Gerard's POV

We both stared at our half eaten pancakes. My nerves made my stomach churn and I felt like something was chewing its way through my stomach lining. Billie had tried to ask me a few 'get to know you' questions in an attempt to distract both of us, and I'd tried to answer. But neither of us could really concentrate so we eventually gave up in favor of staring at our plates. So we waited for the man with the straggly, dark hair to bring Frankie and Mikey. I didn't know if I fully trusted that man, but he had said that we were in danger waiting on the street. He seemed to be worried about our safety and a man who gave us money to go to a diner for pancakes couldn't be all bad. He'd even given us his car, which was much nicer than Ray's hoopie. He also said he would explain it all once we were in a safe place. I figured we would just have to wait and see. Once I saw my Frankie walk in, I lept from my seat and took her in my arms. Mikey and straggly guy walked past us into the main part of the diner, but we stayed in the little waiting area between the front doors and the next set of doors a few feet away. She crushed her lips to mine, while I eagerly kissed back with such force I worried I was hurting her. But she didn't seem to mind. Her hands went to my hips, pulling me close. Her scent, the softness of her lips, the feel of her hair were all driving me crazy. I reached up under the cap she was wearing just to feel the strands. When I began to massage her back, she let out the sexiest moan. That just wasn't fair. I was getting really hard fast, painfully so. Once we went back in there with the others, it would be downright embarrassing.

"I missed you so much sugar. Are you ok? You know you're killing me right now. You can't just rub up on a guy and moan like that in public. You're leaving me with a painful problem.” She fake pouted, so I could only chuckle at that point. I looked straight into her hazel green eyes and put a hand on either side of her face. "Still just as perfect as I remember." I let out a sigh, then started a barrage of questions.

“Did anyone hurt you at all? Are you safe now? What's going on baby? Oh, I was so worried about you?" She just squeezed me back tightly. I gave her a brief peck on the lips, remembering people were waiting for us. People who wanted answers as well. It also occurred to me that we had just made out in front of our brothers. Not sure who that was more embarrassing for. Them. Most definitely them.

Billie went to the pick up counter to collect our order, which they were kind enough to keep in the back for them. Bert said he could drive us back to Ray's truck, if we didn't mind being cosy. We were all fine with it. Better than a 2 mile walk.

"Uh, Bert? Billie? I'd really appreciate it if you Gee and Mikey were able to sit in the back seat with me. There's something I need to say to the boys before we get to the hotel. I need to give them a heads up on something." Bert's eyes light with understanding right away and he nodded. Billie cocked his head to the side a little intrigued but he nodded as well.
“Sure, more leg room for me, little sis.” Billie opened the front passenger door and hopped in. I couldn't be sure but I think I saw Bert mouth something to Billie, then start the car. My brother furrowed his brows while I felt even more sick to my stomach. We hopped in the back and start toward the truck.

"Please don't look at me like that you 2. Nobody is going to die." Mikey looked relieved. I turned to Mikey. Really? He shrugged. "Nobody cheated.” I let a large sigh of relief out. It was Frankie's turn to look at me like, really? “So, I'm going to go with the rip off the bandaid approach. We have Lindsay back at the motel. She's been sedated the whole time, but we'll have to wake her up soon. She doesn't know most of what's going on, because she's been out of it. One thing we don't plan to tell her is I plan on getting some revenge for the way she treated you. Nothing too serious. Just a couple of things, photographed and or on video. In fact, if you have any ideas? What's something that you know would bother her the most? Or what is a goal she has? Does she have any plans for herself, other than being a gold digger?” I felt the air had been sucked out of my lungs.

“Mikey, the kids that beat you up, were they by any chance the jocks on any of the sports teams at your school? Do you know which team or teams?"

"Yeah, all the jocks. They had a schedule made out," he looked down at his lap, ashamed. "They would rotate. The entire teams took part. Why?" She smiled at him.

"We can get them good. If you want, of course. Anyway, we can get another room beside the one we have now for planning that kind of stuff. We'll need more space anyway." I felt like someone had repeatedly punched me in the stomach. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my breath back. Lindsay. Here. This was my time away from her.

"You ok, Honey?" No. I nodded just a little, I think. Frankie took my hand in hers and started rubbing her thumb gently on the back. “We don't have to do anything you don't want to do.”

"Gee, listen, ok?” Mikey, who sat on my other side, put a brotherly arm around my shoulder. “I know you loved her and I know she broke your heart. But she's not worth your heartache. You have a wonderful girlfriend that loves you. She's worth more than anything Lindsay could ever offer. You have a lot of friends that love you and a brother that loves you like crazy. You're the most talented, creative, rad guy I know.” My little brother is always supporting me, looking out for me. I don't know what people without brothers do.

"Thanks, Mikes.” My voice sounded small and unsure, even to myself. Once we arrived at Ray's truck, we all looked at each other wondering the same thing. Who would ride with Bert? I could tell he didn't want to ask anybody did come with him, but at the same time I think he didn't trust any of us new people to stay with him and help. My hand grabbed on to Frankie's as an unspoken vow that I was staying with her no matter what. What happened next surprised me.

"I'll go with you Bert."

"Thank you. Mikey was it?" He reached out and shook his hand. "We should hurry." I was still so confused as to why.

*
*

Soon we were all at a motel, not too nice, not too shabby. Bert purchased an extra room which turned out to be right next door to the room they were already staying in. Then we all walked into the new room and sat down.

"I'd like to let Mike know we made it back safely. Drop off his food. Tell him we have more ... help and an extra room so he's not surprised. Why don't you get started with your part?" She nodded. He started to leave, but then turned back around. “I'm glad you're all here and thankful for the help. The only reason I didn't want more to come was because of the danger. Frankie will touch on that. Oh, and Gee? I don't see any reason why you ever need to see Lindsay. We'll make sure to keep that from happening if possible.

“Thanks.”

Once he pulled the door shut, she took a deep break and jumped in.

"My step dad hired someone to kidnap me." A look of pain crossed Billie. Poor Billie. This must be hard for him too. "Not just anyone, someone very powerful named M. Shadows. He is part owner of Baker and Sanders Trucking. M is involved in more than trucking. He's also a very ruthless and influential criminal with his hand in a lot of different shady business transactions. Bert and Mike who you will meet a little later, were honest employees of the trucking company. But M. started inducing them to do things they didn't want to do like transporting illegal things and driving contraband over the border tax free. He would get them to do this by threatening their family. I guess this guy is bad enough that he follows through with these kind of threats. Evidently this is the first time they've ever been asked to do something as big as kidnapping, and they really didn't want to do it. Gee, somebody is watching Bert's 10 year old sister right now as we speak. I don't know about Mike's family just because he's been quieter about it, but it's a similar thing with him too. Bert actually mouthed 'I'm so sorry' before he chloroformed me. Lindsay is in the next room because she was walking up to my house as they were walking up. She obviously would have been a witness. They would have just killed her if they were criminals. She's a loose end, she's not my friend so I don't think that someone would automatically connect the 2 of us. But they don't know what to do with her now, because they aren't criminals. I suggested keeping her sedated just short term until we can figure out how to handle things. We can't keep her like that forever. She'll go to the police for sure, which in this case I do understand."

I'm speechless and I'm never speechless. Billie's eyes were as wide as they could possibly open.

"Where do I fit in this?"

"Yes, Mikey! The exciting part! That was not a good way to word it. Did either of you know Lindsay carried a flash drive?" We shrugged their shoulders. "Well she did and it's way more valuable then even she realized I'm sure. Also, way more dangerous. Which means we're in danger for even having it in our possession if anyone were to realize this exists and that we have it." I just sat there, stunned, with my mouth slightly open. You brought your laptop, right Mikey?” He nodded. It took a few minutes to boot up, so she took that time to give us a further warning.

“These are blackmail pictures, so you can imagine what type of pictures these are going to be.” We all nodded. Her face looked serious and sad. “Gee told me about Lindsay's love of money and her willingness to do just about anything to get it. It seems she was going to start branching out into blackmail. The date stamps on the pics are all recent and considering she's still alive, I think it's safe to say she hadn't tried it yet. Maybe the high school guys.”

“It's ready, Frankie.” She handed Mikey the drive, which he put into the laptop.

“One more warning. Some good will come out of these, I hope. It's going to help us get rid of M. and save Bert and Mike, as well as their families. Not sure about the rest yet. But some of these are really going to hurt Billie and Gee, and that hurts me. But I didn't expect you to come along. Can you handle it?” We nodded again and crowded around the screen. “Are you sure?” We nodded. I'm dying to know what's on this now. Mikey started up the slided show.

At first it was people I didn't know. Frankie pointed out M. with the important men's wives to Mikey (who would be important later). Then our high school jocks came up. I were too stunned to know how we felt. Some of these guys were obviously not into what they were doing and that made me sick. And these were guys I hated. Mikey's face was like stone. Then Lindsay started appearing in the pictures. I knew Linds cheated. She told me so. But seeing her with other men was a whole new level of pain. This might have been after we broke up but either way, I felt like I now had a mental picture of all the times she cheated on me. She had photographed herself with rich middle aged men. Why did she bother with my measly salary? She didn't even have to put out with me. I ran to the bathroom and threw up. They kept the slide show going without me mercifully, because I didn't think I could handle anymore. I was rinsing out my mouth when I heard Billie scream.

“No!!!!” He ran to one of the beds, grabbed one of the pillows and screamed into it. Mikey looked up at Frankie questioningly. I'd was coming out of the bathroom when Frankie started explaining to Mikes. The curiousity of what Billie was upset about was too much ,so I walked over.

“The guy on the left is M. The guy on the right is Billie's dad. What's worse is that I'm going to have to use that pic to prove to my mom that I was telling the truth. I think it's going to help us get rid of those 2 as well. Even though I hate everything he's done in the last month, it still tears me up to see this. He was the step dad I loved for years. He was always more of a parent that my mom. I reacted very similarly to Billie, which must have been strange for Bert and Mike. They really are great guys. They are giving me a lot of trust. Until everything is resolved, if we turn them in, they're screwed. They've been screwed for awhile and they shouldn't have been.” She sniffed once. She manually clicked back to the pic to that M. guy with a few women. “So, Mikey, this and a few other pics are the key. Here he is sleeping with the wives of 5 of the most powerful drug lords. As if that wasn't stupid enough, he let himself be photographed. I'm going to try and get a meeting set up with whomever is the most powerful of these 5. I need dirt and details on all of them, as much as you can find on short notice. Bert is going to try to get me an introduction. I'm going to have to really impress him.” Still speechless, but I was able to shake my head.

“Are you crazy, sis?” Billie lifted himself off the bed and was now hugging her. “You are going to get yourself killed. But it's a pretty good idea, I'll admit. I just want it to be someone else going.”

“It has to be me. How do I say this... I'm a pretty, young girl and the single heir to my famous father's fortune. I will be able to get some mileage out of that.” He shook his head. “And I need Mikey to come with me.” She turned to look at him. “Are you willing to help?” He nodded.

“Great! I'll get you the names of the guys and wives asap. Thanks Mikes. I couldn't do this without you.”

“If you die, I'm going to kill you!” I finally found my voice. “That goes for both of you.”

“Ok.” Frankie gave me a small peck on the cheek. You have my permission to kill us both if we die.

Notes

So, I've been a busy little B.... I re-wrote this chapter. It's not a complete overhaul, but it was more than a polish. Hope that was enlightening. Just read it again.