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“Your phone is ringing,” Ray groaned, straddling Seong’s waist. “Do you need to answer it?”
“No, it wouldn’t be vibrating if I needed to answer,” Seong told him, biting his lip as Ray’s hips rolled. “I’ll call them back later.”
* * *
“Dammit,” Thomas growled as the call went to voicemail, rubbing at his neck as he paced the room. He couldn’t tell Seong about Peacock in a voicemail, not when he wasn’t sure if it actually was the same man. Two hackers that both call themselves Peacock? It was possible. But improbable. And if Seong was alone-
“Hey, Seong,” he said when the message beeped. “Uh- It’s Thomas. Call me back. It’s important. Bye.”
“What is going on, Thomas,” Danny asked him, frustration in his voice. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching Thomas pace the room. “Why did you call Seong? Shouldn’t you have called Marcus or Sean?”
“Because if I’m right then Seong knows who that man is who grabbed me,” Thomas said, still unable to stop moving as he continued to move around the room. It had taken them an hour to get back to the room, but Thomas could still feel the pressure of those fingers wrapped around him, the anticipation of being punished looming over him.
“Babe,” Danny said, raising his voice as he reached out for Thomas. “What is it? This isn’t just about a random creep.”
Thomas stopped, looking down at his hands. He and Snake had played the Game for weeks against each other when Seong had heard where they would be going on vacation. There was organized crime on the island, like there was in most places, and there were reports of cyber attacks on tourists. Seong couldn’t be sure how they were doing it without potentially digging into someone’s business, something that would reflect poorly on the Family if it was the local powers doing it. They had played and practiced so that if Thomas was targeted, he could protect his information. But it would also shine a spotlight on him. It had shined a spotlight on him.
“Thomas,” Danny pleaded, his fingers slipping into Thomas’s hand. “Please. Please talk to me.”
Thomas looked up at him, moving closer so he stood directly in front of Danny’s knees. “What… What do you know about my time with the Clovers? Did Sean ever tell you about any of it?”
Danny shook his head, frowning at him. “Nothing really,” he said. “He— after everything with my birthday, he told me I should have paid more attention to you. He said if there was anyone who could pick up on what was going on it was you and I should pay attention when you start saying things are bad ideas. That someone taught you too much.”
Thomas nodded slowly. “Too much,” he murmured. “Taught me too much. I’ve seen too much. I-” He paused, swallowing again. “They taught me all kinds of things. About the business, about other people’s business, about the Three Rings, about others outside of the Three Rings.” His hand tightened on Danny’s. “The man at the heart of it all, the Warlord— he had a way of making you feel like you owed him for it all. Even though I never asked for any of it, I owed him for teaching me all of those things. The man at the restaurant is something similar to Seong but with computers instead of Clovers.”
Danny’s hand twitched in surprise. “How do you know-”
“One of the made men in there called him by name,” Thomas interrupted. “Seong told me his story once. He told me how he became a hacker and the things that bastard did to him. It’s the same person. I know it is.”
Danny looked down, sighing slowly. “Okay,” he said softly. “So… what do we do?”
Thomas frowned. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “We should stay together, stay off any WiFi connections that aren’t the hotel. Do everything we can to not draw attention to ourselves.” He twisted his hand out of Danny’s grip. “There- there’s something else I need to tell you about- something I’ve been wanting to tell you but- it was never the right time.”
Looking up at him, Danny looked worried, perhaps even scared.
Thomas touched his face, trying to smile but his hands were shaking. He tried to say something, to prepare Danny for what he was going to see, but his throat wouldn’t unstick. He couldn’t find the words. Instead, he dropped his hands again and, in one motion, pulled his hoodie off.
Danny was still staring up at him, the fear now twisting into confusion as Thomas let the top drop to the floor. Slowly, his eyes drew down, along Thomas’s chest then- “Thomas,” he breathed, his hands taking both of Thomas’s to pull his arms forward, staring at the scars going from wrists to elbow. “What- How- D-did you-”
“No,” Thomas said quietly, already wanting the sleeves back on. “They- they’re punishments. For when I didn’t learn things fast enough.”
Danny looked up then down then back up again, the confusion turning to realization. “The Clovers did this?”
“Finnegan was a strong believer of pain being a good way to remember things,” Thomas said, not able to keep looking at Danny. His thumb found the last scar he was given, the thin knife cut that Jake had bandaged, that the doctors had said wouldn’t be worth stitching. “I- I thought for a long time that I deserved them. Because I was too stupid to remember things.”
“You aren’t stupid,” Danny whispered, bringing Thomas’s arms closer and pressing his lips against the scar. “You are the smartest person I know.” He kissed another scar. “The men who did this-”
“They’re dead,” he said, shivering. “All of them had been in the pub and no one with a Clover survived.”
“Good,” he said in easily the most bloodthirsty tone Thomas had ever heard out of him, which was to say it was as menacing as a puppy. He looked up at Thomas with bright blue eyes. “You want to desecrate some graves when we get back home?”
Thomas laughed at him. “I don’t think any of them have gravestones,” he said, leaning forward to kiss Danny’s forehead, “but I appreciate the thought.” He looked down at his arms, his stomach twisting. “When Peacock grabbed me… It was like being back in the pub. It felt like I had messed up and he was going to cut or burn me. I-I couldn’t move.”
“I- No one is going to touch you again, Thomas,” Danny promised, looking up at him with wide eyes. “No one is going to do that to you again. I won’t let them.”
A smile lifted Thomas’s lips, easing in closer to Danny. He wanted to believe Danny, or maybe that he did believe that Danny thought he could but— Danny was a baseball player. He didn’t have that- whatever it was that allowed the men who worked for the Three Rings to do their job.
You have a knack for this life, Seong had told Thomas back in Seong’s apartment. He had told Thomas that he could be a made man, he could be something similar to Snake. Seong had said something similar after he had taught Thomas how to keep people out of his tech.
