Swing Shift: Book 2 Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Book listing

  Chp.1

  Chp.2

  Chp.3

  Chp.4

  Chp.5

  Chp.6

  Chp.7

  Chp.8

  Chp.9

  Chp.10

  Chp.11

  Chp.12

  Chp.13

  Chp.14

  Chp.15

  Chp.16

  Chp.17

  Chp.18

  Chp.19

  Chp.20

  Chp.21

  Chp.22

  Chp.23

  Chp.24

  Chp.25

  Chp.26

  Chp.27

  Chp.28

  Chp.29

  Chp.30

  Chp.31

  Chp.32

  Chp.33

  Chp.34

  Chp.35

  Epilogue

  Authors Note

  Swing Shift 2

  By William D. Arand

  Copyright © 2019 William D. Arand

  Cover design © 2019 William D. Arand

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by an electronic or mechanical means - except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews - without written permission from its publisher.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2019 William D. Arand

  All rights reserved.

  Dedicated:

  To my wife, Kristin, who encouraged me in all things.

  To my son, Harrison, who has figured out if he wants my attention, he just has to tell me he loves me under the door.

  To my family, who always told me I could write a book if I sat down and tried.

  Special Thanks to:

  Niusha Gutierrez

  Bill Brush

  Sarinia Phelps

  Travis Ledlow

  Evilynn Thales

  Zach Johnson

  Caleb Morris

  Tara Mulkey

  Brian Flater

  Robert Hammack

  Brian Walker

  Books by William D. Arand-

  The Selfless Hero Trilogy:

  Otherlife Dreams

  Otherlife Nightmares

  Otherlife Awakenings

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Super Sales on Super Heroes Trilogy:

  Super Sales on Super Heroes 1

  Super Sales on Super Heroes 2

  Super Sales on Super Heroes 3

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Dungeon Deposed Trilogy:

  Dungeon Deposed

  Dungeon Deposed 2

  Dungeon Deposed 3

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Swing Shift Trilogy:

  Swing Shift

  Swing Shift 3 (To be release 2020)

  Books by Randi Darren-

  Wild Wastes Trilogy:

  Wild Wastes

  Wild Wastes: Eastern Expansion

  Wild Wastes: Southern Storm

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Fostering Faust Trilogy:

  Fostering Faust

  Fostering Faust 2

  Fostering Faust 3

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Remnant Trilogy:

  Remnant

  Remnant 2 (To be released 2019)

  Remnant 3 (To be released 2020)

  Incubus Inc. Trilogy:

  Incubus Inc

  Incubus Inc 2 (To be released 2019)

  Incubus Inc 3 (To be released 2020)

  Books in the VeilVerse-

  Cultivating Chaos: By William D. Arand

  Asgard Awakening: By Blaise Corvin

  Chapter 1 - Lukewarm Sentiments

  With his eyes closed, Gus leaned back in the chair.

  Truth of the matter was that he was simply enjoying sitting in the chair. He didn’t need to be tied into it so he wouldn’t slip out. Nor was an Elven-Dryad touching him with roaming hands.

  I’m not sure I could have survived having my back broken like that.

  Just not that strong.

  He lifted his coffee cup to his mouth, then took a sip and set it down on the table.

  There were no sounds in his house either.

  For the first time in a long time, everything was absolutely silent. The only possibility for sound right now was with the hitman still tied up in his basement.

  Trish had taken on the role of jail-keeper for her, and Melody the chef. No one was sure what to do with the woman, but as far as Gus could tell, no one was looking for her either.

  She was a nonentity.

  A series of rapid knocks on the door brought Gus out of his quiet contemplation.

  Shaking his head, he decided to ignore it.

  It was more than likely someone who wanted him to buy something or wanted his support for a campaign.

  “Gussy! Oooooopen the dooooooooooor,” shouted Mark through his front door.

  Groaning, Gus lowered his head and let out a short sigh.

  “Of course it’d be you,” he said as he got up out of the chair. “I’d almost rather it be a door-to-door salesman or someone trying to convert me.”

  When he reached the front door, Gus opened it.

  Standing there was probably one of the five people he’d trust with his life. His former boss in the PID, Mark Ehrich.

  He was dressed in an expensive-looking black suit, with a white shirt and matching tie.

  He looked like the typical depiction of a federal agent. Tall, dark hair, blue eyes, muscular, handsome, and with a bit of danger to him.

  “Gussy!” shouted Mark.

  Moving across the threshold, he immediately wrapped Gus up in a hug.

  “Baby, I missed you,” Mark said, running his hands up and down Gus’s back.

  Unable to help himself, Gus laughed softly and then hugged Mark in return.

  “Vanessa mentioned you were all better, but I still can’t believe it. Your back was broken. Literally.” Mark leaned back and looked at him.

  “And you got shot. You seem fine yourself,” Gus said, giving Mark a quick inspection. He really did seem fine for a man who’d been turned into a leaky piece of meat.

  “Once they stabilized me and I came out of that coma, they just magicked me up,” Mark said. “Just had to wait for me to wake up, I guess. You got the same treatment.”

  “Yeah, bullet holes are apparently much easier to treat than a broken back.” Gus started walking back into his home. “Well? Come on in, Durh. No one’s here right now though.”

  “Great! Then let’s go out!” Mark said, not leaving the door. “I’m all dressed up, and you know I love being looked at. Especially with you on my arm. Let’s go get a coffee or something.”

  Gus thought about declining, then decided against it. With Melody’s fear cooking, he never really felt hunger anymore. It made eating human foods much more palatable.

  “Fine,” he said, turning to one side and grabbing a coat from the hanger. While he was fine now, he still didn’t quite feel perfect.

  Trish had only gotten him put back together the previous day. She’d also warned him that his back would be pretty weak for a month or two. She’d been using his own body and hers to fuel the regeneration after all.

  Or more specifically, herself as the blueprint and his body as the fuel source.

  “Really? Great! I thought I’d have to argue with you,” Mark said.

  “Nah… been cooped up for a while. I could do with an airing out,” Gus said.

  While he wasn’t norm
ally one to get out of the house, even he was tired of seeing the inside of his own walls by now.

  After closing the front door behind him and locking it, Gus followed Mark over to the black sedan with blacked-out windows in front of his house.

  The hell.

  Did he get promoted to the “cliché federal agent” position or something?

  Glancing at the plates as he walked up, Gus spotted the federal listing.

  Shit, he did get promoted to the federal government.

  Which means he’s one of the people who’d have my family executed simply because of what we are.

  Good thing it’s just Durh.

  Laughing softly, Gus opened the car door and clambered in.

  “I know, right?” Mark closed his door and got comfortable in the seat. “It’s ironic and hilarious. More so when I tell you my plan.”

  Gus snapped his seat belt into place and leaned back.

  “Nice ride at least. They pay good?” he asked.

  “Stupidly well. Especially since… you know… the Fed got blowed up. I was more or less able to negotiate my salary to whatever I wanted,” Mark said as he turned the ignition. “It also let me dictate who I personally wanted to hire onto my team.”

  Not being an idiot, Gus had already figured it was something like this.

  After walking out of the desert with just old glory, Mark, Olsen, and himself, they had few others to rely on. Most especially after Olsen ate his own gun and Gus had found him.

  When the world had thrown Gus down and tried to stomp him flat, it’d been Mark who’d swooped in and given him a job in the end.

  Though there’d been a time when Mark had his own troubles. It just hadn’t lasted as long as Gus’s.

  “At least this time I didn’t find you behind a bar passed out in your own vomit,” Mark said.

  “Yeah, that was an odd job offer,” Gus said, remembering it.

  “Well, I think this one will be just as odd,” Mark said.

  “Mm. I take it you had to promise the moon and stars just to be able to make an offer for me to work for peanuts?” Gus asked.

  Staring out the window, he watched the houses roll by.

  He didn’t feel as despondent since he’d gotten the use of his legs back, but he still wasn’t quite over the fact that he’d been fired from the PID.

  For doing his job, no less.

  “Actually, you’ve got it wrong,” Mark said with a chuckle. “There was no way you were going to keep your job with all those talking heads looking like idiots. I mean… your email got some real traction after the fact.

  “It literally spelled out the entire situation. Bad shit gonna happen at the big game, probably a bomb or worse, you need to reel it in. Then of course there’s the time stamp on it. Makes it hard for anyone to deny they didn’t have time to read it.”

  “I mean… yeah?” Gus said. “Was trying to get people to make it stop.”

  “I know, Gussy. I know. Everyone knows you were just trying to save people. That’s the problem though,” Mark said, wheeling them onto the freeway. “It’s hard for anyone to not see that you were doing all you could and that everyone at the top of the food chain dropped the ball.”

  “Yeah.” Gus turned to Mark. “Which is why I got shit-canned. Right?”

  “Yup! And to be honest, I was kinda happy they did it the way they did,” Mark said. “I mean, do you have any idea how bad that makes them look after the fact? Hah. Especially when I sent out my report five minutes after your firing went live.”

  Gus snorted at that and looked ahead at the road. “You knew it was coming?”

  “Course I did. As if I wasn’t already looking into what was going to happen to you the moment I woke up,” Mark said, almost sounding offended. “Saw the paperwork they submitted the moment after I took my promotion. Because we all knew I wasn’t going to do shit about you as long as I was there. They did try to force me, fat lot of good it did them.”

  Gus nodded. He had wondered what would happen to him once Mark took the promotion Gus had expected him to get.

  It had felt like the axe was looming the moment that promotion was confirmed.

  “My report… ooooooo-eee it was a doozy, Gussy. I’ll let you read it later. And the email chain follow-up after it…” Mark started to laugh. “There were so many people looking for verification, and then your email magically—in a way no one can trace, I made sure of that—surfaced outside of restricted channels and started making the rounds. It’d only been internal before that. Ooopsie.”

  There was a subtle undercurrent of anger in Mark’s words, and no mistaking it for exactly what it was. Mark was livid at what had been done to Gus and had taken his own form of revenge.

  “Love you too, Durh,” Gus said.

  “Shit, what?” Mark asked. “Damn, should I pull over so we can have a quickie in the back seat?”

  “Idiot,” Gus said and then started to laugh. “What’s the job, then?”

  “I wasn’t promoted. Not really. I was hired off the PID and brought into the Fed,” Mark said. “As you obviously guessed. But I wasn’t hired as an agent. Or anything like that, actually.”

  “No?” Gus asked.

  “No. I was hired as a section chief. Deputy director, in fact. I’m running the entire organization for the state. I already made sure to read into everything concerning you, your family, Melody, Vanessa, and Trish,” Mark said. “They have no idea about any of you or what’s really going on there. You’re in the clear. I also put a few notes in your file that’ll help in the future. Like the fact that mind reading doesn’t work particularly well on you and can risk the mind reader attempting it. Especially psykers.”

  That’s likely to make any attempt to assign a reader on me impossible. And gives me the opportunity to kill them if they try.

  Raising his eyebrows at Mark’s admission, Gus could only shake his head. Mark had been looking out for him ever since they’d made it back.

  “What? You did far more for me out there. Let alone what you did for everyone else. Just because they didn’t make it back doesn’t lessen what you did,” Mark said. “This isn’t even a fraction of what I owe you.”

  “Don’t owe me shit,” Gus said.

  “You and I disagree on this and always have. Anyways,” Mark said, flicking his hand dismissively. “I’m the chief for the state. I report to what is essentially the director of the Fed. For the nation.

  “I argued for the ability to hire whoever I wanted at whatever pay I felt justified. She agreed and that was that. I sent over my hiring requirements for you, Vanessa, Melody, and Trish the same day.

  “It all went through last night.”

  “Ah. I see,” Gus said. That all made sense in a way. “Dare I ask what the salary is?”

  “Each one of you is going to be making a hundred and forty grand. It’s the highest I could make it. Even Melody will actually get a raise,” Mark said.

  “Shit,” Gus muttered. It was a significant jump. “Ness and Trish will be ecstatic.”

  “I know, right? Just tell them it’s because of you and you need more sexual healing.” Mark nodded his head rapidly. “Job is pretty stupid easy. You’ll be an agent. I give you stuff, you go fix it or figure it out.”

  “In other words… we’re doing exactly the same thing we were before. Just new titles and pay,” Gus said with a chuckle.

  “Pretty much! Ain’t it grand? Though obviously, the cases we’ll be working will be different. I already know what you’ll be tackling first, in fact, as soon as you sign on,” Mark said.

  “You do? That’s rather quick. Isn’t it?”

  “I mean, somewhat. But in the same breath… it isn’t as if there aren’t things to do. The problem is all the existing casework got blowed up. We get to start from scratch, and my boss wants a demonstration of why your team is worth so much.”

  Gus shrugged at that. He didn’t mind being tested in such a way. If anything, it was easier for him. Having a test gave him
the opportunity to remove doubt and clear the way.

  “Gonna tell me what it is?” Gus asked.

  “Noooooope,” Mark said with a laugh. “Not going to tell you till your whole team is together. Your first day is the day after you sign your contracts. I dropped them off in your mailbox while I was there.

  “I sent a text to Melody to go check the mail. With any luck, they’ll have all read them before we get back and that’ll be the end of the conversation.”

  Closing his eyes, Gus rested his head on the headrest and laughed. “Durh, I wouldn’t have said no.”

  “Ptttf, as if I’d believe that for an instant. Too much of a risk of you saying no. Anyways,” Mark said, “there we are. That’s the new gig and all that.”

  “Thanks, Durh,” Gus said.

  “Of course. Gotta take care of my man,” Mark said. “Speaking of, Kelly mentioned you came rushing over to see me when I was imitating Swiss cheese. She was rather grateful for the guards you put on my door as well.

  “Did I mention my wife may love you more than me after that? Should I be concerned you two are going to cheat on me with each other?”

  Gus grinned without opening his eyes. He didn’t have to say anything. Mark would carry the conversation all on his own if he let him.

  So Gus did just that.

  ***

  Walking up to his front door, Gus already knew that one or all of his housemates were home.

  The mail wasn’t in the mailbox, and Mark had specifically told him he’d dropped the contracts in there.

  With any luck it’s just Melody and I can talk to her before everyone else gets home. Maybe walk it back a bit.

  After reaching the front door, Gus paused as it swung inward.

  Standing in his doorway was Trish. She took a step to the side to let him inside.

  Dressed in a tank top and jeans, looking like something out of one of the numerous magazines he’d read while deployed, she was the picture of beauty.

  Her green eyes seemed to glow with an inner light as she watched him, smiling.

  That picture of beauty included a massive dollop of sexual domination.

  Reaching up, she curled a wisp of her white hair behind a tipped Elvish ear. The rest of it was pulled back behind her head in a ponytail.