39

Haven’t We Been Here Before?

Nick was in pain and tired. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and go to sleep. He had been hiding under the kitchen table like his brother had told him to do but then he heard Ariana walking back into the house. He crawled his way into the dining room with only seconds to spare. He knew if he didn’t act quickly he would be caught so he wedged himself between the wall and a china cabinet and stayed there as quietly as possible. He heard her walk into the dining room a minute after he was situated. With every creak of a floor board, he was certain he was going to be found, bu t she didn’t bother to turn in his direction. Instead she walked out of the room and continued down the hallway.

The pain in his ankle was too much to bear and he had to literally cover his own mouth to avoid screaming when he tried to move. Staying in his position by the china cabinet, he scanned the room for something he might be able to use as a weapon and smiled when he saw the fire poker sitting next to the fireplace. He would wait for her to go back up the stairs and then he’d make his move for the weapon.

He heard his brother walking slowly down the steps and whispering his name. So much for plan A. Now he would need a plan B. When she heard AJ’s voice she ran back into the dining room. Once again Nick wouldn’t allow himself to breath. He had to make some kind of choice. If he tried to tackle her now, there was no way he would win. He was hurt and weaponless and she was carrying a gun. He saw that clearly now from where she was hiding.

He prayed that she wouldn’t use it on AJ as he said Nick’s name once more. That’s when she came out of the shadows and into the kitchen to confront the older brother. Nick knew he had to work fast. There wasn’t much time now that AJ was caught. He took a deep breath and put some weight on his ankle.

He almost cried out in pain but stopped himself. You can do this Nick. For your brother you have to do this! He thought over and over again as he lightly limped over towards the fireplace. Because it was hard wood floors every step he took seemed loud, but luckily Ariana was talking so she wasn’t paying attention to the sound. He heard her tell AJ that he was locked in the basement and that she wanted to set the house on fire.

Finally at the fireplace, he grabbed the poker and slowly scooted along the wall towards the kitchen. Whatever he was going to do, it had to be quickly. Just charge at her blindly and hope that he could knock her to the ground and in the process, knock the gun out of her hand. AJ could take over at that point.

He took a deep breath and just waited for the right moment to make his move.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“So what’s the best way to make this house go up in flames?” She asked walking closer to AJ and motioning for him to take a seat at the table.

“Usually fire works best.” He answered like the smartass he was.

She laughed, “Funny.”

“If you light the furniture, the whole place will go up. A mattress, something like that makes a fire move fast.”

“So, if we put some of that stuff on the couches in the living room,” She pointed at the lighter fluid that was still in AJ’s hands, “And then light a match we’ll have the start of a nice fire?”

“Yeah, pretty much. It would probably be a good thing to get the curtains too.”

“You could always become a professional arsonist if this fire fighting thing doesn’t work out.” She joked, looking around the room at anything she could include in the initial blaze.

“Before we light this fire, I want Nick out of the house.” AJ said, calmly.

She shook her head, “You’re not in the position to make deals with me.”

“Then I’m not helping you do anything.” He placed the lighter fluid on the table, “You can do it yourself.”

She gave him a very evil smile, “So, that’s how you want to play, huh? Fine, let’s play.” She stood up and made her way over to the basement door. “Just so you know. He’s unconscious. I threw him in there and he fell down the entire flight of stairs. I poured lighter fluid all over him. You know just in case something like this happened.”

AJ stood up as Ariana unlocked the basement door and lit a match. “Should I throw this in there?”

“You bitch!” He yelled as he started to walk towards her.

“I would stop right there if I were you, little brother.” Hearing those words made AJ freeze in place. “So, are we going to do it my way or yours?” She asked holding the match over the top step.

“Fine…” He said as he sat back down. That’s when he saw Nick. He briefly glanced over towards the dining room doorway in time to see his little brother peer around the corner. An intense feeling of relief overcame him. “I want to see him for myself. Make sure he’s okay.” He added, quickly looking back towards Ariana before she noticed him looking in Nick’s direction.

“I just told you, he’s not okay.”

“How do I even know he’s in there? You could be trying to trick me into thinking he’s in there.” He saw her flinch slightly. He knew if he was able to get close enough to that door, he might be able to push her in there and lock it. 

“I’m tired of playing games with you.” She said, lighting another match, ready to throw it in there. “He’s going to die and it’ll be all your fault.”

“You know what I think? I think you’re bluffing.” AJ said calmly, getting out of his chair and moving towards his sister.

“Stay back!” She warned. “I’ll do it!”

AJ smiled at her and said, “Go ahead!”

When he saw the confused look on her face at his dare, Ariana’s cell phone began to ring and that’s when he decided to grab the lighter fluid off the table and throw it at her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“She’s not picking up. It went to voicemail.” Howie said as he closed his phone and placed it on the table beside him.

“Think D; is there anywhere she goes like a normal hangout spot or something?”

“Not that I’m aware of, but apparently I’m not really aware of anything when it comes to my wife.” He answered honestly.

“Kevin is not answering his phone either.” Kevin senior said, pacing back and forth in front of both men.

“Where is Kevin?”

Brian looked over at Howie, “He was checking something out at Anita’s place. He should have really called us by now.”

“Does he know about all of this?” The whole time he was finding out about his wife, the thought that Kevin knew and didn’t tell him played in his mind. There was no way he could ever forgive his best friend if he intentionally withheld that kind of information from him.

Kevin senior answered, “No. I just made the connection today. There’s no way he could have known.”

“Good.” Howie was relieved, well as relieved as he could be considering the circumstances

“I’m going to send out a patrol car to Anita’s place.” Kevin said, walking out of the room and summoning some officers over.

“How could I not have seen this?” Howie asked Brian who was now biting on his bottom lip. A habit he thought he had long outgrown.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it D. There’s still a chance we could be wrong.”

Howie nodded, “Yeah, maybe…” He took the phone and once again tried making the call.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When Nick heard the small scuffle coming from the kitchen area, he sprang into action. Forgetting temporarily about the pain in his ankle, he turned the corner and saw Ariana on the floor next to a can of lighter fluid that was slowly spilling around her. AJ was on the ground next to her, trying to wrestle the gun out of her hands.

He ran at them both with the poker in his hand, ready to hit her in the head and prepared to even kill her if it came to that. He would do anything to protect his brother. But, as he ran, he slipped on some of the fluid and instead went sailing right into both of them knocking the gun out of both their hands.

Once Ariana lost the gun she immediately kicked AJ in the face to get him away from her and pushed Nick, climbing over him and making her way to the gun. Before AJ had time to regain his footing there she was with gun in hand not sure of who to aim it at.

“Okay boys, how about you make your way to the chairs and have a seat before I just shoot you both right now! I am SO sick of this two against one crap!!” She said as she blew her hair out of her eyes in one breath.

AJ stood up and then went over and helped Nick to his feet. “I’m sorry AJ.” He offered in a whisper.

“No worries buddy. You tried your best.” He pat his brother’s back as he helped him sit down.

Ariana grabbed the can of lighter fluid off the floor, turned towards Nick and sprayed him with it. “What the fuck are you doing?” AJ yelled as the youngest brother started coughing from the fumes.

“I thought I’d just start where we left off.” She walked over to the kitchen counter where a pair of handcuffs sat. “Put your hands behind your back sweetheart.” She told Nick sweetly.

“Go to hell!” He answered through another set of coughs.

Ariana gave a warning look over at AJ “Nicky, do it.” He said.

“I hate you.” He grunted out as she grabbed his wrists and cuffed him to the chair.

“You’ll grow to love me again honey. Just you wait.” After Nick was in place, she looked over at AJ. “Now, you are going to help me get this house ready to burn or I’m going to set him on fire!”

AJ smiled at his little brother to try to calm him down a bit. He could tell just by looking at him, that he was so upset and angry there was a chance he could do something stupid. AJ couldn’t let that happen.

 “It’s going to be okay Nicky.” But Nick was no longer listening. He was living in his memories. He remembered almost the same exact scenario all those years ago. Being kidnapped, watching his mother almost die in a fire. Running through the woods and being afraid that he was going to be burned alive himself. He couldn’t go through this again.

Ariana’s cell went off once more. Looking at the familiar number she almost wanted to laugh out loud at the irony. She thought about letting it go to voicemail again but this would be so much fun. Sure, it wasn’t part of the plan but didn’t she always love to live on the edge? What better way to be a risk taker than to talk to her husband while she was getting ready to kill someone and kidnap another.

“Make a sound or try anything stupid and he dies!” She said as she picked up the phone. “Hey honey.” she stood right next to Nick with matches in hand.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Howie’s stomach lurched when she answered the phone. He was sure it was going to go to voicemail again. “Hi…” he stammered. The last thing he wanted was for her to think he was nervous about something. He immediately motioned for everyone to realize he was on the phone with his wife and that the trace needed to start now! Brian went running over to the computer and talked to some tech people and the entire room got very quiet.

“What’s going on sweetheart? I’m kind of in the middle of something.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you at work? Is that why you never came to pick me up at the hospital?” He asked sounding hurt which was easy for him since he was still feeling the sting of abandonment. Even though the fact that he was even in the hospital felt like it happened two years ago or more since all this other crap suddenly came out of nowhere.

“Oh my God Howie…I’m so sorry. I just got caught up in all this paperwork…How did you get home?”

“I called a cab.”

“Honey, I’m really sorry.”

He took a deep breath and looked over at the people who were tracing the call, one of the guys held up a sign that said “Keep going we’re almost there.”

“It’s okay…I was wondering if you wanted to have some Chinese food for dinner. You will be home for dinner, right?” He was trying his best to listen for any out of the ordinary sounds.

She paused a few seconds, “Yes of course I will. Chinese sounds great.”

“What do you want?” He asked once again looking over at the people who were trying to trace the call. The guy with the headphones on waved his finger in the air in a circular motion to signal that he needed to keep talking.

“Whatever you want is fine with me. You know what I like by now.”

“How about Beef Lo’ Mein?” He asked.

“Honey, I have a lot of work. Just get whatever and I’ll see you when I get home. Again, I’m so sorry for forgetting to come get you. I’m such a bad wife. I’ll make it up to you though, I promise.”

Howie almost lost it at that point. How badly he wanted to believe her. He knew she wasn’t at work. She was blatantly lying to him. How many times had she done that in the years they have been married? He wanted to call her out. It took everything in his power to not. He glanced once more over at the tech guys who gave him a big thumbs up.

“Okay…love you.” He said.

“I love you too!” She answered.

Howie took the phone and threw it across the room. “Gotcha bitch!” He said with more hate in his voice than he ever thought possible.

“We have a location.” Brian said putting on his bullet proof vest. “You did good D.”

“I’m coming with you!” He said.

“No way, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I don’t care.”

“You just got out of the hospital Howie. This is your wife.”

“Brian, I’m going either with you or by myself.”

Brian sighed, “Fine but make sure you get a vest. We leave in five minutes everyone!”

“Someone call Kevin and tell him the location. Maybe he can meet us there!” Kevin senior said hoping that his oldest son was okay.

“Let’s roll people!” Brian shouted to the team as they got into their cars and drove to the house that was about to be set on fire.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kevin lay on the ground for a few minutes as Patty’s cries were heard in the background. He knew he had to get up and check on her. He had to make sure that she wasn’t hit, but he just couldn’t get his legs to move. They felt like Jello as his adrenaline was beginning to wear off.

Jack was lying on the ground beside him, dead.  A pool of blood slowly inching it’s way through the grass and twigs. “Are you okay Patty?” Kevin managed to ask as he turned his body towards the teenaged girl.

“I think so.” She said weakly.

Hearing her voice, Kevin kicked himself into first gear again. Sitting up despite the pain he was in and rolling the body over in hopes of finding Jack’s phone in one of his pockets. “I’m going to get you some help honey…you just hang on, okay?” He said as calmly as possible but he knew he was running out of time just by listening to the sound of her rugged, labored breaths.

Thankfully he found the phone in a pocket and dialed 911 instantly, giving the location and explaining the situation. He walked over to Patty and held her hand in his, “Help is coming.” He reassured her.

“He hurt Nick…” She was barely able to get out. Speaking was getting harder for her and she grabbed on to Kevin’s hand tighter. “He hurt him and threw him in a car. We couldn’t stop him.”

He smiled at her and placed a loving hand on her head, “Its okay. I’ll find Nick. You just worry about yourself.”

“I want my mom.” She said as she started to cough.

“Hang on sweetheart. Please…” He begged, feeling like he was losing her.

She closed her eyes just as the ambulance pulled up.