Be Brave (2 page)

names.”

He already knew their names; he had seen their files and a small photo of each

and memorized everything. He pointed at each of them in turn, giving their names,

ages, and the place they were born. “I know everything I need to know about you,

Matilda Thornton.”

She smiled. “I go by Mattie, sir.”

“Sir?” It was the bloke with the swagger: Harry Denbigh. “Is he part of the

group?” Angel stuck out as much as Mattie did, and he had been glued to Kael"s side

since getting out of the car.

“Yes, he is. Tell them your first name only, boy.”

Angel smiled at him and then around at the group. “I"m Angel.”

Denbigh laughed, and Mattie said, “Awww, that"s so sweet.”

“Sir,” the ruddy-faced man said. “When are we going to eat?”

“Not today,” Kael said calmly, ignoring their disappointed faces.

“I didn"t have breakfast,” another man said.

Kael stood up, towering over them, leaning forward as he spoke and pointing

at them one after the next. “You fucking morons! We don"t get lunch breaks and tea

breaks on this job. If you want to work in a fucking office, then go and work in one.

This job is for real men.” He looked at Mattie. “No offense.”

She grinned. “None taken, sir.”

“Some of you will go into security; you"ll be minders. Imagine taking care of a

head of state and saying, „Excuse me, minister. I need to stop and have my

sandwiches now. And I need to go for a piss. Can you wait there?"”

4

Fyn Alexander

The men started to laugh. “See how ridiculous that is? There"s water in your

packs. That"s all you get until morning. Make it last.” He looked at Mattie. “When

you"re small, you have to be more careful. You get hungry quicker.” But she looked

as tough as nails. It was Angel he was worried about. Before they left London, Kael

had made the boy eat an enormous protein-loaded breakfast to tide him over. “Does

anyone want to leave? Because if you do, go now. Don"t waste my time.”

“Our careers depend on this weekend, don"t they?” one of the men asked.

Kael looked round at them. “Your futures with SIS will be determined by my

reports. If you want exciting, action-filled careers, then act as if that"s what you

want. Or you"ll end up in office jobs.”

“Kill me now.” Mattie laughed.

Kael almost smiled at her and repeated, “Does anyone want to leave?”

No one spoke.

* * *

the pace, and Angel kept up with him most of the way. Mattie on her short legs

quickly fell behind, but by the time they all reached the finish, she was back at the

front of the pack. Five out of the seven men who had got off to great starts had

peaked and become exhausted. Kael reached the end a full eight minutes ahead of

the group and stood, hands on hips, waiting for them. Angel and Mattie arrived

first, and the men trailed in after them. One man collapsed on the ground, and

when his buddy went to help him, Kael said, “Leave him! If you were in the field,

running for your life, you would have to leave him or die with him. Be sensible.”

After several minutes of watching him lie flat out, panting like a dog, Kael

walked over to the man. “Up you get.” He put out his hand and hauled the man to

his feet. Giving him a brusque pat on the shoulder, he said, “You finished the race.

That"s all that matters.”

They had barely recovered when he took them to the moat on the east side of

the castle, where it was deepest, and ordered them to strip naked. The presence of a

woman made them hesitate. But Mattie and Kael were the first ones naked. Angel

was next but only because of the cold. He was used to being naked and was very

comfortable in his skin, but being so slender, he began shivering very quickly. Kael

kept his eye on Harry Denbigh, who seemed to want to compete with Angel and

looked angry when the boy had beaten him in the run. He hurriedly stripped off his

clothes and strode up to the edge of the moat, ready to go in first.

Angel ran up beside him and jumped in, his knees drawn in toward his chest

the way he often leaped into bed at night. “First!” he screamed with childlike glee.

The look on Denbigh"s face was one of hatred. He dived in after Angel.

“Get out, the pair of you,” Kael ordered, furious at their stupidity.

The two climbed out onto the bank, shivering. “Only an idiot jumps into a

strange body of water,” he said to Angel. “And a bigger idiot dives in.” He got in

Angel and the Assassin: Be Brave

5

Denbigh"s face. “There could be rocks in there you could hit. At least Angel would

only have cracked his arse. You could have broken your stupid fucking neck.” Angel

and Denbigh colored despite the cold. “What if you were in a tropical country and

there were flesh-eating fish or reptiles? First you examine your terrain.”

For twenty minutes he made them stand naked while he went over the ways to

check if a body of water was safe before using it for an escape route. Then he went

in first to show them how to do it.

Later, as they dressed, Denbigh looked at Mattie and said, “Nice tits. A bit

small but nice.”

“I wouldn"t worry about it, mate. You"ll never get your hands on them.”

The men laughed at the exchange until Kael walked up to Denbigh and

grabbed his cock. Stunned, Denbigh reared back.

“Nice cock. A bit small but nice.” The men broke into gales of laughter, but

Kael hushed them quickly. “We support our fellows in the field; we do not demean

them. There"ll always be times when you"ll work in groups or with a partner. You

can"t put down a partner, then expect them to have your back in a sticky situation.”

The remainder of the afternoon they spent on basic survival techniques. By

midnight, they were exhausted. “Get into your tents and go to sleep,” Kael told

them. “You"ll notice you have no sleeping bags—only a blanket. Put on every piece

of clothing you brought. I hope you"ve all got hats. Keep your boots on. Put the

blanket on the ground. Then wrap it around you. The rest of your warmth will come

from your tent mate, so get cozy.”

One of the men looked at his partner and joked, “Don"t try anything.”

They all laughed and crawled into their tents to lie down on the hard, cold

ground. The moment they were alone, Kael pulled Angel into his arms and felt his

boy melt against him. “How did I do today, Daddy?” he whispered.

“You"re amazing.” Kael kissed his forehead. “A couple of those guys have been

in the army. All of them have had some training, and you not only kept up with

them, you surpassed them. That"s my boy.”

There was nothing Angel loved more than praise and encouragement, but he

also took discipline well if he knew he deserved it, and that was a sign of maturity.

“That"s because of all the weight training and running you make me do, Daddy.” He

kissed Kael softly on the lips. “I"m so tired.”

The conversation from the next tent was just discernible with Kael"s better

than ordinary hearing. He pressed his finger to Angel"s lips and listened. Denbigh

and his tent mate were talking. “I reckon Sir is as queer as George Michael,”

Denbigh said. “That boy"s not with SIS, and there was no question where he was

going to sleep when Sir was ordering us around.”

“He"s a good bloke, tough as bloody nails,” the other man said. “I"d let him

cover my back any day.”

“Yes, but I think he"s favoring his bitch over us.”

6

Fyn Alexander

“Shut it, mate. This isn"t the fucking
X Factor
. No one"s going to get

eliminated.”

At the word
bitch
in reference to Angel, Kael said, “Wait there.” He crawled

out of the tent and directly into the next one. Before Denbigh could speak, Kael had

straddled him and had him by the neck, pushing down on his windpipe. His tent

mate moved quickly out of the way. “I knew you were trouble the minute I laid eyes

on you.” He smacked him hard across the face. “Got anything else to say?”

Unable to speak, Denbigh attempted to shake his head. Kael eased up on his

throat, and Denbigh whispered hoarsely, “No, sir.”

“Now go to sleep like a good boy. Don"t make me come back.” He had not been

quiet about disciplining the young man, and the others were sitting at their tent

flaps watching and listening by the time he crawled out. “Get some sleep!” he said.

He crawled back into the low tent, and Angel snuggled into his arms again.

“Did he call me your bitch, Daddy?” he asked very quietly.

“Shhh. Everything"s fine.” Kael unzipped his trousers. He took Angel"s hand

and pushed it inside. “Make me happy, boy,” he whispered. Angel"s hand felt cool

and strong. He gripped Kael"s cock firmly and began a fast friction up and down,

rubbing and pulling on the thick organ. All the love and pride Kael harbored for his

boy rose in him as Angel pleasured him. He gripped the boy tightly to his chest as

his orgasm swept through him like a slow-moving stream, and he released a long,

quiet, “Aaaah. Good boy.”

“I love you, Daddy.” Angel"s eyes were already closed and his body was limp in

Kael"s arms before he had finished his sentence. He was sound asleep, exhausted

from his long day.

* * *

hours of sleep, which would have to be enough. They"d all be in their own beds

tonight anyway, sleeping it off. He sent them to the castle dining room to eat

breakfast and let them linger for a good hour, telling them to eat protein. “Eggs and

bacon, not too much toast. Carbs will slow you down.” Denbigh still seemed to be

smarting from his smack the night before and avoided Kael, sitting at a distant

table. That was a bad sign. The man gossiped about his superiors, was resentful of

discipline, and had attempted throughout the maneuvers yesterday to one-up his

mates. Unless he redeemed himself today, his future with SIS was not looking good.

In the beautiful, high-ceilinged, arch-windowed dining hall, Angel ate steadily

for twenty minutes. He returned to the warming dishes several times for more eggs

and sausages. “Sir, I can"t believe I"m eating breakfast in a castle.”

Kael smiled as he watched him eat. Kael had packed away a decent-sized

breakfast himself but stopped after one plateful. He hated feeling stuffed. “Make me

proud today, lad, but no showing off. You don"t have to be first every time, but you

do have to be safe.”

Angel smiled at him over the top of a tall glass of orange juice. “I will, Sir.”

Angel and the Assassin: Be Brave

7

The first challenge of the day was an assault course that had been left behind

from another training session. Angel was the first to run when Kael gave them the

go-ahead. He was not as fast as the bigger men, and dragging himself up a sheer,

fifteen-feet-high wooden wall with his thin arms was far more difficult for him than

for the men, but he threw himself into every challenge without complaint. Mattie

had a hell of a time with the wall as well, but like Angel she struggled until she

made it. Kael didn"t allow them another meal break and encouraged them to drink

lots of water. Around midafternoon, he took them up on the East Gatehouse tower

of the castle. The sky was gray and threatening rain. The wind had picked up, but

he decided to go ahead as planned even though any sudden deterioration in the

weather would make the maneuver considerably riskier.

Bracing himself against a gust of wind, he began, “What we are going to do is

abseil down the side of the tower. It"s eighty-four feet down and, as you can see, a

sheer drop.”

“It"s a hell of a windy day for this, sir,” one of the men said, looking very

nervous.

Kael pointed at Mattie and the two who had been in the army. “You must have

done this.”

“I did it once, sir, but under ideal conditions,” she said.

“I managed to get out of it, sir,” one ex-soldier admitted with a shrug.

The other stood shaking his head. “The conditions are really bad to do this for

the first time, sir. We should have done it yesterday.”

“You fucking big nancies,” Kael screamed at them over the wind. Their

reticence brought out his temper. “I"m going to reject the lot of you. We are going

down this tower, so get your heads around it.” They began to shift about

uncomfortably. “Do I have a volunteer to start us off?”

Angel almost fell over the side leaping into the air with his hand raised. “Sir,

me!”

Kael laughed into the gusting wind. “You"re like the little drummer boy, ready

to lead the men into battle. But this time, wait your turn.” He looked around at the

assembled men with Mattie in their midst, using them for a windbreak. “One of you