He turned a dull red, “Sorry,” and finished frisking me.
“Max had every reason to expect…” The doors closed on the rest of their conversation, and I kind of wondered what “Max” had a reason to expect. But I had other things to worry about.
Satisfied that somehow I hadn’t managed to secure contraband between the first and seventh floors, Young led me down a long corridor to a door that looked no different from any other. He opened it and gestured for me to enter.
“This is Mr. Bascopolis, Ms. Parker.”
“Thank you, Young.” Vince’s secretary—I’d had no idea he had a secretary, but if Wills had one, it made sense that Vince would too—glanced at me with discreet interest, and rose to her feet. “If you’ll come this way, Mr. Bascopolis?” She tapped on the inner door and opened it without waiting for a response. “Mr. Bascopolis, sir.” She stood aside to let me enter.
“Thank you, Ms. Parker. You can leave for the day.” Vince lounged against his desk, his shirt sleeves rolled up and his arms folded across his chest.
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell Ms. DiNois she can leave also, would you please?” Wills, his back stiff with tension, stood looking out the wall of windows. The view wasn’t bad if you liked looking at the darkened windows of the building across the street.
“Yes, sir. Have a good weekend, Mr. Vincent, Mr. Matheson.” She closed the door behind her.
No one spoke. I used the excuse of looking around to give myself some time to gather my thoughts. There was a potted plant in one corner and a framed movie poster on a wall with the words, “Who is Keyser S? ze?” beneath the semicircle of men who stood in poses running the gamut from indifferent to mocking to tense. A bottle of Dewars and a glass were on the L-shaped desk. Other than the desk and a couple of chairs, the only furniture in the room was a low stand with a TV/VCR combo sitting on it.
“Uh…nice office, Vince.”
“Yeah. Matheson, rewind the tape and play it for Theo.”
“Sir…” Wills finally turned around. His lips were folded in a thin, white line and his face was pale, but his eyes—I’d never seen that expression in them before, a combination of pain and fury and despair.
“I said rewind it.”
“Yes, sir.” His hands clenched, and he walked stiffly to the TV and crouched before it.
“Wills?”
He didn’t look at me, and my gut churned and my heart began to thud painfully. The silence was broken by the whirring sound of the tape rewinding, and then the harsh click as it stopped.
Vincent placed one of the chairs in front of the television. “You’d better sit down.”
Reluctantly, I perched on the edge of the chair. “What…” I swallowed hard. “What am I going to see? You know I don’t like monster movies, right?” I tried to lighten the mood.
It wasn’t much of a success.
Wills pressed the play button.
The camera was focused on the two figures on the bed, but I didn’t need it to zoom in on the boy and the man to recognize that it was me and Franky, in the shabby house he had brought me to the night Poppa had thrown me out.
“Oh, Jesus.” My insides felt as if they were encased in ice as I watched Franky fuck my ass and then my mouth. Wills had watched this, was watching this again. That explained the expression on his face.
I bit back a moan. This couldn’t get any worse.
But then it did.
“That’s right,” Franky said, and I cringed at the coarse excitement in his tone. “Fuck yourself on my cock. Jerk yourself off. Use both hands.”
“I’ll…I’ll lose my balance.”
“I won’t let you fall.” How had he gotten the angle so the viewer could see him inserting one finger after another into my hole, stuffing me? I shivered as I remembered how it had been, the buildup of the pressure until I’d been sure he was going to tear me apart. “Want more?”
My fifteen-year-old self choked out, “Yes.” It sounded breathless, excited, but the camera didn’t show the tears running down my cheeks.
“A little more of this, and I could fist you. I bet you’ll even be able to take two cocks in this sweet ass of yours.” And although he had fisted me once, I’d wound up so sore I couldn’t work, so he’d smacked me and hadn’t done it again. Fortunately, that must have persuaded him to forgo having me double-dicked as well.
Wills made a sound, and I buried my face in my hands. “No more. Please. Turn it off.”
“Is that you?”
“Why, Vince?” Mark Vincent had never struck me as being intentionally cruel. “Why make me watch this?”
“Because I needed to be sure it was you.”
“It’s me.” I couldn’t remember ever feeling such hopelessness. Vincent wouldn’t have to tell Wills it was me or his job. After seeing this tape, Wills would have no problem walking out of my life. I rose to face Vincent, nearly causing the chair to tip over. “How did you get this?” Not that it mattered. Nothing mattered anymore.
“Long story. Suffice it to say that it came into my possession a few hours ago. Are there any more copies?”