Guns n' Boys: Homicidal Instinct (Book 2) (gay dark mafia erotic romance)
Read Guns n' Boys: Homicidal Instinct (Book 2) (gay dark mafia erotic romance) Online
Authors: K.A. Merikan
Homicidal Instinct - Book 2
K.A. Merikan
Acerbi & Villani ltd.
*
Guns n’ Boys book 2
K.A. Merikan
—
You can take
a killer’s memory, but not his instinct
. —
All Seth wants is to live free
with the man he loves. But escaping death at the hands of the mafia is just the
beginning of an uphill struggle. When Domenico wakes up from his impromptu
surgery and doesn’t even remember Seth’s name, Seth’s world falls apart.
Suddenly it’s him who has to plan an escape from New York City and navigate
their way to Mexico. All that without even knowing if the man of his life will
ever love him again.
Domenico doesn’t know who to trust and what to
believe. The man who introduces himself as his brother seems to hide dark
secrets behind a cheerful smile. With the mafia breathing down their necks,
there is no time to piece together the puzzle of Domenico’s life, and each time
he thinks he’s solved it, a new part appears to be missing. Dom needs to find
out who he really is, what he’s capable of... and what is the real story hidden
behind Seth’s intense eyes.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS:
Themes:
mafia, homophobia, assassin, organized crime
, amnesia, road
trip, chase
Genre:
Dark, twisted erotic romance / crime thriller
Erotic content:
Explicit gay sex
Length:
~
88,000 words
WARNING:
Adult content. If you are easily offended, this book is not for
you.
Guns n’ Boys
is a gritty story of extreme violence, offensive language, abuse,
and morally ambiguous protagonists. Behind the morbid facade, there is a splash
of inappropriate dark humor, and a love story that will crawl under your skin.
This is a work of fiction. Any
resemblance of characters to actual persons, living, dead, or undead, events,
places or names is purely coincidental.
No part of this book may be
reproduced or transferred in any form or by any means, without the written
permission of the publisher. Uploading and distribution of this book via the
Internet or via any other means without a permission of the publisher is
illegal and punishable by law.
Text copyright © 2015 K.A.
Merikan
All Rights Reserved
http://KAMerikan.com
Cover Design by
Natasha Snow
http://natashasnow.com
The
boys are back! This series needs to be read in order, so if you haven't read
book 1, you might want to start with that before proceeding to the crazy roller
coaster ride that is book 2.
We want to thank:
All of our readers for taking a chance on us and
Guns n' Boys.
Serena Yates, for the time spent proofreading
for us. That extra set of eyes is always invaluable.
Reviewers and bloggers, who help spread the word
about our books. Without your work and effort put into writing about us, we
could as well be shouting at night in a forest. Thank you so much!
Kat & Agnes
Merikan
(K.A. Merikan)
The Monsoon Cat in
Williamsburg was the last place Seth would imagine fake passports being made.
The coffee shop was swarming with bearded guys in plaid shirts and girls
sprinkled with piercings. Clean, crisp interior design mixed with
Indian-inspired wallpaper in orange and pink.
Bhajis
and
Jalebi
were served with a curious
curry latte
. Still, Seth wasn’t
that
curious.
Even though the place
was packed, he still felt he stood out like a sore thumb in the non-descript
blue hoodie he had borrowed from Peter’s boyfriend. When some random guy bumped
into him, Seth tensed up so badly he almost pulled out a gun. The stranger told
him to ‘chill’ and went his way, but chilled out was the last thing Seth was
when he walked up to the counter and looked across it at a girl in a pink
turban and a fake handlebar moustache hanging over her plump lips on a thin chain
that disappeared under the headdress.
Seth cleared his throat.
“Hey, I’m looking for a guy called Elephant?” He could only hope that the few
details Domenico had told him before passing out were not the delusions of a
man hit on the head. It had been two days since Peter had patched up Dom. Dom
was still unconscious most of the time, and only woke up every now and then to
deliver some incomprehensive mumbling.
The girl looked up at
him and asked, “Do you want rose water with that?” even as she picked up a cell
phone and put it against her ear.
Seth stilled with a
frown, feeling as though he’d suddenly appeared in a bad comedy. He certainly
wasn’t laughing. “What?”
She pouted. “Oh, you’re
one of
those
guys,” she said before saying something in a language Seth
didn’t know. The person who spoke to her must have consented to Seth passing
through, as she showed him a door hidden behind a cascade of beaded strings.
“Go straight, then down to the basement. Second door to the left.”
Seth gave her a nod,
since he couldn’t manage a smile, and went into the depths of the Monsoon Cat
through the shimmering pink beads. He needed this to be the right place or they
would be stuck. Sure, there was a long way to go till they’d reach Mexico, but
he
didn’t know any other places where one could order a fake passport. If Dom
didn’t get his shit together soon, Seth would have to transport him unconscious
since it was getting far too dangerous to stay at Peter’s, so close to where
the shooting had gone down. The police had already visited the apartment, but
cops were still asking questions, and it was only a matter of time until they
found someone who noticed two men emerge from the sewer, then climb up the fire
escape. He was wondering whether their names were already known to the
authorities.
The moment he passed the
door to the back rooms, the jolly Bollywood music died down completely, as if
the undoubtedly soundproof door separated two worlds that never met in the
open. His nose picked up on a mixture of smells as sharply different from those
in the café as the difference in music between the two spaces. Spicy, sweet,
umami versus concrete, tobacco, and sweat.
He closed his eyes for a
second and exhaled, looking up only to see an old Indian man looking at him
from one of the open doors. With a pale light shining behind his back, he was
playing with a Zippo without sparing Seth a single word.
Seth put his hands in
his pockets and gave the man a short nod before carrying on along the
bare-walled corridor. A slim black cat followed him out of another door and
meowed, giving Seth the creeps. Heading down the concrete stairs felt like
descending into another world altogether. A dark and insidious one that he was
trying to escape in the first place.
But there was something
odd at the bottom of the stairs. At first he thought the passage was blocked,
and the girl at the counter had made a fool out of him, but there was light
coming through. Seth descended toward a metal gate that covered the passage,
with only a small door that was opened halfway. There were vines climbing up
the thick bars of steel, and they grew from elongated pots placed on the other
side of the fence. Seth swallowed hard and pushed the door, which creaked,
breaking the eerie silence of what looked like a small apartment. There were
four doors here, and even a wooden hanger with coats, and a small shoe
cupboard. No high heels, even though the walls were lime green with
fuchsia-colored doorframes.
“Come in,” came from the
second door on the left.
Seth took a deep breath and
followed the voice. “Hey! Is that Elephant?” He sneered at the choking amount
of incense smoke in the air.
“That’s him,” said the
same nasal voice, and Seth slowly entered the room, blinking not to tear up
from the scented mist. At first glance the room looked like any other office,
with two tall shelving units containing books and various folders. There was a
shredder by the wall, a large freestanding printer, and two computers. A paper
guillotine shone in the light that came from a white lamp hanging over a desk
by the farthest wall, and Seth almost felt its cool touch on his throat as he
approached the slim man facing away from him. Dressed in a thick yellow
cardigan, the man was looking through a large pile of papers, too caught up in
his work to look back.
“Hi. I’m… Seth. Came to
pick up two IDs.” He didn’t even know what the fake names on them were supposed
to be.
“Never heard of you,”
said Elephant. He opened a drawer and took out a rubber stamp, which he used on
a piece of paper before leaving his signature.
“You might know my
brother, Domenico. Long black hair, kinda obnoxious,” Seth laughed nervously,
hoping to establish a connection.
The man turned around in
his office chair, and for a moment Seth was rendered speechless. Elephant’s
face seemed young and relatively handsome until it hit Seth that the one thing
it lacked was a nose. The dimmed light betrayed the arch of what used to be the
bridge of the man’s nose, only it stopped all too soon, on a bone pressing on
the skin from the inside. The structures below formed an oddly flat triangle
with two oval holes at the center, making Elephant look like an alien being. Or
an Indian Voldemort.
His large dark eyes
narrowed. “Ah, I know that one.”
“Yeah, so… I came to
pick up our passports,” Seth said, but didn’t budge an inch toward the guy. Was
this some sort of trap?
Elephant gave him a
toothy smile, which only made the oddity of his face more obvious. “Now that I
think about it, I know
you
as well. You’re
fucking
Acerbi, aren’t
you?”
All blood drained from
Seth’s face, but he dared not blink. Was this a trick question? Was the guy
bluffing to test him? Seth cleared his throat and clenched his sweaty palms.
“Maybe,” he rasped.
Elephant shrugged.
“Acerbi’s stuck on old technology, but I actually look through all the digital
copies on the machine. You can tell him that for future reference.”
Seth’s stomach clenched
into a tight ball.
Fuck. Fucking fuck.
He’d been drunk, but he sure as
hell remembered how they fucked into oblivion, starting with a lap dance Seth
gave Dom in the photo booth. Was he about to die now? He rubbed his face, now
annoyed by the stubble he hadn’t cared about before. “I’ll pass that on,” he
muttered.
Elephant leaned back in
his chair, slowly turning himself from left to right as he watched Seth with
the ghost of a smile on his lips. “I suppose you want me to keep it secret.”
“Yeah, I… that would be
preferable.” Seth wasn’t sure if it was the tension in the room or the incense
smoke that was getting him nauseated.
Elephant shrugged, slowly
walked over to the shelves, and pulled out a thick folder. “Acerbi’s already
paid me, but this juicy secret needs something extra,” he said, looking through
the papers.
Seth stood there,
petrified out of his mind. Did this creep want a blow job, or something? “I… I
make a damn fine risotto.” He laughed, trying to act normal.
“Yeah... no.” Elephant
shook his head with a wide smile and produced two passports and some papers
along with two cards. It all looked completely legit.
Seth licked his lips and
spread his arms. “How can I help you then?” he asked with a grin while cold
sweat trailed down his back.
“I want your briefs.”
“M-my briefs?” Seth
watched the man holding his ticket to Mexico, completely dumbstruck. “Like, the
ones I’m wearing?”
“Exactly the ones you’re
wearing. You gave quite the performance.” Elephant put back the folder and
started playing with the two passports as if they were participating in some
kind of game. But even Seth knew the rules, and he knew that if he wanted to
win, he needed to give something up first.
Seth’s face was burning,
but he unbuttoned his jeans without further ado. “Is this like… your
thing
?”
It was better than having to give up a body part. At least that was what he was
telling himself
“You could say so. I
like the colorful ones most,” said Elephant, circling around Seth like a lion
waiting for the best moment to jump his prey.
Seth swallowed and
pushed off his trainers before proceeding to his jeans. He hated when Elephant
got behind him where he couldn’t see him. He was too ashamed for words. What
he’d done with Dom was for Dom’s eyes only. Too bad Domenico himself was too
battered to deal with this shit because if he knew, he would not leave Elephant
flapping his ears around every time he smiled.
“You don’t have to rush.
I have time,” said Elephant from all too close for Seth’s liking. It almost
felt like a whisper against his skin.
In different
circumstances, Seth wouldn’t care less about undressing next to a guy, but the
lecherous look Elephant was giving him made his skin crawl. He let the jeans
fall to the floor and took off his briefs without another thought.
He
didn’t
have time. Not to mention that he wanted to be out of here faster than what it
took to make a curry latte. Whatever that was.
“It looks even better in
real life,” said Elephant, slowly fanning himself with the passports, and Seth
could already smell the fresh paper and ink. He needed to get those fast.
Seth handed over his CK
briefs and pulled on his jeans to hide his ass. “We’re good?” he muttered.
Elephant gave him a
charming smile and reached out the hand with the documents, only to briefly
withdraw it when Seth wanted to take them.
Seth groaned and
buttoned up his jeans before reaching out again. “Oh, come on. I think it was
enough of a show.”
Elephant shrugged and
dropped the documents into Seth’s palm. “Fair enough,
Mr. Mazzara
.”
Seth sighed and pushed
the documents into the pocket of his hoodie. “Thanks,” he said and quickly
turned around. “Enjoy the briefs.”
“Have some of the
jalebi
.
Acerbi likes them, I remember,” said Elephant, before stuffing the briefs into
a plastic pouch, which he quickly sealed.
Seth left without
another word, wondering how on earth a European deli snob like Dom would like
Indian sweets. Maybe it had been his way of showing Elephant good will? Well,
Seth didn’t care to find out because he hoped he’d never have to see the guy
again. He sped up the stairs, almost stepped on the cat, and passed the weird
old man with the lighter.
He couldn’t wait to
leave this cramped space and go into the bright hipster cafe. He would have taken
the fucking
jalebi
if it hadn’t meant talking to the girl again. No,
thank you, he’d rather take the tiny icicles biting into his skin outside.
Walking through the beaded strings felt like being spat out by a smoking giant.
He kept his hand on the
passports in his pocket and rushed through the crowd. He wouldn’t have noticed
the man sitting at one of the tables if he hadn’t stood out of the crowd like
an undertaker at a kids’ party.
The thick dark brown
turtleneck did a good job hiding the horrendous scar Seth knew spoiled the skin
beneath, but the sharp features of Santo’s face cut straight into Seth’s gut.
His straight posture reminded Seth of a Doberman waiting for his master’s
order, as though he was ready to attack even when reading a book over a glass
of
lassi
.
Seth would not be
waiting around to find out how sharp his teeth were. He pulled on his hood and
walked out the other exit to avoid passing too close to Santo. His heart was
thudding like mad. There was no way around it. Sooner than later, Dom and he needed
to move out from Peter’s. This was all too much for Seth. Too much tension, too
much fear, but he needed to persevere for Domenico’s sake. Show him that he
knew how to man up and take care of Dom no matter how bad his injuries ended up
being.
If only Dom woke up.