Rudy gets a face full of asphalt when homeboy yanks him clear off his feet and throws him into the sidewalk. His face makes a meaty, grinding sound as it slides against the concrete. Homeboy’s left arm clutches his stomach like somebody just kicked him in the balls and he’s still feeling the aftershocks. He […]
“Come on in, the water’s fine.” She glances up from her book, surprised. It’s early, still, and she thought she had the beach to herself. Squinting in the sun, she sees a man at the water’s edge. She’s just washed her hair, and her sandals are brand new and she doesn’t want to get them […]
Cash Laramie’s often called The Outlaw Marshal. Not so much because he goes outside the law in the course of doing his duty as a Deputy U.S. Marshal as because he delivers justice so often in his own peculiar way. Him and me both work out of the Cheyenne office, and we both work for […]
…Baseball fans, welcome to the first of a four-game series between the LA Curds and your NY Carnivores. Boy, do we have a pitching matchup for your entertainment this evening… “Turn the radio up, I wanna hear the game.” …Now, let’s take a look at your starting lineup for the visiting LA Curds, who come […]
“Willard, when are you coming to bed?” Grace’s voice echoed in his head waking him from a deep sleep. He sat in his recliner, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, his Remington .310 laying placidly across the chair’s arms just like it did every night. The TV filled the family room with a pale gray […]
Charlie smirks, “It’s a game.” Trish gulps, wincing in pain as if she swallowed a wasp, “I don’t want to play.” “You liked playing with me a few months ago. Different game, but you wanted to play then.” Panic bubbles in Trish. She pushes the floor with squirming toes. Her chair scoots along the plastic […]
When I first heard that Grandpa Hank died, I didn’t want to go to no funeral. But Mama said that kin is kin and I reckon she would have just turned my backside sore if I hadn’t gone. “Besides,” she said, “they’re divvyin up the fortune. You want yours don’t you?” Well now the way […]
Shattering glass jolted him awake. Raising his head, he strained to listen. His wife stirred beside him. “Did you hear that?” he whispered, placing a hand on her shoulder. Her body tensed. “Hear what?” “Shhh! Listen. Someone’s downstairs.” Peering through dusty bands of light that slipped through the blinds to streak across the ceiling, closet, […]
“You working pretty late tonight.” Sheriff Dubois stood on the back porch John-Wayne-style. Did he know what was going on? “Just dealing with a backlog.” His eyes slid over my shoulder. “Just seems strange…being this late at night.” “Business is busy. How can I help you?” He stepped back, pushed his hat up then exhaled […]
When the sky cried tears and washed away the blood he thanked it knowing it had heard him. He’d kissed them goodbye with bullets of love. Up close and personal. They never even saw it coming. It was done before they could have even envisaged it in a nightmare. Their faces were a picture, their […]
I blame Guy Ritchie. Him and all the other wankers who tried to cash in, churning out about one new badass gangster flick a week. And, y’know, the kids watch that shit and they start thinking about just how cool life would be once they’d start, say, peddling dope, working their way up the food […]
“This shit’s getting old. As soon as I get this money I’m bouncing.” John said, blotting the sweat from his cornrows as the southern sun scrawled across the sky like solar graffiti. “It’s done been old, boo.” Juanita replied, wiping down her side of the car at the carwash where they worked in Greenville, South […]
