Page 16 of Wrecked

“I ate, now tell me why I’m here.”

Crow looked indecisive and Rebel clenched his fists. Was the guy going to go back on his word? It wouldn’t be the first nor the last time he’d been lied to, but this time it stuck in his throat and made his blood burn.

“You wanna fuck me?” he spat, feeling all kinds of betrayed. He couldn’t remember how many times he’d given his ass up to get out of a jamb.

“What? No!” Crow looked at him like he had grown another head.

Rebel gnashed his teeth when the man ran his eyes down his body with a withering look. “Skinny boys aren’t my thing.”

“Fuck you!”

Rebel wasn’t going to look too closely at why he was getting so pissed at being called a boy. The skinny part hadn’t stung as much as being thought of as a kid. He was a man, damn it.

“No, not going to happen,” Crow said flatly and then did a one-fucking-eighty and changed the subject on him. “I heard what your mother said.”

Speechless, Rebel stared at Crow. The man’s blue eyes were sympathetic and he had to look away. If he stared into the steel blue gaze for long then he’d start bawling again. And that might bring Crow closer and the last thing he wanted was to feel those big strong arms around him.

“So what?” He shot back a glare and then looked away again.

“Do you remember anything about your real parents?”

No, he didn’t fucking remember anything! If she stole him, he would have been really little. Maybe three or four? Or even one or two. Who the fuck knew. And why was he in an alley alone? Maybe his real parents weren’t all that great. He attracted only one type of people—mostly losers and leavers.

“They probably left me there on purpose,” he growled, not meaning to say that out loud.

“I doubt that. She probably lied.”

“What?” Confused, Rebel returned his attention to Crow.

“About where she found you,” Crow continued. “She might have taken you from a playground, a shopping mall, or a department store.”

“Yeah?” Rebel heard the wobble in his own voice, but he didn’t care. He wanted to hear Crow’s ideas—if for nothing else but to dream that his real parents might have actually wanted him.

“Yeah, and she probably didn’t take you here in California. Maybe she took you from another state.”

Rebel closed his eyes. It was too much to bear thinking that the woman who had claimed to be his mother had lied about it. She wasn’t any prize and most of her checks were spent on blow and booze, but he had stood by her because they’d been blood.

Only, they weren’t.

“Fuck this!” Rebel lunged from the floor ran to the door and yanked the desk aside.

Crow was there before he could get the piece of furniture aside.

Those big strong arms that he wanted no part of came around him, and Rebel found himself pulled back into Crow’s warm bare chest. The man’s heat branded into his back and he shivered.

“Let me go!” The words ripped from him, low and raspy through a throat still raw from his earlier screams.

“I can’t. I need to take you…somewhere.”

Rebel heard the hesitation in Crow’s voice. Where the hell was he taking him? Fear licked a Rebel’s gut.

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” Rebel knocked his head back, trying to give the guy another nosebleed, but he missed. Crow manhandled him to the bed and Rebel fought with everything he had, but the guy had impressive fucking skills. He couldn’t remember ever having someone control him physically like this.

Other people would rather blackmail him or guilt him into doing things.

Not Crow though, the guy just picked him up as if he were a child.

Rebel fought, but his hand was zip-tied to the headboard again and when Crow released him, Rebel swung his free fist and sent a blow against the man’s mouth.

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