Jake's Thief (10 page)

Brian nodded, tearing up. “As much as I want to, I can’t help him.”

Jim joined them. “Come on, hon, you’ll feel better when you see the cats.” He put his arm around Brian and shepherded him into the shelter.

Brian brightened and turned to Davey. “I’m looking for a good cat for you and Jake. You need one who doesn’t mind being left alone. I’ve studied up on the breeds, let’s see what I can come up with.”

Davey’s heart went out to the animals in the cages. He had a pet or a kind word for every one of them. Greg turned his eyes to Brian and Jim and nodded his head. “He feels for all of them. Being a foster kid, he knows what it’s like to be unwanted.”

Brian came out of the cat room in triumph. He pointed to Davey. “I found a Balinese for you, it’s perfect for the type of life you live with Jake. Look up their personalities on your phone and you’ll see I’m right.”

Davey was embarrassed. “I don’t know how to access the internet on my phone. I just got it.”

“Jamie’s our go-to gadget guy. Show him how, Jamie.” Davey handed the phone to Jamie and they searched on the cat breeds.

“I can’t believe it—the Balinese is perfect for us. He doesn’t mind being left alone, yet he’s a loyal cat who is almost dog-like. I think Jake will like that. He should move to the suburbs so he can have a dog and be close to his friends. His lifestyle is not one that promotes friendships with those who aren’t in the legal profession or for that matter into BDSM. As a result, it seems he works all the time. He could lose clients if his penchant for BDSM was made public,” Davey said. “It seems that now, being gay is in style, but being kinky, not so much.”

“That’s where you come in. You can be his sub and love him and then you guys can hang out with us. We’re all kinky.” Jim chivvied them along. “Let’s go to Johnny’s, I have that collaring.”

It was arranged that Davey rode with Greg, Robbie with Jim, and the rest went with Brian in the limousine.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The ride to Johnny’s was quiet. Davey found out that Greg liked to cook and just as he thought was as meticulous about his home as Davey was about his. “Cisco hired me a housekeeper. She comes in five days a week. I always have to straighten up after her. She never leaves things where they belong. Every day when she leaves something is moved so I have to go around the house putting everything back again. Every two weeks she takes out the books and dusts the bookshelves. That’s the worst, she never puts the books back in their places and it takes me at least an hour to put them back in the right order.”

“Sounds to me like it’s more trouble than it’s worth.” Davey looked out the car windows amazed at all the greenery.

“Cisco got her because he didn’t want me spending all my time cleaning and doing wash when I could be spending it with him. In some ways, Cisco is like a little boy who doesn’t like to share his toys. He has two toys, me and the hospital. It’s even money on which he likes better.” Greg laughed.

“You’re a distinguished physician. Doesn’t it feel strange to be someone’s toy?” Davey asked, hoping he didn’t insult his new friend.

“Not at all, Cisco acknowledges my professional expertise and refers the most difficult cases to my office. I know he respects my mind and what I do. When we’re alone, we talk about medicine, the club and our friends. We almost never argue because I naturally defer to his judgment. I work all day helping patients make decisions about their lives, sometimes very painful ones. When I come home to Cisco, I can just let go and be.”

“I can see why you would find that attractive. My job isn’t messy. The law is rather straightforward. I look at what the client wants, the lawyer tells me his strategy for the case and I do the research to back up our client’s claims. Neither Mr. Danvers nor Jake practice criminal law, so although things can get messy, they don’t get dangerous. I like things calm and orderly,” Davey said emphatically.

“I think you like things that way because your childhood was so chaotic. How many years did you spend in foster homes?” Greg put on his turn signal.

“Since I was a baby—my mother was a junkie who managed to stay clean for the nine months it took to have me then immediately jumped off the wagon with enthusiasm—but she would never sign the paperwork to release me for adoption. For the first eight years I have fleeting memories of flying visits. She was always with a different man and this was going to be the one who would let her take me home. It never happened. I didn’t see her after I was eight. The social worker thought she overdosed but they never had proof so they couldn’t release me from the system until I was eighteen.”

“So you never had the opportunity to be adopted and have a family of your own?” Greg was sympathetic.

“No, I guess I didn’t. I learned to keep my head down, study hard and keep my nose in a book so no one would notice me. I learned what too much attention got me when I was eleven,” Davey said with very little bitterness.

“The pickpocket, Kyle.”

“Yeah.”

“What happened to him, do you know?” Greg asked, curiosity written across his face.

“He’s doing twenty at Rahway State Prison for armed robbery,” Davey said a bit smugly.

“How do you feel about that?” Greg asked in psychiatrist mode.

“Two ways. Some days I’m glad he got his comeuppance, other days I feel bad because he was lost and the foster system didn’t pick up on his tendency to violence. If they had, maybe they could have helped him.”

“That’s pretty generous considering the asshole was responsible for putting you in a group home. Some of them are not pretty—sometimes any home is better than one of them. You, being both small and good-looking, must have had a very hard time.” Greg clucked sympathetically.

“I’ll admit it wasn’t easy. I got beat up practically every day just for existing and refusing to let them rape me, but I survived and learned how to be independent and take care of myself although sometimes I wish for once, I could give that burden to someone else.”

“Your Master would take care of you,” Greg reminded him gently.

“But only if I can take a beating once a week. It all comes down to that.” Davey sighed.

“I can’t speak for Jake or tell you what he does. In the past he’s only spanked the house subs, but with his own boy, I don’t know. I can’t tell you because I don’t want to mislead you.”

The rest of the ride was pretty silent until Greg noticed Davey enjoyed looking at the flowers in front of the houses along the road. “You know Danny owns a nursery. Why don’t you ask him to show it to you? I can see you like flowers.”

“If we have time this weekend, maybe I will.” Davey smiled. He was having a very good time.

The cat slept in his carrier all the way to Johnny’s. “I’m going to have to vacuum the car when I get home.”

“There isn’t a speck of dirt on the floor, I looked,” Davey told him.

“I know, but there’s cat dander in the air and Cisco’s allergic. He almost never rides in my car, but if I forget to vacuum with the allergen filter, he’ll be sneezing for days.” Greg chuckled.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I would have ridden with someone else.” Davey was horrified that his new friend would have extra work because of him.

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to, I sensed that we were a lot alike and wanted to see if I was right. I was.”

Davey laughed. “I’m so glad to have friends. I never did. Now in four days I may have a new boss and seven new friends. It all happened so fast it made my head spin, but it’s all good.” He stuck his finger in the cat carrier and petted the cat.

“What are you going to name him?” Greg asked.

“I’ll let Jake do that.”

§ § §

Saturday at the Golf Course

The Doms were at the Nineteenth Hole having lunch when Jake asked the group, “So what do you think of my boy?”

Bear lifted an eyebrow. “Is he yours?”

“No, but I haven’t focused on bringing him to hand yet. I need honest opinions. Do you think he’s a sub?” Jake asked, a little tentatively for the hotshot lawyer he was.

“I think he’s a sub. I recognize some of Greg’s characteristics in him. Both of them are compulsively neat. If you don’t watch it, he’ll work his fingers to the bone trying to please you and he’ll wear himself out. That’s what Greg did until I put my foot down. I got a housekeeper in five days a week, but he still straightens up after her.” Cisco took a bite of his hamburger. “This is a guilty pleasure. Greg wasn’t too happy with my cholesterol numbers. I’m going to turn into a creature that flaps its wings underwater because all I get are chicken and fish. I can’t gainsay him because he’s right. I hate when they’re right. It’s almost as bad as when they’re pissed.”

“Nothing is as bad as when they’re pissed,” Bull said. Jake’s eyes moved around the table as six more heads nodded.

“You asked about Davey?” Bear turned to Jake. “He’s a natural submissive.”

“I agree with Bear.” Reed took a sip of his beer. “He followed the other boys’ lead as if he had been doing it all his life.”

“I can’t railroad him. He’s been making his own decisions all of his life. There’s been no one there for him,” Jake said grimly. “That bastard Danvers left him at the firm knowing that the other partners would hang him out to dry when he left. He didn’t say anything because on the off chance they didn’t, he would still have the best paralegal in Manhattan when he returned.”

“All the more reason he would enjoy relaxing and letting someone else make the decisions for him,” Gary observed. “He doesn’t seem to be emotional like my Danny, but I think there is a volcano of need under that dark blond head. Those eyes tell a tale of loneliness and deep sadness.”

“He isn’t oblivious like Johnny, but he strikes me as someone who needs to be shaken out of their routine. I can’t believe what you told me about the twenty bucks. Having your stomach growling in hunger and saving money for subway fare in case you get a job interview shows a great deal of discipline. Maybe it will rub off on the rest of them,” Caden observed.

“More likely they’ll rub off on him,” Bull grumbled as he took a bite out of his club sandwich.

“It would be good for him to loosen up.” Jake stuffed a French fry into ketchup and then into his mouth. “He’s a hell of a cook. Yesterday morning I had a mushroom, cheese and pepper omelet with home fried potatoes, from scratch, bacon, rye toast and fresh orange juice.”

“Don’t say that word.” Cisco sighed.

“What word?” Jake’s eyebrow went up.

“Bacon, I’m afraid I’ll never see another piece of it in my life. He says he doesn’t want me to have a heart attack and leave him alone. I’m more likely to die of old age. I exercise, I shouldn’t have to give up all of the good food.” Cisco was pouting.

“He loves you, you old fool. A sub without his Master is pathetic. Where would he be if something happened to you?” Tom asked.

“Fuck you too for being right. Maybe if the numbers go down low enough he’ll let me off the leash once in a while,” Cisco whined. “Or I could get one of the other docs to prescribe something.”

“
Something
probably has side effects. Restraint builds character. Listen to yourself, you’re pathetic. Think about how you would feel if something happened to him,” Bear said.

“Lost.”

“What?” Jake asked.

“Lost is how I would feel if Greg wasn’t there for me.” The others nodded their heads.

Jake ruminated on that thought.
Do I want to become that dependent on someone else? So much so that I’d be lost without them? Who are you kidding, he’s already gotten under your skin. You’re more than halfway to being lost yourself.

“So, getting back to my problem, is he a sub or not?” Jake looked around the table as he reflected.
Did I do wrong when I scooped him up and gave him no choice but to come with me? Gary might be right, Davey could be sick of making his own decisions and want someone else to do the heavy lifting. Reed said he had the demeanor of a sub and so did Bear.

Gary thinks there is a well of emotions in Davey waiting to be tapped and that he needs to relax. With me he wouldn’t have to have that look of hypervigilance like he’s constantly standing at the edge of a cliff and wondering when the next stiff wind is coming. I hope the boys find out a bit about him today and share it with me. With their input and the Doms’, I’ll know if it’s in both of our interests for me to go in full pursuit.
 

Reed answered for all of them. “He’s a sub, all right. Your toughest job will be to convince him of that.”

“What’s the story for supper tonight, the club?” Jake asked. Usually on Saturday night everyone ate a light supper with their sub at home and came in at around nine to play.

“There’s a collaring tonight, Beau Rockford and Jose Sanchez,” Reed told them. “The whole club is invited. You don’t have to eat at the hotel tonight.”

“That’s good. The boy should see a collaring.” Jake thought for a moment. “What is Beau into? I don’t want to scare him off.”

“Nothing too heavy, mostly a tawse and perhaps a light flogger. No one at the club is into the real heavy stuff except for Bull, and Jamie loves it that way. They do the real heavy stuff at the shore. Our boys mostly get disciplined.”

“Caden also has a good arm,” Bull defended himself.

“I have to take Johnny out of his own head. If I were to leave it to him, he’d be coding day and night when he has a project. Harvey sometimes manages to bypass me and gets to Johnny, saddling him with some new application to develop. Johnny is incapable of saying no to Harvey when Harvey starts up with ‘I’ll have to do layoffs, et cetera.’ When Harvey manages to speak to him, Johnny forgets he’s supposed to ask me first. Next time, I told Harvey, I’m going to fire his ass, and when Johnny listens to Harvey, I whoop his.” Caden took another sip of out of a can of Coke Zero.

“How is that stuff? Davey was disappointed when he saw the hotel had only Pepsi. Yet the kid barely blinked. I had to look very closely to see how he felt. He gets two little lines between his brows, but otherwise he schools his face completely.” Jake drank some of his beer.