Chapter 21

TWENTY-ONE

VORTEX

“Vortex,” Havoc’s voice rings out sharply in the room, and I almost ignore him as I ball my hands into fists.

“You think you’re some big hotshot who can fuck someone who’s drunk and can’t take care of himself?” I demand of the idiot who’d had the fucking nerve to touch Seven when he’d been drinking.

Five shots. Seven had had five fucking shots. For someone of his size, that’s not a small amount of liquor—and this sleazebag had taken advantage of that.

Part of me is aware that Seven shoulders some of the blame, too; I know he has a habit of going for whoever’s available. But at the same time, I’d thought things would be different now that he has me and Havoc, along with Caleb. I can’t fathom the idea that we aren’t enough.

Maybe that’s what’s bothering me so much.

Instead of punching this dickwipe in the face, I back off. “Come near him again, and I will lay you the fuck out,” I snap at him.

I turn back to where Havoc is still holding a mostly incoherent but fully dressed Seven.

I storm back over to him. “Give him here,” I order. “I’ll carry him.”

“I’ll vomit on you,” Seven says weakly, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. “Let me walk.”

I bark out a disbelieving laugh. “You expect me to believe you can walk after that?”

Havoc strokes Seven’s hair gently. “Let Vortex carry you, Seven. He’ll take care of you.”

Seven laughs and shakes his head, snot running from his nose as he wipes his face with the back of his hand. “And you’ll take care of Michael, right? You’ll beat him black and bloody and rearrange his face?”

Havoc flinches and grits his teeth. “I’m not going to do that.” He turns to this Michael person. “Just don’t let me see you anywhere near Seven again.”

“You won’t! Jesus Christ, I didn’t ask for any of this!” Michael picks up his clothes and runs to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Seven mutters. He seems more lucid now that he’s vomited, at least, but I don’t like the way he’s defending Michael.

“I can’t believe you’d betray my—” I start to say, only to grit my teeth, “ Caleb’s trust like this, Seven.”

“Trust?” Seven asks, starting to laugh. It’s a wild sound, something strange, and I tug him away from Havoc so I can pull him into my arms. “He doesn’t trust me. He doesn’t care. He just owns me.”

“This isn’t the place to argue about this shit,” Havoc growls. “I’ve got questions too, but not where fucking Michael can overhear us.”

I glare at Havoc, but he’s right. I pick Seven up and carry him toward the elevator. Havoc follows, while Seven squirms and fights my grasp.

“I don’t— I don’t wanna go back,” Seven rasps, tears spilling from his eyes. “I don’t wanna be near him. He’s just…”

My heart clenches at that, and I wish I knew what had set Seven off to the point where he’d acted out like this. It’s one thing for him to go out and get fucked up, but it’s another entirely for him to beg not to go back to Caleb.

Isn’t it?

What’s been going on behind closed doors?

I think Caleb and I need to have a very, very serious chat about what’s going on with Seven.

“It’s all right,” I tell him. “I’ll talk to Caleb.”

Seven sobs, or laughs, or both. I can’t tell. “Yeah. That’s gonna go great. He’ll just dump you in the fucking desert.”

“He isn’t going to do that,” Havoc snaps at Seven. “He’s already down a general manager, remember? He won’t get rid of Vortex at the same time.”

There are more reasons Caleb wouldn’t get rid of me than that, but now isn’t the time or place to talk about that, either. “It’ll be fine,” I say as the elevator dings open at the top floor.

The sheer number of times I have to keep bringing Seven back to Caleb while Seven just tries to run away is starting to get to me.

Havoc opens the door for us, and we head inside.

I’m not surprised to see that Caleb is waiting for us in the living room, and I nod to him. “Let Havoc settle Seven,” I say, my voice steely. “I think you and I need to talk, boss.”

Caleb’s expression is neutral when he looks at Seven. “Yes. That’s a good idea. Be good for Havoc, Seven, while I decide how to punish you.”

Havoc sneers at Caleb and takes a step toward him. “Punish him? Seven doesn’t need punishment?—”

“ Please ,” Seven begs. “Please, Caleb. Whip me. Hurt me. Anything.”

“Stop it,” I tell Seven, my own voice sharp. I can’t believe I’m about to go head to head with Caleb fucking Spade about this, but something needs to give. I can’t keep chasing Seven and bringing him back while he screams and begs to be hurt all over again.

Seven stares at me, looking wounded. I set him down right in front of Havoc.

“Go on,” I tell them, trying to make my voice less of a bark.

“Fuck you,” Seven whispers, and my heart aches to hear that note of defeat in his voice.

Havoc pulls Seven closer to him and glares at us. “That long expanse of desert? Nobody would find your body in it either, Caleb.”

Caleb only rolls his eyes as Havoc leads Seven into his bedroom and shuts the door behind him.

There’s so much I want to say, so much I could say, but I don’t even know where to begin. So I blurt out the only thing that’s been on my mind. “What the fuck is going on, Caleb? Because I’m about at the point where I’m going to stop bringing him back to you.”

Caleb shakes his head and points to his office. “Come on. I don’t need them to overhear.”

I make a frustrated noise, but I follow him to his small home office and wait for him to close the door.

“Okay. And?” I demand. “This shit isn’t normal. Getting set off by random things, deciding to get drunk and throwing himself at random men?—”

“He threw himself at you , too,” Caleb points out calmly. “That behavior was only abnormal when it no longer served you?”

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it!” I tell him harshly. “He’s been acting off. Keeps talking about how you own him. He calls you Master , you tell him to do shit he doesn’t want to do, and me?” I bark out a laugh. “I’ve been just as complicit. I should’ve told him no so many times, and I didn’t because you kept encouraging me to fuck him.”

God, I’m so fucking disgusted with myself.

If someone had treated my sister the way I’ve been treating Seven, I’d have kicked their ass into next week. My behavior has been inexcusable, to say the least, and I don’t know what to do to make it better.

Caleb bursts out laughing. “Excuse me? It’s my fault you fucked Seven? You couldn’t keep it in your pants? You couldn’t leave the room? You were just so afraid of what I’d do to you every time I asked if you wanted to join or not?”

My face burns. He’s right, and that’s the worst part of it. I shouldn’t have done any of those things. I should’ve seen the signs and… and what? “It doesn’t fucking matter,” I say as steadily as I can manage. “But I think he needs to get away from you .”

“Okay,” Caleb says with a shrug. “Take Seven. Give him the normal life he wants. Let him roam about the city; let him run away from you the way he inevitably will. It’s not like you’ll ever know what becomes of him. Maybe he’ll find happiness as he whores himself out for rides on the interstate. Maybe he’ll die in a ditch. Maybe his former masters will retrieve him. But your hands will be clean.”

My blood runs colder and colder the more he speaks, and my fingers flex as they clench into fists and straighten out again.

One thing in particular sticks out— his former masters —but I can’t focus on that now. Not yet.

“How are you going to punish him, Caleb? What could you possibly do to him that won’t just…” I grit my teeth. “How the fuck are we supposed to protect him if he won’t let us? If he won’t let you ?”

“If I was truly going to punish him, I’d tie him to his bed and leave him alone for a few days,” Caleb says tonelessly.

My breath hitches as I imagine what that would do to Seven. I raise my fist and step closer to Caleb.

He immediately puts his arms up in surrender. “I said if . I have no intention of doing that. No, I’m going to give him what he wants. I’m going to whip him. I’m going to remind him that we’re here, giving him what he needs. And when I’m done, you and Havoc can comfort him.”

I don’t know if that’s what he really needs.

I don’t know that any of us know what he needs, though.

I do know one thing for a fact, though: Seven sure as fuck doesn’t, and he’s going to keep running himself into the ground until he self-destructs if no one keeps him in line.

Caleb is doing what I never could.

“All right,” I say after a long, long pause. “I’ll keep saving him from his fucking self. I’ll keep dragging him back, even when he begs me not to. But I’m trusting you, Caleb. I sure as fuck hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I do, as well,” Caleb says. He runs his hand through his hair. “Now, you should probably check on Seven and Havoc. I’m going to prepare the bedroom for Seven.” He pauses for a second. “Let Havoc know that he is free to leave. He doesn’t have to watch Seven take the whipping.”

I nod, feeling just as weary as Caleb looks. “He’ll stay,” I say. “I… I shouldn’t have come at you like that. I don’t know how he got under my skin, boss, but I don’t know what to do about it. I want him… but fuck if I want to be what he uses to hurt himself with.”

Caleb’s expression softens. “No need to worry about that. Havoc and I have it covered. You can be his kind, soft Daddy.”

“No one has ever called me kind or soft before,” I mutter.

But he’s not wrong. That’s what I want to be for Seven.

“Okay. I’ll talk to them.” I nod to him, then leave his office.

The door to Seven’s room is closed, and I knock gently before letting myself in.

Havoc is sitting up against the headboard of the bed, and Seven’s head is in his lap. Seven’s eyes open, and he looks warily up at me, even as Havoc continues to card his fingers through Seven’s hair.

“Hey,” I say roughly, mostly to Havoc.

“Hi,” Havoc says. “Do I need to help carry Caleb’s body into the wasteland?”

My eyes linger on Seven, who’s squirming under the blankets, and I shake my head. “No. I…” I clear my throat, telling myself to stop being such a fucking pussy. “Seven, do you think you can handle a punishment?”

Seven’s eyes open, and he starts to sit up. Havoc’s fingers tighten in his hair, though, keeping him in place.

“What do you mean, a punishment?” Havoc asks sharply.

“You and I will talk later,” I tell him, even though I really have no idea what I’ll say to him. “But for now…” I clear my throat.

“I want a punishment,” Seven says. “I deserve to be punished.”

There’s something about the way he says it that breaks my heart. I know he gets off on pain, but he doesn’t sound like he wants this for the sexual gratification. He earnestly believes that he should get punished for… for cheating on us—Caleb—whoever. I don’t even know what kind of an arrangement we have.

Havoc grips Seven’s hair and forces him to look up. “You don’t deserve to get punished. But if you want to get hurt… yeah, Caleb’s the right guy for that.”

“You have to learn to come to one of us when you’re feeling off-balance,” I tell Seven, then glance back at Havoc. “And if you don’t…” My words briefly catch in my throat. “You have to learn to be safe. He didn’t have a condom on. No one knew where you were.”

Seven scowls at me. “Then how’d you find me so fast?” he demands.

“We got lucky,” I say. It hadn’t been lucky so much as it had been minor detective work, but Seven doesn’t need to know that. “So next time—” My throat threatens to close around the words. “Next time you want to get hurt, you go to Havoc, or you call me and tell me where you’re going.”

“I don’t have a phone,” Seven points out.

I stare at him, unimpressed. “There are only about a hundred employees you could ask to tell me or Caleb or even Havoc that you need to talk to us.”

Havoc rolls Seven onto his other side and points at the bedside table. One of the hotel phones is sitting on it, along with a bright pink post-it. “Seven, I left you my phone number. Or you could have dialed zero to reach the front desk, and they would have been able to connect you to Caleb.”

Seven scowls at us, sitting up and pulling away from Havoc. “What if I don’t want to?”

“Then you’re going to get punished, and one of these days, it will not be a punishment you want to get,” I tell him as steadily as I can manage. “You’re going to get someone else hurt, or maybe Caleb won’t hurt you.”

Seven’s expression morphs into terror. “I’ll be good! I promise. You don’t have to lock me up.”

I stride across the room, quickly closing the distance between us. Ignoring Havoc, I wrap my arm around Seven. “You have to stop hurting yourself like this, Seven,” I say as gently but firmly as possible. “No one wants to lock you up. We want to let you wander around and meet people and hang out with Della and the others. But you’ve got to start being—” I almost say smart , but that feels cruel. “Safe,” I say instead. I glance at Havoc. “You’ll be there if he needs you.”

It isn’t a question.

Havoc meets my gaze and nods. “I will. I am . I’m here for Seven, not you or Caleb.”

“Good,” I say. If he thinks that’s going to bother me, he’s wrong. “And now, it’s time for both of us to be here for Seven while Caleb reminds him that we are here for him.”

Havoc rubs a tear from the corner of Seven’s eye. “Okay. You ready for whatever that asshole has for you?”

Seven nods. “I’ll be good,” he says softly, swallowing hard as he looks between us—then beyond me, at the door, where Caleb is now waiting. “I promise.”

I tense, waiting for Caleb to say something that will piss me or Havoc off.

“I know you will, pet,” Caleb answers. He extends his arm in invitation, and after only a brief hesitation, Seven gets off the bed to go into Caleb’s arms.

Caleb kisses the top of Seven’s head. “Good pet.”

Something twists in my stomach as I watch the two of them. I don’t want to see Seven get hurt, but, fuck. If the only way he’s going to stay here—to stay safe—is if Caleb and Havoc hurt him…

I guess I’ll have to fucking deal with it.