Martinez bit his lip, but with the way his mustache twitched, it seemed he was keeping a grin at bay. Was he amused by knowing he’d already had Gabriel a long time ago? Did it turn him on that Gabriel supposedly didn’t remember?
Sick fuck.
“All right, I’m willing to fulfill your fantasy,” Martinez said and stepped back to put on a jacket—after all, nights were still rather cold. “Who knows, if things work out between us tonight, I might convince Father John to let you move in with me? You’d no longer be imprisoned at that place, toiling for nothing.”
The puppeteer above pulled on the strings to Gabriel’s face, making him smile, then to his hand, so it pushed his hair behind his ear. Gabriel was just a numb piece of flesh following orders at this point. Imagining a world in which Martinez kept him in his house like a piece of furniture he could use at any time made his stomach clench into a tight ball. He couldn’t envision a life less worth living.
“I’m ready to be my own man. Father John would never allow the things I want to do.”
Martinez laughed and stepped out, locking the door behind him. His hip bumped Gabriel’s, and it took all the willpower in the world not to flinch away. But Abaddon was waiting for them, ready to strike once he saw an opportunity.
“I’d feed you and house you. Maybe even dress you from time to time,” Martinez said and nudged Gabriel toward the cars parked in front of the motel.
For a terrifying moment, Gabriel wondered what would happen if Abaddon hadn’t managed to get into the bright yellow vehicle. What if this sick rapist drove him into the woods, and it turned out there was no backup? Would Gabriel be able to run fast enough?
“You’d do that for me?” he asked as if the offer was an opportunity of a lifetime, not his worst nightmare.
Martinez grinned and ruffled his hair before pulling out his keys. “If you do well tonight, kid, anything’s possible.”
If he did well.
If he did his job of sexually satisfying a perverted sadist in order to break free of the place he itched to leave. Had Abaddon never arrived to take the wool off his eyes, would that have been his future? Between a rock and a hard place, would he have chosen being trapped at St. John’s forever, or a miserable life as a sexual companion to Martinez? Just thinking about it made him itch to once again put a blade to his flesh.
Bile pushed at Gabriel’s throat, but he took a deep breath and kept himself from puking. He didn’t fight Martinez and walked ahead of him, painfully aware of the bastard’s gaze focusing on his ass so intensely he could almost feel the unwanted touch. But Gabriel thought of his angel, who wouldn’t have abandoned him even after discovering his lies earlier.
He stirred in surprise when the car unlocked, but the physical reaction was soon followed by panic. Did that mean Abaddon hadn't managed to hide inside? Had something happened to him?
“Sit with me at the front, pretty boy,” Martinez said, opening the driver’s side and settling inside.
Abaddon had told Gabriel to avoid looking at the back seat once he got in, so he put aside the fact that hair was bristling everywhere on his body and sat like a good boy. As he stared straight ahead, at the gun-shaped air freshener that made everything inside smell of fake pine, all he could hear was his own furious heartbeat.
Did Martinez… had this bastard called him pretty? Was he attractive enough to take risks for? To keep? Maybe he was.
“Go left and straight ahead from here,” he said like a robot.
Martinez switched on the engine and did as instructed, turning his attention to Gabriel once they’d left the motel.
“Gotta say I’m surprised. Father John told me you imagined me among those who hurt you years ago,” he said casually, but his words were like a punch to the throat, designed to create discomfort.
He shrank in the seat, amazed that anyone could be so cruel to a man they intended to sleep with and maybe… live with? “I have these delusions sometimes, but Dr. Rogers prescribed me pills to keep my imagination at bay. You’re not responsible for my mind making things up.”
You are. You are. You are!
“No, but I just figured it needed to be addressed before I see you naked,” Martinez said with a raspy laugh.
This sick fuck wasn’t about to make it easy on him, was he? Gabriel gave a nervous chuckle, but there was nothing funny about this situation. And if Abaddon had failed to hide in the back of the car, then Gabriel was in grave danger.
“I can’t hold a grudge against you for something you didn’t do.” He did all he could to not imagine Martinez stripping him naked in the woods, and reminded himself that unless everything failed, his guardian angel was right there, keeping him safe.