Prologue
The man pressed his body against the brick and licked his lips as the click of high heels on the sidewalk got closer. Oh yeah, man. Pretty one. Fun. Show the bitch she’s not all that. He peeked out. The blonde stared at her cell phone as she got closer to the alley where he hid. A quick glance. An old woman farther down the sidewalk, two men coming out of a bar across the street, arm in arm. Fucking fags. He should take them out when he finished with the bitch. He clutched the knife in his left hand.
Closer. Closer. She stepped past the building into the opening to the alley. He lunged out with his right arm, grabbed her around the head and across the mouth, and pulled her off her stupid high heels. Her forward momentum drove him back a couple of feet but he didn’t lose balance. He slammed her body against the brick and pressed the tip of the knife against her throat. Her eyes widened above his hand. Yeah, be scared, bitch. “Keep your mouth closed or I’ll cut you good.”
He slowly took his right hand away from her mouth. “Quiet, you got it?” He pressed the knife tip harder.
She nodded frantically.
He reached down and fumbled with her short skirt. “You want it, right, bitch? Walking around asking for it.”
She started to whimper real quietly. Yeah, my favorite sound.
He grabbed some kind of lacy thing and ripped—
Shit! He flew off his feet when an arm like steel closed around his throat. A knife pressed into his neck. A voice, all quivery like some kind of fucking senior citizen, whispered in his ear, “So you like to play with knives, sonny?”
The knifepoint pressed and he felt blood dripping down his neck. “Damn. Stop, stop!”
The stupid bitch blonde just stood against the wall shaking her hands like helicopters. “Oh my God, oh my God.”
The weird voice behind him said, “Don’t be afraid anymore. Call the police and tell them what happened. Tell them they can find the man who attacked you in this alley. Can you do that, dearie?”
The stupid bitch just stared. Had to get this asshole off him. He tried to move, and the knife pressed so close to his windpipe, one half inch and he was gone. Shit!
“You must say you’ll testify against him. We have to get him off the streets. Do you understand, dearie?”
The bimbo nodded.
“Call them right now. Tell them the alley is between Federal and Grand. Tell them he’ll be here.”
The dumb bitch waved her hands like big drama. “Wh-where should I go?”
“Do you know where the police station is? Two blocks from here?”
Damn. Scare this bitch. “I’ll see you die if you—” He spun so fast his neck snapped hard. Holy shit. The old woman staring at him must be eighty. Gray hair, wrinkles, but really tall. “Who the—” A noise came out of her throat like some animal. An animal about to eat him! His heart beat so hard he knew he’d die. “What the fuck are you?”
She smiled and bared yellow teeth. “Your undoing, sonny.”
He hardly saw the fist before everything went black.
Chapter One
Lindsey stalked his attacker, his nostrils flaring at the smell of fear. Thrust to the arm with the epée, high outside parry by his attacker, riposte. He leaped back, parry, and thrust. Lunge and thrust, feint, lunge again, parry, thrust. On the run! Attack, attack!
“Lindsey! Lindsey! Okay, stop, I give. You win. The student has bested the teacher.” From his position flat against the wall, Rolf laughed and held up his hands.
Lindsey took a deep breath and shook his head to clear the buzz that pulsed through him whenever he faced violence—or sex. Great heavens, this was not the way to keep one’s fencing teacher happy. “God, darling, I’m so sorry.” He pulled off his mask. “I do get carried away, don’t I?”
Big, blond, athletic Rolf pushed himself away from the wall, dropped his epée in the rack, grabbed a bottled water from the case, and flopped on one of the Nelson benches that lined the side of the home gym. He twisted the cap and drank, wiping sweat from his forehead with his other hand. “I swear you crack me up. I don’t know a more mild-mannered human than you. You’re a world-class fencer, I’ll give you that, but where does that vicious streak come in? Sometimes I’m not sure I’m safe.” He laughed again, but it sounded a little strained.
Lindsey fanned himself with his lavender neck scarf. Rolf might sweat, but Lindsey only glowed. “It must be all my suppressed hostility at lack of gay civil rights, darling.” He didn’t mention predatory instincts that went with his genes.
Rolf leaned against the wall. “I’m sure that’s a serious problem for the son of the fourth wealthiest family on the eastern seaboard. Has someone refused your polo ponies access to the community feed trough?” He smirked.
Lindsey narrowed his eyes, and Rolf had the good sense to pale. Lindsey cocked his head. “You wouldn’t know.”
Rolf sat up straight. “Sorry. My mouth ran away with me. I don’t know, and I apologize. I’m sure being gay is tough no matter what your circumstances.”
Lindsey took a breath and fluttered the scarf. Off the hook this time. “Ta, darling. Think nothing of it.”
“Besides, you’ve got nothing on our grandma vigilante. Have you heard about her?” He sipped his water.
Lindsey glanced at his manicured nails. “Something, I think.”
“It’s all over the news. Some woman walks into the police station and says they’ll find this asshole rapist in this alley and some grandma saved her. The cops go where she says, and here’s this guy they’ve been trying to nail for months, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. The woman who I guess he planned to rape says the person who caught this guy was an old lady. Go figure.”
Lindsey fluttered the scarf. “What is the world coming to when a self-respecting villain can’t ply his trade without interference from senior citizens?”
Rolf stared at him for a second, realized he must be joking, and started to laugh, then sobered. “Seriously, between grandma the rapist catcher and the kidnapping, this town feels pretty comic-book weird lately.”
“Lindsey.” His mother’s voice came from behind him.
He turned. “Hello, Mother. You arrived just in time to save Rolf’s life.” He crossed to the door of the huge indoor gym and kissed her pretty, pink cheek.
“Are you torturing Rolf again?”
Rolf stood and tossed the empty water bottle. “Yes, ma’am, he is. But I’m going to tuck my tail between my legs and leave.”
Interesting analogy.
His mother peered around Lindsey at the fencing teacher. “Don’t let me run you off, Rolf. I just need Lindsey to start dressing. He has a hot date.”
Lindsey rolled his eyes. “We’ll see how hot it is, but I do have a date.” He glanced at the Patek Philippe on his wrist. “Really, Mother, even I don’t need three hours to dress for an engagement.”
She looked him up and down. “Since when?”
Rolf laughed. “I’ll see myself out. Have a great date, Lindsey.”
“Thank you, darling. Sorry about the assault.”
Rolf kept laughing and walked out the gym door, which had a pathway that led to the circular drive and the parking lot. The separate entrance, one of three, kept sweaty people out of his mother’s entry hall. It also gave Lindsey an exit on those occasions when he preferred to keep his activities private—aka often.