Chapter 38
38
MATT
Waiting for Eric to come of the room after testifying is probably the most stressful hour of my life. Spencer and Donnie were both in and out in under twenty minutes. The mousey victim’s advocate guy told me each witness testimony is unique when he showed me to this hallway to wait for everyone to be done. But this is ridiculous…
“Barnes?”
Glancing up, I see a man I hoped to never have to encounter again in my life. Rising to my feet slowly, I make sure Andrew Streaker knows exactly what I think of him. Spencer and Donnie stand with me. I feel one of them put a hand on my shoulder, but I don’t need the reminder that this isn’t the place to start something. I need to be here when Eric is done, not in lockup somewhere.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Streaker?”
He looks genuinely surprised by my anger and takes a step back. Glancing at the men on either side of me, he sneers at Donnie.
“Fucking snitch, aren’t you Hastings?” he snarls and takes a step forward. “How’s your luck at finding a bank to give you a loan with that criminal record?”
“I’d rather have my petty record for turning on a bunch of rapists than be rich and let filth like them wander free to hurt others,” Don growls out and steps into Streaker’s personal space.
Spencer hurriedly pulls us both back as the guards take notice of the aggression and start watching us more closely.
“Thought you had better taste, Barnes. Hanging with a snitch and a fairy boy. Never thought I’d see the day.” Turning his attention to my friends, he pushes his luck. “You boys gonna offer up more lies about how the faggot wasn’t begging for it that night? Rafe and the guys told me he was a tight little thing. Think they popped his cherry that night?”
Before any of us could launch ourselves at him, the door opens and Eric walks out looking pale and shaky. Pushing away from the guys, I hurry to pull him into my arms, the asshole forgotten for the moment.
“It’s over,” I whisper to him as I clutch him tighter. “You never have to do this again.”
Pushing me back, he gives me a sad smile. “Actually, I’m going to have to do it again in two years. He was denied parole when a few members of the board noticed him getting … erm… excited the more worked up I got.”
I am going to ignore that last part for the sake of my sanity based on the obvious disgust on Eric’s face. Grabbing his cheeks, I can’t hide my excitement. “He got denied?”
Eric nods as much as my hands will let him and his smile shines like the sun breaking through the clouds. Grabbing him around the waist, I lift him up to twirl him around.
“I’m so proud of you, Sparkles,” I tell him when I set him back down.
A snort from behind me pulls my attention back to the asshole who owns the house where this nightmare took place. “You got a problem, Streaker?”
Eric steps around me and looks him up and down while the man is busy staring me down.
“You’re Andrew Streaker?” my cutie asks him with a bite to his voice. “ You are the asshat who owns that crack house rat trap where I was raped?”
“You can’t rape the willing,” Streaker spits at Eric and I want to throttle him. No one has the right to speak to anyone like that, especially my boy.
Before anyone can move, Eric starts laughing hysterically, holding onto my arm in a vice grip to keep from falling to the floor. I swear it takes minutes for him to stop laughing because every time he seems to get ahold of himself, he looks around the room and cracks up again.
“Come on Sparkles. Let the rest of us in on the joke.”
Pointing at Streaker, Eric struggles to get his breathing even enough to speak. “This guy was one of my regular booty calls a few years ago, before I instituted my no repeats rule,” he spits out between hiccups.
Streaker starts backing away, shaking his head, but the rest of us are looking between the two of them in confusion. One of the guards looks like he wishes he had some popcorn based on the eager look on his face.
“I didn’t recognize him,” Eric gasps out as he’s mostly back to normal. “I broke off our arrangement when he confessed he loved me and wanted to act out his rape fantasy.”
“Did he know your past?” Donnie asks incredulously, but Eric shakes his head in answer.
“It wouldn’t have been my first round of CNC, but I didn’t do feelings with my arrangements. I told him where to find a good dildo,” Eric chuckles and waggles his eyebrows. “ I wasn’t the bottom in our arrangement.”
Streaker turns whiter than the dress shirt he’s wearing before running for the exit. Meanwhile, Eric dissolves back into his uncontrollable laughter. Looking at the other guys, I shrug and hoist my boy into my arms to carry him out. Donnie grabs our coats while Spencer gets the door. The voyeur guard gives me a wink as we walk past, and I shake my head in exasperation.
I figured I would end up with my boy’s tears soaking my shirt today. I never expected they would be tears of laughter.