Jake's Thief (5 page)

He decided to look at the five files first and sort them into three piles: easy, not too difficult and difficult to impossible. He took the easy ones first figuring he could bang one of those out by lunch. He got to work.

Jake came to his office for lunch at one. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, Sir,” Davey answered. By one ten they were in a cab on the way to Madison and Sixty-Seventh Street, Barney’s. Jake was true to his word. The tailor measured him while Jake picked out several fabrics. The salesperson brought three shirts and four ties for every suit. Jake also took him to the shoe department where his foot was sized and a pair of cordovan shoes plus a pair of black and brown shoes were slated for delivery by six that evening along with the first suit, the ties and the shirts. Every time he tried to mouth a word of protest, he got what he was coming to call
that look
from Jake and he immediately stopped talking.

§ § §

Indiscreet, Thursday Morning in Reed’s office

Bull was almost nuts. The phones were ringing off the hook as one sub called another. Bull finally put his head in Reed’s office. “What the fuck is going on here today? I’ve been literally thrown out of Jamie’s office twice. I met Johnny, Danny and Robbie downstairs in reception on their way into the sub’s room and they said they were expecting Greg, Jamie, Brian and Jim.”

Reed shook his head.

Bull bellowed, “I’m asking again, Tom came into my office to get me. What’s going on? I got a call from Caden who got a call from Gary that the subs were having an emergency meeting at the club. Should we be holding one of our own?”

“Sit. It’s Jake. He’s found a potential submissive who he believes is perfect for him and he wants the sub club to adopt him and show him what being a submissive means,” Reed said. “What’s worse in their eyes is that Jake just met him and doesn’t love him, at least not yet.”

“Oh shit.” Bull slumped in his chair. “Another drama.” Bear walked into Reed’s office and sat down in his usual chair.

“Somebody should call Cisco,” Reed said in a tone clearly indicating that he was unwilling to be the patsy who took on the job.

“Fuck you, Reed. I’ll do it.” Bear picked up the phone.

§ § §

Indiscreet, Thursday Morning in the new sub’s room

All of the subs had arrived, Johnny being the last since he had to travel the farthest. “Tell Aubrey that Junior is in the kitchen having coffee and fresh scones,” Brian told Johnny.

Johnny, having relayed the message, rejoined the table. “Are we all here?” asked Jim, counting noses. Brian, Greg, Jamie, Danny, Johnny and Robbie, he counted, seven subs all accounted for.

“Why are we here? I had to postpone an appointment with a colleague,” Greg complained as he took a sip of the tea Jim had prepared earlier. He looked around the table.

“All we have are the scones Marcel made for the staff this morning, so no grumbles.” Jim turned so he could see all seven of them at the round table.

“We’re having an emergency. Jake Cohen called me this morning. He wants our help with a potential sub. The problem is that Jake doesn’t love him yet and he wants the guy to sign a three month contract to live with him
and
work for him,” Jim said, putting the problem directly on the table.

“He’s signed a contract for a sub?” Brian sputtered. “With no input from us and now he wants help. Do I have this right—one of the Masters has requested our
help
with a matchmaking project?”

“My God, is Jake losing it signing a BDSM contract without running it by Bear or Reed?” Jamie broke his scone in half and dipped it into his tea.

“Jake is a contracts lawyer.” Danny pointed out to the rest of them. “But he should run a BDSM contract by Bear. Who represented the kid?”

“Patience people, don’t jump to conclusions. “I didn’t say he signed the BDSM contract yet.” Jim began to pour the tea. “He’s going to sign some kind of agreement that has the kid staying with him for three months so they see if they suit.” Jim handed a cup to Danny.

“He said if everything works out this weekend, he intends to press the kid to sign a submissive agreement in the near future. Otherwise he’s going to put him up for a few months until the kid gets on his feet.” Jim poured his own tea.

“After only a week? He’s going to make his decision after only a week,” Brian muttered.

Jim turned to him and said in an undertone, “You have no room to talk.” Brian blushed furiously. Jim continued, “The current contract states that Davey, that’s the potential sub, has to live with him for three months. Jake pays all the expenses and he sees if they
rub along well
together. Davey is also working for him but that’s a separate issue.” The subs started to talk over Jim.

“People,” Jim said, tapping the table with a pencil. “A Dom has finally realized that our matchmaking skills are unparalleled and has asked us for help. Are we going to turn that challenge down?”

“Oh Christ, here we go again,” Greg said. “I talked to Davey, with Cisco’s permission, to tell that kid that Jake wasn’t a serial killer. But nothing was said about our involvement with matchmaking. Cisco’s going to have a stroke this time.”

“No he won’t. Reed is instructing the Doms even as we speak,” Jim said laughing.

“So what is our role in this mess?” Brian bit into his scone.

“Jake is bringing Davey, Davey Howell, to the club tomorrow night and wants our assessment. First, does Davey have a submissive personality? Second, could we show him the ropes and third which is my addition, not Jake’s, can the two of them fall in love? They have to be in love or our perfect record, seven for seven will be broken. If they can’t fall in love we have to make sure that no one signs a regular BDSM contract after the three months are up.” Jim looked at the expectant faces.

“Brian, you should be able to see if he’s honest. Danny, since you work harder at your nursery than any of the rest of us, you can find out whether or not he’s a worker bee or a slouch. Johnny, you can tell if he’s after Jake’s money, that’s something that’s on your radar. Jamie, after what you and Bull went through, you never lost faith, you’re the one who has to decide if Davey could fall in love with Jake and has the perseverance to see it through if Jake doesn’t respond right away. Robbie, since you’ve worked with Jake more than the rest of us because of your own legal troubles, you can tell us if Jake could fall in love with Davey. Greg, you get to evaluate his personality to see if he is a sub and I get to snoop and find out what the other Doms think after they meet the kid.”

“You seem to have this well organized,” Greg said with some sarcasm.

“I do try,” Jim said and stuck his nose up in the air. The room cracked up. Eventually so did Greg.

“Jake is staying at a suite in the Princeton Marriott like he does every weekend and that means a round of golf with the Masters and since they are all here they have two foursomes. That should take up the whole morning which gives us a window of opportunity to work with.”

Brian interrupted, “We can take him out to look at cats on Saturday. Maybe we’ll get him one and see how Jake reacts.”

“That’s a good idea, Brian. I can get a read on his personality by how much compassion he shows to the dogs and cats in the cages.” Greg sat with his elbow on the table and one hand under his chin. “That would really work well for my part of this experiment.”

“Jake says he’s staying over until Monday so this Davey can go to a sub club meeting. I don’t know how I feel about someone foisted on us by a Dom,” Jim said with asperity.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll have it all figured out by Sunday,” Brian reassured him.

§ § §

Indiscreet, Thursday Morning, Dom’s dining room

“Why did we have to come down here? They’ll see us,” Bull grumbled. “I can’t tell Jamie not to plot if I’m doing the same thing.”

Reed spoke, “The kitchen is bringing in coffee and scones. We had to come down here because the group is too big for my office. The sub’s room is located on the other side of the building. We know they’re plotting, Jake asked them to, damn him. Worst of all, they know
we’re
involved this time. They don’t exactly know that we’re going to interfere, but they do know we’re talking about the situation.”

“What do we do about this? They are so much better at it than we are. Most of us couldn’t find our ass with two hands when it came to loving our subs. Except Bear, most of us had to be dragged to love kicking and screaming.” Cisco finished his rant and sighed.

The door opened and a waiter arrived with coffee and scones.

“Thank you Riley,” Reed dismissed the boy.

“All of the boys have considerable talents. Let’s just leave them alone and see what happens,” Bear suggested.

“If you think I’m going to lose cat petting privileges or some more of my old sweats because of this, you’re crazy. The minute Jamie starts cleaning—I go and beat the shit out of Jake.”

“Agreed,” said Cisco, Caden, Gary, Reed and Tom. Bear stayed silent.

“What about you, Bear?” Bull asked.

“Well, Jake is a combination of the worst of all of us. He doesn’t trust easily like me. He isn’t sure he wants to love anyone like Reed waffled with Jim, but he’s excited by this Davey, more excited than he’s been in a long time, since Tom got Robbie, I think.”

“He’s pigheaded stubborn, that must come from being a lawyer,” Gary chimed in. “At least he’s out in the open, unlike I was.”

“Jake’s as grumpy as I am when I don’t get my own way,” said Bull, shamefaced. “Will the kid be able to handle him?”

“I hope it doesn’t take another house burning down to fix this,” Caden said, looking very guilty.

“Robbie didn’t think he was a sub initially, but Jake’s got a good eye. I sat with him while all of you cosseted your subs on Friday nights until Danny found me Robbie,” Tom observed.

“I wouldn’t be so smug,” Bull said. “You almost gave Robbie a nervous breakdown.”

Cisco cocked his head. “Jake had the boy talk to Greg last night. Greg said he didn’t have much to say, probably scared to death in my opinion. I’ll do this so Greg won’t have to become too involved—but frankly, I think Jake’s losing his mind. Signing a contract with a man who he just met and only thinks is a sub is not sound reasoning.”

“Like I said before, Robbie didn’t think he was a sub either,” Tom reminded him.

“True,” Cisco said.

“Okay, are we all agreed to take this on and secretly help the boys, what do you think?”

“Considering the sulks, the pouting, the bitchiness, the cleaning, the crying and the silence, what choice do we have? What does Robbie do to you when he’s pissed off, Tom?” Bear asked.

“He leaves. He goes on long drives and makes me crazy because I don’t know where he is,” Tom answered.

“Put a locator chip in his phone. It’s called
The Lovers App.
It pinpoints his location on a street map.”

“That doesn’t always work. Remember, I’m a former cop. The bad guys know about the chip in the phones and throw the phones away,” Tom said with disgust.

“I make Greg call me. If he doesn’t, I know something’s wrong. He calls or sends a text when he arrives and when he leaves, and he needs my permission to go anywhere.” Cisco said smugly.

“Cisco, you’re dense. If Greg didn’t want you to know where he was, he’d turn off his phone and not call you—” Tom rolled his eyes “—using the same modus operandi as the criminals.”

“I’d know because he didn’t call. He always calls, he knows I worry,” Cisco said.

“You live in a world of delusions, Cisco, thinking the bad guys won’t get him. You’ve got boatloads of money to pay a ransom and Greg could be a target.” Tom told him.

“I worry too, probably more than you. Brian’s already been almost raped and killed right in front of me by my enemies,” Bear said, eyes going hard. “That’s why Junior or Jim are always with him. They both have excellent combat training in offense and self-defense. He thinks Junior’s there to keep an eye on him and keep him out of mischief, but he isn’t, he’s there to protect him. That’s why Jamie and Robbie always ride with Brian and besides Johnny, Aubrey always picks up Danny.”

“I’m going to get Johnny a bodyguard to ride with him and Aubrey. Aubrey is getting on and couldn’t do much if something happened.” Caden thought aloud.

“Jim drives himself unless there’s ice on the road, then I make him go with Brian. I feel stupid about that, the guy is an ex-Army Ranger and can take better care of himself than I can.” Reed drank some coffee.

“I let Greg drive himself. He’s a doctor for Christ’s sake. I can’t have him followed like a child.” Cisco finished his coffee.

The group around the table nodded their heads.

“Well, all of this is going to have to wait until Friday night. I have a post mortem to do in an hour and it won’t be pretty. Someone’s ass is about to be reported to the state medical board, the AMA, and have his hospital privileges suspended if what I think happened, did happen.”

“Everyone will be here on Friday?” Reed asked.

The Doms all nodded their heads.

“We’re adjourned, then.”

Bull mumbled, “Shit.”

§ § §

Thursday Mid-Afternoon, New York City

From Barney’s, Jake and Davey took a cab to Abercrombie and Fitch on Fifth Avenue and Fifty-Seventh. “Why do you take a cab, when you can take the car? You have it in the garage at the office.”

“In a word, parking…I can never find a space. I’m thinking of hiring a driver. My friends Caden and Bear each have one and they’re very happy. Then I would only need the car to travel to New Jersey on weekends and where we go, parking isn’t a problem.”

“Shouldn’t we be back at the office? I’ve only finished one brief.”

“You finished one brief already this morning?” Jake asked incredulous.

“It was an easy one. Our case was cut-and-dry, I found at least twenty court decisions to back up our client’s position and five of them were in this federal district,” Davey said matter-of-factly.

“I was planning on working on the second easy brief this afternoon. Since you said we don’t leave for New Jersey until four on Friday, I can have the somewhat difficult one done by tomorrow afternoon. The other two will take longer because they require much more research. I probably won’t have them back to you before Wednesday of next week.”