Twin Ties 2: Twin Affairs

by Lynn Kelling

  All Evan Savage wants is a quiet night at the bar, waiting for his boyfriend, Alek Popovic, to finish his shift; what he gets instead is a nightmare. If Evan thought his life was complicated when his biggest problem was his tangled, complex sex life, it becomes infinitely more so once one selfless act ends in terrible violence. With life hanging in the balance, closely guarded secrets about the nature of Evan’s relationships, not only with Alek, but Alek’s identical twin brother Luka and Evan’s own twin brother Brennan, are threatened. Family is notified. Questions are asked. Suspicions are raised. The four young men’s relationships with each other begin to unravel as carefully drawn boundary lines are crossed again and again. The foursome must question the nature of their commitments to each other, what they each want and what to say to those relentlessly demanding the truth. When the most dangerous thing you can do is admit to whom you love, and selfishness and jealousy are luxuries you can no longer afford, brutal honesty is both salvation and damnation.

  Twin Affairs

  Twin Ties: Book 2

  Lynn Kelling

  ForbiddenFiction

  www.forbiddenfiction.com

  an imprint of

  Fantastic Fiction Publishing

  www.fantasticfictionpublishing.com

  TWIN AFFAIRS

  A ForbiddenFiction book

  Fantastic Fiction Publishing

  Hayward, California

  © Lynn Kelling, 2014

  All rights reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission from the publisher, except as allowed by fair use. For information contact publisher@forbiddenfiction.com.

  CREDITS

  Editor: Rylan Hunter and D.M. Atkins

  Cover Design: Siolnatine

  Cover Art: Photos by Migfoto at Dreamstime

  Production Editor: Erika L Firanc

  Proofreading: JhP323 and Kaye O’Malley

  SKU: LK1-000168-01 ARE

  ISBN: 978-1-62234-145-0

  Published in the United States of America

  Disclaimer

  This book is a work of fiction which contains explicit erotic content; it is intended for mature readers. Do not read this if it's not legal for you.

  All the characters, locations and events herein are fictional. While elements of existing locations or historical characters or events may be used fictitiously, any resemblance to actual people, places or events is coincidental.

  This story is not intended to be used as an instruction manual. It may contain descriptions of erotic acts that are immoral, illegal, or unsafe. Do not take the events in this story as proof of the plausibility or safety of any particular practice.

  For Rose, with respect and love. Never say never.

  Contents

  1. Good Gone Wrong

  2. Aftermath

  3. Shaken Up

  4. Initial Implications

  5. Afraid to Touch

  6. Undone

  7. Illicit Activity

  8. Splintered

  9. Up from Down

  10. Best Intentions

  11. Bad Boy

  12. Screwed

  13. Your Baby No More

  14. Pressured to Please

  15. Three’s a Crowd, Four’s a Party

  16. Knowing Brennan

  17. Different but the Same

  18. Brutal Honesty

  19. Defiance

  20. Losing Evan

  21. Hard Truths

  22. Forced and Bound

  23. Hit and Run

  24. Lost

  25. Incomplete

  26. Time to Choose

  27. Ending, Beginning

  28. Letting Go

  29. Home

  30. Knowing You

  About the Author

  About the Publisher

  Chapter 1

  Good Gone Wrong

  In a seedy bar in the rough part of town, eighteen-year-old mechanic Evan Savage nursed his beer and kept to himself. The place was packed with dangerous-looking clientele openly carrying their preferred means of self-defense, hiding their intentions more carefully than their weapons, under beards and biker gear. There were few women and even fewer young men, so the slim, pretty-faced teenager dressed in nothing but well-worn jeans and a blue t-shirt stood out like a shout in a quiet room.

  Evan tolerated his prettiness with reluctance. He bore it as more disfigurement than blessing since it had always drawn mostly the wrong kinds of attention—flirtatious gestures from equally pretty girls he wasn’t attracted to, or ugly boys wanting to beat the good looks out of him. In that particular bar, his age and appearance were the two things most likely to get him in trouble, so he stayed silent and tucked away in darkened corners.

  Evan was only at the bar because his boyfriend, Alek Popovic—older than him by seven years—had to work late at his unsavory job there. In order to be close to Alek, and also have some time to himself, Evan offered to hang out until Alek had finished his shift. The plan was to drive back to Alek’s house afterward and crash there for the night. If they were patient, they’d get to have a few hours alone together after a long day. As an added bonus, Evan and Alek’s identical twins, Brennan and Luka respectively, would benefit from some alone time of their own.

  Though Evan and Alek had only met because of a random hook-up in the bar’s bathroom a few months earlier, against all odds, their relationship had developed depth and meaning for both of them. Now, they were committed to each other. Evan had finally gotten to experience what it was like to tell someone, who wasn’t family he loved them and have the sentiment returned in kind.

  He loved Alek. Alek loved him, too.

  But, it was complicated. In fact, to say it was complicated would have been an understatement. Ever since Evan and Alek began seeing each other, they’d rarely been together without other people around.

  Logistics were part of it. Alek lived with his brother, Luka, and two other male friends—Presley Owens and Carter Raed. Evan lived with his brother, Brennan Holt. No matter where they were, someone else was usually there, too. That left them with the options of seeking solitude out in the fields beyond Evan’s home, at local make-out spots, or coping with company.

  If that was all, it would have been challenging, but manageable and normal. Evan’s situation with Alek, however, was far from normal. Months ago, the lines cleanly dividing the two couples began to blur. It was no longer simply Evan and Alek, Brennan and Luka, two distinct pairings—distorted mirrors of each other. It was the four of them, together, in almost every sense. Evan had been intimate with Brennan in ways he had a tough time facing in the light of day. But, since Alek and Luka had had an equally intimate relationship with each other for years, it was accepted and allowed as yet another form of deep-seated affection.

  The ramifications of having a lover’s closeness with his twin had only begun to settle upon Evan. As someone who had struggled with depression for years, Evan had been trying not to question the path he had begun to follow. He simply put one foot in front of the other blindly, hoping disaster didn’t wait around the next bend, though certain at the core of his being it did.

  Evan hadn’t known Brennan existed until very recently. When their mother died, their father decided to finally tell the truth and introduce his sons to one another; young men who had been previously ignorant of the fact that they had an identical twin in another part of the country, raised by an estranged parent. For Evan, Brennan wasn’t a sibling. He was a stranger who had suddenly entered his life, creating chaos.

  They’d had sex in front of each other, they’d had sex with each other, and they’d grown to love each other in non-traditional ways.

  More recently, Evan and Bren
nan found themselves crawling into bed together when sleep initially eluded them, quickly dozing off once they were cuddled up, before anything more could happen. They didn’t kiss. There was, admittedly, more touching than was typical for brothers, when passing in the hall or in the kitchen getting something to eat, whether it was fingertips trailing over clothed skin or a quick embrace. They were happy with that much. A strange balance had been created by each of them giving up the most intimate part of themselves to the other, doing the unthinkable in defiance of their upbringing and the lies surrounding it.

  Sexual intimacy had lent a sense of permanence and devotion. It had given them a peace long sought over the course of their whole lives. For Evan, Brennan wasn’t only a brother. He was so much more than that. Needing Brennan, and being needed just as intensely by him, made Evan feel more complete than he ever had felt. The terrible emptiness which had plagued him, causing untold mental distress, provoking Evan to go so far as attempting suicide at the age of fourteen, was miraculously lifted.

  However, the atypical closeness between the brothers was also the reason for Brennan’s request for an evening alone with his boyfriend, Alek’s twin, Luka. Brennan and Evan both were secretly worried they’d crave each other’s presence and it would intrude on Luka and Alek’s happiness. Evan knew Brennan had promised to put Luka first, so he allowed Brennan to try to do exactly that.

  Evan played pool and sipped a single beer, lingering in quiet spaces apart from the press of restless, testosterone-fueled energy.

  He watched the crowd and the clock. Alek was hidden away on kitchen duty and not even available as eye candy, working behind the closed kitchen doors instead. It was partially because of Evan’s boredom that he noticed a man almost as young as himself scanning the room. Evan was careful to avoid the guy’s searching gaze, knowing what the intent was from previous personal experience—he was looking for a hook-up. Evan had tried the very same thing himself, after all, not too long ago in that very place.

  After a while, the guy appeared to have success with someone. He headed out a back door to the parking lot, followed closely by the man whose eye he caught, and Evan was happy for him.

  Not seconds later, though, a few more men, huge and burly, followed the pair out.

  Evan was instantly concerned. He spared a moment to consider telling Alek, but decided there wasn’t time and ran out the back door after them. His plan was to check if anything was wrong and, then, if there was something wrong, to duck back inside for help.

  It might have worked if one of the men wasn’t watching the door.

  As soon as Evan pushed the door open, he was grabbed by someone waiting outside.

  A hand wrapped over his mouth, muffling his yell of alarm as he was pulled away from the building. There was shouting from farther away, on the other side of the parking lot, but Evan didn’t manage to make any of it out. All he knew was, right in front of him, the young gay guy who Evan had been idly watching was getting the living hell beaten out of him by two of the men who had followed him outside.

  It started with repeated punches to the guy’s stomach until he doubled over. Then, his feet were kicked out from under him. He crumpled to the pavement where brutal kicks were delivered to his head, legs, back and torso.

  Horrified, terrified, Evan fought the man holding him, bucking and kicking. He clawed at the hand on his mouth and screamed from behind the rough, sweaty palm.

  Time slowed to a crawl. Everything started to happen in slow motion. The men cheered each other on, yelling, pumping their fists in the air, jumping around the body on the asphalt.

  “Yeah!”

  “Kick him harder!”

  “Teach him a lesson!”

  “I’m gonna knock his fuckin’ teeth out!”

  Evan bit down as hard as he could on the hand wrapping his mouth. He actually slipped free for one brief moment, darting back to the door he’d come through. His hand was on the handle when he felt a hard punch.

  Sharp, exquisite pain flared in his gut.

  Stumbling backward, Evan fell back onto his ass and looked down at himself as someone towered over him, his face in shadow.

  A knife handle protruded from the side of Evan’s stomach. He moved to pull it out with trembling fingers, but that was when the first, pointed kick to his face connected, and it all turned to darkness.

  “Alek? Hey! Your boy is gone. He went running out the back door like he was freaked.”

  Alek stopped what he was doing and looked up at Jason. The six-foot-seven bartender who doubled as a bouncer had just been in the bathroom. He was leaning through the hinged kitchen door, half in, half out.

  The words sank in, slowly. At the grill, the tongs dropped from Alek’s hand, clattering to the dirty floor.

  Alek ran to the exit, only stopping at the last minute to grab a shotgun from where it was tucked out of sight for emergencies.

  He called back over his shoulder, “Hey! Come on! Jase?”

  “Yeah,” Jason said, jogging over.

  When they got to the back door, pushed it open, and sprinted outside, they saw instantly they were too late. It was bedlam. Meryl, a fifty-something biker and a regular at the bar, had his sawed-off leveled at a gang of guys gathered by the building’s rear entrance. With the yellowish glow from the streetlamp above casting weird shadows over the darkened lot, shapes were distorted, bleeding together.

  Men started to scatter once they saw Alek and Jason, yelling, “Come on! Let’s get out of here!”

  “Oh, no you don’t!” Meryl shouted. He whistled through his teeth to get the attention of the other bikers who were still gathered around the bikes parked on the other side of the building. When a few of them arrived at a sprint, they took off with Meryl after the gang.

  That was when Alek finally saw what they’d been gathered around, only understanding right before sickening, mind-numbing horror obliterated all reason.

  Stricken and shaking, he finally dropped his gaze, having been so reluctant to look down.

  “Evan! No! No God, No!”

  Alek didn’t think, he just ran. He fell to the pavement, scraping his knees and shins. His fingers skittered through the air above Evan, afraid to touch him due to all of the blood masking his form. Alek barely, carefully, made contact, laying his hand on Evan’s arm, too afraid to do more than that. Then, he saw the source of the bleeding, soaking Evan’s blue shirt blackish-red, and pressed the heel of his hand against the wound.

  “Call 911!”

  “Already on it!” Jason yelled with a phone to his ear before he resumed giving their address to the person on the other end of the line.

  Only a single sob escaped Alek before he pushed the terror down below his determination and anger. Holding Evan’s hand gingerly, pressing on the gushing slice just below Evan’s ribcage with the other, Alek tried not to overanalyze the injuries and focus.

  “Help is coming, baby,” he said, his voice sounding to him uneven and muffled by endless, internal screaming. This can’t be happening. It can’t. Not to Evan. Not like this. It’s wrong. There’s been a mistake. “Hold on, please hold on. I’m right here. It’s Alek. I’ve got you. Help is coming.”

  Evan’s face was a mess, his nose askew and clearly broken. His eyes were swelling shut, his white teeth stained red. Gagging on, then spitting up blood, it spilled over his chin as Evan groaned. It seemed like he’d almost regained consciousness, but Alek wasn’t sure.

  “…We have two males here, badly injured. One looks like he was beaten and is unconscious. There’s not much blood on him except for some he spit up. He’s breathing, though. The other has a stab wound to the stomach. There’s a four inch blade lying next to him. His face is bloody and swollen and there may be more injuries. I don’t know… Alek! They say three minutes, okay?! The ambulance is three minutes out! Is he breathing? He has a pulse, right?”

  “Shit. Shit. Evan…. Oh god, Evan….” Alek saw the rise and fall of Evan’s chest, and yelled back, “Yeah! He’s br
eathing!”

  “Good! Don’t move him! Is he conscious? They want you to try to stem the bleeding by putting pressure—”

  “I know! DON’T YOU THINK I KNOW?! No, he’s not awake. He’s not—Fuck!!”

  Alek hissed through his teeth. The fear reached up from deep inside him, clawing at his mind with icy fingers, making it hard to think. For a brief moment, he fell back through time, through weeks of days, and remembered Evan confiding in him, whispering about attempting suicide, of dying for a handful of minutes before he was brought back to life thanks to the determination of a loved one.

  Certainty settled on Alek, a terrible notion that Death was angry at being denied Evan and was trying to reclaim him. A thick trickle of blood leaked from the side of Evan’s mouth. Alek leaned in to listen for breath sounds. He felt for a pulse, and it was there, but weak. Too weak.

  “He’s losing too much blood! Jase! What do I do?!” He pressed harder at the wound as Evan’s blood flowed between his fingers. Alek prayed, “Don’t leave me. Please don’t go. Hang in there. Hang in there for Brennan. You can’t die on me, okay? You can’t. Evan, I love you so much… please hold on. Please.”

  Minutes later, Evan was surrounded by EMTs and being loaded onto a gurney. There was an oxygen mask covering his face and he was wearing a pulse monitor. Efforts were being made to keep him from losing more blood and Alek hovered, dazed, and unable to let Evan slip away from his sight.

  With trembling, bloody fingers it took him three tries to get to Luka’s name in his phone’s contact list. He almost dropped the blood-slick phone when it started to ring.

  “Maybe it’s food poisoning,” Luka suggested. He rubbed Brennan’s back, both of them seated on the edge of the couch, but Brennan was doubled over, clutching his side, just under his ribcage.

  Call Alek. Call him, instinct whispered to Luka.

  He instantly banished the thought. There was no logical reason to call Alek. Not for a stomachache.