Chapter 24

"Have you found him?" the 'Boss' hissed from the shadows of the shoddy apartment he was sitting in.

"Right here Boss," Vince replied. In the door frame Greg roughly pushed someone into the apartment. The man straightened up, standing at over 6 foot he had an intimidating height, with broad shoulders and mucky brown hair that might once have been blonde hanging limply down his face. His unshaven face was covered in stubble and cold, hard brown eyes assessed the apartment and men in an almost bored fashion. There was silence as all the men sized each other up.

"Alright, I know how this goes. You want something, you think I can get it, you want a deal. Right?" the man spoke gruffly.

"That's correct. My boss had hired me to kidnap someone to use for blackmail. Unfortunately are last attempt didn't work thanks to someone close to you," the Boss said, his smooth voice very different from the man opposite him.

The man gave a humourless laugh, "close to me, there's no one close to me. If you want something I can tell you now that the only thing I got is booze and crack, but I can give you as much of that as you want," a unpleasant smile spread across his lips while his eyes gleamed with greed, "provided you pay the right price."

"Of course, but that's not what I want."

"Well that's all that I got. No family or nothing, not since my lousy cock sucking son walked out on me an disappeared. Ungrateful, lazy dog he was." Greg and Vince came to stand on either side of the man and pulled up a seat for him. The brown eyed male took it and slumped in the chair while the 'Boss' smirked maliciously.

"But Mr. Wheeler, it's your son that I want you to get."

The man stared at him in shock for a moment, before giving another humourless laugh. "Joey! Why would you want that mutt? Good for nothing but whoring himself out you know. Why the hell would you want him? There are lots of other fuck toys you can have if you want, most who don't cause as much trouble too."

"Well, it turns out that your son happens to be a friend of the person we're trying to blackmail. A rather close friend from what we have seen," the 'Boss' raised a suggestive eyebrow.

"And who, exactly, are you trying to black mail?" sneered Mr. Wheeler. He was curious as to what was going on and eager for a pay check. He could always run with the money…but if they told him where his son had been hiding it would be the perfect opportunity. He had fantasized about getting revenge on the Mutt since he walked out on him. Thought of what he could do to make him pay for leaving him in this shit hole when he was deserved much better.

The 'Boss' thought quickly and decided that the man wasn't going to help them unless told most of what was going on. The man was greedy and disgusting but he was intelligent. He didn't want someone running with the money but he really didn't have any choice. His boss had been adamant that he get Kaiba under control and have a new hostage within a week, or else. If the man did run then while everyone was concentrating on Mr. Wheeler he could slip away from this mess and drop off the radar for a bit. Another smile graced his face, twisting it into something evil.

"We are trying to get control over Mr. Seto Kaiba. My boss has big plans for him. They plan on taking over subtly and make it look like a regular transaction. Of course I can't tell you their names out right, but they are another gaming company. With your son being held and under threat Kaiba will have to obey to our demands. When that happens my employers will be happy to issue demands and while leaching off Kaiba Corp. from the inside, take over and make it look like a legal transaction. Then even if something does go wrong Mr. Kaiba will be hopeless to do anything about it and my boss will be top in the business industry." Vince and Greg looked at each other but held their tongues. It wasn't often that the 'Boss' was so talkative and they knew he shouldn't be saying this but they were employed by him and not who he was working for, so they didn't ask questions.

Mr. Wheeler was angry. No, he was past angry, he was furious. His not good shit of a son was living the highlife with some big hotshot at his every back and call while he rotted away down here! He didn't care what these people wanted; his son would be getting what he deserved. His anger didn't stop him from losing his outside calm though. He would get his son, but he would also get a big pay check out of these losers first.

"So why do you needed me? Couldn't you just get him yourself?"

The smile quickly fell from the other males face to be replaced by a look of outrage. "Unfortunately it seems your son has some skill in fighting. We only have the resources to hire one more person, so we chose yourself, otherwise Vince, Greg and myself are the only people allowed to go out and detain him. My boss dosen't want to many lose ends that could be traced back to him you understand. With your son's street fighting abilities though he is more than a match for us. Of course that wouldn't be a problem if we could kill him but obviously we need him alive if the plan is going to work." The 'Boss' sneered at the very thought of leaving the Dog who had mucked up all his plans alive. He had got to play with him for a time and wanted to again. The Mutt had made one of the best fuck toys of his life. "You however, Mr. Wheeler know your own son. You may be able to approach him without causing suspicion or will at least know how to make him comply. That is why we need you; the Mutt is unlikely to fight his own farther."

The dirty blonde thought of this for a moment and realised it was probably true. His son was such a soft ponce that he wouldn't dare hurt someone unless it was to protect one of his friends. He'd never try to harm his own dad. Pity for Joey that Mr. Wheeler had no such qualms with torturing his own son.

"My pay?" he grunted out, seemingly bored with the situation.

The 'Boss' reached around his desk and picked up a black bag. "£10,000 up front and another £10,000 if you secure him."

£10,000 was a tidy little sum to have and run off with, more than enough to cover his tracks and get away from here. After I've dealt with my pathetic son, of course. Opening the bag Mr Wheeler quickly checked it and grunted when he saw the money was there.

He stood from his chair, ignoring the men beside him tensing and smiled wickedly at the 'Boss'.

"Pleasure doing business with you. Don't you worry, I'll take care of my basterd son," with that he walked out the room and was gone. Silence descended for a while.

"…Sir, are you sure we can trust him?" asked Vince.

"Of course we can't trust him, but he may do what we want."

Or provid a decent enough distraction for me to get out of here using the other £10,000, thought the 'Boss'

"How do we know he won't just go and do his own thing?" Greg joined in the questioning.

"We don't, my employers asked me to tell him what to do and hire him. I did that. If he decides to follow the instructions it's his own choice. There's a tracker code on the money, my employers will know if he runs off."

I'll just trade the money for jewellery first though, and then sell them off again before escaping.

"Now if you don't want me to shoot you for being annoying drop the questions and get ready. Like I said, we can't trust Mr. Wheeler, so we're going to pay his son a visit of our own."

"Yes boss" Greg and Vince shouted before moving out of the apartment to get all their weapons ready.

Right, if I attack him and injure myself I will be sent to the hospital. Slipping away from there won't be hard; everyone's attention will be on Mr. Wheeler. Then I can get out of this mess, spend the money and make myself into a new person before they even notice…

XXX

Joey wasn't stupid despite what some people thought, however, at times he let his emotions get the better of him and he did stupid things. Like back chatting to the teachers, picking a fight with Seto at school (not that he did that anymore) and deciding to take a walk to clear his head in the middle of the night with no mobile phone or money.

He had just woken up and remembered what had happened in the class room with the fan girls. Working in the café had helped but he could still remember the faces of his friends when he showed them his back, their horrified expressions. He knew they knew what happened to him, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that they would now try to avoid him, or worse, treat him like he had a disease and needed special treatment. Worst of all he remembered Seto's face. How it had closed off and blanked at the scars that crisscrossed his back. He could remember thinking with dread that he wouldn't want to be his friend anymore, that he wouldn't want someone marked in such a disgusting way in his house. It had hurt. Even more than if his other friends had thought it.

He didn't know why Seto's opinion mattered so much. He still had his old apartment and could still live there if he was thrown out, but the Kaiba mansion had become his home even if he knew it didn't belong to him. Seto himself had become…something more. The blonde knew he was gay and had no problems with it. It was just who he was. He had also known that he found the brunette attractive, who wouldn't? With startling blue eyes, incredible height, broad chest, lean body and soft chestnut hair…but lately Joey had been feeling something more… and he knew what it was but he didn't want to believe it because it could ruin everything between him and Seto. He was also sure Seto wouldn't want someone used and marked like him.

Joey was growing feelings for Seto. BIG feelings!

With all these depressing, confusing and strange thoughts running through his head the blonde teen had decided that the night air was just what he needed to clear his head.

…It wasn't helping him much now though.

Moving away from another powerful kick Joey brought up his own blade to meet the other with a clang. Swinging it away he aimed a kick at the attacker in a particularly tender place and heard the man fall to the ground with a grunt, curling up protectively around his crotch. Dodging again he found himself face to face with the 'Boss'. Having knocked Greg down and Vince charging in for another attack behind him, Joey decided the best chance was to take them by surprise. Instead of raising his blade like the 'Boss' thought he would Joey charged right at him. Taken by surprise for a split second he tried to move out of the way but was too late. Both of them went tumbling to the ground and were missed by Vince's heavy knife. Rolling over the 'Boss' and onto his feet again, Joey was going to run when someone grabbed his ankle.

Turning around quickly his reflexes quickly brought his own blade down on the hand, slashing it across the back and letting blood flow from the wound. A cry of pain came from the 'Boss' but he didn't let that stop him as he yanked Joey down to the ground, kicking at him desperately to get lose. Greg had recovered from his injury (sort of) and came over to kick the blond in the ribs, his knife having been lost in the darkness. Seeing the approaching figure the teen stopped struggling and pulled himself up as much as he could, flashing his knife at the 'Boss' again. He was momentarily confused as he hear another pained cry, sure that he hadn't hit anything, but the hand holding his ankle released and with his now free feet he kicked Greg once again in his sore spot. Vince, who had been coming up behind him tripped over the fallen figure. Joey rolled away on the floor but wasn't quick enough to stop the man's knife from scraping across his side. Holding in his own scream of pain Joey quickly stood and fled from the scene. The 'Boss' slunk away into the darkness unseen.

Running through the night the blonde arrived in the rich part of town and was immediately at Kaiba mansion. Taking out his keys the amber eyed teen tried to open the door but his hand was shaking and he ended up dropping the small piece of metal. Before he had had to put up a strong front for Serenity and Mokuba but this time the attack hadn't seemed to be a kidnapping and the realisation that the people who had tortured him were still trying to get him hit the blonde hard. Giving up on the keys in his panicked state Joey began on bang desperately on the door, screaming his lungs out as he did so.

After a couple of seconds footsteps could be heard and the door swung open to reveal a very angry CEO. The anger quickly slipped from the brunette's face however when he saw the blood on his door step and the shaking Joey.

"Hay, Seto…" was all the teen could say before his legs gave out.

XXX

The doctor had treated Joey quickly and revealed to the sapphire eyes teen that the wound wasn't anything serious and Joey had only blacked out from shock and would get over it. That didn't stop him sitting on the edge of the blonde's bed, watching over him protectively and gently stroking the hair from his face.

Joey could have died! The thought struck the brunette hard and he had to stop his own hand from shaking. He could have died! The statement wouldn't leave his head.

He could have died and you wouldn't have even realised! He could have died in a cold dark street! He could have died alone!

Seto pulled his hand back from the other teens head, the appendage was definitely shaking now.

He had never wanted the teen to die; he wasn't that cruel, no matter what people thought. It was different now though, now Joey meant so much more to him than just someone he fought with at school. He was his friend, his confident and…more. He had come to mean so much more than just all that. The CEO didn't even want to think of a day without seeing the blonde and he especially didn't want him to die. What he wanted was for Joey to live and to feel the same way as him. To like him.

Like how Seto liked Joey.

He wouldn't know right now though if the blonde felt the same way and he was pretty sure he would never gather the courage to ask him. He would protect him in every way he could though. In that moment Seto promised to do everything he could to make sure the blond didn't die somewhere alone. He promised that he would protect Joey from everyone that wished to harm him to the best of his abilities and that he would do everything in his power to make the blonde smile.

Standing quickly the teen bent down above the blonde and moved the golden bags from his forehead before pressing his lips to the tanned forehead in a gentle kiss. Sweeping out the room with a look of determination on his face Seto took one last look at the blonde before shutting the door quietly. He had some people to find and when he did they were going to pay!