Edwin Masters has spent his entire life lusting after one car -- a 1962 Alfa Romeo Spider 2600. When he finally buys one, it changes the entire shape and meaning of his world. The car comes with a guest, and the restless spirit is awakened by Edwin.<br><br>Cooper James, the young man who died behind the wheel forty-seven years earlier, haunts the Spider and he wants a life. He wants Edwin. So he reaches out, sucking Edwin into a deepening abyss by exploiting demons from a past Edwin can't break from.<br><br>Edwin resists, struggling against the phantom in favor of an attractive, exciting young man who wants to be with him, Carson Heston. Carson holds the key to Edwin's salvation, but every time he gets close, Cooper terrorizes him. Edwin knows he'll be lost forever if he submits to Cooper's dark promise of release and relief, but that might be the only way to save Carson's life.

On a Bruised Road

There was an entire institution dedicated to the mysteries of death. Several, in fact. But Carson hadn’t stepped inside a church since he was twelve, and he didn’t know if he wanted his return to the religion of his childhood to be dependent on a dead eighteen-year-old haunting his male lover.


Unfortunately, it was the only workable solution that stuck in Carson’s mind after Edwin had provided the details of every conversation and every dream. Some of it had been difficult to hear. If he had seen the entire dynamic unfolding on the movie screen, he would have been intrigued. And maybe even a little turned on. But Edwin’s explanation did nothing more than horrify him. Edwin wouldn’t say as much, but it was clear that Cooper had manipulated him, digging at his mind again and again, until Edwin had no choice but to break.


Chapter 72