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** HOWIE **

“Do you think that she’s still listening to us?” Kevin looked guardedly at the darkened television as he asked the question.

“She may not be listening, but she’s definitely still watching us.” I looked beyond the television at the small cameras that lined the base of the ceiling. I knew that it was a crazy thought, but I was convinced that the cameras moved every time we did.

“This is nuts.” Kevin ran a hand down his face and rubbed roughly at the stubble that was beginning to appear along his jaw line. “What if she – Sarah – really meant all of that stuff that she was saying about Nick?”

“I’m pretty sure that she meant it.” The words left my mouth without any thought and I cringed at the disheartened look on Kevin’s face. He had obviously been expecting me to say something to put him at ease. “I just wonder what it is that she’s intending to do … exactly.”

Kevin shook his head. He stood up from the concrete floor and grimaced slightly as he forced his back into a deep stretch. “We have to get out of here.”

I rolled my eyes and stared up into Kevin’s face from my place on the floor. “How are we supposed to do that?”

“They can’t keep us locked in here forever.” Kevin continued to shake his head. “It’s inhumane!”

“I don’t think that Sarah or any of her goons are overly concerned about whether or not their actions are inhumane. They kinda blew through that line when they kidnapped us.” I pointed out the obvious.

“Ugh!” Kevin let out a disgruntled yell and, without warning, slammed himself against the door. The door shook in protest, so Kevin repeated the action; ramming his shoulder against the centre of the door in a useless attempt to get it to pop open.

“That’s not gonna work, Kev.” I pushed myself off of the floor and took a few tentative steps forward.

Kevin was breathing heavily, his eyes locked on the door. “I don’t know what else to do.”

“There’s nothing we can do.” I recognized the depressing nature of my comment as I continued to stare at Kevin’s dejected form. “We just have to wait.”

“I don’t know how much longer I can wait, Howie.” Kevin turned away from the door, his eyes downcast.

I was still searching for the best way to respond to Kevin’s comment when AJ’s voice rumbled through the silence. Kevin’s head snapped up and our eyes met as AJ’s voice became even louder. There was no mistaking the distinctive raspy tone. As happy as I was to hear his voice, the notion that he was on the other side of the door made my heart sink. It seemed as though Sarah and her henchmen had managed to catch up with the others.

“Get your fucking hands off of me you good-for-nothing pieces of shit!”

The door opened in a whoosh of cool air, and AJ stumbled headfirst into the room. His hands were bound behind his back and a stream of profanity was spilling out from his between his lips. His face was contorted in anger and his eyes were flashing with distaste. In the over twenty years that we had known each other, I had never seen AJ look so angry.

Kevin and I were so shocked at the sudden intrusion that neither one of us moved. We didn’t attempt to catch AJ as he struggled to keep himself from falling to the cement floor, nor did we attempt to rush the door and escape. No, the two of us just stood there looking like a couple of clueless idiots as Brian and Nick also stumbled through the doorway.

As soon as Brian and Nick appeared in the room, the door slammed shut with a resounding thud. My heart sank even lower as the locks clicked back into position. We had missed our opportunity. We had just blown what was likely our only chance at escape and now the five of us were all in the same position; trapped with no way out.

“What the fuck!?” AJ roared. He began twisting his arms viciously behind his back in an attempt to loosen the cable ties. “Where the fuck are we?”

“AJ, calm down.” Kevin reached out and grabbed AJ roughly by the shoulders. He shook the smaller man back and forth as he spoke. “You need to breathe.”

“Kevin?” AJ stopped shouting and looked at Kevin as if he was just noticing his presence for the first time. “Oh shit!”

I shook my head as I watched the exchange. I should have expected nothing less from AJ in this kind of a situation. As Kevin continued to hold on to AJ’s shoulders and to whisper consoling words, I flipped my eyes to Brian and Nick. Neither one of them had uttered a single word since they had been forced into the room. They had lowered themselves to the floor; side by side, their backs against the wall, their shoulders touching. Brian was staring vacantly into space and Nick had obviously been crying. I could still see the path that the tears had taken as they had crisscrossed their way down his cheeks.

“Are you guys okay?” I dropped to the floor and crossed my legs so that I was sitting in front of them and staring directly into their faces. “Are you hurt?”

Brian shook his head dumbly. “We’re not hurt.”

I focused my attention on Brian. He had a series of light scrapes along his arms and what appeared to be small leaves caught in his hair. I reached out and lightly plucked the offending foliage from his blonde strands. “Why are you covered in leaves?”

“I fell in a hedge.” Brian delivered the answer automatically and with no emotion.

“You fell in a hedge?” I repeated, trying to make sense of his answer. “How? When?”

“I climbed out the bathroom window, kicked Vinny in the balls, ran down the driveway, and Joey tackled me into the hedge.” Brian actually smiled as he delivered his rather non-descriptive version of events. “I can’t believe that I sacked that steroid-infused giant!”

I didn’t bother to conceal my own smile as I watched Brian laugh softly to himself. “He must have been super pissed.”

“The bastard deserved it!” AJ announced as Kevin helped him to sit down on the floor. “I can’t believe that we didn’t realize that Joey and Tony were corrupt.”

I sighed heavily at AJ’s comment. Kevin and I had already exhausted the topic to no end. There was no explanation as to why we hadn’t figured it out other than the obvious; we had been too naïve, too trusting, too blinded by our own concerns to realize the clues. It was pathetic to say the least.

“You know what to do!” A male voice suddenly boomed from the other side of the door. The sound was too muffled to make out who was speaking, but I had a feeling that it was Tony. He seemed to be the leader of the Guido trio.

A moment later, the same knife that Kevin and I had been given earlier came sliding underneath the door. It was Kevin’s turn to sigh as he retrieved the knife from the floor and motioned for AJ to hold still. He quickly cut the cable ties that bound AJ’s wrists and silently moved on to do the same for Brian and Nick.

My eyes settled on Nick as Kevin slid the knife back under the door. The blonde still hadn’t said anything, and he had barely moved when Kevin had cut off his bindings. He was now rubbing half-heartedly at his swollen wrists, his eyes locked on the floor.

“Nick …” I placed my hand gently on his shoulder and struggled to figure out what it was that I wanted to say. I didn’t feel as though I should ask him whether or not he was okay, because he clearly wasn’t.

“He thinks that this is his fault.” Brian spoke for his best friend, his voice low and soft. “He thinks that the un-sub is only after him. I told him that he’s full of shit.”

I exchanged a knowing look with Kevin and tightened my grip on Nick’s shoulder. Thankfully, Nick still had his eyes trained on the floor and he didn’t pick up on what Kevin and I had just made glaring obvious; he was the only one that Sarah was truly after.

“What do you guys know?” Brian dared to ask the question and I blinked in surprise. I had been expecting AJ to be the one to ask.

“Our kidnapper’s name is Sarah.” Kevin began. “Aside from the fact that she’s young, and blonde, and petite, all we know is that she went to both of our most recent shows in North Carolina and that she purchased a Platinum VIP package for Charlotte.”

Brian blinked and stared at Kevin expectantly. It was clear that he knew that his cousin was holding something back. “What else do you know? Don’t try and protect us, Kev.”

“She has a grudge against Nick.” I said the words to save Kevin the hardship. Judging by the pained look on his face, he probably wouldn’t have been able to say them anyway. “She told us that she’s going to humiliate Nick by making his pain public. She seems to think that he’s embarrassed her in the past and, from what we can tell, this is her way of getting revenge.”

“I told you.” Nick’s vice was rough and scratchy. The tears were sliding down his face when he finally lifted his eyes from the floor. “I told you that this was my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.” Brian and I spoke at the same time.

“She could have been obsessed with any one of us.” I added. “It just so happens that she is choosing to focus on you.”

“Did she say what she wants to do to me, like, in detail?” Nick sniffed loudly and wiped at his face.

“All she said is that she wants to cause you pain.” Kevin spoke slowly. “We’re not sure what she meant by that … exactly.”

“Great.” Nick leaned his head back against the wall, causing my hand to fall from his shoulder. “At least we know what the video feed is for.”

Kevin and I exchanged another quick glance, only this time it was one of confusion.

“What video?” I asked.

“We joined this website called bsbcrazies.net.” AJ rubbed absently at his sore wrists as he spoke. He seemed unsure of where to begin. “The police are under the impression that Sarah met Dan on a fan forum and that she used him to bait us.”

“That’s true.” Kevin interrupted. “Sarah told us as much.”

“The three of us decided to check out the forums to see if we could find some information that the police might have missed.” AJ continued. “While we were trolling the threads, another user posted a link to our official website. When we clicked on the link, we saw a real-time video of you guys sitting in this room.”

“You saw us?” My eyes drifted uneasily back to the cameras that lined the ceiling. “Could you hear what we were saying?”

“No.” Brian shook his head. “But the video had taken over the entire website. There was no way to bypass it.”

Kevin let out a wounded groan and leaned forward, cradling his face in his hands. “She wasn’t lying about making Nick’s humiliation public. Whatever it is that she’s planning to do, she’s going to broadcast it over the Internet.”

“I still don’t understand why we’re all here.” Nick mumbled. “If this is all about me, why has she captured all of us?”

“That’s a good question, Nick.”

All of us jerked our heads towards the television in unison. Sarah’s smiling face was once again filling the screen. She looked even more elated than she had when she had spoken to me and Kevin a few hours ago.

“Let me explain why you’re all here.”