'Good. You're awake,' said a voice he had hoped never to hear again.

Scott resisted the urge to allow his shoulders to sag, he wasn't going to give them anything they could use against him, but hearing that voice confirmed his suspicions. This was not going to turn out well.

He heard two of them walk over to him, and he was roughly grabbed under his arms and dragged upright. It sounded like the third person was positioning a chair or something similar judging from the scraping noise. It was like his hearing was much clearer now he had been deprived of his sight.

He was pulled across the room and pushed down onto the chair, and two of them held him down on his shoulders while the third handcuffed his left leg to the chair leg. The one on his left clamped down hard on his shoulder, and Scott couldn't help but flinch as his sore shoulder protested. This caused the hand to squeeze harder, and Scott would have gasped if he could. While this was happening the third person had untied his ankles and cuffed the right one to the chair.

It was a relief to Scott's ankles. He had no idea that the cords were that tight until they had been removed, and his ankles promptly complained, pins and needles shooting up his legs in protest now that the blood was flowing again. He tried to flex his ankles to help, but it was almost impossible against the cuffs, and he got a cuff around his head for his troubles. It must have been where he had been hit before as his head exploded into stars and pain.

The two either side of him now proceeded to force him to bend forward until his chest was resting on his thighs. He could hear one of them shuffle around to be in front of him while one stood behind, then they swapped roles. One kept their hands on Scott's shoulders while the other yanked his arms up behind him. He couldn't help but cry out as his arms were pulled up high, not that anyone could hear him, and the person in front started pushing him back while the person behind lifted his arms clear of the back of the chair.

Scott was thankful for the blindfold. It soaked up the tears that had involuntarily appeared at that manoeuvre. He wasn't sure why they wanted his arms behind the chair back, but he felt just that little more helpless than before. That was probably their intent. His wrists were then cuffed to the lowest strut on the back, but the cords were not removed here. He was getting concerned about the length of time his hands had had no release from the bindings.

During all this time only one of them had spoken. It didn't really matter as Scott was fairly sure who at least one of the others was, but he was sure that they were trying to intimidate him further, make him more nervous. He told himself it wasn't working, but he was no longer sure.

Suddenly there was pressure on his thighs as someone sat astride him, their hands resting on his chest. He wished his heart wasn't hammering so much. The hands slowly moved up his chest, along his shoulders and to the back of his head, resting a moment. That manoeuvre had the person right up to Scott, and he could feel their breath on his face. It was only his iron-clad self-control that stopped him flinching away.

She gave a throaty chuckle. He was a cool one now, so much control! So impressive. Such a turn-on. But it was too late for that; much as she might have liked to have indulged they were on a tight deadline and she had been promised he would be all hers later…

She slid herself a little higher on his thighs as she reached around, taking hold of the knot to the gag. She could undo it, despite how tight it was, but she chose to yank it down as hard as she could. The object here was pain and control, not niceties. Much as she loved him, that was not their objective at all.

Having the tight gag yanked over his chin and down onto his neck tore the tender skin around his mouth, and Scott could feel where his lips had dried out and split, could taste blood as he ran his tongue over them to moisten them. She was still too close, but he could not dislodge her bound as he was.

Hannah ran her fingers over Scott's lips, following the trail of his tongue. They were still dry and split and bleeding, and she smudged the blood as she did so, her touch ever so light, almost tender. This time Scott did try to move his head out of the way, and this incensed her greatly. Getting quickly off his lap she slapped him as hard as she could, feeling smug when it caused his lip to bleed more. She raised her hand again only for her arm to be caught short.

'Enough.' And there he was. Scott sighed inwardly. He had known it would turn out to be the two of them, and as usual Todd was still calling the shots. It had been unnerving with Hannah sitting astride him, but hearing Mason there as well gave him hope that nothing more was going to happen with Hannah.

What worried him more was who was the silent third person.

He listened as Mason pushed Hannah aside, as she protested that she wasn't finished with him. She was silenced with her own slap, from whom Scott was not sure, but Hannah did not cry out or complain, and a tiny part of Scott fumed that a woman would be treated this way – even a woman like Hannah.

Todd made his way over to Scott slowly, relishing the power he felt. This was the one, the cause of all his troubles. He had been virtually guaranteed a football scholarship and a place as one of the worlds' top quarterbacks. He was that good. But the minute Hannah, the slut, had become obsessed with Tracy everything had fallen apart. He lost everything due to one fingerprint and a daddy's boy with more money than he could ever hope to have. He couldn't afford to pay off the police and a lawyer to ensure he had a clean record like Tracy had done.

Placing his hand heavily on Scott's left shoulder, he squeezed hard and was rewarded by a gasp of pain. Placing his mouth directly in front of Scott's ear elicited another flinch. He was going to enjoy this. 'You missing our Hannah as much as she's been missing you, Tracy?' he asked, enjoying Scott's discomfort. 'Don't worry too much about her, she'll leave you alone – for now.' Todd stood up and let his words sink in. Scott was determined not to give him anything more – the flinch had been bad enough, damn this blindfold. Licking his sore lips again, he asked the question.

'What do you want, Mason?'

Mason gave a bark of a laugh. 'Want? I have everything I have ever wanted sitting right in front of me.' Scott grimaced. Vengeful kidnappings did not have positive outcomes for the victims, and he had been hoping that money would be more of a motive, although he knew that accessing large amounts of money would require himself, his brothers could not authorise TI to access money. He only hoped that no-one else knew that.

Todd was walking around Scott, thinking about what he wanted to say. He had waited years to be able to say his piece, and this would be the only opportunity he would ever get. Mason was not stupid; he knew the third party here would be the one to profit the most from this venture. And it was a venture, he was acutely aware that he was only involved through sufferance and because of their shared history. How that had been discovered he did not know, but he was not going to lose the opportunity of even a little payback. Hannah had taken even less to persuade than he had.

Standing behind Scott gave Todd a feeling of happiness he had not known for a long time. Placing both hands on Scott's shoulders, he sighed. He didn't get the flinch he had hoped for, but Tracy had always been contained.

'You ruined my life, Tracy. You got me expelled. I lost the scholarship I had lined up. No school, college or university would touch me. I didn't even get my high school diploma. No job worth anything would hire me. I lost everything. Everything! My whole future!' He had promised himself he wouldn't get worked up, but he was close to losing it. Before it had even registered, Todd had grasped Scott's hair and pulled his head back as far as he could and was shouting in his ear.

Scott let Mason rant. He knew the truth, but the truth was not something Todd wanted to hear. He bit down hard on his tongue to stop himself saying something he would regret, and almost bit it in two when his head was suddenly yanked back. He swallowed convulsively, he could barely breathe at this angle and swallowing was painful.

There was a clap from across the room and Mason let him go. The chair rocked back onto all four feet, and Scott tried to draw in a deep breath without being obvious about it. Still the third person had not said anything, but he/she was obviously in control. There were more sounds of things being opened and moved, and soon Todd's hand landed back on his injured shoulder. He was glad he had not dislocated it. Hannah came and stood on his right side, hand on that shoulder. He could feel her trembling.

'Right, Mr Tracy,' said Todd. 'We're going to send your family a little message. All you need to do is say hi when I ask you to. Say anything else and you will regret it. Am I clear?' Scott nodded. He had no doubt at all that this was just for show, they had no plans to release him later. But he would take that risk if it gave John and EOS something to go on.

Hannah started, her words obviously scripted and rehearsed. It still sounded like she was rambling, but then that was the nature of what was happening here.

'Good morning, Tracy family. I believe that you are missing someone. Well, we don't want you to worry anymore. Scott's been having a wonderful time with us, haven't you, Scott?' He nodded, not trusting his voice. Hannah squeezed his shoulder and Mason took over talking.

'We want you to pay restitution to us for the harm caused by events when we were 16-17 years old. Due to you older brother's behaviour, we missed out on the rest of our lives while you got to move to a private island and become Thunderbirds. Well, we think it is time we had a share of that lifestyle.' He paused, digging his fingertips into Scott's shoulder until he couldn't help but wince.

'We want the sum of 10 million each for damages and loss of lifestyle.' Todd paused again. He was enjoying this more than he ever thought he would. 'And if you want your brother back, we want a Thunderbird. Any one will do, but no Thunderbird – no brother.' Pause.

'To show you we are serious about this, please watch.' Hannah's voice. 'Shoot the hostage,' she said.

There was a beat of silence, then the sound of a safety being released.

Scott tensed.

The gun fired.