Tarnished Hero

by Temple Madison

  But then Eddie began moving his finger even deeper, and Adam skyrocketed toward a black, starry sky, and cried out at the immense pleasure that began to build inside him.

  He felt Eddie’s finger withdraw, circle his hole, then gasped as he was swiftly penetrated again, deeper than before. He closed his eyes and all his concentration seemed centered on the fiery nerve endings in his sensitive passage. Eddie’s finger pressed inward again, and again, taking on an erotic rhythm he could not fail to yield himself to.

  And then just when he wanted more—the phone rang.

  “Let it ring,” Adam urged breathlessly.

  “Sorry, can’t do that,” Eddie said, and stopped what he was doing.

  “Eddie Scarlett here,” he answered, and then listened as a voice spoke out of a mysterious silence. “Tonight’s the night.”

  “Oh, my God,” Eddie said, looking over at Adam. “Tonight? How do you know?”

  “Because I’ve been following him. That’s what you told me to do, isn’t it?”

  “Well…yes, but…it seems too soon,” Eddie argued.

  “Too soon? Eddie, I’ve been watching him for days, and believe me, he’s hungry for blood. What the hell is wrong with you all of a sudden? I thought you’d be chomping at the bit by now. Why are you hesitating?”

  Eddie jumped up and ran into the other room. “You know that nothing would give me more pleasure than to catch this guy in the act. It’s just…I’ve got company for God’s sake.”

  “Company? Who is it?”

  “It’s Adam.”

  “Eddie, don’t let your affection for Adam ruin this. Maybe tonight’s the night, and maybe it’s not, but I’d rather go and find out it wasn’t necessary than to wake up tomorrow morning and find another woman had been killed. You want to deal with that?”

  “Hell no. It just seems too soon, that’s all. I just want you to be sure of your information.”

  “From the horse’s mouth. Is that good enough?”

  “Yeah, okay.” He looked over at Adam, who was standing at the bedroom door, and hated like the devil to tell him they couldn’t be together tonight. After hanging up, he said, “Hey, Adam. We’re going to have to cut this short tonight. Sorry.”

  Adam looked at the phone Eddie had just been talking on, and then at Eddie. “Who was that?”

  “Business.”

  “Business? Well, it can’t be police business since you’re no longer on the force.”

  “No questions, okay?”

  “What kind of business is it, Eddie?”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t tell you. Top secret.”

  “Top secret, my ass! There are no more top secrets for you, Eddie. I think you’ve got someone else.”

  “Someone else? Just because I have a little business to take care of?”

  “You’re not a cop anymore, so what kind of business could it be?”

  “Uh…well…”

  “Never mind,” Adam said as he began getting dressed, and then grabbed his jacket, and headed toward the door. As he was slamming out, he said, “Good bye.”

  Eddie got a sinking feeling this goodbye was final.

  * * * *

  He felt sheltered within the belly of the shadow that surrounded him.

  It was the perfect hiding place.

  He stood silently looking around, careful not to make a sound when he began digging into the bag he had with him. While trying to make as little noise as possible, he finally pulled something out. When he had it in his hand, he began brushing it off, and then looked at it with a smirk while mentally patting himself on the back. You could get anything online. He remembered finding the website and ordering the mask, his only contribution to its creation being a snapshot of someone he wanted it to resemble. He remembered the day an office party was going on at KingStar. Someone’s birthday, anniversary, or something. Pictures of wives, husbands, mothers, and children littered their desks, but he couldn’t get a good feeling about any of them until an idea occurred to him. He quickly dug out his cell phone, pretended to take a selfie with this new dude, and held it up before them while the creep smiled like a stupid idiot. Damn, people were so trusting. He was new, and he was a jerk, and it helped that no one liked him. Oh, sure, the creep would deny he was guilty, but the cops, being the idiots they were, wouldn’t believe him. He quickly pocketed it, ran back to his office, and uploaded it, with instructions to the website that he does business with.

  Within days he had his mask.

  When he unwrapped it, he was as pleased as punch, but the first time he used it, it was destroyed, so he had to re-order. Sure, it was a problem, but it was definitely worth it. He couldn’t have picked a better son of a bitch to hide behind than the stupid jerk who thought everything was a joke.

  Well this time, the joke was on him.

  Now, lifting the new mask, he felt a surge of excitement as he brought it down over his head. It was dark, crude, and unrecognizable until he put it on and looked at himself in the small mirror he had with him. Even though the mirror was small, he could see enough to know the mask bore an uncanny resemblance to Vinnie Torrio.

  From there he moved slowly as he crossed the street and entered another alleyway. As he crept in, a garish red light over an almost invisible door cast a red, blood-like reflection along the dark alleyway.

  And there he waited.

  Finally, she came out.

  Beautiful, she was.

  She walked alone, her flashy costume hidden beneath her trench coat, her stiletto heels clicking along the pavement—click, click, click.

  He loved the sound. It was lonely, haunting, and when her blood flowed from her beautiful, rounded body, it would be the climax of a beautiful dream. He wanted to touch her, squeeze her, just before he—suddenly he saw her getting away from him, and rushed ahead, moving out of the shadow quickly. While looking here and there, he managed to get across the street and follow her closely until he was finally close enough to grab her from behind.

  * * * *

  She felt hands gripping her, wrestling her into a dark corner behind a large trash bin and then she was thrown to the ground. Fear surged through her as the cold glitter of a large steel blade danced threateningly before her eyes.

  “I saw you,” a man’s voice rasped, his mouth close to her ear. “Wiggling your pretty ass, you were. In front of all those men.”

  “Mmnnff!” she sobbed, struggling against his rough, callused hand.

  “Know which one I was?”

  She could hardly move, but her eyes slid toward him, searching the dark face that was caught in the shadows.

  “Did you find a hundred-dollar bill in your G-string?”

  She remembered seeing the bill waving before her anxious eyes as she danced to the loud, thumping music. She also remembered her hips got a little looser, and her dancing a little more raw as she smiled, wiggled, and indulged the man holding it. And then she felt his clumsy, calloused hands digging into her soft flesh, her G-string snapping, and the bill tucked safely inside. That’s when she realized it wasn’t this man who gave it to her, but a middle-aged man with a look of insanity in his eyes. Now, with a mask over his face, his eyes were nothing but black holes with a glitter of evil looking out, and beyond his mouth she could see another mouth that moved when he spoke. Just then he leaned into the neon brightness, and she gasped. The play of light and shadow gave his face even more of a grotesque look. His evil eyes glowed, looking hungry—but not for food.

  “Yeah,” he said, his face close, his hot breath wet on her face. “I waited for you outside the club. Figured my hundred dollars put me first in line for some of that hot, gyrating little ass of yours. By the way, you can call me Vinnie. Vinnie Torrio. No need to be on such unfriendly terms since I’m about to get myself some pussy,” he whispered seductively. “I been watchin’ you for a week now, and every night you come out at the same time. You’re late tonight. What happened, sweetheart? Stop to give your boyfriend a blowjob?” His hot, wheezing
breath stung her cheek as he leaned closer and whispered in her ear. “Well, now it’s my turn.”

  Becoming panicky, she struggled in his arms.

  A derisive chuckle sounded deep in his throat, but his wicked laugh was interrupted when the door of the club swooshed open, releasing a quick explosion of voices and music. As he stretched his neck he saw two men stumbling across the street, finally reaching the curb. Thinking they were nobody, he pulled back, and didn’t hear the soft buzz of one of the men’s cell phones.

  When the stranger put it up to his ear, he stiffened, all indications of too much to drink disappearing when he heard the message.

  “You were right. When he left the club, he waited for her in the alley. Right now, he’s…”

  Still listening, he slid his eyes toward his partner, and made a slight indication toward the dumpster.

  “He’s got her back there,” he whispered. “You know what to do.”

  “Got it,” he said, and looked toward the trash container. “You go in from one side, and I’ll take the other.”

  The dancer grimaced when the attacker pushed the point of the knife against her throat, and hissed, “One word, bitch, and you’re dead.”

  Knowing she was going to die anyway, all at once a scream burst from her throat, its chilling echo ricocheting up and down New York’s asphalt canyons.

  “You miserable bitch,” the man croaked while her body fell limp. Realizing she had fainted, he quickly grasped her hair and brutally yanked her head back to expose her neck. Just as the attacker was about to make a deadly slice across her throat someone grabbed his arm, and twisted it behind him.

  “Not your lucky day, creep,” Eddie said as he grabbed the knife, keeping him from making the deadly slice. With a lightning fast move, he then grabbed the mask and ripped it off him.

  He wasn’t surprised to see the ugly face of—Warren McAlister.

  Chapter 6

  Adam stared wide-eyed at the TV screen, astounded by the breaking news that had just preempted the regular programming to announce to everyone in the city that the Lady Killer had been captured. It was the first thing the general public heard when they woke up, read when they picked up their papers, and the first thing they saw when they turned on their TVs to the flickering faces of Eddie Scarlett, Vinnie Torrio, and the Chief of Police, William Bramston.

  As he listened, he thought about the last time he and Eddie had been together, remembering that Eddie had been acting a little peculiar after a phone call. When he told Adam he had to leave, he’d acted anxious, nervous, and wouldn’t—or couldn’t—take the time to offer any kind of explanation at all. This made Adam suspicious, and when he demanded Eddie tell him what was going on, the man stood his ground even though Adam had threatened him with leaving. Eddie could have told Adam, and no harm would have been done, but even then, Eddie kept the oath he’d made not to compromise this mission in any way, even if it meant death—or losing Adam for all time.

  At that moment, Adam’s heart swelled with pride at Eddie’s insistence that he keep the promises he’d made not only to himself, but to Vinnie, to the chief, and to the people of this city. And now, because of his courage the notorious Lady Killer who had been stalking the women on the streets of New York had been caught.

  “Chief, from what we understand, this was an extremely volatile situation, and nowhere near the norm for the capture of a killer. I must say, you’ve got our curiosity piqued. Now that it’s over, do you think you could tell us a little of what happened, as well as how the killer was finally captured?”

  The chief smiled indulgently, and shook his head. “I wish I could take credit for what happened, but unfortunately, I can’t. What you see here,” he said, as he brought the other two men up close to the microphones, “is two of the finest undercover cops in the business. Eddie Scarlett, and his partner, Vinnie Torrio. These two men are the bravest men in our precinct…”

  “Whoa,” the reporter said. “I thought Eddie Scarlett quit the force.”

  “That’s what we wanted everyone to believe, including the perpetrator. This creep had to believe he had won, putting him under a false sense of security. These men, without a word to anyone, faced the danger alone. Realizing very quickly the kind of man they were dealing with, they practically choreographed every movement until the moment came to close in and act quickly. Since they were the ones facing the danger, let me step aside, and have them tell you just what happened from the beginning.”

  At the urging of Vinnie, Eddie stepped up to the microphones. “Uh…well…everything was going along fairly normal until the day I went down to KingStar to meet McAlister, the acting CEO. That was quite an experience. One that told me this wasn’t a normal undercover assignment. I didn’t tell anyone what I suspected until I did a little of my own investigation. When I finally had the evidence I needed, I went back to the chief here, and told him what I knew.”

  The Chief leaned over to the microphone, and said, “No doubt about it, this was a blow to the old gut. I gave Eddie a bit of a headache over this because I knew he’d been working straight for a couple of years without a vacation, but as it turned out, Eddie’s suspicions were right on target.”

  “Thanks, Chief,” Eddie said, and then turned to Vinnie. “Vinnie here had already been at KingStar for several weeks, and gained the reputation of a jerk, and jokester. Since Vinnie had made a nuisance of himself among the employees, no one liked him, so that made it easy for us to pretend we didn’t like each other either. The only thing he had been told about me was that my code name would be joking. Translated, it was in fact, Joe King…joking. When he heard that name, he knew that everything was under control from my end.” He looked over at Vinnie, and said, “Vinnie, do you have anything to add?”

  “I think Eddie has pretty well covered it all. After we finally managed to connect we put on a pretty good show of dislike for each other which distracted the employees, leaving us free to get busy and map out our plans. It took a few weeks, but when we were finally ready to put it all into action, Eddie had to have a reason to quit so he could be free to put everything in place. Since I had a reputation as a jokester, and with him asking all those questions about one of the employees, everything just seemed to fall into place. I’ll never forget the day it all came together. Actually, Eddie should have been an actor. I’ve never seen anyone act out a scene better than that. Only he could have convinced a whole office full of people that he actually believed that Adam Dunbar, the twin brother of the CEO had been to Sweden and come back a woman.”

  Now, as Adam continued to stare at the TV screen, he thought about all the blank spots that no one could fill in but him. His relationship with Eddie Scarlett alias Joe King, and the things that no one else knew about, and that included Vinnie, who had come into the company not long before Eddie, and fit in as perfectly as a worm in an apple. Adam had had no idea Vinnie wasn’t exactly who he said he was. Everything he told them had checked out. Adam had no idea Vinnie’s credentials, his resume, and even his background had been false. The NYPD had been thorough, even to the character he had played. He came across to everyone at KingStar as a big-time jerk, a jokester, a creep, and it was no surprise that the longer he stayed there, the more he fit into that role. Over time he’d developed into someone who was always playing pranks, so no one thought anything about it when he played one on Eddie. And now to learn he was a hard-nosed cop just like Eddie, was mind-boggling. No one even guessed these two were working together. In fact, Adam and Vinnie had made a big show of being anything but friends. Adam had been on the front lines many times watching as they’d had arguments that had almost come to blows. He’d stopped many of them, even got between them when they seemed to be ready to kill each other. He would have never guessed they were only playing a part. To see them now smiling at each other, shaking hands, and acting like real buddies was so out of character.

  Vinnie was right. Eddie did deserve a friggin’ academy award. They both did. But all they got fo
r their efforts were a few handshakes, and good-natured slaps on their backs, and a new assignment. What a shame. It’s no wonder the city of New York called Eddie a legend. He was all that, and so much more.

  The next day, when Adam went back to work, he noticed, along with all of KingStar, that both Eddie’s and Vinnie’s desks were noticeably empty, and the incredible job they’d done only a memory.

  Now it seemed as if everything had changed, even the atmosphere. It made him wonder if it had all been a dream. Had his relationship with Eddie really happened? Adam had learned a lot about Eddie Scarlett since knowing him. Adam had learned he was a nosy cop, a bad housekeeper, and a hard-charging cop who’d been shot and wounded over a dozen times, and knocked unconscious more times than he could count. He disobeyed his Chief’s orders on a regular basis, and did things his own way, but still came out smelling like a rose. He could also sense trouble better than any hound dog, and if you crossed him, he could—well, that’s only one of the reasons why his street name was Demon.

  * * * *

  After the interview, the push of the bustling crowd, the cameras, the microphones, the well-meaning handshakes, and congratulatory speeches, Eddie was exhausted. The Chief had given both him and Vinnie some time off after their grueling experience so they could get some rest before the next round of undercover assignments came up, and managed to help them slip away.

  Now, as Eddie relaxed in his house, he thought back to as long ago as he could remember, and knew he had been many men, but he had to be many men to make his life work. It happened when he joined the NYPD, and he began his undercover assignments. He went from being an Average Joe with nothing more on his mind than what to have for dinner, to the hard-nosed cop who changed his persona like the average man changed his clothes.

  It’s their fault. The slugs on the street. And as long as they’re out there he would just have to keep taking his chances in foggy neighborhoods, dirty alleyways, dark city streets, and in every dirty cavity in the city. They were the ones responsible for pulling him out of his warm bed and onto the dangerous city streets, the worst being those who committed hate crimes. Crimes against women, gays, children, and the elderly. And as long as he stayed on the search for them, he’d continue to ask himself the same question.