As Noah showed Melanie and Jake to their car, Luke entered the bedroom without switching on the light. He slowly pulled back the curtain so that he could eye out the man in the tan Alfa Romeo. The same man he had spotted watching the house the night before… the man who had stayed parked there the entire Saturday morning and afternoon… the one who was still parked there…
Suddenly his phone buzzed in his pocket, "Luke Snyder?" he answered.
"Gianni Di Alberto stays within your organisation." said an electronically disguised voice, "That was the deal we had with your father!"
"Who is this?" Luke demanded shaken, "Are you the one following me?"
But the line was dead.
He took another look outside and watched as Noah made his way back to the house. His heart beat solid in his chest at the sight of him. The last time he had dealt with this type of problem, Noah had been safe and sound in LA. Now they were stalking out the house, which meant they knew about Noah and that was just too risky for Luke.
Quickly he searched for a name on his phone.
"Hello Mr Snyder." said the confident voice.
"Julius? I need you right away. Are you available?"
"For the right fee…"
"We'll discuss that when you get here!" He gave the man the office address, "Do you remember the drill?"
"Old friend from college… I remember. I'll be on a flight tonight." And he hung up.
Just as Luke placed the phone on the dresser, Noah walked into the bedroom looking for him, "Hey? There you are… What are you doing in the dark?"
"Waiting for you…" he covered quickly. He hated keeping things from Noah, but he wanted to solve the issue without involving him. Noah already had enough to deal with.
Noah took Luke into his arms and they kissed gently. It seemed like they could never get enough of each other. The moment the two of them were in the same room the compulsion to touch was so strong it amazed Luke every time. He wondered how they had ever managed to be apart for so long.
"Do you want to talk about what happened tonight?" Luke asked, placing one hand on the location of Noah's heart. The heart… so important… so symbolic for Luke…
Noah's look was one Luke had come to know well. He was contemplating whether or not he was ready to talk. Luke knew it was important to Noah that he get his point across clearly, so instead of pushing him, Luke had learnt to be patient and wait for the time when Noah would come to him on his own… which he always did.
"I get frustrated," he began, obviously deciding that he did want to talk, "because just when I think I'm there… you know? I'll see something so mundane… like a stupid vodka bottle! And it makes me so angry! Because I want my life back! Especially this new life… My dream life… with you! I waited so long to hold you again… and… for a while I had even begun to think it might never happen!" and he subconsciously held Luke tighter at the thought, "Now that you are here I don't want him to ruin it!"
Luke's hand was still firm on Noah's chest and now he leaned in to kiss his lips tenderly. "You're doing great! I've been watching you… You ARE getting better Noah… you just have to give it some more time." They kissed again with more urgency. "And there is NO way he could ruin this! Not a chance Noah Mayer!"
Noah smiled at him and pulled him in closer, smoothing his hand under Luke's curls and cupping the back of his neck. "Did I tell you how great you look tonight?"
"Only about ten times, but I have a massive ego… so… give it to me!"
"You look so damn hot… too hot actually…" he stood back to study him critically and then moved in again, "How about we cool you down a bit by removing this shirt…" he had already started to unfasten the buttons down the front. He smoothed the material halfway down and then gripped Luke's shoulders to pull him forward into another searching kiss. Then as they kissed he slowly pulled the shirt the rest of the way until it fell to the floor. "Feeling cooler?" he asked, gazing into Luke's hazel eyes.
"No actually… I'm feeling hot… Very, very, hot!" And he smiled seductively.
"Hmm… really?" he replied with mock surprise and swept his hands down Luke's chest until they met the top of his trousers, which he gripped and used to pull Luke closer, fiddling at the button and zip, "Maybe it's these darn trousers you have on! Let me help you with them…" and he bent down to follow the black material to the floor.
Kneeling, he looked up at Luke and said, "Now? Any better?"
Luke gave a small sexy laugh, "Um… not really! It's kind of steamy in here all of a sudden…"
Noah's lips on his torso… Noah's touch around his ankles… up the back of his legs… was electric, sending waves of pleasure throughout his body. Especially when Noah's fingers slipped under the elastic of his boxers and cupped Luke's buttock cheeks as he finally removed the last of the clothing before taking him fully… taking the whole of him in one go… deep into his mouth, pulling softly… enticingly.
"Ah! God!" His breath quickened at the sudden and wet warmth of Noah's mouth.
Noah flicked his tongue and Luke was in ecstasy… He grabbed the back of Noah's head to steady himself as his legs started to lose all feeling… all the blood running to the hot centre of his core and, just when he thought he might die, he exploded with such a force, Noah had to stand up quickly to catch him and smoothly guide him to a lying position on the bed.
"Shit!" Luke exclaimed, "Ah… that was… ah… I'm just…" and he fought to get his breath back. In the meantime Noah was planting soft kisses over his collarbone and rubbing his hand down the side of Luke's body and finally down the outside of Luke's thigh. He shivered at the touch.
Noah stood up to remove his own clothing under Luke's eager gaze, maintaining contact by straddling Luke's legs as they hung off the side of the bed. He was stunning and his muscles rippled as he returned to lie beside Luke.
Noah's eyes followed the path of his fingers as they rubbed back up Luke's body… up his neck, to find entrance between Luke's lips and Luke sucked greedily at them, already wanting more. Noah's other hand pushed his hair back and Noah planted a kiss on his forehead and then used his saliva wet fingers to ready Luke as their mouths found each other and tongues joined in fire. Luke could taste himself on Noah's lips…
Luke groaned as Noah fondled him deeply and the combination of that and Noah's hot breath on his face was incredible. He hitched his breath and took Noah's face in his hands to stare intensely into his eyes, trying to convey his feelings… his love… losing himself in the blue…
Holding that gaze, Noah bit his lip with passion and moved over him, using his hands on the back of Luke's thighs to angle him and slowly starting to push. The pressure was amazing and they moaned simultaneously as he entered, Luke quickly encouraging him to move faster.
Noah held him around his ribs and Luke cried out loudly with each thrust. He was first to release and it didn't take Noah's body long to reply until they lay wrapped in a pounding, sweaty heap.
"Hot… so hot…" whispered Luke wrapping his arms around Noah's back. Noah smiled contently, smelling in the scent of his sweet blonde waves.
...
When he was very little she would put him to sleep inside the barrel of one of the huge washing machines in the laundry mat where she worked during the day. Twice the toddler had nearly been spun in the wash when, her attention elsewhere, a customer had inadvertently flung their dirty washing inside the supposedly available machine. On both occasions, by some miracle, he had been on duty, watching.
Mostly the boy was left to spend all day on the floor of the laundry mat, entertaining himself. He had no toys and nobody to play with except himself. Sometimes other children would come in with their mothers and spend time with him, but he was a suspicious child and they didn't seem to warm easily to him. It didn't help that he never uttered a word.
The boy spent a considerable amount of time drawing and, after many attempts to gain his trust, when he had first been given the privilege of seeing the creations; he was astonished at their accuracy for a child not yet four years old.
At the time he knew it was risky to make contact with the kid, but after months of watching his mother drag the poor little guy through the same mundane routine day after day, he had felt this strange and unfamiliar need to become at least somewhat of a friend.
So everyday he would make sure to bring a pile of laundry with him on the job, even if it was already clean, just so that he would have the excuse to spend a few moments with the sad little boy.
That had been a year ago and, whilst busy on his next assignment, he would often find his thoughts drifting to the boy. (Worrying about him?).
Now as he entered the laundry mat, free from employment, he wondered if the woman still worked there. Of course she did! And as per usual her child, now over a year older, sat cross legged on the floor, colour pencils in hand as he sketched an amazing scene of a dog running through green hills and sunshine.
He noted the detestable woman as she sat chatting with some other wh*re behind the counter. She was unconcerned by his interest in her son.
As the boy looked up at him he gave the kid the warmest smile he could, not really expecting the kid to remember him, but to his surprise the little face lit up like a candle for just a second before returning to it's usual blank stare. It would have been hard not to notice the new shiner blacking one beautiful blue eye.
God but that woman made him sick!
"Hello kid. I've been gone a long time, haven't I?"
The boy looked up at him with those cautious eyes and nodded.
"But I'm back now." He sat on the bench near to where the kid was sitting. "Can I see your drawing kid?"
The child handed him the scrap of paper and he realised it was the back of an old junk mail leaflet. "You don't have a notebook?"
He looked down at the floor and shook his head, dark curls bobbed on his head.
As he studied the picture the boy pointed to the orange dog he had drawn.
"Very nice." He said, "Is that your dog?"
He nodded flatly and there was a tremendous pain behind the blue eyes.
"What's his name?" The boy looked around and then pointed at a place on the picture.
"Sun? His name is Sun?"
The kid frowned and then turned to bend and grab a yellow pencil off the floor. As he held the paper on his knee, the kid pressed the pencil and carefully drew lines coming out of the round sun in the right hand corner of the picture. Once satisfied he dropped the pencil and pointed at the lines.
He smiled at how smart the kid was, "Ray? Like the sun's ray?"
The boy nodded sadly.
"Where is your dog?"
The boy bent down and opened an old shoe box, extracting another picture, this time completed on the back of a Chinese take-away leaflet. The picture was of a dog lying (asleep?) by a bucket of water. When he looked up he saw the boy trying to hold back tears and the kid looked nervously over to his mother.
Realising he said, "I'm sorry kid. How did he die?"
But he took the papers back and continued his drawing alone.
Any doubts he had about what he was about to do dissipated. Yes! He definitely needed to act!
...
"Brace yourself!" Ellie said from her desk as he walked past on route to his office.
"Julius?"
"In the flesh!" Ellie had moved to LA from Oakdale to remain as Luke's Personal Assistant. He was by far the best executive she could hope to work for and there was no way she was going to leave his side. As such she was one of the few people who knew about Julius and his involvement with Grimaldi Shipping. Of the few people who Luke truly trusted with his life, Ellie was one of them.
"Anybody asks…" he began.
"… he's an old college friend… I know." she never once took her eyes off her computer screen as she typed.
"You got here quickly…" Luke said as he entered the office.
The man wore his sandy hair slicked back and stood by the window in a dark blue suit and tie. He didn't remove his sunglasses even though they were inside, "I was wondering when I'd hear from you again Mr Snyder. I figured we hadn't even scraped the barrel with those perps apprehended in Oakdale. I take it you have discovered a few more?"
"It's worse then that. They're following me and they know where I live."
"Do you know what they want?"
"I recently fired a man called Gianni Di Alberto. A few nights ago I received a phone call telling me I must keep him in the organisation, as per the deal with my father."
"Interesting!"
"I want you to find out all you can about Di Alberto and anybody connected to him. I need to know what kind of arrangement my father had with them. And keep it low key! I don't want them to know I'm investigating…"
"Done."
Just as Julius left his office Luke's phone rang. It was Noah. "Hey bubby…"
"Hi! Are you still at the office?"
"Yip, I was just thinking of calling it a night…"
"Good! Can I take you out?"
As if Noah ever needed to ask, "Sounds great."
"Are you okay?" Noah sounded concerned all of a sudden.
"Yes I'm fine, why?"
"I don't know… just… lately you seem a bit…Look, we can talk about it when I pick you up!"
Luke smiled, "You're already on your way, aren't you?"
Noah laughed, "I'll see you in ten minutes."
"Okay, can't wait…"
"Um, Luke?"
"Yeah baby?"
"I love you…"
"Same here."
...
He had known Jasmine his whole life. Ten years older she had always taken care of him… watching him after school, cooking his dinner, protecting him from older boys. They were both from fatherless families and their mothers were best friends, working together serving food at a nearby restaurant. He had a great respect for her and he knew he could trust her with this.
She looked aslant at him as he stood on her doorstep, "Just exactly who's kid is it, JJ?"
"A friend's. Look Jasmine I just need to take care of something quickly. I just need you to watch him for a day or two."
She peered behind him where the small boy was hiding behind her friend's large trunk, gripping the material of his trousers for dear life. "Well okay then… so long as it's just for a few hours. What's his name?"
JJ was silent.
She arched her eyebrows at him, her suspicions already raised at the sight of the child's black eye, only increasing, "You're not in any kind of trouble are you?"
"Um, my friend didn't say what his name is. Also, you should know he doesn't speak."
"What?"
"Please Jasmine! This is important!"
"You realise that if it was anybody else asking me I'd tell them where to shove it?"
"I know! Thanks!" And he kissed her cheek before turning to kneel down to the child. "This is my friend Jasmine. I need you to wait here with her for a while, okay?"
The kid looked terrified, but when he looked up at Jasmine she smiled kindly at him and he seemed to calm at that. He nodded and walked past her into the apartment, settling himself down on the floor with the small suitcase they had purchased from a gas station on the way over. He opened it and extracted his art supplies to continue his latest drawing.
Jasmine eyed her JJ critically but nodded and watched him leave to go and complete his task.
...
Noah always felt sparks of excitement in his stomach at the thought of seeing Luke. He would think about Luke every hour of every day until they were reunited in the evening. The love he felt for Luke just seemed to be getting stronger and the problems that had plagued their previous relationship seemed to have all but vanished. He had an amazing evening planned for them…
He pulled up to the security gate at the Grimaldi Shipping parking lot and was surprised to find the booth empty. It was highly unusual and he was just pondering whether to call the reception desk when he was jolted by an ear-splitting bang that ruptured the air and burst his eardrums. Noah held his hands over his ears and watched in horror as the entire Grimaldi building exploded and collapsed, spraying blue glass, dust and flames. The windscreen of his car to shattered and he instinctively moved his head to the side and lifted his arms up to protect his face.
Shaken he slowly looked back at the remains of the smoking building… various business papers and debris floated down from the sky in the deafening silence that seemed to follow.
"Luke?" he whispered, a sickening dread washing over him, his eyes wide with fear.
Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!