Title: Hide In Plain Sight 17/20
Author: Red (redfirewitch@yahoo.com)
Note: Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the delay. I know I promised to finish this story by Jan 8. Unfortunately I got myself into a little mess. Anyway, it's confirmed that the story going to have a total of 20 chapters.
Dedication: I was unsure about this chapter but someone told me it was "...NO WAY IN HELL BORING". Thank you! I owe you smut!
** Chapter 17: The Alliance
His head hurt like a bitch. No. His head hurt like a bitch with PMS.
That was the first thing JC noticed as he opened his eyes. He reached up to touch the side of his head and hissed in pain. He could feel the sticky moisture of blood matting his hair. He could smell it. He felt a little nauseous and closed his eyes to let it pass.
"So sleeping beauty's finally awake."
JC opened his eyes again and looked around to find the source of the voice. There, standing against the opposite wall, was Phillip Rondall, smoking a cigarette and smirking.
/He should be dead. I had him right where I wanted. Then how...?/
It came to JC in a flash. The sound behind him. Turning to see. The wrench heading for him and...Matt. JC looked around for the other man.
"He's awake?" Matt asked, standing up from where he had sitting out of direct sight.
It was him. No mistake about it. Justin's boyfriend, the man who Justin trusted with his heart and body, the man who he himself had trusted enough to let Justin be with, was standing there beside Phillip.
"Matt." JC said. "You bastard."
"Nice to see you too, JC." Matt smirked.
"How......why......"' JC said, finding it hard to talk because his throat felt so dry.
Phillip picked up a glass of water from the nearby table as he came to kneel beside JC. JC scrambled as much as he could away from him. Phillip just smiled as he ran the back of his fingers along JC's cheek and brought the glass to JC's lips. JC flinched away and winced when his head hurt in response. Phillip grinned.
"I must say I'm impressed, Joshy boy. You had me by the balls for a second. You actually managed to find me. Now how did you do that, hmmm?" Phillip asked, drawling speculatively.
JC just kept silent.
Phillip laughed. "That's ok. You don't have to tell me. I can guess. Probably followed me from Marty's eh?"
"Shit Phillip! Marty's!? How did he know.......wait! The letter? I knew that was a mistake! Mentioning that place in the letters! You said he wouldn't know where it was!" Matt shouted.
"Don't get your panties in a twist, Vance. Maybe Liam mentioned the place to him. How was I to know?"
Matt glowered at Phillip. "Phillip, you damn near screwed everything up!" Matt shouted.
"I would keep the attitude down, Vance." Phillip said, his voice cold.
Matt swallowed in fear and fell silent. Something which JC didn't miss. Phillip turned his attention back to JC and began to run a finger along JC's jawline.
"It's good that he followed me here. Your plan would have taken much longer for me to get what I want. This worked out well."
"The hell it did. The cops are out looking for him. God knows who saw him around here!" Matt argued.
"Which is why we are moving out of here."
JC, who had been trying his best not to puke at the closeness of Phillip to him, tensed slightly at that bit of information.
"What? Move him? How? Where?" Matt asked.
"I have a place in mind. You didn't think I was going to stay in this shit hole for long, did you?" Phillip said standing up.
"I don't like this, Phillip. That wasn't the plan." Matt said.
JC glared at Matt. "What was the plan, Matt? Get yourself involved in six feet of crap? Because that's exactly what you're in partnership with!"
Phillip laughed. "You don't have a very good opinion of me, do you Joshy boy? I'm so hurt."
"Pass me the gun. I'll put you out of your misery." JC, said in a venom-laced voice.
Phillip laughed that annoying laughter of his again. "Quite the mouth on you, boy. Can't wait to try it out." His eyes flashed malevolently.
Once again, JC had to fight his nausea. "I'm going to kill you, Phillip. And this time you're going to stay dead."
The smile on Phillip's face disappeared as he rubbed his chest, remembering his bullet wound. "You're not in a position to make threats, boy. I'm still pissed at you for shooting me the first time. Don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm going to forget that easily."
"Is that what's this is about? Revenge?" JC spat out.
"Contrary to what you believe, I never intended to look for you. I was happy enough to get away from the cops. As cute as you are, I wouldn't have wasted my time coming after you if it wasn't for the fact that your 'friend' here had tracked me down." Phillip said.
JC looked at Matt is shock. All this while, he though that Phillip had threatened Matt into helping him. "You......you looked for him? How did you know about him?" JC whispered in shock.
Matt smirked. "I'm a reporter, JC. A good one at that. That's what I do. Dig up secrets. I always knew that you weren't as clean as you love to make yourself out to be. Justin bought it though, didn't he? Bought that whole, sweet, boy next door, 'Josh is perfect' shit. But I knew better. By sheer luck while I was talking to a cop friend of mine from Maryland, I found out that your name was mentioned in some police files in relations to some drug bust. I looked it up. The police files stated you as Liam's friend. But I suspected that it was more than that because you are such a slut!" Matt spat.
"I wanted to find out more so I dug deeper. I wanted to find out more about Phillip. I wanted to destroy you using him and I got a break when some of my contacts came through." Matt said, with a smug smile.
Phillip took another drag on his cigarette "Got to hand it to Vance. I thought I was in the clear. I got away to Mexico but he managed to track me down. I got wind of someone looking for me. Vance got a little too close for my comfort so I came looking for him to finish him off. Better to be the predator than the prey. Well maybe not in your case, eh Joshy boy?" Phillip said and laughed.
Matt looked slightly peeved at the mention of Phillip wanting to kill him. "I made a deal with him instead. I offered him money if he would help me get rid of you! All he had to do was provide me with the details of Liam's death and make those phone calls. I wrote the letters. I wanted to make you live in fear. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before you broke down! Then everything would be ok. The phone calls would stop. The letters would stop. And ypu would be in an asylum somewhere. But you couldn't do that could you? You had to come here and make everything harder."
"You wrote the letters?" JC asked in disbelief. Those letters had been the worse. The nightmares were fuel by the cruel words, blaming him for Liam's death. Telling him that he was better off dead. Telling him that he would only hurt the people around him if he was alive.
"Yeah. Did you like them?" Matt asked, smirking.
"Why did you threaten Justin?" JC asked, remembering the first letter.
"I had to make it more believable. I had to make you think it was Phillip all along. And I knew that the thought that your precious group might be in danger because of you would hurt you even more."
JC couldn't understand Matt hatred for him. He shook his head in confusion. "Why Matt! What did I ever do to you?"
Matt lost his smirk and looked at JC as if he had asked the most inane question. "YOU TOOK JUSTIN AWAY FROM ME! THAT'S WHAT YOU DID TO ME!"
"WHAT!?" JC wondered if Matt had lost it. "Justin loves you! He only sees me as his friend!" JC said, hating having to even admit the words to himself.
"You have no idea do you?" Matt laughed harshly. "He's been in love with you even before he even met me!"
JC looked at Matt as if he was crazy. "My god! Do you actually believe that? Are you that far gone?"
Suddenly Matt was kneeling in front of him, grabbing him by his collar and shaking him hard. "DON'T PATRONIZE ME, JC!" He glowered murderously at JC. "I'm not stupid! I tried! I tried so hard! I tried to convince myself that I was wrong but it's fucking obvious! No matter what I did, he always put you first! I would travel miles to come see him and I couldn't spend one hour alone with him because 'Josh wanted to check out that club' or 'Josh asked if we wanted to have a game of b-ball' or 'The other guys are at a club. Josh's been feeling a little down and I don't want him to be alone!' Josh this! Josh that! Josh Josh fucking Josh! I love him so much but it doesn't matter to him because if you need him, he'll run to you! And you milked that!"
JC couldn't believe what he was hearing. He just knew that Matt was wrong. If Justin did love him, why didn't he tell him? "You're wrong. You're so wrong." JC said in a daze.
Matt snorted and stood up. "Doesn't matter. Not any more. Because you're no longer going to be a problem." Matt said with an almost unearthly calm. "Kill him, Phillip. Don' t waste any more time."
JC was taken aback by the coldness of the words.
Phillip smirked. "In due time. I haven't had my touching reunion with Joshy boy."
JC tired to ignore the leer in Phillip's gaze.
"But first you're going to help me move him some where."
Matt frowned but didn't argue. "Fine."
"Stay with him. I'm going to bring the van to the back." Phillip said.
He started to head for the door, then turned back. "Oh right. Better safe than sorry as ass. I'm not going to underestimate you again, Joshy boy."
Phillip produced a thin black wire from within a drawer. He then knelt beside JC and pulled him forward. JC didn't even struggle because every movement was hurting his head so much that everything he saw became blur. Phillip pulled JC's arms backwards and secured both his wrists with the wire. Tightly. He then pushed JC back against the wall, and pressed his mouth to JC's. The younger man jolted violently and pulled away but was hampered by the wall behind him. The pain in his head was intense but that didn't stop him from spitting at Phillip. Phillip sneered and wiped away the spit from his face.
Standing up, he said, "Very soon, Joshy boy." With that, he stormed out off the apartment with Matt guarding JC.
Matt laughed. "He's got it bad for you. Isn't that sweet?"
JC glared at Matt with tears in his eyes. "Fuck you."
"Well apparently you're the one who's going to get fucked." Matt said, venomously. "I'm glad I'm not you. The son of a bitch is one mean bastard."
JC then remembered that Matt was afraid of Phillip. He put aside his own fears at the moment and decided to try to do something to get out of here. And at the moment, the only possible way was through Matt. He had to give it a shot. "Matt, don't do this. Please."
Matt looked at him in surprise and laughed. "It's already done, JC."
"You can still make things right. Justin doesn't love me. He himself told me. You made a mistake!"
Matt snorted. "Justin told you he didn't love you? You two are so screwed up that I pity you. Then again maybe Justin is screwed up because of you. But I'm saving him from you. Once you're gone, he will realize that I'm the only one for him. Once you're gone, NSYNC will be over and I can get Justin all to myself."
"If you believe that, you're more demented than I thought." JC laughed humorlessly. "NSYNC will go on and even if it doesn't, you can never take Justin away from music. It will always be a part of him."
"Oh keep your 'music in the soul' crap to yourself. Do you really think he can go back into a studio without thinking about you?"
JC repeated his mantra again. "He's NOT in love with me!"
Matt fell silent. "Ok."
JC looked at him surprise.
"But I still want you dead."
JC slumped in defeat. "You're going to destroy Justin when he finds out what you did, Matt."
"If he finds out."
JC looked at Matt. "You stupid bastard! Do you really think that once I'm dead, everything is going to be over? You're in partnership with a piece of shit! This is never going to be over until one of you is dead!"
For the first time, Matt looked a little unsure. "Shut up! I know what I'm doing. I just pay Phillip off and he's going to flee to Mexico. He knows I can easily turn him in."
"And he knows that you won't because you have got more to lose than him if he tells the cops what you did!"
Matt was silent.
"You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, Matt. You really think he's going to keep him word? He's going to blackmail you for the rest of your life!"
Matt was still silent. Encouraged by this, JC pushed once more.
"But if you let me go now, we can put him behind bars. Forever. On kidnapping charges."
Matt was silent as if in thought and for a moment, JC let himself hope.
"Nice try, JC but no go." Matt said with a pleased smile.
JC closed his eyes and shook his head. "You stupid bastard!" he hissed.
The door suddenly swung open again, startling them both. Phillip walked in. "All right. Let's get this show on the road."
In his hands was a huge burlap sack. JC knew that they intended to dump him in there and carry into the van. He began to move away in fear. Matt grabbed JC and stopped his struggles.
Phillip knelt down beside them. "Lay still. This won't hurt a bit." Phillip said and covered JC's nose with a cloth drenched with chloroform.
The smell hit JC's senses and soon he found himself losing consciousness.
** tbc...