Chapter 9

Strange Bedfellows

Gaspard was restless and felt himself squirming in the small bed. The warm body behind him held him close and it was calming. He opened his eyes and looked around at the unfamiliar room while thoughts raced through his mind. What had he gotten involved with? Had Ryan gotten away from the chateau safely? Who was the handsome stranger in bed next to him. Carefully he turned and was nose to nose with the stranger where he could take a closer look. The man was incredibly handsome with a chiseled face and manly physique. “Who are you?” he whispered, looking across at him.

“I’m Nick Beaumont, one of the good guys.”

“Oh, yeah?” Gaspard said, shocked that Nick had been awake. “What’s going on, Nick? Where’s Ryan?

“What’s going on Gaspard is that I’m a detective hired to find two kidnaped Americans, a brother and sister. They were taken by your boyfriend, Ryan Jones. By the way, Mr. Jones is also an assassin for hire. We’ve just witnessed him getting rid of old associates. He’s retiring from the business and wants no one left who can identify him from his soon to be former profession.” He saw a look of shock and utter confusion come over the other man’s face. Even in this state he was beautiful. Nick brushed back a dark curl from Gaspard’s forehead and gave in to the urge to kiss him on his pouty lips.

Gaspard started to enjoy the kiss but pushed the man off him. “Are you crazy? You tell me all that and then you kiss me. How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“You could just trust me, after all we did manage to escape that chateau together. Besides a policeman friend of mine will be here soon to find out what went down. He’ll want to question you.”

“Oh, shit,” Gaspard said. “Am I in trouble, Nick?”

“Do you know anything about Ryan’s business? What I mean is, were you acting as his accomplice?” Nick saw the man’s eyes begin to tear up, he was terrified. That wasn’t good, he might need Gaspard’s help

“No, Nick, I swear. He just said he was here on business from America. ‘Honestly I had no idea about anything.”

“I believe you, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, but Gaspard I think you and I need to become friends fast.”

“Oh,” Gaspard said thinking to himself for a moment. He thought he figured out what Nick wanted and leaned forward to kiss him but met with a hand pushing him gently back.

“That’s not what I meant, nice though it might be. I don’t want you to be scared, Gaspard, but you do need to consider the fact that you might be a loose end for Ryan. One he may feel the need to eliminate.”

“Oh, my God. What do I do?”

“We stick together and help one another,” Nick said. “I’ll be your personal bodyguard until all this is over.”

“What can I do for you? I already told you I don’t know anything.”

“No, Gaspard. You just don’t realize that you know something.” He put his flat palm on Gaspard’s chest and felt his heart beating. The guy was keeping his cool but inside he was nervous as hell. That was to be expected from everything he’d just learned. “I’m sorry if I’ve spooked you. There’s just no time to take things slow on this case. You need to try and relax.”

“I can’t, Nick. I trusted that bastard and he’s just like all the others who screwed me over.”

Nick kissed Gaspard’s forehead gently, held him close then kissed him on the lips. There was no resistance this time. He felt Gaspard’s arms around his waist. They were trembling slightly but he’d be okay.

Gaspard felt Nick’s hands on his waist then slowly moving down to his naked ass, massaging it gently before spreading the cheeks and slipping his hands between them. All the while his tongue explored Gaspard’s mouth who responded by using his hands to explore Nick’s firm, beefy ass matching his every move.

The two men kissed passionately, their tongues now playing at war with one another. Their hands explored each others warm asses then Nick broke free from Gaspard’s lips and began sucking on and kissing his neck.

Gaspard let out a low moan as Nick sucked hard on his large brown nipple while using his fingers to tweak the other one. To his surprise, Gaspard found himself fully erect despite everything.

Nick threw off the comforter to get a closer look at the man in bed with him. The body in front of him was tan and slender with a nice hard cock rising up which needed attention. Nick lowered his body so that his face was right above that cock. He began teasing the swollen head of it with his tongue before licking the shaft and finally taking it all into his mouth.

“Let me return the favor,” Gaspard said, positioning his body so that they were now in a snug sixty-nine position. He began sucking Nick’s cock, pleased with how it tasted. “Mmmm, you taste good, Nick.”

“So do you,” Nick said as his fingers explored Gaspard’s crack, tracing along his hot hole.”

“I’m close,” Gaspard said.

“So am I. Let’s finish this.”

They both lay back, face up in bed and jacked themselves off until they came. When they were done Nick got up and grabbed a towel which they used to clean themselves. Now exhausted they fell asleep wrapped in each others arms.

A light tap on the shoulder woke Nick up. He opened his eyes to see François standing over him.

“How do you find the time, Nick? And with such a handsome young man. I’m almost jealous. You and your angel boy here need to wake up and meet me in the living room.” He saw Nick shake his head in agreement and quietly left the room.

Nick gave Gaspard a soft kiss on the neck to wake him. “Get up, sleeping beauty.”

The two of them dressed in their robes and walked down the hall to the living room they’d walked through the night before. An ornate stone fireplace anchored the room which had Persian carpets covering wood floors. Ines was in the tall chair her guest had sat in last time they were in the room. She wore an ornate gold caftan and was smoking a cigarette in a long holder. Her hair was short, spiky, and wheat blonde in color today.

“This is the real me,” Ines said pointing toward her hair. “Good morning. After François is done speaking we’ll have breakfast in the kitchen.”

Gaspard followed Nick to a large sofa across from where Ines was sitting. When Nick sat he did too, following his lead and sitting close. He looked up at François standing in front of the fireplace leaning against the mantel and smoking a cigarette.

“Those things’ll kill you,” Nick said.

“Something will kill me, that’s a fact,” François said. “But who really wants to live forever if you have to live as a saint the whole time. Nice to see the three of you survived that little massacre at the chateau. Any of you have anything to say about it?”

“Nothing you don’t already know,” Nick said. “But do share what you’ve found out. I’m assuming you’re here because you’ve found something out.”

“What I do think I know is that there are three high profile deaths in this mess,” François said. “Brian Atkins was found murdered in his hotel room, apparently the boyfriend killed him then himself.” He saw Gaspard look over at Nick nervously. “An obvious staging, I’m guessing by those looks. And you two know something.”

“Not anything we can remember just yet,” Nick said. “Maybe after a certain someone is in custody we can talk.”

“Fine. I understand, and it makes sense,” François said. “You’ve never been a foolish man, Nick. Of course you must know that the person responsible will be after any witnesses to the events that occurred. Unless you get him first.”

“Who’s the third death,” Nick said.

“The young man you were hired to find,” François said. “There wasn’t much of him to identify once they took him down from where he’d been beaten and whipped to a pulp. Bloody damn mess they left behind.”

“Purposely done,” Nick said. “To disguise the fact it wasn’t the young man I was hired to find.”

“Shit!” François said throwing his cigarette into the fireplace angrily. “The body was identified by the coroner and a witness.”

“Both of whom are obviously in the employ of Ryan Jones,” Nick said.

“Clearly,” François said.

“Which means none of us are safe until we take down Ryan,” Ines said calmly as she put out her cigarette in an ashtray on the small table next to her chair.

“What do you mean we?” François said.

“Do you know what Ryan’s next step will be?” Ines said.

“Yes, and I’ve got my man watching Gaspard’s apartment for any sign of Ryan.”

“He won’t be there,” Gaspard said. “He’ll be at my studio.”

“Give me that address, please,” François said while opening his cell phone.

Nick heard François and Gaspard talking in French and relaying the studio’s address to someone on the phone. He spoke when he saw François close his cell phone. “I hope your man’s not a cop. I think Ryan has contacts everywhere.”

“I’m using your waiter friends to look in on him,” François said.

“It won’t work,” Ines said, “Ryan’s far too clever. He’ll already be way ahead of you.”

“I suppose you have a better idea,” François said.

“Marcello came to visit me last night,” Ines said.

François stood tall and angry at the mention of the name. “What did he want?”

“Not to renew old romances,” Ines said. “For a moment I sensed you might be jealous François. But I forgot, since your saint of a wife died no other woman can compare or take her place in your heart.”

“Stick to the topic at hand, woman,” François said.

“Marcello heard about what happened at the chateau and he’s not happy about it,” Ines said. “Ryan didn’t clear it with him. It seems he hasn’t cleared quite a few things with his uncle and something needs to be done about it.”

“What will he do?” François said.

“Nothing,” Ines said. “He wants to keep his hands clean. Ryan is family, but Marcello’s willing to turn a blind eye to whatever may happen. We are not to expect any help and when everything’s done I’m to quietly retire somewhere.”

“What do you make of all that?” François said.

“Ryan’s a threat to Marcello as head of the family,” Ines said. “Also we’re all on Ryan’s hit list and the family will let us go if we help them take care of our problem and theirs.”

“I don’t suppose he gave you any hints to how we can get Ryan or what he’s planning,” Nick said.

“I don’t need any hints,” Ines said. “He’ll be heading towards Amsterdam. I’ve already booked us three tickets on the train headed there.”

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