CHAPTER 7 - THE VOW
ALEXI

Alexi’s cheek burned, and he could feel blood oozing over his cheek like red tears. He blinked as fast as he could, forcing the real tears of pain back. I will not cry, he told himself grimly. I will not give these bastards the satisfaction. I will be strong for my parents. I will not cry. Crown Princes don’t cry.

“You have no idea how good that felt,” Roach whispered to Alexi, sending a shudder down his spine.

Alexi met his gaze with all the coldness he could dredge up.

“Yeah well, enjoy it while you can you sadistic arsehole,” he snapped.

He tapped the blade thoughtfully against his hand.

“Tough bastard aren’t you?” He remarked conversational. “How old are you, anyway?”

“18.”

He whistled, walking away with Alexi’s bloodstained tie in his gloved hand. The Welshwoman looked up casually.

“That was perfect. I’ll do a copy for my man and a copy for the family,” She looked up at Alexi and gave him a glacial smile. “I’ll wrap it up in your tie and make a nice present for them to find in the morning.”

“Bitch,” he said under his breath.

The woman put her laptop away into her bag, then slung the bag over her shoulder casually, giving Jones a cool look.

“Think you can deal with the kid?” She demanded patronisingly.

Jones’ black eyes narrowed.

“Careful,” he warned her in an undertone. “Be very careful what you say to me.”

She backed off uncertainly, then hurried away, heels clicking on the floor towards the outside door. She opened it, then shut it carefully behind her. Roach grinned.

“Scorned ex’s, don’t you love them?” He remarked brightly.

Jones levelled those black eyes at Roach, who went very quiet, very fast. He raised them to Alexi after a moment.

“You’ve gone quiet,” he observed. “What are you doing?”

Alexi rolled his eyes.

“You yell at me for doing shit, and then when I don’t do stuff you get all suspicious!” He protested. “Make up your minds for Christ’s sake. What the hell can I do like this anyway?”

Jones’ black eyes narrowed again, but he didn’t comment, walking slowly towards Alexi. Alexi swallowed nervously, tense as a spring as Jones drew a knife. A military style knife rather than Roach’s flickknife. Alexi’s heart pounded uncomfortably as Jones circled behind him.

“Well, you played along well enough,” he remarked from behind him.

There was the swish of a knife through the air and Alexi cursed as his numb feet hit the floor, burning with pins and needles, the rope holding them to his hands severed.

“How long are you going to hold me?” Alexi asked quietly, voice as steady as he could make it.

“That depends entirely on your folks,” Jones observed. “Better hope they pay up.”

Alexi sucked in a deep breath as Jones released the belt around his chest and resisted the urge to groan as his ribs seemed to snap back to their normal position. As Roach undid the rope around the waist, his bladder really did start to complain.

“I really need the bathroom,” He told Jones, sighing at the suspicious look he got. “Look, I need a piss. If you don’t believe me then you can clean the puddle up. That’s certain to brighten your day, isn’t it?”

Roach scowled, then gave a humourless smile.

“If you piss yourself, you can lick it up,” He warned, then laughed as Alexi blanched.

Jones seemed to have been weighing all this up and nodded slowly, more at a thought rather than agreement with Roach.

“Fine,” he said finally. “But if you try anything funny, anything at all...”

“I’ll regret it?” Alexi finished grimly. “Yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”

He sat obediently still as Jones unlocked his handcuffs, then clicked them around the front of him and slashed the rest of the rope away, but leaving his feet hobbled together. He managed to stagger to the door indicated and pushed the door open. Well, it wasn’t as bad as he’d feared, he thought. It wasn’t exactly sparkling clean, but some-one had obviously cleaned it out recently, the clinical smell of bleach hanging in the air. Jones followed him to the door.

“5 minutes,” he warned. “Or I’m sending Roach in. Ready or not.”

And he’d slammed the door shut before Alexi could snap at him. Getting his trousers undone with cuffed hands was fun, and getting them done back up afterwards was even more so, and as he stood back up, he caught a sight of himself in the smashed mirror over the sink. He stared at the shattered image of himself, then forced himself to look away running his fingertips under the water, before sticking his head underneath it, trying awkwardly to drink from the tap. He straightened up, rubbing his wet face, and met his own dark eyes in the shattered glass.

“I am not going to cry,” He vowed to himself in an undertone. “Whatever happens, whatever they do to me, I am not going to cry.”

And as he said it, he felt the burn behind his eyes. This vow would be damn easy to break, he realised grimly, glancing back up at himself, then noticing something. One of the shard of the mirror was hanging off slightly. Glancing up at the door quickly, he took a careful grip on it, and pulled. It came away in his hand, nearly slicing the pad of his finger. He glanced down. Where could he hide it? He couldn’t put it in his pocket and risk them finding it...

He crouched down and cautiously felt the bottom of his school trousers. He’d noticed that morning that the turn-up had been ripped... there. He managed to slip the shard into the pocket-like fold of material and straightened up, just as the door opened. A bored looking Roach appeared in the doorway.

“Out,” he commanded lazily.

Alexi bit back a sarcastic comment and shambled out of the door, keeping a cautious distance from Roach, who gave him a smile worthy of a crocodile and gestured back to the kitchen chair. Alexi gave a soft sigh and obeyed. There was no way he was going to be able to get to the shard. He was going to have to wait for his opportunity, assuming one came. And his brain seemed to slowly grind back into action.

Something about this was off.

He knew he wasn’t an expert on kidnappings, but something was wrong, and it stank like a dead fish. Why would these blokes be so cautious and never reveal their faces, and yet Chen, the person he knew, not be more cautious? It didn’t make sense. She walked up to him, bold as brass, and surely she knew that the moment he got back to his parents, he would expose her.

He thought back, trying to remember everything he knew about Chen. She was cautious, clever and scheming. No wonder she and his brother had got on so well. She wasn’t in the least patriotic, but she would have had to pass God knows how many checks to get anywhere near them. She had a good salary, high position that she had worked years to attain... if she was going to throw her hand in like this, it would have to be worth a substantial amount. The payoff was not worth the risk, especially if she had to pay these idiots as well.

If Chen had merely been playing for a kidnapping, she would have made sure that every-one had thought she was an angel, even him. Whatever game Chen was playing, it was a long one, and that was enough to freak him the hell out.

He gave Roach a speculative look as he lashed his chest and legs to the chair, and kept watching him as Roach looked up. Roach scowled behind his mask.

“What are you looking at?” He snarled.

“You,” Alex said mildly, then continued at Roach’s glare. “I’m trying to work something out actually. You and Chen, the Chinese.”

Roach straightened up, giving Alexi a wary look, a look that became even more worried as a small smile spread over Alexi’s mouth.

“Wanna know what’s cheering me up right now?” Alexi asked conversationally. “The fact that you’re going to be very dead, very soon.”

Roach laughed, and all credit to him, it was a scornful laugh... but Alexi could see the concern behind his eyes.

“Who’s going to kill me?” Roach demanded. “You?”

“No,” Alexi said matter-of-factly. “Chen will. Do you really think a woman like her would play this dangerous game for a few thousand pounds, maybe a million? Nah, she makes more in a week, and she doesn’t have to share that with you. There’s more to this. I don’t know what it is, not yet, but I do know that you’re not part of it. To her, you’re expendable, a means to an end, and she has a no loose ends policy. Whatever happens to me Roach, I assure you, you won’t be around to see it.”

And for a moment, Roach hesitated, and Alexi could see the fear in his eyes. He backed off uncertainly, then turned and walked out of the room. Jones looked up sharply, glanced at Alexi, who gave him his best innocent look, then strode after him. Alexi felt a cold smile wash over his face. It was satisfying to get his won back. It was all the more satisfying that he meant every word.

The smile became a small frown of concentration. They’d left him alone again, a mistake they kept repeating. Let’s see if he could make better use of this opportunity than the last.