Release

[pembie]

1 hour ago, Ludub said:

Oh! That wasn't intended at all! I just randomly picked a surname!  I did think it sounded a little familiar though. Oops!

A nice little Easter egg It seems my daft stories are having a effect on you

[Ludub]

Thanks again for all the kind comments. Hope you like this new one! 

 

Chapter 7

 

“Hey?!” laughed Ben, when he heard Kyle start to snore, “Hey sleepyhead! I thought we were gonna watch this?!” Kyle was lying stretched out on the couch, with his head resting on Ben’s thigh, and despite having insisted that they wait to watch the boxset together, he’d fallen asleep about ten minutes in.

“Wuh?” mumbled Kyle, as he opened his eyes for a moment to look blearily at the screen, “I’m watching it… I’m watching it!” The kids had been keeping them up through the night for the last few weeks, and he’d had a couple of very early morning starts for big deliveries at the garden centre, so to say that he was tired would have been an understatement.

“Yeah… right!” teased Ben, as he pointed at the actor on the screen, “So, what did that guy just say?”

“He uh… He said…” yawned Kyle, “Ummm… he said…?”

“You don’t know” laughed Ben, “You don’t have the faintest clue… And you know what? Neither do I, because you were drowning it out with all your snoring! I couldn’t hear a thing!”

“Hey!” replied Kyle, with a tone of indignation, “I don’t snore!”

“Sure, you don’t!” he said in a sarcastic tone of voice, before making a loud and exaggerated snorting noise like a pig.

“I don’t!” he insisted.

“Babe, you snore like a tractor!” he teased, “Hate to break it to you, but you do!”

“I do not!” he said, with a cheeky little smile slowly curling on his lips. He knew that he did, he just liked messing with him.

“I’m gonna record you one of these days” said Ben, “Then I’m gonna make you listen to it! So you can hear first-hand what I have to put up with!”

Kyle went to say something, but just as he opened his mouth, the doorbell went. He looked up at Ben in surprise. It was after 9pm, and they weren’t used to having people call round so late, not now that they had the kids. “You expecting someone?” he asked.

“No” said Ben, “I thought we were having a quiet night in.” He lifted Kyle’s head off his thigh and got up to go and see who it was. He was hoping that he could get rid of them quickly because he really wasn’t in the mood for company tonight, and judging by Kyle’s nodding off every few minutes, he wasn’t either! He glanced out through the window in the hallway and gave a little sigh when he saw that it was Josh standing there. So much for some quality time together. That guy could be such a downer! “It’s Josh” he called back to Kyle, with a little grimace, before he opened the door. “Hey?” he said, unable to hide his surprise as he took in the sweaty and red-faced appearance of their guest, “You okay, Josh?!”

“Kyle?!” he wheezed, hanging on to the doorframe for support, “I… need… Kyle… Is he here?!”

“Uh… yeah?” said Ben, wondering if he was going to collapse right there and then. He looked like he’d just run a marathon, but he definitely wasn’t dressed for long distance running!

“I need to see him!” gasped Josh, as he barged in through the door and made a bee-line for Kyle in the living-room. Ben followed behind and shrugged at Kyle in an ‘I have no idea what is going on!’ kind of way.

“Josh?! Are you okay?!” asked Kyle as he jumped to his feet and came to his side, “What’s happened, mate?!” He’d seen him have panic attacks before, but this seemed a little different.

He was panting heavily and bent over as he tried to catch his breath. He looked up at Kyle and put his hand on his shoulder. “I found a folder in his desk" he wheezed out at him, “He’s not who we think he is, Kyle! He’s a liar!”

“What?!” frowned Kyle, “Who’s a liar?!”

“He’s been lying to us…” he continued, with a wide-eyed and manic sort of look, “Lying to everyone… to Ricky, to you and Heath… to all of us! …He’s a liar, Kyle! …A ****ing liar!”

“Josh?! Who are you talking about?!” he asked, but he’d already started to put two and two together. From the list that he’d just given, he knew that it couldn’t be anyone other than Cameron, but he needed him to say it. He needed him to say that he meant Cameron. He got him to sit down on the end of the couch and then sat down facing him on the coffee table. “Who, Josh?” he asked again.

“He’s been hiding it from us… from you” he continued, as he reached out with shaky hands and accepted a glass of water from Ben, “I found it though… I found it hidden in his drawer... Cameron’s drawer.”

“Found what?” asked Kyle, as he threw a wary glance at Ben. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to know. Something had obviously really spooked Josh, and if he was this upset, then it probably wasn’t going to be anything good.

“I found a file” he said, after taking a drink of water and placing the glass on the table, “It’s in my bag.” He motioned for Kyle to pass it to him from beside him on the floor.  “I was just looking for a pen, but then I saw the name on the folder... and I shouldn't have looked but I did... and that's when I found it"

"Josh, what are you talking about?!" asked Ben, "Found what?!"

He unzipped the bag to take it out. "I took it and I ran… I came straight here” he said, “I didn’t know what to do… I just grabbed it… and I guess I panicked… So, I just stuffed it in my bag, and then I ran all the way here… because you need to see it.”

“You ran here?!” exclaimed Kyle, “All the way from Ricky’s?! But that’s like… I don’t know… 5K or something?”

“Yeah” he said, as he pulled a crumpled brown folder from his bag and handed it to Kyle, “…because you need to see this.”

Kyle frowned at him when he saw that the folder had a white Federal Police sticker on the outside with the words ‘eroticnights.com’ printed on it. “You stole police evidence?” he asked, with a worried expression, “Josh… You know you can’t afford to get in trouble again… You’re still on a good behaviour bond... If Cameron wanted to press charges…”

“He won’t” he said, shaking his head, “I don’t think he’s supposed to have that… I think he’s hiding it so…”

“So, what?” asked Kyle.

“So, he can have Ricky…” he said, with a flash of anger, “So, she’ll still marry him...”

Kyle looked at the folder in his hands and then back up at Josh. He couldn’t see why the contents of a police evidence folder entitled ‘Erotic Nights’ would mean the difference between whether Ricky married Cameron or not. Unless, he was into some really kinky stuff?! Or worse?! Maybe child pornography?! “Do I really want to see what’s in here?” he asked cautiously.

“You have to!” he said, nodding for him to open it, “It’s Brax… He… He’s still alive!”

Kyle’s mouth fell open. He didn’t know what to say.

“It’s him, Kyle!” he insisted, “They have a letter from him… He’s alive!”

Kyle glanced at Ben, and then looked down at the brown folder in his hands with a certain trepidation. Part of him was scared to open it. A large part of him was scared to hope. They’d all been fooled before. A man claiming to be Darryl Braxton had come forward a few years ago, and they’d all dropped everything and rushed up to Queensland to meet him. He’d turned out to be a homeless man, simply looking to cash in on the reward money, and maybe score himself a bed for the night. It had taken them a while to get over the disappointment. He wasn’t sure that he could do it again.

“Kyle, I’m telling you!” insisted Josh, “It’s him… He’s alive!”

Ben walked over and sat down beside Kyle. “Do you want me to open it?” he asked, as he put his hand on Kyle’s knee. “I’ll do it if you want?”

“No” he said, turning to give him a nervous smile, “Just… stay with me.”

With that, he flipped the file open and gave a little gasp. There was a printout of a missing person’s report with Brax’s face on it, as well as a photocopy of a small creased piece of paper with a handwritten message. The police had photocopied both sides of the note, so he could see that it was written on a piece of food wrapping with Chinese characters on it. It looked like the wrapping from a packet of soup noodles. He read it out loud:

“Help! Australian Citizin, Kidnapped. Slave in factory in Guangzhou China. Factory like prison camp. Maybe 800 worker? So full full! They kill if not work hard enough. Summary killing, sometime rape. We hungry all time! They move us many different factory so government not find us. Need help urgent! Contact Fed Agent Angus Lee, Sydney Aus. Tell him DB Missing 21.02.17 Alive still! Need rescue. Please help!”

When he'd finished reading, he just sat there staring at it.

"It’s Brax… He's in China" said Josh, "China, Kyle! How messed up is that?!"

Kyle just continued to stare down at it. He was finding it hard to take in. Was this really Brax? And if it was, how on earth had he ended up in China?!

"He says he was kidnapped" said Josh, wondering why Kyle still hadn't said anything. "That's why the police couldn't find any trace of him here... He's been in China all this time… He’s been there for ten years!"

Kyle nodded slowly and began to run his finger tip over the lettering on the note.

"Kyle?" said Ben, as he rubbed his arm comfortingly, "You don't really believe this, do you?"

“It's him” he said under his breath, as he pulled the photocopy out of the file and held it in his shaking hands, “It’s... It's his handwriting... I think it's really him.”

“Can I see it?” asked Ben.

Kyle read it again before handing it over and then started leafing through the rest of the file. There was a police report detailing the interview with the two young women who had found the note, a lot of documents relating to Erotic Nights and their distributors in Australia and New Zealand, and a number of photos of the dildo in which the note had been found. There was also a list of possible addresses in China where their factories were thought to be located. It seemed that they had numerous locations in Guangdong Province.  

“Babe... I don't know about this” said Ben, “I mean, read it... It doesn’t sound like an Australian wrote this?"

“It’s his handwriting” said Kyle, taking the letter from him again, “I know the wording sounds weird, but I’d know that handwriting anywhere… I did the books for the restaurant for years. His handwriting was all over everything. No-one does 'M's and 'N's like he does." He looked at Ben with teary looking eyes. "That’s him Ben… It’s him... He's alive… We can get him back!”

“Kyle" said Ben, with a little grimace, "Whoever wrote this…  He sounds Chinese…" He was worried about him getting hurt again. The last time had nearly broken his heart. "I mean, it really doesn’t sound like this person is a native English speaker… I mean, who talks like that?” He shook his head and gave a little tut. “Maybe 800 worker” he said in an exaggerated Chinese accent, “’Factory like prison camp’ …You’re gonna tell me that that’s your Australian brother?!”

“If it isn’t him, how would he know about Agent Lee?” asked Kyle, “How would some Chinese man have that kind of information? And what would he possibly have to gain from it?!”

“I dunno” he answered, “What did that homeless guy have to gain from it?!”

“This isn’t the same” sighed Kyle, “There’s no reward here… He’s asking people to go look for him in China.”

“Yeah, I mean… what would be the point in that?” said Josh.

“I don’t know…” sighed Ben, “I mean… Maybe this is just some kids playing a sick prank? …Maybe they’ve seen all the posters, or the missing person’s site… or even the news stories… Agent Lee was interviewed at the time, wasn’t he? …Maybe someone thought it’d be funny…”

“It’s a pretty weird prank” said Kyle, “And they won’t even get to see it play out… I mean, there’s no pay-off?”

"Yeah, it's not like they'll even know whether that note was found...” said Josh, “…or if anyone did anything about it... And if it's just some kids mucking around, why would Cameron hide it like that?"

"Maybe that's exactly why he hid it?" suggested Ben, "Maybe he didn't think it was worth upsetting everyone when there was no truth in it?"

Kyle frowned at him. He didn't want to believe him because he wanted so badly for Brax to be alive, but he couldn't deny that some of what he said made sense.

"You know how upset Ricky was after Queensland!" said Ben. He rubbed Kyle's back in a comforting sort of way, "Maybe he just wanted to spare her that?"

Kyle held the note in his hands and stared down at it. He mentally traced the shape of the letters and thought back to the notes written in the restaurant's books. Could he be creating a false memory? "How would they know the date that Brax went missing?" he asked, "How would someone in China know that?"

"Like I said, it’s not like it’s a secret…” said Ben, "And you're assuming it really came from China… I mean, for all we know, it was some bored idiot working in a sex shop... Maybe he just thought it'd be funny to freak out his customers?"

"It says in there that the girls ordered it from China" replied Josh, "It came direct from there!" He reached across and found the interview with the two lesbians. "Here" he said, "Read it!"

Ben took it from him and began reading down through it. He frowned and shook his head. This all seemed a bit far-fetched. A hidden letter in a dildo?! All the way from some sort of sweatshop in China?! It was like the punchline of some stupid joke!

"I can't believe Cam would do something like this!" said Kyle. Up till now, he'd just been so shocked that he hadn't had time to really react. The underhandedness of it all was just starting to hit him.

"Hey, we don't know anything for certain" cautioned Ben, "Don't go flying off the handle till we talk to him."

"I'm gonna kill him!" growled Kyle, as he got up and began pacing the living-room, "Who does he think he is, hiding something like this from us?! …I mean... was he just gonna let him rot over there?!"

"Kyle! We don't know..." Ben started to say.

"I know!" roared Kyle, "That's my brother over there! Stuck in some prison camp! And he was just gonna leave him there!"

"Babe, you need to calm down" said Ben, as he got to his feet and tried to put his arms around Kyle's waist.

"Calm down?!" he snapped at him, as he pushed him away, "Calm down?! That's my brother we're talking about... and some... some snake is sleeping with his girlfriend and hiding the fact that he's still alive!"

"We don't know that!" pleaded Ben.

"Don't we?!" shouted Kyle, as he charged back to the coffee table and picked up the file and scattered pages, "Seems to me Mr Perfect has some explaining to do!" He stuck everything back inside the file and grabbed his keys off the dining room table. “You coming, Josh?!” he said, as he headed towards the hallway.

"Where are you going?!" gasped Ben, as he ran past him to block the front door.

"Get out of my way!" he snarled at him, as he tried to move him.

"Kyle, you need to think about this!" pleaded Ben, as he firmly planted himself there and refused to budge. He was bigger and heavier than Kyle and he knew it.

"Ben, move!" growled Kyle, "I mean it!"

“He's a Federal Agent!” reasoned Ben, “You can't go threatening him! Not with your record!"

“And I can’t ignore this!” snapped Kyle, “He’s been keeping Brax from us!”  

“Kyle, all I’m saying is that you need to take a breath!” said Ben, “Because if you go charging over there right now, God only knows what’ll happen… and I’m telling you right now, I am not visiting you in prison if you get yourself locked up again! …I mean it, Kyle!”

Kyle stood and stared at him with a clenched jaw and flaring nostrils. All he wanted was to shove him out of the way and race over there to Ricky’s, but he knew that he was right. He was infuriatingly ‘right’, like always! He knew that if he went there now, there was a very good chance that things would descend into violence very quickly. With the way that he was feeling, he didn’t trust himself not to flatten the guy! And at the end of the day, Cameron was a Federal Agent. That’s all that would matter in the eyes of the law. The last thing in the world that he wanted was another prison sentence, and he also knew that Ben would follow through on his threats. He would leave him, no doubt about that! They loved each other, but Ben had made it abundantly clear when they’d got married that any kind of involvement in crime would be a deal-breaker for him. He’d warned him that he’d find himself divorced so fast that his head would spin, and told him that he’d take the kids to live with his mother up in Brisbane. ‘I will not be a ‘prison widow’ for anyone!’ he’d said. He pursed his lips and shook his head in an exasperated way.

“You can look at me like that all you like” said Ben, “but I’m not letting you ruin our lives!” He glanced at Josh, who was standing right beside them, and tilted his head at him. “You too, Josh… Can you just use your head for once?!”

“He’s been lying to us!” complained Josh, “He can’t just get away with that!”

“Maybe he has, and maybe he hasn’t” said Ben, “But one night isn’t going to change anything… Can we not just sit down and talk about this rationally… and then we’ll go over there in the morning… calmly?”

Kyle paused to consider this. Maybe he had a point?

“Is it worth ending up back inside?” asked Ben, directing the question at both of the boys.

“Of course not!” huffed Kyle, “But I need to know what’s going on!”

“And you will” said Ben, in a coaxing tone of voice, “In the morning… when we’re all a little more level-headed, yeah?”

“Maybe” said Kyle. He hated when he was right!

Ben gave him a little half-smile. He knew that it wasn’t really fair to do this, but sometimes it was necessary, and this was one of those times! “What would Aaron tell you to do?” he asked, “What would he say, if he was here?”

“Fine!” groaned Kyle, “But we’re going first thing!” He walked back into the living-room and threw himself down on the couch in an aggressive sort of way. As he began to leaf through the documents again, he noticed Josh’s phone sitting on the arm of the couch. There was a notification on the screen that said he had 15 missed calls from Cameron. He picked it up and handed it over to Josh with an exasperated sort of huff. “I just don’t get how he could sit there, cool as a cucumber, and keep something like this from us… I mean, I actually liked the guy...”

"We all did" said Josh, as he took the phone from him and frowned down at it. That's what hurt the most. He'd thought that Cameron was one of the good guys. Like the big brother that he wished Andy could have been.

"We let him into our lives" said Kyle, sounding a little emotional, "We accepted him... All of us."

"I know" said Ben, as he sat down next to Kyle, "but we don't know anything for sure yet."

"What about Heath?" asked Josh, "What are you gonna tell him?"

"Can't you leave him out of it till we know more?" asked Ben, a little pleadingly, "You know what he's like!" Heath had definitely mellowed as he’d gotten older, but he still had a temper, and something like this would probably send him off the rails. He wouldn’t want to be in Cameron’s shoes when Heath got wind of this!

"He deserves to know" said Kyle, as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and typed Heath’s name in. He was just about to press call when Ben caught his arm.

"Kyle, come on?!" begged Ben, "You know Heath'll kill him! …He won’t wait for answers. He’ll just charge over there and kill him with his bare hands." What was it with this family and trying to get themselves sent to prison?!

“No, I mean I already text him” said Josh, with a guilty expression, “He’s on his way here…”

[pembie]

Isn't just the way you plan to settle down with a good boxset you hit play and then the doorbell goes and then you open the door to a person like Josh Mr downer who ruins your whole evening

I normally take Josh's side but oh my I feel for Ben he really is the cat amongst the pigeons He really doesn't realise the drama he has invited into his life with the Braxtons

Oh and Josh is one fit fellow running 5k impressive and he wasn't breathless or anything what a champ

 

[Suzza101]

Great two chapters, sorry I didn't respond to the last one. I loved it though. as for this one, i loved the teasing between Kyle and Ben. I love them together I just hope that they can make it through this I mean I know that the Braxtons are a lot to deal with but Kyle loves him I just hope that they can stay together. But now Heath and Kyle know that Cameron is hiding something that makes for a very exciting next chapter. cant wait for the next chapter please update soon. 

[pembie]

Oh and as for Déwei hope he will be released from his toument of making dildos soon I'm finding it hard to come up with a negative to that Oh yes his children being taken away thats a big one

[Guest]

Great chapter

Liked Ben and Kyle bantering.

I had a feeling Dewei might be Brax.

Update again soon

[Inactive User]

Great chapter

Loved the bantering between Ben and Kyle

I loved the scene when Josh ran 5k! I can image him doing it inside my head, lol.

Update soon please xx

[bijou]

Slowly caught up last night and today gotta say I do like where you've taken this and where it's heading of course Brax isn't dead he's invincible his time on the show should've taught audiences that 

sorry it took me so long to start reading this one I loved caged and usually when I see a fanfic of yours I'm one of the first to read it

[Ludub]

On 21/09/2017 at 22:38, pembie said:

I normally take Josh's side but oh my I feel for Ben he really is the cat amongst the pigeons He really doesn't realise the drama he has invited into his life with the Braxtons

On 21/09/2017 at 22:43, Suzza101 said:

I loved the teasing between Kyle and Ben. I love them together I just hope that they can make it through this I mean I know that the Braxtons are a lot to deal with but Kyle loves him I just hope that they can stay together.

Can you imagine being a normal person and ending up in a relationship with Braxton?! Or one of their entourage?

'I'm sorry, what now?! You're going to break into a prison to make sure your mate is safe... in the middle of a riot? ... of course you are... of course you are....' 

On 24/09/2017 at 08:56, ~JarlieFanEver~ said:

Loved the bantering between Ben and Kyle

On 22/09/2017 at 00:10, Kristen said:

Liked Ben and Kyle bantering.

Yeah, I hope I'm getting the balance right here. I want them to be cute, but not sickeningly so.

On 22/09/2017 at 00:10, Kristen said:

I had a feeling Dewei might be Brax

3 hours ago, bijou said:

of course Brax isn't dead he's invincible his time on the show should've taught audiences that 

Haha! I think a few of you twigged that from the outset to be fair  

On 21/09/2017 at 22:38, pembie said:

Isn't just the way you plan to settle down with a good boxset you hit play and then the doorbell goes and then you open the door to a person like Josh Mr downer who ruins your whole evening

Sorry, I couldn't resist making a joke here. Josh really wouldn't be the most fun to hang out with would he? Lol! Poor guy, but you probably would see him outside your door and go 'oh for... !!! '

4 hours ago, bijou said:

sorry it took me so long to start reading this one I loved caged and usually when I see a fanfic of yours I'm one of the first to read it

No worries Bijou. Thanks for reading! 

And thank you to everyone else for their kind comments! I'll try to have a new chapter up soon!

[Red Ranger 1]

Nice chapter! Kyle and Josh are possibly jumping to conclusions here: It's possible the note is being investigated but Cameron isn't saying anything until they know more.Josh should probably answer his phone instead of putting together a lynch mob.Looking forward to more!