Brian shook his head, slowly. “I know. I mean, you would think it was just someone wanting money or something. I just feel like the more time goes by, the worse this whole situation looks.”
“Hey.” Ang walked in the room and handed them each a drink. “Anything?”
“Nope.” AJ shook his head and stood up, offering his chair to Ang. “I’m going to go find Krista. I’ll see you guys in a little bit.”
Ang sat down in the seat the AJ had vacated and reached over, grabbing Brian’s hand. “How’s Nick doing?”
Brian shrugged. “Not good, obviously. I haven’t seen him in a while. I think he went down to the beach or something.” He sighed. “I don’t know what to do for them, Ang. I mean, they need each other right now. Have they even spoken to each other since this morning?”
Ang shook her head. “No. I guess Katelin really flipped out on him earlier. She’s upstairs lying down in Nick’s room. Hopefully sleeping by now.”
“Is she blaming him for this?” Brian asked, warily.
“Don’t you dare,” Ang warned, standing up. “You’re just itching for a way to make Katelin the bad person here and I’m not going to let you. Her son was just kidnapped, Brian. Kidnapped! You have no idea what this must be like for her. Or Nick. So don’t you dare try and make it like she did something wrong.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Brian defended. “I was just…”
“Whatever it is,” Ang snapped. “Just don’t.” With that, she spun around on her heel and marched out of the room, leaving Brian there shaking his head. He wasn’t going to say anything negative about Kate. God knows he couldn’t even begin to understand what she and Nick were going through right now. He just wanted to know what she was thinking. What Nick was thinking. Brian hated feeling helpless and right now he felt so unbelievably helpless it wasn’t even funny. Aidan was gone. And they had absolutely no idea where he was.
Nick sat out on the beach in front of his house just staring out at the Gulf of Mexico. He felt completely…empty. Yeah, empty, he thought to himself. That’s the word. He felt like it was his fault. How the hell did someone get into his house? His house was locked up like Fort Knox all of the time. People knew where he lived and in order to keep them from harassing him all of the time, he had to keep it like that. So how the hell had someone gotten through and taken his son?
Aidan. Where the hell was he? He was probably so scared by this point. Not knowing where his parents were or who he was with. Nick felt like he had failed everyone. The looks of pity on his friend’s faces every time they came near him. The condescending tone in his mother’s voice when he had talked to her and explained to her what happened. He had basically been in tears on the phone with her and all she did was essentially tell him that he wasn’t careful enough. That his house should’ve been more secure. That he should have been more alert and heard when someone had come into his house. And Katelin. He had never seen the look of pure hatred on a person’s face before. And it was all directed towards him. He had lost their son. It was all his fault. Not hers.
Nick was shaken out of his thoughts by an ear-piercing scream. It sounded as if it was coming from his house. And then, he realized, it sounded like Katelin. Without giving it a second thought, he jumped up and ran towards his house.
At the sound of Katelin’s shriek, Ang dropped her cup on the table she was sitting at with Krista and the two of them took off running up the stairs. “Kate!” Ang called, running into Nick’s bedroom. It was empty. “Kate? Where are you?”
“She’s in here,” Krista said, spotting Katelin sitting on the ground in Aidan’s room, her knees pulled up to her chest, tears streaming down her cheeks. In her shaking hands she held a note. Krista knelt down next to her and, with one arm wrapped around her shoulders, she used her other hand to take the note out of her hand and passed it to Ang.
Ang took one look at it and had a sharp intake of breath. “Oh god…When the hell did this get here?”
“What’s wrong?” Nick burst into the room, his eyes immediately drawn to the site of Katelin on the ground. He looked at Krista and Ang for any clue as to what had happened. Ang carefully handed over the note and watched as Nick’s face suddenly went stark white. “Who found this?”
“Kate did,” Ang replied. She looked up, seeing as they now had an audience of people in the doorway to the bedroom. “She hasn’t said anything. As soon as we heard her scream we ran up the stairs and found her right here.
“What does it say?” AJ piped up from the doorway. Nick wordlessly turned around and handed it to him. AJ was almost afraid to see what it said but finally looked down at it. Lose something? This is the second thing I’ve taken that’s yours. This isn’t about money. This is about getting what’s mine. He handed it over to Brian. “Go give this to the Detective. I think he needs to see this.”
“Kate, everything’s going to be okay.” Ang bent down to her best friend’s level and wrapped her arms around her. “Why don’t you go lay down?”
Katelin just shook her head. Ang looked around for help, her eyes finally landing on Nick. She pleaded at him with her eyes. Kate and Nick needed each other and right now, they were spending more time pushing each other away then leaning on the other for support. Their son was gone. They needed to stop blaming each other.
Nick just stared at her, his heart breaking. He needed her. So badly. But she hated him right now. He knew it. He wanted to be the one with his arms wrapped around her, comforting her. He needed her to be comforting him. But she blamed him for losing their son. And nothing that Nick did or said was going to change that fact. Without a second thought, he tore his eyes away from the scene in front of him and fled from the room.
Ang’s shoulders sagged in defeat and she looked back towards Katelin. She stood up, bringing Katelin up with her. “Come on. You need to get some rest.”
“NO!” Katelin yelled as she pushed Ang away, seemingly coming to life. At her sudden outburst everyone stopped what they were doing. Even Nick, who was almost halfway down the stairs. Katelin shoved Ang off of her. “I don’t want to lay down, god damnit! That’s not getting us anywhere. My son is out there, Ang! He’s scared and alone. And no one’s doing anything!”
“Katelin,” AJ took a step towards her. “Everyone’s looking for Aidan. The police. The FBI. There’s nothing else we can do but wait.”
“Wait for what?” Her voice was quieter now. And tears began to pool in her eyes again. “You saw that note, AJ. They don’t want money. We could offer them millions. It’s not what they want. They just want him.”
“I’m sorry.” It was barely heard above the commotion in the room, but the whispered plea made everyone pause for a second. Slowly, Katelin turned around and looked at Nick standing in the doorway. “I lost him, Kate. I lost our son. But I’ll do anything to get him back. Anything, I swear. Just tell me what to do.”
Krista leaned towards AJ and Brian. “We should leave them alone.”
AJ nodded and signaled to Ang to leave the room. He followed Krista, Brian, and Ang down the stairs so Nick and Kate could be alone. “Where did Kevin and Howie go?” he asked when they reached the bottom of the stairs.
“They went to get dinner for everyone,” Christine answered, emerging from the kitchen. “Is everything okay upstairs? I didn’t want to intrude.”
“Kate found a note in Aidan’s room,” Ang answered. “It was from the kidnapper.”
“Jesus,” Christine breathed. “Do they even have any idea where to look?”
AJ shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I agree with Brian. The longer this goes on, the worse it looks.”
“Please don’t push me away,” Nick whispered, looking at his former girlfriend. “I know that we’ve had our share of problems. I know that what I did in New York was wrong and it scared you. But please, Kate, don’t push me away. I need you.”
Katelin just stared at him. Gone was the arrogant, son-of-a-bitch that had been with her in New York and in his place was a lost, scared, little boy. “Where is he, Nick?” she whispered. “Who would do this?”
Nick shrugged, reaching out for her. Katelin didn’t even try to push him away this time. “I don’t know. I have absolutely no idea who could have gotten in here.” He reached down and brushed her hair out of her eyes. “You need to get some rest. You’re about to collapse.” Katelin nodded and allowed Nick to take her hand and lead her to his bedroom. He flicked on the light and pulled Katelin over to the bed. “Take Ang’s advice, Kate, and lay down for a while.” He helped her crawl under the covers and then leaned over, again, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “He’ll be back. He’ll be back and this will all be a distant nightmare.”
He started to get up but she grabbed his hand. “Stay.” He started to protest but she just silenced him. “You’ve been going non-stop, Nicky. Please stay? I…I need you.”
Slowly, he nodded. He took his shoes off and pulled the covers back on the other side of the bed and climbed in. Her back was to him. For fifteen minutes, he just stared at the back of her head. He wondered where it had gone wrong. They had been so close. So close to getting back where they had been before she left. He wanted that more than anything. Just to be with her again. To be a family. And now, Aidan had been ripped from their lives. Her shoulders started shaking and he knew that she was crying. For a minute he didn’t know what to do. He so wanted to just pull her into his arms…kiss her tears away…make her forget everything that was going on around her. He hesitated for a second, before wrapping his arms around her from behind and pulling her back against him. “They’ll find him, Kate. I swear to you, they will find him.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“You alright?” Kevin snuck up behind Adrienne, causing her to jump.
“Jesus, you scared me.” She was sitting on the wall separating Nick’s back yard from the beach just watching the waves lap against the shore. She turned around and reached out to Kevin, pulling him down next to her. “Anything?”
He shook his head. “Nope. How are you doing?”
Adrienne shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m scared as hell. For Aidan. And for Nick and Kate. I’m terrified that something else is going on here. That…”
“Stop,” Kevin commanded, setting his hand on her shoulders. “They will find him and he’s going to be alright. Don’t even think that something else has happened to him.”
She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. “How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
She looked up into his green eyes. “Stay so positive. All day, every time anyone has started to feel helpless, you’re telling us that it will be alright.”
“Because it will be.” He leaned down to drop a kiss on her forehead just as she raised her head to look at him. They’re eyes locked for a second before Kevin slowly lowered his head to hers, they’re lips barely touching. “Adrienne…”