Ryan is a young artist hoping to make a name for himself. When he meets a man who offers to help him advance his career, he accepts. His career takes off when Merrick arranges two shows for Ryan at a local gallery. Ryan is elated, especially when their relationship becomes more personal. What he doesn’t expect is to end up being abused, physically and emotionally, as Merrick tightens his control over the younger artist.<br><br>After a vicious beating, Ryan manages to escape, naked except for a bedspread wrapped around himself. Policeman Shaun Levitt finds him cowering in an alley. Taking the battered young man under his wing, Shaun begins the slow process of helping Ryan come to grips with what happened.<br><br>Will Ryan learn to trust again? Or will he forever look at any man who might be interested in him as another potential abuser ... including Shaun?

In the Name of Love

For the next hour, they sat in the park Ryan had found a few days ago, half a mile from the boarding house. Despite the cold, there were people out, some walking dogs, older couples meandering the paths, mothers and children at the playground. Ryan did quick sketches of as many of them as he could, until his fingers began to feel numb.


“You need gloves,” Shaun said at one point.


“I can’t draw when I’m wearing them,” Ryan told him. “Even if I had some…” He shrugged, going back to a sketch of an older man pointing to a plane flying overhead. He and his wife watched it long enough for Ryan to dash off three impressions of their faces. “Perfect,” he said when they finally continued on their walk.


“You’re amazing,” Shaun said. “Thirty seconds each and you caught what they were feeling. Now they just need hair—”


Chapter 75