Stopping a murder that happened forty years earlier may be the only way to heal a tortured mind ...<br><br>Six months after Jesse Madding is brutally tortured by Marcus Brooker, he is still experiencing flashbacks, panic attacks, and jumping at his own shadow. His lovers, Gideon Keel and Emma Coolidge, would do anything to help him, but Jesse refuses to be hospitalized for treatment, or even visit a therapist. Desperate for a change, Gideon and Emma suggest a radical solution.<br><br> Jesse wants to fix his life. More than anything, he wants to be normal again. He doesn't want to live in fear. He doesn't want to be ashamed of his scarred and mutilated body. He doesn't want to shy away from Gideon's touch. Certain that the holding pattern will kill him, he agrees to Gideon and Emma's proposed solution: travel to an alternative dimension and save Marcus Brooker from witnessing Mary's grisly murder ... in order to save Brooker's soul.

Chaos and Communion

But none of that really mattered to Jesse if Gideon was still angry. Jesse wanted to tell him about Michelle and Henry before he fell asleep—or worse, before he forgot. But if Gideon didn’t want to hear the information now, Jesse wasn’t keen to volunteer it. And it wasn’t exactly easy to read Gideon right now.


Jesse stretched out on his side, supporting his head on his hand, and watched as Gideon disappeared into the bathroom. He knew he needed to shower—or bathe—but he wasn’t sure he had the energy to get out of bed again. Relief washed through him as Gideon returned with a bowl of hot water and a cloth.


The bed bowed as Gideon sat down on the edge. His gaze kept fixed on the bowl as he soaked the cloth. Even when he wrung it out, his eyes remained averted, his lashes too low for Jesse to see anything that might help analyze his mood.


“We don’t have any of your cream to help with this,” Gideon commented.


Chapter 71