Aiden was soaked with sweat, and his heart was racing as fast as his car down the road to his apartment. This had to be a nightmare. The golden glow of the moonlight gave an eerie yellow glow to the damp streets. The air conditioning blasting stung him as it practically froze his clammy skin. Meanwhile a furious and frantic roar of muffled frustration rang out in the chest in the back seat of his suv. Jack.
'Pick up the box and bring it home'
'Dont mind the noise.'
'Do NOT open it. I will know if you do. Don't test me. I'll be with you again soon buddy.

'
The last texts from the burner phone were seared into Aiden's mind. "This can't be real. This can't possibly get worse.
But it could. As Aiden pulled up to his small apartment, he nearly puked when he saw Wolfy holding the door open for him, smiling.
Aiden pulled into the driveway and shut the lights off, once again faced with the barely visible grin that had been haunting him since he first saw it. Opening the door felt like pulling teeth...but it wasn't just himself he had to worry about. Somehow, impossibly, this monster roped Jack into this. Aiden winced at the involuntary pun. Jack behind him was breathing heavily and shifting position, but had stopped struggling, as if to listen. Aiden looked back at him as if to apologize. He stepped out of the car.
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Aiden felt smaller and smaller as those bootsteps approached him. "Nice job on the kidnapping. You done this before?" Wolfy said sarcastically, ruffling Aiden's curly hair. The smaller man was shaking, fear, rage and adrenaline making a potent cocktail, now mixed with pride and indignity at the taunt. Wolfy leaned in and whispered. "Keep your
shit together till we're inside. C'mon, he's heavy."
With that, Aiden choked down his emotions and the two men hauled the chest-a renewed struggle emanating from within it, into the small apartment.
Aiden's head was spinning. The space he entered no longer felt like his. It felt like some nightmarish set, like the one's at work, but twisted. It wasn't his fantasy, but a nightmare, an inversion; he the model, and his blackmailer capturing one of the enforcers, his friend Jack, a good, strong man. How could Jack have ended up helpless? Was he taken at gunpoint? Would that even matter at this point now that he and Jack were helpless?
"Were you curious how I would know if you opened it up to say something to yer buddy?" Wolfy said with a smile, tapping his fingers on the chest and bouncing slightly, like a hyperactive boy waiting to get let out of school.
"Please..." Aiden said, barely a whisper, looking down at the box. "It's me you want..."
Wolfy was suddenly still as a stone, eyes digging deep into Aiden's face, who was unable to match his stare. "If you want to help your friend, open the box, look him in the eyes, and don't. Say. A. Word." Aiden didn't want to even think what would happen if he didn't obey; to him, or to Jack. He steeled himself, and with trembling hands, opened the box...
***
'Don't panic Jack. Devin was watching Aiden, so there's no way that motherfucker got his hands on him. Well...other than the time he paid for. God, you're such an IDIOT!'
Jack breathed heavily trying to stop his latest fit of rage. He had been cuffed, ballgagged, bound with rope at the ankles, and had a leather strap tightened across his chest. There was, mercifully, something in the box with him emitting a bit of light, but his broad frame was so tightly cramped inside the box, further limited by the various bondage supplies laying in it, that he had no chance of seeing it. He started listening intently as he heard murmuring, but there was this infuriating pitter-patter sound on he chest, drowning out the noise. Then there was a moment of silence. Finally he heard something about 'help your friend'?
***
As Aiden opened the box, he made eye contact with Jack, who initially sat bolt upright, grunting excitedly into the gag. However, following instructions carefully, he didn't say a word, and simply backed away. Jack froze, crushed, confused. "Allow me to explain. I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot." Came a familiar voice from behind him.
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The room was totally silent except for those damn bootsteps. In the dim light of the apartment, Jack could make out little more than the silhouette of the man that made his skin crawl. He was shaking with rage, but kept himself together. He knew he was in no position to fight. Wolfy reached down and picked up the source of the light from the box, his phone.
"I had set this to livestream." He said to Aiden. "If anything were to happen, if you were to, say, need to open the box, I would have known." Aiden's face looked surprised at the suddenly professional, matter of fact tone Wolfy was employing, but he thought better than to call him out on it. Or say anything for that matter. Jack looked at Aiden like an abused puppy;
Aiden moved him? He was working with this guy? "Speaking of which, this uh, belongs to you." Wolfy pulled Jack's phone out of his pocket, and tucked it into the bound man's breast pocket, unable to hide a grin despite his more professional demeanor. "I'm sure you have some questions. I'm going to take that gag out. You're going to speak calmly, and only when spoken to, or me and my associate will have to put you back. Nod if you understand."
Aiden recoiled at the thought of being associated with this man, but Jack didn't notice. Understandably his eyes were fixed on his captor. His chest heaved as he let out a loud sigh, and nodded.
Wolfy looked back at Aiden, as if reading his mind that he was about to blurt to Jack not to trust this man. He stared daggers at the young model, then smiled, all while keeping his professional tone "You see your coworker and I are cooperating." Looking back at Jack, it was as if he had put on a completely new mask, professional, stern, but fair. He removed the gag from Jack's mouth, letting the shiny, slippery wet ball dangle around his neck. Jack's face went pale as he looked at what Wolfy pulled out of his pocket.
'Adam Wolf, Fbi' emblazoned on the badge. "And if it weren't for him putting in a good word for you, you would be in a lot of trouble sir. Assaulting an officer of the law in the line of duty is...quite an offense to overlook."
"What??" Exclaimed Aiden.
"Quiet, please, I understand this is a tense situation young man." 'Adam' said, turning back to Aiden, grin and all, showing his badge. "Please allow me to handle this."
"I don't understand, Aiden is what, being investigated??" Jack blurted out. Adam looked back at him with one eyebrow raised.
"If...he were being investigated, he... probably wouldn't be cooperating. No, your associate is my informant. An informant who you attempted to stop me from meeting with while I'm investigating your facility...are you beginning to see the problem sir?" He said, straining to be patient.
"Jack wouldn't-" began Aiden
"He did." Adam replied
"I was trying to help him!" Exclaimed Jack
"Gentlemen..." said Adam
"Help? With what??" Aiden demanded, walking closer.
"Gentlemen, please." Adam said, eyes narrowing
"Well apparently SOMETHING is wrong!" Jack began yelling.
A hand clasped over both their mouths as Wofly lost his patience. "BOX FULL OF GAGS, FELLAS. Wanna test em?" The two looked at him in wide eyed shock, and then calmed themselves down a bit. "Jack McHale, you are under suspicion of aiding and abetting a criminal operation within your place of work. Aiden Lark, you are my only point of contact within the facility, and the night I met you, your coworker assaulted me. The only reason you aren't both under arrest is because..." the signature Wolfy smile slipped out again. "I have plans for you two."
Jack and Aiden exchange desperate glances. Both men sense they're missing the full picture, and are in very deep shit. Wordlessly, they agree that they don't have much choice, for their own sake or each other, but to cooperate.
-
@Kishi @CaptiveDan
Enjoy you two.