Not In Love
Here's the next chapter as promised. As I said, it gets very exciting so I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.
Disclaimer: I'd own Beyblade if I could afford it, but I can't, so leave me alone.
One final note for this chapter. A change in place is shown by a horizontal line.
Chapter 7
Rei turned sharply into the dark alley and skidded to a halt. They certainly couldn't have picked anywhere more isolated from the city life of London; that was for sure. He'd nearly fallen off his bike having to make so many sharp, unexpected turns. The alley itself was lit by an old blinking neon sign that was hanging precariously above a rather sinister looking door and was occupied by nothing but the deadly silence.
Feeling unusually nervous, Rei made his way to the door he'd noticed earlier and knocked upon it sharply, three times, as he'd been told. The alley remained silent for a few moments until the door creaked open, displaying nothing but more darkness. He stepped uncertainly into the darkness, just as the lights switched on, revealing something quite unexpected.
The now visible room was white and, unlike its surroundings very clean. Water trickled beneath the glass floors and down panels in the walls. After studying the space, Rei realised he was alone. This really wasn't what he'd expected.
Or was he alone? Over the faint trickle of the water he thought he heard something move behind him. Nevertheless, he kept his ground, and remained with his back to the door, listening. Sure enough, he heard footsteps. So, someone was trying to creep up on him. He'd see to that.
Quick as a flash he pulled the pistol from inside his pocket and spun round holding the gun out in front of him. As he'd guessed, Rei came face to face with Petrovsky, who seemed to be very amused.
"I see you've come prepared."
"Obviously," Rei replied, not lowering the pistol.
"It's pleasing to know you're extremely vigilant, Mr…."
"Far. Far Lei." Petrovsky smirked.
"Mr. Far." He walked calmly away from Rei and sat at the glass desk at the end of the room. "Take a seat." Rei approached Petrovsky cautiously, still feeling uneasy about the way he was smirking evilly. Come on Rei, get your act together, I need to get with it if I want to do this right.
Once he'd sat down, Rei heard a phone ring. He watched Petrovsky pull out a mobile from his pocket.
"Excuse me." Petrovsky nodded in Rei's direction and left the room through a door that Rei wouldn't have noticed unless he had. The second he'd gone Rei heard Kai's voice through his earpiece.
"Rei, we're here. The van's around the corner if you need any help."
"I'm fine. What do you think of the office?" At the back of Rei's tie was a small camera that allowed the others to see anything Rei could.
"A bit strange, must have cost him a fair bit too. Nothing Le Bian couldn't fix up though…"
"The whole thing's a bit strange if you ask me, have you seen the way he's smirking at me?" Rei whispered, just in case Petrovsky was near.
"He's like that with everyone. Just don't let him get to you."
"Right."
"Oh, and be as evil as possible, he'll like you more."
"Okay." Rei looked up just as Petrovsky stepped into the room, smirking again.
"Sorry about that Mr. Far," he apologised, none too convincingly, as he sat back down at his desk. "Now, back to business." He opened a small box on his desk and pulled out a cigar. Rei refused as he offered the box to him.
"Just exactly what is it you want me to do? A colleague told me you offered good money to hit men-"
"And he wouldn't be wrong."
"That's great, but what am I going to have to do for it?"
"Well, we're planning… a small get together," liar, "and the men I hire will be positioned around the house. Each one will get £10 000 if they do their job well."
"Ten thousand? That's a lot for a small job."
"Like your friend said, I'm a very generous man."
"Very generous?! The lying bastard! When he's finished with his men he either kills them or threatens them to keep them quiet." Kai watched the computer screen almost laughing at Petrovsky's dishonesty.
"Oh, and how would you know?" Tyson asked, eying him suspiciously.
"For your information Tyson, I knew someone that did a job for Petrovsky once."
"Oh, sorry."
"Is that why you don't like him?" Max asked.
"Actually it's not."
"Then why do you have such a problem with him?" Tyson inquired.
"That is none of your business. Zoom out a bit; we need to be able to see everything."
"Where did I put those forms? Oh yes, over there. Do you mind?" Rei raised his eyebrows slightly before getting out of the chair. He walked over to the table Petrovsky had pointed at slowly, his leg still being quite painful he had to limp. Petrovsky spotted what he'd been looking for and smirked.
"I see you have a bad leg, how did you do that."
"Motorbike crash," Rei lied.
"Very interesting."
In the van, the others sat in silence as they watched Petrovsky and Rei discuss his injury.
"You don't think… he-" Max elbowed Tyson in the ribs, seeing the worry in Kai's eyes. "Of course not, he thinks Rei's dead."
"Shut up."
"Why?! What have I said now?"
"No literally, be quiet." Kai screwed up his eyes in concentration and tired to listen over the noise of the rain. "Do you hear it?" The others listened and shook their heads.
"What exactly are we… wait, I hear it too." Tyson listened carefully to the quiet beeping noise, then paled. "I hope that's not what it sounds like."
"I think it might be," Kai said as he pulled open the door. Max and Kenny watched in bewilderment as he and Tyson jumped out quickly and began looking around the van. Eventually, Kai found what they were looking for.
"Tyson, over here!"
"Oh shit." Tyson crouched down next to the device that was still beeping. A bomb.
"So all you want me to do is be one of your security guards?" Rei asked, trying to get more information from Petrovsky. Just as he did, a slight bleep in his ear told him his earpiece had cut out. Great.
"Actually, that isn't quite what I want you to do." This is more like it.
"Go on."
"I don't suppose you've heard of Kai Hiwatari by any chance." Rei was taken back for a second. Why was he bringing Kai up?
"Isn't he the guy that sent you to prison?" Rei asked. It was now his turn to smirk. Petrovsky's smug look faded and was replaced by anger. "Complete bastard, I'm sure." He said to keep up his cover.
"Yes, well," Petrovsky replied, putting on his calm face again. "I have a special job for you that involves him."
"Re…really?"
"I want you to kill him."
"Can you disable it?" Kai asked.
"No, there's not enough time."
"And you're supposed to be an explosives expert. Isn't there anything we can do?"
"Yeah. Run." They grabbed Kenny and Max and began to sprint towards the alley.
"Wait! I need to go back." Kai turned and made his way back towards the van.
"What the bloody hell for?!" Tyson shouted after him.
"My laptop. We won't be able to keep track of Rei without it."
"You've got about thirty seconds!"
"Plenty of time." Kai climbed back into the van and went to his laptop. To his horror, he'd forgotten to account for one thing. The wires. At least a dozen of the multicoloured strands were entangled with the wires of the other computers. He frantically tried to unravel them but failed miserably. Shit, shit, shit. With about five seconds to go Kai pulled at the laptop with all his might. There was as disheartening buzz as it cut out, but that was the last thing on his mind right now. Not a moment to soon, he leapt out of the open door, with the computer under his arm. As he did there was a huge bang from behind him.
"That isn't too much to ask is it? Then again you are a hit man, are you not?" Rei tried to hold back his shock and keep a straight face. "Nevertheless, if it is too much to ask, I could get someone else to do it."
"NO! I mean… I'll do it. It shouldn't be… too difficult." Petrovsky's smirk was now to evil for comfort. Rei shifted nervously.
"I'm sure it won't be. I mean you're with him twenty four seven, so there'll be plenty of opportunities won't there, Rei?"
Kai hit the floor and winced in pain as a shard of glass caught him across the face. He kept his head down and waited for the explosion to pass.
"Kai!" He felt two pairs of hands lift him to his feet and carry him away from the rubble. As they sat him against a wall, Kai opened his eyes and came face to face with a worried looking Max.
"Kai are you-"
"You complete and utter bastard. Don't you dare do anything like that again Kai Hiwatari. You scared the life out of me. We thought you were gonna die. Plenty of time you said. Christ, if you weren't already half dead I'd kill you myself. What were-"
"I'm not half dead Tyson, and since when have you ever been worried about me?" It suddenly dawned on Tyson that he had just said, out loud, that he had been worried about Kai.
"Bloody hell, I don't know what came over me. Must have been something I ate." Kai rolled his eyes. Then something hit him. If they knew he was here then that meant-
He quickly got himself up off the floor, ignoring the pain, and began to run towards the alley.
"Where are you going?"
"He knows it's Rei."
"What? How do you know?" Tyson got up and followed him to the door they'd watch Rei walk through earlier.
"Just trust me. Come on we're wasting time."
"I have to admit, Kon, you we're impressive. If I hadn't been expecting you I might not have noticed. But your devotion to him gave it away." Rei sat in silence, glaring at Petrovsky. "Oh and why we're on the subject of the one and only Kai, I happen to know he's here tonight too. Well," he grinned widely, "was." As he spoke, there was a deafening bang from outside. He couldn't possibly mean-
"Still I suppose it saves you the job of doing it, eh?" Rei felt his heart sink. Kai was dead. He stared at the desk in front of him. Petrovsky was saying something about coming quietly, but Rei wasn't listening anymore. He didn't care anymore. He saw Kai's face in his mind. The first time they'd met, their first job together, the first time he'd seen him smile properly…
"Aw, I think someone's upset." Rei didn't move. He couldn't believe this was happening. He felt Petrovsky pull off his wig and voice patch. He was running his cold fingers along Rei's delicate cheekbones. "Don't worry," he whispered. "You'll forget about him after a while."
"There really won't be any need for that." Petrovsky spun around quickly.
"No…"
"Kai!" Rei grinned in relief. He was alive.
"You!" Petrovsky spat. "You're alive!"
"No, I'm back from the dead," Kai smirked sarcastically.
"But how…"
"I've told you before not to underestimate me."
"I'll teach you…" Petrovsky pulled a pistol from inside his jacket and aimed it directly at Kai. However, Rei was ready for this. He kicked the gun out of his hands and caught it with ease. Petrovsky was fuming. He looked just about ready to kill with his bare hands. Nevertheless, he didn't get very far. From out side came the noise of open fire.
"Sir!" Petrovsky looked suspiciously at them both before darting out the door, locking it behind him.
"What was that?" Rei asked as soon as he'd left.
"Tyson's diversion. I need to talk to you," Kai stated as he reloaded his pistol and pulled Rei to the far end of the room.
"I'm sorry I messed up."
"You didn't mess up Rei," Kai said softly, lifting Rei's head. "All you need to worry about now is how the hell we're gonna get out of here." Suddenly Rei remembered something Petrovsky had said earlier. 'Come quietly and I won't hurt you. I'll take you to the place you're looking for.'
"I'm staying."
"What?"
"Petrovsky was going to take me to the other hostages. It's our only chance Kai."
"No… you can't…"
"Kai the tracking chip is still in my arm so you'll know exactly where I am. You can come and heroically rescue me, and then we'll kick some ass." Kai couldn't help but smile. As much as he hated to admit it, Rei was right. This was there only chance.
"Fine," he sighed, "but, you have to promise me," he softly ran his fingers through Rei's hair, "that you'll be okay."
"I-" Before Rei could make his promise the door swung open. They ducked behind the desk just in time. Petrovsky and half a dozen of his men, two of whom were holding Max and Tyson, began firing around the room. The glass panels smashed and water came pouring out everywhere. Kai fired the bullets he had left, but it wasn't enough. He knew what he had to do. He knew what Petrovsky wanted.
Slowly and cautiously they stood up from behind the desk. The firing continued but none of the bullets hit them. Kai dropped his gun and they both held up their hands.
"Hold your fire!" Petrovsky shouted over the chaos. "It looks like you're all out of ideas." Kai glared at him. "Now, Kon come here." Rei glanced over at Kai but he had his eyes closed and seemed to be lost in thought. He turned to leave but Kai grabbed his wrist. Not quite sure of what he was doing, Kai pulled him into a passionate kiss. Rei was slightly shocked at first but soon responded. Everyone in the room seemed just as shocked as they were.
"Ahh, how touching," Petrovsky eventually stated. Rei and Kai broke apart, panting slightly and still wide eyed. Rei rested his forehead against Kai's. "Kon, I'm losing my patience." Ignoring Petrovsky, Rei leant towards Kai and whispered in his ear.
"I promise." He smiled one last time then made his way slowly towards Petrovsky, without looking back. He was led to the door by the other men.
"We'll be in touch Kai," Petrovsky smirked, before following the others.
Kai collapsed into the rather battered chair next to Petrovsky's desk. He couldn't believe what had just happened. The time he chose to show Rei felt, just happened to be the time the person he detested beyond belief took Rei from him for who knew how long.
However, after a while, his thoughts were interrupted by a car horn from outside. He got up and made his way to the door only to find Max and Tyson sitting in a black Audi TT. (A:N I love those cars!)
"Who's is this?" he called.
"Haven't got a clue," Tyson replied. "Get in quick." Kai climbed into the passenger seat just as Tyson sped out of the alley.
"I told you so."
"What?" Kai asked a smug looking Tyson.
"You know what." Kai sighed.
"Okay. Maybe, just maybe, I am in love."
Very exciting business, very exciting business. It's all going on! Sorry, again, for the wait. I've got a bit engrossed in Big Brother (Marco to win!) so I've been watching that when I should have been writing this.
Thanks go to the reviewers of the last chapter as always. I'm thrilled with the 62 reviews, it's a lot more than I expected.
Finally… review! (please!!!)