Live and Die This Way - Chapter 1
Title: Live and Die This Way [1/13]
Author: wanderingjasper
Rating: FRT
Characters: Morgan/Reid, ensemble
Word Count: 1197
Themes: AU, action, angst, romance.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, but I do take liberties with them for no financial gain.
Notes: Warning and rating deal with the chapter content. The story as a whole deals with the concept of sexual slavery and other adult concepts. Also, the unproofed story is completely written in full, so you shouldn't have to worry about this going unfinished.
Warning: Violence, adult concepts.
Summary: Derek is a transporter, who moves cargo and asks no questions. It's hard not to have questions, however, when the cargo starts thrashing around in the trunk of your car.
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Derek Morgan found the car at the designated location, and as always didn’t meet the client in person. Half the money before, and the rest after the delivery, that was the way it worked. He didn’t ask what he was carrying, and made sure nothing stopped him from delivering it.
The drive was normal for the first fifty miles, until the banging from the trunk started. Morgan tried to ignore it, but it was random and constant, and he sighed in frustration and turned the radio off, parking up on the shoulder of the highway under the morning sun.
“If this is another giant illegal snake I am going to flip out,” he murmured, heading around the back of the vehicle and popping the trunk.
It was not a snake; it was a naked man bound at his ankles, his wrists behind his back, a black bag over his head and a ball-gag secured over it in his mouth. The bottom felt as if it had dropped out of his stomach; Morgan was aware in the back of his mind that he had likely transported people before, people destined for cruel fates, but he’d never had to think about it because he’d never had to know what he was carrying.
“Shit,” Morgan murmured and the man flinched. Now that he knew, there was no way he could drive straight on through to his destination knowing what - who - he had to deliver. Not explicitly knowing had been all that had enabled him to keep taking the jobs, telling him he would stop when he’d reached his goal.
The man in the trunk was skinny and young looking, bruised at his ankles and wrists as though the restrained wasn’t a one-time occurrence.
“Listen kid,” he sighed, “I’m gonna take your gag off to talk to you. Now you can holler and scream if you want, but we’re seventy miles into the ass-end of nowhere, so you’re just gonna waste your breath and piss me off.”
He reached around to the back of the man’s head and unbuckled the strap, pulling it away from the covered face. The ball was wedged between the man’s teeth, and as Morgan gripped it and pulled it out, the man moved suddenly and bit down on Morgan’s hand, hard enough that the cloth tore under the pressure.
“Son of a bitch!” Morgan yelled, yanking his hand away and fighting the temptation to backhand the masked man. He had an impressive bite mark below his thumb, blood oozing to the surface. “Do you want me to leave you in this damn trunk tied up and bare-ass naked, kid?”
“Fuck you!” The man’s voice was thready and small, and muffled by the cloth.
“Kid,” he said, and took a calming breath, and then another. “I’m not gonna hurt you. As long as you don’t do anything stupid, anyway. Can’t let you see my face, so I’m gonna leave that bag on as a blindfold. Don’t struggle.”
He ripped down from the tear the man had created using his teeth, glad that the captive didn’t struggle as he turned it and tied it as a blindfold. He pulled a knife out of his pocket and brandished it in front of the man’s face, and when he didn’t flinch he knew he couldn’t see.
“What the hell am I gonna do with you, kid?” Morgan murmured as he cut the plastic tie binding the man’s wrists. He hissed in pain and pulled his arms against his chest, rubbing at the sore skin. “Are you gonna try run off if I undo your ankles?”
“Where am I going to go?” He asked bitterly, rolling his wrists and flexing his fingers.
“I’ve got some spare clothes,” Morgan said, going around to the side of the car and opening the side door to fish around in his bag. When he returned to the boot the man was perched on the edge, not even bothering to conceal his nudity as he held on. Even though he couldn’t see, Morgan tried not to look to give the man some dignity as he bent to cut the tie binding his ankles.
“Here.” He pressed the spare clothes into the man’s grasp. “Put these on.”
With some difficulty the man did, even though the sweatpants and v-neck were too big for him. He grabbed the man by the arm and pulled down the trunk, guiding him around to the passenger seat and shoving him inside.
“Stay,” Morgan said. “I need to make a call.”
He walked across the dusty road, a couple dozen feet from the car, where he was out of earshot but he could still see the man through the open window and hit speed dial.
“We have a problem,” he said as soon as the call was picked up.
“Oh.” The drawling masculine tone of the operator called Foyet on the other end didn’t sound particularly worried. “Did it die, or something?”
“It - he - wasn’t sedated. I assume that’s how things are done when we move people?”
“Did it see your face?”
“No.”
“Then smack it around a bit and then drive it to the destination.”
“He was naked and tied up. I know what kinda shit I’m moving, I can’t do that.”
“We don’t pay you to have a conscience.”
“I’m not doing it.”
“Yes you are.”
“No.”
“Your friend Penelope is going to be disappointed to hear that.”
Morgan felt his heart give a jolt. “What?”
“You didn’t think we send drivers on these jobs without having leverage, did you? Poor Penelope, poor little dyke Penelope and her dyke girlfriend Emily. Haven’t they just had a new baby? And they’ve already got a little boy, haven’t they? Lucas. Wouldn’t it be a shame if those two kiddies lost their dyke mommies? A shame for you, I guess. The little angels are probably better off without them.”
“If you touch them-” Morgan growled.
“They’ll be fine, Hermes, if you deliver your package to the destination. Undamaged, if you would. Oh, and if you call your dyke friend to warn her, well, that’s not going to end well for anyone. Toodles!”
Morgan hung up, and kicked at the ground in frustration. He’d been so careful not to drag the people he cared about into his world. He hadn’t been careful enough.
The captive man was still sat in the passenger seat when Morgan got back. He turned his head at the sound of Morgan’s approaching footsteps, and shrunk away when Morgan got into the car. He turned on the ignition and pushed the button to roll up the passenger window.
“Tinted windows.”
“What?” Morgan looked over. The man was fidgeting with the hem at the sleeve of the shirt.
“You must have tinted windows. Else you wouldn’t sit me up front.”
“Smart.”
“You’re not going to let me go, are you?”
“I can’t, kid.”
“Do you know where you’re taking me?”
“I don’t wanna know. I have to take you.”
The man didn’t argue, but his shoulders did slump a bit as the little tiny bit of hope that had grown in him died. Morgan ignored it, because he had to.