“Yes, Master Russell. I’ve seen Ryan at parties with you. He looks at you and keeps his headup.”
“I like it that way, Leonard. You know why? That way I can see how he’s doing,” Isnapped.
He swallowed hard and grew nervous, then went right back into his dangerous ideas on how to curb Ryan’s raised head. Ryan looked down enough as it was, and I was trying to keep him from looking down tohide.
“My idea is for this,” Leonard said and turned to a page he had dog-eared. It looked like a wooden shelf and from each side dangled iron shackles. As Leonard spoke, I tried to read the faint description. “See, the shelf is supposed to attach to a wall about six to eight inches shorter than his height. His wrists go here, obviously, and then we can attach an electrical current with this collar.” Leonard pointed to a thick collar and showed the places where an electrical trigger would go. “Each time he tries to raise his head, he’d get a littlezap.”
“A little zap,” I repeated. He wanted to chain my Ryan up and zap him with an electrical current if he raised hishead.
I pulled the catalog closer and flipped to the back cover to find out where this shit came from. France. This was out of some underground shit inFrance.
“If you could turn him over to me for a couple of weeks, I’ll have him behaving better than you can imagine. He still probably won’t be worthy of you, but he’d bebetter.”
I’d hadit.
“I sent some pictures to Ryan yesterday to give him a hint on correcting his body issues; groomingmainly.”
“May I see the pictures?” Iasked.
“Yes!” Leonard eagerly handed me his phone and had it opened to the text string that I had memorized bynow.
I tilted the phone just so I could see the screen. I had no interest in seeing the pictures or text string ever again. And he wouldn’t either. I swiped away from the text string as Leonard babbled on about an electrical prod, and opened up his contact list. I found Ryan’s info and deleted it. I quickly found Nick’s and Sadie’s info and deleted those, then I scrolled to my name and deleted it as well. He wouldn’t have access to Ryan or my friends, and I knew that none of our friends within the community would ever divulge our numbers without ourconsent.
I gripped the back of the phone, turned my wrist over, and turned my head in the direction of Nick. In one quick motion, I had pulled back my arm and slammed Leonard’s phone on the corner of the table, shattering thescreen.
“What the hell!” Leonard exclaimed as he stared in shock at his phone that I just tossed down in front of him as Nick and Istood.
I reached for my wallet and pulled out ten one-hundred-dollar bills and tossed them on the bustedphone.
“You don’t know me, Leonard. Don’t flaunt that you do. If you ever contact Ryan again, what happened to that phone will be the face that you spend all day grooming,” I promised and turned toleave.
Nick and I walked at a calm pace through the casino and to the valet. While I walked back and forth along the area to wait for vehicles, Nick handled requesting my car from the automated pick-up kiosk before he joinedme.
“Well, that went well,” Nicksaid.
I stopped pacing and leaned on the wall besidehim.
“I need to contact some of our community leaders and let them know of Leonard’s dangerous ideas,” I said to Nick, though my thoughts were onRyan.
“Good idea. It’d be bad for an unsuspecting bottom to negotiate anything with Leonard,” Nick agreed. “I’ll drive,” he said as my SUV pulledup.
“Thank you,Nick.”
“No problem. You’ve got your boy to get to, and I have Sadie to get to. Neither of us needs any James Bond driving goingon.”
After I got home, the first thing I did was gather my portfolio from my trip to Los Angeles yesterday and set it on the patio table. While I wasn’t one hundred percent certain that I knew how Ryan would react, I was sure that he would still be mine at the end of the day. I will admit that my heart had been beating a little faster than usual as I anticipated Ryan’s arrival, but a lot of that could have been the adrenaline from meeting with Leonard and breaking hisphone.
A few minutes before three, Ryan pulled up and made his way to my door. I had the door open and ready for him so he hadn’t needed to wait or knock. I shut the door, leaned one hand on the door, wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and pulled him into anembrace.
“Feels like I’ve been away from you for a lot longer than a few hours. I think I’m addicted to you,” hemumbled.
I smiled at his declaration of being addicted to me and kissed hisforehead.
“It’s a healthy addiction, my boy. Follow me, let’s get your play collar on and then go outside tochat.”
I sensed his nervousness and felt the tension in his shoulders when I hugged him. Hopefully soon, both of those feelings woulddissipate.
“Should I get undressed?” he asked with a hint of excitement to hisvoice.
