Nick walked Sarah to her hotel room step. She turned and faced him, still not knowing what to say. She unlocked the door, looked back at Nick again, and then suddenly out of no where, she started bawling.

"I'm sorry," Nick apologized softly, resting a firm hand on her shoulder. "I know this is hard to take in."

She bowed her head and nodded.

"What's hard to take in?" A voice called from Sarah's doorway.

It belonged to A.j., and he stood there with his arms folded.

Nick was silent and Sarah wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her blue sweater. "I didn't know you were going to be here," Sarah sniffed.

That didn't faze A.j. "Why are you guys out so late at night?" He asked. "Alone?"

"My car broke down," she answered, an insisting tone to her voice.

A.j. tilted his head back, and he and Nick exchanged cold stares. He went back inside the hotel room.

Nick grabbed Sarah before she went in after him. "Remember," he whispered. "Don't tell anyone if you want to live." He let her go and started walking back to his car. He turned around and added, "That's not a threat by me."

Sarah stood there, stuck with fear. Not a threat by me. The words echoed through her mind and she suddenly felt paranoid, so she got inside, slammed the door and double locked it. What exactly did he mean by that? What had she gotten herself into? He couldn't be serious, he just couldn't. Underground crime lords? Was he nuts? She needed to talk to him some more…but first, she needed to take some pills and get some rest, and most importantly, think.

Nick drove down the road sinisterly. Loud rap music pumped through his speakers and he gritted his teeth. He was angry but he wasn't exactly sure why. Maybe he was angry with himself, that he was already trusting someone he hardly knew. If she screwed up, they'd find Nick, and do so many awful things to him he would be begging for them to kill him.

The Backstreet Boys were on the move again going to the next city, so Nick headed back to his tour bus. Once he was inside, he sat on his bunk and made sure the crimson red curtains were drawn. He got his laptop out from under his pillow and started working more on his continuing case.

He opened up his email system. It was nothing but a green screen with white words. He had four new messages. He pressed a few commands on his keyboard and loaded the decoder. Only one was actually sent to him:

Tempest,
A gem for a microchip. The trade was appreciated. Quit now and maybe you won't end up like your jewel.

Intergang

Nick stared at the words blankly. So Sapphire hadn't made it. He was so sure…

He cupped his face in his hands and began crying the way Sarah had. Sapphire was dead now, and for what? And instead of thinking it through, instead of making the right decision, he just blurted everything out to Sarah. He couldn't keep doing this. He'd call Sarah in the morning, tell her he was just joking…or maybe he would tell her the truth and just say he didn't want to do this anymore because he didn't want her hurt. He bent his head back. Even though he knew before that they would never see each other again, now he missed Sapphire in a whole new way. Now she was really out of his life. She could have had such a good life. She had a normal one until…

"Until I screwed it up," Nick muttered to himself.