Jail's Bait: Parole's Victim (Book 4)

Chapter 6

Once upstairs Ray pulled Danny roughly to his chest, sliding his tongue down Danny’s throat with more passion than he had used yet; it was almost brutal. Danny’s senses were on overdrive, feeling Ray’s thrusting tongue reach down almost to his windpipe, and he choked. Ray’s hands were roaming every inch of his body, and soon Danny realized within this tumultuous exchange that his clothes had been taken clean off..! He stood naked in the middle of the room, his sizable dick rising to a new strength, moaning as Ray’s mouth kept firmly clamped down on his own. He felt a sudden warmth and knew that Ray had shed his own clothes just as fast, and they melded in a hot blend of man-flesh, twisting and writhing into each other’s hot, naked bodies as they moved closer to the bed.

Still trapped within that insane kissing Danny felt the mattress against the back of his legs, then with a dizzying lurch the world went sideways, and he landed with a oomph! flat on his back against the mattress, Ray landing on top of him, between his legs with a crushing, sensuous grind that roused whatever senses of Danny’s that had not been stirred to life… finally, another man was grinding on top of him on his own bed, Danny dimly exulted as Ray suddenly stopped sliding his tongue back and forth against his own, their lips breaking apart in a wet splurch.

Before Danny could catch his breath, Ray had repositioned himself, grabbed both of Danny’s legs and lifted them high into the air, spread-eagled to the ceiling. Ray’s head suddenly dipped down between Danny’s outstretched legs and a fresh thrill raced through Danny as he felt Ray’s long, choking tongue suddenly attack his puckering hairy asshole with a hot wet warmth.

“AHHHHHH!!!!!” Danny yowled with pleasure, thrashing about as much as he could in that position, yet Ray held his legs in a vice grip, the hairs of his moustache each sending a sensual stab of thrill of their own as they grazed the sensitive spot right above Danny’s hole while Ray’s tongue stabbed and nuzzled that winking, swollen asshole. Danny gripped the bed sheets and closed his eyes from the intense pleasure, he almost couldn’t take it- but just when the intense feeling reached a fever pitch, the feeling stopped.

Grateful for a second to relax, Danny began to heave in gallons of air- but then a new, hot yet hard press had begun against his already dripping hole. Without a word Ray stretched Danny’s legs even wider than before- then in one thrust lunged his entire beyond foot-long, veiny, thick, sexy street dick into Danny’s neglected, vice-tight ass- to the base.

“YYYYIIIAAAAAHHHHGGGG!!!!!” Danny jumped and scrambled, but Ray held him firm. Pain beyond pain lasted for only a fraction of a second- but knowing that a REAL man was finally handling that ass the way he NEEDED it to be handled made Danny’s pain turn instantly to pleasure. He wanted this- someone to tell him what to do in bed, MAKE him do it- his hole opened wide like a drain and Ray almost slipped. Danny’s ass muscles clamped down on Ray’s throbbing dick, and Ray jerked.

“DAMN pardna,” Ray groaned with passion, “you almost made me cum…!”

Danny heard the same phrase come out of Ray that Trey had once used, and looking up, he SAW …Trey straddling over him, smiling down with love and pure passion in his face, and Danny began bucking his ass back on that hot hard dick, swallowing it deep into his guts over and over-

“AWWW SHYYTTT,” Ray moaned out loud- but to Danny it was Trey moaning with pleasure for his lover… Danny grabbed Ray’s waist and pushed himself down on that dick over and over, again and again, throwing his hot, wet hairy ass back on Ray, the hole clamping down and squeezing Ray’s massive steel-hard dick like it was a phat pussy-

“FU-U-U-CK ME BABY,” Danny growled with hot lust- “FUCKME FUCKME HARRRDDDMUTHA FUCKA FUCKMEEEEE!!!!”

And then Danny lost control, his dick suddenly spewing forth ropes of thick, sticky nutt, flying everywhere as an orgasm larger than the one he had downstairs rose up and burst through him, making him dizzy- “AAAAHHHHH FFUUUUUUUCCKCKKKK MEEEE,” he cried out, thrashing and bucking all over the bed-

Ray lost it then. “AWWWWWW BABBBYYY, YEEEAAHHH,” he yelled out, blasting what felt like a warm gallon of hot cream into Danny’s greedy asshole- Danny, still in the last throes of his orgasm, clenched up again on Ray’s thrusting heavy dick, and those ass muscles began to gently milk the nutt out of Ray, who began to thrash on his own from the storm of his own wild orgasm- “AAAWWWW YYYEEEAAHHH, YEYEEYYYAAA,” he cried out over and over. Nutt rained down out of Danny’s ass like a faucet was left on as Ray cried out one final time and collapsed on Danny’s chest, both men heaving and panting like dogs…

After a couple of minutes of them just laying there, Ray used the last of his strength to reach over and pull the kicked-aside covers over their naked, sweaty bodies- and both drained, very satisfied men promptly fell asleep without another word.

Yet as Danny fell asleep, his last thought was that it was good to have Trey back…

******

Danny awoke the next morning under the down filled covers and at first was disoriented- why was he feeling so good inside..? He had woken up for so many years the same- dulled, listless, unfeeling- that the euphoria rushing through him was almost alien. He turned over, and felt a sharp soreness from his asshole.

Everything came rushing back- he knew exactly why he felt so good, and the good night’s sleep wasn’t the only reason. He burrowed from under the covers to smile at his overnight guest- and saw that the side of the bed Ray slept on was empty.

Frowning, he called to the bathroom, “Ray, are you in there..?”

There was no sound.

Danny looked around at the room- everything looked the same, yet Ray’s clothes were gone from the chair he’d tossed them onto last night. For a moment that froze Danny knew in his heart that Ray had left in the night while he slept, possibly even not leaving empty-handed..! Cursing himself for putting such blind trust in a homeless man who might have just stolen from him just because he looked like Trey, Danny got out of bed, grabbing his bathrobe and slippers as he headed for the stairs. He sighed inwardly as he figured he’d get a good meal in before he started going through the house and cataloguing what would now be missing… and then he smelled bacon and gourmet coffee.

Figuring absently that his son had once again tried to send over servants to tend to the house, Danny went towards the kitchen, fully intent on sending whomever it was back to HT and Lamar. He didn’t like to be waited on, he kept telling Lamar and Malik this- that was their privilege, not his. He was used to doing for himself. Getting to the kitchen doorway he stopped short, his mouth dropping open.

Standing there in tank top, boxers and house slippers by the stove, wearing Danny’s apron and frying bacon and eggs on the stove, was Ray. He looked up as Danny came in, gave the biggest smile and held out one arm.

Danny, who was silently berating himself for not giving the benefit of the doubt, came over to Ray, who put his arm around Danny and pressed his sexy lips to Danny’s neck, sending new thrills through him. “ ‘Mornin,” Ray said, breaking off the kiss and holding him close. “I’m makin us breakfast. Bacon an eggs, biscuits an grits wit fresh coffee,” he smiled at Danny.

Danny was so stunned he couldn’t speak.

“I caught ya out there, huh?” Ray said with a half-grin. “Go sit down, the table is already set.”

Danny looked around. The dining table was set with fresh flowers in the vase, china on the table with a pitcher of orange juice and another pitcher of ice water set near the plates. The coffeemaker was brewing happily and the scent of harvest blend hazelnut was wafting though the area. Again, Danny’s breath was taken away. He had seriously misjudged Ray, and he vowed to not make that mistake again.

******

Minutes later they were sitting down to eat one of the better prepared breakfasts in Danny’s entire life, and the two of them laughed and talked about various things as they wolfed down the entire meal. “You are a seriously good cook. Remind me to get you a skillet for your birthday,” Danny joked as they ate.

“Don’t forget August 7th then,” Ray laughed. “I’ll be back for it.”

Danny stopped eating for a second, shocked all over again. August 7th- but that’s… Trey’s BIRTHDAY… “Your birthday is August 7th?” Danny asked, eyebrows raised in surprise. “How old are you?”

“Ill be 46 on my next birthday,” Ray said, munching on the last of the bacon. “Why, do ya know someone who got my birthday too?”

“I… used to,” Danny said, grabbing another biscuit and stuffing it into his mouth while his thoughts spun about. August 7th- The same as Trey…. Danny chewed thoughtfully as this news sank in. So Ray and Trey had the same birthday and the same birth DATE… this couldn’t be a coincidence, his lawyer’s mind told him, grinding to life as new clues were revealed about this amazing man who came into Danny’s life just when he needed it…

“Are ya okay,” Ray asked with concern. “Did I burn the biscuits or somethin..?”

“No, I was just savoring the tasty butter,” Danny said covering his true reactions up until later. “How did you get the butter to taste so good, and yet so differently on the biscuits than on the grits?” Danny asked, curious.

“HHAahhhh,” Ray mock-imitated a Chinese accent, “If tell you, must kill you tu kiip secret.”

Danny laughed at that.

“Seriously,” Ray said, leaning over and kissing Danny on the lips this time, “I melt honey in the butter I use fo the biscuits, and I sprinkle sum chicken seasoning in the butter I use for the grits.”

“Wow,” Danny said, impressed. “Did you ever, well-” and he managed to look guilty.

“Hey, HEY,” Ray said, suddenly catching on. “Ya don’t haveta worry if ya askin personal questions, not after last night, he said,” his smile lighting up the room. I mean, I had my dick all up in ya, baby- ask me anything ya want.”

Danny smiling at the memory, nodded. “I was just wondering if you had ever had a job as a cook or something,” he said.

Ray laughed aloud. “Is THAT all? Yeah, I had my sharea jobs, and cookin was one of em,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, just cause I’m homeless don’t mean I aint never worked..! It’s just that most jobs I had only paid for bare essentialz, nothin to where I could pay rent or sumthin.”

Danny’s heart once again went out to Ray. “I asked you last night if you wanted to tell me about what happened that you wound up homeless,” he boldly asked. “You said I can ask anything, so that’s what I want to know.”

Ray’s smile died away, and he looked quietly at Danny. “Ya gottta understand that it aint easy for me to talk about all dat just up out da blue,” he pointed out. “But, now’s just a good a time az any, I guess.” He sat back and took a deep breath. “I guess it all started when I was born, ‘cause I was put right inta foster care. My moms, I never knew who she was, and my pops, never heard of him. They tell me dat right when I was born I was placed in a babies’ orphanage. Stayin there til I was eight or nine, I knew right from da off dat I was alone in da world. Then one of the nuns at da orphanage tells me dat she heard dat the night I was brought in as a baby I wasn’t alone.”

“What do you mean,” Danny asked, but he had a hunch he already knew the answer.

“She waits til she on her deathbed, and decides she needed ta confess the truth ta me,” Ray said, shaking his head with disgust. “She told me I was brought in with a brother. But the brother was sent to a foster home like two days later, the people who took him aint have enuff room for two, so they say. She died dat same night, wit a smile on her face they said, like she was relieved or sumthin. I was too mad to spit- I mean, why aint they tell me this sooner, why wait til years an years had went by? I had a brother out there I never knew about who probably had a good life, while I was stuck in a dingy cold-hearted zoo..! So I ran away. Them orphanage punks never came lookin fer me neither,” Ray added with a sneer. “They probably was waitin for da extra bed.”

Danny blinked back tears, to keep Ray from feeling embarrassed.

Ray went on. “I ain’t really mad wit my brother; I figgur that if they wasn’t tryin ta tell me bout him, then they weren’t tellin him bout me neither. If I should ever come across him then, well, I’ll cross dat bridge… I had this tattoo made,” he indicated to the double fists on his shoulder. “One is me, the one that’s not finished is for him. It reminds me to keep looking out for my brother- an when I find him I’ll have it colored in.

“I made my own way after that, findin places ta sleep and food- I wound up hiding out in this neighborhood full of rich lookin houses on the other side of Mt. Rainier,” Ray continued with his story.

“Out here, in the Bolo Grounds,” Danny said; “this is where you wound up..?”

“Yeah, but mo on the other side from here, by the old plantation type mansions,” Ray said, the half-smile returning to his face. “There was this very big ol house that sat away from the main street and was hidden in trees, like 12 Oaks in Gone With The Wind… they had a barn there and a lot of hay, though there were never no horses. It was well kept up, da house and the grounds- but dat was a real lonely house to tell ya da truth, I never saw no one go in or out of da main buildin. I actually moved into da barn house, and lived there for a couple years, going through their trash for food and learnin ta read from da papers dat got delivered every day. I remember figurin out da crossword puzzles, an there was also da funnies. They made me laff, and it helped remind me dat there was things in this earth to laff about.”

“What about winter time?” Danny asked. “We live very far North- it gets cold out here in December. What did you do to survive?”

“Well, dats the thing,” Ray said, smiling again. “There must have been horses at one time in dat barn cause da place was rigged for heat..! An since no one ever came out there I just turned on da heat and left the lights off at night to not draw attention to me. With the blankets for the horses and dat hay I was actually sweatin sum nights. I only got cold when I had to sneak to the garbage cans for food, so I tried to only get what I needed for the whole day. There was books in some crates in the back of the barn so I had a lot of readin to pass the time. It felt like da old days, like back in da 1800’s or sumthin. Lots of trees and wildflowers, and no people. After a couple years-”

“A couple YEARS..?” Danny asked, aghast. “You never saw anyone actually in the house or on the estate for years- and no one ever caught you?”

“No, and at the time I didn’t think it was all that strange, myself,” Ray said. “I knew people lived there because I always found food in the garbage cans. Anyway, after a couple years, I started feeling resented to them in da big house. Always throwin away large amounts of food and never really needin it, and here I was having to dig in the garbage to survive. Havin whole areas on their property they never saw, and here I was sleepin in a barn to stay warm..! I started havin a big problem with rich jerks who just laff their way through life. So I hadda get out of there. I finally picked myself up out that hay and went back to the other side of the tracks, and I never looked back.”

“How old were you then,” Danny asked.

“About 13,” Ray said. “I started beggin on da streets in downtown Seattle, but I couldn’t take a handout from anyone dat looked like they had too much, like it wouldn’t matter to them if I ate or not cause they were too rich to care. I did, however, take some of those rich jerks up on their …offers.”

“I know where this is headed,” Danny said, shaking his head.

“Hey, I know this is turnin yo stomach but I did what I had to do, specially durin winter time,” Ray defended himself. “If I could get a good nights rest in a bed and a good meal, and all I had to do was let a old man feel my dick and my ass, then shit- hell yeah I did it. Some of them wanted to fuck, some wanted to suck my dick, some were just plain lonely and wanted someone to talk to. I became a pretty good listener over dem years, and I was paid for it too.”

“Child molesters!” Danny spat. “Pedophles! When I think of anyone going after my son Lamar-”

“Hold up, sonny-Jim,” Ray said, laughing. “I never said I was forced into anythin, did I?”

“Well, no, you didn’t,” Danny said, “but still…”

“Still, I did it because I wanted to,” Ray continued. “I kinda liked it, just like the way I liked slidin home in dat pretty ass of yours last night,” added, leaning over and licking Danny’s neck in a certain spot.

Danny, blushing, gave an embarrassed laugh. “Okay, if you say so, you got your sex education on the streets. If it didn’t make you uncomfortable, than I’ll have to get over the fact that you were a child and they were dirty ass old men,” Danny declared. “It’s my right, however, to not like the under-age thing- I am an officer of the court.”

“I get it, so lets say dat it was what it was and let it be,” Ray said, moving on. “Ya know when I met ya I was only back on the streets for almost a year. I had found a girlfriend who took me in while her son was away at boarding school. Things were fun up until the time she got pregnant-”

“Wait,” Danny interrupted, “does that mean you are a…”

“No, don’t say it,” Ray said, holding his hands up in mock fright. “We fought about it, I told her she was crazy to want a baby with a man with no real income; she was dirt poor, and bustin her ass off to pay her son’s way through school. A baby wasn’t financially good sense. She resisted and so I left her.”

“Just like that,” Danny asked, frowning. “When the going got tough you got out the door, huh..?”

“I’m not proud of what I did, I really liked her,” Ray said with a solemn look. “Yet I figured if I left she wouldn’t want to keep the baby, so she must have got rid of it.”

“At least you HOPE so,” Danny supplied.

Ray frowned. “If she did the right thing, she got an abortion,” he said, his tone final.

“Was she your first relationship,” Danny wondered.

Ray glanced out of the far window then, a far-off look in his hazel eyes. “She wasn’t my first relationship,” he replied with a tone that suggested a long-ago trace of pain. “When I was 18 there were some attacks on homeless people, kids who were trying to get gang colors or some shit. I met a group of homeless kids my own age during that time and we started hanging out together in order to keep us all safe. We began trying to get ourselves into shape so in case we were attacked we would have a fighting chance.”

“Is that why you are so six-packed and muscular now,” Danny asked, running one hand over Ray’s finely chiseled abs.

“I kept it up, I realized that keeping in shape helps me deal mentally with things,” Ray nodded, taking Danny’s hand and softly kissing the inside palm. “So I wound up having a girlfriend and a dude on the side, both of them real into me. We actually ended up doin a three-way once, and she got jealous of how he and I touched each other and she broke it off with me.”

“So you stayed with the guy, then?” Danny asked, slightly jealous.

“Yeah, his name was Telly,” Ray said, “anyways that’s what he told me ta call him, his whole name was hard ta pronounce. Well, we was together for a year,” he sighed, “that is- well, until he was knifed in an alleyway.”

“Ohh NOOO,” Danny said, his mouth dropping open in shock. “I’m so sorry… was it that gang you mentioned?”

“It was one of the last homeless attacks in the city that year,” Ray said with a deadened tone. “I heard him cry from two blocks over- aint it funny how ya cant tell one voice from another in the street but ya could always pick yo lover’s voice out of a crowd..? Anyways, I came runnin an found him bleedin badly. I got his head in my lap, he looked up at me and said the words ‘She stabbed me’…and then he …died.”

“SHE?!?!?” Danny said, shocked all over again. “It was a woman?”

“Yeah, they finally caught her too, seems she was only tryin to get initiated into this project gang when she knifed Telly. She was charged with Murder 1- but she had a good lawyer who got her off because she was an underage high school student and also under-age pregnant at the time,” Ray said with a scowl. “I say she still should have went ta jail, but since that was back during women’s lib rights and all that, ‘cause she was pregnant she got off with a slap on the wrist. I’ll never forget her name, though.”

“Who was she? Someone you knew?” Danny asked, putting his hand on Ray’s arm in sympathy.

Ray shrugged. “I never knew her; well she wasn’t homeless, and those were the only people I knew, my only friends,” Ray said. “I only saw her once in the courtroom from behind, and after that they wouldn’t let us back in because we were ‘making too much noise’, or so they call it. But I hope Ms. Rena Howard never got a moment’s peace from what she did,” he said with a dark look.

Danny fell out of his chair, hitting the floor on his butt.

Ray jumped up, rushing over to a stunned Danny, who was dizzy from surprise. “Are ya okay,” Ray asked, helping Danny back to the chair.

Danny, who had said nothing for about 30 seconds, swallowed and said, “This happened… here in Seattle, right..? About 33, 34 years ago..?”

“Yeah, it’s been about that long,” Ray said, “but I got over it a long time ago. Why ya askin?”

Danny stared at him, taking a deep breath. “Well, if I’m right, I think I… know your lover’s murderer,” he replied blankly.

Ray stared at him for a minute, then he fell out of his chair, landing with a PLUNK! on the floor. “What do ya mean..?” Ray asked in quiet shock, looking up at Danny from the carpet.

Danny, who was still in shock of his own, hadn’t gotten up to help Ray. “Around the time you are talking about, the Rena Howard I know had a baby, a son- assuming it’s the same one- with the man whom I mentioned you remind me of.”

Ray got to his feet and slowly sat back down in the chair. For a moment neither one said anything.

Just then the front doorbell rang.

“I’ll go get in the shower,” Ray said, jumping up and rushing off before Danny could say anything else.

Danny, still caught up in the shock of what he’d just found out, silently got to his feet and headed for the front door, lost in thought. What if… what he suspected was true..? What IF Ray and Trey were indeed identical twins..?

Having to explain to Ray that his long-lost twin was Danny’s lover when he died, which was the real reason why Danny slept with him last night was bad enough. Having to explain to Ray that Danny had slept with both his twin and his older brother, and also his nephew- that was even worse. But how in the hell could he explain to Ray that the mother of his long-lost twin brother’s son was the same woman who murdered Ray’s lover in cold blood while pregnant with that son, and in continuing the family tradition, that same son grew up to murder his father, Ray’s twin- in cold blood..?

This was just too intense. His thoughts scattered as he reached the door and opened it.

“Well it’s about time you answered,” Claire Clark said, standing there with her eyes flashing their usual irritation. “Who are you hiding up in there that’s keeping you from letting your ex-wife inside..?”

“None of your business,” Danny snapped, clearly distracted.

Claire’s cheeks paled with anger. “Look, I drove over here all this way to look through those registries for the perfect gift for OUR godson, and the least you could do is take the time to-”

“Come back later,” Danny said abruptly, slamming the door in her face.

He turned to go upstairs and a sudden screeching and loud banging on the door was heard for about five seconds, with Claire calling Danny muffled names through the wood. Then it stopped and a car pealed out of the driveway.

He sighed as he added to his mental rolodex: call the re-paver to come fix the asphalt. Reaching his bedroom he saw Ray laying on his back, sprawled across the rumpled sheets in only his tank-top, his boxers laying in a heap on the floor. In the mini-shafts of morning sunlight coming through the frosted white drapes on the east windows, Danny got a good look at Ray’s chiseled legs and the way his large, heavy balls hung low, resting full on the bed like a sack of eggs, next to his large, limp veiny cut dick. Even soft it looked GOOD to Danny.

 “Dat sounded like one of dem women men toss out wit da trash once dey get da pussy,” Ray drawled sleepily.

 “That was my ex-wife,” Danny said; “mother of my son Lamar, unfortunately.” And he filled in the back-story on Claire.

 “So now that you gots a heap of doe she’s back to fuck wit ya, is that it,” Ray said with a sleepy chuckle. “Dat’s how da bitches be like sumtimes,” he added, scratching his nuttsack absently, the sight of which made Danny’s asshole jump in soreness-filled lust. He disrobed and climbed back into bed with Ray, who put his arms around Danny, threw one naked leg over his waist and snuggled with him in contentment. Danny couldn’t remember feeling this cozy, this comfortable, this… safe.

 “Ya know,” Ray said in that slurred way just before dropping off to sleep, “I haven’t held onto another guy like this for a looonng timee…” and then he snored.

 Danny lay there for a while, watching him, feeling the sexy way Ray’s half-naked body curved against his own, even feeling good that although Ray’s dick was pressed against his inner thigh, laying there with him wasn’t about sex. It was about just laying there with him, with Trey-

 WAIT A MINUTE, Danny’s voice thundered in his mind; THIS ISNT TREY. STOP TAKING AWAY FROM RAY, and how he makes you feel…

 Danny absorbed that, finally admitting the truth to himself. This wasn’t Trey, no matter how close the resemblance.

He decided to find out once and for all just how close the resemblance was between the two men- two men who had never met before, and yet somehow, if what Danny suspected was true, their connection was central to all their lives- Malik’s, Lamar's, Marquis's, Joanie’s, even Rah-Rah’s- and especially Joe’s life. As he lay there pondering all this, another fact came crushing in, making his eyes open with surprise. In the last ten years, he’d awakened from the same nightmare of seeing Rah-Rah gun Trey down in cold blood- and yet last night, he didn’t dream about it. It was like Ray chased the nightmare away, which was why he woke up feeling so good..! It was for this that Danny pulled himself out of the sleeping Ray’s embrace and crept next door to Lamar and Malik’s guest room. Picking up the telephone in the corner he dialed WolfRam & Hart.

The receptionist answered in seconds. “WolfRam & Hart, how may I direct your call..?”

 “Yes, this is Danny Clark in Litigation,” he said into the receiver. “Get me Pete Potters in the Lab.” After a second of silence the extension picked up.

 “This is Potters.”

 “Potters, this is Danny Clark,” Danny said softly, lest his voice carried down the hall and woke Ray.

 “Hey, how’s it going? How can I do you for?”

Danny smiled. Pete Potters had been a security guard in WA State Pen while Joe was the Warden there, and the night Malik was first released from jail Joe, who was blackmailing Danny at the time, forced him to sexually service Potters, another guard and Joe himself in a hotel, for a night of serious DL man-fucking- but Danny, who was depressed by his lust for Malik, worked off his tension by turning the tables on all three men and attacked their dicks with ass so GOOD they were all reduced to jelly. To this day, over eleven years later, Potters kept a hard-on for Danny, and took the job at WolfRam & Hart just to be get a chance to be near to him in case Danny was up for another go.

Danny knew that Potters would do anything for him, and he was banking on that. “I need a favor, Pete,” Danny said.

 “Hey pa, anything for you, sexy ass,” Potters replied raucously.

 “I need you to run a DNA test for me on a serious hush-hush,” Danny said then. “I know office policy says not to run any unauthorized exams or tests in the lab, but it’s a killer favor- one I won’t ever forget.”

 “Say no more, I like you owing me,” Potters said with a smile in his voice. “Bring the samples directly to me; no one else has to know about this.”

 “I knew I could count on you,” Danny said. “I’ll call when I’m on my way.”

 And, replacing the phone on the receiver, he crept back to the bedroom where Ray slept on, the shadows and light from the drawn shades mixing with the morning sunlight casting a sullen gloom. Danny sighed as he quietly slipped back into Ray’s arms in bed, and when Ray shifted slightly Danny, on pretense of stretching, slid his hand across Ray’s pubic hair and lightly tugged until a strand of loose hair came free. Carefully moving as to not wake the sleeping homeless guy he placed the hair on top of a tissue on his nightstand, then quietly slipped out of Ray’s arms, got quietly dressed and crept out of the house as he sent a short, pre-coded text message on his cell phone. Getting out of the front black gates he came upon a nondescript dark colored sedan sitting curbside- it was the lawyer’s cab service he sometimes used when he came home from a night of drinking with clients, and they were as reliable and discreet as ever. He got in the cab and it sped off towards WolfRam and Hart, the driver not having to speak to Danny since the coded message already told where he was going.

 Danny breathed a sigh of relief and also a sigh of regret. He hoped he was doing the right thing, that not knowing was bad enough- but then again, he was afraid that the truth about Ray might wind up being a little bit worse.