Silent Storm [ManxMan]

Chapter 35 ~ The person pulling the strings

"Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter because nobody listens."

- Nick Diamos

[River's POV]

I stared at the boy before me, his long purple hair tied up in a tight ponytail and his cute face destroyed by an evil grin eating up his whole face. His grin had become a bit less amused since I spoke but he was still not satisfied with my answer.

"I do know you... better than you probably think and I'd say you're lying. You do, in fact, like this man. God knows why, but I know you do. It's true you don't care about anyone else but he is an exception isn't he?" Seth said, his voice somewhere between intrigued and irritated. He seemed so unlike the sweet boy I drank tea with that day not so long ago.

When I first entered this building a while ago I had been expecting to meet with someone from the League of Assassins. Winter had been my first guess so when I ran into Seth I had of coursed been very confused. He had told me some shitty story about how he had been trying to find me ever since Midas and I had left him, Gabriel and Tony in the dust.

I had felt a slight suspicion when he told me the story but I hadn't thought it was this bad. When he told me the others were waiting on the top floor I had followed him without too much caution and when we got here he had attacked me from behind and tied me up. Now several men from the League had shown up and even Midas had joined our little group. Tony and Gabriel weren't here and I guess I had been played all along.

Seth.

The only one of the people around me that I hadn't thought bad off. The only one I hadn't felt any sort of suspicion against.

I had suspected for quite some time now that someone in my shadow had ties with the League but I wouldn't have thought it was Seth.

Cute little adorable and considerate Seth.

Of course he couldn't be a bad guy, right?

Wrong. He most definitely could.

We had all been fooled and while I was busy suspecting Tony because he was an all around ass, Seth had been busy trying to find a way to get rid of me.

When I thought about it maybe there had been clues that I had missed. Maybe I could have figured it out if I hadn't been so occupied with Midas. If I hadn't been so blind to everything else going on around me.

Midas.

The man lying unconscious at my feet seemed to be alive at least. He had been hit in the back of the head, that much I could tell, but otherwise he seemed unharmed. For now at least...

"Were you the one that took Mei?" I suddenly asked, staring at Seth without giving away any emotions as I did. He stared back at me for a second and then he shook his head and smiled.

"I wasn't really the one to abduct her, I was busy playing your bodyguard but well, I was the one who told them when to bust into your apartment. They were just supposed to mess it up but your stupid maid happened to be there and they had to take her. So you see it wasn't really our plan to kidnap her even though it turned out to be pretty useful since you came to look for her." Seth said and I felt a small twitch of annoyance at the way he spoke about her. As if she had just been an afterthought, a favorable surprise that happened to present itself.

"Where is she?" I asked, keeping my voice calm as I stared at the man in front of me. How I could have ever thought of him as an innocent kid was beyond me. Even kids could be dangerous if you raised them wrong. Just look at me and what the League of Assassins did to me and you'd know.