Savior

by Rhys Ford

  “I don’t know if I’ll ever have one, but I imagine after all of you guys have found yours. I don’t think I could let myself fall in love with anyone unless I knew you guys were… the four of you are my life, and I just want you to be happy.”

  Mace wrapped Bear into a tight hug and squeezed as hard as he could. He’d grown up embracing Bear. Their bodies thickened with muscles and their shoulders burdened with more and more responsibility, but their connection and their hugs remained strong.

  “Just don’t let life pass you by,” Mace whispered into Bear’s ear and caught his mouth on Bear’s beard. Then he let go and slapped Bear’s back one last time. “You, of all of us, deserve to be happy. Although I could use less face fuzz when giving you a hug. You’re getting woolly. Now grab the chips, and I’ll bring the salsa. We’ve got a family to feed, and if I’m not mistaken, I think it’s my turn to man the grill.”

  “Hey, how much cilantro do you need? Luke says you can have two handfuls, but only if you need them,” Rob called out from the open back door. “Apparently that shit’s like gold.”

  Bear chuckled and picked up the salsa and chips. “I’ll take the stuff out and grill. Why don’t you spend some time with your future husband? See if he can lay tile or something. We’ve really got to update that upstairs bathroom.”

  THE FOOD was spicy and messy. His family was loud and even more messy. Filling up the kiddie pool became a water fight with a couple of hoses and no prisoners taken. In the end mostly everyone was soaked to the bone, including Rob’s father, who Chris felt needed a thorough explanation of every single plant in the garden and any bug he could find.

  Cuddling on one of the backyard couches was Mace’s idea of a perfect evening. With Rob curled up across his lap, they watched the sky fold in a blazing array of oranges and yellows before dipping down into a sea of soft blues spangled with yellow bursts from far-off streetlamps. The deck was fairly empty, just them on the couch with an exhausted Earl lounging on a dog bed a few feet away. Ivo and Gus were leaning on the deck railing, sarcastically commenting on the volleyball game Lilith and Luke had set up and drafted more than a few family members into playing.

  “I somehow don’t think that’s the volleyball rules I remember,” Gus muttered around a mouthful of beer. “The whole point of the game is to not let the ball hit the ground. What is this one-bounce shit?”

  “They’re playing on a driveway that’s half cobblestones and half concrete. It’s kind of like a golf hazard.” Mace shrugged off the criticism. “It’s also why we switch sides after every five points, because the garage is counted as a hazard, so if it bounces off of the wall, that’s considered a play. Trust me, it’ll all make sense to you in a couple years.”

  “I’ve worked down at the shop for two years now. None of you make sense.” He toed the dog, found Earl’s sweet spot on his back, and scratched it with his bare toe. “You all are crazy, but I’m glad you asked me to be part of the family.”

  Rob’s kiss was even sweeter than ever, and Mace savored every moment of it. Tomorrow would mean work for both of them, with a few short scraped-together moments and meals during breaks in Mace’s day-long shift. They’d talked about doing something with the other bedroom in their place, turning it into a workspace for Mace or perhaps even sharing the room, fitting a lighted drafting table against one wall for Rob.

  It was good their lives had gotten to the point where figuring out what to do with a spare bedroom was the most complicated thing on their to-do list.

  “Where do you want to get married?” Rob tilted his head back so he could look at Mace. “When do you want to get married? Or is that too… I don’t know how this works. Who’s in charge of what and who gets to ask when?”

  “I’m pretty open. I never even imagined getting married.” Mace remembered the days of struggling with his attraction for men, wondering if the beatings he’d gotten from his father had been justified because he was broken and less of a true man than he should’ve been. Bear helped him see things in a new perspective, and when the others began to join the household, Mace realized his masculinity was defined not by who he loved but rather by how he cared for those around him. “I guess I never thought about it. Maybe something romantic, where I’m not wearing a 415 Ink bowling shirt and we have somebody else provide the food so nobody has to cook.”

  “Do I have to dye my hair one color?” He stopped scratching the dog, and Earl cast a forlorn look over his shoulder until Rob started up again. “How formal is this thing?”

  “How about if we get married at the gardens, rent out the diner for the night, and invite everybody we know to come eat trash food and just dance with us?” The gleam in Rob’s eye was enough for Mace. “Honestly, I don’t care if we get married in jeans and T-shirts, just so long as we’re together and our families are there. I’m going to probably be saying this for the rest of my life, but just so you understand—here and now—loving you saved me. And I know you’re going to say you were just there, but honey, that’s what I need most. So, wear a rainbow in your hair if you want to, because I’m going to love you no matter what. For the rest of our lives.”

  MONDAY MORNINGS were hard enough without nursing a slight hangover and nearly killing himself walking out of the parking garage in high heels during a heavy rain, but Ivo pulled the short straw and was tagged to open the shop. He liked getting in early. It meant a full pot of hot coffee brewed as strong as he liked and having the music blasting through the place as he readied the shop to be opened.

  415 Ink was his second home. He’d done school work in its office, learned the tricks of the trade in its art room from men and women who’d spent their entire lives inking skin. If anything, the shop was as much his baby as it was Bear’s, and he was fiercely protective of who worked there and anyone who’d come in to get a piece of their souls put on their body.

  “Still,” he said to himself as he reveled in the emptiness of the space, “it’s damned fucking nice to be in here by myself.”

  He took care of Gus’s stall first, knowing Gus would be in to do a job at noon, and considering Chris spent the night, he didn’t know how much sleep Gus got. He hadn’t known how thirsty three-year-old boys got in the middle of the night and how quickly it took them to require a sheet change after a few sips of water.

  Halfway through stocking the paper towels, he caught his heel on a bubble in the concrete floor. It was stupid. He knew it was there. He’d tripped on it at least five times in a single week, but normally he caught his sneaker on the bump. Snagging a thin stiletto was a different story, and Ivo flailed to catch his balance. Years of walking in stilettos probably saved him, but Ivo was inclined to believe the rock-steady stall walls Bear installed years before had more to do with him not falling on his ass or face than any skill on his part.

  “Fuck. I better change my shoes before I kill myself,” Ivo grumbled. “Or with my luck, Bear will show up and catch me in them.”

  He dragged out his old pair of red Converses he’d stashed in his station and carefully limped over to the couch in the waiting area. His ankle was a bit tender, but it didn’t feel too out of line, nothing a couple of hours of babying it wouldn’t cure. He’d just tossed the Converses onto the couch so he could sit and put them on when a loud knock rattled the front door of the shop.

  It was the cop.

  The shock of seeing Nicholls framed in the doorway wiped away any thought of the ache in Ivo’s ankle. Instead, other parts of his body clenched, uncomfortable and unsure. But at the same time, an electrifying excitement crackled through him.

  He had a few days of beard growth on his strong jaw, and the rain had dampened his dark brown hair and turned it almost black. He had on an ebony peacoat over a deep gray button-down shirt, his coat collar turned up to protect his neck from the cold, biting wind, and his jeans were dark in spots from where the fabric soaked up a bit of water. Ivo couldn’t see his feet, but he guessed the cop was wearing the same pair of cowboy boots he’d seen hi
m in before. His green eyes were stormy, flinty hard, and his mouth was set into a firm straight line. His jaw tightened as he met Ivo’s gaze, and he knocked on the door again.

  “Open up!” the detective growled, pointing through the glass toward the doorknob.

  “The shop doesn’t open until noon. You want to make an appointment, call and leave a message on the answering machine and somebody will get back to you as soon as we can,” Ivo replied as he took slow, deliberate strides toward the front door, his treacherous heels tapping on the floor. “I don’t know what everyone’s schedule looks like, but mine’s full up, so you’re going to have to go to somebody else.”

  “I don’t want anybody else. Just you,” Ruan snarled at him through the glass pane and then glanced down at Ivo’s feet. “And what the hell is it with you and those shoes?”

  More from Rhys Ford

  415 Ink: Book One

  The hardest thing a rebel can do isn’t standing up for something—it’s standing up for himself.

  Life takes delight in stabbing Gus Scott in the back when he least expects it. After Gus spends years running from his past, present, and the dismal future every social worker predicted for him, karma delivers the one thing Gus could never—would never—turn his back on: a son from a one-night stand he’d had after a devastating breakup a few years ago.

  Returning to San Francisco and to 415 Ink, his family’s tattoo shop, gave him the perfect shelter to battle his personal demons and get himself together… until the firefighter who’d broken him walked back into Gus’s life.

  For Rey Montenegro, tattoo artist Gus Scott was an elusive brass ring, a glittering prize he hadn’t the strength or flexibility to hold on to. Severing his relationship with the mercurial tattoo artist hurt, but Gus hadn’t wanted the kind of domestic life Rey craved, leaving Rey with an aching chasm in his soul.

  When Gus’s life and world starts to unravel, Rey helps him pick up the pieces, and Gus wonders if that forever Rey wants is more than just a dream.

  Half Moon Bay: Book One

  Deacon Reid was born bad to the bone with no intention of changing. A lifetime of law-bending and living on the edge suits him just fine—until his baby sister dies and he finds himself raising her little girl.

  Staring down a family history of bad decisions and reaped consequences, Deacon cashes in everything he owns, purchases an auto shop in Half Moon Bay, and takes his niece, Zig, far away from the drug dens and murderous streets they grew up on. Zig deserves a better life than what he had, and Deacon is determined to give it to her.

  Lang Harris is stunned when Zig, a little girl in combat boots and a purple tutu, blows into his bookstore, and then he’s left speechless when her uncle, Deacon Reid, walks in hot on her heels. Lang always played it safe, but Deacon tempts him to step over the line… just a little bit.

  More than a little bit. And Lang is willing to be tempted.

  Unfortunately, Zig isn’t the only bit of chaos dropped into Half Moon Bay. Violence and death strike, leaving Deacon scrambling to fight off a killer before he loses not only Zig but Lang too.

  How do you save a drowning man when that drowning man is you?

  Jake Moore’s world fits too tightly around him. Every penny he makes as a welder goes to care for his dying father, an abusive, controlling man who’s the only family Jake has left. Because of a promise to his dead mother, Jake resists his desire for other men, but it leaves him consumed by darkness.

  It takes all of Dallas Yates’s imagination to see the possibilities in the fatigued art deco building on WeHo’s outskirts, but what seals the deal is a shy smile from the handsome metal worker across the street. Their friendship deepens while Dallas peels back the hardened layers strangling Jake’s soul. It’s easy to love the sweet, artistic man hidden behind Jake’s shattered exterior, but Dallas knows Jake needs to first learn to love himself.

  When Jake’s world crumbles, he reaches for Dallas, the man he’s learned to lean on. It’s only a matter of time before he’s left to drift in a life he never wanted to lead and while he wants more, Jake’s past haunts him, making him doubt he’s worth the love Dallas is so desperate to give him.

  Murder and Mayhem: Book One

  Dead women tell no tales.

  Former cat burglar Rook Stevens stole many a priceless thing in the past, but he’s never been accused of taking a life—until now. It was one thing to find a former associate inside Potter’s Field, his pop culture memorabilia shop, but quite another to stumble across her dead body.

  Detective Dante Montoya thought he’d never see Rook Stevens again—not after his former partner falsified evidence to entrap the jewelry thief and Stevens walked off scot-free. So when he tackled a fleeing murder suspect, Dante was shocked to discover the blood-covered man was none other than the thief he’d fought to put in prison and who still makes his blood sing.

  Rook is determined to shake loose the murder charge against him, even if it means putting distance between him and the rugged Cuban-Mexican detective who brought him down. If one dead con artist wasn’t bad enough, others soon follow, and as the bodies pile up around Rook’s feet, he’s forced to reach out to the last man he’d expect to believe in his innocence—and the only man who’s ever gotten under Rook’s skin.

  Murder and Mayhem: Book Two

  Whoever said blood was thicker than water never stood in a pool of it.

  Retiring from stealing priceless treasures seemed like a surefire way for Rook Stevens to stay on the right side of the law. The only cop in his life should have been his probably-boyfriend, Los Angeles Detective Dante Montoya, but that’s not how life—his life—is turning out. Instead, Rook ends up not only standing in a puddle of his cousin Harold’s blood but also being accused of Harold’s murder… and sleeping with Harold’s wife.

  For Dante, loving the former thief means his once-normal life is now a sea of chaos, especially since Rook seems incapable of staying out of trouble—or keeping trouble from following him home. When Rook is tagged as a murder suspect by a narrow-focused West LA detective, Dante steps in to pull his lover out of the quagmire Rook’s landed in.

  When the complicated investigation twists around on them, the dead begin to stack up, forcing the lovers to work together. Time isn’t on their side, and if they don’t find the killer before another murder, Dante will be visiting Rook in his prison cell—or at his grave.

  Readers love Rebel by Rhys Ford

  “…Ford does such a wonderful job here juxtaposing the intensity and tension with the love and joy and connection of this makeshift family.”

  —Joyfully Jay

  “Men to love, broken hearts in need of mending, extended families giving support, and more romance and angst to overflow any tale….all that and more superbly done.”

  —Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

  “There’s humor, pain, healing, redemption, and most importantly, family. And there’s love. So much love. I can’t recommend this book enough, people, so be sure to check it out. You won’t be sorry if you do!”

  —Diverse Reader

  “…ultimately the story is about finding hope and happiness through found family and well, like I said before, I’m already utterly and completely sold on this series.”

  —Just Love: Queer Book Reviews

  RHYS FORD is an award-winning author with several long-running LGBT+ mystery, thriller, paranormal, and urban fantasy series and is a two-time LAMBDA finalist with her Murder and Mayhem novels. She is also a 2017 Gold and Silver Medal winner in the Florida Authors and Publishers President’s Book Awards for her novels Ink and Shadows and Hanging the Stars. She is published by Dreamspinner Press and DSP Publications.

  She’s also quite skeptical about bios without a dash of something personal and really, who doesn’t mention their cats, dog and cars in a bio? She shares the house with Harley, an insane grey tuxedo as well as a ginger cairn terrorist named Gus. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird and enjoys murde
ring make-believe people.

  Rhys can be found at the following locations:

  Blog: www.rhysford.com

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.author

  Twitter: @Rhys_Ford

  By Rhys Ford

  415 INK

  Rebel

  Savior

  Hellion (Coming Spring 2019)

  MURDER AND MAYHEM

  Murder and Mayhem

  Tramps and Thieves

  SINNERS SERIES

  Sinner’s Gin

  Whiskey and Wry

  The Devil’s Brew

  Tequila Mockingbird

  Sloe Ride

  Absinthe of Malice

  Sin and Tonic

  COLE MCGINNIS MYSTERIES

  Dirty Kiss

  Dirty Secret

  Dirty Laundry

  Dirty Deeds

  Down and Dirty

  Dirty Heart

  Dirty Bites

  HALF MOON BAY

  Fish Stick Fridays

  Hanging the Stars

  HELLSINGER

  Fish and Ghosts

  Duck Duck Ghost

  WAYWARD WOLVES

  Once Upon a Wolf

  KAI GRACEN

  Black Dog Blues

  Mad Lizard Mambo

  Jacked Cat Jive (Coming Spring 2019)

  There’s This Guy

  Dim Sum Asylum

  Ink and Shadows

  Clockwork Tangerine

  Creature Feature 2 with Poppy Dennison