by Luna, David
Making sure Sebastian wasn’t in danger of backing himself off the bed, Gideon quickly turned the heat up in the bedroom and headed into the attached bath. Wetting a washcloth with warm water, he carried it back to the bed. He gently wiped the boy’s face off and exchanged a clean pillow for the soiled one. Not knowing what else to do, and not wanting to make matters worse, he sat at the foot of the bed, his hand clasping the boy’s calf just to reassure him that he wasn’t alone. He leaned his other elbow on his knee and put his head in his hand.
When he heard Finn arrive a few minutes later, he stayed where he was, not wanting to leave Sebastian alone again. His brother entered the room, pulling his medical bag from across his shoulder and placing it on the floor. Gideon watched as Finn approached, seeing the anger gather in his eyes and the muscles in his jaw clench as he took the boy’s battered form in from head to toe.
Gideon let his head fall again, rubbing his eyes. “He’s mostly been unconscious since we got to him. He roused enough to try to speak his safeword and to tell me no hospital. He’s vomited twice now. Once downstairs and once up here. I washed his face off and exchanged the pillows but I didn’t want to do anything else because I didn’t know what that would do to any evidence.”
Finn crouched down by his bag and rifled through it, pulling out what he needed, he glanced up. “I’m not equipped to process a rape kit here. I’ll leave a sample cup for him to urinate in, so that we can test him for anything he might have been slipped last night. Some date rape drugs only stay in the body for twelve hours, others up to seventy-two, so as soon as he wakes, have him try to give you a sample. I need to check his vitals. Help me turn him to face me.”
They both did their best to flip Sebastian over without hurting his backside further. Once he was facing them near the edge of the bed, Finn put his stethoscope in his ears and got down on his knee. A huff of air, expelled in surprise, caused Gideon to glance at his brother’s face. Finn glanced from the boy to his brother, and back again. “Jesus, Gideon. It’s Sebastian Phillips.”
Gideon jerked his head back in surprise. “How do you know him? Have you treated him before?”
Finn shook his head and rubbed a hand back and forth over his mouth. “No. He’s… I just met him recently when Braden’s grandmother was mugged.”
“Nana was mugged?”
Finn nodded. “Yeah. I was at the hospital checking on a few patients when Zavier called me.”
“Is she okay?”
“She will be. Broken arm, a few lacerations and contusions, and a knee strain that’s going to keep her down for a bit, which she’s grumpy as hell about, but nothing permanent.”
Gideon nodded absently, hoping her recovery was quick. He got a kick out of Braden’s grandmother and hoped they found the person that mugged her. “But, what does that have to do with Sebastian?”
Finn sat back on his heel and draped his arm over his other knee. He lifted his chin towards Sebastian. “He’s a composite artist for the SFPD. Did the sketch of Eric for Braden and came into the hospital to do Nana’s sketch that day. He’s brilliant at what he does. Seems like a nice kid. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s a submissive at your club.”
As Finn sat up straighter and began the process of checking Sebastian’s vitals, Gideon’s forehead creased in confusion at his brother’s last comment. “What do you mean by that?”
Finn continued working as they chatted. “He was just very shy. Wouldn’t meet my eyes, was uncomfortable around most everyone in the room besides Braden.”
Gideon nodded his head, knowing that explanation closely coincided with what Roarke had said about Sebastian before Gideon had even known who the boy was. He was about to ask Finn something else when his phone rang. Looking at the caller ID he answered Zavier’s call immediately.
“What have you got?”
“Jesus, Gideon. I know you will regardless, but please treat this boy well. Did Finn get there already?”
Gideon stood up to pace. “Yeah. He told me you guys know him. And you know damn good and well that I’d treat him well regardless. He was my responsibility before it happened, and even more so now. It happened in my house, Zavier. That won’t go unpunished.”
“I know. We—”
Gideon interrupted, not wanting to be rude but unable to wait. “Have you seen all the tapes? I need to know if he was raped, Zavier.”
“No. No, he wasn’t raped.”
“Thank fuck!” Gideon’s knees went out in relief and he barely managed to land his ass on the bed at Sebastian’s feet. His hand gently clasping the boy’s calf, his thumb lightly stroking his soft skin, not even aware he was doing it.
“That asshole did drug him, though. We’ve found that much on the tapes. We’re trying to get a better angle on it from a few other cameras. We want it to stand up in court, along with the boy’s testimony.”
Gideon nodded and then realized Zavier couldn’t hear him. “Yeah. Do everything you can do to get this guy. I want a copy of what you find from the moment the guy arrives with his friend and the moment Sebastian arrives. Send them to me immediately.”
“Will do. I know you’re aware that he was caned, but the guy also did his fair share of pushing the boy around. At one point, when he wasn’t moving fast enough, the guy yanked on his arm and Sebastian fell into the table and hit his hip pretty hard. The asshole didn’t even give him time to finish getting his pants off, which he was reluctantly and uncoordinatedly doing after he tried to tell the guy he was no longer in the mood.”
He didn’t even realize he’d growled low in his throat until he got a strange look from Finn and Zavier commented on it. “Take it easy. We’ll get him. We’ve got audio on it as well. You’ve covered your bases.”
Gideon cursed. “I’m not fucking worried about me.”
Zavier sighed. “You know I didn’t mean it that way. I want this asshole to go down and go down hard. This boy… He’s just… He already means a lot to Braden and he doesn’t even know him that well, yet. There’s a vulnerability, a fragility to him, yeah? Whatever you need from me, you’ve got it.”
Gideon’s shoulders sagged. “Yeah. Yeah, I know. Thanks.”
They said their goodbyes and Gideon stared at his phone for several long moments before he glanced towards Finn. “He wasn’t raped.”
Finn nodded, having pieced it together himself. “That’s good. It means we don’t have to do a rape kit at the hospital. His blood pressure is a little low. I’m going to stay for a while to make sure we can get it under control. If it goes too low, he could go into shock. I’d like to clean up his wounds. With the blood smeared all over, I can’t tell which welts are bleeding and which are just swollen.”
They slowly moved the boy onto his stomach so they could take care of his injuries. Gideon made quick work of the harness and then the mesh shirt. There was blood under the shirt they needed to get to before they could settle him in for the night. As he drew off the shirt he noticed some light purplish red marks on Sebastian’s shoulder and neck.
He moved Sebastian’s hair away to see more of it and saw that the light marks made their way up in a splotchy pattern under the boy’s beard and onto his right cheek. It was what Gideon had thought was swelling, and possible bruising in the fluorescent lights in the Interrogation Room, but now looked less noticeable.
“Finn?”
He turned to face his brother and gestured to the strange marks. “Do you know what could have caused this?”
Finn leaned over the boy, looking at Sebastian’s neck and shoulder. “It’s a port-wine stain.”
“A what?”
“A birthmark.”
Gideon’s brow furrowed. “Is it painful?”
Finn gave his brother a soft smile and shook his head. “No.”
Gideon glanced once more at the unconscious boy. Unable to help himself, he leaned over and ran his fingers over Sebastian’s dark hair, its texture as soft as silk. The more time he was around the submissive, the ang
rier he got at what had happened. Glancing down at the boy’s ravaged back, ass, and thighs, he clenched his fists and faced his brother again.
“What can I do to help?”
Finn glanced at his fists, causing Gideon to release them and take in a deep breath. Finn clapped him lightly on the back. “We’ll clean and treat his wounds and then you can ice them. I’ll stay until his blood pressure stabilizes.”
Gideon nodded and they got to work cleaning the boy up, glad when all was said and done, the blood had made things look worse than they were. Afterwards, Gideon went and grabbed a few bags of frozen veggies and wrapped them in thin kitchen towels. He came back and placed the bags on the worst of the swollen welts left by the cane and covered the boy up with his sheet, pulling the duvet up to cover his legs as well. Finn and Gideon picked up all of the medical supplies, turned the light off in the room, and headed into his kitchen.
Gideon grabbed them both a bottle of water from the fridge, hitching himself up on the bar and watched as Finn finished packing up his supplies. They’d both been quiet while cleaning and treating the wounds and he thought the silence might veer towards the uncomfortable if he didn’t speak up. “Thank you for coming.”
Finn looked up from his bag, his brows drawn together. “I’ll always come if you need me. You know that, right? I’m sorry if I’ve made things uncomfortable between us. I—”
Gideon shook his head. “Finnegan, you haven’t made things uncomfortable, I have. I know my… sexual proclivities probably freaked out everyone in our family.” He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, besides Zavier, I guess. I wasn’t going to tell you guys about the club at all, but I figured news would travel back to all of you anyway. I’m not ashamed or embarrassed by anything, but I usually don’t talk about it. I’m working on that. I had to keep secrets from you guys for far too long.”
Finn nodded solemnly. “This is the longest conversation we’ve had in a really long time.”
“I’m sorry for that. I’ve been back for a while, I just find it hard to join in on the conversations at family dinners. I want to be there, I was just guarded for so damned long, it’s like I still don’t know what to say, so I don’t say anything at all.”
“‘Cause you were just so chatty when we were younger.”
Gideon snorted. A joke from Finn at his expense, god how long had it been? “True.”
Finn chuckled and then seemed to grow serious again, rubbing his hands over his face. Gideon’s heart squeezed, thinking his brother might be disappointed in him, or worse, disgusted with him, but when Finn looked back up Gideon was surprised to see laughter mixed with embarrassment on his brother’s face.
“Oh, and just to allay your fears about you freaking everyone out in our family, let me tell you a little story. A couple of weeks ago Dad asked me to stop by the house to help him move a few pieces of furniture. Mom bought an antique writing desk to replace the one she has in her office. I knocked when I came in through the side door, gave Buckley a few treats and let him outside with his Kong. I heard Mom and Dad upstairs in her office and headed that way. Dad’s bent over her old desk, pulling out the drawers to make it easier to move the damned thing. You know how massive it is, right?”
When Finn glanced at him, Gideon smiled and nodded as he raised his bottle of water for a drink. Finn continued, his cheeks turning red with embarrassment. “So Mom’s telling him to let her empty them first before he ‘messes everything up’ and Dad says, ‘Baby, I’m not gonna mess up a damned thing. You keep complaining and Daddy’s gonna have to bend you over his knees again and make that gorgeous ass of yours all pretty and red.’”
Gideon choked on the gulp of water he’d just taken, his eyes watering as some of it shot up his nose. He coughed for a full minute and finally glanced over at Finn, who handed him a paper towel, his eyes wide, face still red, but now he was nodding in commiseration. “I swear to Christ, Gideon, my ears were bleeding. She started to respond to him, but I hightailed it outta there so fast I nearly blew my cover tripping over my own two feet down the stairs!”
Gideon shook his head, closed his eyes, and rubbed his hand over his mouth. “I just threw up a little in my mouth. What the hell did you do?”
Finn made a horrified face and threw up his hands in defeat. “What could I do? I went to the downstairs bathroom and washed the shame off of my hands in lieu of a full-on shower, splashed water on my face, and tried unsuccessfully to convince myself it was all a nightmare. Needless to say, I made an enormous amount of noise calling out to them from the foyer before going back upstairs and pretending I didn’t just die a little inside from hearing that.”
Gideon had started laughing when Finn mentioned needing a shower but when Finn was done, his laughter had turned into guffaws and both of them could barely breathe by the time they were done. Gideon rubbed the tears of mirth off his cheeks. “I’ll take ‘Things I never wanted to learn about my parents for three hundred, Alex…’”
Finn, wiping his own face, shook his head. “No fucking kidding.”
Gideon gave Finn’s shoulder a good hard shove. “You’re an asshole for telling me that.”
Finn chuckled. “I had to share my pain! First you tell us you’ve randomly purchased a BDSM club and then I’m horrified to find out the shenanigans Mom and Dad are into. I was not going to suffer alone!”
Gideon shook his head and tossed back the rest of his water. “Still an asshole, but I’m sorry I dropped that on you guys the way I did.”
“I’m not. I’m glad you told us. We don’t think of you differently, you know that, right?”
Gideon shrugged. “When I called you earlier, I know you were upset—”
Finn tilted his head and raised a brow. “You think I was acting like that because of the club?”
Gideon shook his head. “No. I know you’re okay with the fact that I own the club. You were upset because I let it happen—”
Finn raised his hands. “Whoa, no, Gideon. If you’d have known, you’d have stopped it. You didn’t let anything happen and I know damned good and well you’ll deal with it. I was pissed off that someone in your club, a submissive in your club, was assaulted and drugged. Submissives put a lot of trust in the Doms at clubs like yours, from what I understand. I was pissed that someone would do that under the guise of domination and submission.”
Gideon’s eyes popped up. “Finn, is there something you wanna tell me? Are you interested in the lifestyle?”
Finn’s face burned bright red. “No. At least, I don’t think I am. I just started reading about it after you told us, that’s all.”
Gideon hopped down from the counter and yanked his younger brother into a tight embrace. “Never was a topic you discovered that you didn’t want to learn everything about.” Pulling away, Gideon clapped Finn on the back. “You never know. You might find yourself interested in some hands-on learning. If you are, let me know and I can help.”
Finn’s eyes bugged out of his head, his expression horrified, making Gideon laugh. “Jesus, Finnegan. I wouldn’t be the one to teach you! I have a Master on staff that coordinates the training needs of our members.”
Gideon shook his head when Finn let out a relieved breath. He grinned sheepishly. “Okay, well I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“You do that. So listen, why don’t you sleep on the couch?”
“Where are you gonna sleep?”
Gideon shrugged. “Well, the couch is a sectional, so it’s probably big enough for both of us, but I can sleep on the floor in my room to keep an eye on him. I’ve slept in worse places.”
“True enough, but you’re getting on in years, ya know.”
Gideon made a rude noise in the back of his throat and pushed his brother. “You’re not that much younger, Finnegan. Let me go grab you some bedding for the couch.”
“I’ll come with you and check his blood pressure again. I’ll set my alarm to wake and continue to check it throughout the night. Once it’s stabilized, I
’ll head home. I have an early morning surgery, so I’ll need to leave before you’re up anyway.”
Finn checked Sebastian’s blood pressure and it had improved slightly. Gideon handed over the bedding for the sofa and gave him some toiletries. He brushed his teeth and grabbed a couple pillows and a blanket for the floor.
He’d only been down there for about thirty minutes when Sebastian cried out in his sleep. When he whispered his safeword, his voice shaky, Gideon sat beside him on the bed, placing a gentle hand on his slender shoulder. The boy calmed immediately. After a few minutes he lay back down on the floor.
A couple hours later Sebastian’s cries woke him again. That time when Gideon sat gently beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder, the boy curled into him and held on. He tried to wait it out but Sebastian didn’t seem inclined to let him go.
Eventually he scooted down a little, so he wasn’t sitting in such an uncomfortable position. He did his best to maintain his distance and was thankful the boy was under the blankets while he was on top of them. And although his intention was to stay until Sebastian moved away from him, it never happened, and he eventually became exhausted and fell asleep.
SEBASTIAN’S BODY FELT HEAVY AND an exhaustion like he’d never felt before had him barely able to open his eyes. He was warm and comfortable, but he knew something wasn’t right. He felt completely disoriented and fuzzy. He had no idea where he was and why. He breathed in deeply, unable, or perhaps unwilling, to open his eyes to reality. His senses were enveloped by the most wonderful smell. It was woodsy, warm, and citrusy. He stretched to get himself closer to whatever it was that had his mind and body humming and found a soft, warm spot to nestle into.
He grabbed onto whatever it was and snuggled in, drifting off again. Waking later, though he had no idea how much later, he rubbed his face against warm cotton, inhaling that scent again, and letting out a little moan of satisfaction when he felt strong arms envelop him. Mmm, he must have had a good evening at the club, followed by an even better night, if those strong arms and heavenly scent were anything to go by.