I’m tired of looking into a mirror and not knowing the person meeting my eyes. Over the past two years I have changed so much that I can’t recognize myself anymore. My work has become my main priority since Michelle took off with Isaac. I can’t stand to be in my empty house so I spend most nights in the precinct’s bunk room. I’ve been sinking myself into my work so deep I feel like I can’t crawl out of the hole I’ve dug myself into. I don’t know, maybe working this new case will help me level myself out a bit. I don’t want to turn into my mother; all she does is sink herself into her work and only comes out when she has to. I wonder if she even eats anymore she’s become so skinny, I know it can’t be healthy. Maybe after this case I will use my accumulated vacation time to get out of town for a while and focus on finding my soon to be ex-wife.

Brian closed his notebook and slipped it into his desk drawer as he saw his partner coming back from lunch. He used the key he kept around his neck to lock his desk drawer, standing from his chair. Brian double checked that it was locked and grabbed his coat and their case file from his desk. Zack saw where he was headed as Brian made his way to the door and quickly followed.

Zack had been the first partner that Brian had ever had and the only one he'd worked well with since. He had joined the force just after he turned eighteen and had been working cold cases with Zack for nearly five years. Being short-handed, the precinct requested Zack and Brian’s help for this case. Zack had worked with live victims before but Brian never had, he knew that he had to follow his partners lead on this one.

As soon as they made it to Brian’s car, Zack took a minute to change shirts and remove all of his police attire. Brian followed his lead; he peeled off his work shirt and threw a zip-up sweater over his sleeveless shirt. It felt odd to Brian when they climbed into his car instead of their cruiser, but this case needed the utmost discretion. At least until their target was safe and settled.

Brian and Zack arrived at their destination twenty minutes later; the most well-known prostitution area in the whole city. Never taking his eyes off of their target Brian and Zack agreed on a plan to approach the man they sought after.

When Brian climbed out of the car most of the people working in the area fled. A lot of them had seen him handing out fliers and asking people to put them in their stores. It had been a warning to all the prostitutes in the area, letting them know there was a killer on the loose and how to stay safe.

A man with long black hair made his way to the man Brian was seeking, his target met his eyes for a second, then turned his attention back to the guy in front of him; he spoke a few words and nodded at the guy before they parted and began to walk their separate ways.

Brian tailed his target for ten minutes, he had been led through a few alleys and down two more streets before the man turned into a building that Brian was very familiar with. Brian only let the man out of his sights when he disappeared up a set of stairs. Brian needed to talk to the owner of the little restaurant they had entered.

Destiny understood when Brian gave her a very brief explanation of what was going on. He had known the old woman since he was a child. As a kid, his pop always brought to Destiny’s on Tuesday nights for cookies and hot cocoa. She handed Brian her master key to the apartment above her shop and gave him an adoring smile when he bid her goodbye.

There was only one apartment at the top of the stairs so Brian didn’t have a problem finding the right door to knock on. He saw someone glancing through the peep-hole in the door for a few seconds after he knocked. He wasn’t surprised to see the man he had been following answering the door.

“Matthew Sanders we need to have a chat, outside please.” Brian gave the man an easy smile until he got a good look over Matt’s shoulder into the apartment. There was a woman sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette, a little boy sitting only a few feet away from her. She looked as high as a kite, Brian met Matt’s eyes once more.

Their momentary gaze broke when Brian found himself on his ass on the ground right outside the door. A big Labrador slobbering all over his face, the beast’s whole body was wagging with its tail.

“Bella!” Brian had never heard his target speak before; the gravelly voice that came out sent a thrill up his spine. Their gazes met briefly, Brian had to smile at the cheeky smirk the other man sent his way.

Apparently Matt had enough of watching his dog slobber all over Brian and grabbed the pooch’s collar, pulling her off of her most recent kiss attack victim. The dog listened when her master pushed her into the house and told her to sit and stay but she still kept staring at Brian, wagging her bushy tail.

“I’m sorry about the dog; she loves everybody a little too much.” Brian almost couldn’t hear the man over a loud yell in the background. Brian couldn’t make out everything the woman said because Matt quickly closed the door behind him. “What can I help you with?”

“Let’s take a walk down to the diner please? I think you know who I am and I’m not here for the reasons you are thinking. I need your help.” Matt looked skeptical but nodded anyway and led Brian back down stairs. The officer could only suspect that Matt had accepted his words so easy because the yelling behind the door was getting louder.

Brian sat down at an unoccupied table a little closer than Matt had expected him to. The officer knew that he had startled the man when he leaned into his ear to speak, making all the hair on the back of his neck stand tall.

“My name is Brian Haner, I’m sure that you know that I’m a cop but I don’t intend to bust you for your profession,” Brian nearly whispered in Matt’s ear. “Listen very closely, lean into my side and talk as if we’ve been friends for years. A threat has been made on your life. You need to be brought into protective custody, immediately.”

Matt leaned into Brian as if they were sharing secrets out in the open. Brian barely suppressed a shiver caused by the warm breath caressing his ear when Matt replied to him.

“You’re a cop and you expect me to trust you?” Brian quickly pulled out Matt’s case file and handed him a few pictures.

“This one and many more were left at my precinct by a man in a coat, wearing gloves, a hat hid his face. There are more with you in various states of dress and pleasure with at least ten different men. This one,” Brian whispered as he pulled out a picture of Matt in a shower. He had known that shower well at one point in time. He and his parents had stayed in the apartment upstairs for two months when they first came to town. “It suggests that you have a camera hidden in your house somewhere. A note came with these pictures stating that you might be next. We know the murderer targets muscular men, so they can have the thrill of dominating them and prove their strength. The attacks have happened every other week for six months now, always on a Wednesday. And if this warning has any meaning behind it you are in danger right at this very moment; tonight is the next night in his cycle. This is why I need you and your family to come with me right now. Because these pictures suggest that someone has invaded your home to place this camera, all of you may be at risk."

Brian watched as Matt took in all the information he had just given him, the man’s shoulders slumped as he thought. Brian took the time to slip the pictures back into the folder when he noticed Zack walk in out the corner of his eye.

“This is Zack Baker.” Brian introduced his partner when Zack stepped up beside him. He whispered the next part in Matt’s ear. “If you agree to come with us, he will be helping to get you and your family out safely.”

“If I do say yes, my mom won’t come willingly.” Matt pulled back and watched Brian’s face scrunch up with thought.

“We can fix that.” Brian quietly said something to his partner; Zack nodded and walked off with a smile. “We don’t have time to grab any personal items, and even if we did you wouldn’t be able to take them with you. There could be a bug on anything you own, including what you are wearing. I’ll need your phone before we take off.”

“My phone, how do you even know I have one?” Matt raised a brow at the officer with a sly look.

“It’s my job to know everything about you.” Brian sent him a good natured smirk in reply.

Within five minutes Silvia and Jordan came down stairs with Zack. Brian had to bite his lip when he saw the woman nearly shove the little boy out of the way so she could get ahead of him. Brian could tell she wasn’t happy about the situation at all; she had a frown on her face that resembled that of a bulldog. Just by looking at her arms, Brian could tell that she had a very bad addiction. He silently wondered if she had been on drugs when she adopted Jordan as a newborn six years previous.

With all the Sanders buckled into the back of Brian’s car, they headed for the precinct. Zack wasn’t too happy to have a lap full of Labrador, but Brian knew his partner was a sucker for dogs. They had a game going on in the passenger seat for nearly all of the drive. The dog would lick Zack a few times; Zack would push her away which would make Bella groan at him and flop against his chest for a few minutes, until the process started over again.

When they got to the precinct Brian stopped at his desk to grab a few things before he took Matt into an interrogation room and asked him to strip. Brian set the objects he’d carried in on the table and looked over at the other man.

“Excuse me?” Matt looked seriously offended that Brian would even suggest such a thing and crossed his arms over his chest in defiance.

“Please remove your clothes and put them in this bag.” Brian grabbed out an evidence bag from the pile of items and held it open.

“I can’t just take off my clothes.” Matt’s eyes narrowed for a second as he challenged Brian.

“We need to make sure that there are no listening devices on your clothes, otherwise known as bugs.” Brian crossed his arms over his chest in return and raised a challenging brow.

“Can’t you do that with my clothes on?” Matt sighed and shook his head when Brian gave him an affirmative no. He faced away from Brian and quickly removed all of his clothes except his boxers and socks.

“I need those too.” Brian nodded down to Matt’s lower body; he didn’t miss the hardened look on Matt’s face as he slowly slipped off his socks and boxer briefs. “My partner is getting you a set of clothes to put on but first I need to run a few tests on you.”

“Tests, like what?” The hardened look turned to one of unbelievable annoyance as if Matt couldn’t believe what he was being asked to do.

“The machine on the table will tell me if you have any bugs in your system, is it safe to say that you have eaten out lately?” Matt nodded slowly before responding.

“Only at Destiny’s though.” Matts reserved attitude was slowly slipping, Brian saw the moment that understanding passed across his face.

“I’ve known Destiny since I was a kid and I trust her but she’s not the one who cooks the food directly. I used to work there, I know how many hands that each plate switches to and when and where it’s left for the next set to grab. It's at greatest risk of contamination while waiting for the waiter to grab it and serve the plate, left on the outer counter by the hall that leads out back. You never know.” Brian took a few steps towards the table and grabbed a device that Matt had never seen before. “Stand against the wall over there.”

Matt made his way to the wall facing away from the window. He knew that no one could see inside the room by how high up they were in the building but he still covered his bits and bobs.

“I need your hands at your sides please.” Brian tried to sound comforting as he turned on the hand held machine and walked over to stand in front of Matt. His charge lowered his hands and looked straight forward, his eyes not meeting Brian’s.

Brian slowly and carefully scanned right through Matt’s front with the machine. He had to give credit to the man, Matt stood as still as a statue until Brian was finished.

“Okay, so this is where the hard part comes in.” Matt raised his brow and looked at him questioningly. “I found a bug inside you.”

“What?” Matt’s eyes popped open like a cartoon character, in disbelief.

“Calm down and take a deep breath okay?” Matt nodded and did as he was told. “Now you have two choices, we take you to the hospital where they remove the bug or you sign a few papers and let a doctor do it here?”

“I don’t want to leave my family here.” Brian nodded in understanding, a moment later Zack knocked on the door and walked in.

“I’ll give the doc a call.” Brian could see the fear on Matt’s face. He had known that Zack was watching them the whole time but he hadn’t told Matt.

“He was the only one watching and that was for legal reasons only.” Matt’s shoulders relaxed a tiny bit as he nodded in understanding and took the clothes Zack offered him. All of his focus was on dressing himself once again; he hadn’t even realized that Zack had left the room with his old clothes.

“Let’s talk for a few minutes before the doc gets here.” Matt sat down in the seat across from Brian, refusing to meet the cop’s eyes.

“When I said I needed your help earlier I meant it. I need information to catch this guy and it appears you have been in recent contact with him. I know that you will be reluctant because of your profession but I can guarantee that my precinct will make a deal with you if you agree to help me.”

“What do you mean?” Matt finally met his eyes, clearly interested in what Brian had to say. Brian couldn’t help but take a look at the tattoos that littered the other man’s body. His eyes studied each of the images until Matt cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Sorry. Um, well what I have on paper is that if you help us in any way to catch this guy, anything with regards to a prostitution charge will be dropped.” Brian thought hard to remember what the contract had said exactly, so he scanned the paper one more time just to make sure; his brain was somewhere out of the ball park.

“No way, not if the deal gets dropped if you don’t catch the guy.” Matt leaned back in his chair, his gaze challenging Brian. The cop snapped himself out of his thoughts and leaned his arms on the desk.

“Working with me in any helpful way will cement the deal. Just by talking with me you are helping somehow and that makes it final. It’s already in writing and as soon as you and I sign it, it will be legal.”

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt anything, right?” Brian nodded his head and pulled a paper out of his case file. He placed it in front of Matt and handed him a pen.

“I’ll give you time to read this but you need to initial here.” Brian pointed to a spot on the page. “And sign and date the bottom of the contract when you’re done.”

Matt nodded and watched Brian walk from the room before he turned his focus on the document. He read it over three times before signing it, sitting around waiting for ten minutes before the door opened again.

“Hello Mr. Sanders, my name is Michael Gray I will be removing the bug from your system.” Matt stood and shook the doctor’s hand. The man had to be in his early forties if the age lines on his face told the truth. He had a strong and very rugged look about him; Matt couldn’t help but admire him.

“So these are the documents giving the good doctor here the right to remove the bug from your anal cavity.” Brian quickly set a set of forms on the table when Matt took his seat again. Matt didn’t miss the light blush of embarrassment that flushed Brian’s cheeks.

“What do I need to do?” Matt asked, the doctor explained that all Matt had to do was, drop his shorts and let him extract the item.

“Okay.” He quickly signed the right forms and slipped his shorts and boxers down. When the doctor told him to place his hands on the table and bend over Matt sighed and did as he was told. He found it a little awkward that Brian was sitting in the chair across from where he leaned, carefully watching him. His focus turned to the one sided window to his left.

“Don’t worry about it; we closed the curtain outside so no one can see in here. That’s why I’m in here; I have to make sure this whole thing stays within the legal boundaries.” Matt nodded and felt the doc’s gloved finger slip inside of him.

Brian watched the look of discomfort pass over Matt’s face as the doctor worked behind the bent over man. A shock went down Brian’s spine when Matt’s hazel eyes met his own. Heat pooled in his groin when Matt took his bottom lip between his teeth. Brian cleared his throat and distracted himself by putting all the signed papers in his folder.

“This might feel a bit cold but I need my grabbers to retrieve the object.” Matt braced himself as the cold metal touched him in ways he wished it hadn’t. He inhaled sharply when the cold item had slipped inside and prodded around a bit. Seconds later Matt felt relief as the doctor removed the item.

“I’m not sure how this got up there but here it is.” The man showed Brian and Matt a small plastic tracker. Matt got a good look at the round ended grabber and raised his brow. He’d never seen anything like it in his life but he was glad it had removed the intrusion from his body.

“What now?” Matt asked looking at the man still seated across the table. Taking note of the fact that Brian seemed just as flustered about this situation as he was.

“Well the tracker will be destroyed immediately. You and your family will be escorted somewhere safe and that is where you will stay until the case is closed or we feel you are no longer in danger. We will send someone to bug test your personal items such as clothes and we will provide you guys with some form of entertainment. You are my charge so I will personally be looking after you, this means I stay in the hotel room with you. When I have to be away for work, Zack will be with you. Your mom will have a female officer with her and Jordan in another room.” Matt nodded and righted his clothes when the doctor let him do so.

“I need to contact one of my friends really fast? Am I allowed to do that?” Brian shook his head.

“I’m sorry but your friend’s phone might be bugged. We can’t take the risk of letting them know where we are or what is even happening.” Matt sighed in frustration and nodded again.

He was very glad when they let him see Jordan right before they left. His mother had requested that they be checked at the hospital where they had given Silvia and the little boy new clothes as well and x-rays to make sure they hadn’t been bugged either. Matt wasn’t happy that his mother had just left without telling him but there was nothing he could do about it now.

“So let’s get going.” Brian grabbed a few things from his locker before leading them out to his desk. He had a duffle bag over his shoulder and his gun was ready to be used if he needed it.

The hotel wasn’t a big and fancy place but it was clean and the rooms were said to be nice. Through a big glass window Brian could see that there was a pool out back with a connected hot tub. There was a sign on the main desk saying that breakfasts were complementary but other meals could be bought in the dining hall.

Brian grabbed the keys from the clerk with a smile and a nod as he turned and led them to the elevator. Zack stood behind Brian but next to Silvia in the back of the elevator; the little boy was in front between Brian and Matt. On the third floor, two officers stepped into the elevator to accompany the group to their rooms. A chill went up his spine when his fellow officer Zeke McAllister eyed Matt like a piece of meat while licking his mustache covered lips; Brian unconsciously found himself sliding between Matt and the new addition. He smiled and looked down at Jordan when the little boy wound his fingers into his belt loop and looked up at him. Seconds later the little boy almost flattened himself to squeeze behind Brian and in front of his dad. Brian thought the action was strange but left it alone for the time being.

It was seven at night when Brian let them into their room. They both got a good look at their surroundings. The room had two queen sized beds covered with black bedspreads, separated by a night stand with a single lamp on it, along with a clock. At the foot of the bed was a dresser/entertainment center. There were two, one foot wide opening doors on each side of a square in the center of the dresser. Drawers sat above and below it, a television was in the square with a game console beside it. A desk was in the corner of the room and there was a little kitchen that took up the rest of the space; it was separated from the beds by a little bit of a wall. A small table sat across from the kitchen counter. Another door was open to reveal a pristine looking bathroom that matched the theme of the bedroom.

“Have you eaten yet?” Matt shook his head and watched Brian quickly call room service. “What do you like?”

“Anything with meat,” Matt looked down and blushed; glad his hair was long enough to cover his face. He hadn’t meant for it to sound like that but that’s just the way it came out. The cop already knew he was gay or at least bi for having sex with men but Matt didn’t want the probably straight officer to think he was hitting on him.

“Spaghetti sound good?” Matt nodded and Brian relayed their order of two spaghetti plates with garlic bread and salad. He also ordered them a couple of beers to wash it down with.

Brian hung up the phone and headed to the bathroom with his bag, leaving Matt to busy himself with absolutely nothing. When the officer returned, Matt barely stopped his jaw from dropping. Brian walked back out in a tight sleeveless shirt; his tattooed arms were just as muscular as his own and the sweats he wore clearly showed the bulge the man sported while non-erect.

'Fuck, this is going to make staying here a lot harder than it already was.'

Notes

Some parts of this have been rewritten. I will be editing and posting all of the chapters I have written as well as activly working to finish this fiction.