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Kevin took a step back temporarily shocked about their hiding place. “Why are we here?”

Brian just continued to leaf through the pictures of them in various places, even a few of them sleeping; he was so wrapped up in looking through their lives he had forgotten they were on the run.

“Kevin I have no idea what is going on but now I’m willing to bet that in some way Fink is in on it”

“Well we already know that Johnnie is…Jesus why the hell pick on us?”

Brian shrugged handing him a picture of all five of them sitting in the hotel room from just a few days ago before all the hell started.

“We should get going Brian before they find us” Kevin grabbed at some pictures and tucked them on the inside of his pants.

“What are you doing?”

“Just bringing some proof”

Brian nodded and did the same taking some of the more revealing photos, the ones of them in their hotel room or talking on the phone. There was even one of AJ sitting on the toilet.

The two were just about to leave when they heard the rattling of the doorknob. They quickly hid behind the huge set of boxes, the only thing hiding them from view and quickly turned off the light.

The two guards they had passed earlier were now running into the room furiously looking for what Kevin could only guess was he and his cousin. They sat quite and still, trying hard not to even breathe.

“Did you find them?” A voice growled on the radio one of the men were carrying. “That’s a negative, it looks like they might have come in and left already” Kevin tried to pick out the voice he heard, it sounded familiar and of course why wouldn’t it be. It was the man responsible for bringing them together in the first place; Mr. Lou Pearlman.

“How the hell did Johnnie let them leave?” He said once again yelling into the radio. The guards continued to hunt in the room which caused both Brian and Kevin to move further into the stack of papers they were hiding in.

“Not sure sir, but if they are here we’ll find them”

“You better find them; we are too close to let something else go wrong now!” Lou said then harshly clicked off, leaving the two men in a state of panic. One of the men was about to turn on the light switch when the other once again opened up the door, “I thought I heard some footsteps coming from right above us” He said which caused Brian to let out a small sigh of relief. Just like that the two guys were gone, running after some phantom footsteps from above.

When the coast was clear Kevin crawled out from his hiding place and once again turned on the light, “We really need to get out of here” Brian nodded, “But how? They are right above us. They’ll definitely hear us if we try to run now”

“We’re trapped” they both looked at each other unsure of what their next move should be.


~*~*~*~*~
“I don’t understand what we are doing here mom” Nick huffed as he watched the elevator continue up to the top floor where Mr. Fink’s office was. It didn’t seem to make sense that they were going to a meeting with such an important person without the others. Unless... “Are the other guys meeting us here or something?”

At this point, Jane seemed annoyed with her son and his endless barrage of questions, “Nick, this is a meeting for just us”

“But why?” She gave him a look hoping to stop him.

“Mom?”

“Nick…we are about to make some really important decisions”

“Huh?”

“Just trust me”

“Mom this isn’t a good time for all of this. Things are not going well; I mean Fink is kind of mad about me and the whole strip club thing…”

She laughed, “I know but honey there is never going to be a best time”

“And Kevin is missing” He stopped himself, not sure if he should have told his mother so much information but yet not totally surprised when she seemed to know already.

“Honey let me just do all the talking okay?” She said just as the elevators opened on the top floor.

He felt uneasy, his stomach churning and getting queasy but he nodded at her, and after all she was his mother.

She hugged him as they exited the elevator, “We are going to make a better life for us right now baby…you’ll see”

“Okay mom” He said resigned to the fact that he had to meet with the guy who scared him to death just to make his mother happy.


~*~*~*~*~*~
AJ stood on the curb nervously shaking his leg and biting on his bottom lip, “I’m not sure that this is such a great idea”

“Me either but we have to trust they know what they’re doing” Howie said as he looked over at Jessica trying to hail a cab.

“It just seems like a dumb thing to do”

“I just want this nightmare to be over J, find Kevin and Brian and hope that Nicky is safe”

“I wonder why Jess wouldn’t tell us who he was with”

“At this point, I’m not even sure I want to know” They both just quieted down after that, deep in thought. Howie was so scared of doing this although he wouldn’t admit it to AJ. He feared for his friend’s safety.

Jessica had managed to flag a cab and motioned for Howie to join her inside, “Howie please be careful” AJ said grabbing his friends shoulder and giving a squeeze.

“I will you too”

“We’ll be right behind you” Matt assured as he walked Howie towards the cab and gave his girlfriend a kiss.

Once in the cab, Howie decided to speak up about what was on his mind. “Maybe I should go alone, since it’s me that they seem to have a problem with”

Jessica looked at Howie with a forlorn expression on her face, “It’s not just you sweetie, you were just the easiest one to manipulate. They figured you would easily stop and see what was wrong with Matt”

“Why?”

“They needed you to be seen with him”

“Jessica why?”

“They wanted a picture of the two of you together, you talking to a sad Nick in an office”

“Nick?”

“Yes, Howie so many things just went wrong, I wish I could tell you how it all got out of hand but the truth is I still don’t know myself. All I do know is that my Matt needed to lure you in and he did. They were sure you would fall for it, that’s why they sent Kevin away”

Howie nodded, of course wasn’t it Johnnie that had given Kevin the go ahead for some personal time. That was so unlike Johnnie considering he was the one who had suggested it in the first place.

“You look tired son…why don’t you take this weekend off?” The other four boys had stopped what they were doing and all stared at their manager.

“That’s ridiculous Johnnie, I can’t do that”

“It’s no big deal…they only have a small meeting and then they are pretty much done with things. Just a few days, I think the guys agree don’t you boys?” They had all seemed totally shocked and it took them awhile to even say anything at all.

“Yeah I guess so” Howie was the first one to respond, “Maybe it is a good idea Kev, I mean you haven’t been feeling that good”

“But what about the meeting with Fink? I know you guys hate dealing with him”

“Howie will handle it won’t you Howie?” That was also Johnnie giving D a stern look as he said it.

“Of course”

So Kevin reluctantly went on his little break and Howie was left holding all the responsibility. “I was used” He said feeling sick to his stomach.

“Yes you were” Jessica gave him a sympathetic look, “We all were Howie”

He looked away from her then and stared out at the window as the huge skyscraper came into view.


~*~*~*~*~*~
Kevin and Brian waited for a few more minutes before opening the door and once again climbing the stairs. They both decided that the longer they waited around the less chance they had of actually getting out of there. At least if they were caught they could scream and make enough noise to bring attention to themselves, unless everyone in the damn building was a part of it.

The climbed the steps very slowly careful not to even breath too loudly when finally they reached a landing where there was another elevator. “How many levels does this place have?” Brian found himself asking again.

“I don’t know” Kevin said carefully looking through the small window before opening the door where the elevator was. They cautiously got in and were relieved when they saw a button that said lobby. “Here we go” He said as he pressed the button.

“You know they’ll be waiting for us”

Kevin nodded, “I know”


~*~*~*~*~*~*
Nick looked around the huge office feeling like a small child. He hated business meetings like this because that’s how he always felt, like a kid. Especially when his mother was involved. At least when all the guys were there they all felt equally as small, well everyone but Kevin and maybe Howie who both had a business head on their shoulders. Nick would just sit there in silence and fidget which would bring a not so friendly tap on the knee from one of the guys or even worse from Johnnie.

“It’s about time you got here we have been waiting for a long time” Nick looked over to Lou who had a less then pleased look on his face. This was it; he thought to himself, they have called me up here to fire me.

“Why is he here?” Jane held her son a little bit closer at the venomous tone coming from a very strange source; He had been used to hearing it but never quite directed at him. Usually it was at her own son even though she never made it a big secret that Nick got on her nerves.

“Relax Denise; I had to take him here”

“No you didn’t!” Lou yelled as Nick found himself standing behind his mother. “You think I was going to let those people grab him and drag him here?” Jane said pointing an accusatory finger at Lou.

Nick couldn’t believe what he was hearing but it was right then and there he realized that he was in a whole heap of trouble.

“They weren’t going to hurt him Jane”

“Yeah right, well I wasn’t going to take my chances” She shot back at Denise who seemed to be less then comfortable sitting in her chair next to Fink.

He looked at both women, “We have a lot of work to do” Then he glared at Nick before putting on a deceptively devilish smile, “Come and sit down Nick…”


~*~*~*~*~*~
As the elevator got closer to the lobby, Brian felt his chest tightening. As much as he loved video games and the adrenaline he would feel pumping in his veins when chasing bad guys, this was all too real for him and this time the bad guys were chasing HIM.

“What if they have guns Kev?”

“They won’t have guns. I haven’t seen a single gun yet have you?”

“No, but what if now they do?”

“We will be in a very public building Brian. I think we’ll be okay but just in case…you stay behind me”

Just as he said that the elevator opened up to the giant lobby of the Jive building.