Meanwhile in L.A., Kim answered her cell phone.  She was relieved to hear Mandy’s voice on the other end.  Mandy informed her that they had Chris and Joey, and were heading back to the house.  They would call them if they ran into any problems along the way.  Kim felt herself tense up a little with the success of Mandy and Katy’s mission that meant it was now time for her to spring into action.  Kim turned to Brandi and informed her of the good news.

              “Come on Kim let’s go bag us some boy band members.” Brandi said excitedly.

              “Boy band?” Kim questioned.  “Aren’t they like in their 30’s now?”

            “Not all of them.” Brandi replied somewhat defeated by her friend’s lack of excitement.  She gathered their stuff and hurried Kim to the car; after all she wanted to get the others before someone realized that Chris and Joey were missing.  It was still night on the west coast which would work in the girls favor.

              They drove around for awhile before finally stopping.  Brandi got out and went around to the back of the SUV.  Kim looked around confused, JC’s house was a little farther down the street, and she was not sure why they had stopped here.  Kim was adamant that she was not going to drag an unconscious man four blocks to the car.  She finally questioned her friend about why they had stopped short of their target but Brandi didn’t answer her.

            Kim got out and went to see what she was doing back there.  She gasped when she saw Brandi loading a crossbow in the back of the SUV.  Kim had a million questions going through her head but chose to ask the simplest one first.  She, as calmly as she could, asked her what she was doing.

            Brandi smiled and turned to her friend and told her that she and Katy had come up with a plan to take out the power grid on JC’s block.  No power would mean no security system and no lights, which should make their job easier.

            “Okay so where did you get that thing?” Kim asked.

            “It’s Katy’s, don’t worry she showed me how to shoot it.” Brandi explained.  Kim shook her head; she wasn’t sure why Katy had a crossbow to begin with, or why she had trusted Brandi of all people with it.  Kim asked Brandi to remind her again why she was here and not Katy, this kind of stuff was defiantly Katy’s thing not hers.  Brandi didn’t answer her, it was clear from the start that those two were up to something and Kim was now determined to find out what that was.

            “So you are going to do what with that?” Kim asked still not sure what was going on.  Brandi took aim at the transformer across the street.  She explained to Kim that it was the one supplying power to JC’s block and that she was going to shoot it.  “Okay but why a crossbow?” She questioned.

            “We are using a crossbow because we are an operation with limited means.” Brandi explained, lowering the weapon to better address her friend.

            “We have limited means, but we have a crossbow?” Kim questioned raising an eyebrow to Brandi; nothing about this was making sense to her.  But she motioned for Brandi to proceed.  Brandi spun around and took aim again, this time firing the crossbow at the transformer.  Brandi ducked behind the vehicle as the arrow struck the transformer and sent sparks flying.  Then as quickly as she could she tossed the weapon back into the SUV and ran for the driver side door, yelling at Kim to get in as well.  They had to get away before any one saw them.  Brandi didn’t know that it was going to make so much noise.

            “You shot a transformer with a crossbow, what did you think was going to happen?” Kim asked.

              “I don’t know I thought it would just sort of shut off. I guess.” Brandi explained, trying to drive at a normal speed so as not to draw suspicion to them.  They went around the block once to insure that the lights were in fact out as well as to look for any sign of movement from the neighboring houses.

              They pulled up in front of JC’s house, the house was completely dark and there was no sign of movement.  Kim wondered if he was even home, maybe they should have checked first to see that he was.  She pulled her tranquilizer gun from its holster and held it tightly in her hands.  Kim softly asked Brandi why they need JC any way, it wasn’t that she didn’t like him; she was just looking for a way out of this one.  Brandi just glared at her, JC was part of the group and they needed the whole group to make their plan work.

            Kim peeked into the window to see if she could spot him.  She couldn’t help but think that she must have looked like a peeping tom.  It wasn’t long before she saw him.  He was on his cell phone having a heated discussion with someone on the other end.  It was likely the power company, he didn’t seem happy.

              The house was very neat on the inside and well put together.  He must really like art and nice things.  Kim had never seen a house so immaculate.  She jumped when she felt Brandi touch her and she yelled at Brandi for scaring her.

            “Sorry, okay here is how we are going to do this, we’ll go around back and jump the fence.  The back door will be easier to break in to.” Brandi whispered.  Kim agreed and followed Brandi around back.

              Brandi climbed over first and then helped Kim.  Kim whined and moaned about being too out of shape for this.  They were both surprised to find the back door unlocked.  They slowly pushed it open and crawled into the kitchen.  Kim noticed how clean the house was, you could have eaten off the floor if you wanted to.

            They could hear JC in the living room, he was still on the phone but his voice got louder and he came closer to them.  They hid behind the island in the kitchen.  Brandi started to move but Kim grabbed her, she motioned for her to wait until he hung up the phone.  Kim didn’t want any witnesses to their crime, any one that could come to JC’s aid.  Brandi nodded in agreement though she was never good at charades she thought she understood what Kim was saying.

            As they sat there on JC’s kitchen floor Kim couldn’t help but think how exciting all of this was.  She could feel her heart in her throat as JC got closer to them.  Kim looked at Brandi who seemed calm, but then again her and Katy were always into trouble, of course never on this scale before, but maybe she was better conditioned for this.  Kim on the other hand felt like she was having a heart attack.

              JC went into the kitchen to look for a flashlight.  They could hear him rustling through a drawer just on the other side of where they were hiding.  He was still cursing on the phone and grumbling to himself.  JC smiled when he found the flash light and quickly turned it on.

            The room was filled with a faint light now.  That is when JC notice the door was not quite latched so he went around to shut it.  Kim shoved Brandi as JC made his way around.  They moved in turn with his steps and remained out of his line of sight.  The door clicked into place and JC locked it, looking somewhat confused.  He still had his ear to his phone but he wasn’t saying anything, just listening.  He finally agreed to whatever they were saying on the other end and hung up.

            After he hung up he quickly headed back to the living room with his flash light still in hand.  Kim and Brandi sighed heavily and nodded to each other.  It was time to make their move.  They slowly crawled toward the living room.  JC was seated on the sofa now, using the flash light to read a book.

              Kim carefully took aim, though she had never fired a gun before.  She squeezed the trigger and closed her eyes.  The tiny dart flew past JC and struck the arm of the sofa.  JC quickly dove to the floor in a panic.  Brandi smacked Kim and they both darted into the living room.  It was hard to see in the dark house but Kim saw JC reach for his cell phone and pounced on him.  She struggled to pry the phone from his hand, while he proceeded to hit her with the flash light.              Frustrated Kim finally bit his hand, causing him to drop the phone which she batted away.  He yelled in pain and began to fight her harder.  JC managed to get on top of her and pin her down.  She squirmed under him trying to free herself.  Kim suddenly thought this whole plan to be a really stupid idea and she was surprised how strong he was.  He yelled at her and asked her who she was but she didn’t answer him, while he was distracted and clearly unaware of the other person in the room.  Brandi got behind him and took careful aim to make sure that they didn’t miss this time.  JC barely felt the prick in his back before passing out and landing on top of Kim.

            “Awe, isn’t that cute?” Brandi questioned, laughing at Kim.

              “Freaking adorable, now get him off me.” Kim snapped.  Brandi grabbed one of his arms and pulled him to the side so Kim could get free.  Kim got to her feet as Brandi began to raze her about missing him with the first shot.  She was mad enough at herself for missing; she didn’t need to hear it from someone else and the beating from JC more than made up for the rest.

            They lifted him up off the floor, each of them getting one of his arms, and carried him out the front door.  Kim took the time to lock the door behind them; after all he had a lot of nice things and she didn’t want him to get robbed or something while he was gone.    The two of them carefully lifted him into the back of the SUV, pausing to see if anyone had seen them.  Once they were far enough down the street Kim turned and peered into the back at the sleeping man.  Brandi told Kim to get back there and secure him.  They weren’t sure how long he would be out and they didn’t want him to ruin any of their other plans.Kim climbed into the back of the SUV while Brandi drove to their next stop.  Kim ran her hands through JC’s long brown hair before getting the duct tape from her bag.  She carefully bound his hands behind his back and secured his feet.  She cover his mouth last, leaving her hand over were his lips were for just a minute.  Brandi could see Kim in the rear view mirror but didn’t say anything.  Kim was a hard person to read at times but you couldn’t push her in any one direction or you would be met with a strong resistance.