Dark Paradise | MxM

“Alfie, some guys are looking for you outside,” Walter muttered as he stepped into the café, narrowed eyes pointed at him, “Don’t tell me you’re involved with these people.”

Alfie looked up from his spot at the counter, past Walter and through the transparent glass of the cafe’s door at the three bulky men huddled beside a car, staring straight at him. His eyes widened as he backed up from his spot, shaking his head. “No, I-I’m not, sir.”

Walter looked back at them and then made his way through the space until he stood right across from them. “Well, they seem to know you, so you better get them off my curb before customers start trooping in and asking questions.”

He nodded and watched as Walter headed to the back. Kayla, his second on the shift, turned to him and whispered, “Are you sure it’s safe to step out alone?”

“Yeah, it’s fine; I’m sure they got the wrong person either way.”

She looked at him just like everyone else did. All that was left was for her thoughts to pop out of her head with the words ‘liar’ floating up. “Okay, if you say so, just run away if things escalate.”

“Thanks; I’ll keep that in mind.” He muttered and removed the apron around his neck. He took steady steps as he opened the door, praying to whatever God was in the sky looking down that he made it out alive.

Once he shut the door, the first man in the middle quirked a brow, “Alfie, my boy, we’ve missed you!” He walked forward and wrapped his arms around him, shaking him and ruffling his hands through his hair, “Have you been avoiding us?”

“No, I haven’t—”

“Then where’s the cut for the month?”

Alfie’s heart hammered in his chest as the man drew him closer to the car. “Ivan was being really nice by giving you an extension. Now you’re acting all uppity and ignoring our calls?”

“No, I swear. I was going to submit it tonight after my shift; I got all of it ready.”

The man laughed. It was deep and guttural, raising every hair on Alfie’s skin. “Sure you do. Let’s take a ride to your apartment, and then you can give what you have.”

Every alarm bell rang as Alfie shook his head, but the man’s grip was tight on his shoulders as the others got into the car. He was shoved inside, his body crashing into yet another man’s body. Once the man was in, Alfie was successfully squished between the two of them and opposite from him, sat none other than Ivan Gyve.

Ivan held a hunter’s knife tightly in his grip. The jagged scar running across the side of his lips was twisted in a way that unsettled Alfie. He twirled the knife in his grasp as the car moved, drawing out the silence until Alfie spoke.

“Ivan, please I’m sorry… I-I have the money ready, I won’t miss a deadline again.”

He looked over Alfie’s body with no appraisal or observation, just cold, unrelenting disdain etched into the features of his face. “Grab his hands.”

The two men did as they were told, shoving Alfie’s hands forward until they rested on Ivan’s lap. “Which hand do you use the most?”

“My right.”

Ivan smirked, “You’re a terrible liar, Alfie… I’ll take off the left then.”

Alfie’s eyes stung as he watched the knife glaze over his fingers. In the years since he’d taken a loan from the Tenth Scribes, he had given himself a badge of honour for never getting to the point where he lost a part of himself like his roommate, Jason. He’d watched helplessly as they’d carried Jason that fateful day, only to return him back with one kidney and a part of his liver gone. He didn’t make it through the summer and Alfie hadn’t been able to get a goodnight’s rest when the month neared its end.

“Please, Ivan, I’ll do anything.” Tears slid over his cheeks, blurring his vision but keeping the mock pity plastered on Ivan’s face intact.

“Anything?”

Alfie nodded. If the tears hadn’t come so easily, he could have pouted his lips in the way that Ivan would be weak to, enough to give him an extension in exchange for his body. But he was all wet cheeks and snot. Ivan looked amused mostly, nowhere near swayed.

He reached for Alfie’s face, his large hands squishing his cheeks. “How about we put this pretty face of yours to work, hm? If you come work for the boss on top, you can clear your debt in only a few months, how does that sound?”

His eyes widened at the proposition but coming to work for the Tenth Scribes meant…

“You want me to join your brothel?”

Ivan scoffed, “No, I’m giving you the opportunity to pay off your debt on time and keep your hand…for old times sake.”

He bit his lips, mulling on the proposal. Losing a hand meant months of rehabilitation, medical expenses… more debt. Though crawling back to his parents almost seemed doable, he swallowed down the thought and focused on the facts at hand and said:

“Okay, I’m in, I’ll do it.”

Ivan smiled and patted the side of his cheeks. “Good choice, very smart.” The men erupted in laughter as they pulled him back in place. He pulled out a card from his pocket, and handed it over to him. “Check the location at the back and be there by 8:00 am tomorrow.”

Alfie looked down at the card, feeling the smoothness of it’s texture and reading what was printed on it: ‘Pallieria: Where desire meets bliss’

He looked up from it to find Ivan’s amused smirk and a chill ran down his spine. “Welcome to your new Heaven, Alfie…We expect great things from you.”

Alfie watched his best friend, Nengi, pace the length of his room and back, hands on her hips as she did so. After what felt like hours, she paused and turned to him, eyes lit like a light bulb. “I could ask my dad, he would help, it could be a loan and then he could hire you at his company when you graduate so you can pay it off!”

“So exchanging debtors is your big idea?” He teased.

She frowned, “Well do you have a better idea? Or would rather just walk into that building and sell yourself to some creep for a couple of dollars?”

Alfie rubbed the middle of his forehead and sighed. After the incident the day before, he’d given her the run down and the proposal that was more of a coerced decision. Though she had a 12-hour shift that ended at 6am, she still made it to his apartment in time to help him figure something out.

But it all felt like a dead end.

“I don’t have a choice, It’ll just be for a couple of months. Who knows, I could score a rich sugar daddy who would just pay everything off.”

“Right, cause they’re just littered everywhere.” She deadpanned, finally settling into the couch in his living room. “You know, this might be the time to swallow that pride of yours and reach out to your parents… this is life or death, they may have pushed you away but they wouldn’t want to see you selling yourself like this.”

Alfie shook his head, “No, I’d rather they take my left hand and some organs before contacting those people.”

And he meant it, he was sure Nengi knew it as well. His so-called parents had put him in this position in the first place. He’d gone from trust fund, intelligent kid with so much to offer to a broke, money hungry, student that took more breaks between the session because he could barely afford to cover his tuition. All because of a stupid sex tape that had leaked.

Maybe if it had been with a woman, they’d have sat back and given him a slap on the wrist. But it had been with a man, and that… that was unforgivable.

Then came the Tenth Scribe. A cheesy name for a shady gang, if you asked him, but they’d sent their advertisements wide for offering loans with reasonable interest rates and payment plans and Alfie had licked it up. Being at the crux of rock bottom, he needed the money for his tuition and rent. It seemed easy enough to pay back in time.

Now, here he was.

“It may not turn out that bad,” he muttered, looking down at the hand he almost lost, “It’ll only be for a short period.”

Nengi was silent for a while , sad nonetheless, but she said nothing.

They settled into the uncomfortable silence until his alarm rang, the sinking feeling settling in his gut. “I guess it’s time.”

“Do you need a ride?” Her voice was barely above a whisper. I can drop you off before heading home.”

“Will you also hold my hand to the door? It’d make me all the much better, Mummy.”

She hurled a plush pillow in his direction and missed as they both burst into laughter, “Fuck you, It seems like you want to walk all the way?”

“I could take the bus.”

“Not on my watch—I want to see you get in, and I’ll be there to pick you up, okay?”

“Yes, Mummy.” Alfie felt the collision of the pillow against his chest before his eyes could track it. He held onto the lightness of the feeling, momentarily ignoring the dread that crawled up from the pit of his tummy at his awaited fate.

Sweat slid down the back of Ivan’s thighs as he hovered in front of the boss’s office.

He’d knocked about three times now and had to stop himself from getting impatient. He held the file close to himself and counted to a hundred in his head before knocking again.

This time, the sound of the lock clicked, echoing in the deserted hallway. He took a deep breath and made his way in. The first thing that met his eyes was the nude man knelt across the wooden desk, arms tied behind his back, head to the table, a mouth gag stuffed into his mouth and a furry tail sticking out of his ass. Bruises and bite marks were littered on the man’s skin. Ivan swallowed as he stepped in to find his boss, Nikolai Komarov, sitting across from the man, a remote in his hand.

He inclined his head slightly to meet Ivan’s. “What is it?”

Ivan felt perplexed in his spot, but as his predecessor had warned him, he needed to act as unfazed as possible. “I recruited a new angel for the Pallieria and gathered a file on him for your review. He’s one of our prime loaners.” He walked the distance and stretched the file to him.

Nikolai laid his hard-set eyes on him, and he suddenly felt the weakness in his bladder. “Is he within our specifications?”

“Yes, sir.”

He took the file from Ivan’s grasp, simultaneously pressing a button on the remote and setting it aside. The man on the table groaned and squirmed in his spot, his voice muffled. Ivan swallowed, watching as Nikolai flipped through the file, holding the boy’s picture in his hands and rubbing a thumb over it.

He could have sworn a smirk pulled at his stiff lips. “Interesting, He has the most fascinating eyes, very intriguing.”

“Yes,” Ivan muttered, blocking out the sound of the man’s high-pitched moans. God, he probably should have waited when he knocked the first time.

“Good work,” Nikolai said finally, setting the file aside. “Make sure he’s up to speed and assign him to serve the platinum section tonight—I would like to see your handiwork up close.”

Ivan bowed and practically dashed out of the room, almost feeling sorry for Alfie. Nothing good came of anyone who involved themselves with Nikolai. He was a bomb waiting to be set off, and rarely could anyone diffuse him, especially his lovers.

Ivan suspected that things at the Pallieria were about to get wilder than they already were.

And that, that was unsettling.