by Laura Day
Sarah wondered exactly what Angie whispered to Derrick on the wind, when she first arrived in San Diego. She had talked with him about it once. They had talked many times actually, but the one time, they had actually talked about it.
“Do you think Angie actually went away for me,” Sarah had asked Derrick.
He went so quiet that it scared her, but he finally had replied, “In a way. I knew somehow, somewhere deep inside that she might have intended us to be together all along.”
But today, they didn’t talk. She leaned back against the back rest she brought with her, and Derrick lay on his side beside her. The kids were happy, and they were happy. And somewhere, all around them, they believed Angie was happy. It was a good day.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“You still working on the romance?”
“Trying to anyway,” she answered him, a bit frustrated that she was having so much trouble. She wondered what he would say is she tried smoking pot again. The ideas always flowed better when she was high, but she knew perfectly well what he would say: Hell no.
The romance just wouldn’t come. Her main trouble, as she saw it, was that she really didn’t have anything to draw from in that category. The only relationship she had ever been involved in which didn’t end with shit getting broken and the police showing up was the one with Derrick. The idea of writing their story scared her to some degree.
A part of her, at times, had some sneaking suspicion it was fragile, and writing about it would jinx it, for sure. It was stupid, she knew, but she still couldn’t find the courage to try it. Besides, what if he didn’t like it? That would destroy her, she reasoned.
“Want me to take a look at it?”
At what? There really wasn’t much there, maybe 5,000 words at most, nothing more than a character study at best. The story stalled every time she tried to bring a male character into it. Bob walked into the bedroom… and then he threw his beer bottle at her. Nope. Gary leaned across the bar and whispered softly to her…Wanna suck my dick? Nope. That’s just how it went, and endless line of assholes. May be she could bring them all into it, forget a romance, make it a thriller. Woman turns serial killer, no real psychological problems to speak of, just an endless line of assholes. She kills them all. That’s so sweet; Harlequin should snatch that one up quick. Nope.
“Nah, I’m thinking about scrapping it and starting over anyway.”
“That bad?”
“It just won’t take off. You know?”
Of course, he didn’t know. Everything seemed to come pretty easy for Derrick. She was sure that wasn’t the case, but he just had a way of making things the way he wanted them to be. Car wouldn’t start? He’d fix it, and then it would start. That was how he rolled. Wasn’t that what the kids said? She thought they did once, maybe they still said that was how they rolled. Or maybe now it was how they raved, or how they twerked, or whatever. She didn’t know, didn’t care. That was how she rolled.
“Need a little inspiration?” he joked.
“It’s romance, not porn, you beast.” His head rocked back when he laughed, just like Michael’s did. It was too damn cute on him, too. Better watch out for both of them. He crossed the room to the book shelf and picked one out without too much effort. That was how he rolled.
“Alright, but you know where I am if you need me.”
She smiled to herself as she heard him in the living room. The ballgame had finished before he had come to check on her, so now he turned the television off. It made its protesting clicking sound as the recliner sounded its own protest to having been thrown backward, its front hoisted upward at the same time. He wouldn’t be back for at least an hour.
She thought about opening the other story, the one he didn’t know about and didn’t need to know about, but she decided against it. Just write the damn love story already, she chided herself. It’s really simple: boy meets girl. That’s how it rolls; but, the fucker still wouldn’t roll. She looked back at the story, the character study. It wasn’t bad for what it was. She just needed the good guy to show up. Well no, that wasn’t right. She couldn’t have the good guy there at the beginning. They didn’t start like that. Hell no, Miss Alabama didn’t marry Buzz Aldrin on page one. Shit, he’d still be on the moon. Meanwhile, she would be stuck going to the dances with Eddy Haskell and then another Eddy Haskell for a while. Just like…that’s how I roll, Goddamn it!
Inspired, finally making the connection between reality and fiction, her fingers flew across the keyboard. She knew shitty men, oh God yes, she knew them. In an hour, hour and a half at most, she had devoured the first loser in the life of her heroine. It wasn’t that difficult. She simply changed Todd Anderson to Terry Andrews. The rest was pretty simple. Todd…or uh Terry was an asshole. He did the shit she said he did. When Derrick came back into the room, she didn’t even hear him. Her fingers were still flying. She was rolling.
“Going any better?”
“You bet your sweet ass it is.”
She told him what she was doing, how she had suddenly realized she had the back story, and while she spoke the thought came to her, there only milliseconds before the words came out of her mouth.
“Eventually my heroine will meet the good guy. You might recognize him some,” she told him.
“It’s me? Seriously?”
“Yes and no,” she answered. “He starts with you, but I’ll change him some.”
“Make him better?”
He was teasing, but she knew he was. It was tempting to tell him that she sure as hell was going to make him better, the six-million dollar version; but, she decided not to. No sense making the conversation longer than it had to be. She had some writing to do, and it was going to be a long night. There were a lot of ignorant fuckers she knew all too well that were about to be made famous.
“No, just different. You know, this is him, what would he do here, etc.”
“Gotcha. You need the light?”
“No, I have the lamp.”
Well organized synchronicity kicked in, as he turned out the light on the ceiling fan above the bed, while she turned on the lamp beside the desk. The keyboard disappeared for a moment as her eyes adjusted, but she really wasn’t seeing it anymore anyway. The words flowed, as memories drew blood, and the heroine cried. But it was coming; the happy ending was coming. She glanced over her shoulder at the bed. He was already asleep. He had a gift, there was no denying it.
She walked backwards through her life, the bad apples sowing their rotten cores, all the while dreaming of him, calling to him long before she smelled the ocean. She hadn’t realized that before now. He had always been there, calling her name as she called out to him. But many of the memories held long forgotten barbs, and they poked her from time to time. She tried to keep her mind focused. The happy ending was coming, right?
She glanced down at the time on the computer screen. It had somehow flashed forward to an unthinkable point. It was after three o’clock already. She had been working for more than four hours without stopping. She was rolling indeed. It was only the numbers on the computer that reminded her how tired she actually was. It was time to put Little Miss Sunshine to bed, she thought. But as she closed out the word document, something occurred to her. Those little barbs, she knew what to do with them.
Another glance over her shoulder, yep, he was still sound asleep. She clicked on the folder labeled recipes, then the document inside labeled zucchini. He wasn’t much of a cook, and so she had doubted he would go sifting through her recipes. Actually, recipes did comprise the bulk of the folder; but, just in case, she had hidden the story under the name of the squash he hated more than the rest.
The document opened, its first line reading: The Darkness in Lana Turnbow. That was what she unofficially called the other story, the dark one. Lana would know what to do with those barbs, damn skippy she would.
It would be another three hours before Sarah Baker got around to turning off the computer and crawled into the bed beside Derrick
. She should have known it would be. Lana Turnbow flowed. That was how she rolled. Lana had met many of the same types of men Sarah had, the wife beaters, the deadbeat drunks, the cheaters who came home smelling of perfume and syphilis. But Lana didn’t know anything about happy endings. She knew about darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Sarah worked steadily on the novel over the next five weeks. Most of that time was not deferred to Lana Turnbow’s skills. Instead, she kept her eyes on the happy ending which lay just over the horizon now. Her heroine had encountered the good guy on more than one occasion and they were steadily growing towards each other on what would prove to be a permanent basis. The throbbing penis scenes had worked well in her mind, their written counterpart passing for plausible. She believed she had the characters at a point where even the hardest hearts would be pulling for them.
Outside the world of Microsoft Word, things were even better. Long walks at the beach, breakfast in bed, sex in bed, sex in the kitchen when the kids were positively, without a doubt asleep. Derrick, now better settled into his civilian career, though it was with a civilian contractor on the base, so it hadn’t been too difficult a transition for him, seemed genuinely happy. They had even dared to think of the possibility of a third child. It weighed heavily against any plans of an early retirement for him. Of course, that would all hinge on any success she might be able to attain with her writing. To her, that could be done in retirement.
They talked about opening a book store, not really a money maker, but a small check to supplement them when they got older. She had come a long way from Ohio, no longer the downtrodden sucker she had been in her past. But she had to admit it was a lot easier to have a better overall outlook with Derrick around. Everything Angie had always bragged about him had proven true.
She spent less time on the pier alone than she did earlier on. The writing had become more difficult there. Plus, when she did try to write on the pier, it tried to go back to the other story for some reason. So she spent most of her days at the house, working on the novel, taking care of Derrick and the kids, being happy.
By the time she finished the book, they had learned she was pregnant. Derrick was literally bubbling with joy at the news, seemingly content to work on the base forever. They truly were happy. Nothing could spoil it. God was in his heaven and his angels were healing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Sarah sat in front of the computer, a new story already written in her head. But every time she tried to get started, it would falter. Everything tried to go a different way, a darker way. This time, the happy ending was trying to escape before it had a chance to get started. The kids were in bed sleeping peacefully and quietly thank God, and Derrick was reading in the bed. Tom Clancy, one he had read more than once already, but he liked it. He liked all of them. Jack Ryan was up to his normal saving the world antics, or so it would seem.
She snuck a peak over her shoulder, and he was zoned completely out of everything not related to Jack Ryan. Leaning slowly to the left, intentionally covering the computer screen, she opened another word document. He didn’t know about this one. He probably never would, that was unless she didn’t stop opening it up when he was home anyway. But the other one just wouldn’t come. The fact was, she wanted to work on this one. She almost needed to work on this one.
It was dark, darker than she dared admit she even knew how to write. She found things inside her now that even she never knew were there. And in the story, already more than 150,000 words long, this story that she somehow thought might never end, the words flowed, almost as if someone else was writing them. In this story, the one with no official title, the one which never ended, Lana Turnbow came to life. It was where she lived.
She scrolled down to where she had stopped the last time she had worked on it, yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that one. Lana Turnbow was on a pier overlooking the ocean, and the darkness was coming.
She could hear it calling her name.
Enjoyed Danger Close? You may be interested in other works by Laura Day
Available in the Kindle Store!
***
Book 1 of the Fallen Angels MC series
They’ll fight each other along the way, but she is the only chance he has to save both his name and his club.
Mason Butler is good with numbers. Tasked as treasurer for the Fallen Angels MC, he’s always been able to make the numbers add up, but when he discovers that a large chunk of money has gone missing, he decides to call in help to figure out where it could have gone.
Caroline Lewis is a computer whiz and a math genius, but she’s not great with people, especially incredibly sexy bikers who show up at her house unannounced. Working together is difficult, but underneath the hostility, there is plenty of sexual tension that threatens to explode.
As they fight the urges that keep bringing them closer, Caroline begins to find evidence that someone has been stealing from the club. To find the thieves and save the club, they’ll have to work together, but when Mace is forced to make a choice, the consequences will put everything to the test.
***
Book 1 of the Iron Raiders MC series
She’s the only thing he’s ever wanted, and he’s the one thing she never saw coming.
Things have never been black and white for Ellie Carmichael. Growing up surrounded by the men of the Iron Raiders, the motorcycle club that’s been the only family she’s ever known, she’s always believed in the clubs mission, even when they’re activities weren’t entirely legal. But, as the daughter of a prostitute in their stable, who got herself knocked up and then locked up, she grew up thinking of the men of the club as uncles, and then brothers, and the president who led them all as the father she never knew.
Austin Parker tried not to take anything too seriously. After getting out of his crappy trailer park on the back of his alcoholic father’s bike, he spent two years travelling around the country before finding the Iron Raiders. Something about the club convinced him to stay, and he took full advantage of the bonuses of the lifestyle, including the rotating door of women in and out of his bed.
Ellie and Austin have never gotten along. She can’t deny how attractive he is, but his couldn’t-care-less attitude when it comes to the club that raised her drives her crazy, as does his penchant for one-night-stands. But when a night of drinking leads to her waking up in his bed, she’s the one who can’t leave fast enough. Austin, for the first time in his life, can’t get her out of his head, and he decides to pursue her. Meanwhile, outside forces start to threaten the club, and it will take everyone to ensure the future of the Iron Raiders.
As Austin begins to fight for the only things he’s ever wanted, it will take everything he’s got to prove his loyalty, to the club and to Ellie.
***
Derek Martinez isn’t looking for glory.
He’s never been one to lead the pack, and he hates responsibility; he just wants to lose himself in the roar of engines as he follows his brothers in the Black Brothers Motorcycle Club. Even the women in his life want more than he’s willing to give, so he takes them as they come and leaves them in the morning.
Danni Stewart has had more than enough bad-boy in her past.
After falling for a biker, and ending up alone with a broken heart and a baby, she’s sworn them off entirely. Raising her son on her own, she just wants to work and give her son the best life she can, even if she has to go it alone forever.
They couldn’t be more wrong for each other.
When they meet at the diner where Danni works, neither can deny the chemistry between them. Even though she wants him more than anything else in the world, Danni's past experience tells her that he’s dangerous. As she gives him her body, she keeps her heart locked away.
Derek can’t ignore the way Danni makes him feel, and for the first time considers the tantalizing possibility of something much more. They just might be what each other needs, but first they need to let themselves want it.
***
They say that truth is stranger than fiction. But for Laura Turner it's also just as deadly...
Landing the lead female role in the latest blockbuster action film was a dream come true for the struggling actress and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do to keep it. But when the director insists on the input of a real-life Motorcycle Gang member for authenticity's sake she starts to wonder if maybe she has made a mistake.
Roman is gorgeous, mysterious, and thoroughly distracting. Swaggering around on set in his leather's and impressing cast and crew alike, Laura can't help but fall for his brooding charms, too.
