Love in Chains - 17. Chapter 17

We were all nervous when we approached The Club and were very glad to see the dark figure lurking in the doorway of the building next door. As we approached Jon stepped out of the shadows and took Kane by the arm, guiding him around the corner to a door half way along the street, leaving Riz and I to follow.

The door led to a set of stairs which opened out into a surprisingly pleasant flat. There was a large spacious living room with two floor to ceiling windows dominating the far wall. One corner of the living room was an open plan kitchen appointed in black laminate and granite surfaces.

There were a number of miss matched chairs and sofas and colourful rugs on the polished wood floor. It looked as though there were more than one person living here because of the clashing styles, but it was comfortable, warm and welcoming.

Jon motioned them to sit and went into the kitchen to pour himself a shot of brandy. Although he asked, none of us was interested in a drink.

As he was settling himself in a chair in front of the window, facing us, one of the many doors which led off the room opened and a young man entered, his hair tousled from sleep. He was rubbing his eyes and practically naked. Noticing us he froze and raised his eyes to Jon.

“It’s okay Ben, just some friend. Go take your shower, we won’t be long.”

Ben was staring at me, his eyes wide. He glanced up at Jon again and then back at me. He was very young, very sweet and very frightened.

“It’s alright Ben. Don’t involve yourself. Just shower.” Jon’s voice was surprisingly gentle but it didn’t seem to have any effect on Ben, who still looked terrified, so much so he was starting to shake.

“You... Who... who are you?”

“I’m...”

Ben shook his head as if he was afraid of my answer. “You... you look... you look like...”

A lightbulb went off in my head. Of course; Nye and I look very much alike.

“You know my brother, I suppose. Aneurin... Nye?”

Ben opened and closed his mouth a few times, and shook his head then, almost as if a switch had flicked he seemed to draw himself up.

“Nye is my friend. He’s everyone’s friend. Are you going to save him? Please... don’t let Adam...”

“Ben! That’s enough. Go take your shower.”

Ben jumped, startled, although Jon’s voice was still calm and affectionate. Then he nodded and scuttled off.

“Well that was touching. What was it all about?”

“As Ben said... Nye was everyone’s friend.”

“Was?”

Jon shook his head, annoyed at himself and at my reaction. “You have to understand that it is... different for us. We live in a different world and it’s hard for people on the outside to understand. Most of us are here completely consensually... we do what we do because we want to.”

“Most of you?”

“There are always exceptions. In many ways it’s a brutal world and it’s easy for people to get... lost, especially when our stock in trade is pain. But they really are the exceptions.” He turned introspective. “Or so I always thought.”

Looking up, directly at me Jon went on, eagerly as if almost desperate for my understanding. “You have to understand that... people come to us for all sorts of reasons... because they are curious, because they want something different, because they have already started walking down this path. Many of them have no real idea what they are getting into until they start training. When they do they often freak and have to be... carefully handled. A lot of the time they ‘seem’ to be doing things against their will but they keep coming back and in truth they want more.

“Also there are some people who want to be abused, there are those whose fantasies involve violence and rape. We cater to them all and sometimes it’s hard to tell if the resistance is real or not.”

“How old is Ben?”

Jon looked startled by my question but he answered freely. “He’s a couple of weeks short of his eighteenth birthday.”

“And he’s ‘trained’?”

“He’s in training. It’s not complete.”

“And he is tortured and raped and abused?”

“Sometimes.”

“How can a seventeen year old truly consent to that? Oh I suppose it’s not illegal but... he’s a child. How old was he when he started?”

“Sixteen.”

“And is that the youngest you take them?”

“Here yes.”

“Here?” I shuddered. “Alright. I don’t want to know. Just tell me about Nye.”

“Look... one thing you should be aware of. These kids are mostly runaways who have been abused most of their lives. They are brought to this life... or worse ones... by people they meet on the streets. Pretty boys are very much in demand out there and one way or another they are going to get fucked.

“Here we offer good training, and not just in how to take a beating, but in all the intricacies of the world including things like aromatherapy, massage, business skills, literacy, computing, electronics... a lot of useful skills. The most important lessons they learn is how to keep themselves safe. They get a warm clean room, plenty of food and there is a strict no drugs policy. They are taught self defence and they are protected.”

“From everyone but those who pay well eh?”

“That’s different. No one is forced to do anything they don’t want to do.”

“So how do they pay?”

“What do you mean pay?”

“For the training. If they are street kids with no home, no job, no money how do they pay for the training, the accommodation... how do they pay?”

“They have to work... behind the bar here or in other clubs, driving, cleaning, all sorts of things and yes... if that is what they want, once they are trained enough... they provide sex to clients. But it is safe... they are protected both health wise and with muscle if things go wrong. We pick our clients carefully and we are very careful with hygiene and safe practices. There’s no point turning up your nose at this... it happens everywhere and at least here they are well cared for.”

“Save me the advertising. Just because they are abused more safely here than elsewhere doesn’t make the abuse ok.”

“Think what you like. It is what it is. And now that The Club is closed the boys have scattered and gone to new Masters most of whom make Adam look like a pussy cat.”

“Well forgive me if my heart ain’t bleeding for them. Now cut the BS and tell us about Nye.”

“Was he.... being trained?” I hardly dared to ask and Jon must have realised how much I feared the answer because he smiled and bit his lip before he replied.

“I can’t honestly say he wasn’t but... it was in a different way. I think that Adam genuinely loves him, as much as Adam is capable of loving anyone. He’s... flawed. He started off just like the rest of us. He was trained by Lian and he didn’t have an easy time of it but he stuck with it and rose through the ranks so to speak so fast and so far that Lian actually gave him a club to run. Not this one, this one is all his but Adam runs five clubs here, three in other cities and two abroad. He is very well known and very well respected but a large part of that respect was earned through fear and with good reason.

“Anyway... there is a strict code of practice with regard to training new boys. Every trainee has to be approved by the Master of the trainer, and the regime of training too. It’s negotiable and with Adam it was by and large a formality as everyone, including Lian knows Adam is the best trainer there is. None of his boys break, none of them run away or turn bad and they are always very much in demand.

“This time however, Adam didn’t mention anything about Nye to Lian because he was ‘training’ him in a very different way. He found it very hard to hurt Nye and he was genuinely trying to maintain a proper relationship with him. He actually made a formal commitment to him to make him a partner, in life and in business. The problem is...

“The problem is that Adam can’t do relationships. If he had separated off his private life from his business life it would have been fine. If he had not wanted Nye to experience everything he experiences, to be fully part of his world, or if he had been able to accept Nye’s strong character and not wanted to mould and manipulate him... but Adam is not good with compromise. He wanted a ‘true’ relationship but with someone who was compliant and obedient... and fully part of his world. He was never going to have that with Nye, not unless he was trained.

“So he went about some weird combination of courting and training which, to his mind was working very well. Everyone else could see that it was going to end in disaster, but not him, not even Nye who was so enmeshed in the facade Adam was presenting him that he wouldn’t have seen the truth until it hit him in the face... which it did.”

Nervously Jon ran his hands through his hair. “When Lian found out about what Adam was doing and what he was planning he went nuts. He came here for the weekend to ‘approve’ the relationship but in truth it was all about testing Nye and punishing both of them.”

Jon hung his head and couldn’t look at me. “He hurt Nye, hurt him badly, almost killed him and Adam was furious.”

My heart fell and I must have made a sound because Jon winced, but pressed on. “I don’t know exactly what happened but the gist of it seems to be that Adam and Nye had a row. Adam was so riled up anyway about what Lian did to him in punishment he pretty much took it out on Nye. He told us that Nye became ill from the poison Lian gave him and...”

“Poison?!”

Kane and I spoke at almost the same moment and, without looking at us he nodded. “It was part of the punishment... Lian made Adam administer poison to Nye. He didn’t know what it was at the time.”

“Adam gave a drug to Nye without knowing what it was?”

“It happens. Lian is a very experienced practitioner. He regularly uses drugs for various purposes.”

“I thought you said there were no drugs.”

“No recreational ones.”

“Yeah... that makes all the difference.”

“Alright Kane. Go on Jon. You said that Nye became ill from the poison.”

Jon shook his head. “No I said that Adam told us that Nye was ill because of the poison but I don’t believe for one minute that was the case. Lian gave Nye the antidote to the poison and he told Adam that he would be alright. Lian is a bastard but he isn’t a liar.”

“So what do you think happened?”

“The day that Lian left... you came.” He nodded to Kane. “Nye was lit up like a candle, full of spark and energy and that’s why I don’t believe the poison made him ill.”

“You mean the day I came to see him... when I was talking to him... he’d been poisoned?” Jon nodded and Kane turned away, running his hands through his hair. “I knew it. I knew something was terribly wrong with him. I should never have left him there... but he said he was happy he said he loved Adam.”

“I’m sure he did, at that time. Lian was gone, he had passed the tests with flying colours, he was notorious throughout our world, Adam was acting as if he was besotted with him and had given him half of everything... at least everything he knew about. Sure he was happy but...”

Jon faltered and took a long drink from his forgotten glass. “Something happened. I don’t know what it was but we didn’t see Nye for the best part of a week and when we did he was... different.”

“What do you mean ‘different’?”

“Less focussed, more withdrawn, more compliant, obedient.”

“Why?”

“Because Adam had been drugging him. He’d got his hands on some new drugs, potent stuff, mind and personality altering.”

“Oh my god. No.”

“Wait. They were nasty stuff but... Adam is impatient and... he can be brutal and cruel but he really did love Nye and... I think in the end that he couldn’t go through with it, not completely, because Nye was still... well Nye. One thing that really pissed Adam off was that no matter what he did, what he said, what manipulation he tried, Nye kept insisting on going to some party that Adam didn’t want him to go to.”

“Shit! That was my fault.”

“It was no one’s fault. It was a perfectly reasonable thing. Adam was very possessive with Nye. He wouldn’t let him out of his sight. The only time the poor kid was allowed any space without Adam at his hip was when he was working here... and then he was a different person. He really took to it, was amazing. Ben was right... everyone loved him, he was everyone’s friend.”

“I can imagine. I know what my brother’s like.”

“Adam always gets what he wants. When he couldn’t stop Nye going to the party he tackled the problem from the other end and took the option away from him.”

Kane snarled but said nothing.

“I wasn’t involved with that Kane, I swear. I didn’t know anything about it until afterwards. But Adam bragged to everyone. We all knew. He was mocking Nye, laughing at him behind his back and we hated it. Nye was devastated. He thought you had rejected him, that you didn’t want to know him any more, any of you.

“After... after they did what they did to you... Nye had another row with Adam...I think it was because he told him that despite what he thought you had done to him he wasn’t going to cut ties. Adam hit him, hard. He was in a terrible state and...”

Jon startled them all by suddenly getting to his feet and stalking to the window. “It was my fault. I should have kept my mouth shut but... the boys were getting restless. They didn’t like what Adam was doing to Nye. They were putting pressure on me to do something, but what could I do? I’m bar manager but it isn’t as if I have any influence on Adam. He’s my... he never listens to me.”

“What were you going to say Jon? Were you going to say that he is your master?”

Jon did not turn but they could clearly see his shoulders tense. “Yes. It’s been a long time since my training, and a long time since I had cause to use it but... yes Adam trained me... he is my master.”

“How old were you?”

Jon paused, his whole body singing with tension, then his shoulders slumped and he raised his arm resting his forehead against it pressed against the window. “I was fourteen.”

“And did you come willingly.”

“It was a long time ago.” His voice was wistful and somewhat sad.

“Did you?”

“No... not exactly.”

“Were you abused by your family?”

“No. They were good to me, I was happy.”

“So you didn’t run away?”

“No. I chose my friends unwisely, started hanging round with a group of people who were much older than me. It was exciting. I thought I was so grown up and bit by bit I got drawn in. It was so gradual I never even realised it was happening until it was too late. By then I had got myself in way over my head and when they started talking about payment I had nothing to pay with... except myself.”

“Do your family know what happened to you?”

“No. Once they took me I never went back.”

“God that’s awful. You should look them up. They must be so worried.”

Jon laughed shortly. “Look them up and tell them what? That the son they were so proud of allowed himself to be drugged, raped and violated in every way... and had sex with men for money. Yeah... they’d be so proud.”

“You could tell them that you were taken and held against your will, forced to do things you weren’t proud of but rose above it and managed to become well respected and relied on.”

Jon half turned and the look on his face was, for a time, almost hopeful. Then he laughed shortly. “No. That will never happen. Not with my family.” He shook himself. “How did we get around to talking about me? That’s not relevant. The important thing is that I allowed myself to be pressurised into telling Nye about Kane. I also told him about Adam drugging him. He was... to be honest I don’t think he knew what hit him. I distracted Adam’s bodyguards while Luke took him upstairs. Adam wasn’t supposed to have been back for hours, if at all.”

Kane butted in. “You said you ‘allowed yourself to be pressurised’ into telling Nye about me. Do you regret it?”

Jon faltered. “I... no offence Kane but I don’t know you. I had never met you until today and I didn’t give a cat’s ass about you. But I did and I do care about Nye. If I hadn’t told him he would probably still have been safe now.”

“He didn’t sound too safe.”

Jon shrugged and shook his head, then went straight back to telling his story. “I almost had a heart attack when Adam turned up. He saw Nye and Kane sneaking out the back door and went nuts. When he went storming out with his goons in tow we all held our breaths praying you would have got away.

“And then when he came back in carrying two bodies...” He bit his lip. “We didn’t have much time to wonder because Adam ripped into all of us like nobody’s business. He said that he was not convinced that we didn’t all have something to do with it and we were lucky that he wasn’t putting us all into re training. It was fortunate for us that he had Luke to take things out of.”

“Not so fortunate for him.”

“No... and when I was called upstairs later he was in a bad way. He’d been shot on the shoulder, not a bad wound but he’d lost a lot of blood and Adam had clearly been torturing him. I got hold of a doctor we use sometimes, one who is... discrete.”

“I’ll bet.”

“What about Nye? What did he do to Nye?”

“I don’t know. When I saw him he was completely out of it... but I know that Adam spent time with him down in the dungeon and that definitely wasn't to watch him sleep. I didn’t see him after that so I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you didn’t see him?”

“The day before The Club got raided Lian turned up and took them all away in a limo... Adam, Nye and Luke. I don’t know if Adam called Lian or whether Lian just decided to take things into his own hands.”

“Do you know where Lian took them?”

Jon hesitated, looking clearly uncomfortable.

“Jon please... please help my brother. Help us to get him out of there. All we want is to know where he is... that’s it. Tell us and we’ll go away and never come back. Please.”

Still he hesitated, his eyes locked with mine, then he just seemed to collapse inwards. “Lian has a big house in the country just outside London, an estate really. He hosts private functions there.”

“Functions.”

“Yes. It’s very well guarded. His ... attendants are practically a private army. It’s safe, secure and very private. If I had to guess I would say that is where he would have taken them.”

“Thank you Jon. Thank you. Will you come with us to the police? Will you tell them where it is?”

Jon looked startled, no, frightened. “Hang on a minute. I didn’t say anything about going to the police. Telling you is one thing but the police...”

“But they are your friends Jon... Nye and Luke. Who knows what might be happening to them by now. Please.”

“No. I’m sorry, it's out of the question. I have already done too much, told you too much. Adam will kill me as it is if he finds out. I can’t...”

“Please.”

“No. Look. I’m sorry for what happened, very sorry. Nye is a wonderful person, I was very fond of him but... No, this is too much to ask. I can’t.”

“I’ll go.”

The voice was very soft but it had every eye in the house turning to stare at its source. Ben had showered and was dressed in jeans and a plain black tshirt. His blonde hair hung in damp curls around his baby face and he looked much younger than Jon had said he was. His blue eyes were wide and terrified but his head was erect, the chin jutting.

“Don’t be so ridiculous Ben. Remember what I told you. Keep your head low, out of trouble and I’ll take care of you. Do something stupid like this and no one is going to be able to protect you.”

“Protect me? Is that what you’ve been doing?”

“Ben...”

“No Jon... don’t. I know that you have been taking care of me... as best you can and don’t think I’m not grateful...but do you really think that this is how I want to spend my life? Being beaten, drugged and raped; pimped out to sweaty old guys with twisted minds and gross bodies for money? Last time...” He faltered and swallowed and Jon would have interrupted but he stopped him. “Last time they took me to a cellar and tied me to a table. They put a gag in my mouth and fed my drugs with a straw. I though I was going to die. There were four of them and they all went at me together. Pawing me, whipping me, fucking me, twisting my body and... Thank god I was half out of it. There were points when I would have welcomed death.

“I don’t care if Adam or Lian catches up to me and cuts my throat. I know my days are numbered. I’m pretty now but... it doesn’t last Jon, you know that. I’m not clever enough to go into business like you have. I only have my body and when my looks start to fade... if I’m lucky I will get turned out to scratch my own living in the gutters and if not... I know what goes on in that house and others like it. I’ve known people who go there... and never come back.”

“Ben please...”

“I don’t want to die in some seedy dungeon being fucked by sweaty old men. I don’t want to find myself abandoned and alone selling my body to keep myself alive until the next time. I... want to go back to being what I used to be but I know that can never happen so...”

“That’s enough Ben. I am not going to let you do this. If you want out that’s fine... I can help you, hell Riz here can help you. If you want to he can take you somewhere safe right now. Marco will help you find a flat, a job, a new identity. But I am not going to let you throw your life away.”

For a moment wild hope flared in Ben’s dull eyes as he looked at Riz who nodded briefly. Then he shook his head and slumped.

“I can’t. Nye and Luke were my friends. Especially Luke. He took care of me when I first came. He bathed my wounds and fed me when I couldn’t feed myself. He sat with me in the night when I was scared and he taught me all the things I needed to know to survive. You’ve done a lot for me Jon, but Luke did more and Nye...” He looked up at me with a very strange expression in his eyes. “I would walk through fire for him.”

There was absolute silence, and Ben hung his head, embarrassed. Jon got up and walked to his side and took him in his arms. Ben looked very small there.

“Go and pack your things. Riz can take you to the safe house. No...” He silenced Ben as he raised his head and opened his mouth, “...I’ll go to the police. I’ll tell them where to find Luke and Nye.”

“But... but... what will you do Jon? Where will you go? If you stay here they will know... they will find you and kill you.”

“I have money saved. I’ve been hiding it away for years. I have enough to get by until I’m sorted. I have friends abroad... maybe I will stay with them for a while. Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself.”

“And I can’t?”

“No, you can’t, not yet... but with help you will. You are young and you have your whole life ahead. You haven’t been completely spoiled yet, you can get past this and move on.”

“And you can’t?”

“I told you. I’ll be alright.”

Ben hugged Jon tightly and whispered. “Please be careful Jon. Please don’t get killed. I couldn’t bear it. You’ve been like a brother to me.”

“And I always will be. One day I will find you, I swear it. I will find you and make sure you are alright. In the meantime you’ll be taken care of.” He gave Riz a pointed look over Ben’s head and Riz nodded gravely. “Go get your stuff.”

While they were waiting for Ben Jon went back to stare out of the window. No one said a word. There was nothing to say.