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Copyright

Sidelined
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product
of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright
© 2014 by Mercy Celeste

All
rights reserved.

Published
in the United States by Mercy Celeste

Warning:
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any many without
written permission, except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles
and reviews.

Contact
the publisher for further information:

[email protected]

Cover Art provided by Reece
Notley

Editing provided by Daphne
Wester

Proofread by Cam Kennedy

Chapter One

The taxi pulled up in front of Levi
Brody’s Royal Street townhouse. Jude leaned out the window to take in the old
building he’d helped Levi…Liv buy. Though, not in one of the more affluent
areas of the city, the long, narrow, three-story home echoed the old world
charm of the neighborhood. Like its neighbors, the house façade was built with
antique brick that now showed through what remained of a layer of coral stucco.
This house was almost identical to the houses lining both sides of the street
save for the small, gated court yard that led to the narrow stoop.

The house hadn’t changed much in the
six years since Jude had last been here. Levi kept the garden tended or rather
he paid to have someone keep the garden tended and the walk clear. The front
door was now painted a dark shade of blue green and a pair of antique cast iron
urns filled with left over Christmas poinsettias sat on each side. He felt for
a moment as if he’d never left.

“Good to have you back in the city,
Levi. Pity you aren’t in time to pull the season out of the toilet,” the driver
said as he carried Jude’s bags to the door.

Jude stood on the stoop and sighed,
this wasn’t the first time he’d been mistaken for his famous brother. Though
lately he was sure people were wondering why he didn’t have a pink mohawk or
the diamond earrings that Levi…Liv, fuck he’d never get used to thinking of his
brother by that name—favored. He was trying. Jude tipped the man with a smile
and a nod; there wasn’t much he could say about the football season one way or
another since he didn’t follow the team or the game. The driver thanked him
without asking for an autograph, thankfully, and went on his way.

The downstairs entry was just as narrow
as Jude remembered it. He hadn’t been here in years but the size hadn’t
changed. The foyer was large enough to contain one small console table with a
mirror hung above as the only decoration. To the left was the stairs leading to
the two upper floors and straight ahead lay the long narrow corridor that led
past the parlor and into the kitchen at the back of the house.

Since Jude had moved back to Alabama,
Levi had gutted most of the top two floors to fit his needs. When Jude
purchased the house the second floor was one large open space with no walls, a
fire place dominated one wall and a set of French doors leading to the balcony
the other. Levi had created two functioning rooms from that, a weight room and
an entertainment den. Which made sense. The small parlor would not be conducive
to football viewing parties or entertaining Levi’s oafish teammates. The third
floor had the two bedrooms and one full bath. He remembered Levi recently
mentioning having a powder room installed under the stairs on the first floor.
The place was, indeed, small, but Levi seemed to love it.

Tired from his trip, Jude left his bags
in the entry and went through the first floor to the kitchen—he’d take the
grand tour later. Right now he needed a glass of water at the very least and a
couple of aspirin to dull the throbbing in his temples. He really hated flying
and the trip this morning, no matter how brief, had proved once again just how
much flying hated him. He stopped just inside the room. Considering Levi had
been content to live in the dilapidated trailer they’d grown up in Jude
expected to find something resembling the kitchen in every frat house he’d ever
been in. What he didn’t expect to find was dirty dishes everywhere, or food
spilled on the floor. A blender sat in the middle of a very nice round glass
top table with what looked like green ooze slopped down its side. Fresh green
ooze. Jude froze. He started to pull his phone from his pocket to call the cops
when the plumbing made the familiar rattling noise that he remembered from when
he lived here years ago.

He wasn’t alone.

Phone in hand he unlocked it—only to
notice the missed text messages, all from Levi. He opened the last one.
Dammit Judah just don’t freak out when you
get there. He’s a friend and I forgot he was staying there. Don’t call the
cops. And for fucksake don’t pepper spray him or whatever it is you might do.

He hit the call Leviticus button and
waited. “Fuck, Levi, that would have been helpful a couple hours ago,” he said
the moment his brother answered the phone. “You drove me to the airport and you
couldn’t remember you were letting someone house sit? Come on Levi, you know I
hate living with people.”

“Judah?…we’re breaking up…” and they
were, Jude could hear the static over the line now. “I’m in the middle of fucking
nowhere looking for I have no damned idea what and I might lose you.”

Tracy was taking one of his boys up to
T-town to tour the school. They were driving. Jude had forgotten that in his
haste to board the private plane he’d hired to fly him over. No commercial flights
flew from Mobile to New Orleans. He didn’t know that when he decided to leave
his car at home. He knew from experience that it was easier and cheaper to take
public transportation here, and he didn’t want his car going missing from the
street…again.

“Just tell me his name and that he
knows I’m coming.” The distinct sound of a gun cocking from nearby told him
that was a negative. “Levi, he has a gun,” Jude shouted into the phone.
“There’s a big, wet, knuckle-dragger in your kitchen with a gun aimed at my
head.”

“Sounds
like my idea of a Saturday night,” Liv said. He could tell it was Liv and not

Levi.
In the months since he discovered his brother had a split personality the shock
of Liv was nowhere near wearing off. “His name is William Slater. We call him
Slayer. Put me on speaker and hold it out so he can hear.”

“I’m
putting Levi on speaker. Please don’t shoot me.” He held both hands up like on
television and pressed the button on his phone so that Levi could talk his
friend into putting down the gun.

“Slayer,
this is my brother. Jude this is Slayer. Slayer’s house burned down the day
after Christmas. I told him he needed to get the wiring checked but he didn’t
listen. He’s staying. And

Slayer,
Jude is taking a class at Tulane this semester. He’s staying. Please don’t kill
him. He kept me out of prison,” Levi said over the crackling distance, but the
gun pointing at him didn’t waver.

“And
tell him to put some clothes on.” Jude kept his eyes straight ahead at a spot
over Slayer’s shoulder. Because he was naked. Completely naked.

“Come
on Jude, it’s just man meat, it won’t hurt you, sweetie. Maybe do you some
good.

Take
the stick out of your ass and maybe find something more pleasurable fits just
fine.”

“Goddamn
it, 501, shut that shit up. I ain’t no fudge packer.” The knuckle-dragger
finally spoke, and more importantly, he lowered the gun away from Jude’s face.
It was still cocked and his finger still hugged the trigger as if he wouldn’t
hesitate to act if Jude gave him any reason to think he was a threat.

“But,
Slayer, my friend, you have a beautiful dick,” Levi laughed on the other end of
the line.

“Don’t
antagonize him, Levi. He doesn’t look happy about the compliment.” The knuckle-dragger’s
face screwed up in a silent scowl, his skin flushed with anger.

“Straight
boys. I have never understood straight boys. Can’t even give them a compliment
without them getting all offended. Except there are those that come looking for
a little “sumpin sumpin” on the side. They still have no sense of—“ Jude’s
phone went dead mid crackle. Or Levi disconnected—Jude wouldn’t put it past his
brother to hang up on him. His Liv personality was unpredictable at best.

“Please
put the gun down.” Jude waited for the hulking behemoth to do something.

Anything.
He finally lowered the gun and without saying a word turned and walked back the
way he came. For a man that size he moved almost silently and with a fluid
grace. Jude caught himself watching the muscles in his ass as he walked away
and forced himself to look at his cell phone for new messages.

When
he heard the plumbing rattle again he pulled out a chair and slumped over the
table. His heart was racing ninety to nothing. There were just so many shocks a
person could handle in one life. And this one was nothing less than he expected
in New Orleans, sin capital of the south.

What
the hell was he thinking coming back here?

*
* * * *

Will
placed his gun on the sink and leaned over it. Fucker looked exactly like Levi
but he’d still pulled the gun on him. His hands shook. He’d almost shot Levi’s
brother. Because he was too fucking scared to be alone since the night his
house went up in flames.

The
man in the mirror didn’t really look familiar. He scrubbed his hand over his
head. If they lost tomorrow he’d let his hair grow out. But for now, he picked
up the razor and shaved it smooth. If it grew out. Levi and Bo had great hair,
and here he was going prematurely bald.

And
Levi, how in the hell was he supposed to just get over…he sounded like a fruit
on the phone. That wasn’t the Levi he knew. He’d just stepped into the shower
when he heard the door close downstairs. He had to be at the practice field in
an hour. Tomorrow was probably the most important game of the season. Somehow
they’d managed to secure a wildcard spot in the playoffs, and thank god it was
a home game. He didn’t need
Levi’s
damned brother interfering in his business on top of everything else this year.
But there was nothing he could do about it now. Like it or not he had a
roommate until one of them got tired of the other and moved out.

Will
stepped back into the old claw foot tub and pulled the curtain around. The
water was barely warm now but he didn’t have time to worry about it. A quick
rinse off and he was out and padding to his room with the towel around his
waist. The brother came up the stairs dragging two suitcases. He stopped when
he saw Will enter the room he’d most likely thought he’d be using.

Will
didn’t say anything. What was his name? Jude? Jude. That was it. Jude went on
down the hall to the back bedroom and opened the door. Will saw him shake his
head and sigh before going inside. He understood that much at least. Everything
about the friend he thought he’d known had him doing that same thing lately,
shaking his head and sighing, which, he had to admit, was better than beating
the hell out of something. He dressed in the room he’d always thought was
Levi’s bedroom. Until he’d found the tutti-frutti room on the other side of the
bathroom. The one Levi had always said was storage when he came to visit.
Funny, the room with the black bedding and his awards on the wall seemed
so…never used.

After
sixteen years of friendship and Levi had never told him that he was secretly
gay and Will still felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. What Levi was hiding
in the room down the hall, well, that was more like a kick in the balls.

Dressed
in street clothes and a leather jacket Will trotted down the stairs taking two
or three at a time. He had twenty minutes to get to practice or be fined. His
helmet was on the counter by the back door. He grabbed that and the keys
hanging on the rack by the phone.