Throwback Thursday!

beast

Sammy Dunn had always dreamed of being a musician. When his mother’s employer offers to pay for his music school in exchange for Sammy to return he agrees.

Jonah Croft had longed for someone like his boyfriend Sammy his entire life. When Sammy disappears Jonah refuses to let his vanishing go unremarked but what he discovers when he finds him changes his entire world view.

Will love prevail or will evil tear the lovers apart?

Excerpt:

Sammy Dunn tapped at the piano keys seeking the right combination, trying to match the sounds in his head to the pattern beneath his fingers. The music drove him. It whispered in his ear a steady, insistent chatter he tried to write down before it vanished. Sometimes the sounds overwhelmed him, and he had to stop, close his eyes, and take deep breaths until he could focus on one note of music at a time.

He pulled one more string of sound from his head and scribbled down the marks in a furious rush of motion. His pencil broke, and he almost cried. The tune spun dizzily around in his brain.

“Shh, boy, calm down. It’ll be fine. You’ll get it.”

Sammy glanced over his shoulder. Mr. Strassford, his mother’s boss, stood behind him. Age wrinkled the skin around his eyes and deep grooves lined his mouth, but his eyes held a kind light.

“Sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to disturb you.” His hands shook and rustled his music sheets. He’d been given permission to use the piano while his mother cleaned, but maybe Strassford didn’t approve after all.

“You should be in a music school. You’re very talented.” Mr. Strassford tapped a piano key as he spoke.

Sammy bit his lip and hunched his shoulders. “We can’t afford it.”

He’d begged his mother to send him to a boarding school on the East Coast. They had the best music school in the United States. She’d cried for two days after she had to admit she couldn’t afford to send him.

He never brought it up again.

“I hate to see talent wasted. I will pay for your schooling if you promise to come back and visit me on your twenty-first birthday.”

“Why then?” Although his heart sped up at the opportunity, his instincts twanged warily at the strange request. No one gave away anything for free. His mother taught him that with her hard work.

“Because that is the price of understanding your gift. Everything has a cost, my boy. Everything.”

Sammy didn’t trust Strassford. Although the offer appeared good on the surface, the price might prove too high. He only knew of one person he could trust unconditionally. “I’ll talk to my mom.”

Two days later, he was off to school.