Read Without a Net for Free Online

but he had two different backup teams, one from the captain and one from the lieutenant. Not only were these suspects unlikely to kidnap someone day one, but there was no way that they could with so many cops watching the exits.
    A heavy man with thinning hair stopped in front of Ollie. “Well, look what we have here.” He pursed his lips as he studied Ollie. “With that getup, I assume you’ve met Buck.” The guy unlocked the office door and disappeared inside. Okay, so that was the boss—Jake Allemande. Ollie wondered if he’d just failed the interview. Unfortunately, he couldn’t ask.
    Eventually his backup would get tired of waiting and come in for him. If they wanted to save the op, they’d send someone in claiming to be a friend looking for him because he’d missed check-in. Ollie hoped for that, because if they came in guns blazing and found Ollie like this, well, there would be a shitload of teasing to survive. It’d be like the charity calendar, only times a hundred.
    Later—and it was hard to tell how much later because Ollie was losing track of reality—Buck appeared in front of him. He hit the switch on the chains, and Ollie’s arms dropped. He groaned in pain as the strained muscles and joints moved.
    “Boss is ready to see you,” Buck said cheerfully. He took the wrist chain in hand and pulled Ollie into the boss’s office.
    Ollie had expected leather and whips and chains, but this place was more about file cabinets and stacks of papers everywhere. It was downright mundane.
    “Look what I found, boss. He came in looking for a job.” Buck pulled Ollie’s hands up and hooked the chain behind Ollie’s neck, which exposed his whole chest. “Isn’t he pretty?”
    The boss leaned back in his chair. “And how long has he been out there?”
    “Awhile.” Buck sounded overly nonchalant. He pulled on the wrist chain, and since Ollie’s hands were already behind his neck, that forced his hands down his back. The awkward angle pushed Ollie’s chest out. “I thought you’d like him.”
    “Yes, but what rule did I give you?”
    “Maybe I don’t remember.”
    “Really?” The boss sounded so mild, but a shiver went through Buck. “There’s punishment, and then there’s making you fucking miserable, so try that again, boy.”
    “I am not supposed to let applicants come in when you’re not here.”
    “That’s right. You aren’t. So tell me what time you put him up there, because you’re getting ten lashes for every hour.”
    “Around four or so,” Buck said. Technically that was a lie, because at four Ollie had been getting briefed by the lieutenant. He hadn’t been briefed well, but he was there until almost five. That was when he’d come in.
    “Four hours, forty lashes. When you fuck up, you do it right. And just to make sure you remember your place, you’ll be in the pillory one hour for each hour you left the boy out there.”
    Buck got very still. “Master, it was after five. I thought I’d test him out for you.”
    “Lying, that adds ten lashes and another hour in the pillory.”
    “Master!” Buck cried out.
    The boss brought his hand down on the desk, and Ollie jumped. “One more word out of line, and you’ll spend a week in the pillory and my profits will go up as every man you’ve ever punished has time to get here and teach you a lesson. Clear?”
    “Yes, Master,” Buck agreed, and he was much quieter now. Ollie knew plenty of switches, but Buck had made an art form out of it because all his dominant energy was gone.
    “What’s his name?”
    Since Ollie was still gagged, Buck answered for him, his voice soft and polite. “Olan Roberts, sir.”
    “Background?”
    “Career military, a sergeant busted back to corporal and discharged for dealing in sun.”
    “Well, that was a serious fuckup,” Allemande said.
    Ollie couldn’t respond because Buck held him as firmly as ever. This panic switch was seeming less and less viable, not unless Ollie could get it