[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Thanks to Anita for reviewing Chapter 18. Thanks to Ayleen, AJsSweety, Anastacia, SweetAngelicAngel, frackandbonechick, Tori D and Stephanie for reviewing 19. Enjoy 20 and can't wait to hear what ya'll think!!!

Chapter Twenty

Kevin froze in place at that moment. He wasn’t sure if he had even heard the officer correctly. It was, in all reality, the last thing that he’d expected to hear. A million things were running throughout his head, but there was only one question that he was able to speak aloud.

“Wha...what did you say?” Kevin asked, just to double check.

“The man who raped Amber was found.”

Kevin let out a huge breath of relief. He hadn’t noticed before, but having in the back of his mind that Amber’s perpetrator was out running the streets, more than likely harming others, had been stressing him more than he’d admitted to before. This little piece of information made him feel like a huge weight had been lifted off his masculine, strong shoulders.

“How did you find him?” Kevin questioned, feeling he had his every right to find out more about the man, “I mean, it’s been just about three weeks now. I’d have thought he would be half way around the world by now.”

“He was found in Pennsylvania. He was found trying to rape another girl, but luckily, police drove by and caught him. He’s been in prison before, convicted of the same crime. He started the rapes back up though as soon as he got out.”

Kevin shuddered, wondering how anybody could have such a sick and twisted mind as to be a serial-rapist, and it angered him that he’d been released from prison before for the same thing. Kevin knew now that Amber had not been his first. It was a miracle that she hadn’t contracted any STD’s from the man, for who knew if he had caught anything from one of his victims. Then another thought occurred to him.

“How do you know that this is the same person?” Kevin asked, curiosity and slight accusation of giving him false information creeping into his voice.

“Semen sample...he was asked to give one, or forced, rather, and it matched what had been found on Amber.”

Kevin didn’t know how they’d linked the near-raping in Pennsylvania to Amber, but decided not to ask questions. Not like they would have told him anyways though. He figured that the police had their own techniques to knowing what to do in these cases. The man had been caught. What more satisfaction could he ask for? He did, however, have one question that was nagging at his mind, telling him to ask.

“Do you care to tell me what’s being done with this man?” Kevin asked Officer Graham, wondering if they were even going to hold him and punish him for his actions. If not, it would cause major controversy between him and the station. Especially since they’d held both him and Nick each for a few days just for being suspects.

“Well, it’s estimated that he is responsible for approximately fifteen rapes,” Officer Graham informed Kevin. This news made him sick to his stomach, “He’ll be spending a minimum of ten years in prison.”

“Okay,” Kevin replied, smiling in satisfaction, “Thank you...for letting me know.”

Kevin closed the cell phone, letting out a sigh of relief that he’d been holding in for quite some time. Although Amber’s attacker hadn’t been on his mind, it felt great to know that he had been caught and was locked away. Slumping back down in to the sofa, Kevin felt surprisingly relaxed. Amber would be thrilled to hear the news. Maybe it would even ease her mind a little bit. But he knew he’d have to call Nick and have him deliver the information to her. She did, after all, have the right to know. He knew right off that Amber wouldn’t go for him telling her personally. Kevin didn’t think that Amber liked him much, if at all, but he wasn’t sure why. In fact, she seemed more petrified of him than the others. Kevin picked up the phone, starting off by dialing Nick’s number. The sooner he told everyone what he now knew, the better off they’d all be.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I can’t believe that we only have four days left after today of our break,” A.J. sighed, but he was grinning, “I could relax like this for months.”

“Yeah...I agree,” Nick replied, veering the car on to the highway towards the mall, “But we have an album to finish recording, and then a tour to start by summer.”

Amber sat in the back seat of the car, listening to the two men talk about the tour and joking around with one another. She sat silently, deciding not to speak or draw attention to herself. She hadn’t been too thrilled on the idea that A.J. was going, but she’d known up front that it was part of the plan all along. She couldn’t help but to have hoped that A.J. would back out though at the last minute, leaving her and Nick to shop alone. No such luck though.

Nick had asked her to sit up front with him, but she’d insisted on sitting in back. She didn’t want to feel A.J’s eyes staring at her from behind during the duration of the car ride to the mall. It wouldn’t exactly help to release tension...it would make things worse...much worse. Amber hoped that Nick wouldn’t ignore her since A.J was joining them. If he treated her anything like he did his own brother while A.J. was around, then she was afraid to know how he would act towards her.

“So, Amber,” Nick spoke as if reading her thoughts, looking back at her through the rear-view mirror, “What kind of stuff are you looking for today.”

Amber shrugged her tiny shoulders, “Clothes...” her voice trailed off, remembering for the first time that she had no money, and would feel horribly bad taking advantage of the Boys if they offered to pay, and she knew that they would...it was coming at any second now...

“Pick out anything you like,” Nick stated, “It’s all on me...and you’re going to need a lot of shit if you’re going around with us and all.”

“I can’t...”Amber started to protest, but was cut off by Nick again.

“Amber, you’re going to let me treat you today, okay?” Nick said, “I want to do this...besides, you said yourself a couple of days ago that you needed it. Don’t even try to deny it now and say you don’t.” he warned.

Amber sighed, knowing that she was going to lose this argument. Nick, she knew, could be stubborn if given the right opportunity to be. This was going to be one of them.

Before Amber knew it, they were pulling into the oversized parking lot of the mammoth sized mall. Her eyes widened in awe, a glazed look overcoming them. It had to be just about the biggest mall she’d ever laid eyes on, and she wondered if every store known to man was inside of it somewhere. Amber knew that there was no way that they would ever get through the entire thing in one day. They’d be lucky if they got through a quarter of it.

“What do ya think,” Nick asked, putting the car in park and turning around to see Amber’s reaction. He laughed when he saw.

“Wow,” was all she could say.

All three of them got out of the car, Nick pressing the remote control on his key chain to lock it up as they all walked towards the main entrance to the mall.

“Try not to lose your car this time, Nick,” A.J. joked around. He was referring to the last time that the two had gone to the mall. Nick had lost his car, and they'd had to sit outside until closing and almost all of the other cars had left the enormous lot. When it was near empty, they'd walked around the entire thing until they saw Nick's car. It had taken at least an hour to circle the outter mall. Even Amber laughed a little bit. She couldn’t imagine losing your car. Then again, from what she’d noticed of Nick, he was slightly accident prone and scatter brained. Not too much though...at least she didn’t think so.

“Bite me, Bone,” Nick cracked, playfully shoving A.J, but his heart patted in his chest at a rate he didn’t think possible. He was nervous of what the outcome of this day would be, but he thought he was doing a good job of hiding that he was up to something, as was A.J. He silently thanked the man for not acting overly happy or giddy.

The three entered the mall, the Boys in their disguises, Amber just looking like herself. Her eyes widened even more at the inside of the mall. It was any girls greatest dream. She wished that Kara, her best friend from Ohio was there to see it. That thought made her frown. Kara was her former best friend. Kara had probably disowned her as well.

“Where to first?” Nick asked, turning to Amber, deciding to let the choice be hers, since she was the guest, for one, and two, he wanted to get on as good of side as possible of Ambers, so that it would make her all the less mad at him once IT happened. The plan of doom.

Amber shrugged, “I don’t know...American Eagle, Gap, Holister, Pac Sun, Buckle...” her voice trailed off, naming off all of her favorite stores.

Nick laughed, “We have all of those, plus stores that probably aren’t in Ohio. And A.J. here is a clothes expert. He can help ya.”

Nick could see Amber tense a little, and he bit his lip, knowing that this whole thing was a mistake. He realized that he didn’t have to fake acting like his cell phone had vibrated in his pant pocket. He could just stick with Amber and A.J. to make sure that she stayed comfortable.

“Okay, lets head to um, Ambercrombie,” Nick stated, naming a store that Amber hadn’t, but figured that she more than likely shopped there too.

The three walked towards the store in silence. Amber felt a awkward around A.J. and was thankful that Nick was there. She had Nick walk in the middle of her and A.J so that she wouldn’t have to be near the man that she feared.

Suddenly though, Nick jumped at the feel of his phone vibrating. He stopped, digging it out of his pocket. Amber and A.J. both stopped as well, looking at his face of confusing. He wasn’t really expecting a phone call at that time. A.J. smiled smugly to himself. The time had come. Nick read the caller ID on the small screen of the phone as it continued to vibrate.

“It’s Kevin,” Nick said, “I’ll um...I’ll be right back.”

“Nick,” Amber cried out, grabbing on to his arm.

“Just one sec, okay,” Nick said, “Meet me at Abercrombie and Fitch, okay?”

He walked away as A.J. shrugged, “Well, let’s go.”

He started walking away slowly, Amber following at a distance that she considered to be safe, behind him. Nick watched as they went as he opened his phone, going over to one of the couches to get out of shoppers way, but he didn’t sit. He knew that this could take awhile. Kevin rarely called on a one week break, unless something huge had happened.

“Hello,” Nick answered.

“Hey, Nick?”

“No, it’s Bob Barker,” Nick joked, naming off the famous host of the game show The Price is Right .

“Nick, shut up,” Kevin ordered.

Nick laughed. He always had the ability to annoy Kevin in one way or another. It never failed. He wouldn’t have it any other way either. He had fun.

“So, what’s brings this lovely phone call?” Nick asked, joking around.

“Um..well, I have some news...good news, I think.” Kevin answered Nick.

“Really?” Nick asked.

Kevin didn’t answer for a moment. He was sure that everybody would be relieved of the information...yet it could also cause some conflict as well. Kevin hoped that it would help to calm Amber down. He hoped that she would open up to all of them now.

“Amber’s rapist was found,” Kevin started, “And is being held in prison.”

Nick fell to the couch on impulse, shocked by the news. He had kind of forgotten that the man was still on the lose. Sure, once in a while he thought about it, but lately, not so much. This definitely caught him by surprise.

“Woah...that’s great,” Nick said.

“I thought so,” Kevin agreed, “Is Amber around to tell her?”

“She’s with A.J” Nick informed him.

“She’s talking to A.J?” Kevin asked, then was about to ask what A.J. was doing with Nick, but Nick started talking before he had the chance to.

“No, when you called, I told her..” Nick’s voice trailed off as he smacked his forehead, “Shit... I wasn’t thinking. We’re at the mall. When you called, I told them I’d meet them at a certain store. It was a plan..but I wasn’t expecting a call.”

“Huh?” Kevin asked.

Nick wasn’t making any sense. He was rambling on and on, Kevin having no clue what he was talking about. He never seemed to anyways.

“I’ll explain later,” Nick said, shaking his head to clear his mind, “Um...that’s great that he was found.”

“Yeah. I’ll explain the details to everyone at once, when we meet back up again.” Kevin promised, not wanting to tell everyone everything separately. That would annoy him greatly.

“Sounds great,” Nick said, “I can’t wait to tell Amber. She’ll be thrilled to know.”

“Okay, well, I’m going to go and call Bri now and tell him.” Kevin said, “See ya in a few days.”

“Yep,” Nick replied.

The two old friend said goodbye. Nick hung up his phone, standing up. He started walking quickly towards the store where he was meeting Amber and A.J at. He had to get to Amber as quickly as possible. He couldn’t wait to tell her the good news. He could almost see her smiling upon receiving the information, feeling safe for the first time in weeks, or so he hoped. Just the thought of the possibilities put a grin on his own face.