“I don’t have a last boyfriend,” Miki snorted. “Fuck, I’ve never had a first boyfriend. Kind of the only sex I’ve had was… them. Everything else was pretty much blowjobs in a back room someplace.”
“Thought you were supposed to have rock star sex,” he teased, lightly brushing Miki’s cheek with the back of his hand. “Isn’t that what bands are supposed to do?”
“Hah!” Miki mockingly pursed his lips. “Maybe if you’re Damien or Johnny. They’re whores. We had a no sex on the bus rule. The carpet was getting disgusting.”
“How long did you stay? With Vega?” Kane brought Miki back to his nightmares, gently circling him back around.
He dropped his eyes, staring at the stretch of skin and sinew on Kane’s neck. It was a safe place to look. There was a small dark beauty spot where his throat and shoulder met, and Miki studied it intently, hoping to keep the horrors at bay.
Carl’s touch still crawled under skin, and Shing’s viscous spit clung to the back of his neck. Nothing Miki did could erase the feel of their hands on him, digging deep into him until he’d felt like he’d burst apart. Kane’s weight on him felt different. The cop didn’t suffocate him. As massive as Kane was, he fit against Miki, filling in the spaces where Mike felt the most empty.
“I was… in school when CPS picked me up to take me over to Carl’s. I don’t know what happened at the other house… the family I was living with. They were… okay, I guess. The guy was an asshole, but the woman was all right. I can’t remember their names. Funny, huh? I lived with them for a year, and I don’t remember them.” Miki rested his head against Kane’s arm, burrowing into the man’s side. “The first few weeks were okay. He wasn’t home a lot, and Mrs. Vega was kind of spacey. They didn’t have any kids, just me. But then he started coming into my room, and… stuff changed.”
Kane didn’t say anything but moved his arm over Miki’s body, draping it over his stomach. Miki clutched at Kane’s forearm, playing with the soft hair crinkling his skin.
“I tried telling the CPS lady when she came over. He’d told me not to, you know. They always do,” Miki murmured thoughtfully. “I mean, Carl wasn’t the first time that kind of shit was done to me, but usually it was quick, and then I’d be kicked out of the house. He was different. He’d stay. Like for a really long time, and his wife, it was like she didn’t care he did it, or maybe she was happy about it. I don’t know. She wouldn’t talk to me when he was home. She’d make me dinner and stuff, but it was like I wasn’t there. Like she was setting food out for a ghost or something.”
“Did he hit her?” Kane asked quietly. “Was she scared of him?”
“She was scared of everything.” Miki’s laugh was bitter. “She’d have dinner ready, then go to her room to eat. I never saw her. Only time I ate at the table was when he was home. Then she’d put everything out like it was Thanksgiving dinner, tablecloth and all. Rest of the time, I ate in the living room.”
“What did the CPS rep say when you told her?”
“That he was touching me?” Miki snorted. “That I was making shit up because I was someplace I had to follow the rules. She told Carl what I said, right in front of me like she was going to prove I was a liar. He acted all concerned and made these noises like he was going to help me, but I could see he was going to beat the shit out of me as soon as she left. He has these small little black eyes, and they’d get all evil looking when he was planning something. So when he went out with her to her car, I grabbed some stuff and bailed out the back. I think Mrs. Vega saw me because I heard him yelling for me about a minute later, but I was already over the fence.”
“Where were you going to go?”
“No idea. Didn’t matter. I’d jumped the fence, but the neighbor heard Carl yelling and grabbed me. I didn’t even get to the street.” Miki swallowed, leaning his head back to breathe through his mouth. The cold air calmed him, nearly as much as the heat coming off of Kane as it seeped into his skin to warm his belly. “He had to work that night. That’s when he dragged me over to Shing’s. To the restaurant. I never went to his house.”
“To that storage room. Above the kitchen?” Kane asked and Miki nodded.
“When I got older, he’d make me work in the kitchen, but after the place closed, he took me up there.” Miki licked his mouth. “Carl… he was always angry. He’d hit when he did… that. With his fists or his belt. He was always pissed off, and he’d say shit like I was making him do this to me. That it was my fault.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Miki,” Kane reassured him. He spread his fingers over Miki’s chest, pressing against the spot where Miki’s heart was threatening to pound its way out to freedom. “You were a kid.”