Fixation

Chapter 14


“I knew you’d think this was the coolest shit ever.” Mario whispered, in a tone that suggested he had just found the ultimate drug.

“Damn… And here I thought staying with Kaiba was going to be awkward and dull.”

“Are you gentlemen sure you wouldn’t rather join the others for breakfast?” a young security guard asked nervously, his English broken but fairly understandable.

“No,” they answered together.

“I’m not crazy about the fact that I’m stuck here,” Jou explained. “I’d rather avoid your boss until I’ve thought of a really good way to piss him off.”

The young guard swallowed and grew pale. “You must be very brave.”

“You could just tell him you’ve decided you and I are fine sharing a room,” Mario whispered in Spanish.

“I might have actually gotten some sleep last night if you were there. I kept waking up wondering if the bastard was going to sneak into my room,” Jou replied, not bothering to whisper since the odds of the guard speaking Spanish in Japan were slim.

“Oh come on, he’s been hiding from you since we got here yesterday. In fact, I wandered in here trying to find a way for you to break into his room, if you must know.”

Jou blushed and dropped his head on to the console in front of him. “What happened to looking sexy and making him miserably jealous?”

Mario shook his head, his lips pursed thoughtfully. “I can’t do it. Do you know that look I told you about?”

Jou raised a single eyebrow and lifted his head up.

“That mind-blowing sex look that you get on your face when I’ve got you pinned?”

“Oh, that. What about it?”

“I have to pin you to the ground to see that look. The bastard just needs to walk into the room. And the way you look at him… It’s twenty times hotter. If you had ever looked at me like that I think I would have learned to like it rough just to keep that look on your face.”

Jou stared at his friend for a moment, then dropped his head again, hitting it against the counter several times. It was true, though. Those few moments when they hadn’t managed to avoid each other had been so charged that even Yugi had commented on it. Although, if Jou had learned anything while hanging out with Yugi at the Kaiba Mansion yesterday, it was that there was absolutely no subject too taboo for Yugi to make comments about. His innocent little friend had grown into a bigger pervert than him, Seto, Mokuba, Honda, and Otogi combined.

“Relax… I will still play the part if you want me to,” said Mario in English, leaning over Jou’s shoulder to drool over the updated monitoring station of the Kaiba Mansion security system. “But I don’t think you want me to.”

They watched a computerized display of the entire manner, staring at the way each section changed its color coding based on which authorized radio transmitter was deactivating the motion sensors in the room at any given moment. Everyone authorized to have access to the secure areas of the Kaiba mansion was given a small pin that transmitted a coded signal to deactivate all motion sensors and pressure pads in their immediate location. Thirty seconds after an authorized signal was lost, all sensors automatically re-armed until another authorized person, or an intruder, was detected.

The color-coding of each room on the display was a way to easily identify and locate everyone in the house. Kaiba’s office was red, so his security team could find him quickly. Kaiba’s name was displayed below a small dot that appeared near the far wall of the room. Roland had explained that Mokuba’s location, when he got around to coming home, would also be displayed as red. If more than one person was in the room, the system displayed the color that corresponded to the most important person. Security staff showed up as blue, domestic staff as green, and authorized guests as yellow. Except for Yugi and Jou, apparently. Mokuba had insisted that security treat Yugi as a member of the family, and so his transmitter produced a red signal on the display. Jou was ashamed to find that, thanks to his presence, the security office was highlighted in red, too.

“You told me his security was tight, but this is Buckingham Palace tight.”

“Pressure pads under the oriental rugs on the stairs,” Jou noted in admiration, “So they could keep the antique wood in place. Duel beam alarms on the windows so they’re not running around looking for an intruder every time a bird lands on the window. The only cameras in the whole place are on the two gates. Are the transmitters kept on the premises when the staff leaves at the end of the day?” Jou asked the poor security officer who had been ordered to let them have full access to the control center during his shift.

“Yes sir,” the young man replied. “There is a thirty minute debriefing period for shift change. Each transmitter is handed off to an assigned person on the next shift, and motion sensors are set up around the perimeter to sound an alert if anyone accidentally wears one off site. Except domestic staff. They turn theirs in to security at the end of the day.”

“Are we allowed to wear ours out?” Jou asked, fingering the tiny pin on the collar of his T-shirt.

“Yes sir. The Kaiba family and designated guests keep theirs at all times. Yours are programmed to unlock and disarm the house to permit access any time—except to Kaiba-sama’s office, of course.”

“So?” Mario stared at Jou.

“Coolest shit ever,” Jou agreed, not taking his eyes off the display. “Hey, Kaiba’s going to the toilet! Cool!”

“Now that really is more than I would want to know about a client,” Mario insisted.

“It’s a lot less intrusive than following them in, checking the stall, and standing there. At least Esme’s the one stuck following Chantel to the ladies room.”

Mario muttered a short prayer of thanks in Spanish.

“Chantel?” the young guard perked up. “The pop singer? You don’t work for her!”

Mario sat back in his chair looking glum. “I would pay ten thousand dollars to be able to say we don’t work for her.”

“Tough. We do.”

“Really! That has to be amazing! She is so hot, and such an incredible singer! I know she gets bad press and all, but to work for a real celebrity must be very exciting.”

Jou glanced back at Mario. The two exchanged uncertain looks for a moment, and then Jou nodded at the large man. Mario pulled out a business card and passed it to the kid. “We work on salary; we have a full benefits package, including a flex-spending account, retirement, and tuition reimbursement if you want to continue your education. If you are willing to promise that you will work with Chantel as long as she is our client, I will pay for your relocation expenses myself. I’ll even blackmail my brothers into helping you move in.”

The young guard’s face lit up as if he had just found out that there really is a Santa Claus. “How soon could I start?”

“As soon as we can get you a work visa, kid,” said Mario with a perfect smile. “What’s your name?”


* * * * * *


Seto Kaiba typed as quickly as he could. He had reviewed meeting minutes, requested details about the missing three million dollars even though his secretary’s email assured him that it was nothing to worry about, and was typing up a few suggestions for changes to the storyboards and design sketches for his new RPG. His secretary had uploaded another dozen things that needed his attention, but they were all in a prioritized list, so he should be able to blow through it all quickly, check his stocks, and then go track down his new houseguest.

He knew Jou had been anxious from the moment he walked through the door. The normally laid-back blond had been pacing around the main room, fidgeting with his right hand, poking at the sling that carried his left arm, and then poking at every priceless artifact that Kaiba had in his home. Not that Seto cared. The look on Jou’s face when a loud alarm sounded the moment he picked up a Ming vase was easily worth the risk of him breaking the vase. The blond had dropped it, but to the surprise of everyone it the room, had bent himself in half to catch it with his good hand before it hit the ground.

Seto shuddered at that memory and wished, for the first time in many years, that he still had security cameras everywhere. Seeing Jou bent at the waist with his ass sticking up in the air, almost inviting Seto to sneak up and molest him, was just too delicious. It was the type of thing Seto would love to be able to replay on his computer over and over again when he needed a break from work. Unfortunately, Seto wasn’t the only one whose mouth watered at the sight. Jou’s ‘bodyguard’ hadn’t even tried to disguise the way his eyes roamed over Jou’s ass. Any thoughts Seto had entertained about the man being worth tolerating were obliterated in that moment. A good hour of his morning had been spent developing a plan to separate Jou from the other man and force Jou to stay in Japan.

Every plan he came up with required more free time than he had available at the moment. He sat, riveted to his desk, determined to finish every project for the week quickly. He knew all too well that every moment he spent locked in his office was working was one more moment when Jou and his attractive bodyguard would be alone in the house.

Just before noon, Seto leaned back and double-checked the pile of work that had accumulated on the server. He had done everything he’d planned on accomplishing and was getting ready to sign out when his door slammed open. Seto didn’t look up from the screen, but he smiled. He had been half-hoping that Jou would break into his office in a rage all morning.

“We have a problem,” a voice that definitely wasn’t Jou’s said from right in front of his desk.

“You haven’t slept,” said Seto, really trying to force some disapproval into his voice. He looked up at his brother’s exhausted green eyes curiously. “Did you eat?”

“No. Just sake.”

Seto tisked and shook his head. “You’re willing to fuck up your blood sugar levels that much? Things didn’t go the way you planned?”

Mokuba snorted. “That is putting it mildly.”

“Close the door, sit down, and tell me what you’ve found out.”

Mokuba closed the office door and collapsed into a leather chair in front of Seto’s desk. Seto dug through the lowest drawer of his desk and pulled out a protein bar and an energy drink. He tossed them to Mokuba, who nodded in thanks when he caught them. “We have a serious problem,” Mokuba repeated, ripping open the protein bar. He took a few bites before continuing. “I asked around, trying to find out who accepted the contract to kill Jounouchi. I spent the entire night asking about foreigners, figuring that Jou’s problems had followed him here…”

“And?”

“And they didn’t. I ended up driving to Tokyo last night to talk to a… a friend… there. I did not get an explanation. Would you like to know what happened instead?”

“No, not really. I’d rather go over budget expenditures. What do you think?”

Mokuba finished off the protein bar and leaned forward. “I got nothing but pathetic kow-towing apologies, then had sake and women thrown at me till dawn. The last word on the subject was Please tell your brother we will not fail again. So, Seto, just how far did you go when you were obsessed with trying to find your little fixation?”

Despite being a genius, it took Seto’s brain a moment to get over the shock of Mokuba’s accusation and process what he was actually saying. “You think I put a contract out on Jou’s life?”

“No,” Mokuba shook his head, popped open the energy drink and drained it in one go. “But I think you might have been stupid enough to ask the wrong people to find him without specifying that you wanted him brought back home alive and unharmed. I need to know who you spoke with, Seto, otherwise I can’t fix this. I’m sure you kept records of every contract and every favor you called in. I need to know everything you did to find him.”

“I’ve got records of most of it,” said Seto, turning back towards his computer. “A lot of it I don’t remember, to be honest. I was just kind of walking around Jou’s neighborhood in a daze for a week or so.”

“Well, open everything you’ve got. I’ll arrange for you to meet with one of the local bosses so you can personally explain that you’ve had a change of heart, and then we’ll…” A spaced-out look filtered over Mokuba’s eyes for a moment. He stood up abruptly. “Fuck! I have to remember to eat more!”

“I don’t really think now is the time to worry about your low blood sugar, little brother.”

“Yes, it damn well is! Give me another protein bar, find a weapon and follow me.”

“Why?”

“Because I was too close to a hypoglycemic crash to notice something important when I came home. Where are Roland and Jou?”

Seto shrugged. “I’m sure they’re around somewhere. We can also call security and ask them to find them.”

“No!” Mokuba jumped from his chair to stop Seto from picking up the phone. “No. We’ll go look for them ourselves.”

Seto leaned back in his chair and stared at his little brother. “Are you sure this isn’t a blood-sugar thing? I know you can act drunk sometimes, when it gets too high or too low.”

“No, no, it’s not. I was at that point twenty minutes ago, though, when I came through the front gate. That’s probably why I didn’t notice. We have to go, now!”

“Mokuba…” Seto grabbed another protein bar but didn’t get up.

“Seto, do you want to find Jou, or do you want to find his corpse?”

After pulling a loaded pistol from the top drawer of the desk, Seto checked to make sure the safety was on, shoved it into his pants at the small of his back, and followed his brother out the door. He raced down the stairs after Mokuba. He followed him across the main foyer and to the small white door that led the security control center. The normally locked-at-all-times door was slightly ajar, held open by one the back of one of Seto’s uniformed security guards. The sound of laughter poured out of the room.

Seto could hear Jou’s voice from inside the room. Mokuba opened the door, but he couldn’t squeeze his way into the crowded room.

“…so he was running away from the photographers, and half crouched down so they couldn’t get a good shot of him in just that towel, and then he turned back because the girl… she had run out covered in a sheet, mind you… had stopped to talk to the reporters… and bam! He ran face first into a palm tree. He ended up on spread eagle and naked on the ground with a bloody nose while we were trying to hold the reporters back. Our driver had to literally push through the crowd to get to him, and then the idiot just sits there cursing and Mario here has to pick his royal ass up, throw him over his shoulder, and carrying him to the car.”

Roland’s hearty laugh could clearly be heard over the other laughter in the room.

“And of all the pictures that the tabloids ran—they chose Mario throwing his naked ass over his shoulder and carrying him to the car for the cover. It looked like the prince was caught in some weird orgy in Cabo and was so sex crazed that Mario here literally had to tear him away without even giving him time to get dressed. I don’t think the poor kid has been back to North American sense then. We got a lot of publicity over it, though. Suddenly a dozen rich parents wanted to send us to tail their college students on spring break so we would keep them from all of the drunken debauchery they were sure their kids were going to engage in.”

“We’ve been glorified baby-sitters ever sense,” Mario complained. “I swear that picture it the reason we’re stuck being sexually assaulted by pop singers.”

“It is, actually. Chantel mentioned the photo when she requested you be specifically assigned as her bodyguard during her initial interview.”

“You ass! I knew you pimped me out to her! Man, when we get home I’m going to skip Sunday dinner for a month so you can deal with Jesus on your own!”

Seto saw Jou sitting at the control center display, surrounded by his own bodyguard and most of Seto’s staff. He rested his head on his good arm and slouched in the chair, looking just like the bright Mutt Seto remembered from high school. He also looked smug.

“You don’t think I’ll do it?”

“Doesn’t matter. Esme loves me enough to protect me from him and you know it. And if she wont, your mom will.”

“Gentlemen!” Mokuba roared. It didn’t take much to get is angry, and not being noticed by their staff was more than enough to make him furious.

Everybody in the room snapped to a quiet attention immediately, except Jou. Jou’s bodyguard glanced towards him, took his cue from Jou, and stayed slouched in his chair as well. Mokuba wormed his way into the center of the room, staring into the face of every guard he saw. “Gentlemen, I would like an explanation…”

“Mr. Kaiba, Mr. Delgado suggested that Mr. Wheeler has an affinity for automated security system design, so I allowed them into the control center to observe the updates we’ve made since Mr. Wheeler was our guest eight years ago. After a detailed explanation of the automated system, they made some suggestions for additional updates and were just sharing some professional exploits while the men were on a break. I assure you the system had been adequately monitored while they’ve been here.”

“What I want an explanation regarding,” Mokuba paused and pulled up the gate cameras on the display and used the keyboard to turn the cameras so he could see the guards, “Is why there are three guards on the gate instead of six, and why I have never seen these three men before. Are these three men members of your staff?”

Roland stared at the men on the camera for a moment, and then slowly climbed to his feet. He produced a handgun from somewhere on his person, turned off the safety, and pulled back the slide. “Alright gentlemen, break’s over. We have a Code 1 Breach. Transmitters and uniforms are no longer effective for identification purposes. The gate, at least, is compromised. I will lock down the house and security officers I can personally vouch for will search the house in three man teams. You will move room by room, and detain everyone in the building. Every member of the domestic staff and every officer I cannot personally vouch for is to be secured, searched for weapons, and detained in basement storage rooms. Notify the police of the situation and inform them that we will be dealing with it internally but that we will require the assistance of the bomb squad shortly.”

Roland typed a single command and the display of the house flashed red three times. Every door and window locked and what must have been large fire doors closed off each segment of the house from the others.

“Every transmitter except those in this room are now disabled. Since I know everyone here, that should be sufficient.”

“Mr. Kaiba, you, your family, and your guests will be escorted to the safe room in the sub-basement.”

“No,” Mokuba insisted. “Seto and Jou are the only ones likely to be in danger. Everyone else should be fine as long as the house stays locked down. Mr. Delgado and I will help you sweep the house. Where’s Yugi?”

“In your room downloading naughty videos,” Jou answered, nodding at the monitor.

“Good.” Mokuba pulled out his cell phone and called the younger man.

In the silent room, virtually everyone could hear Yugi’s voice through the speaker. “Hi babe.”

“Yug’,” Mokuba said seriously, “We’ve got a bit of an issue with security. Your door should be automatically locked, but I need you to promise that you’ll stay in there, stay quiet, and wait for me to come get you. Do no open the door for anyone else.”

“Is this about Jou?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“But it’s only been a day. No one knows he’s here.”

Mokuba rolled his eyes. “The entire Yakuza knows he’s here thanks to me,” he whispered. “I thought I was trying to find out if they’d accepted a foreign contract on him… I didn’t think about what I was saying… Also, do you know security can monitor everything you download?”

“Of course I do. I figured Jou might find his way to that weird little room, so I thought I’d make sure he had something to keep him entertained. And if not, I know there’s always somebody stuck down there with nothing to do.”

Jou buried his blushing face in his right hand. “There was nothing entertaining about that horse video!”

Yugi’s innocent laughter came over the phone. “Tell him to wait until he sees the authentic size and texture animal replica dildos! Ohh, and the river trout one! I’m not so into girls, but it’s funny as hell.”

Jou looked like he was trying to bury his face more, but with one arm in a sling he just didn’t have enough fingers to hide completely. He settled for curling into a ball and slipping out of his chair, on to the floor. “Yugi, you weren’t supposed to become a pervert!” Jou shouted without looking up.

Despite the situation, Mokuba was doubled over laughing. Everyone else in the room was torn between looking mortified and trying not to laugh. Even Seto felt his normally stoic mask crumble at the sight of Jounouchi literally being floored by embarrassment. Seto would have to get Yugi to order him one of those dildos so he could break it out at opportune moments just to make Jou turn purple.

“I am so glad you don’t speak Japanese,” Jou whispered to Mario, who just looked confused.

“Alright, alright,” Seto tried to restore some semblance of order. “I’d rather not spend the day locked in that safe room with the Mutt. My penthouse at Kaiba Corp has only one point of entry. Thanks to my step-dad, the penthouse is lined with reinforced steel, just like our safe room here. It would be just as secure, and we would still have access to outside lines and basic amenities in case it takes you a while to clear the house. Are the vehicles secure?”

“I don’t know,” said Roland honestly.

“I do,” said Jou. Ho motioned to the display. “I’ve been in here since seven this morning. The only time the motion sensors in the garage were deactivated was when Mokuba pulled in. His transmitter was the only one in the garage, and the alarm reactivated when he left. There hasn’t been any other movement there.”

“You actually expect us to believe that you can keep track of that display without any training and while you’re in the middle of a conversation?” Seto scoffed.

“Of course I can. This is cool; I’ve been playing with it all morning.”

“Playing with it isn’t the same as knowing how to use it. And there’s too much there for anyone to keep track of without experience.”

Jou stood up and glared at him. “You are such an asshole! You can’t even give me credit for being able to keep my eyes open! Fine, if you want proof, you can have it. You went to the toilet four times this morning, for a grand total of forty-seven minutes. Otherwise, you’ve been at your desk all morning, but you often turn around to star out the window. Your housekeeper is too afraid of you to go into your office and must have left your breakfast tray outside the door this morning. Her transmitter didn’t enter the office and the pressure pad readings indicate that she was five pounds heavier going up the stairs than down. Yugi’s spent the morning in Mokuba’s room downloading naughty videos. And the only security staff who haven’t been following predictable patrol routes are…” Jou scanned the display for three dots he had noticed earlier. Since the building was locked down, none of the dots had left the rooms they were in moments before. “Here, here, and here,” he pointed out quickly. “Those would be your intruders,” he sat back down, a worried expression on his face.

“The main entrance, the hallway between the kitchen and the garage, and your guestroom, Mr. Wheeler,” Roland said. He motioned to the crowd of guards around them. “The vehicles are not secure. Team Four, safety catches off, get a shield and cuffs out of the closet and go secure those three targets.”

As one, the men in coveralls began to move.

“I suppose it was a good thing to annoy you all day,” Jou said to one of the guards sympathetically. “I’d have been in my room otherwise…”

Seto met Jou’s eyes. He did not want to be locked in that damn safe room again. He really didn’t want to be locked in there with the Mutt, of all people. But Jou’s comment drove home just how foolish Seto’s had been to assume that Jou would be safe simply by staying in his home. Would his penthouse really be any safer? It would be infinitely more comfortable, but the rational answer was to use the safe room—and despite the terror bubbling up from his stomach at the prospect of entering that room again, Seto Kaiba was always rational.

The sound of gunfire, muffled by distance, could be heard through the door.

“We’ll use the safe room.”

Perfect. So much for Jou’s hide with the guards and avoid Seto until he died plan. Could he really deal with being alone with Kaiba? The last time he’d been alone with the other man had been when he woke up in the hospital, and that hadn’t ended well.

Jou watched Seto move towards the back of the room and open a small green door that blended in with the paint in the room, revealing a dark set of concrete stairs. A light flickered to life when the door swung inward. In the dim light, Jou caught a glimpse of Seto’s eyes and froze cold. In Seto’s eyes, Jou saw something that he had never expected to see. It was the one emotion Jou thought the brunette was incapable of feeling. In all the years he’d known Seto, he had never seen Seto afraid. Not when Mokuba was kidnapped, when the Big Five threatened to steal his body, not when the world fell apart around them as they fought by Yugi’s side. Even a moment earlier, the close sound of gunfire hadn’t managed to evoke the terror that opening that small door seemed to bring out.

Jou glanced around at Mokuba and Roland, wondering if either of them had noticed.

“Come on, Mutt. Looks like we’re stuck together for a few hours.”

“Hold up,” Jou said carefully. “I’m not going to go hide in some closet while everybody else is up here dealing with this mess.”

“You’re the one they’re targeting, Mutt, it’s not safe for you to do anything else.”

Jou rolled his eyes. He got up slowly, trying to hide the way the pain medications made him sway when he got to his feet. He unbuckled the sling and pulled it off from around his neck, wincing as he straightened his arm out after nearly two days of being immobile. “Aw, come on Mom, I promise I’ll be careful.”

“You are such an idiotic little shit! Get in here!”

“No. Do you really want to be stuck down there when everyone you care about is up here risking their lives? When they might be killed if you’re not there? Suppose they do plant a bomb in the house, do you really want to be down in a safe room and hear it go off, to hear them dying?”

Jou saw Seto’s jaw tighten and noticed the other man’s hands clenched into fists. Jou wasn’t surprised when Seto grabbed him by his T-shirt and tried to hoist him off the ground. Accusing the rich bastard of failing to protect his loved ones was one of the only sure-fire ways Jou had always used to get Seto into a full-blown rage. “Why can’t you ever just let things happen the way they’re supposed to, you low class imbecile! I’m trying to help you!”

“I never asked you to help me!”

Seto pulled him close enough that Jou could feel his breath against his lips. “You need my help, moron! It’s my fault you’re in danger and it’ll be my fault if you get killed, and I’m not going to let that happen!”

Jou stopped what was going to be snarl and stared at Seto curious and completely calm. He tilted his head to the side. “That’s not part of the script, moneybags. You’re supposed to scream that you can’t stand my flea ridden ass and punch me, I’m supposed to scream that I hate you and try to tackle you, then we roll around for a bit until I get the upper hand and you agree that we should help clear the house. How is this your fault?”

Seto dropped him on his feet and spun away, staring at the dark wall opposite the console. “Apparently,” he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest, “I’m the one trying to kill you.”

Jou stepped back and stared at him. “You hired someone to kill me?” he laughed. “You’ve never been afraid of getting your own hands dirty, moneybags, why didn’t you just do it while we were alone in the hospital?”

“I said apparently! I’m not actually trying to kill you!”

Jou found himself slipping into a defensive stance. “Are you sure? After you charged me with a felony to have me arrested and brought back to Domino to go to court, I’m not sure I’d put much passed you.”

“No! Damn it, I spent a fortune trying to find you, to bring you back to me! I just… Mokuba says even he doesn’t believe it happened on purpose. Just sort of a misunderstanding. You see, I was a little over focused on the idea that I could bring you back. I stayed in your building for weeks. I wandered around your neighborhood. I checked hospitals and jails. I… I filed those charges so you would get arrested and sent back to Domino… And I might have solicited help from people who thought I wanted you dead instead of home safe… I don’t remember doing it, but, well, as we’ve already established, I was a bit ignorant of some of the less savory elements of society.”

Jou stared at Seto’s back for a moment, not sure what to say. “You’re the one who’s trying to kill me? If that’s the case, why now? Eight years of the delusion of safety and then you decide you want to hire someone to kill me? What sense does that make?”

Seto finally turned to face him, his eyes a mixture of honest confusion and Kaiba’s typical sense of superiority. Jou never hated that superior look so much in his life. He did the only thing that seemed logical. Jou punched him.

Seto stumbled backwards into the open doorway. Jou grabbed him by his suit jacket and pulled him forward, to keep him from tumbling down the stairwell. He stared at Jou with uncertainty in his eyes now. There was also the hint of something that looked like desperation. “I guess I deserved that one,” Seto admitted. “But for the record, I didn’t just do it. It was years ago. I don’t even remember doing it. However, I do keep fairly close track of my money, and every time I paid a private detective, I kept records of it. If I transferred funds, withdrew cash, or wrote a check to anybody there will be a record of it. I just need to find that record to track down who I made the deal with, then I can undo it. But I didn’t want to tell you… Now you’re going to run back to the States with your boyfriend, and even I can’t think of any logical reason why you shouldn’t. Except that I’ve got to make sure you’re safe until I’ve sorted this out.” Seto smirked and touched his cheek again. ‘Well, I can think of a few other reasons, but I don’t think this is the time for that.”

Jou was surprised when he began to chuckle. He tried to hold it in, especially since Seto looked so serious, but he just couldn’t help himself.

“What?” Seto demanded.

Jou was laughing aloud now, trying to stop long enough to catch his breath so he could talk. When he could finally take a deep breath without laughing, he touched Kaiba’s cheek affectionately. “Honda said you had your stupid moments, but not only did I not believe him, but I had no idea just how stupid he was talking. Are you honestly trying to say that you hired someone to kill me by accident?”

Seto shrugged and stared down at the floor. Jou saw Seto press his lips together tight, the anger in his eyes burning. “Remind me to hurt that traitor.”

“He was right! How could not notice arranging to have some killed?” Jou laughed. “You just didn’t notice you were talking to a gangster instead of a private investigator?”

“I told you, I don’t remember who I talked to, but I will find out. I don’t let hundreds of thousands of dollars out of my sight without a record of it.”

Jou patted him on the shoulder. “Millions, Kaiba. Assassination is dangerous, so the guys who do it tend to charge a lot. This would have cost you millions.” Jou didn’t say anything when he felt Kaiba’s hand on the small of his back.

“Impossible,” said Seto quickly, tugging Jou’s hips close to his. “I have never lost track of millions of… Well, no, I take that back. I wasn’t responsible, but my office does have a undocumented two million dollar transaction that I haven’t had a chance to track down yet. The money was only withdrawn recently. If I can get into the office within being shot at, it should be easy to trace that transaction.”

“This is starting to sound more like a con by the minute, Kaiba.”

“It’s not! Nakamura-san is the one who pointed it out to me, so we can go ask her about it personally if you don’t believe me.”

Jou shook his head, not sure whether he should punch Seto again or hug him. If Seto really was just that ignorant, then everything could be cleaned up with a few words. He wouldn’t have to throw his life away and hide—or worse, kill somebody—to stay alive. “The sad part is, I do believe you. I just can’t believe that you could do something so stupid. You’re Seto Kaiba, for crying out loud.” Jou laughed again.

“I know,” Seto snapped. “But I’ll fix it. And you…” Seto pulled Jou to a stop again, “were not supposed to exert yourself yet.” He leaned in close and licked Jou’s bottom lip gently. “Bad dog.”

“Would you two stop!” Roland shouted. He was seated at the center console, typing commands and watching transmitters move through the mansion and occasionally issuing commands through a radio on his lapel.

Jou glanced at the monitor, then at the almost empty control room. “Where did Mario and Mokuba go?”

“Mr. Delago went to do his job. Master Mokuba is assisting him. I think they both agreed they’d rather get shot than sit here and put up with two.”

“Is the situation contained?” Seto asked, his voice calm again. Jou glanced up at him, relieved to see the same analytical coldness he always did when he looked at Seto. The other man still hadn’t let go of him, though.

“Six targets have been detailed by law enforcement personnel and the bomb squad is en route. Team four has split into two and three man teams to clear the building, but I have no more motion alarms, so I think we’re fine.”

“Damn it,” Jou kicked the ground. “I miss all the fun because you have to go and have a panic attack.”

The hand on the small of his back fisted in his shirt. “What are you talking about?”

Jou rolled his eyes, then nodded towards the small closed door that led to Seto’s safe room. Seto’s mouth dropped open. “You…?”

“I know how to piss you off,” Jou explained. “Someday you’ll have to tell me what’s down there that’s such a big deal.”

“There is nothing down there that is a big deal!”

Jou gave Seto a soft, knowing smile then slapped him on the ass with his good hand.

“Hey!” Seto jumped. “It’s nothing important. But… thanks.”