𝕲𝖔𝖒𝖊𝖟 𝕺𝖇𝖘𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓 (Nelena) | *Book 2 in the Nelena Series*

17: Discovered 😰

Zayn

I dashed down the rusty concrete stairs of the old building and pushed open the door. I got away pretty well; they're all locked inside that room with Nick, although for some particular reason, I'm actually pretty worried about leaving him in there.

I rush open the doors and stumbled out into the stingy L.A air. The vehicles were still parked at their original spot and my eyes scanned them carefully, trying to choose which vehicle would help me the most. I chose the motorcycle because I thought it would be an easy escape if I ever had to make a great escape- would've been fun.

I hitched onto the motorcycle and vroomed off into the faint sightings of the city line of downtown L.A. Justin rented the building way too far from the city; I don't even know the address, Justin thought it'd be way too risky if I knew. And he was right.

I looked back, seeing a few dark silhouettes swinging for the window. I was already far away from the distant building, I don't think the other two Jonases would be too thrilled to see me come back without their little brother. The Joe one might even be a little mad- hey you know what, scratch that; he might explode.

I pulled up at the corner of a pretty busy highway and took my phone out to text Joe.

Zayn:
Hey man, they found out

He replied quicker than I thought, he must be chillin', or worse... I don't know what's worst.

Joe:
Oh hey, Zayn, Joe's on a motorcycle.

Zayn:
Ah, then who's this?

Joe:
Kevin, I'm inside a van.

Zayn:
You're driving!? You can't text while driving- that's illegal!

Joe:
Well, it's safe for me-
What do you mean he found out?

Zayn:
He just knew that Gigi was the one who put the tracker on him
Tell her I said hi, btw.

Joe:
Yeah, okay-
But why did he think you were also on our side?

Zayn:
Justin's my friend, he's also Gigi's
Hailey, Justin's ex-girlfriend, knows my gf and so then they interacted while she was dating Justin.

Joe:
Alright, I don't wanna play the blame game here, so I'll just say we tried.

Zayn:
You guys gotta turn around, man
Justin's switched around the tracker so he obviously planned something bad

Joe:
It's always something bad

Zayn:
Yeh, anyway, I gotta get back on the road, tell everyone to back up

Joe:
Alright, drive safe man, see you back at the base

Zayn:
Yeah, you should be the one driving safe-

Joe:
Lol, okay, see ya

I stuffed the phone into my pocket and grabbed on the helmet, putting it on. I took a few deep breaths inside the helmet to adapt to the breathing and low hums every time I breathe, it's pretty annoying. This is why I always chose cars over you, you dumb motorcycle!

I drove off to the highway, speeding past cars. It wasn't really known as illegal because everything done here wasn't watched by the police or authorities of some sort.

Kevin

"Guys, we need to back up, right now," I talked into the earpiece. "What? Why?" said Joe's annoying voice. Selena said the same thing and I informed them about the whole 'Zayn' thing. "Also, Gigi, Zayn says hi," I added, making her giggle. "Tell him-"

"Okay, you can tell him when we're back at home base with everyone's heads still on," Joe snapped, making Selena and Taylor snicker. "Joseph is jealous," Selena said. I smiled as Joe kept on denying it. Taylor was silent, and by the time Selena found out why- she stopped talking.

Joe cut the tension as he said, "I'm making a U-turn-"

"No, continue until the next turn, Joseph, patience!" I snapped, interrupting him. "Here, I'm gonna turn back here, okay?" said Gigi's polite voice. I wanted to intimidate Joe, so I said back, "Yeah, you can make that U-turn, no one's gonna suspect anything-"

"What!?" Joe's voice snapped again, making everyone laugh, including Taylor. "Why'd you let her do it and not me!?" he said, his voice pouts. I tried to muffle my laughter as he continued, "I'm your brother, for God's sake, Kevin! How could you put someone over your brother-"

"I put a lot of people over you, you know, Joe," I said. "Okay, now you involve more people, and made it even more awkward!" He yelled, making everyone crack up again. Part of me wanted to piss him off, another wants to tell him that I would never put anyone above him.

"Alright, Joe, you can make that turn down that alleyway," I said, projecting the visual on the head of his motorcycle. These motorcycles were high technology-build-in motorcycles, and they were so expensive- like expensive, expensive!

"Turn- yeah," I said as I saw Joe turn the corner. Selena snickered, "I think you're going a little too far there, Kevin, I heard there are loads of cats in L.A tonight- they even attacked a homeless man-"

"Selena!" Joe snapped, his voice shaking. "You made me even more nervous, now!" I shook my head, "Joe, you're 30! Man up! I mean, it's just cats-"

"-That attacked a homeless MAN!" Joe interrupted, making me laugh. Selena laughed the hardest as she sent out some words- "Joe, I was literally just kidding about that homeless man and cats thing," Selena chuckled. Everyone was holding their breath; I think he's gonna explode or... cry.

"You guys are such bullies," Joe's voice finally said, making me sigh a sigh of relief. The rest just laughed and I felt Joe shake his head in disbelief. "Even though, if it were true, I wouldn't have told you," Selena said. It took Joe a while to get what she said before he would blast at her- "Selena! I swear- wait till I see you back at the base-"

"You're not touching her," Taylor said, making everyone shut up. I don't know if it was the tension, or if it was the fact that Joe and Taylor already broke up. Joe didn't reply, either, so I sighed, "Yeah, I'm protecting Selena!" I said. Joe did a fake laugh and everything was silent after that.

***

General

Joe, Kevin, Selena, Gigi, and Taylor made it back to their base, safely. They should be thanking Zayn for sending them that text, but Joe was still pissed that Zayn got himself discovered. Selena kept telling Joe that playing the 'blame game' isn't going to help anything, so he should stop blaming Zayn.

After a few minutes, the elevator dinged open and Zayn walked in, stiffly. Gigi shot up from the couch and rushed over, hugging him. "Hey, babe, I didn't die-" he started, but Gigi was already fussing with the bruise on his face. "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna kill him if I see him-" Zayn grabbed Gigi's hand gently and pulled it away from his face, "I'm perfectly fine."

Joe, who was staring at them, looked away in disgust. Taylor noticed and smacked his arm. Joe jerked at her touch and she glared at him. Selena, who noticed the tension, got up. "Alright, our plan didn't work; I still want my boyfriend back-"

Gigi snapped her head around at the sound of Selena saying 'boyfriend'.

"You want your boyfriend back!?" Gigi exclaimed, making Selena frown. "Um, yeah? He's my boyfriend, and I want him back," Selena crossed her arms as Gigi glanced at nearly everyone in the room; they all had confused faces. "You want Justin back!?"

"Wut- NO!" Selena exclaimed, finally understanding why Gigi was confused; she thought Selena wanted to have Justin back. She also didn't know that Selena was dating Nick. "I'm dating Nick; he's currently being held captive-"

"Okay, when you put it like that," interrupted Joe. "It sounds so medieval. Can we just say he's been kidnapped?" Kevin nodded in agreement, and so did the others. "Still; who knows what's going on, maybe they're..." Selena trailed off, she didn't want to think about it. "Torturing him?" Joe suggested, Kevin, Gigi, and Zayn, tackling him to the ground. 

"Guys!" Taylor yelled, they all looked up and smiled at her. "Sorry," said Zayn, dusting himself off. "I just don't like the idea of Selena thinking about things that will hurt her," Joe shook his head, cringed by Zayn's words. "You're not thinking about Nick if he IS getting tortured, then-" Zayn shook his head, "I didn't say that, man- I was just saying that if Selena thinks about Nick getting tortured-"

"Guys!" Taylor said for the second time. Selena, who had her hands on her head, stormed out of the room. "See what you did!?" Joe snapped at Zayn. "Hey-"

"Just Stop!" Taylor said, rubbing her temple in frustration. "Okay? We shouldn't be blaming each other, we should be HELPING each other find Nick, then we can go back to our normal lives- I wanna go on tour!"

"Yeah, and I wanna get back with my wife and kids," Kevin added, placing his hands on his hips. 

"I also want to get back to my music," Zayn said, glancing at Joe. Joe shook his head, "I just... want my brother back. I'm sorry, man," Joe extended his hand out for Zayn to shake, and Zayn took it, "Truce," They both said, nodded.

Taylor smiled weakly and made her way to the room Selena was in. "Babe? It's me, Taylor, can I come in?" Joe shook his head and sat himself down on the couch, Zayn, and Kevin following his movements.

"I don't know what else to do," Joe said, disappointed in himself. Kevin shook his head as Zayn grasped his shoulder, "Don't be too hard on yourself, that plan of tracking him was really great. We could've got him, but he found out, so..."

"It's not really our fault," Kevin finished. Zayn nodded and Joe smiled weakly, "We just need another plan, a plan that would make us ten steps ahead of Justin," Joe said, rubbing his stubble. Zayn did the same and they all thought; 

What would be the plan that would make them ten steps ahead of Justin?

***

Word Count: 1647