CHAPTER #15 EPILOGUE

They forced me to commit myself to one year inside the protective walls of Sunvale Sanitarium, fifty miles south of Phoenix. From within those walls, through my lawyers, I negotiated a long-protracted settlement with the affected parties. To pay the settlements, I was forced to sell off more properties for less money than I’d ever considered or admitted.

I’d been inside the fluffy walls of the hospital more than six months before I began to compose my letter. Continue reading →

***

I ran along the flagstone path toward the boat when the last explosion happened. A freight train rushed past me, piercing the air next to my right ear. My eardrum almost exploded under the pressure. In front of me, the branch of a small leafless tree sheared and fell to the ground with spatters of blood.

I reached to the side of my head and pulled back a greasy handful of blood. I stumbled on the cobblestone walk. I’d been shot. That fucking Harry Trunk shot me. Continue reading →

“He’s shot!” I screamed. “Sundog is shot.”

At that moment, for the first time in my life, I found something inside me that would have made Mother Teresa proud. The nurses at Mercy General –where I worked as a receptionist– would have also been proud. Heck, maybe even my mother, had she ever given a shit, might have given me a point or two.

I leapt on Sundog, knocking him to his side.

He screamed in agony. While he flailed on the carpet, I sat on top of his butt facing the injured foot. It wasn’t bleeding and that was good. Continue reading →

People screamed in the other room. After the sound of the blast subsided, I heard a chorus of whimpering and moans.

Harry was not playing with a full deck. He was always few cans short of a six-pack, but Harry was coming up short across the board and I wasn’t sure what to do. If I continued to engage him, I might get shot. If I backed off, everyone might get shot.

Trunk had always been more than a bit weird, but who knows what deep end he went off of when the flood happened on the wrong side of the levee? Continue reading →

I reversed the propeller and slammed forward on the throttle. While the cruiser came to a halt, I glanced at Shawn then stared again at the spectacle. Yamelda’s sleek body cut the water and disappeared into the frozen murkiness.

Once the ripples from her flawless entry subsided, we looked at one another.

Shawn grinned. “She’s got it bad.”

“I’ve never seen her this way.”

It was all I could do to keep a straight face. The memory of Yamelda, the ice queen, leaping overboard to save someone other than herself made me want to howl with laughter. In deference to our two new passengers, I abstained. Continue reading →