Part 3:

Eyes on the Prize

Brian turned the radio up loud, punching through the CDs, trying to find something fast and obnoxious to keep him awake. Damn, he had bad taste in music, he thought, as he pushed through the selection of easy listening tunes that were better suited for a sixty-year-old preacher than himself. When had he become so old? he wondered, switching the selector to radio, finally settling on a rap station that was blaring Eminem.

Rubbing his eyes, he looked at the piece of paper again, reading the address out loud to himself over and over until it sounded like a bunch of mush. He was tired and more than a little scared of what awaited him once he arrived at the destination on the paper.

His mind kept flashing back to the phone call.

"I’m pretty sure I’m going to kill him…”

Shit. What if he did kill him?

The cell phone rang, making Brian jump. "Hello.”

No one said anything on the other end. All he could hear was the low hum of country music.

"Hello, are you there?"

"Yeah, we’re here.” It was the same voice that had called before.

"Is he okay?" Brian squinted up at a passing street sign, trying to make out the street numbers.

"I don’t know if okay is the word I would use. He’s alive.”

"Brian.” Brian felt his whole body relax at the sound of Nick’s soft voice. A million images flashed through his mind. Images of the first time they had met, the recording studio, the tours, the holidays they had spent together. It made Brian wish that they could go back and start all over again. Forget the fame, the money, the wives and the girlfriends. All of the things that had driven wedges between them. He wished for the days when they were just two dumb, naive kids that loved to sing and laugh.

"Are you okay?" Brian asked.

Nick laughed a little. "I don’t really know. I think I’m scared to die,” he said, and then the line went dead.

Snapping the radio off, Brian had to clear his mind. He pulled over to the side of the road and dropped his head to the steering wheel. Tears flowed freely as he fought with his own better judgment over what to do next.

***

"Okay, we’re here.”

Nick opened his eyes at the sound of Mo’s voice. Squinting into the night, he tried to make out where "here" was. The other guy had doused the headlights, so there was nothing but black everywhere he looked. Mo and the other guy opened their doors at the same time and climbed out. Nick stayed put.

"C’mon, kid.” Mo gestured for Nick to slide out, but Nick didn’t move. "Didn’t you hear me? I said c’mon.”

"No.”

"No?" Mo said, a look of irritation on his face. The other guy snorted, slamming the driver side door shut and walking off. "What do you mean, no?"

"Why the hell should I get out of the car? You keep saying you’re going to kill me anyway, so why not just do it? Why should I do what you say?"

Mo leaned against the car door, pulling the gun from his waistband. He dangled it at his side for a second and then raised it, leveling it at Nick’s head. "You never know, kid. If you’re good and your friend does what I told him to do, I might let you go."

"And you might not.”

"And I might not. What the hell is this? I’m not into riddles, kid. You’re starting to get on my nerves. Now get out of the car.”

Nick still didn’t move. Mo reached in and grabbed him by the leg and pulled him. Nick kicked at him with his stocking foot. The two of them struggled with one another as Nick reached his arm out for the latch on the driver’s side door, kicking at Mo at the same time, as hard as he could. Mo stuck the gun back in the waistband of his jeans and grabbed both of Nick’s legs. Shit, he was strong, Nick thought, as he reached out, trying to grab onto something sturdier than the door latch, which was sliding out of his sweaty hands.

"Look, kid, give up. You know I am going to win,” Mo growled, fumbling around to try and get a better grip on Nick.

"Fuck you,” Nick mumbled back, as his right leg came free of Mo’s grip. Pulling his right leg forward, Nick thrust it backwards as hard as he could, making direct contact with Mo’s chest. The man let out a shout as the wind was knocked out of him, and he fell backwards onto the ground. Nick paused, wide-eyed, for just a split second, and then he scrambled up into the truck. Pulling the latch on the driver’s side door, the door swung open, and Nick spilled out onto the ground.

"Gus, Gus, get your ass over here! I need help. The kid is getting away!” Mo was yelling, as he rolled over and stood up, running around the side of the truck. But he was too late. As he came around the driver’s side door, he saw that the door was open and the kid was gone.

***

Nick ran as fast as he could across the clearing, never looking back. He ignored the rocks that cut through his socks into his feet, keeping his eyes on the prize. Straight ahead, he could make out thick patches of trees and bushes. That was where he would run to; that was where he could hide. Between the black of night and the trees and bushes to hide him, there was no way those guys could find him now. He would stay there until it was light and then make his way out to the main road, where he would find someone to take him to safety.

Just as he reached the trees, light poured in behind him. They must have turned on the headlights to the car. Nick put his hands out in front of him and dived headfirst into the bushes. He rolled down an embankment, tumbling head over foot, unable to grab on to anything as he finally came to a stop at the bottom.

"Fuck!” he screamed through clenched teeth, as his hand shot to his forehead that was sliced open and bleeding, not to mention his skinned up elbows and knees and his right ear that had hit some sort of rock on the way down.

Rolling over onto his stomach, he scrambled up onto his hands and knees and crawled quickly over to a thicker section of bushes and branches. Sitting cross-legged, he tried to make himself small, as overhead, he heard the sound of the truck engine, and he knew that they were looking for him.

***

3:30 a.m.

Brian turned the car off of the main road and started down a dark, bumpy, dirt road. Flashing on the brights, it didn’t seem to help much, but he did notice that there seemed to be fresh tire tracks, and he hoped that he was headed in the right direction.

He’d given up on Eminem and the rap stations right after his head had started to pound harder with a splitting headache and instead had settled on some oldies grunge station that played a lot of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana. Nick would have been proud to hear him actually listening to Nirvana, since that had never been one of Brian’s favorites.

Picking up the cell phone from the passenger seat, he had contemplated calling Leighanne. He didn’t want to call her in New York because he wasn’t sure if she was alone or if she was in the right frame of mind to hear what he had to say. He continued driving as he punched in the numbers of their Florida home by heart. He didn’t know which home she would be returning to after her acting workshop but he knew eventually she would get to the Florida one to pack up her things, so he figured that he would leave the message on the machine. Just in case something happened to him and he never saw her again.

"Hi, you’ve reached The Littrells. We can’t come to the phone right now, but if you leave your name and number, we will call you back…”

BEEP

"Hey, Leigh, it’s me. I just wanted you to know that… well, I just wanted you to know how much...” He paused. "I love you, Leighanne. I always will. And if anything happens to me, I want you to know that I don’t blame you for what happened to the marriage. Some things are just not meant to be.” He sighed. "I also wanted you to know that Nick and I are in trouble. I was told not to call the police, so I am going to try and fix things on my own. If you don’t hear from me again, have the police go to this address…" He read the address off twice. "I love you, baby. Don’t ever forget that.”

***

"Where the fuck is the little asshole?”

Mo walked along the edge of the embankment, lit by the headlights of the truck. Looking down, all he could see was a lot of trees and bushes and darkness.

"Look, we don’t need him,” Gus said, sitting on the hood of the truck, picking his teeth with a toothpick. "We got his car, we got his money and credit cards, and we got his friend. Once the other one comes, we’ll just take his shit and leave him for dead.”

Mo turned around, his hands on his hips. "St. Nick knows our names, he knows what the car looks like that we drive, and he knows where my apartment is.”

"He was too scared to pay any attention to any of that, Mo. He will probably run like hell to get out of this town and get back to Florida or wherever the hell you said he was from and forget that any of this ever happened. He ain’t dumb enough to try and press charges. He knows that we could find him and this whole thing would start all over again.”

"What about the other one?"

"Look." Gus slid down off of the truck and walked to where Mo stood. "If it makes you feel any better, we can just kill the other one. That way, the trail will run cold, since he was the one with the address to this place.”

Mo nodded in response as he walked along the embankment, looking one last time for any signs of Nick.

***

Down below, Nick shivered at the words. Kill Brian? Shit, how did they get themselves into this mess in the first place? It was hard to remember now, as he sat cold and bleeding in the bushes below. If it hadn’t been real life, it would have made a really good made for TV movie, he thought, as the headlights to the truck turned off and he heard it crunching across the dirt and gravel as it backed up away from the embankment.

Crawling out, Nick stood up, his back aching as he stretched out. Leaning down, he pulled off his muddy wet socks and tossed them to the ground. Then, looking up towards the top of the hill, he tried to figure out the best way to get the hell out of there and warn Brian about what was going to happen next.

***

Brian drove down to what looked like the end of the road, as a large, gray warehouse came into view. He could see that the building had seven tall garage bays with metal doors and that it looked pretty deserted.

Pulling the car to a stop, he put it in park, but left it running and turned off the radio. He had made sure that he was far enough away from the building that he could still back up and get the hell out of there if he needed to. Looking to his left, he double checked to make sure the car doors were locked, and when he looked back up, he could see the outline of a man standing by the far left garage door. The cell phone rang.

"Well, it looks like you found the place,” the voice said.

"Where’s Nick?”

"All in good time, my friend, all in good time. First thing I want you to do is turn off the headlights. Then I am going to open the far-left garage door. After it is up, you will pull forward slowly into the bay and shut off the car. Then I want you to open the car door and toss the keys out and shut the door again. Don’t get out of the car until I give you the signal that it is okay. Do you understand me?"

"I understand. But how do I know that Nick is okay?"

"I guess that is a chance you are going to have to take, isn’t it?” Click.

Brian watched as the man lifted the latch on the bottom of the metal door and raised it a bit. Than he grabbed onto a chain and pulled it the rest of the way up. He signaled for Brian to pull forward and disappeared back around the side of the building.

Turning off the headlights and putting the car in drive, Brian slowly made his way into the garage. Once inside, he put the car in park and turned off the engine. He could hear the loud clanging of the garage being pulled shut behind him. His heart was pounding, and his mouth went dry. Reaching for his cell phone, he quickly shoved it in his back pocket and stared straight ahead. Once the door was shut, it was pitch black, except for the small slices of moonlight that made their way in through a boarded up window high up on the wall straight ahead.

He waited for a second and then opened his car door. Pulling the keys from the ignition, he tossed them out and shut the door again. He could see the silhouette of someone coming around the front of the car and down the driver’s side. Then he saw the same silhouette walk back around to the front of the car. They banged twice on the hood, signaling him it was time to get out.

Swallowing hard, Brian took a deep breath and opened the car door. He stepped down onto the running board and then onto the pavement. Before he could even get both feet on the ground, an arm reached around him, cupping a hand tightly over his mouth as the car door was slammed shut, and he was dragged off into the darkness.

***

Nick knew he was taking a big chance and risking both of their lives, but it seemed worth it. He had made his way to the top of the embankment and was crouched down in the bushes when Brian came rumbling up in the big Excursion. From his hiding place, Nick could see everything. He could see Mo at the garage door of the large building, and he could see Brian in the car on the cell phone. He was not sure where Gus had gone to, but his guess was that Gus was inside of the warehouse. Nick watched as Mo slipped around the side of the building; then, as Brian turned off the headlights, Mo walked back around the front of the building and inside the garage stall.

Nick crouched down and made his move. Running low and fast, he made his way across the clearing arriving behind the Excursion, just as it approached the stall. He knew that Mo had gone inside on the left side of the garage, so Nick went around the right side of the Excursion as it rolled in, crouching low by the wheel well as Brian shut off the car and the garage door was pulled shut. Nick was taking a big chance, since he didn’t know if they would turn on lights inside the garage. But he was going on the instinct that they wouldn’t want Brian to see them, if at all possible, so they would probably keep it nice and dark. And he was right.

He could hear Brian open the car door and drop the keys with a loud clink to the pavement below. He watched beneath the car as Mo’s legs came around and stooped to gather the keys, then walked back around the front of the car. Keeping low, Nick made his way around to the driver’s side. Mo banged on the hood of the car and the driver’s side door opened. Nick waited until Brian was out on the runner board with one foot on the ground, and then he went for it.

Hooking his arm around Brian, he clamped his hand tightly over Brian’s mouth and dragged him around the back of the car. Brian struggled as Nick leaned in close, pressing his left temple to Brian’s sweaty face. He easily dragged Brian around the back of the car and over towards the passenger side.

"FUCK!" The shout was Mo’s. "Where the fuck are you, you little jackass? I can’t believe that you would risk St. Nick’s life like this.”

Nick pushed Brian down to the ground, his hand still clamped over his mouth. Brian struggled beneath him so Nick leaned down on him, pinning him beneath his weight until he stopped moving.

"GUS, GUS, GET THE FUCK IN HERE! HE’S TRYING TO GET AWAY!" Mo was pissed. Nick could hear him kicking the car over and over as he moved around the driver’s side.

Getting up on his knees, Nick pulled Brian up with him, his hand still clamped around his mouth. Then he stood up into a crouched position and dragged Brian with him into the darkness of the warehouse. Where they were going and what they would run into was anybody’s guess.

"Mo, there ain’t no light in this place, so you gotta use your lighter!” Gus was yelling from somewhere in the warehouse. And then Nick saw a little light from a lighter blink on up and over to his right.

Brian was still struggling against Nick’s force so Nick leaned down and hissed in his ear, "It’s me, you idiot, so stop squirming.” Instantly, Brian’s body relaxed, as Nick slowly released his grip on Brian’s mouth. "It’s me,” he said again, as Brian turned and their eyes met in the darkness, both sets wide and full of fear, but also full of recognition that they were alive. Brian’s white-toothed smile gleamed in the darkness, and Nick grinned back as they ducked down and crawled along away from where they had seen the lighter flick on.

"Listen, you little motherfucker, you better just give up now, or else we will put a bullet in St. Nick’s head, and you can watch. Is that what you want? Do you want your friend to die?" This time it was Gus who was yelling out the threats, unaware that Nick was alive and well and helping Brian to freedom.

The two crawled along the floor of the warehouse, keeping low and stopping every few seconds to feel around and see if they were near an exit. They could see the lights from two lighters in different areas of the large warehouse flick on and off as Mo and Gus searched for Brian. Luckily, Brian and Nick were far enough ahead of them that the small circle of light from the lighters was not enough to give up their whereabouts. Nick veered off to the right, with Brian following, as he reached out and found the chain that was secured to the bottom of one of the garage doors. He stopped, Brian bumping into the back of him, and got down flat on his stomach.

Pushing his fingers underneath the metal door, he pushed ever so slightly to see if it would give any or if it was locked, and to his amazement, it raised ever so slightly. He reached back and grabbed Brian’s arm. "Help," he said in a whisper, as Brian crawled up alongside of him, and both of them pushed up on the door. With a loud screech, the door budged slightly, and both Nick and Brian stopped.

"Shit, they’re trying to get out through one of the doors!” Nick heard Mo shout, as the loud slap of the cowboy boots on the pavement started coming fast in their direction.

"Go! Go!" Nick yelled, as he and Brian stood up and, together, lifted the garage door high enough that they could slip beneath it. Dropping to their knees, they both rolled out and then, standing, broke out into a full run across the clearing.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Mo was screaming from behind them, as Brian and Nick criss-crossed over each other’s paths. The moonlight and coming morning was their enemy as they ran forward without looking back, and then six shots rang out…

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

BAM!

Brian looked over at Nick, and Nick looked over at Brian, and for an instant, time stood still.

Both of them dropped to the ground, Nick rolling to the right and Brian skidding forward to a stop, face-first on the ground. Opening his eyes slowly, Brian couldn’t catch his breath, and he winced as he tried to raise his head. Slowly, he turned to his right, where he could barely make out Nick lying barefoot on his left side on the ground in the moonlight.

"Nick… Nicky…" Brian’s voice didn’t even sound like his own as he called out Nick’s name. Brian tried to push himself up, but his arms were shaky, and he didn’t have the strength. "Nicky, talk to me.” Brian rotated his body around and dragged himself across the gravel to where Nick lay.

For an instant, he forgot where he was or how he gotten there, as he put a hand on Nick’s back and tried to pull him over. "Hey Nick, c’mon buddy, talk to me,” he pleaded, pulling on Nick’s shoulder until he was finally able to roll him onto his back. "Are you okay, Nicky?” Struggling to get up onto his knees, Brian looked down onto Nick’s face, and he knew that his friend was far from okay.

Nick’s face was pale, and as he touched a hand to Nick’s forehead, his skin was clammy and cold to the touch. Brian noticed a fine trickle of blood winding its way down from the corner of Nick’s mouth, and he also noticed that Nick’s hands were clutched together tightly over his stomach.

Pulling on Nick’s hands, Brian released his grip to reveal a spreading pool of thick, dark red blood on his shirt and hands. Nick had been shot. And as he noticed a new circle of blood starting to spread further up on Nick’s shirt, Brian knew that Nick had been shot more than once.

Leaning down to cradle Nick in his arms, Brian looked back over his shoulder as two figures moved towards him in the darkness, and suddenly, it all became clear.

***

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