I made it all the way back to their hotel and up to the room before my nerves got the better of me. I stood there for a few minutes before I heard the yelling coming from the room.

"You are worthless. I don't know why I put up with your sorry ass. He's not gonna be interested in you. You're just a spastic freak." Someone yelled. "God, look at you. All you can do is lie there and cry, you're pathetic."

"I'm sorry, Lance. Please don't..." the quiet voice was cut off by the sound of skin hitting skin.

"Excuse me." Chris states as he opens the door to the room I had been standing in front of.

Justin walks up to me, "Man, what you doing here?"

"I came back to make sure he was ok. What the hell is going on?

"I can't tell you that. You gotta leave man." He hands me a pass, "Come by and see him tomorrow. Maybe stick around for the show."

"Thanks man." I states as I slowly walk away from the room. (What the hell are they hiding and who hit who?)

I get into another cab and head back to my hotel. For some strange reason DJ is sitting on my bed when I get back.

"What's up man?" I ask.

"How'd it go?"

"Not good. Didn't even get in the room."

"Why not?"

"Well...when I got there I got all nervous, so I was trying to calm myself when the yelling started.

"What? Yelling?"

"Yeah, come to find out Lance had gotten back to the hotel before me and was in 'his' room yelling at him. Man you should have heard the shit he was saying."

"Like what?"

"Lance was saying that 'he' was basically a pathetic loser. From what I could tell JC was lying on the bed crying for some reason."

"Shit. That's messed up."

"Yeah, well it gets worse."

"Huh? How?"

"He hit him."

"Who?"

"Lance, he hit JC."

"No...No way. Have you seen him? JC could easily take that little ball of fluff."

"I don't think so. Something is going on with those boys." (And I plan on finding out exactly what that secret is.)

"You think he was ok?"

"I don't know. I didn't get a chance to check on him."

"What do you mean? How do you know he hit him then?"

"Well...I heard skin hit skin and assumed it was Lance hitting JC. That assumption was proven correct when the reinforcements arrived."

"Ok, you're talking in circles. What do you mean, reinforcements?"

"Chris and Justin both showed up as I was getting ready to knock on the door. They just went right in, Chris had a key to his room."

"Man, that's scarry. Well...I gotta run. Joey and I are heading out to one of the all-night clubs. He should be here by now."

"Have fun man."

"Will do." He walks out the door, "You sure you want to get involved with these guys man?"

"Yeah. I'm sure."

"Well...let me know if there is anything I can do to help." He turns around and walks smack into Justin. "Sorry."

"Naw...It's cool. Is this Mark's room?"

"Yeah, he was getting ready to take a shower."

"K. Thanks man." Justin walks in.

"Hey man. What you doing here?" I asked a bit puzzled.

"Came to ask you a favor."

"You barely know me. What could I possibly do for you?"

"Well...You seem to be a pretty cool guy and..." He blushes and trails off.

"What? I can't say yes or no if you don't ask man. I left my crystal ball back in LA."

"Ok. How long do you guys plan on being here in NY?"

"We're here til after the VMA's next week at least. We've still got a lot of stuff to work out with our contracts I'm sure, so..."

"Well...I hate to ask this but you guys are the only ones in town that we...well that we hope we can trust with this and you already have a pretty good idea of what's going on." He rambles on.

I put my hand on his shoulder, "Does this have to do with what I overheard at your hotel?"

"Yeah. We need to get JC away from Lance but..."

"But you can't take him out of the city because of committments?"

"Yeah. How'd you..."

I smile, "I am in the same business. You can bring him over here if you'd like. He can hang out here. I've got an extra bed and all." I gesture to the other bed.

He breaks into one of his killer smiles, "Man...thanks." He walks back out the door and starts frantically waving his arms. He steps back into the room followed by a very large black man carrying a limp body and being followed by a small man that I didn't recognise.

"Put him on the bed away from the window." I state as I walk over to take a good look at him. "What the hell did he do to him?" I yell.