STORY EXCERPT

“Man, sometimes I hate my job,” Troy Adams, Jacob’s partner of three years, said as he walked ahead through the debris and darkness in the narrow alley.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Jacob looked at him, noting his friend pinched his nose in disgust when he turned to face him.

“But like it or not, we have to scout it out. Captain’s orders.” Troy shrugged.

Jacob huffed, nodding. Troy was right. They had no choice.

The anonymous call the station received an hour ago led them to this search. The robotic voice claimed a third body in The Cleansing Killings would be found here. It was only the twelfth call of this sort they had received this week. All the others had led Jacob and Troy, the detectives assigned to the killings, on a wild-goose chase. Odds were this one would turn out the same.

Yet he couldn’t quite shrug off the funny feeling crawling up his spine that danger lurked not that far off. The peculiar sensation that someone was watching from the shadows in the corner behind them kept haunting him. He twitched as a cold and then hot bolt of panic possessed his body.

Damn it, relax, Jacob! Pull yourself together. He needed to calm down. Big time! Five years on the police force and three years as homicide detective had conditioned him to always be prepared, never lose his cool. He knew if he did, he could put his life, or worse the life of his partner or an innocent civilian’s, in jeopardy. But knowing this didn’t help him at all. His fears and untamable imagination had thrown him a curveball he couldn’t control.

He tried to direct his mind off his paranoia by taking several deep breaths. Speeding in his gait, he opened his mouth to say he should lead and Troy could follow him, when his partner stopped in his tracks. Unprepared, Jacob almost plowed into him. Jumping to the side to avoid the collision, he cursed. “Watch where you’re going.”

His friend and partner didn’t hear him. He was too busy taking out his gun from his hidden holster and shouting, “You over there, freeze!”

Jacob gazed in the direction Troy aimed his gun while reaching for his own. About ten yards ahead of them two lifeless bodies lay on the ground and someone was crouched over one of them. The giant male held what looked like a machete over the torso.

When the mysterious person heard Troy’s warning, he stood up and darted over the body, heading in the opposite direction.

Troy sprinted after him, shouting back to Jacob, “We got him. It’s a dead end up ahead. He’s got nowhere to run.”

“You go after him and I’ll check on them.” Jacob motioned as he ran to the two men lying on the ground.

The second he reached them, he knew it was too late. At least for one of them. One of the men, who appeared older and shorter, lay on his back, his chest split open and his heart cut out. This was The Cleansing Killings killer’s signature MO, no doubt. The two other recovered bodies had had their hearts cut out of their chest cavities in the same barbaric way. And later, after the coroner did an autopsy, they were found to have had their blood drained from their bodies, as well. What a sick bastard they had on their hands with this case.

In his line of work, Jacob should be used to seeing this type of mutilation on dead bodies, but he still cringed and shuddered every time he first laid eyes on the dead victims, the exposed flesh, and the gore. Jacob’s stomach lurched and he tried to hold back the bile and the tacos he ate for dinner that kept threatening to regurgitate back into his esophagus.

It was too late for this man, but what about the other? The other victim lay on his right side, his back facing Jacob. Jacob quickly knelt and felt the man’s pulse. It was weak but steady. He sighed in relief. As he let go of his wrist, the man moaned and turned onto his back. The streetlight above them beamed on him then.

In utter shock, Jacob stared at the familiar face. He felt the blood drain from his head, and his limbs went weak. Dizziness overcame him and the taco dinner finally won the battle with his stomach, rising up and escaping his mouth. Vomit spewed to the ground in front of him, splashing his black leather shoes.

Once the flood ended, he wiped his lips with the back of his hand. His throat and tongue felt like they were on fire.

From his peripheral vision, he saw Troy quickly making his way back to him alone, no apprehended suspect in tow. He said, cringing as he stared at the mess at Jacob’s feet, “Oh, that is nasty.”

Quickly recovering, Jacob whisked his cell phone out and made an emergency call to 911 on the police department’s direct line. “We need an ambulance at Park and Beacon Street ASAP. A man is wounded and another dead.”

He stared at the unconscious man while worry ran through his mind. Please, let him be all right.

Troy glanced at the dead body and said, “The killer got away. I thought I had him. There was no way he could have escaped, but somehow he did. One second he was there running, and the next it’s like he disappeared into thin air.”

Jacob didn’t speak, didn’t move.

Troy asked, “Did you hear me?”

He only nodded, unable to break his gaze from the unconscious, injured victim.

Troy snapped his fingers in front of Jacob’s face. “Earth calling Jacob Brown. You in there?”

Jacob blinked several times before looking up at Troy. Yet, he didn’t reply.

Worry overtook Troy’s features. “What the hell is going on with you, Jacob? You all right? Are you dizzy or sick? Do I need to call an ambulance for you, too?”

Jacob shook his head. “I’m all right.”

“Then why do you look like you just saw a ghost?”

His gaze returned to the injured man, and he said in a low voice, barely a whisper, “I know the victim. We were lovers.”

ADULT EXCERPT

A shiver of icy excitement climbed Vincent’s spine as his heated body cooled and his cock became harder still. Without a word, he continued to gaze into Jacob’s eyes, feeling the connection they shared, not only a sexual and physical one but something even stronger and more bonding. It made them one in some way.

He turned, closed his eyes, and placed his hands on the bed for leverage, waiting with bated breath for Jacob to fuck him. But instead of feeling Jacob’s heated hands or cock, he felt a cold and hard object surround his wrists. Opening his eyes in surprise, he saw Jacob was handcuffing his hands together.

In a deep, sexy voice, Jacob said, “You asked me before if I preferred to be the slave or the master. The answer is both, depending on my mood. And you…”

Vincent’s voice trembled with anticipation. “What was my preference?”

“You like to be the master, but there were times when you wanted to be the slave instead.”

Vincent licked his lips, imagining sexual positions. “Mmm, like now.”

“Yeah, like now. You also used to like to be cuffed when I fucked you from the back.”

Vincent’s cock jerked in response and he moaned, “I still like it.”

He looked over his right shoulder in order to gaze into Jacob’s eyes once more but couldn’t see him from his position. He started to turn to his right to see if he was on this side and that was when Jacob placed something over his eyes. “You always wanted to be blindfolded, too.”

Vincent bit his lower lip before smiling, imagining them making love like this. Being Jacob’s submissive and experiencing every pleasurable sensation with his other senses rather than his sight. Oh, he almost came with the thought.

His heart jumped to his throat, and he practically fell onto the bed in shock when the whipping came. “And this was your favorite,” Jacob said, rubbing Vincent’s ass cheek he just whipped.

Something cold and wet spread on his ass. Vincent surmised it was some sort of lubricant. Goose pimples formed as the coolness of the liquid moved under Jacob’s ministrations. After that, something slippery, hard, and long touched Vincent’s asshole, making him take a deep breath and remain still. All he could hear was his own panting and raging heart. Jacob slid the cool and wet object slowly into his hole and slipped it out. Smack! came next and Vincent moaned in pleasure.

Guessing from the feel of it, it was some sort of dildo Jacob used. Vincent remained motionless, absorbing his every move and the feel of the cool object. Each time he slid the dildo in, the whipping would follow. And Vincent’s cock got bigger and harder until he felt he would explode.

In a husky voice, Vincent said, “Please come in me.”

The leather strings tickled his skin, going back and forth and up and down, caressing his ass and lower back.

“What did you say?” Jacob asked.

“I want you to cum in me.”

The whip came down hard on his right cheek. His skin stung and throbbed. Vincent moaned, licking his lips, “Oh yes.”

“Repeat that.”

“I want you to fuck me.”

The whip hit his cheeks again. “Are you ordering me?”

Vincent was about to peak. His body’s lustful demands clouded his mind and made him slow to grasp things, but finally he understood where Jacob was leading him. “No, Master. I am begging.”

The cool leather strings caressed his hot right ass cheek as Jacob’s hot lips and mouth sucked his left cheek. Vincent moaned in pleasure, taking deep breaths to calm his crazed body.

Jacob stopped what he was doing, making Vincent whimper in disappointment. Jacob then said, “Beg louder.”

Vincent moaned and said in a deep, wanton voice, “Please, Master, I want you to fuck me. Fuck me hard!”

Those were the magic words Jacob had obviously been waiting for, because he then slipped his hard and long cock deep into Vincent’s ass. With all the naughty foreplay Jacob spoiled him with, and the lubricant, Vincent was wet and ready for him.

Jacob didn’t waste a minute longer as he pumped in and out of Vincent, groaning and holding his hips close to his pelvis.

Vincent could barely hold himself up as his legs became weak with need of release. He followed Jacob’s thrust with his own, and soon they moved in sync to each other’s demands and desires.

A few moments later as Vincent felt his climax mounting, Jacob slid a quick thrust deep into him and groaned in ecstasy. Vincent came seconds later. And with the flowing pleasure something completely unexpected formed in Vincent’s mind’s eye.

Behind his blindfold in the darkness of his mind, he saw the monster of his earlier nightmare and a lifeless body in a dark alley. Blood poured out of the body’s chest as the assailant stabbed the man hard and deep with a serrated machete. The ominous figure turned to gaze at him, and Vincent saw his ghostly face and then a sharp pain shot through Vincent’s brain.

He held his breath waiting for the pain to go away and that was when the images began to scroll through his mind, like a movie reel playing an old black-and-white film. From the moving pictures Vincent saw, he could make out a story. A story of his life. He was starting to remember!

He shouted, gulping, “I think I know who tried to kill me!”