Business and Pleasure: Chapter 24

[saiya-tina.livejournal.com]

Title: Business and Pleasure
Rating: WARNING: Serious R for this one! Abuse and non-con are strongly mentioned and there's a squick factor too, so I'm WARNING! you again!
Pairing: Brad/Ryan
Summary for the chapter: Meetings are attended and plans are made.

Overall Summary: Brad's running his own large business and has everything but what he wants the most: someone to be there for him. After 'purchasing' Ryan from the Utopia group to serve the purpose, he slowly realizes that he's breaking their most important rule: he's falling in love with him. After two years together, two years of love, the time has come for Ryan to be taken away. The rules will change, the game will too and the three friends are going to go through the ultimate test.

A/N: Wow, was this a dark one! To be hoenst, I'm kinda wondering what the hell is the matter with me.... but Enjoy and please leave a comment!

“Are you sure we’re supposed to meet him here?”

 

“He said at the back wall. This is the back wall.”

 

“How do you know?”

 

“Because it’s behind the mansion!”

 

“What if Greg made it look like that so that he could confuse people trying to kill him?”

 

“What?!”

 

“You know, maybe the back wall is really the front wall and the front wall is the back wall?”

 

“That doesn’t make sense!”

 

“Yes it does. If you come to the front wall, thinking it’s the back wall, then you’ll climb over it and security will catch you and they’ll throw you in jail. But if you go over the front wall, which is really the back wall, you can get through. But no one would figure that out because they think the front wall is the back wall and the back wall is the front wall, so-”

 

“Brad, I’m begging you, shut up!” Wayne groaned, rubbing his forehead, “I swear, how could I have not know you get this chatty when you’re bored?”

 

“Well, it’s a logical explanation,” Brad frowned at the disinterest in his theory, scuffing his foot in the dirt before mumbling, “Ryan would have understood it....”

 

Wayne glared at him for a second before looking up at the wall again. To be honest, he really didn’t know how Colin expected them to enter the compound that way because the wall was at least eight feet high and not to mention almost completely smooth, making scaling it near impossible. He had to thank whatever higher power was watching them however, because there was little to no security on the wall, besides a camera that looked like it had seen better days.

 

“I wonder why he doesn’t juice up security on this wall,” Wayne muttered.

 

“Because this is my wall.”

 

Both Wayne and Brad let out yelps of surprise before turning to see Colin standing behind them with a highly amused expression. How he got behind them, however, was a mystery.

 

“How’d you get behind us?” Brad asked, one hand against his racing heart.

 

“The same way you’ll get in,” Colin pointed at the tree whose branches ended a few inches away from the high wall, “get climbing.”

 

“Uh, Colin, I don’t know how,” Brad looked at the tree, “I’m aboristically challenged.”

 

“But your vocab seems gifted,” Colin said dryly, “Just follow my path.”

 

That said, he began a slow climb up the tree, using footholds that one wouldn’t even notice unless they were looking at it carefully. It was hard but all three of them managed to reach the thicker branches of the tree and were clutching them tightly for fear of falling.

 

“Right,” Colin spoke, the only one who looked completely at home, “We jump.”

 

“Jump?!” Wayne asked fearfully, looking at the foot they had to cover over the wall, “Are you crazy?!”

 

“It’s easy,” Colin assured him, “Leap forward and so that you get over the wall and then roll over, like in a somersault to minimize impact. You’re both athletic, especially you Brady, you should be fine.”

 

With that said, Colin leaped forward and over the wall and they heard a thud as he landed behind it, calling to them to hurry. With a silent prayer, Wayne followed Colin’s actions and Brad heard a thump and a small pained whimper before the assassin told him to leap as well.

 

Using experience from years of being in the drama club in high school and learning how to fake falls without hurting himself, Brad leapt over and landed on both his feet behind the wall, rolling like Colin said before settling down in a crouch. He felt like his heart had literally stopped for a moment before he realized that he didn’t feel any pain, but just a mild ache on the soles of his feet. He heard a slow clap and turned to see Colin applauding him with a small smile while Wayne gaped at him with an open jaw.

 

“How did you do that?” his friend asked in admiration.

 

“Experience,” Brad grinned, abashed, before standing up and dusting his hands off, “Shall we go on?”

 

“Follow me,” Colin began to lead them through the courtyard, keeping an eye out for any stray guards.

 

“Why is the security so, well, pathetic? Not that I’m complaining,” Wayne asked.

 

“Because this is my area. I don’t like people in my area. They make me angry and you would not like me when I’m angry,” Colin responded lightly. Wayne gave him a disturbed look behind his back but followed silently.

 

“Where’s Ryan?” Brad asked, looking around.

 

“In the shed. We can’t have the meeting in his room or in mine and like I mentioned before, no one goes near that,” Colin looked at him askance, “And what were you two doing last time? He’s been smiling ever since.”

 

Brad bit back a grin and shrugged, keeping his face perfectly blank, “We just talked.”

 

“Riiight,” Colin’s voice oozed sarcasm, “I didn’t know words could give you a hickey. Try not to speak like that again for now.”

 

Brad blushed at that and Wayne smothered a snicker at his glare. Colin led them over to a shed that was about the size of an average suburban house. Brad had to wonder why in the world Greg had such a huge shed but considering most of it looked a lot newer than the rest, he assumed Colin had probably asked for it to be made bigger for him.

 

“Welcome to Colin’s Kung Fu Hut,” Colin quipped, opening the door and gesturing them inside. The entire shed was filled with equipment, be it exercise machines, punching bags, wrestling mats and even a training dummy which was currently being used by Ryan.

 

“Ryan,” Colin called and the other man turned around to see his friends, making his way over with a smile.

 

“I see you survived the tree,” he grinned, clasping both of them in a hug.

 

“You couldn’t have warned us about that?” Brad asked, only half serious.

 

“Colin wanted to see your reactions,” he shrugged, giving the man in question a fond glare, “how did you get over anyway?”

 

“They went over willingly,” Colin answered, “Bradley, however, seemed to be used to things like that despite being- what did he call it?- arboristically challenged.”

 

“Consider yourself lucky,” Ryan shook his head, leading them further into the shed, “the first time Colin wanted me to do that, I refused and he pushed me over. I had a concussion for days.”

 

“Ouch,” Wayne winced in sympathy.

 

“Not the worst thing that’s happened to me,” Ryan glared at Colin, “no thanks to you.”

 

“You wanted me to train you,” Colin responded with a bemused tone.

 

“Anyway,” Ryan said loudly, sitting down on one of the wrestling mats, “we better decide what we’re planning.”

 

“Right,” Brad sat down next to him while Colin and Wayne sat opposite them, “Now, where is this meeting going down?”

 

“The location was changed a few days ago, so we’ll be traveling out of the city,” Colin supplied, taking a rolled up map from one of the tables and laying it down between them, showing blueprints of the entire area mentioned, “this is a warehouse district five miles out of Seattle, which is where the meeting will be held two weeks from today.”

 

“Now, that’s Colin’s hometown so he’s offered to let us stay at his place for a couple of days before we go into action. He’s been to this place and he said that the good thing about this location is that it’s filled with structures that are riddled with footholds,” Ryan explained, “That’ll makes it easier for me to move around.”

 

“Because....?” Wayne drew it out slowly.

 

“I can climb the buildings that way. Meaning that I’ll be your eyes from the sky,” Ryan grinned, “You two, if you’re still coming, will need me then. But you’ll still have to be careful and most importantly, try not to get involved in the actual fight as far as possible.”

 

“Exactly why did you want us in this if you didn’t want us to fight?” Wayne asked.

 

“Because we need you for something just as important,” Colin responded, “you are the ones who’ll be intercepting the cocaine.”

 

“What? Why?” Brad cocked an eyebrow.

 

“Greg has already told me how he’s getting the cocaine in and all he’s doing is having one man bring it in a guitar case with two more as his guards. Ryan will take the guards down, you two take the case.”

 

“But why are we taking the cocaine?”

 

“If they don’t get what they came for, the boss will be furious and naturally assume that Greg is double crossing them. That’s when the fight will break out,” Colin smirked, “and Greg will be unfortunately killed in that fight.”

 

“But what will we do with the cocaine?”

 

“Leave that up to me, but I promise I won’t sell or use it.”

 

“So Ryan’s gonna be the eyes, Wayne and I will intercept and what will you do?”

 

“I’ll be the one who’ll ensure Greg will be killed.”

 

“No.”

 

All eyes turned to see Ryan looking down at the map with a frown, his jaw clench as tightly as his fist. Brad opened his mouth to protest but a warning look from the older man in the room stopped him.

 

“What, Ryan? Don’t you want Greg to die?” Colin asked, maintaining a calm tone.

 

“Yes I do,” Ryan spoke, still not looking at them, “But Greg will die by my hand.”

 

Protests broke out from both Brad and Wayne, the former leaning forward and placing a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Ryan, you’re not a killer,” Brad insisted, “Do you think you can take a human life?”

 

Ryan was silent for a moment but when he finally spoke something, he had adopted the casual tone that both he and Colin had perfected so long ago, “Did you know something really interesting about the brain?”

 

“Huh?” Brad blinked.

 

“Did you know that there’s an area in the brain that gets stimulated when you experience pride, envy or pity? It’s what perceives others as human. That same part doesn’t respond when you feel disgust because your brain literally de-humanizes them, making you feel no remorse or any emotion towards them at all. Greg isn’t human to me, he’s a monster- my monster- and I’m the one who has to face him,” Ryan sounded determined and Brad knew that he wasn’t going to win this one without a fight.

 

“Ryan,” Brad growled, “facing your fears is one thing, killing a person is something else. I know you and you won’t be able to take it!”

 

“You don’t know me anymore, Brad,” Ryan’s voice was cold, a stark difference from the way he had spoken before, “and I told you that things were going to happen that you may not approve of.”

 

“You are not a killer, Ry!” Brad yelled, finally loosing his temper and shooting to his feet.

 

Ryan mirrored the action, glaring at him fiercely and shouting, “You just can’t understand! I need to do this! I want revenge for all he’s done to me and you are not going to stop me!”

 

“That’s what you think,” Brad snapped, “Colin said he’d take care of Greg, just let him! The result is the same!”

 

“My goal isn’t for Greg to die!” Ryan yelled back, tears coming to his eyes but he fought them back, “You can’t understand! You can never understand what it’s like! You don’t know what it’s like to be in bed every night wondering if you’ll be....violated or not! You don’t know what it’s like to make a choice between being raped or mutilated! You don’t know what’s it like to be beaten until you can’t defend yourself! You don’t know anything so just BACK OFF!”

 

Brad took two steps back in the face of Ryan’s anger and realized this was the first time Ryan had actually talked about what had happened to him with something besides forced calmness in his voice. Now he could see the real impact of the years on him and, for a small, shameful moment, wished that he hadn’t. It finally broke through to him that, no matter how much he wished it, Ryan wasn’t the same and he probably would never ever be the person he had met so many years ago. His place had been taken by a tortured, scarred man who was now apparently capable of murder, someone who he didn’t know at all.

 

“You’re right,” Brad murmured, looking at Ryan with something akin to pity in his eyes, “I don’t know you. Because the Ryan I knew loved living life, not taking it.”

 

Ryan didn’t respond to that, but Brad wasn’t expecting him to. He was faintly aware that Wayne and Colin were looking at the two of them, but he wasn’t concerned about that for the moment. All he was concerned about was the man in front of him.

 

“The Ryan you knew died years ago, Brad,” Ryan’s voice was quiet, regretful, “if you want to mourn him, that’s your choice, but I can’t do that anymore. You told me that you would love me no matter what, but the person you loved is dead. If you can’t accept this, then it would be best for you to tell me now so that I can make arrangements for myself. But this will happen whether you like or not.”

 

“It’s not the fact that you want to kill Greg that scares me,” Brad spoke quietly, “It’s the fact that you’ll lose whatever innocence you have left if you do.”

 

“Innocence?” Ryan laughed bitterly, “You honestly think I have innocence left in me? Were you always so naïve, Brad, or was I the same before?”

 

“Innocence isn’t taken away by experiences, Ry. It only goes away when you let it,” Brad moved forward, placing a hand on Ryan’s shoulder and feeling him tense, “you still have some left. The side of you that you showed me in the park was your innocence. I know it’s still in there even if you don’t. But can you honestly tell me that you can live with the blood of a man on your hands? Can you still maintain that part of you that I love and feel no remorse at all? If you can look me in the eye and say that, I will not stop you, but I’ll support you every step of the way.”

 

Ryan cautiously turned around with some reluctance and saw the seriousness in Brad’s face. He meant every word he said and that was what gave Ryan pause. Did he really want Greg dead? Yes, there was no doubt about that, but did he want to be the blade that struck him? No, he didn’t, but he knew that this was something he had to do. Looking back at his time here, he could feel nothing but rage, fear and humiliation. Every beating, every unwelcome touch, every forced action, all of those memories built up inside him and before he was aware of it, he had undone the glove of his right hand, pulling it off and staring down at the hand he had been covering for months. He took in the scar literally drawn into his palm in the shape of an eye and remembered the obvious joy Greg had taken in slowly tracing the lines, being spurred even further by his pleas to stop. Greg had said that it was his way of keeping an ‘eye’ on him."I'll always be watching you," he had said.

 

Flicking his wrist to release the hidden blade, he gazed at the sharp metal and wondered what it would like to see Greg’s blood on it. To know that the nightmare was over and to have the proof that it was by being the one who ended it. Fiery, green eyes met warm, brown ones over the blade and the quiet answer rang in the silent room.

 

“Yes.”