Chapter 21

I stood frozen in place, glancing down at my chest, waiting for the pain to come. But there was none. And no blood came either. I looked back up at Carlos, who was staring back at me with the same shock and disbelief written all over his face. But when he looked down, there was blood. Lots of blood. I watched silently as he took a step forward, grasping a hand over his heart and reaching out to me. I took a step back as he fell, landing at my feet. Dead.

"Glad that's over" someone muttered, and I spun around, pointing my gun at the man who spoke.

He grinned, dropping his gun and holding up both hands, "Wo, wo, wo, calm down man. I'm not here to hurt you".

I actually fell to my knees in shock, the gun clattering to the ground next to me. The man was immediately at my side, and I flinched away from his touch.

"Hey, Alex, it's alright. Calm down, I won't hurt you" he said gently, kneeling down next to me and holding out a hand, "Come on, we better go before anyone realises what's happened".

"I'm not going anywhere with you" I shouted, jumping and scrambling away from him. Unforcently, in my temporary moment of moron-ness, I forgot about my current injuries and my legs gave out from under me. I had just enough time to hear him mutter something about teenage spies before I blacked out, the single image of the man etched into my mind.

Ash.

When I woke everything was blurry, and it took a few minute to adjust to the bright light. I was lying down, on a couch, I realised, and had a warm quilt thrown over me. Where the hell was I? I glanced out the widow next to me. it was bright, early morning i guessed. And I could smell pancakes. And someone was whistling... I slowly sat up, wincing as I pulled at something on my chest. I pushed down the blanket, surprised to find I was shirtless. And even more surprised to find I had bandages wrapped around my stomach. I slowly pushed them down, revealing angry black and blue bruises covering my whole chest.

"Four cracked ribs. Three broken. And those bruises will be there for another week at least".

I looked up sharply at the voice and almost had a heart attack when I found its source.

Ash.

I quickly tried to stand up but in three long strides he walked over and firmly pushed me back down, "Stay".

"No" I growled, "If I stay you're going to kill me".

He actually looked down at me shocked, "Kill you? Why would I kill you?".

"You said on the phone that your going to kill me" I replied and he sighed, "Man you got this all wrong... Ok, say I was to kill you, I don't have a gun do I?".

"You don't need a gun, you could use a knife" I argued and he smiled slightly standing back and emptying his pockets, "No knife".

"You could strangle me" I shot back and his features immediately darkened, "Like those men did?".

I gulped, my hand flying to my throat where a numerous amount of bruises were still forming. Carlos had gotten particularly angry when he did that. He choked me until I passed out.

Ash shook his head sadly, wandering into a different room and returning with a plate of pancakes.

He set them in front of me before sitting in the armchair across the way, "Eat".

I stared at him.

He sighed, "They're not poisoned Al, I already said Im not going to kill you. Besides, you haven't eaten in almost three weeks, I would have thought you'd be hungry by now".

Al.

His nickname for me.

Slowly I picked up the plate, taking a bite out of one. It tasted good. It tasted REALLY good. And I actually was starving. And after 10 seconds, I still wasn't dead. So I continued eating.

He rolled his eyes at me, but couldn't hold back a small smile. I still watched him out of the corner of my eye though. Just in case.

He was staring at me, taking in every little detail detail, before suddenly frowning, looking down at my chest, "Nice scar".

I glanced down at the bullet wound just above my heart and frowned as well, "You've seen it before".

"Have I? Can't remember" He mused, "What happened?".

"I got shot" I said simply and be grinned, "Yes, I got that, but how did it happen?".

"I... It was a sniper" I finally replied, before glaring at him, "Presumingly from YOUR organisation".

He winced, "Yea. Sorry. I got no control over that side of things. But how're you still alive? Generally Scorpia doesn't like leaving loose ends".

"They don't. But as he took his aim, I stepped down off the curb. The bullet missed my heart by barely a inch" I explained, "I didn't realise what had happened until I woke up in hospital".

"The luck of the devil" he muttered, shaking his head, grinning, "Your father had it too".

I looked up sharply at him, my voice low and dangerous, "Don't you DARE talk about my father".

He visibly paled, "Alex... I'm sorry. I never wanted to do it. But it was kill or be killed".

"Then you should have manned up and died" I growled, "My father had a wife, a son, a whole life ahead of him. And you had nothing. You had nothing to loose. And nothing to gain. Now look where that's gotten you these days".

"Alex. Listen to me. I. Never. Wanted. To. Do. It. But I had to. I was forced to" he said quietly, "And I'll regret it for the rest of my fucking life".

"Why didn't you just kill me?" I asked suddenly and he looked up surprised, "What?".

"Why didn't you just kill me? Back at the docks with Carlos? You had a loaded gun. And we didn't know you were there. Why not put the bullet through my head? Why not kill us both?" I asked and he frowned, "Alex, I don't want to kill you. How many times do I have to say that?".

"You didn't want to kill my mum and dad yet you still did it" I muttered and he sighed, "Alright. Fine. My orders were to kill you. But your orders were to kill Carlos. I only had one bullet".

"So why not shoot me?".

"Your too young to die. You've your whole life ahead of you. I was never going to pull the trigger on you. Then I realised you were meant to kill Carlos, who, by the way, worked for Scorpia. If I didn't kill you, you were going to kill him. And your too young to become a contract killer".

"You know, you sound scarily like this Russian assassin I used to know" I muttered and he tensed up slightly, "I know the one".

I mentally slapped myself, "Your scar. Of course. Sorry".

He shrugged, "Doesn't matter. Yassan Gregorovich is long gone".

I flinched, "Plane crash right?".

He looked up surprised, "How do you know?".

This time I shrugged, "I happened to be there at the time. Literally. MI6 sent me in to demolish Damian Cray. Yassan was working for him. Cray wanted me dead. Yassan refused. So Cray shot him instead".

As stared at me, "... Jeasus we're fucked up".

"Tell me about it" I replied smirking, "And to make matters worse, I'v got three SAS soldiers as my new guardians since your little phone call was taken to heart".

"Yea, about that..." He started by I cut him off, "It's ok. I know. Scorpia would have bugged the phone. You were given orders".

He grinned, "You really are your fathers son aren't you".