Anatolievich paused for a moment, still standing in front of the boy, hands still lingering around the cuffs of Alex's blazer jacket. Brown eyes stared nervously up at his own. He released the fabric and brushed past to take a seat at the chessboard. He gestured to the chair opposite and the boy followed his direction, sitting nervously on the edge of the seat.
"Now now, Alexander," he said "I don't bite."
The boys eyes flicked up to his once again, there was something behind the innocence, something behind the nerves, he couldn't quite place it.
"I'm just not very good at chess." he said quietly
"I don't believe that for a second, but here," he said, twirling the board round. "You can be black, have a head start."
The boy mumbled something which sounded like a thank you and moved a pawn a couple of spaces. Anatolievich smiled and moved a white knight. They played for some time, Anatolievich taking more black pieces off the board than Alex took white, but the boy was good. He was opportunistic and bold, almost calculating. As they played, the boy looked grew more serious, he focused harder on the game and every now and then, his eyebrows would furrow and his teeth would come out to bite his lip in concentration.
It was at these moments where Anatolievich would make mistakes and foolish decisions, his own concentration focused elsewhere.
"I thought you said you weren't very good at this game Alexander." Anatolievich said, raising an eyebrow as Alex took his Queen.
The boy shrugged. He'd finally grown more comfortable in his chair and had taken off the jacket, he looked good in white. "Natural talent?"
"Indeed."
They continued and the pace of the game grew, both players taking and moving pieces as quickly as the other had moved them. The sun was set now, the shadows darkening the boy's features. It highlighted his sharp jawline, exaggerating the curve of his cheekbones which were usually hidden under slight baby fat. The boy's skin seemed lighter in the pale moonlight and his eyes darker.
"Check." Anatolievich said, finally.
Alex moved his King and Anatolievich followed it with his castle. "Check." he repeated. They went through the same routine several times. Alex moving his King out of the way whilst Anatolievich moved his own pieces to put him in check and block Alex in, to force him to give up. He often enjoyed this part of the game.
"Check." he said lazily.
He was growing bored. Alex did not however move his King straight away this time, instead, his frown grew deeper, examining the board. Anatolievich could almost see the cogs turning. He took advantage of Alex's hard concentration to openly look at the boy. He was broken out of his staring a minute later when the boy grinned triumphantly. He moved his knight to take the white castle. Anatolievich scoffed and took the knight immediately with a bishop. The bishop which had been guarding-
Alex whooped in delight, leaning backwards and punching his arms up into the air. He grinned at Anatolievich. It was a beautiful smile; it made him look younger. Alex's deft fingers moved his queen into position. He made deliberate eye contact with Anatolievich.
"Checkmate."
Anatolievich smiled testily. But he wouldn't argue, they boy had won fairly. It had been his own inattention to the board which had caused his downfall. If he had been playing anyone other than Alex he would have noticed the obvious ploy.
"I thought you said you weren't good at chess." Anatolievich said, forcing a smile on his face; he didn't like to lose. Alex said nothing but just grinned at him, spreading his hands in a 'what can I say' sort of motion. He caught Anatolievich staring at him and self consciously mussed up his hair.
"Come," Anatolievich said, rising from the table. "Amiliya will have prepared dinner."
"I said, I want to speak to Sir David now." came Sabina's fathers angry voice from the hall. He had been trying to reach him for an hour now and had only just been put through to the man's secretary. Sabina and Brad sat in the living room, listening. Sabina couldn't take her eyes off the words 'except this one will want to bully me and I don't want to let that happen'
She felt sick everytime she read it. 'I don't want to let that happen.' Alex phrased it so calmly, so stoically, it was as if he was resigned. He didn't want to let it happen, but he knew it would be suggested, knew it was inevitable, that the man would try-
She turned away from Brad who was still sat awkwardly in their sitting room. He didn't know what was happening. He thought Alex was with his previous foster family. She couldn't tell him. She didn't have the heart nor the stomach.
"I don't CARE IF-" her father started angrily. Sabina had never heard him this irate before. "Look," he said, much quieter, but still with the same harsh tone. " this is about Alex. You know, my son." There was silence. "Yes. Yes. Thank you."
They heard footsteps and then her father's head poked around the door. "They're putting me through to him now." Sabina rose from her seat.
"Can I-"
"No Sab," he said kindly, "you stay here. I'm going to- well, I'm going to have some words with him." He left and Sabina fell back onto the sofa.
There was silence in the room and she could feel Brad staring at her. "Well..." he began slowly, "this is awkward."
She looked at him. "No it isn't."
"It is a little," he said, uncomfortably, "I mean, you're obviously hiding something from me and don't want me to know that you are, I'm not an idiot."
"You said that with so much conviction I almost believed you." she said dryly
"Sabina, I'm serious," he said, his voice rising, "I want to know what's going on."
"And you think I'm going to tell you, do you?" she asked cooly. She didn't want to show that she was upset. She wanted Brad to go and leave her alone.
"I was hoping you would, yeah." he said angrily. He stood from his place on the opposite sofa and sat next to her. "Because I've only known Alex a couple of months, but I care about him." his voice choked, "I care much more about Alex than you-"
WHAM. All the feelings of pent up worry and sadness that Sabina had been feeling expressed itself in the form of her fist as she hit out at Brad. It caught him on the nose and he cried out as she felt something hot run over her knuckles. She looked down, wondering what it could be. Blood.
She looked at Brad's face which was difficult as he was covering it with both hands. "ARGH Sabina! You punched me! What-"
She pried his hands away from his nose and looked at it. It wasn't broken. Her ring had caught the skin however and it was causing a steady, substantial bleed. "Why did you hit me?" he said indignantly, "Oh my God, I can taste blood-"
Sabina leaned back on the sofa, no longer looking at him. "Well, there's a lot of it." she said calmly. She reached out with her toe to poke the box of tissues on the table. "Use those."
They sat in silence once again as Brad stemmed the bleeding. Once he had finished he threw the tissues in the bin and collapsed into the seat beside her. They stared at the wall opposite them blankly. Neither speaking to the other.
"You like him, don't you?" Sabina asked after a while.
There was a pause of several seconds and then Brad said, finally "Everyone likes him."
"You know what I mean."
"Yes. I do." He said quietly, "I like him very much. And all I want to know is what's going on. Please Sabina."
She looked at him, he was pathetic, she thought, with his bloody nose and his high school crush. But she was jealous of him, she hated that.
"I like Alex too." she said, so low it was almost a whisper, "But I'm his sister now. I envy you."
Brad looked at her incredulously, gesturing at his bloody face.
"Not right now, obviously," Sabina continued quickly, "but you can have Alex, you're allowed to fancy him. I fancied him, when were friends but now he's my brother. It doesn't go away immediately. Of course I'd never do anything but," she paused. "He's a hard boy to get over. But I know I will, eventually."
Brad nodded. "I liked Alex when I first saw him, I thought he was your boyfriend for a week until I found out you had the same name." he laughed derisively, "but you're not to worry Sabina, I don't have a chance either, Alex isn't gay."
Sabina looked at him out of the corner of her eye, "No?" she asked slyly, "I've always thought there was a bit of a bisexual vibe."
Brad shook his head. "He's on the soccer team, he eats burgers, wears hoodies and trainers and doesn't care about his hair, I'm pretty sure he's straight." there was a pause, "But then again," Brad said thoughtfully, "he does have his ears pierced and I've never seen him with a girl..." he trailed off.
Sabina shrugged, "It doesn't matter anyway, even if he is Bi or pan or whatever. If this guy in the message he's with does- well, I don't think I'd be up for sex with anyone."
"So who is he with?" Brad pressed.
"I don't know," she said sadly, "someone russian, probably with a lot of power. He'll be dangerous and he's- well, he'll want to molest Alex."
"Why though?" Brad asked impatiently, "why was he kidnapped? Where was he taken? Why did he send you a coded message? Why did he have to send you a coded message? What-"
"Okay enough!" she interrupted, "I'm not going to tell you, I'm not actually allowed, but trust me Brad, you don't want to know. Just know that Alex is in trouble and we need to help him."
There was quiet in the room, no noise apart from their breathing and the ticking of the clock.
"So, a powerful, sketchy, dangerous russian." Brad said slowly.
"Yup."
"In the US?"
Sabina considered this. "Maybe?"
Brad picked up his phone and typed.
"What are you doing?"
"Googling sketchy russians in the US." he said simply.
"What? Brad! You can't do that here." she said hurriedly, trying to take his phone. "Not on my WiFi."
Brad gave her a confused look, moving his phone out of reach. "I'm using my data," said as if it was obvious, "I don't have your WiFi passcode."
Sabina stopped trying to take his phone. "Oh," she said "oh yeah."
"So, I've found a list on Yahoo. I'll read it out and you tell me if you've heard of any of them."
Sabina snorted at Brad's tactics but consented.
"Bobrick. Venediktov. Durov, Kamenskikh," Brad started, taking his time over the pronunciation of each name. "Gregorovich," Sabina's heart skipped a beat, "Lipin, Pushnoy. Teplov, Anatolievich - I've heard of him, he's a diplomat isn't he?" Brad asked interestedly. Sabina shrugged and he continued, "Cherkasov, Yudin and Shubkin."
He looked up at her, "There are a lot of dodgy russians aren't there?"
"Well-" she began but a second later her father walked into the room looking cross.
"Sir David is coming over," he said, throwing himself into a chair. "He said 'he need to explain in per- Brad, what happened to your face?"
"I er-" he looked awkwardly at Sabina.
"Sabina?" her father asked, raising his eyebrows.
"It was an accident."
Brad looked annoyed but didn't say anything.
"Are you alright Brad?" her father asked, craning his neck to get a better look at his nose.
"I'm fine."
"Well, in that case, if Sir David is coming over-" he stood and motioned to Brad, "I think you better be leav-"
"No, wait - Dad." Sabina interjected before he could get any further. "I think Brad should stay. He wants to help and-" she looked at him; his nose really did look a mess. "We should let him."
Brad smiled at her.
"Very well, if you're sure." said her father, confused, "Sir David will be here in the morning. I'll do up the spare room." he exited and she turned to Brad.
"I thought you'd want to stay." Brad nodded his thanks and massaged his nose. "Besides, that list of yours might come in handy."
Okay, so I know its not as long or as good as a lot of you were probably hoping and I'm sorry. But today was the only day I've not had anything to do for a while (because I'm ill) so I thought I'd write this to make the gap a little shorter between now and the next chapter (hopefully, I have no idea when I'm writing the next chapter. Term starts on Monday!) Hope you like it, I promise things will actually happen in the next chapter and I hope you enjoyed this. I'm a big fan of some of my speech in this. I know it's not a masterpiece and I'm sorry, but I did try.
