Page 167 of Pistols and Plush Toys

Elliot saw the nightmare behind his eyes, felt the helpless swell of fear, the clog in his throat.

No, no, no! He couldn’t—couldn’t let this happen!

“M-Matty,” Elliot burst out, shoving to his feet. A desperate thought had come to him. “Matty, I…” Elliot paused, trying to conjure a teasing, playful tone. There was one thing that Mattia always wanted him for, one last thing he could try. “Could he just… sit tight a minute?”

Mattia’s attention had turned to him, but now he was frowning. Suspicious.

“Sit tight? For fucking what?” He snarled.

Elliot pushed forward, stepping closer to Mattia, making his eyes big, his expression as soft and pleading as he could. Mattia had always found him pretty, and he hoped that was still true. “I-I just mean that Imissedyou, Matty. It’s… it’s been so long. He kept me from you, even when I tried to get away.”

Elliot swallowed down bile, on the dizzying wave of nausea spreading through him at the thought of what came next. He could do this. He could do this. If it meant saving Nikolai,he could do this.

Close enough now, he dropped to his knees, looking up at Mattia through his eyelashes. Mattia had always said they were pretty, always liked seeing him on his knees. He licked his lips, hoping the shaking in his hands wasn’t too visible.

“Can I show you how much I missed you, Matty?”

Chapter 28: Nikolai

Nikolai watched Elliot drop to his knees in front of Vitale and red clouded his vision so vividly that he almost fumbled his lock pick. His quick reflexes saved him.

He was grateful as fuck that he’d decided to wear Gerard’s gift today. Otherwise he would have had to break his thumbs to get out of the cuffs, and he already knew he’d need every advantage he could scrape together to leave this building alive. Between Vitale, his knife, the gun on his hip, and the dozen-odd men in the rest of the building, the odds were stacked against him.

And it wasn’t just him. He had to get both himselfandElliot out, because Elliot had managed to talk his way into Nikolai’s torture chamber, and Nikolai understood maybe why he’d done it, because so far Elliot had bought Nikolai a lot of much needed time. Being smart and beautiful and so fucking brave, but if Nikolai survived this, he was going to give Elliot such a lecture about putting himself in danger.

And then buy him about a million stuffed animals for getting through all of this.

If Nikolai survived.

Which he had to do. If only to make sure that Vitale would never hurt Elliot again.

Nikolai sucked in a deep breath to try and chase the rage away so he could focus. His nose throbbed, likely broken from Vitale’s fist, but the pain was background noise. He needed just a minute more and he’d be free of these cuffs, and then he could fuckingrip Vitale apart.

Elliot was on his knees, tears streaming down his face, and Vitale was eyeing him like prey. Nikolai had never hated anyone as much as he did Vitale then.

“Yeah El?” Vitale was saying, throwing Nikolai a vicious grin. “You want to please me?”

“Can I, Matty?” Elliot asked, voice breathy and obviously terrified. “Please?”

“My good little slut,” Vitale said, fisting a hand in Elliot’s hair. Nikolai choked on fury, but forcefully kept his expression blank. He wouldn’t give Vitale the pleasure. “Can’t even wait, can you? You’re gagging for it.”

Elliot nodded, parting his lips.

“Go on then,” Vitale said, dropping the knife on a nearby chair seat before sinking his other hand into Elliot’s hair too. “You can show the Russian pig what he’s going to miss before he dies.”

Elliot raised trembling fingers to pop the button on Vitale’s slacks and slide the zipper down.

Several things happened at once.

Elliot pushed closer, nuzzling at Vitale’s bulge.

Nikolai’s cuff clicked open.

And the sound of gunfire rang out in the room beyond.

Vitale jerked back from Elliot, cursing, hand going to draw his gun, but by then Nikolai had leapt up out of his chair, slamming into Vitale and bringing them both to the ground.

“You motherfucker!” Vitale roared. He turned, trying to slam his fist into Nikolai’s face as he scrabbled for the gun. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

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