Bouncer’s Folly (12 page)
Bouncer’s Folly: Zara’s Bois 3
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Zara screamed again, his entreaty coming out choked and muffled so he gave Vale a beseeching look instead.
Vale cupped his face. “Shh, shh. I know. But it’s not going to hurt as much as you think. I guarantee you won’t feel a thing.” He surprised Zara when he stripped off the tape.
Zara gasped, working his mouth before Vale roughly caught his chin.
“One peep, and it goes back on.”
“Ramsey will never believe I OD’d again. He just helped me get rid of my stash. He knows I wouldn’t go back on my word. I promised him.”
“How touching that you two have grown so close in just a weekend.”
Vale sneered and struck him with the back of his hand. “A pity you couldn’t give me the same consideration.”
Zara shook his head trying to clear the stars proliferating before his eyes. He didn’t anticipate Vale’s treatment getting any nicer as time went on and his heart pounded with all the unknown things the man had planned for him. “Please. You don’t have to do this.”
“A few weeks ago I might not have had to do this. But now,” he nodded and glared, “I have to do this.”
Zara took a deep breath to scream just as the window facing out onto the fire escape exploded in a hail of shattered glass.
Vale leaped from the bed, snatching the syringe as he crossed the room to confront the man who had come tumbling into the room.
Ramsey rolled to his feet just as Vale raised the hypodermic needle and swung it in a downward arc towards Ramsey’s neck.
Zara screamed as Ramsey feinted left and caught Vale’s wrist with both hands.
The two men struggled for the needle, Vale forcing Ramsey back and slamming him against the wall.
Ramsey brought up a knee to smash into Vale’s balls, but it didn’t have any effect. The man was too far-gone and wouldn’t let go of the needle. He aimed it in a perilous trajectory toward Ramsey’s chest, thumb on the plunger.
Zara’s heart lodged in his throat as he watched the battle, Vale towering several inches over Ramsey and looking like an avenging giant on the rampage before Ramsey wrapped both hands around Vale’s and turned the syringe towards Vale’s chest.
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He flung one leg behind Vale’s with a growl and flipped the man towards the floor.
Zara watched as Vale tumbled to his back, Ramsey following him down.
Vale grunted beneath Ramsey’s weight, eyes widening and mouth forming an “O” of surprise right before Ramsey thrust the needle into his chest and pushed down the plunger with a feral howl of triumph.
Zara watched Ramsey stumble to his feet, panting and wincing, hair and clothes sprinkled with glass. His gaze flitted to the syringe sticking out of Vale’s chest before quickly going back to Ramsey.
Ramsey rushed over to the bed, undoing one of the wrist cuffs before Zara instantly curved an arm around his neck. “He didn’t hurt you did he?”
Zara shook his head.
Ramsey unfastened the other cuff and Zara threw his other arm around his neck, nuzzling his throat and inhaling deep.
“I thought he was going to kill you.”
“I don’t go down that easily, baby.”
Zara pulled back to look at him. “I have to tell you something.”
“I already know, Zara.”
“You…how—”
“Travis told me. Of course, it was only an educated guess before now.”
“But
how
did he figure it out?”
“He’s Trevor’s twin.”
And that was all Ramsey needed to say. The same way Zack had recognized him in Trevor’s body, Travis recognized when his brother wasn’t his brother anymore. “How do you feel about it?”
“About your being Zara?”
He nodded, heart pounding and almost stopping when Ramsey smiled.
“What should I call you?”
Zara hesitated, trying to read Ramsey’s mood, but his expression was unfathomable.
“I’m just asking so I’ll know who to say ‘I love you’ to when I do say it.”
New life, new beginning.
Zara grinned. “You can call the man who loves you Trevor.”
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Travis stormed his brother’s apartment trailing the police, not knowing what to expect once inside. He certainly wasn’t expecting to see a dead man on the bedroom floor with a hypodermic needle sticking out of his chest and standing several feet away Ramsey covered in glass and Trevor cuddled against him in just a pair of boxers.
“He was going to kill me,” Trevor said, staring at the body on the floor.
Again
, Travis thought as the police went to work securing the scene and separating Ramsey and Trevor to obtain statements before the CSI unit arrived to take over.
Once the authorities were finally gone and the door closed behind them, Travis released the breath it seemed he had been holding the last twenty-four hours.
He sat on the window sill over which Ramsey had gone flying only a couple of hours before to save Trevor’s life. He watched Trevor snuggled against Ramsey as they both sat on the bed, probably both coming down off an adrenaline rush. Travis knew because he was still coming down off one of his own.
He stood and made his way over to the bed.
Ramsey and Trevor stood to meet him halfway, holding onto each other and their clinginess bringing a smile to Travis’ lips when a voice sounded from above.
You have done well, human.
Travis gaped, looked to Ramsey and Trevor to see if they had heard the voice too and found both of them smiling. “Is that—”
“My angels. Well, at least one of them.” Trevor glanced at the ceiling.
“Thanks, guys!”
You are welcome, child
.
“Can you ask them about my brother?”
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“You can ask them yourself.” Trevor smiled but Travis caught a flash of pain in his blue eyes and his own heart ached in sympathy.
He glanced up at the ceiling the way Trevor had a moment before and was rewarded with the flickering vision of his brother’s face bracketed by two others that Travis assumed were Zara’s angels. “Trevor.”
The vision smiled and nodded.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m okay. Are you?”
Travis hesitated before his corporeal twin stepped close to wrap one arm around his shoulders.
“I’ll take care of him, Trevor.”
Travis turned to him with a grateful smile, torn between missing his brother’s soul and rejoicing that Trevor’s body lived on.
“Don’t mourn me, Travis. I’m happy.”
Travis choked back a sob as the images on the ceiling shimmered then evaporated. “Bye, Trevor,” he whispered and turned to…Trevor. “This is going to take some getting used to.”
“I know.”
“Next to my parents, he was the only family I had.”
“I’m not going to pretend that I can replace him, but I’d like to try and be your family too, me and my brother Zack, if you’ll let us.”
Travis nodded, heart embracing the new soul. “I’d like that.”
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BOUNCER’S FOLLY
Zara’s Bois 3
THE END
WWW.GRACIECMCKEEVER.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gracie C. McKeever is an author from the Bronx and aside from several side trips along the way, she has lived and worked her entire life in the New York City area. She has been writing since the ripe old age of seven when two younger brothers were among her earliest, captive audience for various short story readings and performances.
An eclectic and voracious reader whose audience has grown outside of her supportive family members, she's had the great fortune of being able to incorporate two of her favorite passions and talents, reading and writing, as a book reviewer for several online e-zines as a regular staff member and freelancer.
Her short stories, novellas, and poetry have had exposure in various literature and art magazines, as well as other venues online and in print.
She's also proud to be a member of the Worlds' Oldest Active Homeless Paper Street News family and has seen numerous articles, poems, and novel excerpts published. She has also had a poetry reading on Pseudo On-line Network, a Street News Review.
In 2001, Gracie caught the erotica bug, sinking her teeth into her first erotic romance e-book for a review and hasn't looked back since. An instant affinity for the genre spawned her first erotic romance title, Beneath the Surface, published in 2006 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com