Chapter 35

Belief

Belief, makes things real.
Makes things feel, feel alright.
Belief, makes things true.
Things like you, you and I.

Tonight, you arrested my mind.
When you came to my defense.
With a knife in the shape of your mouth,
in the form of your body, with the wrath of a god.
Oh, you stood by me, Belief

Builds from scratch.
Doesn't have to relax, it doesn't need space.
Long live the queen and I'll be the king.
In the collar of grace.

Oh, tonight, you arrested my mind.
When you came to my defense.
With a knife in the shape of your mouth,
in the form of your body, with the wrath of a god.
Oh, you stood by me, belief.

I'm gonna yell it from the rooftops.
I'll wear a sign on my chest.
That's the least I can do, it's the least I can do.

Tonight, you arrested my mind.
When you came to my defense.
With a knife, in the shape of your mouth,
in the form of your body, with the wrath of a god.
Oh, you stood by me.
And I'll stand by my belief.

I will stand by mine...

belief...

Gavin Degraw

Brooke walked out of the bedroom dressed and ready. As she moved to the kitchen she heard a faint hissing sound.

"DAYMNNN" Julian said as he allowed air into his mouth to fill his cheeks and then exaggeratedly blew it out. "Shit Brooke. Are you sure you need to go out dressed like that?" Julian asked while standing there with his eyes clued to her ass shaking his head.

"Julian it's for Haley" Brooke said.

"I know baby but shit… I want to rip that right off of you and I've already been with you hundreds of times. What is someone that's never seen you going to think?" Julian questioned with his eyes still honed in on his girlfriends plush rear.

….

Dan, Clay, Lucas and Nathan were target practicing out in the back of Nathan's yard. They were all practicing their aim while Lydia, Deb, Quinn and Peyton had taken the kids out for the day.

The more Nathan shot the more deadly his aim became. Dan had watched him for several minutes and walked up behind him. He placed his hand on his son's shoulder "Damn good shot son! Remind me not to piss you off anymore" he said with a smirk.

Nathan stopped and turned to look his father in the eyes. "Dad, I'd like to talk to you before we leave"

"Ok Nathan." Dan nodded.

"Fella's I have something else hear I want us to learn to shoot. I finally finished modifying the last one." Dan announced.

The guys walked over to the picnic table by the pier. There were seven sawed off shotguns laying there. "This is an essential tool to a rescue. They're light weight and deadly accurate. Plus they've been modified to make them quicker to use." Dan smiled.

"Clay will you set me up some bottles down there?" Dan requested as he began to load the guns.

Clay looked over to Nathan and Nathan nodded his head.

Once the bottles were lined up, Dan took a pistol in one hand and a shot gun in his other. He shot the pistol while pumping the shotgun with the other and then shot the pistol again. He had cleared out the twelve bottles Clay had set up in three shots. "And that my men is how it's done" Dan said with a confident smirk on his face.

Nathan and Lucas shared a glance at each other that didn't escape Dan's attention.

"Ok, so are we about ready for the first phase? Because as soon as Brooke and Julian get here it's going to be about time to put the first part of the plan in motion" Dan stated.

…

Dan went into the kitchen and Nathan followed him. He moved passed his father and went to the refridgerator to get everyone a beer. "Dad?"

"Yeah?" Dan asked as he began to drink the scotch from the glass in his hand.

"I just wanted to say thank you." Nathan mumbled.

"Nathan you don't have to thank me son. I want to do this. I love you son"

"I have to ask you one question. It keeps repeating in my mind and for the life of me I can't figure out why you're doing this for Haley?"

"Nathan, you are what and who you are because of your wife son. Your mother can't take credit for it and I certainly can't take credit for it. It's all Haley. She is very different from the young teenager I thought she was. She has one of the purest hearts of anyone I've ever seen. I want that for you. You can't lose that Nathan. You'll become a replica of the man you see before you. I don't want that and I'm sorry for any attempt I might have made knowingly or unknowingly that could have ever caused that. She's the best thing that's ever happened to you son"

Nathan smiled, nodded to his father and then turned to walk out of the kitchen. Before he got too far away he turned around "I love you Dad"

…

The women had returned from Town. Nathan was holding Cammie and Jamie was sitting beside him on the couch. He wanted to spend sometime with them before they left. " Hi there Daddy's little girl" he cooed to his daughter. "Don't you worry I'm going to bring your Mommie back to you VERY SOON" Nathan looked over to Lydia and smiled. "I promised your grandma I'd always take care of her and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

As Jamie heard this he looked at his dad. "Daddy? Is mama going to be ok?"

Nathan's heart broke. This was killing him. His eyes were stung by tears. The kids hadn't seen Haley in twelve days now. Twelve days without the gentle unconditional love that she provided with a grace that would make his heart flutter. His son missed that constant source as much as he did. He had seen it in his eyes everyday since Haley had been gone. "Yeah Jamie. I'm going to make sure your Mom is fine."

"Are you sure? I mean and you'll come back too?" Jamie asked with tears in his eyes.

Nathan looked over to his son and placed his arm around his small shoulders and then rubbed his had up and down his forearm a couple of times. "I'm not going to let anything happen to our family Jamie" Nathan said.

…

"Lucas, Clay" Dan started. "Listen you guys. You have got to help me keep Nathan under control. When we get this guy, Nathan is going to want to tear him to shreds. We can't let that happen. We've got to get the information we need out of him first. I know my son. He's raging on the inside I see it in his eyes. I probably should have just done this without his involvement but I know he'll feel better if he's at least doing something. I already know about him nearly tearing the police department down a few days ago because they weren't doing anything to find Haley. Nathan is clearly at the end of his rope with all of this, or I wouldn't even be here and we all know it. Watch out for him. AND if you can….. leave the killing to me. I'm already on the list" Dan said as he looked over at his oldest son.

…

Lydia went to answer the door. "Brooke! Hi honey"

"Hi Mrs. James" Brooke said as she moved to hug her best friends mother.

"Now we agreed that you'd call me Lydia last time I was here Brooke." Lydia smiled her coy smile.

"Yes we did. I had forgotten about that. Mama James this is my boyfriend Julian Baker. Julian this is Haley's Mom, Lydia James"

"Hello nice to meet you. You have a wonderful daughter Mrs. James"

Lydia's eyes filled with tears and Julian instantly felt bad. Quickly looking for any topic to change the conversation to he saw Dan sitting in the living room. "Are you guys ready to do this?"

Nathan, Clay Lucas and Dan all stood up. After all of the goodbyes were said they all started to go out the front door. Nathan was in the rear and stopped and turned to Lydia and Quinn. "I'm going to bring her home. I promise you" he said before he turned back and shot through the door, quickly closing it behind him.

…

Thirty minutes later they were sitting outside of the bar. Brooke should be walking up at any minute. They had put her out on the back corner of the block so no one would see her getting out of the vehicle. As she came around the corner Julian quickly spoke. "Ok guys NO EYEING MY GIRL! You got that?"

All of the men slowly smiled. If Julian only knew. Hell even Dan had seen Brooke dress like this before, back when they were all in high school. Just because it was a daily occurrence anymore didn't mean it was a first.

Brooke made her way into the bar in her black over the knee boots and her leather short and halter. She looked around and finally spotted the familiar face that was in the picture she saw just a few short hours ago. 'Well here we go' she whispered to herself.

She walked by and noticed the bartender setting down a shot in front of the guy. Thinking fast she grabbed the shot and gulped it down. " Well you just gonna sit there and stare or you gonna buy me another one?" Brooke sultrily spoke.

"Damn girl" the dealer said eyeing her up and down.

They sat there and talked for several minutes.

….

Nathan and the guys moved around the back of the bar. Getting into place. Clay and Lucas stood beside Nathan while Dan nodded at them. This was fixing to go down. No doubt about it.

…

"So then I broke his arm" the dealer said with his arm around Brooke. "then I told him if he didn't give me the money that he owed me that I would continue to break every bone in his body in alphabetical order which works because I started with his arm" the dealer chuckled.

"Oh right" Brooke laughed "That's funny. You're funny. You're a real tough guy huh? I like that in a man."

The dealer tightened his arm across Brooke's shoulders. "You know what I like in a woman?"

Brooke smiled and raised an eyebrow while waiting for him to answer "ME!"

Brooke placed one finger on his lips as he started to move in to kiss her. "Get me a shot" she said quietly and laughed. When he poured one she picked it up and turned her head while rolling her eyes before downing it. "This has been real fun. I think I'm going to need something else though" she sexily smiled. "you know to kind of get me in the mood. You know what I'm sayin"

The dealer became skeptical. "You want to party with me or my product?"

"Let's make it a threesome" Brooke smiled.

"That works for me girl"

"Well come on" Brooke said and hopped off of the bar stool before she then started moving over to the rear entrance of the bar.

The dealer quickly followed her out and she got a little ahead of him.

He watched her ass as he tilted his head. "Damn girl I can't wait to hit that"

Dan nodded over to Clay and Lucas who immediately grabbed hold of Nathan. "That's just what I was thinking" Dan said to the dealer as he began punching the guy.

Nathan tried to get away from his brother and brother in law. Gritting his teeth he muttered "Let me go damnit!"

…

Two hours later they were at Julian's sound stage. Dan had a barrel filled with trash sitting right beside the drug dealer that was tied to the chair. Nathan, Lucas Clay and Julian were all standing around just watching the man eyeing everyone in front of him.

"Ok, now I'm going to ask you some questions" Dan smiled his evil smile, "And you feel free to scream out the answers" while he picked up the red hot two pronged fork from the fire. "You see, that's the good thing about a sound stage. NO ONE can hear you scream" Dan smirked.

"We're looking for my daughter in law" Dan started. "You might know her. Good looking little honey blonde about this" Dan held his hand up at close to Haley's height, " high. She's a teacher at the high school here in town."

"Yeah I know her" the dealer said as Brooke walked into the rear door of the sound stage. "She's a trouble making bitch!" the dealer added. Dan cut his eyes to his left, to be sure he got his eyes on his son. He saw the fire light in Nathan's eyes.

"Well then why don't you start by telling me where she is" Dan said.

Julian walked over to Brooke and quietly spoke "Brooke, go home. You can't be here. There's things that's probably going to happen here that you don't need to see" He turned her around and walked her back to the door. He stood there and watched as she got into the car and drove away.

"Why would I do that?" The dealer asked. "Do you know what they'll do to me if I tell you that?"

That was it! Nathan jumped up out of the seat he had taken and screamed as he began to walk furiously towards the man in the chair. "Do you know what I'm going to do to you if you don't?" he said as he grabbed the guy and punched him three times hard in the face.

Dan looked over to Clay and Lucas and with one look conveyed to them to pull Nathan back. As they were pulling Nathan away he screamed "WHERE IN THE HELL IS MY WIFE?"

"That whore's dead you fucking idiot" Lucas looked to Dan and Dan shrugged his shoulder as he rolled his eyes at the dealers stupidity. Clay and Lucas both just let Nathan go. Once he was free from them he went over and began beating the guy again. By the time his family pulled him off of the drug dealer, the guys face was a bloody mess, but they still hadn't gotten the information out of him that they needed and this was far from over.

Nathan continued to watch him. He was smart and controlled enough to know he had to bide his time. He needed to know where they were holding Haley and it was all he could do not to put an end to this piece of shit human being before him.