I'm posting one more chapter because I was late with the previous one. Enjoy 💖

Nikita sprinted back while Aleksei jumped over the couch grabbing the paper from his hands. It said that Tai's been kidnapped and the address was written on it.

Aleksei got his phone out googling the location. It was somewhere near a forest. He couldn't even begin processing his emotions. Fear, panic, and anger attacked his chest at the same time.

"Is this a joke?" He looked at Lev.

"You don't think it's the blackmailer right?" Nikita looked up at Aleksei.

"Call Zakhar!" Aleksei yelled at Lev and turned towards Nikita. "You call her! Now!"

There was no answer from Tai but Zakhar answered the phone. After a short conversation, Lev hung up.

"She's with Arya and Zakhar at a camping sight."

A heavy burden dropped from Aleksei's chest. Oh thank god, she was safe... and then he replayed the sentence in his head.

Alone with Zakhar and Arya.

With that perverted couple??

"Get whatever you need. We're going to that camping site." Aleksei ordered and looked at Nikita. "We have to rescue her before it's too late. We'll be chasing daylight."

Unsure what that meant Nikita agreed that if a random guy like Aleksei was worried, it surely must be a reason to worry.

Lev just shook his head. He didn't expect anything less.

***

Aleksei left Nikita and Lev behind while running around like crazy, searching the field for campers until he saw Zakhar next to a large tent, away from the few other campers.

"Where is she?" Aleksei yelled breathlessly.

Zakhar closed his water bottle and pointed toward the tent.

Oh god. Oh, not his beautiful and innocent Tai.

Suddenly Tai crawled out laughing and Arya threw herself over her, grabbing her boobs.

A vein popped at the side of Aleksei's forehead. "If you don't let go of her right now.."

"You'll what?"Arya smirked and squeezed Tai's boobs again.

"Let me go." Tai laughed.

"Let her go!" Aleksei was seeing red.

"Don't bully my friend. He's going to get a heart attack." Zakhar grabbed Arya by her waist and she removed her hands from Tai.

Tai dusted off from the grass and straightened up smiling at Aleksei. "Hey, you came too."

He let out a frustrated sigh. "Yeah. I'd be more careful if I were you."

"She was just messing around." Tai laughed. "It's a girls' thing, come on."

Aleksei felt like he should bend her over his knee and just....pow for that stupidity.

Arya was not just any girl. She was as dangerous as he was and if Tai did not have her guard up she'd be on her way to a menage a trois.

"Nikita!" Tai waved and ran over to welcome her friend.

They slowly made their way to the tent. It was still bright outside, but the sun was almost setting and it was slowly getting chilly.

"Should we set the camping base?" Arya began moving chairs around and everything else she brought with her.

Everyone helped her out but by the time they were done, the sky was already a darker shade of blue.

"Do you have any food?" Lev asked, getting a blanket out, and then passing it over to Nikita who was rubbing his hands to keep warm.

"I brought everything." Arya unpacked her food and took out the plates.

"So how many tents do you have?" Aleksei asked, seeing only one was up.

"Only that one here." Arya pulled her tongue out at him."I was only planning on Zakhar and Tai in that tent."

"There are two more tents in the car," Zakhar added before Aleksei exploded like a teapot on a hot stove.

"Good. We'll get those later." Aleksei nodded. "I'll set them up alone if I have to." He got up and grabbed one of the food containers, placing food on each plate. He leaned over to whisper to Arya. "Don't you think you're getting too close to Tai when you have a boyfriend?"

"Good. Be scared." Arya whispered back with a smirk.

Tai was having too much fun next to Nikita. He was laughing and he was relaxed so she was glad she accomplished that mission. One of the conditions she had, was that no one mentions anything about him being gay. The other one was to hear more about the sinners.

She found out that Lev was a prodigy with computers and coding. His family were owners of a large tech corporation in France, but they hadn't always been that successful.

 It took Lev's father a long time to get somewhere and Lev had grown up in a different environment than the rest of the kids in school. Because he would sit together with his father while he worked, Lev eventually picked up a lot of things on programming and coding.

 But after his father had grown his business into a whole corporation their whole family dynamic changed. Lev grew apart from his parents and decided to go to boarding school.

On the other hand, Zakhar's family were real estate giants. He was an only child and he and Aleksei lived in the same city but hadn't met until they were in high school. Zakhar didn't go a lot into it and Tai assumed Zakhar didn't want to talk about it.

 As for Aleksei, the guy she kept a keen eye on, came from a long line of billionaires in the steel and investment business. Zakhar had told her it was best if she asked Aleksei more about it herself.

After dinner, Arya pulled out two bottles of wine.

"No one is around for miles baby." Arya handed Nikita a glass."You can get wasted and have fun. You're among friends."

Nikita took the glass and smiled."Thanks."

Arya settled in Zakhar's lap, where she seemed most relaxed, Tai noted. When she was touching him in any way, she instantly calmed down.

Tai took a sip of the wine and then reached for the bottle to check the brand.

"Hey, this is my favorite wine." Tai took another sip. "My father got a bottle as a present at one of our summer parties and I've been in love with it since. We don't tell anyone but we share our love for wine and this is my favorite."

"I like expensive wines too." Arya laughed."This one is a really good year."

Aleksei was making a mental note of everything. Favorite wine, favorite food...

"How do you two know each other?" Lev asked Nikita and Tai.

"Our parents are friends," Nikita said. "Both our fathers are in the automotive engineering business. Only her dad is a manufacturing engineer while mine is a development engineer. We've known each other our whole lives."

"I hope we stay friends for a long time too." Tai smiled. "What about you? How do you all know each other?"

Zakhar and Lev kept quiet on purpose.

Alexei had no choice but to face her and answer. "We met in the third year of high school when I transferred. We knew each other by our last names, but we started hanging out after detention class."

"Troublemakers?" Tai teased.

"Oh, you've no idea." Aleksei smirked.

"What was the detention for?" She asked.

"It involved tiny fish, a classroom on fire and a few smoke alarms going off."

"I remember hearing some rumors about that last year." She laughed.

"How did you not get expelled for that?" Nikita asked.

"Only circumstantial evidence and all they could do was punish us with detention for a creative experiment going wrong." Lev answered and took a cigarette out from his bow "Want one?"

"I don't like the smell." Nikita refused.

"I didn't like it either at first." Lev smiled looking at the cigarette. "But the taste changed my mind. Since then I've been pretty much willing to try anything." They locked eyes for a few seconds.

Slightly embarrassed, Nikita looked away.

A few minutes later Arya was sleeping on Zakhar's shoulder. He caressed her cheek lovingly and then lifted her, taking her inside the tent. "She's not good with wine." He explained to Nikita and Tai who were watching him with amusement.

"Let's go get those tents up." Aleksei got up and pulled Lev up to join him.

"I just lit this up." He complained while holding his cigarette.

Aleksei was already unpacking the tents.

"Fine." Lev took a quick hit of the cigarette and then handed it to Nikita.

"Hold this for me please."

"Sure." Nikita took the cigarette and held it away from his face, while he and Aleksei were putting up the tents.

Tai noticed a strange look on Nikita's face. He was watching Lev with curiosity.

"Cute." She said.

"What's cute?" Nikita asked without looking away from Lev.

"That look." Tai leaned back into her chair teasing him.

"What look?" Nikita finally faced her.

Tai just subtly glanced at Lev and then back at Nikita.

"No..no.no.I..no." Nikita cleared his throat. "No. I'm just.."

"He's not your type?" Tai spoke quietly so the guys wouldn't hear. She leaned closer to Nikita. "You can tell me you know. I won't judge."

"I'm not.." He sighed. "He's my new roommate."

"Lucky you." She grinned.

"Not like that. I can't." Nikita warned her. "Not to mention he is straight."

"Is he? Did he tell you?" Tai asked.

He gave her an are you fucking kidding me look. "Just look at him. What part of him screams gay to you?"

Tai scooted over with her chair. "Oh and you do? You don't behave stereotypically gay either. That's why you get away with hiding it."

"Tai. don't." He warned her.

"Fine. I'm dropping the subject. Maybe he's not gay, what do I know. But I'm just saying..you have a thing for bad boys."

He glared at her for a while and then broke into a smile. "I hate you."

Tai shrugged with a smile. "You love me."

**

After they finished off the wine and the weather became really cold, they split into the tents, Nikita and Tai in one and Lev and Aleksei in the other one. At first, it was all fine but a few hours later Tai was wiggling into the camping bag trying to keep warm.

She had taken a jacket, but she didn't expect to struggle to get warmer. It was so hard to fall asleep with her nose freezing. She moved left and right, wiggling into the sleeping bag, like a little sausage in a pan, but nothing was working.

She got out of the bag, zipped up her jacket, and reached for her phone. She would never camp again. Why would anyone do this to themself?

She got outside the tent breathing in the fresh air. The sky was full of stars and without the lights on, she could see all the constellations and shadows of the trees in the forest and enjoy the peace of the night.

She tried to take a picture of the sky with her phone, but it failed poorly. This required a higher-tech camera.

The zipper of the other tent went down and she turned around to see Aleksei with his head out.

"You're not sleeping?" She asked.

He hesitated a second before answering. "I saw the lights from your phone outside the tent. Did you lose something?"

His heart was beating crazy fast. He was half asleep and half awake. He thought it was Zakhar as he usually had a habit of waking up in the middle of the night, but he didn't expect to see Tai out of all the people.

"I'm cold. I can't sleep." She said and then turned towards the sky again. "I won't bother you." She placed her phone back into her pocket.

Like hell, he would go back to sleep now. He grabbed his shoes and put them on, then stood next to her.

"The sky is so beautiful." Tai was mesmerized by the stars.

Aleksei looked up. "I like the morning sky better. It's calming. It's pure. It makes me feel warm looking at it."

"I like the night sky." Tai smiled. "It's mysterious and exciting. It gives you a rush when you look at all the bright stars tempting you, unable to look away."

Aleksei continued looking up, for as if he turned towards her, he was sure to kiss her.

"Do you think I should run a lap or two, to get warmer?" She asked him. "I've never done this sleeping outside thing before."

"Or you can just go to the car." He answered.

"Zakhar has the keys." She said, looking at him.

"You can go to my car." He reached for his pockets, pulled out his key and jiggled it.

"No...no. I changed my mind." She looked away again. "It's scary being down in the parking lot, alone. I'll just deal with it."

Aleksei was quiet for a moment. "Want me to go with you?"