Zipper Fall (Steel City Stories) by Pavelle Kate

Author:Pavelle, Kate [Pavelle, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2013-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

MY BROTHER, Carl, and sister, DeeDee, came over in the afternoon since they had no classes on Saturday. They brought me flowers, balloons, and milk chocolates, and fussed over me until Dr. Hinge shooed them out. It occurred to me that it was actually Saturday, and Jack had shown up in a suit. If he had to go into the office, why not wear casuals?

And speak of the devil, there he was. He sauntered into my room, his sexy suit gone. He wore tan chinos and a black polo shirt and looked drop-dead gorgeous.

“You changed.”

“Yeah.”

“Why did you wear a suit today?”

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I knew your father would be here. Your brother, Carl, he said he’d let him know and warned me he’d come first thing in the morning.”

“They just left.” My butt was on fire again. “Sorry, but I have to turn over. I stay facing up only for show.” I tried to flip over, but the actual process took a while as I tried to avoid agitating my injury.

“You got shot in the ass, Wyatt.” There was a thinly disguised thread of humor in Jack’s voice.”

“No! No, I got shot in the upper leg.”

“Care to tell me what happened?”

“How ’bout he tells me what happened first,” a voice said from the door. I lifted my head and looked over my shoulder. A tall guy with mocha skin and close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair stood there, his police badge hanging from the chest pocket of his blazer. “Jubal Lupine, detective. We’re working on that Pine Creek Mall shooting. That’s where Mr. Azurri said you were last night, anyway.” He sounded skeptical. “Can you sit up so I can take your statement, Mr. Gaudens?”

“I can’t. I just flipped over. My butt’s killing me. Push that stool around to where I can see you.”

He did and sat next to Jack.

I thought hard about the contents of the article Paul gave me. There had been some kind of a gang dispute in the mall parking lot just when it was about to close. Several weapons were fired, and two of the gangbangers killed one another. Some vehicles got shot up. Obviously I wasn’t going to tell the good detective the truth.

“Yeah. I went to the mall.”

“What for?”

“I needed to buy some software, except by the time I got there, the mall was about to close and I didn’t have enough time to, you know, look at it carefully. So I decided to come back another day, and as I walked to my car, I heard some yelling and shooting. I guess I should have been more alarmed, but it sounded like kids with firecrackers. It was a row or two over, I guess.”

“Did you see any of the shooters?” Detective Lupine asked.

I thought about that. Would I have seen them? Hopefully not.

“No. I was thinking of something else anyway.”

“So what happened next?”

“I felt something sting my butt. I didn’t realize I’d been shot, but it started to hurt on my way home.

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.