Afterburner_A DADT Novella by Lex Valentine

Author:Lex Valentine [Valentine, Lex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexicon Publishing
Published: 2019-01-12T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

The small community of Forza, California had been founded by Marciano Marchetti and his three brothers when they were all young men in their early twenties. They each bought a significant piece of desert property near Edwards AFB and Marciano had built hangars and a runway. His brothers had become land developers. Eventually, with their nurturing, a little town sprang up and other people came to live in the area. Bas’s Uncle Antonio had been the first mayor of Forza. Not that it was really big enough to warrant having a mayor even after fifty years.

Over the years, Forza had grown. It now boasted a half dozen dusty streets, a big chain grocery store, a mini-mart, two gas stations, Todd Construction run by Bas’s brothers-in-law, a post office, Tony’s Bar & Grill owned by Bas’s cousin Antonio Jr, and a couple dozen other businesses from an attorney and CPA to a tattoo parlor. Bas looked at it as a town that pretty much had everything, if you weren’t picky. He also looked at it as a place where he was safe. He could be himself there since half the residents either were related to him or worked for a relative.

Not many days past his one month anniversary with Ryder, Bas found himself standing in the bar side of Tony’s Bar & Grill, pool cue in hand, watching his lover slaughter his cousin. Oddly, Tony seemed to be enjoying the bloodbath.

“Bas, you bastard. You’ve been hiding this boy’s light under a bushel,” Tony said, rubbing his hands together with unholy glee.

“He’s been burying his light in my bushel,” Bas paraphrased sardonically.

Ryder choked out a laugh, but took his shot anyway and sank the seven ball in the corner pocket.

“Oh, stop with your gay references.” Tony made a face. “I’m an enlightened man. You gays do not intimidate me with fears of turning me to the dark side. I don’t believe in the ‘gay menace’ unless we’re talking about this boy and his way with a cue stick.”

Before he lined up his next shot, Ryder shot Bas a quizzical look. “Why is your cousin loving the fact that I’m kicking his ass?”

“League.”

Both Bas and Tony spoke at the same time.

Ryder frowned. “League? Does that mean what I think it means?”

Tony nodded. “We play pool in a league. You are our new secret weapon. We’ve done much better since Bas came home, but we still can’t beat those asswipes from North Edwards.”

“There’s a bar there filled with enlisted men who can kick our asses six ways from Sunday and every Easter too,” Bas murmured to Ryder. “Apparently, Tony feels we have a shot at taking them this year if you play.”

“What if I choke?” Ryder asked Tony.

“Not worried. You’re a sky jock like my cuz. You dudes have nerves of steel to sit in a little bitty cockpit on a seat with a built in rocket, steering who knows how many tons of metal and missiles through the sky faster than the speed of sound.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.