My Choice, My Chance: Men Of Crooked Bend Book 2

by Taylor Rylan

  I pulled back to look him in the face. "You're married?"

  "My marital status is really none of your concern. Now, be a good boy and suck me off before you leave."

  My mind was still blank and all I could think about was getting out of there. I got up from the bed and quickly grabbed my clothes and headed to the door. I didn’t make it far before Rupert grabbed me and spun me around.

  "Just where do you think you’re going?" he said through clenched teeth.

  "I’m finished. Our arrangement is over. I’m ending it."

  "Our arrangement is only over when I say it’s over. Do you understand me, boy?" Rupert growled.

  I never saw the punch coming. It landed square on my left temple completely throwing me off balance.

  It was the punch in my dream that jerked me awake. When I awakened, I realized I was still in bed in one of Sean's spare rooms, trembling from the perceived impact.

  What. The. Fuck.

  2 — Liam

  One of the best things I ever did was decide to walk into Get Baked in Seattle. It was there that I met my best friend. Without Rhett, I know that I’d be dead because there was no way that Mike wasn't going to kill me.

  At first Mike was the perfect boyfriend. He was attentive and loving and always took care of me. I constantly felt the need to pinch my arm or something to give myself a reality check because I thought there was no way that someone like Mike would ever be interested in someone like me. We were as different as night and day. I was only five and a half feet tall, while he stood six-two. He had almost a hundred pounds on me. He was quite athletic, I wasn’t.

  None of that seemed to matter to Mike. What mattered was that he seemed interested, he wanted me, and he was nice to me. We had a really wonderful relationship for nearly a year.

  One day I stumbled upon a cute, new coffee shop/bakery named Get Baked. It was there that I met Rhett. I absolutely fell in love with the scones they served there. When I asked about them, I was told their sole baker, Everhett, had made them. When we first spoke, I was quickly corrected and asked to call him Rhett.

  I learned a lot about Rhett as we talked and got to know each other. For instance, he told me he’d only been at Get Baked for six months, having recently graduated from CIA. I giggled when he told me that, but was quickly told that it wasn’t what I thought. Rhett had gone to The Culinary Institute of America and earned his degree in baking and pastry arts management.

  I confessed that I didn’t know there was such a place nor such a degree. I knew I’d be using my new knowledge in a future book though. I just loved being an author and getting inspiration from life made my stories interesting.

  I got Rhett’s attention when I told him I wrote murder mysteries. When I disclosed my pen name, he became excited. He told me that he’d read all my books and was anxiously awaiting the next in my series. Officer Swanson and Detective Holloway definitely had a fan-base.

  That was how I met my best friend; the man who currently slept at my side. I was happy that he could doze off and rest comfortably, even though I couldn’t myself. I just lay there, my fear of the next nightmare keeping me awake.

  Rhett was an absolute godsend. He was the one who found me after Mike had beaten me unconscious and then raped me. I was lucky that he and I had made plans to go to the movies. We were going to meet at the theater. When I didn’t answer my phone or show up, he got concerned and came to my place to look for me. I get chills every time I think about how I must have looked when he first saw me on the floor. I'm grateful that Mike didn't bother to lock the door when he left. If he had, Rhett wouldn’t have been able to get in.

  Rhett found me unconscious, bruised, bloody, and barely breathing. If not for him, I probably wouldn't have made it through the night. I feel blessed that I did. When I finally came to, he was there. Luckily I escaped without any broken bones or internal bleeding. Everything was superficial and would heal with time. Well, my body would heal. My mind would take longer. There was no way I wasn’t going to press charges, so I did.

  To say that Mike's fellow officers were surprised would be an understatement. I told them about Rhett and how Mike became jealous of our friendship. As our friendship grew, he’d become increasingly controlling, restricting when and where I was allowed to go. As expected, most of the officers didn’t believe me when I told them Mike had been my assailant. Thankfully, the doctors had DNA proof to back up my accusation. I wasn’t surprised when the police went to Mike’s apartment to bring him in for questioning they found him gone. When he didn't show up for work or respond to phone calls, they put out an APB for him.

  While I was in the hospital, Rhett talked me into going to Wyoming with him for Christmas. I felt I didn’t have much of a choice. After all, who knew where Mike was or what he might be planning to do? I figured if nothing else, there was certainly safety in numbers.

  On the drive to Wyoming, Rhett told me about his family and where we were going to be staying. He told me how his twin brothers, Sean and Jasper, had decided to move to Wyoming a few years ago in order to open an architectural firm. It was there, in Wyoming, that his brother Sean met his boyfriend, Simon. This year would be the first Christmas they would spend together and Simon's family had invited Sean's entire family for Christmas.

  I’d never been to Wyoming and was looking forward to it. Well, until we arrived. You would think that having just gotten out of the hospital after my ex-boyfriend beat me unconscious, I shouldn’t be attracted to any man, however when Rhett introduced me to his brothers I couldn’t stop staring at them. Holy shit they were hot!

  To my dismay, or delight, hot brothers wasn’t enough for this family. Once I pulled my tongue back into my mouth, a massive man, a sexy fox if there ever was one, came forward. He wasn't the only one, either. My God! They were massive; each one was well over six feet tall! Of course, that wasn’t all; adding to their impressive height, every one of them was incredibly well built. All had broad shoulders and large hands.

  My happy perusal was halted without warning; my brain began to associate large hands with large fists, and large fists were something that I knew I wanted to stay away from.

  When Rhett's dad, who I later learned went by Papa, approached us, I unconsciously shrunk back and curled into myself a little. On some level I knew that I was okay, that he wouldn't hurt me, but right then my brain wasn't exactly working at one hundred percent. After the initial shock at first meeting Rhett’s family of giants, I made it through dinner, though it was difficult.

  I was relieved when Sean and Simon offered to take us immediately to their cabin to get some rest. I was both physically and mentally exhausted. Being surrounded by so many massive men had frazzled what was left of my sanity for the evening. We got to their cabin soon enough as it was a short drive. Sean quickly showed us to the spare bedrooms and Rhett told his brother that we were going to share a room so we would only need just one. I quickly showered while Rhett went downstairs to talk to his brother and Simon. By the time he came back upstairs, I was already in the massive bed, trying desperately to fall asleep. I hurt, everywhere.

  Frustrated, I took another oxycodone. I didn't like taking them because they made me loopy. I knew that I had to go to sleep. My body and mind needed to rest. I did my best to only take the strong pain medicine at night if at all possible. I was relieved that ibuprofen worked well during the day.

  Feeling loopy wasn’t the only side effect from taking oxycodone. One I really didn’t appreciate was the very vivid dreams I experienced when I was under the influence of the drug. To be more descriptive, in my case, not dreams—nightmares. Horrible night terrors that I couldn’t escape. The last thing I wanted to do was relive Mike's attack over and over, but I did. On some level, I'm thankful that I was unconscious for some of the assault. Mike made sure he made me suffer intense pain before he beat me unconscious.

  Unfortunately, the parts I remembered were the worst parts of the beating. Those were the parts that were most painful fo
r me afterwards. I fought to stay awake because I knew where my mind was going to take me, I lost the fight and succumbed to the sleep that my pain meds enforced upon me.

  I was back in my apartment in Seattle getting ready to go out to the movies with Rhett. We both wanted to see the same movie and decided we would go together. That wasn't anything new for us. We’d gone to the movies many times while Mike was working evenings or nights.

  I was nearly ready to go when I heard pounding coming from the front of the apartment. I knew it couldn’t be Rhett. We’d agreed to meet at the theater; not to mention he’d never beat on my door like that. I walked to the entrance and peeked through the peephole. I wasn't surprised to see Mike on the other side. When he shouted for me to open the door, my neighbors also knew who was there.

  My first mistake was to unlock the deadbolt, because when I unlocked it Mike forced his way into the apartment. I wasn’t fast enough to dodge the door before it smacked into my face, making me momentarily dizzy. That gave Mike immediate advantage, not that he needed it. He was so much larger than me that he had no problem throwing me around and manhandling me.

  "I thought I told you that you weren't allowed to go out with anyone but me!" I felt spittle on my face as he shouted at me.

  Still dizzy, I had problems deciphering what he was shouting. When my brain finally caught up, I looked up at Mike only to get backhanded across the cheek. He hit me with enough force to send me to the floor though the impact didn’t knock me unconscious.

  He leaned forward until we were nose-to-nose, his hand fisted in the front of my shirt, popping two buttons. I could feel his hot breath on my face. "You know that I don't want you hanging around him. I told you that you couldn't be friends with him anymore. You wouldn't listen, though, would you? You’ll pay for not listening."

  When he finished spitting out his threats, he picked me up and hit me again, this time on the other side of my face. When I fell to the floor, I instinctively curled into a ball to try to protect myself. It didn't work. He was now in prime position to start kicking me instead.

  I remember getting kicked at least three times before Mike yanked me up from the floor. I weighed next to nothing compared to him and he threw me around like a ragdoll. I don't know if I passed out from the pain or if I finally took one too many hits to the head. Either way I was relieved to no longer feel anything.

  Unfortunately for me, that's not where my nightmare ended that night. For whatever reason, my mind pulled Rhett into my nightmare. In my dream, he arrived at the apartment earlier than he had in real life. Mike attacked him when he came through the door. I was heartbroken and terrified as I lay on the floor of my apartment and watched Mike beat Rhett and throw him around like he’d done to me.

  No matter what I did, the me of my dream couldn't scream, couldn't move, couldn't do anything except watch. The moment I watched Mike drive a knife into my best friend, Rhett woke me up. Unfortunately he didn't wake me up soon enough. There was more of the dream that refused to fade immediately. I didn’t know while dreaming, but what I’d dreamed was prophetic and would happen to Rhett, becoming a living nightmare for us both.

  "Hey, Liam, wake up!" Rhett shook my shoulder hard enough to finally bring me back to consciousness. Still groggy, I did my best to reply to him. It must have been sufficient because he reclined beside me.

  "Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it? Do you need to write it down? Remember, the doctor said if you had nightmares you should write them down that way you won't forget them."

  I felt annoyed by the reminder. “It's not a dream that I’ll forget anytime soon, Rhett. It's always the same. Mike attacks me in my apartment before I lose consciousness. Really, I’ll be okay. Try to go back to sleep. Sorry I woke you." Even though I knew I was lying to my best friend, there was absolutely no way I'd tell him everything I dreamt about. I'd never wish that on anyone, especially him.

  "You sure?"

  "Yeah, I'm sure. Go back to sleep. I'm tired. I hope I can fall back asleep as well. Good night."

  "Good night, Liam," Rhett replied as he rolled over to get comfortable. It wasn't long before I fell back under the pain meds’ spell. Fortunately for me, this time I was able to get rest without dreaming at all.

  3 — Jasper

  I definitely didn’t know what had come over me. I hadn’t thought about Rupert in almost a decade. I left that night completely and totally crushed and when I made it back to my room, I didn’t have a choice. I had to tell Sean what happened and what had been going on. Rupert gifted me with a nasty bruise on my temple and there was no way Sean would let that slide.

  Sean was more angry than shocked. He wanted to immediately retaliate against Rupert. I managed to talk him out of it. Even though he’d known about my relationship with our professor, I hadn’t gone into specific details. There were just some things that even your twin didn’t need to know.

  Not knowing exactly what triggered the dream, I got out of bed feeling tired and sluggish. I had an idea about the cause though it was only a guess. Seeing a battered and bruised Liam the day before was likely the trigger that caused me to recall that night, the one and only time I had been bruised.

  Never again did I let a man close enough to affect my heart. Never again would I ever be submissive to another man. I'd never allow another to top me. I'd stay in control. After the situation with Rupert, I only engaged in casual, non-committed hook-ups. I developed a fondness for twinks and never had a problem finding a willing partner for a night.

  In order to arouse my sluggish brain and to try my best to completely erase any and all thoughts of Rupert out of my mind, I got up and went to the bathroom, resolved to take a shower to cleanse my body and my thoughts. I figured that a relaxing shower might clear my head and allow me to get started with my day.

  I was thrilled that I'd get to catch up with my little brother. He was so much younger than Sean and me; he was still a little boy when we both left for university. We’d seen him several times a year when we went home on break but it wasn’t the same. I felt that we missed so much of him growing up and I found myself longing to spend as much time with him as possible this Christmas.

  When I left my room, my nose was assaulted with heavenly aromas coming from downstairs. Rhett was obviously already awake and in the kitchen. At least I knew that we’d be well fed while he was here. Breakfast turned out to be bacon and eggs and the wonderful smell was French toast bake and scones. Yes, we would definitely be eating well as long as Rhett was baking in the kitchen.

  I finally got Liam to open up a little bit in a completely neutral and friendly way. It took subtle, clearly obvious movements for him to relax around us. Even then, he never truly seemed calm.

  It was understandable that he was in a lot of pain. You could tell just from looking at the visible discoloration of blue, black, and deep purple skin. The attack happened over a week ago. That gave the bruises plenty of time to darken and change hue. Liam's fair complexion only made the injuries appear worse than they were, and they were bad enough.

  We found out that he was an author and that he wrote murder mysteries. Apparently, Rhett was a fan even before he’d met Liam. Personally, I wasn’t a reader, but I made a mental note to look up Liam on Amazon and read one of his books.

  When Sean told Rhett about an abandoned bakery in town and suggested Rhett consider opening a bakery here, I got right on board and tried to encourage him to think about it. I'd see my little brother more often. More importantly, though, it meant that Liam might visit sometimes. After all, his job was very mobile. All he needed was an Internet connection and somewhere to place his laptop, and we had those!

  I’m pretty sure I managed to keep from seeming too creepy regarding my attraction to Liam. I knew the last thing he needed right now was for me to make advances toward him. I did my best to be what I believed he needed most, a friend. Even though my attraction to him, in spite of his bruises, was definitely there.

  Rhett and I told Liam abou
t the surprise that Simon planned for Sean. When we were in California for Thanksgiving, Simon asked Dad and Papa if he could ask Sean to marry him. If I didn’t think Liam was adorable before, I definitely did after he squealed with excitement when we told him about Simon's surprise proposal. It was quite obvious from his reaction that even in his current state, he still believed in love.

  I got to learn more about Liam when we went into Jackson later that day to help Rhett and Liam finish their Christmas shopping. I took multiple breaks and stayed in a more central area with Liam because, with his injuries, he couldn’t shop for extended periods of time. That didn’t stop him from finishing his shopping, though. Since he was the first to admit that he was complete and utter shit at wrapping gifts, he utilized the gift wrapping services in each of the shops. Rhett did as well, just so he didn’t have to wrap. Lazy shit!

  During one of our multiple breaks, I found out that Liam was an only child and that when he turned eighteen and went off to university in Vancouver, his parents disowned him because they disapproved of his attraction to men. They’d known for years that Liam was gay. I guess they must have loved him a little bit. After all, they were decent enough to not kick him out when he was still a teenager. He seemed to be okay with the situation and said he didn’t mind not having any contact with his parents.

  Liam seemed to smoothly fit in with our family. He started opening up more with Simon, Sean, and me, and even seemed comfortable with Dad and Papa. There was still some hesitation when it came to Papa, though Liam was beginning to warm up to the big teddy bear. That was understandable; the man stood tall and intimidating. When Liam and Rhett arrived, one of the regulars, Logan, wasn’t there. He was another story altogether. At the same height as Papa, he was formidable. I knew, when Liam met him, he’d be apprehensive. Logan’s face seemed to be in a permanent scowl. Completely not endearing. Not in the least.