Chapter 17

The sound of his morning alarm woke Tommy in double-quick time. Each bleep rang like a foghorn in Tommy's previously sleepy ears.

‘Okay, okay!' Tommy said, his half-closed eyes searching for the alarm so that he could put it out. ‘Fine, I'll wake up!'

Tommy sat up on the edge of the bed and could see that Luca was already up. Either that, or Luca hadn't come to bed at all. Tommy knew that Luca had a lot going on in his life, and that sometimes he actually needed to stay up all night.

I hope Luca doesn't think my situation with Xane is too much.

I don't want to stress him out.

I just want my fun life back…

Tommy stretched his hands above his head and then stood up. Tommy was wearing his red pajama bottoms and nothing else. Fortunately, Luca's penthouse had a top-of-the-line heating system, plus the bedroom had underfloor heating that felt all warm and toasty on Tommy's feet.

‘What shall I do today?' Tommy wondered out loud. ‘Luca? Where are you?'

‘Working, boy,' Luca shouted, his voice coming from the kitchen. ‘I've made you a smoothie too. Come on, come and get it.'

Tommy hopped, skipped, and jumped his way out of the bedroom and down the corridor toward the large, airy kitchen.

Luca was sitting at the big kitchen table with two iPads and an A4 sketchpad too.

‘Looks complicated,' Tommy said, a smile on his face as he kissed his Master's cheek. ‘Is this bank heist planning?'

‘What gave it away?' Luca said, pointing at the diagram of the internal workings of a safe on his sketchpad. ‘Come on, drink your smoothie. You need those morning vitamins.'

‘Yup, I sure do,' Tommy said, cheerily drinking the surprisingly tasty smoothie. ‘You know when we were talking about your parents at the restaurant, and you said you never had much of a chance to talk about it?'

‘Uh-huh, yeah?' Luca said, engrossed in his safe diagrams.

‘Well I had an idea,' Tommy continued.

‘Go on,' Luca replied, now looking at Tommy and giving Tommy his full attention.

‘A friend of mine called Sammy has got a Master called Axl,' Tommy said, hope in his voice. ‘Axl is a therapist who helps people at The Kink Cabin NYC and although he specializes in BDSM now, he is fully qualified in dealing with grief and things like that.'

Tommy waited for a response from Luca. He could tell that Luca was thinking about what he said, but Tommy couldn't work out if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

‘It was just a suggestion,' Tommy said.

‘And I like it,' Luca replied. ‘I'm too busy right now, you know that. But I think when I've cleared my schedule of one or two problems, that's something I'll investigate. Thank you, boy. I'm lucky to have you in my life. I really mean that.'

Tommy smiled and began to drink his smoothie. It felt good to be of help to Luca, especially considering all the good things that Luca had done – and continued to do – for him.

‘I think I'm going to go out to pick up some coloring pencils,' Tommy said. ‘Once I'm done with the smoothie, I'll change and go. Just to the store at the corner. That's okay, right?'

‘That's fine, one of my men will follow close behind,' Luca said, touching one iPad screen before shifting his attention to the other. ‘And thanks again for recommending…'

‘Axl. Dr. Axl Ranger,' Tommy smiled. ‘Are you getting forgetful in your old age?'

‘Grrrr! I'll have none of that sass!' Luca laughed, before going back to studying his screens.

Tommy could see that Luca was engrossed in his bank heist plans.

It was time to finish the smoothie, get changed, and enjoy a nice lazy day at the apartment. Sometimes, it was good to simply relax and let whatever was going to happen just happen…

Tommy took his first step out of the apartment building's entrance door and before he could even feel the rays of morning sun hit him, his face totally drained of all its color.

‘No… no… it can't be….,' Tommy said, freezing on the spot. ‘That looks like… him.'

Tommy felt paralyzed by fear.

Suddenly time seemed to stand still as a sickening feeling enveloped Tommy's entire body.

Across on the other side of the road was a large, blacked-out SUV with a group of men standing around it, with nasty looks on their faces like they were full of bad intentions.

Amongst the men was… Xane.

Or it certainly looked like Xane as far as Tommy could see.

In a state of panic, Tommy turned to the security guard and said he was going back up to the apartment. Without waiting to give an explanation, Tommy ran as fast as his legs would carry him all the way over toward the penthouse elevator.

‘Come on, come on, come on!' Tommy cried, his bottom lip trembling as he waited for the elevator to make its pinging noise.

It felt like an eternity, but a panicky Tommy finally arrived at the penthouse level and immediately ran into the kitchen.

‘Luca? Where are you?' Tommy hollered, desperately looking for Luca.

Luca ran out of the office and immediately made a beeline for his boy.

‘What's wrong? What's happened?' Luca said. ‘Calm yourself down and tell me, boy.'

‘It's… h-h-h-him,' Tommy stammered. ‘Xane… I think I saw him outside.'

‘You think?' Luca said. ‘Was it him or not? This is important.'

‘I… I… can't say for sure, I was so scared,' Tommy said, struggling to maintain any kind of composure.

‘Okay, one second,' Luca said.

Tommy watched as Luca called his security detail. The look on Luca's face said it all. Luca suddenly shifted into a different mode. He may still have been Tommy's Dom Luca, but he was now also clearly a mobster with Mafia blood running through his veins too.

‘Boy, we're getting you out of here,' Luca said, a look of steely focus in his eyes. ‘There's no time to talk. Just follow my instructions. You'll go with one of my security guys. He'll get you safe. Once you arrive, you do not move until I contact you. Got it?'

‘But… I don't want to leave you,' Tommy said, a tear falling down his cheek. ‘I'm scared. I need to be with my Master.'

‘And you will be,' Luca said, firmly. ‘But not now. You need to let me handle my business. This is what I do, boy. You have to trust me.'

Tommy nodded his head and struggled to hold back a waterfall's worth of tears. Tommy's mind was ablaze with possibilities, and none of them were good.

What if Xane and his men killed Luca?

What would stop Xane from coming after him next?

The thought of being separated from Luca right now was bad enough, but what if this was the last time Tommy ever saw Luca?

These thoughts were too difficult to bare. But fortunately for Tommy, he didn't have any time ponder them. Before he knew what was going on, Luca was instructing his security to take Tommy out of the basement carpark in one of their alternate, low-key cars that they used for covert work.

Tommy wanted all of this to be over. And he wanted it to be over fast.

But Tommy felt hopeless. All he could do was hope that his man was going to handle Xane once and for all and then things could finally get back to normal.

Lyle's place was quiet and it felt good to be in friendly company. Eddies's Master Antonio had gone to be with Luca, and the two friends were safely hidden away where no one could find them.

That being said, Antonio's trusted security guy was manning the property just in case. You could never be too safe, and Antonio made sure to tell his man to be extra vigilant before he left.

As Tommy sat on the large, colorful couch, Lyle handed him a hot apple and cinnamon tea with a shot of vodka added to help calm the nerves.

‘Drink this, Tommy,' Lyle said. ‘You'll feel so much better.'

‘Thank you,' Tommy said, a sad look on his face. ‘I don't know what to think. Or what to do. I feel so… useless.'

‘Don't be sad,' Lyle said. ‘Our Sorrento men are the best. And they'd do anything to keep us safe. I promise.'

Tommy smiled.

Lyle could always be relied upon to be brave and optimistic too. But Tommy knew that Lyle being optimistic wouldn't actually have any real effect on what might happen between Luca and Xane.

In that moment, Tommy was finding his mind being torn between his fears for the future and flashbacks to the past. Losing his father when he was younger and then feeling so lost without him had really hurt Tommy for so long. The thought of losing another important man in his life was almost too difficult to contemplate.

‘Donut?' Lyle said, smiling as he picked up a big box of colorful donuts and passed it to Tommy. ‘You can have first choice.'

‘Thank you,' Tommy said, wiping a tear away. ‘Thank you for being such a good friend to me.'

Tommy ate the donut, but despite it being one of his favorite strawberry iced, double-cream donuts, it lacked any flavor whatsoever. Tommy knew it was just him, but at the moment there was no way he could enjoy food.

In fact, Tommy couldn't possibly have enjoyed anything at all right then.

Each and every car that passed down on the street below made Tommy jump with fright. Every shouted voice from outside made him shudder.

‘This might be a long night,' Lyle said, putting his arm around Tommy and bringing him in close. ‘Let me find a Disney movie and we can at least try to take our minds off things.'

Tommy nodded, but he knew it wouldn't be that simple.

In that second, Tommy didn't even care about getting revenge on Xane. All he wanted was his Master back safe and in one piece.

All Tommy wanted was to know that Luca was safe…