Chapter 8

"So, where ya going?" Andy was lying on his side on Tara's bed, watching her pack for the weekend.

"Just to visit some friends," she said, looking over her t-shirts and trying to decide what to bring. "Nothing special."

"Who?"

Tara returned to her closet, frowning from ear to ear. "Friends from college."

"Aaah. Those." Andy said dryly. "Berkeley kids."

"Andy…"

"Crunchy. Lovely. Don't forget your birkenstocks."

"Very funny," Tara rolled her eyes and threw a pair of sneakers into her suitcase. "It's a little cold in Michigan, you know?"

"Why are you meeting in Michigan?"

"Sarah lives there," she said quickly, biting her lip. God, she hated lying to Andy like this…

"You're not bringing any nice clothes, babe," Andy was poking through her suitcase, wrinkling his nose at the selection of jeans and t-shirts she'd chosen. "At least one girly outfit would be nice?"

"Since when do you like girly?" She teased.

"On girls, girly is fine," he retorted. "One dress. Just in case. Never know?"

"Sure, a dress and sneakers, what a look that would be."

"You would be completely lost if not for me," Andy told her, getting up and grabbing a dress from her closet. "Pack this."

"Fine," she grabbed the dress and threw it on top of the suitcase. "Happy?"

"And, um," Andy dug through the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his wallet, flipping through it with a grin. "Here," he threw a condom into the suitcase with a grin. "Just in case."

"Andy!" Tara grabbed the condom and threw it back at him. "You have more use for that than me."

"I highly doubt it," he shook his head sadly. "My boy is far far away tonight."

"Andy…"

"Oh come on, you'll bring computer games, and not condoms?" Andy held up the game box with a look of disgust. "Your priorities are so screwed up."

"Some would say the same for you," she replied. "Fine, fine," she let him put the condom back in the suitcase before zipping it closed. "I'll be back Sunday night, ok?"

"I'll have a lonely, boring, weekend without you," Andy sniffled loudly, and pouted at her. "Miss me?"

"You know I will," Tara hugged him tight, wishing with all her heart she could tell him where she was really going. "I'll see you Sunday."

"I'm going to go call Jess. Maybe she'll keep my mind occupied this weekend with visions of a sweaty Alex dancing on stage," Andy grinned, and followed her through her apartment and out to her car. "Yes?"

"Sure, Andy, sure." Tara got into her car and started it, waving at him. "Bye!"

"Next time you come home in clothes covered with sexy men's cologne, you better have done something with the man himself, understand?" He yelled at her as she drove off. "Make good use of my rubber!"

Tara laughed, and shook her head. Andy was an absolute riot….she would talk to Kevin this weekend about telling him the truth. Lying to him like this just wasn't fair.

"Use the rubber! Be the rubber!"

And with that thought running through her mind, Tara headed off to the airport.

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

Tara was met at the airport by one of the guys' bodyguards, who introduced himself as Billy. As they drove off in the van he'd had waiting, he apologized for hurting her earlier in Las Vegas, but said that he'd done what he had to, they had no idea who the person was who was so determined to hurt the guys.

After the short drive, they entered the hotel through the underground entrance, and Billy lead her up to the guys' hotel rooms. He knocked on a door before opening it and waving her in, "they're expecting you."

Tara walked into the room, smiling when she saw Nick getting up to welcome her. "Hey!"

"Hey!" He walked over and grabbed her in a hug. "Have a good flight?"

"Fine," she smiled at Kevin, who was waiting for a hug. "How are you guys doing?" She asked, as she was passed from Nick to Kevin.

"We're surviving," Kevin said solemnly. "Nick, why don't you get the rest of the gang here?"

"Gotcha," Nick left the room to go bang on the appropriate doors to rally the troops.

Kevin waved her to a seat, smiling lightly at her. "We tried to get you a room of your own, but the hotel's booked solid. I hope you don't mind sharing a suite with Nick again?"

Tara laughed, "this room is bigger than my apartment, I'll be just fine."

"Good." He sat back, and ran a hand through his hair. "Agent Palmer's flying in from Washington tomorrow to talk to you, so you can just relax tonight."

"Relax? Have you been able to do much of that?" She asked him, smiling wryly when he shook his head no. "I figured."

"Howie's like the walking dead, wondering when this guy is going to do whatever he intends to do to him," Kevin said softly, frowning. "The anticipation is awful, knowing something's going to happen, but just not knowing when."

"I can imagine," Tara looked up as Nick returned to the room, followed by AJ, Howie, and Brian. "Hi," she waved.

"Hey goddess," AJ waved back, smiling at her. "Glad you made it."

"Tara, this is Brian," Nick introduced them. "He had already left Vegas by the time we met you last time."

Tara smiled weakly at Brian, "yeah, I know, I tried to stop you as you left."

Brian sat down across from her, a soft smile on his face, "I had no idea, I'm sorry."

"That's ok, at least someone stopped to listen."

"Me," Nick reminded everyone with a grin. "Thank me."

"Thank you, Nicky," Howie said, smacking his head. "Now, can we get down to business?" He wasn't much in the mood for small talk.

"I brought my laptop," Tara stood up and went to her bags, grabbing her bookbag. "I can show you guys the website, if you want."

"Show us," Kevin said, nodding for emphasis.

"Ok." Tara quickly set up her computer on the desk, waving to the guys to come around and look. She dialed into the Internet and pulled up the website. "This is it," she waved to her screen.

"Jesus christ," AJ cursed, looking over her shoulder at the site. "Pictures?"

"Yeah, that was how I was pretty sure he actually had done something at the part," Tara explained. "There are pictures on here of your drink with something being put into it."

"Go to his diary," Howie pointed to the link.

Tara clicked, her eyes widening when she saw it had been updated. "He's changed it since yesterday," she said, frowning as she read. "He knows your schedule far too well…"

"You're telling me," Kevin shuddered.

The latest diary entry was about how the boys had a night off tonight, and they would be hanging out in their hotel "safe and sound." But were they, really….strike three would be soon.

"Strike three, that's you, right?" Brian turned to Howie, a grim expression on his face.

"Sounds like it, from the clue he gave," Howie nodded slowly. "What do I do? Just wait?"

"All you can do," Nick said softly. "Can you see if this freak's online?"

Tara nodded, and clicked around, opening up a chatroom. She quickly joined, and watched as the usual gibberish flowed across the screen. Until she saw a familiar nickname enter the room. "That's him!" She jumped up and ran for her cellphone. "Someone, talk to him, keep him online."

"You got it," Kevin slid into her seat and immediately began typing.

Tara called Tommy, and told him to run an IP trace on the nickname. She danced around impatiently, waiting for him to respond, watching the group huddled around her laptop. "What's he saying?"

"He's asking them who their favorite boy is," Kevin muttered, shaking his head. "He says that's who he'll hit next."

"Oh lovely," Tara leaned over Kevin's shoulder to read. "Oh god," she whispered, her stomach sinking when she read what had been typed into chat.

Bsbh4t3rs: Ten little Indians, all in a row. Ever read that book, oh miss katchoo? It's the story of ten sitting ducks, who are all killed off, one by one. Me, I think that went too fast. It's a lot more fun to torture your prey before killing them, isn't it?

Kevin looked at Tara for a moment, before turning back to the keyboard.

Katchoo: No, I don't. Leave them alone.
Bsbh4t3rs: They believe they are untouchable. They must learn otherwise.
Katchoo: They don't think that.
Bsbh4t3rs: No? Then why do they continue to tour? Why do they fly their girlfriends in for fun weekends, if they think they are in danger? DON'T THEY KNOW WHAT I INTEND TO DO??

Tara turned away from the computer at that, shaking her head. "Tommy, anything?" She spoke into the phone, frowning. "Please, tell me you got him."

"Ask him when the third strike is," Howie told Kevin.

"You sure?" Kevin looked at Howie questiongly. "We don't want him to know this is us talking to him."

"Why not? Why don't we just tell him it's us and ask him to stop? Tell him we'll give him whatever he wants, just stop this!" Brian's eyes were panicked as he stared at the screen. "We know we're not untouchable, dammit!"

Katchoo: When's the third strike?
Bsbh4t3rs: that's why I'm here. Fourth just might come before third. Throw things around a little.
Katchoo: what's fourth, then?
Bsbh4t3rs: I'll update the website soon.

"Got it!"

Tara jumped at Tommy's voice in her ear, and clutched the phone tight. "So? What is it?"

"Oh," his voice fell, and she heard him sigh heavily. "You're gonna love this, Tar."

"What?"

"The IP resolves to you'll never catch me dot com," he said sadly.

"Fuck," she cursed. "Proxy?"

"Must be. Sorry, babe."

"Thanks for trying," she ran a hand through her hair, feeling totally frustrated. That had been her best shot at catching him.

"Anytime. Bye."

Tara hung up when she heard the click on the other end, and turned back to the group. "That didn't work," she said sadly. "He's not stupid, he's masking his ip."

"Move over," Nick shoved Kevin out of the chair and sat down, staring at the monitor.

Katchoo: ok, asshole, what the fuck do u think ur doing? Whut do u want?
Bsbh4t3rs: Dead, buried, Backstreet Boys. Isn't that obvious?
Katchoo: y?
Bsbh4t3rs: Everyone needs some entertainment.
Katchoo: we wont let you do this!!!
Bsbh4t3rs: we? Who's we?

"Nick, stop it," AJ hissed, smacking his shoulder. "You're not supposed to let him know its us."

Katchoo: who ya think, idiot.
Bsbh4t3rs: I think one backstreet boy is going to be in a lot of pain tonight.
Katchoo: bsb's doing just fine.
Bsbh4t3rs: ….for now.

"Fuck," Nick cursed when he saw the other nickname leave chat. "What was that? One of us is going to be in a lot of pain tonight?"

"Nick, you weren't supposed to go off on him like that," Howie said fearfully. "That's what he wants."

"Give him what he wants, then!" Brian argued. "Maybe that'll make him stop!"

"Nothing's going to make him stop, he's insane, don't you get that?" Nick shouted, standing up and walking across the room to smack the wall. "Goddammit!" He couldn't believe he'd actually been talking to the person who was so determined to kill them, and had learned nothing.

"Nick, calm down," Kevin said soothingly.

"NO! We don't know what he's doing!" Nick said angrily. "We know he might hurt Howie tonight. Or maybe not, he said he might change the order. So he might hurt me, or Brian. Or maybe he's just going to kill someone! How can I CALM DOWN!"

"Sit down, have a drink, do something, Nick," Brian pleaded with him, clearly getting freaked out even more by Nick's strong reaction.

"Drink?" Nick whirled around to stare at AJ. "Want a drink, AJ?"

"I'll drink an entire bar right now, to be honest," AJ ran a shaky hand through his hair. "But Brian's right, we gotta calm down."

"Anyone hungry?" Kevin asked, sighing when everyone looked at him as if he was crazy. "We gotta eat."

"Get liquor with dinner, that's all I ask," Howie waved at Kevin. "I don't care."

"Looks like we're in for a long night," Kevin looked at Tara apologetically. "Sorry you got dragged into this."

Tara forced a smile onto her face. "As bad as all of this is, I think I'm better off her than I would be freaking out at home."

"Good, I'm glad you're here then," he smiled lightly at her. "Want to help me figure out what these idiots want to eat?"

"Sure."

It would be a long night, indeed.

***

 

 

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