Kane reached out and pulled him back, hugging him hard. “You’re that happiness, Luca. I really believe I never could have accepted the fact that I want a man in my bed if I hadn’t met you.”
Luca stiffened a little and Kane loosened his arms. Luca pulled back and stared at him. “A man?” Luca seemed to pause for a second and Kane realized what that probably sounded like. “So, the experiment worked. You realized you’re gay. Well, good for you, Detective.” His words were flat.
“No, idiot,” Kane said. He felt the frustration rising. Luca was going to make him say it. He’d never said it to anyone because he’d never felt the way he felt right now. “I’m trying to tell you that I’m…”
“What?” Luca demanded, running right over what he was struggling to say. “What are you, Kane? Gay? No… hmm… that can’t be it!” He made a sweeping motion with his hand to indicate his own body. “You’re a guy who’s been balls-deep inside me. Are you… homo-aware now? Homo-accepting? What is it? Come on. Don’t get shy on me now.”
He was practically vibrating in Kane’s arms. Whatever he’d done to set Luca off, it was well worth it when Kane recognized the indignation in every vowel he uttered. He couldn’t help but grin at Luca’s little outburst. When he did, Luca’s entire demeanor changed.
“Baby, if you’d stop and let me get a word or two in edgewise,” Kane said softly, “I’d tell you that I’m in love with you.”
Luca stared at him with an expression akin to shock. When he burst out laughing, Kane didn’t really know what to say or do. He’d never ever told anyone he loved them before and being laughed at wasn’t the reaction he’d been expecting. Luca’s eyes filled with tears as he laughed and Kane just stared at him, debating whether to push him out of the car or not.
“Well…,” Kane said, “that wasn’t exactly how I thought this would go. I guess I’m the idiot.”
Luca’s expression instantly changed as he stopped laughing. He reached for Kane again, holding his face. “I’m in love with you too, you big jerk. I just didn’t expect to tell you sitting in front of my apartment building. I was thinking a candlelit dinner and a good bottle of wine would have been a better choice of setting for something this important.”
Kane yanked Luca against his body. When the warmth of his smaller body relaxed with no resistance to his manhandling, a huge lump formed in his throat. “You’re in love with me?” He whispered the question into Luca’s hair. Nothing else mattered. Luca squirmed and Kane let him go.
“I’ve been in love with you since before you stopped calling me, Kane. I sensed that you were falling in love with me when Brandon Moore’s thug had me in his gun sights.”
“You knew about it all this time but, you never said anything, baby. You just let me walk away.”
Luca nodded. “Oh, don’t you see? I had to let you go, sweetheart. You had to figure it out for yourself.”
Kane shook his head. “You know, you’ve always been the adult in this relationship, Luca. I’ve been so stupid and scared to admit how much I missed you.”
“I know,” Luca said.
Kane chuckled. “Well, the whole gay thing kind of freaked me out a little too.”
“I know.” Luca gazed at him with such intelligent eyes, it really was quite stunning to see.
Kane didn’t know how he should feel. Relief, embarrassment, and foolishness all battled for the top spot. “I feel like the kid here,” Kane said.
Luca screwed up his face. “Why don’t we make a pact not to call each other a kid. And by the way, if you ever call me a kid again, I’ll kill you myself, Delancey.”
Kane laughed and pulled him close again, lingering over the mutual meeting of their lips before finally letting Luca go when a car horn blared behind them. His car was illegally parked but he’d gotten caught up in their conversation and the kisses that followed. Leaving Luca at the curb was the last thing he wanted to do right after hearing him tell him he loved him.
“I’m sorry, baby, I’ve gotta get to work,” Kane said, regret filling every word.
Luca sighed. “And I’ve got a funeral. We’ll meet up later, right?”
“Of course. I’ll pick you up from Madeline’s if you want,” Kane said.
“That would be good.” Luca kissed him again. The horn blared long and loud and they pulled away from each other laughing. “I’ll see you, love.”
Love. The word made Kane’s insides fill with warmth. He squeezed Luca’s hand. “I promise. See you later, baby.”
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
By 6:30 that evening, Kane was tired of looking at screens. For the first half of the day, he’d been floating on air. Not only had he confessed his love to Luca but then the man had confessed the same feelings right back to him. It was amazing and frightening all at the same time. He hadn’t been lying. He might have been infatuated with women but he’d never been in love with anyone in his life and now that he was, he knew it wasn’t going away. It didn’t matter anymore that Luca was a man. Kane had fallen in love with the person, not Luca’s gender.
Kelly had been in a lousy mood all day, overtired and snappish when Kane came in and he hadn’t wanted to share his big news with her while she was in that kind of mood. He wanted people to celebrate with him, not drag him down. He’d decided to wait until she was in a better frame of mind to give her the good news. Late in the day Kane finally looked up from his computer monitor when Cassidy and Mike strolled up to their desks, relieved for the interruption.
“Hey, guys,” Kane greeted, noticing their serious expressions, uncharacteristic for the two hard-boiled detectives. “What’s going on?”
Cassidy darted a glance at his partner. “Tell them what we found, Mike.”
“We followed up with a friendly detective in Vice we both know like we said we would. It turns out they had several gay junkies that they believed were murdered. They didn’t even have to look because they had a file already compiled,” Mike said.
“Why?” Kane asked.
“Get this,” Cassidy said. “They say junkies die all the time but there’s been a recent increase in violent deaths of rent boys. It’s a high-risk profession so at times they get killed by a John or end up overdosing or whatever.”
“Right,” Kelly said.
“Anyway, the detectives we talked to said they just had a feeling that recently something had changed. They began to think something was going on and that the deaths weren’t just routine like you’d expect in that profession. In fact, they had enough of a feeling that they brought the deaths to the attention of the FBI,” Mike said.
“When?” Kane asked.
“This was several months ago,” Cassidy said. “They were thinking they might have a serial killer on their hands but after examining what the detectives had, the FBI didn’t find a pattern in the deaths. They’d all died in different ways—everything from overdoses to auto accidents, to drownings. There seemed to be a common victimology but no other pattern. The detectives were really frustrated.”
“Well, we all know how that is. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense at first. There might not be a pattern but deep in your gut, you just know there is one,” Kelly said.
“Yeah, it’s happened to me several times. It’s called instinct,” Kane said. “I bet they were even more frustrated when they couldn’t get anyone to believe them.”
“Yeah, but frustrated isn’t the word I’d use,” Mike said, chuckling darkly. “They even knew one junkie who complained that his pimp was gonna kill him in a snuff film. That was two months ago and guess what, they just found him in Griffith Park, beaten, brutally sexually assaulted, and then shot in the head… dumped like trash.”
A shiver went down Kane’s spine. “That sounds remarkably like the murder Slade Ruiz probably had planned for Kendal Mercer,” he said.
“Exactly,” Mike said. “Anyway, Cass and I spent the morning banging our heads against a wall until we got a call back from the Boston PD’s Organized Crime Unit.”<
br />
“Okay, what’d they have to add?” Kelly asked.
“We spoke to Lieutenant Monahan over there. He’s been working for years to identify members of the Boston mob on the East Coast. This afternoon, they received the profile of the bomber the FBI put out as a result of our meeting. Monahan told us that there were several mob-style hits where Carlow was their main suspect. They were quite sure Carlow was one of their primary enforcers which we already know,” Mike said.
Cassidy continued. “But once the unit got our profile, even more pieces seemed to fall into place for him and his detectives.”
Kane sat forward. “Okay, like what?”
Cassidy exchanged a glance with Mike before looking back at Kane. “Even though someone had been using bombs to blow up a variety of people, he confirmed that in the last bombing—the one where William Masters was the victim…”
Kane glanced at Kelly. She nodded slightly before he turned back to Cassidy.
“Yeah, we remember. What about that last bombing?”
“Well, not only did he sneak out of the safehouse to go to a pub just as his friend said, but also… he said that pub was the place where Masters’s pimp was known to hang out,” Cassidy finished.
“Okay, so that could mean a couple of things or it could mean nothing at all. My first thought is what if the pimp spotted Masters there and called Carlow and told him the pub was the perfect place to do the hit?” Kane asked. “I mean if he’s keeping to pattern, and Carlow picks a partner to work with who does the dirty work of procuring his perfect victim. At the same time, when the heat gets too bad, he does away with the pimp also. That way, there will be no witnesses.”
Kane’s phone suddenly vibrated and he glanced down seeing a call coming in from Luca. He pressed the button, sending it directly to voice mail so he could follow this discussion to the end. He felt like they were finally making some progress.
“You mean that Carlow used this pimp to set Masters up?” Kelly asked.
“That’s part of it,” Kane said. “I still haven’t figured out how it benefits the pimps in these scenarios. Even as used up as these prostitutes are by the time he finally turns them over to Carlow, they still lose the revenue they’d bring in.”
“Cass and I thought about that too,” Mike said, “but then, we realized that the pimp probably would break even especially if Carlow was arranging the snuff film and then getting off on it when he kills them.”
“Has anyone ever seen one of those disgusting snuff films?” Kelly asked. The look on her face was one of horror. “I’ve seen one, once. Mike might be right here because in the one I saw, it was done like a fantasy execution but the executioner was masked.”
Kane shivered. Just the thought of an innocent rent boy having his life snuffed out for someone’s entertainment made him sick to his stomach.
“Okay, so let’s unpack this for a second,” Kane said. “We all discussed how we thought Carlow researched his victims very well before killing them, right? Either he knew Masters was a prostitute before ever meeting his pimp or he used the pimp—which is more likely—to hook him up with desperate easy targets. In either scenario, he would have known Masters fit his victimology criteria the minute they met.”
“Do you guys have a theory about how Masters might have met Carlow?” Kelly asked.
“Did anyone question the pimp?” Kane asked.
“Nope. He also died in the blast at the bar,” Mike said, reading from a notepad in his hand.
Kane nodded. “He was there… okay, this makes more sense now. I think we’re right on track here but that also means, he might have also used Slade Ruiz to get close to both Freddy Lombardi and Kendal Mercer. Maybe that’s how he plans on finishing Ruiz.”
“I’ll bet he doesn’t know Mercer is protected by us,” Kelly said.
“Don’t kid yourself,” Kane said. “Remember how we talked about the way the others back east were also in protection. He does his research and I’d bet money he’s trying to find out where his next victim is right now.”
“That means he’s going to contact Slade Ruiz if he’s got Mercer in his sites.”
“But he can’t get to Mercer. Unlike Freddy Lombardi, Kendal Mercer knows what’s in store for him if he’s stupid enough to leave the safehouse. He knows how Ruiz’s victims end up which is why he spilled his guts to us,” Mike said.
“Well, Carlow can no doubt get to Ruiz and I’ll just bet he’ll try to find out where Kendal Mercer is. When he finds out that Ruiz doesn’t know where he is, Carlow will look for a new victim,” Kane said. “He has to kill. It’s a compulsion.”
“I’d take that bet,” Cassidy said. “Is anyone else worried that Carlow has been quiet too long?”
“We need to find Ruiz fast. It’s Saturday night,” Kelly said.
“Who the hell knows where he hangs out,” Cassidy said, shaking his head.
Kane suddenly remembered Luca dancing with the handsome Slade Ruiz at Barcelona. He glanced at Kelly. “Where did Luca say he saw Freddy all fucked up before he was blown up?” He didn’t wait for an answer. He yanked open his desk drawer, withdrawing his notepad where he’d been scribbling things the day he and Kelly went to see Luca to talk to him about Freddy. He flipped pages and stopped as an electric shock short-circuited his brain for a few seconds. “BARCELONA” was written on the page and boldly underlined twice.
“Barcelona,” Kelly said, echoing the words in his notepad. He held it up to show everyone.
“Shit. We need to get there right now,” Kane said. “I’m not trying to sound dramatic, but this could be life or death. If Carlow has a bomb…” The words trailed off but he knew they were probably all thinking the same thing. If Carlow had a bomb and thought Ruiz could lure Kendal Mercer to the bar, he might just set the bomb off to take out Mercer, Ruiz, and anyone else who happened to be there would end up as collateral damage.
“You’re right. We all need to get there right now,” Kelly said. “I’ll call the FBI.”
“I’ll put the bomb squad on standby until we’re certain,” Mike said.
Kane stood up. “I’ll call Jarrett and Thayne. We’ll need the ATF if we think there could be a bomb.” He grabbed the phone off his desk and noted the missed call from Luca. There was a voicemail. He hit the button on his phone and played it back.
“Kane, the memorial is finished. It was wonderful and I’m exhausted. Unfortunately, Corey says I have to go out and have one drink with him and a group of other friends. I told him about us. He’s not happy so I think you have to sit down with him. Sorry… long message. Meet us at Barcelona. We’re headed out right now.”
Kane felt all the color drain from his face.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Luca and Corey walked into Barcelona around eight that night. He was feeling sad from saying goodbye to Thelma for the last time and he was looking forward to seeing Kane later that evening. All he wanted right now was to have a drink with Corey and find his man. The bar had just ended happy hour and it was full. Some of the office crowd would soon thin out because the really busy party crowd was already starting to fill the place, intent on dancing the night away or just finding a partner for the evening. Luca had only been back to the bar once or twice since Kane had found him there and chewed him out for dancing with that pimp who he said was trouble.
Thelma’s service had been lovely, warm and filled with memories as voiced by Madeline and her other close family members and friends. Luca had been honored just to be there. He missed his friend and was worn out from the day but if he had it all to do over again, he would have, if just to hear Kane tell him he loved him again. On one level, he knew Kane harbored deep feelings for him. He never would have come clean and humbled himself if he hadn’t truly meant the words he’d said. Kane was a proud man so for him to admit he was in love with Luca was a pretty huge thing. His head was still buzzing with the reality of what Kane told him while double-parked in front of his building. It was so much better than good.
<
br /> The truth was, Luca had known he felt differently about Kane than anyone he’d ever dated before but to hear that his lover felt the same about him was still mind-blowing. It was completely unexpected. Once Kane came back and apologized and had done everything possible to make up for his actions, Luca had been hopeful they were headed that way but earlier today when Kane referenced their visit to his tasseographer, Luca had seen the honesty in his eyes. He was in love with Luca and considered him to be his soul mate. It was still hard to believe but it had him feeling almost giddy as he and Corey found a seat at the bar and ordered a drink.
“You’re smiling, Luca.”
Luca turned to see Corey looking at him strangely. He nodded and then was distracted as a handsome bartender blocked the light in front of them and set down their drinks. Once he’d gone, Luca leaned close to Corey and lifted his voice to be heard over the trance music pulsing through the club.
“Kane told me he loves me, Corey.”
Corey’s jaw dropped open as he stared back at him. “Are you kidding?” He scoffed. “You believe him?”
“Of course I do. If you’d seen his eyes when he admitted it to me…”
“Is he gonna come out or keep you as his dirty secret?”
Corey’s words weren’t meant to hurt him—possibly scare him—but not really hurt him. Luca felt neither of those things and he knew Corey was only looking out for him. Corey had been there to clean up the wreckage Kane had left. He smiled indulgently at Corey and took a sip of his margarita. How could he make him understand how much he loved Kane? Corey hardly knew him at all. Luca knew he was going to have to get the two of them to sit down and talk.
“He’s going to tell people. I told him I won’t be with him unless he’s willing to have a relationship out in the light of day, and he understands.”
“But, did he say he’s going to tell everyone, Luca?”
“Just leave it alone and trust me. I know you are only looking out for me, Corey but you don’t know him.”
Play With Me Page 29
