Chapter 29

RANDY PULLED his truck to a rough stop at the Newseum, and as he jumped out, he spotted Thomas’s blue Maserati.

Shit.

Well, that just confirmed what he had guessed.

Maria Torres hurried over to him with two men in police uniform, and she pointed at Thomas’s car. “Randy, is that…?”

“Yeah. Rumson must have told Thomas to come here. He’s not picking up his cell, so my guess is Rumson instructed him not to alert anyone. What’s your plan?”

Torres looked at the lobby entrance with her eyes narrowed in calculation. “I don’t think I have any choice but to break in. I have every reason to believe that a crime is in progress right now up there. It may already be over. I have to get in to either stop Rumson or to secure the scene and try to limit the damage.”

Randy ran his gaze up the front of the building as Torres pointed to an apartment on the top-floor corner. Light spilled out over a balcony that was fronted by a metal mesh. Randy took a look at the wrinkled page he had printed from his computer and clutched in his hand all the way over. It was a floor plan of the Newseum Residences from the rental agency’s website. “Yeah. It looks like it should be that one,” he confirmed, tapping the diagram.

Randy again scanned the facade of the building and focused on the balconies. He estimated the distance between them. It might be possible to make the jump, he thought, but risky—almost impossible to do it without drawing the attention of someone inside, even if you didn’t miss and plummet to the pavement below. His palms began to sweat at the thought of making the jump. Then a more practical problem presented itself. How would they get into the neighboring apartment without a warrant?

His eyes travelled up to the roof of the building. Was that a terrace up there? He looked again at the diagram and said, “I have an idea.”

CHARLES GAZED down at Thomas as the fire in his eyes slowly softened to something like worship. From his vantage point, Thomas could see Zach’s face turned toward him and the tears in his eyes. His stomach roiled at the betrayal Zach must feel at his words of praise.

He couldn’t think about that. It was for Zach.

“Charles,” he croaked and tried to show some of that puppy-dog expression that always worked on men. “I’ve waited so long for you to come to me this way. Thank you for not letting my little games drive you away.”

Charles breathed heavily, and his face and neck were flushed. “Do you mean it, Jason? I did the right thing? I had so many doubts over the years. I’m sorry.”

“Shh, Charles. Shh. Don’t apologize. I had to make it hard, you see, so you could really prove that you love me.” Thomas spread his arms and tried to control the trembling there. He prayed Charles would get close enough that he could grab his hand and seize the dead man’s switch.

“And you did, Charles. You did it. You’ve shown me that no one else could ever love me as much as you. I love you for it, and I can’t wait to show you how much you fill my heart.” He wanted to vomit at giving those words of love to Charles. They belonged to Zach.

Charles quivered, and his jaw was slack. His pupils were wide and black. “It’s like Christmas morning, Jason.”

“I know, Charles. For me too. I’ve been waiting for more than two years, and now you’re finally here. You’re so close. I can’t wait to have you in bed again so you can show me all the things you’ve learned.”

Charles’s pants had tented at Thomas’s words, but it wasn’t enough. He moved no closer. So Thomas tried a different approach. He lowered the timbre of his voice and said, “Tell me about the machine. What is that for?”

Charles turned his head to look at it and then turned back at Thomas, and his smile stretched his mouth like a rictus. He moaned slightly and brushed his free hand over the front of his own pants.

“I was inspired by one of the places where I trained. Heinrich, the Dom there? He had something like this, but not as elegant or as powerful. He called it a fickmaschine. A fucking machine.

“His was just an ugly box, though.” Charles wrinkled his nose in distaste. “He liked to make me stand over it, and then it would work me open—thrust in and out, no matter how much I begged him to stop. He had different toys he would put on it, depending on what he had planned for me.” Charles shivered. “One was the size of a fist. I hated it so much.” He paused, and then he whispered, “I loved it.”

A moment’s recollection claimed Charles, but then he shook himself. “I knew I could do better, build a superior machine,” he continued in a stronger voice. “I increased the horsepower, I added various speeds, and I made a work of art.”

“It’s beautiful,” Thomas agreed and licked his lips. Charles focused on his mouth and unconsciously licked his own lips as well, so Thomas took his chance.

“There’s no need to go further with Hall now. I’ve made you take too many risks already. I don’t want you to go too far and get caught—not now when we’re finally going to be together.”

It was too much. He knew it immediately because suspicion flared in Charles’s mad eyes.

“You want me to let him go after what he did to you?”

Thomas frowned. “After what he did to me? Charles, I don’t understand.”

“He fucked you. This creature took control like Heinrich and the others took control of me. He used you. He humiliated you, Jason.”

Oh God. Of course Charles was listening that second time with Zach. He heard everything.

“I know he confused you,” Charles continued. “I’ve had it happen too, when your body gets used so badly, so wonderfully. And you think you’ve broken through to some new emotion, to some new dimension inside of yourself. But it’s a lie. For them it’s just bodies and fucking and hurting you. They never love you, no matter what they say. It’s all just to make you into something weak they can control. Like Heinrich. Like Nan.

“That’s what this creature did to you, Jason. I knew it when I heard you say you’d like to let him into your life.” Suddenly Charles’s expression crumbled. In a softer, almost sad voice, he asked, “Why him, Jason? Why would you want him? I tried so hard, for so long, but you never made it easier for me.”

For a moment Thomas could see in Charles’s eyes the young man he’d grown up with in Seattle, and he was paralyzed about what to do with that. He began tentatively, “I’m sorry…” But Charles shook his head angrily as if to clear it and cut Thomas off.

“It doesn’t matter. It has to happen to this monster, Jason. The only way I can show you how wrong you were, how confused you were to think you love him, is to show you what a little slut he is,” Charles raged, his face red and spit spraying out of his mouth.

The madness was back, and Thomas’s heart raced again. He had badly miscalculated. Charles was going to lose it. His vision narrowed to Charles’s hand and Zach behind him, helpless on the bench. Could he lunge in time to seize the hand holding the device?

Charles’s fists were clenched, and he loomed toward Thomas, down on his knees, but the remote was still out of reach. “You’ll see. When my machine is fucking him, you’ll see how much he loves it. He’ll be crying in his excitement, and you’ll see that’s all you are to him too. Something to fuck away his boring little life.”

“No, Charles. You made a mistake,” Thomas cried out hoarsely. “Of course I don’t love him. I love you. Only you. That’s what these tests were all about. You know that.”

Charles shook his head furiously. “This is important, Jason. We have to see this through so we make sure this creature is out of your life and your mind for good.”

Thomas held out his hands toward Charles and projected calm despite his own panicked breathing and pounding heart. He pleaded with his eyes.

Past Charles, through the wall of windows, he saw Randy drop from somewhere above and land in a crouch on the balcony outside Charles’s apartment.

He was trying so hard to keep Charles’s focus that he almost couldn’t register what he was seeing. Hope warred with the fear in his gut. Thomas knew he had to keep Charles’s eyes on him. He cried out, “Charles, my sweet man, my love, what have I done to deserve someone like you? You understand me so well. Maybe better than I understand myself.”

He saw Randy stand up carefully and scan the room as he assessed the situation with Zach on the bench, Charles with his back to the window, and Thomas on his knees.

“Charles, I need you to kiss me. I’ve waited so long.” He forced desire into his voice and crooked his arms to beckon Charles to come to him. Charles hesitated, and his eyes glazed as he stared down at Thomas. Fantasies unspooled across his face. He started to lean down to meet Thomas’s mouth in a kiss.

Thomas saw Randy raise a very large handgun. Randy had no way of knowing that if he shot Charles, the dead man’s switch would trip and Zach would be killed.

“No,” he bellowed as he lunged to his feet and the world slowed down.

He wrestled Charles back and to the ground and reached with both hands to enclose the fist holding the switch, and he struggled to keep his fingers pressed around it so it wouldn’t go off. He heard the roar of a pistol blast, the shatter of glass, and a pang of metal hitting metal. The dead man’s switch fell out of Charles’s hand and hit the ground, and the gears on the machine began to whine.

“Oh no. Zach, please,” Thomas cried as he held Charles down and steeled himself to look at where the poor man lay bound. He expected to see blood and terrible things, and he prayed with all of his heart.

It took him a moment to understand what he was seeing. The machine thrust forward and back, and Zach was still bound, but—there was no blood. No muffled screams. The huge dildo lay on the floor, pulverized where Randy had shot it off the end of the steel piston. Without the rubber phallus in place, the steel arm got no closer than a few inches from Zach’s vulnerable body.

Randy crashed through the window, his gun trained on Charles while Thomas clambered to his feet. He ran to the machine and kicked it over and away so it ground on its side and scarred the hardwood floor. The front door burst in at that moment, and Maria Torres swept the room with her pistol held in both hands. Two police officers flanked her in the hall.

“We got him, Torres,” Randy called out. “Hall is alive too. I think we’re good.”

Thomas clawed the ball gag out of Zach’s mouth first and tried to ignore the tears he saw as he focused next on the strap across Zach’s chest. His fingers trembled so badly he could barely work the catch. By the time he had unbuckled the leg restraints, Randy was by his side with a blanket to cover Zach’s nude body.

Thomas couldn’t help himself any longer. He pulled Zach into his arms and held him tightly as Zach shook and sobbed. He buried his head against Thomas’s chest and trembled violently in his arms.

Thomas pressed his cheek against the top of Zach’s head and rubbed it against Zach’s soft blond hair. “You’re safe now. We’ve got you. You’re safe,” he murmured over and over.

Charles wailed behind him from the floor. “Jason, no. You love me. You love me.” He heard the scuffle as Charles tried to rise, only to be forced back to the ground by the two burly police officers.

Randy put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Thomas, let Zachary up now. Are either of you hurt?”

Thomas let go and leaned back as Randy scanned Zach’s body for injuries. His wrists and ankles were chafed from trying to break free of the restraints, and the buckle on the chest strap had rubbed a raw, bloody patch on his chest. The ball gag had left red marks on both sides of his face, and his lips were chapped from the rubber ball itself. A nasty bump on the side of his head had bled and scabbed over, but that appeared to be the worst of it.

Zachary said in a hoarse voice, “I don’t think I’m really hurt. Randy, the machine—you shot it.”

Randy crossed over to where the evil device whirred on the floor and crouched to his knees. He found the manual off switch, and it powered down. When he walked to the remains of the dildo, he said in a low voice, “Oh, that sick son of a bitch.” Torres joined him and her eyes went wide at the sight of the head of the sex toy.

“Nails. The fucker used nails,” she said on a shuddering breath. “That’s what ripped Daniel Owen to pieces.” Zachary gasped behind her, and she whirled. “I’m sorry, Mr. Hall. I shouldn’t have said that. The important thing is you’re safe. Rumson can’t hurt you anymore.”

Zach turned his head to Thomas, who still had one hand on his shoulder, and said in awe, “You saved my life.”

Thomas shook his head. “Randy and Detective Torres saved you.”

“You saved me, Thomas. You came here knowing what that monster had done. You tried to get him to let me go. You kept him talking. You saved me.”

Randy came back over and holstered his .357 Magnum as he joined them. “You did good, Thomas. You bought us time.”

Thomas suddenly sagged as the enormity of that last twenty minutes washed over him and the adrenaline began to fade. He hung his head as he dropped to his knees in front of Zach and said, “Don’t act like I did something brave. I’m the reason you were in danger, Zach.”

Zach just stared at him, his eyes wide and confused. Torres said, “That’s a peculiar way to look at it, Mr. Scarborough. From where I’m standing, the only person to blame is Charles Rumson.”

At his name Charles began to cry. “Jason, make them understand. You know why I did these things. For you. Because I love you, Jason. I love you.”

Thomas suddenly forced himself back onto his feet and crossed the room to where Charles had struggled to his knees. He looked down at Charles, who was cuffed and flanked by the two officers, and the blood boiled in his veins. The fatigue of moments before was wiped away by a rising tide of red heat. Three men dead. Zach tortured and nearly ripped to pieces. The years of torment and guilt Charles had brought into his life burned through his brain.

Fury surged through his body like lightning and sent his leg swinging in a roundhouse kick to the side of Charles’s head. He bellowed, “My name is Thomas.”

Charles sprawled on the floor, and Torres said to her police officers, “That happened when he was subdued.” Both men nodded.