Return to Blanco (Red Book 4)

by Darrell Maloney

  Of course, his first impression was probably jaded by the stories Red had told him. About what kind of man John Savage was, and the vile things he’d done.

  Even if he didn’t have any friends to come to his aid, though, he might have hired guns. And those hired guns might feel a need to protect the hand which fed them.

  But they couldn’t rush the place if they couldn’t see inside. The sun was starting to set. It would soon be dark, and that meant the generator would have to be cranked up to run the house’s lights.

  It was imperative that the curtains be drawn to make… whatever actions Red decided to take on this particular evening… safe from prying eyes.

  It was while Jacob walked through a regal dining room that he saw something terribly out of place on the room’s mantle.

  It was nestled between two silver candelabras and beneath a painting by Renoir. In any house it would have been an odd piece indeed. Here, in what most in the county would consider a mansion, it was even more so.

  Made of metal that was once a brilliant yellow, it was now mostly charred a hideous black. The raised letters on the body survived the fire, and still read “TONKA,” but the toy truck’s plastic tires had melted away.

  Only two wiry steel axles stood testament that the tires had once been there.

  Jacob almost passed it by. But something he didn’t understand made him pick it up and take it with him for the rest of his rounds.

  Curiosity, maybe. For he knew there was a story behind the artifact and how it came to be where it was.

  Or maybe he felt it had a kinship to Red in some form or fashion.

  He carried the toy truck in his left hand as he finished his rounds of the house and returned to the living room.

  The room where John Savage sat on a Victorian love seat, hands tied behind his back, sweating and muttering profusely.

  And where Red sat across from him in an oak rocking chair, her handgun on her lap and pointed in his general direction.

  Both their heads turned when Jacob walked into the room.

  Both sets of eyes spotted the object in his hand at about the same time.

  But their reactions to the charred toy couldn’t possibly have been more different.

  Savage, already soaked in sweat and looking as though he’d lost his best friend, turned almost pure white.

  He’d been mumbling almost incoherently. But now he managed to get three very intelligible words out: “Oh, dear God.”

  Red’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened.

  And she began to cry.

  Red Book 5:

  NO HELP FROM AUSTIN

  will be available on Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in March, 2017.

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  Please enjoy this preview of

  Darrell Maloney’s new series

  The Yellowstone Event, Book 1:

  FIRE IN THE SKY

  The Yellowstone Event series will premier

  in May, 2017.

  *************************

  “Come on! What do you have to lose?” she cried gleefully as she dragged Tony by his arm through the carnival midway.

  “Um… how about ten bucks?”

  “I’ll give you a kiss.”

  “I’d rather keep the ten bucks.”

  “Excuse me, mister?”

  He stopped and held her, then laughed.

  “I’ll tell you what, Hannah. You give me just one good reason why I should throw away good money on a fortune teller. If you can give me just one good reason, I’ll give in to your silly demands. But it’ll still cost you a kiss.”

  “And what if I don’t have a good reason? What if I’m just a silly girl who wants to find out once and for all whether you’ve been telling me the truth about marrying me someday?”

  “Oh, so that’s what this is all about. You’re gonna make me pay ten of my hard-earned dollars just to hear some old gypsy fortune teller say what I’ve been telling you all along? That hurts. It really does.”

  “What hurts?”

  “It hurts that you don’t trust me. That you’d believe some crazy old fortune teller but you won’t believe me.”

  “The fortune teller has nothing to gain by lying to me.”

  “And I do?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “Maybe? Just what the heck does that mean, maybe?”

  “It just means that you’ve been trying very hard to get to third base with me lately. And you wouldn’t be the first guy who promised marriage to get the honeymoon first. That’s all.”

  Tony smiled.

  “Third base? Heck, baby. I don’t want third base. I want a home run.”

  The smile left her face, replaced by something akin to a little girl’s pout.

  “You’re not helping your case any.”

  He brushed the long brown hair from her face and kissed her on the tip of the nose. Then square on the lips.

  “What if she’s a fraud? Most of them are, you know. They just say whatever pops into their minds. They can no more tell the future than you or I can.”

  “I’ll be able to tell if she’s a fraud. If she is, I’ll let you off the hook. But if she’s genuine, I’ll know that too.”

  “Oh, so now you’re an expert on gypsy frauds?”

  Her smile returned and she coyly replied, “Maybe.”

  “Oh, geez,” he said as he stomped toward the purple tent. “The things I do to make you happy…”

  “I know, honey. That’s why I love you so very much.”

  He wasn’t quite what he expected, when she sat them at the table. For one thing, she looked… normal. She wasn’t the hideous witch he’d expected to find. She didn’t have hair growing from weird warts on her nose and huge silver hoop earrings. There weren’t bats flying around her head and the smell of cheap incense permeating everything in the tent.

  She looked as normal as Tony and Hannah.

  That sealed it in Tony’s mind. That proved she was a fraud. She didn’t even know enough to dress the part of a cartoonish gypsy. She didn’t even put out that much effort. How much effort would she put into reading Hannah’s emotions and verifying that yes, this guy sitting next to her was truly her one and only?

  Now Tony could tell his own future. In about five minutes or so Hannah was going to go storming out of the tent and straight to the car. She’d insist that he take her home immediately. And once there she’d let herself out, slam the car door, and stomp her way up the steps to her house.

  He’d be left in the car, his head still spinning, with absolutely no chance of getting lucky on this particular night.

  “Good evening, Hannah. Good evening, Anthony. I’ve been wondering when you two were coming to call.”

  Hannah didn’t catch it. She was too mesmerized by the woman’s eyes. They were pools of blackness, devoid of emotion.

  But Tony caught it. He’d always been good at that. At noticing subtle things others missed.

  “How… how did you know our names?”

  It was more of a demand than a question.

  “Oh, I know more about you than that, young man. Stella knows everything about you. Your past, your present, your future. I know what’s in your heart and what evil lurks hidden in your soul. I know the good in you. The bad. The secrets you keep. Now then, young man, the only question is, which things should I tell to Hannah and which ones do I keep to myself?”

  His head told him she was bluffing, that she knew nothing about him. That maybe someone who knew them saw them coming and tipped her off to their names. Or that there was some other reasonable explanation.

  His heart, it wasn’t so sure.

  “Relax, Anthony. You need not worry, for I know what’s in your heart. This girl loves you. She wants to know if you love her as well. She wants to know if you’ll marry her someday. It is a reasonable request. And I will share with her your true intentions.”

  Hannah’s jaw dropped. Literally.

  “But how�
��”

  The gypsy placed a finger to her lips. Now was not the time for Hannah to speak. For she was about to receive the answer she’d been looking for.

  Tony was on the hot seat. He overlooked the fact she’d called him Anthony. Nobody, but nobody, called him Anthony. He hated the name. He thought it made him sound like an accountant, slaving away in a cubicle with his calculator and his Buddy Holley glasses.

  Forget all that. How in heck did she know why they went in there?

  Tony looked at Hannah. Hannah looked back at him. Both of them suspected the other of sneaking in to talk to the woman beforehand.

  And each of them could tell by the surprise on the other’s face that they hadn’t.

  The gypsy turned her attention to Hannah.

  “You are a beautiful girl, Hannah. You are desired by many boys. During your life you will be desired by many men. But at this place, at this time, your heart and your soul belong to only one man.

  “You’re here to find out if he feels the same way. You want to know if he will select you to be his bride. You want to know if he will father your children.

  “The answer is yes. Yes to both questions. He will ask you to marry him, and he will be a good father to your children. He will be faithful and devoted to you. He will never stray.

  “But…”

  They had been gazing in each other’s eyes. Hannah smiled as soon as she heard the gypsy’s words. As hokey and improbable as it was, she had the confirmation she’d been looking for.

  The “but…” stopped them short.

  They immediately turned their attention back to the woman as she continued.

  “But first, you must survive the great calamity. It will not be easy. You will be at great risk. Your loved ones and all of your friends will be in danger. Many of them will not make it.

  “To earn your life together, to earn your children, you must survive the great calamity. You must help others to survive as well. Only then, as you walk away from the greatest death and destruction this country has ever seen, will you finally deserve the chance to become one.”

  Hannah could find no words.

  Tony’s head was swimming, trying to make sense of it all. But his tongue was still working.

  “Great calamity? What great calamity? What in hell are you talking about?”

  Hannah put her hand on his arm to calm him. She saw no reason for him to get ugly. No reason to curse at the woman.

  But Tony wasn’t angry.

  Tony was confused.

  “Beneath the great park they call Yellowstone lies death and destruction. It is well hidden and mostly unknown. But it is there. And you… both of you, will have the unique opportunity to save the lives of many.

  “But… you must not marry until after the calamity is done. To do so will cause you distractions. You will be with child. You will lose your path, and your role in what fate hath wrought.”

  Hannah stammered, “What? What hath fate wrought?”

  “The destruction of the United States of America.”

  Now Tony was starting to get angry.

  “What in the hell are you talking about, you crazy old woman? What are you saying?”

  The woman took the attack in stride, as though she fully expected it. She continued to meet his gaze and merely smiled at him.

  Hannah took control, as she frequently did when Tony lost his cool.

  “I think we’d better go,” she said as she stood and pushed her chair back. Her hand was still on Tony’s arm, and she fairly pulled him out of his own seat.

  She turned back to the gypsy and said, “Thank you, ma’am.”

  The woman merely nodded, and continued to smile.

  Hannah rushed Tony, who was now speechless, out of the tent and back onto the carnival midway.

  They were fifty feet away when Hannah noticed the ten dollar bill still clutched in Tony’s hand.

  “Wait. We forgot to pay her.”

  “Screw her.”

  But Hannah was nothing if not honest. Bad karma came to those who took advantage of others.

  She dragged him back to the tent and swept aside the flap.

  The old gyspy was nowhere to be found.

  The Yellowstone Event, Book 1:

  FIRE IN THE SKY

  will be available on Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in May, 2017.