What a strange dream to have.
When it came to his imagination, blood and gore were frequent flyers, as was sex, but they rarely appeared together, and he couldn’t recall ever reliving the alternative version of an event that actually happened. Yet here he was, still clinging to an unreality in which Hammer got horny for him right after bashing someone’s brain in.
It was dark, and only the sky, mostly obscured by very tall trees, was bright with oranges and pinks. Was it dusk, or dawn?
“Where are we?” he uttered, squeezing his eyes shut to relax them and feel a bit less sleepy.
“North Carolina,” Hammer said and stepped outside, letting in a flood of cold air.
“What?” Dex yawned, kind of wishing to get back to his dream. Sleeping in the car hadn’t been restful and he was still groggy, though unlike Hammer, he did get some shut-eye at least.
Being taken and cuffed by a hottie sounded fun in theory, but the charm was starting to fizzle out after a night of sleeping in a car seat, with his neck bent at an uncomfortable angle. He’d tried not to overthink his situation so far, because he assumed Hammer wouldn’t have a reason to hurt him, but being shipped off so far from home was setting off alarm bells. The ranch house at which they parked seemed normal enough but could just as well be some slaughterhouse.
Well, itwaspainted all-black with the double garage door featuring a cheetah pattern, and had patches of tall grass at the front instead of a lawn or flowerbeds, but it did look like someone’s home.
Dex flinched when Hammer opened the door on his side, letting in more cold air.
“Is this your safe house or something? I wouldn’t take you for a leopard print kinda guy.” He smiled, trying to make the best of the situation, but he’d fucked up. He should have messaged Frank when he had the chance, and now he was stuck without a phone. Unless, of course, he managed to slip it out of Hammer’s pocket.
Hammer glared at him and opened Dex’s seatbelt. “Not mine, which is why you have to do as I say. Play along, or risk our safety,” he said in a stern voice and pulled Dex out of the vehicle, toward the silent house. Only then did Dex whip his head around, taking in their surroundings with growing unease. He couldn’t see any other houses, just glimpses of farm buildings behind the stark black shape of Hammer’s secret hideout. They were surrounded by woods, and the one road was a single-track driveway disappearing in the trees behind them.
This was some murder cabin shit if he’d ever seen one.
He swallowed as a knot formed in his stomach. “Okay, but, like… don’t kill me?”
The corner of Hammer’s mouth lifted, exposing one of his canines. “Behave, and we shall see. Remember to follow along,” he said and approached the door decorated with the same decal as the garage entrance.
A part of Dex worried that intruding on someone’s home so early in the morning might bear bad results, but Hammer rang the bell before Dex could have revealed his worries.
There was an odd, creaky sound on the other side of the door, but it only occurred to Dex when Hammer pressed the button again that the bell imitated the roar of a lion.
“Who is it?” a raspy female voice asked through the intercom.
Hammer waved at a camera installed above. “Told you I’ll visit you sometime,” he said in a cheerful voice.
The unknown lady remained still for a second, then mumbled, “hang on” before her voice died with a creak.
Hammer gave a low exhale and pushed back his hair, as if attempting to tidy it before facing the strange woman.
Dex rolled his eyes, frustrated by these displays of heterosexuality. “Is thisanothergirlfriend?”
“You should be the last one to judge,” Hammer whispered as something fumbled beyond the entrance. Moments later, the door opened, and Dex was baffled when he saw it was not only thick and made of steel, but also secured with three separate locks.
Behind it stood a small woman with breasts so massive they pulled apart her pink cheetah robe. Her face skirted the territory of the uncanny valley. Dex wasn’t an expert on plastic surgery to know what caused her features to appear strange, but her lips were slightly too full for her face and her eyes had a foxy look which had to be somehow related to the tightness of the skin over her cheekbones and temples.
The woman tut-tutted at Hammer before raising her brows at Dex. “Look what the cat brought in…”
Hammer chuckled. “Nice to see you too, Cora. I was in the area and figured… why not knock at the door to your wild kingdom?”
Ugh.What was this attempt at flirting? The straights were so weird.
“This isn’t a hotel,” Cora said, straightening her back in a futile attempt to seem taller in front of Hammer. The top of her head still didn’t even reach his chin.
When Hammer didn’t answer, she squinted so hard Dex could barely see her green eyes through the fake eyelashes. “Who’s your friend?”
Dex opened his mouth but Hammer spoke first. “My submissive.”
Dex’s mind did cartwheels and somersaults in an attempt to understand what Hammer had said, but it all came back to the order tofollow along. He wasn’t well-versed in BDSM, but he understood enough about the term Hammer used to consider it a good excuse for Dex wearing cuffs.