Wake-up Call by Becky Black

Author:Becky Black [Black, Becky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2017-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

“You never raided this place, did you?” Fran asked as they walked into a pub with a rainbow flag over the door.

“Raided? No. Why? Do you think we should?”

“Of course not. It’s just a police thing, isn’t it?”

“You watch too much telly. We don’t raid pubs just for being gay, not anymore. Only if we hear of anything illegal happening. Drugs. Underage drinking. Sex on the premises.”

“I don’t think this one is that kind of place,” Fran said with a grin. “I’ve certainly never seen that. Or done it, obviously. I mean, I’ve snogged a guy or two pretty hard.” He held up his hands in an “I surrender” gesture, grinning again. “So cuff me.”

“Maybe later.”

Dez was trying to act cool, but he wasn’t super-comfortable with this and had started wishing he’d never accepted the invitation to go for a drink with Fran and his friends. But he’d wanted to at least try. He’d never been one for coming to gay pubs and clubs. You never knew who you might meet there. If it was someone from the job, things could get a bit awkward. Plenty had changed, at least in theory. But the culture, away from the senior officers, in the locker room and the canteen, wasn’t so very different from what it might have been thirty years ago. Policies, rules, guidelines, they could all be changed with the stroke of a pen. People weren’t so easy.

At least this pub was fairly quiet. He couldn’t take noise and crowds yet. He couldn’t even be in that kitchen at the café with Fran and a few women. Loud music and too many people in his personal space would be more than he could stand.

They got drinks at the bar and Fran led him to a table of young men, who all greeted him heartily. He introduced Dez only with his first name—and only “Dez,” not “Derek”—and as “my neighbor.” That suited Dez. He didn’t want anyone twigging from his full name who he was. He didn’t want them knowing he was police. He knew plenty of gay guys hated the police. He didn’t blame them for it one bit, not with some of the shit he’d heard—in the canteen and locker room—and had even seen go down in the custody suite.

It was possible someone would recognize him since his face had been in all of the papers for a few days after the shooting, and then again for the trial—which, thank God, had been short, and he’d avoided giving evidence, because Simmons had changed his plea to guilty at the last minute. But he’d changed his hairstyle, shaved the goatee he used to wear. And it was dark in here. Someone would have to be looking very hard to recognize him.

A couple of the guys did look quite hard, but from the eye contact and the vibes he got, that was more to check him out. He didn’t encourage that. There was really only one person he wanted checking him out just now.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.