Dark Whispers Sheridan and Cain 2009

  Dark Whispers Sheridan and Cain 2009

  Noble Romance Publishing, LLC

  http://www.nobleromance.com/

  Dark Whispers

  ISBN 978-1-60592-001-6

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Dark Whispers Copyright 2008 Barbara Sheridan and Anne Cain

  Cover Art by Anne Cain

  This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any existing means without written permission from the publisher. Contact Noble Romance Publishing, LLC at PO Box 467423, Atlanta, GA 31146.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Trademark Acknowledgements

  The author(s) acknowledge the trademark status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Glock: Glock, Inc.

  Camaro: General Motors Corporation

  GTO: General Motors Corporation

  PT Cruiser: Chrysler LLC

  Ray-Bans: Luxottica Leasing S.P.A. Corporation Wheaties: General Mills IP Holdings II LLC

  Book Blurb

  Mired in centuries-old customs and rigid traditions carried over from their mortal lives, thechaing-shihelders of New York’s Chinatown don’t quite know how to deal with the upstart Russian vampire, Mistress Viktoria. With their existence in danger, the Elders call upon an ancient blood tie and summon the aid of their kinsman, Liu Sakurai.

  Though he appears to the world as a sensual young man in his mid-twenties, Sakurai is one of the oldest and most powerfulchaing-shihto walk the Earth.He sees humans as not much more than weak playthings and food, and no one is more surprised than Sakurai himself when NYPD Detective Daisuke Matsui manages to capture his attention. Dai is a strong one, full of an inner fire and unusual sexual appetites that Sakurai cannot resist.

  In the mysterious and arrogant vampire, Dai finds the type of person he's been longing for his entire life—someone with a strength of will and determination that matches his own, and a skill to dominate him in ways that make him burn. While trying to unwind the ties his half-brother has to Chinatown’s underworld, Dai is confronted by creatures and events he thought only existed in the legends and stories told by old men. His life is on the line, along with everything he holds dear, but Sakurai’s dark whispers promise a passion Dai is powerless to resist.

  Part One: Then 1988

  “Watts, he’s at it again.”

  Ray Watts rested his elbow on the car door and gave the patrolman leaning in the car window a side-long glance. He stubbed his cigarette in the ashtray under the police tuner in the dashboard. “Where is he?”

  “Near PS 124.” The cop folded his arms across his chest and squinted at Ray from underneath the brim of his checkerboard cap. “Thought I should call you first. After taking him to Beekman to get bandaged up, his little ass is getting hauled to Spofford. Again.”

  Ray laughed under his breath. “I’ll go pick him up.”

  “Christ,” the cop muttered and shook his head. “How many times are you going to bail this kid out?”

  “As many times as it takes.”

  “You know what happened this time?” The patrolman cocked his head to one side and frowned, the lines on his face deepening to crevices in the late afternoon light.

  “Doesn’t matter.” Ray shifted the car out of park, but the cop held up his hand in front of the windshield to stop him from pulling out of the alley and into traffic.

  “He jumped three of Torreto’s kids behind a pawnshop,” the patrolman said.

  His words caught Ray’s attention. It was becoming some kind of right of passage with the other gangs to test new recruits by sending them on ‘kamikaze’ runs against Torreto’s members, many of whom had done their share of jail time while still teenagers.

  “Is he alright?” Ray asked sharply.

  Jim’s frown deepened. “What do you think? The three of them ganged up on the kid and beat the shit out of him. But he didn’t stop fighting.”

  Ray’s hand tightened around the steering wheel. “And?”

  “And, all three of Torreto’s shits ended up bein’ taken by ambulance to the hospital, one of the guys with a concussion so bad they don’t know if he’s going to remember his own fucking name when he wakes up.If he wakes up. Your boy is pretty fucked up too, but it still took two of us to pry him off of the guy.”

  Ray smiled. “He’s tough.”

  “He’s trouble. And he’sin trouble now.”

  “I’ll take care of him.”

  The patrolman put his hand on the edge of the car door. “Listen, Watts. We both know he’s already picked his route to hell. My opinion? Let the courts decide what to do with him.”

  Ray laughed under his breath. “I’m not giving up on Daisuke.”

  “Yeah, well, you should.” With a shake of his head, the patrolman turned away.

  Like hell I will. Ray thought as he pulled out and headed east toward the crime scene.Jesus Christ, I’ve been on the job too long for this fucking save the world shit. I know what the odds of this kid straightening out are.

  * * * * *

  Ray arrived at the scene a few minutes later and flashed his badge at the officer who was finishing up his report with the pawnshop’s owner. He walked up to the patrol car parallel parked by the Towing Zone sign at the back of building and did a quick survey of the area. Blood, mostly dry and black, still covered the cement where the kids must’ve been fighting. Ray looked inside the patrol car. Blood, mostly wet and bright red, ran from Daisuke Matsui’s nose and the gash on his lip as the kid slouched in the back seat, his hands cuffed tightly behind him.

  Ray opened the door and leaned inside. “Hey.”

  “Fuck off.”

  Reaching in, Ray seized a handful of Dai’s thick, black hair and yanked the kid

  forward. “Oh I think you better reconsider that answer, you little prick. You’re the one in cuffs and I’m the man with the badge and the gun who can use all necessary force when dealing with a violent prisoner.”

  Dai didn’t try to pull away from the hold or lash out against Ray. The kid just pressed his shoulder into the metal grid separating the backseat from the front of the car, bracing himself against Ray’s attempts to pull him out.

  A short contest of wills ensued, with Dai resisting any attempts to make him move and Ray trying to drag the kid out without accidentally pulling out some of his hair by the roots. Dai’s bruised jaw clenched, but Ray had to give him credit. The kid didn’t cry out or seem to care about the blood that dripped from his nose onto the already well-stained car floor.

  ‘Tough’ seemed too tame a description for Daisuke Matsui.

  With a sigh, Ray reached in with his other hand and grabbed Dai by the back of his shirt. He lifted the boy right off the seat and dropped him onto the asphalt outside.

  “Fucker!” Dai growled into the pavement, already trying to scramble up to his feet though having his hands cuffed behind his back seemed to hamper his movements.

  “You’ve got such a thick head, you know that?” Ray pinned him down with a firm hand between his shoulder blades. “I told you to stay the hell away from this street and to stay the fuck away from the gangs.”

  “Who died and made you my father?”

  “If your father was alive he’d kick your ass from one end of Chinatown to the other then do it crossways. And I’m surprised Dave Chen hasn’t done that six times over.”

  “Useless fucker! All he cares about is gambling away what my mother makes cleaninglow faan toilets uptown.”

  “Then all the more reason for
you to act responsibly. Who the fuck is gonna set a good example for Wei Wei?”

  “You leave my brother out of this!”

  Ray suppressed a smile.Bingo. The kid had a weakness after all. Ray fisted a handful of Dai’s T-shirt and yanked him to his knees. “You keep this shit up and he’s going to follow in your footsteps, right into a jail cell. Hell, the two of you can be bunkmates.”

  Daisuke jutted that square chin of his and twisted his lips in a sneer. Even beaten to a bloody pulp, and facing the threat of jail, the kid still tried to act like a badass. Ray grabbed him by his cuffed wrists and twisted, hoping to wake him up to the reality of his situation.

  Dai winced, his shoulders tensing, but he didn’t make a sound, nor would he look Ray in the eye.

  “Maybe he won’t find himself in a jail cell,” Ray said. “Maybe he’ll be like the shits you sent to the hospital, or worse. You caught a break—those assholes didn’t have blades or guns—but if your brother pulls this kind of shit, he might not be so fuckin’ lucky.”

  Ray yanked Dai to his feet and dragged him over to his patrol car. “I’ll take him off your hands, Ed, if you don’t mind.”

  “Be my guest. I’m sick of hauling these little rice eaters in only to see ‘em back on the street causing me grief the next day.”

  “Fuck you, pig!”

  Ray slammed Dai into the fender of his car. “You resisting arrest, boy? You threatening a police officer?”

  Dai responded with stony silence and a glare that would surely stop a man at fifty paces once the kid was grown. Ray grinned. “I didn’t think so.” He opened his cruiser’s rear door and shoved the sullen boy into the backseat.

  * * * * *

  Ray drove through Chinatown and into the adjacent neighborhood known as Little Italy. He pulled the patrol car up along side a small restaurant and got out, smirking as Dai kicked at the metal grill in front of his seat and bitched about being left alone like an animal in a cage.

  Ray ignored him and headed inside the restaurant to find the owner, a former cop who was of the very, very old school when it came to combating juvenile delinquency. Vinnie Magera didn’t believe in child psychologists and court-appointed counseling or group homes. No, no. Vinnie’s juvenile delinquent cure was a good oldfashioned ass whipping to let the little shits know that no matter how big and bad they thought they were there would always be someone a little bigger and a whole hell of a lot badder waiting to take them down a notch or two.

  * * * * *

  Dai kicked the metal screen between the seats again and again in an effort to curb his growing frustration. He shook his hair from his eyes and glared out the window. Where was that useless fucker? Watts needed to get his ass out here and let him go. He had to pick up Wei Wei from school. Sure, his brother could walk home, but shit, he couldn’t fix his own dinner. That worthless excuse for a father of his wouldn’t do it and Mom would be too tired when she got home. This was her long day at the hotel.

  Dai continued to kick until his back hurt from being jarred against the hard seat and Watts appeared in the restaurant doorway, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Watts, you fucker! Let me go!”

  Watts swaggered forward and slammed his hand on the roof of the patrol car.

  “Stop damaging city merchandise, you little shit, or I’ll take it out of your skinny,

  Japanese-American ass.”

  “Fuck you! I need to go. Let me out of here!”

  Watts yanked open the car door. “Where you got to go, big man? You running

  dope now? Numbers? Or maybe you got a piece of pussy waiting at theNingbo?”

  Dai shot Watts a glare and tried not to think of Liang Mei, who’d let him watch her practice her striptease when he delivered the costumes his mother had sewn for her. “I have shit to do. Important shit. Okay?”

  “Oh I’m sure you do.”

  “Come on, man. I mean it. What time is it?”

  “What time is it?” Watts laughed. “What? You have an appointment to get your little boy dick sucked?”

  “Fucker,” Dai muttered, lowering his gaze.

  “Ohhhh, right. Today is Wednesday. You babysit your brother on Wednesdays

  while your mom works overtime.”

  Dai looked up and cast Watts a challenging glare. “Yeah. You got a problem with that?”

  “No, but you do, don’t you?” Watts glanced at his wristwatch then held out his arm so Dai could see the time. “School gets out in forty-five minutes and traffic will be picking up so it may take at least fifteen to get back, depending on how fast I drive and if I need to make any stops along the way.”

  “Come on, man. Don’t be a prick on this. Please.” Dai swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat at being forced to beg.

  “I dunno, Daisuke. You may very well be facing felony assault charges over what happened. I should have your ass in a lockup right now.”

  “You can say I escaped. Come on. Just this once.”

  Watts shook his head and lifted his hat, casually scratching the thick thatch of brown hair underneath. “I have a good, clean record, Daisuke my boy, and I don’t want to tarnish it.” He glanced at his watch again. “By the way, you have forty-one minutes left.”

  “Waattss . . . .”

  Watts yanked him out of the car by his shirt, propelled him into the restaurant, and shoved him back toward the kitchens. He called out, “I’m borrowing your ‘conference room’, Uncle Vinnie,” as he hauled Dai down into the basement. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Dai found himself shoved face first into the far corner.

  “You think you’re tough shit, eh Daisuke? Well guess what. You’re not. And you know what happens to pretty little boys like you who land in jail? I think you know, don’t you?”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  Watts’s large hand pressed roughly into the center of Dai’s back. “Sure you can, until some big lifer from Harlem wants to make you his bitch.”

  “I’d kill him,” Dai croaked out.

  “Or so you think,” Watts said. “But you know Bubba ain’t gonna romance you. No son, he’s gonna get his boys to hold you down and then he’s gonna take his big old dick and shove it up your pretty virgin ass.”

  Watts’s nightstick rammed against Dai’s jean-clad bottom. Dai squeezed his eyes closed and grunted.

  “And he’s gonna fuck you again and again before he turns you over to his friends. And whenthey’re through with you, they’ll loan you out to everyone else in the cellblock, because those boys like fresh meat.” Watts punctuated his words with more prods of the nightstick then leaned in close to whisper in Dai’s ear, his breath hot and moist against Dai’s clammy skin.

  “Is that the kind of life you want, Daisuke? You want to be a fuck toy for some lifer? Is that what you want for Wei Wei if you get killed and can’t keep him from following in your footsteps?”

  He pulled back, yanking Dai around and shoving him back-first into the cold stone wall. He leaned in close and Dai held his steely gaze. “Is that the future you want? Is that what you want to make of yourself and Wei? Is it?”

  “No.” Dai spit the word in Watts’s face.

  “Then tell me what you want. Tell me what you want, Daisuke, and I’ll help you. I know you’re tough and smart. I know you’re too tough and too smart to waste your time being a tong flunky. Tell me what you want in life.”

  “I want my mother to be happy. I want her to get away from that fucker, Chen, who beats her and steals her money. I want Wei to go to college and be somebody.” Dai spoke without thinking, from his heart.

  Watts didn’t reply. He shoved his nightstick back into his equipment belt then grabbed Dai’s shirt and hauled him back upstairs and out to the car. With lights and siren flashing and blaring, they sped back to Chinatown. Dai remained silent, slumped in his seat. Watts stopped the patrol car on Mott Street. A moment later, Dai found himself on the street, handcuffs removed. He rubbed his wrists and watched Watts warily.

 
“I’ll be watching you, boy.”

  “Yeah, fuck you very much,” Dai muttered, glaring through the strands of tousled hair hanging over his eyes. But his heart was hammering away and he felt a little lightheaded with relief. There was no way in fucking hell he was going to let Watts know how glad he was to be back here, and not sitting on the white bus to Riverhead’s detention block.

  “Still playing badass, huh?” Watts snorted, but his smile softened his harsh tone. He leaned back against the car and folded his arms across his chest. “Get upstairs before I change my mind.”

  Dai didn’t bother with a response. He turned around and stalked up the cement steps leading to the building’s entrance. Just before he pushed through the gate, he glanced over his shoulder. Watts was still there, leaning against the car, staring in Dai’s direction.

  “Stupid fuck,” Dai mumbled and slammed the gate shut behind him. Who asked you to stick your nose in my business, anyway? For all Dai cared, Watts could go fuck himself. At least, that’s what he told himself now that he was safe at home. Now that he was out of the cop’s sight, Dai didn’t try to hide the wincing, or the grunting noises he made every time he moved. He was bruised all over and covered in blood, and Watts jerking and shoving him around hadn’t fucking helped any. But he’d kicked those shits’ asses. He took satisfaction in knowing that for every ache he felt, those bitches were hurting twice as much. Dai smirked, despite the pain.

  But what happened with Watts was different. The things the cop had said scared him—like what would happen to Wei Wei—what would happen tohim if he was carted off one day. At the same time, there had been something about Watts’s words that excited him.

  Dai reached the apartment on the second floor and found the front door open. Inside, Chen was laughing at whatever was on the television. The man sounded drunk already. For a wild second, Dai thought about just heading back downstairs and running away again. But he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t leave Wei.

  Dai went in and kicked the door shut behind him. Chen sat in the living room, surrounded by empty beer cans, dirty dishes and empty potato chip bags. Son of a bitch never bothered to pick up after himself. As Dai passed through the living room on his way to the kitchen, Chen glanced in his direction.