Page 58 of Corporate Bondage

Chapter Twenty-Six

(Keith)

After Bryan left my office, I couldn’t get back to work. I was torn between wanting to call Gio to tell him the truth and leaving things the way they were. If he was as miserable without me as Bryan seemed to think, didn’t it make sense that we be miserable together? I paced the office, sat in Gio’s chair and even tried to make a list of pros and cons. When that didn’t work, I picked up the phone and dialed the therapist.

“Mr. Eardley, how may I help you?”

“Doc, I need your help,” I answered. “I need to tell Gio the truth but, I don’t know how to go about doing it or if it’s even worth the effort dredging up things that might hurt him.”

“Err, Mr. Eardley, I’ve been thinking that it’s probably best if you find another therapist who is best suited for your personal issues.”

Her words were blows to my already vulnerable state. If my therapist was giving up on me and wanted to parse me off to someone else, she was basically telling me I was irredeemable. She had just thrown all my hopes out the door.

“Thanks for your time, doc.”

“No, Mr. Eardley, please don’t hang up,” she said quickly. “I-I’ve the feeling you have the wrong impression. It would be terrible of me, if just to stroke my ego, I keep you on as a client. I admire your grit in acknowledging you have problems and wanting to deal with them. I admire the way you are dedicated to our sessions. For that reason, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Crawford during our next session. I think he can help you far more than I can and give you the results you seek. That’s my professional assessment of the matter. Of course, if you are not comfortable and wish to remain with me, then fine. I’ve faith in you that you’ll make the right choice for you and your partner.”

Her explanation made me feel better, a little less hopeless. “Sure, I’ll try anything at this point to be less dysfunctional.” Then maybe I could present a better version of myself to Gio if he would still have me.

“In the meantime, Mr. Eardley, I don’t see how it can get any worse for you to tell your partner the truth. You, however, stand to gain much from your honesty.”

I thanked her and hung up the phone. Deciding she had a point, that my relationship with Gio could not get any worse, I reached for my car keys and took up my cell phone. I was about to punch in the speed dial to Gio’s number when there was a knock on my office door. I pressed the digit and walked over to the door while the phone was ringing.

“Keith, thank God!” Gio cried. “I’m on my way to you. Please tell me you’re still at the office.”

“Yes, I am." I was puzzled at the relief in his voice. I missed him too, but damn, his reaction was encouraging. "I was just about to leave to see you. Gio, I’ve something to tell you.”

I yanked open the door and came face to face with my nightmare. Arcuri's lopsided grin made his face even uglier. He shifted his coat aside to reveal a gun with a silencer on the end. He pointed it at me. Son of a bitch, he remembered.

“I know!” Gio was cussing over the phone, but I could hardly make out what he was saying. “Don’t you fucking keep secrets from me anymore, Keith! Keith!”

His father waved the gun at me. “Hang up the phone, and step back into the office.”

“Is that Pa?” I heard Gio say before I pretended to hang up the phone. I moved back inside the office, and he closed the door.

Arcuri glanced around the office. “Nice. Who would have thought a little slut boy from the streets would have hit it big? Who did you have to fuck for such a nice office, boy?”

“What do you want, Arcuri?” I asked, refusing to play his games.

“You honestly thought I didn’t know who you were?” He chuckled at me. “Imagine my surprise to find the boy I failed to strangle twenty years ago was fucking my son. Or is he fucking you? What was the price of your ass again? A measly hundred bucks? With inflation over the years, what would it be worth these years? Like what? Two hundred?” He waved the gun around as he talked and I wished I was around my desk where I had my conceal-and-carry weapon in the drawer. “But factor in that you're probably wrecked by now, I’d say give or take, fifty bucks.” He reached into his wallet and pulled out some notes. He flung them at me. “There you go. That should cover what’s your fee. Now show me my money’s worth.”

I paled, remembering when I did the same to Gio in this very office. Now that the tables were turned, I felt like a heel. Not that I’d had a gun trained to Gio’s head, and he had been given the option where I had none. It was even worse because Gio was still on the phone hearing everything. I wished I had the guts to end the call, but I wanted him to know exactly what was happening so he could take caution getting here.

“Go fuck yourself,” I told him. “I’m nobody’s whore.”

With the hand holding the gun, he hit me across the face, cutting me above the eye and giving me a bloody nose. I pulled the handkerchief from my pocket and pressed it to my nose to stem the flow.

“You should have run that night you came face to face with me, you cocksucker! Take a good look at what you did to my face. You thought you were going to walk away safe and sound after meeting me again?”

He plunged into his pocket and came up with a knife. With a flash of his hand, he extended the blade.

“You tried to strangle me,” I reminded him. “Did you think I wouldn’t fight back?”

“Twenty stabs!” he fired back. “You stabbed me a grand total of twenty times. I’d hardly say we were even. As soon as I get into that pretty face of yours and decorate you with a few holes then I’ll call it even.”

---