A/N- New chapter not many reviews on last so I am not sure if I lost people but it will pick up with this chapter, I promise. Oh and I don't have a Beta so sorry for any errors. I try to reread all chapters again before reposting to catch any. Thanks and do please review! I'd really like to know if others besides my couple of faithful reviewers are enjoying this at all since it my first sort of AU story.
Nick had mentally prepared himself ahead of time to see Greg. He knew that his priority tonight had to be busting the dealer and then once he was taken care of he could talk to Greg and try to get him to go to rehab. When he got to the door and saw Greg's appearance again looking so skinny and overall unwell he wanted to say something but he could see Greg almost watching him, like he was waiting for him to say something about his appearance. He chickened out and didn't say anything and just got down to business. He went with Greg and walked to the club knowing it was not far from the motel. Greg had walked home the other night too he remembered. Greg seemed to have a little boost in his step as he walked to the club. Nick wondered if he was high again. He sighed and reminded himself it was not about Greg tonight, but he had questions.
"How long have you been back in Vegas?" Nick asked him as they walked down the alleyway. Greg shrugged slowly. "Um, I dunno, ten months I guess." His steps seemed to slow down as they got closer to the club.
"How long have you been getting high?" He ventured in asking him. Greg stopped and then turned around. "If you are going to start being a dick about this then I'm not taking you anywhere. You can score on your own."
Nick shook his head. He wondered what happened to Greg that made him become the way he was. But it would have to wait he didn't need to lose this lead now. He was already wired up and ready to turn it on when he had to. He wasn't going to let Greg get busted though. He wanted to give him a chance first. "Sorry. Just take me to this Gus."
"You're going to keep me out of this like you promised right. I didn't know you're a cop, right?" Greg asked him nervously as he scratched at his arm.
"Right, you didn't know I was a cop. We met at the club if he asks questions on how I found out about him." Nick said to him.
"We met at Rocco's Palace…that is believable." Greg told him and turned around and continued walking to the club, hoping Nick didn't know what really went on at Rocco's Palace. But Nick did. He knew it was another place that often was frequented by drug dealers and users. But he also heard about a whore house being run from the 2nd floor. He again thought of what Candy told him, that Greg offered his services for the drugs. He knew what she meant by services but he just couldn't believe that Greg was selling himself.
"Did we meet on the first floor or second floor of Rocco's?" Nick suddenly asked him causing Greg to stop. He heard Greg sigh. "Whatever floor you think we met on," he said in quiet reply and then waited a beat until he walked again.
Nick got the message loud and clear. He was one of the male escorts he had heard about there. He suddenly just wanted to grab Greg and take him away from this seedy underworld of drugs and prostitution and find out why he became this way. He almost did just that but then Greg advised him they were at the club and he realized he had to go through with his original plan.
Greg looked at him and pointed to the entrance. "I'm going in first and going to sit at the bar. You come in a little after me, okay? I'll point him out to you and you take it from there. I am out of here then." Nick just nodded. He watched Greg turn around and enter through the door. He noticed his walk had lost the bounce it first had as they left the motel.
Greg sat at the bar and ordered a shot of vodka. He downed it before Nick even came in. He looked around for Gus and spotted him talking to some clients in the corner. When Nick entered he looked at him and motioned towards the back corner. Nick looked and saw a skinny dude with super curly hair and sunglasses on in the dark club chatting it up with some ladies.
He watched as Greg left the bar and headed onto the dance floor. He watched him briefly as he sided up to a young woman who he proceeded to say something to that made her laugh. Then Greg smiled. Wow, Nick forgot how great his smile was, even with his hygiene not as great as it was before he still looked gorgeous when he smiled. Greg pulled the girl back with him into another area of the club, out of Nick's sight. That was okay for Nick now; he had to focus on Gus. He walked over to the corner where Gus was. Gus looked up at him and asked what he wanted.
"I heard you could hook me up with some smack," Nick said, using the street name again for the heroin. Gus looked at the two women and nodded. They both suddenly disappeared. Nick sat down and got closer to the man.
"So where did you hear about me?" Gus asked him. "One of Rocco's people told me about you," Nick told him, deciding to not say who if possible. Nick made an act of looking jittery and nervous like he needed a hit.
"Ahh, Rocco's people. Yes they all use me. Are you one of the new escorts?" Gus asked him. Nick just nodded and then got anxious. He had the mic on but the music was pretty loud and he was not sure it would pick up everything.
"So do you have any or not?" He asked the man impatiently.
Luckily Gus seemed to be the type to use the product also. Hopefully once he was busted they could question him on his source and bust the whole ring. "Chill man, I got stuff. I need to see cash first unless you are willing to offer up your services," Gus grinned, eyeing up the Texan.
Nick quickly answered. "I got the money." He took out $50 and placed it in the dealer's hand. Gus whistled low. "You really need a hit don't you? Well, give me a second." He held up the money to the light to check to make sure it was legit. Then he dug into his jacket pocket and handed him three baggies of brown powdered heroin.
"Thank you," Nick smiled as he took it from the dealer. He got up and made his way to a more quiet area where he called in to his buddies and told them the bust was on. They would wait until Gus left and then grab him. Nick walked around the club and looked for Greg but didn't see him or the girl he was with anywhere. He wondered if he went back to his motel room. He would check on him after the bust was done. For now he waited around in the club to give the others the heads up when he saw Gus leave.
The second Gus walked out the door uniformed officers surrounded him and took him in for drug possession and dealing. Nick's transaction was recorded and Gus still had the marked money and other packets of heroin on him. His goose was cooked. Nick felt good knowing that Greg's source was gone now, but he knew that Greg probably knew of another or he would not have given up on Gus so easily. Perhaps he gave up Gus because of the way he made him pay for the drugs.
In any case, his next mission was to get to Greg and get him into rehab, whether he liked it or not.
Greg had seen one of Gus' regulars in the club after he told Nick where to go and decided it was time to start selling his stuff. He told the girl he had better stuff than Gus offered and that it would blow her mind. She walked out with him to the restroom area and went into a bathroom stall with him. He gave her a hit of his own baggie and she was sold on it once she felt the high. She gave him $80 to start with. She promised to pass on the word that he had better stuff than Gus ever had. He told her he would be selling it down at Rocco's for now.
And he kept his word. He went back to the motel and got his Beetle and drove over to Rocco's Palace. He hit up some of his fellow escorts and told them this shit was the bomb and then offered them to test it on their clients too. He hoped if they got word of the top quality stuff they would want some more from him.
After a couple hours of peddling the smack, he went back to his motel. He opened his door and shut it. He walked into the room feeling burnt out. His body was like jelly again and he was tired. He walked to the bathroom when suddenly a shadow came out from it. He stepped back and suddenly felt arms grab his and pull them behind him. The other man stepped out of the shadows and Greg recognized him. It was Nelson.
"You sold out Gus to the cops. Mr. Larson is not pleased. He wanted you just to get rid of the competition by selling the better product but not by turning the cops on to the action at the club. Now we have to make sure you understand you can't sell us out," Nelson said to him. Greg eyes bugged when he saw the brass knuckles on Nelson's fist.
"No please I won't sell Mr. Larson out. I promise. Please don't," Greg pleaded but his pleas were useless. Nelson had his orders. The brass knuckles came hard across Greg's left cheek, the pain burning as he felt the bones crack. His teeth knocked against each other. He could taste the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. The next punch was to his stomach. He felt the air rush out of him as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground. Another hit to the stomach had him gasping for air. The final punch to the head knocked him into blackness.
Nick was finally finished at the office by 10 am the next morning. He decided to check on Greg to see if he could talk to him. He knocked on his door at the motel but there was no answer. He saw his Beetle out front and knew he was probably sleeping seeing as he had probably been out all night too. He knocked again and called his name. He decided to try the door handle and was surprised when the door opened. He stepped inside the dark room and looked at the bed and didn't see Greg in it. He found a light switch and turned it on. And then he saw him. He gasped and ran over to where Greg laid, his face all bloodied. He felt for a pulse and got a weak one. He called 911 to get the paramedics.
He looked closer at Greg and could see his cheek was already black and blue and super puffy. Someone had given him a good working over. Blood also was clotted in his hair. He felt guilty suddenly feeling that this was his fault for making Greg turn on Gus. Someone had to have found out and took it out on Greg.
He waited for the paramedics and followed them to the hospital. He prayed he would be okay.
He sat in the waiting room in the ER for over two hours before a male doctor finally approached him. "Are you Detective Stokes?" the doctor asked him. Nick nodded. "The man you brought in, Greg Sanders is in a room now. We examined him thoroughly and he's not in good health. His cheekbone is fractured but isn't too bad to require surgery. He has various bruised and cracked ribs. He also has a concussion. But my biggest concern is the obvious needle injection marks from heavy drug use. His breathing is already affected by the usage. It is very shallow. He is underweight by at least 30 pounds. If he keeps going on with the current drug usage I am afraid you will be seeing him in the morgue one day soon."
Hearing the doctor tell Nick that made him realize Greg was far worse off than he ever imagined. "Can you tell how long he has been using?"
The doctor shook his head. "Not right now, we would have to run more tests but it looks like it's been several months. He has needle tracks on both arms and some are weeks old. He needs help. I can recommend a treatment center that is good for someone as heavy of a user as he is." The doctor pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to Nick. Nick looked down at it and of course had heard of it. Desert Oasis was well known in Vegas as being the best drug treatment facility in Vegas. They had areas for the serious addicts and then the ones just starting. But he knew with Heroin addicts getting them clean sometimes meant taking other prescribed drugs to get them off the addiction to the worse drug, heroin.
The doctor told Nick what room he was in and he could see him if he wanted to but he was still unconscious. He told him he didn't expect him to be out too much longer and when he woke up he might have the affects with withdraw and that they had to keep his pain killers to basic stuff, since the morphine and other drugs could affect his nervous system.
Nick rubbed his hands over his face. He couldn't believe how one person he thought he knew so well could fall so far.
He suddenly wondered if Greg's parents knew about his drug use. He got out his cell phone and got online and looked up their phone number in California. He didn't see them listed. He thought that was odd. He shrugged and put his phone away. He decided to go to see Greg.
He went up a floor and went to the room he was in. He walked up to the door and looked in. He thought how small he looked lying in that bed. He came inside and took a closer look at him. They had a bandage on the side of his head and a large piece of gauze on his left cheek. Both of his eyes were surrounded by purple bruising as was the whole left side of his face pretty much. He was hardly recognizable. It reminded him too much of the incident which ended up making Greg leave Las Vegas and him in the first place; his beating from the gang of teens. But this time Nick felt responsible for his beating. He already knew that there no one saw anything. His partner had already followed up with him after he called in about Greg being beaten. Jack had gone to the motel with a CSI and searched his room and found no evidence of who might have beat him up and no one in the surrounding rooms saw a thing either.
"Greg, what happened to you that made you become this person that you are now?" he asked aloud, knowing Greg was still unconscious. He sat back in the chair and just watched the slow rise and fall of his former lovers' chest hoping he would get an answer soon before it was too late to save him.