When no one did, he initiated with the most obvious question. "What's going on?"
"This is Agent Harding and Agent Waters from the FBI," Brass said in a monotonous tone. "They wanted to speak with you, and us."
"About what?" Nick asked, looking at Waters and Harding.
Harding, the men on Nick's left, spoke first. "We've been informed that you have a blood connection with the Sparazza's," he said matter of factly.
Nick nodded. "Yeah, unfortunately I do."
"You are Jimmy Sparazza's son, aren't you?" Waters asked.
Nick nodded again. "Yeah, unfortunately I am."
"That may be unfortunate for you, but it's actually very good for us," Harding said. Before he could continue, Brass cut him off.
"No," he said sternly.
Harding frowned slightly. "No what?"
"You're not using him to get information out of Sparazza. He's not even connected with them by anything other than blood. He knows nothing. They know he works with cops, so they would never tell him anything in the first place, so you're wasting your time," Brass said annoyedly.
"We've been after Sparazza for longer than Nick's been alive," Harding retorted. "He's always been too smart to trust anyone but Miller, Mike and a few others, so we could never get anyone else in. Now that we finally can, you're going to try and deny us this?"
Brass nodded. "Yes. Screw Sparazza, we're not gonna risk Nick's life so you can find out more of the same stuff you already know but can't use in court because you got it illegally. Sparazza's too smart for you, and Nick's not involved with them at all."
"But he can be," Waters argued, "and he probably will be. Sparazza communicated with Nick for a reason. Don't you want to know what the reason is?"
Brass shook his head. "I don't give a damn."
Waters looked at Nick. "Don't you care?"
Nick didn't know what to do, so he shrugged slightly. "I don't know. He probably doesn't want anything from me."
"We know for a fact that he's planning something involving you," Harding replied.
"How do you know that?" Brass asked. "From your illegal wire taps?"
"Gentlemen," Grissom chimed in in an attempt to keep the peace. "Let's be civil, shall we? I'm sure we can work something out."
Harding spoke before Brass could retort. "All we want is for Nick to get involved and see what he can find out. Sparazza's probably already planning that already."
"How exactly would that work?" Grissom asked.
"There's no doubt that there's illegal things going on in that family, especially drug trafficking. We want to put that to a stop, and Nick could help us do that. He could pretend like he's interested, get involved in the family business and find out important information. Virtually, it'd be like Donnie Brasco," Waters answered.
"So you want to send him in undercover into the most dangerous crime family in the history of the United States?" Brass asked.
"He's already a part of that family," Harding said. "Now it's just a matter of your involvement."
"You're not talking simply eavesdropping. You want him fully involved with their illegal activity, correct me if I'm wrong," Brass said.
Harding nodded. "No need for correction."
Grissom looked over at Nick. "It's up to you Nicky my boy."
"No, it's really not," Waters inturrupted. "He can't decline helping the federal government when he can be this useful. This could put an end to all mob activity in the US because it all goes through Sparazza. So Nick, you don't really have a choice in this matter."
Nick sighed. "I rarely ever do."
Nick could never remember a time when he had been nervous to see his parents in his entire life. He always loved to go back home and visit them and loved it even more when they came to visit him up in Vegas. But this time was different for two reasons. One, he had no idea that they were waiting for him in Grissom's office. And two, this would be the first time he had spoken with them since his real identity had come out into the open. So his nerves were definitely understandable.
He entered Grissom's office tentatively, wishing that he wasn't being faced with this right after having dealt with the FBI agents. But he knew he would have to do this sooner or later, so he figured he might as well get it over with now, especially since they had flown all the way from Vegas to see him.
Nick closed the door behind him, getting the attention of Jillian and Bill Stokes, who were looking around at Grissom's unique office decorations. They quickly forgot about what had been intriging them so much and turned to face their youngest child, both of them smiling slightly. Nick hugged both of them silently before they each took a chair in front of Grissom's desk, Jillian and Bill sitting next to one another across from Nick.
Bill spoke right off. "I'm guessing you know why we're here."
Nick nodded. "Yeah, sorry I didn't call you guys, it's been pretty crazy here. You should have told me you were coming."
"There's a lot we should have told you," Jillian replied.
Before Nick could say anything, Bill continued. "She's right. We haven't been straight with you."
"Neither have I," Nick said.
Bill frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I've known about this the whole time," Nick answered. "I know I was supposed to not remember, but I did. I do."
Jillian was genuinely surprised. "And you never said anything?"
"What was I supposed to say? By the way, I know that my real father is the biggest criminal ever, then go finish my homework or something?" Nick shook his head slowly. "I guess I just wanted to pretent it wasn't true, and if I did for long enough that it would just go away."
"Things like this don't go away Nick," Bill said. "And from what your boss and Brass has informed us, it seems like it's only getting worse."
Nick nodded. "And I don't know what to do."
"Just promise us you'll be careful Nicky," Jillian said, tears forming in her dark eyes. "We'd be devastated if something happened to you."
"I will be, I promise," Nick said with a small smile that faded quickly. "Jason still doesn't know, does he?"
Bill nodded slightly. "He's the only one who doesn't. Your sisters do because they were old enough. Jason was too, but he was really sick as a kid and spent most of the time in the hospital. When he finally got better when he was eleven, you were already there and he didn't know any better. He thought you were always there, and we never had the heart to tell him."
"He'll still love you even when he finds out," Jillian said.
"I know," Nick lied, pretending that that wasn't what he was afraid of the most.
Nick had come to the conclusion that if you were going to be kidnapped, someone should let you know in advance. Not necessarily so you can try and escape, but more so so that you can be ready for it, because getting kidnapped randomly isn't the most fun thing in the world. What he hated most was not being able to remember what he had been doing before. All he knew for sure right now was that he was in the back of a van ('how original' he thought to himself) that was moving very fast and he had no idea who had grabbed him, but he had an idea as to why.
The van came to a sudden stop and the doors flew open. Nick sat there calmly, his arms resting on his knees with his head against the side of the van. He looked at the two men looking in at him and wished he knew who they were. One of them pulled out a gun and used it to motion to Nick to get out of the van. Nick complied, not seeing any other options what so ever.
As soon as he hopped out of the van, he knew exactly where he was. He was at the miniature golf place a few miles off strip. He had been there a bunch of times with the team and Lindsay for various reasons. But they weren't near the mini golf course. They were parked outside of the batting cages on the other side of the huge park. Nick frowned slightly, wondering why exactly they were here. He was answered seconds later.
The two mean each grabbed one of his arms and easily pulled him into one of the cages, quickly pulling his hands up above his head and tying them tightly around the cage with strips of barbed wire. The sharp spikes immediatly dug into Nick's wrists and blood started to slowly trickle down his arms and drip onto the pavement below him. Before he even had time to ask what the hell was going on, a hefty man came in and stood in front of him, dressed in a nice suit and smoking a cigar.
"Do you know who I am?" he asked. Nick shook his head. "I'm Tommy Surella, a notorious gangster here in Vegas."
"Then how come I've never heard of you?" Nick asked.
Surella laughed humorlessly. "Because I'm discrete to the cops, that's why. You may not know me, but you're old man does."
Nick swore silently to himself. He had been right about why he was here, he knew that Jimmy Sparazza had something to do with it. He just wasn't sure what yet, but he figured Surella would clue him in sooner or later.
"Your old man thinks he can do whatever he wants, wherever he wants," Surella continued. "Well, I got news for him, and you. He can't, so he had better get his ass outta town or I'll do to him what I'm gonna do to you."
"What the hell did I do?" Nick asked.
"Your his son. I'm sending the message through you kid."
Surella walked over to the side of the cage and put two quaters into the metal box and pushed a button before walking out of the cage and shutting the door behind him, making it clang loudly.
Nick would have tried to look behind him if he could have. He didn't even have time to move or think at all before he heard a thwap and saw a yellow blur come flying towards him out of the corner of his eye. It hit him square in the chest a split second later, knocking all of the wind from his lungs. He tried to breathe, but that only made him feel like he was choking worse. Five second later, he heard the sound again and was imapaled another time by a ball being launched at almost eighty miles an hour, right at his chest.
"You probably think this'll kill ya, but trust me, it won't," Surella said from behind Nick. "It's just gonna hurt like hell."
Nick had been hit two more times, a total of four, before his legs started to shake and he felt like he was about to collapse. They only thing that was holding him up was the barbed wire secured tightly around each of his wrists, which were now bleeding profously because of the added wait Nick had to put on them with each ball that hit his chest.
Nick found it somewhat comforting that he seemed to be getting hit in different spots on his chest and not the same one each time. Still, it did hurt like hell. He still hadn't caught his breath and could feel his ribs cracking the harder he tried. His mouth was filled with the taste of iron and managed to spit the blood out a few times before the balls finally stopped coming.
Surella came back into the cage and clipped the barbed wire, breaking it and allowing it to release Nick's wrists. Nick fell to his knees in front of Surella, still trying to get air back into his lungs.
"I think your old man will get the picture," Surella said before he walked away, the cage clanging shut behind him before the van sped off.
Nick was still trying to catch his breath, ignoring the fact that he was bleeding, when his already blurred vision suddenly went back. He squeezed his eyes shut and swayed a little despite his best efforts not to. He finally gave in to the pain and his exhaustion and allowed himself to fall to the right and backwards. Nick passed out cold before he hit the hot cement.
Sorry it took so long to update and that this chapter was all over the place. I had to fit a few things in before I started to take off with the action and plot of the story. Anyway, hope you're enjoying, and thanks for the reviews.