Chapter 9
Felix
KAI: Have you decided what you’re doing for your birthday yet? Nick is chomping at the bit to get creative licence for it.
FELIX: Not decided yet, no. After what Nick has done before, despite it being fun, I’m a little scared to allow him free rein.
JASON: It’ll be great, I’m sure. Let him organise it if you don’t have time—or if you’re going to be boring and just suggest a drink at a bar.
FELIX: Hey, I like a drink at a bar. What’s wrong with that?
KAI: Everything. Nick says that he’ll put something together for you and you can have first refusal about whether it happens. You know he’s good.
JASON: You’d say that no matter what he organised. You’re getting his D after all.
KAI: Maybe. But he is also damn good at event planning. If he wasn’t a bodyguard, he would have his own business, I’m sure of it.
FELIX: Fine. Let Nick come up with an idea BUT he has to let me see it first.
KAI: Awesome. He’s so happy right now.
KAI: Okay, got to go. He’s EXTREMELY happy!
JASON: More than I wanted to hear, Kai. Anyway, I’m looking forward to your birthday. Maybe we need to get you laid.
FELIX: Not a chance. I’m absolutely fine as I am.
JASON: Well, of course you are, pining away after Mr Needs-to-get-his-head-out-of-his-ass. You either need to jump him or forget him.
FELIX: I know.
Birthdays were something of a sore point with Felix at that moment.
In his research into Brett, he’d found out he’d missed his birthday by a matter of ten days.
It was a date Brett had always refused to give when asked, and no one had questioned why.
In a new light, Felix thought he understood, but it still hurt that he hadn’t been able to help Brett on a day that was supposed to be a celebration but had turned into an anniversary of his mother’s death.
Felix hadn’t been able to find out what happened to Rachel Cage other than that she died from falling down the stairs at their home, but it had been on Brett’s thirteenth birthday.
From there, he’d found information about him leaving home at fourteen years old, but not much after that until he turned up at Windsor Castle as a guard.
Another fact he’d found was that Venus wasn’t just his sister—she was his twin sister.
Felix would have to delve deeper, but he hated that he’d already broken his promise to the man.
The main thing he had to decide now was…
did he take it to Brett and admit what he had done, or did he pretend he hadn’t done it?
Neither option would end well, but the choice wasn’t really a choice.
If Brett found out what Felix had done, it would be so much worse than if Felix admitted to it.
Sighing, he packed the things he needed and climbed into his car, having not seen any of his roommates for a change.
Usually, one or two of them waylaid him on his way out the door.
His stomach grumbled from lack of breakfast and sloshed from the glass of water he’d chugged to stop the hunger.
He’d eat when he got there. He needed to get his admission over with before he could eat properly.
And if Brett killed him… well, he wouldn’t need food then, anyway.
Brett’s car was in the car park when he pulled in, and his stomach churned some more. Taking a breath, he grabbed his bag and headed in. He headed for the kitchen, hoping that by taking a coffee in for Brett, it would help his case—he wouldn’t hold his breath.
As he strode for Sec HQ, he found he was holding his breath, and he inhaled, shaky as it was. He faced bad guys all the time, but the idea of hurting the man he…loved was indescribable. He stared at the door for a long second and then pushed through. It was then or never.
As usual, Brett sat behind his desk, his gaze darting between the screen of his laptop and the papers on his desk, but it flicked up when Felix entered, and if he wasn’t mistaken, a slight softening happened, though it might’ve been wishful thinking.
He placed the coffee in front of Brett and then leant back against another table not far from him.
Brett raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything, just sipped his coffee and waited Felix out.
Stomach tumbling, he met Brett’s gaze. “I have to give you an apology.” Brett continued to stare at him but said nothing.
Felix inhaled. “I broke my promise to you, and I’m sorry.
” Brett froze. “I overheard you and Venus talking yesterday, and I…researched you.” The words left a bitter taste in his mouth, and he wished he could’ve taken it all back.
Not just the words, but the actions, too.
Brett’s jaw tightened and relaxed, tightened and relaxed before he rose to his feet, his chair creaking like a floorboard in a horror movie before the bad guy jumps out.
“Of all the things I expected to happen, breaking a promise was not one of them.” He was surprisingly calm, but Felix could tell he wouldn’t stay that way.
“I’m sorry. I heard you discussing Maddox and a price to pay. I thought I could help.”
“By going behind my back? I explicitly told you not to research me! Explicitly! Did you think something good would come from this? Did it not cross your mind that there was a reason I asked this of you?” His hands flung sideways as his voice rose.
This was what Felix had expected, and he deserved it all.
“That there was a reason I wanted my private life kept away from my work? Did any of that cross your mind?” Felix didn’t reply. “Well, did it?” Brett shouted.
“No. It should have, but no, it didn’t. I thought I could help,” he repeated.
“Well, you can’t, Felix.” Brett glared at him. “Nobody can. The king knows all about this, and that is enough. There is nothing more we can do about it right now. It’s no one’s business but mine.”
Felix couldn’t deny that it hurt to hear Brett had gone to the king and not him with his family problems.
“I’m sorry about your mother.”
Brett clenched his jaw and looked down and to the side, briefly closing his eyes. “I don’t need your sympathy; I need your loyalty. You’ve broken my trust in you.”
That hurt. Inside him, a cut, deep enough to draw blood, sliced through his heart. And he couldn’t deny he deserved it all. He had no words that could apologise enough.
“I kept your secrets, Felix, now you need to keep mine.”
Brett walked away, and Felix swallowed the lump in his throat and blinked away the tears that threatened to escape. There would be no coming back from what he’d done, and he had no one to blame but himself.
He slid into a chair in front of his computer and stared at the blank screen, able only to see Brett’s expressions flitting through his mind. He thought he could help, but all he’d done was push away the one person he wanted to bring closer, and he couldn’t see a way to fix it.
His phone chimed and brought him out of his melancholy.
JASON: It’s that time of the week…coffee at BD!
Felix wasn’t sure if he needed more coffee—or company—but it was a standing date; just a quick chat and drink before Jason had to work.
He couldn’t talk to him about the exact situation, but seeing a friendly face would help.
He sent a thumbs-up back and stood. He wouldn’t stay long because he had work to do, but he could try to reduce the disappointment he felt in himself.
And in Brett. He had promised Brett he wouldn’t pry, but he’d added to himself that if anyone was in danger because of what he didn’t know, he would break the promise without a second thought.
Granted, he’d had several second thoughts before he’d done it, but he could excuse it away because it affected the team, and he believed Brett should tell them.
Felix wouldn’t do it—it would have to come from Brett eventually—but Felix would keep it quiet for the moment.
He exited Windsor Castle, pausing for a few minutes to chat with the guards at the gate, and then continued on his way.
It was a blessing and a curse that Book Drunk was only a few steps away.
Coffee on tap whenever he wanted it, and therefore, coffee on tap whenever he wanted it.
He looked both ways before crossing the road, and as his foot hit the path on the other side, he heard a noise that made him pause.
Felix wasn’t a jumpy person, but when something that sounded like a silenced gunshot met his ears, it made him take notice.
Jerking his gaze to the left, he studied his surroundings—no one else seemed to have noticed anything—and then followed the path to the left and around the corner.
Just down from the junction was an alleyway, and he paused just before he reached it.
Not hearing any other noise, he peered around the edge of the building and into the shadowed alley.
He couldn’t be sure if there was anyone in there because the dark areas covered a significant amount of it. But then he heard the sound again.
This time, he was sure it was a silenced gunshot.
Creeping down the alley, he kept close to the wall, pulling his gun from his holster.
Everything was quiet again, but he kept going, hoping something—or someone—would show themselves sooner rather than later.
He paused and listened and then stepped around the large industrial bin at the back of the building.
He wished he’d called for backup.
Five men stood around the edges of the dead-end of the alleyway with guns pointed towards him. He held his hands out, showing he had a gun but had no intention of using it.
“Everything okay here?” he asked, glancing at each person in turn, trying to collate all the information he could about them on the off chance he would get out of this alive.
“Throw your gun towards me,” the man in the centre, right opposite Felix, said. He did. “Now, strip and get on your knees.” He did. The guy bundled his clothes together but paused when he saw Felix’s watch. “Watch, too.”
Felix hesitated for a split second and then removed it slowly, ensuring he quickly stopped it before handing it over.
“Do you want something in particular? With the noises I heard here, I was expecting to see a dead body,” he joked but received no response.
“Where’s your phone?”
“In my jeans.” Felix cursed silently as they remove it. So much for keeping it for one of the team to locate him with. “Sure. Feel free to call my family to let them know I’ll be late for dinner.”
“Hands behind your back,” the same man ordered. He was obviously the one in charge.
Felix complied with every order they gave, despite the chill beginning to seep into his bones from being stark naked at the end of October and knowing there was nothing he could do to get help for himself.
“What’s the plan? Are you killing me here or taking me somewhere else first? ” They tied his hands with zip ties.
The man, who reminded him of Harrison Ford in his younger years, said, “We will kill you when the time is right. That is not now.”
Although that didn’t fill him with the warm and fuzzies, he at least had a chance to live for a little longer.
How long ‘a little’ was would depend on his captors.
He silently cursed himself for being so predictable in his own life when he tutored others to be more unpredictable to stop this exact thing from happening.
“Do I at least get to know what or who I’m dying for?”
“Not yet.”
Red lights filled the alley, and he craned his neck to see the silhouette of a car reversing towards them.
Hands grabbed him and forced him to his feet and then shepherded him into the back of it.
After he was pushed into a chair, one guy put ear plugs in him first, then a strong, potent cream on his nose, which reminded him of the heat cream for soothing muscles, and a sprinkling of salt on his tongue.
Then a bag was put over his head. It wouldn’t stop him from being able to figure out the direction they were going in—after all, he had significant training—but it would all mess with his senses, which he guessed was the point.
As they started moving, he concentrated on the turns of the vehicle and the amount of time they were driving.
He’d counted seventeen minutes before they came to a stop and didn’t start moving again.
Doors opened, and fresh air filled the space.
Seventeen minutes. That was still a fairly large area they could be in, but coupled with the turns he believed he had remembered, they had to be south west of Windsor.
Rough hands pulled him from the vehicle, and he tumbled to the ground, smacking his face onto a rock or something and skinning his knees.
Sandy with small stones. Like a non-paved driveway, maybe.
It made a slight crunching sound as they walked across it and up some steps, indicating they’d moved indoors.
They took several more steps before they stopped him.
Muted voices were all he could hear. The bag was removed from his head, and he blinked to get his eyes to work as fast as possible.
Then the ear plugs were removed, though there was not much sound to be heard.
The guy who had bundled his clothes earlier came back with some and proceeded to dress Felix in clothes that weren’t his.
He needed help when it came to unfastening his hands and then refastening them.
If there hadn’t been so many men around, Felix would’ve taken the chance to fight his way free.
“Kneel,” the original voice said from beside him.
Felix knelt. One man took a photo of him, one he was sure would not win awards and then he faced a video camera with several people behind it, and two people beside him. One held a paper to Felix’s left, the other held a gun.
Swallowing hard, Felix knew the time had come.
The red light on the camera turned to green, and the man to his right, the main man, started talking.
“We have one of your men, and you need to understand that he’s not coming back to you. You have been warned over the last few months, but you have not listened. You have continued to make the wrong decisions, and because of this, you will pay the price.
“Number four is no more,
Are you scared to your core?
Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock,
No more time on the clock.”
And with those words, the man covered Felix’s head with the bag again and fired a shot.
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