He was so lost in thought that he lost track of time. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the loud knock at the door. He knew who it was, so remained on the couch and turned the TV off instead of getting up to answer the door.
"It's open." He called. His voice was as steady as ever.
Ryan Taylor entered, closing the door loudly behind him. He pulled a gun from the waistband of his jeans and held it down by his side. "Hello Nick."
Nick didn't return the greeting. "You don't need that." He said instead.
Ryan shrugged. "All the same, I don't wanna take any chances. How was your day at home?"
"Fine. Kinda boring, so I'm glad to get outta here." Nick answered.
"Good." Ryan raised the gun. "Drive out to the warehouse where the Stanson case was last year."
Nick frowned in confusion. "How did you fi-"
Ryan cut him off. "Don't worry about it. Nothing's there anymore, it's completely deserted. A perfect place for drug storage. It's easy enough to find, so it won't take the cops too long." Ryan motioned for Nick to stand up, and he complied. "Don't try anything. You were a good boy today, don't mess it up. You're going to pay for what you did to my father."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Be my guest." The younger man reponded.
"Why don't you just kill me?" Nick asked.
Ryan stared at him for a minute. "Because I don't wanna let you off easy." Ryan finally answered.
Nick nodded. "That makes sense. No one seems to just want to get it over with." Nick sighed. "Alright, let's do this."
It took Nick ten minutes longer to get to the warehouse than he had remembered. He texted Brass where he was as soon as he was sure of the exact location and pocketed his cell phone before the warehouse came into view to be sure that Ryan wouldn't see him with it. He drove the dark blue pickup truck around to the back of the warehouse like he had been instructed to do. He came to a stop in front of the already opened garage door with the light on inside, revealing the vast amount of space on the other side of the walls.
Nick hopped out of the truck and grabbed the first silver brick of cocaine and brought it into the warehouse, putting it up against the right hand side wall like he had been told. He quickly looked around him on the inside of the warehouse and was barely able to make out the door at the other end next to a ladder that must lead up to the roof. Nick hadn't thought about wearing his glasses out here until he had tried to look around him. He looked down at his hands and saw that they were shaking at his sides.
For the first time since he had concocted his plan, Nick began to doubt his idea.
But it was too late to rethink that now. So he dragged himself back outside and kept on unloading the drugs that weren't his from a dealer that he didn't kill. Nick was extremely grateful for the fact that Brass and Grissom trusted him as much as they did. They could have just shrugged Nick's story about Ryan off as him being paranoid and left him to deal with this on his own. But they didn't. They believed his crazy story and immediatly agreed to help in anyway they could. Warrick and Jeremy weren't really surprises. Nick knew that they would do anything to help him whenever they could.
It had been just under ten minutes since Nick had arrived before he could hear the sirens. The little feeling he had in his hands were causing him more pain than they were helping him move the drugs. He took a deep breath and continued, not wanting to make Ryan suspicious or make any false moves that would cause the other man to shoot him or whatever he was planning if necessary.
Nick's timing couldn't have been any better. Once the cop cars came into view, he began to run just as they came to a stop, to make it look like he was guilty. Needless to say, he didn't go far. It was mere seconds before Brass, Detective Vartann and two other cops had surrounded him and forced him to the ground. He landed on his stomach and let out a grunt as the air was forced from his lungs.
"Sorry kid." Brass muttered under his breath. He said it quietly, but Nick could still hear him despite the yelling of the other cops and sirens of their cars. "You better be careful Nick." Brass said as they hauled Nick to his feet and starting pulling him towards the waiting cruiser.
From where Ryan was looking, he could just barely make out the tall, dark haired figure being pushed into the backseat before the door was slammed shut. He smiled contently at his own good work. He thought it would have made his father proud.
He looked on for a couple more minutes before he turned to leave the roof. If he had been closer to the edge, he would have fallen off at the shocking sight of Nick Stokes now standing in front of him on the almost pitch black roof.
"What the fuck?" He thought out loud.
"I know." Nick said. "Climbing that ladder was next to impossible, especially with these hands." He held up his hands and showed his scarred palms. "But it was worth it to see that look on your face."
Ryan looked over his shoulder, then back at Nick. "But you...just got arrested."
"That's physically impossible. That's not your only mistake either. You overlooked the fact that I don't like threats, or being framed for something I didn't do." Nick replied.
Ryan pulled his gun out and pointed it right between Nick's dark brown eyes. "I told you not to fuck with me. Get back down there and into that car."
"Or what?" Nick asked. "You'll kill me? Quite frankly, I don't buy that. So prove me wrong."
Ryan's finger froze on the trigger. "I'll kill Warrick and Jeremy. Right now. I know they have to be down there...they must have helped you with this." Ryan started walking forwards, forcing Nick backwards.
"There's another mistake." Nick said, stopping just before walking into the door he had just come through. "Don't threaten my best friend, or my brother."
Nick's hand shot up and grasped Ryan's wrist, jerking it down and away from his face. He couldn't completely close his fingers around the gun or Ryan's wrist, so Nick had to use his other hand to help keep control of the weapon. Ryan finally regained control of his gun, and upon doing so punched Nick in the face. Nick's head snapped back, colliding with the metal door behind him. The intense blow caused Nick to slowly slide down the door until he was sitting on the ground with his knees pulled up almost to his chest. He felt like someone was trying to hammer a nail into the back of his head as hard as they could. That didn't help his already messed up eyes focus on the dark figure standing over him.
Ryan took three giant steps back so that his heels were inches away from the edge of the roof. He shook his head, even though he knew that Nick couldn't see him.
"Looks like you're the one who keeps making mistakes." He said with an evil laugh. He thought for a second before tossing the gun at Nick's feet, surprising the Texan.
"Go ahead." Ryan said. "Pick it up. I'm giving you an ultimatum. Right now, you're stunned due to the blow you just took to your head. So you have a choice. There's only one bullet in that gun. You can use it to kill yourself, ending your pathetic life...or take a shot at me, even though you'll certainly miss."
Nick closed his eyes when he felt his hand slide over the cool metal. He listened to Ryan's voice closely, picking up on the fact that it was coming from different places. Ryan was walking back and forth in front of him, making himself an even harder target. Nick grasped the gun as best as he could and raised it up high enough so that his arm was resting on his knee, the gun pointing off to the left and into the night.
"When you do miss me, I'll make you wish you got into the back of that cruiser and just gone to jail. What would have happened to you there is so much better than what I'm going to put you through."
Nick gritted his teeth as his headache worsened. He focused all of his attention on Ryan's voice, carefully following the image he had drawn up in his mind. Without responding or moving anything but his right arm, Nick lifted the gun and fired straight ahead. The bullet shot out of the gun and flew through the night air before ripping through Ryan's chest. The shocked man stood as still as a statue for a moment before slowly falling backwards and off the roof. The next thing Nick heard was the crash as Ryan Taylor's body landed on one of the cop cars thirty feet below.
Keeping his eyes closed, Nick brought the gun under his chin, pressing the cold barrel against his warm skin. He pulled the trigger again, but was met with that empty clicking sound.
"Figures." He mumbled before dropping the gun to the ground between his feet.
Nick hadn't heard Jeremy climb up the access ladder on the side of the warehouse and pull himself up onto the roof. If Nick had opened his eyes, he would have seen Jeremy standing off to his right.
He wouldn't have tried to kill himself if he had known that his older brother had been watching.