The Hunt

by J. M. Dabney

  “Scoot up the bed.”

  Andy moved until his head rested on my pillow. I crawled onto the bed and then sat back on my heels.

  I placed my hands on his inner thighs and kneaded the tensed, slender muscles. I bent and nuzzled his balls with my nose, then dragged the tip along the slender length of Andy’s hard cock. I couldn’t help groaning at the scent of him. Andy’s hips arched off the bed, and his fingers tangled in my hair. I sucked at the broad head, tongued the leaking slit, and then I swallowed him to the back of my throat.

  Andy fit just right, the texture of his cock teased my tongue and without giving him time to adjust, I bobbed along his length. I gripped his hips until I knew I’d leave fingertip bruises. He squeezed my head with his strong thighs. Our grunts synced and I tore at my belt and the front of my jeans until my dick was free. The trimmed curls at the base of Andy’s cock teased my nose as I swallowed around the tip until he was jerking.

  I jacked my cock as I started the up and down movements again, the taste of his pre-come becoming stronger. I sucked on and off the head until I thought Andy would rip my hair out. I needed another taste of him and released him, slammed my mouth down on his. Resting my right hand beside his head, I took both our cocks in my left as I kissed him. The feel of his dick against mine was almost too much, but I wouldn’t stop until I felt him come on my skin. Had his scent on me. We thrust in and out of my tight grip.

  In this moment, the world faded away and it was just the two of us. Nothing existed but us and the pleasure I could bring Andy.

  I rested my forehead on his, he barely got my name past his lips before I felt the warmth of his release on the hairy, curve of my stomach. I took his lower lip between my teeth and increased the pace of the jacking of our cocks until my body tensed and heated, I thrust harder and faster. My thigh muscles shook as I groaned Andy’s name, and I came on Andy’s flat stomach.

  My seed covered hand went from our cocks to his side, rubbing it into the skin that covered his ribs. I kissed him gently until he relaxed and his breaths evened out. When I collapsed on him he held me tight as if I’d pull away, and I had no intention of doing that. I rolled until he was tucked against my side. I drew my fingers down the indent of his spine.

  “We good or have the second thoughts creeped in?”

  I was the type of person who wanted everything on the table. If this was a one-off tension release thing then I could deal with it.

  “No, no second thoughts.”

  Andy combed his fingers through the thick hair on my chest.

  “Good.” I crossed my arm over my chest and placed my curled fingers under his chin. I made him look at me and brushed my mouth against his.

  Andy fit just right against my side. Yes, I had those thoughts that this was in some ways due to stress or gratitude, but I tried not to let them bring down my mood. I was so much older than Andy, and no matter what Andy thought or said, he could have any man he wanted.

  “Get your sexy ass up and take a shower, and I’ll clean the kitchen.” I gently poked his side.

  “I made the mess,” Andy lightly argued.

  “You cooked.” I gave his ass a sharp tap to get him moving.

  Andy rolled over to the opposite side of the bed and got up. I couldn’t take my gaze off him as he left my room. I laid there for a few minutes, for the first time in months, hell, years I didn’t feel stress or dread.

  I sat up and used my t-shirt to clean up enough to go take care of the mess in the kitchen. As I did up my zipper, I made my way downstairs. The sex didn’t make me forget about the break-in or the phone call.

  I’d waited for the killer to make a mistake and he was making plenty, but I still didn’t understand how Andy was involved beside being a witness. I didn’t understand the obsession and what Andy had that the killer wanted. If this was about me like Donnelly implied, then why not contact me. I was plenty easy enough to find. I was a creature of habit.

  I swept up the broken plate and food, wiped up the floor, and then went about washing dishes. I heard the water running through the pipes and without meaning to my mind pictured Andy naked in my shower.

  This was what I’d been afraid of, that when we took this step that he’d become a distraction. But that wasn’t right, he wasn’t a complication. The minute I met Andy at Rudy’s, even before I knew he was there to see me my attraction was instant.

  Andy would need to come to work with me in the morning so I could use my work computer to run the searches I needed, and then I had to call in a few favors. I was looking forward to seeing Andy’s reaction to the people he was about to meet. I never thought I’d walk back into my old life, but for Andy, to keep him safe I would.

  I placed the last dish in the drain beside the sink and dried my hands. I made sure everything was locked up and that I’d set the alarm. I padded barefoot upstairs and as I stepped onto the landing I caught sight of Andy exiting the bathroom. He smiled shyly and I closed the expanse between us until I could take his mouth again. His warm, damp skin pressed to mine, and he smelled like my body wash.

  My control was tenuous at best as I gripped the perfect curves of his ass in my hands. I parted them and teased his tight hole with the tips of my index fingers.

  “Get in bed, I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Tease.”

  “I’m only a tease if I don’t come through one day. We’ve got an early day and you need to rest.”

  Andy nodded and I sent him to bed while I went to take a shower. I didn’t linger because I had Andy in my bed, waiting for me, all the bullshit could wait for tomorrow. Right now, I just wanted to enjoy a night without our problems intruding.

  13

  Andy

  I woke the next morning to the sound of the shower. The pipes made the same low thumping noise mine did at my place. The clock beside Ray’s bed read six, and I couldn’t understand why anyone would be up at this hour. Maybe Ray had another client he needed to deal with.

  The shower had just shut off when I finished getting dressed. I leaned against the wall by the bathroom door and couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out of me when Ray opened the door and practically yelped when he saw me.

  “Did I scare you, detective?”

  He smirked, and I took a second to appreciate him with just a towel wrapped around him. I liked that Ray wasn’t all muscles and six packs. He was real and he was gorgeous. I’d seen those tattoos covering his upper arms and chest last night. In the morning light they stood out more. There was no other way to describe most of them other than to say gang tattoos. I’d seen some of the symbols before. Ray’s past was forever etched into his flesh. A part of me wondered if he’d ever consider removing them, but Ray seemed like the type of guy that needed to be reminded what he left behind. I couldn’t fault the man for his past. He wasn’t a monster.

  “Need the shower?” he asked as he pushed me fully against the wall, his damp skin pressed against me. Our roles were reversed from the night before.

  “Um, just wanted to brush my teeth, pee, you know, human things. I was going to make breakfast, coffee…um.”

  He was making it hard to think being so close to me, his lips danced along my neck, and when he hummed, I felt it ripple through my body.

  “I have to go to the office, we have a few places to go to today, but we have time for breakfast, coffee, and other human things.” When his tongue joined in I was a goner.

  “Shit, Ray, I can’t think when you do that.”

  He lifted his head and his dark eyes were like molten chocolate. “Why do you need to think?” He took my hand and with his other, he tossed his towel. Sinfully slow he backed me into the bathroom, and I was about to ask what he was doing when he reached for the knobs on the shower.

  “Didn’t you shower already?”

  He began divesting me of my clothes in the most sensual way I’d ever seen it done. “I’m feeling quite dirty, Andy.”

  When the water was steaming up the bathroom, he pull
ed me in and the next half-hour was the best shower I’d ever taken in my life.

  It took us two hours to get out of Ray’s place and neither of us were sorry at all. He said he had a tech guy he knew, or sort of knew, and he wanted to see what he could do with the number that called me last night. So we bypassed going to his office first in favor of meeting him.

  A lot of New West City was shady, but where Ray took us made shady look like paradise.

  “Where are we? I’ve never been here before.” The streets were filthy, every building was in shambles, and layers of neglect covered each street and alleyway.

  “This is where people go to get lost, hide, or where the forgotten go to die.” Ray’s voice was a whisper, like he didn’t want the dying dreams to hear him.

  “Your tech friend lives here?”

  I saw Ray shake his head in the corner of my eye. “Nah, he lives somewhere else, but because what he does isn’t exactly legal, he hides here.”

  “How’d you come to work with him?” Ray intrigued me a lot. It was like he teetered on the line of good and bad. Good likely won out nowadays.

  “You ever heard of Finn Mac?” he asked as he took a turn down a narrow alley.

  “Who hasn’t?” It was true. He wasn’t Al Capone or anything, but the man was known as a crime boss and people knew not to cross him.

  “Yeah, well, years ago cybercrimes got a call about some hacker. I had a partner back then and he and I were near where they located him. We went to pick him up and when we arrived, Finn Mac was there with the kid.”

  Ray stopped the car but didn’t make a move to get out, and I was enthralled with the story.

  “My partner wasn’t exactly the clean sort, so when Finn offered us a thousand bucks to scram, he took it.” He shook his head in a way that screamed disappointment. “I refused the money but saw how outnumbered we were with Finn’s men and left.”

  “You’re lucky to be alive, Ray.” I heard a lot on the street about witnesses, hell, I was one and look how that was working out for me.

  “Yeah, well, I leave Finn alone and he lets me be, but a week after that I saw him at Rudy’s and he said he owed me one.”

  I felt my eyes widening. “So, you’re cashing in, years later…now?”

  He nodded. “I had to contact Finn before coming here. It’s why I was up so early. He wakes with the sun and if I wanted to catch him, I had to call early.”

  Ray opened his door and I followed suit. “Who is this kid?”

  He didn’t answer me until we were standing in front of a rickety door.

  “To the hacker world he’s H@ck_th300_kn1fe, hack the knife.” He knocked.

  “And to you and me?”

  Ray shot me a look I couldn’t decipher. “Benji Mac, Finn’s son.”

  Any questions I had after that would have to wait because the door opened. Kid was a lose term. Benji looked to be my age, long black hair that was past his shoulders. His blue eyes stared at us under a furrowed brow. He was tall and broad and looked nothing like a hacker to me. More like a rocker who played football on Saturdays.

  “Hey Benji,” Ray said with his hand out.

  “Ray, pops said you needed help.” He laughed. “Gotta say it shocked the shit outta me. But then again, heard you took a bribe and aren’t with the PD anymore.”

  “Don’t believe everything you hear.” Ray didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t ask what Benji meant. He gestured toward me. “This is Andy.”

  “Hey.” Unlike Ray I just waved. The fact that this large man was Finn Mac’s son was jarring. But I trusted Ray, so I followed him into the scary man’s apartment, or hideout, and was shocked at how clean it was and by all the high-tech equipment.

  “Aren’t you afraid someone will break in here and steal all this?” I asked, and I got the answer when Benji just smirked at me. Right, his dad was a terrifying crime lord.

  “So, whadda ya need, Ray?” Benji sat in a large black leather desk chair, arms behind his head and a smile plastered on his face.

  “I need to see if you can track a number for me.” That was my cue to hand over my phone.

  “That’s it?” he scoffed but took my phone. “Have a seat. There’s beer and shit in the fridge.”

  Ray went to the kitchen while I sat on the sofa, declining the offer of a drink from him. Benji’s hideout was luxurious. There was well over half-a-million dollars’ worth of equipment in here and I felt a twinge of jealousy when I caught sight of the game station he had going on. I had my PS4 still at my apartment and made a mental note to see if we could maybe get it soon.

  “This was made from a burner, Ray. Can’t trace it but…” His cackle was almost maniacal.

  “What, you got something?” I asked walking over to him just as Ray came out of the kitchen.

  “The sellers of burner phones don’t have a legal obligation to maintain records of who they sell them to. That’s why they’re called burner phones,” Benji said as he scrolled over foreign data on a screen in front of him.

  “So, you have nothing?” Ray asked as he sipped a beer.

  “No. I have something.” He clicked over the keyboard and another monitor next to him lit up. “There.” He pointed to what looked like a map. “I was able to trace the call to that cell tower.”

  “So they were near there when they called.” I moved closer to see the location. “Is it weird that that cell tower is right near where Elise lives?”

  “I’d guess a sale was made at a convenience store near there. Most people buy burners, use them, and discard.” Benji’s fingers raced over the keyboard. Monitors were lighting up and I had no idea what I was seeing.

  “I’d go talk to the person who owns that place.” He pointed to the same store I bought boxers at the other day. “Someone bought six burner phones from there same day and time. No others in the area did. Your guy is getting ready for some serious communication.”

  “Damn, you’re good,” I said reverently. I was seriously impressed.

  “Thanks.” Benji winked and Ray cleared his throat.

  “They’d remember selling that many phones to one person, and if they don’t, they’re lying,” Ray said as he patted Benji’s shoulder. “Thanks.”

  “We’re even now, Ray.”

  Ray placed his empty beer bottle on the table and nodded. “We are. Come on, Andy, we have a clerk to talk to.”

  14

  Ray

  The building we entered was one of those family owned stores that survived on loyalty rather than those commercialized franchises. They were the neighborhood one-stop shop. Andy was close behind me. He’d handled meeting Benji better than I thought, but we had a few more stops today. I wondered what he’d think about the world I was more comfortable in and how he saw that meshing with me as a former cop. Benji bringing up the career ending frame-up for the bribe made me anxious, and I wondered when Andy would start to ask questions.

  A tall thin guy with a comically rounded beer belly stood up from behind the counter. He was chewing on a stubby, fat cigar.

  “Hey, name’s Ray Clancy, I’m a private investigator. I wanted to ask you about a recent purchase. You got a minute?” I asked as I stopped, and Andy moved to my side.

  “I might.”

  “Someone purchased several prepaid phones, I was wondering if we could look at the surveillance videos.”

  “It’s a twenty-four-hour loop, those things overwrite themselves every day.”

  Shit, just what I needed. A lot of smaller shops hadn’t upgraded to twenty-first century equipment, hell, I’d worked enough robberies to know some of the cameras were dummy ones with a watch battery to run the red recording light.

  Another complication and I had to hope this guy had a long memory.

  “Well, do you remember the person, maybe a description?” I asked.

  “Do you know how many people come in here every day, man?”

  “How many come in to buy several phones at once?” I was getting agitated.

 
; “Guy came in, but in this neighborhood, you don’t ask questions.”

  “Tall, short, my age, younger?” I asked.

  I didn’t know what I expected. A half-assed description would be better than nothing.

  “If I remember right, wasn’t a big guy. Kinda soft looking. He wasn’t chatty. Paid in cash, wallet was fat.”

  “You see him around before?”

  “No, only time. He had a baseball cap and kept his head down.”

  Again, not helpful, but if the guy wasn’t a regular then that would mean this wasn’t his home turf. I’d held out some hope that the killer lived in the area because at least that would narrow down our search.

  “Any distinguishing marks, tattoos, maybe a scar?”

  “None of those either. Just a guy, man, nothing special. Like about a dozen other people who come through here every day.”

  I thanked him, placed my hand on Andy’s lower back, and led him back outside.

  “That wasn’t helpful.”

  I chuckled at Andy’s frustrated tone.

  “You wouldn’t make a good cop. Patience is a virtue. Well, I can’t fault you too much I don’t have many virtues. We’re going to ask about the newest vic. I know a few people in the building.”

  “You did this for a living?”

  I couldn’t hide my amusement. “Baby, not all police work is like what you see in those TV shows. It’s a lot of hit and miss.”

  “Clancy, you back on the streets, man?” Jules Monahan, an old informant of mine, called from his spot on the steps where he smoked.

  “Jules, you still on the streets?”

  “My old lady told me one more stint and I could pack my shit. You know she’s the only one who can put up with me. I’m straight-ish.”

  I nodded, “Jules, this is Andy, Andy, this is Jules.”

  I waited while they exchanged greetings, and I stole a glance at Andy. I could see the curiosity intensifying and knew I was going to have to answer some questions when it was just the two of us. Again, I was a good cop, never took any bribes or looked the other way unless it would benefit me later. Like I did with Finn and Benji.