by Amber Kell
He kept the water running. Maybe the person would think Kai didn’t know they were there. Kai peeked through the curtain, scanning the bathroom. No weapons were jumping out at him. A scene from an old movie flashed through his mind. Trembling in fear, he stepped out of the tub and quietly lifted the lid of the toilet tank. Raising it up high, he waited. Just when his arms started shaking from holding the heavy ceramic lid for so long the door opened. A hand holding a gun appeared before anything else. Using his full strength, he slammed it down.
A startled cry, then the hand dropped the gun. The weapon tumbled to the ground, sliding between the toilet and sink. Kai whipped the door open then froze in surprise. Michelle stood in the doorway. She gripped her wrist as pain filled her eyes. She rallied quickly after catching sight of Kai.
“Well, there’s a sight I never thought I’d get to see,” she purred. Her hungry gaze churned Kai’s stomach.
“Move,” Kai growled.
“Or what? You’re going to hit me again?” She flashed Kai a confident smile.
“If you shot Jonathan, you’ll be lucky if I don’t kill you. After all, you did invade his home.”
“You’re too much of a nice guy to hurt me.” She smirked. “I’m pretty sure your boyfriend is dead.”
She bent to pull a knife from her boot.
Kai slammed the tank lid across her head. A loud thud sounded from the contact and Michelle tumbled unconscious to the ground.
“Perhaps you misjudged me.” Confident she wasn’t going anywhere, Kai set the lid back on the toilet, grabbed the sweats then pulled them on. Kai knelt down and after a brief search found the gun. Snatching up the weapon, he stood then grabbed his phone and called the police.
After giving them Jonathan’s address and the fact there had been a home invasion, Kai was assured the police were on the way. The operator wanted him to stay on the line but he needed to check on his lover. Leaving the line open but warning the person to stay silent, Kai slipped the phone into his sweats pocket.
He listened carefully at the bedroom door. He didn’t know for sure if Michelle had come alone. When no sounds reached him, he soundlessly crept down the hall.
Fear gripped him as he spotted Jonathan on the floor. Blood poured through a wound in Jonathan’s chest.
“Oh, baby.” Kai dropped to his knees beside Jonathan.
Jonathan’s eyes fluttered open. “Run! She’ll kill you.”
“Not right now, she won’t,” Kai disagreed.
“She has a gun,” Jonathan protested.
“This one?” Kai showed his weapon.
The gurgle in Jonathan’s voice frightened him.
“Yeah…” Jonathan’s whispery tone, barely audible, made Kai swallow.
“Police!” A voice shouted outside his door.
Kai rushed to answer. Detective Fine stood there staring at Kai with a cold expression in his eyes.
“She’s in the bathroom.”
“Your sister?” Relief flashed through Fine’s expression.
“No, my assistant. She’s been trying to kill me for some reason.”
“You must be mistaken,” Fine said.
Warning bells clamoured in Kai’s brain. “Why is that?”
Fine raised his gun and pointed it at Kai. “Because I set it up perfectly. I guess I’ll have to go with murder suicide instead.”
“Why? What did I do to you?” None of this made sense. First he’d accused Jeni, now he planned to frame Kai for killing Jonathan.
“You were supposed to die! Michelle promised me a lot of money if I destroyed you. Unfortunately the mechanic fixing her car had overheard her conversation with me about the hit man. When he tried to blackmail her, I killed him. It was a funny thing that he happened to be dating your sister.”
“Did Andrews pay you to kill me?” Kai asked. The entire situation had a lack of reality to it.
“Andrews had nothing to do with this. He’s just a greedy businessman who got the boot like he deserved. Michelle’s going to rewrite your will and put herself in control of the company. After all, who wouldn’t believe your loyal assistant?”
A chill went through Kai. Michelle could get away with it. She would easily be able to convince the board, and Jeni didn’t know enough to prove Kai hadn’t turned the company over to his assistant.
“You made up the stuff about Jeni, didn’t you?” The sheer relief Kai felt over discovering his sister didn’t do drugs washed through him. He’d hated the thought of that even worse than her potentially killing her ex-boyfriend.
Fine shrugged. “Why does it matter?”
“It matters to me.”
“It’s surprisingly easy to create false reports if you have the ability to make them at all. Your assistant is a bloodthirsty thing. She salivated at the chance to help kill you since you’ve ignored her all these years. You know what they say about a scorned woman? Well, an ignored woman is worse. When she saw you with Jonathan, she couldn’t help me fast enough.
“I knew you’d let her inside, but I thought she’d do a better job. When I got the news there was a shooting at this address I came, only to find out she’s botched it.” Kai shivered at the evil grin Fine gave him. “I won’t make the same error.”
Could he reach for his gun without being shot?
Heart pounding, Kai slowly reached behind him.
“I wouldn’t move any more if I were you,” Fine warned.
“Freeze!” Fine’s partner, Detective Breaves, rushed through the door with two other cops.
Fine dropped his gun.
The cops rushed over and grabbed Detective Fine. Kai watched them snap handcuffs on him.
“His accomplice is in the bathroom.” He waved them on.
“An ambulance is on the way,” Breaves said. “We heard about the shooting when you kept the line open on your phone.”
Kai blushed. He’d forgotten all about staying on the line for the dispatcher. His phone sat on the floor beside Jonathan, who watched him with pain-filled eyes. He dropped to his knees beside him. “Help is coming, love!”
“I love you,” Jonathan whispered.
“I know, I love you too.”
They’d get Jonathan healed and Kai would move him into his condo where they’d get Jonathan the biggest fucking dog he could ever want.
Epilogue
Jonathan smiled as Kai threw the ball across the backyard. Only two months into living together Kai had announced that they needed a real house with a yard. He’d given his condo to his sister Jeni so she could move on with her life. Apparently, she’d simply had a case of mistaken identity. The guy she’d thought was Deke had actually been the new owner of the bookstore next to her catering business. Jonathan expected they’d get a wedding invitation soon. Jeni couldn’t seem to be able to help her attraction to dark-haired men.
The dog Kai claimed not to be sure about now had a studded collar and an embroidered pet bed. His uptight business financier had a squishy soft spot for the rescue mixed breed they’d chosen at the pound.
“There’s a good boy,” Kai said.
Jonathan wrapped his arms around Kai from behind. “I can show you how good a boy I can be,” he whispered in Kai’s ear.
Kai laughed, the sound happy and carefree, a welcome change after the past few months. Michelle’s betrayal had cut him deeply. Kai had sold the company to the board, telling them if they wanted to run it into the ground they could. Andrews hadn’t been the first board member to try to pressure Kai into making a poor decision. Detective Fine and Michelle had been jailed for conspiracy to commit murder. Neither of them would be getting out any time soon.
Kai spun around and wrapped his arms around Jonathan’s waist. “Are you happy?”
Jonathan nodded. With the new stability of his home life and additional therapy after the shooting, Jonathan had come to terms with his past. The nightmares had begun to vanish soon after he’d started sleeping with Kai. He secretly believed that Kai held his bad dreams at bay.
> “I’m happier than I ever thought I could be,” he confessed to Kai. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Jonathan would never have imagined how lucky his life would have turned out to be after catching sight of the pretty man on the corner of the street.
“I got something for you,” Kai said. Kai turned and flashed up his shirt before turning and racing the dog back to the house.
The image of little silver rings pierced through Kai’s nipples burned into Jonathan’s mind. Grinning, he chased after his lover. The evening had just become a whole lot more interesting.
Also available from Total-E-Bound Publishing:
Hidden Magic: William’s House
Amber Kell
Excerpt
Chapter One
William Stamson never thought he’d fall in love with a lady.
After being a gay man for the first twenty-five years of his life, he met a tattered painted lady with three broken windows and a gap-toothed fence, and fell illogically, irrevocably in love.
“I’ll take the house,” he told the realtor who stood waiting patiently for him to finish examining the front of the mansion.
“B-but you haven’t seen the inside. The house needs a lot of work,” she sputtered. “There are several in much better shape if you like this neighbourhood.”
He watched her wrestling between wanting an easy sale and her moral obligation not to sell a decrepit house to a client. He wondered if her reluctance stemmed from the magic pulsing through the property like a beating drum, pounding out a complicated rhythm. Hearing the underlying music wasn’t an ability everyone had. Most days Will wished he were one of those talentless people. Although he could hear the power thrumming through the air, his strange immunity kept him from using the magic. He wasn’t surprised no one could live in the house. The mansion all but seethed with energy, an uncomfortable experience for magic wielders, while giving non-magical people the eerie sensation of a haunted house. Electricity crackled in the air, arcs of energy dancing around him. The house’s magic reached out to him, invisible fingers ruffling his hair, like a human petting a favoured child.
Closing his eyes, he opened his senses to the entity.
A soft gasp, a pleased hum, then the pounding rhythm smoothed to a quiet whisper. A hush filled the air like the silence after a tornado or maybe the eye of a storm.
Acceptance.
The sensation sank into his bones, warm and loving like a mother’s hug. Well, maybe other people’s mothers. His didn’t give actual hugs. Physical contact might wrinkle her designer clothes.
“Are you sure you want to put in an offer?” The realtor’s anxious voice broke up the moment, the magic dissolving. Her tone wavered between hope and desperation. For the first time he noticed the worn cuffs on her green suit and the faded colour of the shirt tucked underneath.
“Yes,” Will insisted. Despite the building’s odd power, the place made him feel as if he were home. Besides, writing scary detective stories could only be easier living in a spooky mansion. He smiled when he thought about his relatives’ future reactions.
Will was the dreamer, the only exception in a family known for controlling powerful people across the globe. As a result of his carefree approach to life, everyone thought he needed someone to take care of him. Not a relation on either side of his family had forgotten to leave him a small inheritance when they died.
In Will’s family ‘a small inheritance’ was a minimum of two million dollars. His Great-uncle Frederick had been particularly generous, even as he’d addressed Will as his ‘idiot nephew’. Will had willingly overlooked the condemnation for the cool one hundred million his uncle had left in his account.
However, as much as Will loved them and appreciated their acceptance of his gay lifestyle, if he didn’t move out of town soon, he was going to go to jail for fratri-patri-matricide. Will longed to settle down with the Mr Average of his dreams. None of the doctors, stockbrokers or lawyers paraded in front of him by his hopeful mother and calculating father met his needs—after fucking them, they really served no purpose.
He knew his behaviour made him a slut. But hell, he didn’t golf, and after humiliating his snobbish dates by comparing stock portfolios, there wasn’t anything left to talk about. His dates all ended with him cutting them loose and ignoring them when they called.
After having gone through most of the successful gay men in Seattle, Will had decided maybe he should try something different. Besides, the zombies were starting to creep him out. All cities had at least a few necromancers that could raise the undead, but Seattle was starting to get more than its share. Will needed to leave before someone got the bright idea to drain his blood as a form of zombie pest control.
Since Will was a void—a person who could nullify magic—his blood was the essential ingredient in unbinding spells that raised the undead. A few times lately, the hairs on his arms had stood on end from the sensation of something with a strong magical presence watching him. Another reason he’d searched for a new home. He needed to lure whatever was following him away from his family.
The search for a place to live brought him to this small town east of Seattle. Unable to find a man, Will planned to settle down with an old painted lady needing a fortune in upgrades.
Luckily, he had a fortune.
“This house has been on the market for a while.” She quickly consulted her notes as if they held the secret to Will’s desire to purchase the old mansion.
He gave her his pants-dropping smile, more than a little surprised when his charm worked and her cheeks turned an interesting shade of pink. “Then they should be happy to receive an offer. Let’s go back to your office and get the paperwork going.” He could feel vibes of anticipation coming from the house as if the building had sat waiting for him to come by and save it from ruin.
Poor house.
“What’s the asking price?”
She mentioned a ridiculous amount, considering the condition of the house, but he figured the place must have sentimental value to someone, and this one time he didn’t feel the need to bargain. He wanted the house.
“I’ll take it.”
“There might be some delay. I’m not sure a bank will approve such a large amount for the place.” She gave the house a dubious look.
“No problem. I’ll pay cash.”
“Oh.” She looked surprisingly flustered. “Then let’s draw up the paperwork.”
* * * *
A week later, Will happily drank hot coffee in his freezing kitchen. Apparently the heater had died several years ago and no one had had the funds or interest in fixing it. He wasn’t much of a breakfast person, aside from the occasional cold cereal, but he would definitely go into town for a hot lunch. He needed to have the stove looked over professionally before he’d willingly trust the appliance with his favourite teakettle. Small-town diners were the perfect place to find out the latest gossip and help him discover whose second cousin twice removed had a son good at fixing stuff.
* * * *
The diner was everything he’d ever seen in the movies.
Old movies.
From the cracked retro fifties booths, to the ageing waitress with frizzy hair and attitude, the place appeared as if it were something out of a film.
The waitress gave him a slow once-over like she didn’t know what to make of him. He didn’t know why. He wore a plain pair of jeans and a red polo. He’d even left his handcrafted Italian leather shoes at home and wore his plain white Nikes.
He was the epitome of ordinary.
“Have a seat anywhere,” the waitress told him. As Will passed her, he caught the faint scent of cigarettes and chewing gum. He held onto his composure by a thread, hoping she didn’t snap a bubble at him. She was a walking cliché, and Will barely held in his laughter. He didn’t want her to think he found her anything but delightful.
Will settled comfortably on a carefully duct-taped vinyl bench seat and accepted the faded menu.
The table was the kind of moulded plastic some inventor on crack must have thought looked like real wood.
Scanning the list of food, he was almost certain the menu exceeded the abilities of any one cook. Eight pages long, the extensive volume listed everything from a thick steak to poached eggs. He couldn’t even imagine the cost of keeping so many ingredients on hand.
“Have you decided, hon?” the waitress asked. She pulled a cheap ballpoint pen out from behind her ear and a pad of paper from her apron pocket. Pinning him with a surprisingly clear gaze, she waited for his order as if he were going to reveal the secrets to the universe in six easy steps.
“I’ll have a burger, medium rare.”
Even an inept cook could make a decent burger.
She nodded, quietly applauding his choice as waiters sometimes did. “Potato salad or fries?”
“Are they thin or thick?”
“Steak fries.” Her tone implied disapproval of anything less.
Will reflectively nodded along with her like one of those bobble-headed dolls before he caught himself. “I’ll have those with ranch dressing.”
“Anything to drink? We make a nice milkshake.”
He shook his head. “Too heavy. I’ll have to jog at least ten miles to burn off the burger calories.”
The waitress looked him over again. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about, hon.”
“Not if I jog,” Will agreed. Although he had a reputation in his family for laziness, he took care of his body with weights and running regularly. “I’ll take a diet soda.”
As she scribbled down his order, Will wondered if her mother had had a premonition at her birth. Why else would you look at your newborn infant and think I’ll name her Hazel?
As the waitress turned away, Will grabbed her wrist.
“Sorry,” he said, letting go at her surprised look. “Could you tell me who’s good at fixing things around here?” Every town had one. A Mr Fix-it who could drive by your house and tell you your water heater was set too high and your air conditioner would die next month.