The Betrayed: A shocking, gritty thriller that will hook you from the first page

by Casey Kelleher

  Gavin could tell a gay man from a mile off, his ‘Gaydar’ homing in on even the ones that had convinced themselves that they were straight. Married with children, hiding so far back inside the closet that they were almost in fucking Narnia. They were Gavin’s most generous customers too. The ones that always paid a premium for Gavin’s professionalism and discretion. Men that after a weekend of traipsing around clothes shops and watching soaps on the TV in the boring monotonous company of their wives always paid out a premium for Gavin, good money to flip them over onto their knees and give them what their wives never could. A good hard fuck. Some release.

  It was ingenious really. Gavin had made a fortune over the years. Not that you’d think it from looking around at this dive that he lived in. All his money was hidden under the floorboards of the flat.

  Today he was set to make even more. In fact, Gavin knew for certain that his next client was going to pay him an absolute fortune.

  Hearing the knock at his front door, Gavin went to let the punter in, aware that he was looking forward to today for reasons that he shouldn’t. He had started to let himself get emotionally involved with this one. Letting his guard down, he’d actually enjoyed the sex with this man. He knew his punter had too. A wealthy businessman, older than him. Old enough to be his father, in fact. He hated to admit it, but this one was much more personal. The man had been so cold and aloof with Gavin for months, but he also got so much pleasure out of fucking Gavin. Maybe that’s what had appealed to Gavin: he’d taken this man to the very edge. He was like a drug to him.

  For six months they’d carried on their illicit relations. No talking, no emotions, just fucking. Like animals. Passionate, raw. Just the way Gavin liked it. The punter too apparently. Somehow Gavin had fallen for the man, and he had a feeling that the man felt the same. That had been the magic of it all but also the danger. And that’s why Gavin knew that it was time to get out. It was a shame really, the way that things had turned out. If Gavin hadn’t been such a cold, calculating bastard himself, who knew, this might have worked out for them both. Though, he highly doubted it. Men like this punter only ever wanted young men like Gavin for their own gain. He was nothing more than a dirty little secret. A sordid, repulsive urge that they didn’t have the willpower or the self-control to suppress.

  Gavin would be cast aside eventually. He knew that. That was all part and parcel of his job. No matter how much he liked to think that he was the one calling all the shots, ultimately the men were still using him really. Taking what they wanted, what they craved, and then throwing some cash at him to keep him sweet and ease their conscience before they skulked back to their perfect lives in suburbia. Repeating the same pattern over and over again, until eventually the novelty of him wore off and then they moved on to the next. Gavin knew the score.

  This man was no different. The outcome was always inevitable. That’s why he had a backup plan. He switched on the cameras that he’d rigged up around the apartment before opening the front door and stepping aside to let the notorious Jimmy Byrne in.

  Gavin felt the flutter of excitement in his groin as he greeted the man. Tonight, for the very last time he was going to let Jimmy Byrne do what he always did best, and own him.

  One last time.

  Then Gavin Hurst was going to show Jimmy Byrne what it was really like to get royally fucked by a pro.

  Thirty-One

  Staring up at the ceiling, Jimmy Byrne took a deep pull of the cigarette in Gavin’s hand and breathed out the large white plume of smoke. He was relaxed now, after the hellish week he’d had. Edel Walsh’s funeral had taken place six days ago now and still the tension in his house was unbearable.

  Gavin was just the sort of light relief he needed, though their physical encounter hadn’t erased the guilt that he felt when he’d arrived here earlier this evening. Colleen was starting to become a liability. Jimmy had seen something change in her lately. Just as he had on the day of her mother’s funeral. There had been a sudden defiance in her eyes as she’d stood in front of the room full of people at her mother’s wake, challenging him. Knowing full well that she held all of his secrets on the tip of her tongue. Jimmy couldn’t trust her. Not anymore. She’d changed. It was like something inside her had just snapped, and she’d given him the impression that at any second she would call him out.

  With Edel gone now and the children making it blatantly clear that they wanted nothing to do with her anymore, Colleen had nothing left to lose, he guessed, and in Jimmy’s eyes that made her a very dangerous woman. A woman who could cost him everything, who could ruin him and everything that he’d worked so hard to build for himself, for his family. It saddened him to realise that he was going to have to do something about her now.

  ‘What are you daydreaming about?’ Gavin leapt off the bed to extinguish his cigarette that had almost burned down to his fingers. ‘My big gorgeous shlong of a cock?’

  Raising his eyes playfully at Jimmy as he spun around, he exposed his instantly erect penis, despite the lengthy sex session they’d just enjoyed.

  The magic of youth.

  Smiling at Jimmy as he saw the lust for him once more in the man’s eyes, Gavin was enjoying the fact that Jimmy couldn’t take his eyes away from his lean muscular body. Taking a seat by the window, his body lit up by the dull light of the table lamp, he would let Jimmy enjoy the view of his body for just a few minutes longer.

  Why not?

  The man would soon be paying a small fortune for the privilege. That thought alone had been all Gavin had been able to think about as Jimmy pounded him so violently from behind tonight. The power that he had over the man, that Jimmy didn’t even know about yet. The thrill of what Gavin had come to mean to him only heightening the intensity of their sex, which, in turn, meant that Gavin had just experienced the most intense climax of his life.

  Still, all good things had to come to an end.

  Jimmy had got what he came for. He’d used Gavin’s body to fulfil his every pleasure and soon it would be Gavin’s turn to let Jimmy know that that privilege was going to cost the man dearly. Jimmy was a ruthless, violent man. This was the most dangerous job that Gavin had ever pulled off and for now he was going to have to play it smart.

  ‘Am I the best fuck you’ve ever had?’ he asked Jimmy, almost teasing. He knew he was. He just wanted Jimmy to say it.

  Smile for the cameras, Mr Byrne. This is all being taken down and used against you.

  ‘You know you are!’ Jimmy Byrne said seriously, irritated by the train of conversation. Gavin knew that Jimmy never talked about his feelings or emotions.

  ‘Better than your wife?’

  ‘You what?’ The question caught Jimmy off guard. Frowning, as he turned onto his side, he stared over at Gavin questioningly. The boy was crossing the line, and judging by the slight tilt to his voice, Gavin was more than aware of it.

  Gavin grinned, amused at Jimmy’s expression but slightly scared by the edge to Jimmy’s voice. He’d got carried away with himself. He’d only been testing the water, seeing how much Jimmy would say without realising he was being filmed. He’d forgotten how volatile Jimmy could be.

  ‘Sorry. That’s none of my business,’ he said holding his hands up, seeing the fury spread across Jimmy’s face at his brazen audacity of mentioning the precious, oblivious Mrs Byrne.

  ‘Damn right it isn’t.’ Jimmy was up off the bed. Gavin’s mention of Colleen, after what the two men had done, was an instant reminder of Jimmy’s life as a lie. His shame at who he really was. His head was fucked already, he didn’t need to have all this shit to deal with too.

  ‘Don’t go!’ Gavin said, seeing Jimmy pulling his trousers on, his face thunderous now. Instantly in a bad mood. It almost made Gavin feel jealous that the mention of Jimmy’s wife could have such an effect on him. Another sign that he’d let this ‘relationship’ drag on too long.

  That had been his only error. Six months of Jimmy coming here to the flat whenever he took the fancy, and bot
h men had become attached. There it was. That was the truth of the matter. Jimmy’s reaction was a stark reminder of the reality they were both facing though. He and Jimmy were just fucking. That was it. There was nothing more.

  Pure, animalistic, raw sex. No magical love story, no happy-ever-after. He was just Jimmy’s little fuck-boy and once the novelty wore off, which it always did eventually, Jimmy would move on and find someone else for his needs.

  Lighting up another cigarette, Gavin sat in the chair under the window. The stream of light shining in on him, illuminating his naked form in all its glory.

  ‘Jimmy, I’m sorry.’

  Jimmy shook his head.

  ‘Forget it. I’ve got to go anyway. I’ll see you another time.’ Grabbing his jacket from the side, he winced as he knocked Gavin’s photos down from the side unit.

  ‘Leave it! It’s okay. I’ll sort them,’ Gavin said, jumping to his feet so quickly that Jimmy couldn’t help thinking the lad was acting suspicious.

  Jimmy ignored him and picked up the frame. A younger looking Gavin, smiling back at the camera with his mum sitting at his side. Gavin had told him it was the only picture he had of his mother, when he was four, before the woman had taken a heroin overdose and Gavin had been whisked off into care. Placing the frame back on the shelf, as Gavin hovered anxiously next to him, Jimmy sensed there was something the boy didn’t want him to see.

  He almost missed it. Tucked away so discreetly, cut into the back panel of the wooden unit.

  Jimmy pulled out the small black camera. Turning to confirm that the lens had been pointing directly at the bed.

  ‘What the fuck is this?’ he said as he saw the look of fear spread across Gavin’s face. ‘Are you for real?’ He slammed the camera at the wall, watching the chunk of metal smash against it and smash into several pieces.

  Gavin didn’t speak. Unable to find his voice, he wasn’t sure what to say to redeem himself. There was nothing he could say. He’d been caught out, red-handed.

  ‘You were going to blackmail me?’ Jimmy laughed, as he realised that was exactly what this opportunistic little prick intended to do. He was going to try his luck at blackmailing Jimmy. Though how the hapless moron thought that he could actually get away with it, he had no idea.

  Jimmy pounced then. Completely losing the plot he barely gave Gavin time to register that, for him, he’d made his last and ultimate mistake. The boy wouldn’t be getting out of this one alive.

  The first slam of Gavin’s head to the chunky wooden side table he was sitting in front of split his left eyebrow completely open, the heat of the slam radiating through his skull. The second violent slam knocked Gavin out cold. Unconscious now, which was just as well, as Jimmy pounded Gavin’s face into an unrecognisable bloody pulp, punching and kicking the boy with all of his fury.

  He didn’t stop.

  Not until he was covered in blood, his body spent. Exhausted from his violent outburst, he collapsed on the floor beside the now mangled boy.

  FUCK!

  He’d done it again: lost himself in his rage. Now Gavin was dead.

  Leaning against the bed, he closed his eyes. Opening them a few minutes later when he’d gained some much needed clarity. The flash of a tiny green light from the bottom of the unit caught his eyes. Chasing the black cable that led inside the cupboard door, Jimmy opened it and found where the light was coming from. He swore again as he held the computer up, checking the disk drive for a CD. It was empty. No memory stick either.

  Staring at the little green light at the top of the camera as it flashed sporadically, Jimmy stared into the camera.

  A webcam.

  Linked up to somewhere. To someone. Someone was recording him? Watching him right now?

  Then the light went out.

  Shit.

  Snapping the laptop shut, Jimmy got up, stepping over the naked body of Gavin Hurst. Someone else had seen everything. They probably had a copy of everything that had happened in the room tonight burnt onto a disk. Hurrying to get the fuck out of the boy’s squalid shithole of a room, Jimmy Byrne was shitting himself. The cocky little fucker had driven him to this. Gavin was dead because he thought that he could fuck with Jimmy and because of that he’d paid the ultimate price.

  Only now Jimmy was royally fucked too.

  Thirty-Two

  ‘Jimmy?’ Opening the front door, Alex Costa stepped back as Jimmy Byrne pushed past him into his apartment. He hadn’t been expecting to see Jimmy tonight. In fact, lately, he hadn’t seen Jimmy at all. It was clear the man wasn’t here on a social call.

  ‘Jesus! What the fuck has happened?’ Dishevelled, standing there with blood dripping down his shirt, Jimmy looked as if he’d been crying. In all the time that Alex had known him, Jimmy had never cried.

  ‘What the fuck’s going on? Is it Colleen?’ Alex wouldn’t put it past the crazy bitch to do something stupid, especially after the way the deranged cow had acted last week at her own mother’s wake.

  Jimmy shook his head. Unable to speak, he stomped across Alex’s apartment, back and forth, pacing the length of the floor. Erratic with his movements, running his shaking hand through his hair, he finally broke.

  ‘I’m fucked, Alex. Big time. I’ve done something fucking bad.’

  Alex raised his eyes questioningly. ‘Like what?’ He’d seen Jimmy do all kinds of shit over the years, most of it bad. He couldn’t help wonder what made whatever this was so different.

  ‘This is really, really fucking bad.’

  Staring at Jimmy, realising he wasn’t exaggerating, Alex shook his head, bewildered.

  ‘Fuck!’ Jimmy shouted, unsure if he should have even come here, if he had the bollocks to open up and admit what he’d done to his best friend. He had no one else he could turn to though, no one else who would help him. Things had been rocky between him and Alex for a while, but Alex had always stood by him.

  ‘For fuck’s sake, you’re making me dizzy walking about the place in circles. Sit down and I’ll pour you a drink, you look like you could do with one.’ Unsure what was going on, Alex did the only thing that he thought might help, he poured his friend a large Scotch.

  Handing the glass to Jimmy, Alex watched him knock it back in one.

  ‘Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?’ he said, downing his own drink; he had a feeling he might need it.

  Jimmy sat down, still rubbing his head frantically. He didn’t know where to start.

  ‘There was this lad. A waiter, down at one of the clubs. Only he did other stuff on the side, you know.’

  ‘Other stuff? Like what, washing-up?’ Alex said sarcastically, suddenly realising where Jimmy was going with this.

  ‘I was fucking him,’ Jimmy declared, knowing there was no gentle way to break it to Alex. His confession rendered his friend silent. ‘I know that’s difficult for you to hear, Alex, but there you have it. He meant nothing to me. It was just sex. No emotion, no ties, just a service.’

  Jimmy was lying. It was part of the reason he’d totally lost his shit tonight. Jimmy had fallen for Gavin. He knew it would never work: the bloke was far too young for Jimmy for it ever to be anything serious. Still, he’d let his guard down. He’d been seeing Gavin for months and the sex had been the best Jimmy had ever experienced. Exciting, passionate. You couldn’t have that kind of sex without some kind of feeling behind it. Jimmy had physically wanted Gavin. He’d craved him like a drug. Only Gavin had been using him all along. He’d set him up for his own gain.

  Alex sat down. Breathless. The shock of Jimmy’s confession left him physically winded.

  ‘This is why you’ve been avoiding me?’

  Jimmy shook his head. Lying again.

  ‘Bullshit,’ Alex spat. Jimmy had been acting strange for months. Busy with the ever-expanding business; Alex had thought it was down to work. Then when Edel had passed away, he figured the man had been busy with his nutjob of a wife. When really all this time Jimmy had been avoiding him because he’d been se
cretly getting his end away with some fucking gigolo.

  ‘It gets worse,’ Jimmy said, looking down at his swollen knuckles, the blood splattered all over his clothes. ‘I’ve killed him.’

  Alex almost dropped his glass. ‘You’ve killed him?’

  Jimmy winced at Alex’s disgusted tone. The hurt and disbelief in his best friend’s eyes. He needed to make Alex understand. This wasn’t his fault. He’d been driven to it.

  ‘The conniving fucker tried to blackmail me. He filmed me, Alex. He had cameras rigged up in the apartment. I think it was rigged up to a laptop. Someone else was watching me too? Fuck, Alex. He wasn’t much older than my Daniel. He was just a kid really.’

  ‘You’re a stupid fucker you know that, Jimmy! What the fuck were you playing at? That bloke didn’t set you up, you set yourself fucking up! You should have been smarter.’ Alex didn’t even bother to hide his anger at what Jimmy had got himself involved in.

  Slamming down the glass on the kitchen table, he couldn’t contain his anger anymore.

  ‘I didn’t think, Alex—’

  ‘’Course you fucking didn’t. You’re a man. When your dick gets hard, your brain gets soft, ain’t that right?’ Alex spat, the resentment and hurt clear in his voice.

  Jimmy was almost crying now and it was no wonder. This was an epic fuck up on his part. His head was all over the fucking place. He’d been stupid to keep going back to the same fucking bloke. Anonymity was key if he didn’t want to put himself through shit like this. Shit that could blow Jimmy Byrne’s world wide open.

  ‘I’m sorry, Alex,’ Jimmy said, knowing Alex was right to be upset. Jimmy had hurt him badly. He knew how Alex felt about him. The man loved him. He had done for years. It had always been Alex and Jimmy.