Wild Horses (39 page)

Wow. What the fuck?

The picture before him waved and undulated, and individual faces became distorted, as though the wax they were made of began to soften. Kai’s feet carried him to his lover’s side as though they had a will of their own. The man with the eager voice was but a young stallion who needed to be taught manners. Kai had hoped to fix him with a stern gaze, but stared at his morphing features instead. He was going crazy, stark raving mad, bonkers—and he had to do all he could to cover up for it and pull himself together.

“You tell all you know, and I won’t kick your asses,” Kai growled, his arm snaking around Attila’s waist. “And you’ll give him space as you speak.” In the murky recesses of his mind, he recalled his resolve to defend his territory. In the past, the contest had simply assumed a somewhat different shape than men trying to break his gentle lover. Now they were lined up, hoping to be at least brought back in line, and somehow Kai found that even more threatening.

“Whatever. Fuck this shit.” The man looked at Attila, then pointed his chin toward the shadows where Johnny was. “That sleaze over there’s been trying to take your place forever now. I bet he never even met you. Hell, I bet you don’t even remember me.” He shrugged. “It’s Johnny over there you want. He started running the whores ’bout a year ago. The kid left with him.”

A few heads nodded assent. The other men still pined to thaw Attila’s icy air, observing his every move and not losing track of Kai’s possessive hand on Attila’s hip. Kai saw loathing in their odd, grotesque faces. Their envy mingled with disappointment. He was the lucky one—the wild redhead they used to know as an easy lay. Now he stood
next to Master Attila the Hun as an equal. Several pairs of eyes turned toward Kai, assessing him, trying to determine his willingness to play their game. Their faces fell when Attila looked at the redhead.

“Come on, Kai. Let’s get what we came for.”

A shadow moved toward the staircase that led upstairs and out of the building. Kai used whatever balance and speed were still granted him. Several hasty, graceless steps brought him to the bottom of the stairs, where he blocked Johnny’s path. Detecting Attila’s shift of balance, Kai made room just in time for Attila to take few quick steps toward the escaping pimp. He snapped his whip. A long snake of braided leather cut through the air just before the stealthy form of Johnny could disappear up the staircase.

“Move.” Johnny waved his cane at him.

He’s just a horse. He needs to be shown up...

Kai drew himself to his full height and shook his head, but just as he did so, the man in the gauche black outfit drew a sword out of his cane and lunged at Kai’s thigh. It all happened so fast, Kai thought he was hallucinating.

A sword cane?

Kai felt himself falling to the side of the sharp point, feeling woefully off-balance, when a long snake of braided leather cut through the air and wrapped itself around Johnny’s sword hand.

Johnny’s choked cry split the air. Attila pulled back. Limbs flailed through the air as Johnny, the wannabe Master Hun, was pulled to the side and briefly rendered airborne. He crashed on his side with a thud and would have been fine, had it not been for a steel support pillar right in the trajectory of his head. Johnny’s skull hit the painted steel with a sickening crack.

Attila glided toward his still form, unwound the thin end of the whip from around Johnny’s neck, and took his pulse. “Just knocked out,” he reported to Kai in a hushed voice. “Check his pockets.”

Kai tried to crouch by Johnny’s side, but overbalanced and fell to the floor. He let out a frustrated hiss and righted himself. The tight, leather crevices of Johnny’s pants revealed nothing but a small Ziploc bag of pills. The man’s leather vest yielded a wallet, though. Kai’s fingers felt too clumsy to search its contents. In an effort to hide whatever was wrong with him, he handed it to Attila.

After a cursory look, Attila pulled out his phone and dialed Rita’s number.

“I need you to run this name for me. Look for any real estate properties—Yes, there was a bad guy…. No… I don’t know how bad it is. Hal is asking elsewhere.” There was a pause. “I cannot. I shall call as soon as I can.”

Not sparing their audience a single glance, he stepped over the prone body and headed up the stairs, trusting Kai would stay with him. Kai, however, did not follow right away. He straightened slowly and turned around to take in the sight before him for one last time. The room was of full of still men with wavering features. He tried to focus on the guy closest to him, and froze for a moment: the man’s melting face was dripping off his skull. This place, a part of his past, was a lot worse than he had ever suspected. These men, once desirable in his eyes, were… melting. Certain he was going crazy, he averted his gaze from the dark corner across the room. A wave of nausea washed over him as he turned on his heel and stumbled up the stairs.

A
TTILA
’
S
lips thinned in concern—Kai radiated so much tension, he almost seemed to be in a state of shock. This state of mind had to be dispelled, yet the act of doing so would necessitate talking about things he had long considered dead and buried. Attila had no intention of bringing up his own past, not any more than Kai had. But now that Kai knew about his former identity as Master Attila the Hun, and Attila knew about Kai’s former involvement at Frankie’s, the air had to be cleared, and soon.

The ringtone of his phone cut through the noise of street traffic. He halted in midstep, eager to answer. “Hi, Rita…. Yes… Really? Can you just e-mail it to me?”

He watched Kai stumble a few steps ahead of him, either oblivious of the fact that he was alone, or not giving a damn. The stiff set to the man’s shoulders boded ill for Attila’s hope of a quick talk that would fix it all.

“Thanks,” he said into his phone as he stretched his legs to catch up with Kai. “I’ll let you know…. Yes…. ’Bye.” Attila shoved his phone back into his pocket and broke into a jog, his sense of elegant dignity superseded by a fear of loss so devastating he didn’t dare to contemplate it further.

K
AI
’
S
long legs were eating up the pavement, putting as much distance between himself and Frankie’s as possible. He pushed a strand of coppery hair out of his face and tucked it behind his ear. Going back had been a harrowing experience. The smell of the place, the sounds, and the shabby wooden floors brought back feelings of being adrift, and of shame. Yet they’d got the information they needed—at least, he thought they did—and soon they’d catch up with Hal and let him know and find a way of getting Lindsey somehow.

Kai knew he should be thinking about how and where Johnny might be “helping people find a job.” It might have been innocent, yet it might also have been a predatory situation. To his utter frustration, Kai was finding it impossible to focus. Just putting one foot in front of the other took enough concentration.

His thoughts brushed upon the existence of the strip clubs down on Liberty Avenue. Someone was bound to know something. Instead of thinking of Johnny’s temporary downfall, his mind was still cluttered with the eerie image of misshapen, melting faces. Then the sidewalk moved beneath him like an undulating snake, and only his unnatural sense of balance kept him from sprawling on the worn concrete.

He heard the ringtone of Attila’s phone and thought the man stopped to answer it, yet his own legs wanted to keep going as though he had no say in the matter. Leave, get away, escape. Away from this awful little place, filled with awful little people. Some time ago, he slept at Frankie’s for two weeks running. Larry had let him, back then, right after Kai lost his apartment. He was done with that place now, and everything that reminded him of the old days was best forgotten. He would never again do some of the things that he used to do, that he used to let others do to him.

Attila’s footsteps increased in cadence behind him. Kai leaned into his fast stride, making his getaway. Kai crooked his mouth as betrayal made itself known. He’d tried to be clean and pure, living up to Attila’s standard. Attila Keleman had, after all, embodied all that was clean and wholesome and respectable. Attila was the very opposite of where Kai had come from, and the last two months had been an exercise in discipline and self-restraint in an effort to honor his lover’s civilized lifestyle. He did cave in some—he did some things that many would consider a bit edgy—but only in order to bring Attila pleasure. He was careful never to indulge himself. Now it pained him to know that not only was he not the first one to do so, but that his efforts must have paled in comparison with the older man’s rich body of experience.

“Kai….” Attila sounded a bit out of breath now, right behind him. “Would you mind slowing down?”

“We’re going to a strip club to talk to the girls. I’m sure you’re familiar with it,” Kai hissed through his teeth.

“Actually, no. I have never been there.” His phone chimed, alerting him to an incoming e-mail. “Stop for a second, will you?” Attila said, activating the screen again.

“What?” Kai asked, swaying as the forward momentum threatened to keep him in motion.

“Rita just sent me a list of real estate properties owned by that guy, Johnny. I think Lindsey might be at one of those—some are businesses. We should reconnect with Hal and see if he came up with anything.”

Kai tried to focus. His eyes widened as the information sank in. A list of properties…. “May I see?”

Attila flashed him a curious look and handed him the phone.

Several of the addresses were business storefronts in the Strip District area. “We have been to these places already,” Kai said. “She’s not working there.”

“The residence on Johnny’s driver’s license is an empty lot,” Attila said.

“But there is this warehouse on River Road.”

“I’m not familiar with this place, but your map says it’s pretty big,” Kai said, pointing to a large rectangle on the phone’s screen.

“Do you recognize the others?” Attila asked.

Kai closed his eyes in an effort to recall the details, but to no avail. “Sorry…” Kai slurred. “I just dunno.”

“No matter. We need to catch up with Hal and bring him up to date,” Attila said. As he dialed Hal’s number, he kept his eyes on Kai.

Kai leaned against the wall of a building and rolled away from him, in effect turning his back on him.

“Kai,” Attila said. “Would you please turn around?”

Kai ignored him. He took a few more steps. His clean T-shirt rubbed against the grubby brick wall. His eyes took in the sidewalk’s cracked concrete and the brave weeds that pushed through several old asphalt patches. This used to be normal. This used to be home, and then Attila had taught him that there was a better way to live. Kai no longer belonged down here and, feeling displaced, he was tempted to hate Attila for it. The hot, violent feeling welled up in his chest without any warning and he noted it, just the way he noted Attila was a fucking liar and a fake. His so-called partner had never told him who he really was. A small piece of Kai’s mind waved for attention in an effort to remind him that Kai had never really cared about who Attila really was. The wild, emotional outburst that threatened to accompany Kai’s sense of betrayal had come out of nowhere. Still, Kai felt it, and he felt an urge to act upon it. There was nothing for him to do but leave.

Leave Cayenne.

Kai heard soft steps approach him from behind, but he didn’t turn. His vision blurred as a sudden gust of hot summer wind flung dust into his eyes. He felt a tentative hand touch his shoulder, but his halfhearted shrugging motion failed to dislodge it.

“Talk to me, Kai. You are angry. Tell me why. Tell me anything.”

That’s when Kai stuffed his fists inside the tight pockets of his jeans. Attila was right behind him, and Kai was sorely tempted to slug him.

A
TTILA
had never felt as helpless as he did now. Kai shrank away from him again, yet he felt the tight control with which the younger man controlled his unexpected aggression.

“I hate you.” The words were a low hiss, barely audible over the sounds of light car traffic to their right. Attila’s chest tightened.

“And I love you,” he said in reply, rubbing Kai’s tight shoulder. “I am sorry, Kai. I… I had never thought I would come down here again. Ever. The only reason… the only reason I did was because of Lindsey.”

Kai spun on his heel, looming over Attila in a sudden explosion of hitherto contained energy.

“You’re a fuckin’ liar, Keleman. I could stomach a lot of shit, y’know? I can put up with a great deal of assholery, but one thing I can’t stand is when people lie to me. Especially people I—” Kai panted, trying to get some air as aggression rolled off him in waves. “Especially people who claim to love me.”

Attila stood still, thunderstruck. “But I have never lied to you.”

Kai choked out a bitter laugh. “Yeah you did. You’re Master Attila the Hun, an’ you let me think everything was so new to you—every touch, all we did together. You made me think I was so damn special, and in the meanwhile you’ve had the whole town in the palm of your hand and you led me around by my nose like some gullible twink. And you know what? You know what’s the worst part about all of this?”