“In my dream, they ask me if I’d like the honor of kicking the stools out from under them.
“I tell them yes, but only if they’ll remove the hoods so I can watch them suffer as they struggle through their last moments of life.”
She looked her father in the eyes.
“Dad, I honestly don’t know where that anger comes from. I wasn’t raised to feel that kind of hatred. I used to think I was better than that.”
“We’re all changed by circumstance, Red. That seething anger comes from the pain you’ve had to endure at the loss of your loved ones. It’s natural, and maybe even healthy.
“But I know you. And if it should ever come to pass, that you have a chance to do that, I know you’ll pass at it. Because you are indeed better than that.
“I, on the other hand, would take the opportunity to kick those stools in a heartbeat. Because whether it proves to be John Savage or somebody else, I want to watch them suffer until their last breath. And the last thing I want them to see is me spitting in their faces.”
Four weeks later Butch stood in the stable’s doorway watching Red put a saddle across Bonnie’s back, then cinching the straps.
Bonnie was antsy. She’d seen Red walk into the stable with the saddlebags, packed and ready to go.
Red almost never took saddlebags along on a ride. Even when they rode for miles, she always packed light.
That meant only one thing.
They were going into the woods for an extended period.
And Bonnie knew it.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?”
“Dad, I’ve done this dozens of times before.”
“Yes, you have. But never eight weeks after you were almost killed.”
“Now, Dad, don’t you get all soft on me. You know I can take care of myself.”
“I know, honey. But I’ll miss you. We’re all we have left, you and me. Family wise, that is. It’ll just be lonely without seeing you every day, that’s all.”
Her heart went out to him. She needed desperately to be alone for a while.
But he was hurting too.
“I’ll tell you what, Dad. You’re doing a great job helping out the good people in town. You keep doing that during the week. But on the weekends, you put a sign on that hardware store’s doors that says ‘Closed Until Monday.’
“Then you bring your gear and you ride up to Lake Haverty and do some fishing with me.”
Butch smiled.
“I’d like that, honey. And thanks for giving in to your old man.”
“I only gave in a little. And don’t you come to expect it. Because it may never happen again.”
“Don’t forget your promise. You turn on that walkie talkie every evening and call me to tell me good night. Did you remember the extra batteries I gave you?”
“Yes I did, and yes I will.”
She looked at him with moist eyes.
“I love you, Dad.”
“I love you too, honey. Be safe.”
Then Red pulled the reins to the left and took Bonnie on a fast gallop into the setting western sun.
Just like they used to do in the movies.
A preview of
RED, Book 2:
TOO TOUGH TO TAME:
“What is it?”
Savage took the vial of clear liquid from the table between them and rolled it around in his hand.
The vial had a lot of tiny words Savage couldn’t read without his reading glasses. But he could make out the name: Zarzapine. He could also make out the words Caution; Deadly Poison, over a small skull and crossed bones.
Luna explained, “They once used it to put down large animals, like horses. Rural veterinarians all over the world swore by it, and it was very effective. Turned their lights out quickly and made their hearts stop pumping.
“Nobody ever paid much attention, until a lot of city vets started using it too, mostly for large canines.
“Then the bleeding heart types starting complaining, saying their dogs were crying and twitching just before they died. Most people thought they were just nuts, until they started using it on humans.”
“They used it on humans?”
“Yeah. At the time there was a lot of controversy about the drugs they were using to kill condemned prisoners all over the United States. The manufacturers of the drugs they were using were all overseas. All the American pharmaceutical companies got out of the business of producing death penalty drugs for fear of getting sued or picketed.
“Anyway, the overseas companies, when they found out their drugs were being used to kill prisoners in the United States, either stopped producing them or stopped selling them to us.
“The governor of one of the states, I can’t remember which one, told her prison people to find something else instead.
“So they found Zarzapine.
“It worked well. It induced heart attacks, and the prisoners were dead within minutes. They cried and moaned and groaned and said their veins were burning, but nobody really cared.
“So other states started using it too.
“Everything went fine until Oklahoma put a man to death about a year ago. It was a controversial execution anyway, because the mother of the man the condemned guy murdered went public and said she thought he was innocent. She said she thought he was railroaded by cops who just wanted to close their case. And that he found Jesus in prison and should therefore be saved.
“Well, despite all of that, Oklahoma took a hard line and executed him anyway.
“The mother of the man he murdered was one of the witnesses at the execution. And apparently it was pretty grisly. She went public, and told the press how the condemned man screamed and said his veins were on fire, and how he foamed at the mouth and coughed up blood. She said that it took over thirty minutes for him to die, and she got other witnesses to say the same thing.
“Well, according to the doctor’s official report, he died peacefully after six minutes and never made a sound.
“The mother of the murdered man went on all the talk shows and testified before congress, and in the end they finally banned Zarzapine. It’s now illegal to use in the United States. But I just happened to get my hands on a few vials of it.”
Savage was puzzled. He put the vial back down on the table. Luna took his left hand out of his coat pocket and gently picked the vial up. Savage noticed that Luna was wearing a latex glove on his left hand, which struck Savage as peculiar.
“That’s all well and good, and it’s a very interesting story. But how does all of that relate to the problem we’re dealing with?”
Luna smiled and continued.
“Zarzapine is what I plan to use to kill Butch Poston. And now that your fingerprints are all over the murder weapon, it gives me a little more leverage than I had five minutes ago.”
Savage suddenly felt nauseous and swallowed hard.
“What do you mean, leverage? Leverage for what?”
“Leverage to get half of your earnings for the oil rights on Red’s land.”
Savage now felt faint. He reached out to grab the chair in front of him, and fought hard to keep from passing out.
Luna laughed the wicked laugh of the devil.
“Oh yeah, I forgot. You didn’t know I knew about the oil, did you?”
RED, Book 2:
TOO TOUGH TO TAME
Will be available on Amazon.com
and through Barnes and Noble Booksellers
in September, 2015.
If you enjoyed
RED
You might also enjoy
FINAL DAWN
Available now at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble Booksellers.
*************************
What would you do if you finally found the love of your life, and were making plans to spend eternity together - and then found out that eternity was only two years? Mark is a romantic and carefree young engineer, and a bit of a cornball. His beloved Hannah is a beautiful scientist. Pragmatic, intellige
nt and analytical, she longs for the family she never had, and a change from her horrific childhood. Mark offers that change, and her life is finally complete.
Then Hannah discovers that mankind is doomed. Suddenly their lives become a mad scramble, to find a way to save themselves and everyone they love.
An excerpt from FINAL DAWN:
Sometimes the gods of fate smile upon you, and bestow on you a treasure of such magnitude, such wonder, that you pinch yourself over and over until you finally believe it’s really real.
And sometimes those same gods bestow upon you a bowl of smelly, steaming crap.
They seldom do both within the same week.
Mark Snyder finished the breaker box tie in just before losing his daylight. He’d been working in an empty house for days, all alone in his thoughts. He hated jobs like this. No one to talk to, no other voices to listen to, other than the ones in his head. The house was only about eighty percent complete. Not far enough along yet to have power.
The electricians were supposed to button everything up by the end of the week. And yes, he could have waited until then to start installing the security system. But he had several other jobs going on at once, and he was trying to maintain his good reputation for coming in on time. So while most people would have taken Sunday off to watch the ball game and relax, he was here instead installing security cameras.
He’d come back on Saturday and check all the cameras to make sure they were working, then install the operations console.
But for now, he’d done everything he could do without electricity. He loaded his tools back into his Explorer and headed home. Enough is enough.
Mark picked up his cell and called Hannah.
“Hey, Babe. I’m on my way. Is the game still on?”
“Hi, honey,” she said. “No, it’s over, but you’ll be proud of me. I recorded it for you so you can watch it when you get home. The Cowboys lost at the last second when Washington kicked a field goal.”
Mark winced and bit his lip. He resisted the urge to tell her it’s not so much fun watching a close game when you know how it turns out.
Instead, he praised her. Because after all, she was the light of his life and the best thing that ever happened to him.
“Well, thank you, my love.” He said. “Are you trying to out-sweet me again?”
Hannah replied “Nope. Not trying. I won that contest a long time ago. I just wanted to show you how much I love you.”
She went on. “If you want some beer you’ll have to stop and get some. Bryan came by to watch the game with you. I told him you were working and he asked if we had some beer. I told him to check the fridge. He took all we had and left. Said if we weren’t going to watch the game, then we wouldn’t need it. He said he’d take it to someone who had the game on.
“How did you manage to grow up with him without ever killing him?”
Mark laughed. “Because he was the baby of the family and Mom always took his side. If I had killed him she’d have grounded me for at least a week, maybe two. But I thought about it many times.”
He made a mental note to find a way to get back at his brother. And yes, he’d have to stop for beer. The last hour of the job tonight, the only thing that kept him going was the thought of downing a cold Corona or two.
Mark walked into the Exxon convenience store and waved at Joe Kenney, the assistant manager.
Mark shouted across the store as he pulled a six-pack of Corona from the cooler. “Hey, Joe! All that I have are these, to remember you.”
A couple of the other customers gave Mark the strangest look. A “better stay away from this guy” kind of look.
Joe yelled back from behind the counter, where he was inventorying cigarettes. “Jim Croce. Photographs and Memories.”
They’d known each other since high school, where Joe was one of the coolest guys Mark knew. Joe knew everything about music from the good old days. The music from the 60s and 70s. Back when music was good, and you could understand the lyrics. And every other word wasn’t profane.
They’d played this game almost as long as they’d been friends. Mark would find an obscure song lyric and try to stump Joe. But he seldom succeeded. Joe played five instruments, and had been in various garage bands since he was ten. Music was pretty much his life. At least when he wasn’t at Exxon counting cigarettes.
The line was a lot longer than usual. A rolling marquee above the cash register said the Powerball jackpot was at $310 million. Mark let out a slow whistle. That was a good chunk of change.
He seldom played the lottery himself, but Hannah did all the time. Poor sweet thing. She’d been stuck at home with the flu for the last week and hadn’t been able to get out. But he knew she’d have gotten herself a ticket if she hadn’t been sick.
So as a last-second lark, he told the clerk to throw in a quick pick for the lottery, cash option, and paid two extra bucks. It was worth two dollars to make Hannah smile that beautiful smile. And it was the least he could do for her, for thinking enough to record the game for him.
But Mark forgot to give her the ticket. Forgot to even take it into the house. He laid it on the passenger seat of his Explorer and it sailed down to the floorboard when a dog ran in front of him and he had to hit the brakes hard. And he pulled into the driveway, took his beer and watched the game, and never gave it another thought.
On Thursday, Mark was doing a sales pitch to a banker who was worried because his neighbor three doors down had been a recent victim of a home invasion. The banker’s community was gated and a private security company made their rounds occasionally, but none of that had stopped the brazen thieves from posing as utility workers.
In broad daylight, they knocked on his neighbor’s door, and flashed fake IDs to gain access to the back yard “to check the power lines.” From there, they cut the phone cable, kicked in the back door, and tied up the occupants before leisurely looting the place of all its valuables. They even stopped long enough to make themselves a sandwich before leaving.
Thievery, it seems, works up one’s appetite.
The banker decided he needed a better security system, and Mark was trying to convince him that he was the man for the job.
Mark’s cell phone went off. A little bird whistling “I’ve Got Sunshine” told him he had a text message from Hannah. He hit the mute button and went on with his presentation.
Half an hour later he’d sealed the deal and was returning to his Explorer when he remembered the text. It said “Call me ASAP.”
Oops.
But luckily Hannah wasn’t mad. She was way too excited.
“Did you hear about Joe’s store?” she asked him.
He answered with a bit of apprehension. “No. Did they get robbed again? Is he okay?”
“Oh, yeah, I’d say so! I heard on the news that they sold the winning ticket to the Powerball drawing. Somebody won over two hundred million dollars after taxes. And it’s somebody that lives right here in San Angelo. Wouldn’t it be cool if it’s somebody we know?”
“Baby, hold on a minute.”
Mark put the phone down and took out his wallet. The ticket he had purchased on Sunday night wasn’t there. Crap! Did he leave it on the counter at the store? Did some cretin come up behind him and pick it up?
He instinctively felt his pants pockets, even though he knew he wasn’t wearing the same jeans he had on Sunday night.
Then, on the floorboard of the passenger side of his ride, he saw a lonely piece of paper. And he remembered that damn dog.
He picked up the ticket, then the phone.
“Honey, don’t freak out,” he said. “But I bought you a ticket on Sunday night and forgot to give it to you. Would you go on line and see what the winning numbers are and read them to me?”
The next thirty seconds lasted twenty years.
Hannah came back on the line and said “Okay, here goes. 13, 25, 26, 44, 57, and the Powerball is 18.”
Mark’s chest actually started to hurt, and he felt
faint. In his mind’s eye, he saw Redd Foxx playing Fred Sanford, holding his chest and saying “This is it. It’s the big one…”
But Mark wasn’t having a heart attack. Mark was experiencing what it felt to find out that you were suddenly a multi-millionaire.
Hannah didn’t believe him, of course. She thought he was playing one of his dumb practical jokes. She met him at the door as he walked in and presented her the ticket as a new father might present his first born to a hospital nursery visitor.
“Be careful,” he said. “Don’t damage it or tear it or sneeze on it.”
The next day was Friday, and Hannah insisted on getting up and going to work. Even though she only got an hour’s worth of sleep. Mark stayed behind in bed, telling her just to call in and say “Go to hell, you bastards. I’m rich!”
But Hannah was a scientist and an honorable one at that. She was above doing such a thing. She’d wait until her boss pissed her off. Then she’d tell the bastards to go to hell.
When they parted that morning, both of them were on cloud nine. They’d spent most of the night talking about all the great things they’d do with their new fortune. They laughed when they thought of sour old Reverend Samuels, and how he might actually crack a smile when they presented him with a tithe check for ten percent of their winnings.
They talked about which European countries they’d visit first, and even considered buying their own Caribbean Island.
Yes, when they parted that morning, neither had a care in the world.
What a difference a day makes.
If you enjoyed
RED
You might also enjoy
ALONE
Available now at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble Booksellers.
Dave and Sarah Anna Speer had been preparing for Armageddon for years. They thought they’d covered all the bases, and had planned for everything.
It never occurred to them that the single thing they had no control over was the timing.
Red: The Adventure Begins Page 18