Those we Love (Ryan, Flynn, Swan and Rose)

“What exactly are you asking me to do?” Swan wanted to be sure. “You know I’m your man, I’ll do whatever you call on me to do. I just want to be clear so I know how far I can go to ensure you achieve your goal.”
“Don’t kill him,” Flynn said emphatically, “and don’t maim him too bad. When he’s straight and tough I don’t mind him having a few scars, girls like scars, but I want to be able to show people my son and feel proud of him, as he takes over from me in my old age’n that. You know? That clear enough?” He looked at his glass both relieved and a little sad it was empty again.
“Is he as stubborn as you? Might take more than one beating.” Swan mused, ignoring Flynn’s glass and drinking his own. “How far are you willing to go? How much will you subject him to?”
“Maybe just talk to him. You seem to be able to talk about all that gay stuff without just getting mad, which is a talent I respect. Take him back to the brothel and make sure he actually has sex with a girl, so he knows how good it is and what he’s missing out on? And you can beat him too, of course, just to make sure he gets it.”
“How about, you give him to me for a few days, and one of the girls. Maybe Rose, since she enjoys my company and won’t mind being with Ryan, she said. I’ll show him what he’s missing out on, beat him to get the point home, and make sure he gets laid? Saves money. Especially if you’ve run up expenses at the brothel.”
Flynn had intended to keep Rose away from Swan for a long time, perhaps forever. She’d been acting so strangely ever since spending time with him and Flynn wanted her to focus on her training and work, not mooning about the place as she was like a lovesick puppy. She probably thought she was being subtle about her feelings but Flynn was quite astute about some things, as long as it wasn’t one of his blind spots that were filled with hate or his own insecurities. “I like the idea,” he conceded, “but Rose? I don’t think she’d be good for the boy. Or very happy about it herself. Not that I care about her feelings, or anything, but she is a good girl, loyal and obedient, and I don’t want to make her feel all her hard work is meaningless.”
“I’d been meaning to talk to you about her,” Swan admitted, sounding almost apologetic. “The other day I had some business to deal with, so I took her along before I brought her home. The girl’s a natural. Took a real shine to it, seemed to really enjoy it too. Like a little kneebreaker. I was thinking about maybe taking her on like an apprentice, training her up for you.”
Flynn’s head swam with the effort of trying to focus, “Lemme talk to her, see what she says. Otherwise it’s a good idea. Don’t let her gut him, will you?” He tried to imagine Rose being a boy’s first intimate experience and was a little intimidated by the idea.
“I think I can control the situation.” Swan assured him, smirking into the last of his whiskey, “It’ll make a man out of him though.”
Flynn slumped against the couch, utterly exhausted all of a sudden, “Thanks. You’re the best second anyone could have, you know that?”
“I do,” Swan agreed easily. “And you’re welcome. I’ll sort your brat out without having to kill him.” Personally he thought things would just be easier if Flynn did kill Ryan in a fit of rage, but since that seemed unlikely, Swan might as well have a little fun.
Flynn launched to his feet suddenly, running for the bathroom. He didn’t make it and threw up into Swan’s carpet and across the floorboards.

Flynn sighed. He had his own agenda today and wasn’t wanting to get derailed dealing with this bullshit. On the other hand, he couldn’t allow the children to think it was OK to lie to him, even on trivial matters. He slapped her hard across the face, leaving a mark so deep red that each of his fingers could be seen perfectly on her pale cheek. “Don’t lie to me.” He waited until she was standing upright again to slap her again, backhanded this time, and the blow dropped her to the floor.
Ryan stepped forward, looking horrified, “Sir!”
“Ah yes, you lied too,” Flynn said, finding it convenient that Ryan had stepped up just as it was his turn. He gave Ryan the same treatment, more venom in his blows than when he struck Rose. He ended his assault with a boot to Ryan’s backside that re-opened some of the wounds still healing there.
Rose was back on her feet and watching Ryan and Flynn with morbid fascination, one hand pressed to her sore cheek.
“Come with me, Rose.” Flynn beckoned her to follow him as he stepped over Ryan’s prone body, giving him another painful nudge as he passed by. Ryan whimpered and tried to curl away, feeling too sore to do any more than that.
Flynn strode to his small office and sat on his imposing chair, watching Rose with a serious expression, “I had hoped you would show Ryan the way to behave properly, not get caught up in his misbehaviour.” His head still ached from the night before, and his knuckles had started throbbing from having to punish Rose and Ryan and reopening the scabs on them.
Rose bit her upper lip nervously. She hated being in trouble with Flynn and felt like he could see straight through her. She reminded herself that she hadn’t broken any rules, other than lying of course. She nodded contritely, knowing how much he hated apologies and other groveling behaviours.
Flynn nodded dismissively and moved on to the business at hand, “Mister Swan mentioned that you showed skill and interest in his line of work. Is that the case?”

“If you and Mr Swan think it best that I do it, I’m up for it.” Her voice shook with the strain of trying to control her excitement, but he took it for fear.
“I’m taking Ryan over there tonight, so you can send him to me and then we’ll go.”
She nodded and hurried off to find Ryan. He was washing his face in a tub of icy water and looked pretty on edge.
“Go talk to Flynn right away,” she barked, pointing her thumb back over her shoulder to indicate where he’d find Flynn.
“Is he gonna hit me? Again?”
“Maybe, don’t think so. Try not to mouth off and don’t keep him waiting. Git!” she moved lazily to slap him on the ass to hurry him but he scooted out of the way and went to find Flynn.
“You wanted to see me, Sir?” he was careful to stay out of arms reach.
“Mmm, I did.” Flynn looked up at his son, his eyes full of anger and disappointment. “Anything to say for yourself? Any lies or other misbehaviour you want to confess to?”
Wondering what Rose might have told him, Ryan shook his head hesitantly, “I’m sorry I made you so angry.” It seemed like a safe thing to say.
Flynn growled at the ‘s’ word Ryan seemed to use constantly. Saying ‘sorry’ was a sign of weakness to Flynn. The only worse word was ‘please’ or ‘I beg you’. “I went to the brothel by the river last night. Spoke with the young one with the stupid name.”
Ryan blushed and winced, “Sugarpie?”
“Mmmm,” Flynn drew out the sound. “That’s the one. You sure there’s nothing you want to confess to?”
He couldn’t think of why Heather would have betrayed him to Flynn. She’d seemed so scared of being found out. An awful idea occurred to him, “You didn’t hurt her, did you?” he asked worriedly.
“Whores don’t feel pain like the rest of us,” Flynn said dismissively.
“What?” Ryan gaped at such an obviously incorrect statement.
“As in, yes, I hurt her,” Flynn said shamelessly, “but a normal woman would probably have died. She’ll be fine, I’m sure; high pain tolerance and toughness comes with the job.”
“Whores have the same pain tolerance as anyone else,” Ryan answered indignantly. He bit his tongue immediately, but Flynn always seemed to make him forget his vows to mind his tongue.
“Spoken by someone who is considering becoming one,” Flynn snorted derisively. “Watch your tone and don’t answer back, boy. Do you have something about Sugar you wish to tell me? If you do not, your punishment will be doubled. I will see to that.”
Ryan glared at the ground, rather than at Flynn, his glower dark, “Why you need me to say anythin’, if she already did?”
Flynn thumped the desk so hard that everything on it shook and rattled. “Because,” he roared, “I thought you might have some explanation as to why you threw my money away and lied to me!”
“Because you didn’t listen when I said no!” Ryan yelled back, raging against the whole unfair situation.


Flynn struggled not to wring the boy’s neck and wished he’d had Swan be present for this whole thing to keep him from behaving rashly. “You are SO UNBELIEVABLY IMPOSSIBLE! This is what you get, being raised by a filthy no good whore!”
“DON’T YOU SAY ANYTHIN’ AGAINST MY MOTHER.” Ryan screamed, drowning out Flynn’s final words. He squeezed his hands tight into fists and tried to calm his breathing.
Flynn took the balled fists as a sign of aggression and became even angrier at his son’s disobedience and flagrant disregard of his authority. He lost what remnants of control he had, flying into a furious rage. He slid over the desk, launching himself at Ryan, but the boy flinched back, glad he’d stayed out of reach.
As Flynn kept coming, Ryan let out a little scream of terror, turned on his heel and ran as fast as he could, ignoring the burning complaints from his still healing, battered body.
Flynn barely noticed his own pounding head as he ran, his hangover and high levels of alcohol still in his system making him slower and more sluggish than usual.
Ryan was fast on his feet, but crashed into the warehouse door as he tugged on it and found it locked. He could hear Flynn only a few paces behind him, and he turned and sprinted off, circling the room and attempting to keep out of reach of Flynn until he found somewhere to hide. One of the rafters had broken, years before, but it had been too heavy to remove. One end was still attached to the ceiling, but the other, the jagged broken edge, had bitten several inches into the ground when it had hit. Ryan ran up it like a ramp, on his hands and feet, terror making him ignore the narrowness of his perch, or the height.

As soon as Flynn could no longer be heard in the building, Rose snapped her head to the ceiling, screaming at Ryan, “You dumb shit! What did I say to do?” Without waiting for a reply she answered her own question, “I said not to talk back, and watch your stupid mouth!”
“He was gonna yell at me anyway,” Ryan protested angrily. “What was I supposed to do?”
“Shut the hell up, for a start!” She strolled up the same beam that Ryan had used, not even needing her hands. She continued yelling as she walked up, casual in her practiced movements, “You screamed at him, at FLYNN! Are you INSANE?!”

“Apparently I ain’t ready to just let him say whatever he wants, an’ take it like I’m his bitch,” Ryan bristled.
She stared at him, “Of course you’re his bitch. You think he’s yours?” She laughed cruelly at the idea.
“Course not,” he eyed her worriedly and edged away along his rafter.
She stepped onto his beam with the grace of an acrobat in a circus. “That makes no sense, one of you is the bitch, the other is in charge. Which are you?”
“Neither of us are. That’s stupid.”
She walked right up to him, easily outpacing his cautious movements. She leaned over him, shaking her head, “You live in our world now,and running like a little frightened rabbit and hiding makes you his bitch. He’s in charge, he OWNS you, and you better figure that out real fast, or you’ll be rabbit stew, like that.” She snapped her fingers in his face, making him flinch
“Thanks for not pushin’ me down when he was here,” Ryan mumbled suddenly.
She leaned in close, “You owe me so fuckin’ big for that. And I’m gonna make you make it up to me, over and over and over.” She closed her one and only eye in what he could only assume was meant to be a suggestive wink, but looked more like she might have gotten something in her eye.
“What did you mean, about Swan seein’ to me?”
She sighed, knowing that Flynn would have preferred to be the one to explain it all to him if anyone did. “He’s giving you to him and me to straighten you out, beat the rude little turd out of you.”
“No!’ Ryan shook his head so hard he almost slipped off the rafter and had to grab on to the wall to steady himself, suddenly aware of how high he was.
“You’d rather Flynn just kills you?” She said it openly, as if it were a real choice for him to make.
“No. Of course not.” He lowered his voice, asking in a pleading whisper, “Can you help me? When Swan’s not lookin’ I could slip away. Hide until Flynn’s less mad?”
She wanted so bad to shove Ryan off the ledge right then and watch him fall to the floor way below. The sickening thud would make up for him daring to suggest she might betray Swan for him. But the thought of Swan arriving to see his desired plaything broken, and possibly even dead would be too disappointing for him, after all his magic to get this to happen at all. She sighed, and gritted her teeth, forcing her lips into an odd smile. “How about I help so that you make it out of this alive and not too badly disfigured? You gonna listen to Rose this time?”
“Disfigured?” he squeaked and then nodded unhappily, “Yeah, please don’t let them disfigure me?”

Ryan froze in the rafters when he heard the door being unlocked and the bolt being removed. It was dirty and dusty up here, and he was sure there were more cobwebs than he’d ever seen before. All of that was forgotten as he saw his father and the man who must be Swan stomp their way into the warehouse, knocking thick snow and ice from their boots onto the floor messily. He’d seen Swan in passing but had never been introduced, nor paid much attention to him, but after Rose going on about him and making him pretend to be him he had a sudden interest. He was older than he’d pictured, not at all like the tender lover he’d imagined from Rose’s attitude and dreamy expression. He watched warily as they came in and stared up at him.

“There he is, still!” Flynn exclaimed, but he did sound calmer than he had before he left to get Swan. “Get down here, now, boy!”
Ryan glanced at Rose who had left him to climb down a while ago. Rose gave him a subtle shake of her head, and Ryan shook his own at Flynn.
Flynn gaped at the boy’s audacity and turned to Swan in desperation, “You see what I have to deal with?”
“We’ll sort that out,” Swan promised, with a menacing smirk at Ryan, “Come on boy. Down here now.”
Rose felt a little ill at denying Swan the satisfaction, but reassured herself she would make it up to him later, all night long if he would allow her to. She gave Ryan another more insistent shake of the head and stepped over to greet Swan and Flynn. “Could I have a try?”
Swan gave her an appraising look and deferred to Flynn.
Flynn crossed his arms defensively, grumbling, “Fine, but if he listens to a damn woman and not either of us, I’ll wring his neck.”
Swan laughed and didn’t disagree, “Alright, Rose. You try.”
Rose walked beneath Ryan, smiling coldly up at him. “Oliver? Where are you?”
Not pleased at having attention drawn to him, Oliver stepped out of the corner reluctantly, “Here.”
Rose crooked a finger in the small boy’s direction, “Come here.”
“What you doin’?” Ryan called down to Rose, sounding worried as Oliver walked over to stand next to Rose.
She ignored Ryan, silently praying that he would remember the plan and stick to it, and focused on her new prey, reaching out to stroke his dirty hair affectionately, “You like Ryan, don’t you Oliver?”
Oliver shrugged, “He’s alright, He don’t listen though. He makes Uncle Flynn mad.”
She laughed, a crazy shrill sound. “He does, doesn’t he? Stupid boy. Do you know what I think would upset Ryan more than anything though?”
“Bein’ pushed off a rafter?” Oliver, never very imaginative, supposed.
She shook her head, “I think I can think of something even better. Do you want me to show you?”
He didn’t really, but he knew a trick question when he heard one, “I guess.”
She suddenly had a knife in her hand, and the light of the candles in the warehouse flashed off the blade, as she drew it across the small boy’s frail arm, cutting the shirt and moments later a red line of blood appeared. It was only when he saw the blood that he felt the pain. It was shallow but hurt a lot, and he howled, clutching at it. He tried to run away from Rose but she caught him by the collar, hauling him back towards her. Then she looked up at Ryan, hoping he hadn’t started down yet.
He was clinging to the rafter, watching them in horror, “Stop it.”

Swan marched them all through the snow without a word, and Rose followed his lead this time, keeping silent, until they were all inside his apartment. He locked the door and then shoved Ryan down into the corner and turned to Rose, “That was VERY nicely played. What a heartless little minx you are.”
She beamed at his words of praise, wanting nothing more than to run to his arms. She glanced at Ryan first, unsure of how she should behave in front of him with Swan. “Thank you, Mr Swan. It was my pleasure.”
He reached out to stroke her hair as he turned his gaze on Ryan, “So, this is the little troublemaker. He doesn’t look like much.” Smirking he asked Ryan, “Do you know what you’re in for, boy?”
Rose couldn’t stand it any longer and pressed herself against Swan’s chest, revelling in his petting her, but still interestedly looking at Ryan to see what he’d do and say.
Watching them nervously, Ryan shook his head, “No, Mr Swan. Are you gonna beat me?” His voice trembled and he licked at his lips, eyes darting around to look for a way out.
Rose laughed excitedly, “He has so no idea. Have you ever met anyone so totally clueless?”
“A few, but they don’t stay clueless for long,” Swan admitted with a laugh. “He’s your pet, do you want to enlighten him?

She looked up at Swan’s face, stroking his chest, her fingers sneaking between the buttons to play with his chest. “I’d love to tell him.”
Leaning down to brush her ear with his lips Swan whispered, “Flynn was very upset. I think I have leave to do whatever I see fit, to solve this little problem of his.”
She trembled, not really skilled enough at manipulating people to know what that might entail exactly, but utterly thrilled that Swan would show her exactly what that meant very soon. She dropped one hand to Swan’s back, stroking and fondling him adoringly, while settling her steely gaze on Ryan, “You poor, poor boy. You thought Flynn was going to hurt you? You thought his beatings were bad?” She gently squeezed Swan’s back. “This man knows people. He knows the human body. I call him a magician, and he is going to screw with your head and hurt you in ways even I can’t imagine. The next few days are going to be so much fun!”
“I thought we were friends,” Ryan asked pitifully. Even as he said it he knew it wasn’t true. She’d never been his friend. She’d just had a use for him. She’d even told him that over and over and he’d been too stupid to listen. He tried to appeal to Swan instead, “Please, Mr Swan. I won’t be no trouble. Just give Flynn a few days to cool off an’ then I can go back, right?”
Swan laughed, “Delightful.”
“He plans on running, obviously,” Rose informed Swan, aware that he would know that already, but wanting to be clear and destroy any hope of Ryan’s that she might secretly be on his side.
Swan shook his head at Ryan, “I take a certain amount of pride in my work, and a LOT of pleasure. Why in the world wouldn’t I take advantage of having you both here, right where I wanted you?” He turned to Rose with a smirk, “I did say I would sort it out, didn’t I?” He didn’t admit that when he had said that he hadn’t really had any idea how, and was amazed himself at this fortuitous turn of events. Patting Rose’s head he strolled to his couch and sat down, “Rose? Come sit.”