About Unfinished Business, An Undercover Blues Story

by Laney Cairo
32 pages / 8500 words
Ebook zipped file contains - html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

Undercover Blues' Ryan and Jason's quiet life together is shaken when a reporter finds them, bringing desperate trouble over an unpaid debt from Jason's past. How far will Jason go to save Ryan? How much hasn't been said?

Everything Ryan thought he and Jason had left behind is back, and they're in more danger than ever before.

Unfinished Business first appeared in Another Fine Mess anthology.

Sample

Four guns trained on Ryan, and he lifted his hands slowly, holding them out in front of himself.

"Not doing anything stupid," Ryan said, as one of the thugs, presumably Charlie, put his gun on the work bench behind him, well out of Ryan's reach, then approached Ryan cautiously, roll of duct tape in his hands.

"You did something stupid when you shacked up with Jason," Mad Andy said. "And it's been downhill since then, right up to the point where the papers decided to advertise where you were and who you were fucking."

Once his face, hands, and feet were taped, Ryan let himself go limp. He'd put on some weight since leaving the force, and it was much harder to move a relaxed body, so he might as well make things as slow for the thugs as possible.

Two of the thugs dragged him up the concrete steps, into a house empty of furniture, grunting and swearing, then tossed him on the carpet of what had once been a living room.

Chairs were dragged in from elsewhere in the house, and Mad Andy sat himself down on a folding lawn chair, Ryan's hand in his phone.

"Watch him, boys," he told his thugs.

The tape across Ryan's mouth was secure, mashing his lips against his teeth, and he had to start running through breathing exercises learned while a police officer, focusing on combating the waves of fear, just to stop himself from hyperventilating.

Ryan's phone rang, making Ryan jump, sending yet more adrenaline rushing into his bloodstream, his heart banging wildly in his chest.

Mad Andy peered at the phone, then poked at a button and lifted the phone to his ear.

Jason's voice was tinny, and Ryan couldn't make out any words, but Mad Andy smiled beatifically.

"Jason, me old mate. It's Mad Andy here. Young Ryan is a little indisposed right now, but I can pass on a message."

The phone squawked, and that time Ryan could make out the words. "Andrew, you fucking wanker. You hurt one single hair, make one mark on Ryan's skin, and I will come after you with a meat cleaver, you useless arsehole."

"Ah, I've missed you," Mad Andy said, his eyes twinkling at Ryan. "You and whose fucking army?"

Less squawking and Mad Andy settled the phone back against his ear. "What I want is the location of Harvey's lockup, the one where he kept his personal supplies. Tell me."

Indignant noises that time, and Mad Andy took his gun out of his waistband and waved it at Ryan. "See, I'm holding this phone in my right hand, so this shot isn't going to be aimed."