Yay, chapter four! Let's see what the gang is up to!

"Okay, are you going to tell me what happened now?" Riley asked as she walked up to Mac's front door to meet Jack, who had just walked out of the house. "Also, where is Bozer?" she asked. Jack opened his mouth to respond, but the front door opened once more and James stepped out. Riley did a double-take as she saw the older gentleman, and she gave Jack an inquisitive look. "Uuh, someone wanna tell me what's going on?" she asked, holding her arms out expectantly.

"Ri, this is James MacGyver. He's Mac's dad," Jack introduced. "James, Riley. Riley, James. As for Bozer, I think he's still at the work, down at the Think Tank," Jack said, giving Riley a look that let her know they had to use their covers at the Think Tank for the time being. She nodded in understanding.

"Jack says you can help track down Angus?" James asked, his tone slightly skeptical as he looked at the young woman.

"I can," Riley said, sounding defensive as she realized James was doubting her skills. "And you're lucky he's my friend, otherwise your attitude might have put me off the case," she added, brushing past him to get inside the house. "Wow, you guys like throwing parties when Mac isn't here?" she asked sarcastically as she saw Dominic and Sully sitting in the living room.

"Yeah, this is Dominic," Jack introduced as he came in behind her, pointing to the man on the sofa. "And that's Sully," he said, indicating the man sitting on one of the barstools.

"Okay, so are you ever going to actually tell me what happened, and why I wasn't allowed to call Th-the police?" Riley asked impatiently, with a hint of worry for her friend in her voice. Jack explained how he and Mac had been walking down the street when a van pulled up to them and grabbed Mac, knocking Jack out in the process.

"Aaaand you didn't call the cops why?" she repeated in an incredulous voice when Jack finished.

"Ask daddy-dearest," Jack replied, jerking his thumb towards the elder MacGyver. James narrowed his eyes, but Jack didn't seem to care or notice as he pulled out his phone and began playing with it in his hands.

"I already told you!" James replied. "Damon Colt is not a man to mess with."

"Yeah well, I'm gonna need a little bit more to go on than that before I refuse to call in the cavalry," Jack snapped. James sighed and rubbed his forehead, looking between Jack and Riley.

"Alright," he relented finally, throwing his hands in the air. "Alright, you win. I went to Damon Colt because Courtney said he'd be able to help get my taxi business off the ground and be a heavy investor, but the idea flopped. The company never got off the ground and I was forced to bail out," he explained. "I lost all the money Colt had given me, and he's not happy about it. He told me I had to get him the money back, and I know he's a serious man, but I wasn't expecting him to take my son!

"Okay, I mean, I kinda sorta met the three guys that took Mac, but come on. If it had been a fair fight, we definitely could have taken them," Jack said, folding his arms. "Why are you so scared of this man?"

James didn't reply. He simply sat there with his arms folded as well, staring at Riley's computer. Finally Sully spoke up.

"Damon Colt is an organizer for a lot of California's underground gambling rings," Sully explained. "He's got an army of people behind him, with paychecks that make them willing to basically do anything for him."

"I've seen what happens to people who cross him," James added. "I don't want that to happen to my son. Not because of me," he said, sounding slightly broken.

Jack's mouth fell open as he stared at Mac's father. "And you didn't feel the need to tell us that the man you borrowed money from, the man who now has your son and my best friend, is an underground gambling organizer?" he asked, his voice rising in volume. "How did you even get tangled up with him?"

"Courtney," James said quietly. "Courtney and I met while I was at one of her brother's...ahem...events, and we hit it off. She was impressed with how well I was doing at the game tables, so she introduced me to Damon. When he asked me what I do for work, I told him I was an entrepreneur and an aspiring inventor. He's a high-stakes man, so he bet me that if I could beat him in a game of his choice, he would invest in my next venture."

"And I'm assuming you won, since he gave you his money?" Jack asked. James nodded.

"Yes. The game was blackjack, and I smoked him. He was impressed and gave me the startup money."

"Now did you immediately start dating Courtney, or did you have to win a bet for that too?" Jack asked, somewhat flippantly. MacGyver's father glared at the older agent.

"He's very protective of her, but she convinced him that she wanted to be with me," he explained.

"So what happened?" Riley voiced the question everyone in the room was thinking. "Why'd you two stop seeing each other?"

"You know, can we just focus on finding Angus?" James asked crankily. Riley narrowed her eyes slightly, but turned to Jack.

"Did you catch the license plate of the van?" she asked. "If I can track the registration to Colt, we should be able to find out where he's holding Mac," she said. Jack rattled off the license plate and Riley put it into her computer. It took less than two minutes before she beckoned everyone over.

"Okay," she said. "I found the registration. It's under the name of a shell corporation, and I was able to hack my way through and find a few different addresses," she stated, swiveling her computer so everybody could see.

"Hack?" James asked, raising an eyebrow at Jack. "You don't work for the Think Tank?"

"I do," Riley said in confusion, glancing at Jack as well. Jack made little motions with his hand, indicating she shouldn't admit to being a hacker. "Titles really don't matter to me," she added, causing Jack to facepalm as she basically admitted that she was a hacker. "You got a problem with how I do what I do?" she challenged, staring James down and daring him to say something negative. James considered the young woman for a minute before shaking his head.

"As long as you can help get my son back, I don't care if you're a hacker. Heck, I wouldn't care if you'd done time, if it means you can get Angus back," he admitted. Riley and Jack shared a look, deciding to keep the little factoid of Riley's previous residency to themselves for the time being.

James leaned forward and began scanning the different addresses on the screen. There were over half a dozen possible addresses, and James rubbed his eyes. "This may take a bit of time," he admitted. "If I could see what the properties looked like, I would probably be able to tell you which one he took Angus to faster."

"Well that shouldn't be a problem," Riley said as she pulled her computer back to face her. After a few more moments of tapping on the keyboard, Riley turned the laptop back around. There on the screen were several satellite images of the properties, as well as front views that looked like they were from security cameras. James' eyebrows rose once more, but this time it was in respect in slight admiration.

"Alright," James said as he leaned in again, studying the images in front of him. "Let's find my son."

While James was focused on scanning the computer screen, Jack slowly began typing something on his phone. Riley saw what he was doing, and she gave him a questioning look. Jack subtly shook his head, and Riley dipped her head down once in understanding. Thankfully, neither James nor his friends saw the exchange, and Jack quickly hit 'send' before putting his phone away.

0-0-0

Mac had absolutely no clue where he was going, but from the temperature and the dark shadows, he figured he was in the basement of whatever building he was in. He decided just to run down the hallways and up the stairs until he found a door. He rounded a corner and let out a startled gasp as he almost ran into the woman he had seen earlier.

"Angus?" she asked. He stared at her warily, pressing himself against the wall as he heard men shouting down the hallway. He was slightly surprised that the woman knew his name. "This way," she said, motioning for him to follow her. He stared at her skeptically. She sighed. "I'll explain once we're out of here," she promised.

"I…" Mac said, still not wanting to trust her.

"I know your father," she said. That didn't instill a ton of trust in the young man, seeing as the man who had him kidnapped seemed to know his father too, and that wasn't working out too well for Mac. She could tell that he still didn't trust her, and she didn't blame him. She could tell that men were coming towards them though, so she tried again. "Men are going to be here any minute," she said. "What have you got to lose by trusting me?"

"My freedom," Mac said drily.

"You're gonna lose that anyway if you wait here any longer," she snapped. Mac hesitated a moment more, but realized she was right. He decided to take a leap of faith.

"Fine," he relented. "How do we get out of here?"

"Follow me," she said, beckoning him forward. The two of them hurried through the hallways, and she led him up a flight of stairs. When they reached the landing, she froze.

"What?" Mac asked in a hushed tone, looking around and trying to figure out why she had paused. He began to feel slightly uncomfortable, wondering if he had made the right choice to trust her. He was surprised when she began pushing him towards a door.

"Get in there!" she whispered, opening the door and shoving him inside the closet.

"Hey!" Mac hissed indignantly back at her. She didn't answer him; she just shut the door in his face.

"Stay in there," she ordered quietly. The coats surrounding Mac smelled old and musty, which made sense since they lived in sunny California and didn't need coats very often. Mac waited for about thirty seconds with nothing happening, and he was just about to reach for the handle to push his way out of the closet when he heard voices coming close.

"Courtney!" a voice called out.

"Hey Sal," she said.

"Have you seen the kid that was brought in earlier?" 'Sal' asked.

"No," came Courtney's muffled-sounding reply. MacGyver held his breath when he didn't hear anybody say anything else. He reached behind him, pulling a coat off a wire hanger. He started straightening out the hanger, but the door was pulled open before he could do much. He brought his fists up instinctively, but relaxed slightly when he saw it was only Courtney.

"They're gone," she informed him. Mac stepped out hesitantly, looking up and down the hallway, then he and Courtney continued running down the hallway. "This way," Courtney said suddenly, veering sharply to the left. Mac followed, realizing the room she was entering was an empty kitchen, and there was a door that he could see led outside.

MacGyver and Courtney hurried through the kitchen and pushed open the door, spilling into the fading light. Mac hadn't realized how long he'd been gone; it had been mid-afternoon when he had been grabbed, and now the sun was setting. He took in the scenery around him, realizing the house was just to the side of a large cliff.

Note to self, stay away from cliff. Self to note: Duh.

The two of them continued running, but before they got very far, a shot rang out and MacGyver cried out in pain, tripping and falling to the ground, clutching at his right side.

"Angus?" Courtney asked as she stopped, looking back at the young man. Mac struggled to his feet, waving her off.

"I'm fine," he grunted, keeping his left arm wrapped around his side. "It's just a graze," he promised her. "We gotta keep going," he said through gritted teeth. Courtney looked like she wanted to argue but she knew he was right, so she reluctantly began leading the way again. When she turned away, Mac glanced down, relieved to see that the wound really was just a graze. It was bleeding, but it wasn't bad and he knew as soon as they got out of the clutches of his captor he'd be able to take care of it until he made it back to the Foundation.

"The gate's just up ahead!" Courtney called back. Mac nodded to acknowledge that he'd heard her. The gate finally came into sight, but before they got any closer, there was a yell from the side, and MacGyver was blindsided by a large figure. He was knocked sideways and the man who had bowled into him flipped the kid onto his back so that Mac was facing the sky.

MacGyver saw the face of Donovan, with a nasty-looking cut across his cheek looming above him. The young man brought his hand away from his side and balled his fingers into a fist, but when he went to punch Donovan, the large man simply blocked the attack by grabbing Mac's fist. MacGyver tried to pull his hand out of Donovan's grasp, but the man's hand was almost two times the size of Mac's, and he had the advantage of being on top.

Donovan got up and pulled Mac to his feet by the fist, causing the kid to wince as his wrist was bent at an awkward angle. When Mac was upright, Donovan yanked the kid's arm behind his back and twisted it so that Mac had to go on his tip toes to relieve some of the pressure placed on his arm.

"Donovan!" Courtney yelled as she came back towards them.

"Courtney, are you okay?" Donovan asked as he began pushing Mac back towards the large house they had just exited.

"What? Yeah, I'm fine, I-"

"Damon saw you two running across the grounds and he realized when the kid escaped he must have grabbed you and made you show him the way out of here," Donovan explained. The large front door opened and Mac saw the black-haired man from before, whom he now knew was named Damon, walked out and began striding purposefully towards them.

"What?" Courtney asked. "N-"

"That's exactly what happened," Mac cut her off, staring at her with an intense look that said 'don't give yourself up for me.'

Donovan twisted Mac's arm a little more, causing the blond to wince and instinctively raise up higher to avoid as much pain as he could. Mac felt something twinge in his arm more than normal, and his limb began pulsing more than it was already. Courtney opened her mouth to argue, but Donovan suddenly pulled to a stop as Damon closed the last bit of distance between them, his face boiling with rage.

"Like father like son," Damon growled. "You MacGyvers just use my sister to get what you need, and then you toss her away like a piece of garbage."

"Damon," Courtney tried, but her brother wasn't listening. He swung his hand around, backhanding MacGyver across the face so hard that blood flew out of the kid's mouth on impact. When Mac turned his face back towards them, they could already see the bruise forming on his cheek, surrounding a cut that was oozing blood. Mac saw stars in front of his vision and he shook his head to try and disperse the spots dancing in his eyes.

"Damon, that's not what happened," Courtney snapped.

"Don't try and defend him!" Damon roared. "He's no better than his father," he added angrily. "Get him out of here," he ordered harshly. "Make sure he's more secure this time," he yelled after the men leading Mac away. Mac struggled a little, but his arm was still twisted behind his back, limiting his range of movement greatly. In the back of his mind, he wondered what his father had done to either of those two to make Damon hate the MacGyver family so much. He had a feeling he knew what it was, but he couldn't spend the time to think about it at the moment.

He was forced back in the house and down the stairs. Donovan led him to a room that looked similar to the one he had woken up in, but it was smaller and there was no mattress in this one, just the toilet and the sink. He was pulled to a stop, and he heard the sound of duct tape being pulled off the roll.

His hands were brought down to a normal level, and Mac tried to yank his arms away. He managed to get one hand freed, and he twisted, trying to attack anyone he could. He barely moved an inch before he felt something pressed against his restrained arm, and a simultaneous bzzt sounded, making him groan as he felt the electricity. They didn't shock him long enough to knock him out, simply enough to make him complacent and unable to struggle as they once more taped his hands together behind him. This time Damon's men made sure to go through his pockets and remove anything in them, including his knife. After his knife was taken away, Donovan pushed on Mac's shoulders, forcing the young man to sit on the ground with a hiss as his wounded side was jostled. Duct tape was wound around Mac's ankles, and another strip was placed across his mouth.

Donovan finally stood back and looked at Mac with a smug gaze as the other men filed out of the room. Mac had a bad feeling about being left alone with Donovan again, with good reason.

"You're not going anywhere," Donovan sneered. "And neither am I," he added contemptuously. Out of nowhere, a boot appeared and dug itself into MacGyver's non-injured side, causing the young man to grunt and curl in on himself in pain. "That's for hitting me with a pipe," Donovan growled. Mac breathed in and out through his nose heavily as he looked up at the man above him in loathing. Donovan's fist connected with Mac's cheek, whipping the blond's head to the side. "That was for making me look like an idiot in front of Damon."

Another kick to Mac's injured side had him seeing stars, and the world tilted dangerously as he heard Donovan whisper, "And the rest is because I just don't like you."

MacGyver tried to brace himself for the beating he knew was coming, and he tried to compartmentalize the pain in another section of his brain as he tried to think of any way out of this mess.

Hmmmm...Who on EARTH could Jack be texting? ;)

So! I have been re-reading this and wondering to myself why I seem to make Jack so scathing towards James, and I think I know. It's because James left MacGyver, and Jack doesn't trust him not to do it again. He resents James for what he did to Mac, so I think that's why I write him so resentful, snarky, and somewhat rude towards James...

What did you guys think?