Nights like this, when autumn’s stained-glass skies blow jagged kisses, death comes sweet as candy and cruel as coincidence. A gun in hand is a promise, like a left hook or an engagement ring. I am that promise, sworn to maintain order, defend members, protect the club. This ‘sergeant-at-arms’ patch means I do the heavy […]
North Dakota / 1883 Papa had been right, damn his puny parched heart. Phillip hadn’t the stones to settle the land. Now he was sleeping beneath the dirt beside Papa and she was hard pressed to conjure a tear for either of them. Perched on the porch steps, she watched leaves chase each other down […]
Never thought I’d be sorry to say goodbye to the Shiloh Valley Veteran’s Hospital. Spent most every day of my eighteen-month residence daydreaming about the moment I’d bust out. Always imagined myself hauling ass out the front door and hollering ‘freebird’ until I didn’t have any voice left. Didn’t quite turn out like that. Reason […]
Music: My Arms Were Always Around You by Peter Bradley Adams Ten paces away, a buck tests the wind at the creek’s edge. Its antlers are a heavy crown and its legs are as fluid as the water. Brash can take the shot now, have the animal skinned and on the spit for dinner before […]
Socialite Bunny Barlow was everything the media promised: beautiful, charismatic, and fashionable. But she was also bright, practical, and resourceful. So when her husband, Fortune 500 bad boy Jim Barlow, dropped off the radar while she was vacationing alone in Germany, she reached out to the only enterprise she trusted to find him. A man’s […]
The sky was still dark when we were rousted from our cots, fitted with oak claymores and driven into the damp fields high above the shore. We stumbled over the soggy terrain, scattering like grouse in the salty fog and scrambling to take up our positions for this final mock battle. As we awaited the […]
He motions her into the observation booth, though the set of his jaw lets her know he’s not happy about it. Their long and cantankerous history was about to get another kink in it. He hands her the roster. “Sarge says you gotta pick one off the line before you leave the range today.” “Why […]
Rocky pulled into the pharmacy parking lot, right up front, and got out of the van. “Thought we were going for a pint,” said Lou, leaning out the passenger window, his mouth pulled tight. “And we are. Right after you get your stubborn ass into this store and buy a gift.” “I don’t do holidays. […]
NEW YORK – 1940 Corky Gallagher’s legacy filled the shelves in his office with trophies and covered his office walls with news clippings that had long since yellowed, cracked and curled at the corners. Conversely, his only child’s legacy had been swept under the rug and they endeavored to keep it there. But the morning […]
They say you reap what you sow, but that’s a crock. I worked two jobs to put him through law school and ran the household while he worked eighty-hour weeks. He thanked me by shagging senior partners, embezzling client funds, and making a public spectacle of our family. Before the fallout was over, I was […]