Calder raised his hands, palm up. “I wasn’t suggesting we play matchmaker and get them back together.” Calder seemed to lose himself in his own thoughts for a long moment before he finally asked, “Why are you here, man?”
Shep frowned. “I told you, I’m not leaving Elijah.”
Calder rolled his eyes. “Why are you here,” he pointed downward. “In my bedroom?”
Oh. Right.“I need your help with something.”
Calder nodded. “Does it have anything to do with your new beau’s meltdown in that meeting yesterday?”
Maybe Calder was sharper than Shep previously imagined. “Yeah. I need you to find out everything you can about this guy Leonard Medford. Who he’s close to. What he’s known for. Rumors about shady dealings.”
“I’m already ahead of you. The surface stuff is just what everybody in the world knows. Oscar winner. Kingmaker. Hollywood royalty. Much like your boy, he was raised in Hollywood, the son of two old-time actors. He has two brothers and a much younger sister. There’s been rumors in the tabloids and online that he’s been paying off actresses left and right to keep their mouths shut about some less than savory behavior regarding how they earned their parts since the MeToo movement started sweeping Hollywood, but if it’s true, I can’t find it in his financials. I have Webster doing a deep dive into a charitable foundation he created to see if he is somehow using it to pay off his victims.”
Actresses, not children. How did this man tie into Elijah’s attacker? “Send me what you have and let me know what you find out. Also, look into his siblings and any other people he’s in bed with personally or professionally, pay close attention to anybody who has worked as an acting teacher or acting coach.”
Calder gave a slow nod. “You think this dude hurt your boy?”
Shep shook his head. “No. But I think he knows who did. I think he’s covering for him and if I’m right, they’re probably still doing it.”
“Fuck, man. Your boy won’t give up a name?”
His boy. Shep warmed at the words. Elijah was his boy. “He’s too afraid. Wants me to force it out of him.”
Shep realized he had overshared something private when Calder’s eyes went wide, but it was too late. Calder gave a dark chuckle. “How does he want you to do that?”
Shep scrubbed his hands over his face. What did it matter now? He’d already said it out loud. Besides, Elijah’s friends knew all about their sex life. “He wants me to interrogate it out of him.”
Calder frowned, lines around his eyes and across his forehead hinting he was older than Shep originally thought. “Yeah, Linc and Jackson said you were ninety-seven-echo before you started doing wet work for PLL.” Shep just grunted. It didn’t seem like it needed to be acknowledged verbally. “So your boy wants you to force him to give up the name? Like a sex game? Sounds like he’s been friends with Wyatt too long,” Calder said.
Shep felt his brows run for his hairline. “What do you mean by that?”
Calder laughed. “You clearly haven’t spent any time with Linc and Wyatt. They get real… physical with each other, you know, that rough freaky sex shit. That boy’s always got bruises. He’s real into it though and he’s not afraid to tell anybody willing to listen… or even those unwilling to listen. He makes Webster blush like a schoolgirl.”
Shep blinked rapidly, trying to wrap his mind around the idea that the stoic man who was his boss liked to rough up the curly-haired boy with the huge grin and the bedroom eyes. He knew people were into all kinds of kinks. Especially now that he and Elijah had watched those videos together, but Shep wouldn’t hurt Elijah. “I don’t think Elijah would like that and even if he did, I’m not sure I could do it.”
The idea of hurting Elijah left a weird hollow feeling in Shep’s chest, like somebody had carved his heart out. Every single day Elijah made Shep feel something new, something more, just for him. Shep was becoming addicted to the sensation.
“Is he supposed to like it?” Calder quipped with a laugh, though his look was one of pity. “I don’t think you can tickle the information out of him… well, maybe. I suppose tickling could be torture to some people.”
“I don’t know how to extract information from a person without damaging them physically or emotionally. It’s not like they taught us that in Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.”
Calder gave another laugh then rubbed his beard in a way that made him look like a villain. “I don’t think you want to rely on your military training for this one. I think the kind of torture you’re looking for might be of a more… sensual variety?”
Shep dropped into the high-backed chair in the corner, leaning forward. “What do you mean?”
“I’m saying if you don’t want to make him feel bad, the only option is to make him feel good. Really good. So good he might burst. But don’t let him have what he wants until you get what you want. The key isn’t causing pain, it’s denying pleasure.”
Shep deflated against the uncomfortable chair. That had never occurred to him. He could do that. He could make Elijah feel good. So good he wanted to cry. But how did he keep Elijah on the edge without sending him over? He needed to research. He needed more information. He needed the Internet.
“Thanks, man. Send me that info and keep me in the loop about anything Webster digs up. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve extracted a name.”
Calder smirked at Shep before returning to his reclined position, legs crossed. “Happy extracting.”
Elijah tapped his foot, staring out the window of the SUV at the Atlanta traffic, ignoring Calder and whoever was on the other end of his phone call. He missed Shep. He realized how stupid and high school it was to miss somebody who he’d seen just fourteen hours before, but it was true. After weeks and weeks of spending every moment together, both sleeping and awake, Elijah couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel, back to Shep, back to their version of a life together. Without Shep, it was like he was missing a limb and with each mile that crept by, the more he longed to be with him.
A week had passed since Elijah’s meeting with the studio, but they were no closer to coming to any resolution. They couldn’t understand Elijah’s resistance to working with one of the biggest directors in Hollywood and Elijah was in no position to explain it to them when he couldn’t even tell those he was closest to. Even Demi had grilled him about it in between takes. She couldn’t imagine any circumstance bad enough to give up that kind of opportunity. Tobi had chimed in saying Elijah had to do the movie because then he’d be a god like Shep and his mom. Elijah had dropped the subject as fast as he could manage without saying something rude.
His phone vibrated, and he looked down to see a message in his group chat with Wyatt and Charlie. He felt a tiny twinge. He missed them too. He’d had little time to talk since he’d started filming in Atlanta. While everything was a mess with his superhero status, his current film was moving along at breakneck speed and despite everything, he enjoyed throwing himself into the role. Even if it meant pretending to kill Demi three or four times a day.
