Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

VICTOR

"What does this guy look like?" I ask Glynn, who is sitting in the passenger seat, scrolling through his phone.

"Same as everyone else, I guess." He shrugs, his eyes never leaving the screen.

"Did you look at the notes?" I ask. He lifts his head and looks at me, a feral grin on his face.

"If you're asking me, then I guess you didn't look either."

I sigh. It's true, but he doesn't need to know that.

"I'm driving. I'm not the one who's supposed to be looking out for him," I protest. He gives me a long look and a chuckle, shaking his head before he returns to whatever holds his attention on his screen. He's not buying it. Fair enough.

"It's going to be the dude walking along the road. Who else is going to be walking about in this hellhole, anyway?"

I wouldn't call it a hellhole exactly, as it's a very pretty part of the country. But that's the problem for Glynn—it's the countryside. I get it. I'm much more used to the closeness of London, but I can appreciate the beauty of a place like this wood we're driving through. Glynn thinks it's boring and pointless, with nothing to entertain him.

I'm glad this is the last time I'll ever have to see him. This last training exercise and it'll be over. I hadn't wanted to come on this course in close personal training anyway, but my boss, Lawrence, asked me to—and paid for it—so I felt obliged. It was a whole lot more than I needed to know just working security at his club, but he'd hinted at other work so it might be linked to that.

I hadn't even wanted to get into security in the first place. I'd wanted to work in Lawrence's BDSM club, the Chain Reaction, as a Dom.

Lawrence sized me up in under five minutes and said no. I'd pleaded for a trial, which, to his credit, he did give me.

"If you last a week, there might be a chance," he'd said. I hadn't.

He'd offered me a job as part of his security team, and three years later I'm now head of his security and on this course.

The problem, Lawrence had explained, is that my looks don't match my personality. I can't help that I'm tall and bulky. In order not to run to fat, I have to work out—which I enjoy—but it adds bulk. I also can't help that my face looks mean, or so people tell me. All my life, people have been scared of me. It's true that I don't smile much. I don't have a lot to smile about.

Inside, I'm the opposite; I hate any sort of violence. I wouldn't willingly harm anyone. Which was the whole issue, Lawrence explained. How could I work as a Dom if I can't lift a hand to those who are begging for it? Those who aren't scared away by my looks are not prepared for my aversion to causing harm, even if it's consensual.

"You're a protector," had been Lawrence's assessment of me. Perfect for security. So that's what I do.

Glynn, on the other hand, is an absolute psycho. I'm not sure how he's managed to stay out of jail—if he has. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd been inside. He enjoyed the physical combat exercise of self-defence, attack, and protection far too much, and the absolute relish he displayed on the day we went to the firing range was scary. I'm not sure how he'll pass this course, but then, it's not up to me.

He has also been a thorn in my side during the course. I'd been stupid enough to make some smart-arsed comment on something about my preferences, which Glynn had picked up on. Because he might be a dangerous thug and a loose cannon, but the one thing Glynn is not, is stupid.

So, after finding out I was gay, he's spent the week calling me Victoria, knowing full well I'm not going to take him down for it. Yes, he sized me up almost as quickly as Lawrence did. Just this one exercise to get through, a debrief, and I'll never have to see him again. I'll be heading back to Soho in London, and he'll be off to Manchester. It can't come soon enough.

The last exercise of the course is hostage management, the negotiation process, and how to retrieve hostages safely. We might be involved in different aspects. We've already done a lot of work on how to keep our clients safe to prevent a hostage situation, and this stage is how to manage if they are taken. We were split into different groups, to each take an aspect of creating and responding to the scenario. We've done everything in theory, so this is putting it into practice and to make it as real as possible. I curse getting paired with Glynn. I'm also not sure that giving him the role of hostage taking in this scenario was the wisest decision by the trainers, as he seems the type to use his skills for offensive work rather than protection. I did argue with them that taking someone on a lonely road in the middle of a forest wasn't the sort of situation that was likely to happen with our clients. In return, I received an anecdote of how they'd tried it in a busy shopping centre but the public had thought it was real and the police became involved. They'd been told to not do that and cause public panic again.

So, the only person we didn't know in this scenario was the one we were picking up. Something about keeping it more real, I suppose.

"Is this him?" I ask, seeing a slight figure in a hoodie walking along the road ahead.

"Sure, that's him." Glynn still doesn't look up.

I see him turn slightly as we approach and then stick his thumb out. I take a deep breath, one more exercise and I can go home.

"You ready?" I ask Glynn, who for once has put away his phone. When I see the look in his eye, I realise he looks a bit too ready for my liking.

I pull up just in front of the guy. Glynn jumps out of the car and sprints over to him. I watch the guy back away. He's certainly making this feel very real. Glynn grabs the guy's arm and spins him round. The guy struggles and I see Glynn lash out before the guy goes limp.

"What the fuck!" I get out of the car and stride towards him.

"He'll be fine. I just knocked him out for a moment," Glynn says. "Now, are you going to help me, Victoria, or just stand there like the big fucking dummy you are?"

I ignore his words for now, wanting to get off the road as soon as possible in case another car comes along. I realise now why the trainers aren't allowed to do this exercise in busy public spaces. The guy is now gagged, with wrists and ankles bound. I hoist him into the boot of the car, noticing how light he actually is. I hope Glynn hasn't hurt him. I feel like punching Glynn myself just for doing that.

"Woohoo!" Glynn lets out a yell as I start the car and drive along the road.

"That was awesome." He draws out the last word, his mouth a wide grin and his eyes shining. Like I said, feral psychopath.

I drown out his shrieks and exclamations, hoping the adrenaline pumping through him subsides soon. He is one dangerous bastard, and I can't help but think this course has just made him a more skilled one. I wonder, not for the first time, if he works for some mob, though he is likely too undisciplined for that.

We come to a village and the name feels familiar. A niggling worry starts to creep in, giving me goosebumps.

"Glynn, what were the actual instructions for where we were supposed to pick the guy up?" I have a memory that the point was after this village, not before it.

Glynn sighs and grabs the folder. He confirms what I thought as I drive through the village and out the other side, the forest road never wavering.

"Relax, big guy, so we're early and the guy hadn't walked as fast as he thought as we picked him up before the village."

His words do nothing to stop my skin from starting to prickle.

"What if it's the wrong guy?" I voice my concerns.

"There can only be one. What kind of idiot hitchhikes along here? The road doesn't go anywhere."

I look ahead and see another figure walking along the road.

"Then who the fuck is that?"