A cannibalistic serial killer targeting gay men is on the loose. Devin, who has become increasingly erratic in the last two months, just split up with Gary, his lover of three years. Vanni, a habitué of the gay clubs, makes extra spending money on his knees in the club johns. Is one of these men the killer? Or will one of them instead become the killer’s next target? Detective Hollis Robbins is in charge of the case. He intends to stop the killer, if he can. When the killer strikes again the four men’s lives intertwine as the search for the murderer intensifies. Will the attraction that two of them begin to feel for each other survive the hunt? Do they have the strength to continue on after tragedy strikes and teaches them that love can be bittersweet?

The Beast Within

Hollis looked abashed. “Sorry.” He concentrated on picking off the mushrooms, carefully lining them up on his plate before he took a bite of the pizza.


Vanni watched thoughtfully. “Next time I’ll order it without.”


“Hey, I invited myself in, more or less, I can deal.” He looked at Vanni then. “Next time?”


“Next time you invite yourself in.”


“We caught him, so…” Hollis spread his hands, not looking at Vanni. “I just came over to make sure you were all right as per Abbie’s orders.”


Vanni nodded. “Well you can see I’m okay so anytime you’re ready to leave go ahead. You probably should go home and sleep anyway. You’ve been up for what, twenty-four hours already?”


“So have you,” Hollis replied tartly. “And you were hurt on top of it. You should be the one in bed and resting, not up eating junk food.”


“My life, my body, I’ll damned well eat junk food if I want to.”


Chapter 29