Alice gawked at the receipt in my hand. I had checked the number myself, wondering if that nine had really been a four, but nope. There it was. I handed the slip to Alice with my fingers trembling. Deciding to take on those guys had been a calculated risk, but I’d never ex...
The thin light filled the room like a haze. I groaned and checked my cell. Not too late, but the boys had left a couple texts. I sat up nude as the day as I was born and looked for my clothes. My search efforts died the moment it landed on Meagan. She dozed on her side, fa...
The sounds warmed the kitchen even more than the steam pouring out of the top. The next burner over, a skillet sizzled and cracked with brick red sausage. The oven groaned underneath as it heated some biscuits to perfection. I clutched my ladle, shut my eyes and breathed i...
The streets of downtown were all laid in a grid, but with roundabouts and one ways, this taxi driver could be taking us anywhere. “We’re headed to Madinat Zayed, right?” I said, looking out at the mishmash of beige flats and modern steel and glass towers on the streets aro...
I had no eye for mechanical work beyond keeping Viper purring, but Thurge had asked for a hand and mine lay unused for the moment. He squinted at the metal coils of tubing, wiped grime off an exhaust pipe with a towel then used it to wipe sweat from the forehead. He beckoned and I traded him a wr...
The walls were just dark planks of wood, and they lay empty, other than for our grinning skull logo hung up near the far end. The long table in the middle had uneven legs and rattled when I leaned on it. I’d been here a few times before, during small meetings and such. I wasn’t exactly leadership...
Lilly spotted me this time. “Come on,” she said. She sieved a hand through her blond hair and went back to her workstation screen. “It’s not that bad today.” “That’s the problem.” I sighed out at the waiting area. “There’s nothing to pass the time.”...