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Jae’d hit him, and the back of his neck stung as if rubbed raw where the camera strap caught on his skin. Resigned to take inventory of his wounds later, he came up with the ring of keys just as the back door began to creak open behind them.
    “Walk, don’t run,” Jae hissed in English, tucking his camera under his arm to hide it as much as he could. “If the cops see us—”
    “They’ll see us less if we run. Go!” Shoving Jae forward, Ichiro headed to his Jeep, hoping his friend could keep up.
    His legs ached a bit, and from the twinge in his knee, he knew he’d be icing the strained joint as soon as he collapsed someplace safe. Getting up to a full trot, Ichi limped around the corner and spied his waiting vehicle. A chirp of the alarm key opened the Jeep’s locks, and he slid in, hitting the ignition before Jae could get to the passenger-side door.
    A siren cut into their heavy breathing, and Ichiro slowly pulled into traffic, losing himself in the steady stream of cars and delivery trucks filling up the boulevard. Chancing their safety, he turned toward the theater, driving by its street entrance as police cars began to pull up in front with their sirens and lights going full blast.
    Breathing a sigh of relief, Jae collapsed into the Jeep’s cushioned seat and grinned mischievously over at Ichiro. “See? Told you we wouldn’t get caught.”
    “You’re going to get me killed one day, Kim Jae-Min.” Ichiro’s breath was still coming hard and fast, and he wondered if his heart would ever slow down its skipping beat. “Fuck, my knee hurts like a son of a bitch. I can’t believe you jumped on me.”
    “I wouldn’t have had to do that if you’d been watching the front.”
    “We wouldn’t have gotten out of there if I hadn’t been there to catch you. How were you going to get from the balcony to the floor? They were through the door like rabbits.”
    “True,” Jae agreed, his eyes bright with energy. “But it was fun. Does your knee really hurt?”
    “Badly,” he murmured, bending it slightly to test its flexibility, then wincing as the joint protested loudly. “Yeah, okay it hurts a little bit. I probably just strained it.”
    “Come to the house, then. We can put ice on it and get something for inflammation. My car’s safe at your place. I can get it later.” Jae settled back, extracting his camera from under his arm. “Besides, Cole wanted you to have dinner with us.”
    “And Bobby,” Ichi grumbled. “Maybe I should have let the cops catch me.”
    “Bobby isn’t bad.” Jae shrugged off Ichi’s muttering dissent. “When I needed him to check on Cole, he was there. During—when things were going bad between us. He’s a good friend to Cole. As long as you don’t go to bed with him, everything is good.”
    “That bad in the sack?” Ichi teased. “And how would you know?”
    “Don’t know. Don’t care,” Jae sniped back. “He’s bad for the heart. He goes through tons of… men… over the past few months. The longest I’ve seen him with someone was three weeks, and that’s because I think he was actually twins—one good and one naughty. He’s a good friend just bad for the heart, I think. Not for you.”
    “Not like I’m planning to go to bed with him, Jae.” He eased the Jeep into another lane. “Yeah, nice to look at but—you don’t need to warn me off. Look, don’t touch.”
    “Just don’t ever let it go beyond that, or things will get very messy. I don’t need to know who Cole would choose, you or Bobby, and if things go as they always do with Bobby, Cole’s going to end up having to make that choice.”

Chapter 3

     
    N EVER IN the history of man had one barbeque been so torturous. There’d been other feasts that ranked up there in the crimes against civilization—any dinner invitation from Vlad Tepes came to mind—but sitting at a picnic table groaning with food while directly across of Ichiro Tokugawa sucking on a rib bone had to qualify for at