Keeping It In The Family: A Novel by Kevin P. Regan

Author:Kevin P. Regan [Regan, Kevin P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Screen to Page
Published: 2025-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

Thunder cracked as Collin loaded the family truck with plywood. The parking lot of this mom-and-pop hardware store was packed with locals gathering last-minute supplies. The physical activity was helping him get his mind off the fight with Orla’s mother. He took the final plywood piece off the dolly and hurled it into the truck bed. It landed with a crash that was overpowered by another clap of thunder.

Collin struggled to get the dolly back to the loading zone. The wind was dangerous. Every step forward was met with powerful resistance. While he wrestled with the wind, Dale’s cruiser pulled into the parking lot. Collin could see there was a woman in the front seat and assumed that Orla was riding with her man to get supplies.

This was too good, he thought. Nothing seemed more apt than to ridicule Orla’s boy toy while he regaled her with her mother’s most recent melodrama.

Collin dropped the dolly off in its corral and followed the cruiser as it made its way into an alley behind the hardware store.

A newspaper flew into Collin’s face. When he peeled it off, he saw the headline: YOU SHOULDN’T BE HERE—EVACUATIONS ORDERED. He rolled his eyes and tossed it aside.

Collin forced his way through the gales into the alley and found purchase behind a dumpster. The smell was rancid. The wind forced the grotesque mixture of rotting seafood, sawdust, and sewage into his nostrils. Collin gagged on the smell, forcing him to move away to see what was going on behind it.

Parked a few yards away, Dale and, who he assumed to be, Orla were together on the hood of the cruiser. This made Collin sicker than the essence of dumpster he was trying to escape. Orla’s back was to him, but Dale noticed Collin attempting to escape the dumpster bouquet and stopped dead.

“Get out of here!” Dale said, doing his best authoritative impression. Collin was forced to think on his feet.

“Is that girl under arrest, officer?” he said with a sarcastic tone. That was when he learned the horrible truth. The woman on the car with her legs wrapped around Dale was not Orla. It was his sister.

Casey had turned around and was equally horrified to see her brother approaching.

“Casey?”

“Shit,” Casey spat as she removed Dale from herself. She quickly pulled up her underwear.

“Hey, you’re Orla’s friend from the carnival, right?” Dale tucked in his shirt and zipped himself back up.

“Wait what?” Casey said as she hopped off the sedan.

Collin’s mind shifted into an instinctual state, processing all the visual data that surrounded him. This asinine excuse for a lawman was not only fucking the former love of his life, but was cheating on her with Collin’s own sister.

The badge on Dale’s chest and the gun on his hip disappeared from Collin’s mind. Too much else was happening for those to be a concern. Collin calmly walked up to Dale and swung a hard right at the officer’s cheek. It knocked him down to the ground. Collin felt Dale’s jaw dislocate, but he was still conscious.

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