Garner working as a waiter at an upscale restaurant with a growing attraction to a man named Alonzo, who always asks to be put in his section for dinner. One night after work, the man is assaulted while trailing Garner. Garner goes to his aid, but is shot for his trouble.<br><br>Taking time off from work to recover, Garner is resting on a park bench when Alonzo suddenly appears at the other end of the bench. Garner never saw him approach. He asks why Alonzo is trailing him.<br><br>After some hesitation, Alonzo explains he wants to recruit Garner to help fight against others who systematically hunt people like himself. Garner isn’t inclined to get involved in anything dangerous, but he does finds Alonzo more and more attractive, so he agrees to consider the idea. As he learns more about Alonzo’s bizarre and dangerous subculture, what Garner really wants to know is whether Alonzo is romantically interested in him at all.

Call to Love

The figures standing over him had been talking in whispers, of which he caught only the occasional word. Now they went into action. Two of them pinned him down, one kneeling on his shoulders, the other on his knees. The man on his shoulders produced something, and a small but blinding light was shone into his eyes.


Garner blinked, but glared up at the shadowy face beyond the light. The head moved slowly from side to side, and made a disappointed noise.


The face of a third man bent down and stared at him, before nodding.


“No,” the man grunted. “He doesn’t.”


But at that moment there erupted the sound of struggling nearby and the man stood up again and turned away. Garner heard the sounds become definite grunts, as of someone being kicked or hit, and then silence. Garner bit his lip to keep his anger inside.


The man now turned back and bent over Garner again. Then he turned his head.


Chapter 48