***

“How did you get those?” Hudson questioned as he took the young man’s hands in his and turned them slowly. The chafing was bad. There were scars and scabs there, which meant that whoever had done that to him hadn’t cared about letting him heal. Or was it a sign that his latest model preferred to torture himself?

“You know,” the reply came. “The usual way.” He drawled the words while wedging his knee between Hudson’s legs and looking up.

“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?” Hudson continued while taking in the marks on the thin wrists and making mental notes about the human being in front of him.

He was nineteen, he called himself Jasper – which Hudson suspected to be a fake name – and he looked like someone whose innocence had been robbed from him some time ago. His washed out looks – blond hair, pale skin, eyes of such a light blue they looked watery – didn’t make him stand out as far as appearance went, but the languid way he carried himself sent the right message. He was available and willing.

“Can I blow you?” Jasper, most probably fake Jasper, whispered and freed his hands to palm Hudson’s crotch.

“No need for that,” Hudson said, moving away. He should ask his captain for a serious bonus after this; he hadn’t had a proper erection in days. The pictures from the case file were haunting his dreams. And he had thought himself tough, capable of stomaching most anything. This time, it looked like there was a piece of him waiting to be snatched by the darkness of that world.

“I won’t ask for extra,” Jasper whined. “You’re paying well.”

Hudson ignored him and took his seat on a chair behind the camera. “It might come as a surprise to you,” he said, crossing one leg over the other at the ankle, “but I don’t fuck my models.”

“Are you sure you’re in the right business, man?” Jasper asked, trying to hide how hurt he was that his overture had met such a blunt refusal. “I mean, all the guys into this stuff,” he gestured vaguely at the walls, “fuck. Don’t tell me you don’t have a working wiener or something weird like that.”

Wiener. That was the type of thing a kid would say. Hudson consistently asked his models for their IDs, but he had seen so many fake ones so far that it had turned mostly meaningless. In the case of the age-ambiguous fellow in front of him, he had every reason to believe that he was dealing with a runaway. The accusation, however, stung more than it should. Hudson had no issues with his equipment, ever. Now, it looked like he was going through some old-age crisis, and he was several good decades too early for that.

“I happen to have all I need at home.” As he said the words, the flash of a singular blue eye, its iris rimmed with black, crossed his mind.

“Oh, really? What is he like?” Jasper asked and crossed his arms.

“What other kind of work do you do?” Hudson asked abruptly. Just thinking of Otis in front of this messed-up youth made him feel dirty. And why was he thinking of his neighbor as if he was the imaginary boyfriend? He needed to get out more, probably, he thought with grim humor.

“I can do everything,” Jasper bragged, opening his arms wide. “I hustled on the way here, you know.”

“Anything since you got here?” Hudson asked. “Has anyone approached you with some proper offer?”

Jasper took his interest as something else. He offered a toothy smile that must have looked cute in his mind. It only made Hudson pity the young man more. “You know you can have me all for yourself, daddy.”

Hudson could only do this much not to roll his eyes. He had just turned thirty. But probably, for young men like the one he was looking at now, he looked old enough to be called that. Would he look the same to Otis? Would he think the same type of stupid shit? No, Otis, despite his oddities, appeared to have an unusual kind of intelligence.

And he was doing it again, letting his mind wander to his strange, beautiful neighbor while he had a job to do, and one that required all his attention and everything he had, his soul included. “You’re into daddies?” he asked, forcing himself to smile. “What kind?”

Jasper seemed to understand that Hudson’s interest was only professional, so he straightened his back. “The kind that pays, you know?”

“I see. And have you found some lucrative business so far?”

Jasper narrowed his eyes. “You think I’m lame. You think I can’t find men to pay for my ass and mouth. That’s why you’re asking.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m asking,” Hudson said in a level tone, forcing his smile into a smirk.

Jasper huffed in annoyance. “I’ll have you know that I’m already working.”

“Oh, yeah, where?”

There was only a short moment of hesitation, and Hudson grinned more, showing his teeth. Jasper relented. “The Bouncing Bunny. I suppose a family man like you doesn’t go there. But it’s got class,” he argued, as if he was being contradicted in some way. “And customers pay big bucks to have us boys all to themselves.”

All right. That was one trashy venue to look into then. He wasn’t crazy to send anyone to Watkins, not unless he found someone he hoped would infiltrate that organization successfully and that he could control from afar. And, while Jasper fit the bill, with his lost innocence and wan smile, and the desperation shining in his eyes, he wouldn’t send him to the chopping block, either.

However, Watkins was bound for a little visit. Hudson was curious about what was on offer. “The Bouncing Bunny, huh? I might try it out,” he said.

That appeared to confuse Jasper. “But I’m right here. You don’t think that there are prettier boys than me there, do you?”

“And if I do? You said the place’s got class,” Hudson mirrored his words from earlier. He was cruel on purpose.

Blotches of red appeared on the pale skin. “You’re an asshole. I’m not going to do anything for you.” He got up and grabbed his jacket.

All for the better. Hudson didn’t care too much about his current fake job. He had selected several sets of pics so far to update the site and make it look like an alive and well-to-do place, but he didn’t want to have possibly underage strays undressing for him and his camera. That also meant that The Bouncing Bunny was going to get a new prospecting customer and soon. If all the boys there looked as young as Jasper, he had a little tip to offer to the right department. However, he needed to see if The Bouncing Bunny was part of the human trafficking ring or not.

***