Stay with Me (The WITSEC series Book 1)

by Patricia Logan

  “We decided you were in danger. We’ve had officers watching the homes of all of your employees and Mr. Auerbach as well. I told you the individual we were chasing was a really bad man and now that he’s under arrest, I’m here to tell you the rest of the story. Come on.” Kane pulled him back into the apartment and over to the couch where they sat close beside each other.

  Luca frowned at him. “Who is this man?”

  Kane took a deep breath. “First of all, I told you I’m a special agent with the ATF but there’s more to it than that. I was asked by the US Marshals office and the FBI to help catch him since he’s the man who killed my father almost twenty years ago.”

  Luca gasped, immediately reaching out to grab Kane’s hand. “Oh my God, Kane! That’s awful. Now you have to tell me absolutely everything.” He felt his heart go out to Kane when an expression of boyish vulnerability crossed his face for a fleeting moment.

  “My family—mother, sister, and father—used to live in Boston. My parents had a small pub and when I was only twelve and my sister Glenna was only eight, the father of the man we arrested, Enoch Moore, shot and killed my father in front of me.”

  Luca gasped again, feeling like he couldn’t breathe as Kane went on.

  “The man and his henchmen chased me but I got away. When the police finally caught up with me, I was asked to testify against the killer and I did. I was only a kid but I knew if I didn’t testify, the man would get away with my father’s murder.”

  Luca blinked wide eyes at him. He felt inexplicably sad for the little boy Kane had been and what he’d lost by the callous act of his father’s murder. His heart thumped wildly as he realized what a special man Kane was. “That was an unbelievably brave thing to do for a boy of only twelve, Kane.”

  “I had no choice. I knew if he was left out on the street, he and his other friends in the Irish mob would have killed me and my sister and mother. They knew where I lived and the police told us Moore and his pals would have stopped at nothing to kill us. After my testimony, my mother, sister, and I were relocated to San Diego and put in the witness protection program.”

  “WITSEC?” Luca asked, remembering the term from a TV show he’d watched.

  Kane gave him a slow, almost shy smile as he nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”

  “So, if you testified against him, why was Enoch Moore out of jail and who else was involved in this operation you’re talking about?”

  Kane explained in detail how Enoch Moore was let out of prison on a compassionate release and how his son had carried on with his mob business, setting up shop in Hollywood at a bar of his own. Luca thought it was horrible that Kane’s mother had lost not only her husband but her family-owned pub and her career as a nurse, all because of this horrible man. He explained how the US Marshal’s office had approached him weeks ago and asked him to go undercover to put this man and his son away for good. When he learned that the younger Moore was the man who’d orchestrated the robberies of Auerbach’s and another store, killing his own men in the process, Luca began to shake.

  “You mean that man who robbed me—the man I talked into letting me go for a Rolex—that man killed all those people and cut off their… heads?” Luca felt his stomach roll as tears burned his eyes.

  “Oh, babe,” Kane said, pulling him close and hugging him tight. “It’s all over now. You’re safe.” Kane kissed the top of his head and Luca felt safer in his arms than he’d ever felt in his life. “You were so brave with Andriy Ivanovich. He’s a dangerous criminal and the way you charmed him with the promise of a Pearl…whatever watch, it was brilliant. You were brilliant.” Kane looked him in the eye and then kissed his cheek sweetly.

  “Pearlmaster 39 with an oyster crystal and a white gold diamond bezel,” Luca repeated.

  Kane laughed and kissed him hard on the lips until Luca couldn’t breathe. He relaxed against him and knew he’d be okay as long as Kane Delancey never stopped kissing him. As that thought crossed his mind, he suddenly stopped, stiffening under Kane’s scorching lips, and pulling away.

  “Wait a minute. If you were in WITSEC, that means your name had to change,” Luca said with a rush. “What’s your real name?”

  Kane smiled sadly. “Jimmy Boyle but no one has called me that in a very long time. Even my mother and sister have adopted Delancey as our name.”

  Luca smiled. “You look like a Jimmy Boyle but I kind of think I like Kane Delancey better. It’s going to be hard to get used to something different but I’ll try.”

  Kane kissed him again and then shook his head as he pulled away. “You’re not going to have to do that. I went over to my mom’s house last night and we all had a long talk. My sister Glenna’s real name is Mary but she hardly remembers it. She’s decided to keep her name and so has my mom. We’ve all decided our adoptive name of Delancey has kept us safe for a long time and my mother is a big believer in signs. She goes to Mass every day so she’s pretty happy to not have to explain to Father Patrick why she’s not Katherine Delancey anymore.”

  Luca chucked and cuddled close to Kane. He was amazed by how happy he was just being in the man’s arms. He was also feeling an overload of emotions at the moment. He just couldn’t imagine how it must have felt to be a little boy who’d lost his father and then had to change his name. At the age of twelve, just entering adolescence, losing all his friends because he had to move… it must have been horrible—a hell of a lot worse than growing up without a dad in the picture at all, the way Luca had. Luca’s dad had run away when his sister got sick. Kane’s dad had been violently murdered right in front of him. He stared at Kane. He was an amazing person and he knew he was falling in love with him.

  “What now? Are you going back to the ATF?” he asked as emotions flooded through him.

  “Well, not exactly. The US Marshals have more work for me to do with them,” Kane said quietly. “Technically, I will be going back to the ATF, but I’ve been asked to work on another assignment using my cover as a detective with the LAPD which I can’t really refuse. It has to do with my previous case but that’s all I can tell you, baby.” Kane bent and kissed the side of Luca’s neck, making an almost imperceptible purring sound that sent a bolt of lust right to Luca’s dick.

  Luca groaned, desperately needing to get this man in his bed but there was one more thing he had to ask. He pulled away from Kane’s lips and climbed over him, straddling his lap and his obvious erection which had returned with a vengeance.

  “Can I ask you one more thing?”

  Kane sighed deeply but positioned his hands on both of Luca’s hips possessively. They felt good resting there.

  “Fine. Ask me one more thing and then I’m taking you to bed, Luca.” He wasn’t looking at Luca’s eyes. His gaze seemed to be laser focused on his lips. Luca lifted his hand and pointed to his eyes with two fingers.

  “Up here, Kane.” He smiled.

  “Fine,” Kane growled. “What is it?”

  “If you’re with the ATF, can you… I don’t know… date a guy?” He chewed his bottom lip as he stared at Kane with dread.

  Kane smirked and looked back down at his lips. He lifted one hand and touched his bottom lip with a finger, pulling it down and leaning close as he spoke with a whisper.

  “You mean, can I date you and put this sexy mouth to work every day, Luca? Is that what you mean, baby?”

  Luca felt his dick throb. “Y-yes… can you… will you stay with me?”

  Kane’s gaze lifted to his and his silver-blue eyes glinted with desire as he smiled. “Is that what you want?”

  “God yes,” Luca whispered.

  “Then yes, baby, I’ll stay with you.” Kane slid his big hands up Luca’s back and brought him forward so their lips could touch. In mere seconds, he had Luca burning with desire. He reached around and grabbed Luca through his sweats, giving his cock a few strong tugs.

  Luca groaned loudly. “How about you take me to bed, Delancey?” he asked when Kane finally pulled back. His eyes were glitteri
ng. Luca send him his most wicked smile. “I’m pretty sure I can show you a lot of things my mouth can do.” He gasped as Kane growled and stood up. He wrapped his legs around Kane’s waist as the big man literally carried him down the hallway toward his bedroom. Luca threw his head back and laughed.

  Dating Kane Delancey was going to be an adventure… he had no doubt at all.

  A little Excerpt from Play with Me – Coming Soon!

  Prologue

  “Luca, please come with me. I want to go dancing and besides, it’s not fair to keep this ass from the men of Los Angeles any longer.” Corey grinned and turned, sticking out his backside as Luca gaped.

  “Were you keeping the ‘men of Los Angeles’ from your ass last night when I watched you walk out of Rave with a tall, dark stranger dressed in pink spandex?”

  Corey pursed his lips and frowned, looking up as if trying to recall the previous night. When he finally smiled and nodded, Luca realized he remembered the man whom he’d slept with the night before.

  “Oh, Gregory! Yes, he was quite a ride,” Corey said. “His dick was…”

  Luca held up a hand. “Stop it! I don’t want to know anything about his dick. I’ve told you that.” His body trembled with an exaggerated shiver.

  Corey chuckled. “Fine. Anyway, if you come with me tonight, I want to try out a new strategy.”

  “Strategy for what?” Luca asked, biting his lip to keep from smiling at his best friend.

  “Well, now that you’re off the market and not looking to hook up, I think you should pretend to be my boyfriend. That will make all the men jealous,” Corey said. “And they’ll fight over me.”

  Luca stared at his friend for a long time. First of all, a few fucks from Kane Delancey with no commitment didn’t mean Luca was off the market. Not that he was looking to hook up. He still held out hope that Kane would realize he couldn’t live without him but they’d never talked about being exclusive or anything like it. Luca had fallen hard for the ATF special agent who was undercover for the US Marshals and the LAPD, but Kane had never expressed anything but a desire for sex with Luca. Besides, he still professed to being straight even though Luca knew he was in complete denial. He hadn’t even called in the last two weeks which pretty much told Luca where he stood.

  Secondly, Corey was decidedly pretty. He was a small bottom boy who never had a problem attracting men to take him home so he didn’t really understand what the problem was here. His eyebrows drew together in a frown.

  “So, you want me to be… all over you in the club?” Luca asked.

  Corey nodded. “Yes, be all over me.” He hugged Luca.

  “And that’s supposed to make all the guys in the club fight over your ass?”

  “Of course. Then, all I have to do is to pick the one I want and dump you publicly for the other man. It will be perfect!” Corey said.

  “It will be shit. Anyone worth anything at all will take one look at you and think you’re a complete dickhead,” Luca said.

  Corey frowned and reached out, grabbing Luca’s shoulder as he looked him square in the eyes. “Just for a moment, can you try to be of absolutely no consequence?”

  Luca’s lips twitched. “I… don’t know how I feel about that… I’m being used?”

  “Yes.”

  “As a beard?”

  “Yes.”

  “As a dupe?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, how am I supposed to feel about that?”

  “How do you usually feel about that?” Corey’s eyes were twinkling.

  “I don’t usually have to feel that stupid.”

  Corey laughed, dropping his hand and pulling Luca into a hug. “I knew you’d help me.”

  Luca smiled and nodded, still holding onto his friend. “So to be clear… my value tonight is to be of absolutely no value.”

  Corey chuckled again, squeezing him tighter. “That’s right, baybeeee.”

  “Fine,” Luca said, letting him go and stepping back. “Let me get my eyeliner on and I’ll be ready. Call for an Uber and use your ap. If I have to be a duped beard with no value tonight, you’re paying for the ride and we’re not taking the fucking bus.”

  Corey was still laughing as Luca walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

  ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

  Kane watched Kimber’s ass as she sashayed into the club in front of him. She was undeniably beautiful in a clingy soft red dress that hugged her curves like a glove. She flipped her waist-length brunette hair over her shoulder as she looked back at Kane and smiled. Her lips were full, her cheeks were painted a rosy pink, and her dark brown eyes were framed with thick black lashes. Damn she was beautiful. The moment he’d seen her at Starbucks that morning, he’d been attracted. Flirting with her in the line had been fun and he could tell she was interested in him the moment she turned and asked him if he’d ever tried some coffee he couldn’t even pronounce.

  When she’d invited him to sit and chat at one of the tables outside, Kane had spent over an hour with her and nearly been late for work. As he’d punched her number into his phone and tucked it into his pocket, he’d had an uneasy pang of guilt. After the final showdown at the jewelry store Luca Price worked at, he and the young man he’d been so focused on had spent several long days in bed together. They’d traded off sleeping at each other’s places, getting to know each other better. It had felt like a natural progression in their relationship but as time went by and reality began creeping in, Kane stopped calling as often, and Luca had stopped answering on the first ring.

  He’d known they were pulling away from each other, probably for different reasons, but Kane hadn’t cared. He needed to be straight and he couldn’t be with Luca in his arms. It was a fling and that’s all it would ever be. By the time three weeks after the Moores’ arrest rolled around, Kane had stopped calling entirely. When he’d run into the beautiful brunette Kimber, it had been easy for Kane to fall back into old habits and flirt with the gorgeous woman who seemed to be just as into him as he was into her. When he’d picked up the phone from his desk at work and called Kimber to set up a date at a dance club they both liked, Kelly Murphy, his partner while on assignment at the LAPD, had glared at him, throwing a dirty look in his direction.

  He and Kimber made their way to the bar and as she looked over her shoulder, he set one large hand possessively on her lower back. It wasn’t something he’d ever do in public with Luca. He couldn’t imagine doing that to a man, but when he caught sight of two men kissing each other passionately only a few feet away, he couldn’t drag his gaze away from them. They weren’t shy about showing each other affection even in such a public venue, and just the sight of them there had Kane’s thoughts drifting away from Kimber and over to the way Luca’s gorgeous young body felt against his own.

  “Kane!”

  He turned to Kimber, startled out of his thoughts as she stared up at him. He instantly smiled at her, knowing she had to have been asking something. She had a pinched look on her face and Kane realized he’d been daydreaming. He bent down to her so he could speak in her ear over the loud thump of music.

  “I’m sorry. What would you like?” he asked quickly.

  “I ordered tonic and Grey Goose,” she said, smiling up at him, oblivious to where his thoughts had wandered.

  He nodded and caught the bartender’s eye as he set Kimber’s drink on the bar. “I’ll have the same.” The bartender nodded and walked away and Kane picked up Kimber’s drink, handing it to her. “Sorry,” he said, looking back to the gay couple had been standing, only to find they’d disappeared. He glanced back at his date. “I was distracted.”

  “By those gay boys, I’d bet,” Kimber said. “I saw them the moment we came over to the bar.”

  Kane stiffened, recognizing the hostility in her words for what they were. The truth was, Carina’s—the dance club they were in—catered to a mixed bag of patrons, those of all sexual orientations. He’d been there with his straight friends many times
in the past and never had a problem finding beautiful women to dance with and take home to bed. At the same time, he’d never been the least bit bothered by gay and lesbian couples on the dance floor right beside him and his female dance partners. Why would he be? Who the fuck cared?

  Me. Obviously I care or I’d be here with Luca right now.

  Kane shook all thoughts out of his head as the bartender returned with his drink and he pulled out his wallet and paid for it. He took a sip of the drink, tasting the bitter tonic, wishing he’d ordered something else. When he and Luca sat on the couch and watched the old black and white movies he liked, they’d drink Coronas with lime or these amazing watermelontinis that Luca knew how to make. They had watermelon vodka and something that was delicious when shaken with ice and served in a martini glass. Kimber’s voice startled him out of his musings.

  “Look at them,” Kimber said, pointing to the two men he’d seen earlier out on the dance floor. One of them looked familiar to him. Kane knew he’d seen him somewhere before but he couldn’t place him. When he glanced back at Kimber, his date was sipping her drink with a look of distaste on her full lips as she watched the two men grind on the dance floor. He realized her expression had nothing to do with dislike of the drink. He said nothing to her as he tried to figure out how he was going to wiggle out of simply dumping her at the curb when he took her home. Instead, he simply glanced back at the two men who moved so seductively on the dance floor, watching them closely.

  One of the men backed away as a hand appeared on his shoulder and when he turned to throw his arms around the neck of someone who was blocked from view by the dancer’s partner, Kane suddenly wanted a closer look. As the third man’s face came into view, Kane felt his stomach drop right onto the floor. Luca looked absolutely gorgeous as he hugged his friend back and then leaned in to kiss him chastely on the lips.

  “Ugh,” Kimber said and Kane looked down at his date who was staring at the three men on the dance floor. “Now there’s three of them.”