PureIndulgenceVSue (16 page)

He had no other choice. Even in the split second he saw Kevin’s alarm and how his hand rose and knew it was going to hurt, he just prayed for one more chance, and this time he wasn’t going to let Adam down.

Chapter 14

Joe heard the shot and for what seemed like forever he thought Kevin had missed. He clutched at his stomach but there was no pain. He’d...Joe glanced down. His hands were warm, warm and red.
Fuck.
Agony so fierce and so all-consuming slammed into him, taking his every thought, every sound. He was on his knees before he’d realized his legs weren’t working.

Kevin was screaming at him, spittle flying in all directions, but he never looked at the skylight—not once—and neither did Joe. Joe lay, gasping. The ten hot poker needles in his stomach seemed to be easing to just a burn. His legs were pleasantly going numb, and Joe hoped the feeling would spread to the rest of him.

“You stupid fucker. Where is he?”

Joe blearily gazed at Kevin. He wasn’t even listening to the words spewing out of the man.

“Aghh.”
Shit.
Joe’s pleasant numbness ended in a spike of agony as Kevin hoisted him to his feet. He stumbled with every step, trying to press his hands to his stomach as Kevin half dragged him out the door. Joe had a second to realize they were outside before he was shoved through another door into a bigger room. He vaguely saw some sort of empty warehouse until his focus was narrowed to the god-awful sight in the middle of the room.

Oliver. The boy was tied to a makeshift cross. Two huge planks of wood had been nailed together and cemented into the floor. It was obscene. Joe gazed in complete horror, his own pain forgotten. It looked like a crucifixion.

“Oliver?” Joe took a step, only to have a muzzle jammed into his temple.

Kevin laughed. He shoved Joe, and Joe couldn’t even put his hands out to break his fall. Joe sprawled on the concrete floor, more pain taking his breath and dimming his vision. He blew sharp breaths out, tried to focus, counted each one. He fought to stay conscious, to concentrate.

Ten years. Ten years as a cop seemed to narrow down to ten seconds. He wasn’t completely sure he could get to his feet, but he had to step up, even if it was only mentally.

Kevin thought he had another victim, but Joe had to try and get both Oliver and Adam out. He thought about what Adam had told him, and looked at the pitiful figure on the cross.

His entire experience as a cop raced through his mind in seconds as he searched for the right words. Kevin was swaggering around, waving the gun, completely confident. Joe needed to throw him off, to take control back.

Kevin picked up a whip and sauntered over to Oliver. Joe needed to push buttons, to get Kevin’s attention. But nothing in his experience as a cop helped him. No, somehow he needed to take control, to...

The idea struck him like a two-by-four. He wouldn’t take Kevin down by being a cop. No, it was simpler than that—something more fundamental that Joe had failed to do before and now was so desperate to do right, the very thing that had driven him here, in this very moment, to save Adam, to win Adam back, to prove himself. Yes, Joe knew exactly what he had to do. He needed to take control.

He needed to be a Dom.

“Who’s Peter?”

Kevin’s reaction was immediate. He dropped the whip and spun around to Joe. “How dare you? How dare you?” Joe barely felt the backhander he got—he was too engrossed in being satisfied at the reaction.

“Who is he, Kevin?” Joe screwed his eyes up at Kevin, and saw him finger the gun he still held. Joe was scared for one minute he’d pushed him too far. “Why will Daddy be cross?”

Kevin’s face went ashen. The gun wobbled, and Joe held his breath. Kevin’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Daddy? Daddy will be so cross with Peter.” He hugged the gun, almost for comfort, seeming so far away in his head.

Joe concentrated. Whatever this was, he had to keep him talking. “Why, Kevin?” Ten years of being a cop and seeing many of the atrocities humans could inflict on others gave him sickening ideas. “Cross at you or cross at Peter?”

Kevin shook his head almost violently. “No, Daddy loves me. I’m his special boy.” His eyes gazed straight through Joe as if he was invisible. Joe knew Kevin was still somewhere else, seeing someone else, and he cursed his inability to move. He needed to get nearer to Kevin, as distracted as he was. He may get a chance for the gun. Kevin’s voice hardened. “Peter’s a bad boy. Daddy doesn’t love him anymore, just me.” Kevin glanced behind him again. Joe’s nerves ramped up—he thought he’d heard something as well.

“Why is Peter a bad boy, Kevin? What does he do?” He needed Kevin’s focus on him, not on what he hoped may be going on outside.

Kevin rubbed the heel of his hand in his eye. “Peter’s not Daddy’s special boy anymore. Daddy says Peter is jealous, because I am.”

Joe was sick at the conclusions he was drawing. “But you love him, don’t you? Peter’s your big brother?” Kevin nodded, eyes staring, unseeing. Joe tried not to wince as he drew his weak legs up under him. “I bet Peter looks after you, doesn’t he?”

Kevin nodded. “Mommy gets so tired. When she’s sleeping Peter plays with Kevin.”

Joe shifted, raised one knee slowly, breathed the pain out through gritted teeth. He couldn’t stand, but Kevin seemed not to notice him inching nearer. He was barely a foot away from him now. “What’s Peter’s favorite game?”

A small smile ghosted Kevin’s face, and he opened his mouth to answer, then they both heard a noise outside and Kevin whirled around, gun raised.

Joe launched himself at Kevin. He hardly had any strength but managed enough momentum and surprise to take Kevin down. The gun clattered to the floor and slid away, but Kevin was strong. He struggled and bucked Joe off. He was inches away from getting his fingers around the handle, and there was nothing else Joe could do.

Everything seemed to stop at the gunfire and Joe lay on his back, panting, not sure how he had got there. If he didn’t breathe too hard, the pain almost seemed like it belonged to someone else. He tried to hear through the noise, but everyone was so loud. He blinked heavy eyes, saw Damon running for the cross. It seemed like everyone was going to be okay. Joe was. He actually felt quite warm, numb, but he was so tired. He frowned...if this annoying boy didn’t keep shouting at him and telling him to open his eyes, he could probably get some sleep. Joe smiled as he felt the gentle hands cup his face...at least he’d called him “Sir.” Best word in the whole dictionary. He tried to tell Adam, tried to tell him he hadn’t meant a word. Tried to tell him nothing else mattered, that for the rest of his life, Joe would take care of him.

Love him.

Chapter 15

Joe almost smiled. He must have majorly pissed someone off because he could hear people shouting at him. They wanted him to open his eyes, and he would as soon as some idiot turned the lights down. Bright lights? Shit, he’d died. He died and...fuck. His stomach screamed in agony. Joe blindly reached a hand out for something, anything. A smaller hand clasped his. Good, something he could hold on to. It was almost funny really, the agony his whole body seemed to be wrapped in, and he was most unaware of the tiny pinprick in his arm.

****

“Joe?” Someone was trying to talk to him, but his tongue was glued to his mouth and he couldn’t get it to work properly. “Sir?” He would have smiled at that if he could get his mouth to work. It felt numb—
shit
,
all of him felt numb. Maybe it was a dream?

“Joe?” A different voice sometime later, and not the one he needed to hear.

Joe tried to open his eyes. He could hear the insistent annoying bleep of some type of machine. He wished someone would shut it the fuck up., and he growled in annoyance. He heard a chuckle. “Well, you’re certainly going to be all right then, if you’re in a bad mood already.”

He managed to force the ten ton weights from his eyelids and looked in annoyance at Callum. “Can’t you get it to shut the fuck up?”

Joe closed his eyes after seeing Callum’s smirk, and hitched his breath in disappointment. There was no one else in the room.

He opened them as he heard something—Callum standing. His friend came nearer. “Adam?” Callum tried to hide a small sigh, and Joe felt the bottom drop out of his world.

“Where is he? Is he?” Coughing took Joe’s breath and the sharp pain in his stomach coincided with the annoying bleeping getting louder.

Suddenly there were other people in the room—cold hands on his skin, and not the ones he wanted. He tried to move, brush them away, but he was so damn tired.

****

He felt better the next time he woke up. Well, better was a relative term. He’d peered quietly out of his eyes and saw Callum stretched out on two chairs, asleep. He didn’t need to search the rest of the room to know it was empty. Joe’s stomach hollowed out. Empty like the rest of him.

“Callum?” He needed to know Adam was okay.

Callum blinked and grinned, sitting up. “Hey, you lazy good-for-nothing. You could have just said you weren’t ready to start work. You didn’t need to go to all this trouble to get a few days sick.” Callum sobered and stood up when he didn’t get the reaction he’d been hoping for.

“Where’s Adam? He’s okay?” Joe clasped Callum’s arm urgently.

“He’s fine. He’s been staying with me and Lee. Don’t worry.”

Then where the fuck is he?
Joe wanted to scream. He licked his dry lips, Callum immediately got him some ice chips from a plastic glass on the locker next to the bed.

“He was here.” The ice was wonderful. “I know he was here.” Joe’s voice was getting stronger.

Callum smiled. “He hasn’t left your room in two days.”

Joe looked warily at Callum. There was something he wasn’t saying. “So, he’s gone home to sleep.” Callum nodded and looked relieved.

Joe shook his head. “You can’t lie for shit. Where is he?”

Callum shook his head. “I’m not supposed to be stressing you out.”

Joe frowned. “It’ll stress me out more to have to come over there and beat the information out of you.”

Callum barked out a short laugh. “As soon as the doctor’s gave you the all clear this morning, he had Lee collect him. He’s staying with us until Sunday… then he’s moving to Atlanta.”

Joe gaped. He must have heard wrong, and he tried to sit up, but hissed when it pulled at his insides. Callum helped him. “You’ll be getting me thrown out.”

Joe ignored him. “Why the fuck is he going to Atlanta?”

Callum shuffled. He wouldn’t look him in the eye. “Derek Jameson got him in at the Art Institute. It’s likely he’ll get a scholarship.”

Joe was speechless. He tried to move as the door opened, but the pain forced him to pant. “Callum, I have to get out of here. Go see him.”

“You going to give me trouble?”

Joe heard an exclamation from the door. Callum grinned at the nurse they both recognized from last year. She walked in the room, smiling. “What is it with you men?” She didn’t wait for a reply, just busied herself checking Joe’s dressings, and clucking in annoyance at the fresh blood that had seeped through. “How’s Lee?” She beamed at Callum, and Joe wanted to scream.

“I’m signing myself out.” Joe insisted.

“Of course you are, honey,” and she reached out and pressed a button attached to the IV in Joe’s arm.

“Callum, tell her. I have to go see Adam.” He shook his head to try to clear it, and let her push him gently back down on the bed. “Fuck, what...what’s in that shit?” Joe could hear his words slurring as a heavy feeling of lethargy crept over him. “Callum, tell Adam. I...he.”

Joe needed to make Callum understand. Something important, but fuck if Joe could remember what it was.

****

Callum stood talking to Damon Kerrick when Joe woke up again. “What day is it?”

Callum turned at his voice and smiled. “If I tell you you’re not going to start climbing out of bed, are you?”

Joe just gave him a hard stare.

“It’s Friday morning.”

Joe closed his eyes, embarrassed that the rush of relief had made them sting. He mentally counted to five until he was sure he wasn’t going to really embarrass himself. The burn in his throat meant it took him more than five.

“So, when you gonna get your sorry ass out of bed?”

Joe opened his eyes and glared at Kerrick. “About the same time as you stop letting other people do all your work for you.” Kerrick answered Joe with a grin.

Joe looked at Callum. “How’s Oliver?”

He was surprised when Kerrick answered him. “Much better. They thought he was going to lose some fingers, but doesn’t look like it. Going to be in hospital for at least another couple of weeks.” He looked at the floor. “I was just on my way to see him.” Joe raised his eyebrows at Kerrick’s obvious discomfort. “I’ll leave you two to it.” He nodded at Joe. “Thanks, man.”

Joe nodded back and watched him leave. He looked at Callum expectantly.

“Damon’s stuck to Oliver like glue since he untied him from the cross. He’s got no family. The boy’s got permanent nerve damage in his hands, and a lot of rehab to look forward to.

Joe sighed and closed his eyes. He’d nearly been too late. “Kevin?”

“Feds shot him, but he’ll live. He was going for the gun.”

Joe screwed his eyes up. The bastard had murdered two people, but Joe had a feeling someone else was just as responsible. One thing he didn’t miss about the job was finding out how one human was capable of affecting another, and Kevin’s “daddy” had certainly done a number on him.

Callum walked over to him. “Adam knows about Callaghan. I made sure he knew you had no choice.”

“So why?” Joe looked puzzled at Callum. “Why isn’t he here, Callum?’

“He says he’s a screw up. He’s changed, Joe. He’s just wearing jeans and t-shirts. He’s given all Lee’s clothes back to him. Says he’s not doing that anymore.”

Joe scoffed. “Being a submissive? It’s in his blood.”

Callum grinned. “Yeah, they make a right pair don’t they? Seriously Joe, he’s blaming himself. The whole thing with his catalogue picture, says it was his fault.”