Chapter 233 The Digital Heist
Chapter 233 The Digital Heist
Kai felt Rode moving in his arms and tightened his arms around him, unwilling to let go.
"She made me do it," Rode murmured.
Kai furrowed his brows, slowly opening his eyes, "Huh?" He sounded groggy and sleepy.
"Anna... she made me do it," Rode repeated quietly.
Kai groaned and hugged Rode, planting his nose under Rode's chin, "Baby... seriously?" He muttered huskily.
"I promised to tell you," Rode said seriously.
Kai sighed, "I know... but I didn't expect it to be the first thing you say to me at dawn." He lifted his face to look into Rode’s eyes.
"Hey, sleep well?" He smiled, caressing Rode's face.
Rode sighed and chuckled, "I did. You're too comfortable for someone in a sinner's lair." He ran his hand up and down Kai's back.
Kai scoffed quietly, "If you're truly a sinner, I'll be your accomplice." He pressed a soft kiss to Rode's lips.
"This is why I can't stay away from you, and we're probably gonna get killed by my mother," he chuckled.
Kai sighed and got serious, "No one's hurting you, I promise." He sat up, leaning against the headboard and closing his eyes for a second.
"What did she do?" Kai asked calmly.
Rode slowly moved himself beside Kai, sitting beside him. "I was eight, no... nine. It was a few weeks after my ninth birthday; the man brought home a divorce paper and an Australian woman," he started.
"The man?" Kai asked gently.
Rode nodded, "My mother's... Anna's ex-husband," he explained.
Kai frowned, and then his lips formed a quiet 'O' as he understood, "Your father—"
"I don't call him that... he was never there," Rode corrected.
Kai nodded, "The man, then."
"I was locked up in my room and couldn't make out what they argued about. But the man said something about her cheating on him with his secretary. And after that day, I saw the other side of the loving mother I once had." He bit his lip, moving his hand toward Kai's, but it stopped midway.
Kai saw that and took Rode's hand in his, bringing it up to his lips, "You really need to understand that I don't give a fuck about what you've done in the past," he kissed the back of Rode’s hand, "I love the man I'm seeing right in front of me, flaws and everything, okay?" He tilted Rode's chin.
Rode gave a small smile, "Okay," he murmured.
"Then what? She made you work in the garage?" Kai asked, needing to hear the whole story.
Rode shook his head, "Not yet. She started slowly, shouting at me, saying I'm the reason the man left her, saying she would never have given birth to me." He tightened his hand around Kai's.
"She said everything was ruined the day she gave birth to me. She beat me everyday, every night. It got worse after she started drinking and doing drugs." His face twisted in a disgusted manner as if an ugly memory just popped up in his head.
Kai saw that and leaned toward him, kissing his cheek, "I would really love to hear everything, but if it's too much we can skip this shit and go tell Saint you're innocent; I have the tape—"
"No, I've seen uglier things, it just annoys me whenever I think of how everything started. Maybe if I had resisted more—"
"You were just nine, and you trusted her... she was supposed to be your mother," Kai said softly, rubbing his thumb over the back of Rode’s hand.
Rode sighed, nodding, "The abuse stopped, and I thought I was finally getting my mother back, but it shifted to something more forbidden. She started to treat me real nice, buying stuff for me, telling me how we are the only family we have, and she made me do this crazy stuff with my blood..." he paused, lifting his hand to stare at his palm.
"What?" Kai asked in a dreadful tone.
"Cut my palm, and hers, then placed them together as a blood oath and made me promise to never leave her side and do whatever she wants me to do because it was my job to fill in the space of the man who left her," he chuckled, shaking his head.
"I agreed; I thought all that meant I get to keep receiving gifts and being treated right by her. But I was wrong." He shut his eyes tightly, "She made me do things... to her. Whenever I tried to refuse, she beat me to a pulp." He looked away, his jaw tightened.
Kai felt sick in his stomach, his jaws hurting from how tightly he clenched them. Talk about being sick in the head!
Anna really doesn't know what's coming for her. If she could do that to her own child, then those innocent children under that garage were like a walk in the park for her.
He gradually leaned in and hugged Rode, "It's okay... I love you," he whispered.
Rode frowned, "Maybe you shouldn't... I'm not perfect—"
Kai scoffed, flicking Rode's forehead.
"Ouch?" Rode blinked up at Kai.
"That's for saying nonsense," Kai smiled, kissing the place he flicked, "You're perfect to me, Rode. Hell, you're the most perfect human to ever exist," he winked.
"You're a simp," Rode chuckled.
"I am," Kai admitted proudly.
"Just to be clear, I didn't put my thing in her, she said it was too small... I used a dildo," Rode blurted.
Kai groaned, covering his face with his hands, "Thank you for painting a more visceral picture, sweetheart." He rubbed his eyes.
"That doesn't make it any less wicked and dark," Kai stated.
"I was lucky enough; before my thing got big enough for her, she got married to Lawrence... Takeshi's father," Rode continued.
"I was in high school then, and I thought I'd be free from her torture, but when the guy I had a crush on suddenly got his legs crushed by a car... I realized that Anna meant what she said in the blood oath," he whispered.
"Son of a bitch," Kai muttered, taking a deep breath to calm his tightening chest.
The whole story was raising his temper to unknown limits.
"I was never to have a relationship. Just to love her and only her... to replace the love the man took away," Rode resumed his narration, pulling and tugging the sheets gently.
"I saw Takeshi long before he saw me. I saw him at events, even in school; we went to the same high school. But I was older, and Anna made me promise never to get involved with him because... he wasn't family."
"The only reason I got to be free in college was because I returned to the garage every Friday night. There, I let these wrinkly old women do whatever they wanted with me. I am an adult... yet, I can't seem to have the courage to break away from her. I always find myself believing that I need to be there for her, to please her, to love her in place of that man. I know I shouldn't, but I just can't find a way to break free—"
"Trauma bond," Kai murmured.
"Huh?" Rode blinked up at Kai.
"What you feel is a trauma bond," Kai repeated, his voice dropping into a gentle, steady cadence. He brought his free hand up, softly framing the side of Rode's face so Rode had no choice but to look at him.
"Look at me, sweetheart. It’s not love, and it’s not you being weak. A trauma bond is when someone hurts you over and over, but then turns around and gives you affection or gifts just to keep you hooked. Your brain gets tricked."
Rode stared at him, confusion still swimming in his eyes.
"Think about it," Kai continued softly, thumbing over Rode’s cheekbone. "She beat you, she abused you, and she forced you into terrifying stuff. But then she’d turn around, buy you things, and tell you that you were all she had. She wired your brain from the time you were nine years old to believe that pain and love are the exact same thing."
Kai shook his head, his gaze intensely fierce yet completely tender.
"She made you feel like she was the only source of safety, even while she was the one hurting you. It's an actual physiological trap, Rode. Your brain gets addicted to the relief of her being nice after being cruel. That’s why you feel like you can't leave—not because you owe her, and not because you actually want to be there, but because she spent over a decade breaking your instincts down until you felt trapped."
He pressed his forehead against Rode's, breathing out a quiet, grounding breath.
"It’s a cycle she built to control you. But you're not in that house anymore, baby. And you're not alone in it anymore. We're going to break it."
"We?" Rode murmured.
"Oui, we," Kai smirked, kissing Rode's lips softly.
"You're bound to me now... it's a love bond, the greatest bond there is," he whispered.
Rode inhaled deeply, feeling a kind of sheer relief washing over him.
"But... it's really my name on the document. She made me sign it after the night you guys showed up... I really wanted to bash your head on the wall when I saw you that night," Rode frowned.
"I endured her stupid torture to keep you safe, and you suddenly waltzed in to play hero. I was beyond mad," he glared at Kai.
"That's why you slammed the door in my face? So rude," he smiled.
Rode sighed, "But, I'm serious, Kai. She hates that I committed to you. University was just me having fun and letting go before anything got serious. But with you, it's not just fun, and she hates it," he explained.
"The day you saw those marks on my wrist, those were cuffs, real ones. She cuffed my wrists for days onto a wall because she saw me about to reply to one of your texts. I had to stay away, or she'd make you go missing," Rode said quietly.
Kai took Rode's hand, rubbing his thumb over the wrist, "I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. But, from here, you're not returning to that villa nor to that garage. Does she know about this place?" He questioned.
Rode nodded, "She knows everything I do. I think she just lets me stay here as a break. She calls me when she needs me," he answered.
"Then we need to get her fast. I love this place, and I don't think abandoning it would be nice," Kai stated.
"You're saying I can go wherever I want, do whatever I want, love whoever I want... just like that?" Rode chuckled softly.
Kai nodded, "Yeah. I actually have the record from that night," he confessed.
"How? But we checked..." Rode trailed off, "You're really a smart one, huh?" He smirked.
Kai shrugged, "What can I say, you got yourself a hot and smart boyfriend. A full package." He boasted.
"And I love him," Rode smiled brightly.
"Of course you do," Kai murmured proudly.
"What if I'm lying?" Rode asked slowly.
Kai paused, narrowing his eyes at him, "Lying?"
Rode bit his lip, "What if this trauma bond you spoke of is making me set you up right now, and maybe I've already called her and told her you're here... what if I've been lying all along?" He locked his eyes with Kai.
Kai held Rode's gaze for a few seconds, then yawned, "I'm hungry... are you?" He asked, leaning back onto the headboard.
Rode's chest shuddered as he inhaled a deep, relieved breath. He suddenly hugged Kai, pulling them down so Kai lay on top of him.
"Thank you..." Rode whispered, "For never doubting me."
Kai smiled, "You're quite easy to read, Rode. Your eyes..." he cupped Rode's face, "They have this secret message behind them, even when you're trying to be a villain, your eyes communicate how false your acts are. I see right through you." He smoothed his thumb over Rode's brows.
"If I doubted you, it would be from the night at the garage... too late to do that now," Kai whispered and pressed his lips against Rode's, kissing him slowly.
"Now, tell me how we can get that darned document," Kai whispered.
"Um..." Rode cleared his throat, "We can't," he muttered.
Kai sat up, tilting his head with a slight frown, "You said you signed something... well, where did you sign it, on air?" He furrowed his brows.
"On a tablet," Rode muttered, pulling the duvet tighter around his chest. "She sent it to me through an encrypted link. It was an e-sign."
Kai slowly smirked.
"What?" Rode murmured.
"You should have said that sooner. Still got the email?" He asked, getting out of bed.
"Um, yes. On my tablet." He slowly got out of bed.
Kai paused in front of the bathroom, "Then bring it to me, sugar. Let your boyfriend visit your mama's host server," he winked.