Taking In Strays (3 page)

Donny found Peter seated at a small kitchen bar, big body perched almost comically on a tall stool. He was sipping his own coffee, in a black mug that said, in big, white letters,
serve and protect
. Donny’s mug was still steaming on the counter next to Peter. Donny picked it up, cradling it in both hands and sipping cautiously. He suddenly felt shy.

“I didn’t think that my brother’s clothes would fit you, even though he is a big kid for his age” Peter mused. “He’s only fourteen. He left them here, in the dryer, when he visited last summer. Never could get the kid to fold and put away his own clothes.”

Donny almost choked on his coffee. He hid his embarrassment behind his mug as he pretended to take a long sip. Donny fit into the man’s fourteen year old brother’s clothes and Peter seemed amused by that. If that meant that Peter didn’t favor smaller men, Donny thought, he was done there. Not only done, but over done and burned to a crisp.

Donny put the mug firmly down on the counter and straightened the shirt so that it didn’t bind across his shoulders so much. “I’ll clean these clothes and send them back to you, once I hook up with some of my own clothes again,” he promised.

Peter shrugged, like a mountain in an earthquake, and replied, “Not a problem. They’ll be too small for him by now, anyway. Donate them, if you don’t mind?”

“Okay.”

Donny finally dared meet those blue eyes and saw a smattering of concern wrapped in obvious discomfort. Was he concerned because Donny wasn’t leaving yet? Was he wondering if he had made a bad decision to take his work home with him? Donny at least had some control over how this Good Samaritan’s day was going to end. Peter wasn’t going to regret helping him.

“Time for me to get going,” Donny announced with faked casualness. “Thanks for helping me out. I promise that you won’t find me, face down, at the back of a bar again. I’ve learned my lesson.”

“I’m glad,” Peter told him with obvious relief. Donny could imagine that he was both glad to see Donny leave without any trouble and to hear Donny’s promise not to haunt his night shift beat.

Peter followed him to the door. There was an awkward exchange of words, once there, that made Donny feel as if his last impression was cementing Peter’s image of him as a loser. How did you say goodbye to the drunk that you picked up the night before and never intended to see again? They didn’t manage to find the right words by the time Donny was finally in the hallway with Peter’s front door closed firmly behind him.

The cold reality of Donny’s situation finally hit him and he was ready to contact any lifeline, however remote. Taking out his cell phone and finding the service had been terminated, though, confirmed for Donny that his father not only wasn’t having second thoughts about terminating their relationship, he was doing so as quickly as possible. Knowing his father’s thoroughness, Donny expected that his next move would be to cancel Donny’s credits cards and freeze his bank account. Getting to the nearest ATM, in the hope of outpacing his father’s erasure of his financial existence, now had top priority.

The doorman ogled his package in his very tight pants, as Donny left the apartment building, and didn’t mind giving Donny a leer. Before last night, Donny might have leered back and hooked up with the man. He was good looking in his gray uniform with black lapels; a dark Asian with a white smile that promised Donny a good time. That was before a muscle bound cop had become his new yardstick, Donny thought ruefully. Now, even as he rushed by, Donny could only think,
he’s
not like Peter at all
. It was ridiculous! He had only known the man, consciously, a few hours. Donny Kirkpatrick did not form attachments like that. It was definitely not his M.O.

Out on the street, Donny found that the world had turned gray. Dark clouds threatened rain and a stiff breeze had just enough chill to make Donny, in his shorts and tight shirt, miserable. Getting his bearings, hands tucked under his armpits for warmth, he felt a sharp spike of trepidation. Peter’s apartment was located far away from familiar haunts and friends who might have lent Donny a helping hand.

Might
, was the operative word. As Donny began a brisk walk down the busy city sidewalk, hunched against the wind and looking frantically for an ATM machine, he had to admit that most of his trepidation concerned those
friends
. Hangers on might be more of an appropriate term for them. They were people who liked the social life attached to being the friend of the mayor’s son. It was very possible that they would turn their nose up at being the friend of a homeless gay man.

When it had all come crashing down, Donny hadn’t turned to anyone for comfort, including those so called friends. Instead, he had gone on a binge of destructive behavior as if nothing mattered-no, as
he
didn’t matter. Tomorrow, and the consequences of his actions, hadn’t even been a blip on his radar. One evening had brought his life crashing down. The next day wasn’t turning out much better.

Huddled against the chill fingers of the wind, with a long line of impatient people behind him, Donny stared at the slot in the ATM machine that had taken his debit card
and
his credit card. It was clear that it had no intention of giving either of them back.

“Come on, buddy. It’s shit out here and I need to get my cash,” a man grumbled.

Finally stepping aside, Donny numbly did an inventory of his wallet. He found that his life had been reduced to a gym membership card, his driver’s license, and sixty one dollars in cash. It was definitely time to make phone calls.

That was easier said than done.

In a city where almost everyone had a cell phone, a pay phone was an anachronism. Donny found himself walking for blocks in search of one. His body felt every step and it began to complain in ways that made Donny wonder if he was feeling the last effects of his hangover or was developing something new. His hot, tight skin, pounding head, and aching body wanted to go pack to Peter’s and burrow under warm blankets, again. It was well and done with bumper to bumper traffic, the stink of exhaust fumes, and the ever pressing stream of humanity that seemed determined to get to their destinations by running him over. They weren’t patient with a man who kept stopping and glaring dejectedly around him, making himself a roadblock with suspect mental faculties.

A hand slid along his ass and an older man was suddenly coming around Donny to peer into his face with a friendly smile. Balding head, steady, expectant brown eyes behind expensive glasses, a wedding ring prominent on one finger, and out on the street at mid-afternoon in an expensive business suit. It was a sure bet that this man wasn’t worried about Donny’s health in his poor choice of clothing for the cold weather.

“Want to join me for lunch?” the man asked cheerfully enough, but a few sideways glances let Donny know that he was worried about someone he knew seeing him. “If it’s too early for you, we could just go somewhere and talk. I can give you directions to a nice lunch café and the price of a meal.”

Smooth, Donny thought, but it was still obvious that the man thought he was propositioning a whore and was afraid the police might intervene “I already have plans,” Donny growled and stepped around the man.

“I go downtown a lot,” the man said. The innuendo was an obvious one, letting Donny know what he was interested in.

Donny felt his crotch twitch at the prospect. Peter had left him sexually on edge and, despite how depressed and sick he felt, he was always up for a blowjob. If the man was willing to pay him for it, what was wrong with that? His hand unconsciously rubbed the front of his tight shorts and then he turned to face the man.

“I like a good lunch,” he said, pressing his luck. “It could get expensive.”

“Oh, I’ll give you enough cash to get anything on the menu.” The man winked at him and then nodded to a very narrow access alley between two brownstone buildings. “There’s a short cut to a place where we can
talk
.” 

The man went first. Behind a dumpster smelling like Chinese food, and wedged between cast iron pipes running along the brickwork, he pushed Donny up against the wall and then went to his knees.

“Money first,” Donny prompted, even as the man’s trembling hands unzipped Donny’s fly.

“Of course,” the man chuckled and pulled out a fifty dollar bill from his overcoat pocket without fumbling. His meeting Donny hadn’t been chance, then. He had been openly trolling for sexual prospects.

Donny crumpled the bill in one fist and watched the man pull his hardening cock out of his pants.

“Well, well, Lenny!” a male voice said suddenly.

Donny started badly, jerking away from the man on his knees and taking a few stumbling steps. Two police officers were smirking, hands casually on their guns, as they approached with dual swaggers of confidence.

The man was getting up, already voicing a protest. “We were just talking! I was paying him for lunch.”

A dark haired officer with a steel bulwark for a chin, grunted as he pointed to Donny’s exposed cock. As Donny shoved it back into his pants, almost pinching himself in the zipper, the officer said, “I’ve heard that story before, Lenny, and I still have to inform you that conversations with underage dick still isn’t legal.”

“I’m not underage!” Donny exclaimed angrily, temper warring with trepidation.

“ID,” the other officer, with a rather impressive shock of blonde hair, demanded in an almost bored fashion.

As Lenny stammered his innocence, and Big Jaw read him his rights and cuffed him, Donny reached for his wallet. It was missing. His too tight shorts were now sporting a rip in the back pocket seam. After the failed attempt at the ATM, he had angrily shoved the wallet back into the pocket hard. The wallet and his ass had been too much for it.

“My wallet is gone!” Donny exclaimed with a rise of fear that made his voice higher than he had intended.

Officer Big Jaw rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, tell it to headquarters. No ID, prostituting yourself, and being a minor means that we have to take you in and call services.”

“But I’m not a minor! I’m twenty-two!” Donny insisted desperately.

“Then you’re a legal prostitute?” Big Jaw wondered with raised eyebrows.

“No… I mean… I was….” Donny trailed off, afraid of saying the wrong thing and getting himself into further trouble.

“Good,” Big Jaw said derisively. “It makes my job easier when you just shut up and go through the system.” He looked Donny up and down and then shook his head. “There is no way in hell that you’re twenty-two, son. You better give up that lie, if you know what’s good for you. Come quietly and I won’t have to cuff you.”

The blonde cop frowned and said sympathetically, “Hey, Craig, give the kid a chance. Let him call his mom, or who ever, so that they can meet us at the station and get him out sooner.”

“You think he has a mom?” Big Jaw retorted. “Or anyone who cares? Kids who drop their pants don’t usually have a home full of responsible, caring adults, you know?”

It was on the tip of Donny’s tongue to tell them just who he was. I’m the Mayor’s son, Donny Kirkpatrick, he tried out in his mind, but saw the end result all too clearly. They would call his father to tell him that he had been prostituting himself. His father would be afraid of negative publicity and deny his claim. He would let Donny rot.

“Can you…” he swallowed hard on a sore throat and his uncertainty before asking more clearly, “Can you call Officer Peter Parker? He knows me.”

“He does?” The blonde cop frowned and exchanged looks with Big Jaw.

“Yeah,” Donny insisted and felt his stomach tighten on nausea. They would find out his name, sooner or later, and he’d probably get a slap on the wrist for a first time prostitution offense, Donny thought. Peter could at least speed that process up and avoid a long stay while they searched records and confirmed his age.

So much for any chance of a relationship with Peter Parker, Donny thought bitterly, especially when the man found out that he had been picked up for prostitution. In the next moment Donny had to wonder why he was even thinking like that. He didn’t know anything about Parker, except that he was a police officer and that he had a younger brother. Being gay was the only thing that Donny suspected they had in common. He was pretty sure that Peter wouldn’t have decided that a blow job and some fast cash was a win, win situation. Knowing the concrete walls behind many gay bars, up close and personal, and the bottom of too many liquor bottles, was probably just as foreign. Being starkly honest with himself, Donny knew that he had
never
had a chance with the man.

“I guess we can call Officer Parker, as long as you cooperate,” Big Jaw warned.

“Sure, no problem,” Donny assured him and went where the officer pointed, down the alley and out to where a patrol car was parked against the curb. The man opened the back door, put a hand on Donny’s head with the unconscious ease of someone used to criminals in handcuffs, and pushed him down and in. Donny sat, and then moved over when Lenny was shoved down and in after him.

“Don’t worry,” Lenny whispered to him as the door was closed and locked. “Keep your mouth shut and they’ll hand you over to
juvie.
They’ll charge you with a disorderly persons offense and let you go with a little fine. Take a card out of my top breast pocket. Give me a call and I’ll get you the money for the fine. My wife can’t know about this, all right? It’s worth some money to me for you to keep quiet.”

Donny’s jaw clenched. He felt both angry and disgusted. “I don’t have anything to tell anyone,” he replied quietly. “I wanted a blow job from you. You wanted to take me to lunch. That was it.”

The man smiled in relief. “You’re sexy and you have a good head on your shoulders. Maybe we can finish up that BJ at a later date?”

Donny frowned and didn’t reply. He crossed his arms tightly and leaned into the door of the vehicle, trying to work the shivers out of his slight frame. Like hell, he thought sourly. Thinking about the man kneeling and sucking him off now made his balls want to retract. What ever attraction he had felt, in his own self interest, was gone.