by Jack Parker
"Didn't he say without the cops?" Jared recalled, pocketing his own phone as Nicky frowned at Chad.
"He said not to show up with them," Chad replied, dialing Parker's number. "He didn't say I couldn't tell them what's happened. Besides, I promised Villa I wouldn't make a move without telling him about it."
"Hello?"
"It's Chad," he replied to Parker's greeting. "Nemo just called. Said he's gonna send me an address and I'm to go there tomorrow. No cops.
"Forward the address to me when you get it," Parker instructed, making Chad frown and stand from the couch to march toward the bedroom.
"Maybe you didn't hear me right or the sound on your phone isn't turned up all the way," Chad snapped, shutting the bedroom door for privacy. "He said no cops. I'm not gonna send you the address so you can show up and make your bust, got it? You said I had to tell you when he made contact and if I was gonna make a move. Well I'm making a move and that's all you need to know. This guy is mine."
"And what do you plan to do if he's there, Chad?" Parker questioned. "No offense to them, but your friends aren't exactly the best back-up."
"They're not coming with me," Chad replied. "I'm going alone. You hear me, Villa? Alone. I'm not risking losing him again. I'm gonna get my answers without your interference."
Chad hung up the phone before Parker could respond and sighed as he stepped toward his bag next to the bed and tossed his phone into it before sitting on the mattress and looking to the closed door.
"You can come in now, Nicky," he called and the door swung open as Nicky marched in before slamming it shut behind her. "Please, shut the door on your way in."
"I'm going with you," she snapped. "I'm not gonna sit here to be picked up by the cops so that we can follow you and hopefully find you alive."
"Nicky, I'm not taking Jared with me, either," he replied. "Neither one of you is coming with me."
"Why?" she demanded, marching toward him to stand in front of him as he stood as well. "I know you don't want us to get hurt, but we're past that now, don't you think? Even if you take off tomorrow morning without us, we'll just follow you like we did when you went to the airport."
"Without the address, you can't follow me," Chad smirked.
Nicky pursed her lips and shoved him back, making him laugh as he fell back onto the mattress and she glared down at him.
"I'm serious, Chad," she replied. "I don't care if Jared goes with you or not, but I'm going with you whether you like it or not."
"And I'm serious, Liza," he retorted, quickly standing again to loom over her as she stared at him with wide eyes at his tone. "You follow me, I'll lose you. It's for your own protection."
"What exactly are you supposed to be protecting me from, Chad?" she murmured, making him frown in wonder.
"What're you talkin' about, Nicky?"
"I'm talking about you pushing me away every chance you get," she replied, making his frown deepen. "It's like…you're protecting me from you, not Nemo."
Chad's frown slowly disappeared and he sighed as he sat back down on the edge of the bed. She sat next to him to lean her head on his shoulder as he didn't move.
"I'm gettin' dark, Nicky," he murmured. "And I'm getting way too comfortable with it, too. You saw how I was talking to him out there. It was like I'd been talking like that all my life. I'm afraid…I'm gonna be the one to hurt you, not Nemo."
He felt the weight of her head leave his shoulder as he stared at the floor, but he was soon looking at the wall at the head of the bed when his head suddenly whipped to the side, pain stinging his cheek. He slowly turned a burning glare to Nicky as she only stared back at him.
"What…the hell, Nicky?" he ground out.
"Hit me back, Chad, I dare you," she shot back.
"You know I'm not gonna do that. Why the hell did you slap me?"
She suddenly gave a small smile, making him frown in utter confusion as her tone softened when she explained, "To prove a point. You and Nemo are two different people. You're decent. You would never hurt anyone even if you were provoked. Nemo is a cold hearted killer. You're not. You would never hurt me and I know it. I just wish you'd realize it."
Nicky lifted a hand to run it through his hair, soothingly as their eyes met and she smiled, lifting her other hand to smooth it down his cheek.
"I'm sorry I slapped you," she murmured. "Telling you over and over wasn't getting to you. I had to get literal."
"Yeah, well, that literally hurt," he retorted, lifting a hand to rub his cheek as it still stung. She pouted in guilt before moving his hand and pressing a lingering kiss to his cheek and when she pulled away he gave her a sideways look. "Thanks. That even works for big kids, too."
Nicky couldn't help but giggle before leaning her head on his shoulder with a sigh and murmured, "I'm going with you. You know how stubborn I am. Middle-name me all you want, you're not gonna change my mind."
"Yeah," Chad sighed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Just wish you'd listen to me once in a while, ya know?"
"Maybe after we're married," she yawned, snuggling against him and he scoffed, nervously.
"Right," he smirked. "Married. Like you'd want my ugly mug for the rest of your life."
"Well, you make up for your looks with charm," she smiled and he smirked before spinning around and shoving her back onto the mattress, making her giggle as she looked up at him and he grinned down at her.
"You want some charm now?" he smirked, leaning toward her to press his mouth to her neck, leaving sloppy kisses over her skin and making her wrinkle her nose slightly as she laughed, softly.
"Not at the risk of being too tired to head out in the morning with you tomorrow," she laughed, pushing him away. "And you're drowning my skin! Control your spit!"
"I can't help it," he chuckled, keeping her pinned as he tried nibbling at her ear. "You make my mouth water."
"Ew! I'll admit, that's a good line, but stop drooling all over me, ya dog!"
They both gave soft chuckles as he pulled away and he smiled down at her as she wiped her neck and ear with her sleeve and he sighed, "Don't tell Jared you're coming with me, ok?"
Nicky gave a frown, asking, "You don't want him to come with us?"
"He's been quiet," Chad replied. "I think it's starting to get to him. I'm gonna tell Villa to try sending him back home. Hopefully Jared'll just leave and not put up a fight…like you do every time I ask you to do something."
"Want me to talk to him?" she asked. "He might respond better to a woman's touch."
"Whoa, wait a second," Chad retorted. "You're not touching him anywhere."
"I mean, he might find me less intimidating," Nicky corrected and Chad gave a smirk before nodding.
"Fine," he smiled. "Maybe he'll listen to you, too. 'Cause no one seems to listen to me."
"Oh, quit complaining," she muttered, pushing him off of her as they both sat up. "I'll go talk to him now, then."
"Fine," Chad sighed, watching her stand and head toward the door. "Then come back so we can have some fun before bed tonight."
"You're a dog," she sang, heading out the door and he smirked, leaning back on the bed.
Nicky shut the door behind her and sauntered toward Jared as he typed at his laptop. She sat next to him as he quickly closed it, making her frown in wonder as he sat back to watch the TV.
"Whatcha workin' on?" she smiled and he shrugged glancing at his laptop before turning back to the TV.
"Nothing," he replied, hesitantly. "Just an…email to my parents."
"Oh," she replied, nodding her head hugely. "Cool."
"Yeah," Jared muttered, glancing to the bedroom door. "Happy couple?"
"Yup," Nicky grinned with a huge nod before shifting to face him a little better. "We were talking and…we think it'd be better if you stay here when he heads out tomorrow."
Jared turned a frown to her in wonder, asking, "Chad doesn't want me to go?"
"He can tell it's starting to get to you," Nicky replied, s
etting a hand on his shoulder. "To be honest, I can kinda tell, too. You've been really quiet lately."
"Oh," Jared murmured. "Well…I've been taking it all in, I guess. But I don't think I'm…letting it get to me."
"Chad just wants to make sure," she smiled. "Why don't you sit this one out? You helped him out at the Gardens today, and that was pretty tiring."
"I was running after Chad," Jared smirked. "Of course it was tiring."
Nicky smiled and the two looked to the bedroom door when Chad stepped out and sighed, heading toward the phone for the room.
"I am ordering room service," he announced as he lifted the phone from the receiver and waving it between them to ask, "What do you guys want?"
"I think I'm going to bed," Nicky replied. "Nothing for me, thanks."
"Alright, fine," Chad sighed, dialing room service. "I'm gettin' a big, fat, juicy steak. What do you want, Jare?"
"Uh…just a burger, I guess," Jared shrugged. "I'm actually not that hungry either."
"I tell you what," Chad smirked, holding the phone to his ear. "We'll split the steak. How 'bout it?"
Jared only nodded before looking to his laptop and opening it to start typing at it again as Chad ordered their food. He glanced at Chad a few times when he thought he was looking at him and only when Chad hung up the phone after the order and headed toward the bedroom, telling the younger boy to help himself when room service came did Jared finally relax and type freely.
He doesn't want me to go with him.
That's fine. Just follow the detectives. Stall them. They'll follow Chad no matter what he told them to do.
Yes, Sir
* * *
Meanwhile at the Holiday...
"The kid's heading for trouble, you know that, right?" Kat questioned as she sat at the dining table in the hotel room, cleaning her standard issue nine millimeter handgun.
"I know," Parker nodded, as he sat on the couch, doing the same with his own gun on the low main room table. "That's why we're gonna follow him tomorrow and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."
"Like try to kill somebody else?" she shot back before blowing sharply down the barrel of her disemboweled pistol.
"He didn't kill his parents," he voiced, making Kat shoot a wide-eyed stare at him in disbelief, but he didn't look away from cleaning a piece of his gun with a small brush.
"What makes you say that?" she wondered, setting her things down on the table, unmoving.
"There were a couple of restricted calls made to the Stiles home a few days before the murders," Parker reported. "The calls were traced back to Seattle. It's not much, but it's something for Chad."
"They could've been wrong numbers," Kat pointed out, her shock subsided.
"Like I said, it's not much. But I don't believe in coincidence."
"You really like this kid, don't you?"
"He's a kid, Kat. A kid who loves his parents so much he wants to avenge their deaths and clear his name. Personally, I want answers, and he's too young to be part of this game. It's life or death here, and I think he knows that better than any of us right now…and that's the sad part."
CHAPTER 13
A loud ring made Chad's eyes shoot open and he frowned with a groan as he shut his eyes again, rolling over to reach for his phone on the nightstand. Rubbing his eyes, he squinted at the bright screen in the dark room, realizing he had a text with an address. He looked to the clock on the nightstand next to him.
6:30 am
Setting his phone down again, he sat up and shoved the shoulder next to him. A groan came from the figure lying next to him, loud and irritable.
"Nicky, wake up," he grumbled. "You wanted to come with me, right? Get your lazy ass up."
"Nice good morning, jack ass," Nicky muttered from under the covers before slowly sitting up as well, rubbing her eyes. "What address did he send you?"
"We'll find out when we get there," he replied, swinging his legs over the mattress to reach into his bag and pull out his wallet, looking through it. "I hope I have enough money for a cab."
"I've got some money," she assured him in a raw voice as she stood to head toward the bathroom.
"I just hope it's not too far," Chad muttered as he began to dress. "Meet me in the lobby when you're done primping, ok? You got ten minutes."
"How generous of you," she called before shutting the door and he smirked as he pulled on his pants.
* * *
Meanwhile...
Jared frowned in his sleep when he heard beeping coming from his phone. He sighed as he awoke, turning onto his side on the pull-out bed from the couch and rubbing his eyes. He sat up tiredly and glanced around the room before locating his phone and looking at it, not bothering with his glasses. A text message gave him the address Nemo had sent to Chad and the boy felt his heart clench.
Hearing the click of the bedroom door lock, he quickly rolled over to pretend he was still asleep just as Chad stepped out of the room and quietly shut the door behind him. The blonde glanced to the younger boy and smirked before quietly heading toward the elevator. Once Jared heard the doors closed he looked up and around the room before sitting up, throwing on his glasses and hurriedly getting out the bed to get dressed. He'd just pulled on his socks when he heard the knob on the bedroom door again.
He hurriedly climbed under the covers, lying down just in time for the door to open and Nicky peeked out of the door. She glanced around before tiptoeing out into the main room and toward the elevator, lifting her board next to the couch. She stopped just before going into the elevator, chewing on her lower lip as she glanced toward Jared in the bed. She wanted to tell him they were leaving, but Chad had told her not to. She hoped he'd make it up to him later.
Giving up on her thoughts she hurried into the elevator and once Jared heard the doors again he sat up and pulled his shoes on, quickly grabbing his laptop from the stand next to the couch and setting it on the mattress to open it and turn it on. He waited impatiently as it warmed up then opened his internet instant messaging.
Chad and Nicky just left.
Good. Follow them, at a distance. Keep the police off their tail. I'll text you with your next instructions.
Yes, Sir
Jared shut his laptop and hurriedly gathered his thing to head toward the elevator. Just as he reached it he frowned in wonder, noticing the numbered lights above the door indicated the elevator was heading up, toward him. He stepped back as it reached him and he stared wide eyes at it when the doors slid open.
"Jared," Parker nodded, stepping into the room, Kat right behind him. He passed the boy, looking around the room before he turned back to Jared. "Where's Chad?"
"You…just missed him," Jared replied, hesitantly. "He just left with Nicky."
"How long ago?" Kat demanded, coming up next to him, making Jared glance between the two detectives before looking back at Kat.
"I dunno," he shrugged. "Maybe ten minutes ago?"
"Do you know where he went?" Parker asked, stepping closer to the two.
Jared swallowed before shaking his head, lying, "No. I think he got that text from Nemo and took off to find him."
Parker nodded then waved them toward the elevator as he headed toward it, calling, "Come on you two. We've gotta find him."
* * *
Meanwhile...
"You sure this is where you two wanna be?" the cabby asked, his taxi stopped in a seedy part of town in front of an abandoned warehouse.
"Yeah," Chad replied, staring out the window at the warehouse before he and Nicky rummaged through their pockets for the cab fare so Chad could hand it to him. "Thanks, buddy."
"Look, this may not be any of my business, but I feel like I should warn you two anyway," the cabby began, taking the money as he turned to look at the teens through the divider window and they looked up at him in wonder. "I've heard that a lot of bad things have happened around here. Especially in that warehouse. I don't usually do this, but you kids look like you're not from around
here. If you want, I can stay out here and wait for you. If anything goes wrong—"
"Thanks for the offer, but we'll be alright," Chad cut in, shooing Nicky to head out of the cab with a wave of his hand. "Thanks for the warning too, bud. We'll be safe, I promise."
The man nodded, hesitantly as Chad patted his shoulder and climbed out of the cab to stand with Nicky as the cab drove away and she looked at him with a slight glare.
"You lied to him," she muttered as Chad pulled his phone from his pocket. "We don't know if we're gonna be fine, and we're not being safe by being here in the first place."
"You wanted to come," he retorted, examining the address on his phone and looking around.
"Only because I didn't want you to do anything stupid, like run after him again," she ground out, following him as he stepped around the warehouse, looking for the door. "Now I'm realizing this whole mess is stupid!"
"You can always go back to the hotel," he replied, not looking at her.
"Yeah, right," she scoffed, looking around to see if anyone was watching as Chad found a door and tried to pull it open. "What if those two detectives find us?"
"I didn't send anything to Villa," Chad replied, jiggling the handle on the door before examining it. "He doesn't know where we are or if we left."
"He wouldn't be much of a detective if he couldn't find us, Chad," Nicky retorted. "Besides, he found us once, he could find us again."
Nicky jumped when Chad kicked in the door, making her shoot a wide-eyed stare at him and he held his hand out for her to take. She hesitated before gripping his hand and they stepped through the door and into the dark warehouse, cautiously. Chad glanced around the dark room, not blaming Nicky for the death grip she had on his hand as they stepped deeper into the warehouse.
"Chad," she breathed, making him look at her, but she only stared ahead. "What's that?"
He followed her gaze and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he noticed a chair in the center of the huge deserted room, something on the seat. His grip tightened a bit on her hand as they stepped together toward the chair. It seemed ages when they finally reached it, and they finally got a clear look at the unknown object on the chair. He reached for it, but Nicky tugged on his hand, making him hesitate and glance at her. She shook her head when he looked at her, but when he looked away, he reached for it again, realizing it was a recorder of some kind. Chad swallowed, lifting the recorder and hitting play with a shaky hand.