***** DISCLAIMER: This isn't real. Joey and myself don't know if anyone from BSB is gay, so don't sue us. If you don't like gay stories, why are you here?
As always, thanks to Joey for putting up with me! You rock, girl. Apologies for the lateness of this. Blame in on winter blahs, illness, being insane... well, anyway. Enjoy! **********
Chapter 9-- Lies & Deception
"What have you got for me, Justin?" Howie asked his dinner companion. Justin sighed.
"AJ's covered his tracks well, D. I couldn't find anything." Howie's heart sank until he noticed the evil look on Justin's face.
"But something tells me that isn't bad news."
"Well, you and I both know that AJ hasn't exactly been Mr. Innocent recently, and to find nothing whatsoever on him really bugged me. So I decided to talk to some people. Some people with very large baseball bats. And I found something."
"What?"
"Seems Mr. McLean has a police record in Montana."
"He has a what?"
"A police record. Under another name, of course. But I saw the pictures, and it is definately AJ."
"What's he charged with?"
"Murder in the first degree."
"Brian?" Kevin's shattered voice sounded in the darkness of the hotel room.
"What, Kev?"
"Is Nick... is he happy with AJ? Does AJ treat him well?" Brian paused. Did he really want to lie to Kevin and hurt him even more? Or did he want to distract Kevin by telling the truth? Brian felt like he was caught between a rock and a hard place.
"I don't know, Kev," Brian finally said. "Nick seems happy enough." Kevin seemed satisfied with that answer and put his head back on his pillow.
"As long as he's happy, what does it matter what I feel?" Kevin said softly. Brian immediately grew angry.
"Stop thinking like that! YOUR happiness is what's important here, Kevin. Not Nick's. Not AJ's. Start thinking about yourself for a change!"
"I don't know how."
"Then learn. Because if you keep thinking like that, you're going to destroy yourself."
"How can I take away someone's happiness?" Kevin shot back. "I'm not that cruel, Brian. Especially not to the man I love."
"He did," Brian muttered under his breath.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing, Kevin. Just... we'll talk about this in the morning, OK? Get some sleep." Kevin nodded and closed his eyes, falling into a tense slumber. Brian sighed and quietly left the room, almost running into Howie as the shorter man got back from his meeting with Justin.
"How is he?" Howie asked.
"Broken. I'm going to fucking kill AJ for doing this to Kevin. But what did Justin have to say?"
"Some very interesting things, actually," Howie said with a smile. "Seems AJ isn't as innocent as he likes to pretend to be." And Howie proceeded to fill Brian in on everything Justin had told him about AJ's dark past. When he was finished, Brian let out a whistle.
"Heavy stuff," he said. "What are we going to do with this?" Howie shook his head and sighed.
"I have no idea, Bri. I mean, AJ's wanted for MURDER. I'm tempted to just turn him in right now, but that would destroy Nick. And that would drive Kevin even further away. We'd probably lose them both."
"And we can't let that happen," Brian agreed. "But... murder. Wow." Screams suddenly broke the silence that had enveloped the friends and Brian closed his eyes in frustration before running to Kevin's room where he found his cousin shaking in fear.
"Bri?" Kevin gasped.
"I'm here," Brian soothed. "It was just a nightmare, Kevy. Just a nightmare."
"No, it wasn't. It happened. I... I dreamed that Nick left me. And it HAPPENED!" Kevin broke down in tears for what must have been the hundredth time that day. And for the hundredth time that day, Brian vowed to kill AJ for causing his cousin and best friend this pain.
"Just you wait, McLean," Brian hissed mentally. "You WILL go down."