Thorn
Belladonna Mansion
Virginia Beach Oceanfront
I’ve been more than patient. If you’re not up here in two minutes, I’m starting without you.
He slipped his glasses off, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
He already pictured Lucas sprawled out on his bed, shirtless, in tight black briefs, wearing that devilish grin.
The creak of the office door made him laugh. “I said I was coming, lover—”
The words died in his throat as Axel stumbled in, face streaked with tears, looking broken and terrified.
Thorn shot up from behind his desk and raced toward him.
“Honey, what’s the matter? Did you—”
Axel was shoved so hard from behind that his knees buckled and he crashed to the floor.
“Axel!”
Thorn lurched forward but froze when another man came barreling in after him, throwing himself over Axel’s back.
The stranger’s glare was like a shard of glass when he turned toward the shadow filling Thorn’s doorway.
“If you touch him again,” the man snarled, shielding Axel with his whole body, “it’ll take every bullet in that fuckin’ gun to stop me from slamming your head into the wall.”
Thorn’s heart stuttered. Everything was happening too damn fast.
A figure stepped inside, hood low, gun leveled directly at him.
Thorn raised his hands as the gunman pulled his hood back.
Thorn’s stomach bottomed out.
“…Evan,” he gasped.
He stumbled back a step, eyes darting between Axel, who was trying to rise to his feet, and the protective stranger keeping him close.
Evan’s lip curled, his eyes feral and gleaming with hate.
“Bet you didn’t expect this, huh? Thought you were safe behind your fortress of heartbreakers.”
Thorn’s throat went dry. “Evan, listen to me…let Axel go. This is between you and me. He’s never hurt you.”
“That’s the only reason he doesn’t have a bullet in his head already,” Evan snapped. “You? You’re the one who deserves to die.”
Axel cried out, twisting against the arms that held him. “No, please! Don’t hurt him!”
He tried to run forward, but the man holding him locked down harder, hiding Axel’s face against his chest, muffling his desperate sobs.
“Sit.” Evan pointed the gun at Thorn’s chest, then jabbed the barrel toward the chair in front of his desk.
Thorn sat, every muscle rigid. He wasn’t about to provoke him, not with Axel in the room.
His mind raced. The cameras had to have caught Evan coming inside. Maybe someone had seen him and was already calling for help. He just had to buy time. Keep Evan’s focus on him.
“Evan, what do you want?” he asked with a cautious tone.
Evan stalked closer, eyes wild, sweat beading his forehead, the stink of liquor and chemicals radiating from his pores. He pressed the muzzle of the gun against Thorn’s forehead.
Axel screamed.
“Shut him up!” Evan barked, snapping his head toward Axel.
The man holding him pressed Axel’s face into his chest, trembling as he tried to protect him. Axel’s muffled sobs ripped through Thorn like glass.
“Evan.” Thorn forced his voice to remain calm, gentle, coaxing, like he’d used a thousand times before with broken men.
“You want me to apologize? Okay. Let me say this…I loved you. I still would if you hadn’t chosen the drugs over me.
I didn’t put you out to punish you. I did it to protect everyone else here.
You were endangering not only me, but them too. ”
Evan’s hand shook violently on the gun. His teeth ground. “Lies. All you’ve ever cared about is them ! Not me!”
Evan swung his gun toward Axel.
“No!” Thorn lurched, but the man guarding Axel stood like a wall.
“Maybe taking one of your precious gentlemen is the best way to make you understand,” Evan hissed.
“That bullet,” the stranger snapped, “will have to go through me first.”
Evan sneered, advancing, before he was shoved back hard.
Evan whipped upright and slammed the butt of the pistol into the man’s temple.
The crack echoed sickeningly against the walls. The guy crashed to the floor, pulling Axel down with him. The stranger was dazed and bleeding but still hunched protectively over Axel’s body.
“Stop!” Thorn shouted. “Leave them alone!”
But Evan was already spinning back, shoving Thorn into the chair so hard the wood cracked.
“Let me help you,” Thorn begged, hands lifted, palms out. “Let me get you into a facility, Evan. You’re a good man. It doesn’t have to end like this. I will always love you. I want to see you healthy again.”
For a flicker of a moment, confusion clouded Evan’s eyes. The gun shook in his hand as sweat poured down his face. But then his jaw locked and his eyes glazed over, hollow and haunted.
“I’m not falling for your lies. Not ever again.” His voice cracked. He leveled the gun at Thorn’s chest. “I’m sorry.”
The world tunneled in, and Thorn’s breath stalled in his lungs.
“Thorn, did you—”
Lucas stood frozen in the doorway, shirtless, black lounge pants riding low on his hips, a bottle of wine in one hand, lube and condoms in the other.
“Lucas, no,” Thorn begged with his eyes, shaking his head in terror.
Evan’s gun swung like a snake, zeroing in on Lucas. He blinked, then snarled, lip curling. “Don’t I know you?”
Lucas’s jaw flexed as he bared his teeth. “I’m gonna make you wish you didn’t.”
Evan cocked his head and glanced back at Thorn, then back at Lucas.
His voice was venom. “Maybe I’ll show you what it feels like to lose the man you love.”
Thorn’s chest seized, panic swallowing him whole. His heart battered against his ribs so hard he thought it might burst.
“Say goodbye to your knight in shining armor, Thorn.”
The cold certainty in Evan’s eyes told him he meant it.
Thorn was moving before his rational brain could stop it.
He leaped up, lunging toward Lucas, slamming into him just as three sharp cracks shattered the air.
Glass exploded. Heat flared across Thorn’s back, pain searing like fire tearing through him.
He hit the floor hard with Lucas crushed beneath him.
The world warped, voices muffled, and his lungs screamed. He barely felt himself being rolled onto his back, the pain white-hot and unbearable.
Lucas was hovering above him, frantic, and shouting something, but Thorn couldn’t hear the words.
His vision darkened at the edges, and the last thing he saw was Lucas’s wide, terrified eyes before the blackness pulled him under.