A MATTER OF TIME
BOOK IV
BY
MARY CALMES
EXCERPT
MY PHONE WOKE ME at eight.
“It’s Saturday morning,” I complained to whoever it was.
“Oh now you answer your phone? What about last night asshole? You totally blew us off.”
I processed the voice, tried to think of what I was supposed to have done on Friday night, instead of being out with my boyfriend Sam Kage, his partner Chloe and her boyfriend Jason. It took me a couple of minutes for my brain to kick in and remember. “Oh Ev,” I groaned. “You had a guy for me to meet.”
“That’s’ right I did,” my friend Evan Rheems scolded me. “C’mon Jory if you didn’t want to go all you had to do was tell me. You know I would never make you meet somebody who’s not cool.”
“Oh no? I have two words for you–– Mark Benassi.”
There was a long silence before, “screw you J, that’s not––one pervert does not negate my entire record of great hook-ups.”
I chuckled because he was being very defensive. “You suck at setting me up and you know it.”
“But that’s no excuse to––”
“I’ll make it up to you,” I soothed him. “How ‘bout I take you and your lovely boyfriend Loudon out for dinner tonight. I promise to––”
“No,” he grumbled. “We’ve gotta pick up Loudon’s Mom at the airport. She’s in from Ames for a week.”
“Ames?”
“It’s in Iowa.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t stifle the laugh. “Well I am sorry I blew you off, I didn’t mean to but Sam’s back and I––”
“What?”
“Sam.”
He caught his breath. “What?”
“Evan,” I warned him.
“You know another Sam?”
“We both know I don’t.”
“Oh God.”
“Stop.”
He was starting to breathe hard. “So thee Sam.”
“Yep.”
“The police detective Sam.”
“Yes.”
“As in the guy I hate Sam?”
“You don’t hate him.”
“Oh no, I’m sure I do hate him.”
“Well stop ‘cause he’s gonna move in.” I said, deciding at that moment that he could. What was I waiting for a shining light from heaven? Just because Sam Kage had just come charging back into my life after a three year absence did not mean that I was not still madly in love with him. He was in fact the only man that I, Jory Harcourt, had ever loved. To make him wait through a period of dating to move in with me was a stupid waste of time. The man wanted to be with me, who was I to say no?
“Jory!”
“Sorry Ev,” I smiled into the phone.
“He’s moving in?”
I chuckled.
“Jory….catch me up.”
“It’s too early for this,” I laughed because he was starting to hyperventilate. “Sam Kage is back and I’m gonna live with him since I love him. So you don’t hafta worry about me anymore, you don’t hafta set me up on blind dates anymore. Call me when Loudon’s mother leaves and we’ll all have dinner okay? Okay. Bye.” I said and hung up.
It took him all of twenty-three seconds to call back.
“What?”
“What? Are you kidding?” He was yelling. “Are you kidding?”
“Evan don’t have a––”
“Sam Kage? Are you kidding?”
“You’re repeating yourself.”
“Sam Kage?” He wheezed. “Ohmygod…Sam Kage?”
“Evan you know I love him.”
“He nearly killed you last time and I mean literally almost killed you! It was his fault you were shot and kidnapped and––”
“Evan you––”
“Ohmygod are you serious? Sam Kage!”
It took me a half an hour to get him not to pass out and the phone was finally taken away and I was talking to his boyfriend Loudon, who had to have me explain the whole story to him before he could offer his partner any solace.
Three years ago I had witnessed a murder and met Sam Kage who was working the case. Since I had refused to enter witness protection, Sam Kage became the man in charge of keeping me safe. In the middle of it all, we had fallen in love. But being gay and a vice detective was hard for Sam and as result it was a rollercoaster for me. We were apart and together so many times, all the while I was running from men who wanted me dead instead of on the witness stand. The end came when Sam’s partner at the time, his best friend, Dominic Kairov, had kidnapped me. The Internal Affairs Division was investigating Dominic and it turned out that he was working for the men trying to kill me. He was a dirty cop and he had kidnapped me to tie up loose ends. But Sam knew his partner, knew how his mind worked and so was able to find me before I was killed. In the chaos of that moment though, the moment when he found me, I ended up taking a bullet meant for Sam fired from Dominic’s gun.
I spent eight days in ICU with Sam never leaving my side. But once I was no longer critical he left to track down the people responsible for both the contract on my life and for Dominic’s initial corruption. Dominic had started off as a good cop and a driven vice detective. Sam was determined to make the people pay for their crimes. The task had taken him from me. He had promised to return but without a word for three years I had given up hope of ever seeing him again. And then he was suddenly back and ready to pick up where we left off.
I had fought him off much longer than would have thought, almost a week, before succumbing to the pull of my heart, the needs of my body, and my brain buried under an avalanche of emotion. It was hard to try and explain to anyone else how I could still love Sam Kage even after all we had been through but I tried to make Loudon understand over the phone. If I could get through to him, he would in turn get through to Evan. As usual, in direct contrast to Evan’s drama queeniness, Loudon was his logical, thoughtful, self. He would reserve judgment until he met Sam. As soon as his mother left, they would have us over for dinner as inquisitions needed to be performed in private. In the meantime, there would be no more setting me up on blind dates. When he hung up the phone, even after all the talking, I was still able to roll back over and go to sleep. It was a gift.
* * * *
I HAD GONE HOME to shower and change and was getting ready to leave my apartment when I heard Sam come through the front door. I had given him a set of keys the day before.
“Hey,” I called out from the bedroom, straightening my tie, buttoning up my suit jacket. “I thought I wasn’t gonna see you until tonight?” He had left me at three in the morning, called out to some crime scene.
He appeared in the doorway, I saw him in the mirror, but he didn’t say a word. He just stood and stared at me. After a minute I smiled as I turned around to look at him.
“What are you doing here?”
He looked me up and down, absorbing me, his eyes pained, his jaw clenched.
“Sam? What’s wrong?”
He moved suddenly, really fast and as soon as he could reach me, yanked me forward into his arms and clutched me so tight he squeezed the breath right out of me.
“Sam you’re scaring me.”
He held on, pressing me close, his face buried in my hair.
“Honey what’s wrong?” I soothed him, laying my head on his chest. “Please tell me.”
He shoved me out to arm’s length, his hands digging into my biceps. He was tense and worried and his breathing was shaky.
“Sam?”
“Listen to me,” he dragged in a breath. “Do you remember back when that whole thing was going on with Dominic and during that time your old apartment got broken into?”
Did I remember that? It was blurry. “Yes.” I said after a few minutes because I sort of did.
“And the new tenant got killed? You remember all that?”
That I remembered. “Yeah but that was just Dominic. He killed that guy because he thought he was me.”
He shook his head. “No J. I know Dom. There’s no way he makes a mistake like that.”
I stared into his eyes. “Okay so then maybe it was one of Roman’s guys.” Roman was the man who had wanted me dead. He had been there the night I witnessed the murder. That I could place him at the scene was the reason I needed to be eliminated. “I remember you saying that they thought I was dead but there was a leak that turned out to be Dominic and––”
“No. When we tapped Roman’s father’s phone we heard someone call him––and it turned out to be Dominic––and tell him that you were still alive. We thought they killed that kid in hopes that it was you, but it turned out they were just reporting on the second failed attempt on your life. Neither Dominic, Roman’s old man or Roman ever knew anything about the murder in Oak Park.”
“Oh.” The hair was starting to stand up on the back of my neck.
He was searching my eyes.
“You’re sure about that?”
“Yeah we’re sure.”
“Okay,” I tried to smile. “So why the sudden interest in something that happened three years ago?” He was staring holes in me and holding on so tight.
“’Cause we found another guy this morning cut up just like that kid was.”
“Cut up?”
“Yeah. Just like the first and the two others.”
“Others?”
He ignored my question. “We found your driver’s license in his wallet.”
I was suddenly freezing.
“When did you lose your wallet J?”
I racked my brain. It had been ages. “I dunno right after you left, at least three years ago.”
“I figured. It still had the Oak Park address on it.”
“Sam what’s going on?”
“I’m not sure,” he breathed, letting me go, walking to my bed and sitting down on it. “All I do know is that it has nothing to do with the Brian Minor case at all.”
Three years ago my friend Anna was married to Brian Minor. He was an abusive asshole and when she had finally decided to leave him she had called me for one little favour. She needed me to go to her house and pick up her dog. It had seemed like a nothing errand and because I wanted her out, I went to her home without hesitation. When I got there however my world turned upside down. Brian Minor shot someone in front of me and thus made me, in the span of seconds, witness to a murder. I would have been killed myself but it so happened that this was the night the vice detectives had decided to finally bust my friend Anna’s husband for extortion and racketeering and a list of other crimes. They saved me and I ended up flat on my back in the middle of the street with Anna’s beagle George licking my face. It was the first time I ever laid eyes on Sam Kage. Towering above me, he was scowling down at me with his gorgeous steel-blue eyes asking me who the hell I was and what the hell I was doing there.
“Jory?”
“Sorry,” I breathed out, looking at him. “So are you gonna get in trouble for being with me since it sounds like I might be in the middle of another case?”
“No. It’s been three years and I went away. Nobody’s around who cares anymore.”
“Cops care Sam.”
“My partner Chloe doesn’t give a shit that I’m gay. My new captain doesn’t either. It’s different now you gotta trust me.”
I nodded. “If you say so but––”
“Jesus Christ J who gives a shit about me!” he yelled, raking his fingers through his hair. “You’re the one I’m worried about! You’re the one everybody…shit! Did you fuckin’ hear what I said? We found your license on this guy J. Your goddamn license!”
“I heard you,” I said softly, walking around in front of him, stepping between his legs so he had to lean back and sit up straight, tilt his head up to look at me. “Tell me about the others.”
He took a deep breath. “Well besides Trey Hart––”
“Is he the one that was killed in my old apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Sorry, go on.”
“All in all there have been four murders.”
“Okay. Tell me about them.”
His sigh was deep. “Well for starters they’ve stretched over a three year period.”
I looked at him. “And?”
“And nothing, four men are dead but because it seemed random and the gaps between the killings were so long…no one made the connection.”
“Until now.”
“Until now.”
“Why now?”
“The FBI got involved when you were kidnapped the first time by Dom. I guess they stayed involved and when we pulled that kid out of the dumpster this morning it hit somebody’s radar in Quantico.”
“What does that mean?”
“The profilers say that the murders are the work of a serial killer.”
“How can that be?”
“All the men were killed the same way and they all looked alike.”
“But you said it was random…you said there was a lot of time between.”
“Which is why no one here took notice of it, but the feds…the feds they load everything into computers and there’s guys that watch this stuff and look at patterns and time and everything else and crunch the numbers and so if they tell us we have a serial killer on our hands we gotta believe them.”
“Okay,” I tried to absorb everything he’d said. “And who are the guys that got killed.”
“Two of them were hustlers.”
“What about the others?”
“The others are just regular guys.”
“Yeah, but who were they?”
“The guy today was a teacher here in Chicago for an art seminar from Pittsburgh and Trey Hart, the first guy, was a student who just moved here from Atlanta. They were both random guys and if you add them in with the rent boys, I mean it’s like shit…it fits no pattern at all...it makes no sense.”
“If they’re so random then besides Trey and the teacher, who was he?”
“Glenn McKenna.”
“Okay so besides Glenn and Trey how do you or the department or the FBI know that they have anything to do with each other?”
“Because the common thread is you.”
“How?”
“One of the rent boys lived in the same building as you, just not at the same time.”
“Which building?”
“The one your brother owned across from the jazz club.”
“Okay, it’s weird but it’s still just a coincidence.”
“Maybe,” he allowed, “but the other hustler he was employed by the catering company that worked Dane’s engagement party.”
My brother Dane Harcourt was a prominent architect in the city, one of the top in the country; all his events were huge, sprawling affairs.
I shook my head, raking my fingers through my hair. “It’s just weird Sam nothing else. I think you’re looking for things that aren’t there. I mean some guy who lived in my same building but not even when I was there, some random waiter at a party Dane through....its crap.”
“The FBI profilers don’t think so. The only connection they find between the murders is you.”
“So am I a suspect then?”
“No, they believe you’re the target.”
“And how come none of this was in the papers or on the news?”
“The murders all made the news and the papers J but they’re so spread out three years between the first and the last…no one in the press has made the connection.”
I nodded. “But they might.”
“They might.”
“Okay, but have you checked out all the––”
“Baby it’s not my case. It’ll never be my case ‘cause I’m way too close to you. It’s all about you so I hafta stay on the outside looking in. All I can do is ask Hefron and Lange what they’ve got and what I can do. If they hadn’t called me this morning I would still have no idea what was going on.”
“Will they talk to you?”
“’Course. We’re all detectives and they’re friends of mine.”
“Will they still be your friends once they find out about you and me?”
“They already know about you and me J that’s why they called me and yes––they’re still my friends. You’re not the only one with good people in his life.”
“I didn’t say I was.”
We were quiet for several minutes.
“Sam.”
“What?”
“I remember you saying when Trey was killed that whoever did it wrote something on the wall about me. What was it?”
“A word.”
“What word?”
“Just…it doesn’t matter.”
He really didn’t want to tell me. I felt like my stomach dropped out of my body. “What was the word written in?”
He just looked at me.
“Was it written in blood? In Trey’s blood?”
“In his blood and something else.”
“What?”
“I don’t wanna talk about this,” he almost yelled. “Just help me figure out who would wanna hurt you.”
“I dunno Sam it still seems like it could all just be a weird coincidence.”
“Jory––”
“I mean everyone but Trey obviously. I still think Roman’s guys were––”
“Jory come on,” he sighed wearily. “Your license was on the victim and the resemblance was good. I mean he could’ve been your brother.”
I arched a brow for him. “He was as pretty as me?”
“Don’t fuckin’ joke around! This isn’t funny! Watching those guys pull that kid outta the dumpster today…fuck! If I hadn’t just left you I would’ve fuckin’ lost it right there.”
“Sorry,” I said softly, running my fingers through his hair, watching it curl. “So what now?”
“Now you work from home. If Aubrey wants to see you she––”
“No,” I shook my head. “I won’t be a prisoner in my own––”
“Goddamnit J! How stubborn are you gonna be? Do you get that not only is there some whack job out there killing guys that look like you, but whoever the fuck it is has been stalking you for the last three years maybe longer? Do you fuckin’ get that?”
“What’re you––”
“Whoever killed the teacher today stole your wallet or had somebody else do it a long time ago. I mean do you get how fucked up it is to steal something from your intended victim years in advance only to plant it on your current victim? That is twisted as shit and really, really spooky.”
“Why kill other people? Why not just kill me?”
“Maybe he can’t. Maybe something’s preventing him.”
“Him?”
“The chances of it being a woman are very small. Plus from what we know about the killing wounds…the force…a woman couldn’t have done it.”
“Oh.”
“So it’s more than likely a man and he’s probably a good size guy from the damage that we’ve seen inflicted on the victims.”
I nodded quickly.
“So you’ve gotta go into protective custody and––”
“Oh fuck that Sam!” I shouted, stalking out of the bedroom and down the hall.
“Jory!” he shouted, and I heard him striding after me before my arm was grabbed and I was yanked around to face him. “Goddamnit you need to––”
“No Sam. I am not gonna go through that again. I will not have my life flipped upside down because of something I didn’t do. It’s not fair and I won’t do it.”
“Jory––” he began, his voice rising.
“And then what?” I asked, walking away from him, turning at the couch to look back at him. “You’re gonna bail ‘cause you gotta go look for my stalker? You won’t be able to protect me if you’re so close to me?” I ranted, throwing up my hands. “That’s bullshit too. If you wanna go––then just go. If it’s another all or nothing proposition for you–– fuck it. I don’t want this again. Once was more than enough.”
We were silent just glaring at each other.
“You’re right.”
“About what?” I said when I could breathe, crossing my arms.
“When I left the first time it was an excuse. I wanted you but I wanted my life to stay the same too. I used running down that drug connection as a way out.”
“You ran away.”
“Yes I did.”
I nodded. “If you’re gonna run again please do it now before I get in too deep.”
“C’mere.”
I crossed slowly back to him to him like I was walking to the electric chair and when he could reach me; he grabbed hold of my lapel and yanked me forward.
“Like you’re not in too deep right now,” he smiled slyly, his hands on my face, raising my chin for a kiss.
I melted against him, my hands on his forearms, kissing him back, deep and slow, wanting to make it last.
“I want you to stay home with me today all right?”
“No, I need to get things together for Abe on Monday and I might see some clients this afternoon to make up for Wednesday––Thursday–– whatever day and there’s just a lot to––”
He unbuttoned my suit jacket and his hands eased it off my shoulders. I heard it fall softly on the back of the couch. He wasn’t listening to me but I had things to do. My business partner Dylan Greer had delivered a baby days earlier and I needed to prepare the office for Aubrey “Abe” Flanagan, who was going to be helping me out until Dylan got back from maternity leave. Even though it was Saturday morning I had calls to make, emails to send, there was no way that I could just blow off my responsibilities to spend the day in bed with my very hot boyfriend.
“Sam…”
My tie was worked gently loose and slid off, joining my suit jacket before his fingers started working the buttons down the front of my shirt.
“Sam I can’t––”
“I could just rip it off like I did the one the other night but I figured you didn’t wanna explain two of them to your dry cleaner.”
I let my head fall back and he kissed my chin and jaw as he got me out of my clothes. The shirt he let fall to the floor before he smoothed his hands up my sides, raising my arms. I leaned back so he could drag the T-shirt up and over my head.
“Don’t need this,” he said, balling it up and tossing it onto the floor.
I stared into his eyes, marvelling as always at the colour, the deep smoky blue now absolutely molten with desire. Impossible to miss the need there and it was a great big turn-on knowing that I was the one responsible. I got him hot, just me, and that power was intoxicating.
“I’m not going anywhere this time J,” he said, his voice so low and sexy, the seductive heat in his gaze, his hands on my back moving over my skin causing the trembling. “I’ll protect you. I won’t let anything happen to my baby. I can’t. What would I do without you?”
I could feel my body vibrating under his touch as a line was kissed down the side of my neck, over my collarbone to my chest.
“So beautiful.”
Me? Was he kidding? I wasn’t the one that looked like he was carved out of living stone. Not an ounce of fat on the man anywhere, just rippling muscle and warm, smooth skin. Between his size, six-four, and massive build he was absolute fantasy material, but instead of me worshipping him, he was standing there looking at me like I was the ideal.
“All that gold skin and your deep, dark eyes…Jesus J you kill me.”
I swallowed hard as he bent and kissed me.
“I can’t be away from you anymore,” he said, his breath warm against my lips. “You know I used to wake up and want you, and go to sleep wishing you were there, and then I’d get up and go to work and the whole thing would start all over again.”
I just stared up at him.
His chest constricted and his eyes showed me how vulnerable he felt. “I won’t leave you again ever. I promise.”
“And you’ll take care of me?” I asked playfully, leaning in to kiss him thoroughly, to suck and lick and make his breath shaky, his eyes cloud with passion. “Love me forever?”
“Yes.”
He was at my mercy and I loved it. Who was dominant now? “You ready to scream my name some more?” I asked as I got my hands under his sweater, under the T-shirt beneath, my fingers sliding over his hot skin, over the hard, defined muscles in his back, moving around over the sculpted pectorals, down the chiselled, bumpy plains of his abdomen, the deep groove to his navel. “God Sam you’re beautiful.”
He suddenly grabbed me; my feet leaving the floor as he hugged me tight to his body before walking me back down the hall to my bedroom, and pinning me under him on the bed.
“Lemme tell you who’s gonna be doing all the screaming.”
I shuddered and my breath came out in huffs, the whimpering that he was after. He rolled me over on my stomach and then pulled me up to my hands and knees. I heard him getting undressed; his movements frantic and the nightstand rattled when he yanked open the drawer.
“Listen to me,” he growled in my ear, which covered me in goose bumps. “I got tested two weeks ago and I’m clean I’ve never been with anyone but you without protection but I wanted to be sure. So…we’re done with the fuckin’ condoms.”
I could only nod as he slid lubed fingers deep inside me.
“Say yes to me.”
“Yes.”
His mouth was on the back of my neck and he pushed inside me with one powerful thrust. I cried out as his slick hand slipped under me, wrapping around my cock and he bit down into my shoulder.
“My beautiful baby.”
I felt like the vibrating that was deep inside me resonated out and I was shaking beneath him.
“Say my name!” he demanded, and his voice was barely his, more guttural, raw, filled with heat and lust.
“Sam,” I breathed out.
“I will take care of you,” he promised, pounding down into me. “Say it!”
“Just you.”
A hand tangled in my hair before my head was snapped back hard. “Tell me you belong to me.”
“I’m all yours Sam. I belong to you.”
He devoured me then, his mouth, his hands, flipping me over on my back like I was weightless, wrapping my legs around him, driving down into me while I called his name. The power exerted over me, the absolute possessiveness, the need in him to dominate me, drowned everything else.