Hidden Gem

Aki’s jaw hurt. He flexed it again, shifting right and left, hoping the muscle ache eased soon—else it was going to be a long night. Candy helped curl Aki’s long blond hair, wrapping it around itself in platinum ringlets and shoving a few jeweled hairpins in to hold it in place. The prettier they were, the more interest came their way. The more like girls they looked, the more money they made. Men loved to spend money on things that were small and pretty so long as they couldn’t bear bastards. Especially psi bastards. And over the years, Aki had found that rich and powerful men had a certain kink when it came to barely legal boys who looked like girls. 

Preston and Royce were the only other male companions in the house besides Candy and Aki. They would be downstairs entertaining already, along with almost twenty female companions. If Aki hadn’t had a special request to entertain a senator, he’d be there himself, pouring tea and alcohol, serving tables, flirting, and taking offers for the evening. But he and Candy had helped with a special event, giving them a reasonable amount of pay and a late start to the evening. They both had to change out of scanty waiter uniforms—black ties, short shorts, and no shirt—since the senator in question liked them to pretend to actually be waitstaff while servicing the guests in other ways than food. Aki’s jaw ached from the half dozen men he’d ‘serviced.’

“The new shadow is good. Makes your eyes pop,” Candy remarked while he pasted several small gems above Aki’s eyelids, just below the brow. Heavy liner and bright opalescent shadow emphasized the almond shape and unusual color. The diamond-like gems matched the iridescent sweater and pearl-colored skirt. Aki glanced in the mirror one last time to touch his hair before slipping into a pair of heels that added four inches of height. “You really shine tonight, Aki.” 

“Gotta. It’s Friday. Money to be made.” Shoes to buy. “Didn’t Preston mention some government thing happening nearby today?” The Hidden Gem would fill with rich old men looking for a pretty thing to fawn over him, fill his glass with expensive alcohol, and make his friends jealous by flirting shamelessly. It wasn’t the only brothel in the area, but it was one of the highest rank. Conservatives called it vile, citing ancient passages of texts that were no longer acknowledged in the North, and when that didn’t work, they began the familiar wail of infidel. That was mostly because of Aki. Though most of the North worshiped the earth as their goddess, an occasional few showed up with the old ways ingrained in their heads. “Maybe I’ll clear the room when I walk in.” It happened sometimes, no matter how he sparkled. 

“Their loss, sweetie.” Candy added some pink liner to his eyes and gelled up his bright purple hair. He looked like the confection he was named for, always bright colors, hearts and stars drawn on his face and arms. His blush dusted his face in glitter that looked like sugar, and pale pastel clothes made everyone think sweet, cute, and barely legal, which he was. He even wore contacts over his pale brown eyes that made them look purple or bright blue, depending on the light. Candy was not the sweet boytoy he portrayed. He was actually training to become the next most powerful Dom in the entire city. “They’re only afraid ’cause they’ve never seen a real psi before. I could stare into those pretty eyes of yours all night.” 

Aki’s eyes were ice blue, the pupil only three shades darker. The unmistakable sign of a psi. 

Candy handed him a pair of silk elbow-length gloves. While Aki’s skirt might have been short enough to be obscene and bending over revealed he wore nothing underneath, touching wasn’t allowed unless he invited it. Mostly he did the touching, they did the commanding, and he performed. Not a glamorous life to be sure, but better than the containment camps or immediate death he would have gotten in the South. At least the gloves kept him from seeing all the horrible things the clients thought or had done in the past. Aki’s eyes announced to everyone what he was, but there were thousands of different types of psis. Every psi was treated like they had a deadly disease, though it wasn’t something that could be contracted any way other than birth. Being a psi was a genetic mutation, passed down through family lines like blond hair or blue eyes. 

He sighed to himself, frowning at the thought of the pale pupils in his eyes. Was it odd to think they were pretty, that the normal black was so bland? Candy grinned at him, obviously not bothered. Candy wore super-short shorts and a tank top to show off his androgynous frame. The denim cutoffs had frayed holes artfully placed to offer glimpses of the tiny briefs he wore featuring cartoon characters or bright candy-colored designs. It was his trademark as much as Aki’s was being the “shining” star of the evening. 

Aki slipped on the cool fabric of the gloves, loving their inlaid glitter, and headed for the door. Enough primping, there were clients to be entertained and dollar signs to add up. Just Shoes had a new pair of heels on display that had been calling his name for a week. Sure, Bart would probably buy them for him if he begged, but Aki liked owning something he paid for himself. Bart would complain and add it to his contract, which would take him four lifetimes to pay off if he kept buying shoes that way. After all, Aki did have more shoes than most of the companions of the Hidden Gem combined. 

Candy followed Aki down the hall and to the stairs that led them into the main dining hall. The entire building had been renovated some twenty years ago to look like a Victorian mansion, grand staircase, flowered wallpaper, polished wood floors, marbled columns, and all. The room buzzed with energy as companions wove through the heavy mahogany tables filled with clients, flirting, serving, and smiling at all the money waiting to be earned. Bart Rothnow, their boss, stood at the bottom of the stairs watching the room with that hawk-like gaze of his. He glanced up and smiled as Candy and Aki joined him. 

“Detective McNaughton is here, Aki. With a friend. They’ve requested you.” Bart looked the part of an English butler all regal in his black tux and silver-fox hair. The cut of the suit hid strong shoulders and the lithe body of a former soldier. Aki had seen Bart take down men twice his size with little effort. He might be the owner of the Gem, but he was serious about keeping his companions safe. Bart flicked his eyes to the left where the detective and another man Aki didn’t recognize sat at a small booth. “If he gets rough, call.” 

Aki nodded and took a deep breath before heading to the table. Detective McNaughton was tall, dark, and Irish. His face all angles, hair heavy and dark brown, five o’clock shadow coarse like sandpaper, he looked like he could have come out of an old storybook with men in kilts. He stood as Aki approached, reaching his full height of six five, which made Aki’s five eight in heels look tiny. The detective leaned down to plant a kiss in Aki’s hair, careful not to touch skin. “You truly sparkle tonight. The rarest of diamonds couldn’t compete, Aki.” 

“Words like honey, McNaughton,” Aki teased. The man could lure anyone to his bed, but he liked to play rough. Blood and pain made him hot, which was likely why he was the most successful detective in the city. While everyone else was puking, he was getting excited and looking for clues to find another madman like himself. He was one step away from being a serial killer, Preston joked. Not really humorous in Aki’s opinion. McNaughton never called on any male at the Gem other than Aki, though his gaze did rove over Candy a time or two. His reputation had been built on rumors, nothing that Aki could ever pin down. Everyone saw him on the vid screen taking credit for solving some horrible murder or finding a person alive who had been thought dead. Aki knew his favorite alcohol and that McNaughton preferred a blow job to any other kind of sex for sale, but that was all he knew for a fact about the man. That and McNaughton had a smile only an angel could compete with. 

The other man stood, polite like most men weren’t in a brothel. Compared to McNaughton, he was on the lean side, but still over six feet and broad in the shoulder, long in the leg. Where the Irishman was built like a tank, dark and solid, the new man looked more like a runner, strong and lithe, but not the house that his friend was. 

McNaughton put a possessive arm around Aki and pulled him close. “Taylor, this is the young man I’ve been telling you about. Misaki Itou, the Hidden Gem’s sparkling jewel. Aki, this is my new partner Detective Jackson Taylor.” 

Detective Taylor offered his hand until he glanced up, meeting Aki’s eyes. Immediately the hand fell. He glanced away, uncomfortable, perhaps worried. Aki sighed. He should have been used to that reaction by now. Sad since the man was nice to look at with light, honey brown eyes, his dark blond hair styled. He had lovely lips, plump and thick with no surrounding stubble—a man who cared about his looks, or at least more than most nonpoliticians did. Aki would have liked to have seen Detective Taylor’s pleasure just once, but knowing McNaughton, Detective Taylor wouldn’t be around long. The Irishman went through partners almost as fast as Aki did. 

The younger detective sat, and McNaughton returned to his side of the table, pulling Aki into his lap, breath hot in his ear. Aki adjusted his skirt and crossed his legs as to not flash anyone. The men would have to pay for that. 

“Have the two of you ordered already?” 

They had drinks, both fairly fresh, but Royce had been trying to catch McNaughton’s attention for ages. Unfortunately for Royce, he was more on the boyish side of pretty, and when the detective sought out others, it was usually Jade or Tiffany, real girls with real working girl parts. 

“We ordered food. I was hoping you’d be free after dinner for a bit of private time with us.” McNaughton played with the material of Aki’s sweater. He didn’t share well, had in fact caused more than one fight when someone tried to get in the way of his time with Aki, so McNaughton implying that he would be servicing both of them seemed odd, and the question must have shown on his face. “Work related.” 

The detective hadn’t been around in almost a month, so the hard-on pressing into Aki’s thigh made sense. Did he have anyone in his life besides coworkers and paid whores? Probably not. He seemed sort of a rough man who didn’t play well with others and made work his life. Since he hadn’t been around much, he was likely working on a case. If Aki paid more attention to the news, he might know, but if the Irishman needed him for something more than a blow job, the shit had hit the fan. 

“I’d be honored to be of service.” 

McNaughton’s smile lit up his face, dimples and all. He was one of the most handsome men Aki had ever seen, hard edges included. Detective Taylor must not have seen the smile before, because he appeared stunned. It still knocked Aki off his feet every time he saw that grin aimed his way. Rare as it was, Aki would do just about anything to see it again. He had even allowed McNaughton to kiss him, skin to skin, lips to lips. Bad idea, as it was dangerous to touch anyone without the shield of clothing. The violence, blood, and rage inside McNaughton’s head still made Aki shudder in fear. The detective had shrugged it off and never attempted another true kiss. 

Yeah, Detective McNaughton was beautiful. A beautiful monster. Aki eased out of his lap. “Let me see about your dinner then, so we can get on to the rest of this evening’s services. I’ll send Bart over to negotiate terms.” He bowed his head, careful to keep his skirt in check. He’d likely have to go another round with Bart about how short they were. Brothel or not, Aki couldn’t imagine all the bare parts made things more sanitary for those who ate here, though there had never been any complaints about the food or the company. 

Aki made his way to the kitchen, checking on orders and greeting some of his regulars who wanted to introduce him to their friends. His job was to smile, look pretty, and be obtainable arm candy. Sometimes the clients got into bidding wars, fighting over a particularly desirable companion. Since Aki never provided more than a few minutes of entertainment, he’d never had the chance to up his prices that way. Men would mull over dessert or fine wine waiting until he finished with one guest and could move on to the next. He couldn’t really complain since he was the highest-paid whore at the Gem who never had to bend over. Newbies tried to haggle over the cost of a hand job or the more expensive blow job, but those men never got to Aki. Bart usually threw them out or handed them off to Preston or Royce, who were less experienced. 

“Order’s up for your cop friends, Aki,” Candy whispered as he passed with a bottle of the most expensive wine in the house. His table was very grabby tonight, so Bart hovered nearby watching and waiting. The handful of security guards that lined the walls made themselves almost invisible until someone stepped over the lines of propriety. Manny, head of security, opened the door to the kitchen for Aki. 

“When you take the detective upstairs, call me. I will wait outside the door.” 

Aki threw him a grateful smile as he picked up the tray of food. “Of course. Thank you.” 

By the time the evening began to wane and most of the other companions were on their fourth or fifth guest, Aki was finally following the detectives up to a private room. They’d argued for a time, sending him away from their table, even giving Aki time to entertain a few of his regulars. If they didn’t get moving, he’d be demanding more compensation for wasted time. Those shoes weren’t going to be obtainable with the night’s meager earnings. 

Manny followed them up the stairs, looking like the guard dog he was. Bigger width-wise than McNaughton, not pretty at all since his face was pocked and scarred from years of hard living, Manny was still a good man and very protective of all the companions. He never touched, not like some of the other guards often tried to. They all learned fast enough that being on duty didn’t mean they got freebies. 

Inside one of the smaller guest suites, Detective Taylor went right to the sitting table, taking a chair and setting a briefcase down on the empty top. McNaughton shut the door—there was no lock—but didn’t let go of the tight grip he had on Aki’s arm. Aki knew better than to make a sound of protest. Some men got off on causing others pain, and while Aki didn’t know the detective well enough to make that call for him, he’d glimpsed the aggression McNaughton hid inside his own head. Aki liked being held firm, but he had no desire for pain at any level. 

“So tell me how I can help,” Aki prompted, hoping they’d get on with it so he could get back to the real paying work. McNaughton tipped well, but only after being serviced in the traditional manner. 

“You look nice tonight, Aki.” McNaughton’s leer wasn’t completely sober anymore. He’d had a half dozen beers, nothing heavier like the whiskey he usually drank. Aki figured that to mean he took being on duty seriously, but that whatever this case was, it wasn’t good. 

“Thank you.” A polite response since Aki had already been complimented a dozen times. “How can I be of service?” 

McNaughton’s free hand went to his belt. 

“Shane!” Detective Taylor called. “I agreed to all this because you said he could help with the case. If you’re here to fuck, then I’m leaving.” 

“He won’t let anyone fuck him.” McNaughton sighed and let Aki go to take the other chair at the table. “Get over here, Aki. But don’t think I won’t have you before I leave tonight.” 

“Of course.” Aki stepped up to the table as Taylor began to pull files out of his briefcase, thick manila folders filled with white pages and pictures. That was never a positive sign. “How can I help, Detective Taylor?” 

“Call me Jack.” He didn’t look at Aki when he spoke. 

“It’s not contagious, Jack,” Aki assured him.

“Hmm?” 

“My psi ability. You won’t catch it by breathing the same air as I do or even by daring to touch me. I promise. I do, however, need to get back to work and earn my living. I don’t get paid to look pretty, as much as it might feel that way sometimes.” 

“I’m not here to fuck you. I don’t pay for those sorts of things.” He spit out the words as though it were the vilest thing in the world to think about. 

“As Detective McNaughton stated, no one gets to.” Aki lifted his gloved hands. “Skin contact is hard to minimize during intercourse. I don’t want to see what’s in your head or past any more than you probably want me to. However, many do pay for their pleasure. It’s a legitimate way to earn a living.” 

Jack paused, finally turning to look at Aki. “You’re clairvoyant? Post-cognitive?” 

“Isn’t that why you’ve come to ask for my help? I can’t imagine how my fellatio abilities could benefit your case, though I’m assured that I’m quite skilled. Second best in all of City M, the first of which is no longer working in the pleasure industry, but since he trained me, I’ll still let him have the number-one title.” Psis weren’t often differentiated by their abilities, though the ones considered dangerous vanished shortly after coming into their powers in their teens, likely culled for some future war, trained to be some sort of weapon. Aki had simply been thrown out onto the streets to fend for himself until being caught and dragged into a psi concentration camp. Working at the Hidden Gem was certainly a step up. 

Detective Taylor, Jack, glared at the pile he’d made of files, then began glancing through some of them and setting them aside. “How sensitive?” 

Aki blinked at him, trying to understand the question while McNaughton continued to stare at him with a hard-to-read expression on his face. Was he looking forward to this? Was something in those files going to cause pain and he would watch Aki suffer like it was some sort of porn flick? McNaughton was so hard to read. Did he really come here for help? Or did he need release? Aki saw him more often for the latter, but hoped that some of the prior helped the detective somehow. There had to be more in his head than violence, right? Otherwise he wouldn’t be a cop. 

Usually McNaughton brought cases of missing persons who were more likely to be alive. A kidnapped kid, a missing business executive, that sort of thing. All had more brutal crimes involved, but nothing he usually brought to Aki was directly that dark. Except that one that still gave Aki nightmares. He frowned at the stack on the table. The thicker they were, the worse they were. Stacks of reports and pictures meant dead bodies. 

“How sensitive a clairvoyant? Just sensations, or do you get full video and audio?” Jack persisted. 

“Oh. Head switch,” Aki replied, finally understanding the question. When he got a vision, he was no longer himself, he became them. 

“Damn.” Jack shook his head and began shoving the files back in his briefcase. “Forget it, McNaughton. This stuff will kill him.” 

“It’s okay. I have money.” McNaughton pulled several wads of cash out of his coat. “The senator gave me access to a lot of cash. Aki likes money. He’ll endure a lot to buy more pretty shoes. And we have one that should still be alive.”

That made Aki sound so shallow, but he did really like shoes and there wasn’t much else in his life to spend his money on since Bart provided a roof, food, healthcare, and clothing. It would be years before he had enough to buy out his contract, if he even wanted to. Life was pretty good at the Gem. 

“How bad are we talking?” He panned from one man to the other, then back to the money on the table. That was a lot of green even after Bart’s cut. Aki could probably buy three or four pairs of sparkly designer shoes with that, maybe a new outfit too. “I have nightmares after something bad, but I know it’s not real. It can’t hurt me. Not really.” 

Jack took one folder from his discarded pile and pulled out a picture. He held it up for Aki to see but not close enough to touch. It didn’t make sense since it looked like a mess of hamburger, red ground-up meat. Why would that be a clue? Didn’t everyone cook? Even at the Gem, everyone took a turn at cooking. Was someone kidnapped while making dinner? 

He must have recognized the confusion on Aki’s face because he said, “This was a person, Aki. Do you really want to relive what happened to them?” 

Aki turned away, swallowing back bile as the picture came together in his head. Something else he’d never be able to unsee. Damn it. No. He didn’t want any money badly enough to experience that. 

“Just one. This girl may still be alive. We need something. Just one tiny clue.” McNaughton played with the money. Aki could hear him shuffling through it, almost smell the scent of the new bills. “One small lead and you get lots of cash. We’ve got a government official missing a kid. Taken only a few hours ago. Might still be alive. Short window to save her.” 

“Everyone who’s been taken, we’ve found dead. Eleven so far. All with ransom demands that are followed to the letter only to find them like this.” Jack rummaged through his files, but Aki refused to look at more pictures. “Reduced to so much meat. Who does that? And why? They’ve been paid, what’s the point? And most of them have been kids.” 

Aki sat down on the bed, not looking at either of them, trying to think. This wasn’t going to be bad; this was going to be awful, maybe life changing. Like end up in a padded cell, pissing himself, brain-dead awful. There weren’t many jobs available to psis. Those with his type even less. He’d been lucky to find Bart so understanding, willing to set down rules to make this not only a place to work, but a home. The only other alternative would have been to work for the government, doing exactly this, experiencing people’s deaths. It was never so simple as finding a missing artifact or tracking down the guy stealing money from his company. No, it was all about the gore. 

Jack pulled out a file. He took a bag with a thin piece of cloth and glared at it. “This one may still be alive. Ransom isn’t set to be paid until tomorrow evening.” He glanced down to the money. “If money motivates you, we can get more, but know this is a sixteen-year-old girl missing. We want to know if she has a chance.” 

Aki closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, for a moment remembering the one other time he’d done this. The pain had been immediate, a beating gone wrong, a strike to the head not hard enough to kill, but enough to do a lot of damage. He’d lingered, well the victim had, but Aki had felt it, suffered for hours while the man slowly bled to death and finally drowned in his own vomit. 

One touch would show him it all. The more Aki fought, the more detailed the memories would become. He’d much rather go back downstairs and find a nice old man to jack off for the cash instead of this. Though he’d have to entertain a couple dozen clients to make even half of what was on the table. Then there was the girl. What if she was still alive and he could save her? He hadn’t been much older himself when Bart and Paris found him half-starved and begging for a chance to live or a fast death. Bart had had a brother who’d been psi and taken from him when they were young, never seen again. Sometimes he still looked at Aki with that sorrow in his eyes. But Aki wasn’t his kid brother. He was no one’s kid brother, just an abandoned psi who played the role of whore really well. But where would he be if no one had given him a chance? 

He held his hand out for the bag. 

“If she’s dead, it will be bad,” Jack pointed out. 

“Yeah, well, hand it over before I change my mind.” Aki grabbed the bag from him and carefully opened it. “I’m not contaminating anything by touching this, am I?” Objects didn’t always give him anything, not like people did. He could get everything from touching the shirt or nothing. Aki found that most objects didn’t hold enough life to pass on memories. Good for him, not always good for McNaughton. 

“No.” McNaughton left his seat and eased down on the bed beside Aki. 

With a sigh Aki tugged off his right glove and let his fingers brush the fabric. The room at the Hidden Gem vanished instantly. He raced through the streets of City M, rushing by buildings, cars, people, then to a bedroom. The posters of boy bands hung on the walls and bright bedding decorating the bed said this was the sanctuary of a teenage girl. He knew that what he was holding was a T-shirt. Mandy, the missing girl, had gotten it from her best friend for her last birthday. If Aki unfolded it, he’d have seen the band logo decorating the front and that it was well-worn from constant use. She stared at herself in the mirror for a minute, smiled at the reflection. So young. A happy kid, the world at her fingertips. Obviously she had everything she could ever have wanted. So what had gone wrong? 

The world shifted, swirling by fast enough to nearly knock him over with vertigo. He saw Just Shoes and the dark streets, the shoes he wanted so badly, and Mandy’s thoughts about being a princess. She’d been taken. Pain exploded in her brain only briefly, then darkness. Only when she awoke, the pain returned, worse than anything Aki had ever experienced before, white-hot, breath-stealing pain. He tried to reason through it, remind himself it wasn’t really him that was hurting, clear his vision, anything to catch a glimpse of something that might show where she was. His head felt like it’d been set on fire, pain beginning around his eyes and spreading outward, down the heavy weight of his body. His limbs were unmovable, unresponsive, almost like they weren’t there. Something hot dripped down his cheeks and over his chest, not hot enough to burn, but warmer, thicker, and heavier than water would be. The distinct “plink” of liquid hitting the ground was the only sound. Aki called to her like he’d never tried before. Would she hear? Could she respond even if she did? 

“Mandy? Where are you?” 

The pain intensified, sending him spinning in a circle of wary confusion for a few minutes before becoming a suffocating weight on his chest. Blind to the world around him, and not in the way of a blindfold, he tried to reason through his other senses. The realization hit him, and he couldn’t help but try to pull himself away. He knew it was a mistake the second it happened. His world solidified with hers, and he screamed through her lips at the horror, the sound ratcheting off many walls and through a cavernous space. He fought to free himself with every ounce of strength he had as the memory of her eyes being torn out filled him. Thankfully everything went dark and the connection snapped away, taking with it all the pain.