Blackbird Knitting in a Bunny's Lair

Readers Love Amy Lane’s

Behind the Curtain

“This is a romance, the kind that soothes you from inside out and makes you believe again, makes you want again. A story that breaks through every crump of bitterness leaving the sweetest of feelings in its wake. This is a story you want to read anyway, just because it’s so freaking great.”

—MM Good Book Reviews

“
Behind the Curtain
is an extraordinary story of love and friendship. I highly recommend this book, it is one I will be reading again and again.”

—Top 2 Bottom Reviews

“Amy Lane is an extraordinary and amazing Master Storyteller. I highly recommend this one to all readers of M/M romance, and if you are already familiar with this author’s work, don’t hesitate for a second. Get it now!”

—Hearts on Fire

“Just such a lovely mix of humor and poignancy, pain and love, sadness and warmth. Lane is just a master at putting it all together, and this story is a great example of her wonderful writing. So I just loved
Behind the Curtain
and highly recommend it.”

—Joyfully Jay

“‘Amy Lane, Angst and Pain,’ Amy Lane, Characters Reign. I recommend you put this book center stage on your TBR list.”

—The Novel Approach

“Amy can rock the socks off a blank piece of paper. The rhythm of the words, the flow of the story, her style is just brilliant. I fell as hard for the author as I fell for the characters.”

—Sinfully Sexy Books

Reviews for
Behind the Curtain
(cont.)

“There is a perfect mix of humor and tenderness. This book is so well written, that even though I have never been involved in theater or dance, I could visualize what they were doing and empathize with what the characters were going through.”

—Live Your Life, Buy the Book

“I loved how the characters grew up in front of my eyes in this story. I hope they get a huge house with a pond full of ducks. And I hope they get to scare the ducks every day. Warmly recommended story.”

—My Fiction Nook

“Amy’s books are like a Pandora box that when you open it, there will always remain hope for an excellent ending. And it is my personal belief that when an author knows how to provide a perfect closure to a story that satisfies them as well as their readers, then the author has got what it takes to touch the sky!”

—The Blog of Sid

“Along with this beautiful story of Dawson and Jared, Amy Lane gave me these fantastic secondary characters, people whom I wanted to hang out with just as much as I did the main characters. Read the book. Get to know them all on your own. I did. And, I loved every minute of the ride.”

—Rainbow Book Reviews

“A full-on love story, which also has the perfect amount of drama and angst… It is fabulously funny and witty, incredibly touching, heart-breaking at times… but it will leave you with a happy heart, and undoubtedly in love with all of the players.”

—Mrs. Condit & Friends Read Books

By
A
MY
L
ANE

N
OVELS

Behind the Curtain

Blackbird Knitting in a Bunny’s Lair

Bolt Hole

Clear Water

Gambling Men: The Novel

The Locker Room

Mourning Heaven

Racing for the Sun

Shiny!

Sidecar

A Solid Core of Alpha

Under the Rushes

T
HE
K
EEPING
P
ROMISE
R
OCK
S
ERIES

Keeping Promise Rock • Making Promises • Living Promises • Forever Promised

T
HE
J
OHNNIES
SERIES

Chase in Shadow • Dex in Blue • Ethan in Gold

A
NTHOLOGIES

The Granby Knitting Menagerie

The Talker Collection

Three Fates

Published by
D
REAMSPINNER
P
RESS

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

By
A
MY
L
ANE

N
OVELLAS

Bewitched by Bella’s Brother

Christmas with Danny Fit

Going Up!

Hammer and Air

If I Must

It’s Not Shakespeare

Left on St. Truth-be-Well

Puppy, Car, and Snow

Super Sock Man

Truth in the Dark

Turkey in the Snow

T
HE
K
NITTING
S
ERIES

The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters

How to Raise an Honest Rabbit • Knitter in His Natural Habitat

G
REEN
’
S
H
ILL

Guarding the Vampire’s Ghost • I love you, asshole! • Litha’s Constant Whim

T
ALKER
S
ERIES

Talker • Talker’s Redemption • Talker’s Graduation

Published by
D
REAMSPINNER
P
RESS

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

Published by

Dreamspinner Press

5032 Capital Circle SW
Suite 2, PMB# 279
Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886

USA

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Blackbird Knitting in a Bunny’s Lair

© 2014 Amy Lane.

Cover Art

© 2014 Catt Ford.

Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and

any person depicted on the cover is a model.

All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/.

ISBN: 978-1-62798-873-5

Digital ISBN: 978-1-62798-874-2

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

May 2014

To Mary and Mate—but also to Roxy, TA Chase, Laura Adriana, and Grammy. Jeremy Bunny was such an unlikely hero—he needed some good friends to help him thrive.

J
EREMY
KNEW
two things in the moment before he almost died.

The first was that he’d had this coming.

Five years ago, when he was still on the grift in Las Vegas, he and Gianni Cabrisi shared a moment—a kiss, a blowjob, eye contact, each knowing exactly who the other was, and that it was all okay. The next day, on the weight of that moment alone, Gianni lied to his crazy mob boss about knowing where Jeremy was when Jeremy was huddled in a theater curtain not five yards away, wetting himself with fear after hearing his father die. That sort of dedication on the basis of a kiss needed to be repaid. So
sure
,
Jeremy had left that moment determined to go straight—and for the past three years, he’d been working like an honest man and doing just that—but he’d known that wasn’t all. He’d
known
he had to put paid to all the wrong he’d done as a con man. He’d
known
he had lots to pay for.

And now he was paying for it.

Gianni had gone straight too, had become Johnny—and now Johnny’s boyfriend cowered, terrified and innocent, in the little room in the barn where Jeremy was about to meet his maker. Stanley Schulz was a little guy, a yarn store designer who’d only wanted to settle down, and Johnny thought Stanley was his reward for going straight himself. Jeremy thought Stanley was Johnny’s reward for hiding his punk con-man’s ass back in Vegas, so Jeremy was going to hide Stanley with that much dedication.

It wasn’t hard, really—Mikey Carelli, the mobster who was currently breaking Jeremy’s teeth and most of the bones in his body, was too fucking crazy to listen, even if Jeremy
had
broken to spill the beans.

But Jeremy wouldn’t break. He had this coming. He’d had three good years working with good people, honest people, and falling in love with Aiden, and he owed for that. He’d pay up with a smile, because he’d had Aiden, and the one thing he knew was that this pain was all worth it.

The other thing he knew was that Aiden would never forgive him. Aiden, Jeremy’s beautiful, golden boy, the boy who had grown up while Jeremy watched, and then walked right up and claimed Jeremy as his own. Aiden had been the north on Jeremy’s compass from pretty much the minute Jeremy set foot in Granby, and had, in fact, been the one person responsible for Jeremy staying. Not that Jeremy had dreamed in a million years that Aiden would love him back—Jeremy was just happy that he’d gotten to work with Aiden in the fiber mill for the past three years. Honest work with the boy he loved—in a million years, he hadn’t dreamed that would be his lot, even for a little while. But Aiden
had
claimed him, which had been amazing, and they
had
become lovers, which still blew his mind, and now Jeremy was about to do the unforgivable.

He was about to leave.

He gazed up into the eyes of Mikey the mobster and saw nothing. His internal vision was already focused on Aiden and how upset he’d be that Jeremy had left after all.

The shotgun blast that ended Michael Carelli’s life shattered
Jeremy’s good-bye right then, and Jeremy didn’t have to leave Aiden after all.

At the beginning, though, it seemed like it might have been easier if he had.

J
EREMY
S
TILLSON
spent more time in the hospital
after
he stopped living a life of crime than he had before he’d quit. Given that his second hospital stay
ever
lasted over two months, he could safely say he was over the experience by the time he left for home.

If Craw hadn’t thrown a fit and begged and pleaded so that Jeremy could share a room with Ariadne, he never would have made it.

H
IS
FIRST
week was hazy, just a confused mess of pain and voices and Aiden—
Aiden
—
holding his hand a lot, his voice choked and messy. Jeremy had a lot of surgeries in those first days, which was a blessing, because he didn’t really have to make any decisions. Aiden and Craw made all of those decisions for him.