Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) (16 page)

“We’ll see,” were his final words on the subject.

“Come on guys, hurry up the pace,” said Chen who had dropped back
to wait for the boys.

“Ah, Chen, decided to join the boys then. Girls talking about
hair and nails,” said Ahmad jokingly.

“No, actually, they were talking about you,” he replied
straight faced
.

“What? What were they saying?” Ahmad looked worried.

“Only joking, as if they were talking about you!” teased Chen and
everyone laughed.

“What’s so funny?” asked Lela as the boys caught up with them at
the entrance to the restaurant.

“Nothing, just boy talk,” said Chen.

“OK. Let’s eat!”

As Lela walked away, Tom turned to Chen.

“How did you get away with that? I would have been grilled for
hours as to what exactly boy’s talk meant,” said Tom.

“Natural charm, my friend. Although I have to admit, I’m used to
dealing with my older sister.”

“What year is she in?” Tristan asked, instantly interested.

“She’s not here, she’s quite a bit older than me,” answered Chen.

“Well, let’s eat,” said Tristan losing interest as quickly as he
had gained it.

The food was excellent, dispelling Tom’s concerns that they had
put a show on for Sam
Mitcham
. They had managed to
catch the breakfast
menu which was the only self-service meal
of the day
and there was a choice of every conceivable breakfast from
around the world. Despite this, Tom made his first complaint. He spoke to the
restaurant manager and pointed out that in Scotland, potato scones were a
breakfast staple and were far tastier than the anglicised hash brown. The
restaurant manager apologised and asked for the recipe to ensure Tom would not
be disappointed again. Tom offered to send
an e
-mail
to his mother and forward the recipe.

As he walked back to his table of friends, they all laughed. He
had only been out of his room for thirty minutes and was already making waves.

“Tom, you really are outrageous! As if there wasn’t enough to
choose from,” said Lela embarrassed by what he had just done.

“Yes, but everybody else’s national breakfast is here. In fact, I
should have made the case for square sausage,” he replied stubbornly.

“You’re unbelievable, trust you to spot the one thing they don’t
do,” said Lela.

“Well actually, that’s two things they don’t do but I’ll leave
the sausage for another day,” said Tom.

“Well guys, now you know why Tom’s motto is ‘If you don’t ask you
don’t get’,” said Lela.

“Not quite, it’s ‘if you ask you get’. It’s not often that you
don’t get what you ask for.”

 
“So what shall we do
after breakfast?” asked Ahmad.

“We could take one of the golf carts and do a tour of the
grounds?” said Chen.

“Are we allowed to drive them?” asked Mia.

“Yep.”

“Cool,” said Tristan. “Who wants a race?”

“Tristan, they only go at 15mph, we can run faster than that,”
replied Chen.

“Sounds great to me,” said Lela.

As they made their way out of the restaurant, they bumped into
Oleg who was waiting by the entrance, alone.

“Hi Oleg, we’re going for a tour of the grounds, do you want to
come with us?” asked Tom.

“No, it’s OK thanks. I’ve got to wait here for my brother, Yuri,
well my step-brother actually.”

“Are you sure? It should be fun.”

“No, I’d better wait.
Yuri’s expecting
to meet me here.”

“OK, we’ll catch you later then.”

They made their way around the corner to the carts. As they
approached, there were only two carts left, it was obviously a popular idea.
Oleg suddenly appeared from around the corner. Tom was delighted that he had
changed his mind.

“Hi, Oleg, glad you changed your mind,” he shouted.

Before Oleg had a chance to respond, a large forearm pushed him
aside.

“Leave those carts, they’re ours,” came a booming voice.

Tom and his friends had just reached the carts and were in the
process of getting into them. There were four seats in each and room for only
one more person.

“What do you mean, they’re yours,” Tom shouted back. “I don’t
think so.”

Before they knew it, seven large boys surrounded them. Oleg was
with them but hanging back, looking frightened and ashamed.

“Yuri, just leave them, they got to the carts first,” said Oleg
weakly.

“What did you say?” Yuri hit his younger
step-brother
across the face with the back of his hand. “Don’t tell me what to do, you
little runt. Now you lot, get the hell out of those carts before you get the
same treatment.”

Oleg fell to the ground and crawled away from his
step-brother
. Lela jumped out of her cart and ran to check
whether Oleg was
alright
.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” said Tom, enraged.

“Just get out of the carts so we won’t have to deal with the rest
of you in the same way,” said one of the thugs accompanying Yuri. They were
much larger than Tom’s group of friends and very intimidating.

 
Mingmei
and Mia jumped out of one of the carts to join Lela, leaving one of the carts
empty. Four of the thugs immediately jumped in. Chen, Tristan, Ahmad and Tom
remained in the other cart and had no intention of moving.

Yuri and two thugs moved closer, surrounding the four younger
students.

“Move! Now!” commanded Yuri.

“No way! This is our cart. We were here first,” said Chen.

“I’m really starting to lose my patience. Get out before you get
hurt,” said Yuri.

“Guys, just give them it and let them be all macho and big,” said
Lela who wanted the confrontation to end.

“Why should we?” said Tom.

“Come on Tom, Oleg is hurt, just give them the cart and let’s get
Oleg checked out.”

“OK, let’s go. Let the animals have it,” said Tom to his friends.

Yuri and the two thugs barged onto the cart, pushing Chen to the
ground. Chen jumped up to retaliate but was stopped by Ahmad who put a friendly
arm across his body. The thugs laughed at the angry Chen.

“Don’t make me laugh little boy,” Yuri said to Chen as he pushed
the accelerator and left the scene with his band of thugs.

As the carts departed, everyone rushed to Oleg’s side.

“Are you OK?”

“I’ve had worse. I’m just so sorry for the behaviour of my
step-brother.” Oleg was truly mortified.

“How long has he been your step-brother?” asked Lela.

“Too long.
About two years.
My dad
married Yuri’s mother and he came as a bonus. My father’s completely besotted
by his mother and Yuri can do no wrong in her eyes. So, my life has become a
nightmare.”

“Does he hit you often?”

“All the time,” said Oleg as he lifted his T-shirt to show his
friends a collection of bruises, from dark purple to greenish yellow.

“Who are the thugs?”

“That’s his gang. They used to rule the roost at our old school
in Moscow. All their parents are very rich and untouchable. Nobody dares mess
with
them
, even the Headmaster. They could do anything
they wanted and nobody could stop them. They even put a boy in hospital they
beat him so badly.”

“That behaviour won’t be tolerated here,” said Mia.

“So what should we do?” asked Chen who had calmed down.

“We can speak to the Headmaster,” replied Lela. “He’ll have to
act and their parents can’t help them here, whoever they are.”

“You must be joking, absolutely not! Yuri would kill me!”

“But without you explaining what happened, the Headmaster can’t
do anything.”

“So be it. I’ve put up with him for two years. As long as I stay
out of his way, I’ll be OK. If I go against him, he will kill me. He has
promised me that if I ever betray him, it will be the last thing I ever do.”

“What about your father, can’t he help you?”

“I’ve tried but my step-mother gets involved, twists my dad
around, she tells Yuri and I get a beating. Trust me, I can’t win.”

Everybody was lost for words, angry and disgusted at Yuri and his
friends and what they had put Oleg through.

“Look,” said Lela. “We need to calm down and think about what is
best for everyone involved. Let’s take some time out and consider our options.”

The rest of the morning and early afternoon were spent on the
beach. The temperature was
perfect,
it was spring on
the island and to Tom and Lela, it felt like a perfect summer’s day. The beach
was very popular and by the time they got there, it was swarming with students,
most of
whom
were well known to Tom and Lela.
 

“Is there anybody on this beach you don’t know?” Chen asked Tom.

“A few people. I don’t know her, the one Tristan is drooling
over,” Said Tom pointing to the girl Tristan could not keep his eyes off. “No
seriously, I know about half of them.”

“How come?” enquired
Chen.

“Ever since we could walk, my father took Lela and I on business
trips to see the world and so we grew up meeting people from governments and
businesses from everywhere. To make life easier for him and more amusing for
us, he usually arranged for us to meet and play with the children of whoever he
was visiting.”

“Wicked! You must have been to lots of cool places.”

“Yeah, I think that by the time we were ten, we’d seen a third of
the countries in the world,” replied Tom.

Oleg and Tristan interrupted the conversation as they came
running up the beach having just been for a dip in the water.

“So how are you doing Oleg?” Tom asked.

“He’s absolutely fine. Don’t worry, he has the girls circling
round making sure he’s OK,” said Tristan.

“You’re just jealous!” shouted Oleg.

“Damn right, I am!” Tristan shouted back. “Perhaps Yuri can whack
me later and I can get fussed over like you!”

“I’m sure that can be arranged!” offered Oleg.

“On second thoughts, I’ll give it a miss thanks,” replied
Tristan.

“What, don’t you want our nursing skills, aren’t we good enough
for you?” teased Lela.

“No, no not at all, it’s just I’d rather
..
”

“She’s just winding you up Trist, don’t worry,” said Tom rescuing
his friend.

“I really do think we need to report Yuri and his gang,” said
Mingmei
breaking the silence.

“I think we just need to teach him a lesson,” said Mia.

“How do we teach someone like Yuri a lesson?” asked Ahmad,
looking at Lela. She shook her head firmly as if to signify that she didn’t
want to get involved.

“There are ways,” said Chen mysteriously, almost to himself.

“What do you have in mind?” asked Tom who was keen to seek
revenge.

“Sorry, did I say that out loud? Hmm, I’m sure we can think of
something,” replied Chen who wasn’t giving anything away.

“It sounded as though you had thought of something,” said Tom.

“No, no, just thinking to myself. I do it all the time, sorry.
What did you have in mind, Mia?” asked Chen nervously.

“Not sure, but I’ll think of something. I really hate bullies.
It’s so unnecessary,” she said.

“Yes, anyway, there’s not a lot we can do now. Why don’t we head
back for lunch and decide what to do this afternoon?” Tom drew the discussion
to a close.

The group packed up their beach stuff and headed over to the
restaurant. The restaurant was quiet as most of the students were still out
enjoying their last day of freedom. As they went to take a table, a waiter
stopped them and directed them to the
Maitre
d’ who
was standing next to a podium with a seating plan.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,” he announced.

“Good afternoon,” they responded.

“A table for seven?”

“Yes please,” said Tom as they looked at one another.

“Excellent, please follow me, Messieurs Dames,” said the
Maitre
d’ as he showed them to their table, pulled out the
chairs and lay napkins on each of their laps.

“Is this a special lunch for our first day?” asked Tristan
looking at the
Maitre
d’.

“Not at all Monsieur. All meals are à la
carte
with full service. That is,
hélas
, with the exception
of breakfast.”

“Are you teasing us?” asked Mia.

“Not at all, Mademoiselle. This is my full time job. I was
Maitre
d’ at the George V in Paris before accepting this illustrious
position. I do not do the teasing.”

He handed out the menus and left the group to choose their food.

“I just need to nip to the loo, if you’d excuse me,” said Chen
adopting the formality required for their surroundings.

“Me too,” said Ahmad.

The two got up and made their way to the toilets. Ahmad washed
his hands and shouted into the cubicle that he was heading back to the table.

“Where’s Chen?” asked
Mingmei
.

“He’s just coming,” said Ahmad.

The waiter arrived to take their orders. They asked for a few
minutes longer as Chen had not yet returned. After the waiter returned, Tom
offered to go and see if Chen was
alright
.

“I need the loo, so I’ll come too,” said Lela.

As Lela was making her way into the girls’ toilets, she heard
Tom’s voice.

“What the hell are you doing? Put him down!”

She raced towards the boys’ toilets.

Tom could not believe his eyes. Yuri and his gang were crammed
into the toilets and were holding Chen upside down over the toilet bowl. Before
Tom had a chance to react, two of the gang grabbed him and dangled him in a
similar position in the adjacent cubicle.

“Put me down at once!” Tom demanded, not as forcefully as he had
wished. He was worried.