Read Heart for Free Online

do you want me?”
    “On the couch,” the man said. “I want you to suck me.”
    And so it went on, but as nights went, it turned out to be a pretty easy one—a run of blowjobs, hand jobs, and just one fucking from a john with a cock inadequate enough to cause a little discomfort.
    Around dawn, Mikey drove Dex back to the site and ditched him outside Braden’s plush mobile home. The site was a dump, but not Braden’s place. He was the kingpin, and for him, no expense was spared.
    Dex trudged up the steps, but before he could knock, Braden wrenched the door open, glaring from the comfort of his luxurious home. Dex shuddered a little as the warmth hit him. He was cold and so tired he was ready to drop.
    “Give it to me.”
    Dex handed over the rolled-up wad of grubby cash, three hundred pounds in total. A decent amount, but not enough. It was never enough.
    “Get inside,” Braden growled. “Go clean yourself up, boy.”
    Dex slipped past him and made his way to the bathroom. That was the one good thing about being Braden’s personal slave: the use of his bathroom. After a long night of hooking, a shower was worth far more to him than the rolled-up tenner—Dex’s cut of the night—in his back pocket. Showers were like gold dust. Sometimes a good john would let him use their bathroom. One time, an oddly tactile guy had even scooped him off the bed and put him in a steaming hot bath in his grotty hotel room, but those jobs were rare. Most times, it was a quick fuck in a car or a dirty bedsit. Or worse. And for fifty quid a pop, what did you expect? Johns with real money didn’t call the numbers in the back of the local rag.
    Nah. The johns who called Braden’s hotlines were the men too vile and seedy to find company elsewhere. The kind of men who made Dex’s skin crawl. He stepped under the hot spray and shivered. Still made his skin crawl even hours after they’d had their hands on him.
    Dex cleaned up and then lingered as long as he dared before he shut the water off and made his way like a good boy to Braden’s bedroom. Any longer, and his uncle was sure to come looking for him, and Dex didn’t want that .
    He sat naked on the bed and hugged his knees to his chest. Perhaps Braden would give him some food when he was done with him. He couldn’t remember the last thing he ate. It could’ve been the crisps he stole from a john’s house a few days ago—Hula Hoops, naturally—or maybe the sausage roll Mikey had tossed his way in a rare flash of humanity.
    Humanity like…. No. Dex stopped the thought in its tracks. He wouldn’t think about him . Not now. That memory was too pure to follow him here. Too precious to share with Braden.
    Braden appeared in the doorway, his hulking frame blocking the light. Dex zoned out. He’d been Braden’s plaything for years, and some days, their encounters even felt normal, though a stubborn part of him knew they weren’t.
    Life hadn’t always been this way. His childhood in Ireland had been happy and carefree, running wild with his cousins in the woodland surrounding the county they lived in. The caravans moved every year, but by and large, remained south of Kilkenny. Dex knew they were different, that they weren’t accepted in the wider community, but it had never mattered.
    Not until he’d turned thirteen and his father had sent him to England to earn his keep for “Uncle” Braden. In the six years since, he’d only seen his parents twice. He missed his ma, but that was life and the way of their world.
    Braden cuffed his head. Dex rolled from the bed in surprise. The blow didn’t hurt, but it caught him off guard. “What?”
    “Don’t what me, boy.” Braden reached for a smoke, done with Dex for the night. “I said you’d better be ready when I come for you tonight. I’ve got a big job for you, and it starts early. Now get the fuck out and go back to whatever pit you came from.”
    Dex didn’t need telling twice. He dressed and stepped out into the cold