Page 41 of Collin: Episodes 4-6
He gasped. The muscles up and down his back contracted and loosened.
“Are you with me, Collin?”
“Sir.”
“I got you, boy. Do you need more?”
Collin nodded. Tears burned his eyes. He didn’t have time to blink them away.
CRACK! Another hit of burning, shocking pain crashed across his body, lower this time. There was no way the implement was anything other than a belt.
Collin smothered a groan into his arm.
A second later, a third strike hit him.
Then Mr. Reevesworth was all around him, his elbows on the desk on either side of Collin’s body, his hard chest pressed against Collin’s shoulders, holding him down, making him real.
“With me, Collin?”
“Yes, sir.” Collin blinked hard.
Mr. Reevesworth brushed his tears away with the crook of his fingers. “How do you feel?”
“Bad, sir. I shouldn’t have gone out without telling you. It’s in our contract.”
“It is. But that’s not why I spanked you. That was keeping my promise.”
“To give me pain when I need it.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Mr. Reevesworth pressed his lips to the side of Collin’s neck. “I think I know why you did what you did, but you need to say it. And I need to hear it.”
“I panicked, sir. Ash said he needed my computer when I told him the file wasn’t the public one, the one everyone would have seen. And after Monday… I…” Collin sighed raggedly. “I don’t want to be the weak link.”
“They’re playing with your head, Collin. If they can get you to freak out, then you’ll be someone they might be able to compromise. There’s nothing on your computer that’s going to incriminate me. They’re trying to pull a psyop. Frankly, it’s not a very clever one. And they weren’t even targeting you directly. The message was for me.”
“Really, sir?”
Mr. Reevesworth stood up slowly, keeping his hips pressed against Collin’s thighs, still pinning him to the desk. He started to replace his belt. “Yes. I knew what the threat was as soon as I saw the area code. That’s why they sent it from that number.” He dropped his hand to Collin’s back. “Someone, several someones, want me to drop a project in that area code. I will not. So, this is their threat to me that they’re prepared to make things difficult. You just happened to be their easiest target.”
“Is it Bernstein?”
Mr. Reevesworth hummed noncommittally. “It could be. Or it could others. It’s a complicated list. One that I’m un-complicating.” He ran his hand up and down Collin’s back and settled his grip on the back of Collin’s neck. “But first, there’s the issue of your disobedience.”
Collin closed his eyes. “Yes, sir.”
“There’s an old story of how a shepherd would break the leg of a sheep that would not stay with the herd and then carry the sheep until it healed, bonding the sheep to them, so that they would no longer wander. I do find I rather like your legs whole, though.”
“Yes, sir.” Collin waited for fear to rise up in his throat, but there was none. If anything, the lack of fear was frightening.
“The concept still has value, though.” Mr. Reevesworth opened a drawer and eased Collin’s legs farther apart. He reached down and gripped Collin’s right ankle. “Give.”
Collin shifted his weight off the foot. It made him have to cling precariously to the desk with his palms. Only Mr. Reevesworth’s hip kept him in place.
Mr. Reevesworth bent Collin’s leg back until his heel nearly touched his ass. He slid rope around Collin’s ankle.
