I probably should have at least waited a few days before posting this, but I'm so impatient! :P This is for you, Gem and Chicklette. Thanks for the reviews so far! xx
Christian pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it, checking to see if there was still a connection. Nope, he'd been cut off. The last thing he'd heard was a sharp intake of breath, muffled movements and a loud bang. Suddenly he was extremely worried. It was dark, and Syed had been on the phone to him, meaning his guard was down. He felt a surge of guilt at this realisation. He quickly tried to call him back, but it went straight to voicemail. Was he being silly? It's entirely possible that Syed had simply tripped over a crack in the pavement, stumbled and dropped his mobile. It wouldn't be unlike him, he couldn't stop himself thinking. Even so, was he really going to sit here and wait to find out? He'd only been five minutes away from the flat; it shouldn't be hard to track him down fairly quickly. He leapt off the sofa, grabbed his jacket and headed out the front door.
...
Syed felt himself being thrown up against the cold, damp wall of the alley. Shaking with fear, he gathered up the courage to open his eyes and found himself looking into the furious eyes of Amira's father, who had him pinned against the rough bricks by the shoulders. Qadim, the man who beat up the love of his life with the help of a few of his cronies and left him to die. He felt the heat of his anger seeping through the fear in his veins.
"Syed, long time no see." Qadim uttered his greeting with venom.
Syed swallowed, and finally found his voice.
"What do you want?"
"What do I want? I'm not sure, Syed. I suppose I want to carry out what I intended to do last year after you humiliated my daughter, then ran away like a coward. I thought cheating on her with a man was bad, but now I hear you intend to marry this man?"
Syed breathed in sharply. How did he find out? He'd been working up the courage to contact Amira for a divorce for a while now; in fact, he'd made a pact to do it later on in the week, now that he'd made the announcement about the engagement. Now he'd made the announcement. Did one of his parents make contact with Qadim? Surely not...
"Can you imagine Amira's reaction when I told her about a call I received from my old friend Dr Khan, informing me of your plans? Were you planning on requesting a divorce at some point? Or does it not matter, now that you are a homosexual?" He sneered.
Yusef. He never did trust him, although it seemed everyone else did, even his mother. Something about him made Syed uneasy, and the discovery that he had connections with Qadim certainly didn't help how he felt towards him.
His breath caught in his throat as he realised that Qadim was here to hurt him, really hurt him. He hurt Christian because he couldn't hurt me last time, he thought. But now he can, and he will. It was as though Qadim had read his mind, as he moved a hand from his shoulder to grab his chin. Syed, too frightened to utter a sound, tried to pull Qadim's hands away, but he held on tighter.
"We all must pay for our wrongdoings at some point, Syed. Don't you think it's your turn?"
Qadim reached into his pocket and pulled out a single leather glove, failing to notice the shadow appearing some distance behind him. But Syed did, and he glanced up to take in the sight of a pair of terrified green eyes, mirroring his own.