The night air had a chill to it and Takaba shivered as he silently made his way into the warehouse and assessed his options. The back half of the warehouse was filled with huge boxes, crates, and pallets. Well, this will be easy, he thought. There were plenty of places to hide and still have a clear shot of the front of the warehouse. Takaba assumed that the meeting would be held near the front where there was an old wooden table and a couple of chairs amongst a forklift and some packaging material.

Takaba was crouched behind a pallet standing on its end. His camera lens fit between the wooden slats. Perfect. I will definitely get some good shots from here.

It was not long before Takaba heard two car doors shut and then the metal door open. An old man who appeared to be in his fifties or so, appeared with another suited man following. The other man had a briefcase that he set on the table.

Then two more guys showed up that were apparently the muscle in the organization though they were not overly huge like gorilla guy, they were thugs. They wore military boots, jeans, t-shirts, and flannels over them. One of them had a bandana covering his head. They looked more like gangsters in comparison to the finely dressed men they now spoke to.

Finely dressed….Asami….tall and dangerous….Asami….sandalwood and coconut….Takaba shook his head, disgusted with himself. Now why had he thought of that bastard at a time like this? Focus Takaba, focus on getting the photos.

When two more car doors were heard, Takaba shifted position carefully, here we go. He got a few shots of the four men before the last two showed up. They were casually dressed so they must be the cops, off duty apparently.

"Hello gentlemen." The old man, obviously Carbaletti, spoke to the newcomers.

"Hello sir," they responded, voices vibrating as they glanced at the entourage accompanying the old man.

"I wanted to let you gentlemen know that this Saturday night, we have some business to take care of near the east end. It would be convenient for you to respond slowly to the call you will surely get."

"Of course sir." One cop responded with a nod of understanding.

Takaba clicked away, capturing the men's profiles in his viewfinder. He smiled as the briefcase was picked up by the younger suited man and handed to one of the cops.

"Thank you sir," he said and they shook hands before the cops turned and walked out through the creaky metal door.

"Now Blacky and Carver," the old man addressed the two gangster looking thugs. "Time for operation Hound Dog." That was the name Carbaletti gave to sniffing out the rabbit, AKA Takaba Akihito, though he didn't know the photographer's name.

Suddenly, Takaba's eyes widened as the two thugs headed straight toward him. He lowered his camera and held his breath. They don't know I'm here. There is no way they know I'm here.

The two men began to look around and move boxes in search of something Takaba was not sure of. Closer….and closer….they came. Takaba shrunk as small as he could make himself. The darkness and shadows would help along with the fact that he wore a black long-sleeve shirt and a black baseball cap. The two men went right past him looking in the opposite direction.

Takaba closed his eyes briefly while he let out the breath he had been holding, when he was suddenly yanked up from behind. The camera dropped to the floor.

"Ahhh….what the….let me go!"

Takaba fought and fought, struggling to get out of the hands trying to subdue him. He would not be taken down easily. No, he was not about to make it easy for them.

"What have we here?" Carbaletti said in amusement as he came up and took the discarded camera.

"Let me go, asshole," Takaba hissed.

Carbaletti nodded and the thug with the bandana threw his first punch. Takaba felt his entire cheek explode from the blow. But what really stunned him was the three more blows in quick succession that he received just after.

"Stop, let me go! You have the camera."

"Oh no," the old man said, "I will make an example out of you so that all your little photographer friends will learn the price for snooping around in my business."

Takaba spit out the blood pooling in his mouth. The metallic taste made Takaba's face scrunch up as well as being hauled upright, his back against the chest of one thug while his arms were bent awkwardly behind him.

"Blacky, careful. Don't hurt him too much….yet." The old man warned.

Ok, so Blacky was the one with the bandana, nice name dickhead, Takaba chuckled to himself but that only got him a couple of blows to his gut.

"I don't see you laughing now," Blacky said to the bloody, beaten young man in front of him.

Takaba didn't know how long it went on, but his whole body went numb and his mind was getting hazy as the blows continued, alternating between his gut and his face.

"Well now, what message should we send to your friends, hm?"

Carbaletti said. "Carver."

The man let go of Takaba and he slumped to his knees, to weak to hold himself up. Blacky came around behind him and hoisted Takaba up onto his feet.

"Ngh….stop," Takaba pleaded, his voice almost a whisper.

Carver came into Takaba's view and Takaba hissed, "Carver? Nice name, asshole."

Carver chuckled and pulled out a blade, "It's adequate."

Takaba's eyes widened and the fear he had masked until now, fell. The young photographer was afraid now, very afraid. His feeble attempts to struggle against Blacky made all the men laugh, echoing through out the metal building.

"Now that is what I like to see," Carbaletti said. "Now Carver, show him what you can do."

"Oh no, no, no, no, no, NOOOOOOOO!" Takaba screamed louder with each word as Carver stepped closer.

"AHHHH!" Takaba screamed when Carver embedded the blade in the left side of Takaba's gut.

It hurts, oh God, it hurts. Please stop! Someone help me. Someone….anyone….Asami…..

He won't come. I left my phone. He won't find me.

By the time Kirishima got the Escalade through the bumper-to-bumper traffic and had waited on an accident to be cleaned up, his boss was all but going up in flames from his rage. It had taken way too much time getting across town.

When they reached the warehouse, Asami was no less agitated, though no one but the two men in the SUV would have noticed the slight emotion filtering through his poker face.

"You have your orders. We do not interfere with Takaba's job, only if something goes wrong. Wait for my signal." Asami instructed.

They slowly walked close to the building and were half way to the side door when Asami heard it.

"NOOOOOOOOO! AHHHHH!"

Asami drew his gun and took off running motioning for his men to follow. He hadn't expected to hear the desperate scream, but when he did, he knew immediately that it was Takaba's voice.

Without hesitating, even though they were going in blind, Asami, Kirishima, and Suoh stormed the warehouse. They burst through the door and paused to assess the scene before them.

Carbaletti swung around, "Who the hell are you?"

The man in the suit pulled out his gun. Carver swung around with the knife in hand, the young photographer's blood dripping off the tip. Blacky froze, holding the now limp body up.

"I am Asami Ryuichi and I do not like people touching what is mine." Asami's murderous look took Carbaletti by surprise.

The tall, well-dressed man exuded power and authority. He was intimidating to look at and even more when he spoke with his cold, deadly tone.

Though Carbaletti had a high opinion of himself, this stranger before him did not seem like a man who played games. As soon as he stepped into the warehouse, he dominated the room. The air was tense as Asami caught a glimpse of Takaba.

The young man's shirt had been slit up the front and there was a gaping bloody hole in his side. His jeans were torn and he had dust from the warehouse floor covering him. His shoulders and head were slumped forward.

Carbaletti walked over to Takaba and fisted his hair, yanking his head back. When Asami saw the swelling black and blue bruising to Takaba's eye, jaw, mouth, hell his whole face was puffing up, Asami's own mask fell away revealing the raw rage at the surface.

Takaba was still awake, though just barely, and his eyes were not much more than swollen slats but nevertheless, his gaze met Asami's.

"A…Asa…mi," Takaba breathed so quietly Asami would have missed it if he hadn't been looking at Takaba's mouth when it moved.

No one had time to even think, let alone react, when Asami's gun was suddenly pressed against Carbaletti's forehead.

"I will personally break each and every one of your fingers." Asami growled.

Carbaletti stared hard at Asami apparently assessing if he should take the threat to heart. Slowly, his hand dropped away from Takaba's light brown hair and the young man's head once again slumped forward.

"Do you have any idea who you are talking to?" Carbaletti asked Asami.

"I don't care." He said, though he did know who the Italian mafia man was. "You will turn him over to me now or this gets messy."

Carbaletti took a long deep breath. He was contemplating whether to hand Takaba over.

"My trigger finger is getting itchy."

"Alright," Carbaletti said quickly. "Blacky, let him go."

Blacky released Takaba and he crumpled to the floor. A second later, Blacky followed suit with a bullet right between the eyes. Carver was next. Carbaletti and his remaining man were absolutely stunned by the sudden turn of events.

Asami could not help himself. He had to shoot someone and who better than the two idiots that actually had beaten his boy. They had done it, been told to do it, but they were the ones to carry out the orders. Killing Carbaletti would be an annoyance since the Italian mafia would be unhappy so Asami had no intention of doing that, right now anyway.

Knowing that his men had his back, Asami holstered his gun and dropped to his knees by the young man. He took Takaba into his arms, holding the upper half of Takaba's body against his own.

"Takaba," Asami said sternly and waited. "Takaba," he said louder.

"Mmhh, Uuhh," He moaned.

Asami abruptly stood up, cradling Takaba in his arms, careful of the oozing wound as he started to move. At the door, he hollered over his shoulder, "Men, let's go."

Hello readers, hope you are enjoying this story so far. Thank you for the reviews and please keep it up. I have to admit I do not think this chapter is that good so soon we will get to the fun stuff, Asami at a theme park or water park maybe? We shall see…..