Race With a Heart
Chapter 153: The Victim’s Guilt

Chapter 153: The Victim’s Guilt

"Martin? Where are you? What happened?"

Martin was surprised how concerned Jack’s voice was.

"Something happened?" he asked sincerely, not understanding Lambert’s unease. "Why do you think so?"

"A friend told me that Don had an accident. I started looking around and I saw that you are not there too ... "

"How is he feeling?" Martin asked. He noticed Steve flinch at the question. He didn’t seem to be concerned about Don’s fate, but he looked angry that Martin dared to ask about it.

Whatever, Paxton is furious now, but he’s a good man. When his anger is over, he will be glad he didn’t hurt Don. Unless Alston was actually more seriously injured.

"Nothing permanent. But... what the hell happened? Do you know anything about it? Where are you? Are you okay?"

"Don ... He got what he deserved," Martin stated boldly, staring straight into Steve’s eyes. As expected, his words made the darkness in Paxton’s pupils a little light. "You don’t need to know more about the incident. And I ... I’m in the hotel with Steve, so you don’t have to worry about me. "

"So Don ...?" Lambert asked icily. "Okay, now I won’t ask. But when we return home, we will discuss what to do with Don. Me, you, Steve and Karl. Our stable will not tolerate Alston’s behavior. "

Walton too? Martin paled at the thought of anyone else finding out about these events, but it was Karl who decided everything to do with the stable. His father was supposed to be in power, but without Karl this stable would have long since ceased to exist. So it was obvious that young Walton had to know about everything.

"I understand," said Martin glumly. "Jack, don’t worry about me. I’m not as safe with anyone as with Steve. "

"Alright, so I won’t disturb you anymore."

What is Alston’s fate now? What punishment would he get for what he wanted to do to Martin? What were they going to do to him, actually? Or maybe Martin himself did something that suggested Don was given the green light? Maybe if Martin had acted differently ... Was Martin actually provocative? Could his smile and attempt to maintain good friendships really seem like allowing an affair? After all, Martin was just trying to be a good friend. It must have been some kind of misunderstanding, and now Don has been beaten, and what else awaits him? Disciplinary action? Will he be fired for ’conduct unworthy of the driver of the Fergus Stables, jeopardizing her reputation’? But Martin and Steve’s romance also jeopardized the Fergus Stables’ reputation, so even Steve could have been fired ... Is Don really at risk of being fired? After all, racing was his whole life for him. Should he lose it because he thought Martin was giving him the green light? Will he lose his dream because of Martin?

No, that would be too much of a punishment. After all, if Alston believed that Martin was sympathetic to him, Martin must have made it clear by his behavior somehow, so ...

The poor boy had no idea he was repeating the pattern of every victim of sexual abuse. It is as if these people cannot believe that such inhuman inclinations can dwell in the other person. Looking for an excuse for them, they find the fault in themselves.

Martin’s head was a little buzzing. Don had acted terrible, mean, inhuman, but was it really all his fault?

"Martin, come over here, sit down or lie down, you’re pale."

Steve’s voice was full of concern. Martin looked into his eyes and saw loving concern. He obediently obeyed his instructions and actually lay down on the bed. He felt emotionally weakened.

Don Alston was not gay, but he tried to force himself on Martin twice. Steve Paxton has not been with a man for years, but he took Martin without hesitation and with a lot of firmness. Steve later admitted that Martin was extremely attracted to him.

Did this mean that Martin actually provoked both men? He seduced them without knowing it? Was the only difference between Paxton and Alston that Martin admired and loved the former and disliked the latter?

But wait a minute, wait a minute. Whether love or sex, it should always be mutual. If Martin sent any signals that reached Steve, and Steve responded with a desire to relate, Steve made a signal from his side, a clearer signal. Martin, though reluctantly (after all, he wasn’t ready to be with the man yet) but confirmed. In Don’s case, even if a signal was sent by Martin and picked up by Don when Alston made his own signal and Martin rejected it, the fun should stop there. Maybe a bit like flirting. Martin, of course, wasn’t flirting with Alston, at least not consciously, but even if he was flirting with him, not everyone goes to bed after such a flirtation. Sending signals does not constitute consent to sex. Something was wrong with the entire communication process.

Martin looked at Steve who was just carrying him a glass of water.

Paxton was a really beautiful man. He was tall, slim, and his face had handsome, slightly predatory features, which gave her an expression of true masculinity. His scent was clear and strong, too, telling him that this was a real man, a model of manhood.

In a way, Don looked like him. Not so talented and not so beautiful, they were also very different in personality, but both exuded almost masculine masculinity and domination.

Martin, on the other hand, had much smoother features and a gentler disposition. He considered himself a guy and had typically male interests, but he couldn’t deny that with these two drivers he was kind of a bit less... masculine. He had testosterone in him, but he knew that for some his gentle and kind heart was a sign of weakness and not so much effeminacy as being less predatory. If those two were like wolves, Martin was like a... goat? He had horns, he had hooves, he could fight, but wolves had fangs and claws.

So was this where the problem lay?

"Steve ... Did I seduce you or did you seduce me?" he asked, taking a glass of water from him, but not daring to meet his eyes.

"What is that question?" Paxton wondered, confused.

"Because Don ..."

"What did that bastard tell you ?!"

"Don’t be upset Steve ... He said I provoked him ..."

"Nonsense! All rapists and other criminals of this type defend themselves exactly like this!" Paxton was indignant. " How does a small child provoke a pedophile? A woman walking down the street is indifferent to the thousands of passing men, but she acts provocatively towards this one man, right in a dark alley, as if she was only dreaming about an attack! These are sick excuses of a sick mind! Don’t believe such nonsense! Don’t even think about them!"

"But I provoked you ..."

"Nonsense!!! You didn’t provoke me, you started waking me up. These are two completely different things. I acted mean then, I know I am ashamed, but I was like that then. And you, just you, started to change that. Provocation? No never! Normal, healthy awakening. It wasn’t even about sex. The point was, because of you, my heart was starting to live. I could have sex with anyone, but only you were to my heart... an awakening."

Martin bit his lower lip. So this was different than with Alston? Feelings that had been dormant for so long began to wake up in Steve, while in Don it was only physical lust.

"What do you think," he asked shyly, "what will happen to Don now? Jack said we’d discuss it together when we got back. I know that Don did something wrong, but if he were to lose his job because of it ... "

Paxton shook his head slowly. He looked sad.

"I haven’t told you this before," he sighed, "but Don is being x-rayed by the police. He’s currently a murder suspect and we suspect he may have been involved in what happened to me on the track. We are gathering evidence. As everything happens during the season and we have to somehow take care of the relatively good results of our stable, we do it very quietly so as not to upset anyone. That’s why we didn’t tell you either. I didn’t expect Don to do this to you. But something tells me it wasn’t the first time. "

It wasn’t a question, and it seemed to Martin that Paxton didn’t need an answer. It only amazed him that Don, whom he had known for so many years, could be suspected of such crimes. Even murder? God!

But he would never have suspected him that one day Alston would force him into intercourse, twice. Was there really something wrong with Don? Yet he looked so normal!

Martin shivered involuntarily. Don suspected of murder? How is it possible? Who died? In fact, the boy was afraid to even ask.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.