Book Title: Hide and Seek: Stories from the Sound (All Cocks Stories) book 6
Author: TM Smith
Publisher: TTC Publishing
Narrator: Mackenzie Brennan
Release Date: February 12, 2021
Genre: M/M Romance
Trope/s: Strangers to lovers
Themes: Hurt/comfort
Length: 7 hours and 7 minutes
It is book 6 in the series.
Buy Links
Truths come out and trust is put to the test. Can the All Cocks family find the happiness they deserve?
Blurb
Dusty Anderson left his hometown in Justin, Texas, for the Big Apple not long after graduating high school with dreams of becoming an actor. A year later, no closer to realizing his dream but pretty damn close to being broke, he comes across a flyer in a local gay bar that provides a solution to his dilemma.
Six years later, Dusty has all but forgotten his dream to be an actor. The family he gained when he went to work at All Cocks and the job itself are enough for him – for now, at least.
David Thompson is barely 21, high on life and starting his second year at NYU as an art student. Now that he is old enough to enjoy the city’s nightlife, David finds his first crush at a local hot spot in the village, The Monster Bar. Young love is laid to rest, though, when David comes out to his mother and older brother…with disastrous results.
A tragic incident at the hands of David’s brother changes the course of all of their lives and brings the two together, but is it coincidence or fate? Regardless of unlikely circumstance, Dusty is inexplicably drawn to David, who suddenly finds himself alone in the world. Protective of David from the start, Dusty realizes his extended family at All Cocks and his best friend Kory will not understand this new relationship. Fearing the worst, Dusty plays a dangerous game of hide-and-seek, risking everything to keep David safe and sheltered.
But hiding can only last for so long, and David and Dusty aren’t the only ones dealing with uncertainties. The Dimir men find that the one thing they’ve longed for might be within reach and Dusty’s father, Dean, arrives in town unexpectedly with secrets of his own.
Note: This book was previously released in the All Cocks Stories series. This book is intended for mature listeners due to adult content.
Prologue
Dusty sat in the chair across the room from Jon’s hospital bed reading the New York Times. It was a few days old and had been tossed into the trash bin under the sink, but a headline on the front page caught his attention. Dusty waited for Kory and Jon’s brother Tristan to go eat—leaving him alone with a sleeping Jon—to pull the paper out and read the story. It was about the attack at The Monster Bar that left three people dead and injured dozens of others, including Jon Brennan, Kory’s boyfriend who was also a detective for the NYPD.
The events of that night had touched the lives of just about everyone Dusty knew in one way or another. Mere hours after the shooting, Kory along with Jon’s family stood vigil in a waiting room at the hospital, anxious for any news on Jon and his condition. He’d pulled through surgery and had been getting better every day. The same couldn’t be said for Gio, a bartender at The Monster Bar, who happened to be a member of their nuclear family at All Cocks by extension as Gabe’s boyfriend. Gio’s funeral was the following day, and Gabe was beside himself with grief.
It was an image of Gio that had drawn Dusty’s attention to the discarded newspaper in the first place. Beneath the storyline on the paper before him that read, “Three dead and dozens wounded in a shootout at a local hotspot in the Village” along with an image of a fallen officer and a man with blond hair and angry blue eyes…Dale Thompson, the shooter. The article went on to tell the story of an already unstable man that, upon learning his little brother was gay, had been so angry he damn near beat the young man to death. He’d then proceeded to return to the nightclub he’d found his brother and the brother’s boyfriend at prior to beating him and opened fire. The article ended by stating that doctors weren’t certain whether or not the brother, David Thompson, would survive the injuries he sustained in the beating.
Dusty fisted the newspaper in his hands, pissed. It made his blood boil that anyone could be so cruel and malicious with their own goddamn kin. Hell, for all he knew, the young man had succumbed to his life-threatening injuries and the psycho Dale Thompson’s rampage had gone from a body count of three to four. What must their mother be going through—one son dead and the other in the ICU, caused by the oldest son’s actions? He almost missed the small font at the bottom of the story that read, more details on page 23.” His shaking fingers smoothed out the wrinkles in the paper and Dusty slowly turned to page twenty-three.
“Local art student David Thompson still clings to life at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. The twenty-one-year-old was found in the home he lived in with his mother, Diane Thompson, and older brother, Dale Thompson, last week, unconscious. It is speculated that David was beaten by his older brother…
Dusty growled, skimming through the next couple of paragraphs that rehashed the events at the bar and spoke more on the possibly unhinged mental state of the eldest Thompson boy. How the mother, Diane, was a devout Christian and was blindsided by not only her oldest son’s actions, but her youngest son’s deviant sexual behavior. “Yeah, fuck you bitch,” Dusty muttered, his eyes scanning over the words on the page.
“At the time this article goes to press, David Thompson lies in a hospital bed with an unthinkable list of injuries that include a broken nose, leg and clavicle as well as swelling on his brain so severe, he’s been placed in a coma until such time the swelling dissipates, or he passes from injuries sustained.”
Inhaling a deep, calming breath, Dusty wadded the newspaper into a tight ball and lobbed it toward the trash can. He fought the urge to leave the room, walk down to the nurses’ station, and ask what room David Thompson was in. There was a brief surge of panic when he thought of how Kory would react. Not only to the news of learning that the brother of the man that damn near killed his lover was in this very hospital, but to learn Dusty had this…need to know what happened to the young man. But then, David Thompson had not asked to be Dale Thompson’s brother. Nothing that had happened to Jon, Gio or anyone else at that club was this young man’s fault. And Dusty shouldn’t be ashamed by the feeling of concern, even if for a virtual stranger.
The soft click of the door opening alerted Dusty that Kory and Tristan had returned mere seconds before he heard their footsteps echoing in the silent room. Kory immediately took a seat in the chair next to Jon’s bed, Tristan plopping down into the recliner in the corner. “You call me if you need anything,” Dusty whispered so as not to wake Jon, saying his goodbyes and leaving the room, quietly closing the door behind him. He was exhausted and he had a shoot the next day, so he decided not to stay around and linger. Turning left instead of right, he didn’t realize his mistake until he looked up and noticed he wasn’t at the elevators.
Growling, he followed the hall until he came upon the nurses’ station again, but on the other side. Dusty breathed a sigh of relief; at least he now knew how to find his way back to the elevators. He froze when a name written on one of the hospital room doors caught his attention…David Thompson. Well, that answered one lingering question, the little brother had survived. Looking left to right and seeing no one, Dusty pushed the door to the room open and walked in.
The noise from all the machines lined up next to the bed were distracting, and the only light in the room came from the window; the curtains were pulled open. A small body lay in the bed, tubes and wires connecting him to the various machines. One leg was in a cast from above his knee down to his toes, a thick band attached to a pole at the foot of the bed holding the leg a few inches above it. A patch over one eye with gauze wrapping around his head made Dusty think of a pirate. The young man’s small body was littered with bandages, cuts and bruises. It left Dusty feeling nauseous and he couldn’t fathom why. He should have avoided even entering the room; this kid was the brother of the man that had tried to kill his best friend’s lover.
Instead, he felt an overwhelming urge to pull the chair in the corner up beside the bed and set up a vigil, to watch over the young man that lay there broken, battered and bruised and dare anyone to lay a finger on him. And so he did just that. Dusty had no idea how much time passed as he sat there watching David’s chest rise and fall while he slept. A gasp from behind him drew Dusty’s attention and he turned to find a petite nurse staring at him, wide-eyed. Seeming to gather her senses, she walked over to the opposite side of the bed and proceeded to check all the tubes, monitors and machines, keeping one eye on Dusty.
Finally, she spoke. “Are you a friend of the family?”
Dusty shook his head. “No.” Seeing the look of uncertainty mar her pretty face, he quickly added, “I’m a friend of David’s.”
She immediately deflated and gave Dusty a sad smile. “Well, thank goodness, I was beginning to think this poor boy didn’t have a soul in the world that cared for him.”
I care. I’m not sure why yet, but I do, Dusty thought, but kept that morsel to himself. Left alone in the room Dusty found himself confident in his decision to stay and offer David the support he obviously didn’t have, but desperately needed.
A military brat born and raised at Ft. Benning Georgia; Smith is an avid reader that just happens to write sweet & sexy gay romance. A Texas transplant, she now calls DFW her home. Most days she can be found curled up with a good book, or ticking away on her next novel.
Smith is a single mom of three disturbingly outspoken and decidedly different kids, one of which is Autistic. Besides her writing, she is passionate about Autism advocacy and LGBT rights. Because, seriously people, Love is Love!
Social Media Links
Audible Profile | Blog | Website | Twitter: @TTCBooksandmore
Facebook: Author TM Smith | Join the TRIBE on Facebook | Pinterest | YouTube
Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | iTunes
Newsletter Sign-up – follow the newsletter prompt at the top
Follow the tour and check out the other blog posts and reviews here