by Loki Renard
Sounded like a good thing to Aiden. He was really fucking sick of these walls. “Change of scenery sounds nice to me.”
Steve growled and reached for him, but Rob stepped in. “No,” he said firmly.
Aiden smirked at Steve.
“Let me deal with him.”
The smile fell right off Aiden's face.
Rob looked at him, stern disappointment written on his handsome features. “You know what? I've been sitting here telling Steve to go easy on you. I've been telling him that you're sensitive, that you need to be handled with care.” Rob was pulling off his shirt as he talked. “But I think I've been wrong this whole time. I think Steve was right.”
Aiden backed up, not knowing what was happening. Why the hell was Rob getting half-naked? Rob had always been so calm, so even-handed. He'd never touched him in anything but a gentle way. That seemed to be about to change.
“Uhm... what are you doing?”
“Taking this out on your ass.” Rob threw his shirt to the side and stood muscular and intimidating as hell, those hazel eyes flashing green threat.
“Steve?” Aiden looked toward his erstwhile lover for help, but saw none coming. In fact, Steve was starting to strip off too. Jesus help him.
“Guys... I...”
17
ROB
Aiden had gone real pale. Looked scared as hell. Good. Rob intended on scaring the shit out of him so he never did anything this stupid or reckless again. He could have been killed out there. Aiden didn't know it, but Cornoli's men had been doing sweeps of practically every neighborhood, leaving notices of reward for anyone who tipped them off.
Kid obviously didn't listen to reason. He looked so damn smug and proud of himself. He'd probably have that sneering little grin right up until Cornoli put a bullet in him.
He wasn't smiling now, though.
This was intimidation, Rob knew that. It wasn't right. It wasn't nice. It wasn't what good men did, but short of tying Aiden up and keeping him in a fucking cage, he didn't know what to do with him. Aiden needed a short, sharp shock. Steve had started on it, but he alone hadn't been enough. Together, they might just make an impression.
“On your knees, boy.”
Aiden swallowed and looked around, but there was no way out. No escaping this.
Rob glanced at Steve, who grabbed Aiden by the shoulders and swept his legs out from under him, putting Aiden on his knees in an instant.
“Do you want to live?” Rob growled the question down at their client.
“Well yeah, of course.”
“You sure? Because you've done damn near everything you could to get yourself killed short of walking into traffic.”
Rob's tone was hard and clipped. He wasn't sure he believed Aiden. Kid didn't seem to care if he lived or died. The only things he'd shown any real interest in were getting high and helping his sister. In that order.
“We can't trust you,” Rob continued. “We've got our lives on the line here, and you just put all of us in jeopardy. Do you understand that, Aiden? Do you know what's at stake here? Because it's more than just you. There are dozens of people working to make sure you and your sister stay alive.”
“I didn't ask them to!” Aiden shot back hotly. “You've been keeping me a fucking prisoner! You expect me to just take it?”
“Yes,” Rob growled. “Because, boy, this is the only way you survive this.”
He looked up and into Steve's eyes. “Strip him.”
18
AIDEN
No!” Aiden started to struggle immediately, but he was no match for Steve, and Rob quickly came forward to help too. Between them, they pulled his clothes off in about thirty seconds, leaving him naked on the floor.
“Stay there,” Rob growled as Steve started going through the pockets of his jeans.
“What the fuck is this?” The snarl came from behind him, close to his ear.
Aiden didn't have to look to know what Steve had in his hand. A little white baggie.
“You know what it is.”
“Have you used?”
“No!” Aiden exclaimed. “I didn't get a chance to before you came running in here.”
Truth was, he'd had lots of time. He'd bought the stuff and then kind of not actually felt like it, which was weird as hell. He hadn't even bothered to hide it, which he easily could have done if he'd wanted to keep it.
Steve was pissed, but Rob was looking at him with a knowing sort of gaze.
“You wanted us to find that, huh?”
“What? No!” Aiden protested hotly.
“Wanted to find out what would happen if you ran out and brought drugs back here?”
“No!”
He didn't sound convincing, even to himself.
Rob was shaking his head. “Boy, you messed up badly. If you wanted us to deal with you, you should have just said. Either one of us would have been happy to discipline you. You might have even enjoyed it. I promise you that you won't enjoy this.”
“I didn't want that!”
Steve walked past, going to the bathroom. A second or two later, Aiden heard a flush.
“You don't even care, do you,” Rob observed. “I'd be surprised if that was anything harder than powdered sugar.”
“Oh fuck off,” Aiden growled. He didn't like being accused of playing games, especially when he was playing games.
“Now is NOT the time to be cursing at us, boy,” Steve thundered as he returned. “You're in trouble, get it?”
“Yeah, got it, Muscles.”
Steve glowered at him and made to come toward him, but an arm shot out in front of his chest.
“You know what, Steve? Let me handle this,” Rob said. He walked over to where Aiden was still kneeling on the floor, grabbed a handful of his blonde mop of hair and just kept walking, forcing Aiden to scramble naked in his wake.
It was absolutely humiliating for Aiden to be on his hands and knees, arms and legs pumping back and forth to keep up with Rob's long legs as the older man walked him around the room several times just to make the point. There was no resisting. The roots of his hair were burning in Rob's tight grasp already, and if he pulled back it just hurt like hell.
“You wanted to get a reaction?” Rob stopped and looked down at Aiden, his hazel eyes lit with green determination. “You got it, kid. Oh god do you got it.” His accent had gone full Jersey, revealing a significant part of his heritage.
Keeping his grasp on Aiden's hair, he pulled Aiden up and over the arm of the couch, leaving his ass raised over the highest point. Rob's palm came down across Aiden's ass in a hard slap that was followed by a dozen more, meaty whacks of his muscular hand making Aiden cry out with each and every one.
“I've been keeping Steve off your ass,” he said. “I've been telling him you're just a fragile little boy who needs to be looked after. But you're not, are you, Aiden. You're a brat, and you don't behave yourself unless someone has just taken to you with whatever comes to hand.”
Steve had already thrashed him with a belt, so this shouldn't really have hurt any more than that, but it did, and not because Rob's hand was harder than Steve's belt, or because he was any stronger. It hurt because there was disappointment just dripping from every word. Rob wasn't just angry, he was disappointed. Aiden had never cared in his life what people thought of him, but for some reason, Rob's judgment and anger really stung. Maybe because Rob had been on his side since he woke up in this dump. Maybe because he'd just lost his only ally, the one who comforted him when he was sick.
Aiden tried his damnedest not to cry, but under the onslaught of damn near paternal discipline, he couldn't help it. His breathing was ragged as he let out a sob, which did nothing to stop Rob.
“You need a reminder of who is in charge here, you come to either one of us,” Rob lectured, his palm still beating a fast tattoo across Aiden's cheeks. “We'll have you on your knees quicker than you can say please, boy. But don't you dare EVER put yourself or us in deliberate danger again. Got it
?”
Wanting to crawl up into a little ball, Aiden gasped an affirmative.
It was true. He'd been a brat all his life. He'd gotten away with damn near everything. The real truth of this situation was that of all the people he'd pissed off, crossed and generally fucked with, Bobby Cornoli was the only one who ever responded in kind.
Aiden had figured he was untouchable, that he could skim whatever he wanted and not even a budding mob boss would come for him. He'd been dead wrong about Bobby, and he'd been just as wrong about Rob and Steve. Suddenly, every man he knew was a fucking immovable wall of consequences. He was just lucky that unlike Bobby, Rob and Steve didn't want to kill him. They were on his side – well, at least until Mason's money ran out.
With his ass burning, Aiden sobbed into the couch, pulling the blanket that had been left on it toward him so he could hide his face. Rob stopped smacking him, but left him there with his red butt high for all the world to see.
“You stay there,” Rob said. “We've got work to do. You don't move until I tell you otherwise, got it?”
Aiden nodded into the blanket and then was left alone. For what felt like an eternity, he lay there over the arm of the couch, his naked ass on display. Behind him, Steve and Rob were working, murmuring to one another softly. He figured they were organizing the move.
It was pathetic, but Aiden found himself craving some kind of comfort. Anything, even a kind word would have been better than just being left there and ignored. On any other hour of any other day, he would have just gotten up, but Rob had made an impact on him and frankly, he didn't know if he could stand disappointing him again.
What seemed like an eternity later, he heard Rob's voice.
“Come here, Aiden.”
Aiden slipped off the couch and walked over to Rob, his head hung low in shame. He braced himself for more lecturing, but as he got closer, Rob reached out and pulled him into a tight, warm hug.
“You can be a good boy,” he murmured against Aiden's ear. “You don't have to taunt people anymore to get what you need. I know exactly what you want.”
That was good, because Aiden had no fucking clue. Being held by Rob felt right though, like something he'd been missing his entire life.
Aiden's father hadn't been the disciplinary sort. Hadn't really been the fatherly sort either. With him, it was all about the money, and he'd cut the flow of that off almost a year ago. Aiden had been running on empty since then. Now, in Rob's arms, he felt like he might be starting to fill back up again.
“I'm sorry,” Aiden mumbled, the words uncomfortable in his mouth.
“This is over as far as I'm concerned,” Rob said. “You paid my price.”
Aiden rubbed his eyes. “But Steve?”
“Steve's pissed,” Rob said bluntly, taking the edge off by brushing the hair out of Aiden's eyes and pressing an unexpected kiss to his forehead. “You've got some making up to do there.”
19
STEVE
Steve had seen and heard everything that happened between Rob and Aiden. Hadn't gone far enough as far as he was concerned. Aiden didn't get it. The fact that he'd gotten out and in again, the fact that they hadn't found him on the street bleeding out, didn't register. He was reckless, dangerous and...
“Steve? Hi?”
Aiden sounded more timid than usual. Good.
Steve kept working. They had to pack up all their supplies and ship the hell out of here.
“You're not talking to me?”
“We had sex,” Steve said, his tone clipped. “Then you ran out and bought drugs.”
“Uh yeah. I'm a junkie.”
“Well, I don't sleep with junkies.”
“But you did. You put your dick in my mouth.”
Steve clenched his jaw and didn't say anything more. He hadn't just put his dick in Aiden's mouth. He'd gone against his better judgment and let Aiden in a little. He'd shared affection. Sex that actually meant something to him, but didn't seem to have had any meaning at all to the self-proclaimed junkie.
“Steve...” Aiden put his hand on Steve's arm. Steve shrugged it off.
He heard Aiden's breath catch in his throat, a little hesitation of pain. Good. A brief glance out of the periphery of his eye told him that Aiden was still naked.
“Go put some clothes on,” he growled. “We're out of here in ten.”
Aiden opened his mouth as if to say something, then nodded and turned away.
20
AIDEN
Having gotten dressed as Steve told him to, Aiden went to Rob, who was packing up some stuff in the bedroom he and Steve shared.
“So Steve hates me,” Aiden said, leaning against the doorway.
“He doesn't hate you. He's disappointed,” Rob said, closing a long black case.
“And you?”
Rob looked at him. “You make it hard to like you sometimes, Aiden,” he said honestly. “But I already told you, as long as you don't pull that shit again, we're good.”
Fuck. That wasn't exactly a stirring statement of affection.
Tears filled Aiden's eyes. He didn't know why he cared so much about their opinions. He'd never cared what anyone thought before. This was weird. His heart ached in an uncomfortable way. He felt sick, but not drug sick. It was some unrecognisable nausea which came from his emotional state.
Aiden had figured his escape would be a triumph. He didn't know it would destroy absolutely everything he had with Steve and Rob. They'd both gone cold and hard and professional. It wasn't fair. He hadn't even done the damn drugs!
He went and sat on the couch, keeping quiet as Steve and Rob got everything ready. A few minutes later, they took him down the back stairs and put him into a blacked out SUV. He sat in the back alone as they drove. Conversation was less than sparse. It was absolutely silent in that vehicle. Aiden ended up falling asleep, not because he was tired, but because he couldn't stand the misery of being frozen out by both of them.
When he woke up, the windows were down and they were bumping through undergrowth way out in the middle of nowhere. Deep hilly forest surrounded them as they mounted a crest and came to a halt. Aiden didn't bother asking where they were. It didn't matter.
When they got out, he saw that they'd arrived at... a camp? No. Wasn't even a camp. It was a shack and a tent and nothing else. It was the most dismal place in the world as far as Aiden was concerned, which fit his mood about right.
“No drugs out here,” Rob said. “No temptation.”
Aiden looked over at Steve to see what he had to say on the matter, but it was obvious from the man's stiff posture that Steve still wasn't talking to him.
This sucked.
21
STEVE
So, are you going to forgive him?”
Rob asked the question as they set up the campfire. Aiden was safely tucked away inside the cabin, sleeping or crying or whatever spoiled little junkie boys did when they'd fucked everything up.
“No.”
“I don't want to say I told you so, but...”
“Then don't.”
Steve didn't want to hear it. He knew what Rob was going to say, and he knew Rob was right. Not fucking the clients wasn't a policy put in place just for the client's benefit. It was also there to protect them as the guards. It wasn't fun falling for someone only to never see them again, and that was best case scenario. Some of the people they'd worked for had ended up dead after their contract was up. Nothing they could do about that, but it still hurt.
“He likes you,” Rob said. “I think he more than likes you.”
“He doesn't like anything but drugs,” Steve glowered.
“I don't think so. He could have run off and gotten high. He didn't do that. He came home with some stupid decoy and he thought... I don't know what the hell he was thinking, but I don't think he knew how badly he'd fucked up.”
“Well, now he knows.”
Steve kept stacking the wood, wondering what the hell the point of the conversation was. Was Rob a
ctually trying to get him to forgive Aiden?
“What?” He said finally, feeling Rob's eyes on him. “You wanted me to stop fucking him. I’m definitely not going to fuck him again now, so we're all good.”
“No, we're not,” Rob said. “Because, Steve, you can't un-fuck somebody. You already made that connection with him. He has it with you. And frankly, I think you two need each other.”
“Yeah, I need a junkie boy,” Steve sneered.
“Stop calling him that. He's more than that and you know it. Defining him by the mistakes he made before he met us isn't going to do a damn thing. He hasn't used once ssince we got him. You know that? You know how big a deal that is?”
“Okay, okay, I get it, I'll fuck him! Just for you.”
“That's not what I'm saying either,” Rob snorted. “I'm saying maybe take the stick out of your ass, Steve, before you lose a chance at something that might not come around again. There's not many guys who can hang with you and what you want. Aiden can.”
“I'll think about it.”
22
AIDEN
Two days at camp and Steve still hadn't said a word to him.
Rob was still Rob, but Steve had frozen him out completely, and it was hurting. Aiden spent most of his time inside the little shack, away from Steve who had taken the tent outside. Rob was trying to play peacemaker, but Steve wasn't having it, and frankly, after hearing the little snippets of discussion between them, Aiden was pretty fucking sure he didn't want Steve anymore either.
When the door of the cabin opened, Aiden expected to see Rob. When he saw that it was Steve was standing there, he didn't know what to think. For a split second, he dared hope that Steve had forgiven him, but when the big man spoke, his voice was hard and distant.
