Dragon Bridge

By E. D. Parr

Tired from his high stress work fighting cyber-crime, Key Alder takes a vacation on a beautiful Italian coast. He travels from one gorgeous town to another and after a perilous journey lost in the mountains, he settles into his hotel and relaxes.

In a beachside café, next to a warm pale-blue ocean, a performer hands out fliers for an arts festival in a mountain village. Lured by adventure, Key attends an evening performance of fire juggling acrobats in the legendary village piazza.

Claudio Di Fiore, the star of the show, sees Key in the audience and is captured by a wonderful feeling he’s unaccustomed to. Claudio wants Key. Key is enchanted by Claudio. A passionate love grows between the two men.

When Claudio’s mysterious ancient family threaten to tear them apart, will Key risk everything to stay with his loved one?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evernight
• Release date: Jul 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9780369506641

Book preview

Published by EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ® at Smashwords

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2022 E.D. Parr

ISBN: 978-0-3695-0664-1

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Editor: CA Clauson

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DRAGON BRIDGE

E.D. Parr

Copyright © 2022

Chapter One

Key Alder raised his glass to his lips joining in the toast. This was the last day at the office for a colleague. A long serving agent and source of excellent ideas, the woman would be missed. The farewell gathering after work served for her to receive her leaving gift and good wishes from everyone. The pale golden bubbles in Key’s glass swished against the seam of his lips. His car waited in the underground car park that day so Key didn’t taste the expensive champagne. He sighed inwardly. Key’s fatigue weighed on him. It often brought inexplicable sadness with it. Tired from the daily battle to keep the public safe from internet crime, Key watched Maria shake hands with the special agent in charge of their department, and then, along with all his colleagues, he applauded.

An hour later as he drove home, Key’s eyes misted. He shook away the gathering tears, alarmed at his tumbling emotions. Stopped at a traffic light he opened his window. The blast of cold late February night air stung his face. He drove on home.

Key heaved a breath. Someone had taken his space in the communal car park of the small apartment block again. He stopped behind the vehicle, blocking its exit and narrowing the route in and out of the lot so that not many cars would be able to pass the rear of his. Fucking hell. Key rubbed his forehead. The urge to ram the offending automobile into the wall surrounding the parking area bit at him. He closed his eyes. Moments passed. Then with a deep sigh, Key reversed his old Mustang and drove around the back of the enclosure. He parked under an arch of trees, their bare, black, claw-like branches clasped together. Key got out and locked the door. Patches of the damp blue roof glistened in a filtered shower of light from one of the streetlights nearby. Drops of water from the branches above fell on his cheek like tears. Sadness flooded Key.

Warmth from the central heating greeted Key as he entered his lonely home. He tugged off the scarf around his neck, pulled off his overcoat and threw both onto the hall table. A small succulent in a prettily decorated pot took the force and wobbled toward the edge. Key grabbed it. He liked the Mexican designs on the pot and his last boyfriend had given him the plant. He righted the keepsake. Key caught sight of his reflection in the mirror over the table. The dark shadows under his eyes told the tale of his many sleepless nights. He drooped.

On his way to the fridge to find a beer, his smartphone beeped in his suit jacket pocket. Key checked the caller on the screen. Wesley. He took the call from his brother. Ten years older than Key and with a different father, Wesley was technically his stepbrother, but neither Key nor Wesley referred to each other as such.

Hi, Wes, what’s up? Key slumped on the couch instead of completing his journey to the kitchen.

I’m good, but I can tell from your voice that you’re not. Have you given any thought to my suggestion?

Key sighed. I don’t know, Wes. Taking off overseas, well, it’s daunting. I’m tired.

Burnt out more like—please take a vacation. How much accrued leave do you have?

"Months, I think. It’s still important to me, the job, you know keeping people safe from cybercrime, especially when they lose everything they have, and suffer the stress of it all. The trouble is, I think, is that I feel all their sadness now, and, Wes, I’m so tired of how people can be so cruel to others."

Key heard his brother sigh. When he answered, his voice held kindness.

Ten years of seeing the seamy side of life is bound to affect anyone.

Yeah, it’s definitely sensitized me to all the sadness in the world. I’ve stopped reading or watching news on the TV. The sight of people starving, kids being killed, poverty, war, hatred—it brings tears to my eyes. Key stopped confiding in his brother as tears welled in his eyes right then. His voice wavered.

"Key, you’re only just thirty. You have time. Have you seen Mark at all recently? I bet you haven’t been out for weeks."

The reference to his last boyfriend brought a smile to Key’s lips. Wes, Mark and I have been broken up for nearly a year.

Sorry. Time trickles away. Did you tell me about the split? I don’t think I knew. What happened?

Key heaved another sigh. My job—his job. Actually, I don’t think I did tell you about Mark and me breaking up. I was on a horrendous case at the time. It was a mutual decision. We’re still friends. We’d probably catch up over a beer now and then if he wasn’t living so far away. I don’t have time to meet guys…

Key, why not take your leave? Look after yourself for a while. Find someone to love. I don’t know how I’d be without Jennifer and she’s said the same of me. Don’t go through life alone. You must be lonely.

Key nodded to himself. Dreadfully, if I admit it. Sometimes. He couldn’t burden Wes with that, too.

Wesley’s voice fell to a whisper. If you just carry on as usual, I fear you’ll break somehow.

Key heard the love in his brother’s tone. He recognized the truth in what Wes said. He was on the edge. He softened his voice as affection surged for Wesley.

Thank you for your concern, Wes. I think I’ll do it. I’ll apply for leave tomorrow. He talked with his brother for a few more minutes asking about Wesley’s wife and daughter. As he ended the call, Key knew he’d made a radical decision about his job. He was going to quit.

Chapter Two

Key gazed out of the window as the plane circled the airport then began its descent to land. His notice period at work had pounded him. He’d needed to finish up some cases—seven weeks of shutting down brutal scammers who had found more ways to relieve people of their money, dignity, and homes. Unable to face anything that might bring him to tears, he’d asked that no farewell drinks were arranged, and that money collected for any leaving gift was sent to the WWF. All the same, a colleague had brought in a box of cupcakes and everyone in the department stopped work at the same time and crammed into the small refreshments area for coffee. Key wanly smiled his thanks as they wished him good luck. When he left the building that night, it felt as if a huge stone fell away from the place in his chest above his heart and he could finally take a deep breath.

He’d chosen Italy for a vacation, the country his great-grandfather had left long ago. His mom had often talked about visiting but never had. No family member spoke Italian. No cultural attachments survived. Key chose it because the countryside and coast looked so beautiful when he’d surfed vacation spots on the internet. The sun shone and the ocean was always a beautiful blue. True, at the end of April, the weather might not be wonderful yet, but as the plane taxied to a stop, early morning sunbeams danced on the silvery wing outside his window.

Key waited until the man beside him vacated his seat and followed the line of passengers before he could access his own overhead locker and take out his backpack. Then carrying it in front of his body so as not to whack someone with it by trying to put it on, he too disembarked. He breezed through customs. Luck favored him and his one suitcase appeared immediately on the luggage carousel. Key pulled out the handle and wheeled it along behind him. His rental car awaited him.

Key spent the day driving on a wonderful coast road to the town where his first hotel was situated. He alternated between fearing for his life closer to the cliff edge than he’d have liked when oncoming traffic careened toward him and marveling at the vast azure ocean.

He stopped for coffee along the route in a tiny town clinging to the clifftop. Each building sported a different pastel colored stucco exterior. Pots of colored flowers adorned window ledges. Bougainvillea climbed house walls in a riot of beauty. Key parked the rental at the top of the street in a square where it appeared double parking was the norm. He breathed in the distinctive scent of the sea as he wandered along to the café, visible because of its bright red outdoor tables, halfway down the steep road. The sun warmed his shoulders. Key unbuttoned his jean jacket. He chose a table with a blue and white sun umbrella and sat gazing out at the ocean. Seagulls wheeled in a huge arc, their wings catching the sun and glinting like precious jewels. The server came to his table. Key smiled as he tried ordering coffee and pancakes by pointing at the pictures on the menu card that he’d taken from under a terracotta pot of white daisies on the table.

The server grinned and addressed him in accented English.

Would you like fruit with the pancakes, sir?

Thankful, Key nodded. Yes please, whatever you have available.

Fortified by the delicious strawberry and juicy orange segment filled crepes, Key continued his journey. As he turned a corner of the high coast road, Key caught his breath as his destination came into sight. The entire hillside of a gorgeous bay housed buildings interspersed with trees and flowering shrubs. Several rooftops sprouted palms in huge pots or tubs of