Title: Scroll 1
By: nancy
Pairing: Danny/Mac
Note: part of the Romanology series, where the Roman Empire never fell
Warnings: slave!fic, violence, D/s, blood-play, non-con, rough m/m sex, mentions of castration with the potential for actual castration down the line
Summary: When a young man is murdered, Mac and Stella come face to face with the next generation of the Mob...and the slave owned by the head of the Tanglewood boys, Danny.
Prelude to a Murder
The winter night was bitter and windy with snow up to a couple of feet in some parts of the city. Plows had been working overtime for two days with the current snow storm that wasn’t quite a blizzard. The suburbs were being pummeled so hard that the depth had already reached forty-three inches, almost four feet, in some towns.
Mac stared out his office window and sighed as he wondered how many bodies would be buried before they could get to them.
“You look deep in thought,” Stella observed from behind. “Or are you just faking it?”
The teasing brought a faint smile to his face as Mac turned to look at her. “That’s for me to know.”
She smiled in return, a full, unabashed Stella-special that always broke through the carefully erected walls around his heart. Of course, it helped that she’d known him since before the Towers had fallen and had all kinds of ammunition to drawn on. “You know you’re spending Christmas with us, right?”
“Oh I am,” he replied, amused.
Nodding, Stella continued, “We’re going full out this year. Aiden’s going to cook from scratch, just the way we both like it, and there’ll be plenty of fully-spiked eggnog to wash it down. Hawkes and Flack are going to stop by at some point that night and you know that if you don’t come for dinner, Aiden’s never going to speak to you again.”
Touched that she would go through so much trouble, even if Aiden was the one doing the work, Mac offered a slightly bigger smile and asked, “That’s a deterrent?”
“Mac...”
“I’ll be there,” he promised with a chuckle.
“Excellent!” she exclaimed, beaming. “I’m off to get some results from Hawkes, but I expect to see you at the apartment tomorrow night at seven sharp, Mister.”
He saluted briefly and watched her go before turning back to view the cold, strangely pristine looking city outside.
* * * *
Christmas at the Sassone’s was a big, sprawling affair with lots of music, food, drinking, and laughter. They always wound up at Sonny’s father’s house, a large, three story place with lots of kids running around and women yelling at the men to get their lazy butts out of the way. The air was filled with the smell of cooking pastries and the carols played loud and cheerful through all rooms in the house.
Usually, Danny enjoyed Christmas because he was at a semi-public event with women who adored him and kept him away from Sonny while they were there. This Christmas, though, he could barely walk from the pain that radiated from his back and ass, both of which had been flayed until they’d bled the night before. It didn’t help that Sonny had shoved a plug into his ass that was just a shade too wide to be anything but seriously uncomfortable, almost painful in its own right. His clothes hid all of this from view, of course, and that made things better and worse. Mrs. Sassone couldn’t rip Sonny a new one for mistreating him, but it also hid his reason for moving slower and with less grace than usual.
“Danny! Get your sorry ass to the kitchen and get us some beers,” Sonny ordered sharply, breaking into his thoughts.
The slap to the back of his head was hard enough to restart his headache. Danny scrambled as quickly as he could to his feet before hurrying to the kitchen. The last week had been almost impossible to live through. His Master was relentless in beating and whipping him long past the boundaries they’d established over the years of his service. It was as though suddenly, for no reason that he could discern, something inside was driving Sonny towards the inevitable conclusion of Danny’s death.
Something that would be a friggin’ relief at this point, Danny couldn’t help thinking as he limped to the kitchen.
“Danny, honey, did you hurt yourself?”
Coming face to face with the plump, sweet Mrs. Sassone, Danny forced himself to smile and lie, “Just tripped and did something to my back, Mrs. Sassone. I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”
“Well, why don’t you come and sit with us for a while.”
“I would love to, but Sonny asked me to get them some…”
“Sonny can get off his ass and do it himself,” Mrs. Sassone interrupted with a wink. Putting her arm around Danny’s, she led him the rest of the way into the kitchen and continued, “I never get to see you anymore, Danny. I hope that boy of mine is treating you well?”
“Of course, Mrs. Sassone,” Danny lied demurely as they entered the other room. “Sonny takes very good care of me.”
The door closed behind them and Danny stiffened in some alarm as he took in the serious faces of the women present. Carla, Sonny’s older sister, Maria, his aunt on his father’s side, and Nana Sassone were all standing there looking like executioners.
Biting his lip, Danny asked, “Is something wrong?”
“Only that my son is a no good, vicious man,” Mrs. Sassone answered angrily. “You let us take care of you, Danny, and trust me. He’s not going to get hold of you until I’m convinced he isn’t going to hurt you again.”
Alarmed for real now, Danny exclaimed, “Mrs. Sassone, no, please don’t do this. It’ll be fine, I promise. He’s just going through a difficult time right now. Once business picks up…”
She cupped his face and replied, “No, Danny, you listen to me. I know my son and his faults. This is something new and I have no intention of letting him use you to work through whatever is going on in that empty head of his. You’re staying here until I say otherwise.”
And like a lot of men when confronted by a mother-figure, Danny simply looked away and nodded acquiescence. He just hoped that he could live through whatever happened when Sonny found out.
The more things change...
The first couple of months that year were pretty good.
Mrs. Sassone was as good as her word and kept Danny there at the house for most of January. She only let him go back to Sonny on the condition that he be brought in for an inspection each week after that. Technically, she had no right to do so, but as wife to the late, infamous Frankie Sassone, the older woman had a lot of connections that Sonny just didn’t have yet. And if she wanted to make his life a living hell, business-wise, she could.
That didn’t mean Sonny didn’t still take his temper out on Danny, he just did it when there were a couple of days to recover.
Still, the demon that had been driving Sonny seemed to take a backseat for a couple of months and Danny was treated to a minor honeymoon phase. The sex was rough, but not painful, and he actually got off about half the time, which was an unusual thing. Danny couldn’t remember the last time he was allowed orgasms on a semi-regular basis. Or at all, really. There was the added bonus of not being passed around to Sonny’s friends, which Danny thanked his lucky stars for. A couple of them were far worse than Sonny when it came to sex simply because they had an imagination.
It was in the beginning of March that things took a downhill slide. There’d been a few encroaches on the Tanglewood boys’ territory, a few wannabes on top of that, and trouble with a couple of drug suppliers. Sonny’s temper took a definite downward spiral and Danny’s back quickly grew reacquainted with the whip. It culminated at a bar one night when some kid showed up with fake Tanglewood ink and decided to try an impress a girl with it.
When the girl pointed out the newcomer to Sonny, Danny groaned to himself. He knew that look on Sonny’s face all-too-well. The other man wasn’t real creative on most things, but when it came to avenging a slight, or even a perceived slight, he was viciousness personified, no imagination necessary. He got the boy, Paul something, drunk, promising him that he’d become a real Tanglewood boy by the time the night was done. Danny was only along for the almost-certainly-fatal ride as far as the kid smashing Johnny Lucerno on the head with a bat.
Once Paul was in the SUV with the others, Sonny looked at Danny and snapped, “Get your ass home before I beat it.”
He knew better than to argue, even though he was positive that the kid waiting for Sonny in the car wasn’t going to last the night.
* * * *
The more things change, the more they stay the same, Mac thought in dark amusement.
The body he was looking at was half-buried in the snow with the head caved in. There were multiple footprint tracks in the area, on top of the tire treads. Getting molds from the snow was going to be a piece of cake. They would still have their work cut out for them, but at least the evidence would be unmistakable.
He and Stella were at the crime scene for the rest of the afternoon, even after Hawkes had taken custody of the vic’s body. Collecting evidence and taking the pictures, sketching the crime scene was a lot of work for two people. Not for the first time, Mac wished they had another couple of bodies with which to divvy up the work. Aiden was great at doing the lab work and any sculpting that was needed, but she couldn’t come out in the field with them. Technically she could, but Mac wouldn’t allow it, knowing how danger could strike at any moment. The slave would be defenseless if he or Stella weren’t around. It was possible for a slave to carry a gun in the line of duty, but Mac wouldn’t allow that, either.
The big find of the crime scene was a sliver of wood belonging to a baseball bat. Mac was pretty sure that he’d be able to figure out what the blue ink on the wood worked out to spell, which would hopefully lead them to a type of bat and then an owner.
“You know, you really need to think about hiring some more people for the shift,” Stella complained, rubbing her hands together.
Mac huffed a little and countered, “You really need to stop reading my mind.”
She gave him a cheeky grin. “It’s a gift.”
“Yeah, yeah. Get the gear, would you?” Mac ordered.
They packed up the equipment and climbed back into the SUV, ready to head back to the city in more than one way. Mac was never very comfortable without the walls of the city scrapers to keep him penned in. Probably a mild form of agoraphobia, which he acknowledged even as it irritated him. He would never be comfortable outside of the city for any real length of time and that was just a fact.
Back at the office, he left Aiden to help Stella sort through the evidence, and went down to the morgue to talk to Hawkes about the body.
“No ID yet,” the black man reported. “I’d estimate that he’s twenty-two to twenty-five years old. Cause of death is blunt force trauma to the head and the subsequent brain hemorrhaging. Not a fast death, either. He was also worked over pretty good before getting the fatal blow.”
Taking in the too-young face, Mac couldn’t help a regretful head shake as he began taking measured pictures of the footprints on the victim’s torso. He could’ve had a son this age, maybe a little younger, if he’d been less careful in his own youth. Something flashed on the kid’s face when the camera light went off and he paused, murmuring, “What was that?”
He flashed the camera again and Hawkes leaned forward, taking a closer look.
“Looks like high-velocity blood spatter,” Mac observed thoughtfully.
“I found some trace beneath his nails and already sent it, along with his clothes, up to Aiden,” Hawkes continued when he was done. “And look at this.”
Mac frowned when Hawkes turned the body to reveal a blackened patch of skin on the shoulder. “Looks like it was scraped or sanded off.”
“After I post him, I’ll see if I can lift the artwork from the flesh,” Hawkes promised.
Mac offered a brief smile and said, “Thanks, Hawkes. I’ll let you know when a name comes up for him and we have someone to ID the body.”
Going back up to the lab, he discovered that the footprints had been sorted and the women were already going over the clothes with their usual fine-toothed combs. He ordered them to take a dinner break and took a few minutes for himself in his office while they were gone and
* * * *
The ID for their young victim came in only a few short hours. Flack brought in Paul Montinassi’s mother for the ID and then to the waiting area for Mac to talk with her.
The conversation went about as well as could be expected. She was angry and upset about the death of her son, guilty about the part she thought she’d played in it by taking away the stability in his life from divorce. Mac tried to assure her that that wasn’t the case, but knew that he didn’t succeed. When she said that she didn’t know anything about the tattoo, Mac instantly knew that it was the break he’d been looking for. That it was, indeed, gang-related.
A call came in during the afternoon about a robbery/homicide and Mac was forced to let one of the less experienced lab techs work with Aiden while Stella went off to cover it. By the time she got back a few hours later, Mac had pretty much figured out that the bat fragment came from a Mickey Mantle bat.
“So how’s it going with the bat?” she asked, walking up to him.
“I think it’s a Mickey Mantle,” he answered. “If it is, it’s a collector’s item. An autographed bat from The Mick goes for about five grand these days.”
Surprised, Stella observed, “Wow. Expensive murder weapon. Why would you kill someone with a five thousand dollar bat?”
Mac looked at her and replied, “Good question.”
* * * *
Watching Hawkes bring up the ink on the tattoo was both fascinating and disgusting. Mac couldn’t help but think of the tattoos that covered his own body from his time in the Corp. What would they say about him to a stranger if he ever wound up dead, on a different shore, or in another city where no one knew him?
The tattoo turned out to read ‘Tanglewood,’ which caused Mac to groan.
Hawkes gave him a curious look and asked, “Mean something to you?”
“I haven’t spent much time there, but I know someone who has,” Mac answered, taking a picture of the revealed tattoo.
* * * *
He found Flack in the break room, talking to one of the many, pretty assistants that worked in the building. Mentally shaking his head, Mac approached with, “Sorry to interrupt, Detective, but I need to pick your brain about something.”
Flack nodded. “Sure thing, Mac. I’ll talk to you later, Jackie, okay?”
The young woman nodded, walking away from them with a definite sway to the hips.
“Wow,” Flack muttered before dragging his eyes to Mac. “You needed something?”
Amused, Mac held out the folder as he said, “Yeah. What do you make of this?”
Looking it over, Flack frowned and answered, “It’s a fugaisi. A fake. I mean, the ink’s probably real, but this ain’t no Tanglewood boy. There’s no ‘in’ date. You see right here? The real tattoo would have an in date, which is the date you join, and have an out date, which is the day you leave legitimately. Which, by the way, rarely happens. This kid’s definitely a wannabe.”
Mac gazed at him thoughtfully. “You seem pretty certain.”
Flack shrugged and explained, “I met up with these kids more than a few times on the court and the diamond. I had a few brushes with them when they were hanging out at the
“What’s the difference?”
“What’s the difference?” Flack repeated, shaking his head. “The difference is these kids don’t give a fuck.”
“What about rival crews?” Mac questioned.
Thinking about it a second, Flack answered, “Back then, it was the Pelham crew down in
Mac nodded slowly, mulling over the information.
* * * *
The DNA came back as a mix from the vic, Paul Montinassi, and Johnny Lucerno from
Finding out about the bar from Lucerno was a bonus. Mac had figured on having to drag the punk downtown in cuffs to get any kind of cooperation from him. And even that wouldn’t have been a guarantee of the kid rolling on whoever had hit him in the head with the bat. When Lucerno made insolent eyes up and down Stella, Mac actually took a step forward, hand on his gun. Stella stopped him from drawing with a light hand to his arm as she dismissed the kid’s attentions with a distasteful look.
From the mall, they got back in the SUV and headed to the sports bar where the attack had taken place. The bartender was less than cooperative, not that Mac blamed him. There was a subtle hint to the ATM machine from the man and when Mac looked over at the machine, he discovered an empty bat case for a Mickey Mantle bat.
“Let’s dust this case for prints,” Mac ordered.
* * * *
“This should be fun,” Stella observed as they climbed out of the car in front of Sonny Sassone’s house.
Mac flashed her a fierce grin and agreed, “Oh it will.”
“Bloodthirsty.”
The muttered comment from Flack caused Mac to grin again, but he donned a carefully blank mask as they walked towards the driveway. There was loud and obnoxious music playing as he approached the house on foot, Flack and Stella in tow. A brand new SUV stood in the driveway, and three men stood around it. One was dancing to the music, though Mac wouldn’t have really called it that, and the other two were just hanging out, one of them talking on a cell phone.
“Yo!” Flack called out. “You wanna turn that pollution down?”
When they were almost there, Stella asked, “Sonny Sassone?”
There was a typical, “Who wants to know?” from the guy in front. He matched the picture that Mac had seen in the database; a solid, beefy man with a cold attitude staring out from hard eyes.
Holding up his badge, Mac answered, “NYPD.”
Sassone turned off the music by way of a remote and that was when Mac discovered that there was actually a fourth man sitting in the back seat of the SUV. A slave, from his clothes and bare feet, despite the snow on the ground. The man had a shock of mussed, golden hair and deep blue eyes almost hidden behind glasses. The chain around his neck was more a steel collar than anything else, in the manner of an old-fashioned, ill-regarded slave. And though the gaze was quickly dropped upon meeting Mac’s, he saw intelligence staring back at him for those few seconds.
And suffering, Mac realized, stiffening in response to it.
Flack started right in with, “How do you know Paul Montinassi?”
“I seen him around, why?” Sassone answered.
“He’s dead,” Stella informed him.
Sassone smirked a little as he said, “Yeah? Good for him.”
Mac asked, “Was he a Tanglewood boy?”
“Hell no,” Sassone replied, shifting a little back and motioning to the other two guys. “You’re looking at the Tanglewood boys right here. Check the tat.”
Mac looked at the tattoo that Sassone revealed by half pulling off his shirt and twisting around. It looked just like Flack said it would, with an ‘in’ date on the upper left edge.
“When was the last time you were at Billy Bats?”
Sassone glanced over at Stella’s question and answered her, “Couple of nights ago.”
“You like Mickey Mantle?” Flack demanded.
Sassone shrugged. “Who doesn’t?”
“We have proof that you stole a bat from that sports bar.”
There was a brief pause before Sonny said, “That’s why you’re here, because of a bat. I didn’t steal it! I was messing around with it. I was just playing around. Danny-boy here was supposed to return it when I was done, so I guess he forgot. Danny! Did you forget to put that damn bat back in the case?”
The slave’s eyes widened when he was addressed and in the moment before he dropped to his knees, Mac saw pure panic on his face.
“I’m sorry, Master, I must have, I’m so sorry,” the slave exclaimed, prostrating himself on the ground at Sassone’s feet.
Without warning, Sassone kicked the slave right in the gut, twice. The man was down, gagging and gasping for air from the violent blows.
Sassone snapped, “That’ll teach ya.”
Mac’s jaw tightened as the helpless, pained man was nudged on the ass by one of the other Tanglewood boys and fell face forward into the snow. Sassone and his boys laughed. It was an ugly sound that put Mac further on edge.
“Looks like you put in a new back window,” Stella announced, taking everyone’s attention from the slave. “They didn’t do a good job of setting it. The putty’s smeared all over the place. It’s a shoddy job if you ask me.”
“Just got it re-tinted,” Sassone explained easily. “Those idiots in
Stella continued the informal interrogation with, “New tires too, huh?”
He smirked and answered, “We rack everything new all the time, lady. Tires, rims, kicks, threads, china, weed, you name it.”
Brazen, bringing up drugs to three cops, Mac thought angrily, keeping the neutral mask in place with an effort. “You mind if we search your car?”
“You got a warrant?”
“We can get one,” Flack told him.
Sassone grinned a little and said, “I know enough to not let you illegally search my...”
Stella broke in, exclaiming, “We’ll get a warrant.”
“Until then, you’re free to go,” Mac was forced to say.
Sonny smirked outright at that and held up his remote, turning the music back on as he said, “Guys. We’re out.”
One of the ‘boys’ dragged the motionless slave to his feet and shoved him in the back seat while Sassone and his other buddy got in the front. Mac watched the SUV leave through a narrowed gaze then looked down at the snow where there were footprints left in it. He glanced at Stella and asked, “Got any of that spray paint left?”
She grinned. “Oh yeah.”
* * * *
Mac couldn’t get those eyes out of his head. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen a suffering slave before, because there were plenty to go around in
“Hey, you all right?” Stella asked, joining him at the elevator.
Startled from his thoughts, though he tried not to show it, Mac answered, “Fine, why?”
“Because the elevator door has opened twice while you’ve been standing here.”
Mac snorted. Figured she’d be around to catch his lapse. Glancing at the expectant woman, he questioned, “Do you ever beat Aiden?”
Lips twisting into a grimace, Stella admitted, “I do, but not often. She’s got a strong personality and I have to temper it down sometimes. Never enough to do any real damage, though it hurts like hell for her to suffer through it at the time. I’m always very careful about that.”
What about the ones who aren’t? he wondered silently.
“You’re thinking about that slave today, aren’t you?”
Mac had to nod as he replied, “I am. There was just something…I can’t even explain it. It’s not like I want a slave, nor am I particularly interested in men in general, but there was something about him.”
Rubbing his shoulder, Stella pointed out gently, “You’ve been alone for a long time, Mac. And I know you can’t stand to see anyone in pain. Maybe it’s time to move on and this slave is a way to do it.”
“How? It’s not like Sassone’s going to sell him to me, even if I were to make an offer, which I wouldn’t,” Mac stated flatly. “I wouldn’t give him my spit if he was dying of thirst in the desert, never mind money.”
Stella shrugged. “So nail his ass to the wall. His assets become state property and sold off. You can get the slave then.”
Something that had crossed his mind, but Mac shook his head and said, “No, it’s nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow, Stella.”
Instead of waiting for the elevator to come back again, Mac took the stairs, feeling her eyes on him the entire way.
* * * *
Aiden knew something was wrong when Stella got back to the lab and was even more quiet than when she’d left. Since the other woman had gone to speak with Mac, she had to assume the talk hadn’t gone well. Keeping her own mouth shut, Aiden moved to stand behind Stella and began to massage the too-tense shoulders, placing little kisses on the back of her Mistress’ neck, through the thick hair. It took a good ten minutes, but finally Stella sighed all at once and relaxed.
Turning to face her, Stella’s arms wound about Aiden’s waist, pulling her in close so that she could rest comfortably on the slave’s breasts. Rubbing her cheek against the curly hair, Aiden murmured, “He’ll be fine, Mistress.”
Stella sighed and nuzzled into the softness of her chest as she replied, “I worry about him. He’s so alone, Aiden. No one should be that lonely or that devoted to a ghost.”
“All you can do is what you’re doing,” Aiden told her softly. “You can’t make him open up, much as you want to.”
“I know, I do, it’s just…”
“You worry.”
Stella smiled up at her a bit wanly and agreed, “Exactly.”
“Can we go home, Mistress? You need to eat and get some rest,” Aiden said, kissing her on the forehead.
The smile grew a bit as Stella’s hands slid down to Aiden’s ass and squeezed. “Among other things.”
Heat flared through Aiden at the suggestive tone, something she still wasn’t used to, and she flushed.
Chuckling, Stella said, “I’ll never get tired of seeing you all flustered like that. The unflappable Aiden, utterly flapped.”
Aiden’s eyes rolled and she retorted, “Yes, Mistress.”
A hard slap to her ass provoked a pained gasp and a more respectful, “Yes, Mistress.”
* * * *
It turned out that the sizes for all the Tanglewood boys were right, but there weren’t any pattern-match on the actual shoe prints. That meant they’d bought new sneakers and trashed the ones that were covered in blood.
“We still need to prove that they were with Paul Montinassi,” Stella commented. She frowned, thinking about it. “Surveillance camera at the bar?”
Mac thought about it, but knew that there wouldn’t be one. Not in a bar where the mob regularly hung out. There was, however, one thing they could use. “ATM.”
She frowned again. “Who’s Adam?”
He smiled.
* * * *
The ATM machine was brought into the lab and hooked up to the lab’s systems. They went through the film stills and found a woman to whom Paul was talking. Stella figured her for knowing the real Tanglewood boys because she left and shortly after that, Sonny and his friends showed up.
“I don’t see any practice swings,” Stella observed.
Mac looked at her. “He wants to take some practice swings at this kid sitting down.”
They saw Johnny Lucerno there as well, which brought up the whole motive thing again.
“He goes out and hits Lucerno over the head with the bat. Why, if he’s not a Tanglewood boy?”
“Let’s ask Sonny Sassone,” Stella suggested. “After we process his Ranger, we have enough for a warrant.”
* * * *
They had to go back to Sonny’s house when the blood sample they found in the Ranger came up degraded. It wasn’t until they searched the tool shed that Stella found what they were looking for.
“A high-powered sander,” Mac observed. Perfect for getting rid of Paul Montinassi’s tattoo. “Cordless.”
Mac sprayed the implement and thankfully, only seconds later, there was a visual positive for blood. He smiled at the sight and pulled out his cell. “Flack. Bring him in, we’ve got him.”
* * * *
Danny drowsed on the sofa, exhausted from being fucked into oblivion by a furious and agitated Sonny a couple of hours earlier. The door burst open and he instantly covered his head with his arms, flinching at the explosion of voices shouting for Sonny and for him to stay where he was. With his nudity and collar, there was no way they could mistake him as anything aside from a slave, but Danny wasn’t sure if that made him safer, or more vulnerable. In either case, there was no way he would move until told to do so.
A woman finally came over to him and said, “It’s okay, honey, you can get up. Here’s a blanket.”
Hesitantly looking up, Danny found a concerned black woman gazing down at him as she put a blanket over him. He clutched at the fabric and pulled it tight as he sat up, keeping his eyes on the floor.
“It’s okay, honey. I’m going to get you checked out and take real good care of you,” she continued, gently petting his hair. “You just trust me on that, okay? My name’s Officer Mary Keaton.”
And even though he hadn’t trusted anyone since his father had sold him to Sonny’s father as a present to Sonny ten years ago, there was something in her dark eyes that caused him to relax. The same something that he’d seen in that detective who’d been questioning Sonny in the driveway two days ago...
Honor.
* * * *
Looking at the man sprawled insolently in the chair at the interrogation table, Mac questioned, “You’re aware that you’re waiving your right to counsel?”
“I don’t need counsel,” Sassone answered. “This’ll settle out of court.”
Stella shook her head. “You can’t settle murder out of court.”
Sassone pointed a couple of fingers at her and asked, “You sure about that?”
“Maybe in your world. Not ours,” Mac countered. “Now, why don’t I start this story for you?”
The actual rundown of the crime didn’t take long: Sassone getting Paul Montinassi drunk, promising him affiliation with the gang, having him do stunt after stunt to get in, and then the robbery gone bad. Stella chimed in now and again, seamlessly picking up where Mac left off as though they’d rehearsed it, which was exactly how they worked, a rhythm put together after years as partners.
Not surprisingly, Sassone nailed his own lid shut with an angry, “That’s right. That’s how we do it, Mafia style. You look a man dead in the eye and you watch the light go out. But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you. Copper.”
Mac leaned forward with a hand on the table, trying to control his anger as he replied, “I’m a Marine, you little punk. I put men in the ground in foreign soil so you can sleep at night. But you wouldn’t know anything about that. Would you. Kid.”
Sassone looked away, some of his bravado slipping.
“Let me tell you something about the mob,” Mac stated flatly. “Back in the heyday, these old timers, they dealt in death and violence because of one thing: business. Not sport. They were smart. You punks are idiots.”
Incredulous, Sassone demanded, “You gonna tell me about the mob? Who are you? What do you two make a year, huh?”
“Ninety-five thousand seven hundred forty-six dollars and thirty two cents,” Stella rattled off. “And we earn every penny of it.”
Sassone laughed outright at that. “I spend that a year on blow.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” she quipped dryly, the words wiping the smile from his face.
“Look at me. You see me wearing a silk suit and a fat tie with marinara sauce on my shirt? Forget about old-times, those days are dead as dead. They were suckers. They worked too hard. Tanglewood boys represent the next generation of mobster. Set up shop wherever we want, pull any bitch we want, buy any slave we want, buy the finest china, roll in six-figure cars and snuff out any punk-ass poser rat who needs to be put back in his hole. We have our own set of rules.”
Mac nodded and said, “So do we and I’ve got news for you. You and your buddies are going to Sing-Sing and then straight into a convict camp, regardless of who you’re connected to, Mafia or no Mafia. He’s good to go. Get your ass up.”
Sassone didn’t even blink as he was pulled to his feet by a uniformed cop. “Yeah? Okay. We’ll see. Ask Flack the odds of us really going away. He knows all about us. And we know all about him.”
Mac glared at Sassone as the uniform cop pulled the confident man out of the room. He actually jumped when Stella gripped his arm a few seconds later, barely stopping himself from striking out at her. “Jesus, Stella, don’t do that!”
Hands in the air, she apologized, “Sorry, Mac, didn’t realize that you were so far gone.”
“Well, pay attention next time,” Mac snapped. “I could’ve hurt you!”
Nodding, Stella promised, “I will. You okay now?”
He took a deep breath and released it slowly, trying to disperse the anger with it, but only partially successful. “It’s going to take a few. Why don’t you go on home? I’ll finish up the paperwork on this one. That should get rid of any more violent impulses.”
“Or hone them,” Stella teased lightly.
Mac snorted and ordered, “Go on. Get out of here.”
Smiling, Stella left the interrogation room with a wave.
Mac, on the other hand, sat back down at the table to mull things over for a while. Sassone was right about one thing. It was next to impossible to make anything stick to these mob bastards. The lawyers who defended them were the best that money could buy, men and women who didn’t care about reputation or honor, just about getting their clients freed. If they had to go into the gutters to get things done, they would do just that and not think twice about it.
Probably what would happen, was Sassone and his crew would get some kind of suspended sentence, or maybe one of them would be thrown over to convict slave status as a sacrificial lamb. Not that it mattered, because Sassone himself would then just buy his friend and let him do whatever the hell he wanted, anyhow. The Family would take care of whoever went down for the murder.
Which brought his thoughts to Flack and what Sassone had implied about him. Scrubbing at his hair in a tired gesture, Mac wondered just how far the young cop had gone with the Tanglewood boys but decided he was too exhausted to do anything but go to bed.
And that, of course, brought Danny, Sassone’s slave, to mind. If, somehow, Sassone were convicted and his assets sold off, the slave would be at the mercy of whomever bought him. And while the mobster had obviously been no picnic for the slave to deal with, sometimes the devil you knew really was better than the one you didn’t. He could wind up with someone far, far worse.
A flash of the young man in his own bed went through Mac’s mind and he toyed with it for a few minutes. He’d only had a few male lovers over the years, and that was all before Claire, but it wasn’t really something to forget. All that golden-brown skin and sleek body at his command. Making the slave tremble with pleasure and beg for release. Having the young man whenever and however he wanted…they were all very tempting thoughts and images, but Mac shook his head clear of them in short order. Danny wasn’t for him.
No one in this life was.
* * * *
The holding pen was easy enough for Danny to navigate. After the first night when he’d put down some hulking, no-brain, muscle-neck right from being woken up, the others left him alone. He hadn’t spent ten years as Sonny Sassone’s slave without learning to take care of himself, though he hadn’t ever thought of this particular circumstance coming to pass. Sonny really was going down for that kid’s murder, something that Danny still couldn’t quite believe was real. Nothing ever stuck to him.
But this did, Danny thought in wonder for the hundredth time.
He didn’t know what was going to happen to him now and couldn’t help but wish that Sonny had never run afoul of that detective. Because Danny knew it was that man who’d brought Sonny down and made it stick. Not that Sonny was going to lead any kind of hard life or anything. Danny knew that Mrs. Sassone would buy her son, and his friends, and they’d go on pretty much the same way they always had.
Leaning against the rail, Danny took in the sights of men, women, and children being sold and the people buying them. The majority of the buyers were upper middle class and above, of course, and those who weren’t, Danny figured were there on their employers’ behalf. He’d never really thought beyond Sonny and wondered what kind of person would wind up buying him. He knew he was good looking enough to get some cushy household to be someone’s body slave, but he was maybe too hard, too jaded, for most of those positions. People who were looking for a sex slave didn’t want to deal with baggage; they’d want to train the slave to their own desires and not have to retrain, or put up with bad habits.
“Yo! Blondie! Get your ass over here!”
Danny, along with five other blondes, looked over at the Overseer outside the fence. When he realized that he was the one being yelled for, he walked over to that side of the pen, keeping his eyes on the floor.
“You sure you want him, ma’am? Meaning no disrespect, but this one’s a load of trouble. Already put one of the other slaves in the hospital the first night he was here. I was thinking of castrating him to calm him down.”
“No, he’s definitely the one.”
The familiar voice startled him into looking up and, sure enough, Danny found that woman who’d been with the two detectives at Sonny’s house standing right in front of him. Gray-blue eyes smiled at him from a very pretty face, surrounded by thick, curly hair, and he quickly looked back down. Not, however, before he’d seen the slave woman trailing behind the buyer. He was more than a little surprised that she could afford two slaves on a civil salary, but then, it wasn’t his place to question her finances.
Besides which, if the comfortable looking slave woman was any indication, living with this particular buyer would be a breeze.
“All right, ma’am, I’ll get the paperwork. You! Don’t you move until I get back, you piece of shit.”
Danny kept his eyes on the floor and didn’t move, not wanting to jeopardize anything that would make this sale go through.
“Hey, Danny, it’s okay,” the woman assured him. “Come on, now, look at me.”
Hesitant, Danny did so and found a warm smile on her face.
“I’m Stella and this is Aiden,” she introduced.
Forcing himself to smile, even if just a little, Danny replied, “Um, hi.”
“Now, you know that I work for NYPD, so I’ll tell you that I’m a CSI, a Crime Scene Investigator,” she continued. “I’ve been there for about ten years now and I’ve worked with Mac most of that time. Mac’s the detective in charge of the department and he was with me at the Sassone place a couple of weeks ago. He’s actually the reason that I’m buying you.”
“All set here, ma’am,” the Overseer interrupted. “I just need you to sign the paperwork.”
When Stella moved off to the small table beside the Pen, Aiden stepped closer to Danny and greeted, “Hey.”
“Hey,” he replied, looking her up and down.
She grinned and said softly, “Don’t let Stella see you lookin’ at me like that. She gets a little possessive sometimes. Not that I mind or anything.”
Danny smiled genuinely for the first time in an age. “Good to know. So, you been with her long?”
“Two years now,” Aiden answered. “I screwed up my finances and got sold off for it like six months before the new reform bill went through.”
“Ouch.”
“No kidding. But Stella’s cool. I sort of knew her before, you know? Surprised the hell out of me when she bought me, but we get on real good. She takes good care of me, you know?”
Danny sighed, a little wistful. “I don’t, no. I been with Sonny since I was a kid. I only ever known him and his friends.”
Aiden briefly touched his shoulder and said, “That ain’t the real world, Danny, trust me. These people are good people. You aren’t going to get mistreated, even if Mac’s not the most approachable guy on the planet.”
“And we’re done,” Stella announced, rejoining them. “Bringing him up to speed, Aiden?”
Nodding, Aiden replied, “Just getting to Mac.”
“Well, that’s a long conversation, so let’s go home and let Danny get the stink of this place off him, then have supper. I’m starving, so I can’t imagine how hungry you are, Danny.”
Danny fell into step with Aiden, both of them the proper two paces behind Stella, and left the slave pens with a sense of relief. He might not know exactly what he was getting into, but he believed Aiden’s claim that these were good people.
Or, he wanted to, at least.
* * * *
Feeling more than a little put out by Stella’s apparent desertion of him on the Wilcox case, Mac glared at the hapless replacement and snapped, “If you can’t do a simple trace analysis, why are you even working here?”
“Mac! I got something for you.”
Saved by the bell, Mac thought in dark amusement. Although who was being saved, he didn’t really think about. He turned towards Flack on the other side of the lab and walked towards him. They met almost in the middle and he asked, “What do you have?”
“Stella, in your office,” Flack answered, flashing a grin. “She said to rescue whoever you were torturing and tell you to go see her.”
Mac snorted, but didn’t refute the allegation. He merely left the lab, ignoring Flack’s knowing expression, and headed for his office. He nodded tightly to the people he passed by in the hall and arrived a few minutes later only to stop short, completely shocked, just outside the door. Through the window, he could see that Stella wasn’t alone, that she had the slave, Danny, with her. Shaking off the astonishment, Mac squared himself and stepped inside, glaring at Stella as he demanded, “What the hell are you playing at, Stella?”
“Me? Nothing,” Stella answered, not in the least intimidated. “But your birthday’s just around the corner and I thought I’d get you something you’ve needed for a while now.”
Gritting his teeth, Mac snapped, “I do not need a slave.”
“Maybe not, but you need to be alone even less,” she snapped back.
Arms folding over his chest, Mac informed her, “You bought him, you keep him.”
“Can’t. Paperwork’s in your name.”
“Stella, God damn it…!”
She cut off his tirade before it could really start, putting her hand over his mouth and glaring right back at him. “She’s dead, Mac, and you’re alive. Claire would’ve kicked your ass for what you’ve become and you damn well know it! Start living again, because some of us can barely stand to be around you anymore and yes, that includes me.”
Stunned, Mac could only stare at her back as Stella left the office, her body language screaming just how pissed at him she was. It took a few seconds to remember that he wasn’t alone in the office and Mac turned to his new slave standing just a few feet away, eyes glued to the floor. He sighed and pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes and pressed until colors exploded behind the lids. When he blinked back into focus, Danny was still looking at the floor, tension replete through his entire body.
For a moment, he didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything. He just looked at the other man. Danny was just as handsome as he remembered, more so really, given that he wasn’t hiding behind glasses and his eyes, if they were looking at Mac, would be clear to see. The simple beige slave pants and shirt looked almost designer on the younger man, clinging in all the right places, but loose enough to give a bit of mystery, too. And the golden-brown hair was thick and wild, just begging to be used as a handhold while Danny’s mouth was plundered.
“Danny, I’m sorry about that,” Mac began. “And you can look at me, you don’t have to keep staring at the floor like that. Not for this kind of conversation.”
When he did, Mac saw that he was right. It was even better to see those incredible eyes without the barrier of glasses.
“Thank you, Sir,” Danny murmured, blinking owlishly at him, then squinting.
Mac frowned. “Are you that bad off without glasses? Where are they?”
“They got taken at the pens, Sir,” Danny answered. “Don’t want nothin’ that could be a weapon, I guess.”
“We’ll get you some right away then. And I know that it’s not your fault that Stella’s gone off her rocker for the millionth time, you just got caught in the crossfire. I am sorry for going off like that before. That being said…I think it best if I find you another owner or…what do you think about being freed? You’re not a convicted slave, are you?”
Danny shook his head, clearly surprised by the turn in conversation. “No, Sir. I was given to Sonny as a gift by my father when I was fourteen.”
Shocked anew, Mac didn’t reply right away. He finally managed, “Oh, well, all right then. That’s not an impediment to freeing you. Would you like to be free?”
Danny blinked some more and reluctantly admitted, “I don’t…I don’t really know how to be, Sir. I mean yeah, of course I want to be free, but…I don’t know nothin’ about, you know, how to live like that. I don’t have any real education. No prospects for work. Don’t even know how to balance a checkbook.”
Which was a crime in and of itself, from the intelligence that Mac had so far seen. Sighing, he said, “Then I’ll keep you until you can, how’s that sound? I’ll put you in a GED program, get you into college and take care of you until you can stand on your own two feet.”
“I, I don’t know what to say, Sir,” Danny replied, squinting at him. “It’s sure as hell more than I ever thought could happen to me.”
There was something wary in the other man’s tone, but Mac didn’t take offense. The promise of freedom wouldn’t be real to the other man until it actually happened, Mac was sure. He simply smiled and said, “First things first. Let’s get you some glasses so you can see your hand in front of your face.”
A hesitant smile surfaced on Danny’s face and he answered softly, almost shyly, “Thanks, I’d really appreciate that.”
Mac walked over to him and took his arm, saying, “Just until you can see clearly on your own, okay?” and then guided him to the door.
Danny gave him another smile and nodded, lowering his gaze to the floor.
As they walked down the hall, Danny leaning slightly on him, Mac mentally smacked himself in the head and thought, Don’t get used to it, buster. He’s only temporary.
And then the more depressing thought returned to him…
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
THE NEXT STEP
Mac’s apartment was nicely furnished, comfortable and lived in, if overly neat. They’d stopped at a 24-hour place to get him glasses, then waited around for an hour while they were made up. The few conversations that they’d had at the time, when his new Master wasn’t staring thoughtfully into space, told Danny that the other man was just as sharp as he looked.
Danny took in his new surroundings quickly, glancing all over to get a sense of the place. They walked directly into the living room. A good sized kitchen stood off to the right. A narrow hall led forward, on which were two doors to the left, and one on the right; bedrooms and bathroom, he assumed. There was a small balcony over to the left side of the living room where a dusty bike rested.
“I don’t get a lot of time to go riding,” Mac said from behind.
Danny turned a bit and smiled briefly. “I bet.”
“C’mon. I’ll show you your room.”
Following him down the hall, Danny was led to the second door on the left and into a smallish room with a twin bed.
“It’s not much, but it’s yours,” Mac told him. “If the door’s closed, I’ll stay out. What you do in here is your business, assuming it’s not illegal. I’ll see if there’s a spare laptop at work that you can use for online classes and get you hooked up in here so you don’t have to do everything in the living room.”
Danny hated to admit it, but… “I don’t know how to use a computer. Never touched one, not since I was a kid and they’re a lot different now.”
Mac frowned and said, “That’s no problem. I’ll show you how to work it. I’m sure you’ll pick it up in no time. You hungry?”
“A little, yeah.”
“What do you want?”
Danny shrugged, not willing to start with the whole decision thing just yet. Not until he knew more about the man he was living with, anyhow. The man who owned him. “Whatever you get’s fine by me.”
Mac shook his head and said, “Look, Danny, I’m not going to bite your head off because you have a craving for Chinese and I’m in the mood for Italian. All the places around here deliver. Having two different restaurants deliver isn’t a big deal, so what do you want?”
Mac looked at him for a long moment, then nodded abruptly and headed back down the hall. Danny could tell from the body language that he’d said the wrong thing, the other man’s posture stiff and unyielding, but didn’t know how to fix it. After a few seconds, he sighed and followed Mac back to the living room. The cop was already on the phone, ordering Chinese food from the sound of it, so Danny stood uncertainly in the living room while he waited.
When Mac turned towards him, the neutral expression softened a little and he said, “You’re going to have to bear with me, Danny. I haven’t lived with anyone for a long time now. I’m not used to sharing space.”
“Yeah, okay. No problem,” Danny assured him hastily.
“Why don’t you get comfortable. There’s a pad of paper on the coffee table, so make a list of the things you need, clothes and such, and we’ll head out tomorrow before work.”
Danny nodded and walked over to the sofa, picking up the pad and pen and doing what he was told, but keeping the list at a minimum. He had the feeling that Mac was only as well off as he was because he was frugal, not because of any kind of inheritance. Besides which, he didn’t really need a lot.
Mac joined him on the sofa, grabbing the remote to turn on the television. “You like baseball?”
“Yeah. I was thinking of doing that for a living before, ah, you know,” Danny finished uncomfortably.
“Yeah? You were that good?”
“That’s what the coach said.”
A brief smile crossed Mac’s face and he said, “Nice. I think I can find a game on, let’s see.”
Danny didn’t really relax, even as the night wore on and the food was delivered and eaten. They caught a Red Sox vs. Yankees game, but Danny couldn’t really get into it, not sure just how much Mac followed the game. The other man was quiet for the most part, slouched comfortably against the cushions. He didn’t show anything of what he was thinking, didn’t really react to any of the game, so Danny had to figure that Mac was thinking about him. In what context, though, he had no clue.
Stella and Aiden had told him all about Mac’s wife dying in the Towers and how the man hadn’t seen anyone since then. That Mac had become a workaholic to avoid going on with his life. They’d also warned him that Mac could be pretty cold, not showing his emotions or even his thoughts, at any given time. It was Stella’s hope that, since Mac had shown an interest in Danny during the case, that the slave could somehow get passed the self-imposed barriers the cop had built and make him happy.
From what he could see now, Danny knew just how tall an order that was.
* * * *
Lying in bed that night, practically feeling Danny’s presence in the room next door even through the wall, Mac couldn’t stop cursing himself out for just how badly the night had gone. It was all his fault, of course. Danny had done what he’d been trained to do; he’d tried to go along with whatever Mac wanted, and to serve Mac throughout the night. Every time he’d gotten up to get a drink or something from another room, Danny had scrambled to his feet and asked what he’d needed. And every time, Mac would order him to sit back down and relax.
Not that it worked. Danny was as tight as a drum, and twice as ready to snap, by the time the night was over.
Rubbing at tired eyes, Mac knew that he had to find a different way of dealing with the slave. If he didn’t, Danny would just be more confused and miserable than ever, uncertain of himself and his place in Mac’s life. The problem was, of course, that Danny had been a slave since he was too young to know better. His personality had been formed, but the drive to strike out on his own, to make even simple decisions like what he wanted to eat, had clearly been beaten out of him. From what he personally knew of Sonny Sassone, Mac thought it unlikely that Danny had been allowed to decide when to even take a piss.
So what to do? Mac wondered in silent frustration.
There was enough of a spark to Danny that Mac knew it wasn’t too late to retrain him. The younger man could learn how to be independent and take care of himself. He made a mental note to check into what sort of resources the Slave Welfare people had for that kind of thing. In the meantime, he would simply have to tell Danny what to do, if only to give the kid a sense of security and certainty.
Decision made, Mac turned onto his back and relaxed into the pillow, drifting slowly into sleep.
* * * *
Waking completely and suddenly, Marine senses on alert, Mac froze in place as he tried to ascertain what had brought him out of such a deep sleep. Relying on his ears, he listened to the silence of the room, the thick windows mostly blocking out the sirens and traffic from outside. A few seconds later, he made out the soft breathing that was out of place and frowned, opening his eyes. Looking around, Mac didn’t see Danny’s silhouette anywhere and he slowly rolled onto his side to look on the floor.
There was something absolutely heartbreaking about the sight of the tall, lanky man curled up into a ball on the floor.
Mac sighed and asked quietly, “Danny? You awake?”
The slave’s very stillness answered his question.
“Come on up here and get comfortable.”
It was a few seconds before Danny moved at all, maybe waiting for a negative reaction to his presumption, and then he moved very quickly, as if afraid Mac would change his mind. Only a few seconds later, Danny was under the covers and wrapped around Mac from the side, face pressed against his chest.
Bemused, Mac didn’t move for a good minute, not sure what to do with the armful he had. He finally lowered his arm around Danny’s shoulder, resting his hand on the thick hair. He hadn’t been so physically intimate with anyone since Claire’s death and it didn’t feel natural to him any more.
“I’m sorry, Sir,” Danny apologized softly. “I just couldn’t sleep on my own.”
Mac smiled in the darkness, glad for its cover, and replied, “It’s okay, Danny. Get some sleep now, all right?”
Danny yawned and nodded, burrowing an impossible bit closer and tighter.
It’s a lot like sleeping with a python, Mac mused fancifully, the grin broadening a bit.
Still, it wasn’t terribly uncomfortable and he had to admit that the extra weight on him was nice. It was something that he hadn’t even realized was missing, until right then. Mac didn’t even notice when he fell asleep a few minutes later, still petting the soft, thick hair under his hand.
* * * *
Waking slowly from an erotic dream, comfortable and warm and relaxed, Mac sighed deeply as he stretched. The sense memory of the dream lingered, someone’s mouth sucking gently at his dick, applying light pressure with an agile tongue. Not enough to make him come, but enough to arouse him in a languid way. A soft, contented, humming noise broke through his own hazy pleasure and Mac abruptly realized that it wasn’t a dream.
He bolted upright and dislodged Danny entirely by pushing at his shoulders with a sharp, “Danny! Get off!”
Danny instantly stopped and scrambled away, looking at him with a fearful expression. “I’m sorry, Sir, I’m sorry! Did I do it wrong? Did you not enjoy it? I should’ve waited ‘til you were awake, shouldn’t I? Oh God, I shouldn’t have disturbed…”
“Danny, stop!” Mac interrupted, cursing silently at the flinch his hard tone produced. He took a breath and said, “It’s okay, Danny, I promise. I’m not going to hurt you.”
The slave didn’t look at all convinced.
Sighing, aroused and irritated, Mac continued, “You don’t have to have sex with me, Danny, not for any reason. You sure as hell don’t need to give me a wake-up call in the form of a blowjob.”
“But…you’re my Master,” Danny replied, confused.
Which told him exactly how Sassone had had the slave wake him up every morning. Pulling his sweatpants back into place and ignoring the erection it hid as best he could, Mac said, “I know, but that’s only temporary, remember? Okay look. Let’s start over. Should’ve set the rules last night, but I didn’t think… We live together. You can sleep with me if that makes you comfortable, I certainly didn’t mind it. I’ll be taking care of all your needs, make sure you get an education and can take care of yourself. There’s no timetable, so if this takes six months, or a year, or longer, that’s okay. You don’t need to have sex with me, or serve me, or in any way be my slave unless we’re in public. Are we clear?”
Looking utterly miserable, though for reasons Mac couldn’t immediately discern, Danny nodded and whispered, “Yes, Sir.”
“Why don’t you go take a shower and get ready for the day?” Mac suggested as gently as he could.
Danny nodded again and climbed off the bed, walking quickly out of the room.
Mac groaned out loud and flopped back onto the pillows with a heartfelt, “I’m going to kill her.”
* * * *
The morning was spent getting ready in silence. Danny didn’t know what to say and Mac didn’t seem inclined to talk. He didn’t know if the other man was pissed at what he’d done, had decided to ignore it altogether, or just didn’t talk a lot in the mornings normally.
Probably pissed, Danny thought, sneaking a glance at his Master across the table. Doesn’t seem the type to ignore things.
Breakfast turned out to be coffee and toast. Really good coffee that had Danny hankering for more, though he limited himself to the one cup so as not to appear greedy. He sipped it slowly, making it last, and then wound up gulping down the last couple of cool mouthfuls when Mac got up from the table to leave.
They headed for a clothing store first. Danny stood motionless while he was fitted for a few real suits and tried on the shoes and sneakers without complaint, even though he hated clothes. It was something Sonny had trained him to, being nude at all kinds of times and in front of anyone but Mrs. Sassone, or Sony’s nieces and aunts. From there, dressed in comfortable slacks, a warm sweater, socks and boots, they went to the lab. Mac showed him where everything was; restroom, break room, lab, forensics, trace, and administration. Then he brought Danny to his office and sat him down at the desk. There was a quick lesson on how to use the computer and get onto the internet.
“No porn sites while I’m gone,” Mac warned.
Danny was all set to protest that of course he wouldn’t, when he caught the subtle twinkle in the pale eyes gazing back at him. He smiled a little and answered, “I’ll be sure and clean up the history like you just taught me so you won’t know the difference anyhow.”
Mac actually chuckled at that. “Good, good. I have to get to work, so I’ll see you in a couple of hours for lunch. I don’t have a real pass for you, so here’s a note if you need to use the restroom or want to grab something from the break room. Oh, and here’s some money. There’s a change machine in the break room, too.”
Taking the paper and twenty dollar bill from the other man, Danny nodded and said, “Thanks. I’ll be right here.”
“You can stretch your legs if you want,” Mac assured him. “Just stay close to the office. And that list has all the extensions, plus all our cell phones if you need to get hold of us. Stella can usually track me down, or Flack, but you haven’t really met him yet. He was there the day we were at Sassone’s house to question him.”
“Tall guy, dark hair, and an attitude,” Danny remembered, then flushed at the disrespectful description.
Mac just laughed again and nodded, clapping Danny on the back. “That’s him. He’s a good guy. If you can’t get hold of me or Stella, call Flack in an emergency.”
Nodding, Danny promised, “I will.”
“Good. I’ll see you in a couple of hours then.”
Once Mac was gone, the office seemed both bigger and more intimidating. Danny didn’t move for a couple of minutes, just looking around and waiting for something to go wrong while Mac wasn’t there. Eventually, he got up from the computer and walked over to the wall where a bunch of photos were hung. It was easy enough to spot Mac in them, even the much younger Marine version of him, and Danny smiled with pride as he took in the awards and commendations that also adorned the walls.
Stella’s voice floated back to him… “Mac’s like one of those old-fashioned warriors. He refuses to show emotion, good, bad, or ugly, and couldn’t tell a lie if his life depended on it. He’ll never leave a man behind and will stand up to any kind of corruption that he finds, even if he has to get bloody about it. I was always surprised he never made Gunny, but I guess he opted into the PD before that could happen.”
The man in the photos smiled easier and wider, but it was the same intensity staring out from the eyes.
“He’s a good man but a stubborn asshole sometimes, too,” Aiden’s words echoed through his mind. “Wouldn’t know how to let someone take care of him if they smacked him upside the back of the head. Or bent over the nearest surface and spread their legs, depending.”
Danny sighed wistfully as he remembered the taste and feel of his Master from that morning. The strong, sleepy, masculine scent had been a heady thing, as had the slender length of flesh that had risen under his careful ministrations. It had felt so good to hear the soft sighs and mumbled, indecipherable words as Mac had pushed into his mouth while still asleep.
Shivering in his own arousal, Danny pushed aside the thoughts and resolutely turned back to the desk. Mac didn’t seem the least bit interested in him for that, not awake anyhow, so it was best not to think about it. He spent the next hour or so going through education websites, seeing what kind of GED programs were local, versus online. When he couldn’t ignore his bladder any more, Danny picked up the hand-written permission slip and hesitantly looked out of the office. No one paid him the least bit of attention, so he walked quickly to the men’s room to take care of business.
That done, he hurried back to the office and closed the door with relief thinking that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. As soon as he sat back down behind the desk, the phone rang, making him jump. Biting his lip, Danny hesitated, then picked it up with, “Detective Mac Taylor’s office. Can I help you?”
“It’s me, Danny. How’re you doing?” Mac asked from the other end.
Surprised and warmed by the gesture of checking-up on him, Danny smiled and answered, “Keepin’ out of trouble. You?”
“Working a triple homicide that’s messier than usual,” Mac answered with a sigh. “I’m not going to make it back for lunch, so I called Aiden to have her bring you out for some food. You’ll be fine as long as you keep the permission slip on you.”
Disappointed, Danny said, “No problem. And um, good luck with that.”
“Thanks, Danny. I’ll see you later,” Mac replied, hanging up.
Danny hung up as well and settled back into the chair. There was more stuff he could do online, after all. Or… Looking thoughtfully around the neat office, Danny wondered if maybe there was something more constructive he could do with his time.
* * * *
Stella did her best not to grin when Mac arrived on the scene, but failed miserably. He looked more relaxed than she’d seen in a long time and that could only be because of Danny. He certainly hadn’t put more fiber in his diet overnight.
“Don’t you even start,” he warned, holding up a finger. “I’m not speaking to you unless it’s work related for at least a month.”
Chuckling, Stella pointed out, “That’ll be pretty hard to do, given you’re coming over for dinner tomorrow night, barring work.”
“Don’t remind me,” Mac muttered, looking over the crime scene. “What do we have?”
Stella got the hint and rattled off, “Owner of the subshop is Mark Perretti, that’s him behind the counter. Single gunshot to the head, execution style. His girlfriend, Maria Welsh, was shot twice; once in the back and once in the side. She bled out in minutes. Jack Carrigan, a patron from what we’ve been able to figure out, was shot in the gut three times. We’ve got two sets of prints going through the blood pools, which I’ve already marked, and no money or wallets are missing.”
Mac looked over at her in surprise. “Not a robbery?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” she confirmed.
Thoughtful, Mac’s gaze slid around the room again, slower this time as he took in the details. When he was done, he nodded at her and said, “Let’s get to work.”
It was a long morning spent kneeling and crouching on the floor, picking up evidence, or anything that looked like it might be evidence, bagging and tagging what they found. Mac stopped about an hour in to call Danny and Aiden, making sure the new slave got something to eat. Stella would get a report from her later, when they’d gone home for the night.
If they got to go home for the night. The case turned from apparent robbery to execution, though the why of it still wasn’t known. By the time they headed back to the lab with all the evidence intact, it was mid-afternoon and Stella’s stomach was growling impatiently. She placated it with a couple of energy bars and a coke from the vending machine, then hurried over to the lab, joining Aiden and Mac to process everything. Partway through, Flack showed up with some information about loan sharking and an underground gambling ring.
“So it looks like Mr. Carrigan wasn’t the innocent bystander we thought he was,” Flack continued.
Stella leaned against Aiden as she asked, “But why not shoot him in the head like a regular execution? Why the gut shot?”
“It’s a hell of a lot slower and more painful, that’s why,” Mac answered flatly. “Someone was sending a message. We just need to figure out what that message is. Stella, can you make sure Danny gets something to eat for supper while I head out to see Carrigan’s wife with Flack?”
“Yeah sure, of course,” she agreed. “I could do with something to eat, too.”
When Mac and Flack headed out of the lab, Stella turned to Aiden and demanded, “All right, spill. What did Danny tell you about last night?”
Aiden grinned briefly and said, “Wasn’t much to tell. Lots of miscommunication and jumpiness, from what I could tell, though Danny did wind up in Mac’s bed. Mac took exception to being sucked off this morning, though, which left Danny kinda put out, poor kid.”
Stella snorted and gestured wildly with her hands. “Well that figures. Mac finally has someone who wants to do him, and refuses. I swear the man is going to drive me to drink.”
* * * *
By the time they wrapped up the case, Mac was ready to just crawl right into bed and pass out. They’d been going for three days straight, catching cat naps here and there, and eating on the fly. Two more executions had taken place only twelve hours after the first three, and the resulting drive to find the killer had kept them all at the office and working hard for far too long. He hadn’t seen much of Danny in that time, but had to admit that somehow, the slave knew exactly when to show up with food or coffee, as well as the odd shoulder massage that helped more than Mac wanted to admit.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Mac announced, dropping his bag on the floor by the sofa. “I might come out sometime tomorrow.”
Danny smiled and replied, “I won’t send the dogs in after you, then.”
“Good plan,” Mac agreed, unable not to smile in return. The humor that had been surfacing here and there had turned out to be a delight; dry and witty, sometimes even off-color and sly.
Mac stripped on the way and tossed the shirts into the hamper in the bathroom. It wasn’t long before the water was hot the way he liked it and he stepped under the firm spray with a groan of pleasure. For a long time, he just stood there, letting the water wash away the stink and depravity of the job, trying to get the images of the newest victims out of his head. The last one had been a kid, only nineteen years old. What really killed Mac, was knowing that while they’d gotten the soldier pulling the trigger, the general was still out there somewhere, ready to send someone else to kill more people.
Towards the end of the shower, a delicious, spicy smell drifted into the bathroom, causing his stomach to growl hungrily. Stepping out a few seconds later, he dried off and pulled on his bathrobe, padding silently into the kitchen where Danny stood at the stove, stirring something in a pot that Mac didn’t even know he’d had. “Smells good.”
Danny jumped and turned to him with a brief smile. “It ain’t much. You had some tomatoes about to turn and sauce, well, from a jar anyhow, not real sauce, so I figured that I’d start supper. Just some pasta and garlic bread. Kinda surprised you had real garlic in the fridge.”
“I think Stella brought it over a couple of weeks ago,” Mac admitted. “She goes through cycles of trying to feed me ‘real food.’ I just suffer through it.”
“Well, you know, have a seat. It’s pretty much done,” Danny told him awkwardly.
It was then that Mac realized the slave was waiting apprehensively for a contradiction; that Mac was going to serve himself or maybe even wait on Danny. Remembering his resolution of just the other day, Mac said, “I’m going to get some clothes on, then I’ll be right back. Why don’t you set up?”
Danny nodded, looking relieved, and turned back to the stove.
While he was in the bedroom, Mac grabbed his laptop and brought it into the living room for later that night. He still had that research to do about the slave welfare people and resources for Danny, and knew there wouldn’t be any time at work to do it. Fully dressed once more, though in sweats and t-shirt, Mac returned to the kitchen to find a set table with delicious looking pasta and bread waiting for him. There was also a glass of red wine, though Mac had no idea where the bottle could’ve come from.
Sitting, he smiled at Danny and said, “Looks good, Danny, thanks.”
Danny smiled a little self-consciously. “You’re welcome, Sir.”
“Why don’t you call me ‘Mac’ in private?” Mac requested.
“Sure, okay,” Danny agreed. “Um, you need anything else?”
Mac picked up his fork and smiled again. “No, this looks perfect.”
Relieved, Danny did the same.
* * * *
At least I knew in advance, this time, that he was going to come in here, Mac thought in some amusement as Danny settled down against him with a sigh.
“Are things always like that case?” Danny asked curiously through a yawn.
Mac nodded. “Pretty much. Crime scenes need to be worked as quickly and thoroughly as possible, to maintain the evidence and bring the perpetrator to justice. The longer something goes unsolved, the more likely it will stay that way. In a murder case, it’s even more important to be efficient and thorough.”
Danny paused, then asked, “You think I could help out somehow? I mean, I felt pretty useless just hanging around your office all day.”
Surprised, Mac replied, “Well, first you would need to get your GED and then either complete a training program or go to college, but sure. If you think Criminalistics is something you’d be interested in, we’d love to have you. You’re a quick thinker and learner, from what I’ve seen so far.”
Danny fell silent and for a while, Mac thought he’d fallen asleep altogether. But then the slave asked quietly, “Are you really going to free me, Mac?”
Mac’s arm tightened around Danny’s shoulder at the question and he answered, “Yes, Danny. I’m really going to free you.”
“What if I don’t want to be free?”
The words were so soft that Mac almost missed them. He thought them over for a few minutes before saying, “I think that right now, you’re confused about things. I also think that you’re a little scared of being on your own, which is only to be expected. Now’s not the time for you to be making decisions like that, Danny. Wait until you’ve had some counseling and gotten some education under your belt, okay? When you’ve got some distance from Sassone and how he treated you.”
“Yeah, okay,” Danny agreed, less than enthusiastic.
Mac smiled in the darkness and absently kissed the top of Danny’s head. “Get some sleep, Danny. Big day tomorrow.”
“Night, Mac.”
“Good night, Danny.”
And even though it was good advice, Mac couldn’t help but stay awake, thinking about the day to come. Even though he’d only had Danny with him for less than a week, it felt strange to know the young man would be somewhere else without him for the whole day. After dinner, Mac had gotten in touch with a woman at the Slave Welfare department and explained the situation. She’d told him of a ‘Life’ class that was already in session, but had only been so for two days and could definitely take Danny.
So in the morning, Mac would drop Danny at the Slave Welfare department on his way to work, complete with an official pass this time. He wouldn’t see him again until five that night, when Mac went to pick him up. Danny hadn’t been all that happy about it, but Mac couldn’t tell if it was just because he wasn’t used to being on his own, or if it was due to the suddenness of it all. Just three weeks ago, Danny had belonged to a possessive, manipulative bastard who’d dictated his every move. Mac had to remind himself that all of what had happened in the last few weeks was a very big change for Danny.
It really is a wonder he’s taken to it so well, Mac mused, fingers stroking through Danny’s hair. Most slaves who were owned for as long as he was, and as young as he was, would probably be freaking out at this point.
Which brought up a good point. What if Danny was freaking out but not showing it because he thought it might disappoint Mac? Barely audible, Mac murmured, “Danny? You still awake?”
“Mmyeah?” was mumbled against his chest.
“You could never disappoint me,” Mac whispered. “No matter what you decide. Okay?”
“Gotchasure.”
Mac smiled, pretty certain that the slave was too far gone to remember what he’d just said in the light of day.
* * * *
Danny nervously pushed his glasses up even though there was no need to do so, they were about as far up as they could go without becoming welded to his face. The class was located in an old city building downtown, the whole Slave Welfare department was, and he could see just how unpopular the whole idea of a Slave Welfare department was from the condition of the building. It looked like what little budget they got, was used on things that had nothing to do with maintenance.
“You want me to come in?” Mac asked, frowning at the building.
Even though he really did, Danny shook his head, offering a brief smile. “I got it, thanks. Gotta start someplace, right?”
“It’s not a big deal for me to come in, Danny.”
Danny bit his lip, but shook his head. “No, that’s okay. I’m good.”
“Okay. But you call me if you need me for something,” Mac ordered, softening the tone with a smile.
Reassured, Danny nodded and said, “Thanks, Mac. I appreciate that.”
“You got my cell?”
“And Stella’s, and Aiden’s, and Flack’s,” Danny promised, a grin surfacing. Who knew that Mac could be such a worrywart?
As if realizing how he was coming across, Mac grimaced and said, “I get the point. Go on, then. I’ll see you at five, no matter what case comes up.”
“Thanks,” Danny replied, grateful.
He hopped out of the SUV and walked slowly up the cracked cement walkway. When he got to the door and turned around, Mac was still sitting at the curb, ignoring the honking around him from the traffic. Warmed by the gesture, Danny smiled fully and then headed inside.
The halls were pretty busy with people going about their business. It reminded Danny a little of high school, the one year of it he’d had. It seemed like there were all ages and races present, wherever he looked, but they all had smiles and were talking and laughing together in small groups or hurrying on their way singly.
“Hey there, are you Danny Messer?”
Danny jumped a little at the question, turning to the woman who’d spoken. She was in her mid-thirties, tall and slender, blond and green-eyed, and a large scar raking down the left cheek of what would otherwise be a pretty face. “Um, yeah. Well, just Danny.”
“Nope! Not here,” she corrected, smiling. “Here, you’ve got a last name and an identity, even if you’re not sure of who that is, just yet. I’m Shari Hennassey and I’ll be your buddy for the duration of the class.”
Bemused, Danny repeated, “Buddy?”
She nodded, taking his arm in a familiar way to lead him down the hall. “I’ll give you my home and cell number so that if you need to talk to someone who’s been where you are, you can. Any time, day or night, I’m there for you. Everyone gets a buddy when they sign up for this class. Or, you can call me a
More than a little uncomfortable at her boldness, not used to being touched by a woman, Danny carefully extricated himself and said, “No offense or anything, but, I don’t really need a buddy or mentor or whatever. I’m just here to get some learning done.”
“No offense taken,”
Ten minutes and too many names later, Danny took his seat in the middle of the class. He was surprised at the sheer volume of ‘students’ in the class. It wasn’t a lecture hall, so the classroom was filled to capacity, about forty-five or fifty people, leaving it literally standing room only. The loud chatter quieted down only moments after an old man entered the room. He leaned heavily on a cane, his posture stooped and his step pronounced. There wasn’t a single hair on the smallish head and his clothes appeared to be circa 1975.
Danny hid a grin at the man’s appearance, watching as he shuffled to the desk in front and set an ancient looking, leather carrying case on it. The man walked to the front of the desk and sat on it with some degree of difficulty. Since no one offered to help, Danny figured it was part of the man’s routine. It wasn’t until the man’s eyes landed on him, sharp and black and piercing, that the amusement left in a hurry.
This is a man with all his mental faculties and then some, Danny instantly decided.
The gaze moved on from him, scanning the rest of the room in a matter of seconds, and then a surprisingly strong voice commented, “I see some new faces in the crowd. I want you all to stand up. Tell us your names, and what you hope to accomplish here.”
The tone wasn’t to be disobeyed and Danny stood automatically, as did three women. Danny looked at them, not sure who should begin, then back at the man at the desk. As he opened his mouth to speak, though, an infirmed, shaking hand was lifted to stop him.
“That was a trick question of sorts,” the man informed them. “A trick order, if you will. You’ve all recently been freed, or are even still slaves, and the conditioning is still deeply rooted.”
Danny flushed, hating having been made a fool of and took refuge in staring at the floor.
“My name is Professor Jake Gelnich and I am pleased to have you in my class,” the man continued. “You’ll find this an informal situation, so please feel free to stop counting floor tiles at any time. You can speak out of turn. Use the restroom whenever you like. Leave altogether, if that is your wish. I would, however, very much like to know your names before you sit back down.”
Glancing over at the professor, Danny found the dark gaze expectant and waiting on his answer. Still feeling the heat in his face, Danny answered shortly, “My name’s Danny,” and sat down.
It wasn’t until the other three women had introduced themselves and also sat that Danny realized the old man had been expecting a last name as well and the flush intensified. Fortunately, the professor turned his attention to the class at large when the last woman sat, and Danny could slink down in his seat.
“As the four of you have come late, I’ll let you know that you really haven’t missed much. The first class was spent in some ‘getting acquainted’ exercises that the psychologists enjoy so much these days, and the second went over the basics of keeping a bank account. Given that I’ve had mine for thirty years and still can’t balance the infernal thing, I wouldn’t worry about having missed the session.”
There was a general chuckle at that, but Danny was still too off-balance to laugh.
“Today is going to be a bit different. Today, all of you are going to write a list of things that you want. Not things you need, or things that are practical, or things that can help you in any way. I want you to shoot for the moon. Make a list of things that are utterly frivolous and useless, but that you want anyhow. When you’re all done, we’re going to go around the class and you’ll tell us why you want them and I think you’ll be surprised by the theme that emerges. You’ve got twenty minutes to write it up, so begin.”
Danny pulled his pen from the inside jacket pocket and flipped over the notebook he’d taken from Mac’s briefcase that morning. It was a small, cop’s notebook, one of those memo things where they always jotted down important notes on a case. He stared at the blank paper for a few minutes, thinking about it.
What would he get, if he could get anything in the world?
* * * *
“Mr. Messer, if you could wait up for a moment?” Professor Gelnich requested as the class dispersed for the day.
Danny hissed silently in frustration, anxious to get outside where Mac would be waiting for him, but stopped and turned around.
Smiling briefly at him, the professor said, “I’d like to speak with you about your performance in today’s session.”
Surprised, Danny replied, “What about it? I participated.”
“You did,” Gelnich agreed, starting to slowly walk down the hall. “I just don’t believe that you participated truthfully. There were only three exercises today, all designed to get your minds out of the slave box in which they’ve been imprisoned, and to get you to interact with those who have been, and are still, going through what you are. I don’t think you said two words to anyone the entire day unless asked a direct question, even when
Danny bit his lip, looking down at the floor, then admitted painfully, “I don’t know if I do want to be here. Mac’s the one pushing for it. He didn’t buy me, one of his friends bought me for him. And…the guy who had me before…he didn’t really, you know, encourage free thought.”
“That’s the first thing I’ve heard you say today, that makes me not want to kick your butt,” the professor informed him, smiling.
Danny flashed a wry grin at the old man and told him, “Better you, than Mac, Professor, no offense.”
“Ah yes, the infamous Detective Taylor,” Gelnich replied, smiling even more. “You do know that we know one another, correct?”
Blinking in surprise, Danny shook his head. Pointing his cane at a nearby chair, Gelnich walked towards it and Danny followed, sensing there was going to be some kind of story coming about Mac and that, he didn’t want to miss.
Once settled on the chair, leather case on the floor, the professor leaned on his cane while looking up at Danny and said, “I’m not surprised he didn’t say anything. I doubt that he even remembers me. He was barely a man, at the time, on his first stint as a Marine. I was teaching a few courses at a base, about two years after I’d been freed at the death of my last master. I remember this vividly. Someone there found out that I’d been a slave for a long time before that, and started harassing me. I’d get flyers and pamphlets on my car windshield, my tires would lose their air, someone took my sparkplugs once. Then Corporal Taylor found out what was going on, and took it on himself to find out who the culprit was.”
“Which he did,” Danny stated, more than asked.
Gelnich smiled. “Indeed, indeed. Quite the young bulldog, even then. Very strong personality. Of course, he was the classic Marine, except for the bad habit of thinking for himself. Not a terribly good quality for a man in the ranks of any military, but even less so for a jarhead. In any case, he not only found out who it was, but went straight to JAG to have the perpetrator drummed out of the Corp. And back then it was practically unheard of for a freeman or citizen to take it upon himself to defend a slave, or even an ex-slave. So, what do you think the moral of this particular story is?”
Danny thought about it for a moment, then grinned. “Don’t piss him off?”
A rusty chuckle escaped Gelnich who replied, “Well that too, yes, but I was thinking more along the lines of the contradiction of the man.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that here’s a man who has served his country and the Empire, in one fashion or another, for going on twenty years. He’s got the charisma and authority of a true Master, the expectation that he will be obeyed, and yet can’t stand the thought of someone belonging to another, or being treated badly because of it. It is quite the contradiction and I’m honestly intrigued to see which trait will win out, in your case,” the professor finished.
Danny frowned, looking at the floor as he thought the words over.
“Come now, Mr. Messer. You can assist me to my car and then do your brooding elsewhere.”
Shaking his head, Danny observed, “You’re a real piece of work, you know that, Professor?”
The old man smirked as he slowly got to his feet. “Why thank you, my boy.”
* * * *
Mac waited impatiently for Danny to exit the building, glancing at his watch every few seconds. Just as he was about to get out of the SUV and go hunting for the wayward slave, he saw Danny come out in the company of an old, stooped-over man. Mac snorted and thought, Of course he’d stay behind to help.
Leaning back in the seat, he waited with more patience than before, reassured that nothing bad had happened to the younger man. It was a good ten minutes until Danny jogged back around the corner and up to the vehicle, hopping into the seat with a hasty, “Sorry about that, Mac, that was my professor and he needed some help…”
“Don’t worry about it,” Mac interrupted, with a grin. “You want an apple for tomorrow?”
Danny actually made a face at him and replied, “Very funny.”
Chuckling, Mac turned the engine on and pulled smoothly into traffic. “So how did it go? Did you have a good day?”
“It was all right, I guess. Professor Gelnich’s a smart old guy, sharp as a tack, I’ll tell you that for nothin,’” Danny answered, shaking his head.
Mac frowned, the name prompting a vague memory from his Corp days. “Gelnich? I know that name. Probably no relation though.”
“Actually, if you’re thinking about the guy who was being harassed for being an ex-slave teaching in the Corp, then it’s the same guy,” Danny confirmed.
Astonished, Mac said, “The man was sixty at the time, I can’t believe he’s still alive.”
“And kicking, believe you me,” Danny replied, dry. “Are we going home, or back to the lab?”
Mac smiled and answered, “We’re going to get something to eat, is what we’re going to do. How’s Japanese sound?”
Danny blinked at him. “Really foreign and slimy.”
“That’s pretty closed-minded of you, Danny,” Mac reproved.
“But don’t they do all that raw fish stuff? I’ve got a thing about the smell of fish.”
Mac snorted and said, “Italian it is.”
“Well, but if you want Japanese…”
“It’s fine, Danny. I’ll expand your comfort zone one continent at a time.”
Danny huffed in amusement and muttered, “Great. Lookin’ forward to it.”
It didn’t take long to get to Antonia’s and Mac hid a smile at the way Danny gaped at the restaurant, then practically glued himself to Mac’s side as they entered. “It’s just a restaurant, Danny.”
“Are you kidding me?” Danny exclaimed softly. “This place is famous! Um, you sure you can afford it?”
Mac arched an eyebrow at him.
“Forget I asked.”
“Good plan.”
They headed inside where the hostess, a lovely, young woman with traditional Italian features and hair waited. Mac hid his amusement at Danny’s surprise and
“Detective
Danny’s eyebrows went up at that, but he didn’t say anything, which caused Mac to hide another smile. The table was ready in less than a minute and then they were walking through the quiet, discreetly lit interior to a table in the back. Mac had only ever come in here with Claire, or by himself, so he was sure that Danny’s presence would cause a stir. Maybe even prompt Carlo himself to come out of the kitchen and take a look.
Once seated, Mac said, “Whatever’s on special is good,
“As you wish, Detective. Some wine with dinner?” she suggested.
Mac nodded and agreed, “Sounds good. Danny? You need a few minutes to look the menu over?”
Danny bit his lip then said, “I’ll just have what you’re having. I’m sure it’ll be great.”
As soon as she was gone, Danny leaned forward and pointed out, “They think I’m a Concubine or something special to you, you know.”
Mac shrugged. “Who cares?”
Shaking his head, Danny admitted, “I just don’t get you, Mac.”
“How’s that?”
“You’re against slavery, but have no public stance on it from what I can tell. No one at the lab even thought twice about you owning me. You live like a monk, but you come here often enough that they know you by name? You’re, you’re all about contradictions, so far as I can tell and that’s damn confusing,” Danny finished, scrubbing fingers through his hair to leave it even wilder than before.
He flushed a little and answered, “Um, thanks, ma’am.”
She glanced at Mac and winked, as if in approval, before leaving them alone again.
Chuckling, Mac observed, “You’ve made a conquest.”
Danny snorted. “Great. Notify the papers.”
“Danny,” Mac warned.
Sighing, Danny waved an apologetic hand. “Sorry. I’m a little stressed right now.”
“And just to clear up some of the stress, I’ll answer some questions for you,” Mac promised, leaning on the table. “I’m not against slavery, per se. It has a place in the world, I just don’t think it needs to be as pervasive as it is, and that it needs far greater sanctions placed upon it. I make almost a hundred thousand a year and spend very little of it, thanks to a city vehicle and owning that apartment building, which Claire and I bought in our fourth year of marriage at a substantial discount. Claire and I came here a lot because she was friends with the owner’s daughter, Antonia, after whom the restaurant was named. Is that better?”
Danny offered a wan smile. “A little, yeah. Thanks.”
With a shrug, Mac told him, “If you have any questions about anything, all you have to do is ask, Danny. The worst that will happen is I’ll tell you that it’s none of your business. So. Any other questions?”
“Why do you want to free me?”
Talk about going right for the jugular, Mac thought in dark amusement. Feeling that Danny deserved at least some of the truth, Mac said slowly, “When Claire died, I honestly didn’t see myself getting involved with anyone else. She was…my world. I still wear her ring, even though most husbands don’t go for that kind of thing, even less if they’ve been widowed. But Claire was special. I still love her, really, and don’t see that changing any time soon. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to you, Danny, but I don’t see anything happening between us in a…significant way. I want you to be able to take care of yourself, to not be dependent on me or anyone else because I can see that you’re special too.
“You know, even that first day I saw you, I knew you were different. You hadn’t let Sassone beat you down, emotionally or mentally, even though I know he had to’ve tried over the years. I want you to be happy, Danny, and I really think that you’ll be happiest with your own life, living it how you want to live. I can’t give you back the years that bastard took from you, but I can give you a future,” Mac finished.
Danny looked away from him, taking a roll from the basket to tear slowly to pieces in lieu of actually saying something. He finally took a sip of water, cleared his throat, and without looking at Mac, said roughly, “Thanks, Mac. No one’s ever said anything like that to me before.”
Knowing how true that had to be, given that Danny’s own father had sold him off, Mac just answered, “You’re welcome.”
Danny finally looked at Mac, the deep blue of his eyes shining as he agreed, “It sure does, ma’am.”
* * * *
The next few weeks passed in a bit of a haze for Danny, running between nightmare and fantasy.
He spent the days slowly striking out on his own with the people from his class, feeling them out, talking with Gelnich about pretty much everything under the sun. It was hard to keep his distance from the old man, as much as he wanted to, because Gelnich didn’t take any crap from anyone, least of all Danny. If he thought Danny was holding back on something, he called him on it and pushed until there was some kind of resolution.
Aside from all the emotional crap he went through just listening to other people’s stories, some way worse than his, there was the turbulence from his own past that made itself felt in various ways. Gelnich insisted that he go see a shrink, no matter how much he didn’t want to go. As he so succinctly put it... “If you don’t, one day you’re going to take an uzi and mow down whomever pissed you off that morning by accidentally spilling your coffee.” So Danny asked for Mac to set something up for him with a specialist that Gelnich knew.
The nights, though, more than made up for the shit he had to deal with during the day. At night, he got Mac all to himself, if there wasn’t a case pending. They would get something to eat and bring it home, or Danny would cook, and spend the night talking, or watching television and saying nothing. And while Mac didn’t seem the least bit phased by all the time alone, Danny knew he was heading for a fall. Knew it, and couldn’t stop himself. There was just too much about Mac that called to him on an instinctive level. The man’s honor, his strength and will, the sheer personality of the bastard, as cold and heartless as he could be sometimes, it was all part of a very desirable package.
Once the life class was done, a little over a month later, spring had come very definitely to
Danny went into the lab with Mac every day, once class was done. He would park himself at the desk and read everything he could get his hands on just about every subject possible. The next GED session didn’t start until summer school, which was another month away, but Danny wanted to be as prepared as possible. The last thing he wanted to do was let Mac down by not applying himself. Though when he thought that way, there was the oddest sense memory of someone stroking his hair and whispering that he could never disappoint. It was both soothing and disconcerting.
He and Aiden got to be good friends and Danny would frequently go down to the lab on a break from studying and watch her work from the sidelines. She would give a running commentary on whatever it was she did and a few days after that started, both Stella and Mac thanked him for being there. They’d said it made Aiden sharper and more on task to have to explain exactly what she was doing, and why. So the studying took a back seat until the start of the GED session and Danny started spending his days just observing.
The more he observed, the more Danny wanted to know. It was like he couldn’t get enough information fast enough. He couldn’t get actively involved, which was frustrating, but he also didn’t want to be the reason a case was compromised and so stayed quite firmly on the sidelines. Then Mac asked if he wanted to brush up on his anatomy by checking out Dr. Hawkes in the morgue. Danny wasn’t too keen on the idea at first, but realized that if he was going to do this as a career, dead bodies were going to be a big part of the job.
And it wasn’t like he’d never seen dead bodies before, anyhow.
So Danny split his days between Aiden and Hawkes, who quickly demanded that he lose the ‘doctor’ part of his name. Then there were days that Flack would show up and start lecturing him on police procedure. He questioned Dabby about what kind of guns he’d used before, the assumption being that he had used them. It a fairly valid assumption, considering what life he’d come from, but Danny quickly disabused Flack of the notion with a short, “Sonny didn’t want no one around him that could give him any grief, loaded or otherwise.”
The cop had simply nodded and asked if he wanted to learn how to shoot. A little astonished, Danny had glanced at Mac, who’d merely shrugged, not giving a hint about how he felt, one way or the other. Unnecessarily pushing his glasses up, Danny had finally just nodded.
One thing he hated above everything else, was his weekly appointment with Dr. Stephen Finnegan. The man was ruthless about digging up shit that Danny never wanted to think about again in his entire life. They would talk and talk, argue and be silent, ignore and cry, all depending on just how much ‘progress’ Finnegan wanted to make that week. Each session was two hours long, after which Danny felt like the life had been sucked out of him.
Also after which, Mac would pick him up and they would have a quiet lunch somewhere, no matter what time it was, in the park. It was towards the end of June, right when the heat started to get uncomfortably muggy, that Danny found himself sitting on a park bench with Mac without the least bit of an idea of what to say. The silence wasn’t comfortable like it normally was, though, at least not to him. He kept his eyes on the kids shouting to each other, tossing Frisbees and footballs back and forth. And then the words were out before he could censor them...
“I don’t want to go back to see Dr. Finnegan.”
Mac glanced at him, but Danny refused to look back. “Why not?”
“Because I’m done,” Danny answered firmly. “Sonny was a fuckin’ bastard who raped me on a regular basis, kept me uneducated, took away my life, and generally made it a living hell from the first day my asshole of a father sold me to him. Talking about it isn’t going to make me any less pissed off about it. And I swear to God that if Finnegan gives me one more fuckin’ platitude, I’m gonna knock his fuckin’ block off.”
Mac coughed slightly, probably in amusement, but only answered, “Okay.”
That got Danny’s attention and he gave the other man an incredulous look, demanding, “Okay? That’s it? You’re not going to try and convince me otherwise?”
Shifting so that they were mostly facing one another, Mac replied, “I’ve been waiting for you to tell me you didn’t want to go back. Truthfully? I thought it would take less time. Looks like Stella wins the pot again. I swear the woman has some kind of sixth sense.”
“You son of a bitch,” Danny groused, without any real heat. “All this time I coulda not been listening to that pompous windbag and you let me just go there?”
Mac finally grinned. “I did tell you that I wanted you to make your own decisions.”
Danny’s eyes rolled and he slouched back on the uncomfortable bench, leaning slightly on Mac. “So what’s on for today?”
“I’ve got to meet with someone about this Dove Commission thing,” Mac answered, sighing faintly. “The shit’s about to hit the fan, I’ll tell you that for nothing.”
Frowning, Danny asked, “What do you mean? You haven’t mentioned this thing before.”
“It’s a deep investigation into the NYPD. Corruption, dirty cops, the whole nine yards. A lot of heads are going to roll when this thing comes out, and I mean that literally.”
“Yeah. The mayor’s on that whole ‘clean up the city first,’ thing, isn’t he?” Danny commiserated.
“Something like that,” Mac agreed. He nudged Danny and continued, “Come on. Let’s get back to work. I’ve got some things to tie up before the Commission Report is released and the irritatingly official Internal Affairs Inspector Bill Markoni winds up deep in my...paperwork.”
Danny chuckled, knowing that wasn’t what Mac was going to say, but a couple of young girls walked by, preempting the mild language. As he and Mac walked, Danny observed, “At least you don’t have anything to worry about with the lab.”
“Yeah, but that’s not the case with a lot of departments and precincts,” Mac replied, guiding him easterly along the path. “There’s going to be hell to pay and I need to batten down the hatches before things start up.”
“Like your hatches ain’t already battened. Your hatches are so battened, they’re practically sealed shut with the space shuttle vacuum lock.”
Mac grinned at him and slipped an arm around his waist as they continued to walk. Danny sighed in contentment. It was the first truly peaceful moment he’d known in...ever, really. Leaning his head on Mac’s shoulder, Danny drifted into what really was a comfortable silence.
* * * *
Markoni was waiting for them by the time they got to the office, which didn’t really surprise Mac. The man was nothing if not anal retentive and a control freak. They’d only met a few times before the Dove Commission had been assembled, but several times since and Mac was both impressed and appalled by the man. Markoni’s devotion to his duty in IAB was unassailable, but on a personal level, the man was cold and ruthless. Although really, maybe you have to be both to work in IAB, Mac thought as he ushered Danny into the office.
Holding out his hand, Mac greeted, “Good to see you again, Bill. How are you?”
Bill took his hand in a firm shake and answered, “I’m good, thanks Mac. You?”
“Doing great,” Mac replied, then turned to Danny. “Why don’t you go down and see if you can harass Aiden a little?”
Danny smiled briefly and murmured, “Yes, Sir,” before striding easily from the office.
“I’d heard you’d gone and gotten yourself a slave, but I didn’t believe it.”
Mac glanced back at Markoni and answered, “I didn’t, actually, Stella bought him for me.”
“But you haven’t freed him,” Markoni observed, mildly curious. “Must be some kind of slave.”
The speculative look in the other man’s gaze rose his hackles a little, but Mac only replied, “It’s a long process to get him into the right mind set to be able to take care of himself once he’s free. I don’t want him to just wind up back where he started.”
Markoni offered a brief, cool smile. “Of course not.”
Gesturing to the chair in front of his desk, Mac suggested, “Shall we get to work?”
* * * *
Danny knew that look all too well. He’d seen it in the eyes of literally hundreds of people over the years, many of whom he’d had to service just as soon as they’d made their wants known to Sonny. Not all of them had been men, but a good portion had been. The look had signaled a desire to fuck Danny raw, to make him scream or beg for mercy when there wouldn’t be any.
This time, the look had come from one of Mac’s colleagues, which put Danny in a serious bind. He didn’t know whether to bring it up to Mac, or ignore it. He wanted to tell Aiden, but knew that she would blab to Stella who’d be personally affronted and demand that he tell Mac, or maybe even tell him herself. Danny, however, didn’t think that would be a good thing. Mac was nothing if not honorable, and he’d probably want to Challenge this guy for even looking at Danny that way.
I mean, it’s possible he wouldn’t. It is just looking, Danny mused on his way to the lab. Not like the guy groped me or anything.
Even though Danny had seen in the brief second their eyes had met, that it was definitely on the list of things the guy’d wanted to do to him.
“Hey, Danny.”
Danny jumped at Flack’s greeting, took a breath and turned to face the cop. “Hey, Flack. What’s going on?”
The cop frowned at him and answered, “Not much for once. You okay? Have a fight with Mac or something?”
“Nah, nothing like that,” Danny assured him. “Just a little jumpy today.”
“So I see,” Flack agreed.
Danny changed the subject with, “So this Dove Commission thing. What’s it about?”
As hoped for, Flack scowled and started walking as he explained, “Governor crackdown on dirty cops. And you know, I’m all for justice and the American way, but cops gotta deal with things other people don’t.”
“So there should be two sets of rules? Don’t let Mac hear you say that,” Danny warned.
Flack made an impatient gesture. “I’m not saying that. I just mean that some...consideration should be given to cops who’ve been on the job a long time and lost their way a little, you know?”
Danny nodded, but repeated, “You still shouldn’t let Mac hear you say something like that.”
“Trust me, I know.”
They’d reached the lab by then and Flack continued on his way while Danny went inside.
* * * *
It was a few days after that, that Mac got his first taste of what life without Danny would be like. Professor Gelnich was going on a lecture up in
“Make sure you call me every night,” Mac ordered sternly. “I don’t want to be thinking everything’s fine and you’re really in a holding cell for escaped slaves somewhere in Southie about to be hamstrung.”
“I’ll call every night,” Danny agreed, smiling at him.
Mac sighed and offered a brief smile. “All right, I can see you practically vibrating with excitement. You ever been to
“Never been nowhere.”
Which was something Mac definitely wanted to change. Maybe a visit to
Danny’s smile got bigger then he leaned over for a too-quick kiss to Mac’s lips that stunned the hell out of him. The slave was out of the vehicle before Mac could say anything, though, and it took all he had not to call the younger man back for an explanation. It was the first time since Danny’s misguided attempt to give him a blowjob that he’d touched Mac with anything outside the ‘normal’ touching of two guys.
He watched for a few minutes as Professor Gelnich supervised the group of three ex-slaves and one current, Danny, into loading the car. It wasn’t until Danny paused to wave at him before ducking into the station wagon, that Mac sighed and turned on the engine.
* * * *
“You’re like a bear with something stuck in its paw,” Stella observed from the relative safety of the doorway. “When’s Danny getting back?”
Mac grimaced and answered, “Seventeen hours and thirty-two minutes before I pick him up at Gelnich’s.”
“But who’s counting?” Stella observed humorously.
Mac snorted. “I am, that’s who. Come in already, would you? And shut the door while you’re at it.”
Stella arched an eyebrow at him, but did as she was asked, then sat on the edge of the desk. “What’s up?”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, looking more tired than Stella could remember him being in a long time, Mac answered, “I’ve painted myself into a corner and don’t know how to get out.”
Lips pursed, Stella guessed, “You don’t want to free Danny.”
“How do you do that?” Mac demanded, shaking his head.
“It’s a gift.”
“I always knew you belonged chained up in a
“Don’t change the subject.”
“Right.” Mac sighed. “So what do I do? I can’t take it back now. He’s so set on being free, Stella. I mean, you’ve seen him. He practically lives for getting out with his friends and getting his education. If I tell him I’ve changed my mind, it’ll kill him.”
Choosing her words carefully, Stella replied, “Everyone wears a mask, Mac, but slaves have theirs perfected. We only see what they want us to see. It’s a defense mechanism and sure as hell a legitimate one, given how ninety-eight percent of them are treated. The only reason Aiden doesn’t, is because I’ve been her only owner. She’s never been mistreated by the system or anyone in it and really, she likes being my favored one more than she liked being on her own, which is the only reason I didn’t free her after buying her.”
“Your point?”
“My point is that you don’t know how Danny really feels about being freed. He’s showing you exactly what he thinks you want to see,” Stella explained. “Talk to him about it. Tell him how you really feel about him. Be as excruciatingly honest as I know you can be, and see where the chips fall. If he does want to really be free, then you’ll free him. But, if as I suspect, he doesn’t want to be free or to leave you, then freeing him will only be a disservice to the both of you.”
Frowning, Mac leaned back in his chair and asked, “You really think he doesn’t want to be free?”
“Not if it means being separated from you,” Stella replied firmly.
“Why do you think that?”
Stella smiled and answered, “Mac, I’ve watched both of you pretty carefully since he came into our lives. He lights up every time you come into the room and practically hangs on your every word. God knows why.”
Mac snorted. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Stella replied, grinning. “So stop worrying so much about it and do something about it.”
A knock at the door interrupted them and Stella looked back to see Bill Markoni waiting there. Her eyes rolled as she looked back at Mac and he flashed her a brief grin of understanding before waving her away.
“We’ll see you for supper tomorrow night?” Mac asked as she headed for the door.
Stella nodded. “
Opening the door, she forced a smile at the IAB Inspector and let him in before stepping out and closing the door behind her. One thing that she didn’t envy Mac about his job, was the people he had to deal with. As much as she would love to hold that kind of position, simply because women seldom did, there was no way that Stella could be so politic as to ignore someone drooling over Aiden the way Markoni did over Danny. She knew that if the slave said one thing about it to Mac, the cop would Challenge Markoni in a heartbeat.
Given Markoni’s record with a sword, Stella was glad that Danny was keeping his mouth shut.
* * * *
Maybe it was the late hour. Maybe it was the smugness in Markoni’s face. Whatever the reason, when Danny’s name came up in conversation, as it did every time they met since Markoni had laid eyes on Danny, Mac stated coldly, “If I hear my slave’s name from your lips one more time, especially in that manner, you will not like the results.”
Markoni looked at him for a moment. “Are you threatening me, Taylor?”
Mac leaned forward, calmly folding his hands together on his desk, and replied simply, “I don’t threaten.”
For a few seconds, Markoni gazed back at him, then nodded abruptly and said, “There are other things to be discussed before the report is released tomorrow.”
“I think we’re done,” Mac countered, standing. “My lab is in excellent shape, as are all the cops who deal with us. I don’t want to see you around my people again unless you’ve got a specific item to address and they have representation with them. I also don’t want you anywhere near my slave, under any circumstance. If I find you within ten meters of him, I’ll issue a challenge.”
Markoni sneered a little as he stood and replied, “Didn’t realize you were so insecure,
Once the man was gone, Mac took a deep breath and looked at the clock. It was almost eleven, which meant that Danny would be calling him shortly. Just as the thought crossed his mind, the phone rang and he smiled as he picked it up with, “Mac Taylor.”
“You know, you really gotta answer the phone better. People might think you’re some low-level flunky or somethin,” Danny teased from the other end.
Leaning back in the chair, relaxing, Mac replied, “Having a good day?”
“Great day!” Danny exclaimed. “All we did we go sight-seeing, which was really cool. Went on that weird thing called a Duck Tour, which is an amphibious car thing that can go from the street right into the water. And you know what? People complain about the
Mac grinned and listened as Danny chattered on about his day, making the occasional prompting noise for more when the slave took a breath or paused.
It was almost
“I’ve had better, I’ve had worse,” Mac answered. “I’ll be fine once you get back home.”
The words slipped out without him really meaning to, and Mac held his breath as he waited for the response.
“Yeah, I uh, I ain’t been sleeping too good without you,” Danny admitted softly. “I mean, everyone here’s great, but...I miss you.”
Mac had to swallow a couple of times at Danny’s words and he said gruffly, “I miss you too, Danny. And we’re going to have a talk when you get back, okay?”
“What about?”
The worry in Danny’s voice was easy to hear, and Mac was quick to assure him, “Nothing bad, I promise. I just wanted to...revisit that question you had in the beginning of all this.”
“What question?”
“What if you didn’t want to be free.”
There was a pause before Danny said, even more quietly, “I haven’t changed my mind about that...Master.”
It was like a punch to the gut and Mac hissed in surprise. “You never even gave a hint since then...never mind. We’ll get this all out when you’re back tomorrow. Three-thirty, right?”
“Last I checked, yeah.”
“Good. I’ll be waiting for you at Gelnich’s place.”
“Mac?”
“Yeah?”
“I really can’t wait to see you again.”
Mac swallowed against a suspiciously tight throat and closed his eyes before answering, “Same here, Danny.”
* * * *
On a pit-stop to get gas and junk food at the station’s store, Danny found himself cornered by Jake, something that he’d never enjoyed and probably never would. They were sitting in the car, both in the back seat, taking a few minutes to enjoy the quiet when the professor started talking.
“You know, it hasn’t escaped my notice that you’ve enjoyed yourself thoroughly on this trip,” the old man began with a smile.
Danny flashed him a grin and replied, “I really did, Professor, thanks for asking me along.”
Gelnich shrugged, rubbing absently at a too-thin thigh. “You were a pleasure to have, Danny. I mean that.”
“But...?”
“But I also noticed that you weren’t very comfortable around the others,” Gelnich continued. “You interacted fine with them, but you always shied away from any actual contact with them; physically, I mean. That’s the manner of someone who doesn’t want to accidentally go against orders not to be intimate with others in any fashion. Did Detective Taylor decide to rescind his offer to free you before you came with us?”
Danny hesitated, not sure how to explain what was going on when he wasn’t all that sure himself. He finally just said, “I don’t want to be free, Professor Gelnich. Not if it means leaving Mac. I never have, though I didn’t really know why in the beginning.”
Disappointment etched into the weathered features and Gelnich sighed. “Oh Danny. You can still have a meaningful relationship with someone who isn’t your Master. You can be free and join your lives without the entrapment of slavery. It might seem a comfort to you now, but in five or ten years...”
“I’ll still want to serve Mac with everything I’ve got,” Danny interrupted, shifting to face him better. “I know you think I’m not thinking clearly, but I am. And don’t try to pin this on Mac, because if I told him to free me right this minute, he would. He might not love me like he did his wife, but I know he cares about me and wants to keep me.”
Shaking his head, the professor countered, “Then have him free you. If he does, you can turn around and offer yourself as a voluntary slave to him. If he doesn’t, then you’ll know he can’t be trusted and is just like the rest of the slave owners out there, wanting to use and exploit you for his own selfish purposes.”
Danny drew back in surprise at the suggestion, automatically shaking his head. “I don’t need to test Mac like that!”
“Yes you do, my boy,” Gelnich stated firmly. “Because if you don’t, you’ll never know for sure just what you mean to him. You’ll never know for sure just how far you can trust him.”
Even as he pushed those ugly thoughts away, Danny couldn’t help but entertain them. The others returned just then, but he ignored the noisy chatter, slinking down further into his seat as the professor’s words slid maliciously around in his mind.
* * * *
Mac was leaning against the truck as he waited for the professor’s group to come back from their trip. Waiting for Danny to come back to him. Waiting to get on with his life, one that included Danny in so many more ways than he already was. He’d brought himself off twice the night before, lying in bed and thinking about how good Danny’s mouth had felt on him that one time. Imagining how it would feel to be able to kiss him endlessly, and to be buried deep in Danny’s body before bringing them both to orgasm. To show him pleasure instead of pain. Or to show him erotic pain, to which Mac was certain Danny had never been exposed.
Shaking off the thoughts as the station wagon finally pulled into the driveway, fifteen minutes later, Mac straightened up and couldn’t help but smile in anticipation. He walked over to where everyone was piling out of the car, talking and laughing, and nodded to the ones who waved at him. All of them grabbed their gear and headed inside the small house.
“Detective
Mac returned the smile somewhat stiffly, sensing that all was not right. “Fine, thanks. Good trip?”
Danny didn’t say a word as he gave the old man his cane, which worried Mac more than he wanted to admit.
“It went very well, yes, thank you. Would you care to come in for some coffee?”
Frowning, Mac shook his head and replied, “I think I’d rather just get Danny home. We have some things to talk about.”
But Danny shook his head as well, saying, “I need to talk to you about that here, Mac.”
Mac’s stomach dropped at Danny’s words and he said slowly, “Okay. Is something wrong?”
Biting his lip, Danny finally looked up into Mac’s eyes and replied, “Yeah. I um, I want you to free me.”
Completely sucker-punched, Mac just stared at him, unable to say anything.
“I think it’s for the best,” Danny hurried on. “I mean, you’ve done plenty for me and I’m real grateful, but I was thinking about it after we hung up last night and yeah. I’d really like to be free. To be able to decide things on my own for the first time in my life.”
Mac forcibly pulled himself together, grateful for the emotional steel the Marines had drilled into him when he was too young to think for himself. “Sure. Of course. I’ll have the papers drawn up today and courier them here tomorrow.”
The relief on Danny’s face was too much for him to bear, so Mac turned sharply on his heel and strode back to the car. He heard Danny call his name, call for him to stop, but ignored it and got into the vehicle, turning on the engine right away. When he glanced back briefly at the driveway, Danny was surrounded by his friends, who were probably congratulating him, and hidden from sight.
Cursing himself viciously for having thought that anything could work out between them, Mac peeled rubber pulling onto the road and didn’t look back again.
AS YOU WISH
Even before the stricken look flashed so painfully across Mac’s face, Danny wanted to take the words back. Because as soon as they were out, he thought about how the other man hadn’t let anyone else into his life, and how much it took to gain Mac’s trust. And about how all of that was probably now ruined beyond repair because he’d listened to someone else.
Abruptly about as readable as stone, Mac replied stiffly, “Sure. Of course. I’ll have the papers drawn up today and courier them here tomorrow.”
When Mac spun around sharply and stalked back towards the car, Danny started after him and called, “Mac! Mac, wait!” But then he was surrounded by at least seven or eight people, all holding him back, keeping him from view. It didn’t matter how much he struggled and kicked and cursed at them, they kept him right where he was until Mac was long gone.
“It’s for the best, Danny,” Gelnich said emphatically. “The man would have used you and exploited you for his own gain. You are much better off as a free man, your own man, than a slave to anyone.”
Danny snarled, “Oh yeah!? What the fuck gives you the right to decide that for me, huh? You bastard! I don’t know why I even listened to you!”
“Because you know I’m right,” the old man countered calmly. “You know that this is the best course for you, even if you’re too frightened to admit it. It’s all right to be scared, Danny, we all know the point you’re at right now because we’ve all been there.”
A quick look around the crowd showed that they were all in agreement with Gelnich and Danny knew there was only one thing to do. Straightening, he said, “I’m leaving here and if any of you try and stop me, I’ll kill you. Don’t think I won’t, because at least that way, I know I’ll be Mac’s forever, no choice about it. And don’t you ever contact me again.”
Danny stalked away from the group and fortunately, no one tried to go after him.
* * * *
It was a long walk to find a payphone and Danny counted his lucky stars that he was wearing sneakers and ‘normal’ clothes as he looked for one. Bare feet would’ve A) been cut up plenty and B) landed him in a cell for escaped slaves waiting to be hamstrung. Glad for a virtually photographic memory, Danny called Stella collect and waited anxiously for her to pick up.
“Hello?”
“I have a collect call from Danny Messer. Will you accept the charges?”
The pause was too long for Danny’s comfort, but Stella ultimately agreed, “I will.”
“Go ahead, sir.”
“What the hell are you playing at, Danny?” Stella demanded furiously. “Do you know what you’ve done to Mac? I can’t believe that you would...”
“Stella, please!” Danny interrupted.
“You’ve got ten seconds to make me not hang up.”
Shaking at the thought that his one connection to Mac might desert him, Danny hurriedly explained, “I screwed up. I never wanted Mac to free me, but Gelnich got me all turned around, saying how’s I couldn’t really trust Mac unless he showed me that he would free me. Then I could turn around and tell Mac I did want to be his, but the bastard snowed me! I tried to get to Mac, to explain, and the bunch of ‘em grabbed me and stopped me! Please don’t hang up, Stella, you’re all I got left. Please help me.”
“God, Danny…” Stella exclaimed.
Miserable, Danny agreed, “I know, I know, I was a complete and utter idiot. Please, you’ve gotta believe me, Stella. I love him. I want to be his, no matter what. I thought he’d let me at least explain what was going on, but then they grabbed me and…”
“Okay, okay. I get the picture. So wait, where are you?”
“Um…” Danny looked around for a street sign. “At the 7-11 on
“Alone and without a pass?” Stella demanded. “Don’t answer that. You do not move until I get there, understood? And when I get there, you and I are going to have a long talk about the care of one Mac Taylor, because you only get two chances, buddy.”
Relieved that she was giving him even that much, Danny nodded and agreed hastily, “I get it, I do. I’ll be right here, waiting.”
“Go inside the store. I’m going to call the owner and make sure no one mistakes you for an escaped slave,” Stella ordered before hanging up.
And even though it was warm out, Danny was shivering with reaction by the time he walked inside the store. He’d come so close to fucking everything up. Maybe he had. Maybe it was already too late and Mac would never even look at him, even with Stella’s help. He never should’ve listened to Gelnich, should’ve just ignored the old man altogether and gone with his instincts.
“You Danny?” the older man behind the counter asked. “You don’t give me any trouble, I don’t give you any trouble, understood?”
Danny nodded, trying to look as innocent as possible, and sat on the rickety stool at which the man pointed. “Yes, Sir, I understand.”
The man continued to look at him suspiciously, but eventually ignored him and went about his business.
Sighing, Danny pinched the bridge of his nose from under his glasses, trying in vain to stem the headache pulsing along the base of his skull.
* * * *
“You gonna tell Mac?” Aiden asked, following Stella on the way to the elevators.
Stella gave her an incredulous look and exclaimed, “Do I look suicidal to you?”
“Well no, but you’re gonna have to tell him some time soon,” Aiden pointed out. “Danny’s pretty hard to hide.”
“Why’re you talking about Danny?” Flack demanded from behind.
Stella glared at Aiden, then turned to face the other detective, motioning him to keep his voice down. “I’m going to get him so he and Mac can make up and live happily ever after, damn it.”
Flack’s eyebrows rose and he hissed, “After what that asshole did to Mac?”
“I don’t have time to explain, but you’ve got to trust me on this one,” Stella said firmly. “Danny isn’t really to blame for anything.”
“Oh, so he accidentally betrayed Mac.”
“Damn it, Flack! Would you shut up and listen? Better yet, Aiden, you explain things to him. I need to get to Danny before someone does something to him, because then Mac will never forgive himself.”
She left before either could say anything else, hopping into the elevator at the last second so that the door closed on Flack’s angry exclamation. Unfair of her to leave Aiden to deal with the angry cop, but her girl could take care of herself. Breathing a sigh of relief that Mac was out on a scene and couldn’t possibly bump into any of them until it was too late, Stella waited impatiently to get to the garage. She did her best to calm down, but it was difficult with everything that had happened in the last few hours.
On the one hand, she was so furious with Danny for putting Mac through what he did, that she wanted to shake the slave until his teeth rattled in his head. On the other, she knew all too well just how naïve the young man was, despite his previous owner. With Sonny Sassone, what Danny saw, was what he got, and Stella knew that that presumption now colored how Danny saw the world. When Gelnich had ‘befriended’ Danny and taken the slave under his wing, she was positive that Danny hadn’t once even thought the old man might be using him for his own purposes. He’d been manipulated by a master, no doubt about that, his insecurities played upon with virtuoso talent.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got at Glenich and, shoving her keys into the ignition, Stella made a vow to make sure he paid for the pain that he’d dealt both Master and slave. It was damned sure that Mac and Danny weren’t the first to suffer from his interference through the years. She had about an hour to
She started thinking up inventive ways to punish the old man without actually hurting him.
* * * *
Work was a good way to keep his mind off of what had happened that afternoon. Mac threw himself into the case just after he called his lawyer to have the freedom papers drawn up for Danny, and instructed them to be couriered over to Gelnich’s the following morning.
Thankfully, it was a perplexing case that took all of his concentration and Danny didn’t cross his mind once the investigation really began. He worked straight through to
“Go home, Mac,” Flack ordered. “This case ain’t a priority and you know it. Get some sleep and start fresh in the morning.”
“Every case is a priority,” Mac retorted.
Flack eyed him pointedly and replied, “It’s a robbery. I know the puzzle’s interesting to you, but trust me when I say that you really need to go home.”
Mac sighed, rubbing his eyes, and reluctantly nodded agreement. “All right, I’ll go home. You too, okay?”
Flack smirked at him and answered, “I’ve got a hot date, so I will not be going home, but thanks for the concern.”
Snorting at the confidence the other man exuded so easily, Mac took another bite and headed for his office. Flack was right. He was too tired to be working there. It would be too easy to make a mistake. Then again, he really didn’t want to go back to his empty apartment and be reminded of the man who was no longer in his life. He’d just sat down at his desk when Aiden tapped on the door. Frowning, he motioned her inside and asked, “What are you doing here? Where’s Stella?”
“At your place, waiting for you,” Aiden answered. “Can you give me a lift? I’m beat.”
The frown deepened and Mac demanded, “Why is she at my place?”
“I think I better let her tell you.”
There weren’t many things that Aiden was shy to get in the middle of, but a fight between Stella and Mac, was on the list. He sighed, not really up to an argument with Stella, but nodded. “Sure. Let’s go.”
“You want I should drive?” Aiden offered.
Mac thought about it, then asked, “I thought you were beat?”
“I’m never too beat to drive.”
A faint smile surfaced at that, because Aiden was hell on wheels. He tossed her the keys. “Why not? I need to wake up for this anyhow.”
* * * *
Mac stopped short on seeing Danny kneeling in the living room corner, his face turned towards the wall. His briefcase dropped from nerveless fingers and he looked to the sofa where Stella sat, giving her an accusing look. “What the hell is going on here?”
Standing, she held up a hand and ordered, “You’re going to listen to everything I have to say, and then you can yell at me, curse me out, throw us both out, or do the right thing and take Danny back, it’s up to you. But first, you listen. Sit.”
Mac folded his arms over his chest, fury combating the need to grab Danny and kiss him stupid.
“Okay, stand and listen. Danny foolishly listened to someone that he thought had his best interests at heart, instead of listening first to you, and then his own instincts. It was Gelnich’s idea to ask for his freedom and Danny only did so to see if you would actually grant it, not because he really wanted it. Danny’s only real crime here was in listening to someone who wasn’t you, hence him sitting in the corner. You can decide a more appropriate punishment once I’m gone. Personally, I think you should just beat him, Claim him, and chain him to the bed for a week to show him exactly who’s boss, but that’s me. Oh, and if I don’t see you at work tomorrow, I’ll know you took my advice, as you always should, let me point out. Good night gentlemen.”
Stella swooshed passed him, snagging Aiden’s arm on the way out, and closed the door behind her.
For a long time, Mac just stood there and stared at Danny. The slave’s shoulders twitched every so often, a sure sign of stress, and Mac realized that he couldn’t call Danny that any more. His lawyer was very efficient and would have rushed the paperwork through to free Danny by the end of the business day, just to keep Mac happy, since they went back a long ways. “Get up.”
Danny stood unsteadily, but didn’t turn around.
“Look at me.”
After a brief hesitation, Danny did so.
Mac saw pain, fear, and guilt in the deep blue eyes staring back at him, all of which assured him that Stella had been telling the truth. Thinking carefully about what to say, Mac settled on, “You’re free to leave here. The paperwork’s already been done. You can walk out that door and live your own life, make your own decisions. Love who you want. Fuck who you want. Own somebody else, if you have the money and the desire. You can leave the state. Hell, you can leave the country and never look back. Pretend all of this was a nightmare and start over on your own, or with someone else.”
Danny mutely shook his head, eyes dropping to the floor for a moment before being pulled back up to return Mac’s gaze.
Mac forced himself to stay hard voiced as he continued, “You should go, Danny. You should walk out that door and get the hell away from me. Find some nice woman and settle down to a normal life. Have some kids and bring them up right. Get a good job. Work normal hours. Be free, Danny, and enjoy that freedom as only an ex-slave can, because that’s what you are right now. You don’t belong to me any more.”
The head shake was more violent this time, but Danny remained mute.
“Last chance, Danny,” Mac warned. “If you don’t walk out that door in the next sixty seconds, you will never get the opportunity to do so, ever again. Not even if I die before you. I will make sure that you’re mine forever. I’ll have you neutered upon my death and given over to Flack. He’ll see to it that no one touches you until you die. If you don’t leave right now, you’re going to know what it’s like to have a pissed off Marine as a Master and believe me, you’re going to feel a lot of pain before I work through this anger inside of me over what you did. A lot of pain. You’ve got sixty seconds, starting right now.”
Mac looked down and deliberately hit the timer on his watch, then went back to looking at Danny. The fear was greater now, but there was also a mix of resignation and determination staring back at him that told Mac pain had been used frequently as punishment by Sassone. The seconds ticked by silently and slowly, neither man giving an inch on the staring contest. When the tiny beeper sounded, it almost startled Mac out of a trance-like state.
Grinning fiercely, Mac ordered, “Strip.”
Danny quickly pulled off his clothes, dropping them on the floor as fast as he could.
“No, fold them neatly and place them on the coffee table.”
Danny obeyed that just as swiftly, then returned to his former position.
“Eyes down, slave.”
The gaze instantly dropped.
“Drop.”
Danny dropped gracefully to his knees.
“Close your eyes.”
That, too, was instantly obeyed.
Mac took his time just looking at the man kneeling motionless on the floor, noting the occasional muscle twitch that signaled just how nervous Danny was. He couldn’t use pain on Danny, because that would equate him with Sassone and if that happened, Mac really would lose the slave forever.
Fortunately, Mac knew how to be subtle.
* * * *
Danny knelt there with his eyes closed for what seemed an eternity. He didn’t hear Mac move, but suddenly the man was right in front of him, the unmistakable scent of him filling Danny’s nose.
“I want you to open your eyes and go to the bedroom. Lie face up in the center of the bed and wait for me there.”
The words were soft and, somehow, all the more dangerous for it. Danny opened his eyes to find himself face-to-crotch with Mac, an impressive bulge outlined under the fabric that was so close to him. All he had to do was lean forward an inch and he could nuzzle the hidden flesh therein, but that hadn’t been ordered. So he stood and hurried to the bedroom, climbing on the large bed in which he’d found so much comfort before and lay face up, staring at the ceiling as he waited.
Danny jumped a little when Mac just appeared at his side, taking his wrist in hand. The man was quieter than a mouse, which still freaked him out sometimes. Danny didn’t have to look to recognize the feel of a cuff around his wrist. It was thick leather and lined with something soft, though, an unexpected boon given what Mac had said before about pain. The rest of his limbs were similarly dealt with, chained to each corner of the bed until he couldn’t move.
Standing beside him, Mac gently took the glasses from Danny’s face and said matter-of-factly, “No need for these for a while.”
That one, little thing caused Danny’s stomach to knot in fear. His vision was reduced to a blur now, even something put right in front of his face would be a big, undefined shape.
“Easy Danny, it’s going to be okay,” Mac murmured, slowly rubbing his stomach in soothing circles. “Close your eyes.”
Danny did so, and felt a blindfold slip into place, provoking a whimper of fear. He’d never done well without his sight, the very real possibility of blindness always just around the corner.
“Can you do this for me, or is it too much?”
The question was nonjudgmental, neutral even, and cut through the fear enough to help Danny regain some of his control. Breathing unsteadily, he nodded and gasped, “Yeah, yeah I can do this.”
“Are you sure?”
Danny took a breath and slowly released it before nodding again. “I can do it, Master.”
“Good boy.”
The warm praise sent a flush of pleasure through Danny, further combating the fear and driving it partially away.
“Sassone didn’t praise you enough,” Mac continued, just as warmly. “You are a good boy, Danny, if a little naïve sometimes, and far too trusting. I don’t want you to change, though, so this isn’t really punishment for trusting in the wrong person. This is punishment for not believing enough in yourself and your own instincts, as well as not coming to me directly with a problem that you had. You can come to me for anything, Danny, and I’m going to reinforce that here, tonight. Are you ready, slave?”
Danny swallowed nervously, but nodded and whispered, “Yes, Master.”
“Good boy.”
The bed dipped and Danny felt Mac brush up against him before straddling his hips, trapping his as-yet limp cock beneath a firm ass. He gasped when Mac undulated against him, the sensation new and arousing.
“I will never strike you in anger, Danny. I will never use pain or fear to control you. I am not Sonny Sassone.”
Danny was mostly hard already, just from the slow back and forth movement of Mac’s ass over his groin, sliding between the firm cheeks, enticing him to hardness. Then hands joined the action, rubbing strong and slow over his chest, combing through his chest hair and massaging as they went. Mac shifted forward, putting his hands on the mattress, his arms close enough to Danny’s head that he felt the tickle of arm hair against his cheek.
“You’re mine now, Danny, and I don’t share. I’m going to make you scream, but in pleasure. I’m going to Claim you until you’re sobbing for more, begging for a release that I’ll allow if, and when, I feel like watching you come. I’m your world, Danny, from here on out. If you need anything, if you’re hurting for some reason, if you just want to be held and feel safe, you come only to me and you do it instantly. Understood?”
“Yes, Master, oh Gods, please,” Danny moaned, thrusting up against the ass covering his cock, but not giving him anywhere near enough friction to make him come.
A wicked chuckle echoed in his ear and Mac informed him, “I think this is a good start,” and climbed off him altogether. Before Danny could even beg for more, swift hands wrapped a ring around the base of his shaft and Mac continued, “You’re going to stay like this until I decide otherwise. Get used to it.”
Danny groaned as the blindfold was removed. At least Mac returned his glasses and the world came into focus again. The chains were released as well, but not the cuffs. Danny found his wrists and ankles locked together and Mac manhandled him onto his side before spooning up behind him.
After turning off the light, Mac slid an arm around him then cupped his balls and curled up tight to him. Nuzzling at the back of Danny’s neck, Mac said softly, “Just like this,” and sighed deeply, relaxing against him.
Even if he’d known what the odd words really meant, Danny couldn’t help but focus on the physical. His balls were held snugly in Mac’s palm, his cock hard and aching, and his arms and legs locked together. It took a long, long time for him to relax enough to fall asleep.
* * * *
Mac woke tangled around Danny, still holding fast to the moist, warm balls between the slave’s legs. He was hard, no big surprise there, and though it wouldn’t take much to get him off, Mac decided to wait until they were both free to enjoy it. Releasing the catch on the cock-ring, he took the narrow leather strip and tossed it over onto the bedside table before returning to the shaft. He stroked it slowly, alternating with a tight squeeze and fondling of the balls until Danny woke as well, shuddering violently.
“Don’t you dare come,” Mac warned immediately.
Danny whimpered, but shook his head and gasped, “I won’t, Master, I won’t!”
Mac kissed the side of his throat and withdrew his hand. “Go start the shower, get it good and hot. You’ll find a strop and blade under the sink. Sharpen the blade and when you’re done, come and get me.”
Nodding, Danny started to move then stopped and said, “Master? I’m still hobbled.”
“That does make things challenging, doesn’t it?” Mac observed, slapping Danny sharply on the ass. “Move, slave.”
Danny gasped and rolled swiftly off the bed. It took a few seconds to get his balance, then he baby-stepped to the bathroom, moving slow and careful so as not to lose his footing. Mac watched for a few seconds then stretched and got out of bed as well, feeling a lot more cheerful and content with the world. He would spend the next few days getting Danny acclimated to truly being his slave, and then he would Claim him over the weekend.
First things first, though. It was time to get Danny marked and Chained.
* * * *
Once he’d showered and shaved, he’d taken the cuffs off Danny and ordered him to do the same. When the slave was done, Mac had an enema ready to go and they took care of that, then Danny took another shower. Completely clean inside and out, Danny then stood motionless, legs spread wide apart while Mac had shaved him everywhere.
“We’ll get you waxed there next time, or maybe I’ll look into laser hair removal, but for now I just wanted the area clean so the artist can see what he’s doing,” Mac informed the wide-eyed slave. “Once more rinse, then come out with the cuffs.”
Mac left him there, knowing that Danny’s mind was racing as to what Mac was going to do to him. Once outside, he grinned broadly and allowed himself a small chuckle as he thought about the times that Stella had commented on his mean streak. He took pleasure in the most perverse things, sometimes, and she’d always warned him to keep his sense of humor to himself, unless he wanted to be brought up on harassment charges. It was a full
Danny joined him a few minutes later, dried off but still damp, an exquisite sight, especially shaved the way he was.
Mac motioned towards the pants and sandals on the bed and ordered, “Get dressed. I want to leave in the next ten minutes,” before leaving the bedroom. He fully planned to keep Danny as off-balanced as possible, without freaking the slave out.
Technically, he’s not a slave right now, Mac realized anew and instantly headed for the phone.
“Terry Wicks speaking.”
“Terry, it’s Mac.”
“I couriered those papers over first thing this morning.”
Shit, Mac thought. “Well, I need you to get Voluntary Slave Status papers in order. Danny’s signing himself over to me today. We’ll be at your office in twenty minutes.”
There was a surprised pause, then Terry agreed, “I’ll have them waiting.”
“Thanks, Terry.”
“Anything for you, Mac, and you know it.”
Mac smiled as he hung up and glanced at the bedroom just as Danny exited it to come towards him. Taking the cuffs and chains from Danny, he set about reattaching them, then stood back to admire his handiwork. “We’ll have to get some gold chains for you, they’ll go better with your coloring.”
The wrist cuffs remained on and locked together when they left the apartment. The ankle cuffs were given a length of chain to make walking easier. Mac didn’t quite go so far as to leash Danny, but he was tempted.
Terry’s office was the first stop and definitely the shortest. They went in, Mac didn’t introduce the two, Danny signed the forms, and the lawyer promised to have things official before close of business.
“You’re sure that us not going down in person won’t cause problems?” Mac questioned, hand rubbing slow circles at the small of Danny’s back.
Terry smiled, green eyes bright and cheerful as he replied, “Nope! Voluntary is generally done in person, but there’s no law specifically stating that you have to do so. So, congratulations! And I have to say that now, I know what all the fuss is about.”
Even knowing that Terry didn’t mean anything by it except at face value, Mac tugged Danny into a sideways hug feeling possessive as he replied, “Thanks, Terry. I’ll see you later.”
The next stop was a tattoo/piercing/branding parlor that was owned and operated by a friend of Aiden’s who was also an incredible tattoo artist. He’d done the Greek lettering on Aiden’s back into a design that was subtle and compelling, all at once. And if someone actually spoke Greek, they would know that it said, ‘Beloved Slave of Stella Bonasera.’ Mac knew exactly what he wanted done and was sure that Harry could take care of it.
It was a small, very clean shop with the walls covered in designs. The piercing part was on the left, the tattooing part on the right and branding in the back, with partial walls between all three sections. Each section held its own sterile equipment and Mac spied Biohazard buckets within easy reach. Nodding in approval, he stepped forward and headed for the slender, Hispanic man currently working on a Goth girl who already had too many tattoos, from what Mac could tell.
“Harry?”
“Be with you in a sec,” the man answered, not taking his eyes from his work.
Mac turned to look at Danny, who was looking at the designs on the walls. Stepping up behind the slave, he asked, “See anything you like?”
“Whatever pleases you, Master,” Danny murmured, his gaze shifting to the floor.
Mac smiled and tugged Danny into his arms, bending forward to kiss him, slow and deep. When he pulled back, a daze expression had taken over Danny’s face and he smiled, stealing another, shorter kiss before pulling back altogether. He briefly cupped Danny’s face and told him, “You please me, Danny.”
Apparently mesmerized by Mac’s eyes, Danny for once didn’t look away. Not until someone coughed discreetly from a few feet away, at least.
Grinning, Mac turned back to the counter that divided the waiting area from the work area and found Harry smirking at them.
“I love newlyweds,” the man observed. “What can I do for ya?”
Mac motioned Danny forward and said, “I’m Mac Taylor. I work with Stella and Aiden?”
“Oh yeah! Hey, Aiden said you’d probably be in with your new slave, but that was like months ago. Finally get tired of the blank canvas?” Harry asked, grinning.
With a snort, Mac replied, “Not hardly, but I would like a few decorations.”
“You got it. What’re we talking about?”
“Nipples and belly rings, and a tat.”
“Of?”
Mac outlined his plan and, by the end of it, Harry was looking thoughtfully at Danny’s back and nodding.
“Yeah, yeah okay, I can totally do that,” Harry said at last. “You got any specifics, other than the numbers?”
Shaking his head, Mac answered, “Feel free to be creative. You need a couple of days to figure out what you want to do?”
“That’d be best, yeah. Why don’t we pierce him up today, you can give him a couple days to heal up from that, then bring him back on Saturday and we’ll get a start on the tat?” Harry suggested.
Mac put a hand on Danny’s shoulder and guided him towards the piercing chair. “Let’s do it.”
* * * *
Thank God Mac had decided on him going shirtless for the day, even though it was embarrassing to have three bandages in obvious places on his torso. He could only imagine what it would’ve been like to have a shirt rubbing against the bandages. Danny was also grateful for the custom of keeping his eyes on the floor, it kept him from having to endure the looks and smirks that he knew he was getting at the bandages and cuffs.
He’d thought, the night before, that he’d known what to expect. Mac would beat the crap out of him and they would move on, hopefully never to darken the doorstep of a beating again in the future. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on the point of view, Mac was a helluva lot more devious than that. The night before had been pleasurable in the extreme and earlier at the tattoo parlor, every time something hurt him, Mac would distract him with pleasure until he could barely see straight. Mac’s hand had been on Danny’s crotch the entire time he’d been in the piercing chair. After each golden hoop had gone through flesh, he would take a few minutes to kiss and fondle Danny until he was gasping with need, instead of pain.
When they got to the lab, Mac parked Danny in his office with a stern, “Don’t leave this room unless you have to go to the bathroom. And even then, call me at Aiden’s extension.”
“Yes, Master,” Danny agreed demurely, looking at the floor.
Mac tilted Danny’s head up with a finger under his chin and smiled at him. “You’re doing so well today, Danny. I’m very pleased with you.”
Danny flushed happily and smiled, whispering, “Thanks, Mac.”
An eyebrow quirked at him before Danny realized what he’d said, and Mac informed him, “I didn’t technically tell you not to use my name, so no punishment for it, but from here on out, what do you call me?”
“Master,” Danny answered hastily.
Mac nodded and winked at him. “Good boy. I’ll be back in about an hour. Go check in with your friends online and tell them I haven’t murdered you.”
The flush this time was that of embarrassment, but Danny only nodded and walked over to the desk. Flipping on the computer, he waited for the machine to boot up and again considered how lucky he was to have been taken back. He’d come so close to ruining everything. It still surprised the hell out of him that Mac was so forgiving, but maybe the other man had been looking for an excuse to forgive him and take him back.
It only took longer than usual to log in, thanks to the cuffs. But then he worked out a good position and got online to sign into the freemail that he used so as not to clutter Mac’s official work email. Almost instantly, a chat window opened up and he sighed on seeing that it was
Gabby007: Are you okay!?!
DannyNYPD2B: Yeah, I’m fine.
Gabby007: I can’t believe you went back to him!
DannyNYPD2B: Look, if you’re gonna be like that I’ll just sign off.
Gabby007: No wait, sorry. You do know you’re free, right? The papers showed up at the Professor’s house this morning around eight. You can change your mind and catch a cab over.
DannyNYPD2B: I signed myself over to Mac just before lunch.
Gabby007: Oh Danny. *sighs* I guess it’s too late to ask if you’re sure about it.
DannyNYPD2B: I know you don’t get it, but I’m happy. Can’t you just accept that?
Gabby007: I don’t have much choice, do I?
DannyNYPD2B: Nope.
Gabby007: alrighty then… so how pissed was he about the whole thing?
DannyNYPD2B: pretty pissed.
Gabby007: you okay? need any med atten?
DannyNYPD2B: Jesus. How many times I got to say I’m fine??
Gabby007: okay, okay! sory! just worried about you!
Danny sighed as he looked over that response and shook his head.
DannyNYPD2B: that’s what I’m saying. what I’ve been saying all along. Mac might not love me, but he’s good to me and he’s gonna take care of me. He’s a good guy.
There was a longish pause before she finally answered that one, apparently doing her own thinking.
Gabby007: all right. I believe you. I won’t bring it up again.
DannyNYPD2B: Thank You.
Gabby007: so you still getting your GED?
DannyNYPD2B: well yeah. why wouldn’t I?
Gabby007: he was pushing you to that when he was going to free you, remember? why would a slave need a GED?
DannyNYPD2B: Good point. I dunno then. I’ll have to ask him when he gets back.
Gabby007: gets back?
DannyNYPD2B: we’re at work. he wanted me to reassure everyone that I was still among the livin.
Gabby007: nice of him.
Danny glared at the screen, then decided to take it as non-sarcastic.
DannyNYPD2B: yeah it was, wasn’t it?
Gabby007: I’ve gotta go. see you around?
DannyNYPD2B: hope so.
Gabby007: bye!
And she was signed off before he could respond. Or maybe she’d just made herself invisible to him and was bemoaning his lack of independence to the others in a chat room. Whatever the case, he knew that he didn’t belong with them anymore. They had his email if they wanted to get in touch with him, after all. He was staring at his screen name and thinking that it didn’t really fit him any more. Being a slave, he doubted that he’d be allowed to be a cop.
Supposing that Mac let him get his GED, which Danny really figured that he would, and that Danny completed a tech program, he’d probably be in the lab with Aiden. Which would be very cool in its own right, since it was the challenge and puzzles that he loved most of all. He sure wouldn’t have to worry about dead bodies on a regular basis, just trace and forensics stuff.
Then he figured out what his screen name should be and laughed to himself as he went into the account area and changed it to: MacsBoy.
* * * *
Danny was hidden by the computer when Mac returned to the office and he smiled fondly on seeing the slave out cold, slumped on the desk, glasses askew. He moved silently over and peeked at the monitor, surprised to find that Danny was on a support group page for voluntary slaves. Thoughtful, Mac returned to the door and made some noise closing it, waking Danny in the process.
Immediately fixing his glasses, Danny blinked owlishly at Mac a few times before yawning and greeting, “Were you longer than expected, or was I more tired than I thought?”
Mac smiled. “Both, I suspect. You hungry? It’s almost three and I know you haven’t eaten yet today.”
“I could eat,” Danny agreed, smiling shyly in return. “Just, nothing slimy?”
Chuckling, Mac promised, “Nothing slimy. Come on, baby, let’s go.”
Danny flushed in apparent pleasure at the endearment and Mac made a note to use it strategically. It was strange how easy it was to show his affection for Danny, at least in private. He’d expected to hold onto his hurt like he always did. It was one of the things about him that had driven Claire crazy, but maybe he’d finally grown up a little. One thing he did know, that her death had driven home, was that life was too short and could be taken away at any moment. If he didn’t show his love and affection for Danny now, while there was time, it was possible that the slave would never know how much he meant to Mac.
Leading Danny out of the office with an arm around his waist, Mac said, “I was thinking just something light, since your body’s dealing with a few…modifications…at the moment. How does Chinese sound?”
“Like I’ll be hungry again in a few hours,” Danny joked softly.
Mac bit back a laugh and slapped him lightly on the ass. “What’d I tell you about keeping an open mind?”
“That I might catch something?”
At that, Mac did chuckle and thought, At least his humor’s still intact.
* * * *
Danny moaned in need as his body was treated to another night of pure frustration.
Mac had been sucking him off, without the actual ‘off’ part, for at least an hour. Every time he got even close to coming, the other man seemed to sense it and back off. There was no ring this time, though, and he had to fight his own body’s urges to keep himself in check, thanks to the order not to come. He didn’t know if this was a test, or punishment, or both, but was too preoccupied to really think about it.
“Is there something you want to ask me, Danny?”
Mac’s words barely penetrated the fog of desire that clouded him, but Danny knew he had to answer. The main problem being that he’d forgotten the question. “Uh…I…yes?”
Chuckling, Mac said, “That doesn’t sound like the right question.”
Danny forced himself to think, then exclaimed, “GED!”
“And that doesn’t sound like a question at all.”
Mac bit him right above the belly ring and sucked on the flesh there, sending shards of need through Danny and again obliterating his thoughts. He struggled in the cuffs, moaning desperately, and managed to get out, “Am I, can I, oh shit, can I get my GED?”
Mac licked delicately over the smarting skin and answered, “Yes. Anything else?”
“Um, no?” Danny replied, trying to catch his breath. “I don’t, um, think so?”
“Oh I think there is.”
Mac returned to sucking on his dick.
Danny groaned in despair, thrusting into the wet heat with a need that bordered on insanity and started begging.
* * * *
One of the most difficult things about arranging for Gelnich’s arrest was knowing how much it would hurt Danny. Despite everything the old man had done wrong, he’d thought that he was doing the right thing for the slave and that still counted in Danny’s mind. Mac knew that for a fact, without even having to ask him. The last two days had been so good that Mac was loathe to disturb their equilibrium, even for this, but there was no choice. If he was going to bring Gelnich up on charges, he had to do it as close to the day of the crime as possible.
So it was that Wednesday morning, Mac sat Danny down in one of the conference rooms and took the seat beside him. Then he took the slave’s hand and said, “What Gelnich did to you, to us, was a crime.”
Shocked, Danny blinked at him a moment then asked hesitantly, “What do you mean?”
“It’s called ‘custodial interference.’ When he prevented you from getting to me on Sunday, he broke the law.”
Danny looked down at the floor and questioned, “Do we have to do something about it?”
“No,” Mac answered honestly. “But I think we should. What he did was wrong. It almost kept you from me forever and we both know that neither of us wants that. If you hadn’t been able to convince Stella, if I’d been just a little more pissed off than I was or in a grudge-holding mood, if someone had found you while you were walking to the phone to call Stella and called the cops on you, so many bad things could have happened, Danny. And you can bet we’re not the first people he’s done this to.”
Sighing, Danny looked up at him and explained earnestly, “But he doesn’t mean any harm. He’s doing what he thinks is right.”
“The road to hell...” Mac pointed out gently.
Danny glanced away, his hand tightening on Mac’s before he said, “Will he go to jail or...”
“I doubt it,” Mac assured him. “It’ll most likely be a blow to his reputation, more than anything else. Frankly, I think he’d probably prefer prison over losing his reputation, but I can’t see anyone giving him jail time at his age. Most likely a stiff fine and probation.”
There were several minutes where Danny remained silent, thinking everything over. Mac let him think, not wanting to pressure him in any fashion. This had to be Danny’s decision and no matter what, Mac would go along with whatever it was. Finally, Danny met his gaze again and nodded. “Okay. Let’s do it. I don’t want anyone else to go through that. It was so close...”
Mac caught him close in a tight embrace, pressing his lips to Danny’s throat as he agreed softly, “Too close, baby. Too damn close.”
Danny leaned on him, holding tight.
* * * *
Thursday passed in the exact same manner as Tuesday; excruciatingly pleasurable and tormenting in the extreme. Danny’s body was on fire all the time, his cock hard without any need for a ring, and his nipples so sensitive that the brush of a shirt over them was painfully delicious. He had to learn to control his body all over again, because Mac expected him to continue on just as he had before the disastrous trip to
They had dinner at a different romantic restaurant every night; ones that included the use of fingers and having Mac feed Danny by hand. Dessert was generally at home, in bed, and involved some form of fruit or chocolate sauce licked directly from Danny’s body. When Mac finally let him collapse in a shuddering heap Thursday night after one such dessert, Danny had to struggle to get his breathing under control, heart thundering in his chest like it would actually break free.
When he finally Claims me, I’m gonna die, ran through Danny’s head. Then he sighed deeply and thought in contentment, But what a way to go.
Chuckling, as if knowing exactly what Danny was thinking, Mac lay half on him and teased one of the gold rings in his teeth, pulling just shy of painful, then letting go. Hitching a leg over Danny, he commented, “I think I’ll leave you in chains tonight. You look so pretty like this.”
Danny smiled because even though he couldn’t see through the blindfold, he could hear the smile in Mac’s voice. “Thank you, Master.”
“Such a good boy,” Mac murmured, turning Danny’s head sideways to kiss him, exploring his mouth gently and thoroughly. “So very good. Get some sleep now, I’ve got some work to do.”
Heaving what he hoped was a plaintive sigh, Danny asked, “A lot of work?”
“Not too much, and I’ll be right here on the laptop,” Mac told him. “Now go to sleep.”
Danny smiled again and did as he was told.
* * * *
Friday was hot enough to boil an egg on the sidewalk. Danny was more than grateful for the a/c in the truck and the office, because he could stay close to Mac without either of them getting too hot and irritated. When he’d woken that morning, still cuffed to the bed, he’d been mildly sore from sleeping on his back, but so utterly content that a smile had instantly surfaced and remained plastered on his face ever since. Of course, Mac kissing him senseless immediately after waking hadn’t hurt, nor had the gentle nips he’d placed upon each limb, unbuckling the cuffs altogether.
Walking without his chains felt strange after almost a week with them on. The important Chain was still in place though, welded shut so that only metal clippers would get it off Danny. A simple gold chain rested at the base of his throat, the soft metal warm against his skin. It wasn’t the most expensive Chain, nor even a terribly unique one, but Mac had actually had it made for him so what it lacked in imagination, it more than made up in sentimental value.
Besides. Mac liked the way it matched the rings through his nipples and belly. He liked it a lot, from the way his eyes lit up every time they landed on the Chain.
The morning was spent at a crime scene, which meant that Danny stayed in the car and read. Stella and Mac spent the time working on a double homicide that, at first blush, looked gang related. They all had a short lunch before Stella was called out to a rape consult at a hospital. By the time they joined Aiden in the lab, it was almost two in the afternoon and the trace had made it there before them.
“What do you have for me, Aiden?” Mac asked, coming up beside her.
She grimaced and answered, “Not much, yet. The bullets are definitely from the same gun, a Sig, but that’s all we know so far. I’m still working on trace from the clothes and what Hawkes caught under the nails is over in DNA.”
Mac frowned. “There wasn’t any evidence of a fight at the scene.”
“Well, they both had DNA under the nails, so if they didn’t have a fight with each other, maybe it was with someone else,” Aiden replied.
“Okay. Keep me posted,” he said, motioning for Danny to precede him out of the lab.
Unfortunately, the next stop was the morgue. Bracing himself, Danny followed Mac inside and watched from the sidelines as Hawkes went over his discoveries. Mac listened with the same intensity that he always did, and at the end of the mini-conference, Danny could tell that the cop had figured something out.
“So what do you think happened?” Danny asked on their way to the elevator.
Mac shrugged a little and answered, “I don’t like to speculate prematurely, you know that.”
“You wouldn’t be speculating.”
“Oh no?”
Danny grinned. “Nope. You’d be brainstorming.”
Mac chuckled and told him, “Nice try.”
They were out of the elevator for only a few seconds when Mac stopped suddenly enough for Danny to stumble right into him. He barely caught himself from falling over. “What’s wrong?”
Frowning, Mac replied, “Officials of some sort. Go on to my office and I’ll see what’s happening.”
Danny hesitated, but Mac smiled at him and nodded for him to go, so he did. It wasn’t like he wasn’t known by pretty much everyone in the building by now. No one was going to mistake him for an escaped slave, after all. He made it to the office without trouble and settled in behind the desk, flipping on the computer to get Mac logged in and up to speed by the time he get there. The door opened while he was typing in the security password and he asked absently, “Did you find out what’s going on, Master?”
“It’s about the Dove Commission.”
Danny froze in place, recognizing Markoni’s voice instantly. He slowly raised his eyes to find the man smiling at him from across the desk. Not a nice smile, either. Lowering his gaze, Danny asked, “Can I do something for you, Sir? I’m afraid my Master is elsewhere just now.”
“You can definitely do something for me,” Markoni confirmed, walking around the desk and stopping just beside him. “You can get on your knees, where a slave is supposed to be.”
Danny’s head rocked from the backhand blow and the chair spun with the force of it, sending him sprawling onto the floor. It took a few seconds to get his bearings, knees and wrists smarting from where he’d landed hard, and his head throbbing. A coppery tang hit his tongue, telling Danny something was bleeding even as he automatically moved into a submissive posture on his knees, head angled down.
“That’s much better. Now, your Master is going to be occupied for quite a while, so it’s just you and me. And if you ever tell him or anyone, what happens here, then you can be sure his name, and every one of his people’s names, will be in the addendum that I make up,” Markoni informed him.
Danny knew exactly what was going to happen and also knew there was nothing he could do to stop it. He couldn’t let any of his friends, his new family, get into trouble to save his own honor. He could take whatever Markoni dished out, no doubt about that, and if he got lucky, maybe the man would be satisfied with a blowjob. He watched Markoni’s legs go over to the door and heard the lock snick shut, then the blinds close, and his stomach sank. If it was just a blowjob, they could easily have hidden it behind the desk. It looked like Markoni wanted to fuck him, or maybe get both. Or maybe something else entirely that he didn’t know about yet and probably didn’t want to.
The man returned a few seconds later and ordered, “Kneel up, bitch.”
Danny did so, shaking, and kept his eyes on the floor.
“Take me out and get me hard.”
Fingers laced painfully tight in his hair, jerking his head forward. With shaking hands, Danny reached for the belt and got it undone thinking, I can do this. It don’t mean nothin’ and Mac ain’t never gonna find out. This don’t mean shit in the scheme’a things. I can do this.
Just as he pulled down the zipper, the door burst open, slamming against the opposite wall to shatter the glass. Markoni kicked Danny from him and turned to face Mac, who was coming at the dirty cop full speed. From his skewed position on the floor, Danny saw Mac tackle Markoni into a wall, shoulder shoved into the man’s stomach. There was a satisfying crunch of bone and a cry of pain from Markoni, but the man recovered too quickly. His fist slammed into Mac’s kidney, a vulnerable spot completely reachable from his current position, and Mac staggered away, groaning.
Before any further damage could be dealt on either side, Flack, Stella, and a bunch of other cops arrived to separate them. Aiden appeared at Danny’s side, but he waved her off and ignored the pain in his mouth and midriff to stagger over to Mac, who was being helped to his feet. Danny found himself pulled tight against Mac’s chest and wrapped his arms around his Master’s waist, burying his face against Mac’s throat.
“God, Danny, are you all right?” Mac demanded, pushing him away a little only to cup his face and tilt it to the side. “What else did he do? Are you hurt?”
Astounded, Danny exclaimed, “Me? What about you? I saw that punch!”
Mac flashed him a feral grin and answered, “I’m a Marine, Danny, I can take more than that. You, on the other hand…what else did he do?”
“He, he didn’t. There wasn’t any time,” Danny stammered.
Tugging him into his arms again, Mac whispered, “Thank God.”
“I demand satisfaction,
Danny held on to Mac’s shirt, even as he squirmed sideways to see the other man.
Mac’s arm tightened around Danny and he snarled, “Name the time and place of your death, Markoni.”
That took the other man aback, but he sneered and demanded, “One hour. Right here.”
“Swords,” Mac countered. “There’s a gym downstairs that’s got practice facility we can use.”
Markoni didn’t bother to answer, he just stalked out of the office.
“Okay people, show’s over,” Flack ordered. “Everyone out. French and Speck, make sure the gym’s all set up for this, would you? Take whoever you need. This is not going to be a spectator sport, people. Unless you’re directly involved, the gym is off-limits starting now, until it’s over. Go on, move!”
It took a few minutes, but finally it was only Mac, Danny, Flack, Stella, and Aiden left in the office. Danny remained glued to Mac’s side, unable to bear the thought that his Master would be hurt in his defense, possibly killed. Looking up into Mac’s eyes, he whispered, “Please don’t do this, Master, I’m not worth it. Please don’t…”
Mac’s hand covered his mouth, stopping the words, and he said fiercely, “You are worth it, Danny! I’m not going to let anyone put their hands on you, let alone that bastard. Understand me?”
Nodding miserably, Danny burrowed closer, unable to relax even when Mac started rubbing his back.
“Mac, he’s an expert swordsman,” Stella warned. “You can’t go into this hacking away like a Marine.”
“It’s kept me alive so far.”
But Flack agreed with her by saying, “She’s right, Mac. This guy, he’s killed three people in the last year all on account of him unable to keep his hands to himself. The commissioner of the Dove report himself got whacked because they were both seeing the same broad. So did she, matter of fact, though there was some kind of outcry over that part of it.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is the guy’s a sociopath who uses Challenges to get his fix of killin,’” Flack snapped.
“Look, I appreciate all of your concerns, but do me a favor and give me some time with Danny.” Mac requested.
None of them looked happy about being ousted, but they all left.
Pushing Danny gently into the chair that was somehow still upright, Mac leaned against the desk and stated, “I’m not going to die.”
Danny looked into his eyes and pleaded, “Promise me?”
“I promise that I will not die as a result of this challenge,” Mac vowed seriously. “You’ve got to believe me here, Danny. I don’t care how skilled Markoni is with a blade, he’s a dirty, emotional fighter and that’s going to trip him up.”
“I want to believe you, Master,” Danny murmured, aching for it to be so.
Mac smiled and cupped his face, saying, “Then do. I’m going to be fine, Danny, I promise. Now. Let’s see about getting you cleaned up, okay?”
So they spent the next ten minutes in the men’s room where Mac washed the blood from Danny’s face. Mac scowled and lightly touched the cut from what had to have been a ring of some sort. “That’s going to scar, the bastard. If I hadn’t planned to kill him before, I would now.”
Even though the sentiment warmed Danny, he still wished that none of this was happening.
When Mac literally gave Danny the shirt off his back, Danny tried to protest, but Mac stifled the words again and said, “I’m not going to need a shirt for the fight anyhow, and I want you comfortable. Well, as comfortable as possible.”
Danny sighed and threw his arms around Mac again, whispering, “Be careful, Master, please.”
“I will, I promise,” Mac replied, nuzzling at his ear. “Come on. Let’s get down there so I can warm up a little.”
And even though Mac seemed confident as they walked to the elevators, Danny’s stomach remained tied tightly in knots.
* * * *
No matter what kind of confident air he put on for Danny and the others, Mac knew better than to take anything for granted. This was a fight for his life with someone who liked to kill and in this case, was more than motivated to do so. That would make the man more dangerous than most opponents and Mac intended to act accordingly. He would also be keeping a sharp eye out for secondary weapons like poison or a dagger in the hand of a friend.
After warming up, Mac glanced at Flack and gave him the high-sign to keep a special eye on Danny, and the cop nodded sharply. They both knew this was about the slave, not Mac, and if something was going to happen, that was where it would. With Mac’s attention on Markoni and everyone else’s attention on the fight, Danny would be vulnerable. Despite the order that was supposed to keep the fight private, it was standing room only in the gym. Not a surprise, given who was fighting. Knowing that Flack would be keeping an eye on Danny allowed Mac to concentrate solely on the obstacle before him.
The good thing was that when he’d come into possession of Danny, Mac had taken to including an hour of sword work in his regular workout whenever possible, half anticipating something like this. He would spar with whomever was in the gym at the time, giving him a broad range of skills and styles to work with. He was in far better shape for this fight than anyone suspected, especially Markoni. To most, Mac simply spent his time in the lab or was home with Danny. They didn’t see the muscles hidden beneath the suit, or his easy flexibility, or know that he could chase down a suspect on foot for six blocks and barely break a sweat.
Mac gave himself a brief moment to relish the coming fight. He was going to be quick, ruthless, and efficient, giving Markoni a better death than the man deserved. Of course, that didn’t mean he couldn’t inflict a little pain before the end. He grinned, feral, at Markoni, who flinched at the look. Taking a deep breath, Mac closed his eyes and slowly released it, putting aside all his emotions before opening them again.
Walking over to where the swords were kept, Mac pulled out the one reserved for Challenges. He couldn’t remember the last time there had been one on police property, but no self-respecting gym would be without a proper set of swords. He cut the air with it a few times, getting the feel of the blade’s heft and balance, then crossed over to Danny. Cupping the back of the slave’s neck with his free hand, he said, “I’ve got this covered, Danny. It’s going to be okay.”
Danny’s eyes were wide and impossibly blue behind his glasses, worry and fear so easy to read therein, but he nodded and whispered, “Be careful.”
Mac pulled him in for a hard kiss, then walked over to the ring without looking back, putting his focus exactly where it needed to be…on the bastard smirking at him a few feet away. The injury that Mac had done him earlier didn’t seem to be phasing him, so Mac knew the man was filled with adrenaline. It would make the fight all that much trickier. He’d chosen a heavier, slightly shorter blade than Mac’s, but his reach was longer so it would probably even-out.
Captain Verish, Captain of Detectives, stepped forward with a grave, unhappy face, the expression almost hidden by his thick, dark-gray beard. “This is the last thing cops should come down to, especially among our own. The only reason I’m not forbidding this is because I know you’d just take it somewhere else. Here’s the deal. You are not to kill.”
Mac opened his mouth to protest, but was drowned out by an angry chorus from everyone else.
Verish glared around the room and exclaimed, “I will not have cops killing cops in my house!”
It was furious enough to quiet the crowd.
“So,” Verish continued when he had everyone’s attention. “Like I said before, here’s the deal. No killing blows. Fight until one of you is down. The loser is stripped of rank and privilege, never to serve as a cop or any other form of law enforcement ever again. That’s the way it’s going to be. You might prefer death, I know I would, but that’s not going to happen unless you lay on your own blade after. If I find out the two of you went out later and one of you dies because of it, the one left alive will be prosecuted for murder. Period. End of story. Am I clear?”
Mac realized that his teeth were bared in a silent snarl at the restrictions and quickly composed himself. Taking a cleansing breath, he nodded to the Captain in agreement. Markoni took longer, but agreed as well. He had to, really, or he would lose so much face that it wouldn’t matter if he technically had his job in the PD anymore. No one would want to work with him because he’d backed down from a Challenge that he, himself, had issued.
Funny how cops are the modern day warriors, more than the military, even, Mac mused, calming himself further. Like the old Samurai meant to keep the peace in ancient
Seeing that he had both Mac’s and Markoni’s agreement, Verish stepped back saying, “Take your positions.”
Mac strode into the center of the ring, bringing up his sword as Markoni did the same. He waited tensely, eyes locked on his opponent’s.
“Begin.”
The swords met in a loud clang, sliding along each other with a screech of metal that sliced through Mac’s spine like nails on a chalkboard, even as it was ignored. They feinted back and forth, testing strength and skill, feet moving in a swift, light dance. Shortly into the match, he knew that Flack was correct, that Markoni was a very good swordsman and it would prove to be a tough fight.
Markoni drew first blood by slipping behind Mac’s defenses to slice along the ribs. Mac jumped out of reach, but too late; fiery pain stung his midriff in a shallow, six inch gash. There was a collective hiss at the score, but Mac was too engrossed to make out individual words of encouragement or triumph. Keeping to his forms brought him in the clear for a few minutes, allowing Mac to regroup and then go on the offensive.
Again and again, the blades tangled and caught on one another, sending off showers of sparks as the blows grew more savage. Mac finally slammed the sword aside and was able to cut deeply into Markoni’s flank, causing the man to cry out in pain. Pressing the attack, he hammered his sword into Markoni’s over and over until at last, it flew from his grip. Instantly, Mac brought his sword up to Markoni’s throat, the flat of it flush against the bottom of his chin.
Grinning fiercely, Mac demanded, “Do you yield?”
Mouth twisted into a rictus of hate, Markoni remained silent.
Mac pushed the blade into the throat just enough to draw blood and leave a scar, not enough to kill him, and repeated through clenched teeth, “Do. You. Yield?”
“Yes, damn you,” Markoni snarled at last.
Withdrawing the blade, Mac nodded to Verish and then simply turned his back on Markoni. If the man was stupid enough to try anything while Mac wasn’t looking, he’d be shot by whoever could draw their weapon fastest. He walked over to where a very pale Danny waited in the center of a protective group of Flack, Stella, Hawkes, and Aiden. Smiling, he held out his arms and Danny flew into them, throwing his arms around Mac’s waist and clinging tight. Mac grunted when his injury was rubbed wrong and Danny drew back, stricken with guilt.
“I’m sorry! Oh, Master, that was so thoughtless! Come, sit down and mmph…”
Mac plundered Danny’s mouth in a deep, Claiming kiss and kept it going until the slave moaned and sagged against him. It was all he could do not to just bend Danny over the nearest surface and mount him then and there, but Mac forcibly restrained himself. Their first time would be private and special, not a public spectacle. Pulling free of Danny’s mouth with difficulty, Mac smiled fiercely at the dazed expression on his slave’s face and tugged him into a sideways embrace, looking at their friends.
Grinning broadly, Stella asked, “So. And what are you two boys doing when you get home tonight?”
“Oh I’m sure we’ll think of something,” Mac answered, dry. “In the meantime, any of you think to grab a medic before I lose too much blood to enjoy anything tonight?”
* * * *
As pumped as Mac still was from the fight, he was careful not to miss the correct angle when he shoved Danny hard enough to send him flying backwards...to land safely on the bed. Danny was wide-eyed behind the glasses and licked his lips nervously.
Not that Mac blamed him for being nervous.
“Strip.” Danny started to climb off the bed, but Mac held up a hand. “Stay right there, and strip.”
Danny swallowed hard, but complied. It was a feat that took a lot of wiggling and served to boil Mac’s blood even further. He’d been waiting for this from the moment he’d laid eyes on the slave in Sassone’s SUV, and couldn’t fool himself about that any longer. When Danny was naked and waiting, Mac deliberately ran his gaze over the younger man and ordered, “Arms over your head, hold the headboard. Tight. If you let go, you’ll regret it.”
Danny hastened to obey, stretching out like a feast before him.
Teasing them both, Mac stayed where he was and just looked for another half-minute or so. He finally closed the distance and climbed onto the bed, kneeling up over Danny, staring down into almost fearful eyes. “Are you scared of me, Danny?”
“A little, yeah,” Danny whispered. “You just...you really were going to kill him. I didn’t think...”
Mac bent down to bite sharply at a nipple and hissed, “I’m a Marine and a cop, Danny. Did you really think I’d never killed anyone? That I wouldn’t do it again, either in discharge of my duty or in defense of those I love?”
Danny shuddered at the first bite and groaned at the second.
“Answer me.”
“I, I didn’t think about it.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
Danny arched up into the next bite and gasped, “Yeah! Yes! I didn’t think you’d ever killed no one.”
Licking across the broad chest to the other nipple, Mac bit down hard again and then said simply, “You were wrong.”
“Oh God, Mac...” Danny moaned.
Mac gripped the hard cock and squeezed, twisting it painfully and provoking another gasp as he ordered, “Master, remember?”
“Master! Oh God, please!” Danny begged, thrusting up into the tight grip.
Biting sharply just under the slave’s chin, Mac spent a few seconds sucking on the same piece of skin, marking it. He took a breath and went back to worrying the spot until it was dark red, almost purple. Then he blew cool air on it just to watch the gooseflesh rise and Danny’s head arch back, exposing himself for more of the same. Sneering slightly, Mac demanded, “This what you want, Danny? To be hurt? To have pain? Do you get off on humiliation, or knowing that someone else owns you? How about this? Do you like it when I do that?”
Danny’s breath hitched, eyes dilating when Mac’s hand again squeezed his cock and twisted. His hands were white-knuckled around the metal bars of the headboard, muscles flexing as he struggled not to let go, not to fight.
“I don’t hear you,” Mac murmured right at his ear.
Danny gasped a couple more times before finally managing to get out, “Please, Master, oh God, anything you want...anything...please...”
Mac bit the lobe and hissed, “Oh I will, slave, believe me.”
It was incredible, the way Danny responded to him and Mac could hardly believe how good it felt to have the man under him. To have him gasping with need and barely coherent. He took Danny’s mouth again, gentling the kiss even as he deepened it, exploring at leisure because they had all the time in the world now. There was plenty of time for rough games and fucking, plenty of time to go exquisitely, torturously slow. Mac had every intention of doing everything with Danny, as often as possible.
Mac ran his hands over the trembling body and closed his eyes, letting his other senses fill in the gap of his sight. He breathed in Danny’s slightly soured scent while his tongue slid along the refined muscles of Danny’s chest. He massaged slowly down the strong arms held so taut above the slave’s head, his mouth changing direction on a whim to land on the collarbone for his tongue to outline in detail.
“Please, please, Master,” Danny groaned. “Please let me come, need it so bad, please!”
Considering that he’d been kept on edge pretty much all week, Mac was sure that he did. But Danny would need that desperation to get him through the Claiming, so Mac merely shook his head and ordered softly, “Turn over, baby.”
The words brought a little focus back to Danny’s eyes and the slave’s breath hitched even as he obeyed. Mac took his time then, licking a slow path up the center of Danny’s ass.
“Master!”
Mac grinned at the shocked exclamation and said, “Get used to it, Danny, I might just set up shop here for a while.”
Danny moaned a response as Mac rimmed him, tongue sliding over his hole and then circling it repeatedly. Arching back onto his knees when Mac’s tongue pushed inside him, Danny’s legs slipped apart in silent encouragement while breathy moans spurred Mac deeper. He knew instinctively that he was the first person to ever be so intimate with Danny, knew it in his gut that this man was his alone, in all ways that mattered. Unable to hold back any further, Mac moved onto his own knees and surrounded Danny with both arms around the slave’s waist. Nuzzling the back of Danny’s neck, he said hoarsely, “Mine, Danny, all fucking mine, need you so much, baby, so much.”
“God yeah, please Master, Claim me, Claim me!” Danny gasped, rubbing his ass against Mac’s cock.
Panting, Mac used one hand to line himself up and then slowly but surely forced his dick inside Danny’s hole. Half-sobbing with need, Danny shoved himself back on Mac’s cock the rest of the way. It was Mac’s turn to groan chest-deep with his own need. Biting down hard on Danny’s shoulder blade to keep some semblance of control, Mac’s breath sounded harshly in his own ears as he throbbed inside the tight sleeve of flesh.
Danny arched his head back further, his hair rubbing against Mac’s cheek and he ordered breathlessly, “Do it, Mac, do it, please!”
Mac nipped Danny’s ear and murmured, “As you wish,” and undulated his hips. The resulting movements prompted pleased, mostly unintelligible words from Danny, urging Mac to keep going. It didn’t take long before the Claiming began in earnest, both of them far too wound up to draw it out. Mac thrust harder into his slave’s welcoming body, bit by bit, until they were both grunting and panting from the force of the Claiming. When Danny jerked violently under him, crying out wordlessly, Mac knew he had the right angle and redoubled his efforts. He was so close, so damn close, just a little...
Danny’s ass clenched down extra tight unexpectedly, ripping Mac’s orgasm from him and he cried out Danny’s name, humping savagely into the willing body as he came. Danny howled with his own release, neither of them having once touched his cock, spilling all over the bedspread and clamping down even tighter around the shaft buried deep inside him. The world actually grayed out around Mac when he came and he completely lost track of time, his body, and the man beneath him.
When he recovered, they were both sprawled bonelessly on the bed and he was still inside Danny, though soft and limp. Nuzzling at his lover’s damp spine, Mac cleared a surprisingly rusty throat and asked, “Danny? You okay?”
“Mmmmhuh?”
Mac chuckled and sighed deeply, his own satiation tugging at him with determination. Dragging himself out of the too-comfortable haze, Mac yawned and pulled slowly from Danny’s body, provoking a groan of mild pain from the slave. Inspecting Danny showed no blood, though, so Mac presumed the other man would be fine with some rest. Smiling with honest emotion, he bent down to kiss the dimple just above Danny’s ass before starting the process of cajoling the somnolent man off the covers and under the sheets so they could sleep.
By the time they were settled, Mac injuries from the fight were making themselves known with a dull, unpleasant throbbing that the sexual release couldn’t truly combat. He heaved an aggravated sigh and climbed back out of bed to take the painkillers he’d been prescribed. He returned as quickly as possible to the comfort of his bed and his slave, Danny shifting to snuggle up over his chest and kiss his throat with a yawn. Mac was drifting into sleep when the slave starting laughing softly.
Curious, Mac cracked an eyelid at him and demanded sleepily, “What?”
Danny grinned at him, love shining at him from the myopic gaze as he asked, “You ever see a movie called ‘Princess Bride?’”
While Danny’s thought processes sometimes reflected pure instinct, this time Mac felt there was something behind the question, even as out of left field as it was. “No, why?”
Humming in apparent contentment, Danny tightened his arm around Mac’s waist and murmured, “No reason, Master. Good night.”
Bemused by the odd question, Mac just shook his head with a smile and closed his eyes again. He had a lifetime to learn everything about the man in his bed and Mac figured that it would probably take just that long.
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