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25

Howie stared at the digital clock sitting next to the phone, wondering why it was taking Brian and Grimes so long. He was happy that they were getting to spend some alone time with AJ, but even still didn’t they realize that in the process they were keeping he and Nick hanging. He then stared at the phone wanting it to ring; something had to happen, the waiting was killing him. It was also killing Nick who had remained oddly quiet since Brian left. He had at first laid down to take a nap claiming that his head hurt but Howie knew it was because he was at his breaking point. When things got too hard to handle for the youngest member of the group, he dealt with things by shutting off his brain and going to sleep. Not that he would ever sleep; sometimes it freaked the rest of the guys out when they would look over at him and see him awake but in a trance like state maybe staring at the wall or up at the ceiling.
Lucky for Howie he wasn’t doing that now, after saying he was going to sleep he laid there for about thirty minutes and then sat up and placed his walkman on his ears to listen to music which is what he had been doing ever since.

Once again Howie looked over at the phone wanting it to ring. Where was Kevin and why hadn’t he called yet. He knew something was wrong but as the hours and days passed he began to heighten the level of wrong. At first it was a simple case of thinking that maybe he had been in a minor accident and couldn’t get in touch with them. That had turned into maybe the bad guys got to him and have him drugged up somewhere. Now, he was at a full blown level of panic, thinking Kevin was lying dead in a gutter, never to be seen or heard from again. Not that he would ever admit that to anybody, he wouldn’t even let himself say it out loud.

He jumped when the phone finally did ring, surprised by the sense of dread that overtook him. He had wanted that thing to ring so badly but yet, now he didn’t even want to answer. Nick threw his earphones off his head, “D are you gonna get that?” He asked eyeing the phone like it was a venomous spider.

Howie nodded and then placed the phone to his ear. He sighed deeply when he heard it was Brian, a great sense of relief washed over him. “Hey Bri, how’s AJ”

He didn’t like the hesitation coming from the other end of the phone. It sounded like Brian was in a crowd of people and his voice was shaky. Had he been crying?

“Brian? Buddy are you there? What’s wrong?”

“Howie I…God, this is a mess” He definitely was crying and suddenly Howie felt himself turn away from the questioning gaze of Nick.

“Talk to me Brian, you are scaring me. Is it Kevin?”

“No, Kevin hasn’t been to see AJ” He tried to mask the disappointment in his voice, “Oh okay well then what is wrong? It’s not AJ is it?”

“Howie I have been arrested”

“You WHAT?”

“Listen I don’t have much time, Grimes is with me right now, they think I gave AJ crack or something like that. I was set up! But this is what you have to do. We are running out of time. AJ seems to think that Kevin’s life is in danger”

“Why would he think that?” Nick by now had moved to once again face Howie, wanting desperately to know what was going on.

“That guy…the one that looked like Nick, told him so”

“But he’s dead”

“No he isn’t he’s alive. You need to go talk to a guy named Bolten”

“Bolten?”

“Yes…I have to go, Howie go find this guy and be caref…” And then he was gone.

“What happened Howie?” Nick asked his eyes bulging with fear.

“We have to go find Bolten”

“That guy from the Inquisitor right?” Howie nodded still trying to figure out if he wanted to tell Nick what Brian had said or keep it a secret. At this point it seemed, the less he knew the better it would be for his safety and at this point, his sanity.

“Did Kevin go see AJ?” Nick asked with a hopeful expression on his face.

“No” Nick’s hopeful eyes turned down to the floor as once again visible signs of his brain shutting down were seen.

“AJ said that Bolten is behind all of this”

“And he would know because?”

“We don’t really have time to talk about it; I need to go see him”

“How? And…well…is it safe?”

Howie took a deep breath. It wasn’t safe, none of this was. He was terrified to even leave the hotel but he knew to get his friends out of trouble all three of them; he was going to have to find this guy and confront him head on. He looked over at Nick, “No Nicky, I don’t think it will be which is why I think you should stay here”

“Absolutely not D!” Nick stood up and grabbed his jacket.

“Nick, don’t argue with me, this isn’t even open for discussion. I need to do this alone”

“No way José…”

“Nick! Enough” Nick just stood there staring at his friend. He wasn’t intimidated by Howie at all but yet, he also knew from years of being around his older band mates, that when they were in ultra serious mood they were not to be argued with. This was such a time.

“But Howie…I’m scared to be by myself. Every time we split up something bad happens, I mean thank God not to Brian but look at what happened to AJ and now Kevin”

Howie hesitated, he hadn’t thought about it. He was too caught up in his protective mood to allow himself to even consider taking Nick along with him, but the kid was right. It was better if Nick stuck to him like glue at this point. As much as he didn’t want to bring him right into the middle of everything, he knew he would have to.

“Okay fine, but listen to me Nick…” Nick nodded, “you stay right next to me at all times do you understand me? And if anything happens you run like hell. Even if that means you have to leave me behind”

“I will don’t worry”

“Oh very nice…I thought you would have at least hesitated a minute before saying that” Nick laughed and then so did Howie, they needed to relive stress for a second, but then they went right back into serious mood as Howie opened the door to his hotel suite and snuck out with Nick right by his side.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Brian sat nervously tapping his fingers on the table as the detective asked him question after question, how did he get the drugs? Who was his supplier etc…? Questions Brian was tired of saying I don’t know too. He now had a better understanding of why people would admit to doing things they really didn’t do, because after awhile even you wouldn’t believe your own profession of innocence.

When the officer left him, he sat there with closed eyes trying to recount how in the heck he could have possibly gotten drugs. It all made no sense; he was never around anyone that could have…Then he jolted his head up as if shaking off a bad dream, “That girl!!” He yelled to his lawyer. Grimes looked up from his paperwork, “Pardon?”

“The one who wanted my autograph…she must have put something on me”

“Brian I highly doubt…” Before the lawyer could change his client’s mind the detective came back inside.

“Mr. Litrell have you thought anymore about this?”

“Yes! I have actually, when I was just about to go into the hospital there was a girl who asked me for an autograph. She must have planted that garbage on me”

“A girl? How come you haven’t mentioned her until now?”

“I forgot about her. I think her name was…it started with a J I think” Brian stood up and began to pace, trying desperately to remember the girls name, “Julie!! Her name was Julie!!” He jumped when he said it, like he had just won final Jeopardy.

Brian described Julie in detail right down to her backpack. The detective wrote down all the information as he was talking, not really looking like he believed the story at all.

“Was there anyone who saw you talking to this girl? An eye witness?”

Brian smiled; Thank God…this was the break he was hoping for. “Yes, Grimes saw. He was right there standing next to me”

Both the detective and Brian looked expectantly over at the lawyer who had a look of surprise on his face. “Is that true Mr. Grimes sir? Did you see this Julie person?”

“No, I’m sorry Brian I can’t lie for you. I don’t know what he is talking about”

The detective shook his head, “Mr. Litrell you are in enough trouble as it is, I suggest you keep your story straight” Brian had a horrified look on his face as the detective stood up and walked out of the room. Grimes stood up as well, ready to follow but was stopped, “You’re part of this aren’t you?”

He tried to ignore his client but was once again stopped by Brian, this time with a forceful pull of the arm, “Answer me Grimes…are you a part of all of this?”

Grimes turned towards Brian, “Now don’t get yourself all worked up son. I suggest you sit down and try to collect your thoughts before you go and accuse someone of something they had no part of” He couldn’t help but laugh at the ironic statement he had just made.

“Why did you lie?”

Once again Grimes blew off the question, “I am going to go and see about getting your bond posted. In the meantime if I were you, I’d stop talking” the look in his eyes as he got close to Brian made the Backstreet boy shudder. “You never know who might be listening” He whispered which made Brian’s eyes grow wide.

He sat down trying to control his shaking hands. His lawyer was involved, which meant that he was nothing more than a sitting duck right now. He couldn’t call anyone; he couldn’t run away all he could do was wait for Grimes to make his next move.

Another even more chilling thought took him over causing goose bumps to form up and down his skin, if Grimes was in on this than who else that they trusted with their lives was too?


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The two men carefully approached the hallway, making sure that security had left the area. Luckily they had security timed perfectly; easy as pie.

They made their way over to the door using fast and light foot steps and then knocked and stood ready to hit and grab target number four as discussed. This one was supposed to be the easiest one.

“He’s not answering” The man holding the huge sack said, “Maybe he’s hiding under the bed or something” They both laughed.

“We break in then?”

“I guess so…what other choice do we have?” They both nodded as the one holding the baseball bat took out some kind of gadget and used it to open the door. Once inside they worked quickly scanning the large room for any sign of the Backstreet Boy. Noticing the bathroom door was closed they both stood on either side and counted to three before kicking it in and searching inside.

After searching the room for the third time, they resigned themselves to the fact that they would have to call and tell their boss that number four was a no show, so hesitantly one of them called the number for Grimes, when he answered he didn’t sound happy to begin with.

“He isn’t here” The one man said while biting his lip.

Grimes turned his head in disgust, “What do you mean he isn’t there?”

“Howie must have taken him”

“But that wasn’t the plan!! Dammit!!!” He yelled, not liking the unwanted attention his screaming brought to the police surrounding him as he processed Brian’s paper work.

“I know sir…sorry”

“Well this is just fantastic!” He said holding his head as he talked, smiling to the secretary at the desk as she handed him the final papers he would need to get Brian out of jail and right where he needed to be.

He walked away from the crowded lobby to a quieter location in the building, “Better call and tell Bolten that two of them are on their way. He’s only expecting Howie to show up”

“Okay what do we do about Nick then? Doesn’t that put a HUGE wrench in our plans?”

Grimes stood in deep thought for a minute, up until now everything had been flawless. Gone off without one hitch. Everything they were supposed to do they did. Every anticipated move they made had been exactly as predicted except for this. He could have bet money that Howie would have left Nick behind. “I knew it should have been Kevin. Kevin would have NEVER taken the kid with him” He paced once more, “Okay I’m taking Brian out of here in a minute and then we can figure something out, I’ll call J and see what he says”

Grimes took a deep breath. He really didn’t think this phone call would have to be made not at all, but if this was gonna happen then it would have to happen now. The longer he waited the less time he had.

The phone rang about ten times before the man picked up on the other line.

“Yeah?”

“Johnnie…we have a huge problem!”