“Your concern for him is admirable, but he isn’t even connected to us yet.” Titus leaned back in his chair. “Now, are you going to uncuff him and sit down, or are we going to wait until the food is cold before trying to feed our future Third?”
“Stop saying that.” Calix almost wished they hadn’t heard him that time either, because when both of their gazes suddenly landed on him, he felt his throat close under their intense scrutiny.
“Why? You’d already come to that conclusion all on your own,” Titus stated. “That’s what you were getting at back in the room.”
“We were waiting for you to admit it,” Aodhan stated the obvious, coming around and crouching behind Cal so he could unlock the cuffs. “But clearly we’re both out of patience.”
As soon as his wrists were freed, Cal brought his arms around and rubbed them protectively. He didn’t like how close they both were to him, with Titus seated on his right and Aodhan pulling out the chair on his left. The door was also all the way across the room.
“Should we tie you up again?” Titus asked, catching him staring at the exit. “Or will you behave?” He speared one of the fried dumplings on the end of a single chopstick before bringing it close to Cal’s mouth.
The rich smell of boiled meat and savory sauce got the best of him, and without bothering to respond to the question, he found himself leaning forward, greedily taking the offering. The second the flavors exploded on his tongue, he moaned, eyes momentarily slipping closed as a wave of pure bliss shot through him.
It was another trick. They’d starved him on purpose to make him desperate enough to sit here like a pet and behave for them in exchange for food. But even knowing that didn’t change the fact it’d worked.
Calix would be good for them.
For now.
At least until the dumplings ran out, in any case.
“I can’t be your Third,” Cal said, wringing his hands in his lap. It was an insane thing to even consider, and he refused to believe the feeling in his chest was anything other than horror. It certainly couldn’t be hope. “I don’t even know you people.”
“Detective.” Aodhan propped an elbow on the table and smiled at him—not the charming smile he used on the rest of the world, but a dark, almost suggestive one. “You know us better than anyone.”
He shook his head.
“All right,” Titus lifted another dumpling for him, “where would you like to start?”
Calix allowed him to slide the food between his lips, using the excuse of needing to chew to stall. He’d gotten snippets here and there in their other conversations, but no one had told him anything concrete. Was it because they couldn’t trust him, or because they were lying?
It was more likely that this was an elaborate hoax. That they got their kicks by tricking others into thinking they stood a chance.
“Being with a Connect is a big deal,” he tentatively began. “You can’t make me believe you really want me. To fuck me? Sure. Play with me a little? Yeah, okay. But want me?” Saying out loud made it seem even more ridiculous. “Make me your Third?”
“You’re the perfect candidate,” Aodhan disagreed. “You’re the only one either of us has shown any interest in. It has to be you.”
“Interest?” He snorted derisively. “Interest brought on from the night of the reunion? The night you raped me?”
The doctor should have at least pretended to feel bad, but he didn’t. Instead, he tilted his head, as though he was struggling to process what Cal was saying and why it might be important.
Then again, if everything he had been told was accurate, something like guilt probably wasn’t commonly felt by Aodhan. Hell, it took a special kind of asshole to plot what he had, and all because his boyfriend had left out a newspaper clipping from eight years ago.
“Clearly you aren’t the sharing type,” Calix drawled.
“I’m not,” he agreed. “So don’t get any bright ideas, baby.”
“It’s us,” Titus chimed in. “The three of us. No one else.”
“I’m locked up in your house. Who exactly do you think I’m going to find to fuck here? What? Afraid I’ll jump the mailman?” Cal glared at them both, realizing he was going about this the wrong way. “You don’t have any claim on me. You don’t get to make those kinds of demands.”
His mind turned back to the video. To the words echoing from the speaker of the multi-slate.
What kind of freak gets hard while they’re raped?
“You don’t get say you want me after what you did,” Cal forced himself to insist, scowling but taking the next offered dumpling Titus held up for him.
“I’ll apologize for that night,” Aodhan told him, though there was no kindness written on his face. “But only if you’ll admit that you liked it.”