It’s 1996, and Mark Vincent, senior special agent of the Washington Bureau of Investigation and Security, is sent on assignment to Prague to cancel the head of a terrorist organization. He has no doubt it will be a simple operation. After all, he’s the best, isn’t he? Only another member of the WBIS gets involved, and when everything goes south -- including the loss of valued members of his team -- Mark vows to destroy the man responsible for this debacle. Refused permission to return to the States and ordered to take time off to decompress, Mark heads to Paris, where he meets an attractive rent boy who introduces himself as Louis. Unable to resist, Mark, portraying an ordinary businessman, gives his name as Rick, and they spend the week together. However, neither man is what he portrays himself as. With this unlikely pair, can this be the start of a beautiful friendship?

The Start of a Beautiful Friendship

It was our last night together. We'd gone to a jazz club, had a late dinner, and now we strolled back to the hotel. I had my arm draped across Louis's shoulders, and he was leaning into me, with his arm around my waist.


In retrospect, that might not have been the brightest idea, but it had been a good week, and goddammit, wasn't Paris the city of lovers?


Louis was trying to teach me to say va te faitre foutre, telling me it meant "I don't care." I knew it didn't, but what the hell? I'd let him have his fun.


We passed an alley, and someone snarled, "Tapette."


"You want to come out here and say that to my face?" Louis snarled back in French.


Three burly men sauntered out. They looked Louis over from head to foot and then dismissed him. "You," the biggest one addressed me in French. "You'd be worth taking on if you weren't a fag. I'm gonna enjoy beating you to a pulp, and then maybe I'll show you what being fucked by a real man is like."


Chapter 12