This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.

Fox Tale's Folly

Fox Tale's Folly

Kracken

Chapter One

The case had been dead simple. Follow a man to find out where he lived and worked, take photos, and make documentation to prove to the court that he was working, had a permanent address, and was capable of paying child support. It was just the type of case that Ajay enjoyed. He was helping someone and making sure that the bad elements of society stayed within the law. He really hadn't envisioned a situation where he might be hanging by his fingers, two stories above a concrete slab full of construction materials, and about to die in a very messy way.

Once a cop, always a cop, the saying went, and Ajay wasn't an exception. That night, when he had seen the three men, hustling a smaller man, into the half finished renovation of one of the old Victorian office buildings, it had been a given that the man needed help. Following them, without a thought of calling the police, first, had been purest impulse. There wasn't time, he had reasoned to himself, something bad was about to happen to that man and it would be long before help could arrive.

It was dark, but street lights came through the windows, empty of glass, and allowed Ajay to see at least some of the inside of the building. Plaster was still waiting to be applied to walls, showing bare wiring and plumbing, and doors were leaning against frames, still waiting to be installed. The floor was a mix of stacked materials, some of the demolition raked into piles, and rough and uneven patches where repair work was still being done. One doorway led to a narrow stairway and Ajay could hear the echo of footsteps and voices coming from it.

“A lesson,” Ajay could hear clearly as he started up the concrete steps cautiously. The voice was hard and cold, used to violence and being in command. The accent was surprisingly Australian.“When we tell you to stay low, we mean it. That stunt you pulled nearly compromised the entire deal.”

“S-Sorry,” a man's voice replied shakily. He sounded local, voice breaking with fear. “I promise I-I won't do it again, Eddie. I didn't think-”

“That's your problem. Not thinking. I'm here to tell you that even you can go too far with us. There's being useful and then there's being a liability. Taggert is beginning to think that you are a liability.”

“Son of a bitch!”

Ajay began running up the stairs at the loud cry, but then stopped when the same shaky voice sobbed, “You didn't have to fucking do that!”

“A little bit of finger, this time. Watch it go bye bye, Fay. See, next time, you'll be going over that edge, instead of a bit of your finger. Going splat isn't a good way to end a guy's life.”

“O-Okay, I get it. I won't screw up again.” The man sounded in intense pain, panting hard and choking on sobs. Someone, a different man, laughed and it wasn't a pleasant laugh. Someone was enjoying the man's fear. It made the hairs on the back of Ajay's neck stand on end.

Footsteps coming towards the stairs, and the flash of lights, had Ajay going back down the stairs two at a time, and then ducking behind a door tilted against one wall in preparation for installation. He tried to control his panicked breathing as he heard the men step out of the stairway.

It was unnerving not being able to see them. Ajay, crouching down low, strained every other sense that he possessed to keep track of their movements across the floor. They had separated, but none of them seemed to be coming towards Ajay's hiding place. Sweat trickled down the side of his face in trepidation, despite the cold, and the irritating smell of dusty drywall was threatening to make him sneeze.

There was a definite pause in everyone's movements and Ajay froze, heart hammering loudly in his ears and muscled trembling with tension. He could hear the faint sounds of traffic, and a light pattering of rain just beginning, and then footsteps again, moving towards the exit.

Relieved, Ajay was just beginning to formulate a plan, that involved following them, when the door was suddenly slammed hard against him, smashing him into the unfinished wall where he was crouching. His head hit a wall stud with explosive pain, and his right arm tangled in wiring, while an electrical switch box tried to bury itself into his shoulder.

A partial section of drywall broke as Ajay flailed and hit the floor in a stunned heap, coughing harshly as the powdery material made a choking cloud. The door was tossed aside and the toe of someone's shoe buried itself into his gut, trying to connect with his spine. The air rushed out of his lungs and refused to come back. Sprawled on the floor, stunned, it gave his assailant ample opportunity to land another kick. Excruciating pain bloomed across Ajay's midsection as he struggling to make his diaphragm work.

The powdery drywall made a mist in the flashlights aimed at Ajay, blinding him to anything other than the feet around him and vague figures. A voice growled, accent heavily Hispanic, “What are you doing spying on us?”

A rough hand dug into Ajay's pocket and pulled out his wallet. When he tried to sit up and say something around his tortured gasps for breath, another kick landed in his gut and laid him out on the filthy floor. Ajay saw red, almost passing out, as he curled inward around the pain.

“A stupid private detective,” the Australian voice said derisively. “Do you know this man, Fay?”

“N-No, I swear!”

“Hm, well, you better hope that he was just walking by and decided to get involved.” The Australian voice came closer to Ajay, as if the man was crouching. Ajay tried to focus on him, but someone was flashing a light directly into his eyes, now, blinding him. “Maybe you need to learn a lesson, too, Detective, just like Fay?”

Ajay heard something make a light smacking noise. Leather on skin. His wallet changing hands?

“Switch? Get his address and pay his place a visit,” the Australian voice ordered, sounding matter of fact, as if he were telling the man to buy a quart of milk. ”Have some fun with who ever or what ever is there.”

An evil chuckle followed that instruction, “Sure thing, boss.”

The Australian said, with a coldness that spoke of a man used to ordering death and violence,. “The next time that I see your face, Detective, I'll order him to kill, instead of play. Got that?” A hand gave Ajay's face a friendly pat and then the footsteps were going away along with the light.

Ajay tried to sit up, again, sucking in air as his head reeled. Devon was in danger, his mind screamed at him as he tried to get his body to obey him.. He had to stop that man. He had to warn Devon.

“That address isn't too far away,” Switch said, very close and sounding pleased. “I'll be there in minutes. Wouldn't want you to spoil my fun time, though.” A hand fumbled in Ajay's pocket and took his cell phone. A solid kick to Ajay's chin had the world blacking out completely.

Ajay came to as thunder rumbled and rain began to pepper his face with cold drops. He blinked open eyes, confused, and then found himself looking at the dim light from a street lamp, arrowing through a gaping window. Ajay stared at the rain blowing in, as it made the light hazy. Then his mind clicked into gear and a horrible memory had him scrambling to his feet with a cry that echoed off of the walls.

Devon needed him. Devon was in danger. He had to reach a phone. Ajay took three steps forward into the darkness and then fell when the floor ran out. Instinct made Ajay reach out. The scaffolding slammed into his elbow, scraped along his upper arm, and then banged into his fingers as he grabbed onto it. He swung sickeningly, every joint in his upper body popping as they took his weight and stopped his fall.

Hang on! His mind screamed at him, and his body responded. A fact that surprised Ajay. His body was still sluggish, still not one hundred percent recovered from being kicked into unconsciousness. His stomach was agony, bruised muscles stretched out, and he felt as if something else had happened to him after he had passed out. It was hard to center all of his strength, all of his concentration, on the ten fingers that were keeping him from being splattered far below on concrete.

It was the sidewalk, he realized, blinking blearily and peering downward. The rain was obscuring everything, the scaffold against the building only just visible in the darkness and the very dim light. The ground, likewise was a blur, and the street itself was visible only as sparse car headlights in the rain and darkness.

Ajay swung his legs and caught at the metal supports of the scaffold. His shoes slipped and fought with wetness until he had them planted firmly enough for them to take some of his weight.

Ajay's head spun with dizziness and his body felt leaden; a shaking, cold, soaked to the bone liability that had to not only save his life, but Devon's as well. Collapse later, he ordered himself with the force of a drill sergeant. Do what it takes to get down and get to a phone.

Ajay almost fell, climbing down, more than once, cursing Switch to hell as he realized that the man had dragged him to the third floor and had probably hoped that Ajay would do that very thing, walk out through walls not yet completed, and out into nothingness, to fall to his death. It was most likely not in his boss's plan, Ajay thought, but he had experienced, before now, how a man like that could break ranks and satisfy his own desires. A dog trained to attack didn't always follow orders once it was let off of its leash. He wasn't someone who mattered, anyway, Ajay thought. He was a bothersome interruption to a crime. Switch's boss probably would never find out if Ajay died, or care if he did.

When Ajay's shoes finally touched the ground, he hardly took time for a whispered prayer of thanks, before he was whispering prayers that begged God to keep Devon safe. Then he was staggering down the cold, wet sidewalk towards his apartment, coat open and rent, and scraped arms leaving droplets of blood to mix with the rain.

He checked his watch, awkwardly, trying to make bleary eyes focus on the dial as he made the indigo light come on. He blinked rapidly, in disbelief, shuddering all over in dread, when he saw that an hour had gone by since he had been unconscious.

“Devon,” Ajay choked out, as his world narrowed down to his destination. Get there. Save Devon. Find what was left, a darker voice said, deep down, but Ajay tamped down on that hard.

He had a few bills in his pocket, loose change from a coffee and a sandwich earlier at a corner diner. It was enough to get him home. Ajay threw himself into a cab, ignoring the startled protest of the cabbie, who didn't want a bleeding and soaked man in his cab, and growled out the address. He dropped the money into the front seat. The cabbie was quiet after that.

Call the police. Call Devon. Ajay put his head in his hands, trying to work out how, trying to think through the haze his mind was becoming to remember where there was a phone, who he could call, and the people who would jump to help him at a moment's notice.

It was only minutes to his apartment, though, and the cab was pulling up, before Ajay had decided what to do. Seeing the front door, galvanized Ajay into action. It was a magnet, making his desire to see Devon so overwhelming that calling the police, or waiting one second more to save him,wasn't even the breath of a consideration.

Before the cab had even rolled to a complete stop, Ajay was already throwing himself out of the cab and staggering into the building. His coat tangled on something and he yanked and heard material give, but Ajay was past caring about anything, but the elevator door up ahead.

Someone he passed said something to him in concern, but Ajay, lost in pain, dread, and down to exhausted tunnel vision, wasn't listening as he entered the elevator. The ride to his floor seemed to take forever, his only companion the thunder of his panicking heart. When the doors opened, he was staggering into the hallway and half running, half stumbling, towards his apartment door.

He was dripping blood and rain, his coat half off and trailing on the floor. The door to his apartment seemed to stretch away from him, and to take forever to reach. He could see it, see the note, white and pristine, folded and taped to it. His mind seemed to have an infinite amount of time, before he reached that paper and yanked it off with a trembling hand, to imagine a thousand horrible things that it might say.

Ajay unfolded it with difficulty and then, breathing hard to control sobs of fear and frustration, he read, Next time, it'll be for real.

Ajay thrust the note into his pocket and tried the doorknob. It was locked. Something uncharacteristic of his lover. Both of them were guilty of leaving the door unlocked when they were home, a habit that Devon's friend, Jerry, had tried to break them of. Devon more so than Ajay. Jerry seemed certain that Ajay could protect himself because of his size and his experience, but Devon, much smaller in size and a personality and features to attract unwanted attention, was naturally more vulnerable.

Ajay fumbled for his keys and unlocked the door. He found Jerry frowning and half turned towards him, long black braid still swinging from his motion of turning towards it. The oriental man was dressed in a dark suit that was tight and made his slim frame look even slimmer. Devon, seated on the couch in white sweats, bare feet on the coffee table, and hair only half braided, looked as if he had just come out of the shower.

Jerry motioned to Ajay in disgust. “You see? While you were in the shower, Dev, someone tried the door and gorilla, here, just came in. If he were someone else, he could have just walked in, if I hadn't locked your door. I don't know why you can't understand this very important safety measure. I-”

Ajay choked off whatever else he was abut to say by grabbing Jerry and hugging him tightly. “Thank you!” Ajay choked out on a sob. “God, Jerry! Thank you!”

“What? Jay? You're like a wet dog!” Jerry protested in shock, his hands pushing ineffectually at Ajay. ”What is wrong with you? Dev, come get your gorilla off of me.”

Devon was off of the couch like a spring, pulling at Ajay as he exclaimed, “What happened? You're bleeding and all wet. Jay! Say something. You looked as white as a sheet and you're shaking.“

Ajay let Jerry go and raked his wet, black hair out of his blue eyes as he tried to calm himself. Instead, of calming, though, he was wrapping Devon in his arms in the next moment. “I was so afraid that they had hurt you!” was all that he could get out.

“Jerry, make something hot, please,” Devon asked and Jerry, with a puzzled, anxious look at Ajay, went into the kitchen.

Ajay patted roughly at blood stains on Devon's clothing, his blood. “Sorry.”

“Don't worry about the clothes. Tell me what happened?”Devon demanded. “Should I take you to a doctor?”

Ajay shook his head and then sat on the edge of the coffee table, bringing Devon down beside him. “He was coming to hurt you,” Ajay managed as he pulled the note out and handed it to Devon. “If the door hadn't been locked...”

Devon read the note, mystified. He looked over his shoulder at Jerry. “You said that someone tried the door?”

“I heard a noise, as if someone was trying the knob,” Jerry replied as he started some tea on the stove. “It was brief, though, and no one knocked, so I assumed that they had the wrong door. Are you saying that was someone dangerous, Jay?”

Ajay wasn't used to Jerry calling him by his name, let alone his nickname. He could only nod and take a shuddering breath. He was shivering from cold, now, and reaction.

“Take a hot shower and change,” Devon told him, helping him stand again. “I'll help you while Jerry finishes up the tea. You can tell us what happened once you calm down.”

“Lock the door,” Ajay ordered as he took back the note. He wouldn't move until Devon had completed the task. “From now on,” Ajay insisted as he let Devon help him into the bedroom, “You'll always lock that door.”

“Of course,” Devon replied, trying to calm Ajay as he helped him into the bedroom. He closed the door behind them and began stripping off Ajay's clothing. He hissed in surprise as layers came off and he saw the damage.

“Tell me what happened.”

Ajay wasn't ready yet. He staggered, nude now, into the bathroom and cranked on the shower viciously. When the hot water was cascading, he stepped underneath it and bowed his head, hands on the tile, as he let it wash over him. He could feel Devon hovering, fingers lightly touching him in concern, but he couldn't look at the man, couldn't face the person that he had put into serious danger with his carelessness.

Devon went away for a few minutes and then returned. “I sent Jerry home. We're alone, now.”

When a naked body pressed up against Ajay's back, warm arms encircling him and hands clasping him at his chest, he felt a sob rip out of him. He cried, then, and couldn't stop it, shuddering in the sure grip.

“I was so afraid!” Ajay choked out between sobs. “If they had hurt you...”

“They didn't. It's all right. I'm all right.” Devon repeated that, over and over, a litany to calm him.

It took Ajay a moment to realize that he still had the note knotted in one fist. Evidence damaged as the water soaked it. He knotted his fist as tightly as he could and then let the note drop from his shaking hand. It stuck in the drain, floating as it clogged it and made a pool of water, blood, and dirt.

He told Devon what had happened, then, laying his failure out for the man to see, not sparing any detail to soften the picture that he painted of a man turning from a safe, simple case, to something far more dangerous, to satisfy his boundless curiosity. He had played cop, without a weapon, without backup, and without a clear plan, and he had paid the price. It was only luck that had kept Devon from paying a higher one.

Devon reached around when he was done and turned off the water. He said, forehead resting between Ajay's shoulder blades, “This isn't easy for me.”

Ajay stiffened, wanting to turn around, a new fear griping his heart with crushing emotional force. Devon wouldn't allow it, though, keeping him still without strength, just a gentle insistence that they stay in the same position.

“You were almost killed. I was almost...” Devon couldn't finish that sentence. Ajay heard him swallow hard before he continued, “I want to keep you safe. I want you to find wallets, puppies, and missing people who turn out to have just stayed at the coffee shop too long. I want your most dangerous moment to be a stumble on a sidewalk crack. That's not reality, though. That's not Ajay Kavanagh. That's not Detective Ajay Kavanagh. You're going to wonder who those men were. You're going to try and find out.”

“No, I won't,”Ajay insisted. “I became a detective to solve crimes, not to put myself in the same dangerous situations as a police officer. I should have called the police. I should have-”

“Walked away?” Devon wondered and Ajay felt a kiss on his skin. “You thought that there wasn't time, that a man was going to be, if not murdered, then at least badly injured. Are you going to lie and tell me that you wouldn't do it again?”

“Not if you'll be hurt as a consequence,” Ajay replied and turned to take Devon into his arms. He was surprised to see the man trying to cover up tears and a tense expression that bordered on pain. “I'll give it all up to keep you safe.”

Devon's smile was weak and shaky. Ajay knew that he was only smiling at the irony of being handed what he most wanted. A simple, yes, would make Ajay unemployed in the next instant. Ajay wouldn't deny him, would give everything up, for the man that he loved. The pain was already building inside of him, the ache that he knew that he would probably carry for the rest of his life. A man didn't deny his life's dream, a career that he had always felt was a calling, without a permanent, emotional weight settling on his soul.

“Don't be stupid,” Devon replied in a low, rough voice that told Ajay that it was costing him to pass up the chance to keep Ajay safe. “I have to accept the possibility of danger, just as you do. It's not easy, and maybe it never will be, but you're worth it, Jay. I won't cut out part of your heart, so that I can keep the rest.”

Ajay cupped Devon's face, in his big hands, and kissed the man deeply. The thought of other hands touching him and hurting him, made the fear and anger a boiling undercurrent to his upsurge of love for the man “We have to be more careful,” Ajay was saying around his kisses and Devon murmured assents as his blue eyes closed and his body told Ajay that he needed something else beside Ajay's hot mouth eagerly devouring his. “Watch for suspicious people. Lock doors. Make sure that you don't go where you'll be alone, where anyone could get to you.”

Devon's hands smoothed along Ajay's strong ass as he replied, “You need to take the same advice, Jay. Your being careful will keep me safe.”

Safer, Ajay thought as he pulled Devon out of the shower and began drying them both with towels. Nothing was completely safe and he should know that, personally, very well by now. He had been on the police force long enough, and had seen things in his own detective agency, that had knocked out of him any naivete on that point. It had been his danger to face, up until then, though, and he had been willing to take the risks.

Now, he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Devon was completely intertwined in his personal and business life. The man wasn't welcoming Ajay at the door, with a smile and dinner made, at the end of the day. He had his own career and his own stake in how Ajay conducted his business.

Ajay took them to the bed and made love to Devon with a desperation that surprised them both. He needed the man in his arms and possessed by his body, in a way that reassured mind and body that Devon was truly all right. When Devon met that desperation, with some of his own, Ajay knew that he was feeling the same way. They fell asleep, after, with Devon wrapped protectively inside the curve of Ajay's body.

Chapter Two

The wounds on Ajay's body, that Devon had bandaged, had less effect on him than seeing his lover's white clothes, from the previous day, stained with drying blood. Ajay's big hands, wrapped around his warm coffee cup, began shaking, as he sat at their dinning room table and watched Devon, dressed casually in blue jeans and a blue t-shirt, bring his stained clothes from the bathroom. He tossed them into the laundry basket on the couch and Ajay wondered what people would think when he washed them at the laundry downstairs.

“I should take them,” Ajay suggested, uncertainly, though he wondered if he could even bring himself to touch them.

Devon punched the clothes down into the basket, and then gave Ajay a perceptive look, as he picked the basket up and put it on their dining room table. He added more things, dirty dish towels, and bath towels, as he firmly replied, “I don't have a job, this morning. You do. Go to work, lover, and leave this to me.”

“I don't think-” Ajay began, intending a quiet admission that he wasn't ready to pursue any case, just yet, despite being dressed as if he fully intended to go to his office and do just that. Blood on white clothes had killed that desire.

Devon was suddenly in his face, blue eyes furious, his golden braid swinging between them, as he bent and jabbed a finger into Ajay's chest. He drove a button of Ajay's dress shirt into his skin painfully as he said, cutting Ajay off, “Don't you do this! Go out there and do the job that you love. Don't let those assholes take that away from you.”

Devon softened, then, and cupped a hand along Ajay's strong jawline. “I'll lock the door,” he promised, “and watch my back, all right? Not even snoopy Mrs. Christopher will be able to sneak up on me in the laundry room.”

“She's pretty sneaky. Are you certain?” Ajay replied in a ghost of a voice strained with his fear, trying to go along with the joke, though it cost him.

“She is like a gossip ninja,” Devon chuckled, “but I'm just as good. She won't ask me a damned thing about us or our laundry. I promise you. No one else is going to know.”

“I trust you to be careful,” Ajay replied, stronger, but that trust, didn't make leaving, a little later, any easier.

On to Chapter Two