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Taking Chances, by E. L. Van Hine and L.H. Nicoll

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belbbmfan:
hello re-reader!

today chapters 46-50 http://louisev.livejournal.com/87190.html

from chapter 46:


Ennis came awake slowly, becoming aware of Ellery’s breath as it tickled his ear, the sticky tightness of drying come on his thighs, the solid weight of Ellery’s arm lying across his chest. Why did I do that? he wondered as his thoughts cohered, remembering how he dropped to his knees, heart thudding with desperate longing to take Ellery’s cock in his mouth. Then, climbing onto the bed and propping himself up for penetration. Begging. Ellery’s words came back to him: “I need my man inside me...” he had now experienced that keening need, which nothing else but being penetrated, could satisfy.

But why? The question circled back like an angry bull in a rodeo ring, pawed the ground, and charged him. Why now? It had to be more than simply Ellery’s skill with a rifle, his prowess in subduing an armed sniper, enhanced by his easy acceptance of his duty under fire. More than Ennis seeing him spring fearlessly into action to protect him when his truck window exploded, and more than his calm certainty in performing his duty, knowing there were men tracking him who wanted him dead. What was it, then?

“What’s it like? Fuckin a cop.” The words came back to him in the arrogant, sassy voice of Brad Sevigny. He had forced the encounter out of his mind, and hadn’t even told Ellery about it, that’s how angry he was about this boy, this kid – daring to presume, to ask things he would never tell anyone, invading that intimacy he had at one time, shared only with one, his precious secret, and now – with the one person he held dearer than anyone living.

“I bet he’s great in bed.” Stupid kid. What was he there for, and why did it trouble Ennis so much? He knew what he had to do, even if bringing up the subject confirmed for him his worst, most baseless anxiety – Ellery had to know.

belbbmfan:
from chapter 47:

Ennis made tuna sandwiches and soup, dishing up leftover fruit salad from dinner the night before, and they ate together on the patio, Ennis watching for hummingbirds. But he was distracting himself.

“Ya know, sometime yesterday mornin after we didn’t give depositions to His Royal Assholeness, you an me were sittin in yer truck an you said you wanted ta tell me somethin, in bed, with our clothes off, holdin on ta me, or somethin a that nature,” Ellery said.

“Oh,” Ennis set down his tuna sandwich, his face growing pale. “I was sorta hopin you’d forget about that.”

“Okay. I thought ya needed ta get somethin off yer chest, Ennis.”

“Well, I do.” He picked up the half-finished square of sandwich, nibbled on it, set it down again, picked up his soup spoon and set it down again.

“Well ya want ta tell me or are we finishin lunch an gettin naked again for this conversation? I don’t mind – just askin.


I just bet he don't!  :laugh:

belbbmfan:
more from chapter 47 very painful memories for Ennis:

Ennis shook his head, tossed the sandwich down as if declaring surrender to his appetite. “That ain’t why. It’s on account a... the killin down in Sage when I was a kid.”

“Killin?” Ellery’s eyes widened slightly, but he kept his tone soft.

Ennis nodded, his eyes now fixed at a point between their plates, and he ran his thumbnail along a crease in the tablecloth, as if measuring the distance an ant could crawl in the time it took him to draw the next breath.

“Yeah. Couple a ol’ ranch hands lived up there. You know, queer men. My dad didn’t care for them one bit, always said somethin if he ran into one of em in town. Earl an Rich. I told Jack this story, about my daddy takin me an my brother K.E. out when I was about nine, an there was Earl, lyin dead in a ditch outside a town.” Ennis’s breath caught.

“Oh, Ennis,” Ellery said, his eyes shining now, and he reached out a hand, gently touching the hand that was working his thumb into the tablecloth. Ennis stopped moving his hand, accepting the caress as comfort, took another breath.

“Daddy laughed about it, that was the part that hurt. Anyhow... I told Jack if he was ta come through that door right then, an saw me lyin there with my cock stickin half in em, he’d go get his tire iron an do the same ta me right there an then. Jack didn’t talk too much about doin this ranchin thing after that.”

“Jesus god, Ennis. How come you never told me this before now? You know if you don’t ever want ta come out an tell people about bein queer that is entirely up to you, this ain’t a friendly world for our kind, but I never knew you of all people had the best reason of all ta keep mum about it.”

mariez:
Good Morning -

Thanks for the quotes, Fabienne!

It was such a relief when Ennis finally told Ellery about Earl and Rich - so painful, but Ellery really needed to know.

From Chapter 49 - so many twists and turns to the mysteries:

They sat together in the interview room after Leon was returned to his cell, Ellery looking down at the table and then finally back up at Wes. “I … don’t get it, Wes, I really don’t. Why would Sevigny go to my bar an hire some boys ta go put Ennis in the hospital? This must a happened right before he called me on that Friday. Which means he lined up somebody ta go after Ennis at the same time he broke faith with the Brotherhood an decided ta start tippin me off. But I don’t get why.”

“Okay, let’s say he was involved in Wilkes’s death….” Wes said.

“That’s the other thing. Why would those red bandana boys be skulkin around in the dead a night just ta blow Wilkes away? He wasn’t even queer.”

“Maybe that is why,” Wes said.

“Huh?”

“I said… maybe that’s why. Sevigny said he was interested in em an Wilkes turned em down.”

“You think Sevigny had em shot because he turned em down?”

“Stronger motive than pickin some random guy who ain’t queer out a the summer school boys an just shootin em in the middle a the night. That’s the part that never added up. Koonz told the officer at the hospital that Amos Marigold gave em a list a names, an to look fer queer boys outside the Red Stallion bar, an if they got any a the names on the list they would get five hundred dollars, an fer any other known queers from the Red Stallion they’d get two hundred dollars. An Jim Allen an you an Ennis were on the list.”

“Okay, an Wayne an Rudy an Dupree weren’t on the list, an they probably mistook Dupree fer me because a the car.”

“An Wilkes never went to the Red Stallion. The Brotherhood weren’t huntin fer guys on the campus a the U. So…” Wes set a thick finger down on the edge of the table to emphasize his point. “So the Wilkes killin had nothing ta do with Amos Marigold. But if Sevigny was involved with these boys, he could a decided he could kill the boy who pushed em off by just hirin out an make it look like one a the contracts Amos had made.”

“An then afterwards, finger the Brotherhood guys an look like a hero," Ellery replied, nodding. "An have somebody beat up Ennis bad enough ta distract me so that I wouldn’t look at his story too careful, an maybe blame the kidnappin on the Brotherhood too, thus coverin his involvement with them as well. Or if things got tight fer Sevigny he could admit he used ta be a member but bought em off.”

“When he really paid em to kill a boy who turned em down.”

“Not exactly the kind a crime I like ta see written up in the paper, Wes. People are gonna think queers eat their own kind.”

“In this case, sounds like they do.”

“An Worrell, don’t forget Worrell,” Ellery said. “Come on, let’s get outta here, I got ta go find out if Ennis is feelin better. We can interview the others Monday maybe… I think we got enough ta charge Sevigny an put em in a lineup.”



Keeps me on the edge of my seat - and I already know what happened!

Marie

belbbmfan:
from chapter 50

The afternoon was waning… and so far the day had been consumed by Ellery’s work. This had to be bothering Ennis, he thought. He wondered if his exhaustion were a way for Ennis to escape from the inescapable reality of murder, assault, and hatred. He had avoided it all of his life, after the horror of seeing the consequences of men expressing their love for one another openly… and now, Ellery had convinced Ennis to take the chance he had avoided for his entire adult life, and his life – both of their lives -- had now been threatened repeatedly. Ennis had been beaten, punched, hit over the head, kidnapped and shot at – all in the same week. And yet – he had not blamed Ellery, or his job, or his position at the Red Stallion, for what had happened, even though they were largely responsible. If Ellery were not doing police work – he would not have been targeted by Brad Sevigny and his plot, and Ennis would not have been beaten and kidnapped. If Ellery had not been on Amos Marigold’s hit list, due to his professional contact with him, they would not have been shot at.

For the second time that day, Ellery found himself ruminating. About Ennis, about their relationship… and about his career. Ennis had said he did not want to get rid of the bar, even after what had happened to him there. Ellery wondered whether it would make Ennis happier if Ellery were to give up his job. But could he give it up?

He didn’t think Ennis would ever ask him to. But maybe… considering how threatening Ellery’s work had become to both of them – it would be the best thing to do. Ellery didn’t have to stay in this little house, pretending to be a middle class civil servant. That was his retreat from his past, from his family… from the legacy his father had also shunned. He could afford a luxurious home, as remote from the world as they desired, with as much land as they wanted, to ride through on horsebac, lock themselves away from the strife and violence of the outside world and be together – alone.

There was a great temptation in this – but even as he fantasized about taking Ennis away to a private wilderness all their own, he knew that he himself could never be happy this way. It would be like running away.

The only way out – was through. Capture and convict the killers, nail Sevigny on whatever conspiracy he was involved in, put the bad guys away. That is why Ellery worked when he did not need to. To make the world safer for his kind.

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