Chapter 73:

 

Argument

AJ hurried to let his dogs out of the pantry, scared to see what kind of mayhem those two had caused during their lengthy stay in there. AJ surveyed the damage and sighed with relief, noting only two little "deposits" in the right corner, courtesy of the scattered dog food he had thrown down. Jack and Vegas scampered out with enthusiasm, running around in circles before they took off for the living room, jumping their tiny little bodies onto Nick's larger one.

Nick looked up, irritated. "AJ!" he yelled, "do you mind? I'm really not in the mood for your psycho dogs right now."

AJ scooped them up then threw a concerned look towards Kevin who was sitting opposite of Nick. AJ placed his dogs outside and locked the doggie door, barring them from entering. Walking back to the living room he noticed Kevin had left his chair and was sitting next to Nick.

"Nick, Nick, come on man. You're not doing yourself any good by beating yourself up about this. Hey, look on the bright side. At least we know Brian's okay, that he's with Xavier."

Nick raised his head, amazed. "Huh? Bright side, Kevin? What bright side? You think that being with Xavier makes it okay?" Nick's voice raised a notch higher as he stood up and began pacing.

"Hey, at least we know he's not dead, Nick," consoled AJ. Nick glared at him and AJ cringed, realizing how trite he sounded. "Uh, sorry. You know what I mean."

"No I don't! I don't know what anything means anymore!" cried Nick in frustration. "Here we are, thousands of miles away, catching amateurish crooks, secretly listening in on Xavier, wondering where the hell Bri is…" Nick sighed forcefully, shaking his head. "I don't know, guys. I'm getting a terrible feeling about all this, like whatever we do, its not going to be enough to help Brian…" Nick trailed off, his gloom permeating into Kevin and AJ.

"So what do you expect us to do, Nick? Give up before we even try? I don't think I can live with myself knowing I didn't give it my best shot!"

Nick frowned at Kevin. "Yeah, but what is our best shot? That we are the fucking Backstreet Boys?" he mimicked, citing Kevin's words on the plane. "Well excuse me, but I never knew that being a Backstreet Boy meant being all-powerful! I still think we should call the police." He flopped back onto the couch, slumping over to stare dejectedly at the floor.

AJ took a deep breath, seeing where this was all going. "Nick," he said softly, "we can't go to the police, at least not right now." He held up his hands when Nick started to give him an angry look. "Hear me out, okay? There's not a minute that goes by that I don't remember some incident, some thing that let's me know what an idiot I've been. I was too busy being angry at Brian and too blind to put it all together. And now that I understand, I realize just how dangerous Xavier is. It scares the shit outta me. I'd like nothing better than to hand this over to the police, but at what cost?"

Kevin nodded, rubbing his brow as he slumped into an easy chair, having listened to AJ as he made himself a hard drink. "Nick, we know more about Xavier than the police do. I'd say, hell yeah, let's call the police, but how much time do we really have? How much time does Brian? A day, a week, a month? Can we convince the authorities? And with what? We've got nothing on Xavier, nothing, just our suspicions. I really think we can get better results." Kevin gazed at the youngest member of the group. "Nick…" Kevin faltered for a moment, then went on, " I know how hard this is on you. But you gotta believe in us, in yourself. Nobody wants to help Brian more than us. Nobody. And if we can just think straight, put our heads together, we can do it. We will do it."

Nick smiled a sad smile at Kevin, his blue eyes reflecting his anguish. "I know. I know you're right, Kevin," he said quietly. "It's just that I feel so…frustrated." Nick looked at AJ. "I want to be the shit outta someone, ya know?"

AJ threw his hands up, in mock fear. "Whoa, don't look at me! I'm just a skinny little dude. Attack Kevin. I've always wanted to see someone beat the shit out of him anyway. Go for it, Nick."

Nick, Kevin and AJ laughed, each relaxing a little from the stress. "Okay, what's our plan of action, O Wise One?" Nick asked to Kevin.

"Why me, why am I the Wise One?' grumbled Kevin. "What about Howie?"

"He's not here, so you're it," advised AJ. "Besides you're so much older."

Kevin refused to be baited by that tired joke. "Oh, all right. I want to pass this by Howie when he gets back, but I was thinking of us heading downtown tomorrow to check out Backstreet's HR. See what we can dig up on X."

Nick rolled his eyes. "They won't give you that information Kev," he began but stopped when he saw Kevin's eyebrows raised in reminder. "Oh, yeah, I forgot. We're the Backstreet Boys, we can do anything," Nick chanted, a grin of amusement forming on his face.

"Damn right," growled AJ.

* * * * * *

Brian tried to hide his smirk as Xavier and he waded slowly towards their car, surrounded by at least fifteen overly excited girls. He wanted to say I told you so, Backstreet fans are everywhere, but by the annoyed look on Xavier's face, wisely refrained. Brian signed as many autographs as he could as they edged forward, knowing by the clench of Xavier's jaw that he was barely controlling his temper as he kept the group of teenagers from swarming all over.

With sorrowed sighs and screams of "I love you" ringing in their ears, Xavier tore out of the parking lot, ignoring Brian's yell of 'watch out" as they nearly collided with a large van.

"I don't think a dead Backstreet Boy is gonna get you much," Brian said sourly, hurriedly trying to buckle in.

"Yeah, but it's sure gonna give me a hell of a lot of satisfaction," muttered Xavier as he navigated a corner sharply. Brian sucked in his breath, wondering if Xavier had realized his mistake in wording. So he is planning to hurt one of the guys! He secretly felt for the reassuring comfort of Rosie's cell phone, desperately wondering when he would get a chance to use it.

Hoping to draw Xavier's attention away from what he inadvertently had said, Brian laughed snidely. "So, this is you're idea of a night on the town? I think you need to get a life, Xavier."

Startled by the young singer's sarcastic remark, Xavier looked him once over. "Who said anything about it starting? It hasn't." He glanced at his watch. "But in about 20 minutes it will." Xavier leered at Brian and Brian slunk down in his seat, wishing he had just kept his mouth shut.

***

 

 

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