gritty - Stories

Kent Nakamura enlists in the United States Marine Corps, believing distance is the only way to protect the person he loves. Over the next thirteen years, war, brotherhood, sacrifice, and forbidden love shape him into a respected Marine leader, while the battlefield leaves behind wounds no one can see. As he struggles to find his place beyond the uniform, Kent must confront the invisible scars of war and discover what it truly means to keep living. Safe Distance is a prequel to Still Alive, Dumbass, but can be enjoyed as a standalone novel.

February 2011. Tripoli is burning.

Special Envoy Will Carter is trapped in a collapsing palace, hunted by militias and running out of time. His husband Andrew is the only thing standing between him and execution—but the city is a warzone, and the hunters are closing in.

From the corridors of power in Ottawa to the burning streets of the Libyan capital, the Carters are about to discover that some wars are fought with bullets, and some are fought with everything you have.

The election is a massacre. The Liberal Party is in ruins. And Julian Dufresne—a sociopathic academic backed by dark money—is poised to seize the ashes.

Shadow Minister Will Carter survived the bloodbath, but surviving isn't enough. As his husband Andrew races to disarm a Russian cyber-weapon in the shadows of Hong Kong, Will must play the longest game of his career—surviving Dufresne's rise, holding his party together, and protecting the family he's built.

From the campaign trail to the backrooms of Hong Kong, the Carters are about to discover that the real war is only beginning.

In a 1990s cruising park, a young AIDS outreach volunteer approaches a middle-aged man who looks like someone’s dad. What starts as a simple condom hand-off escalates into something more risky as one decision leads to another in a public restroom.

Content Warning: This story contains explicit M/M sexual content, power imbalances, and themes related to the AIDS crisis including cruising, condoms, and unprotected sex. Characters navigate complex realities, including sexual risk.

A CSIS operative witnesses a suicide on a Toronto subway platform. He tries to stop it. He fails. Now everyone wants what the dead man was carrying—and they think Andrew Carter has it. Caught between a corrupt RCMP officer, a ruthless Conservative fixer, and the desperate operatives of a Liberal leadership contender, Andrew must find the truth before the evidence he's doesn't have destroys everything his fiancé Will has sacrificed to rebuild. The wedding is in three weeks. The shadows won't let go. Someone is going to get burned.

A sharp-tongued barista finds himself caught between two very different men: an intense mafia hitman and a clumsy, sweet beat cop. Sometimes dating is murder.

(A complete series in three installments.)