Bellann Summer

Good Morning,
Next week Rescue for Hire #6 - Gabriel's Pretty will be out for pre-sale.
Here's a small snippet.

In disgust Peter Sabastian Kenyon threw the blue striped tie into the corner of the brightly sun-lit, sparkling clean kitchen. It was finished. His last responsibility from his old life was to bury his son-of-a –bitch of a father, and it was done. He was free, almost.

He had been reminded of that fact as he was leaving the cemetery after he had dutifully shaken the hands of the few people that had shown up to pay their respects.

 “Hey boy.” Pete turned to see his dad’s brother standing there, his ever present spit covered, sour smelling cigar, hanging from his mouth. Behind his uncle stood his cousin, Howard, who’s receding hairline and advancing beer-belly, made him resemble Pete’s uncle more and more every day.

Keeping his face emotionless, Pete fully faced the man he hated most, right behind dear-old-dad. “Uncle Marvin,” he said.

“Don’t get any ideas about the house or land, boy,” Marvin said. “I’m not leaving, and there’s no way I’m letting you take over. Your name may be on the deed, but that only means you’re paying the taxes.”

His uncle took a quick step towards Pete and jerked his fisted hand up to his waist. Like the coward he was, Pete swiftly stepped back. Turning, Pete left his uncle at his father’s burial site before anything could happen. Pete knew from experience that there had been a fifty-fifty chance that his uncle’s fist would have connected with some part of Pete’s body had he stayed.  

Pete had learned early in life that he could never win against his uncle or his father. Neither had ever hesitated to use every nasty, evil trick in the book to hurt him. Between the two elders, that had been an almost daily occurrence since the day his mother had left when Pete was only eight years old. He escaped most their wrath when he moved to the small apartment above Damian’s airplane hangar. Behind him his uncle’s laughter followed him all the way to his rusty old Chevy truck.

Now there were some decisions to make. Should he stay in the area or should he make a total break from it? Right now he had a good job working for Damian White, maintaining his planes and helicopter. He also flew big-wig business men around, usually to their corporate offices in different states. He’d hang around and explore the sights of the city, and when they were ready, he would fly them home again.

For the last year he had also been helping Damian fly the guys from the Rescue for Hire Company out to rescues. Unfortunately a little over six months ago there was an accident, and the owner and the field medic of the company were hurt. Now the company was going through some changes and so was Pete.

His ringing cellphone sitting on the kitchen counter grabbed Pete’s attention. Picking it up, the Rescue for Hire Company’s number blinked on the screen. That was odd because the team had been out on a rescue mission in Minnesota since Monday, helping victims caught in terrible flooding conditions from weeks of crazy rain storms.

From the short, very intense phone calls he had received from Damian, things were pretty fucked up over there. Hell, Pete hadn’t even had a chance to tell Damian that his dad had died and now it was already Saturday.

“Hello,” Pete said.

“Pete, this is Cade Miller, from Rescue for Hire. I was wondering if you would consider taking the helicopter up for a rescue over in the Nicolet National Forest?”

Pete hesitated for a moment. “I thought the team was in Minnesota?”

“They are. The daughter of an old friend of my aunts called me. She and her husband are worried about their son who had the bright idea of hiking into the forest and staying there for the weekend. He was going to try and live off the land, just like on his favorite reality shows,” Cade explained. “Apparently he had agreed to take a friend along. But his parents just learned that he went alone. He didn’t text last night like they had agreed on and now she thinks something might have happened to him.

“There’s a lot of dead space up there. Are you sure that he just didn’t have any cell service?” Pete asked.

“Even in dead space, texts usually come through,” Cade answered. “I thought we could go up and look around. Maybe by then Eric will have contacted his mother and there’s nothing to worry about. But if something has happened, hopefully we can get him out of there.”

“We, sir?” Pete asked.

“Yes, we. It will be you, me and a man by the name of Gabriel Simmons. I just hired him to train with Jack as the new field medic.”

Pete took that statement in. So, the restructuring of Rescue for Hire was officially starting. He thought it would be interesting to see how the dynamics of it all worked out. But now he had a more pressing problem.

Biting down on his lower lip, he took a second to figure out the best way to say what he needed to say. “Well, um, it could be done, but Damian owns the helicopter and I work for him. I would have to talk to him about it first.” Pete had a deep respect for Cade Miller and not being able to just agree to his plan made him very uncomfortable.

“I called Damian already, and he said he would be contacting you,” Cade said. “So, I’ll see you as soon as you can get here.”

Pete looked at his phone and saw that Cade had ended the call. Shaking his head he was sure glad that he was on the man’s good side. Cade Miller was one hell of a force to be reckoned with.