Chapter 24

Tom's POV

I was a bit shocked when Harry yelled at me like he did when I wanted to tell Fletch what was going on. I really thought he ought to know though. He's our manager, and our best friend. He helped us through a lot in our younger years as a band, but also as normal individuals. I was sure that he could arrange something to get 3 million dollars in cash, and deliver it to those men, and then we would get Dougie back safely, without too much trouble hopefully. But Harry was really against telling him. His reaction was so stern; he really had made up his mind, so I just decided to shut up like he wanted. We would discuss it when we were at home. But the thing was though, that we had a camera in our living room. How were we going to discuss telling our manager, when the kidnappers had very clearly told us not to tell anybody, and they could hear it through the camera? We would have to go to another room, but they then might start getting suspicious? I didn't want that. I wanted them to leave us and Dougie alone. I hated the fact that we were in this situation.

When that curly-haired guy had his arm around my neck, slightly cutting off my air supply, I was so incredibly afraid. I don't think I have ever been more afraid in my life. The guy had at one point prevented me from breathing so much, that I'd gone light-headed, and I thought I was going to faint. Fortunately the guy choking me apparently noticed, for he then let me breath close to properly again.

Shudders ran through my body when I remembered the gun being pointed to Danny, my best friend. That was one of the worst things I'd ever have to experience. Actually, that whole afternoon/evening had been horrible. I kept seeing Dougie's panic-stricken face that was over flown with tears, when he ripped himself out of Harry's arms, and ran towards his kidnappers again, willingly going with them again to save us from harm. I felt so guilty, when we tried to oppose the kidnappers, that curly-haired guy had in merely seconds grabbed me by my arm, and then thrown his arm around my neck and waist. I had really failed my friends back then. We might have been able to save Dougie, if we'd run immediately instead of cuddling. And if I hadn't let myself get caught immediately. I was such a loser…

'Haz…' Danny's insecure voice distracted me from my depressed thoughts and made me look at him.

'How can we talk about this at home?' He asked hesitantly, and I looked over at Harry to see his reaction. He frowned, and I noticed Fletch frown next to him as well. We had by now reached a bigger road in the forest, so now it was just a matter of following the road towards the end of the forest.

'What do you mean, Danny?' Harry asked confused, while cautiously looking over at Fletch.

'Well, you know, in the living room is this… thing…' Danny said just as cautiously, making sure Fletch couldn't understand what he meant. I understood then and nodded. He meant the camera in the livingroom.

'He's right, Harry. We can't talk at home about it. Someone will hear us.' I backed Danny when Harry seemed to slowly understand what Danny meant. He obviously had been thinking about other things then if he hadn't thought about the camera yet. Maybe he'd been thinking about the money, or Dougie's health? I knew how close Dougie and Harry were. We were all close in the band, but Harry and Dougie had a special little bond. Harry always watched over Dougie like he was his little brother that he always had to protect from the world. Even though we all wanted to protect Dougie, because he was the youngest member of the band, Harry was even more protective. I had that special little bond with Danny. We only were one year apart, so it wasn't really about protecting each other, but we just shared all our thoughts and ideas and everything. But it wasn't like we were split up in the band. Me and Danny just understood each other better. All of us truly were the best friends in our band.

I was wondering off now with my thoughts. I was just so tired.

'Tom?' Danny snapped me out of my thoughts, by waving his hand in front of my face.

'Earth to Tom?' Danny said half amused, but I sensed some worry in his voice as well.

'Sorry… I just…' I stuttered when I noticed all eyes in the car were on me.

'What did you say?' I asked trying to get the attention off of me. Danny kept looking at me worried, but Harry had a determined look on his face.

'I said, Tom, that there is nothing to talk about anyway.' He said stubbornly. I frowned at him.

'Yes there is. Harry, where the hell are we going to find three m...'

'I will find it Tom. Don't worry and don't make things worse, please. Just everybody shut up, it'll be okay if we just do what we were told.'

Fletch snapped his head back to look at us and then back at Harry with a worried expression.

'Boys, what the hell is going on?'

'Nothing, Fletch. We just lost something and have to get it back. It's nothing to worry about. We'll tell you later.' Harry said, and I thought Fletch was going to say something again. But then his expression changed when he noticed the sight in front of him.

'Look, there's the end of this forest. Thank goodness.' He sighed, and subconsciously we all sighed in relief as well, glad that the subject was dropped. I still didn't really agree with Harry though, but decided to let it go for now.