Crossing The Line - 11. Crossing the Line

Crossing the Line

Snow woke up alone for the third day in a row. Even though he normally couldn’t really sleep until Ricky was in bed with him, he had no choice when his body was ready to shut down. He reached up and grabbed the head of the mattress and stretched his body until he heard his back crack in three spots and his shoulder pop. He didn’t have to open his eyes to know he was alone in bed. The room just felt empty.

Snow lay there listening for sounds of some noise outside his room but it was also silent. He finally opened his eyes and let them adjust to the darkened cave that was his sleeping quarters in the middle of the afternoon.

Abruptly shoving the comforter off himself, he sat on the edge of the bed and pulled a cigarette from the open pack on his nightstand and lit it. He stood after a couple of hits and pulled open the curtain on the window to reveal bright afternoon sun shining into the room.

He leaned back against the sill and let the heat of the sun’s rays warm his naked back while he thought about where to look for Ricky this time. He could try the usual places ~ the squats under the bridge and the abandoned building he’d sometimes find him in downtown.

Snow hated finding him like that, all dead eyes and sick and dirty. He hated the way Ricky always looked ashamed and how he’d have to talk Ricky into coming back home with him.

Snow knew the pattern. This is what he’d do when he’d have a run in with Carlo. He’d just disappear into a drug-induced binge until Snow rescued him from himself.

“Fuck,” Snow said under his breath.

Three days was long enough. It was time to go on the manhunt.

Snow pulled away from the windowsill and stubbed out his smoke. He wasn’t going to bother taking a shower since he’d be looking around the seedy spots in the city and he’d taken a shower only a few hours earlier when he got home from work.

He got dressed in jeans, boots and a thermal and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and run a comb thru his still-damp hair. Snow looked in the mirror while he pulled his brown locks into a ponytail and noticed how tired he looked. Long nights and worry didn’t make for a restful night’s sleep as was obvious by the dark circles under his eyes.

Snow grabbed his leather off the couch and pushed his arms through the sleeves, grabbing his keys on the way out the door.

The brisk fall air hit him as he bounded down the front stairs of his building. Jamming his hands in his pockets, he began his walk the few blocks downtown keeping himself aware in case he saw anyone he knew who might know where Ricky was.

He walked through a few alleys instead of taking the main streets to the one building he’d found Ricky in a few times before. As he climbed the stairs two by two he could feel himself start to shake. He hated this part ~ the anticipation of seeing him and wondering whether he was alive or if he’d finally done himself in.

Snow stepped over a couple people lying in one of the hallways. He held his breath to keep the smell of urine and meth and practically death from choking him. He opened a familiar door on the third floor and stepped inside, still holding his breath while scanning the room for someone he recognized.

“Lolli,” he knelt down and shook the shoulder of a black girl in hot pants and a tank top who was sitting on the floor leaning up against the wall with a dirty black bandana around her arm and a syringe in her opposite hand.

The girl groaned and he shook her again. “Lolli, it’s me, sweetie. Wake up. You seen my boy around here lately?”

She opened her eyes slightly and smirked at him. “Hey honey. Whatchu doin’ here?”

“Ricky been here lately?” Snow repeated.

She nodded. “Your boy was up in here last night til that man who runs you came and got him.”

Snow pulled a few dollars out of his pocket and handed them to her. “Thanks, babe. Get something to eat today, okay?”

“God bless you, sugar,” she said shoving the crumpled bills into her bra and nodding off again.

Snow left the building as quickly as he could and wondered who Carlo had set him up with last night. He never could quite get why Carlo always targeted Ricky when it came to the rough stuff but he always did.

Snow entered Carlo’s apartment with his key a few minutes later and found him in the kitchen with a towel over his shoulder and cutting up cloves of garlic.

“What’s going on, kid?” Carlo asked.

“You know what’s up. Where is he?” Snow asked cautiously. He didn’t want another repeat of what happened the last time he questioned Carlo’s authority.

Carlo held a spoon full of sauce up to Snow’s mouth for him to taste. “What do you think? Good?”

Snow took a taste and nodded. “Real good.”

“Do you know what that boy was into this time?” Carlo asked as he stirred his sauce some more and went back to his Goodfellas rendition of razor slicing the garlic.

If Snow wasn’t so pissed off he may have found it amusing, Carlo being a ‘typical’ Italian in his typical Italian kitchen with its dark wood and red and copper accents cooking a typical Italian meal. Instead he shook his head. “I have no idea. I just know he ain’t been home in three days and I ain’t heard from him. Wish you would have called me last night when you took him.”

“I found out he’s been sneaking around doing side work for his excessive coke habit. He seems to have forgotten who he belongs to,” Carlo spoke matter-of-factly. “He seems to think because you guys don’t live here anymore that I don’t know what goes on with my business so sometimes I need to teach him a lesson.”

Snow lit a cigarette, trying not to let Carlo see how his hands were shaking. He stood and paced the floor knowing that Carlo knew him too well not to see the anxiety in him. “Where did you send him this time?”

Carlo chuckled slightly. “I sent him to a private party. He has a few hours yet then I’m going to go pick him up and get paid. That little shit can’t be trusted with anything on his own.”

“Why do you do this to him? You’ve never done me that way,” Snow asked curiously. He pulled his ponytail out and ran his hands through his hair, glancing at the clock on the stove. He knew if Carlo said Ricky had a few hours left then there was nothing could be done to change that fact. It didn’t make him less worried, though and he knew Carlo was paying attention to his nervousness.

Carlo dropped his garlic into a saucepan with butter and turned it on to simmer as Snow put his cigarette out in the ashtray in the living room. “You don’t get out of line the way he does. You get mouthy sometimes but you don’t do the things he does. He doesn’t follow the rules. He’s a bad seed.”

“He ain’t …” Snow began as he came back into the kitchen but Carlo cut him off.

“I don’t know what you see in him, kid.”

Snow looked into Carlo’s eyes and almost told him he was wrong. Ricky wasn’t a bad seed. He was a good friend, a good companion and the love of his life but he stopped himself from saying it out loud. “I want you to stop doing this to him. I’ll get him back in line. I promise.”

Carlo looked surprised at Snow’s determined manner of speaking then smirked at him, folding his towel and resting it on the edge of the sink. “What’s it worth to you? I need something in return for handing his training over to you again. You let your feelings for him get in the way of your control over him.”

Snow knew what he was getting at. Carlo had never come out and said it and had never made a bold move on him which actually surprised Snow but he knew what Carlo wanted from him. He’d always felt him watching him when he lived there. Carlo always favored Snow, never sending him to anyone who would hurt him, always sending him to the best clients when he would go on calls that way. Even on the streets he would always know where to find him, always have someone watching out for him.

He also knew Carlo wouldn’t agree to anything without something back for it. He was a businessman first and foremost and his bottom line was always the most important thing, even when it came to Snow and his attraction to him.

Snow was ready. It was worth it to him to get Ricky out of the situations he always managed to get himself in. He looked Carlo in the eye and slid his leather jacket off his arms and threw it over the back of the kitchen chair. He pulled his shirt up over his head and shook his hair back out of his eyes and stared at Carlo, waiting for him to make a move.

Carlo’s eyebrow raised and he moved closer to Snow, running the back of his hand down the side of Snow’s face. He smiled when Snow moved his head to his hand like a kitten and closed his eyes, allowing his touch.

Snow pulled open the button on his jeans and Carlo sighed, adjusting himself to the obvious tightness in his own jeans. Snow laughed a little. “What are you waiting for?”

Carlo looked hesitant. “You’re going to do this for Ricky?”

Snow nodded. He’d do anything for Ricky. Besides, it wasn’t like Carlo was a bad looking guy. He was quite good looking really with his olive skin and dark hair. His body was toned and muscular. He took good care of himself. It’s just that Snow looked to him as his guardian, he’d been with him for so long since he was a kid that he never thought of him that way. Now he would for Ricky.

Carlo put his arm around Snow’s waist and pulled him against him and kissed him so gently, Snow felt like Carlo thought he’d break him if he touched him too hard.

Snow put himself in ‘high-paying-client’ work mode and let his seductive side take over. He went to the stove and turned off the simmering butter and pulled Carlo to the bedroom, giving him everything he’d offer to his upper crust men. He knew he’d blow Carlo’s mind, among other things, but it was worth it to him to cross this line that Carlo had apparently only dreamed of crossing with him. It was worth it for him to be able to help his lover.

XXX

Carlo gathered Snow in his arms and breathed in the scent of his skin. He pushed Snow’s long hair back and kissed the side of his neck and whispered in his ear, “You were better than I ever imagined.”

Snow moaned lowly and turned to look at the clock beside the bed. “Can we go get him now?”

Carlo pulled away quickly and got out of bed. “You think that’s it?” he said, turning on Snow with his normal sinister grin on his face.

Snow sat up and grabbed his jeans off the floor. “Huh?”

“This ain’t over yet. Once ain’t all. Until you prove to me you have that little bastard back in line you’re going to be with me when I want you,” Carlo said.

Snow pulled his jeans up and looked at Carlo not looking at him. He knew that voice, cold and unfeeling, and wondered how he could change so quickly from how gentle he was in bed. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do. What’s wrong?”

Carlo whipped around to look at him and smirked. “Let’s go get your precious boy,” he said as he walked out of the room fully clothed.

Snow yanked his socks and boots back on and went out to the living room to get his shirt on. It struck him as odd how Carlo seemed to distance himself and turn back to business when just a second before he was holding him like a lover. Snow had no intention of being his lover. This was just business in his eyes, too. He just didn’t get Carlo’s sudden turn around.

Or maybe it was the way Carlo did him that was really out of character. He wasn’t hard or mean like Snow expected he’d be. He was tender with Snow, taking his time with him and enjoying every minute with him.

It didn’t matter either way to Snow. He would do this as long as he had to. Right now all that was really important to him was getting to Ricky.

Carlo stirred his sauce once more and grabbed his keys off the table. Snow followed him out to the parking deck and got into his car with him. “Where is he?”

Carlo tore out of the deck and immediately started cutting other cars off as he drove. “You’ll see when we get there.”

Snow didn’t bother saying another thing. He got out of the car when Carlo stopped at a valet in front of a nice hotel and followed Carlo into the elevator and up to the 15^th floor.

Carlo used a card key and entered a room at the end of the hall. That was one of Carlo’s safety features, even when it was a decent call client. He’d always hold a key so he could enter at any time.

Snow stood behind him and scanned the room. He knew better than to jump the gun though his heart was beating a million miles an hour and he just wanted to see Ricky and make sure he was okay.

Carlo reached back and touched Snow’s arm briefly. Back to business, he used his signal to Snow to calm the hell down and wait for a sign from Carlo to make any kind of move.

“Did my boy perform to your satisfaction?” Carlo asked confidently, watching as two men, who looked completely unlike what you’d expect tricks to look like, made their way around the room, getting their clothes on and gathering their things together.

Snow watched as one of the men put away what looked to be a rolled up leather whip and he shivered. He wondered what the managers of this place would think of these kinds of activities being conducted in their fine establishment. Carlo touched him again and stepped further into the room.

The shorter of the men looked up at Carlo and smiled broadly, approaching Carlo and Snow with a handful of bills. “Oh, he was all you said he’d be and more. He’s in the bathroom getting himself together.”

Carlo nodded to Snow and gestured to his left. “Go get him while I finish up in here.”

Snow stepped around Carlo to his left and went to the bathroom door around the corner. He opened the door and stepped in, closing it quietly behind him finding Ricky sitting naked on the edge of the tub with his head in his hands.

Snow reached down and touched his shoulder only to have him gasp and pull away. He knelt in front of him and took his hands away from his face. “Ricky, you’re done. I’m taking you home.”

Ricky’s breaths were coming in short gasps and his eyes were shut tight. Snow took a quick assessment of the damage to his body. He was so used to seeing him banged up lately that the only thing that shocked him was that he wasn’t shocked. Ricky had bruises in the usual spots from being restrained and his back was freshly slashed from what he could now confirm was a whip. Bright red blood trickled out of the open wounds.

He could never comprehend how anyone could get off on being that abusive to basically a kid. There was also the guilt of knowing that he never had to experience that except in the few instances when he came across the wrong trick on the street. Otherwise, he just did his work, got people off and that was that.

“Snow?” Ricky asked as he started to open his eyes.

“It’s me,” Snow replied.

Ricky looked into his eyes still not fully recognizing him by the confused look on his face. “I tried to clean up but I can’t.”

Snow noticed his clothes were scattered on the floor like someone had just thrown them in there with him, which they most likely did. “It’s alright. Let’s get you dressed and we can get you cleaned up at home.”

A small groan came from Ricky as Snow started trying to get his clothes on then he started to cry. Snow hated that the most ~ the crying. He knew from experience that it was the shame Ricky felt for what he’d done. There was no reason for it but it’s how he acted everytime Snow found him this way. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, no. You didn’t do nothing to be sorry for. Let’s just get the fuck out of here already okay?” Snow said with a certain urgency. He didn’t want him to have to face those two guys on the way out and hoped Carlo would at least have the decency to make them go before he got Ricky out of the bathroom.

Snow helped Ricky stand up as he pulled his jeans up and buttoned them while Ricky leaned against him for support. Snow could tell he was not just hurt but wasted and he knew he was too groggy for it to be coke. “What’d you do?”

“Hmm?” Ricky moaned.

“You’re fucked up bad. What’d you take?”

Ricky shook his head slowly. “Don’t know. Pills. Drank vodka,” he slurred.

Snow finished up with him in the bathroom and stuck his head out the door looking for Carlo who he saw standing in front of the huge window looking out over the street. “Are they gone?”

Carlo turned and nodded. “They left. Let’s get out of here.”

Snow threw one of Ricky’s arms around his shoulder and led him from the room to the elevator with Carlo who showed little emotion.

“Lay him down in the backseat when they bring the car around,” Carlo instructed. “I’ll drive you home.”

Ricky fell out of Snow’s arms into the backseat and looked to have passed right out. Snow sat back in front and kept looking back at Ricky, breathing so heavily. The expression on his sleeping face was so pained, Snow wondered what he was dreaming about in his drugged up head.

Snow stared at Carlo seriously until Carlo felt him and turned to glance at him. “What?” he asked annoyed.

“Promise me you’ll stop doing this to him. We have a deal right?” Snow asked.

Carlo glanced at him again quickly and dug a cigarette out of the console and lit it, blowing out the smoke slowly before answering. “He still owes me.”

Snow glared at him. “I told you I’ll take care of this. I’ll do what you want just stop with him. Come on, Carlo.”

Carlo watched the road intently and sighed. “Fine,” he said quietly. “When you’re done tomorrow night come over.”

“Thank you,” Snow said, relieved. He knew he was owned. He knew he had his work cut out for him with Ricky. He just hoped that he would be strong enough to make Ricky do what he needed him to do.