Unhinged by Onley James

Noah gazed out the window the whole way home, humming along to the radio but making no attempt at conversation. Adam was learning that Noah needed time to process things, to chew on them before he could fully digest whatever horror appeared in their lives. Even though Noah didn’t engage Adam in conversation, he held his hand, fingers threaded together, palms touching, letting Adam know it wasn’t anything he’d done.

In the elevator, Noah wrapped his arms around him and rested his head just under Adam’s chin. But, just like the last time they’d been to Adam’s father’s house, Noah turned on him almost immediately, his hands sliding up Adam’s chest, beginning to unbutton his shirt. “I want you. Now.”

It wasn’t a question. Adam didn’t protest, letting Noah shove his shirt off his shoulders to pool at their feet. He was already hardening behind his zipper. “Yeah, baby? Tell me.”

Noah’s gaze flicked to his, his tongue darting out to lick over his lower lip. “I want you to fuck me.”

Adam’s grin was feral, his hand clamping around Noah’s throat, walking him backwards until his back hit the banister. “You always want me to fuck you,” Adam said, leaning forward to lick over the seam of Noah’s lips. “I want you to open your mouth and tell me exactly how you want it. I want to hear the words.” He leaned down, trailing his tongue along the path of his jaw. “You want it nice and slow and deep? Or you want me to fuck you until you forget your own name?”

Noah moaned. “Definitely that one. I want it hard. Rough.”

Adam growled low in his throat. “How rough?”

“Make it hurt,” Noah begged.

“That’s a very dangerous ask,” Adam teased against the shell of Noah’s ear. “Because I love the way you sound when you’re choking on my cock, your nails clawing at my thighs as you grow desperate for air.” Adam kept his hand firmly around Noah’s neck as he pulled back to look at him. “And you’re just so goddamn pretty when you cry.”

Noah’s pupils blew wide, swallowing hard beneath Adam’s palm. “I trust you. Do it. I want to feel you every time I sit down. I want it to look like a crime scene when you’re done with me. Please, Adam.”

Christ. The sound of his name on Noah’s lips was hotter than any touch. He really was perfect in every possible way. And he was all Adam’s…in every possible way. He loved that, no matter how brutal it got, Noah always knew Adam would take care of him, knew he would always give him what he needed.

He gently kissed Noah’s cheeks, his nose, his eyelids, grazing their lips together before pulling away to clamp his teeth onto the shell of his ear. “Say it again,” he rasped.

“Please…”

“My name, say it,” Adam demanded.

His name was a sigh on Noah’s lips, like he was the answer to every one of Noah’s questions about life. It made Adam crazy, made him want to do evil things to the people who harmed Noah. Things so depraved most people wouldn’t utter them out loud. “You know I’d fucking tear the world down for you, don’t you?”

Noah smiled sweetly, crooning, “I know, baby.” Adam’s cock throbbed as much from the endearment as the way Noah’s smile turned bloodthirsty. “But, right now, the only thing I want you to tear apart…is me.”

Adam was never letting Noah go. Never. He couldn’t. He knew that now. He couldn’t live without him, and he knew—in that deep, dark ugly part of himself he wasn’t supposed to ever acknowledge out loud—that he’d never let Noah live without him either. But that was the thing of it. Noah didn’t want to leave. Adam knew that on a cellular level. Noah felt safe, protected, loved. Even if that love was dangerous.

Adam released Noah’s throat, gripping his jaw and rubbing his thumb across his wet lower lip. “You want my cock in your mouth? Wanna take it nice and deep, make it wet for me so I can bend you over and fuck you right here?”

Noah whined in his throat. “Yes,” he said, breathless.

Adam tilted his head, dropping the mask completely. “Then take my cock out and show me.”

Noah’s hands were sure as he freed Adam’s already straining erection, wrapping it in the warmth of his hand. But he didn’t let him sink to his knees just yet. He tugged Noah’s jaw down, capturing his lips in a dirty open mouthed kiss before pushing him to his knees. He collapsed at Adam’s feet, so close his breath rustled the pubic hair at the base of his cock, but he didn’t do anything else. He waited, nose grazing his groin and the dip of his hip bone.

Adam fisted his hand in Noah’s hair, forcing his gaze upward, slapping his face hard. Noah’s lashes fluttered, his eyes going soft. Fuck. He really was perfect.

“Harder,” Noah begged.

Adam didn’t ask if he was sure. That was the thing about Noah; he knew just what he wanted and he didn’t mind asking for it. He slapped him harder, the crack of his palm echoing throughout the space, leaving a partial handprint on his cheek. “God, you’re so fucking good for me. Always willing to get on your knees for me, bend over for me.”

Noah gave a shuddery breath. “Yes.”

Adam pushed two fingers into Noah’s mouth, cock throbbing as Noah sucked obediently. “Just for me,” Adam warned. Noah’s moan vibrated over Adam’s skin. He pulled his fingers free, guiding Noah’s head to his dick. “Show me how good you can be.”

Noah swallowed him down in one go, head bobbing as he took him deep, drawing almost completely off before sinking down once more until his nose grazed the skin of Adam’s belly. The suction and the tight heat of Noah’s mouth had goosebumps breaking out over his whole body. His hand twisted in Noah’s hair, holding him still so he could fuck into his mouth. Noah melted, jaw relaxing as he let Adam use him. His eyes rolled as he forced his cock into the back of Noah’s throat, the muscles of his throat convulsing violently around him, constricting him in the best way. Noah gagged, his hands sliding up Adam’s thighs to grip his hips. Adam kept him there until tiny panicked cries rolled along his cock and Noah’s blunt nails dug into his skin. When he finally pulled free, Noah swayed on his knees, drawing in great sucking breaths, tears rolling down his bright pink cheeks, saliva coating his lips and chin. Adam held him still, smearing his cock across the mess, before reaching down and pulling him to his feet.

“Turn around.” Noah did as Adam asked without question, almost like he was in a trance. He dragged Noah’s jeans and underwear out of the way, growling in frustration when the zipper wouldn’t give fast enough. “Grab the banister. Don’t move your fucking hands unless I say so.” When Noah didn’t answer, Adam brought his hand down on his ass hard enough to make Noah hiss in pain. “Did you hear me?”

“Yes,” Noah ground out.

Adam spit in his hand, wrapping his fist around his cock and pumping it a few times before swiping his damp fingers over Noah’s hole. “This is going to hurt.”

“Good,” Noah murmured.

“Bend over a little more. Yeah, stick your ass out. Good boy. There you go. Now, spread your legs for me.”

Noah did as Adam commanded, the picture so obscene he could have come just from that alone. He gripped Noah’s hip hard enough to leave bruises. This time, it was Adam who hissed, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood as he sank into the tight grip of Noah’s body. “Jesus.”

Adam fucked in and out of him twice, the friction just this side of painful. When he pulled free, Noah whined, but Adam dropped to his knees, burying his face between Noah’s cheeks, licking over his hole, spitting on it before pushing two fingers inside. Then he stood, plunging back into him.

Noah gasped at the sudden invasion, but then moaned. Adam fucked him hard and fast, each thrust driving Noah up onto his toes. He wanted it hard, wanted it to hurt. And Adam wanted to give Noah what he needed—knew, sometimes, that was the only way for Noah to chase his demons away. Noah was grunting and whining with each thrust, his fingers white knuckled around the iron bars of the staircase railing.

Adam hoped Noah wasn’t expecting a long drawn out affair because the tight heat of Noah’s body was driving him closer and closer to orgasm with every movement, even when he would stop to coat his cock with more saliva before driving inside. “I’m so fucking close. You want me to come? Fill up that greedy little hole?” Noah whimpered but didn’t say anything until Adam spanked him once more, hard enough to make him cry out. “Fucking answer me when I ask you a question.”

Noah moaned. “Yes. Yes. It’s what I want. Fill me up. Please. I want to feel it.”

That was all it took. Adam gripped Noah’s hips, grinding against him, knees almost buckling at the waves of pleasure cresting over him as he emptied himself inside until he shivered.

He pulled free of Noah’s body, turning him before shoving him back up against the wall, dropping to his knees to take Noah’s leaking cock into his mouth. He slipped his hand between his legs, fingers slipping behind his balls, following the trail of wetness before plunging two fingers back inside Noah’s sloppy hole.

Noah moaned long and low, his hips seeming to move against his will as he fucked into Adam’s mouth with abandon. “Oh, fuck. I’m gonna come. Just a little more. Please. Please. Harder. More.” Adam fucked into him with three fingers, finding his prostate and massaging over it with purpose. Noah’s knees almost buckled. “Oh, fuck. Oh… Oh, God. Adam. Fuck. Yes. Just like that. So good.”

Then Noah spilled onto Adam’s tongue. He swallowed every bitter drop, sucking until Noah pushed him off. Adam fell back onto his heels, looking up at Noah with a grin. “Feel better?”

Noah smiled, sinking down to the floor. “Yeah, I feel fucking amazing. You?”

Adam gave a breathless laugh. “Yeah, I’m…I’m good.”

* * *

“You good down there?”

They were lounging in Adam’s sunken tub, Noah tucked between Adam’s splayed thighs, his wet head resting on his chest. Noah’s head lolled on his shoulders, looking up at Adam with a sleepy smile. “I’m okay, just tired. This has been a lot.”

“Yeah, anybody who said killing is easy has clearly never had to plan a mass homicide,” Adam teased.

“How will you do it?”

Adam had no idea. He wasn’t usually the one planning these things. He was more of a soldier. Thomas would have an idea. Maybe they would all just make multiple kills on the same night. It sounded like a lot of work. Definitely risky. Truthfully, he couldn’t wait to sink his blade into Gary. Granted, they wouldn’t have the kind of time together he’d like, especially if he had multiple targets, but watching these men die bloody would have to do. “That won’t be the hard part. The cover-up is going to be the issue.”

“Yeah. Won’t twenty dead people trigger a huge investigation?” Noah asked, sighing when Adam began to soap up his torso.

“There will definitely be an investigation. But we’re used to that.”

“You guys just cover up the bodies and move on? You don’t worry about getting caught?”

Noah’s knees fell open as Adam’s soapy fingers dipped below the waterline, but there was no promise in it. Noah was just touch starved and Adam loved feeding him.

Adam exhaled. “We’re careful. Nobody would ever suspect a bunch of rich kids are murderers. It’s too ridiculous to even comprehend for most people.”

Noah was right, though. The fallout had never really been anything any of them had taken into consideration, but since meeting Noah, Adam knew they wouldn’t make that mistake again. But before he could explain that further, his phone began to vibrate along the side of the tub.

When he saw it was Calliope, he swiped the phone to answer and jabbed a wet finger on the speaker button. “What’s up?”

There was a long pause before Calliope asked, “What’s with the echo? Are you in the bathroom? Tell me you didn’t answer the phone on the toilet, Adam.”

Adam snickered. “If I had, would I admit it?”

“No, probably not. But it does sound like you’re in the bathroom.”

“Adam and I are taking a bath,” Noah supplied, shifting so the water sloshed around them.

“Aw. Hi, Noah,” Calliope said with that same sunshiny voice she seemed to save just for him.

“Are you ever going to stop saying hello to me like I only have six days to live?” Noah asked.

Calliope’s voice didn’t lose its sparkle. “I’m just so happy Adam finally found somebody. That’s all.”

Adam scoffed. “You do know that not having a relationship was my choice, right? I had plenty of offers. It’s not like Noah took pity on me.”

Noah snickered, reaching back to pat Adam’s cheek. “Nobody thinks that, baby. Look at you.”

Adam tipped Noah’s neck to the side to suck the water from his skin before pressing a kiss to the spot.

Calliope cleared her throat. “Keep it in your pants, boys.”

“We’re not wearing pants,” Noah pointed out with another breathy sigh.

“Your metaphorical pants,” Calliope said, exasperated.

Adam rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. What’s up?”

“Nothing good. I tried calling your father about this but he’s got that gala tonight. I’ve been going through all the paperwork you found in the storage locker and attempting to piece together exactly what these men have going on, but obviously the data stops when Noah’s father—” She stopped short, as if realizing her mistake. “When Holt died. But the server at the cabin revealed some things. Some bad things.”

“Yeah, we’re well aware of that,” Adam said, voice grim.

“But you aren’t,” Calliope said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. When I went through the video the first time, I was simply looking to isolate faces and identifying marks that could tell us who those men were.”

When she didn’t continue, Adam prompted, “Are you pausing for dramatic effect? Because, I promise, we’re riveted.”

There was the sound of a deep breath and a slow exhalation, like she was gathering herself. “I decided to go through it again, hoping to find anything to help me identify the victim. We still don’t know where he is. Maybe he’s at home, but maybe he disappeared like so many of Holt’s victims. You know?”

Noah stiffened against him. “And did you? Find him, I mean?”

“No. Not exactly. When I went through the video a second time, I paid more attention to what was happening before those men arrived, trying to find a picture I could use to run facial recognition software against the missing person database. But I went back all the way to the beginning. The boy was just sitting in the corner, running a toy car over his leg…” Once more, another deep breath. “Gary and another man were talking just out of frame. The mic picked up everything.”

“What did you hear, Calliope?” Noah prompted gently.

Maybe that was why Calliope liked Noah better. Adam had never considered what it must be like for people who could empathize with the victims. Noah and Calliope were the same. Two people willing to wade into the worst parts of humanity despite the toll it was clearly taking on both of them. Especially Noah.

“They were auctioning off ten spots. One night only,” she said, choking on the words. “They sold him to those men. They might not all be part of the circle, or maybe they’re all part of a larger circle. I don’t know how it works or what the fuck they’re doing to those boys, but they appear to have expanded their empire far outside their initial group.”

Noah shot to his feet, water cresting over the side of the tub onto the tile below. “When are we going to just kill these fuckers?” he snarled.

Adam followed Noah from the tub, wrapping him in a towel before grabbing one for himself. “I appreciate the added information, but we already knew these men are scum. That’s why they’re all going to die. One at a time or all together. Their time on this planet is limited. We’re not the cops. We don’t need physical proof to know they’re guilty.”

“That’s not the point,” Calliope said. “They’re selling children. Trafficking them. There could be living, breathing victims out there who need help. They could still be living with their abuser, like Noah was. We have to find a way to figure out who these kids are. Not just this boy, but all of them.”

Adam examined Noah. His skin looked ghostly white and his eyes were hollow, strain etched across his beautiful face. “How do we do that?”

“I think the information on the hard drive you cloned holds the key to everything. I don’t think it's just chock full of kiddie porn. I think Gary is keeping records, maybe even recordings of the auctions, like Holt did before he died. I think it's insurance of some kind. I could mine through the data on what I do have of the hard drive you took from Gary’s house, but I can’t crack it. It’s fucking Fort Knox. I need the encryption key.”

“Encryption key?” Noah echoed.

“Yeah. It’s a string of letters and numbers, like a super complicated password,” Calliope said.

“And you can use the encryption key to crack the hard drive and figure out who the victims are?” Adam asked.

“It would still take a lot of work. I only have a fragment of the drive, but it might be enough with the key.”

“And you want me to go torture Gary to get you this encryption key?” Adam asked, fire shooting through his blood at the prospect of finally getting a little alone time with the piece of shit who hurt Noah.

“Pretty please,” Calliope said.

“Why not just go get the full hard drive from Gary’s house?” Noah asked.

“I’m not opposed to that, but I would still need the encryption key to get any information,” Calliope said.

“And I’ll get it for you,” Adam promised.

“We already have it,” Noah said.

Adam frowned. “We do?”

Noah smiled for the first time in hours. “Yep. I think I know why Gary was so desperate to get that backpack back. It wasn’t the guns or the drugs. It was the crumpled up paper I found in the small inner pocket. It was just a string of nonsense, so I tossed it back in the bag. The encryption key is in your dad’s garage behind a fake panel under the bench in the kitchen.”

“This is why I like Noah better,” Calliope said. “In case you were wondering.”

“So, I don’t get to torture Gary?” Adam said, voice huffy.

“Not yet,” Noah muttered. “But soon.”

“How fast can you go get it?” Calliope asked.

Adam toweled his hair. “I can go now.”

“We can go now,” Noah clarified, then gave a jaw cracking yawn.

Adam shook his head. “No. You’re exhausted. You get some sleep. I’ll run and get the encryption key, drop it at the meetup spot, and be back in an hour.” Noah chewed on his bottom lip until Adam tugged it free and kissed him. “It’s going to be okay. Let me do this.”

Noah nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

“Perfect. Text me when you make the drop,” Calliope said before disconnecting.

“Get some rest, baby. I’ll be back soon.”