Lost in London [Completed]

Vingt Neuf

Halden stepped away from Kay, bending down to pick up the hammer he'd left on the floor on his way to unlocking the door. The hammer. If Kay hadn't been so stupid, he might have had a chance of protecting London. But he couldn't blame himself. He couldn't help panicking. That was what London would say.

Kay was still standing in the middle of the bathroom when Halden made a harsh gesture towards the door as he stepped out into the hallway. And Kay knew better than to try and argue. The way Halden was carelessly handling the hammer told him that.

He hesitated before following Halden out of the room and into the hallway, then through into the kitchen. He absently raised his hand up to his lip as Halden turned his back. When he brought it away from his face, blood had settled onto his fingers. At least he knew where he was bleeding from.

"Sit down and stay still," Halden snapped, evidently not even feeling the need to turn around and watch Kay. He knew that Kay would do as he was told.

"Why?" was Kay's distant response. "If you want me dead, it's not like you're lacking the means to do it."

"Come on, at least make it difficult for me. Do I need to go back into the bathroom and beat the shit out of your boyfriend, or are you going to sit down?"

Kay pulled out a chair and sat down, forcing his gaze to remain on Halden. He refused to be worried about London right now. Refused to let Halden know how worried he was. Besides, while Halden was here, London was alone. That was the best case scenario right now.

"I thought it would only be fair if I explained some things to you, before I have to deal with you. Does that sound fair?"

No.

"Yeah, sounds fair," was Kay's response. He was lying through his teeth,

"See, the thing is, I was never interested in you. I was always protecting an investment. It's almost a fucking insult that you thought I was gay, even for a second," he scoffed. "I was interested in the money. How did you not see that? Did you think that you were good enough for me?"

"I knew I wasn't," Kay responded honestly. "I guess I let myself pretend too long."

"That's one way to put it. But your stupidity doesn't stop there. You were ready to uproot your entire life for me? That's fucking great."

Kay shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Have you even put it together yet?"

"No..."

"As much as I'd love to go into detail, I'd rather get this over with. Your idiocy actually hurts. I was never interested in you. I wanted money, and you had more than you'd ever need. So I made sure we met. I checked all of the bars with reputations for taking fakes, and I struck it lucky when you turned up. I didn't even have to take it slow. You were such a desperate teenager," Halden sounded vaguely amused at all of this,

"You're the one who lied," Kay protested weakly.

"Manipulated you. There's a difference. I said I needed to disappear, told you where to be and set up an abduction situation. And obviously you couldn't resist but tell people where you were going, which only made it all easier. All I had to do was set up the ransom. Would have been fine, but your parents decided that their money was more important than you –"

"Is that a surprise to you? You met them. You listened to my dad rant at me about how I was letting everyone down by being a 'fucking queer' and how he'd disown me if he could. Does that sound like the kind of compassionate guy you'd reach out to for a ransom?"