Travis Starnes

Elegy - Chapter 23

The prison transport took forever, bumping over poorly paved back roads to make its way to the county jail, which sat in the middle of nowhere. Dad had been here after he attacked the judge, and I had to wonder if anyone would remember him, not that I really wanted them making the connection.

Intake was one of the worst humiliations of my life. I’d already been booked at the sheriff’s office, but I guess that wasn’t enough. They had me stripped and searched me all over, more intim...

Elegy - Chapter 22

The first thing that registered was the beeping of hospital equipment and the low buzz that seemed ever-present in emergency rooms. I had woken up here enough times over the last two years that I at least knew where I was.

Everything was fuzzy. My head ached worse than anything I could remember, a steady throbbing in my temples. Every thought felt sluggish and I was having trouble focusing. I slowly opened my eyes, blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights.

As I looked up at t...

Elegy - Chapter 21

We broke apart, both breathing a little heavily, having found a quiet, kind of secluded section of the park to continue our already amazing date.

Sydney gazed at me earnestly and said, “I just realized, we need to go back to your house. Those notes I gave you two weeks ago, I need them for a project and it’s due on Monday. I’ve been putting it off because I was too afraid to face you, and I’ve waited too long. I have to start and finish it tomorrow.”

“That is what you�...

Elegy - Chapter 20

Warren had picked me up early that morning for the drive to Asheville. It seemed crazy that he’d driven up from Asheville to Wellsville just for us both to go back, but I guess this was official, and he felt he needed to get me prepped for the interview.

I did wonder briefly, what with his cast, how he was going to drive us, but that was explained when he showed up in a town car with a guy wearing a suit driving the car while he was in the back. It seemed like a bit of an unnecessary ...

Elegy - Chapter 19

Friday afternoon, I hadn’t heard back from Warren to find out if he had any luck, but I did hear something from Mr. Packer, although indirectly. It was lunchtime on a day I’d normally have gone to sit with Sydney. She’d made it clear she did not want me going over there, which put me in the kind of mood where I didn’t really want to be around other people.

Instead of going to my usual table with my friends, I headed towards the choir room, planning to talk to Mr. French about my...

Elegy - Chapter 18

Besides seeing her at the game, or at least thinking I saw her at the game, and twice the next day, I almost bumped into her in the hall before she turned and abruptly walked in the other direction. She acted like she’d heard someone call her one time, and like she’d forgotten something, ducking back into her classroom the second time; I wasn’t imagining it. She was avoiding me.

I know Chef had said I needed to be patient, the pond and all that, and wait for her to make the next m...

Border Crossed - Chapter 2

El Paso, Texas

The black SUV kicked up dust as it slid to a stop next to the squat, stone and concrete building with a sign reading U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement. Taylor and Whitaker slid out of the vehicle almost simultaneously and were met by a small delegation of men coming out of the building. Except for two in the brown jackets and lighter brown pants of the Border Patrol, the rest were all dressed straight out of the federal agent handbook in suits and ties....

Elegy - Chapter 17

The rest of Saturday evening was a disaster. I’d begged off meeting Chef, claiming I had something with the band that I needed to take care of, and the show was worse. Even Marco asked if I was feeling bad after I’d lost the tempo the third time, causing the rest of the band to scramble to adjust to me.

I just couldn’t get my act together, my mind constantly on Sydney and what I was going to do. There was a simple answer, of course. Just not one I was willing to do. If I’d had t...

Elegy - Chapter 16

I was still thinking about what I saw Sunday night when I got to school on Monday. While it cleared up so many questions, I just didn’t know what to do with it. I thought about talking to Chef, but he didn’t really know the people involved, and he’d just tell me to be patient and wait until something else happened. That doing something for the sake of doing something was what led to mistakes. It wasn’t bad advice, but it also wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

Instead, I made my wa...

Elegy - Chapter 15

** sorry for the delay on this.  I thought I sent it out two days ago, but it never sent**

After our confrontation, practice more or less broke up. I left it to Seth and Lyla to make sure Marco made it to the show and headed home to change. After, I found myself standing in the middle of my room, holding my phone, debating with myself. Lyla had been right, but it still felt like the kind of thing my father would do, which made me hesitant.

“Screw it,” I s...

Elegy - Chapter 14

It took hours to clear up the scene at the concert. I’d offered to go with Warren to the hospital, but he told us to just go back to the hotel, or Hanna’s aunt’s house in Kat’s and my case, and he’d call me later. Once the initial shock had worn off, he’d been amazingly calm and collected for the level of pain he was in.

The building was a total loss. By the time the fire department got it under control, half the ceiling had collapsed. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had t...

Elegy - Chapter 13

“Make some noise for Charlie Nelson and the Wild Cats,” the DJ’s voice floated from the booth tucked away in the back, giving us our cue to burst through the steel double doors of the loading dock and up onto the stage.

As the double doors opened, we were hit by a wave of sound as people cheered for us. I didn’t think I’d ever not love that feeling. While not the biggest crowd we’d played for, it was the biggest we’d ever had in an indoor venue, which made everything sound...

Elegy - Chapter 12

Just like the Charlotte show, we left for Raleigh Saturday morning so we could still play and get paid for Friday and Sunday at the Blue Ridge, except this time we had to leave even earlier, well before the sun came up. It was a five-hour drive, and Kat’s swim practice was at one and went until three. Our show was set to start at seven, which meant we needed to be there by five for soundchecks, leaving only two hours after the swim practice to tour the school, and that didn’t count gettin...

Elegy - Chapter 11

Monday, instead of heading to class, I made my way across the creek back to Mom’s trailer. There was a good chance that skipping the first several classes was going to create problems at school, but I needed to help Mom get the restraining order against Dad, and she was really struggling when I left her the night before. I almost spent the night there, but she insisted I go back to Hanna’s house, since all my clothes and everything was there. I think she was feeling sorry for herself, whi...

Elegy - Chapter 10

I loved performing and this latest gig might be one of our best yet. We’d sold more merch than any other single show, and there had been a line of people wanting to stop and talk to us, which was also new. It wasn’t as big as opening for House of Graceor the New Year’s Eve show, but there was a big difference between headlining and just being an opening act.

While I’d do a show like this again in a heartbeat, I was also completely wiped when we finally got back home. We...

Elegy - Chapter 9

We packed up the van at the crack of dawn on Saturday and made the three-and-a-half-hour trek to Charlotte, instruments rattling in the back the whole way. Warren had booked us a room for after the show and offered to get us the night before as well, but hotels cut into our share of the profits, so we agreed to drive up the day of the gig instead. Besides, this way we could still play Friday and Sunday nights at the Blue Ridge, which would make this a really good-paying weekend for everyone.<...

Elegy - Chapter 8

I made it a habit to check my text messages and voicemails at lunch, since we weren’t allowed phones inside of school. Normally, there wasn’t anything, but occasionally there was something from the label that I needed to respond to, so I kept the habit.

Still, even though I did it with the express purpose of being able to respond to things quickly, I was still surprised every time I found a message waiting for me. It was no different Tuesday when I saw a text from Mr. Eaves to call ...

Elegy - Chapter 7

Saturday the snow continued to fall, turning the world into a winter wonderland. The main roads were salted, but driving still felt treacherous and the drive home the night before was a nightmare. My inexperience, coupled with the difficulty I’d had driving yesterday, all added to my already frazzled nerves thinking of the meal I was about to have with Sydney’s family. On the whole drive over it felt like a pit had formed in my stomach, threatening to gnaw its way to the outside.

I ...

Elegy - Chapter 6

Kat was completely wiped out when we got back home. I guess battling her anxiety and the surge of emotions that came with them had really taken a toll on her. She went to bed almost as soon as we stepped through the front door. I was pretty exhausted too, but there was something I needed to take care of before I could call it a night.

“Hey, Warren,” I said when he picked up the phone. “Sorry, I know it’s late.”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t usually hit the sack until aft...

Elegy - Chapter 5

Instead of going to class after being dismissed from the office, I dashed through the front doors of the school, chasing after Sheriff Gibbs.

“Sheriff! Wait!” I yelled at him.

He stopped, waiting for me with a perplexed look on his face.

“You saw what happened in there, right? Mr. Packer was obviously trying to frame me. He took that weed from the football players, didn’t punish them or call you about it, set up the locker search, and then put it in my locker. Just s...

Elegy - Chapter 4

Healing my relationship with my mom has been a top priority lately, so I’ve been swinging by her place more often, trying to squeeze in some quality time. She worked so hard, jumping between her two jobs, that I decided to surprise her with a dinner better than boxed mac and cheese or ramen. I was expecting to grab something from Weaver Square, a plaza with a bunch of restaurants and fast food places that mostly catered to cars on the highway headed between Ashville and Virginia. Chef had o...

Border Crossed (Taylor #10) - Chapter 1

Córdova de las Americas International Bridge, El Paso

“I should be out fishing,” Alejandro Torres said to his partner, handing the passport back to the short man standing in front of him. “Adelántate. Bienvenido a los Estados Unidos.”

“No kidding. At least we’re on walking patrol and not stuck in one of the booths,” Gabriella Ortiz, his partner, said.

Alejandro just grunted as they stepped off the pedestrian walkway and into the line of cars....

Elegy - Chapter 3

After our last band meeting, I’d started to let some ideas about a few new songs percolate in the back of my head. One had bubbled to the top and I’d given it a lot of thought during the hike with Sydney and over the rest of the weekend.

I shook off Monday’s weird encounter with Mr. Packer and finally sat down to write it down. I’d already been playing with a melody for weeks, not really thinking about specifics, and to my surprise it just kind of meshed perfectly with my song i...

Elegy - Chapter 2

“Wait up!” Sydney huffed, as she scrambled to keep up with me, breathing in short, ragged bursts, her cheeks flushed from exertion.

“What happened to all those swimming muscles, huh?” I grinned, teasing her as I slowed my pace up the steep incline.

“Ugh, hiking and swimming use totally different muscles, genius,” she said, stopping next to me to catch her breath. Bent over, hands on her knees, she looked up at me and asked, “How are you not exhausted?”

I laug...

The Depths of Neptune - Chapter 26

Carthage

Caesius strode across the bustling dock, his eyes darting from the laborers unloading crates from the wagon to the captain of the small galley. His impatience was palpable, as he all but put his boot to the backs of the workers, urging them to move more quickly.

The captain, a weathered seafarer with a wary eye, watched the crates pile up on the dock with growing concern.

"I told you what I was bringing," Caesius snapped, his voice laced with a hint...

The Depths of Neptune - Chapter 25

Off the Coast of Hispania

“Captain, enemy sails,” the sailor holding a spyglass called.

Yrsa pulled out his own spyglass. The sails of two Carthaginian galleys danced in the distance, turning hard toward the mainland. Yrsa watched the single galley sails, calculating their angle to the mainland and distances, trying to work out where they were headed. Southern Gaul, perhaps?

They had seen the Britannian fleet and were running, which meant they weren’t ...

The Depths of Neptune - Chapter 24

“Is this the last shipment?” Ky asked watching four large wagons packed with crates stamped with the recently adopted Britannic seal.

“Almost. We still have another shipment of ammunition and one last cannon and then we’ll be ready to go, although Valdar says it will only take three or four days on the outside, depending on the winds. Since your diversion needs a full week at the least to pull off any of their armies, we’re going to be sitting on our thumbs for almost that lon...

The Depths of Neptune - Chapter 23

Legion Training Camp

“Consul, you made it,” Velius greeted, riding up to Ky and his small party.

“I said I would. I’m excited to see what you’ve done here,” Ky replied.

“I have my command up on that small hill, which offers a splendid view of the training field, especially for you. Let the centurion lead you up there while I get the men set for a demonstration,” Velius instructed, gesturing to the aide sitting on horseback beside him.

K...

Elegy (Country Roads #4) - Chapter 1

“Morning sweetie. It’s time to get up.”

I cracked my eyes open and then squinted as I tried to get my wits about me.

“Mom?” I asked.

It took me a second to realize I was back in the trailer, looking at the ceiling of the small living room past Mom’s head.

“Yes, baby. You fell asleep halfway through the movie, so I just let you sleep here. I called to let Hanna’s mother know where you were, and she said Kat would get your school stuff together and put it...

The Depths of Neptune - Chapter 22

Carthage

“How many this time?” the emperor said, glaring down as the messenger bowed, his forehead nearly touching the cold marble floor.

"Eight, Your Magnificence. The ill-fated vessels were not far from shore when disaster struck. One desperate soul managed to cling to life, swimming ashore to deliver this dire news."

"And the enemy?”

"Three ships, Great One. The survivor was disoriented, yet he spoke of massive vessels adorned with a dozen or ...