Endangered Species Endangered Species (Time Served #1) - Onley James Page 0,36

Cy’s cock back into his mouth like he was desperate to swallow every drop.

“Fuck. You’re so dirty,” Cy managed.

There was no time for reciprocation or clean up. Cy tucked himself back into his underwear and pulled Nicky to his feet. “I’ll take care of you later. You can also explain what the fuck just happened.”

The explanation Cy was looking for would not come until much later when they were lying on Nicky’s bunk, Nicky sprawled over him like a body pillow. “You need to talk to me.”

Nicky didn’t respond. He’d been quiet since their hookup under the stairs. Weirdly quiet. He didn’t answer, just rubbed his cheek against Cy’s chest before placing his ear back over Cy’s heart. It was making him nervous. He was used to sarcastic Nicky, horny Nicky, hell, even angry Nicky, but this quiet, clingy, sad Nicky was breaking Cy’s heart. He didn’t know why but it felt a lot like a goodbye.

“Hey. Are you just going to ignore me?”

“I’m not ignoring you,” he said finally. “I just don’t want to talk about it.”

Cy frowned, knotting his hands in Nicky’s hair and gently tugging until he was looking up at him. “Talk about what? What happened? Did you get bad news from your lawyer? Your boss?”

Nicky shook his head. “They’re still working on doing what they can on their end. Linc said to just hang on.”

“Okay?” Cy said, the word drawn out like a question. There was clearly more. “Just tell me what happened.”

“I had a run-in with Thor.”

Cy’s blood turned to ice. “What? Did he…did he hurt you? Did he do something to you?”

Once more, Nicky shook his head against Cy’s chest. “It was just a verbal thing. For now. But Kemp and Rogers will be back soon, and when that happens, they’re going to hand me over to Thor and his gang on a silver platter. It’s inevitable. Nobody is going to get me out of here in time to prevent it. I just don’t want to talk about it because, when I do, I picture it, and when I picture it, it makes me sick to my stomach and I can’t breathe. I’ll fight back. I will. But I can’t fight his whole crew. I’ll be lucky if I manage to take out one of them.”

Frustration squeezed Cy’s lungs. He wanted to give Nicky empty platitudes about how everything would be fine, but it was all bullshit. Nicky was right in that a confrontation was inevitable. Either with Thor or the guards. Maybe both. “Go for Thor first. If you can take him out, hurt him bad enough to be unable to fuck you, the others might beat your ass but they won’t…rape you. Thor’s too territorial. He’ll want first dibs.”

Nicky shivered against him but still said nothing. Just talking about him like that was making Cy sick, but he was trying to be practical. Nicky seemed more worried about them violating him sexually than pounding on his face, so that’s what Cy tried to focus on. It was becoming clearer to Cy with each passing day that those childhood memories Nicky had locked away in that box in his head were starting to leak out. Maybe he’d been molested, or maybe it happened later when he was older, but somebody had clearly hurt him, forced themselves on him. In some twisted way, it might explain why he liked Cy to hurt him just enough. A way to have the control he never had then.

Now, somebody was doing this to Nicky all over again, turning him into a pawn in their sick game of chess, just when he’d finally started to think his life was his own. They were all pawns; in a way, even Thor was. He might be their weapon of choice, but somebody else was calling the shots.

Nicky gave a gruff laugh when Cy said as much out loud. “This isn’t chess. It’s Monopoly. Where everybody goes straight to jail.”

Cy’s fingers caressed just beneath Nicky’s hairline. “You can survive this. I know you can.”

Nicky tucked his hands under Cy’s shoulders. “If I get out of here, you know they’re coming for you. And I’m not going to hurt you again. I’d rather be dead.”

Cy grunted in frustration. “I can handle myself. I’ve spent more of my life here than I ever did out there. This isn’t much of a life, but I’ll be okay. If something happens to you, I’m never getting out of here, Nicky. Think about it that