Don't Read in the Closet: Volume Four (103 page)

office and plugged in the interface that Moore’s hard drive had been

copied onto completely. He replayed the events of the afternoon in his

head as he waited for the information to load. He had been surprised

by Moore’s demeanor and his own instant attraction to the plain

looking man.

Since Hisaki and the other Flames were able to read body

temperature, breathing and heart rate it was almost impossible to lie to

them. Hisaki knew Moore was telling the truth to a certain extent.

There had been one instance when Moore’s heart rate had spiked, but

then it had gone back to normal. Moore wasn’t the typical type to get

involved with the ones who were spearheading this group.

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Hisaki felt certain that they would find evidence to exonerate

Moore in the seized files. Then they would be able to continue on with

their investigation with one less suspect to worry about.

Graven tripped in the door to his apartment that night more worn

out than he could ever remember being. This had to have been the

worst day recorded in the histories of days ever. It was bad enough

that his boss had reamed him because the agents had taken all of his

files and copied his hard drive. He didn’t know what his boss thought

he should have done instead of what he did, but he didn’t see any way

he could have handled it differently.

Well, that dressing down by his boss sucked, but even that was

preferable to having that asshole Maverick Nichols come by and

proposition him, again. Why the hell that guy wouldn’t take no for an

answer was beyond Graven. Then he got all pissy and became snide

and nasty. Graven had finally told him that there was no way in hell

he would date him even if he was the last man in the universe so bug

off. That went over well.

Graven just wanted this day to be over, but at the same time he

was terrified of what tomorrow would bring. His mind wouldn’t stop

running as he stripped his clothes off and threw them into the hamper

in the bathroom. He pushed a button on the wall and water rained

down from the ceiling above the shower stall. It started out as a gentle

shower, but Graven needed more so he pushed another button and this

time the water pounded down in a deluge.

Graven stood still letting the water pound his weary stress filled

body into submission. It felt too good to move, but then his mind

started asking him what the showers in prison were like and it ruined

the moment. Quickly scrubbing himself clean Graven stepped out of

the shower after turning the water off and dried himself.

He spent the rest of the evening sitting in front of the TV but not

really seeing what was playing until he fell asleep slumped in the

corner of the brown microfiber couch. Dreams of cold blue eyes

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chasing him filled his mind until he woke in the morning even more

tired than when he’d gone to sleep.

Over the next week or so Graven saw more of Agent Hisaki than

he’d expected to or wanted to at that point. Every unscheduled

meeting was stressful to say the least, as well as unavoidable for

Graven since he never knew when or where the agent was going to

suddenly show up. Graven’s physical attraction to agent Hisaki

couldn’t be denied, but it was being overshadowed by his dread at the

cool treatment he received at the agent’s hands.

The most recent meeting earlier that morning had been the worst

so far. Graven had just opened his front door to leave for work when

he was suddenly standing face to face with agent Hisaki. Graven

wasn’t feeling well, he thought he might be coming down with

something and had even debated calling in sick to work for the day.

He was so not prepared to deal with his guilty attraction to agent

Hisaki and the agent’s standoffish attitude.

“Heading to work or fleeing the galaxy, Mr. Moore?” Agent

Hisaki coolly asked.

Graven sighed, his shoulders slumping in defeat, “I’m going to

work agent, even though I don’t want to.”

“You don’t want to go to work? Is the guilt over all those deaths

finally getting to you?”

Graven’s eyes widened and his mouth opened and closed as he

tried to find something to say to the agent’s hostile remarks. “I don’t

feel well today…now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go or I’m going to

be late.” Graven slid past the agent and hurried to the stairwell. It was

the most expedient route outside and wouldn’t trap him in the airlift

with agent Hisaki. That was the last place he’d wanted to be.

Now it was almost time to go home and Graven knew he hadn’t

gotten much done all day between feeling increasingly ill and

distressed over agent Hisaki’s impromptu visits. He just wanted to go

home and crawl into to bed and sleep until he felt better.

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Which was exactly what Graven did as soon as he left work. He

stripped his clothing as he made his way through his apartment and

slipped, naked, under the covers. He was sound asleep within minutes.

****

his visits to Moore were self motivated as much as they were case

oriented. He was interested in Moore as more than a suspect, but that

didn’t mean that anyone else needed to know how he felt or that he

wouldn’t be able to do his job if the time came to arrest the man. He

would do what he had to do no matter how he felt about it.

The more interaction Hisaki had with Moore the stronger his

belief became that the man was innocent of any wrongdoing. The man

was just not the type to be involved with such coldblooded and

heartless crimes. Hisaki knew time and the evidence would prove it.

Hisaki’s team had found nothing in Moore’s files to incriminate

Moore or that pointed to the person responsible for tampering with the

files. They were back to square one with nothing to show for their

efforts. It was extremely frustrating since each second they wasted

running down dead ends was a second they were closer to the

criminals killing another family and selling another child on the silver

market.

The worst part about these kinds of cases was the waiting game

you had to play and the guilt that came when another victim turned

up. Hisaki was normally pretty good at the waiting, it never got to him

like it did to the others, but this time it was slowly killing him inside

and he didn’t understand why.

Hisaki picked up the phone and called the GS looking for Moore.

The cranky receptionist, Macey, answered very sweetly until he said

his name, she became subtly hostile after that. Hisaki had to give her

credit, she was like a mama Tarret, an animal similar to the extinct

planet Earth’s Grizzly Bear, but she wrapped the growling in

pleasantries.

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“Mr. Moore did not come in to work today agent.” She hung up

on him before he could say anymore.

Hisaki was going to go to Moore’s apartment again, but there was

a big break in another case he was working on and by the time

everything had been wrapped up two days had passed since he’d seen

Moore.

Hisaki had called the GS looking for Moore only to be informed

that he hadn’t shown up for work in three days. Hisaki had a bad

feeling and told his team he was going to Moore’s apartment. It didn’t

take long to get there, but it felt like forever to Hisaki who wouldn’t

admit that he was worried.

Graven felt like he was lying in the midst of a burning pyre. He

tried to move, to get away, but he was being held down. Someone was

trying to kill him, he was sure of it and he tried to fight, but he felt so

weak.

Graven collapsed in a pile of sweat and sheets, panting and

terrified. In his delirium he’d mistaken the sheets wrapped around his

body for hands holding him down. There was a loud banging sound

that he could barely hear over his sobbing and through his clogged

ears and then all was silent.

Hisaki couldn’t get an answer when he pounded on Moore’s door,

so he called the building manger to release the door for him. The

apartment buildings were sleek in design and made of high tensile

smart glass that knew when to darken and lighten depending on the

owner’s mood. The buildings were called smart buildings because

they listened and obeyed direct commands from their owners, but the

manager had total access to the entire building from his apartment. He

could open doors, turn on and off utilities and even override the direct

commands of each individual order in the case of an emergency.

Hisaki called the manager, identified himself and demanded

access to Moore’s apartment. A split second later Moore’s front door

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clicked open. Hisaki entered cautiously, not sure what to expect, but

ready for anything. His heightened hearing picked up the sound of

crying coming from the rear of the apartment.

Hisaki took in the sparsely furnished living area and bare walls as

he made his way silently to the hallway. He passed an open door on

his right that turned out to be a full bathroom when he glanced inside.

On his left was another open door, it appeared to be a second bedroom

that Moore was using as an office. There was a black frame futon with

a mint green cushion pushed up against the floor to ceiling windows, a

small black desk against the left wall and a set of three black

bookcases against the right wall. The glass was tuned to a smoky grey

consistency to keep the room cool and dim just like the glass in the

living area.

The sobbing was louder now, coming from behind the partially

closed pocket door directly in front of Hisaki at the end of the hall.

Hisaki slowly slid the door back into the recess in the frame and

looked around the room before stepping inside. This room, like the

others, was decorated sparsely in dark colors. A long sleek looking

dresser lacquered in black, the top free of any clutter sat along the

wall to the right. Just past it was an opened door; Hisaki figured it led

to the bathroom. Sitting in the center of the large room was a huge

black platform bed.

Hisaki moved to the side of the bed, the source of the sobbing, and

saw Moore hopelessly tangled in the sheets. Hisaki could see by the

dampened hair plastered to Moore’s face and neck and his labored

breathing that Moore had been struggling to free himself.

“Mr. Moore…it’s agent Hisaki…I am going to touch you now,

Mr. Moore, to free you from the sheets, please remain calm.” Hisaki

began untangling the sweaty limbs from the restrictive sheets. He

couldn’t help but to notice how feverish Moore’s skin felt under his

hands. He knew he needed to get Moore’s temperature down, but he

wasn’t a caregiver or nurturer type of being, so he wasn’t sure where

to begin.

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With one final tug Hisaki freed the sheet from about Moore’s

body to reveal his nakedness. It was impossible for Hisaki to resist

looking his fill at the beautiful body spread out before his eyes and he

didn’t want to resist. Moore might have been average in every way

clothed, but naked he was a work of fine art. His long sinewy muscles

gleamed in the light due to the sweat coating his entire body, his chest

and abs were defined ivory with a trail of dark hair leading to a silky

looking bush surrounding the base of his pretty cut cock that was

resting on top of his hairless sack.

Hisaki licked his lips, it was too bad Moore was so obviously ill.

He opened the channel to his second in command. “Miguel, I need the

doc to my location…no, no, I’m fine…it’s Moore, he’s very ill. I

don’t know what to do for him, but I know he needs help.”