by
For years Jeremy and his best friend Haven kept their bond strong despite the bricks, bars and bulletproof glass that separated them during their weekly visit, but it hadn’t just been Haven that Jeremy had gone to the prison to see. Jeremy had been crushing on Grayson since he first laid eyes on the man, and the fire hadn’t dimmed as Grayson had served his time.
Freedom had never tasted as sweet or been so hard won. Eight years was a long stretch to serve, but seeing his best friend’s son every week and bunking with the man Jeremy loved like a brother, had given him a special insight into the man he’d become.
Now the two of them were working together in Haven’s shop as the kid he’d once protected became his boss. Grayson considered that debt paid now and all slates wiped clean. Finally able to get back on his feet and reestablish himself in the community, his next step is to lay claim to the man he loves.
Welcome to Foggy Basin Season Two. Just passing through? No problem. Here to stay, well, better find your place. Sit back, relax and get to know the townsfolk. They love hard and play even harder. Each book is a standalone but why not stay and get to know us and read them all.
Narrators:
Genres:
Pairings: M-M
Heat Level: 3
Romantic Content: 4
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Gay
Protagonist 1 Age: 26-35
Protagonist 2 Age: 36-45
Tropes: Age Difference, Coming Home, Found Family, Love Can Heal / Redemption, Small Town
Word Count: 55000
Languages Available: English
Shaking, Gray scarcely dared to breathe as he listened to the grinding rattle-clank of the prison gate slowly rolling open, eyes firmly fixed on the men standing on the other side of it, waiting for him. In his black leather jacket and kutte adorned with patches, Chaos made for an imposing figure, even with his hair sprinkled with more gray than blond strands these days. Gray’s club president and longtime friend was grinning, the sun reflecting off the dark lenses of the sunglasses that shielded his eyes. In his hand, he held a gold and white striped box with a grinning chicken face on the front, keeping the promise he’d made to supply Gray with a crispy fried chicken meal from the Blue Star Diner the moment he’d gotten out.
READ MOREHe should have known Chaos, being Chaos, wouldn’t wait for them to drive back to Foggy Basin to reach the restaurant. Naa, not him, not when he knew people were likely to stare and whisper the moment Gray walked through the doors after being away for eight years. In a small town like theirs, everyone knew where he’d been and why, and if they didn’t, it was because they’d moved to Foggy Basin after the bullshit at the jewelry store went down and missed the scandal when it hit the paper. Once folks realized he was home, the old gossip was likely to start up again, and people would clutch their pearls and their purses when he walked passed them. Yeah, Gray could see why Chaos would want to spare him that on his first day out.
Fuckin’ gate was so goddamn slow Gray started fidgeting as the gap finally began to widen, and he wasn’t the only one. Beside Chaos, Jeremy stood shuffling from one foot to the other like he was one twitch away from scaling the gate just to get to Gray and carve himself up on the heavy spirals of razor wire in the process. At six foot six and over two hundred and eighty pounds, the widening gap was too frustratingly narrow for Gray to fit through.
That chicken and Jeremy’s lips were going to taste amazing, Gray thought as a light gust of wind wafted the scent of grease and bodywash his way, causing a bit of drool to pool at the corners of his lips. It might not have been the best plan to pass his tray off to another inmate this morning, but his stomach had been so tied up in knots as he’d waited for the hours to tick past that the idea of eating anything had been revolting, not that prison chow had ever been very appetizing in the first place.
No, his anxiety was linked directly back to the nightmares that had awakened him in the dead of night every night for the past few weeks. In his dreams, each time he’d gotten to that gate expecting freedom to be a chain-link barrier away, the guard’s radio crackled, and a disembodied voice demanded that he bring Gray back inside, that they’d gotten the date wrong, or that new charges were pending.
The convict he’d been cellmates with since Haven had finished doing his time and returned home to Foggy Basin to get the Twisted Chassis auto repair shop back off the ground had known exactly what Gray was going through. His gruff voice hushed as he’d spoke in the darkness of the cell, reminding Gray to never forget the sledgehammer to the gut fear carried in those dreams or he was sure to be back.
Never gonna happen.
Gray lurched when the gap was finally wide enough that he thought he could fit through, snagging his t-shirt on a piece of metal and jerking free without a care for if it would leave a hole. All he wanted was to get his hands on Jeremy and that box of chicken Chaos held.
The bond Gray and Jeremy had formed while Jeremy’s best friend, Haven, had been Gray’s cellmate had bloomed over the past year into the promise of a relationship Gray had refused to consider official until he was properly able to hug the man.
Now it was going to happen.
He made it two steps before Jeremy hurled himself into Gray’s arms, driving some of the air out of him even as Gray lifted him, crushed him close, and planted a kiss on him that would have had the cellblock whistling and yelling lewd things if they’d borne witness to it. Jeremy locked his legs around his waist when Gray lifted him higher, the lip lock growing rougher as Gray planted both hands on Jeremy’s ass and gripped tight enough to leave bruises.
COLLAPSE
