“So, why don’t we start this off by collecting any and all means of communication…” James said as he cleared off everything that was on the coffee table, “cell phones, laptops, Ipods or whatever that shit is… put it all right here on this table.”

Kevin was the first to budge, moving forward in his seat so he could grab his cell phone from his back pocket. Sighing heavily, he placed his cell phone on the coffee table and slid it across. Brian, Howie and Nick soon followed suit, hesitantly grabbing their cell phones and placing them on the coffee table.

James aimed his gun at AJ when he noticed he didn’t place anything on the table, “Where’s your phone?”

“Ain’t got one.” AJ replied coolly.

“Bullshit, you’re a fucking celebrity… every celebrity has a cell phone.”

“Yeah? Well, lucky you I forgot mines at home.” he could feel the guys’ eyes on him, staring at him as if he was crazy for lying, but he knew this was the only one to save their asses.

Adrianna stepped forward, “Well, what the fuck do you call that thing you were messing with when I went to your room?”

“An Itouch?” AJ responded matter-of-factly.

Gun still aimed at AJ, James never broke his stare away from him. “Dri… take him upstairs and get that Itouch he’s talking about.” he turned his attention back to AJ, “And no fucking around.”

With the help of Brian and Nick, AJ slowly pushed himself up from the couch, the trauma to his head causing him to take things slow, but all of that went right out the window when James reached out and grabbed AJ, pulling him and shoving him towards the staircase. “Stop taking your sweet ass time.”

Gritting his teeth, AJ held in the pain, dizziness and nausea he felt, as well as his desire to verbally retaliate. He forced himself to walk up the flight of stairs, each step becoming harder to take, but he pressed on. When he finally made it to the top, he sighed in relief, thinking he could give his body a small break, but Adrianna was right behind him to push him forward.

His fists immediately clenched up as he continued his trek to his room. He opened the door, immediately looking around for his phone before Adrianna came up from behind. He noticed that his phone laid hidden underneath his pillow, only a small part of his phone being visible, and luckily his Itouch was right on his bedside table. He entered the room just as Adrianna came up from behind.

“You see… Itouch.” AJ said as he grabbed his Itouch from off the table and tossed it to Adrianna. While Adrianna busied herself in focusing on catching the flying object, AJ quickly pushed his cell phone further under the pillow. He stared at her as she examined the piece of technology.

Adrianna slipped the Itouch into her back pocket and looked up at AJ, “You know… you should’ve really took up on the offer when you had the chance. Would’ve been your last fuck.”

AJ gave a mock look of hurt, “Aww, I really missed out, didn’t I?”

“We could… finish where we started.” Adrianna drawled out seductively as she leaned against the door frame.

“Yeah, because one of my biggest fantasies is to fuck a crazy bitch who broke a damn vase over my head. Yeah, no thank you.” and with that, AJ pushed past her and began his descent downstairs.

When he entered the living room, James rose and aimed his gun at him again, “Where is it?”

“She has it.” AJ replied as he situated himself back down on the couch between Nick and Brian. His eyes flew shut for a bit, the feeling of pain and nausea catching up with him and rendering him dizzy.

“Are you okay?” Brian whispered.

Eyes still closed, AJ gave a slight nod, “Moving around too much I guess.”

Kevin glanced AJ over, as well as Nick. They both seemed to be holding up fairly well, but he knew they must be in a lot of pain. “Excuse me, is there any way we could get ice and a first aid kit?” he spoke out.

James immediately directed his gun towards Kevin, “What?”

“We did what you asked of us, now all I’m asking you is to allow one of us to get some ice and the first aid kit for our two friends here.”

James lowered his gun a bit. He remained silent, as if contemplating it over, until he finally asked, “Who’s place is this?”

“Mines.” Brian voiced.

James made his way over towards Brian and grabbed him, hauling him to his feet. Kevin quickly jerked in his chair, as if wanting to fly himself at James for grabbing his cousin the way he had, but luckily Nick shot his hand out to keep him seated.

“You are to get the shit and come right back. Adrianna will follow you and make sure you do just that.”

Brian made his way into the kitchen, feeling Adrianna coming up from behind. He walked towards the refrigerator and opened a small, narrow pantry that was situated next to it. He took out the first aid kit and then made his way over towards the kitchen island.

“So, this is your place huh?” Adrianna asked, breaking the silence.

Brian really didn’t want to talk to the lady that betrayed him, but still gave a reply. “I rented it out.”

“And it’s just you five that’s staying up here?”

Brian gritted his teeth as he pulled out two Ziploc bags and two dishtowels. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I really don’t want to be talking to you right now.” he said as he turned to his freezer and began to fill the Ziploc bags with ice cubes.

“A bit hostile, aren‘t we?” Adrianna asked in a mocking tone.

Brian closed the freezer and walked back over to the kitchen island, where he zipped up the bags of ice. He unfolded the two dishtowels and placed the ice bag in the middle of the towels. He grabbed the first aid kit and tucked it under his arm, then reached out to grab the two makeshift ice packs. “I’m hostile towards anyone who threatens my family.” he said in a menacing tone before he turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Brian breathed a sigh of relief as he walked back into the living room, seeing his four brothers. He couldn’t believe who spoke out towards one of their captors, but if there’s one thing he doesn’t like, it’s having his family or loved ones being threatened or in danger.

“Here you guys go.” he said as he handed the two ice packs over to Nick and AJ. He sat down in between them and opened the first aid kit, rummaging around in search for aspirins and anything that could clean their wounds up. Meanwhile, both James and Adrianna had busied themselves into a small conversation.

“Damnit, I forgot to bring out something for you guys to wash this down with.” Brian muttered as he handed them both a packet of aspirins.

“Don’t even worry about it man, ” AJ replied as he grabbed the packet and ripped it open. “Thanks.” He shook out the aspirins into his palm then quickly popped them into his mouth, quickly producing enough saliva to swallow them down.

Nick did the same with his aspirins, swallowing it down hard. “Thanks Rok.”

Brian peered closer at Nick’s forehead, “Just gonna clean this blood off a bit to assess the damage.”

Nick’s eyes widened slightly upon watching Brian open up a moist towelette packet. “Doesn’t that have alcohol? That’s gonna burn like hell man.”

“I’m not even gonna go close to the cut with this, just gonna wipe away the blood is all. Now, hold still.” Brian instructed as he began to wipe away the dried up blood. “Just a lump and a small cut. You wanna cover that up?” he asked as he slathered a thin line of Neosporin across the small wound.

“Nah man.” Nick sighed, pulling away from Brian when he was done, leaning back against the couch and placing the makeshift ice pack softly to his head. “Just want this pounding headache to go away, and wake from this fucking nightmare.”

Brian gave a slight nod as he turned to now address AJ, “You and me both.” He rose up in his seat a little to inspect the back of AJ’s head, to which he already knew the damage was far worse than Nick’s. “The bleeding looks like it stopped a bit.”

“Don’t even bother trying to clean it up.” AJ advised as he closed his eyes, willing his nauseousness away.

Brian nodded as he applied a small amount of Neosporin to the laceration. “How you feeling right now, honestly?”

AJ nibbled on his bottom lip; the feeling of nausea, dizziness, and throbbing pain had him in a tight bind, threatening to steal his consciousness away at any given moment, but what kept him strong enough was the unfortunate situation they were in, him and his brothers being held hostage. “Sore and dizzy.” AJ simply replied, not wanting to let them know all that he felt and alarm them. The last thing he wanted was for them to worry about him, when he was worried about the rest of them.

“Just give the aspirin some time to kick in man.” Brian said sympathetically as he grabbed the towel-wrapped ice and gently placed it to the back of his head.

“Someone wake me up when this is all over.” AJ sighed heavily as he reclined back into the couch, making sure to not apply any kind of pressure to the back of his head.

“Alex.” Kevin called out softly, in a warning tone. “Don’t you go to sleep, both you and Nick can’t.”

James stopped talking to Adrianna and focused his attention back on the guys, “Are you guys done now? Everyone catered to?” he asked in sarcasm. He smiled when none of them gave an answer, “Dri, get on the phone and see where the hell those guys are.”

As Adrianna turned to leave the room, James walked over towards the coffee table and moved it so it was situated where he and Adrianna were standing. He sat down on the edge of the table, propping his arms on his knees while he still held his gun, “So… Adrianna tells me that you guys are a couple of celebrities?”

When he got no answer, he began to fiddle around with his gun, “Looks like we’ve struck gold when we stumbled across this house. How’d you like my baby’s acting by the way?” AJ slightly scoffed upon hearing him say that, “She surely worked her charm on all of you guys, especially one of you.” he looked over towards AJ as he said that.

Biting his tongue, AJ simply rolled his eyes at that statement. “So, tell me…” James started as he began to fiddle with his gun, “What kind of celebrities are you? Actors? Singers? Models?” Again, no reply. “Giving me the silent treatment now, huh? We were so wordy befo-”

He was cut off when Adrianna walked back into the room, “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but there seems to be a slight problem.” she said as she held the phone out.

Growling, James pushed himself up from where he sat and whirled around to face Adrianna, “What do you mean there seems to be a slight problem?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask Bobby that?” Adrianna bit back in anger, irritated with how James was treating her.

James ripped the phone out of Adrianna’s hand, “I swear, if you want a job done, you just got to do it yourself.” he grumbled as he walked into the other room with the phone.

Adrianna turned and followed him into the other room as well, “I’d appreciate if you wouldn’t cop an attitude with me, because I’m really beginning to get sick and tired of your shit!”

The boys looked at each other as they heard them arguing in the other room. AJ placed his ice pack down beside him, the back of his head becoming too cold and creating more of a headache if anything, “Do we have an ideas now?” he sighed.

“We leave.”

All eyes snapped immediately towards Kevin. “What?” Howie choked out, “But, before you said…”

“I know what I said before, but apparently these crooks aren’t very smart. They should never leave their victims alone. Not only do Nick and AJ need medical attention, but they have others that’ll be joining them as well, which would leave us even more at a disadvantage, and who knows how long they’ll keep us here or what they even intend on doing.”

“So, how do we do this?” Howie questioned in an uneasy voice.

“We’ll have to do it quietly and quickly, but the thing is it might get a little tricky if we all just get up at one time and leave. We’ll more than likely have to do it one by one, to eliminate as much noise and avoiding drawing their attention back here as possible. Nick, you’ll go first, followed by AJ. I’ll round up the back, okay?”

They waited in silence for a moment, to make sure they were preoccupied with whatever they were doing. When Kevin gave the signal, Nick slowly and quietly rose from the couch and began to quickly make his way over towards the front door. He took a deep breath in and closed his eyes, in hopes to steady his shaking hands and quietly open the door. He sighed in relief when he was able to open it with no noise emitting, and turned to signal AJ to follow.

AJ rose to his feet, wobbling at first, but was able to catch his bearings. Hastily, he made his way towards the door, but immediately stopped in his tracks when he heard James’ voice grow louder as he reentered the room.

The remaining color drained from AJ’s face, “Oh shit.”