Dirty Work

*Alex's POV* When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that I was still naked. The second? I was naked and on a bed with an ankle cuff chaining me to the frame.

I groaned, sitting up and rubbing my eyes with the backs of my hands, trying to clear the haze that clouded my vision and mind.

Once my eyes adjusted to the somewhat dimly lit room, the only light coming from a single lamp by the bed, my eyes scanned across the small room I was in.

It seemed to be a basement type lounge, concrete flooring and walling. I went to move my leg, completely forgetting about the cuff around my ankle and nearly screamed when I tried getting off the bed only to have my body jerked back by the chain.

There was a dark eerie chuckle and I turned my head to the side, not seeing anyone and scooting my body back until I could curl up, or semi curl up, into a ball by the head of the bed.

I closed my eyes, taking long deep breaths to try and calm myself down. When I opened them though, I never expected to see Matt's face hovering directly over mine, making me jump, my heart rate quickening.

"Hello to you too sunshine." Matt said, his hot breath ghosting over my lips, making me shudder in revulsion.

"W-What do you want with me?" I asked, frozen to the spot I was in, his dark eyes boring into me.

The room seemed to shake with his next chuckle, this one darker than the last, sending chills down my spine as it bounced off the concrete walls.

"Oh, Alexander. It isn't me who wants something from you. No, in fact, if I had my way about this, you'd be dead right now." Another chuckle. "But Zack has much much brighter plans for you my friend."

Wait. Zack? Is that who's behind this?

"What do you mean, Zack has much brighter plans for me? Is he here?" I asked, feeling my entire body tense up at the thought of coming face to face with Jacks ex boyfriend, the one who abused and raped him, the one who's been causing all this trouble. The thought terrified me more than anything. Well, almost more than anything.

The only thing that terrified me more than this right now was the thought of something bad happening to Jack. I honestly don't know how I could go on living if something happened to the man I love. Who I loved more than anything and anyone in this world.

Matt's laugh shut my thoughts off and I focused back in on what he was saying. "Of course he's here. He's upstairs right now preparing."

I gulped. "P-Preparing? Preparing for what?"

In the eery light, I could still make out the evil grin that floated on Matt's lips. "Oh, Alexander. That's a surprise."

As if on cue, I heard a door open and close, footsteps walking down stairs and my heart leapt into my throat when I saw a dark shadow creep out from around where Matt had been earlier when I awoke. The man, or shadow, was definitely built in muscle. I could just tell by his stance in the shadows that he was a leader not a follower and that's why Matt so easily let him become the alpha.

When the man stepped further into the room, the light finally hitting him and causing shadows to jump around the room, my stomach dropped and I had the same urge to puke just like I did when I saw that picture in Jacks office.

Zack, I presumed, was double the size of Jack, although Jack was taller, Zack had more muscle than anyone I'd ever seen.

Zack lifted his head, his eyes meeting Matt's before drifting down to me where I still lay, frozen in fear.

An evil smile etched itself onto Zack's face and I felt that need to puke become more urgent as he unfolded his arms and revealed a brand that they used for cattle. It was simple, a small 'z' on the end, but I knew what the plan was and I felt like I was gonna pass out any moment now due to the lack of oxygen and the erratic beating of my heart. All from fear. All from anxiety.

"Hello Alexander." Zack spoke for the first time since he walked down the stairs. His face held no emotion, making it very hard to read him, but just looking at that brand made it very clear exactly what was about to happen.

"You may know me, you may no-"

"You're Jacks ex. Zack. He and Rian told me all about you." I interrupted, earning a smack across the face from Matt.

"Do not interrupt him." The male seethed.

"Matthew, behave. He was simply telling me that he knew of me. It's okay." Zack said, oddly calm.

The more built of the two stalked around the edge of the bed I laid on, eyes scanning over every inch of my body easily, considering I didn't have a blanket or sheet to cover myself with. He seemed pleased with what he saw, going as far as letting his hand drop from his side to caress my thigh, making me jump and scramble away, only to be tugged back by the damned chain that lay locked around my ankle.

"Please. Don't hurt me. I've done nothing wrong." I pleaded, feeling my heartbeat pick up, an anxiety attack was bound to happen if I didn't calm down soon. That was the last thing I needed right now.

"Oh Alex, poor, sweet, innocent Alex. This, all of this, capturing you, holding you against your will, it isn't about you. No, not at all. It's about hurting Jack." Zack took a seat on the edge of the bed, eyes casting up to Matt, who nodded before walking over to one side of the room, there was a rustle and seconds later, a fire started up in a fire pit, the glow adding to the light that the lamp put off, erupting the room in moving shadows instead of still ones, setting an even more eery tone than before.

I took a deep breath, eyes never leaving Zack as he began to speak once again.

"You see, Alexander, I used to be in your position. Not tied up or chained to a bed, although Jack tried multiple times to get me like that, but anyway, I used to be Jacks most prized possession and he treated me good, he really did. Or he thought he did. But, then I realized something with Jack, he didn't truly love me like he said he did. He always distanced himself from me when we were alone, which I didn't understand why until I over heard a conversation between him and Rian one day. He told Rian that he had been thinking about breaking up with me and moving on but he didn't want to hurt me." Zack chuckled. "Little did Jack know that I had been planning on leaving for quite a while now. I just had to get my plan to work out."

I cocked my head to the side like a dog does when you say its name. "Wait, so, did you love Jack?"

Zack nodded, seeming almost sad. "Yeah. Yeah at one point I did. But he ruined that by dumping me and leaving me basically to rot."

"He did that because you raped him and abused him. If I had been in his shoes I would've done the same thing." I spat.

Zack seemed unaffected by the amount of venom my words held and instead turned his head from me, looking into the fire across the room. "I only did that because he gave me no choice to do otherwise."

"You had multiple choices. You could've left on your own. Especially if you didn't love him at that point. What's the point of staying with someone who you don't love? You didn't have to hurt him like that. It nearly killed him."

Zack shook his head 'no'. "I didn't push him to start drinking himself nearly to death. I left. I was done with him after that happened. It was his choice to pick up the bottle and drink, to continue drinking after that. I didn't force him to."

"No. No you didn't force him too, I agree that it was his choice, but if you hadn't hurt him like you did, he wouldn't have done what he did."

"You don't know that." Zack turned to look back at me, his eyes nearly black, with anger or grief, I didn't know.

"I know Jack." I pointed out.

Zack let out a laugh, the sound bouncing off the walls and echoing all around me. "You think that because you've known him for what? Not even six months that you know him? Oh Alexander, you don't even know the surface of that mans problems. You're just his little fuck toy for the time being, and baby trust me, that'll only last as long as he lets it. Once he's tired of you, he'll move on to something better, something new. Just like he did to me."

It was my turn to shake my head 'no'. "No. He loves me."

"He loved me too. And look where we are today."

"It's only like this because of what you did to him. You hurt him in more ways than one, Zack. You broke him. And that's why he crawled into my arms. I picked him up off the floor, cleaned him off and glued the pieces back together. I've kept those pieces together a lot longer than probably anyone else could. I love him. And he loves me. If you truly loved him, you wouldn't have broken him in the first place. He's not a toy."

"And what about me, huh? He hurt me too! He's not the innocent in this. And that's why he has to pay." Zack stood up off the bed then, making it shift with the sudden absence of his weight. He walked towards the fire pit, placing the end of the brand in the flames and resting the other end against a bracket before looking at Matt.

It was like an eternity passed before Zack looked at me again, only, it wasn't him I was focused on. It was Matt, who had began to walk towards me.

He grabbed my free ankle when he reached me and I struggled to fight back, trying to kick him off but when he strapped another cuff on my ankle and tightened it to where I could barely move it with fear of breaking my ankle, I stopped moving, my heart hammering away in my chest.

Next came my hands and I didn't even bother with fighting, knowing its result in probably more damage.

Once all of the cuffs were on and secured tightly around my wrists and ankles, they all at once tightened even more and I could no longer move my arms or legs as the chains shortened.

I began to panic even more when I saw Zack reach down to his waist, grabbing a glove that I hadn't noticed before and placed it on his right hand before reaching down to the brand and plucking it from the fire and bracket, the tip a fiery red.

"Please, don't do this." I tried pleading once more but Zack wasn't having none of it as he crossed the room, standing over me with that same unreadable expression on his face.

"This isn't about hurting you," Zack repeated his earlier words, eyes focusing on the red tip of the brand as he lowered it, barely an inch from the flesh where my stomach and ribs met, the heat already beginning to burn me and he hadn't even touched me yet. "This is about hurting Jack. And hurting you hurts him more than anything."

And that's when the red tip came into contact with my flesh, a blood curdling scream erupting from my lungs as the heat seared through several layers of skin, my toes curled in pain and my fingers dug into the clamps around my wrists.

Tears fell from my eyes, washing over my cheeks as he pulled the brand away after a whole minute of holding it against my side. An instant relief washed through my body and I momentarily relaxed into the mattress, my entire system on overdrive from the unbearable amount of pain I had just experienced. My side was on fire and I didn't dare look down for fear that I would pass out, and God only knows what would happen to me then.

My eyes looked up at Zack where he still stood over me, the brand was no longer in his hands and I looked over to the fire pit to see it bracketed and placed back in the fire. Matt must've taken it.

"No, please no. Not again." I was past pleading with him at this point, I was begging. Just once was enough for me, I couldn't imagine how much more my body could take from that brand and his mark.

"I'm sorry Alexander, but this has to be done." Zack said with some hint of remorse in his voice as he walked back over to the fire pit, picking it up before walking back to me.

"Please, you don't have to do this. There are other ways. Please!" I shouted the last word, hoping it would make him see that this wasn't the way but it didn't help at all and that red tip lowered again, pressing into the other side of my stomach.

I screamed again, the pain beyond unbearable at this point and I screwed my eyes shut, willing for something, anything to make this go away. But no such luck would come to my aid today as I laid helpless against Zack and his brand.

---

*Jacks POV*
"Mr. Barakat?" Detective Blacks voice came from behind me where I stood in the middle of the kitchen, palms pressing into the side of the island, head down as I made shapes out of the marble.

"Yeah?" I said, not turning my head to face the lead detective in this investigation.

Alex had been taken out of my life last night and ever since then it felt like my entire life was crashing and burning into a pile of ash.

"We may have a location as to where your boyfriend could've been taken to."

This peaked my interest and I turned around. "Where?"

Detective Black crooked his finger at me. "Follow me sir."

He led me out of the kitchen and up the stairs, leading me down the hall and past mine and Alex's bedroom. I hadn't bothered sleeping in there last night, I couldn't get over the fact that Alex wasn't there to have him press his body against mine, or roll over just to have the smell of him from his pillow swarm my every sense. Sure, I could've changed the sheets and put new pillows on the bed but, it still wouldn't have felt right without Alex there beside me.

I sighed, ducking my head down and followed him into Rian's office, where Rian, Oliver, Josh, Vic and his brother Mike all stood around the desk that had been moved to the middle of the room, becoming a makeshift table momentarily cluttered with files and papers and maps, pen markings all across each piece of paper within eyesight.

Vic was on the phone with someone, probably Austin or Jaime who had been at the club keeping an eye out in case Zack or Matt showed up there. I don't know why they would, but you never know.

"So, you may have found something?" I said, looking from the detective to Rian, who simply nodded his head.

"Yeah. We may have discovered where Matt took Alex." Rian pointed to a spot on the map. "It's an old apartment complex that the city shut down due to infestations and bad management. Matt, or someone that resembled Matt, was reportedly seen entering and exiting the building the past few days. But that's not it. Another figure has been seen, resembling Zack, entering but not exiting."

"How do we know that Alex is there? They could have him kept somewhere else." I pointed out.

Rian and detective Black shared a look before Rian spoke again. "According to my sources, another figure, dressed in a dark robe, was seen entering the building last night, he was passed out so therefore Matt was seen carrying him."

A spark of hope ignited in my chest and I looked at Rian, eyes wide. "Well then that settles it, let's go get him."

Rian shook his head, making me frown. "Not so fast. It would seem that Matt and Zack are smarter than we originally thought. Going through background checks, Matt used to specialize in making bombs and setting traps when he was a kid in high school, that's why he got expelled. He set a smoke bomb off in the cafeteria and got caught. It seems that the complex is jerry rigged right down to the bone. The only place that doesn't seem to have any noticeable traps is the front door, but seeing as though Matt and Zack constantly use that, it's no good, and the roof top. And the only way to the roof is by air. And I'm not sure silent air travel has been invented yet. By time we landed, Matt and Zack would've already been alerted and on the move. They could have weapons all around the inside of that building. Or worse, they could severely harm Alex. If they haven't done so already."

I let Rian's words sink in slowly, processing then throughly before raining my head. "How many floors are there in the building?"

"Four in all. Basement, first, second and third floor." Detective Black said, speaking for the first time.

"If there's a basement, then there must be a basement entrance, correct?"

Black and Rian shared a look before they both nodded. "It's probable."

"Then here's what I propose we do. We set up a small team of three, drop them in airborne on the roof, and while Matt and Zack are busy paying attention to that, another team of three or four, enter through the basement door and find Alex. And knowing Matt and Zack, they'll want to have Alex near them at all times so he'll either be on the first floor or in the basement. I'm leaning more towards the basement because it's below ground and no one could see him."

I looked around the room, seeing everyone's eyes wide with what I had just said. Oliver had his head bowed slightly as if he was thinking hard about something, a small smile on his lips from what I could see. The others faces were next to unreadable. I was nervous, not knowing what they thought about my plan.

"I like it." Vic said, surprising me by speaking up.

"Me too." Voiced Josh and Oliver.

"I'm in." Came Mike's response.

"It's crazy enough to work." Black said, folding his hands together.

I looked at Rian, waiting his response. The one person who I trusted more than Alex. "Well? Rian?"

He looked at me, smiling. "We're gonna need a helicopter."

---

*Alex's POV*
I don't know how long Zack kept up with branding me, I don't know how many I even had on my body now, I lost count after ten, the pain becoming beyond unbearable and my body finally shut off, allowing me to pass out and block the pain for the time being.

When I woke up, I was in a similar position just like the first time waking up in this hell hole, only now I had a black pair of boxers settled around my hips meaning that they had to uncuff me to get them on.

The only part of me that was shackled now was the original ankle, also meaning I could move, I sighed as I tried to sit up, instantly regretting it as a burning went through my entire system. Pain clouding my mind and I collapsed back onto the bed. Another thing that had been added was a blanket, allowing me to pull it up over my freezing body, which I did, being careful with placing it over my burns.

I groaned as the blanket was pulled up to my shoulders, feeling instantly warm.

There were no windows in the basement so I had no clue as to whether it was day or night, but seeing as how it was quiet upstairs where Matt and Zack were, I assumed it was night.

I contemplated trying to escape but, considering that I had no tools to help release my shackle that it'd be pointless and would probably result in waking my pair of torturers from their slumber. So, instead of escaping, I settled my body in for the night and willed myself to sleep.

Notes

Hihihihihi sorry I haven't updated in like forever but like life has just gotten in the way and yeah... This story only has like three more chapters left and I already have two of those written up and so I should have those posted soon... This story has been one hell of a ride but yeah, it's time to move on to my other stories... So yeah... Sorry for taking forever to update but yeh... Bye