Not by blood, but by fire and water

Chapter 3

In strode Mr. Sinclair followed by his two muscle bound meatheads.

"Oh wonderful you are both awake! Mr. Macgyver, it is a pleasure to finally get to meet you! I've heard so much about you."

"How is that exactly?" Mac said, genuinely curious.

Pausing to think it over for a moment. "I guess it won't do any harm to tell you. I have a very expensive informant at your so called secret agency, the Phoenix Foundation. I know for a fact that the Director - Miss Matilda Weber - has no idea where you are.

It seems like you failed to inform her about your whereabouts after following my associate to Turkey.

No one is coming to rescue you. You really should check in more frequently to avoid such predicaments that you find yourselves in now." He said with a smirk.

Sinclair leaned down to Mac's level to stare him in the eyes. "Now I can take my time with you two, without the possibility of uninvited guests."

Jack didn't like how the psycho was so hyper focused on Mac. "Hey, do you smell that?" he asked, raising his nose and sniffing. Sinclair's head snapped over to Jack when he started speaking.

"Oh my bad, dude, I forgot about that," indicating their captor's broken nose with a nod, "You probably can't smell anything, huh? Man, that looks like it smarts!" Jack taunted, wrinkling his nose in mock sympathy.

Jack had never seen someone's face turn so red before. This guy wouldn't fare too well in a game of poker, his emotions displayed clearly across his face.

"It's very rude to interrupt, Mr. Dalton." Sinclair said through his teeth, stepping over towards Jack.

"You're one to talk about manners," looking down at his tightly zip tied wrists then back to face their captor, "I'm pretty sure what you're doing here is not proper etiquette." Jack's chuckle was cut short with a hard hit below his left eye, opening the split on his cheek further and causing it to ooze blood again.

Jack saw his partner pulling hard against the zip ties at his wrists, the hard plastic digging into the tender flesh.

Mac looked over at his friend just as Sinclair delivered another punch to Jack's face, this time on the right side.

The agents locked eyes, Jack gave a small shake to his head silently pleading with his friend not to do anything stupid, as he took another hit to his midsection.

Jack could tell by the look Mac gave him, that he knew what Jack was doing, and he didn't like it one bit.

Sinclair stepped back, breathing heavily and motioning for goon #1 to continue in his place. He smiled as he heard the thuds of fists hitting his prisoner and the pained grunts that followed them. "Thank you Alex, that's enough for now. Let's see if he's ready to give us any useful information now."

Sinclair sauntered toward Jack. In his hand was a double edged tactical dagger that had a very sharp steel blade and titanium finish with a stainless steel pommel and a handguard. Sinclair twisted the knife around with one finger on the sharp tip. It was a fine weapon and Jack was looking forward to shoving it into the man's throat.

"Now, can you tell me where you hid my hard drive?"

Jack didn't respond, instead he just sat there and glared up at his captor. "Have it your way then," Sinclair said then pushed the knife onto Jack's skin and drug it slowly across the agent's chest which elicited a pained growl from the former Delta. Sinclair moved the knife to Jack's shoulder, preparing to make another slice.

"Alright, alright, you win," Jack forced out.

"Tell me," Sinclair said smugly.

Jack looked up into the face of his captor, breaking out into one of his disarming grins, even though it was slightly marred by the blood on his teeth. "In your ass," he spat.

Sinclair's eyes flashed and this time he used the tip of the blade on Jack's shoulder instead of the edge. He added pressure slowly to inflict the most pain. Jack couldn't hold back a scream this time. It seemed like he could feel the blade cutting through every fiber of muscle it contacted. His vision started to darken at the edges. "Jack!" he heard Mac's shout.

'Don't pass out! You can't pass out! He'll hurt the kid!' Jack repeated silently to himself.

Sinclair buried the knife all the way to the handguard. Jack's parted lips and cheek muscles quivering from the onslaught of pain. Taking in Jack's obvious pain, Sinclair's eyes gleamed with pleasure at the anguish Jack couldn't hide.

"That's enough!" Mac yelled, shaking with anger after watching his friend suffer at the hands of the twisted arms dealer.

'No, no, no, no', Jack silently uttered the mantra in his head.

Sinclair yanked the knife from Jack's shoulder, causing another moan to escape his lips. "Feeling left out, are we?" Sinclair smirked, stepping over to Mac and waving the knife - that had just been in his friends shoulder - in front of his face. Sinclair settled the blade on Macs cheek. Jack's blood dripped from the knife onto his shirt. His Jack's blood.

Looking sideways towards his partner he saw Jack pulling hard against the zip ties that bound his wrists. Blood leaked steadily out of the fresh shoulder wound. He didn't seem to notice because he never took his eyes off Mac. It hit Mac hard then, the selflessness of his friend and how Jack would do anything to protect him, making his heart clench.

He would not let his friend die for him. Jack was more than just his partner and friend, he was the brother/father that he didn't realize he had needed. Jack had filled the hole that his real father had made when he had abandoned him. Mac was brought out of his reverie by the arms dealer's question.

"Can you be more helpful than your associate over there?" Sinclair asked.

"Probably not," Mac said stubbornly. With that, the arms dealer drew the blade across his cheek viciously.

Jack was trying desperately to hide his emotions, knowing full well they would hurt the kid more to get him to talk, if they found out that Mac was his weakness.

"Well then, maybe my friends here," Sinclair motioned to the two men behind him, "will help to loosen your tongues while I'm gone. Don't worry I won't be long. Alex, Levi, these boys need more persuasion apparently." He shut the door behind him with a clank.

The large barrel chested men walked over to the prisoners, both men sharing the same smug expression. They flexed their fists. The men started in on the agents at the same time with hits to the abdomen.

Both of the agents making twin "oof" sounds when the goons knocked the breath out of them. They shared a quick glance at each other's expressions, conveying just how much this sucked.

Mac felt a rib give and couldn't hold back the yelp of pain. Jack's head snapped over to his partner, concern etched on his face. He then looked at the man pummeling his friend, concern replaced by murderous rage.

'Oh I'm gonna kill you!' Jack screamed at Mac's attacker in his head. This was his worst nightmare, all he could hear was his brother's pained grunts and moans and he couldn't do a damn thing about it. Jack's vision greyed again after a particularly hard hit to his jaw.

The agents got a reprieve when the door creaked open, signaling the return of Sinclair. The relief was short lived, however, when they saw what he had with him.

"Shit," Jack muttered under his breath.

To be continued...