Sex in the Sky

It was a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk, black with tan interior. The golden Hawk had a supercharger. Basically a supercharger is a compressor that pressurizes the fuel system on the car. It made about as much difference between the Golden Hawk and most cars as there was between a kerosene lamp and a blowtorch. The cars styling was as sexy as you could get, a long sloping hood flowed back into a T-bird type of roof with the landau panels in the rear leading to a short trunk, flanked by a pair of tall turned out fins. Big, tall fins, like a 57 Chevy on Viagra. Good looks like that and a kick ass supercharged engine. Too good to be true, but that night, it was true, Phillip had made it a true thing. Jamie almost forgot his nakedness as ran out into the yard to circle the car. It was a real thing of beauty, no dents and it seemed to have a fresh paint job. Suddenly he realised how much Phillip wanted him to be with him and his eyes filled again as he rushed to hug the man who had made this possible. The feel of his rough clothing pressing against the boy’s naked skin reminded him of his condition. Naked out in the back yard with a man, while it was exciting, it was also a little frightening. The older man loved watching the hot youngster’s body as he moved around the car. The look on the boys face was something that he would always remember. Total joy, total happiness, Phillip beamed with pride at how happy the boy was over his gift. Damn that kid looked so nice running around naked, his dick semi-hard swinging with each step.

Jamie was overjoyed by the car, hell he would have been happy with a falcon. In the whole world there were only two cars that Jamie dreamed of owning. Number one would be the Studebaker Avanti; number two would be the Studebaker Golden Hawk. Phillip had made one of his dreams come true. He turned his head and caught the look in Phillip’s eyes as he watched. Jamie could feel the desire build within, as he stood there naked, watching Phillip get turned on. He felt his dick start to harden.

Phillip saw the boy’s dick as it started to rise, he let his eyes roam up the boys stomach across his chest with its two hard little nipples, until he was looking dead into the boys eyes. Without a word he motioned with his hand for the boy to come to him. Jamie never lost eye contact as he walked across the back yard, naked in the bright sunshine. Jamie stopped directly in front of Phillip almost like he knew what Phillip might want.

Phillip took the younger man in his arms and hugged him, he put his lips against the boys ear and started to whisper to the boy.

Jamie’s feet were off the ground, he hung from Phillips arms like a child’s doll. He felt the air of his breath when Phillip started to whisper into his ear.

“Jamie, I want you to give me my first blowjob, I want you to drop to your knees and take my cock from my pants and suck it until it cums in your mouth. You can use your hands to get my dick out but once you start to suck it, I want them to be behind your back. Don’t say a word Jamie, just do it and do it as nicely as you can. It means a lot to me, I’ve waited a long time for this. I love you, show me that you love me too.”

Phillip released him from the hug and stood before the boy tall and massive. A man who made his living with his hands, a blue collar man, with a naked young boy sinking to his knees before him. Phillip’s dick was throbbing in his pants as the boy reached out with his hands to take down his zipper. He flinched when the boy’s fingers found his hard cock and started to get it turned toward the opening in his shorts. Finally his cock burst out into the daylight only to be engulfed by the young mans lips. Placing his hands behind his back, Jamie let his body rock forward to take as much as he could of the fat cock into his mouth. He let his tongue run wild, circling and licking on this hot and heavy dick in his mouth. He started to bob his head as he sucked letting his lips squeeze the dick like they were fingers. Fucking his face up and down the shaft of the dick as it seemed to get bigger and harder every minute. He found that he could take all but about two inches into his lips. He determined that he would get it all inside his mouth, it was something that he wanted to do. A cock he found was a little like a balloon toy. You can squeeze the head of a dick and it will get smaller as long as you hold the pressure on it, once you let off with the pressure it gets as big if not bigger almost instantly.

Jamie let the big cock slide out of his mouth until only the head was in his mouth and then he clamped down on it with his tongue and lips. He pressed against it with his mouth until he felt it start to get smaller, he trapped the head against the back of his teeth and pushed up with his tongue, at the same time as he locked his lips as tightly as he could behind the head on Phillips cock. Jamie felt the head get even smaller, he swirled his tongue around the head lavishing it with slobber and spit. Jamie plunged down the shaft, feeling the cockhead slip into his throat, pushing his face into the mass of stiff bristles of hair that grew so thick at the base of this wonderful cock. Jamie held his face there pushing into the bigger mans stomach with his nose and forehead. He felt the cockhead as it resumed it bigger size inside of his throat, blocking all hope of air. Still Jamie held his place with his face screwed down as far as it would go on Phillips cock. When he could hold out no longer he came up, slowly letting his face fuck and suck this fine cock as he raised his head high enough to get a breath of air sucked in around the cock in his mouth, and he went down to the bottom again, holding himself there letting his throat do the work as the muscles worked against the dick like they were trying to swallow it whole.

Phillip watched in disbelief as Jamie took all of his cock right into his face. He felt the muscles as they worked on his dick inside the boy’s throat. He marveled at how long the boy could hold him there and he marveled at how quickly the boy dove back down to let his throat continue to fuck this cock just like a pussy would. It was all just too much for Phillip, he felt the cum as it began to shoot out of his cock without warning. It was like suddenly he was just there and it was over. He felt Jamie as he pushed his face even deeper onto the cock that he was draining now. Phillip could see the boys neck move as he worked at swallowing all that hot cum. The boy came up for air and went back down twice before he was through shooting his cum. Jamie didn’t’ t miss a drop he got it all. Phillip had been leaning against the front fender of the car, he stood up and pulled Jamie to his feet. He pulled the boy to him and kissed him hard on the mouth, his tongue demanding access and getting it. The boy opened up and started to kiss back sucking on the tongue just as he had the cock that had just left his mouth. Phillip could taste his cum in the boys mouth but he didn’t care he wanted to make this boy love him and this would be the way it was done. The boy would change but only a little at a time, in his heart Phillip knew that this was going to work. He now knew that Jamie would be happy as a slut, this was going to be easier then he had thought. He let the boy go as he stopped the kiss, he held the boy out at arms length and looked him. The first thing that drew his eye was the boy’s hard dick, the second was that the boy still had his hands behind his back. Truth be known it excited the boy as much as it did the man. Jamie decided that if Phillip wanted his hands behind his back then he would keep them there until Phillip told him that he could move them. Phillip pulled the boys hands out to his sides and then he took them into his own hands he raised the hands to his lips and started to lovingly kiss on Jamie’s fingers.

“That was the best that I have ever had,” Phillip looked down into the younger mans eyes, ” I don’t see how it could ever get any better. I think that I am one lucky man. Thank you. Now go get dressed, you need to break in a new car, show it off to your friends, have fun.” Phillip slapped the naked boy on the ass and started to playfully chase him around the car. No telling what might have happened if the phone hadn’t started to ring. Phillip went inside to answer it.

Jamie left to get dressed, when he got back in the living room Phillip was on the phone. The boy could tell that the man was irritated when he hung up the receiver.

“I got to go, ” he said with no attempt to hide his disappointment, “to file some papers in Greenville before court opens tomorrow.”

“You want me to come with you, we could take my new car”. The boy didn’t want this great feeling between the two of them to end.

Phillip just smiled and shook his head, “No little one, I want you to get your ass out of here and have enough fun to last you through all those long days on the boat” His eyes twinkled as his hand shot out like a snake and slapped that sweet ass that he loved so much. “Get out there and chase down some fun. I am going to get packed and drive up to Greenville tonight, be there first thing in the morning and maybe get this shit over with before noon or so. I be back tomorrow in time to push off by nine P.M. don’t you let me down now. Have a good time but be here in time to push off with me.”

It was a bit of a mood breaker for the boy, it would have been nice to spend the evening showing this man how much he enjoyed his company and his touch. But then again he did have the car of his dreams and he was being turned loose for a night and a day with it.

“I’ll be here Phillip, and thanks again for being the great guy that you are to me.” He stuck out his small hand to shake with him but Phillip pulled him close for a back slapping hug.

“Get the fuck out of here you little slut before I want to suck your sweet dick again.”

The proud young man turned the key in his new car, the motor fired right up. It sounded strong and hungry like a predator. He put it in gear and let it slowly rumble it’s way out the driveway. He looked back to see Phillip as he waved good-bye. He turned onto the highway and headed for Vicksburg. He was loving life at the time and felt that he owed Phillip a great big thank-you-very-much kind of evening once they got into the trip upstream. He could hardly wait to show the car to Molly and Larry.

Jamie hit the highway the car purring beneath him the seats warm against his back. He had the windows down and the radio up. He felt like a kid on Christmas morning, proud and happy with his new toys. He had time to kill and it was a warm, sunny day he decided that he would take the ferry and drive up on the west side of the river. The east side of the river along here is a high rocky bluff standing thirty feet above the river and running for miles in both directions. The western side of the river is flat, level and low, perfect for farming with its rich black dirt. He took the ferry across the river and drove north on the Louisiana. side of the river. Long straight roads that were perfectly level ran through cotton fields as far as you could see on both sides of the road. There was no traffic; ‘ California dreaming’ was on the radio. He had come a long ways since Colorado Springs.

His thoughts went back to Phillip and what the man might want of him in return for this fine car. Phillip had spared no expense when he got this car. The car was much nicer then anything that Jamie had ever dreamed of owning. This was a top of the line car, a classic. What would be required of him to earn a car as nice as this? What did he have to offer? There were only two answers, nothing and everything.

Jamie knew what Phillip wanted from him. In a way it was every whores dream, a rich client falls in love and takes you for his wife. He took a certain pride in calling himself a ‘whore’, now Phillip had called his bluff and offered to buy him. This car was the down payment. No, when he climbed onto the boat tomorrow he would be bought and paid for, property belonging to another man. What exactly did that mean, Jamie knew that Phillip would take charge if he went on the boat. Phillip had told him in words that allowed for no miss understanding that he expected to always be obeyed while they were on the boat. He had a natural sense of command even here in the boat yard. Jamie found that he enjoyed following his orders, working for him. Now with the gift of the car and those fat checks Phillip had raised the stakes considerably. Jamie had known that the main reason for offering him a ride north on the boat was just to have the sex. Now Jamie felt that Phillip had the right to ask for almost anything. Jamie felt that he maybe had sold more of himself then he had realized.

Jamie was surprised when he felt his dick throb against his leg. He hadn’t been aware that he had a hard-on. Just thinking about being under his command had made his dick get hard. Jamie was really in over his head here. Jamie saw a wide clearing under some trees off to his left, he drove his new car through the high grass until it was enveloped in the dark shadows of the old oak trees. He scanned the horizon checking on all sides for traffic, nothing in sight. He unzipped his jeans and pulled his hard dick through the opening. As he continued to let his thoughts dwell on the new factors in his life he gently stroked and teased his cock.

There was a part of him that knew that Phillip wanted more from him then he had been willing to give. How much would he have to give to earn this car? What if Phillip wanted him to dress up as a girl, would he? What if Phillip wanted to take him in the ass? The thought had crossed his mind before but he always thought that he would never allow that to happen. Before this morning Jamie had always told himself that he would never suck a dick or kiss a guy. Yet so far today he had sucked a dick until it was dry and he had swallowed every drop of the cum, eagerly he had swallowed the cum. He had let a man kiss him and had sucked his tongue just as lovingly as he had sucked on his cock. There was no way that Jamie would have thought that he would have allowed these things to happen to him. He still didn’t understand why he had dropped his defenses and let Phillip cross so many of his boundaries. He found himself asking if there was anything that was still off limits to Phillip. Such weird things started to run through his head. Tattoo’s, collars, restraints, each item came with it’s own little question attached, ‘Would I’?

His mind took him back to this afternoon. He pictured himself standing naked before Phillip, his hands behind his back, his dick hard standing straight out from his body. This time he pictured his hands being in restraints, leather cuffs that locked together.

His dick jumped in his hand a shudder ran through his body, he took his hand away from his dick because he didn’t want to cum yet. In this dream like image he saw himself as he knelt before the chair that Phillip sat in. Jamie watched as Phillip pulled his large dark dick out of his pants; he held it out to Jamie. The cock was semi-erect, fat but still very bendable, it looked like it might be only six inches long but it was really fat. Jamie watched as his hand reached out to take a gentle grip on the cock. The dream shifts to a different view, Jamie sees his hand as it brings the hardening cock to his face. It is hot and heavy in his hand as he guides it toward his opening lips. In it’s semi-hard state it fills the young mans mouth like expanding foam reaching every remote corner. The cock fills his head so completely that he can’t breathe.

Somehow, this doesn’t bother him at all. He starts to swirl his tongue around the hardening cock as he hears Phillip from above him say,

“That’s right, get that thing good and wet.”

Getting it wet has become much harder since it has grown too big to fit his mouth around. Jamie has to content himself with licking and sucking the head and about three inches inside his mouth.

Jamie opened his eyes with a jerk of his head. Holy shit! He had cum all over his pants leg, a long skinny string of cum reached down to the knee on his leg. Cum ran down the inside of the door panel, it dripped from the steering wheel. Jamie looked in vain for something to clean up the mess with. There was nothing, the cum was soaking into everything now, he took to running his fingers across his pants leg and scooping the cum up as best as he could. His hands were covered in cum and his pants leg was wet there was only one thing to do. Jamie smiled to himself as he imagined Phillip giving the command.

“Eat that cum, eat it all up little one.”

Jamie sucked his hands and fingers clean of his cum. He then bent his head over the steering wheel and started to give the entire wheel a tongue bath, licking and kissing until it gleamed bright and clean again. His fucking dick got hard again as soon as he started to lick the wheel. Jamie went one step further he imagined Phillip telling him to strip and suck the cum stains out of his jeans.

Jamie looked around again, nothing in sight in any direction. He stood in the grass and took his clothes off. Naked as a jaybird he stood in front of his new car and sucked the cum stains from his jeans. When he was sure they were clean he placed them along with the rest of his clothes in the trunk and slammed the lid shut. It was very exciting to be so exposed like this. He walked around the car to the drivers side opened the door and knelt in the tall grass to lick the cum from the door panel. His dick was hard as a rock. Jamie imagined Phillip telling him that he wanted him to cum two more times before he could put his clothes back on. Naturally Phillip wanted Jamie to eat the cum both times. In Jamie’s mind Phillip was riding in the car watching Jamie as he did this chore for him. Jamie drove slowly through some of the most conservative areas of the country naked and beating his meat for his imaginarily friend. It didn’t take long before Jamie felt his juices start to rise and he shot a stream of hot sperm into the palm of his hand. Without a second thought he tossed as much as he could into his mouth and started to lick up what was left. When his hand was clean he went back to stroking his meat. Phillip wanted another cum before he could get dressed. Jamie stroked himself and thought of doing whatever Phillip wanted him to do. The thought of Phillip fucking him in the ass was something that really worried Jamie. He now knew that he could give a good blowjob if he had to, and he knew that he could give a great hand-job. Jamie knew how to give the meat to a guy, he had fucked many willing assholes. But Jamie didn’t think that he could take a mans cock up his asshole. It would hurt too much. He could never enjoy it. A nagging voice asked him if it mattered if he enjoyed it. Maybe it only mattered if Phillip enjoyed it.

Jamie could enjoy the car.

Phillip could enjoy the fuck.

Jamie’s mind traveled down a new path now.

Jamie saw himself tied and bent across the foot of a large brass bed. His arms were locked in restraints behind his back a leather strap ran up Jamie’s back to connect with a ring on his collar, forcing his arms painfully high on his back The rail was high and Jamie had to stand on tiptoes to bend across the foot of the bedstead as he was .His legs were spread wide and tied to each corner of the bed frame. Phillip stood beside him stroking his back with his hand he was telling Jamie something. Phillip reached over to a table and picked up a box. He handled it like it was heavy; he set it on the bed beside Jamie. It was heavy, making the bed sag where it sat. Phillip opened the box and Jamie could see that it held three butt plugs. They seemed to be made of marble and there were different sizes. There was no small, the smallest was really a medium being about six inches long and the thickness of a sliver dollar at its thickest point it was colored a pale blue but like marble everywhere it had strands of color running through it. Something about this color was soothing to Jamie like sunlight on blue water. Phillip held the blue butt-plug in his hand. Phillip offered the butt-plug to Jamie’s lips. Jamie reached out with his lips to kiss the butt-plug. Jamie sucked the plug deep into his mouth wetting it with his mouth’s juices. Phillip smoothed a coating of Vaseline onto the marble surface and when he was finished placed the plug at the opening of Jamie’s asshole.

Kat fed us gourmet-shop chicken fettuccine she had stashed in the fridge. I wasn’t truly hungry so I just picked at it, but Daniel ate his dutifully. Something he learned to do in the Army, eat whenever he could. Perched on the edge of a stool while we ate at the kitchen island, Kat got us up to speed.

“I’m supposed to meet Scott Wyman tonight outside the precinct so we can talk about the case. I thought I’d bring him back here, where you two will be waiting, and you can talk to him, Daniel, and convince him to get into the Chicago PD network and download your video files to my system, and I’ll send them to the server at the Times for safekeeping. Once it’s there, I can break that part of the story and you’ll be instantly proven innocent in front of the world.” She grinned. The Pulitzer Prize was probably dancing through her head.

“What if Wyman doesn’t want to be convinced?” I asked. She blinked at me like she hadn’t even thought of that when it seemed obvious to me. “You can’t just break his fingers and force him.”

“I can,” Daniel said under his breath. He grinned at me, and at Kat who was looking worried, wondering if her plan had holes in it. “Don’t worry. Once I talk to him, he’ll do it. I’m very persuasive. And while he’s here, he can tell me where he’s keeping the rest of the evidence in the case against Adkins, and I can take him with me to pick it up, just in case he tries to fuck me over again.”

Though he was just as matter-of-fact as always, I sensed a hard edge in his words. I also didn’t fail to notice that he was using “I” and “me” again; it was back to being a solo effort. I knew it was only because he wanted to protect me, but if he thought I was just going to let him push me aside, he had another thing coming.

We talked over a few things while we ate and Kat typed a few notes on her laptop on the counter next to her. Her apartment, though pleasant and airy, was small and I couldn’t help feeling claustrophobic. For once, I was the one pacing restlessly, while Daniel sat still at the center island carefully reviewing Kat’s notes. When the door buzzer went off, though, we both jumped out of our skins.

Daniel was instantly on his feet, hand darting behind him for the handle of his gun before he realized it wasn’t there. “Who’s that?”

“Don’t worry,” she told us, going for the intercom. “That’s just Alex Stanbury, a colleague from the Times. We can trust him.” She pushed the button and said “Alex?” into the intercom. A male voice answered “Yup.”

“Why’d you call him over here?” Daniel was still jumpy and displeased.

She paused before buzzing Alex in. “Because when I go to meet Wyman, it wouldn’t be smart to go alone, and neither one of you can get that close to the station. I called him for backup, and he’s also very good with computers in case we need help with Wyman.”

Suspicion still lingered in Daniel’s eyed but he knew Kat was thinking straight and he nodded his head. She hit the buzzer and a few minutes later, heavy footsteps came up the hallway. Kat opened the door and let in a big, round young man with a sweet face somewhere in the scruffy beard and wool cap. He smiled shyly and shook our hands when Kat introduced us all. Along with the teddy-bear cuddliness, there was a definite gay vibe in the way he looked at Daniel when he thought nobody noticed.

The minute Alex sat down at his laptop, his awkwardness disappeared. In just a few seconds, he was working with Daniel to get past the Tampa PD’s intranet security codes. He didn’t even need the USB. His fingers flew over the keyboard and when I saw Daniel turn and look at him with something approaching awe over a brilliant point he’d made, I actually felt a stab of jealousy. Fuck, I hadn’t been jealous in so long I didn’t even think I felt it anymore. I didn’t like it and I squelched it immediately, so he would never suspect. I trusted Daniel and I wouldn’t put the burden of being responsible for my feelings on him. Soon enough, I had myself almost convinced I’d never felt it at all. Nope, not me.

There was no way I could keep up with the technical aspects of the conversation between Alex and Daniel, even as Alex patiently explained everything in layman’s terms. Kat was talking at great length into her cell phone, gesturing as she paced around the apartment, so I used her desktop computer to log into my own email. There were quite a few frantic and worried messages from friends who’d seen me on the news, and about a dozen each from my editor Nick and Lauren, my agent, but I couldn’t answer them. The words blurred as I read fear and despair from Josie and Drew and Lauren. Bringing my dear friends such worry broke my heart. But if someone was watching them, waiting for me to make contact, an ISP address could be logged and lead to my whereabouts, and Daniel’s, and all this would be for nothing.

****

Chapter 28

“I hope you’re not planning on doing anything…-”

“Stupid?” Daniel supplied when I stopped to consider my words.

“I was going to say risky. But stupid works.” I nodded and he laughed slightly.

“Don’t worry, Ry. I didn’t come all this way to fuck up now.”

He stared out the windshield into the dark, lit by streetlights and the bright circles of slow oncoming headlights, squinting in concentration. In the front seat, Alex was at the wheel of Kat’s SUV. The tinted side windows protected Daniel and I from being seen while we sat here waiting for Kat to arrive in Alex’s car with Scott Wyman. Night had fallen and we were parked on a side street about a mile from the station house where Wyman had just gotten off his shift. Daniel thought this was a better, safer plan than sending Kat and Alex to bring him back to the apartment; he felt like less would go wrong if he were there himself. At first, he tried to get me to stay at the apartment, but when I pointed out he might need extra backup if Wyman freaked out, he couldn’t argue with my logic.

“I think this is them,” Alex mumbled softly.

I tensed up and expected Daniel to do the same, but he didn’t. When I glanced over at him, he was casual and relaxed with no sign of nervousness. Just a cold gleam in his eyes that reflected in the headlights. He leaned back into the corner of the seat, staying out of the light, while we watched Alex’s car stop of the other side of the street. Kat and a guy who had to be Scott Wyman crossed the snow-scraped street and came closer to the car. Wyman looked confused and skeptical, arguing with Kat as she opened the passenger side front door, right in front of me.

As he got in, he was protesting and then Kat slammed the door behind him. Alex hit the locks and Wyman’s face dawned with alarmed realization, eyes flickering around, demanding what the hell was happening as the vehicle moved away from the curb. At the same time, Daniel sat up out of the shadow.

“Hey Scott,” he said in a low, even voice. His gun was nowhere in sight, but I knew it could be in his hand in an instant. Wyman gasped and stared at Daniel with his mouth hanging open; and then I watched a huge grin spread over his face.

“Fuck. Danny. It’s you. With this manhunt and what I heard about St. Louis, I didn’t know what to think.”

“I’ll bet,” Daniel said evenly.

“What in the hell happened, man?” Wyman went on seemingly oblivious to Daniel’s demeanor. Odd, very odd. “They said you evaded capture but you were headed there to help them. Did somebody set you up?”

“You tell me, Scott.”

The way the man’s eyes flew open was almost comical. He was average looking, nothing special, not like Daniel. Just a solid-looking guy in khakis and a parka who probably had a wife and kids and a picket fence.

“You don’t think I had anything to do with…” When he finally looked in Daniel’s eyes in the dim light of the streetlights passing by, he started shaking his head adamantly. “I didn’t, Danny, I swear. I didn’t know anything about a set-up, the orders came down from the captain and I was just…”

“Just following orders,” Daniel finished with a slight sneer. “Did you have the orders checked out? Did you follow up with them and then double check just in case, or did you just leave me out in the fucking cold? Yeah, I thought so.”

“But the captain came in my office with an FBI agent and told me exactly what I told you, I didn’t have any idea it wasn’t legit.”

“So your captain’s in on it too.”

Wyman’s eyes bugged out. “Never noticed anything off before.”

“We both know that’s no guarantee.” He growled, and I knew his thoughts were on Olmos, his own captain, the one person he thought he could trust.

“No, but you believe me, don’t you Danny? That I didn’t turn on you? You know I wouldn’t do that, right?”

Daniel sighed wearily. Something about the way this guy was behaving, like an eager, slobbering puppy rolling over to the alpha male, the way he kept calling him Danny, rubbed me the wrong way. He made my skin crawl, so I was surprised when Daniel finally made a face.

“Yeah,” Daniel said grudgingly. “It wasn’t intentional but it was still sloppy and it almost got me killed. You can get my trust back by getting past intranet security on the CPD network and downloading my video feed.”

“I can do that, no problem.” Scott nodded eagerly.

“And as soon as we’re done with that, you’re going to take me to the rest of the evidence so I can finish this.”

Scott’s agreement was a little slower this time but Daniel seemed to accept it at face value. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it. My instincts were all going against trusting this guy, but I told myself that Daniel knew him better than I did. They were in the Gulf together. I trusted Daniel’s gut, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t watching Scott Wyman’s every move. I wasn’t taking my eyes off him for a second.

After introducing me to Scott without any explanation of who I was - he hardly needed it with my face all over the news - Daniel spent the rest of the trip back to Kat’s telling him an abbreviated version of the events that got us here. When we pulled up in front of Kat’s building, I followed along in silence behind Scott, Daniel and Alex as they all discussed the security within the police department’s internal network. Yeah, Daniel had it all under control, and I wanted to be relieved. I really did.

Kat had beaten us back to her apartment and was waiting. In Kat’s living room in front of Alex’s laptop, Scott remotely accessed the Chicago Police Department’s files where he had encoded and stored Daniel’s video feed. Everything went smoothly though I could tell by the tension across Daniel’s shoulders that he was expecting trouble after what happened to him in the Tallahassee network. With a USB cable, Alex directed it to Kat’s computer, remotely hooked up to the Sun-Times’ server. Daniel called me over from the couch where I was scribbling in my notebook to keep my mind off my unease.

“Rylan, watch.”

They were huddled around a small box on the screen. I had to squint because it was dark, grainy and hard to see but when the action started happening on the screen, it was unmistakable. I wedged myself against Daniel’s warm body and he leaned against me. My heart banged in my chest as we both stared at the tiny images.

I was seeing exactly what he saw that night, seeing through his eyes.

A door leading into a house. The camera shook with Daniel’s steps and I could see his hands in the bottom edge, opening the screen door with gun drawn. Another cop with him, walking close. I could see bits and pieces of his body but not his face. Frowning, Alex turned up the volume but when nothing came out, he let out a growl and turned pleadingly apologetic eyes up to Daniel.

“Shit. The audio feed dropped.”

“No matter.” Daniel shook his head without looking away from the screen. He was grim, but calm. I had to force myself look away from him, back at the screen. I didn’t want to look. I knew what was going to happen.

Through the door and down a cluttered hallway. Crappy house like you always see on Cops with a filthy floor. Dim shapes in room with a couch, men in police uniforms. Their faces are grainy but recognizable, for someone who knew them. I heard Kat make a little sound in her throat and I tensed because I knew what was coming. The man, the big cop on the other side of the room, talks to Daniel, his mouth moving silently, and the other cops in the room fidget around nervously, pacing and peering through the shabby blinds like they’re waiting for someone.

The cop on the screen suddenly smiles right at Daniel. This is Sgt. Adkins. There is a scuffle as the officer he came in with knocks around Daniel. The camera jumps and jerks wildly then finally stops close to the floor. Daniel must be on his knees at this point and the periphery of the camera catches the toes of other officer’s boots on either side, standing behind Daniel holding him down on the floor. One of the other officers, alert now, comes forward and then appears back in the camera’s eye with a gun in his hand, which he hands over to Adkins. Daniel’s gun. I just know it. They took Daniel’s gun and now he’s on his knees, unarmed and helpless. He’s standing here right next to me unharmed and whole, but I still feel an overwhelming sick fear and my knees get weak. I want to look away but I can’t. I stare at the tiny blurry image on the screen, we all stare as Adkins lifts the gun and points it at Daniel. Smiles and pulls the trigger.

A giant, soundless jolt; something drops onto the floor next to Daniel but beyond the camera’s reach. After a moment of confusion, the camera turns and there is a leg, lying on the floor. A body and a river of dark blood. Officer McKee, the one who walked in with Daniel, the one who disarmed him and pushed him to the floor, shot with Daniel’s gun. I know he dies.

The camera can’t show us if he was killed instantly or if he’s in a pool of blood, in agony. Adkins doesn’t even look at him. He just stares at Daniel and grins while the blood seeps closer to where Daniel is motionless on the floor. At Adkins’ command, another cop comes forward and drags Daniel to his feet from behind and pushes him face-first against the wall so that all the camera sees is the stained wallpaper.

And then the camera jolts, the picture turns to static, and goes black.

There was a brief silence in the room, broken by Daniel.

“There’s your proof,” he muttered.

I started to grab his arm but he moved away from me. I let him go but I looked him in the eyes to make sure he knew that I never doubted it, ever.

“What happened when the camera stopped?” Kat demanded. “How did you get out of there?”

“One of Adkins’ men grabbed me and pushed me against the wall. When he did, the camera came loose. He spotted it and ripped it off me and smashed it.” Daniel shrugged. “I figured I was already dead by then. Adkins shot McKee with my gun because he wanted everyone to think I was the dirty cop, that I had killed McKee and he was the big hero for bringing me down, to prove to IAD that he couldn’t be touched. He was going to arrest me and make sure I was sent to death row. When they found the wire he was about to beat the hell out of me, just to get his point across before he took me in. With so many witnesses from the force, nobody would’ve believed me.”

When I saw him that day in the café, he wasn’t bruised and beaten. My mind went back and spun through our first meeting. He looked a little tired, but he didn’t show signs of the terrible ordeal he’d been through. It awed me, how this all seemed routine to him.

“But then…?” Kat prompted gently after she’d given him a moment.

“But then whoever owned the house came home. Or a rival gang or something. I don’t know what happened. Thugs were everywhere and shots were fired and I saw a chance to get the fuck out there in the confusion, so I did. When something like that happens, you don’t question it. I didn’t stop to analyze the situation, I just slipped out the front door though the gunfire and blood and I was gone. I drove around for a while to make sure I wasn’t being followed, and then I headed to my safe house. You know the rest from there, I think.”

The rest was that he ditched his vehicle, caught a Greyhound to Atlanta and hooked up with me. He could’ve died. If Adkins had had ten more seconds, Daniel would be dead. My legs turned to water and I had to sit down.

“That’s amazing,” Alex mumbled from over at the computer. His eyes worshipped Daniel shyly before he looked away blushing.

Daniel shook his head dismissively. “Nah. Just my job.”

“Now that your story has been verified I’m going to put this on the wire,” Kat said, going back to her hardened reporter persona. “It won’t take long for it to be up on all the news sites,” meaning soon, Daniel’s innocence would be indisputable. He couldn’t be arrested for murder and the police, FBI and ATF would have to move in on this investigation and take over. The relief was staggering.

“Okay Scott,” Daniel turned to him as Kat disconnected cables and slid into her chair and Alex typed on his laptop. “Now where’s my evidence?”

“Um, see… the thing is, I don’t… exactly know.”

“You don’t know?” Daniel repeated after being speechless for a moment, while Scott squirmed under his ice-cold glare.

“Yeah. Well, when this shit all started to come down with you, I got nervous. I knew they’d figure out that you had a copy of all your evidence, and I knew they’d trace it back to me at some point. I didn’t want it nearby in case they started watching me, so I hid it.”

“And you don’t know where?” Daniel was having a hard time staying calm. It was a rare and unnerving sight, seeing his jaw muscles tense as he struggled not to explode. He started to pace before his excess energy couldn’t be contained.

“I… Not exactly. See, I put it in a geocache.”

“A what?”

“A geocache,” Alex spoke up in his usual shy mumble. “It’s a sport, or a game… People put items into a container and post the GPS coordinates on this website forum… and then when someone finds it, they log it.”

“Right,” Scott nodded. “And I left instructions with the container asking whoever found it to move it to another set of coordinates. It’s not lost…I know it’s in the Chicago area. All I have to do to find it would be to decode all the coordinates and then track it on a GPS.”

“That’s all, huh? I can’t fucking believe you put evidence in a major nation-wide criminal case into a fucking game, Scott. What the fuck were you thinking?” Daniel remained calm but only just barely.

“Hey, back off, man. I told you I got nervous and I have a family, remember?”

That headed Daniel off. I saw his little intake of breath and his eyes dropped to the floor. I knew he was thinking about Ray. He’d already lost his own family to this. That was enough.

“Okay. Okay. Let’s just find this goddamn container of yours before somebody else does.”

“No problem.” Scott pulled a chair up next to Alex, who was already on the official Global Geocaching website. Daniel watched them, and so did I at first. But the long day of strain and anxiety had me totally drained so I sank down on the couch to keep an eye on Scott. Before I knew it, my eyes were so heavy, I thought I might just close them for a few minutes.

*****

Chapter 29

I woke up sleepy and confused. Daniel was half-reclining next to me in the corner of the big sectional couch, slowly running his fingers through my hair. It was dark except for the glow of Alex’s computer on the other side of the room, where he was still hunched over the screen pecking steadily at the keys.

“Did you find it?” I asked in a voice that turned out much more sleepy and plaintive that I’d meant it to. Daniel smiled.

“Almost,” he answered softly. I noticed that across from us, on the other side of the sectional, Scott was restless lump. Kat must’ve gone to bed.

“What time is it?” I put my head in his lap. The denim of his jeans was soft against my cheek, warmed through by his skin. His fingers tugged gently at my hair. I was starting to get a little turned on but I tried to ignore the shivers. Not exactly the right time.

“Almost four. Scott had gotten those coordinates encrypted, and he didn’t know the code. Alex had to break it. He’s getting it all worked out now.”

“I should get up so we can go when he’s finished.” I started to sit up but Daniel caught my arm.

“We’re not going yet, we’re going to wait till morning.”

“Oh.”

I was content to lay my head back down on his lap and close my eyes while his fingertips brushed my scalp. I was torn between sleep and the tingles slowly gathering in my belly and spreading down into my balls. I knew he was doing it on purpose. My dick started to rise despite Alex sitting just couple of yards away, and Scott sleeping nearby. I sucked in a breath and Daniel laughed softly. His touch became deliberately slow and sensual and when I looked up at him, he was gazing down at me intently, eyes crinkled in the corners. He teased me with his fingertips, raking through my hair and over all those sensitive spots on my neck and shoulders that he knew so well. I nuzzled his thigh and reached up to stroke the faded denim in little circles with my palm. Of course, it crept up from his thigh to his crotch and I smiled even wider, eyes still closed, when I felt him getting hard. Alex was probably looking but I didn’t care. All I cared about was the faint but distinct throbbing of his erection pulsing under the pads of my fingers.

My head hit the couch cushion as Daniel suddenly stood up, dumping me off his lap. He grabbed my hand and pulled me with him through the doorway into the small, warm bathroom. Alex stared over his shoulder at us. The door clicked shut and Daniel flipped on a small light above the sink with one hand as he turned me around to face him. I loved seeing that smile when he dropped his chin to kiss me. The light in his eyes made my knees weak. He wrapped his arms around me, surrounding me, kissing me, tasting my mouth. His tongue traced patterns on the roof of my mouth and I sucked at it greedily, clinging to his neck. I pressed my hips forward into his and the friction of my cock against his made me moan with pleasure.

“Shhh.” He grinned and whispered against my lips. “We always seem to end up in the bathroom.”

“Yeah. In someone else’s house, where we can’t make a sound.”

I didn’t mean to sound pouty but I did, and he ran his hand through my hair with a gentle touch. “When this is all over, Rylan, I promise we’ll spend time together, somewhere that it’s just us.”

“Can it have electricity this time?” I pretended to complain as I pulled his lips to mine. I loved kissing him when he was laughing. I loved the softness of his lower lip when I drew it between mine and nibbled. I loved our noses smashing together as we stared into each others’ eyes. I loved the little kisses he trailed down my chin, over my jaw, on my nose and forehead and eyelids.

Hands, skimming down my chest, teasing my nipples through my shirt just the way I liked it. His hands and his lips were slow and tender, instead of demanding. I reached up and ran my hand all over his head and felt him shiver in response. Without saying the words, I tried to put all my love into my answering touches and kisses so he would feel it surrounding him. He brushed his lips and tongue down my neck to that little spot on my collarbone and I felt my knees start to go out from underneath me.

With a smirk, Daniel eased me back against the sink, so that it was supporting my weight. Then he locked his eyes on mine and started to sink to his knees. I instinctively gripped the edge of the sink and struggled not to throw my head back. I wanted to watch him.

I watched him run his hands down my chest and over my belly and down my thighs in one smooth stroke that left me trembling. I watched him nuzzle the hard ridge of my cock through my pants, and lick at my balls. I watched him grin up at me devilishly as he popped the button on my pants and drew down the straining zipper.

My cock sprang right into his face and he licked the length before wrapping his lips around the head and then I was totally lost in his warmth. We never broke our stare as he sucked my cock slowly with his hands on my thighs. Warm tingles shot up through my belly until I felt them in my fingers and toes and all I could see were his eyes through a haze of yellow sunbursts. He’d somehow unzipped his pants with one hand and he was stroking himself while he sucked me off, looking up into my eyes, and I was fucking lost. The intensity of the sight got me off so hard I bit my lip and scratched at the sink while I shot into his mouth and he never looked away as he swallowed my cum steadily. I caught the back of his neck and trembled through my aftershocks, the world tumbling and spinning like a dryer around me, and his eyes went back and he moaned softly around my deflating cock as he spurted into his hand and onto my pant leg. Then he was laughing and wrapping his arms around me, back on his feet, kissing me with his sweet juicy mouth.

“Fuck, you taste good,” I whispered. I closed my eyes and tried not to tremble like a leaf. God, his taste, his scent, the way he kissed me just…

“No, that’s you.” He laughed. I sagged against him, laughing weakly. I was in a warm little cloud now and somehow without my noticing, Daniel had gotten me tucked in and zipped up and back onto the couch with his arm wrapped around me and everything was hazy. The last thing I was aware of, dimly, was his voice telling me to get some sleep.

***

“Shit!”

When I sat up and it was gray morning and Daniel and Scott were nowhere to be found, I knew exactly what they’d done. Alex was snoozing in the recliner and I got right in his face and shook him.

“Where the fuck are they?”

“Wha-huh?” He started awake with a snort and stared at me blearily, trying to make sense of what was happening.

“Daniel and Scott. They’re gone.”

“Yeah.” He nodded, eager to be of help when he’d finally shaken off the sleep. “Daniel wanted you to stay here, he said you were safer here. He and Scott went to go locate the geocache.”

That son of a bitch. He’d dragged me into the bathroom to give me a blowjob so I’d crash out and he could get up and leave me behind. “Motherfucker,” I swore softly. “Get up and take me to him, Alex.”

“But, it’s okay, Scott’s with him…”

“I don’t trust Scott. Dammit, Alex. You know where they are, I know you do.”

“But he just didn’t want anything to happen to you,” Alex protested, even as he lurched to his feet and started fumbling for his shoes.

“Well, I don’t want anything to happen to him. And you don’t either, do you, Alex.”

He blushed because I’d noticed his little glances and the way he got flustered when Daniel looked his way. Hell, he’d only sat up the whole night helping Daniel when he’d just met the man a few hours ago. How the fuck could I miss it? It only mirrored exactly how I felt.

“No, I… just let me go tell Kat,” he practically whimpered. As he disappeared down the hall, I frantically went through Daniel’s bag, searching for his gun. Please let him have it with him. My heart was racing madly and my stomach turned nauseating flips. When I found the gun, I felt my gut drop out from under me. Why did he leave the apartment without it? Wherever Daniel was with that piece of shit Scott, he was unarmed and I had to get to him.

The gun was kept loaded, but without a round in the chamber. With a ch-chunk, I slid a bullet home and put the gun into the pocket of my parka, where it would be easily accessible. I just had this weird feeling I could barely put into words that Daniel might need it. Alex grabbed his coat and keys, affected by my urgency, and it was only a minute before we were down at the curb getting into his freezing cold car, breaths hanging in the air.

“Where are they?”

“Busse Lake. It’s a nature preserve about a half-hour from here.”

“I know where it is. Is this - whatever it is - hidden, or is it in plain view, or what?”

“Hard to say. They’re usually well hidden, but not buried; of course, the snow makes it all different. With all this snow cover, even when they locate the exact GPS coordinates they might still have to dig for it,” Alex explained as he cranked the car and pulled out.

“How the fuck did he get a GPS?”

“Oh… uh, my cell phone has one,” Alex mumbled guiltily. His tires clunked over piles of frozen, dirty sludge. I couldn’t believe he gave Daniel his cell phone so he could ditch me and go off on this damn fool treasure hunt. I wanted to ask him if he was fucking crazy, but I managed to stay silent. He’d thought he was helping Daniel; no doubt, he’d thought of me as the nagging, overprotective boyfriend. Shit! I still couldn’t believe Daniel trusted Scott, especially after Scott set him up once. No matter how he tried to deny it and act innocent, I was positive Scott had something to do with the incident in St. Louis and I believed he was leading Daniel into a trap now, unarmed and helpless…

“Shit. Can’t you drive any faster?” I demanded between my teeth.

He hit the accelerator. I’d long since lost track of what day it was, but I assumed it was a weekend since the roads were clear of usual morning rush-hour traffic. The delay was unbearable. Panic clawed at me, leaving ragged edges. The sun crept up somewhere behind the dark bank of clouds with slow and dreadful sameness. Alex wasn’t any more interested in speaking than I was. I didn’t trust Scott, but I trusted Alex. Despite the paranoia that Daniel managed to pass on to me, I had from the very first moment and I was grateful for his silent presence.

The open gates of the Ned Brown Preserve were just ahead. I felt myself getting lightheaded, my body’s reaction to adrenaline, but I refused to give into the looming panic. Instead of alert and cautious like Daniel said, adrenaline had a tendency to make me fuzzy and unfocused. “Do you know where to look?” I asked Alex sharply.

“The general area, yeah.” He headed down the narrow, winding paved roads, following the arrows that pointed to Busse Lake. The snow here was thick and still white and fresh, coating the barren ground and the dark skeleton trees. My eyes scanned around constantly, marking everything in sharp detail. My heart gave a mighty jump into my throat when I spotted Charlotte’s green Subaru parked at a pullover, and next to it, a Chicago police cruiser.

“Too late.” “Where?” I barked, grabbing the door handle.

“That way.” Alex pointed toward the trail that opened to my left with a sign showing the way to the lake. I jumped out of the car before it completely stopped moving and as soon as my feet touched the snow, I was running, my feet crunching on the frozen snow. The gun was a burning weight in my pocket. Soon, Alex’s heavy footfalls ran to catch up with me.

Couldn’t see through the thick trees. As I ran, I started to hear muffled voices. I recognized Daniel’s and my heart, already racing, nearly stopped. Instinctively, I reached into my coat pocket and drew Daniel’s gun, solid and cold to the touch, but reassuring. If I could just get it to him in time, he could protect himself…

A shot. Loud, muffled pop, then another and another. A shout, a scream and I burst into the clearing just as Daniel stumbled and fell into the snow. Scott was a short distance away on the left, standing over a uniformed officer lying on the ground, whose gun fell just as Scott crumpled from the shot.

Daniel lay in the middle of the clearing, and a man was about ten feet from him. Adkins. I recognized his handsome but chillingly vacant face from the video. He bent over and picked up a green ammunition case. No question this was the geocache, the box containing the evidence. He lifted his gun and pointed straight at Daniel lying helpless on the ground, clearly alive but not moving. His eyes flicked to me as I appeared from the mouth of the trail and that distraction gave me just enough time to raise my own gun and aim deliberately. No confusion, no fear, just cold rage. He hurt Daniel. Never fire at someone unless you plan to kill them, my grandfather taught me. Calmly, I pulled the trigger for one deafening shot and Adkins fell to the ground without a sound, a look of surprise frozen on his face.

I ran to Daniel. In the moment of firing, I was completely peaceful and clear, but seeing Daniel lying in the snow with dark blood wetting his parka and starting to drip into the snow was enough to send panic through my veins like ice water. Pushing it back fiercely, I lifted Daniel’s head into my arms. His eyes flickered open onto my face.

“You came,” he said. His eyes were shockingly blue against the white snow, where a dark stain of blood was starting to spread from his shoulder, soaking through his coat.

“Of course, I did. Always.” I cradled him against me. His breathing was shallow but not labored and despite the large amount of blood, when I lay him across my knees and opened his jacket, the wound was in his shoulder and not in his chest. Relief almost made me vomit. “You’re okay, Daniel. You’re okay. We’re going to get an ambulance.” I knew Alex was behind us, checking on Scott and the other officer. I knew he’d get a cell phone and call for help.

“Did you kill him?” Daniel asked rather blearily, as if he were very tired. He was lucid, but the bleeding had to be stopped soon. The exit wound was larger and bleeding far more than the entry wound. My fingers found the hole in the back of his shoulder and gently applied pressure to slow the blood flow. Help would be here soon. It had to be.

“Adkins? No. He’ll live. I wanted to kill him because he hurt you, and I could have.” I had to stop and take a deep breath. I’d aimed directly for the throat; this caliber of bullet at this short a range would have killed him, but at the last second I veered the barrel of the gun slightly and I shot him in the side. “But I missed on purpose because I didn’t want to let him off easy. I want him to pay. You will get justice for Ray, I swear it.”

Daniel smiled faintly. His face was turning sickeningly pale against the blood-spattered snow. Alex came up and hovered over us, a look of horror dawning when he stared down at Daniel.

“Scott’s dead,” he said softly. Carefully, he set the ammunition case down next to us.

“They were always going to kill him,” Daniel mumbled. “Because he saw the evidence. Only let him live this long to show them where it was. Thought he could bargain, use it to buy his life… always was fucked in the head…”

“Daniel, shhh.” I held him closer to my warmth. Alex mutely sank to his knees facing me and wrapped his arms around Daniel and me, adding the heat of his big body to mine to keep Daniel warm. In the distance, coming closer, we heard sirens. They couldn’t have gotten here this fast from any call Alex made, it had to be a backup call made by the patrol car before this went down. They were damn sure of themselves. Backup would have come upon the scene and found two dead perps, the fugitive cop Daniel and his accomplice Scott, gunned down by the two heroic officers. That would have been the story on the news. The cover-up would’ve made certain of it, but thanks to Kat and Alex, the truth would be told, complete with proof. Everything, all of it was going to come crashing down. Daniel had accomplished his mission and I hoped with all my heart that it would bring him the peace he needed.

The paramedics and the police arrived there at the same time. I felt myself being pulled off Daniel. Rough hands held me from behind and voices were talking to me but I barely noticed, they were next to Daniel checking his wounds and loading him onto a stretcher. Kat was there suddenly with a coat over her pajamas, she somehow managed to be everywhere. Dimly, I saw Alex and Kat talking to the cop who held the ammunition case, explaining. I knew Kat would make everything all right so I didn’t think about that. I really couldn’t care less about the evidence anyway, Daniel was the only thing that mattered, and everyone was talking at once while I stared at the paramedics loading Daniel into the back of an ambulance, his wrist handcuffed to the metal of the gurney. Face so pale, eyes closed. Wet with blood.

“Did he force you to help him, or was it of your own free will?”

The voice dawned on me, shaking me out of my haze. “Voluntary. He didn’t force me to do anything. I love him.”

“Then you’re under arrest for aiding and abetting a fugitive, fleeing arrest….” Cold metal handcuffs clicked around my wrists. Wait a minute, this wasn’t right, but I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t do anything. The voice kept talking, listing charges and reading me my Miranda rights but the creeping panic couldn’t be kept at bay anymore and when I found myself in the back of a squad car everything went blurry as the monster finally swallowed me.

****