Page 23 of Xtasy

“You’re being such a good pet,” Blaze praised him. “It’s no wonder that Hawk found himself smitten. The lucky bastard finally found someone to love.” Blaze looked down at Atlas. “Unlucky for you, of course.”

“Hawk will never have you, even if I’m no longer in the picture,” Atlas snapped back. “You should have heard how he made fun of you that night. He thinks you’re pathetic. Weak. Crazy, even.” Atlas knew he should shut up but kept rambling anyway. “He told me how you spent your entire adult life stalking people, never having anybody for yourself because nobody,absolutely nobody, wanted you!” Hawk hadn’t said all those things, but Atlas didn’t think a tiny lie was any comparison to what Blaze obviously had planned. “Do you seriously wet the bed? Ambrose and Hawk laughed and laughed over that one.”

Blaze politely opened the car door for him and helped him into the passenger seat. As he closed the door, he said, “You might regret that mouth of yours before this is over.”

Atlas suspected he was going to regret a lot of things before this ordeal was over—as in he had serious suspicions that he was about to die. Blaze was definitely crazy enough to take it to that level.

The car was definitely a luxury vehicle, but Atlas hadn’t paid any attention to what model. Hell, if he did get out of this alive, he wouldn’t even be able to tell the police the color.Was he truly going to allow himself to be led, like a lamb, to the slaughter? That’s exactly what the old Atlas would do—not the Atlas that had been fucked and cuddled by Hawk Pentress.

Blaze climbed in next to him, all casual like his wasn’t abducting a man to take somewhere and probably murder. Just as Atlas moved to make a grab for the door handle, he felt Blaze’s hand grip the back of his neck and then a sharp prick pierced the skin beneath his right shoulder. Within seconds, he started to feel disoriented and incredibly sleepy.

“Now, now,” Blaze said softly but followed the words with a hard slap across Atlas’ face. “Don’t drift off to visit Mr. Sandman before I tell you the best part. Ready? I’m going to leave you here for a few, walk right back to the elevator, go to your apartment and wrap a plastic bag around your friend’s face. You were so naïve to think I would ever let her live.”

The horror of Blaze’s words didn’t even have time to settle into his brain before his world went completely black.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Hawk grabbed the small doorman around the neck and lifted him off the floor. “Tell me his apartment number right the fuck now!”

Ambrose had watched about all he was willing to witness. His friend was falling completely apart and over absolutely nothing. When Atlas hadn’t answered his call last night, that had been the end of Hawk being anything that resembled normal. If he didn’t love his best friend so much, he’d be laughing right in his face. Instead, Ambrose would save that for later, when they had confirmed that all was good between Hawk and Atlas.

He grabbed Hawk’s arm. “Put the kid down, Hawk. Now! It’s not this boy’s fault that Atlas didn’t answer his phone. Perhaps if you tried to speak to him in a reasonable fashion, he would be more apt to answer your questions,” he admonished.

As soon as the young man’s feet hit the ground again, Ambrose pulled out his wallet. Hawk was behind him, pacing and cussing. Ambrose pulled out a handful of hundreds. “Would five-hundred dollars help you turn a blind eye to company policy this one time? You have to see my friend is totally smitten with the boy, he’d never do anything to hurt him. He simply wants to check and make sure he’s safe.”

The bellhop rubbed his neck. There would be bruises. Ambrose tried not to take pleasure in that fact, but it was most difficult for a sadist.

Not willing to cave immediately, the bellhop eyed Hawk up and down and asked, “Are you the one that’s been sending him the gifts? I would have thought Atlas would have better taste. You’re a bully.” Calmly, he took the money from Ambrose and said, “His apartment is on the fifteenth floor, number 15F. I believe both Atlas and his roommate are home this morning.” With that, he stalked away…or tried to.

Hawk grabbed his upper arm and swung him around. “What did you mean by gifts? Has someone been leaving gifts for my man?” The anger had left him, replaced with a look of utter defeat. “Recently?”

“As recently as yesterday,” he answered with a smile. “He paid me less than this guy to get into the apartment, but it was enough to get me a new jacket.” The boy took off running after dropping that bombshell. It was probably for the best.

“He’s cheating on me?” Hawk whispered in disbelief. “I wouldn’t have thought Atlas had a dishonest bone in his body.”

Ambrose stood silent for a moment before saying, “Do you still believe Atlas to be honest? Answer from your heart.” Ambrose urged.

Hawk straightened up. “He’s a good man. I want to hear his side of the story.”

“Good idea,” Ambrose said as he punched his friend on the shoulder. “Let’s go, that kid is probably calling the police right now. You lost your shit, man.”

“Obviously,” Hawk conceded. “I’m crazy about him, Ambrose. I’ve never felt like this before—not even close.”

Ambrose punched the button for the fifteenth floor. “I’m afraid it’s love, my cute little duckling. You’ve fallen and you’ve fallen hard—got knocked right out of the nest before you realized you were ready to fly.”

“You’re an idiot.” Hawk grumbled. He tried to calm his nerves as the elevator carried them upward. Ambrose was right. He was in love with Atlas, no doubt about it. He sent a silent prayer up that Atlas did have a good explanation. If he didn’t, Hawk wasn’t certain he would survive a broken heart.

They quickly made their way to the door labeled 15F. Hawk knocked loudly on the door. Knocked again. Everything was eerily quiet…until a crash sounded from the other side of their door.

“Something’s wrong,” Hawk roared as he slammed into the door, knocking it down with the second wave of brute strength.

“Jeezus, Hawk! People drop things and they break.” Ambrose yelled. “You don’t need to overreact again and scare….”

Ambrose stopped talking. Hawk had moved instantly, but he felt his feet glued to the floor. A young girl, probably Atlas’ roommate, was tied to a chair. It had tipped over, maybe the crash they had heard. Worse than everything was the plastic bag covering her head and tied around her neck. She struggled and kicked as she tried to find a way to get oxygen.

Hawk ripped the bag away with a snarl. Atlas loved Megan, so he loved Megan. “Are you okay? Can you breathe now?” He turned to Ambrose. “Call 911!” He pulled out a pocketknife and cut the zip ties away from her feet and hands and then gently carried her to the sofa. “Please tell me you’re alright.” She was sucking in deep breaths of oxygen and trying to talk at the same time. Another minute and she would have probably suffocated to death.

“Some man took Atlas,” she gasped. “He forced him to go with him, acting like he would allow me to live if Atlas agreed to go with him, but then he came back and put the bag over my head. There…there was no sign of Atlas.” Her eyes, still wild with fright, drifted toward Ambrose. “Atlas…he thought the gifts were from you, Ambrose. He was terrified of coming between the two of you.” She forced herself into a sitting position. “Cancel the 911, we have to find Atlas. The first thing that happened were the roses, hundreds of them. There was a card with a note and signed with an A. I had to leave for a business trip, but when I got back, he said that he also got a Rolex with another note, that note a bit more suggestive.” Megan struggled to stand up and made it with Hawk’s help. “Then there was this from yesterday.” She led them both to Atlas’ bedroom. The kink gifts were still on the bed, but the card was missing. “The note is missing. It was there when Atlas and I went to bed last night.”

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