Kane swiped the phone and put it to his ear. “Delancey.” He paused. “Yeah, I’m still here. Where are you now?” Another pause as Kane looked up at Luca, meeting his gaze. “Okay, I don’t think that’s such a good… yeah, okay. We can be there in about half an hour.” He swiped the phone and threw it on the bed before stalking over to Luca.
“That was Kelly. She wants both of us to meet her not far from here in West Hollywood.” His eyes betrayed something; Luca just wasn’t sure what it was.
Luca stepped close and slid his arms around Kane’s shower-warmed skin, looking up into his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure yet. She’s at a crime scene and she needs both of us out there,” Kane said, leaning down to kiss him quickly. He stepped back, forcing Luca to let go.
“Why would she need me there?” Luca asked, almost afraid to ask.
“It’s about Freddy… and it’s not good, baby.” Kane dropped the towel and reached for his boxer briefs, dressing as he spoke.
“Not good? What do you mean?” Luca could hear the fear in his voice. Kane turned and eyeballed him, breaking the stare only when he turned to pick his dress shirt up from the floor. Luca yanked on the T-shirt that he’d been wearing when Kane and Kelly first arrived.
“We’ll talk in the car. We gotta go, Luca.” There was no warmth in the tone of Kane’s voice but Luca didn’t take it wrong. He was wearing his professional persona all the way and Luca knew the man well enough to know he wasn’t going to pry any answers out of him until he was ready to give them.
“Okay,” Luca said, grabbing his shoes as he watched Kane call for an Uber and start to dress. He sat down on the bed and pulled on his Converse sneakers. They were a gorgeous shade of cherry red which matched the rest of his outfit of royal blue and red—coordinated as always. He knew Kane hadn’t been completely honest about Kelly’s reasons for wanting him along. There had to be something very wrong and the thought that it was related to Freddy was almost terrifying.
As for the rest of what had gone on that afternoon… well, that was a hell of a thing to process. It was going to take a while. If he’d thought for even a moment that Kane wasn’t completely sincere with his apology, he would have thrown him out of his apartment on his ass. He wanted to believe that Kane was being honest. He’d seemed to be. But in the past, other men had been shitty to him and then come crawling back to him with some apology designed to make Luca trust them, only to turn around and do something shitty. He’d had one bad experience with a guy who was abusive. He’d not left wounds on the outside, though he’d come close to it. The wounds that man left were internal but Luca had lived through it and with the help of friends like Corey, he’d sent him packing once and for all.
He was probably an idiot to trust Kane but he couldn’t help himself. He wanted the man.
When they were dressed, Luca watched Kane slide his shoulder holster and gun on, marveling that he was a federal agent. When he’d met Kane, he’d thought he was a police detective. That had been hot but knowing he was a Fed was even hotter. Maybe Luca had watched way too much TV. A lot of what he knew about federal agents came from black-and-white movies. He snapped out of his musings when Kane turned to look at him. He was frowning slightly.
“You ready? We can’t keep Kelly waiting,” Kane said, digging in his pocket for his buzzing phone. He checked it and then looked over at Luca again. “Our ride is here.”
“Let’s go.” Luca grabbed his keys and a lightweight jacket. He had no idea how late they’d be coming home or even where exactly they were headed. He locked up and jogged to catch up with Kane who practically left him in the dust with his long strides. As soon as they were downstairs, he spotted the small SUV waiting at the curb in front of his building. Kane opened the back door and motioned for Luca to duck inside. Kane followed and then gave the driver directions to an address about five miles from his apartment.
Kane glanced over at him once the driver pulled out into traffic. He had that professional cop vibe to him that Luca was familiar with. The man who’d literally fucked him into helpless abandon only a half hour before, now sat beside him with a serious aura. Luca reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the stiffness return. He really wished he’d kept that appointment with Vanna White but had he done that, he wouldn’t have had such an exhilarating afternoon.
“What’s up? I know you didn’t tell me everything,” Luca prodded.
“There was an explosion at a club in WeHo. Kelly needs us on scene. My partner at the ATF and all of my colleagues are already there,” Kane said, looking grim.
Luca’s eyes widened. “A club? You said this had something to do with Freddy? What’s going on?”
Kane’s expression turned sympathetic and Luca was surprised when he reached across the seat and took his hand, threading their fingers together. He stared at Luca for a few seconds before turning away and looking out the windshield.
“We gotta wait and see.” Kane turned to look at him. “I swear, Luca. That’s all I know.”
Luca nodded slowly. “Okay. If you say so.” He swallowed nervously but he trusted Kane, at least in this. After all, Kane was making every effort to prove he was worthy of Luca’s trust. He was going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
They drove for a few blocks and Luca watched the familiar sights of his neighborhood as they passed by commercial buildings, stores he recognized, and billboards. After a few miles, he suddenly began to hear the distant wail of sirens. When a police car drove by them at a high rate of speed, he started to get nervous. He glanced over at Kane who kept his gaze studiously trained out the front windshield. He was wearing a concerned frown and the expression sent Luca’s stomach into a roll. He didn’t like the implication of that worry.
“What club, Kane?”
Kane looked over, his eyes wide as though he’d been startled.
“Marty’s.”
Luca felt his stomach lurch. “Marty’s? There was an explosion at Marty’s?”
Kane’s fingers tightened in his as he nodded. “That’s all I know, Luca.” His words were clipped and Luca felt fear course through him for the first time. He knew that Marty’s was one of Freddy’s favorite hangouts. The implication that his friend had somehow been caught in an explosion made him sick to his stomach but he swallowed hard and tried not to throw up. He looked back out the windshield as a fire truck roared by them, honking its horn. Luca noticed a plume of smoke rising from a structure in the distance. As the Uber driver caught Kane’s eye in the rearview mirror, he spoke.
“They’ve got the street barricaded.”
Kane let go of Luca’s hand and pointed. “Just pull over here. We’ll walk.”
The driver did as he was asked and pulled over to the curb a half block from the building which Luca could tell was on fire. As Kane paid the driver, Luca tried to see how badly the club was damaged but it was impossible since the street was crowded with police vehicles and ladder trucks. The wide boulevard was completely closed off and several policemen were standing outside of their patrol cars, waving traffic off the boulevard and onto side streets. Luca guessed the police had to be relieved that it was a weekend since traffic was much lighter than it usually was. During the week, the street would be packed with cars inching through the city at rush hour.
Luca snapped out of his reverie as Kane came up beside him. “Let’s go.” He turned away without another word and began walking away briskly on long legs. Luca practically had to jog to keep up with him. He still didn’t know why Kelly had insisted that Kane bring him to a crime scene. If Freddy had been caught in that explosion, did they want him to try to identify the body?
Oh God.
They got to a police barricade of yellow police tape and Luca watched Kane pull out his identification to show to the officer standing just inside.
“He’s with me,” Kane said.
She nodded and reached down to lift the tape for them both to walk under. Luca followed obediently. When t
hey were fifty feet from the smoldering wreckage of the club where he’d first seen Kane and sung that stupid Dolly Parton song to him, Luca’s stomach dropped. The club was nearly gone and in its place was a burned-out shell that was on fire. Marty’s sat in a strip mall with a mattress store on one side and a 24 Hour Fitness center on the other side. Both of those businesses had also suffered damage. There were several ambulances parked in front of the 24 Hour Fitness center and Luca could see attendants pulling stretchers out onto the boulevard to load up patients. Many people were injured and some had probably been killed. The scene was horrific.
A group of men and women wearing ATF windbreakers stood off to the side of one of the fire trucks. Luca noticed one tall man with pure white hair raise his hand as soon as he spotted them walking up the street. He waved at them and when he did, Luca immediately noticed how gorgeous the man was. He had dimples and ice-blue eyes, even lighter than Kane’s pale blue gray. At first glance, Luca thought he had to be older but as Kane headed toward the group, Luca noticed the white-haired guy wasn’t over forty. He had laugh lines at the corners of his sensual mouth and he was beautiful. As they walked up, Kane stuck out his hand and began shaking all around.
The white-haired man looked over at Luca as he let Kane’s hand go. “Jarrett Evans,” he said, sticking out his hand to shake.
“Luca Price,” Luca said, taking the man’s hand as he gazed into his gorgeous eyes. “I-I’m with Kane… ah… Delancey.”
The man chuckled as he dropped Luca’s hand and clapped him on the shoulder. “Nice to meet you, Luca.”
Luca had the strangest feeling that Evans knew something about the two of them. He knew Kane was deeply in the closet so there was no way he would have shared information about them with any of his colleagues but for some odd reason, it felt as though they already knew about him. He stored that thought away for later examination. Right now, various people held out their hands to him and he began shaking.
The man beside Evans introduced himself as Special Agent Thayne Wolfe and Luca noticed how stunning the man was. Dark hair, brows, and lashes, and eyes the color of a Bahamian ocean. He wore a wedding ring but even so, Luca’s gaydar went off as they shook hands. An older Hispanic man smiled at him and introduced himself as Jose Galvez and then turned to another younger man with black hair and dark eyes, introducing him as Nico Devecchio, his partner. A tall African-American woman with dark brown eyes walked over to Kane and threw her arms around him, hugging him hard. Luca heard her call him partner and he perked up, paying more attention to her than the others. Kane smiled at her as she released him and he turned to Luca, guiding her over to him with a hand at the small of her back.
“Luca, this is my partner at the ATF, Special Agent Dev King. Dev, this is Luca Price.” The exceptionally beautiful woman smiled at him as she reached out to shake his hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Luca.”
“You too,” he said, taking her hand. He thought that he and Kane were going to have to sit down and have a conversation because no one even questioned who he was or why he was there. She let go of his hand and he spotted Kelly, coming toward them through the crowd. She looked flustered as she walked up with two other men in suits. Luca knew both men and he relaxed almost immediately. Detective Cassidy Ryan and his older partner, Mike Williams, had always been kind to Luca. They’d met during the jewelry robbery case. All three of them smiled at Luca as he shook their hands.
“We’re glad you came, Luca,” Kelly said, putting an arm around his shoulders to give it a small squeeze as Kane and the other two detectives moved away to join the group of Kane’s colleagues who stood ten feet away.
“Why am I here, Kelly? What happened?” Luca dragged his eyes away from her worried expression and stared at the blackened gaping maw which used to be one of his favorite karaoke gay bars. Sirens wailed as an ambulance pulled away, headed off to a hospital, no doubt.
“Someone set off a bomb in the club. You’re familiar with Marty’s, right?”
“Yes, but what happened?”
“This just happened about an hour ago so we’re still trying to sort that out, but some of the first firefighters on the scene recovered this and I wanted to show it to you as soon as I saw it.” She held out a plastic evidence bag with a red seal on it. Inside was a melted California driver’s license. It was warped from heat and blackened, but as he took the bag in his hands and held it up to look at the picture, he felt his stomach do a sharp roll. Freddy’s face smiled out at him. His gorgeous features showed off how handsome he’d been before that bastard, Slade, had gotten to him. His name, Frederick Jules Lombardi, was barely legible underneath the black smudges. Luca handed it back to Kelly, feeling bile rise in his throat. All he could do was nod.
“Is that your friend, Freddy, Luca?” she asked, taking hold of his shoulder as she ducked her head and looked into his eyes.
He nodded again, knowing if he opened his mouth, he was going to throw up. He held up a finger and looked around, spotting a curb where no one stood. He turned and ran for it, barely making it there before he began to retch. He hadn’t gotten to eat any of his food so his stomach was empty but he continued to try to throw up in the gutter as people around him watched him bring up yellow water. He squatted when he finished, too humiliated to look up. When he felt a large warm hand between his shoulder blades, he immediately knew who it was. Kane squatted beside him as he leaned close.
“It’s okay, baby. Did you recognize Freddy’s license?” Kane asked softly, his words nearly drowned out as the chaotic scene around them continued.
Luca nodded, mortified that Kane had seen him at his worst. Kane’s warm hand continued to rub small circles on his back and he wanted to lean into the touch more than anything. He knew he couldn’t do anything that might be interpreted as a public display of affection with all his friends and work colleagues around, but it just felt so good to be comforted right now. When he finally looked over to him, he schooled his features, reaching up to wipe his lips of any lingering moisture there.
“I’m okay.” His voice sounded like he’d smoked a pack of cigarettes in five minutes so he cleared his throat as he stood up. Kane stood beside him, dropping his hand.
“You recognized Freddy’s license?” Kane asked again.
Luca nodded, staring into his kind eyes, feeling tears flood his own. “He was in there?”
“It seems so, sweetheart. There were several people in the bar when the bomb went off. Firefighters pulled the license off one of the bodies,” Kane said softly.
Luca felt a sob come out of him involuntarily as the tears overflowed and coursed down his cheeks. A moment later Kane had his arms around him and Luca’s face was pressed against his strong chest. He let out a little gasp and wrapped his arms around Kane’s waist, shamelessly holding on to him like he was the last man on earth.
“We think he died instantly,” Kane was saying. “He wouldn’t have suffered, Luca.”
Luca’s friend was dead and he didn’t suffer but still… Freddy was dead. He couldn’t wrap his brain around it. How was it even possible? What was Freddy even doing at Marty’s during the day? He worked at a law firm. Luca had way too many questions swirling around in his mind but at the moment, holding on to Kane was all he cared about. The man was a solid rock for him to cling to when his knees felt weak and apparently, Kane didn’t care about the PDA at all. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Kane’s arms relaxed and he let Luca go. Luca stepped back and gazed up at him. Kane leaned down and whispered into his ear.
“I’m gonna sit you down in a car for the moment. I have to talk to these guys and then I’ll take you home.”
“I can call an Uber,” Luca said, looking down the block to the police tape where they’d entered the crime scene. Departing ambulances and arriving fire and police vehicles, all with sirens blaring, were setting his nerves on edge. His head throbbed from all the noise and from throwing up.
“Luca.”
His head sna
pped back as he turned to look at Kane who’d taken hold of both of his arms. He was frowning at him and for some reason, it didn’t even bother Luca. It was such a default expression on Kane, he was becoming used to it.
“Okay, Kane, whatever you say,” he muttered, wiping away tears.
Kane offered him a tiny smile before taking his bicep and leading him toward a silver Mustang parked at the curb. The man called Thayne was there with a key fob and he opened the car and rolled the windows down for him. Luca thanked him as he sat down in the front passenger seat.
“Now, you wait right here, Luca,” Kane said, looking at him pointedly. “I’ll be as quick as possible.”
Luca looked up at his looming form, standing beside the open door to the car and offered him what could only be the semblance of a smile. “Okay, Kane. I’m not going anywhere.”
Kane reached down and patted his cheek softly before jogging away from the car to his work friends. Luca lay his head back on the headrest and shut his eyes.
He wished he’d never gotten up that morning.
Chapter Six
Kane glanced over at Luca, sitting in Thayne’s car, trying not to be distracted by the way he slumped in the front passenger seat as he listened to his friends.
“We’ve got three bodies in the bar,” Cassidy was saying, “and another ten people have been taken to local hospitals.”
“We have to wait until the LAFD has deemed the structure safe before we can find out what kind of bomb we’re dealing with,” Jarrett drawled.
Kane turned back to his colleagues only to find some of them watching him. He cleared his throat.
“Do we think this is terrorism or an extremist group?” he asked.
“It’s impossible to know at this point,” Dev said. “All we know is that the bomb had to be very large in order to take out a building this size. The fact that is was set off in a gay bar may tie it in to some sort of extremist group but it’s still too early to tell.”
Play With Me Page 8
