Christopher, Craig & Co.
Part 96: “You Always Remember The First Time”
I couldn’t have heard Scott right. “Wade’s with Craig?”
Scott’s mouth was set in a grim line as he sped toward Alan Jacoby’s apartment.
Craig had never had any use for Wade. It didn’t make any sense. I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Richard had to have put him up to it.”
“Possibly.”
“What motive would Craig have for kidnapping Wade?”
“You told me yourself there was no love lost between them.”
That was true. But I didn’t believe in my heart that Craig would hurt Wade. Craig had changed since I first met him, there was no doubt about it...
I had foolishly invited Craig over after trading many messages with him online. It went against any common sense, but somehow I had trusted that he wouldn’t try to harm me. Since he had been coming over ostensibly to sub for me, I figured I could handle him either way.
I had swung open the front door and revealed him standing on the stoop, looking very much like the snapshot he had sent. He stood only a couple inches shorter than my 5′10, with brown hair spiked in several directions and bright blue eyes. He wore a denim shirt, khakis and a pair of loafers.
“Craig!” I had said, “Welcome. I hope you don’t mind joining me in the kitchen for a bit. Dinner will be ready shortly.”
He followed me down the hall and I offered him a glass of wine. I remembered how shy he had been back then. “You seem uncomfortable, Craig. We’ve never lacked for conversation.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just a little different being here in person.”
I tried to make him at home with a smile. “Take a deep breath and drink up.”
He made an awkward little toasting motion with the glass and drained half its contents.
I was less than proud of myself, looking back, but at the time I had drugged the wine to make Craig more susceptible to suggestion. It had worked. I began inducing trance and bringing him back out throughout dinner. I had given him his first trigger that night...my shoes are tight.
I remember we talked a little about my job as an adjunct professor at the local college—I was teaching a course in social behavior that semester. Craig had mentioned a psych course he had once taken. I remember how blue his eyes had looked. Funny the things you remember.
“Are you ready for dessert?” I asked.
Craig nodded and I disappeared into the kitchen, returning with a tray of éclairs from my favorite bakery.
“My shoes are tight. Craig, your nose itches.”
He reached up and brushed at his nose with his hand.
“Good. It’s stopped. Now I want you to stand up, Craig.”
I pulled the chair back behind him as he got to his feet.
“Craig, turn to your left and kneel down.”
He did.
“Good. So good. Craig, I want you to open your mouth. You are going to open your mouth and I am going to feed you an éclair. But don’t bite it.”
He opened his mouth and I slid the éclair between his lips and back out, leaving some chocolate icing on his upper lip.
“Craig, I am going to continue to let you lick the éclair. That’s right, lick it. Yes. Good. In and out. Just like your breathing. In and out...in and out... You feel so relaxed. Taste the chocolate. Yes. Now begin to suck on the éclair. Suck the éclair. In and out...in and out... Good.”
I fed the éclair rhythmically in and out of his mouth.
“Keep sucking till you taste the cream. Good.”
He continued sucking. I slowly lowered the zipper on my pants. Then I pulled the éclair out of his mouth.
My hard cock bobbed against his lips and I fed it in and out of his mouth.
“Good, Craig. Keep sucking. Good. You want that cream from inside the éclair. When you taste it it will be the best éclair you’ve ever tasted.”
Craig swallowed my cock and I pulled back out, slowly, in and out of his mouth, over and over.
I spread my feet wider, trying to balance myself while the pleasure of Craig’s warm mouth radiated up my cock and through me. “Good. Good. You want that cream. Every drop. Keep sucking.”
As he took me over the edge and I shot into his mouth a look of sheer delight crossed Craig’s face. He licked my cock clean.
“Good boy, Craig. You may stand up.” I put away my still erect cock and fastened my pants. “Turn to your right. Good. Now sit down.”
I slid the chair under him.
“Good. Now when I count 3 you will remember only that you just had the best éclair you’ve tasted. And when I say My shoes are tight you will return to this state of relaxation. 1...you can still taste that éclair. 2...becoming more alert. 3.”
Craig licked his lips hungrily.
“Did you enjoy that, Craig?”
“Yes.”
I offered him the tray. “Have another.”
I hadn’t been kind to him in those early days, but I did develop a conscience pretty quickly and in the end I had done right by Craig, even if he hadn’t necessarily done right by me.
This, however, was out of character for my former lover.
...but not for my former owner.
“Chris, you’re a million miles away,” Scott was saying.
“Sorry,” I shook myself. “I was just thinking back.”
Scott pulled off the road into the parking lot of Alan’s—well, Craig’s—complex. He pulled into a space near a van.
We climbed out of the car and Scott knocked on the back door of the van. It swung open and I could see a ton of electronic equipment being operated by two men. Scott began conferring with them.
There were several monitors set up. On one of the screens I could clearly see Craig’s living room. Wade was bound hand and foot and it looked like he was gagged too.
Craig was pacing the floor and appeared to be talking, from the gesturing he was doing.
“What’s he saying?” I asked.
“Chris, not now,” Scott said.
“Yes, now. What is Craig saying?”
All 3 of them looked at the monitor. One of the guys flipped a switch and sound came tinnily through a speaker.
“I have to hypnotize you. I have to make you a good slave like all the others...”
My hand shot out and grasped Scott’s forearm. “Scott, we have to get up there.”
“He just confessed to hypnotizing others,” the agent nearest the monitor said. “We’ve got our man, gentlemen.”
“You’ve got nothing,” I argued. “Craig wasn’t behind your disappearances. Hell, for most of them I’m his alibi.”
“Wilson, get him out of here,” the other suit barked.
I looked between the two men and then settled my gaze on Scott. “He can’t be allowed to hypnotize Wade.”
It was evident from Scott’s expression he was torn between his duty and me. “Do we know if he has a weapon?”
“Haven’t seen one, but that means nothing. He was dragging the kid in the room when we first saw him.”
I took a step back from the van. “I’m going up there.”
“The hell you are,” Scott replied.
“You’re going to have to arrest me to stop me.” I spun on my heel and headed for the door to the building.
I heard Scott curse and then he was at my side. “What are you going to do when you get up there?”
“I’m getting in there and getting Wade out of there.”
“How?”
“I’ll talk to Craig. I’ll trade myself for Wade if I have to.”
“No.”
“Scott, all of this revolves around me. I’m not letting Wade take the fall for me.”
The elevator ride was the longest, quietest few minutes of my life. Scott was avoiding looking at me and though he once started to speak he bit off whatever he had been about to say.
The doors parted and I walked down the hall then knocked on Craig’s door.
Scott hung back out of sight of the door.
I knocked again, then tried the knob. Locked. I felt along the door frame for a key, then turned over the mat. No key.
“Craig,” I called. “Craig, I need you to be a good boy and open the door.” I knew I needed to be careful of what the cameras captured me saying and doing. I had no idea just how much Scott’s bosses knew of my abilities with hypnosis or my past with Craig, but I didn’t want to provide the evidence for my own trial.
I also knew Wade was my priority and I’d risk prison to keep him out of harm’s way.
I heard muffled sounds...had to be Wade talking through a gag.
I began kicking the door.
One of Scott’s neighbors leaned out into the hall, bitching about the noise.
“Get back in your residence,” Scott commanded.
The woman stared openmouthed at Scott, muttered “asshole” under her breath, then slammed her door.
Scott stepped up and threw his shoulder against the door. The door began to give. The next thrust we both hit the door and wood splintered as the door gave.
Thank God there were no deadbolts in this building.
Scott shouldered the door one last time and it shot open. Craig was pacing and mumbling to himself. I wasn’t immediately sure if he knew Scott and I were in the room.
Scott approached him slowly and Craig wheeled on him.
He knew.
I raced to Wade and yanked the gag loose.
Wade’s cheeks were tear-stained. “Chris, he’s gone crazy.”
“Did he hypnotize you?”
Wade shook his head. “He kept saying he was going to.”
Wade’s wrists were handcuffed and I didn’t have a key. I knelt down and fumbled with the rope at his ankles. Luckily Craig’s knots were rudimentary. I had Wade’s legs free in seconds. I’d never been a boy scout, but bondage had taught me a lot about knots.
I turned to Scott and Craig who were still struggling. “Where’s the key?”
Scott’s eyes flicked to me. “Key?”
Craig took advantage of Scott’s diverted attention. He threw his palms into Scott’s chest and gave a hard shove. Scott stumbled backward.
And Craig took off out the door.
Scott jumped to his feet and raced after him.
I began shouting. “Anyone monitoring these cameras, Scott is pursuing Craig probably right out the front door. Help!”
I scanned the surfaces of the room but didn’t see a key to the handcuffs. There were too many possible places for a key to be stashed in this apartment. Craig would have kept it somewhere convenient. In his own pocket maybe?
I pulled Wade to his feet and held him. He nestled his face into the crook of my neck and I could feel his tears wet against my skin.
I tried my best to comfort him. There was only so much I could do with his hands cuffed behind his back in the apartment of a man who had kidnapped him and scared him. “Just let it all out, Kiddo.” I stroked his hair and felt a lump at the base of his skull. I rubbed his back. I was rocking him gently. “You’re safe,” I whispered.
“I knew you’d find me,” he sniffled. “I knew you would, Chris.”
I pressed my lips to his forehead. “I told you I’d always be there when you need me.”
A pair of police officers rushed into the room.
“Are you two ok?” one of them asked.
“Please tell me you have a key that will open these handcuffs,” I said.
The taller of the pair walked over and slipped a key into the cuffs. In seconds Wade’s wrists were free. I took his wrists in my hands and began to massage them.
Wade pulled his hands away from me and threw his arms around me before breaking into wracking sobs.
It tore my heart out to see him lose it like this. I held him as tightly as I could and shut my eyes for a moment to steel myself and steady my own voice.
I spoke soothingly to Wade as the police officers looked on. “Wade, you’re safe. Let it all out. But you’re safe.”
“The ambulance should be downstairs any minute,” one of the officers said quietly.
Wade drew a shaky breath. “I don’t—” he sobbed “—need an ambulance.”
I nodded over his shoulder at the officer. I turned my attention back to Wade, stroking his hair and rocking him again. “Will you let them check you out? For me?”
I felt Wade nod against my shoulder.
We stood for a long time, the only sounds the squawking of one of the officers’ radios and Wade’s sniffles.
“Chris,” he said into my shoulder, “he really wanted to hurt me.”
“I know, Kiddo. I know. And the responsible parties are going to pay for this.”
To be continued in Part 97...
Christopher, Craig & Co.
Part 97: Aftermath.
Wade had me in a death grip the entire trip downstairs. The officers seemed to want to question him, but I had insisted he get checked out medically first. I suspect the crazy on my face discouraged them from pursuing the discussion. When we approached the ambulance Wade leaned into me and said, “Please don’t leave me?”
I pulled a tissue from my jacket pocket and wiped his cheeks. “I’ll be right where you can see me.”
The paramedics set about looking Wade over and I kept an eye on him while trying to find any sign of Scott or Craig. Just when I was beginning to get extremely worried I saw Scott come walking back into view. He looked irritated.
“I lost him. I don’t know how. But he vanished.”
I reached for his hand but thought better of it. These were his coworkers here and I didn’t know how that would fly. And then I felt a wave of frustration about that on top of everything else.
“How’s Wade?” Concern was etched all over his face.
“I’m not sure,” I whispered.
“He’s a strong kid.”
I nodded. “Craig must have hit him with something. There’s a big bump on the back of his head.” I turned to face Scott. “There’s no doubt in my mind Richard is behind this.”
“I’m not disagreeing with you, Chris. But so far there isn’t a shred of evidence to support that. We have video surveillance of Craig holding Wade captive. I don’t know how I’m going to refute it.”
The sun was rising as Scott pulled the car off Greenhill Road and into the driveway. He had picked Wade and me up at the hospital. The doctor said Wade had been lucky—no concussion.
I wasn’t sure how lucky I would describe Wade’s condition. Wade looked pale and drawn, his eyes swollen and face blotchy from crying. It was rough on me just seeing him like that. I couldn’t imagine how he was feeling.
I marched him into the house, up the stairs, and into his bathroom. I turned on the water and said, “Just drop all your clothes in a pile. I’ll go get you some pajamas. I think you’ll feel better after a nice hot shower.”
Wade nodded wordlessly and began unbuttoning his shirt.
I pulled the door closed and sagged against it. I was running on pure adrenaline at this point and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could do it.
Scott met me in the hall. “It’s not good, is it?”
I shook my head. “He hasn’t said a word in hours.”
“Maybe he’s just exhausted.”
“I know the feeling.”
“I’m going to take a quick shower and head out to see what I can do to help find Craig.”
I frowned. “Scott, please don’t let them hurt him. He’s not responsible for his actions.”
“You’re going to have a tough time proving that.”
We stood as the silence stretched on. I turned to enter Wade’s bedroom.
“You know I’ll do what I can,” Scott said.
“I know.” I found a pair of sleep pants and a T-shirt in with Wade’s clean laundry and grabbed a pair of boxerbriefs and socks in case he wanted them. I knocked on the bathroom door. I could hear the shower still running.
I poked my head into the steamy room. “Wade, I’m just leaving some clothes for you.” I set them down on the counter and backed out of the room.
Truth be told I would kill for a shower right now myself. I returned to Wade’s bedroom and set about stripping the bed and putting a clean set of sheets on it. I was really just keeping busy at this point waiting for him to appear from the bathroom.
He walked into the room as I was bundling the dirty sheets and considering taking them down to the washer. His hair was sticking out all over and it brought a smile to my lips.
“You made my bed?” he asked.
I nodded. I’m rarely at a loss for words but right then I had no idea what to say. “Listen, Wade, I get if you don’t want to talk about what happened. But I really just need you to know when you’re ready to talk I’ll be here.”
He walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge.
“Can I get you anything? A snack? A drink?”
He looked up at me, his big brown eyes glossy. “Chris,” he faltered and looked away from me.
“Yes?”
“Would you stay with me for awhile?”
I smiled but it was pained. “Just let me tell Scott, ok?”
Wade nodded and reached for the tissue box.
I went into the bedroom. There was a towel at the foot of the bed and Scott was getting dressed.
“Wade asked me to stay with him for awhile.” I crossed to my dresser and retrieved a pair of sweats.
Scott pulled me into his arms. “He’s going to be ok.”
I squeezed Scott’s muscular shoulders. “I have never been so scared in my life.”
“I know.”
“I know he’s not my son, Scott...”
“But it doesn’t feel that way.”
I shook my head and pushed away from him. “I need to get back to him.”
“Go take a quick shower. I’ll sit with Wade until you’re done.”
“You have to get to work.”
“It can wait. You guys are more important.”
I knew it really couldn’t wait, but I also recognized Scott choosing family over his job and while it might make no sense at all it made me feel loved.
I hurried into the bathroom and took the shortest shower on record. I emerged feeling more human, dressed in sweatpants, and a T-shirt.
Scott had pulled Wade’s desk chair over by the bed. Wade had not moved from where I’d left him. He was clutching some wadded up tissues. “I was telling Wade how much I’m looking forward to living here with the two of you.”
I forced a smile. “And did he tell you it won’t be any different than it has been for weeks?”
Scott stood and gave me a quick peck. “I’d better get going.”
“Be careful?”
“Always. I’ll call if there’s news.” And he was gone.
I pushed the chair out of my way and rounded the bed, climbing in. I sat with my back against the headboard and tapped Wade on the shoulder.
He jumped at my touch.
I winced, thinking back to the timid boy I had met all those months ago who shrank from any human contact.
I held open my arms. “Come here, Wade.”
He climbed into the bed and collapsed into my arms. His body shook with silent sobs.
I kept up a steady stream of soothing words, hoping he might cry himself right to sleep. I knew he needed to rest more than anything. I’m not sure how much time passed, but I do think I finally understood what my grandmother had once told me about seeing your child suffering being the worst pain a parent can feel. Wade’s kidnapping had elicited paternal feelings in me I hadn’t known I possessed. And it was heartbreaking to watch him dealing with the aftermath.
He looked up at me, his face wet. I wasn’t sure where the tears were coming from at this point, but I could feel my T-shirt was wet. “Chris, Craig was crazy.”
“Richard got to him.”
Wade sniffed. “I thought so. He wasn’t anything like he used to be.”
“I saw.”
“I was so afraid, Chris. I just kept praying you would find me. I was so afraid I’d never see you again.”
I shushed him. I knew that fear all too well. I plucked one of his pillows from beside me and put it on my lap. “Lay your head down, Wade.”
He curled up into a ball and nestled against me, his head on the pillow in my lap.
I played with his hair and kept my voice low, trying my best to soothe him. “Wade, you’re my darling boy. I promised you you’d be safe with me. You always will be.”
I was going to see to it personally. Richard had gone too far this time. He was going to pay for this.
“I love you, Chris,” Wade said sleepily, drawing me from my thoughts.
“I love you too, Kiddo. Now, please get some sleep. And when you wake up we’ll talk more.”
I could tell the instant Wade had finally surrendered to sleep. His breathing changed and his body seemed to untense. I tried to doze sitting there, but found it difficult. Wade’s sleep was fitful and more than once he whimpered without waking.
It didn’t matter. There’d be plenty of time for sleep once Richard had been neutralized. Scott had said there was no evidence linking Richard to Wade’s kidnapping. I couldn’t manufacture evidence. But I couldn’t let Richard destroy any more lives. If I couldn’t kill him, I had to either get him out of town or contain him.
Though something told me it would be an exercise in futility I was going to try forcing him out of town first. And when that inevitably failed, I was going to do a little kidnapping of my own.