California Dreaming

Chapter 14

Once we made sure Arvid and his goons weren’t following us, we went back to mine and Carl’s room. When we were inside, I turned to James, I asked, “are you sure you are alright?”

He nodded, “yes, I am fine.”

I smelled the same odor of stale smoke and alcohol that I had smelled on Arvid. I said, “I think you could use a bath, the bathroom is two doors down. You go clean up and I’ll find some clothes for you to wear.”

John said, “I’ll help you, James.”

A small bit of the sadness left James eyes as he gave John a slight smile, “thank you, I would like that.”

I handed him a towel and they left the room. Carl stepped in front of me and asked, “are you alright?”

I gave him a puzzled look, “of course, why?”

He was staring into my eyes, “I just saw a side of you that I had no idea you had.”

I asked, “what do you mean?”

Carl chuckled, “you scared the hell out of me, you had the look of pure evil in your eyes when you were talking to that greasy jerk.”

I shrugged, “the guy pissed me off, I had to get James out of there.”

He asked, “what would have you done if I had not stopped you from hitting him again?”

I thought a moment, “I don’t know, I guess I would have kept hitting him.”

Carl nodded, “that’s what I thought, it kind of scared me. I have never seen that look in anyone’s eyes before.”

I said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, but James needed my help. I’d like to think that he would have done the same for me. I know I would for you too.” I wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug.

He laughed, “I’m just glad you are on my side. Now what are we going to do with those two.” He motioned to the door.

I shrugged, “I’m not sure, I hadn’t thought about that.”

He once again laughed, “why does that not surprise me? I have seen the impulsive, act know think later side of you.”

I asked, “would it be alright if they stayed with us, at least until they figure out what they are going to do.”

Carl gave me a kiss, “why not, the more the merrier.”

James and John came back into the room, James had the towel wrapped around his waist and they both had a smile on their faces. More of the sadness was gone from James’ eyes, I handed him some clothes.

Asa James got dressed, Carl said, “anyone else hungry? Let’s go to the diner and get something to eat, my treat.”

James looked at Carl, “yes, I am kind of hungry, if are you sure it's no trouble, and I’m sorry, but who are you?”

I laughed, “I’m sorry, James this is Carl Yates, a friend of mine. I met him at the theatre, we have been in a couple of plays together.”

James smiled, “that’s great Ivan, you are acting, and it’s nice to meet you, Carl.”

We walked to the diner as I filled James in on the plays that Carl and I had done. We sat at our table and ordered.

James asked, “where is Patrick?”

I told him about William and that they moved to San Diego last year. I said, “I just got a letter from him last week, I will be sure to tell him that you are safe now, he asks about you every time he writes.”

James smiled, “tell him I said hi. Now I just need to figure out what to do next.”

I said, “you know you can stay with us as long as you need to, that goes for you too John.”

Carl added, “of course, you are more than welcome. I think we have a job for a dishwasher at the Brown Derby, maybe I can ask my boss about it tomorrow night when I go to work.”

I said, “yes, I think we have a bus boy opening at the Roosevelt, at least that would be something until you each find something else.”

John took James’ hand, “or, we could go back to Chicago.”

James looked at John, “I don’t know John, I’m sure Charles is still mad at me, if I go back, he’ll find me.”

John looked down, “James, Charles won’t bother you. After you left and Mrs. Morgan kicked him out, he really started drinking heavily and got fired from the rail station. He got hold of a gun and started to rob gas stations to buy his next bottle. After the last robbery, he came running outside and the cops were already there. There were three of them and they all shot at the same time. I’m sorry James.”

James’ eyes went wide, “Charles is dead.”

John nodded, “I’m sorry, yes.”

I’m not sure if the look on James’s face was relief or grief. I asked, “are you ok?”

James took a sip of his coffee, “yes, I’ll be fine.” After he thought for a minute, James asked John, “going back to Chicago doesn’t solve anything, we would still need to find a place to stay and some place to work. At least here we have Ivan and Carl, what would we do in Chicago?”

John said, “James, I told my father about us, everything about us. He gave me the money for the train ride here, he also gave me enough money for two tickets back. He owns a grocery store back home and said we could both work for him. He said he loves me and wants me to be happy, he would like to meet you.”

A tear formed at the corner of James’ eye, “John, are you serious?”

John nodded, “yes James, I have been miserable since you left. We can stay with my father until we can afford a place of our own. Dad is going to teach me about the grocery business and when he retires, he wants me to take over the store, I will need your help.”

I said, “James, that is great, I am so happy for both of you.”

James sat back in his chair as he wiped a tear away, “why are you all so willing to help me like this, what have I done to deserve any of this?”

I said, “James, why do think you don’t deserve to be happy? We are your friends, we care about you.”

John added, “yes James, you help your friends, and now I need your help, will you please come back to Chicago with me?”

James smiled, “yes, of course I will, thank you, thank you all.”

We ate our dinner as John and James discussed their plans when they got back to Chicago. I was so happy for James and so relieved that he was going to be safe and wouldn’t have to worry about Charles or Arvid ever again.

They spent the night with Carl and I and the next morning we walked them down to the train station and watched them board the train and ride away. We walked back to our room, as we passed Western Ave, Carl stopped.

He said, “What if Arvid comes after us?”

I asked, “do you think he would do that?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know, I’m sure he has goons that work for him, so it wouldn’t surprise me.”

I thought a moment, “but he doesn’t know who we are, or were we live, how would he find us?”

Carl said, “I don’t know, but these kinds of guys always seem to find out what they want to know.”

For the next two weeks, we were very careful about going out. The only times we would go out alone was when we went to work, and then we were always looking over our shoulder.

I got home from work at 2 am one morning, when I walked into our room, I was surprised that Carl wasn’t already there. He was usually home before I was, and I was a little later than unusual. After a few minutes, all kinds of thoughts started running through my mind, did Arvid find Carl? I began to panic, should I go look for him? I paced the floor for about 15 minutes trying to decide what to do. Just as I decided to go to the Brown Derby to see if Carl was still working, he came running through the door out of breath.

I gasped, “Carl, thank God, are you alright?”

He grabbed me, still out of breath, “yes, I’m fine, we had a late table come in and my boss asked me to stay late to take care of them. It was a large party, and they gave me a great tip. But you aren’t going to believe what happened.” He took another deep breath.

I pulled him over to the bed and we sat down, I asked, “so what happened?”

Carl composed himself, “so, the day after we got James out of Arvid’s, I told my boss what happened.”

I interrupted, “Carl, we agreed not to tell anyone about that.”

He waved his hand at me, “I know, but I wanted someone to know in case anything happened to us. Anyway, my boss was mad, he knew about Arvid and has tried to get him closed down before, but since Arvid was bribing the police, they wouldn't do anything. He told me that all those places selling illegal booze take business away from legitimate places like the Brown Derby and the Roosevelt. Then when I told him about Arvid using James and other boys for sex, he just got madder.”

I was upset that Carl had told someone else about this, but I let him continue.

“The next night I saw him seat a man and woman that I had not seen in the Brown Derby before. He was talking to them for a while, just like he always does to any new customer. A few minutes later, he looked around, saw me, and waved me over. He introduced me to Laurence Chambers, the new District Attorney.”

I was trying to understand what all this had to do with us, “ok, so what does that mean?”

He grinned, “well, my boss had me tell Mr. Chambers the whole story about James and Arvid. As I told him, I could see was getting more and more upset. He thanked me for the information, and I went about my night, he and his wife ate and left.”

Still not clear about what all this meant, I said, “so the new District Attorney knows about Arvid, is he going to protect us or what?”

Carl shook his head, “he doesn’t have to protect us anymore. When I got to work today, Mr. Chambers was waiting for me, he told me that the police raided Arvid’s Place yesterday.”

I asked, “so they arrested Arvid?”

Carl nodded, “yep, and five of his goons. They also arrested three cops for accepting brides for the last five years, it seems Arvid kept very detailed records. Not to mention that his goons all started to sing like canaries in an effort to get reduced sentences.”

I smiled, “that’s great Carl, it’s such a relief to have that scum off the streets.”

Carl continued, “when the police raided the place, they also found a City Councilman in one of the boy’s room, Mr. Chambers didn’t know what charges would be filed against him yet, but he has already resigned from the Council and his wife has left him. They also rescued 9 other boys just like James and they are in the process of finding a place for them to stay.”

I sighed, “wow, I am so happy that Arvid has been caught, did Mr. Chambers say what would happen to him?”

Carl laughed, “he told me they were filing charges for holding the boys against their will and the feds are stepping in to go after him for selling liquor and tax evasion. Mr. Chambers told me that Arvid would probably die in prison.”

I smiled at Carl, “I forgive you for telling your boss about this, thank you.”

He smiled back, “then you will love this. Somehow, Arvid’s new cell mates in the jail found out why he was arrested, and they treated him just like he used to treat his boys, all night long. Mr. Chambers said his life in prison is not going to be very pleasant.”

I couldn’t help but pleased with the thought of that sleezy jerk being used by a bunch of big burley inmates, maybe even one of the thugs that had worked for him.

I wrapped Carl in a hug as we fell back on the bed kissing and pulling each other’s clothes off. We moved so that we could suck each other’s cocks. Carl spread my legs and gave my hole a thorough licking and worked first one, then two fingers inside me. After a few minutes, I needed Carl inside me, I pushed him onto his back as we kissed. I straddled him, reached around, and guided his erection into my waiting hole, I sat back and took him to the hilt and let out a deep breath. Carl smiled up at me as I started to bounce up and down. He stroked my cock as I took him as deep as I could, hitting my sweet spot with every bounce. Within minutes, I exploded, covering his chest and face with my hot seed. Carl licked my cream from his lips as he filled my hole with his own semen.

I leaned down and we shared long passionate kiss, I rolled beside Carl, and we wrapped our arms around each other. We gave each other another kiss then crawled under the covers and drifted off to sleep.

 

To be continued…