White Lightning

Blurb

In Kentucky, where loyalty means everything, secrets and disloyalty can kill, Linc, the son of a mountain moonshiner, and Whit, the son of the local banker, had dreams of a future together far from the Kentucky hills. But one dangerously foolish act culminated in Linc's need to make a painful decision in order to protect his secret lover. Whit left, and the years have made Linc a hard, dangerous, and lonely man.

When Whit left for college, they'd made a promise to each other. Whit would have stood by Linc no matter what, but Linc shut him out. Years later, a successful New York entrepreneur, love still eluded Whit. Those very hills and the memory of his Kentucky lover called him back to find closure, one way or the other.

Whit couldn't have picked a worse time to return to Kentucky as a murderous war was about to erupt. Moonshine and bad choices tore Whit and Linc apart a long time ago. Can Linc protect Whit, the man he still loved, from being drawn into the power struggle between moonshiners and drug lords, or would they both die when the smoke cleared, never having a chance to reclaim the love they thought lost?

Excerpt

Whit thought the nightclub in Lexington was a good idea. Too bad they never made it. Whit sat in the truck, waiting for Linc to return from the drugstore. He couldn't help smiling as he recalled a certain visit he'd made ten years before. He watched as Linc strode back to the truck, a small white plastic sack clutched in his hand. He opened the door of the pickup and slung the bag onto the seat between them. He glanced over at Whit as he settled behind the wheel. "What you grinning at?" He growled as he slammed the door of the truck and fastened his seat belt. There was a set look to his profile. Whit understood he fought a war inside. Whit did the same. Whit had come back to Kentucky to set something to rest. Instead, it looked more like the fire was only about to get hotter.

He thought of Manhattan, of the cool and organized life he'd made for himself. He thought of the pain when Linc had severed ties with him and how he was certain he would never survive the breakup. Was he really setting himself up for the same thing to happen again? He couldn't stop looking at Linc and noted the small changes. The tiny lines around his eyes, the brackets as his drawn mouth, the chiseled definition to his jawline. The faint white line that traveled from brow to chin.

"I was thinking about ten years ago," he said softly, in answer to Linc's question.

"Yeah? And what was you thinkin'?" Linc bit out.

"I was thinking that this is the same drugstore I visited when I bought that first box of condoms and the lube. You remember them?"

Linc stiffened, and then the lines of his face softened. Whit heard him chuckle.

"Yeah, I remember. I remember we didn't use the damn things."

"Yeah, I remember that too." They both went silent, and Linc started the engine.

Whit picked up the sack and looked inside. A box of condoms, tropical flavored, and a tube of lube.

"Had occasion to use these a lot since then?" Whit couldn"t help asking.

"Have you?" Linc shot back.

Whit closed the bag and set it aside. Ten years. They'd both traveled some strange and twisty roads in that time. Might be best not to visit that particular subject.

"I've stayed healthy," Whit said.

"Yeah, me too." Linc glanced at Whit out of the corner of his eye. "Jest in case you was wonderin'. I get me some regular checkups, just so's you know. At any rate"--he glanced down at the bag gleaming so whitely in the darkness--"guess it don't hurt these days to play it safe."

Safe had not been their biggest consideration when they were nineteen. Making love, being together, even it if was in secret, was all they thought of. Getting as close as they could get to each other. And when they did that, there was nothing else in the world that mattered. At least in those dark hours when they were skin-to-skin.

It was difficult not to be aroused by the thought of making love with Linc again.

And at least for Whit, it was making love, not just fucking. The years had taught him many things, and one was that he loved Linc Roydelle as he never had any other man since then. His first love, perhaps his only love. But something told him loving Linc, and having a future with him, were two entirely different things. As Linc pulled into the parking area of the cheap hotel just on the outskirts of Lexington, Whit knew he couldn't think about what the future might hold. He had to live for now--and that now with Linc was a need like breathing. It was something he absolutely had to have, had to do, no matter what. Even if the air was filled with lethal gases, he'd still have to breathe even if in the next second he was doomed to die. It was what it was.

Linc turned toward Whit, his face painted in shadows. "I'd appreciate if you'd do the registering. This place won't ask for your real name, but they don't have a chance of knowing you by sight--if someone was to be asking about...guests. Try to get something in the back, out of sight."

It was times like this that Whit was glad not to still be living in Kentucky. The need for all this secrecy wore on a man. Big-time.

"Sure, Linc. No problem." He slid out of the truck and went inside. He paid cash.

The attendant asked no questions; he just handed over the old-style key with the dirty white plastic tag attached. It had been a real long time since Whit had been forced to stay in a place like this. Once, when he'd been caught in a snowstorm outside of Minneapolis, and his flight had been canceled, along with pretty much every other flight, he'd ended up in a motel like this. Motel Hell with a thermostat that didn't work. At least tonight, that wasn't something he had to worry about.

It was Whit who stepped inside the small room first. Seemed clean enough. There was a smell of cheap imitation pine scent that permeated the room. The curtains were open, and the bright red vacancy sign flashed an eerie glow across the room. It was an end unit that sat just beneath the highway, with the loud roar of cars and semis rumbling overhead. the building was tucked down almost flush with the hill bank, shielding the room from obvious view. the location was just as Linc had wanted.

Whit heard the door close. He heard the deadbolt strike home and the chain lock slide across. The tinny echoing swish of the flimsy cheap curtains being drawn closed sent his heartbeat hammering. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the white plastic bag land on the double bed.