Nick knew this day wasn't going to be easy. It might be one of the hardest days in his entire career, but he knew if this played out well, he would end up with Ellis. No interruptions. No dangers. No lies.

That gave him the motivation to swing his feet over the edge of his bed, slowing as his heels skimmed the fuzzy felts of his carpet. He looked back at the still snoozing boy. The thin beam of light raining into the room dimly from the crack underneath the door unveiled El's serene expression. The air became more warm and comfortable for Nick and even without the needed amount of light he could see the younger's chest depress and expand in calm waves.

The smile on his face lingered even as he pulled his clothes on. He was getting out of here. He'll just tell Ellis he got fired or something mundane and easy like that. From then on no more lies, of course about anything new. If he ever asks about his job as a 'detective' he'll just change the subject curtly or say its nothing of interest. They would live together in Savannah or hell even Vegas. The world was his oyster, but now with Ellis, the world their oyster.

He could already hear the scribbling pen on the paper of his will for the Family. It might be more than difficult to leave, but his men know how loyal he is to the family. Plus they know if he rats them out he would be in a deeper hole than any of them.

Everything will go the way he wants it to.


Everything will go the way I want it to, Talen thought.

He speed walked back and forth in the rec room just waiting, thinking, and pacing. His mind was crowded with worst-case scenarios and all the errors that could be planted into the plan. It was risky and every step was hanging delicately. If there were one thing to go wrong it would all crumble into the earth. He paced harder thinking of every single preparation that was added into the structure, wondering if it's enough.

When Jason sped into the room with a determined stoic guard worn as his expression, his thoughts narrowed to the first step. Which evidently was the hardest and of most risk. The heavy object in his back pocket was felt more clearly now that he pictured the process of how it would be used. The one in his coat pocket, however, felt much more sharp.

"He's out?" He stole a look to the exit of the room. Noticing no one he looked back into the eyes before him.

"Yeah, he's in his office. I'd make it fast just in case." He gave him a sincerely sly smile and patted his shoulder respectively.

"It wont take long."

The click of the knife opening was quick, but said its message. The glint of impending anger in the ebony of his eyes enforced the message.

Jason nodded, swallowed the pang of fear that had broken through his passive visage and backed out of the room to follow through with the other men.

Ellis isn't a deep sleeper. That didn't mean he was a light one either, but when something as vivid, loud, and forceful wills its way into his senses he can be thrusted into reality faster than a bullet.

Someone was brushing his hair out of his face. Someone with cold hands, soft hands.

Someone who was not Nick.

With a tired curiosity his eyes lifted open, his vision blurred from sleep. The form above him just a black distortion…then he blinked.

His breath stopped. His heart followed. All the blood that colored his youthful face had been drained to pump into his more vital organs. The organs that should be helping him breath, to move, and to escape.

The same man. The same man that had ripped his own face. That had dug a knife into his flesh. The man with the twisted smile, the dark hair, the dark eyes.

His mind was immobile still. It was locked under the pressure of the sick endless gaze it had been fallen under. His mouth opened to do something, to scream, but he only mumbled slurred vowels. The noiseless whimpers that left him stopped when something cold touched the very center of his throat.

He was familiar with the feel of a cold blade burning his skin by now.

"Okay, Okay, Okay…listen," Talen's lips quirked and his eyebrows furrowed, "…kid. You're going to follow me to a car just outside."

The younger's eyes were wide, tears brimming on his waterline, as he tried to keep himself conscious of what was being said. How did he find him? Is Nick okay? Oh god if he hurt Nick. What if he hurt Nick?

Talen pushed the knife deeper into the fibrous skin, seeming to wake him from his unfocused daze. Ellis cried out a strained sob.

"Understand?" He growled with an animalistic satisfaction and leaned down sickeningly close to Ellis' face. The southern boy's head nodded in unwanted consent.

He pulled back, taking Ellis' arm into his hand and dragging him out of the bed, Ellis caught himself with a painful slam of his heels to the wooden floor, a slice of pain shot through his ankles. He was pulled to his erect hight, it wasn't till he was standing that he noticed he was only clad in Nick's boxers.

The cool breeze wasn't what made a body quacking shudder run down his nerves.

It was the hungry look in Talen's orbs that made him quiver. He stepped back, the back of his knees hitting the side of the bed.

The horrifying man took a step forward.

The chaste dread that had pulled Ellis' face into a look of pure terror edged Talen closer.

"Why does Nick like you so much?"

Oh God the man was too close. He was just too close to Ellis, enough that he could feel the hot breath on his own face. He wanted to run past him, through him, backwards. But he was glued to the floor in a stilling shock that made his limbs tingle with sensitive goose bumps.

"Is it your body?" The whisper was followed with a light hand tracing his stomach, the eyes above him lidded lewdly.

Ellis choked on his own sob. The knife that was at his throat was now being dragged to the back of his neck, then trailed downwards on his spine.

The horrible man pressed the tip in the center of his spine, forcing his chest to finally be tangent with Talen's. It was utterly disgusting and perturbing in a synchronized swirl of desperation. His icy fingers' pads grazed the tip of his nipple. The younger gasped with a loud yelp.

The amount of questions building up in his head became too overwhelming along with all the electric jolts to his brain, it was confusing his body. He didn't know what to feel at this point. Pleasure or fear?

The blonde's head fell forward into the crevice of the other's neck.

"St-stop" he whispered in a meek whine.

"Or is it your neck. I saw the marks he left on you the other week. Interesting how he shows more ownership for you than to the family." His digits rubbed one of the purpled love marks on his neck. His index finger smoothed the skin at the curve of his jaw line, outlining the bone till he reached the end of the boy's chin.

"What," His breath was escaping him heavily and too fast. "…are you-you talkin' 'bout?" The knife that dipped into one of the nubs of his spine forced him to arch his back into the other body.

"ARGH!" Ellis wailed with a cracked cry.

Then the knife was gone and in one smooth motion he was being trudged out of the room, barely keeping up with his own feet or movements. His heart pumped with a ferocity that feared him into thinking he would have a heart attack right there.

It was all melted together, the last thing he remembers before some sort of bag was shoved on his face was the black Escalade filled with strange looking men.

The last thing he thought coherently was that the blinding black inside of the bag was a lighter shade than Talen's eyes.