A/N: I'm really sorry that I haven't updated in so long, I've just been on a roll with my other story. But I haven't forgotten about this one. I'll try not to keep you guys waiting for so long again, promise :)
Brian's POV
"Brian? Are you okay?" Cynthia asks shaking me "uh yea, I'm okay" I lie sounding better than I feel. Cynthia talks to me but I don't hear her I'm still looking at the text I just got from Justin. It says:
'Send money to these accounts in an hour or he dies'
I can't even look at the account numbers, this has to be a joke. I just talked to Justin less than an hour ago. I focus for a minute and hear Ted tell me to go home because he can handle everything here. I walk mechanically to my car and just sit there staring at the text. I'm about to call Daphne because she was supposed to give Justin a ride back to the loft. Before I can call her another text comes in.
'I'd hurry if I were you. Wouldn't want to lose your fiancé and your best friend in the same day.'
That snaps me out of my daze and I zoom off to the hospital. At the first red light I pull my cell out. I'm about to call Daphne when my phone rings.
"Hello?"
"Hey Brian it's me" Daphne says I sigh a little relieved, at least she's okay.
"Do you know where Justin is? I'm inside his apartment his stuff is half packed and he's not here" she says confused.
"Shit!" I mumble "I need you to meet me at the hospital" I tell her.
"What about-"
"I'll explain at the hospital just meet me there alright" I snap.
"Okay, okay I'll see you at the hospital" Daphne says before hanging up.
I put myself together the best I can before I go inside. I don't have to talk to anyone to know that Michael's gone. I can hear Debbie yelling from where I'm standing. I walk slowly into the waiting room that we were in just this morning. Ben is on the floor crying, and Carl is trying to calm Debbie down. I walk over to the doctor that Debbie was yelling at.
"What happened!?" I demand. I must look pretty terrifying because the guy shrinks back.
"Th-there was a-a mix up with the antibiotics an-and Mr. Novotny had allergic reaction" the doctor explains.
"How could you assholes make a mistake like that?! You killed my son!" Debbie yells taking a swing at the doctor.
I back away and try to think, I head to the bathroom and lock the door. It's not the hospitals fault but so far I'm the only one that knows that. I have to give this psycho the money he wants. I can't lose Justin too, especially since I just got him back. I look at the text again, and I notice something strange.
Whoever this fucker is he's making me send weird amounts of money to each account. A thousand here, five hundred here. What the hell is this person playing at? I look at the time and decide not to waste any more. I call Ted.
"Why do you want to transfer money to these accounts? And who are these people?"
"I don't have time to explain just fucking get it done!" I yell.
"Even with everything that's going on?"
"Just get it done Theodore! Now!" I yell so loud my throat hurts
"Alright, Alright I'm doing it"
"Stay on the line until it's done!" I snap
I hear Ted making calls and talking to people. It takes a few minutes, I look at my watch and I'm almost out of time. Fuck how did an hour fly by?
"How long is this going to take!" I say pissed and nervous. The time is ticking away and Justin's life is hanging in the balance.
"Theodore!" I say impatiently
"It's done, it's done. Geeze Brian what's your problem?"
I sigh relieved "You need to get over here"
"Uh I'm busy there are other things I need to-"
"Mikey's gone" I say hoping to distract him from why I needed to transfer the money.
"That's not funny"
"It's not a joke" I say blankly
"And you wait till now to tell me! What the fuck Brian?! You should've told me that first, what the fuck is wrong with you?"
"Truthfully I'm just really selfish" I say before hanging up.
I grip the edges of the sink so hard my knuckles turn sheet white. I try to focus and calm down, which is a lost cause. Between Mikey and (mostly) Justin I'm a mess, I'm angry, sad and yea I'll admit it I'm fucking terrified. Whoever has Justin either killed Mikey their self or had someone else do it. Which means that this person is a coldblooded killer.
Then a thought surfaces, the text said fiancé. How does this fucker know that I asked Justin to marry me? The only thing I can think of is that… whoever this is must've been watching us. But which one of us? I don't know why anyone would want to hurt Justin. Me I've pissed a lot of people off, but not enough to do something like this.
Before I can think about it anymore Carl comes in the bathroom asking me to join everyone else. I do so robotically following him into a room with Debbie, Ben, Ted, Emmett, Lindsey and Melanie. There are also police officers, and some hospital security. Ted makes a show of not looking at me. Not that I really care.
"What's going on?" Lindsey asks
"First of all we have to tell you that Michael Novotny died earlier this morning" one of the police officers says.
Every one gasps and looks at Deb, who looks numb and dazed. Then they look at Ben who looks, well he looks dead. Like there's no one home, his eyes are hollow and empty. I idly think that's how I'll look if anything happens to Justin.
"At first we thought there was a mix up with the medications. However after looking into it further we found out that there was foul play involved. Meaning Mr. Novotny was murdered" the other cop says.
The room is so quite I swear that everyone's hearts stopped beating.
"What!" Ben says coming back to life
"We checked the security cameras and someone sneaked into Mr. Novotny's room before he passed away" he says looking at everyone's faces. He settles on mine glaring at me, I know I don't look surprised. But I can't fake any emotions right now.
"Do any of you know anyone who would want to hurt Mr. Novotny?" he asks looking straight at me.
Everyone says no then thinks about it for a minute. Soon the room is filled with their idiotic theories. The cop stares at me watching my reaction. Clearly I'm not reacting like a grief stricken friend or relative. But they've got nothing on me, then again my alibi was kidnapped.
The thought makes me look at my cell, no messages. The money was sent but I didn't get any conformation that Justin's okay. Shit! I get a text from Daphne asking me where I am.
"I have to go" say to no one in particular.
"Mr….Kinney right?" the officer asks looking down at his note pad.
"Yes" I say annoyed
"You don't seem too upset, and from what Debbie's told us you were Michael's best friend"
"If I killed Mikey would I really still be here? Despite what people think I'm not a sociopath!" I snap turning to leave. My phone beeps before I can turn the handle and I open the new text immediately.
'Nice to know you can follow orders Mr. Kinney. And in a timeline too. Taylor's safe…for now'
I can't help the relief that floods my body it's like I can breathe again. Then I read the text again and the fury from before comes back. Justin's safe 'for now' this person's not going to let him go. Most likely they'll make me do something else.
"Mr. Kinney?" the officer says, reminding me of my audience "who was that?" he asks.
I decide to answer truthfully "I don't know"
"How could you not know? You seem more relaxed than you did a second ago. What did the text say?"
"Don't answer that! Are you charging him?" Melanie says her eyes all glassy from the news about Michael.
"No, at least not yet" the officer says
"Artie give it a rest, Kinney wouldn't do anything to hurt Michael"
"Just doing my job Carl, where were you at eleven forty? Were you here at the hospital?"
"Yes!" I snap
"Brian don't" Melanie insist.
I ignore her and for once in my life I can't control the words coming out of my mouth.
"I was by the east side of the hospital proposing to my boyfriend, and making out with him"
Everyone looks at me shocked, they can tell by my expression that I'm not joking.
"You asked Justin to marry you?" Lindsey says surprised
"Tell me exactly what happened" officer Artie (what an unfortunate name) says.
I cut Mel off with an icy glare before answering.
"The doctor told us that Mikey should be fine, then most of us decided to go home. I pulled my boyfriend aside and asked or re-asked him to marry me. After he finally said yes, we made out for a good…ten minutes? Then I drove him home, changed showered and went in to work. Ted told me that I could take the day off and he'd handle everything. So I came here to check on Mikey, then I found out he died. My day got worse when this asshole cop decided to try and pin my best friend's murder on me! Are we done here?"
"Can I talk to this alleged boyfriend to confirm you're story?" Artie the asshole asks.
"We all know Justin he's real and Brian wouldn't do anything like this" this time its Ben sticking up for me.
"Where's your fiancé Mr. Kinney? We'd like to speak with him"
Yea well so would I, somehow sensing what's happening my phone buzzes again
'No Cops! You do want him to keep breathing don't you?'
The text makes my heart (yes my heart) contract. I need to get away from all these prying eyes. Mainly tweedle dum and tweedle dumber, I won't let anything happen to Justin. I won't lose him. I don't know how to answer the question, and I'm not gonna say anything else about Justin, not to these ass holes. So I pull a grade A Brian Kinney stunt.
"I need to be somewhere so unless you have some evidence. Or you're going to arrest me, I'm free to go right?"
The police officers and the security officers look at each other mystified.
"Fine but don't leave town Mr. Kinney" Artie says
I leave the room looking for Daphne. I find her with Jennifer waiting in the main lobby.
"Brian what's going on?" Daphne asks
"I'll tell you both everything at my place. We can't talk here, too many nosy people"
Daphne takes in my expression and nods, just as Ted and Carl walk over to us.
"What the hell was that all about?" Ted demands
"Yea that little performance didn't help anything" Carl says
"And what's going on with you and Justin?" Ted asks
"Does it have anything to do with-?"
"Not here!" I hiss at Ted cutting him off "I'll explain everything at my loft, so either come with me or stay here!" I say walking away.
Their all right behind me, Jennifer stops me
"I need a ride Tucker dropped me off and-"
"You can ride with me" I say cutting her off and taking her hand
The ride to my place is quite and awkward. Jennifer can tell that something is terribly wrong. But we don't talk.
"What's going on and where's Justin?" Daphne asks as soon as I lock the door and set the alarm.
Where the fuck do I start? I think about it for a minute, there's no right way to tell them.
"J-Justin's been…taken" I say pathetically
They all stare at me like I'm speaking another langue.
"You mean like…like someone abducted him?" Daphne asks
I take off my jacket and loosen my tie suddenly I need to change badly.
"Yes" I say heading to my closet and start stripping.
"H-Ho-How do you know?" I hear Jennifer ask
"Check the text's on my phone" I tell her putting on the first shirt and pair of jeans I see.
I watch all of them crowded around my phone reading and rereading the texts. Jennifer plops down on one of the stools in the kitchen.
"So this is why you needed those transfers" Ted says.
"You shouldn't have paid this guy" Carl says
"Yes usually I'd agree with that. But you never know what you'll do in a certain situation until you're in that situation"
"So what do we do?" Daphne says
"I assume you don't want to get the police involved. Usually that's what I would suggest. But since this creep is taking credit for Michael's murder. And like you said it's easy to tell someone what to do when you're not in their shoes….I'll look into this privately. I mean there's not much to go on seeing as the texts are coming from Justin's phone. I could track it but, whoever this guy is, he's going to have to get rid of it at some point. If he's as smart as he thinks he is" Carl says
"So all we can do is wait" Jennifer says
"I'm afraid so and I'm gonna need a list of names. Uh…of people you think would want to hurt Justin. It'll help us narrow this down and figure out who this is"
I give everyone a piece of paper, we all write our lists and I collect them. I can't help but skim the names on the list. One name is on everyone's list. And suddenly a memory's flash through my head.
"Shut up Taylor" "You are fucked!"
I remember that night the way he looked at Justin. In every text calling Justin by his last name. Just like he did that night, I know who has Justin.