CHAPTER 25

A moan escaped from Hutch's lips as he regained consciousness. His head throbbed, the muscles in his neck and shoulders feeling strained. As he carefully opened his eyes, he became more aware of his surroundings. He was in a large open room, apparently a warehouse of some sort from the looks of it. He was sitting in a hard wooden chair with his feet and hands tired securely. He glanced around but he appeared to be alone. He pulled at the ropes that bound him but they were tired too tightly. The rough hemp rubbed at the tender skin on his wrists as he tried to free himself scraping away the skin and making it bleed.

"Nicky, you little prick…" he muttered under his breath "What the hell have you gotten into this time?"

Hutch remembered getting blindsided when he walked into the Starsky home after his jog and he knew that Nicky was behind it. Every cop instinct he had was telling him that Nick Starsky was more involved in whatever was going on then anyone had suspected. Hutch made a silent vow that he would personally make Nick Starsky pay if he had anything to do with what had happened to his brother.

Hutch gathered his thoughts. He was getting too close, asking too many questions, stepping on too many toes. Even if he found out the information he needed to free his partner and clear his name, Hutch had no doubt that he would never live long enough to put that information to use. He was in strange city, thousands of miles away from home. Out of his own jurisdiction without any backup. And by the time Captain Dobey or anyone back home got suspicious of his whereabouts, it would be too late. Here in New York, he had no allies except for Rachel Starsky and there wasn't much she could do to help him. Hutch resigned himself to his probable fate. His only regret was that he would never get the chance to say goodbye to his best friend and partner.

Hutch squirmed in his chair. His body was telling him that he had been captive long enough that his full bladder was demanding attention. He wondered how much longer it would be before his captors decided to show themselves. He tried to ignore his discomfort as he resigned himself to waiting. The interior of the warehouse was drafty and cold. Hutch wondered if the building was close to the pier or the river. He listened but couldn't hear any outside noises to help him determine his exact location.

A shuffling sound in the darkness to his left caught Hutch's attention. As he turned his head, a smiling Nicky stepped out of the shadows. He strutted over to stand in front of Hutch and sneered,

"Not so cocky now are you, Blondie?"

"You little son of a bitch," Hutch growled, glaring at Nicky maliciously. "What the fuck have you done?"

"Me?" Nicky said in an innocent voice. "I haven't done anything."

"You helped to set your brother up for murder!"

"Davey did that himself." Nicky countered. "He's the one who had the beef with Prudolm to begin with. He should have blown the prick away when he had the chance. I would have."

"I guess it's a good thing that he's not you."

"Davey and I are more alike than you'll ever know. He's just better at hiding it." Nicky said with a sneer. "You thought you were so special. You thought you knew everything about him," Nicky taunted Hutch "But, he never told you about the Salvado family, did he? He never told you that he almost got charged with Niko Salvado's murder. Don't you ever wonder what other secrets he's been keeping from you all these years?"

"If he was keeping any secrets from me, they were his secrets to keep." Hutch said gruffly. "Secrets that made it easy for the Salvado family to frame him for a murder that he didn't commit."

"You're just guessing…you can't prove that."

"Not yet I can't." Hutch admitted. "How do you figure in all this? Did they pay you to give them information about your brother that they could use it to set up your brother?"

"They didn't pay me anything…except to help them grab you and get you out of the way."

"You mean so they could kill me, don't you? Before I blew their carefully designed little frame-up sky high."

"It don't matter to me what they have planned for you." Nicky said with a smirk. "This way you and Davey will both be out of the picture."

"You hate your own brother that much?"

"Davey never gave a damn about me, especially after he met you. He took off and left me when I was just a snot nosed kid and never looked back. So why should I give a fuck about him?"

"What about your mother?"

"What about her? She'll be fine. Now she won't have Saint Davey to brag about to everybody or throw up in my face all the time. All I ever got was her leftovers. David always came first as far as she was concerned."

"You still had your mother. All he had was a poor substitute for his family." Hutch snapped "But, that didn't stop him from loving you and missing you."

"He sure as hell had a funny way of showing it!" Nicky said, raising his voice angrily. "He goes out to California and becomes a big shot cop who still thinks he has the right to lecture me about my lifestyle."

"He lectured you about your lifestyle because he cares about you and your mother. He didn't want to see you going down the same road as the other lowlifes we've put away over the years."

"Bullshit! He was jealous because I had the money to buy the things he could never afford on a lousy cop's salary. I had friends, powerful friends with a lot of connections."

"Gangsters who would sell their own mother if the price was right!"

"SHUT UP!" Nicky yelled "I don't need a fucking lecture from you either!" He drew back his fist and slammed it into Hutch's mouth, snapping his head sharply to the right. 'I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! THIS IS AS MUCH YOUR FAULT AS IT IS DAVEY'S!"

Fueled by a blind rage, Nicky began to beat Hutch with his fists, splitting both of the big blond's lips and opening a gash on his left cheekbone. Hutch struggled to remain conscious as the vicious beating continued. The depth of Nicky's hatred and resentment ran deep and part of that hatred was directed at Hutch. Hutch had the relationship with Starsky that Nicky would never have, the relationship that he had always longed for but could never hope to have. The Starsky brothers were too different and Nicky was too consumed by his own feelings of abandonment and betrayal.

Nicky continued beating Hutch until he passed out. Even then Nicky continued to use his fists on the unconscious blond. Finally, he stopped, breathing heavily as he stared at the blood on his hands. Suddenly, afraid that he had gone too far, he turned and ran from the building, disappearing into the twilight.