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“Would you cut the shit out!? God, what is wrong with you?” Angie demanded, throwing caution and care to the wind.
“Oh, what is MY problem?! I’m not the asshole that lied about the fact that AJ and Howie are in the hands of those terrorists! And now, conveniently, so is Brian! I’m thinking that if you hadn’t come along, we’d have known the truth from the start and Brian might not be where he is right now! So if you ask me again, what my problem is, it’s simple: my fucking problem is YOU, bitch!” Nick spat, thoroughly relishing the look of shock and hurt that flashed across Angie’s face. Feeling cocky at having won the argument, Nick never saw her fist coming.
So surprised over Nick’s words, his audacity to say that she was the problem when all she had tried to do was help, Angie couldn’t control her actions. Not even realizing it, she swung her right arm around, hooking him solidly on the jaw. She stared at her hard knuckles in stunned disbelief. She and Heather used to take kick boxing lessons, but she’d never actually used anything she’d ever learned from them, and she’d never expected to. Her eyes hesitantly returned to Nick’s only to find a mixture of awe and loathing there. Neither of them could think of anything else to say, as Nick continued to mess with his bloody lip and Angie continued to stare at the blood, ashamed of herself.
Kevin decided to take advantage of the situation. Grabbing a tissue and shoving it into Nick’s hand, he walked over to Angie warily. He couldn’t think of her as an enemy, but after she just slugged Nick a good one, she didn’t exactly resemble what he would call a friend, either. Besides, from what he had heard from Nick and what he had seen downstairs, apparently AJ and Howie were hostages as well as the others, and now Brian. From the way Nick saw it, Angie HAD seen AJ and Howie on that floor once before, but had implied otherwise to them anyway. Kevin admitted that it galled him to be lied to, but he only assumed there was a good reason for it.
Sitting down slowly on the bed next to wear Angie was standing, rigidly returning Nick’s glare, Kevin motioned for her to pull out the chair from the desk behind her and sit down. Without ever once removing her harsh eyes from Nick, she slid into the seat. Sighing, as though to say “this is childish,” Angie turned her attention to Kevin, a look of willingness and sorrow replacing her anger.
“Why did you lie about Howie and AJ?” Kevin inquired, trying his best to keep a level head no matter what her answer was.
“Because I knew someone would get foolish thoughts of heroism like Dumbass over there,” she supplied, tilting her head suggestively toward Nick, earning an even colder glare from his direction. Kevin’s confusion urged her to expand on her explanation. “I knew one of you would want to save them, and THAT, would be impossible. We couldn’t even get down to the lobby without trying to save anybody first. What do you think would have happened if we had gone in there?” Kevin’s bitter smirk answered her question. “That’s right. We would be in there with Brian, and AJ and Howie.”
“Yeah? Better to be in there, with the ones you care about, than to abandon them!” Nick cut in, unable to keep quiet any longer. Kevin shot him a look that suggested he try harder to keep his mouth shut, but Nick ignored it once he heard Angie’s counter.
“Would you rather be in there, telling your friends that everything is going to ‘be all right,’ or would you rather be outside with the police, helping to MAKE everything all right!?” she wondered angrily as she jumped out of her seat. She could feel wetness gathering in her eyes as her thoughts strayed to James.
“I’d rather be in there with them! At least if anything happened, we’d be together at the end of it, knowing that the others hadn’t betrayed us!” Nick fired. “Like you know anything, anyway. As if you have anybody in there that you care about! Three of my best friends are in there!”
“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW!? My BROTHER is in there!” With that, Angie shoved past Nick and ran into the hall, refusing to allow him to see the tears falling down her cheeks. Am I abandoning my brother? Is that really why I’m doing this? So I can forget for a moment that I have a duty to him? She hadn’t thought so before, but now after hearing Nick’s words, she wasn’t really sure anymore. Hope that she was wrong and doubt that she probably wasn’t mingled in her mind, making any real conclusion hard to come by. It’d have been so much easier if she only had to save herself and not have to worry about anybody or anything else.
*****************
He kept looking back and forth from his leader to the hostage. He needed to know if Stevens saw what he was seeing in the new hostage. He may have been older than his leader, but there was a reason that Stevens had been chosen for that position, even if experience wasn’t in his favor. His gaze falling back upon the male hostage along side the wall, he wondered again if the man realized how obvious he was. Every few minutes, he’d glance back at the door leading to the stairs – the same door he had been brought in from. Logic stated that that could only mean one of two things.
Slowly making his way over to Stevens, he made one last glance at the hostage, then returned to searching his leader’s expression for some kind of sign that he had seen it, too. “You see that?” he whispered, not needing to expand on an explanation the moment Stevens nodded his head. He wasn’t imagining it. “I’d say he’s either planning an escape or expecting to see someone there. Which do you think it is?”
“The later. If he was hoping to escape, he would have examined the rest of our positions, not just where the door is, and he certainly can’t hope to be moving fast any time soon with the way he is slouching like that. That means he knows somebody else is in this hotel. The question is, Kirshey, were they with him and just escaped notice when he was found, or is he just hoping they find him here?” Stevens replied, keeping his voice equally low. They both pondered this for second before Kirshey spoke again.
“I don’t know if I believe his story that he was on his way to an appointment, then he would have used the elevators. However, no matter what, people don’t just leave their rooms without the key card to get back in.” He didn’t have to say anymore, for Stevens had caught on and was already on his way to the hostage.
Brian looked up to notice that the one AJ had described as the leader was heading right for him. He’d been expecting it, was even surprised that it had taken this long, and already had everything he was going to say planned out. As the man came even more near, Brian noticed AJ’s slight cringing, and the way he refused to look up at the man. It puzzled him, especially since submissiveness was not in AJ’s personality, and he noticed that the exact same actions seemed very pleasing to the leader, if his nasty grin in AJ’s direction was any hint.
“So, I see your little friend there doesn’t like me,” the man stated while he crouched down in front of Brian, his voice dripping with wicked delight. “You do know why, right?” he asked, noticing the confusion all over Brian’s face.
“No… I don’t know why, and he isn’t my friend, so it doesn’t matter,” Brian returned coldly. The last thing he needed was to have these maniacs knowing that he, AJ, and Howie were friends. They could be used against each other if that happened.
“Really, now? That’s kind of strange, considering that when we brought you in here, you went right over to them without a second thought, and you’ve been whispering to Tattoo Freak off and on. You sure you aren’t friends?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I just know him, that’s why I came here, but we are NOT friends!” Brian stated, hoping he was giving off the impression that him and AJ didn’t get along well with each other, since he really couldn’t claim now that they didn’t know each other. The leader seemed to buy it.
“Well, that’s not the reason I’m over here. I was curious as to where you’d been going when we found you. If you were heading to an appointment, and not just trying to get out of the building, how come you didn’t know about us being here? Everyone knows,” he wondered, the false confusion and sarcasm very apparent in his voice.
“I don’t know how I would have known,” Brian was hoping the stupid approach would be more believable. “I woke up from a nap to find that it was almost time for me to leave, so I hopped in the shower real fast and then started to come down here.”
“And answer me this, Brian is it?” Stevens inquired, remembering what the hostage had said his name was when they had first found him. “If you were oh-so late for this appointment of yours, how come you didn’t use the elevator instead of the stairs?”
Brian didn’t miss a beat. “I tried and they were being slow. This IS a large hotel. I got impatient and just headed for the stairwell before the doors ever opened.” Stevens didn’t seem very believing of that explanation, but he decided to drop the topic and ask a new question.
“So how long had you been running down those stairs. You were going fast, but not THAT fast for someone who couldn’t wait for an elevator.”
“My room is up on the twelfth floor. I was getting tired…” Brian stammered, cursing the desperate tone of his voice.
“Oh ok, that makes sense then.” The leader seemed very sincere; Brian felt like crying with relief. Then he held out his hand. “Give me your room key card.” Not even thinking for a second about what he was doing, Brian didn’t hesitate in handing over the card. Maybe the faster he responded, the less they would doubt his story? Taking the key card and examining it, a wicked grin appeared on Stevens’s face. “Room 876? That’s on the twelfth floor, huh?” Brian paled at the realization of what the other man was saying. “Hey, Kirshey, the eight hundreds are on the eighth floor in this hotel, aren’t they?”
“Yes, they are,” the older man replied from behind Stevens, glee in those three words he spoke.
“Since Belville and Jericker are still downstairs around the lobby, and I should really have someone else with me to watch these hostages, Hutchinson, you stay with me. I want you, Kirshey, to head up to room 876 and bring back anybody you find.” Kirshey didn’t need another word before he headed off toward the stairs with Brian's room's key card in hand, while Stevens continued to watch Brian’s depressed eyes. Leaning in a little closer, he gave out a deadly warning, “Don’t lie to me again.”
Unlikely Allies