“I wasn’t talking to you, Olaf. I was talking to Anita.”
“She didn’t say anything— Ah, you read her mind again.”
“I did.”
“What did she think that was so right?”
“That I’m into edge play and risk-aware bondage, but you’re a serial killer, so once my victims were hurt past a certain point, I didn’t see it as sex, and you still do.”
“Those don’t sound like Anita’s words.”
“Nicky’s paraphrasing,” I said.
“What did you actually think?” Olaf asked.
“Nicky explained it better. Thoughts aren’t always as fully formed before you say them.”
“Do you do edge play and risk-aware bondage with Nicky?”
“If I say yes, will you drop this line of conversation?”
“No,” he said.
I said, “Then I’m not going to answer the question.”
“Nicky, do you need the bondage to have sex?”
“You mean, to get aroused enough for sex?” Nicky asked.
“Yes.”
“No, I can get it up without it. How about you? Do you need the violence to do it?”
“For the physical act, no.”
“How about to enjoy it?” Nicky asked.
“I will answer the question if you will,” Olaf said.
“Without the rough, it’s no fun, but I can do vanilla. I did it for some undercover work,” Nicky said.
“As did I, but without the rough, as you put it, it is not satisfying.”
I honestly hadn’t been entirely sure that Olaf could get it up without the extreme violence. It was strangely positive that he could, better than the alternative.
I could see the sheriff’s station up ahead. We were about to learn what the new evidence was, and I was going to get out of this conversation. Double win!
“Do you want to have children with Anita?” Olaf asked.
And just like that, we were back to being trapped in the conversation from hell.
“No,” Nicky said.
“Why not?”
“The woman who calls herself my mother is the one who took my eye when I was fourteen, and that’s just the scar I can’t hide. It’s not even close to the only one. She abused my younger brother and sister, too, but I was her special boy. My father knew and didn’t do a damn thing to protect us. With that as my pedigree, I don’t think I should breed.”
“So, you do not care if Anita has a child with one of the other men in your lives?”