Safe Now

Some secrets can't be kept.

Some people can't be protected. Some brothers can't be stopped.

Growing up in a small town outside St. Louis, Missouri, Steve and Nick Cook struggle to balance their own aspirations with their strict parents' desire to mold their sons into a picture-perfect and obedient family.

But when Nick is outed, their parents make life worse for both. Steve promises to get his little brother somewhere he can live without fear, even if that means delaying his own dream of becoming a Marine.

When fate intervenes, Steve takes Nick far from their childhood home to live with extended family. Believing he is safe, Steve finally enlists and serves multiple deployments in the Middle East.

With Steve fighting for his country, Nick risks the only safety he's ever known to set out on his own. When Nick disappears, Steve vows to do what the local authorities can't-setting on a new mission that takes him across the Midwest, from Chicago to the seediest neighborhoods in Detroit and Columbus, to find him.

Now, living in a community of friends who don't hesitate to share his burdens and with a family willing to share his pain, can Steve complete one more mission and save his brother?

No part of Safe Now was created by generative AI. This was 100% the creation of the author, H.M.S. Brown. CW: Domestic violence, homophobia, violence, interrupted sexual assault, brief drug-use by a tertiary character.