Angel and the Assassin (12 page)

“What am I going to do with you?” he whispered. He pulled the duvet up over the boy‟s shoulders and left him to sleep. In the living room Kael poured a whiskey and threw himself down on the soft leather of the couch.

The way things stood, Conran would assume Angel had left the house with his mother. But if Mrs. Andresen tried and failed to get in touch with Angel, she would call the police, especially when Andresen was found to be missing. But that could take weeks. In the meantime, as long as he was vigilant and never let Angel go out alone, they could have some fun while he decided what to do with him long-term.

Kael put down his empty whiskey glass and decided to do his sweep of the flat.

Once a week was usually enough to make sure no listening devices or cameras had been left in his absence. He had found them on more than one occasion, and he never took it personally. Sometimes he would leave a listening device in place on purpose just to let Conran know how mean he could be to a sub and to let Conran know what he was missing out on. Everyone in his line of work was under surveillance at least part of the time, but this would not be the time to have Conran eavesdropping on his business.

Methodically he began feeling under the couches and tables and along the shelves. He had a strict procedure, and he followed it exactly every time to avoid making mistakes.

A tiny device, complete with a camera, was attached to the top of the wall-mounted wide-screen TV that he hardly ever watched. Angry, Kael snatched it off, examining it carefully. He cursed himself for an idiot for not doing a sweep as soon as he had arrived home from Cape Cod, but then he had hardly been acting rational from the moment he met Angel. The device filmed the room but had to be retrieved and played back. Thank God it was not sending out real-time images. He went to the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.

The only thing Kael knew for certain was that he was not going to kill Angel, and he would kill anyone else who tried.

They sat in the living room eating take-out Greek food. Kael had grudgingly succumbed to Angel‟s begging and allowed him to sit on the couch watching TV

while he ate. Even with the towel he had made Angel spread over his legs to catch anything that fell, Kael still watched him like a hawk but could not stop himself from thinking how adorable the boy looked. Sitting cross-legged, wearing only his leather trousers, his bare chest smooth, pale, and hairless, his spiky hair standing out at the back and flopping in his eyes at the front, he laughed unrestrainedly.

On the TV, Mr. Bean was behind the wheel of his little green Mini, changing his clothes. Angel had to keep putting his fork down to laugh. His giggle was infectious, and Kael found himself smiling even though he had seen it before. At one point Angel laughed so hard the plate on his lap shook precariously, and Kael was afraid it would slide to the floor, scattering Greek salad and lamb kebabs.

“Daddy, this is so crazy! I‟ve never seen this before.” He looked at Kael, adding, “Sorry, I mean Sir.”

Kael almost said,
It’s okay
, but he didn‟t. He had made his rule, and he must stick to it. “Hold on to your plate.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Mr. Bean ended, and Angel finished his food. He was always hungry and ate nonstop whenever there was food in the flat. Kael needed to do some shopping and fill the fridge for him. Normally he never thought about food except when he needed to eat, and then he would wait for hours if it was inconvenient.

“Sir?” Angel tipped his head to one side, then the other, sizing up the TV. “You moved the TV.”

“No, I didn‟t; it‟s fastened to the wall,” Kael said before remembering that he‟d removed the camera.

Angel used his hands to show him. “It‟s been moved this way. I didn‟t think you moved anything, you being the way you are about everything being perfect.”

Kael looked carefully. Angel was absolutely right. He had moved the TV

fractionally and not noticed because he was so agitated about the camera. “Clever boy. How much would you say it was moved?”

“One and a half inches to the right.”

Kael was impressed. “Very observant. I agree.” Very few people would notice a minor change like that. Kael could always spot when things had changed in his 5environment, especially when it was important. He got up, eyeballed the TV, and moved it back, then turned to look at Angel.

“Perfect, Sir.”

“Go to the bedroom and wait. I want to try something.” He was pleased when Angel obeyed without question, leaving his plate on the coffee table. Kael looked around the room for something to change. He had lowered the blinds as soon as it got dark out, and now he raised them one inch up off the windowsill. The windows were big, and the change very slight.

“Angel! Come here.” He sat down on the couch again exactly where he had been before.

The boy walked back into the room and waited for him to speak. “What‟s different? Look around,” Kael said, checking his watch.

He watched as Angel stood in one spot and began to scan the room exactly the way he would, by turning his head. “Did someone teach you to do that, boy?”

Angel crossed his arms over his narrow chest and grinned. “You did, Sir. This is exactly how you found me.” Angel was a very quick study. He was doing quite naturally what Kael had been taught during training. Kael had a natural aptitude for observation and had learned at twice the rate of his colleagues, but Angel had picked it up just by seeing him do it once.

“Sir, you raised the blinds about an inch.” Angel waited for corroboration, but by the smug look on his face, he knew he was right.

“Good boy! Four minutes. You can get that time down to about ten seconds with lots of practice. Do you know how many people would still be standing here an hour later? About ninety-eight percent.”

Angel clapped his hands with pleasure and wiggled his hips.

Kael gave him three more trials, and Angel was right each time, and every time his speed improved. Very pleased with his boy, Kael praised him lavishly each time. Angel couldn‟t stop grinning, and he was holding himself so much more confidently that he looked as if he had grown an inch. Most people thrived on praise, and Kael suspected Angel had not had nearly enough of it.

More than once Kael had thought that eventually he would like to teach new recruits, to pass on his craft. Looking at Angel now, he doubted he would get nearly the same satisfaction from teaching others as he was getting from teaching his boy.

He liked seeing Angel feeling good about himself, and the boy needed it after the punishment he had got that afternoon.

“Come on, boy, finish getting dressed. We‟ll go out for a walk.”

The streets were shiny wet, but it was no longer raining as they walked over Lambeth Bridge. Angel took Kael‟s hand as though it was the only thing to do, apparently not caring who saw and what anybody thought.

From the day Kael came out to his mum, he had answered everyone who asked him if he had a girlfriend by saying, “
I’m gay, but I don’t have a boyfriend right
now
.” He had sex, just not boyfriends. It was the display of affection that terrified him. Holding Angel in the park when the boy had been distressed was very different from walking down the street like an ordinary couple, holding hands.

“Sir, could we go to a leather bar?” Angel looked up at him hopefully.

“A real leather bar would never let you in,” Kael said.

“Why not? I‟m dressed for it. So are you.” Angel was in leather from head to foot, including his leather cap, which Kael had insisted he wear to hide his easily identifiable blond head. Kael had worn leather trousers and a leather jacket, mostly to keep out the damp.

“It doesn‟t matter. You don‟t look the part. You look too young and too much like a novice. Too pretty. You have a lot to learn yet and a lot of growing to do.”

Angel sighed heavily. “Tell you what,” Kael said, “I‟ll take you to Roughnecks.

They‟re not too fussy about dress codes and posture at the best of times, but in the middle of the week, it‟s never a problem.”

Angel leaped a foot off the ground and punched the air. “Thank you!”

Kael laughed at his enthusiasm. “Come on, boy. A lot of younger men go there.

It‟s the place most likely to let in someone who looks like he‟s only sixteen and doesn‟t have a buzz cut.” Under other circumstances he would use Angel‟s passport for ID, but that was impossible when he didn‟t want anyone to know who he was.

“Where is it, Daddy?”

“It‟s in Voho.”

“Soho? I‟ve heard of that.”

“Voho. It‟s short for Vauxhall. The best gay nightlife is in Voho.”

The lineup outside Roughnecks wasn‟t too bad in the middle of the week. Kael looked about at the twentysomethings in their leathers—some were even in jeans and trainers—and felt old and slightly out of place, but Angel was grinning from ear to ear, he was so excited.

Suddenly unsettled, Kael scanned the street but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“How old‟s the twink?” the bouncer, who was smaller than Kael, asked when they got to the front of the line.

“I‟m not a twink,” Angel said.

Kael put his hand on Angel‟s shoulder. “Shut up.” He wanted to give the boy a bit of fun without drawing attention to them. “He‟s twenty.”

“Got any identification, mate?” The bouncer ignored Angel and spoke to Kael, who used his killer smile.

“I‟m thirty-two; I promise.”

The bouncer looked him up and down with a grin, stopping to look pointedly at his crotch. “I meant your boy, obviously.” They exchanged an intimate look. The bloke didn‟t appeal to Kael at all, but he didn‟t want Angel to be disappointed, so he played along.

6“You know me. I‟ve been here before.”

The bouncer squinted at him. “That‟s right; I remember you. Stephen Conran, right?”

“That‟s me.” Kael pulled a £5 note out of his wallet and stuffed it into the bouncer‟s hand. “He‟s twenty. You‟ll have to take my word for it.”

The bouncer pocketed the money. “All right, in you go.”

Young men in leather, mostly dressed for the look rather than the lifestyle, littered the place. The music was so loud the walls shook, which Kael found very irritating. The lighting was low except directly on the dance floor, where the flashing halogens he hated so much made the dancers look like they were all doing the monster mash. The place did not smell like a leather bar either, at least not the kind he liked. When Kael went to a bar, he went for the booze and the sex. He liked to smell sweat, beer, and leather, no aftershave and no fancy soaps.

With Angel on his heels, he strode directly for the bar. Standing taller than everyone else, he made easy eye contact with the barman and got served right away. He ordered a whisky and two beers. He drank the whisky in one mouthful and handed one of the beers to Angel, who took it with the glee of a small child.

The main activity at Roughnecks was being seen and dancing, though on the couple of occasions Kael had checked the place out in the past, there was plenty of sex to be had in the toilets. He leaned his back to the bar, watching the dance floor.

Angel leaned up against him for a while, drinking his beer and watching. “Sir, will you dance with me?”

“No, but you go ahead. I‟m not into dancing. I‟m too big and awkward.”

“I don‟t think so, Sir. Not the way you ran after me in the park.”

Kael laughed. “I never said I wasn‟t fast.”

Angel handed him the remains of his beer and walked out onto the crowded dance floor, but stood at the perimeter where Kael could still see him clearly.

Another young leather boy immediately approached and stood in front of him. Kael assumed they were dancing together, which was fine with him.

Angel was the coolest dancer he had ever seen. He was graceful and had some very sexy moves. For a long time he watched him dancing and exchanging a few words with other boys, though how they heard each other, even Kael, with his exquisite hearing, could not figure out. He had never thought he would take such pleasure in seeing a sub enjoying himself.

Through the crowd a young man in his midtwenties, dressed in leather, with long, dark hair, walked up to Kael, looking him up and down provocatively. “Wanna meet me in the bog, Sir?”

Grabbing him by the front of his leather jacket, Kael said, “If you want to talk to a master, you do this first.” He forced the boy to his knees. The shock on his face was priceless, and Kael looked down at him, laughing. That was probably the kind of stupid thing Angel would have done if he were unattached. At least the boy had the sense to do a little obligatory boot worship while he was down there.

After a few minutes, Kael beckoned him with one finger, and the boy got up, looking at him with a much deeper respect. “Sorry, Sir. I‟d love to suck your cock or anything else you might have in mind.”

Kael never saw him coming until Angel wedged himself in between Kael and the other boy. “He‟s my master; now get your ass out of here,” he screamed into the young man‟s face.

More amused than angry, but definitely shocked, Kael took Angel by the arm and set him to one side, saying to the young man, “I‟ve got my hands full here.

Perhaps another time, but let me get you a beer.”

While Angel and the young man threw filthy looks at each other, Kael ordered more beer and handed one to the boy, who took it and ducked his head submissively, then wandered back into the crowd. Kael stuck a finger in Angel‟s face. “Don‟t do that again.”

Angel dropped his chin to indicate he was chastened, but his raised eyebrow and the defiant set of his mouth said,
I probably will.