Just A Bit Ruthless

Time is next to each other little by little.Minutes, or hours?Luke couldn't tell.The car drove towards an unknown destination ahead, and while he was waiting, one terrifying scene after another kept popping up in his tired mind.Luke tried to get some words out of the driver, but was told to shut up, leaving him to wonder alone.

As early as his teenage years, Luke thought that he had conceived his life path: he would fall in love with a handsome and good man at the age of 20, and he would cherish him equally; A steady and devoted love affair with him, and then they will be married; they will have many children, and he will live happily ever after.Thinking of this now, he smiled.He is already 23 years old, the Prince Charming in his dream is still in the state of imagination, and the current him may not live to tomorrow at all.

Yes, life is so ironic.

Luke dozed off at some point, because the next thing he realized: he was jolted awake, and two hands were dragging him out of the car.The muzzle of a pistol rested on his lower back. "Go!" someone yelled.

He was still a little dizzy when he just woke up, and he couldn't tell the direction. Luke obeyed the order, and at the same time blinked to see the surrounding environment: the place where they are now looks like a wilderness.It was still dark, but he could just make out a forest a few hundred feet away.There was a house surrounded by woods, and he was being half pushed, half dragged towards it.The snow was already deep, almost up to his knees, so thick and wet that Luke had a hard time moving his feet.

"Go, blyad!" said the same goon, pushing him.

Note ①: Russian: cheap. (This term is a Russian national curse. Its original meaning is "bitch". It can express strong emotions such as: fuck, shit, shit, shit... and so on. It will appear in many places in this article, and will not be annotated in the future.)

Luke swallowed back the tongue-in-cheek retort and tried to pick up the pace.It was useless to confront them now, it would be foolish to provoke the captors.There were eight people on the other side, and each of them looked like they were equipped with weapons.He can only be obedient - for the time being.

The group of people finally reached the house, and then he was roughly pushed in.Luke gasped and fell to his knees on the ground with his hands on his hands.A group of thugs laughed and laughed at him.

Luke held back his breath and ignored them, standing up and looking around.This hall was not what he expected at all, it was tastefully and elegantly decorated, and it looked like it was piled up with money.

Hearing the door open, Luke's attention was drawn to it.A tall, muscular man with Slavic features and short blond hair emerged from the room.The thugs immediately stood upright, and all the sloppy words and deeds just now restrained.The blond had a conversation with one of the goons, too fast for Luke to understand, and the goons called the blond "Vlad."

Finally, Vlad turned his gaze to Luke.

Luke met his gaze, unafraid.One of the few lessons his father instilled in him was: never show timidity in the face of adversity.

"What do you want?" Luke said quietly. "Why did you kidnap me?"

Vlad looked down at him. "I don't need to explain anything to you, Brit," he said, with a particularly heavy Russian accent.His eyes lingered on Luke's mouth for a moment before he looked away to wink at the thug who had just spoken to him before issuing a brief order in Russian.

If Luke understood correctly, he would be locked up in a rough room upstairs and given only one meal a day until further instructions were issued from above.

Hearing this, Luke's heart sank.He had hoped that the other party would at least give him an explanation.

"Please, can you tell me about the situation?" Luke tried again. "Why am I here? Do you want money?"

Vlad's eyes glanced at his mouth again, and Luke suddenly felt cold all over.

Finally, the blond shook his head. "I was ordered not to speak to you," he said, turning back to look at his men. "Zaprite malchishkuvseroikomnate ②."

Note ②: Russian: Lock this kid in the rough room.

Two thugs picked Luke up, half pushed and half dragged him up the stairs.Luke didn't fight back, and stopped trying to talk to Vlad.The Russo wasn't the one behind the scenes, the one who planned Luke's kidnapping.Vlad looks great, but he's also just a minion.He wasn't the negotiating partner Luke needed.

If there's one thing Richard Whitford's only son learned from his father, it's this: No matter the odds, there's room for negotiation.Any situation can be turned into a weight in his favor by him - or at the very least, it can also tilt the balance a little bit in his favor.But don't negotiate with minions, it's king to king.

Luke looked forward to meeting the king face to face.