Tripp didn't feel bad and it confused him. He had slept with a stranger and didn't freak out. There was no trauma that caused him to scream or cry. All he had was a memory of an utterly unremarkable night in the bed of someone he was sure he would never see again. The sex had even been enjoyable!
All that Tripp could think was that it was weird. Wasn't being raped supposed to fuck him up for future men or women? He hadn't seen a shrink, not that his dad wanted him to see Marlena Evans: that ship sailed the moment her husband John Black sided with his son Paul. But Tripp didn't feel traumatized in the arms of Neil Lundgren like he did whenever Claire touched him. Why had he become so distant to the person who was still his only friend?
Hand on the door to his apartment, Tripp wondered what to expect. The last time he had stayed out overnight without telling anyone where he was, he had been raped by Paul. He just hoped it would be a calm scene.
"You're back!" Claire cried out as soon as she saw Tripp, jumping up from the sofa and embracing him. "I was so worried about you. Your phone was turned off and you were gone all night."
"I'm fine," he answered simply, not elaborating and not returning the hold she had on him. Ciara was sitting in a chair, decidedly not looking at them.
"This isn't okay, Tripp. You have to tell me where you are if you're going to stay out all night. I was worried sick!" Claire looked up at his face but didn't let him go.
A feeling Tripp couldn't place curled up in his stomach before stretching out into his arms and chest. "I actually don't have to tell you anything."
Shocked, Claire let go of Tripp and stepped back, her eyes locked onto his intensely. "What are you talking about? Of course you do! I care about you, Tripp, and it's not safe for you right now."
With a groan, Tripp shook his head. "I'm not your boyfriend, Claire. And I'm okay. I'm more than what was done to me. I can handle myself."
The feeling in his chest had reached his neck and was flowing into Tripp's cheeks. He finally recognized it. It was anger. He was mad at Claire because she was treating him like a possession that had been stolen from her. It was weird because for so long he had been hers and she hadn't been his. Tripp was finally over it.
Ciara was now definitely paying attention to them. A smirk played at but didn't overtake her lips. Tripp couldn't be bothered to care.
"I'm just worried about you, Tripp," Claire said softly, her eyes dropping to the floor. "You're my friend."
"And that's all we'll ever be," he told her before going to his room and shutting the door. He turned his phone on and saw the text messages and missed calls from Claire. He also saw them from his father.
DOOL
"Hello, my darling Will," Sonny said as he touched his husband's cheek with the back of his fingers. The other man was catatonic: Will's eyes just stared off into space. "How is he doing, Doctor?"
Wilhelm Rolf cleared his throat and began to tighten the strap securing Will's head in place. "He's stubborn. He isn't where I want him to be, but there has been progress."
Sonny dropped his hand from Will's face. He grabbed Will's hand and held it gingerly. "What kind of progress? Does he love me, yet? Only me?"
"We're getting there. But I have almost broken his attachment to that Paul Narita character. Nasty business with that one from what I hear." Rolf began attaching the probes to Will's temples without missing a beat. "Making him despise his mother was rather easy: he already didn't like her."
"Nobody does," Sonny agreed. He squeezed Will's hand before releasing it. "But you're going to get him to love me again, right? I already know he does, but he's just forgotten it. He needs reminding is all."
"It's not a simple process," Rolf told Sonny before shooing him away from Will. "It will be done, but it cannot be rushed."
"It should be, with what I'm paying you." Sonny stood up and appraised his husband. He reached down and tightened one of the straps Rolf had done on Will's wrists.
Rolf told Sonny to stand back. The screen Will was seated before burst to life with images of Will and Sonny's wedding. A syringe with an unknown cocktail was inserted into Will's neck. Sonny's husband didn't react as Rolf pushed down on the plunger and he didn't react as a bandage was placed over the injection sight.
The replay of the wedding ended and a picture of Paul flashed on the screen. A switch was thrown and electricity tore through Will's brain and body. Will screamed despite his previous unaware state. The picture of Paul faded away to a picture of Sonny and the electricity stopped.
Satisfied with what he was seeing, Sonny excused himself and left Will in Rolf's expert care. As the door closed behind him, Sonny called Theresa. She answered on the third ring.
"What is it, Boss?"
"What is Sami up to? I need to know all of her movements. That woman can't be trusted, Theresa. And you can't be seen."
Sighing, Theresa told him that she knew how to stay incognito. "Nobody saw me following your loverboy around."
"He is my husband and you will respect him," Sonny warned. "Now, tell me about Sami."
DOOL
Ava scrolled through the Titan financial records Sonny Kiriakis could access: there was a surprising amount of confidential information at her fingertips.
"Do you see this?" she asked Theresa. Her compatriot stopped prepping to leave and joined her boss. "This is Sonny Kiriakis' discretionary fund. There have been quite a few big withdrawals the last few weeks. Do you know what that's about?"
"Not a clue," Theresa confessed. The younger woman pointed a finger at the screen and trailed a few of the transactions. "The dates on these are curious, though."
"Why do you say that?" Ava wondered, looking away from the screen and to Theresa's face. The light from the laptop screen illuminated her widening eyes. "What is it, Theresa?"
"You remember how I told you Sonny had me kidnap our mutual cousin Ciara? He was blackmailing her, clearly getting her to testify to get his husband locked up, but I didn't know what he had on her. Some of these withdrawals are from that time."
"Would this Ciara know what he's doing with the money? If we can find out what he has on her, we can use it to turn her into our mole in his operation. There's more to what's going on with his husband than psychosis if Sonny's blackmailing his cousin into testifying against him in court. I know this Will Horton character attacked my Tripp and he'll get what's coming to him, but while he's in the care of a mental institution I can't get to him. Not directly."
"And he's busy having me trail his mother-in-law Sami," Theresa added pointlessly. "I haven't had a face-to-face with Sonny since I brought him Ciara. It's all been over the phone. He's got to be hiding something big if he isn't cluing in his shady off the books assistant."
Nodding, Ava bit her thumbnail. Theresa was going to tail Sami Brady to keep Sonny from getting suspicious, which meant Ava was going to have to have a talk with Ciara Brady by herself.
DOOL
It was not Ciara's day. For the second time in a month, she was being held captive with a bag over her head. Salem was really playing into its cliches. If it was Sonny again she was going to have to play her trump card way too early.
All she had wanted was to enjoy a nice walk after the beautiful sight of Tripp grinding Claire's heart into the carpet.
"I told you that I was coming for you." The bag was ripped off of Ciara's head and she saw her cousin Sami. There were tall and muscular men on either side of her and a third standing off to Ciara's side. Testing her restraints, Ciara noticed she was ziptied to a chair at the wrists and ankles.
"You're as psychotic as your son," Ciara challenged, too annoyed to be frightened. "I see where he gets it from."
Smiling, Sami leaned into Ciara's face and grabbed her hair, painfully twisting it so that Ciara bent her head for even the slightest bit of relief. "You aren't clever, little girl. If you were I never would've been able to lay a finger on you. Instead, here we are with you at my mercy and my patience running thin. It would be wise for you to just be good and answer my questions."
Grinding her teeth, Ciara said nothing.
Sami released her and walked to one of her goons, who handed her a long black cylindrical device. Returning to Ciara, Sami put one end of it under the younger woman's chin and used it to race her face.
"I'm going to give you one chance to tell me why you lied in court about Will attacking you."
"I didn't lie," Ciara claimed defiantly. Sami presses a button on the side of the device and a wave of pain and nausea leapt through Ciara's body from where the device touched her. Sami let off the button and the pain stopped, but it was still a struggle for Ciara to breathe.
"This is a caddle prod, you stupid bitch," Sami pressed the button again which caused Ciara to scream, "and if you don't start giving me actual answers you're going to get acquainted with this one in places you really don't want."
It took a few minutes for Ciara to shake away the black spots clouding her vision and her breathing to return to something resembling normal. Sonny may have been dangerous, but Sami was a much more pressing issue.
"What do you want from me?" Ciara gasped. Sami nodded to another goon, who brought her a chair so she could sit opposite her tortured cousin.
Smirking, Sami held the cattle prod up where Ciara wouldn't be able to miss it. "I believe I asked you why you lied in court. You and I both know Will didn't lay a hand on you or Tripp Dalton."
Shaking her head, Ciara looked into Sami's eyes. "You're wrong. He did attack Tripp, Sami. A lot of people saw it."
"Wrong answer." Sami pressed the end of the cattle prod into Ciara's stomach and pressed down on the button for a third time. Ciara and screamed and attempted to double over from the pain but her restraints didn't allow it. "Now tell me the truth you lying little slut."
Panting, Ciara decided it was best to give in. "Okay. Okay. Sonny made me testify against Will and Will didn't push me down the stairs. I made it look like he did because that's what Sonny wanted! I swear to you, that's what happened. Sonny did all of it. Everything!"
Sami snapped her fingers. "I knew it. But why? Why would Sonny want to lock Will up?"
"Because he wanted to keep Will to himself," Ciara answered, choosing her words carefully. "Will wants Paul Narita, even after Paul was accused of raping Tripp. Sonny thinks that if he can get the right doctor, he can make Will fall for him again."
"Why would Tripp go along with this? What does he get out of lying in court? What do you get?"
"Sonny threatened me, but Tripp told the truth." Ciara's eyes went wide as Sami began to press the button again. "No! NO! It's true, Sami. Will said that Tripp was lying about Paul raping him and they got into a fight. I swear. That's the truth. Sonny convinced Tripp that it was better for Will to go into treatment than to press charges. Tripp doesn't know what Sonny is doing."
Sami pressed the button anyway. Ciara threw her head back and tears poured out her eyes and she howled in pain. She didn't know how much more she could take. Every nerve ending in her body felt as if it were being held to a flame.
"Tripp knows nothing, but you know all of this. Why?" Sami asked after she relented on Ciara's punishment. "What does Sonny have on you? What could possibly make you frame your own family, your own COUSIN, for throwing you down a flight of stairs? It doesn't make any sense."
"Because he knows what I did." Ciara gasped, searching for anything to say that wasn't the truth. If Sami found out, everyone would know and her life would be left in ruins. Ciara would be in prison and that hateful bitch Claire would be free to walk around like a peacock with Down Syndrome. It wasn't right and it wasn't fair. "Sonny knows that I'm the one who bought the knockout drug for Paul. It's what he used on Tripp before he raped him."
It wasn't perfect, but it was believable.
"How do you know Paul? How did you know how to get a date rape drug?"
"What can I say? I learned a lot about rape after it happened to me, Sami. I didn't want to do it, but with the kinda cash Paul offered me I couldn't turn him down. It's easy to get with a few greased palms."
"You disgust me, you little monster." Sami jammed the cattle prod between Ciara's legs and pressed the button as hard as she could.
DOOL
Paul was paranoid. His door had been repaired and strengthened with mutiple deadbolts and even a child safety chain, but he still didn't feel safe. Nowhere was safe as long as Ava Vitali was out there gunning for him.
His father had hired security to keep Paul from being attacked, but it didn't change the face that Paul could still see the bullethole in his wall. It was a constant reminder that his home had very nearly become his grave. The thought of Ava and her gun haunted Paul just as much as Tripp's sickened face in his bed.
Brady had meant well, but the Kiriakis mansion was never going to work out and Paul thought himself an idiot for believing it could possibly work. Sonny lived there and he hated Paul intensely. How had they ever been on the verge of marriage if that's how Sonny would treat him?
Wiping his hands on his sweatpants, Paul paced the floor of his living room. There had to be some sort of explanation for everything. None of it made sense to him. He even heard that Will had been admitted to a mental ward by the courts at Sonny's request. If Sonny was willing to do that to someone he loved, what would he do to Paul?
Stopping to stretch, Paul walked into his kitchenette and opened the fridge. He pulled out a carton of almond milk and then searched his cabinets for cereal. Stress eating carbs wouldn't make his life somehow better but it would distract him momentarily from how dire everything had become.
He poured the cereal into the bowl and added the almond milk, then picked up his bowl and walked to the window. There was paparazzi camped outside his apartment complex: people were waiting for a glimpse of the disgraced former athlete. Among them was likely someone waiting to kill him. Some operative of Ava's. Paul was trapped in his apartment which had already proven to be a cage once.
How had one date that never happened led to all of this?
