by Zoe Perdita
He could be at home with a good book or a movie. Something to get his mind off the fact that Davis was not and never would be his. Oh, and not to mention the whole pile of disappointment Davis heaped upon his shoulders. Yeah, he’d never be able to forget about that.
“Want to play?” the mahjong dealer asked. He was an older monkey with dark, pinched eyes.
Ken started. Might as well ask before he gave up and went home. “Uh, no. Actually, I was wondering if someone was playing here recently – a guy with brown hair and a brown leather jacket. He’s a wolf, if that helps.”
The monkey nodded slowly and glanced at a tiger shifter in a suit who stood close by.
The tiger shifter gave Ken the once over and moved forward. “Come with me, please,” the tiger said, his voice a low grumble and his black hair slicked back from his face.
Who did Tyler say ran this casino again? Dragons. Ken knew from the news they were part of the Triad, but after the gang war all the shifter gangs in Haven City were supposed to be gone. Only, it didn’t seem like that considering this underground casino was still running.
How could he be so stupid?
“What’s this about?” Ken asked and clenched his jaw to keep his voice from shaking.
The tiger leaned in close. He stood several inches taller than Ken. “Either you come with me quietly or we make a scene. Choose wisely.”
A single drop of sweat slid down Ken’s back. “Where’s Davis? Did he choose wisely?”
The tiger sneered and grabbed Ken by the bicep. Then the tiger yanked him off the floor, and no matter how Ken wiggled, he couldn’t free himself from that grasp. Looks like all the time in the gym wasn’t paying off in a way that counted.
The tiger pulled him off the casino’s floor, down a long hallway and opened a heavy door. They ended up in a backroom with bright fluorescent lights that stung Ken’s eyes. He pinched them closed. The tiger shoved him inside and slammed the door.
The clink of a lock felt like a seal on his fate, but he turned and tried the door anyway. It was thick steel and windowless, but whoever these shifters were they couldn’t just kidnap him. With shaking hands, he pulled out his cell phone and—
No signal!
Shit! Maybe this is what happened to Davis.
And look what Ken got for following him?
Trouble. Always the same.
And, all because of his own sentimentality – that picture and the look on Davis’s face that morning when Ken mentioned Sam. Like it hurt his best friend to bring up another man. Like Davis cared!
Ugh!
And Ken knew – he knew! – Davis did some stupid shit in the past.
Ken remembered the emptiness in his chest when Davis called Ken the night he skipped town. The fuzz over the line. The sound of the highway in the background.
“I messed up so bad,” he whispered into Ken’s ear, a hundred miles away. “I—I owe some people a lot of money, and I can’t just give it back. They’ll kill me.”
In that moment, Ken felt like Davis yanked the heart from his chest and smashed it between his palms. “What are you going to do?” he asked, voice shaking.
Davis took a sharp breath, and the line buzzed. “I can’t come back. Tell everyone I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
After that, the money orders came to Mrs. Harrison once a month from random places. They kept coming for years until the cash ran out. Mrs. Harrison was dead by then due to a silver poisoning accident a healer didn’t catch in time.
But no way in hell this could be connected to that old debt. Davis said the person he owed money to died in the gang war, so this was a brand new fuckup.
If it was the mob or the Triad or whatever they were called. Dammit! Ken suddenly regretted eating anything that night, let alone two helpings.
However, he didn’t have long to think of all the creative ways he could be tortured or killed. The door opened about ten minutes after the first tiger left.
A different tiger stood there, dressed in a much nicer suit – Hugo Boss. His long black hair was tied into a ponytail at the base of his neck, and his sharp, dark eyes slipped over Ken quickly before he spoke.
“You know Davis Harrison?”
Ken shut his eyes and let out a breath. “Yes. And you can’t hold me here against my will. It’s kidnapping.”
The tiger’s lips quirked and a dimple deepened on his cheek. “Are you a lawyer?”
Ken pursed his lips. Yeah, he could’ve been a lawyer, but the constant competition gave him a headache. Accounting was so much easier. “Where’s Davis?” he asked, surprised his voice didn’t tremble.
“With my associate. He’d like to meet you.”
Ken felt his face drain of color. “Who’s your associate?”
“The Dragon. Come along. He’s not a patient man.”
Ken didn’t want to come along anywhere, but he wasn’t strong enough to break out of a casino with countless shifter guards. At least this tiger didn’t manhandle him like the last one had.
They left that room and got into an elevator. The tiger pressed a button without a number, and they rose.
One floor.
Two.
Five.
Ken balled his hands to keep them from shaking. “Are you going to kill him?”
The tiger blinked. “That’s up to my associate, not me. Is he your mate?”
Well, that brought the color back to Ken’s cheeks. His face heated. Burned. His heart pounded. He wanted to say ‘yes,’ but that wasn’t the truth. Not even close. “Would it matter if I were?”
The tiger shrugged. “Probably not.”
Then the elevator doors slid open to reveal an immaculate penthouse apartment with huge floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the bright lights of Chinatown and the twisting river below. The lights were dimmed, but Ken’s shifter eyesight was good enough that he made out the entire room.
The furniture was expensive and modern. The walls bare but for a few pieces of art showcasing three-toed Japanese dragons. It must’ve been a Triad thing. He didn’t have portraits of wolves around his place.
The Dragon sat in a chair. His shoulders were broad. The suit and button up shirt did nothing to conceal the strength under it. His black hair was slicked from his smooth brow. Even sitting, he commanded attention.
The tiger held his hand out, and Ken walked into the apartment. He stopped, briefly, but the tiger didn’t ask him to take off his shoes.
The Dragon watched Ken, his slanted irises lined with glowing gold. “You came looking for your friend in my casino. How commendable of you, omega.”
No one else stood in the room, though Ken caught the hint of burning on the air. That meant a magic user had been there recently.
Ken’s stomach dropped to his feet and he swallowed the bile in his throat. Squared his shoulders. “Where’s Davis?”
The tiger shuffled behind him, and Ken expected to feel the hard barrel of a gun shoved into his back. Instead, the tiger walked around him.
“Fei, our guest looks like he could use a drink. What’ll it be? Cognac? Wine? I think I have a bottle of Champagne in the kitchen,” the Dragon said, as if Ken hadn’t just mustered all the courage he had to ask that one question.
At least Ken now knew the tiger’s name was Fei. That might help if he ever got out of here alive. Went to the police. And, while his mouth felt like it was full of sand, he wasn’t going to accept a drink from a mobster.
His eyes stung, but he asked again. “Where’s Davis?”
The Dragon smiled. “Do you know who I am?”
Ken shook his head. He bit back the urge to say something insulting. That wouldn’t help, but the temptation was there. “The Dragon.”
Whatever that meant!
“I’m Jin Yue. And who are you?” Jin said and smiled.
Fei moved around the bar in the corner. Ice clinked into a glass followed by tonic and something from a clear bottle. He didn’t offer the drink to his boss. He brought it to Ken. Water with
a wedge of lime and a splash of gin. Ken smelled the alcohol when it was that close.
He sipped it despite himself. “Ken. Ken Isben.”
Why did he say that? Well, for one, he didn’t want to end up at the bottom of the river, which is what mobsters probably did to people who didn’t answer them.
Jin flashed a look at Fei, and his smile widened. Those fangs glinted in the dim overhead lights. “Ken Isben. I could find out everything about you in a matter of minutes if I wanted to. Address. Phone number. Job. Social security number. Bank accounts. Everything. However, I won’t have to do that if you tell me one thing.”
“What?” Ken said and squeezed the glass in his hand. The ice cooled the sweat on his palms.
“How do you know Davis Harrison?”
That was it? It seemed like such an innocent question, but nothing about the dragon in front of him was innocent.
Ken downed the drink in one long gulp. His cheeks heated, and he licked his lips. One little lie couldn’t hurt, and it might be the only way to save Davis now. His heart lurched. “We’re mates. Do you know what that’s like?”
Jin smiled dangerously. “To have a mate that stirs up trouble? I have a vague idea.”
This dragon had a mate? Who the hell wanted that? Ken didn’t ask. He bit the inside of his cheek and took a deep breath through his nose. Third time paid for all. That’s what Davis used to say. “I answered your question. Where is he?”
Jin stood. He towered over Ken. “That’s the problem. You see, your mate got into some trouble a few years ago. He stole a hundred thousand dollars from a colleague of mine – only that money didn’t actually belong to her. It belonged to me.”
Ken’s hackles rose. Shit! This was connected to that stupid mistake. He forced himself to stare right into Jin’s gold-rimmed eyes. Ken told himself it was sort of like staring down Martin at the coffee pot when they both got there at the same time and wanted the last cup. Only, not so much. “What do you want from him now?”
Please don’t say money! Davis didn’t have much of that.
Jin put his hands behind his back. His eyes crinkled at the edges – eyes that had probably seen things Ken never imagined. “That depends on Davis’s cooperation. Oh, and you, Mr. Isben.”
Ken didn’t like the sound of that. He ignored the shiver that coursed through his bones and stood up straight. “I want to see him before I decide anything.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Ken nodded.
Jin glanced at Fei, who took that as some sort of signal and left. Then Jin looked at Ken again. “Let’s go see your mate.”
4
Davis started off strong. His tiles were good – better than he expected – but that’s how the casino dragged you in. He knew how it worked. He’d start off winning, then the casino would yank him into the deep end. Then he’d bet too much and—swoosh—lose it all.
The house always won in the end.
But the house didn’t have Davis’s skills.
He ordered a beer and sipped it lightly. He needed a clear head, but it was best to pretend the alcohol got to him a little. That made it seem less likely that he slipped a tile up his sleeve. Drunks didn’t do that sort of thing so smoothly.
He had one camera to his back, and another to the left side, which meant he had to cheat with his right hand only. Too bad that wasn’t his dominant hand. Oh well. He’d learned well enough over the years.
Sure, he’d gotten caught in the past, but that paled to the number of times he’d gotten away with it.
“Another win, sir. It looks like luck is on your side,” the dealer, an older monkey, said and smiled. The movement pinched his lips, and the skin around his eyes looked like the surface of a dried date.
Davis shrugged and sipped his beer. The foam tickled his nose, and he wiped it off his rough upper lip. “About time! She’s been an elusive mistress lately. I could use a little love from her, if you know what I mean.”
The dealer nodded and distributed another pile of chips to start a new game. “You still want to play?”
Davis glanced at his phone. It was after seven. That meant Ken would be home, unless he went out with what’s-his-name from something-or-other. Davis couldn't bring himself to care. Or maybe that was the problem. He couldn’t bring himself not to care.
Ken was gay.
Fine. Dandy.
Not really a shock, all in all.
Davis figured it out when they were in middle school, and Ken started hanging out with all the theater kids. Davis didn’t expect it to take Ken until after they graduated to tell him though.
He found the magazines in Ken’s room when he was staying the night once. Graphic stuff from Japan. Big muscly cartoon dudes with huge veiny dicks going at it like they were trying to fuck each other to death in the best possible way. Shit, Davis flipped through the whole damn thing while Ken took a shower and jerked off. Even if Ken didn’t know it, Davis heard the slight moans of pleasure over the water and through the door.
Then Davis had his own hard-on, which was awkward to say the least. Did he lean against the wall of his best friend’s room with gay porn spread on the bed and beat one off? Maybe but that was normal teenage boy stuff.
Not like he was listening to the sounds Ken made and imagined Ken making them for him.
No. That’d be weird. Ken was. . . Ken.
When Ken finally came out on a rainy day at his high school graduation party, Davis smiled and shrugged and gave Ken a hug. He should’ve known by the way Ken gripped Davis’s shoulders, or how his breath hitched in his throat and blew across Davis’s neck, just shy of a kiss.
He should’ve said something. Been there for Ken instead of running off because the Triad wanted to kill him. Although, that was a damn good reason to skip town.
Then in Vegas. . . damn.
Davis took another swallow of beer and wished it were something stronger, but he didn’t order anything. “You getting tired of my face? It happens,” he said and smiled at the dealer.
The monkey shook his head.
They played another round, and that’s when shit headed south. Because with every new win – every tile he slipped away – it was too fucking easy! The chips on the table piled up. Another hundred here.
Four.
Six.
A grand.
Damn.
He was killing it (illegally, but who was counting?) and that’s when he thought of Ken with that guy from work. They’d be at Ken’s place by now.
Drinking wine.
Maybe talking a little, but why would they need to talk?
Hell, Davis figured being a gay guy was great. No need to sweet talk a lady into taking her panties off. He’d sure as hell drop his jockeys if some hottie asked him to. But Ken wasn’t like him, so maybe this guy needed to talk a little. Work up to that.
Then they’d kiss. A stranger’s lips would move down Ken’s neck, the flesh that was so pale this time of year, and he’d taste that skin. Feel the gentle rise and fall of Ken’s chest through his shirt, which wouldn’t stay buttoned for long, if either of them were being honest. As each one popped free, it’d reveal a new hint of flesh, muscled and covered with a thin layer of hair so slight he had to brush his lips along it to know it was there.
That’s when Davis decided he did need a stronger drink.
Bourbon. Straight.
Not the best idea he’d ever had, but not the worst either.
Because with every new tile he put in place, Ken lost another item of clothing.
Tie.
Shirt.
Belt.
Pants.
His chest heaved, his lips swollen from all the damn work they were doing. Eyes clouded with lust and just a little bit of hurt, because there was always a little bit of hurt buried in Ken’s eyes. Those damn impossibly colored eyes that looked like the sky above the sea after a storm that just happened to take place right at sunset.
Shit!
So it was really Ken�
�s fault Davis slipped the tile into his left cuff. He got sloppy because Ken messed with his mind and made him think about the stuff he’d been trying not to think about for ten fucking years!
He didn’t know what time it was when the tiger tapped him on the shoulder. “You need to come with us, sir.”
Two dragons flanked the tiger.
Yeah, not Davis’s night. Well, he wasn’t stupid enough to start a fight on the casino floor. Nope, he waited until they escorted him to the stark back hallway, around a corner, probably headed to a room where they’d break something before they demanded he never set foot in the casino again. That’s when Davis moved. The good thing about being a wolf was he had more mobility in his shifted form than a dragon.
They couldn’t very well shift in a cramped hallway without getting stuck or breaking shit. But Davis didn’t care what he broke, as long as it wasn’t one of his own bones.
The door stood at the end of the hallway, and he turned before they arrived and threw the first punch. It caught the smaller of the two dragons right in the jaw, and the man stumbled back. That’s the only element of surprise Davis got, and he knew it.
He ducked a blow aimed at his head and went in low.
One sharp jab to the dragon’s stomach.
A kick to the knee.
Then he’d shift and get the fuck out before. . . .
Click.
The hard barrel of a gun stuck into his side.
Motherfucker!
“I wouldn’t,” the tiger said.
“Shooting a fellow shifter? That’s low,” Davis growled.
“Jin Yue doesn’t fuck around,” the dragon he’d punched said.
Jin Yue? The Dragon? Davis heard of Jin back in the day, and the rumors were enough to give someone nightmares. But he thought the Triad went down in the raid. That’s what the news said. But this casino – oh fuck!
Idiot?
Yes.
A huge fucking idiot.
“I didn’t know this was Jin’s place. I swear. Listen, take what I won and we’ll call it even. How’s that? No hard feelings,” Davis said and smiled. Or tried to. It probably looked more like a grimace because this was worse than stealing from Mao.
