Change is Good - 22. Chapter 22 - End Game?

Chapter 22: End Game?

Ellen sat at her desk with her head in her hands. The last few hours had been the most frustrating of her career. With hardly any leads to go on the best they could do was have Alex listed as a missing person. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Shawn hadn’t given her all the details and she was missing something, but without anything to back up her suspicions there was very little she could do. Ellen let out a sigh as she got up from her desk. Her options were limited at the moment but she vowed she would do all she could to return Alex to his loved ones.

*Shawn*

“Are you sure that you want to go through with this?” Justin asked as I continued driving on. “Once you do this, things may never go back to the way you want them too. Understand the big picture in regards to your actions or you may end up cutting Alex deeper than anything Mark could do.”

The remainder of the ride, we rode in silence. Justin had made his point and I was processing everything that he was saying.

We finally pulled into the parking lot of my destination. I shut the car off and pressed my forehead against the steering wheel. “I don’t know how else to keep Alex from hurting again. He ends up in these situation because I am too weak to protect him or to afraid to do what should be done.” I could feel the tears building up.

After feeling a hand placed on my shoulder I turned to Justin. “I understand how you are feeling, probably better than the rest of the gang. There is a line that I am not prepared to cross, no matter how angry I get; however, I can’t say I wouldn’t be thinking the exact same thing as you are, if Tiffany were in this situation. The last thing I’ll say to you is this. Can you live with everything that comes after?”

Justin was right. I couldn’t do it I knew I just didn’t have it in me. Looking up at the building one final time, I restarted my car and pulled out of the parking lot.

Justin let out a sigh of relief beside me. “I have no idea what that place was, but I had a feeling it wasn’t very good.”

“Your right. It may sound strange to you, but Dad wanted me to always know how to protect myself. He doesn’t allow me to keep it at home so I leave it here. Dad owns this building and it is our private shooting range.” I stated in a matter of fact fashion. I noticed Justin looked slightly uncomfortable after my revelation.

“I’m glad you came through with a different resolve. I know you want Mark to go down for all of the pain that he caused but I don’t think that would have been the answer.”

Having Justin on my side was a short-lived boost to my spirits. By day four, I found myself lacking the will to do much of anything. I waited in my room; desperate for any information I could scrounge up. I had called Ellen each day to find out if anything new had happened, but her answers were always the same. I was tempted to tell her about the video chat and ransom but I couldn’t shake the feeling it would cause more harm than good so I continued to keep it to myself.

“You look awful,” Austin said as he slowly entered my room with a bag of food and coffee. “I thought a little snack might help you keep your strength up. I know you haven’t eaten or slept much in almost a week.”

I was tempted to ignore him, but my stomach seemed to have other plans. “Here eat; really it won’t do any good if you worry yourself sick. When was the last time you left this room or showered?”

I simply shrugged my shoulders and took a bite of the sandwich he bought me. “Well enough of that, I know we are all worried sick about Alex, but your current state is unacceptable. Finish your food, get cleaned up and then you are coming with me.” Judging by the tone of his voice, I don’t think I was really in a position to argue.

*Austin*

Getting Shawn out of the house proved to be an even greater chore than I anticipated; however, I felt it was necessary to get him out.

“Where are you taking me? I am really in no mood for any fun or games not with Alex…” his words got caught in his throat as he attempted to choke back his tears.

“I know, I just thought you could use a little fresh air, just some time to get your head back on straight,” I told him rubbing his shoulder as we waited for the stoplight to change. I decided to stop at a local restaurant to get some real food into Shawn’s system after the snack I had brought to him earlier.

“Thank you Austin, I appreciate you putting up with me even with my sour mood,” Shawn spoke between small bits of his food.

“It’s no big deal at all. I know this is by far the last thing you want to be doing, but sitting around the house waiting for something to happen won’t do you any good either.” Shawn looked up at me with a smile before it quickly turned back into a frown.

Leaving the restaurant, I wasn’t quite ready to take Shawn back home so we ended up driving around rather aimlessly. We rode in silence, Shawn leaning out of the window as we found ourselves coming into the newer part of town, where new houses were still being built up. I was taken by surprise when Shawn suddenly pulled my emergency brake up.

“Shawn, what the hell was that about?” He didn’t bother to look in my direction he simply pointed out of the passenger window. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I would not have believed it. Mark was casually strolling around like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Shawn wait!” I yelled as he attempted to jump out of the car.

“Why are you stopping me? He knows where Alex is I have to…”

“You have to what?” I yelled cutting him off. “What make you think he would tell you anything just because you know how to throw your weight around?”

Shawn leaned back in his seat as he calmed himself. “Good, now what I propose is we tail him for a little bit. It would be too obvious to follow by car but with the daylight fading this might be a good opportunity.”

With a plan in place, we followed Mark for about ten minutes before he came to a complete stop. Thinking we had been spotted, we immediately dropped to the ground, the tall unkempt grass obscuring us from view. Mark looked around several times before making his way into a run down house at the dead end of a cul-de-sac.

“Alex has to be in there,” Shawn announced excitedly as he made a move to get up.

I quickly pulled him back down. “Even if he is in there we have no idea where and who else could be involved. Now that we know where Mark appears to be sneaking off to, we can observe and come up with an idea.”

**********

Mark came back shortly before nightfall looking even more agitated than before.

“Leave,” was the only thing he said to me as made his way over to Alex.

“What for?” I asked truly afraid of the answer.

“I just need to have a private word with our honored guest here,” he replied with a look that nearly made me sick. Taking a quick glance at Alex, he begged with his eyes for me to do something. Feeling awful about myself, I simply nodded my head and made my way to the living room.

I had just sat down on the couch when I noticed a phone I hadn’t seen before on top of an old television set. Picking it up I realized it had to be Alex’s, as Mark had taken to using burner phones recently. Before I could examine it, any further Mark summoned me back into the room.

“You are back on guard duty; I am going out to see if I can’t get a better grasp of what is going on around here. I’ll miss that sweet mouth on you cutie, but I shouldn’t be gone long,” Mark said to Alex as he wiped remnants of what I could easily guess was, away from Alex’s face.

Mark left the room after his exchange with Alex and it was in that time that I made up my mind what I wanted to do. Alex was right, what Mark had over me was not worth all of the trouble I had gotten myself into letting him hold that over my head as leverage.

“Listen to me carefully I want to help you out of this but I know that it will not be easy. I have given you very little reason to trust me. I can understand your hesitation, but given the circumstance’s I’m going to need you to trust me.” Alex simply nodded, as that was about all he could manage before Mark came back into the room.

“What are you doing near him?” he scowled.

“I was just making sure that he was properly secured, at this stage in the game I’d rather not run the risk of this all being in vain because he manages to escape somehow.”

“Sometimes I don’t give you enough credit, I suppose you are smarter than you look and act.” Ignoring his insults were easy at this point, I’ve already made up my mind so things were not to work in his favor.

Playing with the phone in my pocket I made a point to let the tip of it peak out, into view for Alex to see. When his face lite up with recognition I knew, I was right in my thinking. I made my way out of the room leaving Mark under the impression I was simply going out to use the bathroom. Making sure the coast was clear I pulled out Alex’s phone that I had swiped on my exit; luckily, Mark had simply turned off the phone instead of getting rid of it. I scrolled through the messages on his phone until I found what I was after, I hope my instincts were right and this works out. Mark called out one last time that he was leaving, now was my chance.

***********

*Shawn*

I was siting on pins and needles waiting for something to happen, exhausted from the ordeal. We had been watching the house for hours hoping for something to happen. I had sent Austin back to inform everyone else what we had stumbled across, so I wasn’t surprised sometime later when Justin and Jason took their place in the tall grass beside me.

After what seemed like hours, Mark finally reemerged from the house, again looking around methodically before making his way off to god knows where at this point. We were prepped to go examine the house a bit when my phone began to buzz with Alex’s ringtone.

“Really, of all the things you forget to do while trying to be covert, you didn’t silence that thing?” Justin asked while Jason looked around making sure no one had heard and was coming our way.

Ignoring Justin’s comment, I took a breath before answering the phone.

“Hello?” a voice I did not recognize came through. “I’m hoping I have the right person, is this Shawn?”

“Who’s asking,” I replied with a slight edge in my voice as I motioned for Justin and Jason to go ahead and check out the house.

“A name is something I can not give you, but I think I have something better,” there was a bit of rustling in the background before I heard a voice that brought tears to my eyes. “Shawn is that you?”

“Yes baby it’s me. Are you ok? What is happening? Who is that?” I asked frantically.

“There isn’t much time to explain, just know that I have help on the inside and I will do whatever it takes to make it back to you.”

The phone line just clicked dead and I desperately wanted to call back when I heard rapid footsteps approaching. Crouching back down quickly, I was just in time to avoid being seen, as Mark dashed by. I felt a lump in my throat hoping that Justin and Jason would manage to avoid being detected.

*************

“What took you so long you idiot, I was starting to think that you had fallen in the toilet or something” Mark shouted, clearly upset that I had had taken so long to open the door.

“It took a bit longer to take care of business, but I’m sure you know how it can be when you are full of shit,” I said with a slight smirk.

“Just shut up and get back to keeping watch over the pretty boy here. I want to take a minute to think.”

“Well you did ask them for some pretty outrageous demands, maybe it takes awhile for everything to be ready,” I responded knowing full well, of what he asked of whomever he called up on the phone that day.

He didn’t even respond and just huffed out of the room thankfully. I bent down near Alex and whispered softly. “I am going to loosen your restraints a little bit and when the time comes you will know what to do but play like you are still tightly bound.” Alex nodded slowly to me letting me know he understood and for now it seemed that I gained a little of his trust.

*Austin*

As much as we wanted to be there for Alex, we knew we would more or less just be in the way.

“This waiting is driving me crazy it’s been hours and we haven’t gotten any news at all.” I whined a little, because it was true and a little to break the ice.

Tiffany still has barely said anything to any of us and has barely spoken when she wasn’t quietly sobbing in Justin’s embrace. We often found her asleep in Alex’s bed clutching onto one of his many pillows.

“Hey babe, I know your trying to help, I just don’t think your methods are having the desired effect,” Jason whispered lightly in my ear. I almost jumped out of my skin. I didn’t know he had come back.

I let out a sigh and leaned back into Jason.

“I know I just don’t know what else to do. I feel as though I have to stay occupied to keep myself from thinking about the worse case scenario in all of this,” I whispered into his chest, enjoying the security I felt in his arms. The boys had come back shortly filling us in on what they had found, coming up with a foolish rescue plan in my opinion.

“We appreciate the effort believe me,” Justin said quietly while stroking Tiffany’s hair as she slept soundly on him. “We haven’t all known Alex as long as Tiffany here has and he has a special bond that we can’t compare to with Shawn so I know this is the hardest thing for the two of them. Helping the rest of us stay in good spirits even in these trying times again are much appreciated.”

I smiled as I thought to myself, I am not quite sure who said it but it is proven true, Justin doesn’t speak out much in our little group but when he does, everyone stops to listen as he makes his point.

“I know we all just hope to have the little guy back home safe, soon. Now, I’ll take Tiffany upstairs and see about getting a little bit of rest. I’ll be ready to move out in the morning,” Justin said nodding his head in Shawn’s direction.

Watching them leave, I was inclined to follow their example and led Jason to one of the spare rooms. While not in the mood for anything sexual, we did strip down and just enjoy the closeness of one another, my thoughts being with Alex as I drifted to sleep in Jason’s warm embrace.

*Shawn*

The night has been surreal, later on into the evening we received several messages from whoever was on the inside claiming that they wanted to help solve this mess. What I couldn’t quite grasp however was that whoever this person was, they were not asking for anything in return. I had called Ellen and informed her of everything we had found out, omitting the part about attempting to get Alex back on our own.

“Ellen, I still feel uneasy about this person on the inside. I don’t want to get my hopes up and think they are on our side, inadvertently giving them information that could harm our efforts because of my connection to Alex.”

“I understand how you must feel and while we are being very cautious we are taking every lead with get very seriously. Mark would not be anticipating information coming from his side if he is indeed a part of this.”

“I understand that, but I don’t know how much of a chance I am willing to take with Alex’s safety on the line. What if we are actually the ones playing right into a trap?”

“At this juncture, I don’t think Mark would do something that could potentially risk him losing out on his demands. While I wish, you had mentioned that you had contact and ransom request from Mark earlier, I do understand why you did not. I do agree with you to some extent that something seems out of place but again this may be our best chance without any hard evidence.”

Shortly after my conversation with Ellen ended, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I made up my mind to put a little trust in this mysterious person; pulling out my phone, I sent a response to let them know my position. I had no way of knowing at the time but based on a hunch that I was leaving out important information, Ellen had set up a small unit to watch over us and keep her aware of our movements.

I was pumped up and ready for whatever was going to be thrown my way this day. At midday, Justin and Jason accompanied me back to the run down house where we found Mark. Setting up for our makeshift ambush, I sent a quick message to the person on the other end of Alex’s phone to let them in on what we were planning. After several minutes of no response, we were just about ready to move when the scene before my eyes caused that ever-present lump to reappear in my throat.

***********

I was startled from my sleep when Mark came rushing back into the room. Clearly, at the edge of his patience he started to look around the room tossing articles of all kinds around the room.

“Where is it, where is it?” he screamed, as he continued to bore through the room like a tornado.

“What are you doing? You are actually starting to freak me out and that’s saying something considering the situation we are in.”

“I thought I left the pretty boy’s phone around here somewhere. Now I can’t find the damn thing,” he screamed.

“What do you even need it for?” I asked as I began to get nervous.

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I’m just tired of playing this game my patience is starting to run thin with this whole thing. Get him up I might need him shortly.”

Once Mark left, I quickly did as I was told. While making the restraints less effective, keeping up the appearance of them being tightly secured. There wasn’t much time to communicate with Alex, so we gave a few nods for understanding. I ushered him out of the room to Mark, who was waiting just inside the front door.

“It’s almost a shame that things couldn’t have been different between us, don’t you agree pretty boy?” I could feel my stomach lurch listening to Mark talk as he ran his hands over Alex, who could only shake it off with a defiant gaze. “Awe, don’t give me that look babe, it will be over soon.” Mark opened the door holding Alex in front of him with a mischievous smile plastered across his face.

I tried to keep my eyes focus somewhere else; anywhere else just to be able to avoid what was in front of me. I was looking at the wall when a loud vibration sounded off in my pocket causing my blood to go instantly cold.

“What the fuck is that?” Mark asked his voice laced with venom as he slowly turned to look in my direction. Alex’s phone had gone off while being press against useless objects in my pocket causing the vibration to come off louder. He knew what was happening, that much was for sure as he had told me to refrain from bringing my phone before we even met up. My options were limited here and now, but before I could even decide on a course of action, he reached out and grabbed me by the collar pulling me close while keeping his grip secured on Alex.

“What the hell have you been doing with pretty boy’s phone?” In that instance, he made two mistakes, the first was actually shifting to focus his attention to me and the second was adjusting his grasp on Alex so that he was now holding onto his restraints. At that moment, Alex knew and before Mark had a chance to continue; his interrogation of me, Alex was out of his grasp running towards the overgrown brush that surrounded the place.

*Shawn*

I couldn’t believe what was unfolding before my eyes. It all seemed to happen in slow motion; it was as if everyone was experiencing the same thing. I started to run out to Alex, I wanted to get to him before Mark could do anything else. I was on the move, as everyone else seemed to take a defensive stance, but I wasn’t exactly sure, nothing else mattered to me at this point in time. As Alex and I got closer to one another, he caught sight of me, his face lighting up as mine fell. I caught sight of Mark over his shoulder and my eyes went wide with fear.

“ALEX!” was all I managed to get out before the world rang with a sound that would haunt one’s dreams.