His bandmates were just as worried about him as they were for Melissa. They all stood back and watched their friend writhe in agony. They all stayed as close to JC as possible, to try to be of some comfort or help, but none of their efforts seemed to help at all.
"Jace, man are you hungry or something?" Justin asked, as he grabbed a bag of food that Joey had just brought in from McDonald's. JC just shook his head slowly as he stared blankly at the TV screen. Justin sighed and played with his food instead of eating it, then sat down, quickly losing his appetite.
Chris watched on, and decided to try to get JC to respond to them. If ANYONE could do it, Chris could. "Hey JC, you better eat some of this food! Otherwise Joey's gonna eat it all, then he's gonna get fatter! And we ALL don't want that, now do we?" Chris cracked as Joey glared at him.
JC finally looked up from the TV and looked at Chris blankly. "That is the LAST damn thing on my mind right now!!" JC growled. "Hey come on, ease up. You know we're only trying to help you!" "Well STOP trying to help me!! MELISSA is the one that needs our help! NOT ME!!!" JC yelled in anger and frustration.
Chris sighed and sat JC down, then sat down beside him. They had all asked JC questions about what happened and had tried to narrow down the possibilities of where Brian might have taken Melissa. But oddly enough, Brian was very clever with what he had done, and virtually left no trace of where they had gone, leaving JC and the rest of the guys, not to mention the Orlando Police Department, clueless.
But Chris was determined to try one more time, for at least JC's sake. Hopefully they had overlooked something that would help them find Melissa, before it was too late. Chris sighed and racked his brain for things that he hadn't already asked JC. "Okay, um, did Melissa ever mention any kind of secluded place that Brian had taken her before?"
JC sighed hard and shook his head slowly, "She never talked about Brian around me. She said that she'd rather forget that part of her life, and never look back on it again." Chris nodded and started thinking again, while Justin stepped in.
"Have any of you called the phone company to see if they have any phone numbers registered under Brian for his cell phone? Cause if they do, and it matches the number that called here, can't it be traced or something?"
JC, Chris, Joey and Lance all looked up at Justin quickly with wide eyes. Justin looked at all of them funny. "What? I was just asking! If it's stupid, I'm sorry!" Justin defended.
JC didn't answer him, he only jumped up and dived for the phone.
* * * * *
Brian got up and walked over to Melissa, who had her head leaned back against the wall and her eyes closed in exhuastion. She was weak, tired and hungry, with barely enough strength to speak. She had dried blood crusted to her cheeks and lips from where Brian had smacked her with his gun the previous day. She had snapped and lost her temper, and proceeded to verbally bash him. Brian retorted by smacking her with the side of his gun across her face.
"Looks like your little pretty boy isn't gonna come and save you!" Brian grinned, running his fingers through her matted blonde hair. Melissa exhaled deeply and slowly opened her eyes. "Aw, what's wrong?" Brian smirked, patting her on the head. Melissa sighed hard and let a few tears trickle down her blood stained face as she stared at the wall.
Just then, Nick and Kevin barged into the warehouse. "Well, the cops stopped asking us questions! Looks like we're in the clear!" Kevin commented, as he took a drink of water.
Melissa looked at him in alarm as thoughts started racing through her head. 'Why have the cops stopped asking them questions? Have they just given up? Where is JC? Has HE given up??'
"Yeah, I heard one of the cops talking, and they are closing the case! They can't find any evidence or anything, so they're classifying it as a random kidnapping," Nick said triumphantly.
"Did ya hear that Melissa? You're no longer Melissa Morgan, the 23 year-old pediatric nurse, you're NOW Melissa Morgan, the mere statistic," Brian grinned.
Melissa sniffed and sighed hard as she sunk down further into her chair. She was certain that JC would help her. She knew he would find out what happened and then get her out of this mess. But how could the cops so easily mark her off as being randomly kidnapped?
"Well, since we're in the clear, I think it's time we finished the job," Brian said, as he started untying Melissa.
* * * * *
JC slammed the phone down and got up quickly grabbing his keys. "Jace? What's going on?? What did they tell you?" Joey questioned. "They traced it! I KNOW where they are!" JC answered, as he raced out the door. Chris ran out after him and grabbed his arm to stop him, "JC, don't do this! Just call the cops and let them handle it!"
JC jerked his arm away from Chris and whirled around to face him as he gritted his teeth together. "I am NOT gonna sit back and wait on those cops to do something! They've waited long enough so now I'm taking matters into my OWN hands!!" JC stopped as he looked at Chris then at the rest of the guys, who were watching from the doorway. "Help me if you want. But if you don't, stay the hell back," JC hissed, as he jumped into his car.
Chris turned to look at the rest of the guys, then looked back at JC, before jumping into his own car, with the rest of the guys closely following.
* * * * *
Brian had tied Melissa back up once he got her standing. And with the help of Nick and Kevin, had blindfolded her an started dragging her back out to the car. Melissa wiggled and squirmed in fear, trying to get away from them. "Damn it Melissa, give it up! You're not getting away and you know that! So why don't you just be a good little girl and cooperate??" Nick chuckled, as he opened the back door for Brian. Kevin laughed and was about to comment, until he heard sets of squealing tires approaching.
"What the hell is that??" Brian asked, as he looked over, then spotted two cars approaching at a very fast speed. "Shit!! It's those losers! How in the HELL did they find us?!" Brian yelled in anger.
Melissa heard those words, and although she couldn't see anything, she KNEW it was JC and the rest of the guys. She wiggled and squirmed around violently trying to break free again, but Brian tightened his grip on her. He tossed her into the backseat with Nick as Kevin jumped into the passenger seat and started the car for Brian.
Brian opened up the driver's side door then pulled his gun out of his pocket. He aimed and shot one of JC's tires, then lifted the gun up and fired a bullet through his windshield before jumping in the car and taking off.
Fourteen