotten here, even if I left Atlanta right after I left the bar. You can call AJ, too. He was with me when I found out that Alexa was missing.”

Detective Morgan ran a hand through his dark-brown hair. It was another dead-end. If Brian was telling the truth, which he could assume that he was, they had about as much as they did before Brian got there. . . nothing. “We’re going to check into everything.”

“Please do.” Brian responded, narrowing his eyes at the detective. It was almost as if Detective Morgan was hoping that Brian had committed the crime.

The detective’s cell phone rang just then and he excused himself from the table. Brian turned to Brooke. “I’m sorry.” He murmured, then bit his trembling lip.

“For what?” Brooke asked, placing a hand on her protruding belly.

“I didn’t mean any disrespect to Alexa. I had a new way of dealing with things that was obviously so morally wrong.” Brian shook his head. “And now I just feel like a jerk.”

Brooke shook her head slowly. “Brian, it’s totally fine. I don’t know much about you, but I know that my sister loves you. You’ve been broken up for months. What you do with your personal life is between you and Alexa.”

Brian nodded and sighed, relieved. “Thank you. I’ve heard so much preaching lately; I really appreciate you taking it for what it’s worth.”

Brian, Brooke and Lance looked up as the detective came rushing into the room. No one could read the shocked expression on his face, other than to say that he definitely had gotten some kind of lead.

“I don’t want anyone to panic. The FBI is bringing in surveillance equipment. They’re on their way now. There’s been some Internet activity regarding Alexa. We do have a name now. Do any of you, particularly Brian, know of a man named Ben Silverman?”

-------

Moments earlier, Ben had finished hooking up the computer equipment as Alexa watched on woozily. She had no idea that Ben knew anything about technology. Apparently, he was going to try to stream some kind of video.

Alexa had prayed more during the last 24-hours than she had ever prayed in her life. Was he going to rape her live over the Internet? Was he going to kill her live over the Internet? What the hell was he doing?

“Ben,” Alexa squeaked out. “W-what is all of this? Please just let me go.”

Ben shook his head and laughed to himself. “Not gonna happen, Sweetheart. I’ve always said that if I go down, I’m taking you down with me. That was our thing all these years, wasn’t it?”

“Losing your job isn’t something to go crazy over.” Alexa argued. “There are other jobs. If you want, I’ll come work for you somewhere else. We make a good team.”

Ben shot Alexa a cold look across the dark room. “No, we made a good team. You left the team for Brian and you let him ruin me. You abandoned ship, Alexa.”

Alexa was starting to get angry now. It didn’t matter what he was going to do to her anymore. He already had his mind made up. “Ben! You did this to yourself! You came up with some half-witted scheme. It all could have been okay if you just would have kept your mouth shut, but no! You had to go around proving that you had the bigger dick!”

Ben laughed again and picked up his gun from where it was lying on the table. He put in exactly two bullets and cocked it slowly. “Apparently, you’ve got some balls, too.”

Silent tears began to roll down Alexa’s cheeks. “I wish that you’d just get this over with.”

Ben walked over to where Alexa was tied up and smiled. “The best part of all of this is how slowly it’s going to go for you. That camera is going to be streaming your death over the Internet. The router spans a five-mile radius; the police can only see the IP address, which only gives you an estimation of area. Not to mention that the router that I’m connected to is in another house, so of course the police will go there first, but you won’t be there. They’re watching in Maryland. We’re in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. By the time that they find you, you’ll be just falling into the deepest sleep that you’ve ever experienced—death—and everyone will be watching.”

Ben walked over to the computer and turned the camera on. Instantly, he was signed onto the Internet.

Ben smiled. “Hello, World. Are you ready to watch us die?”

-----

Meanwhile, miles away in Baltimore, Maryland, the FBI was just getting set up. Ben had apparently starting streaming, but had stopped to give the FBI enough time to catch on. He had e-mailed the link to every FBI department between New York City, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. Even Detective Morgan was afraid to find out what was behind that camera. Systems agents were already working to find out the IP address from where he was broadcasting.

Brian held his breath as Ben’s face popped onto the screen. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Out of everyone that he possibly could have thought to have done this, Ben had never crossed his mind—even with as much damage as Ben had done as of late. Brian had gotten Ben fired and now Ben was taking his revenge out on Alexa. He didn’t want to turn this into a Brian situation, but how could he help but to feel guilty now?

A hush fell over the entire room as Ben smiled into the camera. “Hello World. Are you ready to watch us die?” Ben laughed maniacally as he waved his gun in front of the camera. He then stepped back so that the entire room was in view. In the background, Alexa was tied to a cot in the back to the room. Her hair was matted with blood. She was bruised and crying. Brian’s heart fell to his knees. “Here’s the thing. I’m not going to make this long, because I know that you’re already looking for us. I always told Alexa that this wasn’t over. That I wasn’t going down alone. That we were a team and that if anything happened, it would happen to us together. So, here it goes. First, a confession. I killed Colin Michaels, but he was working for me. He didn’t really know the plan, per se, but he got in the way and now he’s dead. Alexa got in the way and she’s about to be dead. Brian,” Ben spoke directly into the camera. “If you’re watching, you’re just lucky I couldn’t find an easy way to get to you, too.”

Brian started to shake as Ben's stare turned cold. Ben moved back from the camera and stood next to Alexa's bed again. He looked down at her peacefully. It seemed like he was finally coming to terms with what he planned to do. “It's all over now.”

In an instant, he turned the gun on Alexa and pulled the trigger. Brooke fell back in her chair, shaking. Brian screamed and swallowed back the vomit that was rising in his throat. Even stone-cold Lance had tears running down his cheeks. Detective Morgan was shouting orders around the room.

Everyone stopped when Ben turned back to the camera. Alexa was screaming out in pain. She was still alive. He had shot her in her lower shoulder. It was in a spot where she would bleed out slowly for the entire world to see. Ben then leaned down and pressed his mouth against Alexa's and kissed her hard. She was screaming to Ben to untie her. Ben stayed silent. He then stepped away from the bed, blocking the view between the world and Alexa. He raised the gun and pressed it against his temple. “Goodbye.”

Ben pulled the trigger and fell to the ground in a slumped, bloody mess. With that, Brian couldn't take it anymore. He ran into the adjoining kitchen and threw up everything that he had ever eaten. He ran back into the dining room frantically. The detective was screaming orders, still looking on at Alexa. From where she was shot, Detective Morgan estimated that they had about an hour to find Alexa if they were going to save her. The next hour, was going to be the longest that Brian, Brooke and Alexa had ever lived through.