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

After the MRI, the doctor finally came in. He was young, exhausted, and had, thank God, consulted with the Belmeade’s staff. “Mr. Rothe, I have good news and bad news.”


“I’m injured but I’ll live?” Bryn said. Then he laughed as though he were joking when the doctor and the nurse threw him curious and semi-worried glances. “Kidding. What’s wrong with my knee?”


“You’ve got a small tear in your MCL. That’s your—”


“Medial collateral ligament,” Bryn finished for him. “The thing that keeps my knee from bending the wrong way.”


The doctor gave Bryn a tolerant smile. “The good news is, it’s barely a class II injury, and there was no damage to any other part of the knee or leg. That’s excellent, as usually these kinds of injuries trigger others.”


“I’ll need you in a brace and off the knee for at least four weeks. You can do your rehabilitation at the Belmeade Center. They have a top-notch staff there.”


Chapter 44