Page 56 of The Bait

Harry laughed. “No, my legs. Christ.” He shuffled as he walked to the bathroom. “How far did we walk today?”

“Too far.”

“I’m too old for this shit,” Harry grumbled. He turned the shower on and smiled at Asher. “My ass feels good, actually.”

“Hm.” Asher liked the sound of that. “Not opposed to what I said?”

Harry laughed as he stepped into the shower, under the water. “Never thought so before, but I’m not opposed at all.”

Asher gasped, his hand to his heart, following Harry into the cubicle. “I don’t mind accommodating your needs, but let’s get one thing clear. I’m the bottom in this relationship, and I need your dick in my ass regularly, so don’t get any ideas about swapping places.”

Harry laughed, and turning Asher around, pinning his back to the tiles, he lifted one of Asher’s legs up over his hip. “Oh, believe me, I know what you need, and I’m only too happy to give it. But it was your idea to roll on top of me and put your cock inside me with promises to come in me next time, so you’ve only got yourself to blame if I like the sound of it.”

Asher groaned out a laugh. “Such a bossy bottom already.”

Harry laughed and kissed him before he smacked his ass. “Let’s get cleaned up. We’ve got shit to do.”

“Do you believe what Rozga said?”Harry asked.

Asher pushed the half-eaten now-cold pasta away. They’d worked out their travel plans for the next day and had watched the local news about the compound explosions and all the bodies, and how known leader Rozga was missing. Authorities believed he was either kidnapped by the culprits, or he was responsible. That toldAsher they hadn’t found his body in the tunnel and they had no clue who was responsible.

But it had brought the topic of conversation back to what he’d said.

“Which part? About Lucas being MI6? Or about Istomin being part of the Russian government and long live the USSR and Yugoslavia and the new cold war?”

Harry sighed. “You know, in all my time working for the Australian government, I dealt with my fair share of guys who yearned for the past. But this all leads back to the USSR and Yugoslavia? These government military men want something that no longer exists. Prepared to kill for it. It’s fucked up.”

“It’s different for you,” Asher said quietly. “You didn’t live through the war. I know you’ve seen a lot of war, Harry. Been to a lot of war zones. But it’s different, living it on your home soil. A lot of people lost loved ones in the name of change. Their cities and towns were decimated, family members, neighbours killed; cultures erased. Life was never the same. And many of them are then expected to coexist with the people who did it.”

Harry’s eyebrows knitted. “Yeah. Sorry, I just... I just don’t get it.”

Asher sighed. “I never felt love for any country. You know that. I was never in any place long enough to feel at home, to be loyal. Deliberately so. But I am still a product of war. I am who I am because of the war. No family, no way of knowing where I come from. Was taken and trained to kill people when I was just a boy.”

Harry reached over and took Asher’s hand. “I’m sorry. I know... I can’t imagine what you went through.”

Asher tried to smile, but it was weak at best. “It’s okay. I can’t understand the need to exact revenge to a countryor a government. That’s foreign to me.” He shrugged. “We each have our causes, I guess.”

Harry’s eyes met his. “And what’s your cause?”

“To keep you safe, always. To bring Yunho home. And to kill anyone who gets in my way of either.”

Harry smiled, rubbing his thumb across the back of Asher’s knuckles. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“You said something to Daris,” he whispered. “About what those assholes did to you in Turkey.”

Asher sighed, his mind replaying flashes of nightmares he’d long tried to forget. He knew he needed to talk about it, but it wasn’t easy. “It was a long time ago,” he began. “I was... I was about eight, I think. Daris was ten. They would beat us, make us run for hours, make us fight for food. We learned languages, and tricks on how to be invisible. They would shoot at us to motivate us. The kids that lost, the slower or weaker ones, were...” He sighed. “Sold, I think. Some were killed if they were too badly injured, but most were sold off to the highest bidder. To sick fucks who wanted boys, usually.”

Harry closed his eyes, and Asher wished he could block it out that easily.

“We learned to never get attached or make friends. It was easier in the end that way.”

“Oh, Asher, baby,” Harry murmured.

He tried to smile for him. “But I was fast and a quick learner. I could read people and situations, and be whatever they needed me to be,” he whispered. “They’d strip us naked and beat us. Grown men against boys. Then the older boys were made to...” He shuddered and let out a long breath, unable to finish that sentence. He took a deep breath and let his memories take him on a different path. “Radovic was one of them. He was very cruel. But I learned very fast to be a chameleon. Blend in, disappear. One of the leaders favoured me, saw that I had skills. I was taken to Kosovo after that.”

Harry lifted Asher’s hand to his lips, kissed his palm and then his knuckles, then held it to his cheek. “Did Daris go with you?”

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