About Interest Paid

by BA Tortuga
12 pages / 3900 words
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc

Pietro's used to all sorts of people coming into his pawn shop to unload their unwanted baggage. He takes it all in and lets the souls he helps unburden go on their way, but when he meets Paul, he knows he's met someone special. Paul is on the run, figuring he needs to leave town fast, but Pietro might just convince him to stay. Can they find a way to keep Paul's sins from catching up to him?

Sample

The little bell over the door jingled, and Pietro came out of the back office, peering through the dusty stacks of magazines and media, his fingers making impressions in the fine grit that covered his glass cases.

No one ever came to the Good Intentions Pawn Shop anymore, so to hear the sound of bootheels ringing on the creaky wooden floor made his day. Possibly his decade. Sometimes he just got so bored.

Long, tall, thin as a wraith, the eyes that stared at him from beneath the black cowboy hat were bright as the morning sky and blazing with fury. "Y'all open?"

"We are." Pietro studied the man, admiring. He did love a good mad-on. "What may I do for you?"

"I got a saddle. Some tack. Spurs." The anger was pouring from the man, the blue-black bruise under one eye making him want to smile.

Or lick it. Just to see what it would tell him. "Well, I'd be happy to look at them. Have a bad ride, cowboy?"

"In a manner of speaking." The saddle thumped up on the counter, the leather well-worn, well-made. "There ain't nothing wrong with it."

"No. No, it looks good." Pietro ran his hand along the pommel, admiring how the man’s tanned skin all but matched the leather. Oh, there was heartache there. Struggle. Rage.

"How much? I ain't got a lot of time, sir. I got to get the hell out of Dodge."