Wren

Part 28

"It's been around 30 hours since you came here, and what do you know, no one has come for you yet." 

Wren had passed out from the blow, and was now startled awake by the sound of Boss's voice. He blinked his eyes open groggily, his wincing tugging at the dried blood that caked the wounds on his cheek. He glanced around frantically, trying to find where the voice had come from, but he couldn't see anyone. The fire had been put out, and it was dark except for an overhead light that shone directly down on Wren. 

There was no way he'd been unconscious for that long just from being punched-- He glanced down and saw a bruised spot in the the crook of his elbow, surrounding a tiny injection hole. He looked up and glared around again, disoriented and angry.

"You looked so pretty asleep," 

Chills pricked Wren's skin as the whisper came from right behind him. He heard loud laughter and glared as Boss finally showed himself; walking around into Wren's line of sight. He stood in front of his hostage, smiling wolfishly down at him. 

"Fuck you," Wren spat at the man's feet and squirmed in his binds, ignoring how the ropes sawed into his flesh and were slowly stained red. "Let me go!"

Boss laughed again. "I think it's time we give your husband some motivation, shall we?"

What the hell was he talking about? Had they been in contact with Matteo while he'd been unconscious? 

He stalked over to the high shelves that the formed makeshift walls of Wren's little prison cell, his movements deliberately slow as he shuffled through bins and rooted through stacks of things, searching for something. When he turned back to Wren, he was holding something behind his back. When he got about two feet away, he stopped. He placed the object in Wren's lap.

Wren stared at the thing, confused. It was a fiberglass rod with wires embedded inside it, a boxy rubber handle on one end and two metal prongs on the other. 

Boss smirked at his confused face, turning and walking back to the shelves. "Don't worry your pretty little head over what it is," he said as he retrieved several cameras and camera stands. He started to set them up in a semicircle, turning them on. Wren's fear was welling up, and he squirmed as Boss came back to stand in front of him. "Because you're about to find out."

Boss picked up the weird thing, flipping a switch in the handle. It crackled and buzzed, and Wren felt his heart drop into his stomach. 

He shrieked and flailed as searing pain tore through his neck, Boss holding the thing there for several seconds before he it pulled away. He laughed as Wren slumped over, panting. His neck felt like it was on fire.

"It's a cattle prod. But this one is special; I had it fixed up just for you." He swung the thing in Wren's face, laughing when he jerked back and cried out. "Come on, be a good boy. You want your husband to come get you, right? Then we have to motivate him. He wouldn't care otherwise. He'll only want to rescue you if he sees that I'm damaging his property."

Wren opened his mouth to call him a lying bastard, but his words turned into a scream as the cattle prod was held against his left upper arm. He jerked so hard the chair nearly fell over. Boss pulled it away, and Wren was reduced to a trembling mess hunched over in his seat. Now his arm was burnt too.

Not even two seconds passed before Boss lifted Wren's shirt, exposing his pale, heaving belly. Wren screamed even before the prongs touched his skin, not quieting until 10 seconds passed and it was pulled away.

Boss examined the sear marks, a smirk playing across his lips as he crouched, but it faded when he pulled up the right leg of Wren's pants. "Looks like your beloved husband beat me to it," he said as he took in the scars that covered both of Wren's legs from the fire. Wren was slumped over and unresponsive, awake, but his body trying to process the pain.

Boss stood and tossed the cattle prod, it clattering across the floor. He turned off the cameras and set them aside. "That's good enough for the first one, but you better hope he'll strike a deal, because I have some pretty nasty ideas if you'll be here a while." He stalked out of the shelves, his footsteps fading in the empty warehouse.

Wren sat, shaking in pain and trying to fight off the thoughts that crowded his mind. Matteo loved him. He wasn't just property, and he'd be there as soon as he could to rescue him. He just had to hold on. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Matteo wanted to turn his head away. His stomach lurched, and he heard his father's heavy breathing in his ear.

They'd been emailed a video. 

Wren, his left cheek plastered with dried blood, tied to a chair with some shelves in the background, a man hovering in front of him. The man kept his back to the cameras the whole time, so Matteo and Vincenzo had no idea who this was. They watched as he took something from Wren's lap, then fiddling with it for a moment before holding it to Wren's neck. Matteo had to shut his eyes on the image of Wren thrashing in the chair, but nothing could block out the animalistic screams. The man pulled it away and Matteo got a good look at what it was. A cattle prod. 

The man swung it dangerously close to Wren's face, laughing as he tried to get away from it. Matteo could hear what he said next. 'Come on, be a good boy. You want your husband to come get you, right? Then we have to motivate him. He wouldn't care otherwise. He'll only want to rescue you if he sees that I'm damaging his property.'

Matteo's hear stopped. That motherfucker-- Wren wouldn't believe him right? No way. He was just trying to get in Wren's head, and Wren was smart enough to know that. He felt his father's hand on his shoulder, tightening into a reassuring grip.

The video went on for about one more minute, ending with the man switching off the cameras after making a comment on Wren's burn scars. Matteo's blood boiled. He was at fault for those scars, and somehow the man knew it and was using it against Wren, who was already self-conscious about them. He'd kill that asshole--

A message appeared under the video. 

'If you don't give us your banking passcodes, we have more in store for your precious boy.'

                                 Part Twenty-Nine Coming Soon