Shatter (Unbreakable Bonds Series Book 2) Read online

  Ian and his love of romance. Snow couldn’t help his fond smile. How the kid could still believe in soul mates and happily ever after’s was a miracle considering what he’d been through. God, his heart was a beautiful, beautiful thing and he was a constant reminder to Snow that some people were precious enough to be worth any sacrifice.

  All the people at this table were. Maybe even the newest member—who looked poised for flight as he tried to resist Ian’s questions. The poor Romanian glanced at Lucas, then cleared his throat. “We’re just having fun.” Even to Snow, his smile looked nervous.

  “Are we?”

  A shocked silence fell over the table with Lucas’s sharp tone. The man’s expression said so much about his feelings for Andrei and Snow was sure he wasn’t the only dazed person at the table.

  “Is that what we’re doing?” Lucas asked, voice low.

  Andrei cocked his head, his sable eyes narrowing on Lucas. As usual, the heat between the two made Snow feel like he witnessed something infinitely private. Andrei had pulled his black, curly hair into a ponytail at his nape, so his curious expression was plain for all to see as he locked his stare on Lucas. “I thought so. Thought that’s what we agreed on. No strings.” Andrei paused, licking his lips. “Are you saying you want more?”

  Lucas suddenly grinned. Snow had only seen that look in his eyes when it had been directed at one of his three close friends and even then, it had never held the heat, the flat-out possessive delight that lit his gaze every time he looked at Andrei. He slowly reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out a single condom and held it up between two fingers.

  “Prepared much?” Rowe asked, his mouth snapping shut when his wife reached across the table to smack his arm. “Hey now!” He rubbed his arm.

  Lucas kept his gaze on Andrei as he flipped the condom over his shoulder, tossing it away. “That answer your question?”

  The two men didn’t move as Snow held his breath, then Andrei abruptly lunged half out of his chair, grabbed Lucas’s jaw, and kissed him right there in front of everyone.

  The feelings that tore through Snow confused him and made him feel faintly ashamed. He should be thrilled for his friend, happy that the man had found someone who made him feel like that. And he was. But some part of him felt cloudy with fear—fear that his world was shifting. Snow had never seen his best friend like this and it caused a pang in his heart because it had been mostly the two of them since they’d been in elementary school. He took in Lucas’s relaxed slouch as he let a man kiss him in public, the way he reached up to smooth his thumb over the hand Andrei had on his face.

  That tender gesture showed so very much about how things had changed. When Andrei pulled back and murmured something too low for the rest of them to hear, Snow looked away, not focusing on anything in particular. Lucas was rearranging his life around someone he obviously cared for and that selfish-bastard part of Snow—the one Rowe had joked about—wasn’t sure how to handle it.

  One of Snow’s greatest secret fears was that he held nothing of substance beyond his relationship with Lucas.

  Seemed he’d be finding out.

  He turned back to find Andrei had returned to his chair, but their hands remained threaded together in Lucas’s lap. For a moment, Snow wondered what it would feel like to want someone like that in his life. Someone intimate. For some reason, a pair of dark brown eyes came to mind and he frowned. No, absolutely not.

  Someone once again caught his eye before he quickly turned away. But the light hit on a swarthy face that struck a chord of instant fury inside Snow. His ruminations dried up, his gut twisted, and his palms started sweating. He hoped he was wrong, but the clawing, black anger tearing into him told him he wasn’t.

  “Uh-oh, I’ve seen that look come over Snow’s face before.” Melissa stretched her neck, obviously trying to see where Snow was looking. “Looks like Snow has zeroed in a possible target. Can anyone else see? Is he hot?”

  Snow let them think what they wanted. He’d excused himself from the group many a time before and there was no way he wanted one member to see who he thought that was. He had to get to the guy first. Snow stood, ignoring the piercing, questioning stare Lucas aimed at him, and grabbed his brown jacket. “Sorry, but I have to leave. Early surgery tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, right,” Rowe muttered, his smile showing he wasn’t in the least put out.

  Snow paused long enough to let Melissa press a kiss to his cheek. “Have fun, sweetie,” she murmured with a dirty chuckle.

  He strode fast toward the spot where that figure had disappeared and saw the man trying to dodge the crowd as he hurried toward the entrance. Snow caught glimpses of his black jacket as he moved. Right before the guy reached the door, he turned slightly and the light caught his face again.

  Everything in Snow froze as he saw the long scar bisecting his left cheek. A scar Snow himself was responsible for inflicting. “Oh hell no,” he muttered as he pushed harder through the crowd and ran outside. His breath fogged instantly in the cold.

  He pulled on his jacket, blinking against the blinding light hanging just above the entrance, forcing his eyes to adjust to the darkness as he searched for his target. Farther down the block to his right, he caught sight of a tall figure as he darted through an opening in the old chain link fence that surrounded the parking lot beside John R. Green School Supply. Snow lurched forward, roughly shoulder-checking a pair of college kids heading to the bar he’d just exited. They swore loudly, but Snow kept moving, ignoring them in favor of the sadistic bastard he planned to take apart with his bare hands.

  When Snow saw the escaping figure slip between some cars and back onto the sidewalk along West Sixth Street, he smiled. Dwight Gratton was heading straight into what should be clogged sidewalks and busy streets. Rowe’s questionable choice of bars was situated on Banklick, just a block over from the MainStrasse Village and Gratton was walking right into the bright lights and congestion of the commercial district. Even for a Wednesday night, the Village should be a vibrant place.

  Snow’s hard-soled shoes echoed off the broken, uneven pavement in the bitter cold air. Each hammering step flashed a new image through Snow’s brain like a demonic slideshow. Ian bleeding and battered. Ian bound by his hands and feet. Ian’s wide blue eyes filled with terror and defeat and hopelessness. And the man standing over Ian, was Dwight Gratton. Over the memories Snow could still hear Gratton laughing, high and sharp, a deranged hyena set loose on a wounded creature.

  Gratton was not supposed to be in Cincinnati—not breathing the same air as Ian. It was part of the agreement that Lucas had struck that horrible night so many years ago in a last ditch effort to save both Ian’s life and possibly, the remains of Snow’s soul. Gratton’s permanent exile was the only thing that let Snow sleep at night, when he could sleep.

  Terror ripped through Snow. Ian couldn’t be Gratton’s target again.

  Few lights dotted the street and the narrow, sagging homes were mostly dark at that late hour. Snow sucked in a breath as he rounded one last car and emerged on the sidewalk on West Sixth, heading toward Main. The frigid air sliced down his throat to his lungs, but his focus never wavered from the man still a dozen yards ahead of him. Gratton shoved a couple out of his way as they walked toward the parking lot. The woman screamed as she lost her balance in her heels, falling into the man at her side.

  As Gratton passed the bronze Goose Girl fountain in the center median, the bright lights washed over the man, allowing Snow to see him more easily. Lines stretched from his eyes that hadn’t been there that last time they’d met. His cheeks were gaunter, his cheekbones more prominent, as if time were draining the life from his frame. Gratton paused at the corner, just outside the Cock & Bull English Pub, and looked back over his shoulder. Foot traffic was lighter than Snow had anticipated, allowing him to clearly see Gratton as he leered at Snow, the long scar on his cheek twisting the flesh to make his expression appear just a little more maniacal.

  T
he fucker had known he would follow.

  When Gratton turned back, he darted across Main Street against the light. Car horns blared and tires squealed as he narrowly missed being hit by one car before rolling deftly across the hood of a battered yellow cab to land on his feet on the opposite side of the street. Gratton ran, pushing people who stopped to gawk out of his way.

  A low snarl rumbled up Snow’s throat as he was forced to stop at the intersection, his eyes still locked on Gratton as he plunged back into the growing darkness. Let him drop back into the shadows. It was better to be far from prying eyes. Bile rose as memories of what the man had done to Ian cluttered his brain. Never again. Gratton shouldn’t be allowed to breathe.

  Cold air clawed at his fingers and stung his eyes, but he barely noticed. He waited only for an opening in the traffic. His entire body hummed with barely constrained energy until Snow was sure he was about to jump out of his skin if he couldn’t move soon.

  As the light changed, Snow swore, launching himself across the intersection before the last car has finished crossing the thick white lines. He plowed through a smattering of people, deaf to the shouts, his focus only on where he’d last seen Gratton before the thickening shadows closed around him again.

  The glow of the Village stretched only a few doors down West Sixth as he headed east. The bare limbs of the flaking sycamore trees stretched overhead. What few lamps that peppered this street were out, whether by some failure of the city or Snow’s poor luck he didn’t know.

  His steps slowed as he reached the end of the street and the black, gaping mouth of a tunnel loomed before him. No light touched the darkness inside. Was Gratton waiting in there?

  Fumbling in his pockets, Snow pulled out his car keys and thumbed on the tiny flashlight attached to the key ring. He scanned the ground, looking for a possible weapon and came up empty. It would be dumb as hell to go into that tunnel without one, but he didn’t want Gratton to get away. Snow edged forward, his heart pounding painfully in his chest as he swept the tiny light back and forth across the space wide enough to fit only a small truck. But there was no one waiting for him.

  Snow paused as he exited the tunnel. The immediate area opened up, revealing the intersection between West Sixth Street and Johnson. There was a small, dimly lit parking space for local businesses and a bar along with a green space holding some kind of neighborhood sign that he couldn’t read, but no Gratton. It was as if he completely vanished.

  “Fuck!” Snow balled his fists at his sides and took another step forward, but he didn’t know where to go. He needed help or maybe a plan. Rowe would be more than happy to help him, leaving Ian safely in the protection of Lucas and Andrei.

  As he took his first few steps back into the tunnel, the low rumble of a car starting reached his ears. Snow turned to see a dark sedan back out of a parking spot and head slowly toward the tunnel. He took a step backward and found his shoulders pressed against the frigid concrete wall. He was trapped. And the driver knew it.

  The sedan’s engine revved and the car leapt forward, barreling for the wrong side of the road and Snow’s tiny patch of sidewalk. Turning, Snow skinned his cheek against the rough concrete as he stumbled in his haste. Gaining more secure footing, he ran to the far end of the tunnel. Behind him, the engine of the car growled, echoing through the tunnel. Metal screeched as the car jumped the curb to run along the sidewalk at Snow’s heels. He didn’t dare look around and risk being run over or crushed against the wall.

  The second he cleared the tunnel, Snow dove over a waist-high wrought iron fence and rolled across the hard, frozen earth until he was on his feet again. Sparks lit up the darkness as the car scraped along the wall before dropping back down to the road. The driver jerked the car across the grassy median to put it in the correct lane before roaring toward the Village. At Main, the car turned right, heading toward the river.

  Snow dropped his head back and closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath now that he was safe. The asshole had tried to run him over. Unfortunately, he didn’t get a glimpse of the license plate.

  A low groan rumbled from Snow as he straightened, aches filling his shoulder and back. His face stung from where he’d grazed his cheek. A trickle of blood chilled by the cold air edged down toward his jaw.

  Standing with both hands gripping the ice-cold metal fence in front of him, he stared at the last place where the car disappeared. Should he tell Ian that Gratton was in town? Was there a chance in hell it was just a coincidence that they were all in the same place at the same time? He wished it was, but the ugly knot twisting in his stomach warned that their past was back to destroy their lives.

  Chapter 2

  “You want to come to Mana’s with me tomorrow night? She’s making that chicken with the orange glaze you liked.” Jude Torres shifted in his seat to face his partner in the dark cab of the ambulance as she settled behind the wheel. It had been a long, late shift filled with alternating bouts of boring non-activity interspersed with two COPD patients and an elderly woman who slipped on her neighbor’s porch. She turned out to be fine, but her yell had drawn nearly every person in the neighborhood despite the frigid temperatures. He’d thought he and Rebecca would never get out of there when one of the more persistent neighbors kept asking them health questions.

  Jude had to grin. Anyone brave enough to admit to erectile dysfunction issues in front of a gathering of his neighbors—all in pajamas—deserved the time for an answer or two. Neither Jude nor his partner was a doctor but that never seemed to matter. As soon as people learned they were in a medical profession, the questions inevitably came. Jude was pretty sure he’d heard it all during his six years as a paramedic as well as the two before that as an EMT, but people still managed to surprise him.

  “Orange glaze,” Rebecca murmured. “Oh! You mean the Yucatan dish? I loved that.” She reached up to yank out her ponytail holder, causing her long, thick hair to fall. She gathered all the straggling brown escapees from the wind and secured it back in a tail fast, then watched her mirror as a cop car passed them.

  He’d been working with Rebecca for months since he’d transferred to UC and she’d quickly become his closest friend. She had the kind of personality that drew a person in. Even when she was growling at loud-mouthed men with personal function issues. He felt pretty damn lucky because partnered paramedics spent more time together than a lot of married couples. Actually liking the partner was a major plus. “So you’ll come?”

  Rebecca shot Jude a look as she started the vehicle. “Won’t your mother go into that girlfriend thing again if you bring me home for supper? I shouldn’t have kissed you. She didn’t seem to get that it was a joke.”

  He shrugged before reaching out to adjust the heat. The temperature had dropped so much he could see his breath in the cab and his hands were still freezing from being outside so long. “She knew it was a joke, even if she did sound hopeful. She’s accepted that I’m gay.” He thought about Anna’s new favorite rainbow T-shirts. “Over-accepted it, actually. Trust me. She gets that you’re just a friend. Don’t be surprised if she starts asking about your family’s medical history.”

  She cackled. “Oh God! Womb searching?”

  “Of course! She wants grandkids something fierce and in her family, thirty is way past the time to be a father. But she gave you an open invitation to join us for dinner any time. She hates that your family is so far away and she likes to feed you—says you’re too skinny.”

  “Damn, I love your mother’s definition of skinny. Wish it went along with the rest of the world’s.” She flipped on the headlights, sending the bright beams splashing across parked cars and a seemingly endless row of two-story homes wrapped in weathered red brick. Leafless trees stretched down the block, clawing at the black sky as if trying to pull down the blanket of clouds against the winter wind.

  Jude smirked. “You’re gorgeous and you know it.”

  She was. At only an inch or so under his own six feet, she had the kind of long l
egs and healthy, curvy body that made Jude’s brothers follow her around like enamored puppies. If Jude had been straight, she would have been just his type. Funny, family oriented, and kind...nothing like the man Jude couldn’t get out of his thoughts—the one they called the surgeon general behind his back at the hospital.

  Dr. Ashton Frost was anything but family oriented and kind, and had earned his nickname from his love of barking out orders. But since the first time he’d locked gazes with those ice-blue eyes, Jude couldn’t keep the man out of his fantasies. He had a direct, sharp stare that did something to Jude’s ability to breathe. He filled the room with his domineering presence, his mountain-sized arrogance rolling off him in waves, and all Jude’s blood went south as he had to fight the urge to bring the man down a notch or two.

  He wanted to wreck the doctor.

  Wanted to see him covered in sweat and shuddering with passion underneath him. Wanted it until he dug his own fingernails into his palms to keep from reaching out and hauling the doctor into the closest empty room every time he passed him.

  “Whoa, where did you just go?” Rebecca’s laugh filled the cab of the ambulance, jerking Jude back. “The heat pouring off you is better than the flimsy puff of air coming out of the vents.”

  It took Jude a moment to shake off his inner caveman and remember where he was. In the front of an ambulance, not fucking a hot surgeon up against a wall. Hell, maybe he needed a night off from work and away from the hospital to get his brain clear of Doc Frost. Every little thing sent his thoughts spiraling to that man.

  “So,” she drew the word out while slowing the ambulance to a stop at an intersection. “Will your brother be there?”

  He couldn’t stop his grin, grateful for the distraction. “Which brother? I have two.”

  “You know very well which brother. And just...ew for even asking that.” She rolled her eyes. “Jordan will probably grow into a gorgeous piece of manhood, but I don’t have time to wait. Nor do I want your mother to know me as the cougar who turned her little boy into a man.”