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“Alek?”
Alek scrambled to his feet, a feral gleam in his eyes. His face was so pale he looked dead. A slash of mud was smeared across his brow.
“Love…” Ian lifted his hands. “What are you doing?”
“Just some impromptu gardening,” Alek said, brushing his hands on pants that were just as filthy.
Ian eyed the freshly disturbed earth. It was about the size of a small animal.
“Oh, Alek.” He pulled him into a hug.
“The fox,” Alek sobbed, burying his face in Ian’s jacket. “I know she’s not supposed to be real, but she died and I wasn’t there and I’ve been ignoring her because I didn’t want you to know that I still see her, and I think that’s why she died. She thought I abandoned her. She thought I left her. And then she died. Alone. Like that.”
“It’s okay, love. I’ve got you. I’ll take care of you.”
Ian pulled Alek’s sopping shirt off and shrugged out of his own jacket, before throwing it around Alek’s shoulders. He helped Alek’s hands through the armholes and zipped it up to his chin, then pressed Alek back against his chest and shushed him consolingly.
Then Ian reached into his pocket.
Another flash of lightning.One one thousand, two one thousand?—
Thunder.
Ian had bet on the storm moving closer and he’d timed it just right. Using the thunder as a diversion, Ian kicked his leg out and swept Alek off his feet. He tried to ease Alek’s fall, but the ground was so wet, the mud thick and slippery, and rain obfuscated everything.
Alek landed on his stomach, hard. Hard enough to knock the wind out of him, because that could be the only explanation for why he wasn’t yelling at him yet. Alek’s fingers were stark white against the dirt as he tried to crawl away, but before he could make much progress, Ian grabbed his ankles and pulled him back, then climbed on top of him.
With as much care as he could manage, he trapped Alek’s hands behind his back and looped the length of rope he’d pulled from his pocket onto one wrist, and then the other, before knotting it tight and snipping the excess with the scissors he’d stashed in his back pocket.
“What the fuck, Ian?” Alek roared over the storm, wrenching his wrists back and forth as he tried, and failed, to free himself.
Ian had worried about the restraint part of his plan, but he couldn’t risk failure. He’d only have that one chance. Without answering, he lifted Alek to his feet and heaved him over his shoulder. Ian would feel it tomorrow, but he’d carry an entire house to save Alek if he had to. Careful not to trip, or slip, he held onto the back of Alek’s thighs and lugged him towards the glowing light of the Victorian.
“What are you doing?” Alek growled from where his face bounced against Ian’s lower back.
“I’m saving you,” Ian grunted as he kicked open the greenhouse door and set off down the brick path.
Alek struggled to get down. “Let me go!”
“I didn’t want to do it this way, but you left me no choice.”
A few feet from the edge of the pool, Ian lowered to one knee and dropped Alek on his back in an empty flower bed. As soon as his body touched the earth, Alek twisted onto his stomach, bowed his head in the mud, and pushed onto his knees in a valiant attempt to get to his feet.
Ian pushed him back down before he could escape.
Roaring in rage, Alek yanked his wrists against the rope.
“If you don’t stop that, I’ll choke you out,” Ian threatened. “I won’t have you ruining your hands.”
Alek stilled. “You say you’ll choke me like it’s a bad thing.” He lengthened his neck, dragging the side of his face through the mud. “Go ahead.” Then he struck out again, kicking his legs and thrashing his body side to side.
“I’m bigger than you. I’m stronger than you,” Ian ground out as he straddled Alek’s ass and sat all of his weight on top of him before taking his ankles in his hands. “Stop fighting.”
Alek only screamed in frustration and fought harder.
Ignoring him, Ian knotted Alek’s ankles together, thenhogtied his hands to his feet. He climbed off and surveyed his work. Alek wasn’t going anywhere.
“I don’t do bondage,” Alek grunted between futile attempts to free himself.
