A/n: Sorry for the delay, I was away with my family. However, the length of the chapter should make up for it.

Just to say one or two more things. 1, zipties are a b-tch to escape, 2, the flight from Japan is really 10 hours, 3, Kyouya is a talented student so I'm sure he has the ability to be tri-lingual, (my friend is lol, Russian French and English.), 4, think I can get fifty reviews by the end of the story?, 5, it is in fact legal for Kyouya's mom to have him kidnapped. "It is perfectly legal for parents to hire professional kidnappers, who prefer to be called 'transporters', to abduct their children..." (Todd Strasser, Boot Camp, afterword)

I know, it's strange but true.

Chapter 10:

My first instinct upon seeing my mother's letter was to run to my room as fast as I could and lock the door. My mind was reeling. Even an idiot like Tamaki would know to stay the hell away from my mother. Under no circumstances could she ever do anything to help me. She just wanted my body. I shuddered to think of what she would do if she actually managed to convince me to come to her. Common sense never failed me, and in that moment it was sending me one message:

Mother always lies.

Like a mantra it ran through my head. Over and over as I paced my room worrying who had sent the note, who was working for her, and how my father fit into all this... Father...

I thought I'd had it all figured out. I thought my father was working with my mother but he would never allow her to do something of this magnitude. I was sure he had no qualms about letting her know I was beginning to remember things but this was different. This was a deliberate plot to hurt me. He would never risk causing a scandal to satisfy her. That meant that she was planning things on her own and that my father was losing control.

My father hadn't been lying when he said it would be in her best interest to obey him, so if she was willing to do something so risky it meant she was done caring about rules or consequences. That made her twice as dangerous. She would take crazy risks and do things that could ruin our family for eternity. Or she could kill me.

For the first time in days, I'd have to trust my father.

He was at the main office headquarters, in his central office, working late. I had to call and tell him what'd happened. I pulled my phone from my pocket, dialed quickly and waited.

All I got was a busy tone.

I tried again and got the same result.

I tried once more and still the phone was busy.

I called my eldest brother- for I knew he had a house about two hours away- and found that he had since changed his cellphone number and that I would not be able to speak to him. Fyumi, I knew, was on a second honeymoon somewhere- South America, I think- and wouldn't be able to help me even if I managed to get in contact with her. Akito picked up the phone, asked who was speaking, then hung up upon hearing it was me. Apparently the roaring party I heard in the background was more important.

Fuck them; the stupid bastards couldn't be bothered with me anyway.

Cursing my luck I began throwing clothes into a backpack. I knew I'd have to speak to my father in person which meant a trip into the city. It was nearly ten at night and the drive there was almost forty-five minutes each way. It would be a late journey but necessary. I also knew that for my mother to get the message to me in the first place she'd have to have someone close-by- someone who had undoubtedly been watching me. That meant I needed to get out of the house and go somewhere safe.

Somewhere like Tamaki's house.

I took my phone out once again and started to dial as I shrugged my backpack on. Tamaki answered sleepily.

"...Mommy?"

"Tamaki, something's happened. It doesn't matter much to you what exactly; I just need to stay over your house tonight. I'm going to go see my father in his office and I should be at your house within the next two and a half hours," I said quickly. Tamaki yawned a bit and I heard him get up from his bed.

"Yes that's fine but, Kyouya, love, what's wrong? I'm worried now..."

"Don't worry yet. Worry if you get no word from me. I know someone has been watching me. It's all my mother's doing," these words rushed from my mouth in a frenzied tone. It was as if my mind was spilling forth anything that Tamaki could possibly need in case I was hurt. I couldn't explain how, but I knew something very grave was about to happen.

"Kyouya wait- don't hang up yet!" he said hurriedly.

"Mmm?"

"I love you."

My breath caught in my throat and I blinked slowly. He'd said so before but never like this. Before, it had always been whilst joking about being the 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' of the host club. He was dead serious. I suppose I'd known he loved me, but for him to say it so openly at a moment when I was caught in an incredibly bad situation- it seemed like the most important thing in the world.

"I love you too."

I actually meant it and this time I wouldn't regret saying it. He wouldn't lie like my father did, or hurt me like my mother did. He really loved me and I really trusted him.

"Two and a half hours," he reminded me and hung up.

I shoved the phone into my backpack and grabbed my mother's note. I'd have to find Tachibana before I left. There was no way I was leaving without a bodyguard. I crushed the paper in my hand as I unlocked my door and dashed out. My feet smashed the ground as I ran towards the servant's quarters.

"Tachibana!" I yelled, "I need you!"

But he was nowhere to be found. I double and triple checked all the rooms in the area and found nothing. Usually he lived at our home, having nowhere to go himself, and so he always remained even after all the other servants had gone home for the night. It was strange for him to be gone and I knew something serious was happening. I started off towards the main entrance hall, calling his name as I went. Certainly he should have heard me by now?

By the time I reached the front door I knew that I had to run. I was but five feet from the door when someone grabbed me from behind.

I'll have some of my bodyguards get you.

She hadn't been kidding. I'd assumed she meant from the airport but it turned out she was literally taking me from my home- by force.

"Who are you working for?!" I gasped as my captor slammed me into the wall with my hands held above my head, my mother's note fell from my hands unnoticed and I scowled. It was a man, dark haired and tan, with strong, large hands. He was broad shouldered and powerful so when I tried to fight him off I only ended up pressed further against the wall with his leg placed threateningly between my legs.

"Your mother is expecting you," he growled. With his free hand he reached into his coat and pulled out a gun. He cocked it as he said, "It'd be in your best interest to comply with any orders I give you."

He wasn't working under my father, but instead he worked for her, making him twice as dangerous. That, and he had a gun, which he felt necessary to shove against my collar bone.

"Let me go and I'll pay you off. I've got ten thousand cash stashed around the house." I said disparately, feeling the cold of his gun as my breathing sped to match my racing mind. How many are there? Where's Tachibana?

Questions burned my mind like fire. I stared up into my captor's eyes, for indeed he was at least six inches taller than me, and I barely repressed the urge to tremble. I'd been held at gunpoint countless before, kidnapped twice, and nearly shot once after deals with Ohtori corps had gone sour for various short-tempered, simple-minded men and so I knew what to expect. Although, Tachibana was usually lurking in the shadows ready to help me at just the right moment and usually the person holding me wasn't employed by my mother.

"If you think you can pay me off you're in for a rude awakening." I noted that he had a heavy French accent and a dark grimace, "You will be taken to the airport, I will fly with you to Montreal, and then you will be placed in a car and taken to your mother's home in Quebec. I am to use what ever force necessary."

If my calculations were correct, and they almost always are, this man could speak only a limited amount of Japanese. I switched to speaking French in order to throw him off. He seemed surprised when I asked him, in French, how long the flight was.

"Dix heures, ten hours," he answered slowly, carefully knowing that he no longer had the advantage of knowing a language I didn't. I'd been taking lessons in French since elementary school and had learned even faster when Tamaki had come to Japan. When he first arrived he wasn't very fluent, and I had defaulted to having about half our conversations in French. My English was just as good.

I had to do something. I couldn't get on that plane or I would never get away. I looked around for Tachibana or anyone who could help and saw that we were alone.

"Do not look for your friend. I have bound and gagged him where he will not make trouble for us." the man said, seeming to read my mind. I felt my blood run cold as I realized that I would have to save myself. The man removed his gun from my aching neck and slipped it into his jacket once again. He reached into another pocket and pulled out a ziptie.

"Hands behind your back, kid," he growled, releasing me. I complied, too scared of being shot to argue, and he locked my wrists together. He chuckled sadistically and tightened the tie so tight that it dug into my wrists painfully.

"Bitch," I spat angrily at him as he shoved me forward. He slapped me upside the head roughly and grabbed my backpack off the floor.

"Let's go," he said.

It turned out that 'bodyguards' turned out to be 'bodyguard' for only one man, my captor, was there to kidnap me. This scared me as much as it relieved me. If only one man was involved... could it be damage control? Did it mean something more serious was due to happen? I was so worried that I didn't bother resisting as I was shoved unceremoniously into the backseat of a van. I landed awkwardly upon my shoulder and was unable to move as I lay curled up on the seat. My wrists were aching from the ziptie and I was terrified. My captor entered the car and cast a glare at me through the rear-view mirror.

"The door has a child lock on it which means that only I can release you." he explained coldly. I glared back at him, "Screaming will get you nowhere as I'm not doing anything illegal."

"Forgive me, but kidnapping is illegal." I said irritably. It couldn't be legal for him to do this- even if my mother had ordered it.

"It is legal. She is not breaking any kind of law by having you taken to her."

"But taken at gunpoint?"

"I did not harm you with the gun."

I fell silent. What could I do? I was trapped in the back of a van with my hands bound and no chance of escape. Not to mention the fact that my captor had a gun. I didn't want to think of what would happen if she actually managed to get me to her house. She would rape me again, I was sure, and there was a good chance that she would kill me. Clearly, if she was willing to take things this far she was done caring about my father's rules.

My only hope- and it was a slim hope- rested in Tamaki. I was due at his house in about two hours and fifteen minutes and he would know something serious had happened if I did not show up there. But flights to Canada from Japan are rather rare. It would take him until morning, at best, and then a very long flight.

I would be trapped with my mother for hours.

I am not a religious person. I wasn't even sure I believed in god- or any god for that matter- but I prayed someone could save me. I prayed with all my heart and soul. I begged whoever was up there to send some savior for me. Anyone, I didn't care who. It could have been my father and I would have been happy. I just couldn't let my mother touch me again.

Lying on the seat I was confronted by several terrible, but unrelated, memories of what she had once done to me. I was terrified, and though I kept my face expressionless, the force of my fear was making the memories more severe. I stared listlessly out the window, trying to remember how long the drive from Montreal to Canada was. I estimated it to be about three and a half hours in traffic. The last time I'd looked at a clock- about ten minutes previous- it had read ten at night. The airport was fifteen minutes away, and the flight would be about ten hours- unless of course it was longer than the flight I'd recently taken to New York City. That information, plus the fact that I knew it was pointless to take me if I was only going to be held for hours, led me to believe that I would be boarding the plane within an hour. That would put my arrival in Montreal at about nine am. Add four hours of travel time to get to Quebec and I would be in her clutches at one in the afternoon. I had time, but no chance of escape.

When we arrived at the airport my captor released me from my bindings. My wrists ached terribly from where the ziptie had previously held my hands behind me. He ordered me to hold still as he got my backpack from the trunk. He opened the door of the car yet again and stared me hard in the eyes.

"This is how it will work," he said in French, "you will act as if nothing is out of the ordinary. I am merely your bodyguard, oui?"

I nodded grimly, my face emotionless. If what he said was true, and I had a sinking suspicion it was, then airport security could do nothing to help me. Although, I knew it would be impossible for him to take his gun onboard the plane. That is I thought I knew until he said-

"You mother has a lot of influence, kid, she has arranged things so that we do not need to go through airport security." his voice was gruff and uncaring. It seemed as though he would do anything my mother asked without questioning it. He took my arm wordlessly and started dragging me towards the entrance. An escort met us at the door and led us down a few small hallways and through an office before leaving us at a gate. He did this all without speaking and without making eye-contact with me. My captor leaned down to me and hissed into my ear.

"Do not try to escape, little one. I hold all the cards here." he spoke in Japanese, growling the words sinisterly as if they were some kind of curse. Scared out of my wits with nothing more than a blank expression to defend me, I nodded. I had to find a way to escape him or I would have no chance of getting out of things scot-free.

The man's name was Antoine Croft. I learned this from secretly taking a look at our boarding passes, which he clutched in his hands as if I would try to steal them. I peered up at him.

"Monsieur," I said after a long moment, "I do not have my passport."

"I have yours as well as mine."

I supposed my mother had gotten her hands on mine somehow. It infuriated me that she had the power to do so. I didn't like it- not one bit.

"Excuse me," said a meek looking man, tugging at my sleeve. "is this the gate for the flight to Montreal?"

I opened my mouth to respond but my captor, Antoine, clapped a hand down upon my shoulder roughly to stop me.

"Yes it is sir," said Antoine darkly.

The man looked at me curiously and I met his gaze steadily. His eyes trailed down to my wrists, where the mark from the ziptie was beginning to bruise. We locked eyes for a moment and he seemed deeply perplexed as if he knew something was very, very off.

"Excuse me, but do I know you sir?" he asked me softly. I decided to milk it and gave the man a rather distressed look, letting my eyes glisten with fake tears conjured especially for the occasion.

"My name Is Kyouya Ohtori," I said, purposefully letting a bit of distress seep into my voice. I prayed he would notice something was wrong. Perhaps he could call someone- my father or Tamaki or the cops. Antoine tightened his grip on my shoulder threateningly and glared at the man.

"Oh, of course, my apologies sir," the meek man said quickly, dropping his gaze to the floor. I tired in vain to get his attention despite several light warning pinches and tightened grips from my captor. The man didn't say anything though and simply stood beside us as we waited for our plane to get in. As I stood there, eyes obscured by my glasses, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing I could do to save myself. Antoine had a gun, which meant I couldn't run. Hiding wasn't an option, and the man who'd spoken to me didn't seem to notice something was wrong. I stared up at the arrivals and departures board and saw- much to my horror- that the next flight to Montreal was at seven in the morning the next day. Tamaki would undoubtedly piece together what was wrong by then and would take the first flight out to get me- probably taking my father with him- but would he be too late to help? If he left at seven he wouldn't arrive until nine the next night. That would leave me alone with her for eight hours. I couldn't rule out the possibility that she would kill me and I knew for sure that she would do something of a more sexual nature as well. As for what exactly she would do I hadn't the slightest idea and I didn't want to think about it. Whatever it was, eight hours was enough to do it.

It turned out that I would no longer be counting cracks, but hours instead.

Twenty-two hours until salvation but only fourteen hours until doomsday.