Ellis Parker is a lucky man: he escaped his persecuting family, survived his tour of duty, and met Maxwell Clark in the city of New Amsterdam. Clark showed Ellis more than the ropes: Clark helped Ellis figure out who he is -- a gay submissive with a massive fixation on a beautiful, mysterious ballet dancer named Bryn Rothe. Ellis knows a Good Man when he sees one, and he wants nothing more than to score a first date with Bryn.<br><br>Little does Ellis know that Bryn has a violent past that is crawling out of shallow graves to haunt him. Even his hectic schedule and beloved stage aren’t enough to distract him. It’s impossible for Bryn to figure out how he feels about Ellis with his demons between them, but when Ellis saves Bryn not once but twice, Bryn is forced to admit that there’s something about Ellis that Bryn might not merely want but need.<br><br>Together, they journey to the scene of Bryn’s original crime -- Charles Towne, South Carolina. There they will dig up secrets that might explain Bryn’s tortured life but might also be his -- and Ellis’s -- undoing.

Earthquakes

“Hey,” said a ragged, scratchy, hoarse voice. “Hey. Hey, Bryn. Down here, man.”


Bryn’s insides quaked, liquefied, and he thought he might piss himself. Slowly, he tipped down his chin and made eye contact with the man who had crawled under Bryn’s chair and was lying on the floor, facing up and smiling at Bryn. He was pale blue from lack of oxygen. His tongue was swollen, and his eyes bulged like an astronaut in space without a helmet, desperately seeking atmosphere and not finding any. Around his neck was a ring of nasty bruises and rope burn.


Jared grinned at Bryn. “You should probably answer that.”


Bryn jumped when his phone started to ring again. He looked at the screen. It said Mommy Dearest was calling. Her. Again.


When Bryn looked down, Jared was no longer there. Bryn killed his phone, shut it off entirely. He tore out of his costume in record time. He threw on warm-ups, grabbed his stuff, and fled the room, leaving the lights blazing and the door wide open.3


Chapter 17