"Come here!" Jackson growled as soon as they entered the apartment. Grabbing Raymond's wrists, he lightly swung him around to capture his mouth in a long, slow kiss. Pulling back slightly after a ravishing his mouth, Raymond looked up at Jackson who was breathing heavily, pulling him closer.
"Come on, there's no rush. We have the rest of the weekend without the little monster asking twenty thousand different questions." He pulled Jackson toward the sofa and moved to the kitchen to get them some coffee.
"Thanks for today, we both had a great time." He handed Jackson his coffee.
"Don't worry, I had just as much."
"That's good to know." He said quietly, almost to himself. "Eh, Jackson?" He started hesitantly, not sure how this conversation was going to go.
"Hmm?"
"You know this thing with your company being investigated and all..." He held his breath trying to gauge his reaction.
"Did you find something?" He sat up straighter putting his coffee on the table.
"Well, I found out who they could be and what they could be looking for..." he trailed off.
"And?!" He asked impatiently. "Who are they, what did they want?"
"Well, the thing is, there is more to this than I initially thought and I need you to trust me for now. I'll tell you everything I know once I've found what it is that they were looking for, but for now, for now, I wanted to... I mean I... er I wanted to ask you something?"
"So you're not going to tell me anything? I merely have to trust you. Are you insane?" he raked his hands through his hair, looking at Raymond in disbelief.
"Look, I know this is frustrating, but this is how I normally work. I need to get all my facts straight before I start pissing all over someone's fireplace."
"Frustrating doesn't even begin to describe it!" He sighed. "It's all there, it's all in your head and you won't even give me a clue?
"Whatever I tell you could jeopardise the investigation and if you go snooping around on your own, you could delay things further for me. Trust me, I would tell you if it put you or your company in danger." He hoped that Jackson would consider his plea. It was a lot to ask, especially because they had only started dating.
"Okay, I trust you. I don't like it but I trust you." He said sourly. "Now, what is it you wanted to ask?"
"It's about the time you went missing in grad school." He watched Jackson's expression and body language closely.
"How? How did you find out about that?" He almost whispered, "And what does it have to do with my company?"
"When I went looking for people connected to the company who might have a motive, I stumbled across a small newspaper article." So far Jackson's reaction wasn't bad at all. He noticed how his hands were clenched in fists unconsciously and the vein pulsing in his neck.
"And telling you my gruesome story is going to help you find whoever it was that's been scratching around my company? Seems a bit far-fetched to me." He scoffed.
"If you want answers to your questions, you're going to have to trust me. Nothing is too small or inconsequent to help and it's my job to sift through information. So help me so that I can help you." He took a sip of his coffee, making sure to keep his shoulders relaxed and his face in a neutral expression. He made himself as non-threatening as possible.
"Well, if you're sure." He frowned at Raymond, not sure where to start the whole sordid story. But taking a deep breath, he jumped in, reliving the worst moments in his life. Every sound, shadow, noise and smell came back as if it was yesterday. He felt his throat constrict when he thought about his friend who died all because he was next to the target by accident.
"It felt like we were there for days in that cold, musty room. I had my hands tied behind my back and a dark bag over my head the whole time for a long time. I called out, but there was never any answer. They must have separated us at some point because the next time I was thrown back into the room, I was on my own, with the bag removed. I was too afraid to cry out for help, I didn't know what they would do to us." He took a shaky breath before he continued.
"They made me read the ransom note while Kevin held up the daily newspaper. Immediately thereafter I was always thrown back into that dark room. Then one day there was a scuffling going on outside and Kevin burst through the door. But before he could do anything, he was knocked down and dragged from the room, while one of the guys stayed with his gun trained on me."
"Then gunshots went off, I heard Kevin scream and everything went quiet thereafter. I could hear them laughing before they tied the bag over my head again and locked the door." He took a deep shaky breath. The nightmare never gets any better, no matter which way he looked at it.
I didn't know if Kevin was laying next to me in a pool of blood. I called out to him but only got silence in return. The police found me there, alone and tied up. They could never get Kevin's body, so the consensus was that they must have dumped it somewhere along their escape route. He shuddered thinking about it.
Raymond saw the distress on his face and the tension in his body. He watched as a grim expression replaced the smiling Jackson he knew. Reaching over, he lightly took Jackson's hand in his, feeling his cold fingers.
"I'm glad that you're here with me, now." He gave Jackson a reassuring smile.
"How did you meet Kevin?"
"We were in the same fresher's group and instantly bonded." His smile was back briefly.
"What about his family?"
"He didn't have any. He was raised in an orphanage he said, so I took him under my wing."
"And was he struggling with money, I mean who was paying for his studies?" There was a lot to unpack already, but he had to push forward to see how much information he could get.
"He was there on a state scholarship and he had a job at a bar, but never had any money." He chuckled. "I had to bail him out of a few dumb situations when he didn't have the cash."
"Sounds like you were really close."
"Yeah, he often came to my place during vacations. We were thick as thieves." A slight smile crosses his mouth. "But what's your interest in Kevin?"
"I wanted to know more about the people around you, that's not so strange is it? Asuka has basically told me everything about you." He chuckled, letting go of Jackson's hand.
"Well, she doesn't need an invitation to spill her guts!"
"So, what's next with the investigation?"
"Some more digging I suppose," he shrugged. "Will you be okay with that?"
"I'm not sure." Jackson sighed. "I really want to know what's going on, but at the same time I'm afraid of what it might be." He smiled at Raymond. "That was a lot of heavy conversation, let's turn to something more lighthearted and much more exciting." His voice became husky and low and he closed the gap between the two of them, to rest his lips against the warmth of Raymond's.