Sex can be a dangerous business. So can love. On the worst day of his life, Wren Gallagher wants oblivion when he steps into Tricks for a drink. When a mysterious stranger steps up to pay his tab, he offers Wren the key to fulfilling his dreams of prosperity and true love. But appearances are not always what they seem. His savior owns the escort agency ? Louer, and he wants the young and handsome Wren as part of his stable of men-for-hire. Down on his luck, Wren figures, why not? He needs the money. When he joins, though, he doesn't count on meeting Rufus, another escort with whom he falls hopelessly in love. But their love story will have to overcome the obstacles of not only trading love for money, but ? Louer's dark -- and deadly -- secrets.

A Dangerous Game

Of course I open it first when I get back upstairs. No use mentioning that I’m not one to delay gratification.


Inside, the single sheet says only five words. And I feel a chill.


I lock the front door. Hurry through the kitchen and lock the back door.


Wren clicked out of the document, unsure if he could bear to read any more. If this really was Rufus’s life, it was sad. Sad especially because the young man he had met only yesterday did not seem like the bright young man in these pages, someone who had the wherewithal to write a book based on a play by Shakespeare.


Wren powered down the laptop, closed it, and did his best to return it as it had been in the duffel bag, burying it under Rufus’s clothes. As he was doing so, he wondered what had happened to all Rufus’s belongings—the furniture, the car. Did he still have them? Were they at the other home he had mentioned?


Chapter 47