Play With Me

by Patricia Logan

  “What?” he asked.

  “Why didn’t you take me to a straight club? I don’t need to see this kind of perversion.”

  Perversion?

  “We should go,” Kane said, dragging his gaze back to the dance floor where Luca was now staring right at him. He’d stopped dancing and now stood on the dance floor while the other two men he was with were locked in an embrace, kissing each other with a whole lot of tongue. It wasn’t the fact that Luca was staring at him with an expression of complete and utter hurt, but instead, the fact that he broke their gaze almost as soon as Kane caught sight of him. When Luca looked pointedly at Kimber and then back at him, the mask of pain vanished as complete resignation slid down over his beautiful features. The expression of hopelessness that shuttered Luca’s features was sudden and it made Kane’s heart ache.

  Kane felt like he’d been punched in the gut but as Luca turned away and walked off the dance floor, leaving his two friends behind, Kane knew he had to do something. He leaned down to Kimber and whispered.

  “I need to use the bathroom.”

  He didn’t wait for her answer but took off in the same direction Luca had gone, weaving his way toward the back of the club. Kane had been to Carina’s many times and he knew there was a back door to the club. He took a moment to wonder if that’s where Luca had been headed but since the bathrooms were also in this direction, he knew he’d have to check them out as well. He pushed his way through the crowd, looking over the top of people for Luca’s dark head with natural blond highlights.

  Damn, he looked gorgeous tonight. He was wearing tight black jeans that hugged his narrow hips and a form-fitting turquoise shirt that clung to his abs, showing them off as he’d been dancing. His shiny black Doc Marten boots—as usual—were worn without socks. Kane had the sudden overwhelming urge to find Luca and rip every stitch off him. He desperately needed to find him. As he got close to the back of the bar, his endeavors were rewarded as he spotted a bright head ducking into the men’s room. Kane headed straight for it.

  As he stepped inside, he pulled up short, nearly crashing into Luca who was standing there with both hands on his hips and a frown on his face. The very fact that Luca had known he would be following would have been almost funny if not for the look of anger and hurt in his features. Kane came to a halt in front of Luca and then reached out, grabbing both of his biceps and pulling him out of the pathway from the door to the urinals. As Luca nearly did a dolphin twist to get out of his grip, Kane was forced to let go. Luca staggered back against the counter and caught himself as he reached back, steadying himself on the marble.

  “What the hell, Delancey? Go back to your girl,” Luca said before Kane could even open his mouth.

  Kane grinned and stepped up to him, loving the spark of fire in Luca’s light eyes and the way they seemed even brighter whenever they were framed by the fucking black liner he always put around them whenever he went out at night. Kane leaned over Luca, bracing both hands on the counter on either side of his body as he bent toward him.

  “What makes you think she’s my girl and who are you to ask? I just watched you practically fuck two guys on the dance floor,” he growled close to Luca’s mouth, staring into his gorgeous gray-blue eyes.

  “They’re friends. I’m not fucking them,” Luca said, narrowing his eyes and sounding defensive. “Besides, why would you care anyway? You haven’t called in two weeks.”

  Kane felt his heart do a tiny twist because the fact was, none of that was a lie. He hadn’t called and if he stopped to think about it, cornering Luca in the men’s room when Kimber was waiting at the bar was a pretty shitty thing to do. He let go of the countertop and straightened, staring down at Luca and giving a sharp nod.

  “I’m… sorry. You’re right,” he said quietly. “I just saw you out there with those two guys and I… didn’t like it,” he admitted.

  Luca’s mouth dropped open as he stared back at him like he had two heads. “Well, I’m not planning on doing anything with them. Corey wanted me to come out with him and then we spotted Brett and started dancing. It’s nothing. Corey will probably go home with Brett and…” His words trailed off.

  “And you’ll go home with someone else?” Kane couldn’t help but ask, knowing it was a shit thing to do.

  Luca frowned and canted his head toward the door. “You won’t take your girl home?” Kane opened his mouth to speak when Luca held up a hand, placing two fingers over his lips. He shook his head. “Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”

  To his horror, Kane heard the way Luca’s voice trembled. He suddenly felt even more sick to his stomach. He’d hurt Luca by not calling and then been an utter asshole by asking a woman out to Carina’s knowing there was a possibility he would run into Luca here. It had been a dick move. He didn’t need to prove he was straight to anyone and the fact was, Luca hadn’t cared when Kane reminded him that he was. Luca had never expected Kane to take him out in public where they might be seen by his friends… he’d been fine to stay in bed with him and fuck like he was Kane’s dirty little secret.

  All Kane could bring himself to do was shrug. “I’m sorry.”

  Luca sniffed and stared at him, offering a ghost of a smile. “No reason to be sorry, Delancey. You never led me on. It was fun until it wasn’t.” He looked away and then took a step to walk around him but Kane couldn’t let him go like that. He reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling Luca up short. When he turned gray-blue eyes up to him, they were clouded and his lip was trembling.

  “I’m… sorry,” Kane repeated, weakly. It wasn’t what he wanted to say but it’s all that came out.

  Luca blinked watery eyes at him as Kane let go of his arm. “Me too, Delancey. Take care.”

  Kane opened his mouth to say something else but before he could, Luca broke eye contact and walked away. He watched him disappear through the doorway and when the door closed, it felt like thunder crashing in his ears.

  Chapter One

  “How was your date?”

  Kane looked across the expanse of his desk which butted up to Kelly’s, forcing him to be face to face with his partner as they worked. She looked bored but he knew better. He could just lie to her but the excellent detective in her would see through it in a second.

  “It sucked if you must know,” Kane said.

  Her lips twitched and then turned up into a smile. “Why?”

  “Because we ran into Luca at Carina’s and… let’s just say, Kimber isn’t the most open-minded person.” Kane inwardly cringed even as he said it.

  Kelly frowned. “You mean she’s a homophobic piece of shit?”

  Kane sighed. “Something like that.” He rubbed both hands over his face and looked across the desks at her. “Anyway, we had one drink and I took her home.”

  Kelly smiled. “Did you walk her to her door, Delancey?” The singsong tone of her voice irritated him.

  “I always walk my dates to the door.”

  “Except Luca,” she said. “Then again, since you never take him out, that’s not a problem for you.”

  “Knock it off,” he said sourly. “I told you I’m not talking about Luca with you.”

  She sighed. “Kane, that man is the best thing that ever happened to you. When you were with him, you were almost a nice guy.”

  He stood up quickly, grabbing his empty coffee mug. “You want coffee?”

  “Fine.” She waved at his chair. “Sit your ass down. I get it. I won’t bring him up again,” she said. “Besides, I have something to tell you.”

  He frowned but did as she asked and sat heavily in his desk chair, setting the mug down.

  “What is it? Talk to me, partner.”

  Kelly dragged her eyes away and glanced around the room before returning her gaze to him.

  “Cassidy and Mike were over here a while ago,” Kelly said. “But now I don’t see them.”

  “What is it? What did they want?”

  Kelly stared at him, all amusement gone from her e
xpression. “There’s some news about Enoch Moore.”

  “What about him?” Kane asked. He felt his blood run cold.

  “Well you know they sent him back to prison in Connecticut after he and Brandon were scooped up by the FBI?” she asked,

  “Yeah, yeah, I know all that. What’s going on with Enoch?”

  “Oh, here they are,” Kelly said, looking over Kane’s shoulder.

  “He’s dead,” a deep male voice said from behind Kane. He twisted and saw Detective Cassidy Ryan walking up, followed by his partner, Mike Williams. Cassidy stopped at Kane’s desk and reached out a hand. Kane stood, shaking Cassidy’s hand and then Mike’s. “He passed away in the prison hospital yesterday morning.”

  “Too bad. I’d have liked to see him live long enough to see his son convicted of murder and various other crimes,” Kane said.

  “Yeah, well, we can’t have everything we want,” Kelly said. The cell phone on her desk buzzed and she looked down, reading a text, before glancing back at Kane. “Lincoln Snow and his partner are here with that US Marshal. They’re on their way up.”

  “I guess that’s our cue to make ourselves scarce,” Mike said, slapping his partner on the shoulder. “Come on, Cass, I’ll buy you that coffee and a Danish.”

  “You’re making my stomach growl,” Kelly called after them as they walked away. When she turned back, Kane was staring at her. “What? I didn’t eat this morning. I figured we could grab an early lunch,” She offered him a small smile but when Kane didn’t smile back, she leaned forward. “What the hell is wrong with you today?”

  Kane felt himself flinch. The truth was, seeing Luca the night before had bothered him more than he wanted to admit. As many times as he told himself he wasn’t gay or even bisexual, he couldn’t get the man out of his mind. By denying how he felt when he had Luca in his arms, he’d only made himself miserable. When he’d seen Luca after two long weeks, the urge to pull him into his arms had been almost overwhelming but he knew it would never work with him. Kane’s plans for a traditional marriage and family still hadn’t changed. He should have never kissed Luca. Starting something sexual with him was an even bigger mistake. He’d been an idiot but he had to put it behind him for his own sanity.

  “I’m out of sorts.” He scrubbed a hand over his face as if wiping his thoughts away before focusing on Kelly again. “Anyway, at least Moore is dead. Let’s just hope the charges against Brandon actually stick.” He frowned momentarily as he remembered something. “Did you ever get the list of evidence that was collected from Lance and Shield, Moore’s bar?”

  Kelly shook her head. “No, but we can ask Snow when he gets here. He’s always been cooperative.”

  “Lincoln’s a good guy. So’s his partner.”

  “Thank you!”

  Kane turned around and smiled when he saw Lincoln Snow walking into the squad room followed by his taller partner, Mac McCallahan, and Deputy US Marshal Brady whom he’d met once before. He shook the men’s hands.

  “Hey, guys,” Kelly said, also shaking hands with the men.

  “Murphy,” Lincoln replied. “You both remember Marshal Brady?”

  “Sure,” Kane said. He waved a hand at an interview room. “You want to take this discussion somewhere private?”

  “I’d appreciate that,” Brady said. “I have some things I’d like to go over about Brandon Moore’s case but I also need to update you on the status of the WITSEC list.”

  Kane noticed that Brady had dropped his voice to a near whisper and he figured he didn’t want to have the conversation about the hacked WITSEC list in public. He nodded and led the way to the interview room that contained a small table and two chairs. They had to drag in folding chairs for the rest of them. Kane missed the big conference room in his office at the ATF where it was comfortable to spread out. Unfortunately this room wasn’t the most private place in the station but it beat sitting their visitors in an interrogation room.

  “So, please update us on Brandon Moore,” Kelly said, looking at Snow after they were all seated.

  “We were able to get a great deal of information on Brandon Moore from the computer in his house,” Lincoln began. “We traced emails to a dummy account that we’ve now learned is a sort of back channel recruitment magazine for Eastern European mercenaries.”

  “I presume the Ukrainian hitman he hired came from there?” Kane asked.

  “Yes. Our cyber division was able to decrypt them yesterday. With those emails, we can tie Brandon Moore to the murder of several people both here and back in Boston,” Lincoln said. “We can also tie Moore to the robberies themselves since there were emails to and from a diamond cutting company in the Antwerp diamond district in Belgium known to use laser etchings to mark large and rare stones. In one decrypted email from the diamond cutter, the dealer told Moore where he could take the stones in LA to have the laser etchings removed.”

  “That’s great,” Kane said.

  “Yeah, we were pretty happy with that. At least that’s one evil bastard who’ll be going to prison for the rest of his life,” Lincoln said.

  “I’m getting the impression they won’t be closing up shop in LA, however,” Kelly said, sounding bleak.

  Lincoln and Mac both shook their heads. “Unfortunately, no,” Lincoln said. “You remember Martin Carlow, Brandon Moore’s right-hand man?”

  “The big bodyguard?” Kelly asked.

  “That’s the one,” Lincoln said.

  “What about him?” Kane asked.

  “Well, unfortunately, he wasn’t at the bar when our teams went in to arrest Brandon Moore and his father,” Lincoln said, sighing. “We had eyes on the pub all morning but Martin must have slipped out somehow.”

  “That was during the second robbery?” Kelly asked.

  “Right,” Mac said, speaking up for the first time. Kane looked over at the huge man. He rarely spoke but he knew guys like Mac who were well-trained former military. Kane had seen the man in action and he was relieved he was on their side.

  “Okay, so what did you turn up during the search?” Kane asked.

  Lincoln frowned. “Are you asking about the wooden box Moore kept beside the register?”

  Kane felt his stomach do a flip-flop. “You mean the box where he kept the gun that killed my father?”

  “Well, we believe that’s what he kept there,” Mac said. “Unfortunately, after a thorough search, it seems that the box vanished along with Carlow.”

  “Shit,” Kane said. “You think he took it with him on his own, or do you think Moore gave it to him for safekeeping?”

  “We caught Moore and his father by surprise when we arrested them. We’ve speculated that Carlow was possibly planning on making a move to take over the business and it just happened to coincide with the arrests, though we can’t be certain. One thing is likely, though. We think your cover as dirty cops is still intact,” Lincoln said.

  “Why?” Kane asked.

  “Well, according to the agents who arrested him, Moore was shocked as hell that his operation had been found out,” Lincoln said with a small smile. “He was pretty closemouthed during questioning, smug almost. It’s like he thinks he’ll skate on the robberies and murders because he has someone in the police department. We can’t be sure, but we think your cover held.”

  “Okay, so let me get this straight,” Kane said. “Carlow just took the box? Do you think he knew we weren’t dirty?” Kane asked.

  “At this point, we can’t be certain but even if he figured out you were undercover as crooked cops, we believe he’d lie low until he could get the hell out of Dodge without anyone noticing. For such a big guy, he’s remarkably good at sneaking around. We’re not sure why he stole the box and vanished but we’re hoping that at some point, when he does surface, we can put you and Murphy back in undercover. If we can catch Carlow at something nefarious, we can close this branch of the mob down entirely.”

  “Okay, so if you’re right and our cover wasn’t blown, Carlow will still ha
ve the blessing of the bosses back in Boston,” Kelly said. “In addition, what incentive does Brandon Moore have to keep his mouth shut about things? What if you’re wrong and he did figure out we’re not really dirty cops?”

  Lincoln frowned. “He only knows that he was arrested based on a wiretap. He doesn’t have to know you planted the bug, Murphy. For all he knows, the bug was in the bar somewhere, not his apartment above the pub.”

  “When his attorneys get discovery on the case, they’ll realize the bug was planted upstairs where Brandon and Enoch did most of their scheming,” Kane said.

  “The prosecutor isn’t sure he’ll need the wiretaps yet. Moore’s boys were caught red-handed at the jewelry store and the robbers’ phones were full of texts and calls between themselves and Moore. In addition, we have Moore’s emails that prove he was involved in the robberies and the hiring of the Ukrainian,” Lincoln said. “The prosecutor won’t introduce the wiretaps unless he absolutely has to.”

  “Which means our cover should remain intact,” Kelly said, smiling slightly.

  “Yes,” Lincoln replied. “It should but we will proceed with caution in any case.”

  “If I were to guess, I’d say Martin Carlow will stay hidden until he has a new crew in place,” Kelly said.

  “He’d be stupid not to,” Lincoln said. He looked away from Kelly and over at Marshal Brady who’d been silent to this point. “We’re not so sure he plans on going into business the same way Brandon Moore was in business. In fact, we think he might be the one who hacked into WITSEC and stole the list for Brandon and Enoch Moore.”

  “He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d have those kind of hacking skills,” Kane scoffed. “He’s more of a thug.”

  “Don’t underestimate him,” Brady said. “True, he’s a thug but he’s a thug with a computer science degree. He’s perfectly capable of being the hacker and if he’s not, he’s certainly capable of buying the list from someone who is. He still has connections to that world.”