Chapter 9

FBI Field Office
San Francisco, CA

Morgan

Joseph 'Joey' Bauer looked a lot younger than 21 to Morgan's eyes. "You sure this is a genuine ID?" He asked, even though he was sure it was.

Joey blushed and took a few more years off. "Yeah. I don't know if I got lucky in the looks department or not, but yeah, I'm legal. So how do you do this anyway?"

"Why don't we start with where you're from originally, and what you do?"

"I was born in Lee's Pass. I grew up in Madrone County. As far as I know my folks still live out there. These days I...well, I was going to be a freshman at San Francisco State, but we're moving to DC."

"That bother you?"

"Nah." That was honest. "I don't mind another semester before I have to buckle down."

"As far as you know your folks still live out there?"

That took some of the bounce off the kid. "Yeah. They kicked me out when I came out at fifteen. I haven't spoken to them since. I tried a couple of times but they say they don't have a son."

"Ouch." That was rough, but it wasn't an uncommon story. "Where did you go after that?" Morgan asked.

"I couch surfed for a while. To the end of the school year. My junior year. That summer I kind of lived around."

"You were homeless."

"Yeah."

"Did you do anything for a living?"

"Yeah, hustling." Joey swallowed. "That's where he found me."

"Prostitution?" Morgan asked to clarify. Joey nodded. Morgan wouldn't shame him for it, fifteen and on the streets is tough. "He busted you? How old were you then?"

"Sixteen. I thought he did. But he didn't take me to jail, he took me out to his hunting lodge instead."

"And what did he do there?"

Over the next hour Morgan regretted asking that question. Joey calmly described two years of rape, torture and brainwashing to make him into the perfect sex slave. Morgan took lots of notes and tried not to think about it too hard. "So how did you get out of there?"

"He decided I was good enough to take out in public. Once I turned eighteen he decided to start showing me off in the local community. The first munch wasn't so bad."

"Munch?"

"Yeah. It's a social gathering over dinner, no sex or nudity or anything. It's a way for newbies to be vetted before they're let in. We met in the backroom of this Chinese place in Johnsford."

Johnsford. County seat in Manzanita County, next door to the Sheriff's county. "Likely so he wouldn't be recognized by any locals."

"Yeah. No one really talked to me at the munch. He kept getting in the way. The next week he brought me to the community dungeon for a play party."

"What happened there?" What followed was another fifteen minutes of Morgan not thinking too hard. "And no one in the community said anything?"

"That's just it, they all did. The other Doms got between us and some of the female Dommes pulled me aside and started asking me about safewords and stuff, where I lived, about school. I didn't have good answers, so they knew something wasn't right. Then they asked how old I was and how long I'd been with the Sheriff. That was when it really hit the fan."

"All right." So the community stepped in when they thought something was hinky to protect a vulnerable member. He'd have to ask Rossi if that was a common thing or not. "So what happened?"

"They kicked him out on his ear. Threatened to report him for rape and assault and that I had been a kid and everything. He couldn't stand up to all of them so he left me there and took off." Joey chuckled. "Some of those Doms and some of the male subs are pretty big guys, you know. They were in the parking lot for a while."

"Right." Sounded like Sheriff Blackburn got a beating to go along with losing his perfect slave that night. "So then what happened?"

"At first no one knew what to do with me, but then Tomás and Alice said I could come stay at the inn with them, free of charge. So I went down to Lakeview with them."

"And what did they make you do?" This was the part that held personal concern for Morgan. Spencer was getting in close with these people after all.

"Nothing at first. I had my own room and bathroom, I could watch anything I wanted, they had tons of books, all they asked was that I not leave the property without them for a while. Which I wasn't going to, I was better trained than that. But it was, like, nothing for a long time. I knew they were going to want me to do...things, you know. And I never had with a woman before so I was kind of freaking out about it. The waiting, you know, it was killing me."

"So what happened?"

"Finally I blew up at Tomás. I begged him just to get it over with all ready, I couldn't wait anymore. He told me he wasn't going to just take me, that I had to earn it now. And, you know, you get used to that much sex..."

"Yeah." Hydraulic pressure could be a thing, especially in younger men. Morgan remembered eighteen, a different honey every night... "So what did you have to do to earn it?"

"Get checked out by a doctor and dentist. Start seeing a shrink. Eat my vegetables. Start working out. Go back to school for my GED. Do some chores around the inn, which I found out later he was paying me for..." Morgan started chuckling, which set Joey to grinning. "Yeah. If he had told me I was too broken for sex I would have fought him every step because I thought I was fine. But he challenged me instead, so I started working on getting healthy just to prove how good I could be."

"Did you?"

"Yeah, finally. About a year ago I figured out what they were doing, so I got my life together. I found a job offer, a room I could rent, pulled together a grant package for school. I got to where I could be independent if I had to be, I didn't need them anymore. Then went to him and asked him if I was good enough yet, because even though I didn't need him I was killer horny and after watching how they ran the house and all I had totally fallen for them hard. He finally agreed that if I was healthy enough to be on my own I was healthy enough to play. I've been theirs ever since."

A year ago. "So you lived with them for two years and they never touched you?"

"Nope. Granted Alice travels a lot, but Tomás was always there. Neither of them ever laid a finger on me. Not until I was healthy and ready to ask them to." Joey smiled. "Going back to the public dungeon again after that was a total blast. I had the most amazing time."

"So what happened with the Sheriff?"

"About six months ago I'm walking home when the Sheriff's truck pulls up to me. He gets out and starts trying to sweet talk me, saying I could 'come home' again, I wouldn't have to live on the street anymore, that kind of thing." Joey chuckled without humor. "I had been volunteering at a service center for street kids, I was dressed down for the day. I told him I belong to a House now, I have a family who loves me, my life is fantastic and he can go to hell. He tried to grab me so I took off running." Joey got quiet again. "That night Alice and Tomás put the inn on the market. That sucked, you know. I loved that place. I mean the place here is nice and all, and the city is amazing, but still."

"Yeah, having to move like that can be hard. Is that when you and Tomás left?"

"No. A couple of weeks later two guys tried to grab me off the street again. I recognized one as one of the deputies from Lee's Pass, a...john I'd been with a couple of times. Only this time it was only a block and a half from the inn. I ran home and told Tomás and he and Alice decided that I needed to get out of there. That night Tomás and I caught a flight down here. Alice stayed behind to look after the last few guests and stuff before the inn transferred over."

"But she never came back?"

"No. One morning the day shift manager from the restaurant called, said she wasn't there like she usually was. Alice is, like, the queen of self-discipline. She always met the day shift manager on the way in, while she was heading to the Y to work out, every day. But Alice wasn't there and she wasn't scheduled to be away for work. We knew something had happened. We tried filing a missing persons report, Tomás talked to her lawyers, they contacted her family, but she was just gone and there was no sign that anything bad had happened. Until a few days ago when she walked in the front door of the inn." Joey shrugged. "And now here we are."