The Right of Strangers
**THE RIGHT OF STRANGERS** As soon as Callian sat down at the table, he knew that something was wrong. The conversation went out like a candle. None of the six men looked at him, even when he placed his bid on the table and...
Terms of Service
* * * TERMS OF SERVICE When spring's heat cycle reared its sultry head and descended on the city, it found Ozias prepared. His first order of the day was a cold shower. As the husky shivered his way to peace of mind, he found himself repeating the...
Catch and Release
**CATCH AND RELEASE** Nettie's almost made it to end of shift before his phone growls at him. He jumps a little, sending his mouse skittering across his desk. He glances around, heat rising up his face, but nobody's paying any attention. His phone...
Hard Mouthed
**HARD MOUTHED** It's a long, sleepless night, and Nettie spends every waking second of it thinking about that stupid fucking key. The bar where he'd left his jacket opens at three in the afternoon. Nettie knows this because he's...
Glass Jaw
**GLASS JAW** Rory went down in the third round. The dive wasn't hard to fake—his opponent, a rangy wolf sixteen years his junior, had hit him hard enough that by the time Rory opened his eyes, he was staring up into the bank of...
Dive-Bombing
**DIVE-BOMBING** When Nettie was a freshman in college, he'd closed out his first semester in the hospital. He'd gone out drinking with his dormmates, flush with the false confidence of student loans. He'd drunk too much, struck out hard with a...
Steel, Gold, Velvet
**STEEL, GOLD, VELVET** Each day, the road grew longer. Each day, more men died to build it. The dead were interred in the trench, holding their tools. The road was laid overtop them, sand and clay and cement covering their...