About.Before I opened my mouth, I thought carefully about how to respond.Tell him about my friends. About.Tears began to fill my eyes, but I didn’t look up at him until I was sure they had subsided. I didn’t know if the tears were because I was sitting here talking to a counselor, or if I had suddenly realized that I really didn’t have any friends.
“Salem?” he prompted.
I looked up at him as a stray tear came out of nowhere and fell down my face. I quickly wiped it away with my sleeve, but I accepted the box of tissues Elijah offered to me.
“Sorry,” I apologized, noticing that my head was now throbbing.
“There’s nothing for you to apologize for, Salem.”
I nodded and then took a deep breath, grateful that everything remained between us. I certainly didn’t want my mom asking questions all of the way home about why I was crying.
“What were you thinking about?” he gently asked. His tone sounded as though he were genuinely interested in what I had to say.
“I was just thinking about which friends to tell you about and what to say about them. Then I came to the harsh realization that I don’t have any friends.”
Elijah was quiet, but he didn’t make a move to write anything down on his notepad. Instead, his eyes searched my face as if he were studying me. He could have said that he didn’t believe me and was sure that I had friends, but he didn’t. Elijah leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, and clasped his hands in front of him.
“I will be your friend, Salem.”
5
Garrett
In my mindI had rehearsed how I wanted tonight to go right down to the fine detail of how I would move and when I would breathe. As long as I could keep my movements and breathing controlled, then all would be fine. Controlled and calculated eye movement was a huge part in not drawing attention.
Normally, I’d get a good night’s sleep the night before Sebastian’s parties. But last night didn’t involve anything good at all. In fact, I’d gotten next to no sleep. I couldn’t even say it was due to sex with some hot woman. Fucking Baghdad was to blame. Again.
It had been far too long since I had been to an event with The Hidden House. Those events had been the only thing capable of silencing the echoes and screams that had followed me home from Baghdad. And now I needed to force those not-so-distant memories out of my head and concentrate on Sebastian’s party. I wasn’t about to fuck this opportunity up like I had the last time with A.
A month had passed since the last party, and I wasn’t going to waste tonight. I had gone over everything all day and on the way over. I was determined to toss out question after question at one of these youngsters to get them to admit they were there against their will. I needed to request the one out of them who seemed the least drugged.
As I was let into the dim house, I wondered if I’d see the masked man again at tonight’s party. None of the other agents on the team had any notes on him from the first agent who had my role. It was clear to me that the masked man had been to Sebastian’s parties before. And I was basing that on the fact that he seemed well-versed in watching all of the slaves. My guess was that the masked man had been around when the initial agent was there. I was more than disappointed that the first agent hadn’t taken notice of the man who was clearly more than just a fucked-up guest. I supposed my instincts could be wrong about him, though.
I descended the stairs, each step taking me deeper into Hell. Slowly, I scanned the room and began cataloging everyone and the activities. My eyes were trained to focus long enough on one activity so that if someone were watching me, I didn’t come across as acting suspicious or nervous. By the time I’d started to walk toward the bar, I had seen three of them: S, SS, and C. The three of them were all out on display and being used and abused by guests.
While leaning against the bar top, I pulled the neck of a bottle of beer out of a bin filled with ice and twisted the cap off. With my back to everyone in the room, I could hear the unmistakable sounds of rough sex taking place.
I looked down at the mahogany bar and listened. For a brief moment, I had blocked out where I was. Instead, I imagined I was at an event with The Hidden House and that the sounds were coming from a consensual act. As my dick swelled in my pants, I permitted myself to dangerously stay in the fantasy my mind had quickly conjured up.
The mind was so powerful that it would even let you trick yourself into thinking, and believing, that what you were hearing was something “good.” As long as you were easily convinced. I remembered telling myself that everything I’d witnessed on the rooftops and the perimeter of the embassy in Baghdad was consensual. I’d told myself it was merely some wild, consensual play between a group of exhibitionists.
I’d told myself that so many times until I’d truly believed it. It was the only way I could sleep at night. We could not get involved in any conflict or violence unless it involved a direct threat to the embassy. They’d told us to do what we needed to do to sleep at night and to get up the next day to continue our duty. I was told to unsee things and tell myself whatever I’d needed to. And I did.
Taking a long drink from the bottle, I dragged myself out of the fantasy I’d irresponsibly allowed myself to fuck around in. I was rock hard when I turned around to face the room full of people. I forced myself to watch C being roughly taken. As my eyes focused on her and a tag-team of guests, I felt my dick soften.
Where were the other two? A and B were missing. From where I stood, I could see down the hallways that led to the private rooms. All of the doors to the rooms were open, so no one was occupying them. When I tipped the bottle back, flooding my mouth with beer, I casually looked across the room at Sebastian. He stood with a couple of guys watching the events of his sick party.
As the evening wore on, I grew more concerned that I hadn’t see A or B yet. There was also no sign of the masked man. S seemed to be the most coherent out of the three of them who were here. I decided to take my chances with him tonight. When Sebastian appeared to not be engaged in a conversation, I slowly made my way over to him.
“Evening,” he greeted as I approached.
“Good evening.”
“Are you enjoying yourself?” he arrogantly asked.
“Very much, yes. I was interested in taking one of them to a private room.”
“Of course. Did you have a particular one in mind?”
