MERCY'S STUDIO - EARLY AFTERNOON NEXT DAY

LOUNGE

DEBS

It takes a certain amount of arrogance to believe that you are so right in all you do, and here is a prime example of that. “I said aren't you going to let me in?”

“No. No, Michael, I am not.”

He just about banks down the anger and gives me a smile. “I am here to apologise to you. I tried the diner, but they said you were at your other job. And since you are her PA, and…” He trails off when I start to shake my head. “Why doesn't anyone understand that when I am upset I lash out unthinkingly?”

“Not a word.” He whirls around at Mercy's derisive tone.

“You’re back!” He exclaims. “What do you mean, not a word?”

“It is unthinking not unthinkingly, hence not a word. And yet again you're here, unwanted. Leave.” She looks to her side then calls out. “Could one of you remove that, please?”

Chris and Caleb come around the corner and flank Michael on either side before he can take a step.

“Mercy, wait! I want to apologise to you!”

“For what? Causing me pain? As a matter of interest, why? Why make that call?”

For a few seconds he says nothing, but when Chris takes his arm, his preservation kicks in. “I was angry that they took you to London. Left me without a means of…”

“Bulldinky!” Caleb snorts. “They were dead. You knew that. You weren't angry at them, you were angry at her for having the balls to live her life without you. To not put you first, as you thought was your right, same as Ben! You fucked around on him because of two things: first, he loves Brian more than you and Brian knew that, and, secondly, Brian rejected you...stone cold turned you down flat. Oh that must have really hurt! And on top of that he never even realised it. But after we had a word with his friend and told him about the danger that Justin was in, he told him…”

“What are you talking about?! I have never approached Brian like that!” Michael exclaims.

“That's the thing about being afraid for the safety of your loved ones.” Caleb continues. “When you are scrabbling to figure out where the hell they are. It's at times like that, when you dig deep and find out things. When Gold handed himself in and told us he had taken Justin and the reasoning, it got me to thinking…”

Start of flashback

12 DAYS AFTER JUSTIN WAS TAKEN

THE LOFT - MID AFTERNOON

CALEB

“But why Justin? I don’t get it!” I am pacing; I take the beer from Chris. “And you can’t think of any reason other than barfing on his shoes when you turned him down that Ethan would have it in for you?”

“No, none! I told you!” Brian bellows and sits down heavily. Nobody says anything. “I’m sorry, I just want him back safe and unharmed.”

“That’s what we all want, sweetheart.” Debs comes from the kitchen with a bowl of soup. “I will spoon feed you myself, you know I will.” She orders him gently, and it is to our great relief that he finally eats something.

He gives a small smile of gratitude and finishes the bowl. “I needed that.” He admits, then massages his forehead.

“Look, Brian…” I begin as gently as I can, I need him focused, not exploding with frustration. “...I know that you’ve already gone over your history with him, but is there anyone else that he would know and you know that is stupid enough to help him with this?”

“Not that was at the party, no.” He sighs.

“Not even the guy you went with?” Daph asks, and he thinks for a bit before shaking his head. “Fuck.”

“What was the guy’s name anyway? Maybe he can give us some insight, maybe in the run up to the party you missed something.”

“Abel Martin. He’s a broker at Stone & Silver. Okay, he stayed for the party but we parted on relatively good terms.”

“Can you call him now?”

“It’s worth a shot, we’re not getting anywhere here!” Brian grouses and reaches for his phone.

“On speaker.” Mercy orders at the same time she hits record on hers. “Can never have too many copies of this kind of recording.”

“Sure you got the right number, Kinney?” A deep voice chuckles.

“Absolutely sure. Look, Abe…”

“You okay? You sound weird, or should that be wired? Man, it is way too early in the day for you to...”

“Abel, shut up and listen!” Brian snaps before pinching his nose to try and stop himself from crying. He’s held off since Justin disappeared.

“Brian, what is it?” Abel’s voice is full of concern. “Talk to me.”

“I have a boyfriend now, who I care about very much, but someone has taken him and we don’t know why.”

“Taken him. What do you mean; as in kidnapped him?!”

“Yeah, and he won’t tell me why, but says I know why and I don’t!”

“Jesus fuck! Look, where are you?!”

“The loft.” Brian’s voice cracks and Ben tries to comfort him. “How fast can you get here?” He sniffs.

“Less than ten!” True to his word he is knocking on the door in eight minutes. “Explain to me!” We tell him what Gold has told us and he absorbs it in silence for a while. “Got a picture of this guy I can see?” Brian hands him his pad and flicks it to the picture of Gold. “Yeah, that’s the guy that Bellwether was very possessive over.” He grimaces. “The things he used on him.”

“What things? What do you mean possessive?” I frown.

He heads to the cart and waves the bottle around, we all nod. “He was the only one that fucked him, had him blindfolded and used a variety of toys. It was grim. I left after the second round and third dildo.”

“Oh Christ!” Brian pales. “Do you think he’s…”

“Don't, sweetheart. Don't go there!” Debs orders, getting up to replenish all our  glasses.

“If you left, how do you know about Bellwether being the only guy?” Daphne questions.

“He's a big mouth. Oh, he was pissed when he found out you had left, he wanted to show you what he was capable of.” He turns to Ben. “Speaking of mouths, heard you ditched the mealy mean tongued one.”

“Yeah.” Ben scrubs his face. “You both said that I was an idiot, and…”

“Guys, back on point. Justin!” Brian snaps.

“Sorry.” They both say, and again the room goes quiet as we try to conjure up any reason for what has occurred.

“I turned him down, brutally, and barfed on his shoes. But this…” Brian begins to pace.

“When did you puke on his shoes?” Abel looks confusedly between Ben and Brian. “From memory you burned him, with words as only you can, then went off to fuck some other guy...a blonde, I think…”

“No he didn't, because I took him home.” Emmett states. “He was in the bathroom when it happened.”

“Bath...who are you talking about? When Brian nixed Michael on Dark Masque Knight in Babylon, they were in the backroom.”

“Michael? Dark Masque Knight?” Ben repeats then goes still. “Oh my god! I remember, he came in so fucking pissed off. Could not get out of him what was wrong, never seen him so angry.”

“He was almost foaming!” Abel smirks. “I had to laugh when he said…” He clears his throat. “...by hook or by crook, one day I am going to let you know what that feels like!”

“Are you absolutely sure this was Michael?” Mercy demands.

“Yep. I was right next to you, well not right next but near enough to recognize him half naked, but you didn't. Given that you refused to even go to the gym with him, I am not surprised. You just looked him up and down, laughed and said no way because he reminded you of him, and you could not stand the waste of jizz. I have taken to using that on occasion, thank you.”

“You don't think that he used that spiteful tongue of his to exact revenge after all this time…” Emmett begins then turns to Mercy. “...you know what, it can’t hurt to ask Gold can it?”

“No. Besides, look what he's done to me…” Mercy sighs.

End of flashback

MICHAEL

That night has been burned into my memory. I still have the masque from it. Why I don't know. Prickles of humiliation wash over me as I remember the snickering and murmurs of agreement at his words. And to add insult to injury, he came fresh from the backroom and regaled Ben with his tales of squalidness. When Ben howled with laughter after he described the guy he turned down as a waste of jizz then briefly looked at me, I had to leave.

“Well, I shall leave you to dispense with that, boys!” Mercy snipes, and starts to head inside.

“Merc…” I call out to her, but then Ma breaks into a smile.

“Hey, Carl! How you doing, sweetheart?” She calls out, and I watch a shambolic old mess come up the path.

“Great, honey. Did I just see Mercy heading in or is Kiki still driving this beauty?”

Sweetheart? Honey?

“Yep, it was her. Mercy, can you come out? Carl's here!” Ma bellows over her shoulder. Carl steps passed me, frowning at the guards flanking me on either side. “He is just leaving and they are helping.”

“I see. Hey, Mercy, you still got jet lag bad?” He asks as she comes out with a coffee then nods, “Okay, I’ll be quick with it then. Spoke to my friend in London and I hate to ask this, but did you identify the bodies of your folks?”

She is not the only one taken aback by the question. “No, too traumatic for the family, it was not a pretty death for either of them…” She casts a filthy look at me before turning her face to him. “...Norwood Backford, their agent at the time, did it for us, why?”

“Same guy that picked up the Oscar?” Again she nods. “I had a feeling you were going to say that. Did you know him well?”

“Not really, we kept business and family separate, we…”

“Excuse me, Carl is it? I am Michael, Mercy's best friend and the honey is my Mother. Now, what is this line of questioning and over familiarity about?”

“Uh…”

“Carl, just spit it out, need to down this and Caleb needs to tuck me up in bed.”

“Okay, this is not easy, but Norwood Backford had a rep for helping clients who wanted to...to get out of the limelight. And it pains me to have to ask you this…”

“You think he, or they, faked their deaths?!” I gasp.

“Let’s take this inside.” Caleb orders, and, much to my annoyance, the jock stops me from following them. “Get rid of him and join us, okay, Chris?”

“'Sure Caleb, this won’t take long. Let’s go, I can strong arm you over to your car.” He threatens, and resentfully I allow myself to be led away.

INSIDE MERCY’S HOUSE

HALLWAY

DEBS

We wait for Chris to knock on the door and he enters quickly. “Reckon that did it?” I ask.

“He was definitely ruminating about it.” Chris replies and then looks out the window. “He’s still there. Hang on, he’s making a call…” We all crowd around the window, but Carl is pulling out his phone. “Ah...Blake?” Chris questions and Carl nods.

I watch Michael’s face contorting with anger as he speaks to whoever he has dialled. He throws the phone down and then peels out of the drive. We hold our breath as Carl waits for Blake to respond to his question.

“Well?!” Mercy demands.

“That did it. He’s left a message...Nathanial and Celine, or should I say liar 1 and liar 2, because rumour has it you are still alive, so are you?”

MICHAEL’S HOUSE - AN HOUR LATER

KITCHEN

MICHAEL

I am so furious! How could they do that to her?! How could they?! My thoughts are now on unmasking them as the fraudsters that they are, then I can say I had my suspicions all along and that’s why I made the calls. This is the perfect way to get back with Mercy and punish them for taking her away from me.

As I take steadying breaths, I think about Brian and Justin, and smile. I am glad that he was scared and hurt waiting to hear how his toy was. Pouring a nice glass of semillon, I think back to the conversation with Ethan in the cafe…

Start of flashback

LIBERTY AVENUE CAFE - TWO WEEKS PRIOR

MICHAEL

“What do you want?” I glare at Ethan as he stands by my table.

“Just wondering how you were and what you were up to.” He replies, taking an uninvited seat.

“Much better, no thanks to you and Lindsay! You caused so much trouble for me! You know I didn't do that!”

“Well, what else were we supposed to think? You were going to sabotage her work, we just fired you, and…”

“She. She just fired me. You have no managerial capacity - well had.” I sneer and start to gather my things. “Besides, I lost my masterpiece too!”

“Well I wouldn’t have called it that, but yeah, see your point. So what are you doing storming around Liberty Avenue?” I pause in my gathering and frown at him. “I have time on my hands and have been getting to know the place, seen you buzzing around a lot. Anything that I can help you with?”

“Well, unless you can tell me where my errant ex went, then no! And no doubt he is with Brian, his bestie above all others! Shame he doesn’t think the same! The moment he gets a whiff of fresh cock, he’s off!”

“Ooh, who has caught his eye?” He laughs.

“Some rich kid twink called Justin Taylor. He’s ensnared him with his dubious reputation and alleged prowess, but he’s going to make the ultimate sacrifice because he’s convinced him that he’s in love with him!”

“Ultimate sacrifice, what do you mean?” He sits up straighter.

“That slut is going to be doing it raw with him. Raw! He’s going to ruin his life!”

“What? You aren’t serious?!” He looks horrified.

“Yes, disgusting isn’t it. Of all the people to be doing it raw, and with his condition!”

“What condition?!”

“I am not at liberty to say, but I am pretty positive that he shouldn't even consider doing it!”

End of flashback