Perfect. It’s literally like trying to gain a stray, feral, abused dog’s trust. Seriously, it is. Humans aren’t much different than dogs in personality. Whether the person is a little toy poodle, or a scrawny cur, or a fucking wolf, we’re still big, two-footed dogs.
“You can drink from the sink anytime you’re thirsty,” I tell him, pointing. “Or the tub tap. I’m not giving you a glass. You can use the toilet as you need to. You can keep your clothes, and the blanket, and maybe even earn more,ifyou keep cooperating with me. I might even let you take off the shacklesifyouearnthose privileges. Understand?”
He nods.
I stomp my right foot, making him flinch and pause his chewing. “Understand?”
“Yes, Sir,” he mumbles around his mouthful of food.
“Good boy,” I coo.
His eyes widen.
“Ooooh, yes,” I say. “I am not unfamiliar with the kind of relationship you and your Carter had. Use that as your blueprint for dealing withme, andyourlife will quickly grow infinitely easier and better. You might even grow to enjoy it.”
He’s still frozen, wide-eyed and staring at me.
I wait.
He swallows the mouthful of food. “Yes, Sir,” he whispers.
I smile, which he can see through the mouth hole on my balaclava. “Good boy!” I brightly say. “Youarea fast learner. See? I like that.”
From the angle and where he’s sitting, he can’t see the supplies I have tucked next to the door. I take a pack of cookies from the bag and slide it across to him.
“Make those last a couple of days. I will keep you fed, but that’s the only package of cookies I bought.” That’s a lie, because I have two more downstairs. I shopped for approximately three weeks’ worth of food. “Let’s see how much self-control you have.”
He nods. “Thank you, Sir.”
“Good boy!” I grab another blanket, a soft, warm one, and push it in just far enough I know he can reach it. “See? Reasonable man. Yes, I enjoy a good mind fuck as much as the next sadist, but this isn’t a mind fuck.”
I mean, ittotallyis, but I don’t want him realizing that until after the fact. “This is an information expedition. I have many reasons to keep you alive despite the fact that my life would be infinitely easier if I’d done what I told my handler I did and kill you. But the more I talk to you, Eddie, the more I like you. When I feel I can tell you everything, I think you might come to like me, too, eventually.”
I harden my voice. “You try to escape, I won’t hesitate to kill you and burn the house down to hide your body.” I let my light tone return. “You cooperate, and I think you’ll find I’m very easy to keep happy in a number of ways. And yes, I’m gay, if you were wondering. And, yes, some of those ways of keeping me happy involve me fucking one or both of your holes, and me even jerking your cock for you while we do,ifyou earn that privilege.”
I note the way his sweatpants tent and yes, that’s exactly why he didn’t get underwear. I wanted to be able to see if I get a literal rise out of him.
He finally nods. “Yes, Sir.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going to rape you. That doesn’t interest me at all. But I think you’re going to find you’ll be begging me to take you before long. Not today, though. Today you’re going to rest, because I’m sure you feel like absolute fucking shit. Yes, you’ll probably be in a K-hole, because I dosed you heavily to keep you asleep. And yes, I’ve moved you from where we were before. Different country. By the way, don’t you touch your fucking cock other than to pee. I catch you jerking off, you’ll lose privileges.”
He nods. “Yes, Sir.”
I let all that sink in while he takes a few more bites of the tender, juicy roast beef. I splurged for really good meat, because you don’t bait a stray dog with more dog shit.
“Tell me, Eddie. Do you want to live? Honestly?”
You’d think that’d be an easy question to answer, but for someone like Eddie, who I expect has a lot of childhood trauma, maybe not so much.
Finally, he nods. “Yes, Sir. I think so. But not at the expense of Carter or his family.”
Bingo. “You have no reason to trust me right now. I get that. But I promise if you cooperate with me, no harm will come to them. That means no trying to escape, following my orders, and talking to me.”
His resigned sigh is music to my ears. “Yes, Sir.”
“Good boy.” I slowly stand and remove the chair from the doorway. “I’m going to leave the light on and lock you in for a little while. I am in the house. If you need something, knock hard on the bathroom door three times and then wait. If I don’t come immediately, wait a few minutes and try again.Onlythree times. Understand?”
“Yes, Sir. Knock only three times. Wait. Repeat if needed.”
