DARK RED

CHAPTER TWO: DARK WINDOWS

VERA really wished that Mitch hadn't gotten as close as he had, mainly because she knew it would only further bruise his ego after what she assumed would occur within the next few minutes.

"Don't worry, Thomas is smart, we'll make good use of him, he'll probably be one of the brightest we've had in a while, as for Stiles..."

"Well, we don't really have much purpose for him or your father, but really, it's your choice."

"I don't care about your empty threats, I don't do that stuff anymore," Mitch spat, "who said they were empty?" Vera questioned raising a brow before tilting her head to the side, "Mitch, you have twenty seconds to say you're coming with me before we do this my way, 'kay?"

When he didn't move she smiled and nodded to herself, "kay," she waited those twenty seconds out rather patiently, maybe a bit more patiently than she should've but it didn't matter once the time was up.

Whipping out a short green tube, Vera raised the bottle and quickly sprayed the substance into Mitchs eyes a smile ghosting across her lips as he cried out; pepper spray.

Although she'd wanted something more interesting, violence per se, this seemed far easier.

A bit more deflating on his ego as well.

It didn't take him as long to recover as Vera had thought, and she was shocked to see that he stood straight after about fifteen seconds with a look that could more than definitely kill if possible.

He lunged at her, his hands wrapping around her arms to keep her from hitting him as he quickly dropped her onto the wooden boards beneath the two, she let out a wheeze as the air was knocked from her lungs and fought to look up at the man above her.

Releasing a cough, she forced a smile, "y-you're a real ass Mikolai," a cough followed, "last chance to come with me peacefully before we do this by force."

He frowned, "I think we've already started force, and you're not winning."

Tilting her head to the left, she smiled, "are you sure about that?"

And that was when her foot collided with his crotch, it came out of nowhere, and it seemed only a half-second passed before Vera had forced herself onto Mitch's shoulders as he hunched over in sickening pain. Maybe she'd watched too many Marvel movies, but she really did enjoy Natasha Romanoff's leg choke move.

Except she wasn't too interested in doing it while the other party was standing, so instead, she wrapped her legs around his neck and leaned back- hoping that her weight would be enough- and it was, just barely.

She couldn't help but smile as Mitch struggled against her, it was amusing, really, she'd never seen a man leave himself so vulnerable and yet feel so confident that he was going to come out victorious.

She could almost understand why Irene had chosen him.

So when he finally stopped beating his hands against her legs she waited a few more moments, Mitch Rapp was smart, and she knew better than to stop just because he had. And once those few moments passed, she released her hold on him and watched as his body fell limp against the floor.

Now she could drag his ass back to base.

But of course, the night held so much luck for her that the boys rushed into the room within seconds, only to see their brother unconscious on the floor. "What did you do?" Stiles yelped immediately moving forward to try and go to his older brother's side, Thomas raised his arm- blocking him from going to Mitch- as he met Vera's gaze.

"Nie chciał współpracować, więc zrobiłem z niego."

He didn't want to cooperate, so I made him.

She spoke standing from her spot beside Mitch's head, Thomas took a step forward, almost as if he was going to lean down and check for his brother's pulse, Vera took a step forward in turn, in the hope of making Thomas take a step back.

"Jest w porządku, po prostu nieprzytomny," she ran her hand along the back of her head- checking for blood as she went- before letting her hand drop to her side.

He's fine, just unconscious.

Thomas raised his brows, glancing at Stiles he quickly turned to face his brother's attacker- formerly his friend- and frowned, "co zrobiłeś?" he questioned his eyes once again falling to Mitch's limp form.

What did you do?

Vera let out an exaggerated sigh- rolling her eyes as she did so- "Tomasz, martwisz się za bardzo. To nie ma znaczenia, jeśli to sprawia, że czujesz się lepiej, że nie będzie cierpieć żadnych obrażeń, chyba że zdecyduje się być idiotą."

Thomas, you worry too much. It doesn't matter, if it makes you feel better he'll suffer no injuries unless he decides to be an idiot.

The boy shook his head quickly gesturing to his brother, "jak mam to wytłumaczyć naszemu tacie?"

How am I supposed to explain this to our dad?

Vera shrugged her shoulders in response, "coś wymyślić, to już nie mój problem."

Make something up, it's not my issue anymore.

A small groan escaped Mitch's lips and Vera let out a sigh before raising her foot and bringing it down on his head with a slight thump- just enough to knock him unconscious again, but leave him with no brain damage or injury- thankfully that was all it took.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Stiles yelped gesturing to Mitch, "what the hell! Someone speak English and tell me what's going on!"

Vera narrowed her gaze, "go obsłużyć lub będzie on zawarty."

Handle him or he's going to be contained.

"What? What did she just say?"

Thomas slowly looked back at his brother, "she said that if you don't stop she's going to handle you, the same way she handled Mitch."

Stiles' eyes widened as they both returned their gaze to her, "what- what does she plan to do with him anyway?"

Vera simply smiled, "Tomasz, remember my warning, if you get in my way, I will knock you down faster than you can scream."

"Stiles..." he began, his eyes remaining on Vera as he reached out and rested his hand on his brother's shoulder, "stay here..."

He paused, almost as if he was weighing his next words before revealing them to everyone, "I'm telling Dad," and with what he thought was exhilarating speed, he tried to sprint out into the hall and towards the phone downstairs in the kitchen.

Vera quickly lunged forward and grabbed the boy by the back of his hair her hold never loosening as he let out a yell and reached his hands back to try and free himself, which did not work, not in the slightest. One might have even said that it made the situation worse, for him at least.

Stiles stood by the doorway, unable to move as he watched Vera drop his brother on his back just as Mitch had done to her, but this time was different, instead of leaving it at that, Vera brought her foot down on his stomach- the boy writhing beneath her in pain- before leaning down beside his head to grab another fistful of hair.

"Tomasz, I warned you."

And with that, all it took was her slamming his head back into the bedroom flooring for him to finally go unconscious.

With wide eyes, Stiles' hands shot out in front of him, trying his best to come off as conciliatory. It worked.

"Hey... no." he paused watched as Vera set her gaze on him, "no, you- stay away from me. I- I swear if you touch me I'll scream," the girl raised a brow, almost as if she was questioning his ability to do so.

"Mieczyslaw, I would prefer it if you remembered the position you're currently in, more specifically, the position over me you lack."

The boy's lips disappeared as he drew them into his mouth to bite down on, he couldn't believe what was happening, didn't want to. How did the chick even know Mitch was there?

And why was she there?

He stood by the doorway watching as Vera began to tear the sheets straight off Thomas' bed, "uh... what are you doing with those?" he questioned.

It became pretty clear after a few rips and folds what exactly she had planned, or at least some of it, she'd carefully maneuvered one bit of the ripped fabric around Mitch's head to serve as a gag and quickly began working on tying his hands together.

All while Stiles watched, maybe he should've gone downstairs and called his father, but there was something so fascinating about how quickly her hands moved, almost like it was entrancing.

Vera wasted no time in ripping another piece of fabric and securing it around Mitch's feet before repeating the entire process on Thomas. She wondered how much time she'd have till they woke, but more importantly, she wondered if she could get them sedated at the landing strip before they woke up, lord knew it would make her job so much easier.

Once she finished fastening the strip of fabric around Thomas' ankles she lifted her head to stare at Stiles, "can you copy your brother's handwriting?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "which ones?"

Vera thought that over for a split second before deciding on which would be more believable, "Mikolai's."

"Mitch's, yeah... I don't see what this has to do with anything though."

"Good, now help me drag your brothers out to the car."

Stiles' eyes widened in horror at her statement, there was no way he was going to help her tote his unconscious brothers to her car and god knew where else after that, "or you can end up in their position," she softly warned while leaning down to grab Mitch's arms.

"Fine," he grumbled quickly crossing the room and grabbing his brother's legs as tightly as he could, he felt so dirty doing something so bad, like even a shower wouldn't be able to wash away how sickening all of this was.

He didn't even have the slightest clue as to what she could possibly want with them, and if he was being honest, not knowing seemed somewhat better than knowing.

It wasn't until they finished loading the boys into the backseat of Vera's car that Stiles' questionable ability to mock Mitch's handwriting came into play, and while it wasn't exactly the same, it was close enough that anyone who didn't analyze small chicken scratch wouldn't notice the tiny differences.

"Okay, so, if your father asks where your brothers went off to, what are you going to say?"

Stiles let a heavy sigh fall from his chapped lips, "that Mitch went to go back and grab some things his roommate said he left at his old apartment and that Thomas offered to go with him and help."

Vera smiled and reached her hand out to gently pat the boy's cheek, "and here I was thinking that Thomas was the only one with half a brain."

Stiles frowned as she pulled her hand away and began to make her way towards the front door, he knew that once she stepped through that door he'd more than likely not hear anything from his brothers for a few weeks.

"How long will you have them?" he questioned, his curiosity having gotten the best of him, "for as long as it takes them to cooperate, we'll call you when it's time."

The boy slowly nodded his head, "should I get your number then?"

Vera frowned, "no, I'm not going to call you, I said we, as in someone will call you, we don't do that whole personalized call crap."

To say he was curious was an understatement, he wanted to know who would call him and when, but he knew for a fact he wasn't going to get an answer to either of those questions, at least not from the woman standing in his living room.

So instead of questioning her, he watched as she exited the room and slid into her car out front, he'd watched her make sure the child lock was active when they'd loaded the boys inside, and yet, he still had hope that his brothers would somehow escape her clutches.

And little did he know, he wouldn't see his brothers for almost two and a half months.

DARK RED

CHAPTER TWO: DARK WINDOWS