Mackie’s heart lightened at the suggestion. “You mean I go after him? It’s risky,” he observed, remembering how quickly things had gone south on him in the gym. “He’s no pushover, although I already know I can make his dick take notice. I just have to bring the rest of him around to the idea that we should be together.”
Quinn grinned broadly. “Yeah, that’s a plan.” His face fell. “Although, you’re right about Val’s being a tough nut to crack. You might end up being more heartbroken than you are now.”
“I’m not sure that’s possible. I feel trapped and hopeless. I really don’t have anything to lose.”
* * * *
“Go around the side and head him off at the end of the alley.” Trey shouted the order at Karl, then poured on the speed.
He closed the gap between himself and his quarry and reached out to snag the asshole’s hoodie. Closing his fingers around it, he tugged to bring the guy down. The slippery bastard wiggled out of the jacket instead and dashed forward.
“Sullivan, you snake, hold it right there!”
Words were useless. The small-time drug dealer was not going to listen. Trey had to stop using his voice and start using his legs. He pumped harder and caught a break when Karl loomed at the end of the alley. The sight of him gave Sullivan’s momentum just enough pause that Trey was able to catch up.
This time, he grabbed arms, not clothing, and swung Sullivan up against the brick wall on one side. There was a quick struggle that ended with Trey’s arm pressed against the back of the man’s neck.
“Knock it the fuck off, Sully. We only want to have a chat. You keep resisting and it’s going to earn you an arrest.”
“You suck, Duncan.”
Trey leaned on the man. “That’s not helping your cause.”
There was a wheezy cough. “Okay. I’ll talk so long as you stop mashing my face into the wall.”
Cautiously, Trey loosened the pressure and stepped back to give the guy room to turn around. Karl came loping up and stood to one side, ready to snatch Sullivan if he tried to dodge Trey. The dealer faced them slowly, experience no doubt telling him not to make any quick moves that could be wrongly interpreted. He breathed heavily and was sweating, despite the chill of the day.
Trey gave him a tight smile. “Been a while, Sully.”
“I was out of town, visiting relatives down south.” When Trey gave him a dubious look, the man added, “Hey, they’ve got Irish there. Haven’t you ever read Gone with the Wind?”
“Sure. It seems odd, though, that you’d be away from your home turf for so long. You missed Murphy’s funeral. Why didn’t you come back for it? Didn’t you know he was dead?”
Sully sniffed and ran his hand across the end of his nose. “I heard. I was tied up, that’s all.”
“That’s not what we heard. Is it, Karl?”
“Nope. Willy Flanagan said you and his cousin were on the outs when you left.” It was the only remotely useful information the bar owner had given them.
“That pussy don’t know nothin’,” Sully sneered.
Shoving his hands in his pocket, Trey took a relaxed stance. Sullivan seemed in a talkative enough mood. “He knew enough to tell us you were back in town.”
“I had to see my ma, didn’t I? She had the flu real bad. The sisters at her nursing home called to tell me to come back.”
“We’re sorry to hear that. Is she doing better?” This small-time dealer had always been better coaxed than threatened.
Sully smiled. “Yeah, she is. Tough old bird will probably outlast us all.”
“She certainly outlasted Murphy.”
“She never liked him. Even when we was boys, she told me to stay away from Brian. Said he’d come to a bad end, and, boy, was she right about that.”
Karl leaned in. “Is it scaring you straight, Sully?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, it is.”
“Seriously, Sully?” Trey asked.
The man thumbed out his crucifix from under his shirt and kissed the cross. “I swear on the little baby Jesus that I’m done with the drugs. It ain’t like the old days. You knew the sources and the dealers because they were all from your own neighborhood. They might have been stone-cold killers, but at least you knew where you stood.”
Trey shared a glance with Karl. “What’s changed?”
Sully’s eyes shifted left and right. He clamped his lips shut as if trying to keep in words that wanted to come out.
Trey sighed. “Come on, Sully. I can still haul you in on charges of resisting arrest, assaulting an officer…”
“I never touched you.”
Trey took his hands out of his pockets and rubbed his arm. “I don’t know. I’m feeling a bit sore.”
“Yup,” Karl chimed in. “Looked to me like you put up quite a struggle, Sully.”
“You guys suck.”
“So you’ve said. Come on now. What was Murphy into and why did you leave town?”
“Because I didn’t want any part of this new ‘opportunity’ Murphy had going.” He put the word in air quotes and made a face like he’d smelled something bad. “It stunk to high heaven. I ain’t surprised Brian got his throat slit. I knew the guys he was dealing with were bad news.”
“Where did they come from?” Trey pressed.
“Hell if I know. They were foreign.”
“Why do you say that?” And why are the hairs on the back of my neck standing up?
“They talked funny. You know…had accents and such.”
“What kind of accent, Sully?” Trey could feel his blood pressure rising and his patience ebbing.
The man shrugged. “Can’t say for sure. Sort of Irish. Welsh maybe, except there was something else mixed in there. Funny and foreign, that’s all I can tell you. They scared the shit out of me, too. I didn’t want to play, no matter how much dough they were throwing around. Those big bastards couldn’t be trusted. They had dead eyes, you know? Like killing you would be nothing more than squashing a bug.”
Okay, now the alarm bells were ringing in Trey’s ears. Karl stiffened slightly. Trey didn’t dare look at his partner. “Describe them.”
Sully’s shoulders went up and down. “Wicked big. Huge. Pale motherfuckers with long, black hair that was shaved on the sides.”
Karl coughed. Trey ignored him, although sweat began to trickle down the back of his neck. “So, what was their deal with Murphy?”
Once more, Sullivan’s lips thinned and his gaze darted around. “I don’t fancy getting my own throat slit.”
“We’ll keep you out of it.”
“Sure you will, Duncan. That makes me feel so much better.”
“Sully, tell us here or at the station. Your choice. If we bring you in, everyone will hear about it.”
“Have I told you how much you suck?” He huffed. “Okay, so these two mofos contact Murphy about dealing some new drug. They approached him at Brigid’s one night when Murphy and I were hanging around, having a few rounds.
“They buttered him up, saying how they heard he was the guy in Boston to see about getting this new stuff out.” Sully rolled his eyes. “Brian was like a brother to me, but he was no big-time dealer. He lapped up what they were laying down with a spoon.”
“Did they say what this new drug was?” Karl interjected.
“They called it ‘vamp’, which is a stupid name, but stupid people do drugs, so.…”
“Fuck.” Trey muttered the word under his breath, although, in the alley, it was like a shout. “What’s its selling point?”
“Better than E and crack and anything else you can get out there, according to Frick and Frack. Users will feel invisible, masters of the universe, a high that lasts for hours and makes them want to come back for more.”
“Is it a tablet or a powder? Do you snort it or inject it?”
“No idea. Didn’t want to know. I told Murphy those guys were bogus. Whatever shit they were into, I didn’t want any part of it.” Turning his head, he spit onto the
ground. “Damn foreigners muscling into our territory with questionable goods.”
“But Murphy was hooked.”
“They paid him five Bennies just for listening. Of course he was hooked. They gave him an address and said if he came there the following week, they’d give him samples as freebies for his best customers. That was to get them hooked on the junk then start peddling it. You know the drill.”
Trey rubbed a hand down his face. “Yeah, we do. Did you go with Murphy when he met them again?”
“Nah. We had words the second they left. I told him they couldn’t be trusted and dealing with them would piss off our current suppliers. Either way, I figured it was the kind of thing that would get a person dead. He said it might be the chance of a lifetime to score big.
“I took off the next day in case things blew up in his face right away.” He grimaced and looked away. “I heard about Murphy and the guy who took the swan-dive off the balcony at Copley. I put two and two together, ’cause that math wasn’t hard. If it hadn’t been for Ma needing me, I’d have stayed away longer.”
“Was the dead man a customer of Murphy’s?” Even as he asked the question, Trey knew the answer.
“Yeah. I recognized him as one of the regulars. Some guy who washed out of MIT and spent his days panhandling and getting high. Not exactly the crème de la crème, but I guess as good a test case as any. Maybe that means he started dealing this shit across the river.” He shrugged. “I’m guessing here. I don’t know what went wrong with Murphy and the suppliers, either, but as much as I loved him like a brother, Murphy was an idiot. He must have done something to piss them off.”
“Maybe it was one of his old suppliers making a point with him about loyalty,” Karl ventured.
“Nah, I don’t think so. More like they would have used him to maybe muscle in on the new action. Bet they’re staying far away from this shit now, though. This kind of spotlight ain’t good for business.”
It is if chaos is your goal. Trey hated the thought, except it was obvious that the aliens were involved. Sully’s description had driven that point home. “Okay, one more question.”
“Sure thing, because this little chat isn’t making me nervous or anything.”
“Who besides you would Murphy have trusted with this new venture?”
“That I can’t tell you. Brian knew I wouldn’t rat him out to the other suppliers. There was no one else I know of he trusted like that.”
“Okay,” Trey said again, already trying to figure out how he was going to steer Karl away from the Stelalux clan. “Thanks, Sully. If you hear anything else about these foreign suppliers, contact me.”
“Not on your life, Duncan. It’s a fucking shame what happened to Brian. I’m going to miss the son of a bitch, but I’m not sticking around to find out if I’m on someone’s shit list.”
Trey considered taking the guy in after all, but that would only endanger his life and not help Trey’s investigation anyway. Stepping back, he jerked his head. “Get lost, Sully.”
“My thoughts exactly.” With that parting shot, the man took off at a brisk pace.
Two seconds later, Karl had planted himself in front of Trey. “Those guys he described sound familiar. We should head over to Lux. Damn,” he added. “I was hoping the Stelalux family was on the up-and-up after all. I don’t like owing my life to mobsters.”
“We don’t know that they are,” Trey was quick to point out. “They may or may not be related to these new suppliers. We can’t go by a physical description. You know we can’t. That’s profiling.”
Karl furrowed his brows. “Yeah, but sometimes what looks like a duck and quacks like a duck is actually a motherfucking duck.”
Trey took a deep breath to steady his nerves. He really wasn’t cut out for all the subterfuge. “Okay, so maybe they are involved. If so, I don’t want to tip our hand too soon. Let’s see if we can tug some other lines before we question the Stelalux boys. If Sully thinks maybe Cambridge is where this is centered, we start there. I know someone in vice over there. We can see what he’s heard.”
Karl scratched his head. “You think that’s the right way to play this?”
“Absolutely.” Jesus, Trey hated treating his partner like the enemy. He was also going to have to bring this new information to his alien allies just as soon as he managed to lose Karl for the day.
Sully was right—at that moment, Trey did suck.
Chapter Five
“Come on, honey. The club’s so quiet tonight. Why don’t we go up to one of the private rooms?” Warren’s warm breath tickled the back of Mackie’s neck while the man snaked his hand around to cup Mackie’s package.
The touch was light and not the least bit erotic. However, as he’d decided to begin Operation Seduce Val that night, Mackie leaned against his would-be suitor and moaned. “You make a tempting offer, sir, but I’m due on stage in a few minutes.”
“Oh, come on. Can’t you get someone to fill in for you?” He gave Mackie’s dick a squeeze. “I can see your pretty cock through that sheer thong you have on. Such a naughty look.”
Slipping out of the hold, Mackie shimmied away, trying not to hurt the man’s feelings. It wasn’t Warren’s fault, after all, that Mackie only wanted Val and was desperate enough to use what ammunition there was.
“Sorry.” He blew a kiss and sauntered over to where Shawn was finishing up his set.
The other boy made a face. “It’s a slow night. Hardly worth slipping into a G-string for.” His gaze dipped. “Not even one that’s see-through. Damn, girl, you are looking fierce.”
“Thanks. It’s a new look I’m trying out.”
“Uh-huh. Well, try not to give any of these geezers a heart attack.”
With a laugh, Mackie patted Shawn’s shoulder then he hopped up onto the stage. He’d already had a talk with Kitty, the mistress of the music. He nodded at her from where she stood behind her bar. When the current song stopped, the haunting strains and driving beat of Linkin Park’s Faint commenced. It was a good thing the club wasn’t filled with members. This song was an edgy choice for the usual crowd. It didn’t matter. The lyrics conveyed his feelings perfectly, and now that he’d admitted to himself how much he wanted Val back, he was prepared to do anything to get the man to sit up and take notice.
As he grabbed the pole by both hands, he began to twist around it. This show he put on was for only one man in the room. He’d already scoped out Val’s location. No matter how many rotations Mackie made or poses he struck, he made sure to orient his gaze in that direction. He got a jolt of satisfaction when saw that he already had caught Val’s attention. He had no doubt he could hold it.
Seduction was an art, a thing that required finesse—at least at first. He gave himself time while the song ramped up to reconnect with the slick metal he grasped. When he was in the groove, it became an extension of him—or he of it. It didn’t matter. All he knew was that it was natural for him to turn it into a partner of sorts. The pole was an ally in his scheme, a temporary lover to help entice the real one he sought.
He climbed up it using only his arms and, spreading his legs wide, swung around it all the way back to the ground. The moment his feet touched the stage once more, he arched his back, tipped his head and winked at Val. When the chorus of the song kicked in, he humped the pole with heavy-lidded eyes. He lip-synced the lyrics, letting the late, great Chester Bennington’s raw voice convey his demands.
Val stood like a pissed-off statue by the bar. There wasn’t much distance between them, so it was easy to see how the man’s gaze was homed in on his every move. Buoyed by the knowledge that his plan was working so far, Mackie picked up his routine. Doing gymnastics had always been a dream of his. As a boy, he’d begged his mother to allow him to take lessons. The answer had been no. It wasn’t a boy’s sport. Neither was dancing. Asking for either had only set off a string of punishment and abuse, proof that he was unnatural. Still, he’d watched the Olympics and dancing contests and had practice
d what he’d seen wherever he could find a spot to do so. Pole dancing was the perfect way to show off his passion for both.
After climbing the pole again, he hooked one leg around it to descend once more, slowly this time. With each rotation, Mackie blew a kiss in Val’s direction as their gazes met. The man’s eyes narrowed, the only movement visible. It was enough, though, to encourage Mackie further. When his feet landed on the stage, he rubbed his ass against the pole and ran his palm down the front of his body. He lingered at his package, cupping himself and giving Val the ‘O’ face. He held the man’s gaze for a second before twirling around, climbing the pole yet again and doing an upside-down split. His cock was already half-hard, and he knew it was visible through the confines of the lacy G-string he’d donned.
With the lyrics of the song voicing his feelings perfectly, he fell into the tempo. He let it drive him into a frenzy of movement. He swooped and dipped and swung, making love to the pole with the acrobatic agility that he prided himself on. He put in every sensuous move he had. His arm twinged in protest when he held his body perpendicular to the pole. He ignored it and tightened his core to compensate for the weakness. He wanted to show off his strength as well as his grace.
Do you see me, Val? This is who I am. This is what I can do for you. I’m tough. I can handle anything. The only thing I fear is losing you.
As the song came to an end, Mackie tangled his legs high up around the pole, and flung himself upside down. He held his arms out wide in a reverse crucifix move he’d learned from Demi, of all people. Maybe the martyrdom imagery was a bit over the top, but he was desperate for his efforts to work. He was offering himself up as a sacrifice to Val’s power and need.
He instinctively shifted his gaze to Val’s spot by the bar. It was empty, and his heart sank at the notion that all he’d managed to do was chase the man away. Then his view became obscured by thick legs clad in black. Mackie blinked in surprise, then he smirked in understanding. Val must have used his alien speed to arrive at the stage in record time. That lapse in judgment told Mackie more than anything else that his plan had succeeded.
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