Antidote (Don't) (52 page)

I’d been watching Gray so fucking closely, and I shifted the moment Gray did, coming in front of him, stopping him going for Elena now it seemed he’d pulled together nearly everything he needed.

“
You had your own boy and his lover raped, you sick fucking cunt
?”

“No. Stop-stop-stop, stop,” said Greg, stepping in between all of us, his hands raised uselessly against the tides sweeping through. Then his finger levelled on Gray. “You. My house. This is my fucking hou—”

“
Your son
,” shouted Gray, “he’s
your
fucking son.”

“No,” he said, lowering his hand in defeat. “I...” He shrugged. “I can’t play these games, Gray. I can’t do this anymore, please—not with Jack, not with him. You—”

“Oh grow some balls, Greg.” The hardness in Elena’s tone forced even Greg to turn around. “I sorted him out; I corrected him.”

Greg stood there as I let Gray go.

“That’s why your voice was altered in the cells when Jan heard you,” said Gray, his tone carrying this strange deadness to it. “You couldn’t have Jan or Jack recognise you.”

Elena snorted. “Oh for... Jack and Jan were never in any
real
danger, Stop with the dramatics,” she said, picking up a pillow and patting it down. I choked out a reply. Just a grunt, or a snort, something to just get across the absurdity of what I’d just heard.

“No
real
danger?” I said. “
Your son was fucking repeatedly raped
.” Gray grabbed at my arm. “He was tortured—held down and branded like an animal with a fucking iron.” I couldn’t get my head around this. “They forced him to lie next to me as they raped him—and you say we... we were in no
real
danger?”

“
My
son?” snapped Elena. “That wasn’t
my
anything back there.” She looked at the mantelpiece. “
That’s
my son.” Her lips turned up in a disgusted sneer. “The bastard you know? He’s just a thing, a stained and mindless, spoilt
thug
.”

Gray snorted, pulling me out of the way. “You said no real danger.” Eyes narrowed. “You knew we’d find Keal, that he’d lead us to Vince,” he said. Greg was still staring, not at me or Elena, not Gray, just staring out of the window, lost.

“You found nothing, not until I deemed it necessary,” she said. “I switched the needles to make sure the doctor would overdose the bastard,” she said calmly. “I knew once Jack and Jan were split up, attention would fall off Jan. Again, just a switch of needles. Doc was a buffoon, most men are; it’s why I hired him. He was too drunk to tell the difference, and I just helped things along to ensure just that.”

Bourbon. The Doc had always stunk of bourbon. Jesus fucking Christ.

“Usually I’m paid for contract work,” Gray said icily. “Like setting April up, you put out a contract on Vince, Henry, and Keal well before they were all even on the scene.”

“It’s your job to slaughter dirt like that, or do you need reminding every now and again about the finer details like Jack does too? You did your job, well done.” She even applauded. “Pick up your certificate on the way out.”

“And April Leamore?” said Gray. “Where’s her certificate? Where’s she?”

“She’s corrected.” There was coldness there. “Fool her for her and her husband being weak enough to give Jack what he wanted.”

Martin. He came on the scene afterwards, to take over and face what was wrong in his waking life. A nurse for his cuts, a nurse for his disorders—but a female nurse? “What the fuck did you do to him, you fuck?” I muttered quietly. “Why the hell would Martin look to find a female fucking nurse?”

“Jack? Nothing. I loved him.”

“Yeah?” I grunted. “And when you stopped loving him, what happened then?”

“The divorce couldn’t have been easy.” That came from Halliday, disturbing even Gray from staring Elena down. “And before that, Jack—all the fights, seeing him bruised, having him arrange your house in the early hours?” added Halliday.

Elena frowned for the first time.

“His condition only worsened when he met Cutter, correct?” continued Halliday and it earned a grunt off Elena.

“It’s not right, a boy,
my
boy, lying on his back to get hurt, spreading his legs like a slut, all to play a pathetic sub to another.”

“You raised Jack tough,” said Halliday, and he went to stand but a signal off Gray told him to stay down. “All that rigid structure with karate, I can see your toughening influence there.”

Elena nodded, even smiled. “He was the best in the county for a while, won loads of awards. Nobody would come near him. Not the neighbours. Anyone.” No awards lined the wall either, no trophies in bookcases. This had been Jack’s home, but, and I think Greg noticed it now too, it wasn’t the home of Elena’s Jack. Had she taken all of those photos and awards to hers? Greg perhaps agreeing because he knew, maybe he knew deep down Jack was closer to him? “That was when he should have been spoilt, not with, with—”

“Then it started going wrong?” said Halliday, and Elena’s smile fell. “Appearances in court,” added Halliday. “Battles with the police, the neighbours? Where did the respect go in their eyes? Was it replaced maybe with what they now knew about Jack? Where he went night after night, that he liked rough sex, that he would hurt other people just to lie still for Cutter?”

“
He craved one and fed the other
,” she snapped, curling her lips in disgust. “Take away the craving, starve the mental weakness. His disorders overtook our lives.”

“Mental
weakness
?” Greg groaned. “You... you think my boy’s weak for what goes on in his head?”

“This.” She tapped hers. “This is weak, and it’s weak because of his craving to be ordered, to be hurt-fucked by other men. It’s not right, not normal.” Her eyes were hard. “It’s
nothing
my quiet boy had when he was growing up.”

“And when it did tear him up as a teen?” shouted Greg. “
What did I miss? What did you do to him, Elena
?”

“
I
loved
him
.”

“
Loved
him?” A tear spilled from Greg. “How? Enough to
straighten
his kinks out when he got older? You... you were always there whispering to him it was okay.” A tear spilled. “I
heard
you say it was okay.”

“He was just a boy,” she said flatly. “Of course it was all right—he was supposed to grow out of it.”

“And... and when he was lying in hospital,” Greg said quietly. “When we got him back, you, you said it then, when he was all battered and burned. You...” He shrugged, gave up. “You whispered everything was okay, that he was going to be okay. Why?”

Elena went over, her gaze never more puzzled. “Because I saw him, I watched him with Vince, all polite, well mannered, and able to have sex without wanting to be hurt.” She lifted one shoulder in half a shrug. “Okay, he looked uncomfortable to start with, but when he called out Vince’s name, not Gray’s, I knew—I knew he was looking at life normally. Like my boy: waiting nicely, wanting nicely.”

Greg looked at her. “You... you
watched
it?” It wasn’t a question, just stated, an acknowledgement.

“I
controlled
it,” she said flatly. “Men like that needed watching, needed controlling. But Jack... he cried and fought like a thug most of the time, when Vince hurt him, but during the day...” She was smiling again despite a tear. “So sweet, so normal, so quiet.” She reached for Greg, but he pushed her hands away. “I controlled him, nothing more.” she said quietly. “He needed controlling, Greg. His disorders, they needed correcting properly. Jack, he just needed to know his place in the family, is all.” She straightened and her smile was so beautiful, showing everyone here where Jack got his looks from. “We got our boy back. Look how he’s been around us lately. So polite at the dinner table, so, so—”

“Hurt,” said Greg quietly, almost defeated. “And Jan. Oh my God—Jan.” He looked at me. “You...” He was back with Elena. “Just what the hell have you done?”

“Him? Jan’s okay.” She even waved me off. “Henry barely touched him, just a little roughing up. In fact, I made sure he stayed by Jack as much as possible—”

“
We were fucking raped next to each other in what we thought was the safety of Jack’s own bed
.”

Elena raised a brow at me. “Jack’s slept in so many beds he barely knows the safety of his own. Don’t throw that at me, boy,” she said stiffly. “And you, what’s all of that done but made sure you won’t let Jack be touched in a BDSM scene again? You can help keep his disorders in line.”

“And, and Gray?” said Greg, looking at her.

I stiffened slightly and even Elena narrowed her eyes.

“Those tapes were sent to people Jack cared for,” Greg snarled through his teeth. “I’m not as stupid as you’re making out, Elena. You’ve known for a long time that Jack’s been seeing Gray too—I saw how Gray was in the hospital. Jack went home with him.”

“Two boyfriends,” snapped Elena. “And you tell me Jack isn’t the thug who always gets what he wants, especially because of those disorders?” Elena flicked a look at Gray. “And I’ve been in Jack’s home. Through his bedroom drawers. He has BDSM gear in there. I know they’re not Jan’s, especially when I saw Gray’s photo. He’s like Cutter; he’s a Dom. He’s Jack’s Dom.”

“You’ve known that for a while, haven’t you?” I mumbled. “You found out what Mark Shaw failed to find out. You found out about Gray? What he is to Jack?”

“Keal told me,” said Elena. “And where Gray lived. Although I’d have found that out anyway.” She couldn’t have said that any colder. “You carried on where Cutter left off.” Her face creased as she looked at Gray. “You take spoilt little shits and twist them into toys, ones that only want more.” She looked so smug. “Well he doesn’t want more now, does he?”

Greg looked back at Gray, maybe seeing him for the first time.

Elena gently tapped at her chest. “I stopped it. I made him bett—”

“
He wasn’t sick
.” Greg suddenly grabbed her by the hair and pulled her close. “He made wrong choices, got himself involved with the wrong people, but...” Greg looked at Gray for a brief moment, tears streaking his face. “That stopped,” he said in Elena’s face. “That stopped when he met Gray. And no matter how Gray did it, he stopped Jack from ruining his life.”

“
He ties your boy up
,” she shouted just as heatedly, just as much in Greg’s face as she pulled him closer. “Keal, he told me. He said Jack opened his legs for a Dom, that he let himself be tied up like an animal, whipped, and fucked. That Jack trained other Doms to do it to other people: men, women—boys like Jack had been, screw with their heads and bodies...”

Greg was shaking his head. “You know nothing about Jack, Elena. How can you not know a thing about our own boy?” Greg pushed her away and wiped at his face. “Cutter twisted his reasoning, poisoned his reactions, and if you tell me he works with Gray to stop other men and women taking advantage of people who show enough trust to allow someone else to tie them up—
then I’m damn fucking proud of him for i
—” Greg choked, automatically smothering his mouth to try and stop it. “He faced it,” he said to her, “he faced what Cutter did and gave Cutter the fucking V in doing so, and that—that’s Jack. That’s
my
Jack. Spoilt thug?” He suddenly sobered up. “
You
.” His fist clenched. “You stand there—nothing but fucking jealous of a boy’s disorders and the attention he needed. So you corrected him—by watching him and gentle Jan being
raped and tortured
?”

Gray moved quicker than I did, sweeping in behind Greg and pulling him out of the way, more or less spinning him away as he shifted for Elena. “Don’t...” he said, levelling a finger on Greg as Greg glared at him. “How did you intercept the packages? Jan’s book was ordered via a private collector, the DVD from a supplier.”

She said nothing and Gray narrowed his eyes. “Oh. You weren’t responsible for that?” A smile was given. “Who was? How?”

Elena returned his hard stare.

“Back to the people backing you, huh? And if they’re powerful enough to hide their finance trail, then they’re powerful enough to look inside someone else’s, certainly mine, and see where I purchased items. A word in someone’s ear here, there, and the parcels themselves are interfered with, maybe before they even leave their destination.” His whole mannerism seemed to come alive. “Oh, I really need to see your contact list now.”

“You do?” said Elena. “And what the hell are you going to do with them? With me?” she said coldly, maybe even with an added touch of smugness. “I stopped Jack wanting more of you, just how do you think he’ll react to you after you tell him you’ve taken care of me?”

Gray smiled, actually smiled, and it looked quite charming. “As if I’d hurt Jack’s old lady.” He pulled something out of his back pocket and Elena jerked back, no doubt expecting a firearm. Instead, Gray stood there typing in numbers into his mobile. After a moment he nodded when the mobile declared he had a message.

“Home Secretary finally learned to text,” he said, looking up at Elena. “And under the ‘
2006 Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act
’, your British Citizenship has now been revoked.” He offered her the phone. “You’ll be re-arrested on home soil. Now get the fuck out of Jack’s life.”

Elena, eyes wide, fists clenched, stared at the phone without taking it. “You can’t deport me—on what grounds? I’ve done
nothing
wrong.”

Gray shrugged. “Not my problem, I’m afraid. Even I have to listen to politicians at times. But to paraphrase her words: you fuck about with British Nationals, you lose your privileged right to
be
a British National. Which, in general, means that you don’t get to download porn concerning underage children onto the net, you don’t acquire a building to solicit the filming of rape, torture, and captivity, you also don’t get to hire rapists, fraternize with suspected sex traders, and use a date-rape drug to psychologically recondition other British Nationals.” His smile faded. “But most of all—” He stepped really close. “
You don’t ever fuck about with what’s mine. We clear on that
?”