Travis Starnes

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 24

I had to be late for school again on Wednesday for my, hopefully, final doctor’s appointment. Mom had to take off work again to take me. I could tell she was worried about all the days she’d taken off over the last few weeks. She didn’t say anything, but I could tell she was worried by the way she kept looking at her watch while we sat in the reception area, waiting on my appointment.

Mom had scheduled for the first appointment available and we’d been ten minutes early to make s...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 8

It took more than an hour for the fire department to okay anyone returning into the building. The fire damage was actually very limited and easily put out. The longest part of the delay was getting an engineer to confirm the building was still structurally safe. Several of their neighbors were also going to be homeless for a while, which Taylor felt bad about. While it was almost unheard of for law enforcement to be retaliated against at home by a criminal they were chasing, they had accepted...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 7

“So, explain to me why we’re going to the post office?” Whitaker asked as they pulled away from the EEOB.

“Well, we’re not going to the post office, exactly. I need to see if some of the feelers I sent out have come back.”

“At some point, you’re going to stop being cute and actually tell me what your plan is, right?”

“Sorry,” Taylor said, flashing her a grin. “As I said, one of the issues with Cole’s approach is he’s looking at Hubbard like a civi...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 6

When they finally tracked down Agent Cole and got him on the phone, the man sounded particularly annoyed to hear from them.

“We’re busy here, Agent Whitaker,” he said.

Taylor couldn’t help but notice how he usually addressed Whitaker first. It made sense. Even though she wasn’t in the Secret Service, she was still traditional Law Enforcement. Taylor was a wild card that people like Cole had trouble getting a handle on. He was fine with that, since keeping them off balanc...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 23

I was exhausted when Chef picked me up the next morning. We’d gotten home extremely late from the dance and Rhonda had been all over me when I walked her to her door. She got a little too enthusiastic, considering where we were, and we got the porch light flashed at us in warning.

Even once I got home, I was so keyed up it took more than an hour before I could get to sleep. Of course, I’d absolutely do it all again, no matter how tired I was today. Chef, of course, noticed and made ...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 5

Rochester, New York

It turned out that the professor in New York was actually at a Catholic Seminary in Rochester, which was in upstate New York. It took a few hours to get travel plans set up, thanks to the layers of bureaucratic red tape, which were necessary to go through for the government to pick up the tab, and another few hours before the next available flight was scheduled to go. By the time they landed in Rochester, it was getting later in the day, meaning they...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 4

Unlike what you see on TV, forensic labs aren’t a single group of people that do everything. Different areas of forensic science required different areas of expertise. Taylor and Whitaker were directed to another area of the extensive laboratory complex which housed the FBI's chemists, who analyzed everything from trace residues to explosives.

They were shown into a small conference room where two chemists met them. Taylor assumed they didn’t want outsiders near their highly calibra...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 3

Because they weren’t sure what the gas actually was yet, Taylor and Whitaker couldn’t just walk into the crime scene. The entire EEOB was still shut down, which was probably causing all kinds of chaos in the White House, since the Secret Service was only a very small part of the expansive building. Somewhere Taylor was certain that hundreds of staffers were being set up to work from home or crammed into other workspaces inside the White House itself.

To go inside, they had to get in...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 22

While I knew it would take several days for them to track Mom down and schedule a parent/teacher conference, mostly because she worked so much, I didn’t want to put it off until they got a hold of her. While I was doomed either way, I knew that if she was caught off-guard by a call from the school, things would go from bad to worse.

I was waiting up for her when she got home.

“What did you do now?” she asked as soon as she saw me.

Considering the last time, I was waiti...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 2

Taylor and Whitaker walked out of the Senator's office, looking for the Secret Service agents who’d been with her previously. Taylor was readying himself for another fight, knowing how they would react to outside interference in one of their investigations. Taylor had dealt with a lot of the U.S. law enforcement agencies over the last few years, and all of them had resented his involvement, even when he’d been right.

They’d only made it a few steps out of the Senator's office when...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 21

Friday I was back at school, and overjoyed. The last three days had been brutal. I worked the lunch and dinner shifts each day, which was okay since I was used to that work. Past that, except for two hours where I was to work on my homework before the dinner shift, Chef ran me ragged. He gave me conditioning exercises and bag work, with only a ten-minute break in between. By the time I got home each day I couldn't do anything but just fall into bed and pass out, exhausted. I’ve honestly nev...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 20

After a great weekend, I was all prepared for something to derail my week Monday morning. I was surprised when I made it through the whole day and nothing bad happened. No run-ins with Coach Bryant, no bombed math quizzes, no more friends getting cyber-bullied.

By Tuesday afternoon, I was sure the universe was building up for some kind of terrible surprise. Hanna had told me at lunch she would be running late this afternoon and sent a text to Chef letting him know our delayed schedule.<...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 21

The next day, Ky was up early again, consulting with the Emperor who had thoughts about the planned meetings with the disenfranchised senators, and the senators who represented Devnum itself who were backed by the city's merchants.

"If they have lost their lands, then do they still hold any power in the senate?”

“Yes, although less than they did when we still controlled the lands their families owned. Our traditionalism is one of our more defining traits and it would take more...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 1

Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C.

It was late, even by D.C. standards. Kris Mottern sat at his desk in the EEOB, taking a moment to stare out the window  and reflect. Like most agents, his ultimate goal was to work in the  building he could see across the street. For a Secret Service agent,  working in the White House, and on the President’s detail, was the  dream.

They didn’t take just anyone. You had ...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 19

I let Hanna go home, hoping she got a chance  to put the day behind her. School had been bad enough, but Marcus’s  reaction had been brutal. If I had to miss a day of training to let her  recover, even a little bit from that, then it was worth it.

I made my way across the creek and called Chef.

“Hey, Chef, it’s Charlie.”

“You’re late.”

“I  know, and I’m sorry. As we were leaving school, I found out Hanna  couldn�...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 18

Thursday, I got to school late, which meant I  would get to miss Coach Bryant’s class. It also meant I would miss  math, which I really couldn’t afford to do; but today was a follow up on  my foot.

The Doctor had decided to just put me in the boot, with  hopes that it would mend without another cast, which would have left me  more immobile for longer. I’d made Mom promise to get me back to school  in time for lunch, which she found weird....

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 17

Even though I got home at almost midnight, I  was up early to catch Mom before she went to work. I hadn’t seen her in  days and she looked incredibly tired. Ever since we’d moved here, she’d  basically worked seven days a week to keep us afloat except for a rare  day off here or there. It was a wake-up call, in a sense. It reminded me  of what I was really doing this for.

The recognition and support  was great, but if I kept pushing, I’...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 16

I told Hanna that afternoon that I’d asked Rhonda to be my girlfriend. She said she was happy for me, but didn’t seem to think it was particularly earth-shattering news. I was probably taking it more seriously than everyone else, since I hadn’t really dated before and definitely never had a girlfriend before.

They’d all started in junior high and had a string of relationships by now. I was sure the newness would eventually wear off, but for now, I was just rea...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 20

The sun was streaming in through the slats in the window shutters of his room. Romans didn’t have glass, except for opaque glass used in mosaics, so any opening tended to have shutters that kept birds and other things from flying in while still allowing fresh air through. Having lived nearly his entire life on recycled air, Ky had never thought much about the air around him before being stranded in the far past. He found it strange the surge of positive feelings he got ju...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 19

Ky returned from the camps in the mid-afternoon and headed back to  the rooms he’d been assigned. The days after the battle had been  non-stop movement, as he met with key players and started making  arrangements. After his early morning tour of the prison camp and  meeting with the Senators, Ky had made sure nothing else was scheduled  for the rest of the afternoon.

While he had the AI to assist him,  he still had to go over a lot of files t...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 15

Rhonda about flipped the next day when I told her about the party. I’d sat with her group at lunch. While it wasn’t as painful as other times, I still found myself having to hold my mouth shut multiple times. Her friends, Camille especially, seemed surprised I’d get an invite to what was apparently a high profile party. Apparently, this was a party thrown by the varsity football team and cheerleaders, mostly for juniors and seniors. All of Rhonda's friends had been li...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 14

For the second week in a row, I'd managed to end up on an amazing high. Saturday night, when I finished my set, I found out Rhonda had convinced Hanna to keep Jordan occupied for ten minutes, so she could drag me around the side of the building and show me exactly how much she liked my surprise. Somehow I’d gone from a sweet first kiss to making out in a dark corner in just a week. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t particularly proud of myself.

I got a second surp...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 13

In between lunch and dinner, I’d gone back out to check on the pig and found Chef there, already.

“Hey, Chef,” I said, walking up next to him.

“You did good, today. Keep it up like that, and you might become a damn fine cook one day.”

“I had a blast.”

“Yeah,  once you really get into it, nothing beats this work. I loved my  fighting days, but I’d never trade it for this. What’s even better is  when you get to watch people...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 12

After eating at Hanna’s house again, I made my way back across the creek to the trailer to wait for Mom. Lately, I’d been so tired after a whole day of school followed by an intense workout that I was asleep before she got home, so we hadn’t gotten a lot of chances to see each other except for briefly in the morning, but I didn’t want to wait to talk to her.

There was an outside chance that she would veto my playing with Willie’s band on Saturday nights. Con...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 11

I was still upset that afternoon when Hanna drove me to the Blue Ridge for my daily training with Chef. She picked up on my bad mood and let me vent to her the whole way up until we parked, talking about Rhonda and my frustration with the two versions of her.

It wasn’t that I didn’t get what Rhonda was doing. Everyone adjusts their behavior a little bit to fit in with the people around them, it’s a natural way people socialize. It was how stark the contrast was ...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 10

“Hellloo,” I said in a singsong voice as I slid my crutches into Hanna’s car the next afternoon.

I’d already annoyed mom in the morning before work with my mood, but nothing was going to stop how good I was feeling after last night's date. I wasn’t even annoyed by the boot on my foot at the moment.

“I take it the date went well,” she said, laughing at my behavior.

“Did it ever.”

“So, spill.”

“Well, she kicked my ass two ...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 9

We’d agreed for Jordan to pick me up at  Hanna’s house. The reasoning I gave them was that Jordan already knew  where it was, so it made everything easier, but that wasn’t the actual  reason I’d pushed for us to meet there. The real reason was, I didn’t  want Rhonda to know where I lived. It hadn’t taken me long to figure out  that people knew Oakdale was where the very poorest people in Wellville  lived, and considering the rural and somewhat remote ...

Family Ties (John Taylor #5) - Chapter 15

After fifteen days Taylor and Whitaker stepped out of the central Berlin police station, following their final round of interviews with the police and government attorneys.

They had almost never made it out of the storage locker. The responding officers saw all the scattered bodies on the floor in official-looking uniforms and reacted poorly. Even though Taylor had thrown down his weapon, he could see several fingers tightening on triggers as they looked around the carnage ...

Family Ties (John Taylor #5) - Chapter 14

Taylor was focused as they drove. Since the last thing he wanted was to get pulled over and have a patrol officer look at the tied up guy in the back of the van, Taylor obeyed every traffic law, while still weaving through traffic to make up every second he could.

“So, what’s this additional security you set up?” Taylor asked, not taking his eyes off the road.

“A small fireproof safe that I bolted to the floor of the storage room. It’ll lose me my depo...

Family Ties (John Taylor #5) - Chapter 13

As soon as they were out of the elevator, the officers started yelling ‘hands up.’ Of course, Taylor and Whitaker’s hands were already up, but that wasn’t uncommon. People build up a lot of adrenaline during intense situations, which takedowns usually are. He’d seen it before when working with law enforcement. The suspect would be prone on the ground, and the cops keep yelling for them to ‘get down’ or their hands already up, and the cops keep yelling ‘hands up.�...