Haven 1: How to Save a Life (16 page)

That was okay. Kevin would just have to show him it didn’t matter, show him how good they could be together when they went even further than they had tonight.

Because there was no way Kevin was missing out on lying naked in a bed with Walter, the press of that firm, strong body over his own as Walter’s hard cock slid inside him for the first time.

Because now that Kevin had had a taste, he wanted to experience it all.

With Walter.

* * * *

Walter didn’t want to see any more. He stopped the video feed and clicked off the monitor. The fall from the high of the orgasm earlier to feeling this tense and pissed was seriously messing with him.

Kevin finished writing and dropped the pen on the pad of paper he’d been jotting notes on the entire time they’d studied the video footage of each man who’d disappeared. “So that’s all of them,” he said. “They were all alone when they went upstairs.”

“Looks like it.” Which meant they had a pattern. Walter’s instincts told him the same thing he’d thought about Seth—that these men had been abducted. From right here inside the Haven.

He and Kevin had been alone in the security room since Vargas had left them there with the video feeds two hours earlier. They’d watched the recordings from the forty-eight hours before each man had gone missing, fast-forwarding and switching between the different views of the club.

It had taken a while to locate each man, then follow his actions through the club’s first floor until he went into the elevator. Alone.

Kevin stared at the pad with his notes. “They’re all so young.”

Young?
He should talk. Walter threw him a sideways glance.

“Younger than me.”

“I guess.” Although, under normal circumstances Walter would’ve mentally put Kevin and the four missing men in the same age bracket.

“Were they all meeting someone?” Kevin asked.

“That’s my guess. Probably the same someone.”

“Someone we need to find.”

Walter tilted his head toward the main monitor. “Let’s take another look at who’s here tonight. See if we can spot any of the same men from the nights they disappeared.” He flipped on the monitor and rewound to the beginning of the evening’s recording.

A few minutes into the feed, Kevin pointed to the screen. “Hey, there we are.” The two of them were dancing in the bar. Kevin leaned in, a definite pink to his cheeks as he watched them. “Oh man. We’re hot together.”

Walter laughed. Then he sobered as he joined Kevin in watching the recording. They
were
hot together. And intense. The way they moved as one, the way Kevin looked at him, touched him as if he were the only man in the room, the only man Kevin wanted.

“You ever make a porn video of yourself?”

Leave it to Kevin to ask a question like that.

“No.” That’d be just what Walter needed. A reason to critique his own style. “And don’t get any ideas. I didn’t want to when I was younger, and I sure don’t want to now.”

“It wasn’t a suggestion.”

“You have a thing for public bathroom sex. I wouldn’t put anything past you.”

“Don’t act like you weren’t salivating for my lips on your dick in that men’s room.”

Walter swallowed. Hard. And tried not to think about Kevin’s lips or what they’d done upstairs a few hours ago. He needed to stay focused. He scanned the crowd on the video feed.

“So,” Kevin said, “if you haven’t been with anyone in a year, that includes…” He pointed to his lap and hesitated. “You know, a blowjob?”

Walter laughed. But he couldn’t hold back the truth. Not from Kevin. And what did that mean? “Yeah, that includes blowjobs. I don’t go for casual. Not anymore.”

They were the kind of words that could scare a young man just coming out, but if they kept this up between them, Walter would want more. Even if his heart couldn’t take anything close to losing someone again, he couldn’t hide from the truth of where this could lead—to more than a guy like Kevin could give at this stage of his life.

Kevin chewed on his bottom lip. Definitely nervous, but he also seemed to like the idea of this being more than a casual thing. Seemed to like it a lot.

That left Walter mentally scrambling for purchase, for something he could hold on to instead of giving in to the idea of having all of someone again.

Kevin sat back and blew a tuft of hair out of his eye. “We’re not getting anywhere watching this. We have no idea who to look for.” He must not have had a better strategy because he sat silently for a while. When he spoke again, his voice was somber as he blankly stared at the monitor and the club full of men. “Are they dead?”

“I don’t know why, but I don’t think so.”

“If someone abducted them, how did he get out with them?”

“Maybe out a window, but that’s a big risk with how many guys head in and out of this place every night.”

Kevin fiddled with his phone, scrolling through whatever he always found so fascinating. “Is that how he’s getting in?”

“The windows are checked every night at closing. They’re locked from the inside, so unless someone’s helping him…” When Walter didn’t say more right away, Kevin looked up, and Walter added, “I think he’s a member who’s coming in the front door.”

“Makes the most sense. Maybe your PI friend can narrow down the list. It’ll take us forever to interview everyone.” He pointed to the monitor, which had a view of the front door of the club. “Even if he somehow coerced them to go with him willingly, he didn’t take them out through the front door. What about an employee entrance?”

“Could be. But unless there’s a fire, those doors require an employee ID scan. So either he works here or he stole a card. We should check the logs for each day they went missing and reinterview whoever was working then, put pressure on them, check their schedules, see what doesn’t match up. Maybe we can catch one of them in a lie or figure out if their ID was used when they weren’t here.”

“Sounds better than watching these feeds.” Kevin focused again on the monitor. “Is it always like this?”

“Like what?”

He pointed to the men going up and down the stairs. “Guys here just for sex. Doesn’t anyone want to go on a date first?”

“Lots of these men are dating, in relationships.”

“So they’re all cheating?”

Walter shook his head, uncertain whether the reaction was in answer to Kevin’s question or about adjusting to the shift in conversation. He’d never talked so much about relationships and sex with anyone. He was also usually the one asking the questions. A week ago he never would’ve imagined he’d be having the kinds of conversations he’d been having with Kevin—and that he’d find he didn’t want them to end.

Now that he was faced with the real deal, he couldn’t imagine not having these talks with Kevin. He couldn’t imagine working this case with anyone else.

“Some might be cheating,” he said. “Some have agreements, and some are here with their lovers.” He pointed to a leather couple. “They’ve been together fifteen years.”

“But they’re hitting on that guy?”

Walter smirked. The tension he’d been feeling since they’d started going over the video feeds was fading fast. “Sometimes that’s how it works.” He settled back in his chair. “Some couples come here for a safe place to be themselves, where they don’t have to worry about who’s watching.” He pointed to another couple. They were dancing, holding each other close in an intimate embrace. “They never invite anyone else into their bed. Neither does my friend Luke. He’s in a relationship with two men. The three of them met here at the club.”

Kevin’s brow furrowed as he shot Walter a questioning stare. “Three men in a relationship?” He made a circular gesture with his hand. “All together?”

“Yeah. You should see them. They’re an unlikely trio, but they just…fit.”

Kevin kept staring at him. The intense curiosity of that look was in such contrast to the quiet way Kevin sat there. Always so curious. But now he held back. That didn’t sit right with Walter.

“Just ask whatever it is you want to know.”

“What was your relationship with your partner like? Did you guys live together?”

“We did.”

“Did you…” Kevin gestured to the monitor.

“No. We were exclusive.” Walter made a point of meeting Kevin’s gaze. “I don’t share.”

“You said that.” They held the stare between them for a moment more. “How long were you together?”

“Seven years. Listen, I don’t like talking about him.” The curt tone had to make him sound like an ass. Judging by Kevin’s averted gaze, he was right. Walter breathed deep and forced himself to say more. “I don’t regret a single day I spent with him. It’s just…we had some rocky times. The worst was right before he was diagnosed. I like to think we would’ve made it, but the truth is, I just don’t know. I’ll never know. I don’t like talking about him to anyone else because that usually leads me to how he slipped away and the bad shit before he got sick, to how I couldn’t fix things for him. If I keep it inside, I can remember him the way I want—the way he’d want me to.”

“You loved him?”

“Yeah, but sometimes…that’s not enough.”

Kevin was quiet for a minute, then asked, “Do you really believe that?”

“I don’t know. I think…I think you ask a lot of questions.” Walter paused. What did he think? He believed in love, in relationships. They were the best part of living. Sometimes that was enough. Look at Luke and his partners. But sometimes… “Some people are meant to be alone.”

Kevin didn’t say anything for a long while. Then he said, “Even if you can’t talk about him, it’s good you remember him. They deserve that much.”

Walter didn’t miss the word
they
. He filed that away for later. Something told him Kevin wasn’t ready to share that part of himself. Not yet.

And then to confirm the theory, Kevin asked, “What do we do now? We still don’t have much to go on.”

“I’ll get the info on the employee ID scans from Vargas. I want to keep interviewing the newest members and those on Vargas’s high-profile list, see if we can get a feel for anyone who’s hiding something.”

“What about the ones who don’t come in all the time?”

“Vargas is setting up appointments for the next few days. After the place closes tonight, we can talk to more of the employees. Until then we should get back on the floor. See who just got in. You might be right about talking to people alone. Maybe one of us can get someone to open up, get them to tell us anything they might’ve seen or heard.”

“Okay.” Kevin got up and headed for the security room door.

“Hey.”

He stopped.

“No dancing with anyone.”

A slow smirk spread across Kevin’s lips. “Because you don’t share.” He left the room, the goofy-ass smile still plastered on his face.

Whether Walter wanted to admit it or not, he wasn’t sure he minded that look one damn bit.

Except…

He needed to keep thoughts like that in check. Kevin needed a friend to accept and support him as he came out. Not someone who would complicate his life.

Besides, Kevin was just starting to really explore his desires. He wouldn’t—shouldn’t—want anything serious.

Or did he?

* * * *

“Thanks for meeting with me and answering my questions.”

The Protector stood, shook Walter Simon’s hand, and forced out a polite response. “Not a problem. I hope you find someone who can help.”

“I’m sure I will.” Simon gave a nod and turned toward the dining room.

Smug bastard.

The Protector watched the asshole ex-cop walk away from the table in the bar where they’d been talking for the past ten minutes.

Simon had asked the Protector about his boys, mentioning each one’s name and showing him a photo. He hadn’t said they were missing, but that he was investigating odd occurrences at the club. He’d even asked about the dates the Protector had brought all his boys home.

It had been easy to lie. The Protector’s real identity felt like a lie anyway. He wore no disguise tonight. No beard. No blond hair. When he’d gotten the call from Vargas asking him to come into the club to meet with someone in security, he’d known he had to go in as himself. That’s how his membership form had been filled out. Using his real driver’s license and his birth name. That’s how he’d first met Vargas.

As Porter Logan Prescott III.

The identity he’d despised since his childhood. The one that made him weak.

That was until he’d reinvented himself. Until he’d become the Protector.

He returned to his usual table in the far corner of the bar. Walter Simon was talking to a couple in the dining room. He took a seat at their table, clearly settling in to ask the same questions he’d asked the Protector.

Stupid asshole. Some cop he must’ve been.

He had no idea he’d just been talking to the man who had all the answers.

Simon was just as clueless as the club’s owner.

It had been easy gaining membership at the Haven like the Protector had been hired to do. Once Vargas had found out who he was, he’d fast-tracked his application. No one could resist a man with a wealthy family behind him. Or a local, decorated firefighter.

That’s one of the reasons he’d left his father’s business and joined the fire department in the first place.

He’d wanted to do something more meaningful with his life, save people, protect them from what they couldn’t see coming, but he’d also known…

No one could resist a hero.

Chapter Thirteen

“Damn, I thought that was him.” Walter gave up on the guy he’d been watching cross the Haven’s dining room and zoomed the camera out to a long shot of the club’s first floor.

Kevin kept up the agitated pacing along the back wall of the security room.

Walter couldn’t blame him. He was just as tired of watching men go up and down the stairs at the Haven. Tired of talking to people who knew nothing. Tired of reports from Tucker that he’d come up empty-handed on any members who had a connection to the missing men or anything suspicious about the company that had the trail of ownership a mile long.

Walter and Kevin had been investigating the disappearances for two weeks now. Whenever they weren’t at the club interviewing members or out talking to family, friends, and coworkers of the missing men, they’d followed up on where each man had been for the several days leading up to his disappearance.