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    Vanished 2
    Vanished 2
    Vanished 2
    Ebook121 pages2 hours

    Vanished 2

    By Carter Quinn

    ()

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    About this ebook

    It's only been three weeks since Henry woke up to discover his husband, Tom, had vanished. He's still struggling to come to terms with his new reality when he receives a haunting phone call: “Henry. Help me.” It’s Tom's voice, but Henry is afraid to believe. His world has already come crashing down around him twice in the last six months. Is Tom really alive, or is Henry losing his grip on reality?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCarter Quinn
    Release dateSep 26, 2015
    ISBN9781311566324
    Vanished 2
    Author

    Carter Quinn

    Carter Quinn was born and raised in a very small Western Kansas town where cattle vastly outnumber humans. In the 1990’s, he read enough depressing gay fiction to give up on it. He discovered M/M in 2010 and started writing again. Now he’s told Corporate America to kiss his books. Carter lives again in that small Western Kansas town,entirely too far from his beloved Colorado Avalanche.

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      Book preview

      Vanished 2 - Carter Quinn

      Table of Contents

      Dedication

      Acknowledgements

      Prologue

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Epilogue

      Author’s Note

      About the Author

      Vanished 2

      Carter Quinn

      Carter Quinn Books

      Copyright © 2015 by Carter Quinn.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

      Carter Quinn Books

      carterquinnbooks@gmail.com

      www.carterquinnbooks.com

      Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

      Book Layout ©2013 BookDesignTemplates.com

      Cover design by Scott J. Latimer, SJL Graphics, LLC

      Vanished / Carter Quinn. -- 1st ed.

      ISBN 978-0-9907732-3-8

      Dedication

      For Mom.

      Thank you for always being there for me.

      I love you.

      Acknowledgments

      I’d like to thank my beta readers. Your feedback was invaluable.

      As always, a huge thank you to Marilyn. That last brain-storming session means V3 will kick ass!

      A huge thank you to my sisters and my Mom for supporting me. I love you.

      As always, I offer my biggest thanks to the readers. Without you, I’d be just another guy hearing voices in my head. You’ve let me exchange the tinfoil hat for a pen. I’m forever grateful.

      Massive thanks to Rick Johnson of Rick Johnson & Associates in Denver. I think I changed every single thing about this book after we talked, but I appreciate you taking the time to help the ranting writer figure it all out. Any mistakes I have or will make are completely my own and should not reflect on Rick

      PROLOGUE

      Previously…

      I awoke bleary eyed and exhausted. Out of habit, I rolled over to cuddle with Tom, but he wasn’t there. My husband would never be in our bed again. I would only ever be greeted by cold sheets and an empty spot where my love should be. I caressed his pillow as if it were his face and let my tears come. They were never far away now.

      It had been three weeks since Shaun had shown me Tom's grave. Three weeks of fresh grief, as powerful and debilitating as if he had only just gone. My heart was in pieces. I had no idea how I’d made it through the first time, although given my recent break with reality, it was clear that I really hadn’t. The thought of losing my mind again scared me almost as much as the thought of living without Tom. For almost half my life he’d been my reason for getting up in the morning and for going to bed at night—and sometimes in the middle of the afternoon. Now our cozy little family of three was missing its biggest component, the one that pumped life and love into CJ and me, and I had no concept of how to compensate for that.

      When the first tears of the morning finally dried up, I placed a kiss to Tom's pillow and braced myself against the thought that soon I would have to give up the practice. His scent no longer lingered in the soft cotton, but I was still able to call it to mind in those moments. I climbed out of bed, determined to face my first day back at work like any sane person would—with dread and a heavy heart.

      I skipped making breakfast, as I had since CJ returned to Los Angeles. It was too much trouble to go to for one person. Besides which, sitting alone at the breakfast table only gave me more time to soak in the quiet of the house and feel the loneliness seep into me. Instead, I left for work early, catching the 37 bus and the M Line, arriving well before eight o’clock.

      Surprisingly, my assistant, Trevor, was in the office before me. I was grateful to see him before I saw anyone else. There was something comforting about having my work day battle buddy be the first person I saw. He greeted me with a huge smile and a handshake.

      It’s good to have you back, bossman. The natives are getting restless, he confided.

      I rolled my eyes. When aren’t they? What’s happening now?

      You haven’t seen the paper today?

      Nope. I was trying to keep the stress away as long as possible.

      Understood. But you’re back now, so brace yourself. Trevor followed me into my office with the morning’s Examiner. He opened to the front page of the business section and tossed it on my desk. Excellere Global Sells Canadian Division to DWP Corp screamed the headline.

      My mouth dropped open and I stared at Trevor in disbelief. DWP Corporation. Dimitriou. Althea Dimitriou MacKinnon. Dimitriou World Petroleum. How the hell had I forgotten that? Matthew and Althea MacKinnon had partnered with Qatari and Emirati billionaires and gone back into the oil business shortly before Tom's death. What the hell?

      Trevor nodded. My response exactly. Why would they want anything Excellere has to offer, much less in Canada?

      I—I don’t know. I couldn’t make sense of it on any logical level. Excellere was a retail conglomerate offering products used in and around the home. What possible association could any of that have to an oil company?

      The phone in my pocket trilled, making both of us jump. As I dug the phone free, Trevor made his escape, closing my office door behind him. Still trying to figure out the connection between Ossi Aaltonen, Matthew and Althea MacKinnon, and Middle Eastern sheiks, I didn’t even glance at the caller ID.

      Cooley, I answered.

      Henry. The connection was good but the voice was hoarse and weak. Tom. Help me.

      Tom. Help me.

      CHAPTER

      One

      I stared at the phone held in my trembling hands. I desperately wanted to hit the call back button, to hear Tom's voice again. If he was in a safe spot, maybe he could give me more details so I could find him. But if he wasn’t—if he’d disconnected the call because he was in danger and about to be discovered—calling him back could be the kiss of death. It didn’t matter, though, because no matter how much I might try, I couldn’t call back an unknown number.

      I tossed the phone on the desk as tremors wracked my body. Henry. Help me. Tom's voice echoed in my brain, growing more anxious and frantic with each repeat. I gripped my head with both hands, pushing as hard as I could to make it stop. To make everything stop.

      I couldn’t deal with this. I couldn’t. Not on my first day back to work of all days. And how fucking selfish was that? Tom was out there somewhere, desperate for my help.

      Except he wasn’t. He couldn’t be. He was dead.

      I knew that. I remembered that now.

      Oh god, I’m losing my mind. Again. I wanted to cry or to cry out, but I could do neither. I thumped my head with the heel of my hand and prayed for sanity to return. I couldn’t lose it again. I had CJ to think about. He’d already lost one father to death. How could I put him through losing the other to Crazytown?

      I doubled over, putting my head between my knees, cupping the back of it with my hands. The nauseated feeling retreated enough that I could concentrate on controlling my breathing. In. Out. Slow. In. Out. Calm. In. Out. Peace. In. Out. Serenity. In. Out. Insanity.

      I fled the office and raced across the hall, punching the button for the down elevator. The walls and uncertainty closed in on me. I was heading for an epic panic attack. The only thing that would ward it off or lessen its impact was being outside where I could feel the breeze on my face, smell something other than stale office building air. But to

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