TABOO: THE COMPLETE SERIES(33)

That shut me up.

“Listen to me, Jake. We can’t always save the people we love.”

“Everything he did to me,” I cried. “You know!”

“Yes. No one saved you. And you’re still alive.”

“You call this alive?”

“You haven’t seen dead, Jake.”

I looked up. There was a story there that he was keeping from me. I didn’t know if it was a threat or just some humanity spilling through the cracks. “Let me save him.”

“Stop it, Jake.”

“Please…”

“Fuck sake, get back in bed.”

“No!”

Mace grabbed me this time and hauled me right over his shoulder no matter how much I fought against it, but he wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be able to do anything I wasn’t allowed to do. He rudely dropped me on the bed and cuffed me to the headboard.

I couldn’t stop crying.

I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things that might be happening to Colton, all the things that could go wrong. He needed me and I wasn’t there for him. None of my promises, nothing meant anything. It would all be useless. “He’s not like me, Mace. He won’t survive this!”

Mace ran a hand over his head. “I wasn’t going to do this, but you leave me no choice.” He walked over to the table where he had placed a small black box earlier. He reached into that box now and I saw the syringe he started loading up. “What is that?”

He came over and brought the syringe. “Just something to help you relax. It’s going to put you to sleep until…” even a guy like Mace didn’t have the nerve to finish that sentence.

“No, please don’t put me to sleep!” I started to beg him again. “Please, Mace!”

But that needle was already piercing my vein. “You’re just a kid,” Mace said. “There’s nothing you can do. You can’t save anyone.”

His words were the last thing I heard before my head started to swim.





WELDON


Colton was still groggy when I went to his room and looked like he’d just woken up. But thanks to Trey the constant stupor had become routine. I could tell Colton wasn’t disliking the high anymore, and he wasn’t fighting it. Both positive outcomes. I grabbed the chair next to the bed and sat on it and he stared at me with that clueless look on his face that his brother always had when something was happening out of place. “I know you need answers.”

Jake would have had a defensive response waiting but Colton stayed silent and attentive. They truly were different. “The thing is,” I continued. “You could analyze this situation and think about what you could have done to avoid it and you could curse your father and me all your life but you still won’t get anywhere.”

The look on his face didn’t change. He was still trying to figure out where I was going with this. “Your brother still fights me every chance he gets,” I told him. “It’s wishful thinking, Colton. Jake still thinks that doctor guy is his ally! But you saw a glimpse of what Trey is the other day, right? You know that’s not true. He’s no savior! There’s a reason he’s been with me all these years.”

He shifted on the tiny bed and started fidgeting. “Stop that.”

He did.

“Come here,” I said. He didn’t hesitate for more than a few seconds. I grabbed his forearms when he was near me and pulled him closer. He looked confused and stood there shyly trying to hide the blush that covered his face. I stood and the distance between us lessened but he was staring at the floor and not looking at me. That’s when I felt that slight shiver, and he tried to pull away just a little but my hands held him steady and in place. “Has anyone told you how beautiful you are?”

He continued to look away.

I pulled him close and forced him to look up. “Are you feeling something you shouldn’t be feeling, Colton?”

That caused him to blush harder. “N…no.”

I wanted to grin but I remained serious. “Okay.”

I dropped to my knees and unbuttoned his pants. “One of the major side effects of the drugs,” I said. “Is that they make you horny.”

I unzipped him and sure enough, he had a boner that looked like it must hurt. “At your age,” I continued. “With all those hormones and being unable to find release all this time, I can’t imagine how painful that must be.”

He gasped when my fingers touched him and gripped my shoulders to steady himself. I was willing to bet he didn’t have a clue what a blow job was besides seeing it in whatever porn he was accustomed to watching. I knew I was right about that particular assessment when I heard an actual cry from him the second my tongue touched his cock and the grip of his fingers on my shoulders tightened. That just spurred me on and I started sucking him off with everything I had, and within moments I had him shooting his load in my mouth. When that happened, he got all apologetic. “I’m sorry!” he said, and started to cry. I stood and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

I realized that crying couldn’t just be apology. The whole incident had messed him up, either because he was straight or because he was devastated by his own lack of impulse control. “No one’s judging you, Colton. You shouldn’t have to feel bad about whatever you felt just now.”