Cover reveal and excerpt - Still Breathing - out 8 January

 Clear Water Creek Book 3

Blurb:

He wanted to burn this place to the ground.

An adult movie company has moved operations to an abandoned warehouse in Clear Water Creek and its stars are vanishing.

Sheriff Brandon Schofield didn’t think lightning could strike twice. Finn Austen is still struggling to overcome the ghosts of the past and his torture at the hands of his abusive partner, Dominic Bateman, but Brandon’s investigation leads him to Iowa and he finds everything, in the end, always comes back to Finn.

Themes: crime, drama, angst, hurt/comfort

Genre: Dark, gritty contemporary romance

Warnings:  Very dark themes - Abuse, murder, strong language, rape, snuff, violence, homophobia. Sexual scenes.

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EXCERPT

Brandon drove to work with a smile on his face all the way. It was true the blow job hadn’t been that successful—Finn had been thinking of other times and other places when he came, that much was obvious—but nonetheless, it was another step in the right direction. Another step to winning Finn’s trust as well as his heart. Not to mention the fact that Finn’s hard cock in his mouth sent Brandon into a frenzy of desire.

 He grinned even wider in sweet anticipation of what would be waiting for him when he got home and made a mental note to buy champagne and Finn’s favorite food on his drive back. He loved their cozy nights in together where he would cook and then they would curl up on the couch, maybe watch a movie and usually end up taking it upstairs to the bedroom way before the film finished.

He pulled into the parking lot of the small station house and yanked his hood up before he got out into the driving rain. Winter had come to Clear Water Creek with a vengeance. They were only a month away from Christmas, and Brandon couldn’t wait to celebrate his first holiday season with Finn. He locked his car and hurried into the station.

Deputy Sheriff Jonah Mitchell sat at his desk eating a donut, feet up, coffee steaming beside them. A similar cup waited on Brandon’s desk. Jonah shook his head as Brandon hung up his wet coat.

“Man, I’m sick of you coming into work with that smile on your face like the cat that got the cream. Am I the only one around here not getting any?”

Brandon raised a brow at him. “I am the cat that got the cream,” he said, then blushed at his own words because it wasn’t like him to be so crude. “And you’ve got a two-year-old. I wouldn’t expect you to be getting any.”

“Still,” Jonah grumbled, “you don’t have to rub my face in it.”

Brandon sat at his desk and took a sip of his coffee. “I’m sorry. Tomorrow morning, I’ll try to look as miserable and frustrated as you.”

Jonah launched half a donut at his head.

Brandon ducked. “I really hope none of the good folk of this town choose to walk in that door right now, Jonah. They’ll think their sheriff has no authority at all.”

“Do you?” Jonah cackled.

Brandon glowered. He glanced at the clock, then slurped some more coffee. “All right then, let’s start. Any outstanding business today?”

“Yeah.” The sudden change in Jonah was astonishing—like someone had flipped a switch and he became law enforcement man extraordinaire. “I got a call from Des Moines police today.”

Brandon immediately tensed. Just a mention of the state of Iowa was enough to bring back thoughts of the ten years of abuse Finn had endured at Dominic Bateman’s hands.

“Nothing to do with Finn,” Jonah said when he saw Brandon’s face. “This concerns the CEO of the Man on Man film productions, a Mr. Ezra Wright.”

Brandon arched a brow. “Does he make what I think he makes?”

“Gay porn, yeah.”

“All right.”

“Seems like Des Moines police are keen to talk to Mr. Wright. Not only does the IRS know nothing about his so-called company, but there’s been a complaint from one of his stars.”

“Not enough lube?” Brandon asked with a straight face.

Jonah smiled. “Rather more serious than that. A Mr. Cain Calder alleges someone tried to kill him on the set of one of Mr. Wright’s movies.”

Brandon sat up straight. “Wait, are you talking…snuff?”

“Sounds like it, yeah. Mr. Calder has since disappeared without a trace and so has Mr. Wright.”

“Shit,” Brandon said. “So come on then, what does that have to do with us? Des Moines is a long way away.”

“Word on the street, says the cop I spoke to, is that Mr. Wright has moved production of his next film to Clear Water Creek.”

Brandon stared at him. “You’re fucking shitting me.”

“I wish I was.”

“Do we have a location for this sordidness?”

“No.”

“Have the police managed to get copies of any of these films?”

“No.”

“So it’s one guy’s word with no evidence.”

“Yeah.”

“What else do we know about this Mr. Wright?”

Jonah handed over a faxed sheet of paper with an ugly little bastard glaring at Brandon from the top. “Forty-eight-year-old resident of Iowa. Charged in two thousand fourteen with four counts of sodomy. Case dropped, never came to trial. Two thousand eighteen, charged with money laundering and extortion. Case dismissed due to lack of evidence. Two thousand twenty, spoken to regarding a missing boy who had allegedly starred in one of his films. No evidence to charge him on. Boy still missing.”

“A real piece of work,” Brandon said. “When you say boy, how old are we talking?”

“The porn star was twenty. The boys he sodomized were between eighteen and twenty-one.”

Brandon tapped a pen on his desk. “Get Des Moines police to fax us over a list of all their missing males between sixteen and twenty-five.” He leaned back in his chair. “I’d like to have a chat with this guy.”

Jonah got on the phone while Brandon did a few Internet searches and came up with newspaper coverage of Mr. Wright’s various arrests. When the fax machine had spit forth ten sheets of paper, Brandon stood.

“Get your coat, Jonah. I can think of the perfect place in Clear Water Creek to shoot a porn movie.”