The Great North, Quebec, 1934. Joe Vega, the Beast, has been locked up in Linhart Prison for three years. The brutish guards harass him because of his size, but Joe remains cool. Until Christophe Dubois, the disowned son of an affluent politician, is led into Joe's cell. From the moment Joe sees him, he suspects the ginger-head is trouble. Christophe is bold, curious, and feisty, and Joe can't resist the temptation of climbing into the man's bunk for long. However, the beautiful spoiled Christophe is a furnace to which both guards and convicts want to warm their hands, and Joe must fight to keep Christophe safe. Linhart Prison may be a cruel place, but when the two men are released from its walls, they find an even tougher world out there. Is the flame burning between Joe and Chris enough to keep them together?

Linhart's Beautiful Beast

“Stop talking, Levin,” Joe said, under his breath, turning his attention back to the split trunk of the larch he was murdering. But for who? He didn’t really know anymore. They were disorganized, barely supervised, untrained for this type of work, yet, it somehow got done. Someone yelled timber and they all looked around in a panic, waiting to see where the next crash would come from. The guards couldn’t supervise or organize the work―they barely knew what they were doing out here. Bishop, the head guard, used to be a postman. What was Murphy thinking? And Joe couldn’t even count the number of times they’d gotten lost heading back to the Icebox last year. Until Cooke had had the brilliant idea of providing the guards with compasses. Inmates had tried to make a run for it, but they’d never gotten very far. They were circled by miles and miles of nothingness. If you didn’t know how to hunt or built a shelter out there, you were better off doing your time quietly.


Chapter 21