Crossing the Line

by Naomi Aoki

  He’d given himself a pat on the back for not dragging Kennosuke to the nearest bed while in Japan. Not that it hadn’t been tempting, but Kennosuke’s injury had helped to keep his libido in check. Besides Brian didn’t do relationships, not long term and especially not ones that involved a separation of nine-thousand kilometres. He needed to move on, and so did Kennosuke.

  So, why was he texting Kennosuke? Flirting with him instead of leaving the man alone? Because it was so much damned fun.

  Grinning, Brian grabbed his car keys, snatched his hat off the bench where he’d left it and sauntered out the door. He stopped on the porch and stared out at the icy haze teasing the horizon, hoping he wouldn’t get lumped with traffic duty. Days like this it would be filled with idiots sliding across black ice and rear ending someone else. He only needed to get through the next few shifts and then he could pay a visit to his father to deliver the documents hidden his bedroom. Not that visiting his father would be a chore, there was always a recruit who had no idea who he was and ripe for Brian to scare the shit out of.

  KENNOSUKE STROLLED into the Araki-gumi owned club and cast an appreciative gaze over the men present. Maybe there’d be someone on the dancefloor capable of distract his mind from Brian, wanting the man’s domination of his thoughts to end. He sat on a bar stool at the far end of the bar and signalled the bartender. His usual request slid down the bar top to him, a local craft beer from a brewery Kennosuke planned to make his own. It was only a matter of time until they caved under the pressure, he’d already bought up their debt and was slowly making the payments harder and harder to pay. They still thought they could deter him and keep the business in their hands, but the harder the battle, the more he wanted it.

  He snorted as he realised it was the same with Brian. The more Brian pushed him away, the more determined he’d gotten. Except unlike business, money couldn’t solve this problem and his heart lay in tatters.

  Taking another swig of the beer, Kennosuke let his gaze drift over the dance floor, foot tapping on the stool in time with the music beat. Soon his presence in the bar would be noted and he’d have a line of eager bodies to pick from; all wanting to get a taste of the danger he exuded. He wanted, no needed to take someone home. Needed to banish the thoughts of Brian from his mind and reclaim his bruised heart – not that Kennosuke planned to hand it to anyone else for a while.

  Kennosuke grinned, watching as a man struck up the confidence to approach him and gestured for him to take the stool next to him. Tight fitting clothes accentuated a lithe muscular body that appealed to him. He ran his tongue across his bottom lip. Yeah, he’d do nicely. “Can I get you a drink?”

  “You can get me-” leaning in close to Kennosuke, hot breath ghosting over the shell of his ear. “-whatever you want, so long as I can take you home with me tonight.”

  “You going to make it worth my while?” He took another swig from the bottle, enjoying the confidence of the man, not afraid or hesitant to reach out and touch him. Kennosuke dropped his gaze to stare at the hand caressing his thigh, no sparks were flying not like the heated bursts of energy that scorched him whenever Brian touched him... Fuck, why is that man in my mind right now.

  Kennosuke placed the bottle down a little heavier than intended as the arousal he’d been trying to fan into life faded. He wouldn’t let it disappear, grasping at the faint strands coursing through him. Grinning at the man, he tilted his body toward him letting their legs bump together and waited for the man’s reply, hoping it would kickstart his flagging desire.

  “I can fuck you-” dragging his hand up Kennosuke’s thigh. “-nice and sweet.”

  His phone beeped and Kennosuke stared at Brian’s name, opening the message to find a picture of Brian in his uniform. Kennosuke’s breath hitched and the man next to him chuckled thinking it was because of him. Damn! He turned to the man leering at him and pried his fingers from his thigh. “I. Don’t. Do. Sweet.”

  He hopped off the bar stool, typed a reply to Brian and then called the men working in the backrooms of the nearby pachinko parlours, wanting to know if they had any difficult customers. Kennosuke needed another outlet for his frustration and pent up energy now that Brian’s message had ruined any hope he had of taking someone home to fuck.

  An hour and several bruised knuckles later Kennosuke stumbled into the apartment and tried not to let its emptiness get to him; the loneliness that lingered in the apartment now that he lived here alone. But it wasn’t even that, if Kennosuke was honest with himself, because it hadn’t bothered him when Jamie moved out. This feeling something new; something that had snuck up on him and blanketed him in a tight embrace he found hard to escape ever since Brian had set foot inside his apartment. And Kennosuke hated it. Hated the power the man still had over him despite living on the other side of the world. Brian didn’t give a shit about him and only enjoyed riling Kennosuke up. And it destroyed him a little more each time.

  Kicking off his shoes and slamming the door behind him, Kennosuke headed for the living room. He tugged off his jacket, dropping it on the back of the couch along with his tie and collapsed onto it. His cock ached. The photo of Brian once more graced the screen of his phone and Kennosuke’s mind easily supplied the images of him slowly undoing each button of the man’s uniform, sliding it from his shoulders and revealing Brian’s true self hidden beneath it. He thought about getting Brian back for the distracting message and send him one of his cock hard and aching for Brian’s touch. Liked the idea more and more as he tried to think how he could make sure the image showed off the new ink on his thighs. He knew how much Brian loved his tattoos.

  Kennosuke didn’t. Knew it could get Brian into trouble if the wrong person saw it and the deal they’d signed put at risk of being exposed.

  Throwing the phone at the couch, Kennosuke jumped to his feet and headed for the bathroom. A cold shower might bring him some relief. Kennosuke needed to remember Brian couldn’t give him what he wanted. Wouldn’t. The man ran hot and cold, toying with Kennosuke because it was fun and backing off the moment he showed Brian he wanted more. Kennosuke did want more. Deserved more.

  Brian was nothing more than a walking bag of contradictions wrapped up in a cold-hearted bastard. Did he really want to go there?

  He furiously rubbed at his face, wanting to rid his mind of Brian. Sleep wouldn’t come easy, if he let Brian dominate his thoughts and Kennosuke needed sleep. Needed to be sharp when he met up with Jamie to go over their plans for Brian’s proposal not wanting to say something that would give away the hold Brian had over him. Fuck! Now that they – or at least Jamie – had signed the paperwork, it was going to be even harder for Kennosuke to untangle himself from Brian. Impossible to push Brian out his mind and forget him. Kennosuke more involved in this damned deal than he wanted to be with Gou making him the Araki-gumi representative alongside Jamie in the newly created company, one that was hidden beneath layers of shell companies, legal ease and off-shore trusts.

  It also meant trips to New Zealand.

  It meant he would see Brian again.

  What the fuck am I getting into? And Kennosuke knew there was no getting out of it.

  Chapter Eleven

  All Brian wanted to do was sleep. Crawl into his bed and get nice and toasty beneath the covers with no plans to emerge – except to eat and piss - until his next shift in four days. He needed it after a hectic few days at work and the still lingering jet lag. His last shift had been the worst, clocking two hours of overtime due to an armed offender’s callout. Or it would have been if the unit hadn't already been out on another call, so instead it was more of a, all-hands-on-deck callout.

  Callouts like this – a lone gunman holed up in the largest sporting goods store in town – wasn’t a situation many of Brian’s colleagues had much experience dealing with as they happened too infrequently. Brian had wanted to pop the guy right from the start. Get it over with quick rather than try to negotiate with a gunman who had access to... whatever he wanted, if he
managed to break into the store’s gun safes. Not that it mattered, it appeared the man had brought plenty of his own to keep the police busy. Took them ages to get close enough to take the gunman down as he continued to take pot-shots at the police, sending them ducking for cover. Sometimes there were disadvantages to being on this side of the law, like following it.

  There were some benefits, he realised, to being on this side of the law like this damned vest. If only he could dodge bullets as effectively as he could shoot them. Brain peeled off his protective vest and winced. He slipped off his shirt and peered down at the bruise blossoming on his skin where a bullet had impacted.

  He wandered to the bathroom, hand rubbing his cropped hair noticing it was getting a little long on top. Maybe he would get it cut again soon. Brian flicked on the shower and stood clutching the sink while he waited for the water to heat up, staring at the bruise in the mirror. It would be impressive once it turned blue. He’d considered snapping a photo of it and sending it to Kennosuke. Brian had even gone as far as to grab his phone on the way to the bathroom, before throwing it back on the couch realising what a dick move it would be.

  Enjoyable as he found it to rile Kennosuke up – stepping into the shower and tilting his head hoping the water would wash his tiredness away – this wasn’t the kind of teasing Brian wanted to inflict on him. Kennosuke wouldn’t see it as a humorous shot of a workplace injury that could be easily laughed about. Instead it could drag up memories of Gou being shot in front of him. A cruel thing to do when Brian knew what Kennosuke felt for him. Kennosuke already thought of him as cold-hearted bastard with how easily Brian had dismissed the man’s affections back in Japan and he didn’t need to have another vile name attached to him.

  Brian groaned as he got out of the shower and noticed the time. He had sixty-minutes to finish getting ready before he needed to be at his old man’s leaving no time to grab a quick nap. Coffee. Strong black coffee, and lots of it would have to suffice to keep his eyes open. He walked into his room and pulled on a pair of black jeans, a t-shirt and grabbed his heavy boots from beneath his bed, one cup of coffee already finished. Being his day off, Brian had no intention of taking his car, not when his beast of a bike sat tucked away in his garage begging to be ridden. A bike that his father had gifted to him on his graduation from Police College; which made his colleagues admiration of it hilarious. Not that he should be driving any vehicle considering how sleep deprived he was, but after a couple more cups of coffee, he’d be alright.

  Visiting his old man was never simple. Not with the carefully cultivated belief of Brian’s family being fractured. But arriving at his mother’s house for lunch, not so unexpected. Brian grabbed his keys, helmet and shoved the contracts Jamie had signed inside his jacket and rushed out the door. Like always he’d park at his mother’s, jump a few fences and arrive two streets away. No one blinked at the sight of Brian strolling through their sections and the fierce guard dogs that usually gnashed their teeth at intruders, begged him for pats instead. But then each house belonged to families with ties to his old man, patched members since before Brian was born and were like extended family to him. It was only the newer, younger recruits who didn’t know who Brian was, at first.

  They soon learnt.

  Brian grinned as he stood on the street side of a six-foot-high corrugated iron fence topped with razor wire. A warning to anyone who dared to step near the large property on the outskirts of the city, that this was gang territory. Except him. It didn’t scare Brian.

  “Open up,” he bellowed thumping on the sheets of iron.

  The men gathered on the other side of the iron sheets didn’t scare him either, despite them being more than happy to pound a cop into the ground. These men were uncles, unwanted brothers and sisters who constantly hassled him about his love life and grumbled about the uniform he still wore. The same damned uniform that got their annoying arses released from custody, because whoops the evidence against them got mysteriously misplaced. Right now, though, Brian was getting brassed off. The longer they left him standing outside, the greater the risk a patrol car would pass by and spot him. If he was found here, outside the gang headquarters of a man – his father – who Brian had sworn he had nothing to do with, at all and his cover would be blown sky high. Everything he’d done to protect them would be for nothing.

  “Open the damned GATE!”

  It creaked open a smidge and a face peered out, one Brian had seen once before, just not here.

  “Why the fuck would I let a copper in here? Ya got a warrant?” the young man sneered, trying to make himself appear tougher than he was. “No? Well then ya can fuck right off.”

  Brian moved quick, jamming his foot in the way so they gate couldn’t shut. He grabbed a hold of it, forcing it open and barrelling his way into the yard. The greenhorn recruit none too pleased at being shoved out of the way took a swing at him and Brian ducked out of the way, laughing as the youngster’s face grew red with anger as none of the punches he threw at Brian landed.

  “Fucking Pig! You’ll pay for forcing your way in here.”

  He laughed harder, jumping out of the way as the recruit charged at him again, ignoring the ache of the bruise he’d gained early.

  Greenhorns. Puffed up little shits like this amused Brian. Young men barely out of high school who’d only seen him dressed as a cop. Had experienced the humiliation of being caught; cuffs slapped on their wrists and shoved roughly into the back of the patrol car. They had no idea who he was and this little upstart taking swings at him was no different. Brain grinned wider at the little shit’s confusion when the senior patched members strode out of the house and stood on the porch, making no effort to intervene. They too grinned at the situation evolving, enjoying it just as much as Brian was.

  The greenhorn ducked in closer and tried to take another swing at Brian, but this time Brian didn’t dodge. He grabbed the man’s arm and spun him around pinning it against his back as Brian slammed him into the fence. “I don’t need a warrant... to visit my old man.”

  His face paled at Brian’s statement before he snorted and tried to shake Brian off. “Pull the other one. Why would the Boss’s son be a cop?”

  A fair question, one Brian had heard from both sides of the thin blue line. “Teenage. Rebellion,” he spat, turning the recruit around and slamming him back into the fence, his forearm pressed to the recruit’s throat. He didn’t ease up, even as the man’s desperate fingers scratched at his skin.

  Brian’s father had been absent for most of his childhood, appearing for a few months and then disappearing again. He’d thought nothing of it. His mother never showed any concern over it, so he and his sister had thought it was normal, that all fathers did that because of work. It wasn’t till later that he’d learned the truth that every time his father had disappeared for months on end it was because he’d been in jail. Petty crimes which grew in scale until his father had taken over the gang he belonged too and turned it into the criminal powerhouse it was today. Drugs, extortion and larceny making his old man plenty of dosh.

  If he hadn’t been arrested for shoplifting at the age of thirteen, Brian didn’t know when he would have learned the truth. But learning it through the angry mutterings of a cop “Father like son” infuriated him. Determined not to become the man everyone else believed he would, Brian vowed to join the police once he finished high school and spent most of his time when not at school hanging out at Jamie’s.

  But his darker side hadn’t enjoyed the constraints placed upon him by the law and when Brian returned to Invercargill to take up a position it had been an easy decision to make. Easy to use his badge and the hatred everyone believed he had for his old man, to instead assist him in his criminal endeavours.

  Brian could never claim to be a good cop, but he was damn good at maintaining the illusion.

  “Brian,” a voice growled, and he turned his head to see his father had joined the senior members. “Let him go.”

  Snickering, Brian let
the recruit go watching as he crumpled to the ground and rubbed at his sore throat. He could see the idiots mind working, trying to figure out how he could use this knowledge to his advantage. The joke was on him. This hadn’t been about letting him in on the secret about the Boss’s son, but to test him and see how loyal he truly was. If the little upstart thought, he could use Brian’s job against him or his father then he would soon find himself six-foot under. Concrete. Wouldn’t be the first time Brian had helped to hide a body...

  Brian strolled across the yard and up the stairs to stand by his old man. “Get inside,” his father growled cuffing him over the head as Brian walked past. “You were a bit slow on taking him down.”

  “Yeah, well, I haven’t slept yet. Walked off shift and came here.”

  “He signed?”

  “Yup.” Brian rubbed at his head, surprised to find his hand was shaking.

  “You think this is too risky?”

  “Don’t you?” Brian paced the floor of the room his father used as an office in the old farmhouse, hands clasped behind his head. “This is a big fucking deal. Bigger than anything we’ve attempted before... I mean snatching territory from other gangs in New Zealand was tough enough. Dangerous-” and shit did those decisions make Brian’s life difficult as he tried to walk on both sides of the law. “-but this... this, crosses international lines.”

  “Second thoughts?”

  The cold harshness edging his father’s voice had Brian halting his steps. He turned to face him, knowing his father’s question was not just about the deal. A challenge, daring Brian to say he couldn’t hack this double life anymore.