Travis Starnes

Going Home - Chapter 16

The rebuilding site turned into almost a party as people who’d been working earlier came by. A few were even hauling ice chests of beer. It didn’t get too rowdy, but everyone had a good time. I spent some of the time with Rosita, but between her continued work trying to get people to contribute and donate to the rebuild project, we didn’t really get to spend much time together.

She did surprise me by asking me to go to play put-put on Sunday at a place she’d seen in Summersville...

Going Home - Chapter 15

Since I was more or less done with the investigation, I left the patrol vehicle at the station. It didn’t feel right to drive it around for personal use, especially when I had basically everything I needed except for the credit check on Jeremy and the lab report on the samples I’d taken. Honestly, I was confident enough in my conclusions that I probably could have written the report now, and would have if I’d only been waiting on the credit check. That was just icing on the cake, as it ...

Going Home - Chapter 14

Although his son said he wasn’t receiving visitors, I took a shot and called the hospice where Mr. Williams was living the next morning. Apparently, his son had anticipated this, because he’d called ahead and instructed the hospice to not allow his father any visitors, which is exactly the kind of thing someone with something to hide would do. He’d used the excuse that his father was weakening and any visits could cause long-term harm, which might have seemed reasonable to the staff, si...

Going Home - Chapter 13

I decided I needed to interview Mr. Cooper before talking to the nearby business owners. Normally, canvassing was the first thing detectives would have us do at a scene, but we’d take just basic statements and the detectives would follow up based on that and other information they found in their investigation.

As of right now, I didn’t really have a direction to follow, other than I knew it wasn’t an accident, and Mr. Cooper was the only one I was almost certain wasn’t involved....

Designated Target - Chapter 4

It took almost five hours to get everything he needed in place, partially because of travel time for Lopez, but also because he needed at least sixteen agents from the local office and five identical cars.

“I’m still not sure this is necessary,” Robert Dayoub, the local SAC who ran the New Jersey office, said as they rode the elevator down to the basement.

“I’m not saying your office has a leak, but we both know that shooter should have never gotten to Bartolini and I’...

Dissonance - Chapter 5

Sunday we all drove to Raleigh in a convoy, with me and Kat in my car, Hanna and Seth in Hanna’s car, and Lyla and Marco in Marco’s van carrying most of the band’s equipment.

The first stop was Hanna’s aunt’s house which was out in the suburbs. While I wanted to see where the rest of the band was going to be living, they’d actually be further in the city and closer to the studio than we would. While that probably had seemed a good idea at the time, in retrospect, they probab...

Going Home - Chapter 12

After finishing my somewhat bizarre doctor’s appointment, I headed back toward what was left of the barbershop. It was an easy walk, but if I was going to do this, then I’d need to at least go up to Summersville to see Mr. Cooper, and probably a few other stops as well, which meant I needed a car. I could borrow Mom’s for a little while, but there was a limit to how long I’d be able to do that until Mom started making snarky comments about not being able to go anywhere.

Maybe I ...

Going Home - Chapter 11

It took almost an hour for the fire department to get the blaze all the way out. The barbershop was a complete waste, as was most of the pawnshop next door. The ambulance took almost twenty minutes to arrive, but thankfully one of the volunteer firefighters had a bottle of oxygen and some paramedic training, and they were able to get Mr. Cooper breathing again. He’d probably be in the hospital for a few days, but I was happy he was going to be alright.

I was feeling better by the time...

Designated Target - Chapter 3

Taylor hated dealing with DA’s and US Attorneys. If being lawyers wasn’t bad enough, these guys were also politicians, more worried about how they’d look in the papers than actually putting criminals behind bars.

As usual, even though everyone was using every chance they got to point out how important this case was, the guy left Taylor and Robles cooling their heels in reception for a good thirty minutes. They always apologized and blamed their busy schedule, but everyone knew it ...

Dissonance - Chapter 4

We still had a few hours until our set that night, so I made my way out to Willie’s shack, which wasn’t far from the Blue Ridge, easy walking distance. I knew he’d be at the restaurant before long, but he’d been cutting his time there shorter and shorter over the last month, which made sense now that Chef had given me a little context.

Since Willie hadn’t brought anything up on his own, I decided it would be better to check in on him at home, rather than ask him about his plan...

Designated Target - Chapter 2

It was a sign that something big was going on when Solomon’s secretary waved Taylor through as soon as he walked into the outer office. While he wasn’t the kind of Washington bureaucrat to make visitors wait to show how powerful he was, Solomon was the Director of the FBI, which meant things were constantly coming up that had to be dealt with right away. Taylor couldn’t remember the last time he’d been able to go right in without at least waiting a few minutes.

Joe Solomon’s o...

Going Home - Chapter 10

I spent a few days thinking about what Rosita had said. I guess if I were being fair, I should say thinking about what my mother had said, since it was her original idea, but Rosita had put it into words that actually hit home.

True, I wasn't planning on being here that long, but being in my parents’ house had my life stuck on cruise control. I’d basically stopped living the day that kid shot me, and had just been existing instead. I still wasn’t sold on talking to Orville about a...

Dissonance - Chapter 3

The rest of the meeting was mostly Hanna peppering Kent with questions about procedure in the studio and what would happen with our album once we were finished with it. I had to hand it to Hanna, she was really prepared. While I had some of the same questions she asked, she had a lot that hadn’t even occurred to me. Things like release schedule and getting air time on radio stations were questions I was going to ask if she hadn’t beaten me to them, but she had a lot of questions about wha...

Going Home - Chapter 9

After the debacle at the cookout, I spent the next few days at home, not really wanting to go out. Part of me wanted to go talk to Orville about what Evan and his friends were up to, even though I knew there wasn’t much he could do without proof. I knew it shouldn’t, but it really annoyed me that Evan had assumed I’d have been on board with their bullshit. He knew my dad and how he felt about some of the stuff the company pulled, so I couldn’t imagine why he’d think I’d be okay wi...

Dissonance - Chapter 2

Friday I was getting a late start again, but this time on purpose. We had our first meeting with our studio rep, who had wanted to come out and see us before we met him again at the studio next week.

Although we’d been working out of Mr. French’s garage, this kind of meeting needed something more formal as a setting, which is why we were doing it at the Blue Ridge. While not formal, it was several steps above a high school teacher’s garage, especially in summer in the south, when ...

Going Home - Chapter 8

I called Rosita, who was at the hospital in under ten minutes, which was a lot faster than I’d been expecting. Charleston was a decent-sized city and the hospital wasn’t near a lot, so I’d have expected she would have driven further into the city to do her exploring.

“How was it?” She asked when I got into the car.

“Good. He says I can lose the crutches in a few days and switch to a cane, and I should be able to get rid of that and be back to normal in a month or two, ...

Going Home - Chapter 7

“So, who’s this girl that’s driving you again?” Mom asked for the thirtieth time that morning when I explained why I didn’t need a ride to the doctor’s.

“Her name’s Rosita. I don’t actually know her last name. She runs the taco place across from the high school.”

“I don’t think I know her, but I don’t go down there very much. I do remember Betty mentioning some foreign girl moving to town a few years ago.”

“She’s from Puerto Rico. It’s not e...

Dissonance (Country Roads #3) - Chapter 1

I was running late, as usual.

Ever since I signed my music contract, my life seemed to be speeding up to the point where I couldn’t really control it anymore. There were times I almost missed being just a high school student who played music on the weekends.

Here it was, the beginning of summer, and I spent the last two weeks either on phone calls with my new manager or someone from the label, working on new songs and practicing the ones we already had with the band, or sleeping...

Designated Target (John Taylor #9) - Chapter 1

Trenton, New Jersey

“Three cards,” Jacob Dolan said, laying three cards face down on the cheap table between him and his partner.

“Why always three? Seriously. You have to be throwing away decent cards to do that every single hand, or you’re the most unlucky son of a bitch that’s ever lived. Or, you keep throwing away decent hands fishing for a straight. But you’re not that dumb, are you?”

“Just deal the cards and shut up,” Dolan said again...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 29 (Final Chapter)

Irish Coast

Llassar pulled the small one-man boat onto the shore. He half considered finding a cove or outcropping to try and hide the boat, but it didn’t matter. If he didn’t find a way to get in contact with Salbuide and convince the King to join them, there was a strong chance the Ériu would never let him leave.

Even if some fisherman found the boat, they wouldn’t be able to get word to Emain Macha until Llassar had a chance to reach the city.

Desp...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 28

Carthaginian Army

Bomilcar coughed through the thick wool cloth pulled over his face, once again mentally cursing the governor and his short-sighted demands. The army was moving slowly and shedding soldiers with every hectare. Broken legs from slips on the icy stone road, frostbite because of conscripts not being issued proper footwear, and a fever that was sweeping through the ranks.

Fighting in the heat of the summer was bad enough when dealing with conscripts a...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 27

Devnum

“We’re still weak on the blocking side,” Velius said, looking down at the large map holding dozens of carved figures. “If we can’t hold them in this box, they will sweep around the lake and crush us.”

“I know, but we don’t have much of a choice. We have to use enough of a bait force to make them believe we are routing. They know what kind of forces we have available to us. We can get away with shortening our numbers some, especially if the c...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 26

Caledonian Camps Outside Devnum

Lucilla weaved through the rows of tents looking, occasionally stopping to say hello to this group or that. Considering how she’d grown up, always in the public eye, she was used to receiving attention. She’d traveled legion camps numerous times over her life, both as a younger woman as part of one of her father’s or brother’s entourages and later in her own capacity as a leader of Rome. The reception she got every time she came i...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 25

Ky and Ramirus continued working well into the night, reviewing reports and deciding how best to deal with Romans who had to be relocated to keep the battle location safe, and the possibility of relocating other Romans from areas that weren’t under threat as a way to throw off the Carthaginians.

At first, Ky had been against the idea, since he didn’t want to disrupt civilians any more than they already had been, but eventually caved to Ramirus’s reasoning. Ky was a soldier and tho...