Member-only story

Cold Comfort

Queer fiction. A mob boss takes in a rival’s hostage, and tries to keep him from suicide.

Johannes T. Evans
56 min readAug 30, 2023
Photo by cottonbro studio via Pexels.

14k, M/M, rated E for equally explicit sex and violence. Set in 1920s New Jersey. Nasty and violent.

Alvis Hunter, boss of a significant crime operation, steals a captive out from under a rival—Naham, a rabbi’s son who immediately attempts to kill himself. In the aftermath, Alvis tries to keep him alive; Naham tries to find something worth living for.

Some philosophy and introspection in this one along the way of the rape recovery. Warnings for rape and sexual violence, mental health issues, a crisis of faith, trauma, homophobia, intersexism, antisemitism, and other assorted violence.

Kit Lettings has been gone from town for a week when they make the raid on his place. He’s been living in the house for some six months now, and they’d had a tip on how the stills were hidden downstairs, where the hatch was under the dining table.

As the boys are raiding the liquor stores and putting it all in the wagon outside — separate to the wagon filled with Kit’s dead goons — Alvis walks the halls, takes a look at the luxury of the place, the fine fucking refinement the little prick has taken on.

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Johannes T. Evans
Johannes T. Evans

Written by Johannes T. Evans

Gay trans man writing fantasy fiction, romance, and erotica. Big on LGBTQ and disability themes, plus occasional essays and analysis. He/him.

Responses (2)

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Now, though? Now, dead to my parents and yet still living, now, I know shame. I’m a truly, truly shameful thing.

This passage reminded me of an idea from David Graeber's book Debt: The First 5000 Years, where Graeber proposes that the societal concept of "personhood" can be defined as the sum of one's connections to others--friends, enemies, family, lovers…

Excellent story!