Hello my dear Magnum fans! I've just finished writing this chapter and I came here to upload it right away. So enjoy it, have a nice time and see you in two or three weeks.

Chapter 33

"You've just killed your partner."

Juliet froze when she heard that. Those few words made her body go numb to such a great extent that she couldn't move neither her legs nor her hands. It seemed like the whole world suddenly stopped, everything became deathly quiet as if it was waiting for something terrible to happen and she was just about to find out what that thing would be.

"Well, Mr. Magnum, it was really nice to meet you but unfortunately, it's time to say goodbye. Guys, you know what to do." Burns said.

Higgins was watching with pure terror as the two men standing by Thomas looked at each other and smiled wickedly.

The PI was trying to stand up but didn't have the chance to do it as he received a powerful blow to his jaw which sent him back to the floor with a loud thud. And it was just the beginning as the other man kicked him in the ribs. That was even more painful and for a moment there, Thomas could swear he saw hundreds of stars in his vision. With every breath he took, he felt excruciating pain in his rib cage that's why he tried to take shallow breaths and hoped that in case some of his ribs were fractured, and there was a high probability of it, it wouldn't puncture his lungs. If that happened, he wouldn't have much of a chance to survive or help his partner.

Thomas was ready to take another blow and he braced for it but surprisingly, it never came. Suddenly, the door burst open and a young man, who was evidently out of breath, stormed inside.

"Boss! Boss!" He shouted, startling everyone in the room.

"What the hell? Don't you see I'm quite busy here? I said loud and clear that I don't want to be disturbed." Burns growled menacingly.

The young man froze and his face became even more terrified. He opened his mouth, evidently trying to say something but nothing came out.

"Well?" Burns snapped. "What is it? I don't have all day. What was so important that you dared to come here?"

For a few more seconds the man just stood there, trying to gather his thoughts and decide how to tell his boss the bad news. Finally, he won the battle with his fears. He looked around the room briefly and noticed Magnum on the floor and Higgins being held with her hands behind her back. He wasn't sure whether he should reveal the information in front of the prisoners so just in case, he came closer to Burns and whispered it in his ear.

Juliet noticed that after hearing the news, Peter's face became almost white.

"What?! Are you sure?" He asked the young man and he sounded really surprised.

"Yes, it's true." Came the answer.

For a moment there, Burns seemingly didn't know what to do. All his men in the room held their breaths, waiting for their boss' decision. It didn't take him a lot of time though to decide what to do in this situation.

"Change of plans, I'm afraid, my dear." He told Juliet and then turned to Thomas.

"You're lucky, Mr. Magnum. Unfortunately, we'll have to postpone our meeting. Hopefully, you won't have to wait long."

"Take him downstairs and lock him in the basement." Burns ordered his two men who immediately grabbed the PI from the floor.

Magnum managed to cast a look at his partner before he was taken away. It was evident that he was in bad shape – there was blood and red bruising on his face and his walking seemed very heavy. Juliet could only imagine how much pain he was in when it came to his ribs. She swallowed hard. She had to admit that things were looking pretty bad. She wondered what news made Peter change everything so suddenly.

Meanwhile, Thomas was walking slowly down a long hall. "Walking" was a strong word – after being beaten, it was quite hard for him to move so he rather dragged his feet. However, he was doing it too slowly for those two tall men who were guarding him so they pushed him time and again until they got to the basement. They stopped in front of a solid-looking metal door.

"Say 'hello' to your new home." One of the men said while opening the door.

Magnum tried to play indifferent. "The place we've been kept for the past few days was worse than this one."

"Don't get used to it either. Sooner or later we'll continue what we started." The other man added and unceremoniously pushed the PI inside and locked the door.

The place was quite dark, there were no windows apart from a tiny one, partly covered, in the far end and it didn't give much light anyway. It took a long moment before Thomas' eyes adjusted to those difficult conditions and when he could finally make out some details, he noticed a long dark shape lying in the corner on the floor. Could it be what he thought? Slowly, he came closer, hoping he was wrong but when he stood over it, he realized that unfortunately, his fears turned out to be true.

"Nick?"

There was silence.

"Nick, is that you?"

He still didn't get any answer so he decided to free his hands and check for himself. Luckily, he still had the knife that Nick had given him so he used it and swiftly cut the plastic tie wrap. In the meantime, the shape on the floor started first to moan and then to move slightly.

"Nick?" Thomas got to his side immediately.

"Who's… Who's there?" Came the man's weak voice.

"It's me, Magnum. Are you all right?"

"I've been better. Burns used his men to thank me for my services. And they have a specific way of thanking as you can imagine." Nick replied and Magnum noticed the state the man was in – a swollen cheek and nose as well as dried blood in the corner of his mouth. It didn't look good.

"I'm so sorry to hear that. They did that because they'd found out you switched sides, didn't they?" Thomas said.

"Yeah, I guess so but it's me that should be sorry for what I did to you and Juliet so don't worry about me, I fully deserved that. I told you once that I wasn't a good man." Nick stated.

"I don't think it's true." The PI told him. "Thanks to you, I can use this." He took out the knife and cut the plastic around Nick's wrists.

"Thank you." Nick whispered. "What about you? I guess breakfast with Burns didn't go as planned." He pointed to Thomas' face.

Magnum chuckled. "Well, we didn't even get to the meal."

"So I guess the boss didn't get the answers he thrived so much for."

Magnum shook his head. "Nope. There was no way Higgy would tell him where his wife and son are hiding and… she would never run away to start a new life with him."

When Nick heard that, his brows raised in mock surprise. "Oh, really? I didn't see that coming. Does Burns have feelings for Juliet?"

"Yeah." Thomas replied, his voice faltered a bit.

"But she doesn't have feelings for him, only for you, huh?" The man stated the obvious.

Magnum nodded his head.

"I hope you finally told her how much you cared for her."

"Yes, we talked about it."

"And you're saying that so calmly? You should be dancing with joy that you're head over heels with such a wonderful woman who loves you back." Nick told him.

"Well, if you haven't noticed, this place and the situation we're currently in doesn't really let us enjoy our feelings for each other."

Thanks to you. Magnum added in his mind but he didn't say it out loud. However, Nick took the hint and an apologetic look appeared on his face.

"Good point." Nick said.

For a while the men sat in silence, both lost in their thoughts. Then Nick spoke. "You're a very lucky guy, you know? Not everyone has the chance to find a true love."

"You found it too."

"Yes, I was that lucky too." Nick replied and then whispered. "Even if only for a short time."

The man sounded so sad, Thomas noticed that whatever happened, it ran very deep within him and he couldn't stop thinking about it.

"What happened, Nick? What happened to your wife?" Thomas asked and for a moment he feared that he overdone it, that the man wouldn't like to talk about that and it was too personal and too painful to go back to this but then Nick seemed to snap out of it and met Magnum's eyes.

"I suppose I can tell you the rest of my story. You've already known about my past in the military and the PTSD I suffered from after serving my round in Iraq." He said and Magnum nodded his head in response.

"I started working for the bad guys then and everything seemed to be going so well and I didn't have to worry about my finances. I didn't ask any questions, I was just doing what I was told. At the beginning, my wife wasn't aware of where the money I was bringing home was coming from. In my opinion it was nothing to be proud of. However, after a while my wife started to ask questions and I just couldn't lie to her anymore and knowing me so well, she noticed that something wasn't right and it was eating me inside. So I finally dared to tell her everything and as you can imagine, she didn't take it well. She told me that she'd rather be poor than have all this money that had come from this source." Nick paused, obviously going back to those difficult moments was painful for him.

"We argued and she threatened to leave me if I didn't quit. Now I think it was something I needed at the time. I finally realized that I may lose her and I loved my wife more than life itself. After all, I came to my senses and decided to stop working for those guys but it wasn't that easy."

"They didn't let you do it." Magnum said.

"No. When they learned about it, I was told I'd be sorry. And you know what? They were right."

"What happened?" Thomas asked but he felt he would hear a very sad end of the story.

"In order for me to continue working for them, they took my wife."

The PI swallowed hard.

"I was willing to do everything to get her back and it was working at first but then when they told me to kill somebody in cold blood, I refused. Even though I was a former soldier, I couldn't do it so…" Nick's voice cracked suddenly and his eyes filled with tears.

"They killed her." He barely whispered. "On that fateful day my life ended. I had no reason to live anymore."

"I'm so sorry, Nick." Thomas said quietly. "I can't even imagine how awful you must have felt."

Nick nodded his head and then briskly wiped the tears away.

"Yeah. First, I was devastated and then anger came. I was angry at those men that killed the love of my life, I was angry at myself for not protecting her enough. I thought I was going mad. At the time, the only thing that kept me alive was getting revenge. I couldn't think about anything other than how to get those bastards. So I did the worst thing I could do then – I went to their enemies and offered my services in exchange for their help in wiping those killers off the face of the earth. And they did. Thanks to them I made sure no one else would be hurt by those men."

Nick dropped his head and Thomas didn't want to interrupt the man so he kept quiet and waited for the rest of the story.

"You know what?" Nick looked at the PI. "When I finally got my revenge, I didn't feel any better. It had been eating me inside and I thought that killing them would have a cleansing effect on my mind and soul but in reality I felt empty, like I was unable to feel anything anymore. I was so lonely, suddenly I didn't have any reasons to go on. So I stayed in this business and I'm not proud of the things I had to do. I was once a soldier and then I became a mercenary and a criminal."

Nick let out a deep breath. "I was like that until I got the job to kidnap you and Juliet. What I've told you is true – when I was observing the two of you, the way you acted around each other, how you looked at her – all of this reminded me so much of what I had with my wife and how happy I used to be and then I realized that I didn't want you, Magnum, to lose it just like me. That's why I'm helping you." Nick stated.

"And you're already paying the price for that." Thomas rightly pointed out, hinting at the state Nick was in.

The man waved his hand in response. "Don't worry about me. It's my redemption for all the bad things I did. Now, tell me what the situation is out there."

"We were in the middle of 'a conversation' with Burns when suddenly he got some news that really moved him and he immediately sent me down here." Magnum told him.

"Do you know what it was that made him act this way?"

"I have no idea but I know one thing though."

Nick sent the PI a questioning look.

"It may help us get out of here. Now it can be our only chance." Magnum replied.

Nick nodded his head in agreement.

At this very moment there was a commotion and loud voices shouting orders could be heard.

Nick moved and tried to get up from the floor. "Something's up. I'll help you." He said.

"You don't really have to do it if you don't feel well." Thomas told him.

"No, I'm okay. I'm much better now." Nick stated and managed to finally stand up.

To Magnum, he didn't really look like he was okay but the situation was so serious that he knew that he should accept every help he could get. Especially since he himself wasn't in the best state either.

Both men moved to the door, listening carefully for the sound of approaching footsteps. Time slowed down and every second seemed like an hour. Thomas' heart was beating faster and faster as he braced himself for the confrontation that was about to happen. He stood there, side by side with Nick who was the one that kidnapped him and Juliet just a few days ago. It proved that life was constantly full of surprises and you never knew what you may find down the road. The PI waited anxiously, clutching the knife in his hand, ready for everything and just then the footsteps stopped just outside the door and the sound of a key turning in the lock was heard.

How was it? Now that you've read it, you can write a word or two and share your predictions with me. What do you think is the thing why Burns changed his plans? What will happen to Thomas and Nick? Is Juliet safe? I'm curious about your ideas.

Dsnygal - You've got another cliffhanger. Sorry;) I'm planning to bring the Ohana back in the next chapter, and although I haven't started writing it yet, there's a high probability that I'll manage to do it:)