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Chapter 21 ~ Running

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*Elvis POV*

It was a Sunday. A day Ana had told him that she would have to spend with her mother. Elvis roused himself out of bed sometime after noon. He could hear lots of commotion going on down the hall and he sleepily wandered what the Nick and Lance were up to, perhaps Neil had made it back. Without bothering to change out of his night clothes, he trudged down the hall to the living room to find Nick and Lance cleaning windows and washing dishes while Neil surveyed the room picking up anything that seemed out of place. 

"What's goin' on fellas? Why all the sudden cleaning?" Elvis yawned. 

"Aaron! What the hell are you doing still in your pajamas!?" Neil exploded. 

Elvis stepped back a bit, "Whoah, man, what's got your panties in a wad this mornin'?" 

Neil spun around to Nick, "You two didn't bother to tell him?" 

"Uhhh, well. Guess we haven't gotten around to it yet." Nick shrugged. 

"You two—" Neil began, but was interrupted by a firm knock on the front door. "Oh damn. Lance you get the door! Aaron go change!" 

"Why? Who's at the door? What the hell is going on?" Elvis demanded as Neil pushed him back towards the hallway. 

Nick took over, leading Elvis back down the hallway and into his room. "It's the big man. He's here to get a look at you, and see if we've been doing our job." Nick explained. 

"Bradley? Oh, then why all the fuss?"

"No-no.. Well Bradley is here, but he is bringing the man who hired us. The big man," Nick explained seriously. "He's checking up on you. Well, and us. But Bradley's threatened our lives to make sure this place is spotless when he brings our employer up here."

Elvis understood now. This peaked his interest — the man who arranged to have him kidnapped. 

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Nick left Elvis to change out of his night clothes and walked back out to meet with the apparent guest of honor. This was disgusting. Elvis' stomach churned with nervous anticipation. Who betrayed me? Who set me up? He wandered. Is it someone I know, a close friend? A family member? Or just some crazy fan? Maybe a woman who wanted to see me again. He could hear voices down the hall. Finishing his last button on the only white dress shirt he had, he pulled on the jeans that he had become accustomed to wearing and checked the mirror to smooth down his light beard and crazy blonde hair. Elvis realized that he did look much different than he ever had before in his entire life. He had lost a lot of weight, and honestly looked and felt much better. Taking one last look in the mirror, He a deep breath before heading out to meet with whoever the "big man" was. As he walked into the living room, all eyes turned towards him. Elvis breathed almost a quick sigh of relief when he realized that Bradley was the only other person in the room other than Neil, Nick, and Lance. 

"How are you, my superstar?" Bradley cooed from his relaxed position on the couch. "Hope these morons have been treating you well enough."

Elvis internally grimaced. Bradley had always irritated him in some way. "Well enough," he responded as he took a seat on the arm chair adjacent to where Bradley sat. 

"Good to hear," Bradley took out a cigar from his pocket, lit it and began smoking. "I must say, I am pleased with how you're looking. And feeling much better now that you're off the medicine, are we?" 

Elvis nodded. 

"Very good, very good. I'm sure my employer will be pleased as well to see how you've done during your time with us." Bradley stood up and strode lazily over towards the front door. "I don't think we shall need to spend too much time on introductions, now will we?" He swung open the door and motioned for the figure standing outside to come in.

Footsteps sounded on gravel, as a large, built man walked with his head down into the cabin. As the man slowly lifted his head, Elvis stared in utter disbelief. Shock written across his face. Then he sprang from his seat. 

"RED!" Elvis exploded, barreling towards a man who he once considered to be one of his closest friends. "YOU BASTARD!! YOU BETRAYED ME!! SON OF A BITC—"

Nick grabbed him before he could reach Red. Fighting Nick's restraining grip, Elvis kicked and pulled trying to get to Red. Lance helped Nick sit Elvis onto one of the couches. 

"How could you?! How could you do this to me?!" Elvis yelled, still struggling to get away from Nick and Lance's grip on him. 

Red finally looked up out of his quiet and reserved state and met Elvis' eyes. "How could I? How could I do what? Save your life?" He asked incredulously. Elvis tried interrupting, but Red continued talking over him. "You're so damn stubborn! E, man, you would have died. You could have died. Somebody had to do something. I couldn't just sit around and watch you kill yourself." Red got up and began pacing the room. "All the boys agreed that we had to do something. We tried everything we could think of! Even filling your pills with just sugar! Nothing worked!"

"You what?!" Elvis yelled. His body was shaking with rage. 

"I knew this was a risk," Red continued. "I know that you'll probably never talk to me again once this is over—"

"Ya damn right," Elvis interrupted again.

"—but at least I know that I did everything in my power to save you. At least I'm not sitting around watching you die!" Red finished looking over at Bradley. "He looks great Brad. You'll have the rest of your money in about a two weeks or so. If you guys can take him back up to Graceland then, I'll make sure the guards let you in the gates and you can drop him off there."

Bradley finished a puff of his cigar and nodded. "Sounds good. So cover story is that he has been on a private vacation for all of this time, correct?" 

"Right. I'll send out a press release that morning. They'll eat it up." Red began making his way back out the door. 

Elvis was quiet. He didn't say another word, though his body was still shaking with anger. 

"I'm sorry, E..." Red called. "It's all I could do." And with that, Red walked back outside to drive off. 

Bradley looked over his shoulder with the last bit of cigar in his mouth, "Looks like only a couple more weeks boys. Then the king will be back on his throne." He chuckled as he strode out to his car and shut the door behind him. 

Nick and Lance let go of Elvis who just sat there silently. "I'll be back." He said as he stood up and and walked out the front door. From the moment he stepped outside, he took off down the mountain as fast as he could. He didn't know where he was going, he was just running. 

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