Work Text:
“I’ve got the goods.”
Oz Vessalius sighed internally, chewed a little on his gag. The kidnappers this time had used a clean cloth, thank goodness, laundered with nice detergent, and so it tasted good in his mouth. Technically, the heir to the Vessalius house should not be chewing on cloth and wood and rope and other such things, but hey, he was kidnapped, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do. Elliot and Leo would be upset that he was missing book club, he might even get kicked out because of this, Oz had to take his wins where he could.
“Excellent. Were you followed?”
“If we were, they were good,” said the head kidnapper, “and the brat’s too stupid to afford good bodyguards, one of my guys screwed up and said that we were here from the Nightray house, and the little idiot walked right up to us with a big grin on his face.”
Because Oz had thought that they were with Elliot or Gil, obviously, he wasn’t stupid. Any kidnapper worth their salt ought to have known who Oz spent most of his time around, though, and it had been a good trap—or would have been, if this guy hadn’t just alleged that it was an accident that they’d gotten Oz easily isolated.
Elliot would never let him live this down, ever.
Still, though. Odd that the kidnapper had assumed that Oz would have bodyguards. Oz ruminated on this and on his gag as the head kidnapper and his employer debated payment and whether that ought to be docked for mentioning the Nightray name, since apparently whoever this guy was was connected to the Nightray family in some way. Oz personally didn’t think the kidnapper’s pay ought to be docked, as, whatever the man’s intentions had been, it was true that his little slip of the tongue had gotten Oz to let his guard down, but whatever. Not Oz’s problem. Maybe if this guy was enough of a skinflint the kidnapper would get frustrated and let Oz go, and he’d still be able to make book club in time.
It looked like the taste of the gag was about as lucky as Oz would get, though; the kidnapper was getting paid, and Oz was being yanked towards a back room, and he would have walked, really, if they’d let him, but his legs were tied and his arms too and he was gagged so he couldn’t even say anything. This was so inconvenient. —But maybe if he got rope burn Elliot might be able to forgive him for missing book club? He didn’t like rope burns—they were uncomfortable and inconvenient—but it would be worth it to endure them if it meant that he and Elliot could stay friends. And of course Gil would fuss over him, and that was always nice.
Oz was shoved into an en suite and tied to the bathtub faucet by his wrists, because kidnapping always had to be annoying and uncomfortable, apparently. Still, better to look on the bright side: at least the gag was nice to chew on, and the fact that he had not been blindfolded boded extremely well for him: whoever had ordered his kidnapping did not intend for him to get away alive. If the kidnappers got what they wanted, Oz would not have to deal with the consequences of missing book club; if they did not, at least Oz would have more information about them, because nobody took particular care to keep secrets from a boy who would soon be dead.
So he waited; this was all he could do.