VIDEO above - FIGHT SONG,  Michael Barbera cover

**

I called Jeannie.

I felt like I had to connect with everybody now. It had killed me not to talk to Dino and Danny, Harry and Corey. I felt like it was the last day I was going to be a...

"Jason!" Jeannie interrupted my anxious thoughts. "What the hell are you doing in town? Why aren't you with Johnny? I got a dozen messages about you this morning, texts and those pics of you and Braden. And that video of you and Braden and Carey – ohmygod! it's on Facebook already. Don't you guys realize people are watching every move you make?"

"Sometimes we forget," I said dryly. "Like when we're just living our lives the way we need to and being ourselves."

She harrumphed. "You guys are such sluts. You hold us girls to this crazy standard of fidelity when you all fuck around with each other just as you please."

"I don't think the guys would mind at all if you girls were all fooling around with each other," I countered.

That got a laugh out of her. "I doubt if that's going to happen. There seems to be an odd lack of lesbians at Kenton High. Obviously, the boys got all the gay genes. So Braden and Carey too, huh?"

"I guess it sort of looks that way."

"Oh, great answer. Who else?"

"I suppose you'll find out as time goes by."

"Oh, you are so evasive. But it's so sexy, Braden and Carey ... oh! They're so freakin' pretty. All the girls in town are gonna die over them today. They're way hotter than you and Johnny."

I could just see her smirking. "Well, thanks a lot, sweetie."

"You know what I mean. Those two are absolutely perfect. You and Johnny are so ... over developed."

"Because we're muscleboys? You sure the hell like it."

She snorted. "Yes, I love it. But so do you. Which is why you're with Johnny, not me. Why the hell aren't you in Columbus with him?"

I gave her a short version of how I met Cabel, how we learned we were brothers, and that I had to come home because I was worried about my mom.

"Ohmygod, that is so crazy. Yet it's so sweet that you two finally know each other. I can't wait to meet him, Jason. And he's gay too? No wonder your dad is so nuts. He must have an overload of those gay genes I just mentioned."

"And he obviously spread them around," I added with a snort.

I felt a little better talking to her. My hand holding the phone was shaking but at least I hadn't gone into full panic mode this time. I was watching the shadows in the woods along the ravine in back. Constantly moving as clouds raced by the sun and the breeze whipped branches about, none of them looked particularly human.

That was a relief.

"How's Abe, your new crush?" I asked her.

"He's awesome. We had a date last night. And one tonight too."

"Gettin' serious, huh? How is he in bed?"

"Jason! You would ask that. I've only known him for a week. We haven't had sex yet."

"Whaddaya waiting for?"

"To get to know him, idiot." Then she laughed. "Maybe tonight, If he wants to."

"Of course he'll want to. You're a hot sexy babe. And dudes are horny as all hell."

"No kidding, if you're any example of the rest of them."

I looked away from the woods to the city hall next door. No strange shadows over there. "So everything is all right? Nothing unusual or odd going on?"

Jeannie was quiet for a moment, then, "Everything is fine. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering. I still feel protective of you. Concerned."

"What? Why? Because of all this media stuff you're doing? You're on TV like a reality star, Johnny's now freaking gay Mr. Ohio. You're online everywhere, tweeting your every move ... and  that sex video! I ... I just don't know what to say about that. But none of it's likely to affect me if you just keep my name out of it. People who know we were together are all being very nice and not saying a word about it to me."

"I wouldn't involve you in any of it, Jeannie. No way. Just checking. I didn't think this whole thing out before I jumped into it. I had no idea how fast and how big it could grow."

I'd never tell her that she might be in danger because of me. But I had to live with that fear ... about her and all the others ...

I said, "Just let me know if anything unusual happens, okay? You know how I am."

"How can I forget? It was nice having you so concerned about every little thing I did. I miss it. I miss you, Jason. And I worry about you. Calm things down a little. If you get any more famous, you and Johnny are gonna need bodyguards."

Little did she know how badly I needed one today. We ended the call and I stood up, slipping the phone into my pocket. I held my hand out in front of me and watched it tremble. But I figured I'd survive. I just had to start taking half a pill in the morning, another half in the afternoon. Keep myself calm throughout the day instead of waiting until panic hit.

I wanted to talk to Ginny but I knew she'd be suspicious if I started asking questions. She and Mark weren't very close and there was little affection between the two of them. But I knew she wasn't safe either if hurting her could get back at me. Nah, she had enough to worry about as it was, and Trenton would show her a real good time so she didn't have to think about it.

With one last look toward the ravine in back, I turned and walked into the library. I used the men's room again, cleaned myself up from the coffee spill as best I could. My shirt was stained, but I dried it off with the hot-air hand-dryer and it sort of looked like a weird hippie tie-dye design. Then I went out into the main fiction area. Right on top of the newspaper rack was the local Kenton Weekly News and I picked it up to look at the picture of me and Johnny on the front page. There we were on the square, arms around each other's shoulders, grinning at the camera.

The paper was delivered to my mom and dad's house and I wondered why my mom hadn't shown it to me. Maybe she hid it so my dad wouldn't see it? For sure he wouldn't like it. The headline over the article read, RALLY HELD ON SQUARE FOR GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS.

Or maybe my dad had seen it and thrown it out before he went up to Columbus yesterday? That could be why he was so crazy pissed off.

I tossed the paper back down, not wanting to read it. Seeing Johnny there just made me miss him all the more. I walked past the bookcases with the new fiction books and past the maze of the general circulation stacks. The place was pretty crowded and kids and adults all turned to look at me, some pointing.

I plastered on a smile. Guess I asked for it, huh? Hey, everybody, here comes the big jock queer. Take a good look now because pretty soon they'll put him in the zoo in Columbus or Cincinnati and you won't be able to see him every day here in Kenton. Either that or the hooded figures will get him and you won't have to worry about his obnoxious homosexual ass upending your small town lives anymore.

Puh! What a jerk I could be sometimes.

I signed on for a computer and the librarian set me up with one in the last row by the back windows. Real nice view of the ravine and woods. Just what the fuck I needed. I tried to ignore the moving shadows out in the trees as I got online and started searching for websites.

Wikipedia and similar sites told me most of what I wanted to know, what I hadn't wanted to believe was true the last few days. The Deep Web was real and believed by many to be even bigger than the World Wide Web we all know and use. You had to download special browsers to navigate it and they were supposed to be easily hacked by those in the know in order to trace you and find you. This is where reality and myth blurred. Could they really find out that much about you to come to your house as the hooded night visitors?

It was a web filled with sites that bordered on the criminal and very often crossed that line. White supremacy, radical Islam, extreme alt-right politics and aberrant pornography were some of the more common sites, while others offered the sale of drugs, arms and ammunition, explosives, poisons, and paid assassins. And there were the much more subversive ones that specialized in live feeds of sexual assault, torture, murder, organ harvesting, cannibalism, Satanic sacrifice, and some things considered far worse.

That got me to pause and stare out the windows. What the hell could be far worse than those things already listed?

There were hundreds of unsolved missing persons cases the world over with possible connections to the Deep Web. When the victims' computers were confiscated and gone over by the experts, recent links to such sites were found, especially the Red Rooms where the violent practices took place.

Had the viewers of the live feeds of horror gone on to become victims themselves?

I shuddered at the thought of it and remembered the commercial for Daniel Random's expose tonight on CNN. The college student at his computer watching the horrible live feed. The warning from the hooded figure right in front of him on the monitor screen. And the other hooded figure outside the house pressing the doorbell ...

I growled and wanted to smash my fist through the monitor screen in front of me. Holding my head in my hands, I stared down at the keyboard making myself simmer down. Almost an hour had gone by and the pill had worked its wonders. I felt better now, stronger - angry instead of scared. But being all cranked up was not going to do me any good.

Struggling to control myself, I looked out the windows again and ... dammit! There it was ... looking this way right at me from behind a tree across the ravine ... the dark figure.

And this time hooded!

My heart whomped with a thud. What the hell could be creepier? It was shocking to see that hood. No wonder Trenton had gotten so frightened in the woods on the square.

But I wasn't frightened. I was angry, pissed off to the fucking max. Either somebody was playing a diabolical game with me or someone was actually after me, and I really didn't give a fuck which one. I was not going to put up with it anymore.

I pushed back my chair with such force that it fell over as I jumped to my feet. The others around me looked up from their monitors and keyboards but I was already hightailing it out of there, running as if I'd just caught the ball and had to carry it into that imaginary end zone that was always up there ahead of me.

I ran through the fiction area like a madman, kids and moms and dads turning to look at me, mouths agape. I flew past the circulation desk and out the front door, turned and ran onto the lawns in back and down to the ravine.

It felt like the humidity had increased fifty percent since I'd gone inside. I shot a look up at the sky. There were a lot more clouds now, some dark, and it felt like it might rain. The woods along the ravine were riddled with moving shadows, but there was no hooded figure there now.

"You fucker!" I shouted, running down the slope to the creek. "Where the hell are you, you chicken-shit hooded bastard?"

God, it felt so good to be strong and unafraid. It was mortifying for a dude like me to experience that panic and fear. I was ready to strangle the fucking wuss who'd been trying all day to scare me.

"Come on out, you mother fucker!" I yelled, stomping along the creek and peering into the woods across it. "What the hell you hiding for now? You want me? Come out and get me!"

I pushed branches aside, crossed the narrow creek stepping on rocks and surged up into the woods. I bulled my way north through the underbrush toward the high school with no sign of anyone being around.

I heard thunder overhead as the sky and the woods darkened eerily.

"Is that you, Rydell? Are you out here, you asshole?" I spun around, looking in all directions. "Or is it one of your Deep Web buds? You want to kill me? Come on out and get me. I'll rip you up into a million tiny little pieces!"

I felt raindrops as I stormed my way along the creek, twisting in and out of the trees. All I had was my bare hands. I didn't care if my stalker had a gun. He could shoot me now and get it the fuck over with.

Dying unafraid would be a pleasure compared to living in fear.

"You fucking pervert!" I went on. "You tried to rape a kid half your size by abducting him and bullying him. You're the one your buds should torture in a Red Room. Cut your heart out and your balls off. Feed 'em to the flesh-eaters!"

But there was no response to my wild ravings. If someone had been back here, he was gone now. But I kept on going anyway. Maybe he went along the creek in this direction to the school. It'd be familiar territory for Mark, and lots of parking there for a car. I searched behind the Methodist Church next to the library but saw no one, then hurried over to the school property next door.

The creek turned west to run around the back of the stadium and I ran up the bank onto our practice field. The sky was totally overcast now and thunder was rumbling again but the rain had held back, the drops big and sparse and plopping crazily here and there.

A sudden crack of lightning just about split my ears, and the resulting flash zigzagged down from the sky nearly touching the flagpole atop the stadium. It electrified me, like a signal from the gods to do something epic, and I began to run hard and fast into the end zone from behind, under the goal post and onto the field.

It was like I had the ball clutched to my chest, a squad of guys chasing behind me, and I had to make it to that other goal post one hundred yards ahead. I had to do it! I had to do something insanely alive because I knew I could be dead by tonight the way this fucking day was going.

Yes! I had to be truly alive one more time on the football field, and I let out a roar and pushed myself on with all the strength my legs could muster.

As the thunder roared and the lightning flashed, I ate up that turf like I'd never done before. It was like I could hear the crowd screaming and shouting, the cheer squad chanting, the guys behind me grunting and yelling and swearing. It was all so easy to remember. There'd been so much of it, so many games, so many runs, so many scores. It's not that I wanted it back or that I wanted to do it all over again, I just wanted to stay alive.

I wasn't ready to die, damn it!

I passed the fifty yard line, then down to the forty, then it was the thirty, my legs starting to burn like fire. But I pushed on, groaning growling whining, to the twenty, my eyes set on that goal post ahead. The ten came next, and then it was behind me. And as the sky rumbled and the big drops pelted me, I leaped into the end zone, flying high, and crashed down to the turf, banging hard.

It fucking felt so good!

I lay there gasping, my mouth tasting the grass. It was like I could feel a thousand pounds of dudes crushing on top of me, all of them having jumped with me, trying to grab me down. My fists balled and I banged them on the ground. Once. Twice. Three fucking times.

I let out a wild yowl. I might be dead before the day was over, but I didn't want to die. I still had a lot of fight left in me, goddammit! Lots of it.

"What the hell you doing, Jason?"

The sudden voice startled me. I looked up to see Coach Bailey standing there. His hands were on his hips and he was looking at me like maybe he should call the psycho squad.

I jumped to my feet, brushed myself off. "Just running, Coach. I just wanted to run."

Raindrops were splashing on him as he looked at me warily. "I've never seen you run like that before."

"I never felt like this before, the way I feel right now."

His brows furrowed. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

I shrugged. "I don't really know. I just wanted to eat up the field, so I did,"

He frowned. I knew I was being way too vague for him. He always demanded an explicit response. I could tell he wasn't happy to see me.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought you were in Columbus."

Ha. So he'd watched us on TV too. Oh man, he must've been furious, and mortified, to see his two best football players come out queer to the world.

"It's a long story, Coach. And not one you'd like to hear."

He nodded. "You're right about that. I totally disapprove of what you and Johnny are doing. You've taken it to a ridiculous level where it will inevitably have its effect on everyone around you."

"Fuck that," I shot back. "Everything everyone around me does has its effect on me too, good or bad. They can expect the same from me and put up with it like I do."

That really got him pissed. He snarled through set teeth. "Think about it for a few days before you come here Thursday morning with that attitude. We can't drag down the whole team because you and Johnny want to be media stars. Queer media stars.

"This is high school, Jason. We play against other high school teams in our games. Teenage boys. You're treading into a dangerous adult world with all these antics, and parents and faculty and other students will rise up against you and it could badly affect the team, dammit!"

Oh, I was so tired of this shit. "Yah right, Coach. Like those football boys over in Millerstown who raped that girl after they got her drunk and she passed out. The coach, the school, the parents, the whole town supported them, covered things up and lied for them. Some are even going to jail for them. But that was okay, huh? Didn't bring their football team down, huh? Because getting girls drunk and raping them is what high school football boys are supposed to do, huh? They can pretty much do anything they want as long as they're not queer like me and Johnny and your other quarterback Mark Rydell.

"In fact," I added, "if Mark had tried to rape a girl, you'd all be struggling to help him beat the rap so he could play this year. The fact that it was a boy makes him a throwaway player."

I could see Bailey struggling to control himself. "Maybe so. But you and Johnny are not throwaway players. We need you. But we need you to tone things down. It's just the way of the world, Jason. Maybe things will change in time, but why do you think it has to be you and Johnny to do it, here now in Kenton while you play with the Rangers?"

All I could do was stare at him. What he was saying was, why him? Why us? Why Kenton High? Why make them have to deal with our homosexuality? Well, fuck them all. Johnny and I had to deal with their heterosexuality, and their homophobia too!

"I guess you just don't get it, Coach," I said. "No big surprise. My own dad doesn't. Why should I expect understanding from you?"

I turned and walked away, leaving him standing there in the big plopping raindrops. It was no use talking to bigots. They couldn't see beyond their own hatred and prejudice.

"One more time, Jason," I heard him say. "Come here Thursday morning with a different attitude and a lower profile. Okay?"

I didn't answer. I wouldn't do him the kindness of telling him now that I was no longer a member of his team. He could find out when everybody else did.

When I didn't show up.

**

I headed back to Johnny's. The crazy rain stopped when I got back down to the Athens Road, but clouds were still rolling overhead and it was ridiculously humid, like you could cut the air with a knife. I wished I had my damn car. I hadn't walked around town so much since before I got it.

I started jogging east and in a couple minutes passed the street to my mom and dad's house. His car wasn't in the parking lot of the insurance agency building on the corner, nor was it in the driveway at the house. He usually left it out, hardly ever using the garage unless it was snowing. I slowed down to a walk, pulled my phone out and called my mom. I was really worried about her being there alone.

"Is Dad coming home?" I asked her after we did the hello thing.

"Yes he is. And he actually saw Johnny in the parade this morning. It went right by his office windows on High Street and he could see the Xanadude float clearly, with Johnny on it dancing away."

"You're kidding? He actually watched the parade?"

"He had no choice. Several of the other employees were there. They'd seen you and Johnny on CNN and knew you were his son. Apparently they thought it was really cool and were excited about it." She chuckled, adding, "He had to play along and act like the proud papa."

"Whoa." I couldn't help laughing too. "That had to absolutely kill him."

"Tough balloons for him, Jason. He deserves it. Let him learn that others would be proud of you if you were their son."

"Did you tell him I came home?" I asked.

"No, I didn't say anything about Cabel or what happened. If he wants me to know, he'll tell me. Otherwise there's no point in discussing it."

"When will he be home?" I asked.

"He has a dinner date, then he'll drive home afterward. A client, he said."

Yah right, I thought. Probably a very expensive one with pretty purple hair. But at least he was coming back and my mom wouldn't have to be home alone. Colt was a good guard dog, but what was going on today had me really worried about everybody.

"Well I hope he's not in too sour a mood," I said.

She laughed again. "Probably not. Those 'clients' have a way of really cheering him up."

"Oh man, I'd want to strangle him if I were you."

"It's a long time since I've gotten over wanting to do that, Jason."

"I'll be at Johnny's then," I told her. "Waiting for him to get home. Call me if you need me, okay? I love you, Mom."

"Oh, honey. It sounds so good to hear you say that. I love you too!"

I put the phone in my pocket and started jogging again, but then I stopped and pulled it back out. I wanted to call my dad. I really felt like maybe I'd never see him again. I couldn't bear to leave things the way they were.

I started walking again, squeezing my phone like I was trying to break it. How could I call him? What if he wouldn't talk to me? That would only make things worse.

Then I started running, past the houses along the road, cars whizzing by me. Nah, he wouldn't want to talk to me. It'd be a waste of time. He'd never be that nice as to let me ...

I stopped abruptly and just stood there, my heart banging. I had to connect with him! After all that had happened, I still loved the bastard. I had to let him know that.

So I sent him a text.

~ Hey, Dad. Sorry about last night being so awful. Maybe it was just too big a surprise for all three of us. I'm so happy to know Cabel. I love him and we're gonna be bros. I want you to know I love you. You were always the coolest dad a dude could have. I know Cabel loves you too. Maybe some day we can be Dad and sons again? ~

I sent the text flying and ran the rest of the way back to Johnny's, blocking every possible thought and feeling from my mind.

It was almost four-thirty. Uncle Ted wasn't at home and Carey and Braden were already gone. They'd left a note on the table, along with the key.

-Thanks dude! We love you. Maybe next time you wanna join us? -

"Fuckin' yeah!" I groaned. "Why didn't ya dudes just stay?"

Fooling around with them would sure keep my mind off the things tormenting it.

I turned on the two fans. It was really humid in the apartment and I even considered the air-conditioner. But no, it was an old one and way too noisy. I turned on Johnny's computer, figuring I'd check the Facebook feeds, but quickly ended up at Tumblr checking out the Muscle Jocks and Ripped BFs and College Frat Hunks. But, horny as I was, even all those hot delicious dudes couldn't hold my interest.

I knew what I had to do.

I had to tell Johnny what was going on.

I knew I couldn't tell him face to face. There was just no way I could do that. I'd break down having to look at him and spell it out, get too emotional and start crying, like I had in the car before the rally, when this had all started. Or I'd get angry, mad as a lunatic and start shouting and swearing, and he'd have to knock me out like he did last week.

No, I had to write it out and then let him read it. And telling him would most probably really jeopardize his safety. He wouldn't listen to reason and he'd try to do something about it, even though that would just make the situation all the worse for everyone. But there was no choice anymore. I had to do it. If something happened to me, he had a right to know what was the hell was going on.

I went back to Facebook and printed out two of the messages I'd gotten earlier in the week. Then I used the message field to type him a letter, telling him everything and apologizing for not having done so already. But he'd know from reading the two messages that I'd been warned not to.

I was shaking all over by the time I was done. I printed out my letter and signed it, hardly recognizing my own signature because my hand was trembling so much. I folded the three pages and stuffed them into an envelope. I wrote 'Johnny' on it and placed it in the top desk drawer. I'd give it to him later tonight before we went to bed. And then neither one of us would be able to sleep all night long.

I noticed as I walked over to the bathroom that the sun had come out again. Great! Things were gloomy enough without the sky being overcast and threatening. I stripped and took a shower, then dressed in a fresh tank top and lightweight gym shorts. I looked at myself in the mirror and started laughing. I looked like a fucking apple pie. I couldn't possibly look more wholesome and all-American if I tried. I was like one of those smiling dudes on the USA Olympic gymnast team. Even to me, I didn't look like I had a care in the world.

"Yo! Jason! You up there?"

The sudden voice from out in the drive startled me. A shiver ran up my spine. It was not a voice I recognized.

I slowly walked out of the bathroom and over to the front windows by the desk, wary to look out. I tensed as I stooped over and then jerked back with a jolt when I saw a man dressed in black standing down there in front of the garage, looking up.

It felt like I was getting electric shocks all up and down. I couldn't believe what fear and anxiety and this ridiculous suspense was doing to me. But it was only Detective Romano down there dressed all in black - jeans, t-shirt, and a black lightweight jacket. It had to be ninety-five degrees out there. All I could think was why the fuck was he wearing a jacket?

"Yeah, I'm here," I shouted down. "What's up?"

"I need to talk to you," he responded.

Fuck. This wasn't promising. "About what, dude?"

"Police business, Jason. I'm coming up." He walked around the side of the garage and out of view.

Oh jeez, what the hell was going on now?

I walked over to the kitchen and listened to Romano climb up the stairs sounding like the entire police force coming to get me. The door was open and he walked right in. I was leaning against the refrigerator and he nodded and smiled at me. I guess it had slipped my addled mind what a hot stud he was. He seemed to fill up the room with his presence. My dick instantly began growing and tingles raced all over my body.

In his black clothes, and with his curly dark hair, handsome face and pretty blue eyes, he looked like a TV show detective, not a real one. He had the same general look as Strike, not quite as hot, not as big and muscular, and a little older. The little older totally got me. I wanted to jump right on him, and if he threw me off or punched me, that'd be okay. Anything he might do to me would feel so damn good.

I turned away. "Come on in the other room. It's not as hot. More windows, and I have a couple fans going."

He followed me and I couldn't help thinking that here I was alone in the apartment with the hottest daddy in town next to Strike. And he hung out with Strike and Vinnie, and Uncle Ted – men I knew to be gay. As unsure as I was about the next minute, the next hour, the next day, I was not going to let this opportunity pass me by.

I sat down on one of the leather chairs and pointed to the couch. "Have a seat. Take off your jacket. Aren't you hot?"

He sat down on the couch and leaned forward facing me. "I'm good. I'm working. I need to look professional."

I wanted to tell him he looked extremely professional, like a hunky male hooker in Las Vegas where he could charge three thousand a trick, and the johns with money would fork it over gladly.

But instead I said, "Working? Like in solving mysteries?"

He tried to look serious but ended up giving me a little smile. "That's right, kid. I am a detective, after all."

I looked at his black clothes and his dark hair and I fidgeted uncomfortably. "Were you following me today?" I demanded.

His eyes widened and he sat back, assuming a more authoritative position with an arm flung along the back of the couch. "Yeah, I saw you a few times."

"Why? What's going on? How'd you even know I was in town?"

"I'm the detective, Jason." He suddenly grew stern. "I'll ask the questions, not you."

Strike had to have told him. Nobody else knew I was home, at least not this morning. He must've followed me from my mom's to Starbucks and then kept on tailing me from there.

"If that was you I was seeing all day, it was scaring the hell out of me." I said.

"Why, Jason? Why should you be scared thinking someone's following you?"

I was tensing up now, getting angry. But I didn't want to be angry at him. I wanted to have sex with him.

I blew out a hot breath and tried to calm down. "What are you getting at, Romano? Whaddaya want?"

He raised an eyebrow, looked at me for a moment, then said, "Have you heard anything from Mark Rydell?"

"No. As far as I know, he and Eddy Stevnik are still missing."

"He hasn't tried to contact you? Phone call? Text? Anything?"

I shook my head. "We weren't friends. There's no reason he'd contact me."

He looked at me like he knew I was lying. Strike had to have told him everything. That Mark had tried to kill me and Johnny, and what Vinnie's dudes had done to Mark's car. Strike knew I'd been holding back information last night and probably figured Mark was after me, threatening me.

Romano had to know all about Strike and Vinnie and Vinnie's mafia ties. Yah, of course he did. He worked for Vinnie at Bada-Bing! He'd see it all.

I couldn't stand being the centerpiece of all this intense drama. I wanted it all to just go the fuck away. I finally get together with a hot daddy and he was freaking investigating me?

"I don't believe you, Jason," Romano said. "I'm a cop. For fifteen years now. I've seen it all. You're like somebody who's running scared."

I pushed myself to my feet. "Sure, with a big man in black after me all day, who wouldn't be?"

Screw it. What did I have to lose at this point? I pulled my tank top off and threw it on the other chair. "It's fucking hot up here. Humid. You want a beer?"

"Nah, I'm working." He smiled in spite of himself. He was determined to be the serious cop, but I knew he had to like me. Especially a shirtless me. And in a minute it was going to be a pantless me too.

I pulled the gym shorts down. "Too hot for these too," I said as I kicked them off. "You must be roasting. Long pants too. And that jacket ... jeez!"

"I suppose you want me to strip too?" he asked, trying not to gape at me as I stood there in my black bikini briefs.

But he was doing a bad job of it. I knew he liked what he was seeing. I knew that daddies his age loved dudes my age. Fuck, those daddies at the bath house all wanted their hands all over me and Johnny and the boys.

"Hell yeah, I want you to strip," I told him. "You were following me all day. You saw what I was doing with my buds."

He placed his hands on his knees and leaned forward a little. "Yah, quite a show for a town like Kenton. Smoochin' Braden right on the corner by Starbucks. Going at it like gangbusters with Carey in the woods on the square, then later again with Trenton." He shook his head and snorted. "A hell of a lot more interesting than my usual surveillance."

He couldn't take his eyes off the big softie bulge in my briefs.

"Yah, I bet you got an eyeful," I said. "Did you happen to see the hooded figure too?"

His eyes flew up to look at my face and he slowly rose to his feet, his expression one of alarm. "Really Jason? Hooded? Where? When?"

"In the woods on the square with Trenton. He saw it, I didn't. And across the ravine behind the library this afternoon. I saw it there."

"Fuck!" He pumped a fist in frustration. "My eyes were on you and Trenton in the woods. I wondered what made you stop what you were doing and take off. And I was in the woods behind the library earlier when you went in with Braden, but not later this afternoon. I left to go to the station when you went back inside."

So there had been someone else! Someone wearing a hood. Someone Trenton had seen on the square and I'd seen behind the library.

Romano walked over to me and grabbed my shoulders. "Jason, you gotta tell me what's going on. What do you know?"

His touch sent shivers all over me. I looked up at his blue eyes, his handsome face. He was about three inches taller than me, maybe thirty pound heavier. My big softie was suddenly rock hard. He wanted to solve mysteries. I wanted to make out.

I ducked under his right arm, grabbing it as I did and started pulling off that sleeve of his jacket.

"Stop it, kid. Whaddaya doin'?"

"Relax Jack." I couldn't believe I was being so bold. "Get this off. Make yourself comfortable. It's hot!"

"The name is Chuck." He was trying to fight me but I managed to get that sleeve off and started on the other arm. "What? Are you trying to seduce me?" he asked.

"Damn fucking right!" I pulled the sleeve off his other arm and tossed the jacket on the chair. "It was raining dudes all around me today but I couldn't even get wet. I wanna get fucking soaked with you."

Then I saw the gun. He was wearing a shoulder holster that the jacket had been hiding.

"You got a damn gun," I stupidly blurted.

"Yeah, I'm a cop. I carry a gun." He grabbed my shoulders again. "This is fucking serious, Jason. I haven't been following you because I have nothing else to do."

His t-shirt fit snugly and I could see the contours of his muscular chest beneath it and his upper arms bulging out from the short sleeves. I was totally psyched. I had to have sex with this man. I did not want to talk about what he wanted to talk about.

I went to pull his holster off and he tried to stop me, but I kept at it until he gave in and gave it to me. I laid it on the chair with the clothes, then went right for him. My arms wrapped around him and I pulled him hard up against me. We touched chest to chest for just a moment before he pulled back.

"Hey, what makes you think I'm queer too?"

I laughed at him and pulled him back into me. "You're too hot to be straight. Straight men your age are never ever as hot as you are."

He continued to put on the act that he was struggling, but I was adamant and he couldn't shake me. I clung to him like Velcro as he twisted and turned, and I climbed up on him so that our faces were even. And I kissed him.

He grunted. "You little shit! I haven't been with someone your age since I was your age."

Then he placed his big hands on my waist and grabbed me hard and, I swear, pulled me off him and threw me with such force that I soared through the air and smashed down on the couch so hard it knocked the breath out of me. I gaped at him, shocked, especially because there seemed to be two of him at the moment sort of kinetically zitzing around in front of me.   

"What the fuck?" I gasped. "You get so much action that you throw off a dude like me?" 

He made a fist and shook it at me. "Yah, especially a dude like you. I'm a cop and I'm here on official police business. And as much as I'd like to, I'm not gonna fool around with you. Do you understand me?"

I set my feet on the floor and pushed myself up from the couch. I felt like an idiot, standing there almost naked with a big boner while the two of him slowly settled down into one. I was ridiculously angry but I didn't dare attempt to get near him again. That pumping fist of his looked like it could break me in half.

"Fuck! What's wrong with you older guys in this town?" I threw at him like a damn brick. First Strike last night and now him today.

"Wrong? You kids today don't know crap about nothin'." He was angry too, but embarrassed, I could tell, and I knew he was dying to smack me.  "I'm a cop. A person of authority. Not only could I lose my job but the story'd be out all over town, and I'd be out all over town too. And, unlike you and Johnny, I ain't ready for any of that."      

"I'm eighteen," I insisted. "It's not like I'm a minor. And who the hell's gonna know if we do anything?"

He grunted. "Like I'd trust you and your buds to keep it secret? Never. And somebody like me, anyway - a cop or a teacher or a pastor could get in a whole lot of trouble in a small town like Kenton for messing around with boys your age, minors or not."           

"Oh," I said stupidly, watching him stand there, breathing heavily. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I was just going fucking nuts from all the stress - expecting him, and Strike too, to just like that go for me.

He stopped pumping his fist and slowly spread his fingers out as his hand slid down to his side. "You gonna leave me alone? Otherwise I gotta get out of here."

I stooped over and grabbed my shorts up off the floor and stepped into them as I walked away from him. "Yah, I'll leave you alone. I just thought ..."

I didn't say it. I didn't even know what I was going to say. What the hell had I been thinking?

"You've got all your friends, Jason. Close friends, Jesus Christ! Who the hell's got that? And you have Johnny. Don't you know how awesome that is? You have a whole life ahead of you with Johnny."

A life with Johnny. Hearing that just about killed me. I wanted to fucking cry.

 A whole life ahead with Johnny?

But was I going to have a life?

I stood there with my back to him, trembling now as he said, "I'm going to ask you one more time, Jason, what the fuck is going on? Why would a hooded figure be stalking you? Why are you running scared, down from Columbus last night and all over Kenton today?"

"And ...?" I asked, sensing an ultimatum.

"And if you don't tell me, I'm going to tell you something."

I knew it was something bad by the way he said it. A chill streaked up my spine. What the hell did he know about what was going on around me that I didn't?

"Something that has to do with me," I asked, "that I ain't gonna want to hear?"

"You got it, kid."

I couldn't imagine what the fuck this was all about. But as shook up as I was at the moment by his rejection and how it made me feel, I knew I just could not tell him anything. Nothing at all. For his own damn well-being too. He was involved with Strike and Vinnie.

"Look, I appreciate your concern," I said in a surprisingly confident voice, like I was a fucking lawyer or something. "But I don't know anything. I'm not withholding any information. So you may as well lay it on me, whatever it is."

He shifted a little,  and it sounded like he took a step or two closer to me. But I didn't dare look back at him.

"You sure, Jason?" he asked, closer.

I nodded. "I'm sure."

He cleared his throat and It was suddenly clear to me that he didn't want to have to do this.

He said, "Eddy Stevnik was found dead this morning."

I jolted like he'd zapped me with a taser. I knew, I instantly knew, that it had everything to do with me.

"Whaaa ... h-h-h-hhhow?" was all I could squeak out.

"He was found naked, bloody, all beat up with signs of torture." He hesitated a moment, then went on. "And he was missing his kidneys, his liver, and his eyes."

"Wh-wh-wha ..addaya mean?" I gasped, turning around.

"They'd been removed, Jason."

"Ohmygod! Fucking jeeezus! I ... I can't believe this! Wh-wh-where was he?"

"Down by Portsmouth near the Ohio River. In the bottom of that same quarry where they found Mark Rydell's car."

"Oh mother fuck!" I cried. "Goddamn son of a bitch ... "

My heart was pounding and I was shaking so bad that if my dick hadn't still been hard I would've been peeing ...

Then Romano added, "And over his head, Jason, there was tied a slit-eyed black hood."

**

Thanks for reading, everyone.

If you need some instant relief from all this drama, turn the page for the next chapter – Johnny's back!