Chapter Twenty Seven

Thousands of fans were outside the hotel, it seemed millions of candles were lit, hundreds of flowers were laid on the pavement, many people were holding up signs - 'We're praying for you, Jon'

It had been three weeks.

It was late on a Thursday night, Jon hadn't shown up for sound check, he wouldn't answer his phone, he wouldn't answer the door. Stephanie and Jesse had flown over to be with him this weekend, Richie had also come. Obie and the nanny took the children out to see a movie while Richie went to Jon's suite. After several unanswered phone calls and several unanswered knocks he decided to kick down the door. Jon wasn't there. He tore the suite apart looking for him or a note to say where he had gone. He checked with hotel security, Jon was last seen going to the park for a walk. The park was searched. They didn't find him.

There was a knock on the door. It was three a.m. Richie Sambora, a close friend of Jon's, was standing in front of her. His clothes were dirty, his eyes, his expression, his body language was sad and exhausted. "Hello, my name is Richie Sambora, I'm a very close friend of Jon's, his best friend. He told me everything that went on between you and him. I thought I should be the one to tell you... to tell you that... Jon's missing." He found it hard to say the words, he was in denial, as was she.

The second week, his ex-wife, Jacklyn received a call. "We have Jon, we will release him if you give us $20,000,000, we won't accept it from anyone else." The police tried to trace the call, it was made from the middle of the English Channel.

Jon was bleeding all over. His body was in excruciating agony. There were several men wearing veils over their faces, only showing their eyes and they were wearing turbans. He had been here for about three weeks and he still couldn't understand a word of what they were saying. He didn't know where he was. He couldn't remember how they got here, he woke up in this cold little room, in chains. One man grabbed Jon by the hair and pulled his head up to look him in the eyes. He said something, Jon didn't understand, it sounded as though he was making fun of him. Jon spat in his face. All the men, bar one, became furious, the dragged Jon, by the hair, to the bucket filled to the brim with water. "You think you funny? Let's see how funny you be this after" They shoved his head into the water, Jon had never been happier about how good his lung capacity was.

Richie came by every day to Serafina, he called several times to update her. It was eight o' clock, Serafina put the kettle on, she was expecting Richie any minute now. "Oh god, please, please make Jon be safe. Unharmed. Please make those men release him." Serafina said looking up at the ceiling. Right on time there was a knock on the door. Serafina ran over to it quickly, Richie was looking more and more exhausted every day. "There's going to be a concert vigil held for Jon in two days time, we're calling it 'Concert of prayers' Their expecting about a million people from all over the world. It's going to be held in Phoenix Park...here's your pass and Dakota's." Richie told her getting the passes out of the inside pocket of his jacket and handing them to her.

"Are we going to... talk at the concert?" Stephanie asked, they had all been wondering that since Richie had told them about it. "I don't think dad would want us to or even to be seen.." Christian replied as he flicked through the channels - all the news stations were talking about Jon, all the music channels were playing Jon. "I don't know Chris, I think he would be very proud of us...I don't think he'd like Jakey and Romeo talking though.. their a bit too young." Michelle said taking the remote off of him and turning off the t.v, she didn't want to break down crying. "I think one of us should say something" she added. "I think it should be Jesse or I, I mean, if you or Chris said something the paps would hound you, Jakey and Ro-Ro are way too young, dad doesn't mind, as much as he used to, about our photos being taken, I mean he showed our photographs on Oprah from the Inauguration and we were shown for all of five seconds!"

"Are any of the kids going to talk at the concert?" Serafina asked, she knew Jon was very protective over his family. Richie sat down on the sofa and thought about it for a minute, "If they want to talk, I think they should but I'm going to talk to but I'm going to talk to Jon's parents and brothers about it first, see what they think"

Jon realised that one of them was American. The one who never did anything to him, the one who was always looking at him. "She's behind this, isn't she?" Jon asked referring to Jacklyn. It was this mans turn to watch Jon, everyone else was gone. The man pulled down his veil a little and showed his face. "I'm going to help you get out of here, don't say a word." he mouthed with an Italian accent. Jon studied his face, it seemed familiar but he knew he had never met this man before. "My father and your father are brothers. My father stayed in Sicily. My name is Pablo Bongiovi" he wasn't speaking because there was a camera. He pulled the veil back up and left the room.