When Charlie finally came around, he found himself kneeling on the hard flagstones of what appeared to be a large basement. Staring around wildly, he saw there were boilers ranged throughout the room, and his eyes travelled warily over the sprawling network of metal pipes that lined the walls. Below them, broken and rusted pipes littered the flagstone floor. A hazy memory of an imposing country house at the end of a long gravel driveway flickered in front of his eyes. Then he remembered what had happened to him.

His knees aching, he shifted his weight slightly, and felt the burn of ropes cutting into his wrists behind his back. Glancing over his shoulder, Charlie caught sight of a short length of rope running from his bound wrists and realised he had been tied to one of the metal pipes. Straining to free himself, he felt a fierce pain lance through his right arm, all the way up to his shoulder, and froze when he heard a familiar voice approaching through the gloom.

‘I’d stop struggling if I were you – unless you want to do yourself some real damage.’

‘What the hell?’ Charlie snarled, glaring up into Dragomir’s amused face as the soldier stopped a few paces in front of him and regarded him appraisingly. ‘Why are you doing this?’

‘You’re going to be tonight’s entertainment,’ Dragomir said, a vicious grin sliding across his face as he lowered himself onto one knee, so that their eyes were at the same level. ‘While everybody else is upstairs enjoying their party, my friends and I are going to be keeping you busy down here.’

Charlie smirked at that. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, but I already have plans for tonight.’

‘Well, then I suppose you’ll have to explain to Faulkner who was keeping you occupied when you were meant to be whoring yourself out for him, won’t you?’ Ruffling Charlie’s hair, and yanking his scalp to prevent him from flinching away, Dragomir rose to his feet with a sigh.

‘I still don’t understand why,’ Charlie said, as the soldier turned away from him.

Dragomir paused. ‘You really thought you were someone special, didn’t you?’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Don’t play dumb with me.’

‘I’m not playing,’ Charlie said softly, relishing the look of fury the soldier shot at him from over his shoulder.

‘She brought you to her father’s Christmas party,’ Dragomir spat through gritted teeth, glaring at Charlie with his arms folded, his lip curling with disgust. ‘You walked through those doors by her side. You.’

Charlie almost laughed. ‘If it makes you feel any better, I honestly had a shit time.’

Dragomir’s fist connected with the side of Charlie’s face with a sickening crunch, and Charlie felt the same fierce tug at his shoulder as his bound wrists twisted against the ropes that kept him tied to the metal pipe. Shaking his head to clear his vision of stars, he spat blood out onto the flagstones and turned his face back to the soldier, willing himself not to show any fear.

‘I’m going to teach you a lesson in humility,’ Dragomir hissed, his hands on his hips as he towered over Charlie. ‘When we’re through with you tonight, you won’t be forgetting your place again in a hurry.’

‘You think I’m scared of you?’

‘You should be.’

Dragomir glanced over his shoulder, and Charlie felt tension ripple through his whole body as he realised there were at least four other men waiting silently in the shadows. ‘He’s yours,’ the soldier said. ‘Just keep your hands to yourselves until later. I want it to hurt.’ He settled himself back against the wall, his eyes fixed on Charlie. ‘Oh, and make sure you stay below the neck, so he doesn’t black out. He needs to be awake for what’s coming tonight.’

Still on his knees, Charlie shuffled as far back against the pipe as he could, his fists clenched behind him, his eyes darting from soldier to soldier as the men encircled him. In the shadows, their faces were full of hunger.

‘Maybe I’ll tell them to go easy on you,’ Dragomir suggested, ‘if you say please.’

Charlie’s heart was pounding furiously in his chest, and he had to bite his lip to force himself not to beg. He had plenty of experience with the type of men that now surrounded him. Pleading would get him nowhere. If anything, it would only make them relish it more. He almost felt proud of himself when the beating was over. He had managed to stay almost completely silent. Almost.

‘Nothing to say?’ Dragomir sounded faintly amused, as though he scented a challenge.

Charlie felt the heel of a boot crunch down on his trembling hand and gritted his teeth as he glared up at the soldier. ‘That all you got?’ he gasped, as he stared into those cruel eyes.

‘You know your master told me all about you, don’t you?’ Dragomir murmured, tapping his foot over Charlie’s burning fingers. ‘He said you’ve been doing this for years. I guess this whole routine must be getting pretty boring for you by now … but you don’t need to worry.’ A wicked grin spread across his face at Charlie’s expression. ‘I know plenty of ways we can make things interesting – for everyone.’

‘Why?’ Charlie whispered, hearing the catch in his voice as his eyes stung.

‘Because this is all you’re good for,’ Dragomir said, almost fondly. ‘I’m going to make sure you learn your lesson, and that you never forget it.’

Aiming a final kick at Charlie’s ribs, Dragomir led the other soldiers out of the basement. Charlie listened to their laughter fade as the door snapped shut behind them and heard a key turn in a lock. He was left alone on his knees in the dark, his limbs trembling, pain lancing through every inch of his body. With no one there beside him, he felt like a child again.

Trapped in the darkness, his mind drifted without thought as tears fell one by one from his eyes and rolled down his face onto the cold flagstones. He cried silently, an old habit. No one was coming to save him. He kept himself occupied pulling and twisting at the ropes around his wrists, but, judging by the feeling of the warm wetness running along his skin, only succeeded in making himself bleed. He was alone.

He did not know how many hours passed like that before he heard the sound of the key turn in the lock, and the door was thrown open again. Charlie blinked in the sudden glare as the bare lightbulb above the lintel flickered back on. His knees were screaming in pain. He braced himself as he recognised one of the soldiers who had beaten him up striding towards him.

‘Couldn’t wait for the rest of your buddies, huh?’

‘Shut up and get to work,’ the soldier said, grabbing a fistful of Charlie’s hair and holding his head still. ‘I want to know what your mouth feels like.’

Strapping down his fear, Charlie raced to find something else to occupy his mind. Then, from somewhere above him, he heard the sickening sound of metal striking against bone. A moment later, the soldier had collapsed to the ground, where he lay motionless, his eyes closed.

Charlie stared at his prone body for a few seconds, before allowing his eyes to travel upwards. Vasco was standing before him, a rusted metal pipe clenched in his hand and an expression of abject horror on his face. He was still wearing his blue Christmas sweater.

‘Charlie …’

‘Why are you here?’ Charlie muttered, averting his gaze as shame writhed inside him.

‘I overheard them laughing about something – some entertainment in the basement. I thought it was just going to be a fight, or …’ Shaking himself, Vasco flung the metal pipe away, and it clattered to the ground. ‘Charlie, what are you doing here? How long have they been –’

‘Don’t look at me.’ His eyes were burning again. ‘I don’t want you seeing me like this.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Vasco said, in that voice that was almost too gentle, as he withdrew a switchblade from his pocket and carefully cut through the ropes binding Charlie’s wrists. ‘I’m going to get you out of here.’

When he felt the last of the restraints give, Charlie stumbled forwards on his knees and almost fell into Vasco’s embrace. Burying his face against Vasco’s chest, Charlie breathed in the familiar scent of pine and woodsmoke, forcing himself not to cry as Vasco held the back of his head to his body. They stayed like that for a long time, silent in each other’s arms, before Charlie noticed that they were both shaking.

‘Where have you been all this time?’ Vasco murmured into Charlie’s shoulder, an aching sadness in his voice. ‘I went back to your house, but you were gone. I tried searching for you everywhere I could think of, but I had no way of getting in contact with you.’

‘You were looking for me?’ Charlie heard his voice break on the words.

‘I even went to the Spike, but no one would tell me anything,’ Vasco said, as his fingers curled through the hair at the nape of Charlie’s neck. ‘They said they’d never heard of you.’

Charlie felt tears sting his eyes at the painful cruelty of this lie, and held Vasco tighter, trying to force them back. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘I thought I’d never see you again,’ Vasco whispered, touching his forehead to Charlie’s. ‘I’m so glad you’re safe.’

‘I could have guessed you’d try to pull something heroic like this, Vasya.’

At the sound of Dragomir’s voice, both Charlie and Vasco’s heads whipped towards the door. When he caught sight of the gun in the soldier’s hand, Charlie’s grip around Vasco instinctively tightened. Dragomir did not fail to notice, tapping the gun against his thigh before pointing it at them with a wry smile. Charlie had a wild impulse to throw his own body in front of Vasco’s, even as his mind told him there was nothing he could do to prevent the worst from happening.

Vasco had got to his feet. ‘Are you the one who did this to Charlie?’

Still curled up on the flagstones, Charlie stared at Vasco, wondering how he could always manage to stay so calm, to be so brave.

‘Don’t tell me you care about this filthy hustler?’ Dragomir motioned towards Charlie.

Vasco’s eyes narrowed. ‘You think I don’t see what you’re doing?’ he said, pulling Charlie to his feet and using his arm to guide him out of the line of fire. ‘Targeting someone like Charlie … making money on the side. You’re supposed to be protecting the people who need your help, not using them in your sick games!’

Dragomir snorted at that, one eyebrow raised. ‘You always were pretty sharp, but I see you obviously weren’t smart enough to think about setting up a racket of your own until now.’

Vasco’s jaw was clenched. ‘When I tell the mayor what you’ve been up to, no protection in the world is going to be enough to save you.’

Dragomir burst out laughing at that. ‘I take back what I said about you being smart.’ Breathing heavily, he gradually calmed down enough to continue. ‘You think he doesn’t know about this already? All of this – it was his idea.’ Then all the humour disappeared from his face as he raised his gun to Vasco’s head. ‘But now you know too much. We can’t have any loose ends.’

‘No, don’t!’ Charlie reacted without thinking.

‘Charlie,’ Vasco said urgently, his eyes on the gun, ‘don’t say anything to him.’

‘I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t hurt him.’

Smiling again, Dragomir lowered the gun and approached Charlie. ‘That’s what I wanted to hear from you all along,’ he said, placing the muzzle of the gun under Charlie’s chin and forcing his head up. ‘Now I know what it takes to get you to behave, don’t I?’

‘Leave him alone,’ Vasco said, taking a step forward, his voice trembling with fury.

‘But he wants this,’ Dragomir said, shaking Charlie. ‘Don’t you?’

‘Yes,’ Charlie mumbled, then shouted, when he was shaken harder, ‘yes, I want this!’

Vasco’s hands were clenched in his own hair, his face ashen. ‘Charlie, you can’t –’

‘Stay out of this!’ Charlie snarled back. ‘I know what I’m doing.’

Dragomir was laughing again. ‘You two are hilarious. Vasya, maybe later I’ll bring your whore up to the party and make the night truly memorable. He’s so compliant when it comes to you.’ Without warning, he threw Charlie to the ground and rounded on Vasco. ‘What’s your secret?’

Vasco’s eyes were on Charlie, and he spoke in a whisper. ‘You’re going to regret that.’

(continued in II.II, because this was another long chapter!)