FORTY- SIX

I snuck past Mark's study to get to my room without him noticing I was gone but when I looked, he was silently asleep on the table.

I sighed and went to my room.

The next day, I realized Mark wasn't awake by the time I was eating breakfast and that was unusual.

I just continued eating till I saw him sprint out of the mansion to the parking lot, still putting on his tuxedo.

My eyes followed him till he reached the blue, white and black coloured car.

I sighed and continued eating.

I was sitting down for my second lesson when I heard the guards screaming, I went to the window then a pebble hit it and fell. I opened it and looked down to see... Stinky Stan.

"Master Thomas, get back to your seat."Ms. Pittsburgh demanded.

Without looking back, I jumped down the window, caught a tree branch, swung and flipped down.

Ms. Pittsburgh saw me run away with a bum and she immediately called Mark.

I yelled with joy as we drove through the city in an open convertible car. I took a bite from the corn dog in my hand and mumbled,"This is the second best day ever! After the day I was the cool kid at school."

I went home to see Mark, frowning deeply, I knew I was in trouble.

"Tommy, where were you?"

Hey, he got my name right.

I looked down to say,"I was hanging out with a friend."

"A friend?! You left in the middle of a lesson! You scared me half to death! I had to leave an important meeting because of you!"

He hadn't yelled at me like this before, but I wasn't sad...I was angry...

"Meeting?! That's all you care about now! Work! You don't even have time for me anymore! You can't even get my name right! All you care about is your stupid job!"I yelled and ran up the stairs.

"Tommy!"

He followed me up the stairs to my room but the door was locked. He opened it and saw I wasn't there...

Oh no, not again!

I cried as I ran past the guards, out of the gate. I went straight to the park and went to the bench I met Stinky Stan at.

He was talking to someone.

I just ran and hugged him then said,"Stinky Stan, thank you for everything. I don't know what my life would be like if I never met you."

He nervously looked at the man he was talking to as the man was smiling widely, he took me behind a tree, held my shoulders and whispered,"Tommy, I need you to listen to me. Go home and never come out."

"What? Why?"

"There are dangerous people after you, please, you have to leave."

I was scared and turned back but there were men blocking my way, I looked back at Stinky Stan and more men were there...

"I'm sorry, Tommy."

"Wonderful job Pedro."The man he was talking to said.

"Pedro?"I said.

"Take him."The man said.

I took a step back as Stinky Stan...Pedro...Stinky Pedro pleaded on my behalf.

"Boss, just leave him, he's just a kid."

"You've grown a soft spot for him, haven't you?"

Pedro looked down then said,"Yes."

The boss smiled at me, then punched Pedro in the face and said,"Take the target."

"No! Leave me alone, Mark!!"

Mark was looking for me then he had a premonition...I was in trouble...his heart dropped.

The put chloroform on me and I held my breath and pretended to go unconscious but they seemed to be experienced in that area as they kept the handkerchief on my face.

I couldn't hold my breath any longer, my lungs felt like they would have exploded if I didn't breathe, so I did, then felt sleepy.

Mark had only one place left to go to...

He was at the place, waiting when he got a video call from my phone.

"Tommy, where are you?!"

It was a person in a hood with a mask and the person said,"Tommy's safe, and if you want him to stay safe you'd better bring one million dollars in cash to the park, at midnight, bring it anywhere, we'll find you."

"If you dare hurt my brother..."

"Calm down Marcus, like me, you're a businessman, and as such, you must have a cool temper. No cops, no tricks."

Mark looked up.

I was driven in a truck, tied to a chair, with several armed men surrounding me.

The truck stopped and the door opened. The men stepped out and pointed their guns to...

"Mark!"

"... here's the money, now let my brother go."

"Of course."

The man opened the suitcase and widened his eyes then said,"It was a pleasure doing business with you, Mr Marcus, but..."

Mark clenched his fists...

"...we need your companies too."

Mark smirked and said,"I knew something like this would happen."

Suddenly, his car drove forward and knocked the boss down, the other men were shooting at it but it did donuts and other awesome moves and dodged most of the bullets, hitting the men.

It stopped and the driver's window went down to reveal...

"Ms Stone?!"I yelled.

"In the flesh."She said.

Mark was untying me when I asked,"Mark, you talked to Ms Stone?!"

"Don't make me regret doing it."He said.

"I'm going to rub it in."Ms Lucy said.

"Okay, I wish you were dead."Mark said.

"Well that makes two of us."She said.

The moment the ropes were off, I hugged Mark tightly and said,"I'm sorry for yelling at you and running away again."

"I'm also sorry, it's just, it's hard running a company this big, but from now on, I'll make more time for you, it will be just like old times."

"Really?"

"Really."

I got into Mark's car and asked Ms Lucy,"How on earth did you drive like that?"

"I do my own stunts, it comes with the territory."

Ms Lucy was about to drive away when I said,"Wait!"

I got off the car and struggled to pull the money containing suitcase out of the desperate boss' hands.

I got back in the car and said,"Let's drive."

I slept with Mark that night, not because I was scared but because I wanted to.