WIP - The Silent Voice - New

Slade Douglas knew his career was over when he left the doctor’s office. His agent knew it, his publicist knew it, his label knew it—and soon the public would know it. The Country music sensation from an inner city urban neighborhood, Slade Douglas, would be silenced.

The pain that realization caused drove Slade to return to the big city he came from and lose himself in the press of humanity in a neighborhood that didn’t listen to country music. There, he tried to pick up the pieces of his shattered life.

This was the place where he’d lost his father to liver disease, his mother to cancer, one brother to a gang and the other to drugs. The painful, yet familiar home where he lost the one person he loved most to a career—and a closet.

Slade didn’t expect to see Katsumi Santiago, thinking the boy—now a man, would have fled the harsh reality of a neighborhood full of gangs and violence. Kat was, well, delicate…sensitive…pretty. Slade wasn’t sure the boy he’d loved was even still alive. Too many times, he and two of their other friends had to protect Kat from getting beaten up.

Guilt always filled Slade when he thought about his abandonment of Kat. Ten years had passed since stardom called to Slade and he left, never looking back. His dreams were too big to risk telling Kat he loved him.

Now he was broken, his voice box irreparably damaged, his voice raspy and low, as if he’d been smoking since he was two, though he’d never touched a cigarette. A random viral infection scarring the vocal folds and rendering his voice weak and very different, and driving him home as a failure.
And there was no sign of Kat once he returned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kat couldn’t believe the entertainment news. The man he’d wanted since he was sixteen was no longer singing, his throat too damaged to continue. The sadness that welled up at Slade’s dying dream made Kat angry.

The man had left him, abandoned him to the violence and fear of those who tormented him all through school. Kat blamed Slade for the hell he’d gone through even if deep down he knew it wasn’t true. They’d only been friends, Kat never confessing his feelings and had even encouraged Slade to pursue his dream.

For a couple of years, Kat had even been proud that he might have had a small part in Slade reaching stardom. But soon, it dimmed and he was back to missing Slade, his heart broken even if the man didn’t know it.

However, Slade’s success motivated Kat to take back his life, to get out from under Lario Soto’s thumb, to stop being his whore and make a life for himself. It took running, getting away from the neighborhood, but Kat had done it.

Now, he ran a very successful line of Boutiques called Santiago’s all across the United States. They specialized in needs and accessories for the bedroom, from bedding to leather cuffs and everything in between. Just last year Kat broke the multimillion dollar net worth.

Unfortunately, with his success—and money—came threats. Threats from Lario and his gang. And the news that Slade was back in their old neighborhood and the object of those threats. Kat couldn’t let the man he loved die, but he didn’t want to cave to Lario’s demand for money—or his body.