“Chase? What’s this about?” my ex says from behind me. She let me in given the dipshit she married isn’t home, but I didn’t offer an explanation for my showing up at 8:30 on a school night. We’re usually polite to each other, but I can’t wait a second longer for formality’s sake. I have to know Ava is OK.
I take a seat on the bed next to Ava. She’s stretched out and reading from a history book, one that should be re-written from the very beginning based on what I just went through. Or not. I don’t want the world to get curious about The Current.
“Are you OK?” I say to Ava and give her the best hug I can considering my battered condition.
“Yeah, I’m fine. But…uh…are you sure you’re OK?” Ava says, pulling away. She’s not a little girl anymore. Her father barging into her room unannounced and looking like the graveyard shift at a slaughterhouse warrants suspicion, not delight.
“You’re not sick?” I say, equally surprised and relieved.
“Sick?” my ex says from the doorway. “Chase, you need to tell me what this about right now or I’m calling the police. You have to clear visits with me first.”
I ignore her, instead running a hand over Ava’s head the way I did when she was a baby. “Are you sick?”
“No, and you’re really freaking me out right now,” Ava says.
I turn to her mother. “Nothing. Not sick at all?”
“Not sick. Can you leave now please?” she says.
“And what about your bank account. Nothing wrong with that? Not in the past day or so?” I say.
“Not that you would care, but no. The bank account isn’t sick, either,” my ex says.
I sigh and hold my head in my hands.
Biyu played me the entire time.
I should’ve known better, but in the moment I had no way of confirming what Biyu told me. She got ahold of some personal information, then twisted it to get me to go after Dave.
How many people suffered because I was gullible enough to believe her? There’s probably enough money in the cookie jar in the kitchen to pay for 10 surgeries. Frozen bank accounts? Get real, Chase.
The guilt only lasts for a moment, tempered by the person sitting next to me on the bed. I went through hell for her on the mere suggestion she might be in trouble. It was still the right thing to do.
No, I might not be the greatest father to my daughter. But my love for her is bigger, more powerful, than any Apocalypse Bomb. With my conscience at ease, I give Ava another hug, hoping, if only for a fleeting moment, that she might one day feel the same way about her children. If I pass anything on to her, if she’s to inherit this planet after I’m gone, if there’s any chance of a future free from things like Apocalypse Bombs, I hope it’s that.
The End
Other Titles in this Series
Catch Chase Baker’s other exciting adventures in these thrilling reads, and watch for new installments soon.
The Shroud Key (#1)
Chase Baker and the Golden Condor (#2)
Chase Baker and the God Boy (#3)
Chase Baker and the Lincoln Curse (#4)
Chase Baker and the Vikings’ Secret (#5)
Chase Baker and the Da Vinci Divinity (#6)
About the Authors
ABOUT BENJAMIN SOBIECK
This is Benjamin Sobieck’s second work inside the Chase Baker universe created by Vincent Zandri. He is the author of the crime novels Glass Eye: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective, The Invisible Hand (New Pulp Press) and Cleansing Eden, as well as the crime fiction humor anthology, 8 Funny Detective Stories with Maynard Soloman, Gal-Damn Detective. His non-fiction work includes The Writer’s Guide to Weapons (Writer’s Digest Books) and various pieces for weapons and outdoors magazines, including Gun Digest, BLADE, Deer & Deer Hunting and Living Ready. Sobieck is a member of the International Thriller Writers. His website is CrimeFictionBook.com.
ABOUT VINCENT ZANDRI
Vincent Zandri is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than sixteen novels, including Everything Burns, The Innocent, The Remains, Orchard Grove, and The Shroud Key. He is also the author of the ITW Thriller Award and Shamus Award nominated Dick Moonlight PI series. A freelance photojournalist and solo traveler, he is the founder of the blog The Vincent Zandri Vox. He lives in New York and Florence, Italy. For more, go to http://www.vincentzandri.com/.
Chase Baker and the Apocalypse Bomb (A Chase Baker Thriller No. 7)
Benjamin Sobieck © copyright 2016
Kindle Edition License Notes
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Chase Baker is a character created by Vincent Zandri. This work is authorized by Vincent Zandri.
All rights reserved as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to a real person, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published in the United States of America
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