Flesh Market

by Kate Lowell

Leo nodded, and DeGraff left, taking one of the girls with him.

  Adrenaline zinged through Leo’s veins. Things were ramping up. Leo relaxed into the cushions behind him and gestured Julian back over to see how he was taking the news about his approaching celebrity. Maciel pulled the newest of the girls into his lap. She started crying, and he slapped her until she stopped. Leo found his hand inching toward his hip, then remembered he didn’t have a gun and swore under his breath. Warm pressure on his knee got his attention. Julian, looking at him with just as much anger in his eyes as Leo was certain showed in his own. He crawled into Leo’s lap and wrapped his arms around Leo’s neck.

  “Can we kill him and pretend it was an accident?” he whispered.

  The words, jokingly said, reminded Leo that he wasn’t in this by himself. Warm breath across his ear made a shiver run down his spine. Instinctively his arms went around Julian, and he began to caress the other man’s skin. Julian gasped, and his back arched, another warm breath and pressure on Leo’s hands.

  “Fast worker.” It was DeGraff, back in the common room for whatever reason.

  Leo threw him an irritated look. “What?”

  DeGraff chuckled. “Boy can act. That’s good.” He walked over and pointed his index finger in Julian’s face. “You remember that.” He snapped his fingers, then headed for the refrigerator.

  Julian looked at Leo, his breathing fast, his eyes wide with a mix of anxiety and anger. Leo gave his thigh a quick squeeze. “Up, boy. Let’s do some planning.”

  BARRING THE NIGHT he’d taken the oxy, Julian hadn’t slept more than a few minutes at a time since he’d landed in this operation. Between his feet and the new welts on his ass and thighs, the best he could manage was a kind of half trance. Leo had offered him oxy again, but Julian had refused, reasoning that it would only lead to trouble. Problem was, he was supposed to be dozing, getting ready for his big film debut.

  Fuck. The bureau better make damn sure that comes down off the Internet, or I’m going to be pissed.

  He didn’t have much of an idea of what they were planning, but he knew enough to be sure he wouldn’t like it and that Leo wouldn’t be happy about it either. This wasn’t going to be a fun afternoon for either of them.

  Not only that, but he was worried about Leo—worried enough that he really wasn’t paying as much attention to his own situation as he probably should. He could tell that Leo was under stress, Dale Leon bleeding into Leo Gale and Leo fighting to maintain the balance. And that wasn’t the only stressor.

  Every time he touched Julian, it was like a spark went through Leo’s body. And each time, it seemed like Leo had to fight harder and harder to escape Leon, to stay within the framework of their jobs. To be Leo and not Leon.

  And the damn thing was, Julian didn’t want him to.

  He knew it was likely just the adrenaline, the shared secret and life-threatening danger. Julian had never had a daddy complex—he liked his guys about his age. But he wanted this man with a ferocity that should have scared him, except he was too busy reminding himself that Leo was right, and they didn’t need another complication.

  Then again, nothing he’d ever had with the guys his age had felt this serious.

  It’s the job. That’s all.

  Leo touched his shoulder. “It’s time.”

  Julian lifted his head, instantly wide-awake. Leo looked like shit, mouth pinched, a troubled frown wrinkling the skin between his eyebrows. “Are you sure you want to do this? It’s way outside our job descriptions.”

  “Hey,” Julian said. “It’ll be fine. Find that database, and get us out of here.” He started to reach out to the other man, then thought better of it. Leo looked like he might explode. “Don’t fuck this up, Leo. I’m older than I look.” Who was he reminding, Leo or himself? If he had been fifteen, he’d have jumped the guy by now, just to stop thinking for a while.

  Stress. Keep it together, or you might find yourself lost in this place.

  Leo grunted and stepped away to give Julian room to stand up. “You’re sure you’ll be all right in there by yourself?”

  “I’ll be fine. They’re not going to do anything but pictures and the video. Find that database. What’s going to happen this afternoon is way nicer than what those kids go through every day.”

  Leo grabbed his arm. There was something frantic in his energy, like a lion in a cage. “I can have HRT here in an hour.”

  “An hour’s too late now. And I’m damn well not wasting the time you’ve spent here or the beatings I’ve taken over a half hour’s discomfort.” Discomfort. Ha, funny man. He wished he’d figured out how this operation was going to play out before he said yes.

  Or maybe not. He could see how an older agent would have trouble passing, and some part of him admired how Harrow had been careful not to scare Julian off, while still presenting most of the facts. It appealed to Julian’s ruthless side, and he had to admit that he was just as invested in this operation now as Leo was. He wanted this ring broken. No, not broken. Pulverized. Nuked from orbit and then danced on by ninety-nine hookers in fuck-me pumps.

  Leo let go, then raised his hand to rub his chin, still obviously uncomfortable with what Julian was going to do. “I’ll come back to the room as soon as I’ve got it. You can pitch a fit as soon as you see me, if you want. I’ll take you out back to straighten you out.” He grinned, but it was sickly and did nothing to improve Julian’s mood.

  “Love to, but I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I don’t want DeGraff getting his hands on me, and he’s got a look in his eye.” Julian slipped off the bed and tested his feet against the floor. The soles still twinged when he walked, and he was starting to worry something was broken in there. “I’ll be fine.” He would. This was his choice.

  Leo’s mouth thinned. “They aren’t paying you enough to let yourself get mauled.”

  Julian walked over and put a hand on Leo’s chest. Body heat flared through the cloth covering the solid muscles, warming Julian’s hand and sending tendrils of desire creeping through his body. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be a good boy and put on a show for them. You find the database.” Then temptation took him, and he pressed his lips to Leo’s.

  He tasted amazing, a hint of hops and salt and something that could only be Leo. Julian felt Leo’s shock in the momentary tension of his body; then the other man pushed forward into Julian’s mouth and took command of the embrace. The force of his kiss bent Julian backward over his arm, for all the world like a silent-movie starlet. It was oddly erotic, and Julian wrapped his arms around Leo’s neck, letting the other man take his weight while he purposefully lost himself for a moment.

  Leo ended the kiss far too soon for Julian’s preferences. “They’ll be looking for you.” He pressed his forehead against Julian’s. “Last chance to back out.”

  “I know. But we both know it needs to be done. I couldn’t live with myself if I gave up now.” He hid his face in the side of Leo’s neck, then stepped back. “Come on. Time for my screen debut.”

  Leo gave him a troubled look, then nodded and brushed his fingers over Julian’s cheek. “You’re a brave man.”

  “I’m a coward. I’m more scared of what will happen if they figure us out than I am of a few photos.” He stepped away and turned toward the door, wishing he were anywhere but there.

  Video

  Leo walked Julian up to the common room, a hand on his arm as if to keep him from running. Once again, all he was doing was letting Julian know he wasn’t alone. It seemed to be the only thing he’d done since Julian arrived. Maybe it was time to retire, if he was letting a brand-new agent take the brunt of the operation.

  “Finally.” DeGraff waved them in. “You,” he said, pointing at Julian and jerking his thumb toward a heavy leather chair in the middle of the room. “Shorts off. Get over there.”

  Julian twitched in Leo’s grasp, but he didn’t move, his eyes glued to the red-haired young man squatting by the wall. Leo tugged on his arm, turned Julian toward h
im.

  Leo stared hard at Julian, wishing—not for the first time—that he was psychic. Do you want me to call this off? Guilt battered him. It was one thing to throw yourself into a situation like this, but another entirely to let someone else do it while you sat around in safety. At the same time, he didn’t actually want Julian to back out. Leo wanted this job over.

  Julian gazed back, wide-eyed and blank-faced. Leo tightened his grip, and as if he had flipped a switch, the hard look was back in Julian’s eyes. He shook his head slightly and twisted his arm. Leo got the hint. He let go and gave Julian a small push in DeGraff’s direction, but his heart stuttered as he watched Julian strip off the shorts and go.

  “You staying?” DeGraff asked as he herded Julian toward the chair.

  “He’ll be fine. I’m going to take a shower and grab something to eat. Yell if you want me.”

  DeGraff turned back to the photographer, waving a dismissal over his shoulder. Leo took one last look at Julian standing obediently beside the chair, then walked stiffly away.

  The urge to rush, to run down the hallway straight to the office, made his head hurt. It took all his experience and all his training to walk casually away from the common room. Behind him the air filled with the murmur of voices.

  Maciel and Kittridge met him in the hall. Kittridge grinned. “Not staying to watch the show?”

  “Didn’t think you swung that way.” He did, though, if the hints dropped by Julian and DeGraff were right.

  “Ah, it’s always a good show.” Kittridge laughed and shoved past. “Never know what hidden talents you’ll find.”

  Leo paused to watch them enter the room and winced at the raucous laughter that came immediately after. Get to work. He had to make Julian’s sacrifice worth it.

  He stopped by his room and dug his shaving kit out from under the sink. The bottom of the can of shaving cream twisted off, and a tiny USB stick and a set of lockpicks dropped into his palm. He replaced the can and tucked the USB casually under the band of his watch, where it wasn’t immediately noticeable but he could get to it quickly if he had to drop it. The lockpicks went to the base of his spine, jammed under the waistband of his jeans. Then he turned on the shower and cracked open the bedroom door to peer into the hallway.

  It was empty. He slipped through the opening and hurried down the hall. The office was the last door before the door to the bay. He tried the handle, though it was a slim hope. Yep, locked. Last time it hadn’t been, but the computer hadn’t been there either. A locked door was a good sign.

  With a glance over his shoulder, he went to one knee and pulled out the picks. Sometimes a misspent youth wasn’t so misspent. He was a little out of practice, but the lock wasn’t complicated.

  That worried him. He’d expected something much harder to pick.

  The office was a tiny little box of a room, not much larger than a good-sized closet. Leo closed the door behind him and went straight to the computer. The power button blinked lazily at him from under the desk. He hit the space bar, and as the lock screen opened, he smiled. He slipped the USB into the port, restarted the computer, and hit F2 so he could tell it to start from the USB.

  The program on the stick was his version of a password reset. More of a password thief, really. Instead of erasing the passwords, it read them and tried each one in turn, until the desktop faded into view and the computer laid itself bare to him.

  The only video he found was the external cameras, which made sense since they obviously didn’t want to provide evidence if they got caught. The video feeds showed the same things the monitors in the common room displayed—obviously a secondary thing. He’d suspected as much when Ethan had been handed the baby monitor, but it was good to confirm it.

  As soon as he checked out the properties of the drives, he knew it was a dead end. There wasn’t enough data on the drive for this to be the main storage for the operation.

  He set the computer to creating a backup anyway, and while he waited, he explored the rest of the office.

  It was pretty bare-bones for an operation that seemed to have money to burn. A file cabinet with a lock a five-year-old could have picked, that contained nothing more than dummy paperwork for their cover as a medical-supplies courier. The desk drawers held pens and sticky notes and a small address book full of phone numbers. He photographed all the pages in it, despite his only camera being in the phone the traffickers had given him, then put it back exactly where it had been.

  Seventy-three percent. Yeah, way too small to be the database. Maybe it was in the cloud? If it was, his program would grab that information from the cookies and the history, if no one had thought to delete them. If they had, he was out of luck until he could get the computer to the IT guys.

  He went to the door and pressed his ear against the wood. At a guess, he had another fifteen minutes to wait, and he didn’t want to get caught by someone barging in. With a few seconds’ warning, he could pull the USB and cram himself behind the desk, at which point his life was in the hands of fate. There’d be no explaining away his presence in this room. Moments like these, he wished he still had his gun.

  Time passed like molasses in winter. Finally Leo could stand it no more. He went back to the computer and watched it intently as it crawled through the last 2 percent. As soon as it was done, he pulled the USB and left.

  * * * *

  Leo hid everything again in his shaving can, then soaked his hair and changed his clothes. He turned off the shower and headed back to the common room, his chest tight with worry over what they’d been doing to Julian while he was gone.

  He walked through the door and froze in horror.

  They’d moved Julian from the chair to the couch and added the young redheaded man into the picture. Leo stared at them, aghast. The redhead lay between Julian’s legs, grinding against him while they kissed frantically. They made noises like something from the soundtrack of a porno without the cheesy music. The photographer, now standing behind a heavy, professional-looking video camera, shouted instructions to them.

  “Grab his ass; that’s it. Dark boy, push your hips up.” He took another few seconds of footage, then snapped his fingers. “Red, flip him over.” He leaned away from the camera. “You want a money shot?”

  DeGraff shook his head. “Leave ’em wanting. All of them.”

  “Okay. Red, pull his hair. Make him howl.”

  Leo watched the red-haired boy tangle his fingers in Julian’s hair and pull his head back. Leo’s fists clenched as Julian cried out, his eyes half-closed in a damn good simulation of ecstasy. Or maybe not so much a simulation—the redhead used his grip on Julian’s hair to drag him up to a kneeling position and his other hand to stroke Julian’s erection. Julian put a hand to his head where his hair was being pulled, while the other flailed wildly in the air around him.

  “Ride him, Red. Don’t fuck him, but give us a good show.”

  Without a pause, the redhead shoved Julian facedown on the couch and began rubbing himself against the small of Julian’s back, grunting loudly with each thrust. Julian buried his face in the cushions, only to have it wrenched back up for the camera to record in all its flushed, miserable glory. Because he was miserable—Leo could read it now in the frown between his eyebrows and the tightness of his mouth even as he panted beneath the other boy.

  It was time for this to stop. He turned to DeGraff. “That’s enough. He’ll come if you keep this up.”

  DeGraff laughed softly. “No need to be jealous; it’s only a couple of days more that you have to keep your hands off him. Once we pop that cherry, he’s yours whenever he’s free until one of the brothels or a private buyer comes up with the purchase price.” DeGraff watched the scene in front of them, completely unaware of how close he was to having his neck snapped by an undercover FBI agent. “Until then, work on the blowjobs. If he can’t learn to keep his teeth covered, I’m not sure what we can do. I’ll check with the doc, see if he has a solution that won’t wreck his looks.”


  DeGraff nodded and called out to the photographer. “That’s good. Don’t want to give the customers too much, or they’ll get off on the video and won’t need him.” He clapped Leo on the shoulder. “He’s all yours.” DeGraff walked over the photographer, and they spoke briefly, their voices low enough that Leo couldn’t make out what they were saying. Julian still lay on the couch with the red-haired boy on top of him, but they were both still as statues, only their eyes moving as they watched the men in the room.

  Fuck this. Leo walked over to the couch and held out his hand. “Get up, boy.” The redhead crawled backward off Julian, his gaze fixed on Leo with the nervous attention of a beaten dog. Julian sat up and let himself be pulled to his feet. He was still hard, and his grip on Leo’s fingers was painfully tight. Leo caught his eye and sucked in a breath at the expression in them. Anger, shame, and arousal warred with each other on Julian’s face, and even Leo could see his struggle to hide it all. He pulled Julian closer. “It’s okay. We’ll go talk.”

  A long breath shuddered out of Julian, and he closed his eyes, swaying slightly in place. “Please.” His voice cracked. “Take Lucas with us?”

  “Sure.” He turned his head. “Hey, boss, what are you doing with the other one?”

  “He’s going downtown. Kittridge will take him.”

  Kittridge looked up, surprised. “I will? When did this happen?”

  “When the Vegas branch called me up this morning looking to freshen their stock. You can bring the other one back with you. He’ll ship out this evening.”

  “Fine.” Kittridge snapped his fingers. “Come on, boy. Let’s get you dressed.” The redhead scurried over to a neatly folded pile of clothes in the corner and began putting them on with practiced haste.

  Leo’d had enough. “Let’s go.” He made himself walk nonchalantly into the hallway, but as soon as they were out of sight, he hustled Julian down the corridor at breakneck speed.

  Julian was quiet as Leo practically threw him into the bedroom. When Leo turned from locking the door, he found Julian watching him with an unreadable expression.