Page 13 of The Quarterlands (Dark Water #4)

“Ah, from your friend, Dacre,” Tyler said, holding up the box.

“A light box?”

“That’s right. Shall we see what he’s gifted me?

” Tyler pressed the switch… and suddenly another Alex was in the room.

Only this one was standing by an open window looking out, a non-existent wind moving in his hair.

He looked so real – the render was perfect, seamless, as if he was there.

Alex frowned. He didn’t remember this holopic being made; he hadn’t posed for it.

Then he recognised it as the day Dacre had been fiddling around with the holocam, saying it wasn’t working, and Alex had become so bored he’d drifted off.

Now, he realised that had been a lie so that Dacre could catch him in an unguarded moment – and he had.

He remembered that he’d been daydreaming of climbing out of the open window, throwing himself into the air and flying across the water to Inquisitus and Joe. It had been a flight of fancy, but the expression of yearning in his eyes was all too real – God, how he’d longed to escape!

HoloAlex steeled his shoulders, hummed his song, and turned back to see whether Elliot had fixed the tech…

and his eyes immediately and visibly became veiled, drained of personality.

Gone was that brief moment of yearning, gone the desperation, hope, and despair…

and in their place was… nothing. A complete emptiness.

It all happened so fast that, in the moment, you’d have missed it.

But Dacre, with his skilled, creative eye, had somehow burned a hole into Alex’s soul and found a way to capture it.

Alex knew immediately that he was in trouble.

“So there is someone in there, after all,” Tyler observed, his tone light and sardonic. “Yet you hide it so well. Who is this Alexander?” he demanded, pointing at the hologram. “What’s he thinking? Feeling? Plotting?” His voice was hard and low as he spat out that last word.

“I was thinking of my mother,” Alex blurted, trying desperately to find a lie that would suffice. “Wishing she was still here, that I’d done everything differently and not hurt you both so much.”

“Then why hide it?” Tyler demanded. “Why pretend that this Alexander doesn’t exist?”

“Because what I think and feel hurts people, and I don’t want to be responsible for any more pain.” It was the best answer he could muster.

“Hmm.” Tyler gazed at him for a long moment. “I wish I could believe you.” He turned back to the hologram and watched it again, gazing at it obsessively.

“You can.”

“But I don’t,” Tyler flung back. “You showed that old fool Dacre who you really are but you hide yourself from me. There can be only one reason for that. You’re lying, and you’ve been lying to me all along.”

“I’m not.” Alex was usually passive, understanding Tyler’s need for control, but he was genuinely frightened now.

He threw himself at his houder, pressing his body against him.

“Is this lying?” He put Tyler’s hand on his semi-hard cock, moaning.

Tyler reached out as if to caress his hair – then slapped him hard across the cheek instead.

“You’re a filthy little liar.”

“Please! I want you. I need you.”

Tyler slapped him again, making him fall backwards. He scrambled to get away, but Tyler pursued him like a panther, his flanks heaving, his eyes dark and deadly. He caught Alex, ripped his robe from him, and pinned him down, making him cry out.

There was blood running down his chin from his cut lip and he was acutely aware of the weight of Tyler on him as he fucked him. Tyler’s breath was coming in rasping gasps, and Alex could feel the depths of his rage, hatred, hurt, and distrust.

When he was done, Tyler lay panting on top of him, his eyes still dark.

For a moment, Alex was genuinely afraid.

The man pinning him to the floor was lost to himself, and Alex knew what he was capable of.

He’d killed Solange the last time he’d been this out of control.

Was that to be his fate now? Dying on this floor to be disposed of in the same way, slung into the dark water of a lost zone, his death covered up, his body left to rot?

Slowly, the light seeped back into Tyler’s eyes.

“Look what you made me do,” he hissed.

“I’m sorry,” Alex babbled. “I’m so sorry, sir. It was all my fault.”

“I don’t like the way you make me feel.” Tyler withdrew, making Alex whimper with pain. He looked down on him broodingly. “I shouldn’t have to deal with all your lies.”

“I’m sorry,” Alex whispered again .

“Good.” Tyler reached down and pulled him to his feet, then surprised him by wrapping his arms around him. He was freezing cold, shivering with shock, and his body ached. Tyler stroked gentle swirls on his skin.

“Shh. Let’s not do this. Let’s put it behind us. I’m sorry, too, Alexander. That wasn’t me.”

But it was. It was the part of himself that Tyler hated, the part that had lost the one thing he craved more than anything else – control. It was also the part that had killed Solange, and now, Alex feared, would one day kill him, too.

Tyler’s jealousy was well and truly roused, and his need for control escalated.

He refused to let Alex out of his sight for even a second.

He sat in on every business meeting, attended every event, and was by Tyler’s side at all times, in bed and in life.

This forced him to concentrate more deeply than ever as he tried desperately to hide his emotions so he didn’t give himself away.

He decided to use Tyler’s paranoia to his advantage, drinking in every single decision Tyler made, paying attention to even the smallest aspect of his vast business empire, filing away the knowledge for the day when he could hand the whole lot over to Joe to bring Tyler to justice – if that day ever came.

The weeks turned into months, and Tyler’s interest in him didn’t wane. If anything, it became even more intense. Being by Tyler’s side night and day made it almost impossible for Alex to perform his yoga and listen to his song, and he needed his anchors now more than ever.

It was a risk, but he had no choice. He slid out of bed in the middle of the night, tiptoed down the hallway to Tyler’s gym, and played his song softly as he performed his yoga moves.

He watched himself in the mirror as he worked, knowing he’d failed if he could see so much as a glimmer of Alexander Lytton in the looking glass.

It became his obsession, every bit as strong as Tyler’s obsession with him. He had to do this, had to keep his mask perfect, because he couldn’t afford for it to slip for even a second when he was with Tyler. So, night after night, he performed this secret ritual .

Sometimes, he had to spend hours in the gym, performing his moves and listening to his song over and over again until he was sure he’d wiped away all trace of himself.

Only when he was convinced that Alexander Lytton was completely obliterated did he tiptoe back to bed, hoping his absence had gone unnoticed.

One morning, Tyler seemed particularly cheerful, grinning down on him as he lay in bed.

“Get up! We have a busy day ahead. I’ve been waiting for this day for weeks.”

He demanded that Alex dress in the clothes that made him look most like himself – or at least the self he’d been when he was free. Alex wasn’t sure that he’d dress like this now, if he had the choice. He’d been younger then and a very different person.

“I want today to be special,” Tyler declared, taking his hand as they sat next to each other in the helicopter. “Because today is our anniversary.”

Which one? Alex wondered. The anniversary of the day you enslaved me? Or the day you killed my friend? The anniversary of the day you sent me to Belvedere? The day I returned? There were so many ugly milestones in their tortured relationship.

“A year ago today, you begged me to make love to you, and I thought we should celebrate by returning to a place that’s special to us both,” Tyler explained, clearing up that mystery at least.

A year. Alex was stunned. Had it really been a whole year since that day in the AV when this madness had started?

“I can’t believe it,” he murmured, smiling at Tyler. “It seems like only yesterday.”

“I thought we should mark the day. I have a gift for you.” Tyler grinned at him wolfishly, and Alex felt an old instinct stirring inside; he suspected that he wasn’t going to like this.

That instinct proved correct when the helicopter landed on a neat green lawn, next to a place he remembered all too well.

Lytton AV

The sign on the door looked old and tired and the building had a rundown appearance, as if limping along on its last legs.

He felt much the same. Was he to be paraded in front of his father again?

Surely even Tyler wouldn’t be so cruel? He didn’t even know if Noah was still alive, but if he was, Alex didn’t want to cause him more suffering.

Still, it was out of his hands. Tyler jumped briskly from the helicopter and strode into the lobby as if he owned it.

Alex followed, his stomach doing somersaults.

Was this where his deception finally ended?

Gideon had given him the tools to fool Tyler into thinking he was the perfect IS, but he was only human.

If Tyler threatened his family, Alex knew he couldn’t stand by and watch.

There was a flurry of activity as they arrived, and Alex braced himself for his father’s people to turf them out. But instead, one of the senior board members, a man Alex vaguely recognised, walked over and shook Tyler’s hand.

“Mr Tyler! Welcome. Simeon Wainright at your service.” His gaze passed over Alex blankly, as if he was nothing.

“Ah, Wainright, good to meet you at long last.” Tyler grinned, pumping the man’s hand.

“Quite so. This deal has been quite the marathon to get over the line, hasn’t it?” Wainright grinned back at him delightedly. “But we’re there now.”

“Absolutely. I believe my terms were more than generous.”