A Shot at Living

By Lou Sylvre

Anxious to leave London and its horrors behind, Brian Harrison and Jackie Vasquez move to Los Angeles. Brian hopes working for Luki, managing a small Vasquez Security branch, will leave him more time to live, love, and play with sub Jackie. But Los Angeles awakens old trauma for Jackie, and follows that with a brand new hit.

While Jackie struggles back to health after a crippling accident, Brian strives to find his balance as Jackie’s lover and Dom. Meanwhile, the more Brian defies the order not to investigate the disappearance of the previous branch manager, the deeper and darker the mystery gets.

Can the couple fan the lusty flames still burning between them, rekindle romance, and rise together in time to stand against looming dangers just ahead?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Dec 20, 2019

Lou Sylvre

LOU SYLVRE hails from southern California but now lives and writes on the rainy side of Washington State. Her personal assistant is Boudreau, a large cat who never outgrew his kitten meow. She loves her family, her friends, the felines Boudreau, Nibbles and The Lady George, a little dog named Joe, and (in random order) coffee, chocolate, sunshine, and wild roses, among other things.

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Prologue

Los Angeles, California

Espen switched a couple of small lights on and moved through the apartment as fast as he could, gathering a few belongings into a duffel. He started with the simple stuff -- anxiety meds, a box of bullets, a couple changes of clothes. He added the laptop he usually kept on the kitchen table as a decoy -- it didn’t have the files he most needed to keep out of other people’s hands, but it would probably be useful in the days ahead.

He moved toward the small extra bedroom, ready to begin the process of collecting the things he kept hidden away -- the things that, if found, could hurt him and, more importantly, hurt someone completely unable to defend herself. Before coming back here to the apartment, he’d cleaned out his office at Vasquez, Inc. He felt confident he’d left nothing dangerous behind there -- nothing physical and no data. But now, as he passed the big bay window at the front of the second story apartment, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to sweep the apartment in the same way.

His time was up.

Outside, three men were moving across Hollins Street. They slid secretively past the office, crouching below windows, staying to the shadows. They’d already determined the office was vacant, and they’d seen the light burning in the apartment upstairs. The man he was running from wasn’t among these three -- Espen would have recognized his squat figure, and his balding head would have shone in the light of the streetlamps. Still, these goons were on that man’s business, and Espen knew that this time he might not live through a confrontation.

Usually the thugs Roscoe hired were mean and strong, but not too bright. Espen hoped these three were no different. Moving quickly, he picked up the duffel, pulled the strap over his shoulder to free up his hands for climbing, and went on to the extra bedroom. He’d never used it for much except boxes he’d never unpacked after moving in -- that, and keeping some things stashed and locked up. As he passed by the built-in bureau, he saw the tiny metal strip along the drawer’s edge -- the only part of the lock he’d installed that was visible -- gleaming pink and blue as the neon from the bar across the street blinked its colors. Installing the lock had seemed a good idea at the time, but now he saw it had been a fool’s mistake. A locked drawer would be way too much temptation.

He didn’t have time to open the complicated lock now! And yet surely, someone would find what he’d hidden there. He considered the guys coming for him now, and thought Maybe they won’t figure it out. On reflection, he was pretty sure these toughs would not be the ones to ferret out his secrets. But Espen’s luck would have to be much better than it had been lately for his little black book stay hidden for long. He’d have to risk coming back for it -- and the other items he’d secured around the apartment. He couldn’t count on getting a chance to do that while the place remained vacant, but he’d have to take the risk anyway. The men outside were stomping up his stairs.

Espen raised the sash window, dropped the rope fire ladder over the side, pulled at the catches to make sure they were secure, and climbed out and down. He was nimble, and the height wasn’t great. He made it down in seconds and by the time the clumsy oafs looking for him got to the window, he was down Whittier in a doorway, looking back at them from the shadows. He was safe for now.

He tried to believe luck was with him, and he’d get back soon to clean out the rest of his secrets. Right now, though, he had to get away. He had to keep moving, and honestly, he had little hope he’d ever make it back to VSI Los Angeles. Certainly he’d never be back as a trusted employee, and most likely not even as a thief.

Chapter One

Oak Flats, Nebraska

It seemed like a hundred years since Jackie had woken up to a Midwest snow day, though in reality he’d watched a blustery snowfall outside this very window in his and Josh’s old room in Kaholo’s house less than a year ago. He’d still been a student at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, and he’d come to visit his great-uncle over the MLK day weekend. He’d gone to bed that night with clouds obscuring a sickle moon, and in that misty light he’d dreamed sweet and sexy dreams of Brian Harrison.

He’d just found Brian again a few weeks earlier, six years after their first meeting -- six years after Brian had helped rescue him from a sociopath at a crime lord’s compound in the Umatilla. Back then, Jackie, an already traumatized teen, had instinctively trusted Brian. When they’d met again last year, he still felt that way -- intrigued, connected, and totally safe. He imagined at the time that he might have found a friend, a lover, and the Dom of his sub dreams. Hence the hot visions of Brian warming his dreams that wintry night.

Now, a year later, he smiled at the January morning outside his window, watched the frosted branches glitter under a pale sun riding low in a crystal sky, and snuggled back against that very same Brian in the flesh.

Despite calendar proof to the contrary, Jackie felt years older -- no doubt because so much had happened in little more than a year’s time. He’d graduated from the University of Nebraska, got together with Brian, and spent four long, frustrating, scary months in London, England. When he’d left the States, he’d known better than to have specific expectations of what London would be like, or the university he’d be attending, or even seeing Brian more and becoming his exclusive lover and sub. But no one could have predicted the horror story those months in England had become.

Some things had been good -- specifically the being-Brian’s-lover-and-sub part. Although, truthfully, Brian had been so busy with work that Jackie had spent a lot of frustrated time waiting for him to show or call or answer his phone. He wasn’t quite sure if trying to keep busy and keep his mind off not seeing his boyfriend was part of the reason he’d gotten into such deep, deep shit. But whatever the reason, it had been shit and it certainly did get deep.

Multiple murder deep. Pair of true psychos deep. Jackie’d had to save himself and a friend from them, and he’d pulled it off pretty well. Still, in the end Brian had come to the rescue with exquisite timing.

In the aftermath, Brian had been politely asked to resign his Scotland Yard job, and Jackie had been less than welcome to return to London University -- somehow the blame for his psych prof having been a sociopathic murderer had come to rest on Jackie’s own compact, freckled shoulders. He and Brian had decided they would be all too happy to put London behind them. They’d packed up their things, Marley the cat and Soldier the dog, and booked their flights.

Maybe we’ll come back someday, though, Brian had said after they’d boarded the plane at Heathrow, U.S. bound. I’ve lived here more than six years, and up until now, I loved it. If you were with me, I’d love it more. Jackie would have been willing to talk more about the possibility, but as soon as the plane reached cruising altitude, with its accompanying reduced engine noise and unplugged ears, Brian got horribly, mercilessly airsick. The subject had never come up again, but he supposed it probably would sometime in the next year or two.

Meanwhile here they were, the two of them, still at Kaholo’s house after Christmas and New Year’s. They were enjoying a very long layover on the way to Los Angeles, where Jackie would be continuing to work toward his master’s and then hopefully his doctorate. Brian would soon be working for Luki. He’d been hired to manage the recently abandoned Los Angeles office of Vasquez Security.

Or, make that VSI -- Vasquez Security, Incorporated. After recovering from cancer, Luki had taken a giant step back from his close management and daily work with the very successful business and made it a limited corporation, with Jackie, Josh, and Kaholo owning a 29 percent share between them. Luki held on to his own 35 percent while Sonny held 16 percent in his own right, meaning as a married couple they still had a controlling 51 percent of the business. The rest had been divvied up between Josh’s year-old daughter, Jade, a marvelous friend named Margie, and a stock pool for VSI employees. He’d explained to Brian and Jackie that decentralizing had been part of his plan, making branch managers much more independent.

I guess that means you’re working for yourself, sort of, Jackie had said to Brian later while they walked a path through the oak trees at dusk, throwing sticks along the way for Bear, Luki’s chow mix, and Soldier, whose white Belgian shepherd coat made him hard to spot in the snow.

Hah! Brian smiled and took Jackie’s hand, warming it even through their gloves. I don’t think there will ever be even a hint of a question about who’s the boss at VSI, to tell the truth.

Jackie had laughed and teased, You mean the answer isn’t going to be Brian Harrison?

Brian had actually snorted at the ridiculous idea. Hell, Luki’s nickname is ‘Boss.’ I don’t think ‘decentralizing’ went so far as to change that. And besides who would ever want to argue with him?

But when Jackie spoke to Jude, Luki’s office admin -- who also happened to be a very good friend -- she snickered.

He just thinks he’s the boss, she’d said. And I let him go on believing.

Encouraged, Jackie told Brian he wanted the two of them to stay an extra week or two in Nebraska before heading to Los Angeles. Brian had his doubts, but agreed to approach Luki with the idea. Alas, a supportive word from Jude didn’t help. Luki wasn’t swayed.

He asked, Why?

The look on his face -- or rather the lack of expression -- wasn’t heartening, but