Chapter 35

"Hey Philly," Howie found the road manager in the hotel restaurant, and slid into a seat across from him. "Got a few minutes to talk?"

Philly looked at Howie with trepidation, before nodding slowly. "Sure."

"I was just wondering," Howie looked at Philly closely before asking his question. "Well, I need to talk to you about Jessica."

Philly choked on his coffee, coughing as he set his cup down on the table. "Jessica?"

"You know her, right?"

Philly sighed. "I figured you were going to find out sooner or later. But, I want you to know I didn't start seeing her until you two were long over."

Howie's eyes widened, "what?"

"I'm just," Philly bit his lip, and made a face. "You don't want her back, do you? I mean, she's still hung up on you and all, but she's all I got. You of all people should understand what an amazing woman she is."

"You're kidding me," Howie stared at Philly in surprise. "You're sleeping with her?"

Philly returned the surprised look, "wait, that wasn't why you wanted to talk to me?"

"No, although I guess that's a good place to start," Howie chuckled, and shook his head. "So how long have you been seeing her?"

"A few months?" Philly shrugged. "I was stunned when she started flirting with me, even more so when she told me YOU were her last boyfriend. But hey, like I was going to turn down a girl like that…"

"She stays in your room?"

"Most nights, yeah," he nodded. "I get a better room than her, higher floor and all, since I'm generally up with you guys."

Howie nodded slowly, "that's how she'd get on our floor."

"What?"

"Nothing." Howie bit his lip as he considered his next question. "So, here's another question for you. What do you do with our room keys when you get them?"

Philly's eyes narrowed, "that's a rather strange question to be asking me."

"Indulge me," Howie said flatly. "What do you do with them?"

"Put them in an ashtray on my dresser, always," he replied. "Otherwise I'd lose them."

"They stay there all night?"

Philly nodded, and looked at Howie curiously. "Yes, what are you getting at?"

"I'm not sure," Howie frowned. "What about Jessica? Do you spend all night with her, when she's in your room? Or does she come and go or something?"

"Now there's another strange question," Philly took another sip of his coffee, looking at Howie over the top of the mug.

"Does she?"

"Well, to be quite honest, yes, sometimes she leaves," Philly set the mug back down on the table with a heavy sigh. "I get rather bad migraines, the concerts tend to bring them on. So a lot of times after the show, we'll go back to my room, I'll take my migraine pills, and kind of conk out. Jess is young, she likes to stay up late and have fun. She'll go off and do her thing while I'll sleep. She's always there in the morning, though."

Howie groaned, and sat back in his chair. "I had an awful feeling you were going to say something like that."

"Like what?"

"Nothing," Howie stood up, and ran a hand through his hair. "I should go."

"What did I say?" Philly asked, his eyes growing wide. "Howie?"

"Nothing. Oh, but one thing," Howie looked down at the man, his eyes narrowing in anger. "You're fired."

"WHAT?" Philly stood up and glared at Howie. "What the fuck for?"

"Being insanely stupid," Howie replied, rolling his eyes. "How old are you, Philly? How old is Jessica? You really think she was sleeping with you because you're such an attractive man?"

"I don't like what you're insinuating," Philly shot back, squaring his shoulders. "I'll have you know I'm in very good shape for a man of my age…"

"I'm sure you are," Howie interrupted with a wave of his hand. "None the less, you as good as gave her our fucking keys. You're old enough to be her father, forchrissakes. You're fired." And with that, he stormed from the restaurant, off to find Jessica and settle things once and for all.

******************************************************************

"Anything?" Brian was sitting next to AJ in front of the computer, their eyes fixed on the Backstreet Boys chatroom.

"This one thinks you have a nice ass," AJ snickered, pointing to the screen.

Brian blushed, and pushed AJ's hand out of the way. "That's not what I'm talking about."

"Let's check the website," AJ laughed at Brian's discomfort as he clicked over to the website he'd bookmarked. His eyes narrowed when he saw a new diary entry was up. "Yeah, something new," he clicked on the link, reading the lyrics at the top of the entry.

I got a little suspicious, I got a feeling
That you ain't true to me
I should have known better than to buy your lies
Your sweet disguise

You can fool anyone but I got eyes to see
That you're not for me, babe

"Not for me?" AJ frowned, and continued to read. "It starts today," he read, looking at Brian in confusion. "What do you think that means?"

"I don't know," Brian said softly, shaking his head. "Who lies to him?"

"He thought Nicky did, right?"

"Yeah, but Nick's at Tara's," Brian frowned deeply. "Did the chatters read this? What do they think?"

AJ clicked back to the chatroom, and asked the girls if they'd read the latest diary entry. He gasped when he was told that the "hater" as they called him, had been in this morning, and told them he was going to start killing today. THAT was what "it starts today" meant.

"WHO is he killing today? How? Where?" Brian asked quickly, smacking at AJ to type faster.

They both gasped when the reply came back, all of the girls in complete agreement.

It was starting today. With Kevin.

**********************************************************

Kevin got out of the car, looking at the condos in front of him. He checked the piece of paper where he'd written down the number Tommy had given him, and walked through the complex, searching for the right one. When he'd found it, he rang the doorbell, looking around him while he waited for Tommy to answer.

"You must be Kevin," a tall man wearing a pair of dark glasses opened the door, smiling widely at him.

Kevin nodded, smiling at the man. "Tommy?"

"Yup, come on in," Tommy waved Kevin in, the smile still plastered across his face. "Good to meet you."

"You too," Kevin walked into the condo, watching as Tommy closed the door behind him.

"Forgive me for the sunglasses," Tommy walked through the house, gesturing for Kevin to follow. "I get migraines, the light hurts my eyes."

"No problem," Kevin replied, looking around the house as they walked. Was nice, neat, clean, almost obsessively so, he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen someone's house look THIS clean. Well, maybe Howie's, he thought with a small grin.

"We can talk down here," Tommy opened a doorway and waved Kevin through.

"Sure," Kevin took one step down the stairs, before he felt a kick in the small of his back. He went tumbling down the rest of the staircase, landing in a heap at the bottom. "What the," he groaned, struggling to sit up as he felt a searing pain in his leg.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you fall?" Tommy said sarcastically, walking down the stairs to look at Kevin. "You really don't recognize me, do you?"

"Kevin?"

Kevin's head shot up at the weak voice calling his name, and he looked over to see Tara sitting on the floor, her back up against the wall in the corner of the room, "Tara?"

"It's him, Kevin, get out of here," she said, her words slurring as she struggled to look at him. "Go!"

"Yes, it's me," Tommy laughed, walking into the middle of the room and looking at Tara. "You really had no idea."

"No." Tara said weakly, shaking her head. "I didn't know…"

Kevin tried to push himself off the floor, falling back with a groan when he was unable to get his legs under him. "Fuck."

"Aww, your leg hurt?" Tommy asked him, his eyes dancing with laughter. "Looks broken to me…"

Kevin looked down at his own leg, cringing at the sight. Yes, it was broken, he could see the bone pushing up against his skin. "What do you want?" He asked through gritted teeth, staring up at Tommy. Or was it Gayle?

"Revenge, Kevin, isn't that obvious?" Tommy pulled off the sunglasses, grinning at Kevin. "Revenge for what you put me through, for what your little blondie boy put me through, for what Howie put Jessica through. You all think you can get away with so much, just because you're beautiful. What bullshit that is."

"Tommy, don't do this," Tara pleaded, before gasping softly. "Get away from him," she said as sternly as she could, looking behind Kevin.

"What?" Kevin looked behind him, his eyes widening when he saw Jessica walking towards him, holding a knife. "You don't want to do this."

"Oh, yes I do," Jessica replied, and touched the edge of the knife with her finger. "Secrets and lies, that's all you are." She walked over to Tara and sat down next to her, laughing when the other woman was unable to squirm away. "A little tired, are you?"

"Bitch," Tara muttered, jerking her head away when Jessica ran a hand through her hair. "Leave me alone!"

"Don't hurt her!" Kevin shouted, watching as Jessica pressed the tip of the knife to Tara's stomach, cutting through the thin shirt she was wearing. "Jesus, haven't you hurt her enough?"

"I don't want to hurt her, Kevin," Tommy said evenly. "She's a good friend of mine. But I do want someone to watch you die, that was always my promise. Your wife was supposed to, but I can't find her. So Tara will just have to do…"

"And if Tara here decides to pass out, well," Jessica pushed the tip of the knife in, laughing at the soft scream that left Tara's throat. "I'll just have to wake her up."

"You gave me those pills, you bitch," Tara hissed, cursing her body for being so weak.

"Couldn't have you running away when you realized where you were, could I?"

"You can't do this," Kevin argued, trying again to stand up in vain. "Goddammit."

"Please. Of course I can," Tommy laughed. "Can't you see the headlines? Backstreet Boy killed by gay lover. It will destroy you all."

"Then you'll spend the rest of your life in jail."

Tommy shook his head, "nope." He pulled off his sunglasses and knelt down, looking Kevin in the eyes. "You didn't recognize me when you walked in the door. Recognize me now?"

Kevin's eyes narrowed as he looked at Tommy, his stomach churning. "Yes."

"I look pretty different, don't I," Tommy stood up and sighed. "Nick. That little prick, Nick. Do you have ANY idea what he did to me?"

"What he did to you was wrong, but…"

"But NOTHING!" Tommy interrupted, glaring at Kevin angrily. "Shattered my jaw, my nose, broken ribs, a broken arm, I spent SIX MONTHS in the hospital, Kevin. I had to have my face reconstructed. Do you understand what that means?"

"Tommy," Tara said, fighting the dizziness threatening to take her over. "Nick shouldn't have done that to you."

"Oh, shut up," Tommy whirled around to stare at Tara. "You're fucking him. What the hell do you know."

"I know he's a good person!"

"No good person would have done that," Tommy said angrily. "He destroyed me. So I wanted to destroy him. Let the whole world know little Nicky Carter liked getting it up the ass." He laughed wickedly, "they all know now, don't they…"

Tara let out a muffled scream, and squirmed against the wall, trying again to get away from Jessica. "Stop it…"

"When he's dead, I'll stop," Tommy walked to a table and picked up another knife, the blade glinting in the light. "Do you remember what I said I'd do to you?"

Kevin bit his lip, and shook his head, looking at the staircase behind him helplessly. If only he could get back up there.

"I was going to carve your tattoo into your skin, while your wife watched. I figure Tara works, she's sleeping with Nick, and all, although I suppose that's not going to happen much more either."

"STOP IT!" Tara screamed at the top of her lungs, crying out when Jessica jabbed the knife further into her skin.

"Stop it, you're going to kill her!" Kevin shouted, struggling to crawl over to Tara.

"You, yes," Tommy stepped on Kevin's hand, quickly stopping his movement. "Tara," he ground his heel on Kevin's hand as he shrugged. "Maybe."

"She needs to be in the hospital," Kevin gasped through the pain, breathing heavily when Tommy finally lifted his heel. "I'll stay. Let her go."

"Aww, a martyr, how sweet," Tommy laughed, and shook his head. "No."

"I…" Kevin's eyes widened when his cellphone began to ring, and he squirmed around on the floor, trying to get to the phone.

"I don't think so," Tommy kicked Kevin in the stomach before grabbing the cellphone away from him, turning it off and throwing it in the corner. "No phones."

"They're going to come looking for me," Kevin said, watching as his phone flew away from him.

"Too little, too late," Tommy shrugged. He looked up in surprise when there was a loud banging on the door. "Oh? What's that?"

"HELP US!" Tara screamed, before Jessica smacked her in the face, sending her sprawling onto her side on the floor.

The sound of the pounding just got louder, and Tommy sighed, rolling his eyes. "All right, all right, I'm coming." He looked at Jessica, and gestured to Kevin. "Watch him. She's not going anywhere."

Jessica nodded. She walked to the table, putting down the bloody knife, and picking up a gun. She pointed it at Kevin with a smirk, "move, and die."

Kevin gulped, and watched as Tommy put his sunglasses on, before walking up the stairs.

"Now, who have we here," Tommy opened the door, grinning widely when he saw who was on the other side. "Well, well, well. Hello, Nick."

Nick kicked the door open, grabbing Tommy and throwing him up against the wall. "Hello, Gayle," he hissed. "Remember me?"

***

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