Then, just before the appointed time, he went down to his usual bench by the riverside, dressed in his black rain slicker. He watched the sunset while he waited, though the clouds which had lingered all day heavily muted the colours. Pale fingers of red and orange reached through the cover to caress the dark waters of the River Ness before they tucked themselves away for the night.
Alec sensed the men’s approach but didn’t move, allowing them to come to him. Two of them sat down on either side of him with the last lingered at his back, raising the hairs on his neck. Alarm bells rang around his head. The men were far too close for a casual conversation. He tensed, ready to bolt, but the man to his left opened his jacket slightly, revealing the grip of the gun tucked inside.
Alec swallowed and leaned back on the bench, trying to pretend as if he were totally at ease and in control of the situation. “Can I help you gentlemen?”
“We’ve a job for you,” the man with the gun spoke, his voice low and gruff.
Alec cut his eyes to the side to get a look at him, but most of his face was cast into shadow by the rim of his tweed cap and the upturned collar of his coat. Alec decided not to mention the gun and his unease. These seemed the kind of men to snap at any provocation.
“I figured. Are you aware of my terms and standard fee?”
“Oh, we won’t be paying you,” the man sneered.
Alec snapped his head around to look at the man fully, his shock overriding his caution. “Are you kidding me? I don’t do jobs for free. Take your business elsewhere.”
He began to stand, furious that his time had been wasted, but a heavy hand fell on his shoulder, pushing him to the bench while the man in the hat took his phone from his pocket. Alec glanced back, and a man with a squashed nose glared down at him, daring him to resist.
“Come now, I think we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement,” the leader said as he began a video call. It only rang three times before a woman with a black, braided crown picked up. Her face filled the screen so that Alec could see nothing beyond her.
“You have a skill that we need,” the man continued, “and we’ve got something that you want. I propose a trade.”
He nodded to the woman, and she flipped her phone’s camera so that Alec could see what sat in front of her.
Alec’s heart stopped. It dropped right out of his chest and into his boots, crushed beneath his suddenly sweating feet. His son sat at the centre of a dim, concrete room, bound to a wooden chair by a length of coarse rope. There was dried blood under his nose, stark against his pale skin, and his red curls lay matted against his forehead, just long enough to dangle in his large, frightened eyes. He couldn’t see Alec, probably wouldn’t even recognize him if he did, but he stared up at the camera silently as his lip trembled.
“What have you done?” Alec growled as fury lanced through him, burning away the shock and fear that had paralyzed him. He tried to lunge towards the man and the phone, but the hand on his shoulder was a vice, locking him painfully into place.
“It’s not obvious?” the man said. “We took your son as, well, let’s say collateral. You do what we say, and we’ll return him to his mother safe and sound.”
Alec didn’t want to ask what would happen if he refused to comply.
“How can I trust you’ll keep up your end of the bargain?” he asked, voice strained.
“You deliver us the goods, we’ll bring him to you, and you can take him home,” the man promised, but Alec squinted at him disbelievingly. “Cross my heart.” He sketched an X over his heart, but Alec thought the gesture was a little sarcastic.
“What do you want me to steal?” Alec asked through gritted teeth. He couldn’t take his eyes off his boy’s face on the screen. Tear tracks ran down his cheeks, and his mouth, though ungagged, was firmly shut, lips pressed so tightly together they’d turned white.
Alec had left his family when Finn was two years old in order to protect his son from situations exactly like this. He thought he’d gotten away clean, ditching the name he’d told his wife as he had ditched so many before, mailing his child support money from locations that couldn’t be tracked back to him, severing all contact with his former life.
Well, almost all contact. Sometimes, he couldn’t help but check in on Finn from afar, but somehow, these men had still found him out. Found his son.
“It should be simple enough for a thief of your calibre,” the man said as he hung up the phone. A crack shot through Alec’s chest when his son’s face disappeared, consumed by the black screen. “We want the deed to the Castle of Old Wick. Its owner lives at 21 Crown Drive. And I’m sure this goes without saying, but keep this to yourself. If we hear you got any cops involved...” He let the threat dangle.
“Why do you want a deed to a castle?” Alec asked, but even as the words were leaving his mouth, he knew it was a mistake.
The man’s eyes flashed. “That’s none of your concern. You have until midnight on Saturday.” He stood to leave, tucking his phone away inside his long coat. The
