They slept naked except for their shorts, all enveloped together just as if they had been especially gift wrapped solely for him.
And there HE was! His Noah! He spent some time examining him, barely able to believe that the moment had come… after months of careful planning!
His favourite!
He reached out to follow; inches away from touching; the contours of Noah's thigh as it hugged almost as high as the waist of the other man. He nearly allowed his hand to smooth over the skin, but then remembered himself and quickly withdrew his eager fingers. All in good time…
...
Terry was on her eighth cup of coffee, looking over the dead end file of her twentieth case. She was bushed. No matter how many of these cases she had to deal with, it never got any easier.
She sighed and decided to call it a night. She was too tired to concentrate anyway and it would be catastrophic if she missed a vital clue because of it. Lifting her handbag from the back of her chair, she headed for the exit, greeting various people as she past.
Just as the glass doors slid open she heard, "Detective!" and she turned to see Lewis running urgently to catch her.
"Yes, what is it?"
"We've had a break in the Mayor case!"
...
His gaze was initially fixed only on the dark one… the one of his dreams… but then his eyes caught a glint of gold as the blonde turned over and it was as if he was seeing him for the first time. Well, well! Not bad! Not bad at all! Not usually his type but still, definitely not something to say no too… well defined… almost innocent looking.
This was going to be a good night! This was going to be the best night ever!
...
It had taken them five hours to drive the eight miles from where the traffic had first slowed to the pileup itself, then finally to hit the clear road up ahead of it. At some point Jonathan had taken over the driving, Maddie's vision blurred by frustrated tears. He had tried to keep the mood light, making stupid jokes, singing along to songs on the radio, in the vain hope that it would distract her. She had done her best to smile at him, but she knew the consequences of the delay meant they would have to stop for the night.
So they had spent the night in some seedy roadside motel that smelt of stale beer and cigarettes. He had asked Maddie to tell him what had her so spooked, but she'd thanked him for his support, saying it was a private matter and that she simply couldn't discuss it.
Whatever it was he knew it had to be bad for her to risk such an epic road trip.
She had apologised to him profusely during the course of the journey and he had reassured her that he was happy to help. In fact he was happy to do just about anything for Maddie! And he could think of worse things then spending two days in a car with her…
Unfortunately they had both been so exhausted that it was only Sunday afternoon by the time they had climbed back into the car and then of course, disaster decided to befall them yet again when his old beat up Chevy refused to start.
"No!" Maddie had yelled and then banged the dashboard a few times.
So it was only early Monday evening when they eventually and finally came upon the outer suburbs of Los Angeles. And a twenty hour journey drew closer to a conclusion more than forty-five hours later…
...
Oliver was a pleasure seeker, he had gotten his kicks in many a way before, but nothing… absolutely nothing… had energized him as much as watching his future two conquests in THAT way. Seeing them par take in intimacy while clueless to his secretive presence just metres away, knowing that he could be discovered at any second, gave Oliver a buzz like no other…
And he had enjoyed watching as they drifted off to sleep together and he enjoyed just watching them sleep. He had the entire night, so he allowed himself to draw this part out a little longer until finally and deliciously, he decided it was time.
He hadn't used this method very often. Colourless, odourless and tasteless, Rohypnol was the most obvious choice, the symptoms being close to those of a bad hangover. By morning most guys didn't even remember the night, or if they did, blamed it all conveniently on the alcohol. In fact, in most guys it caused a kind of euphoria and lack of inhibition that meant they simply didn't react much to his advances at all.
But Noah… and he breathed out deeply, closing his eyes, as he remembered that night.
However in situations like this, when the heat was on, when it was already too late to be discreet… when he had nothing to loose… then he could bring out the ether. Of course whenever he used it he knew he would have to leave town, but then flight was also part of the fun.
Using ether meant he had absolute control over the dosage. Use a lot, knock the guy out cold, use a little and keep him just lucid enough to fight a little.
And Oliver loved the fight!
...
Noah was clearly drunk as he sat at the bar, a row of shooters stacked neatly in front of him.
"There he is!" said Lewis, pointing Oliver out on the screen for Terry, just as he stepped into the camera view.
Oliver stood and watched Noah for sometime before moving forward to take the stool next to him. It didn't take him long to move in closer and put his arm around Noah's shoulders. He said something to him and Noah smiled dizzily at him, before downing another shot.
"Okay, now here it is!" Lewis announced excitedly.
Quickly, Oliver moved his hand to knock Noah's wallet onto the floor and, as Noah bent to retrieve it, expertly leaned over to share a white power out between the remaining shot glasses.
"Gotcha!" said Terry delighted. What a result! And to think the barman had only installed the security camera a week before, after a stabbing incident. "Lewis, do you think this is enough to get us a search warrant on his place?"
"Already requested, I should have one in the hour… Do you want to do this tonight?"
"Absolutely!"
...
When Noah's brain cleared enough to realise that he was securely bound, arms and legs, to a chair, he immediately began to struggle… the sensation dragging him back to that night in the cabin.
"Wake up!" He thought desperately, not wanting to be confronted once again with the image of his father burning to death, "Wake up!"
His eyes burst open when the other half of his brain worked out that he wasn't dreaming. He was tied to a chair in their lounge room. Fear gripped at him immediately, "Luke?" he called desperately.
"You know… he's rather lovely?"
Noah shook immediately at the calm voice, the same voice that had haunted his nightmares. Wide eyed he looked up through the haze to see Oliver at the end of the passage, leaning up against the frame of their bedroom door, gazing in the direction of their bed.
"No!" thought Noah, suddenly feeling ice cold and then struggling with the bonds he yelled, "You lay one hand on him and I swear I'll kill you! You hear me!"
Oliver didn't react at all, "Not my type you understand but… mmm… quite angelic! I can see why you like him."
Luke. Luke. Luke. His panicked mind flashed through a thousand thoughts in a minute, urgently trying to find a solution that would protect him…
"Now, now Noah," Oliver purred as he walked up the passageway towards him, "There's no need to be jealous. After all, it's you that I want."
He moved in fast, thrusting a knee between Noah's thighs and pushing his shoulders back, leaning his face in to lick Noah's cheek. Noah tried to sidle away from him, but there was little room to manoeuvre. He was pressed as far back against the chair as he could, bound hands gripping the legs.
No! No! Not again!
"What have you done to him?"
"I wouldn't worry… he'll be awake in about… hmmm..." and he looked at the clock on the wall, "ten minutes I'd say."
He grasped Noah's foot and ran a hand up his leg making him shiver in fear. And Noah watched as Oliver drank it in.
"You're sick! You know that?"
"So I've been told." Oliver smiled his best cat-like grin.
...
After knocking a few times they established that the guy wasn't home. Terry stepped well back so that the uniformed officers could break down the door. Once opened they swarmed inside to secure the space before giving her the okay to enter.
It was a sparsely decorated apartment, the type she had seen many times before in her line of work. It was the apartment of somebody on the move. A person who didn't hang around in one place for too long…
A thorough search eventually revealed Oliver's stash of drug supplies and other paraphernalia of a serial rapist, hidden behind the main water boiler. But this was nothing compared to the horror Lewis discovered on opening the main bedroom cupboard.
"Holy shit!" he exclaimed just as she walked in the door.
"What is it?" she asked and he pulled the handle so that she could see the inside of the cupboard door, plastered top to bottom with photographs of naked men in various different positions, some frightening. Terry's heart beat harder as it became clear from the blank and lifeless stares of some of the men, that they were dealing with more than just a rapist.
"Jesus!" Lewis whispered next to her.
...
Luke had never known his eyes to feel so heavy, as if glued together. He tried to call Noah but he couldn't find his voice. Nothing seemed real, like he was floating in some kind of ethereal world.
When he finally did get them open he could barely see a thing and he couldn't move either. It felt as though his arms were tied down. He heard Noah's voice calling his name, but something was wrong. It was the tone of his voice. He sounded… frightened? And… angry?
He saw the shadow of a person enter the room and it stood, silent and terrifying, beside the bed. The shadow rested its hand on Luke's neck and immediately he cringed… he knew instinctively to fear it.
The shadow sat beside him and lifted his head between its hands before licking at Luke's lips. Luke wanted to pull back from it but he couldn't.
The shadow held his head for a moment and Luke felt that it was looking at him, right in the eyes. Finally it released him and sat waiting.
A while later, Luke's vision cleared enough for him to make out the features of Oliver as he sat quietly on the bed. Luke's breathing and heart rate immediately increased. He wanted to know about Noah. He wanted to know where Noah was… but he was so disorientated and he couldn't get a word out of his constricted throat.
Luke had no idea what Oliver was waiting for, but he was to tired to think about it… feeling sick from the pain in his head. After a time, Oliver reached out to smooth Luke's hair, very gently, over and over. There wasn't any sound except for Luke's hoarse breathing.
"Are you feeling a bit better?" Oliver asked in an almost polite, caring tone. "It's okay if you want to struggle… I like it that way." And Luke experienced a few shattering minutes as Oliver ran his hand between his thighs, Luke completely powerless to stop him.
Oliver rose up and for the fist time Luke noticed the knife in his hand. Since being stabbed by the Colonel, Luke had developed a completely understandable fear of blades and his eyes must have shown this as Oliver's face shone with glee.
"Yes," he said, "I noticed your scar… I see that you are well acquainted with one of these…"
Luke closed his eyes and tried to swallow back the anxiety, desperate not to give into what Oliver wanted.
"You know? I never intended for this… It was just supposed to be Noah. He's kind of special… but then you know that, don't you?"
Luke's eyes widened in horror…
"Usually once I've had 'em that's it! I move on to the next one! But Noah! Wow! I just had to have him again."
Luke was beyond being able to control his emotions after that and the tears fell, despite his not wanting them too.
"I wasn't expecting you to be in the picture… But… since you're here…" and he crawled to lie above him.