Fort Morgan
Authors: Claudia Hall Christian
Tags: #paranormal, #serial fiction, #strong female character, #uplifting, #denver cereal
Fort Morgan
Denver Cereal, Volume Twelve
Claudia Hall Christian
Cook Street Publishing
Denver, CO
by
Claudia Hall Christian
StoriesbyClaudia.com
The Denver Cereal
Celia’s Puppies
Cascade
Cimarron
Black Forest
Fairplay
Gold Hill
Silt
Larkspur
Firestone
Fort Lupton
Fort Morgan
The Fey
Learning to
Stand
Who I am
Lean on Me
In the Grey
Finding North
The Queen of
Cool
Tax Assassin
Carving Knife
Suffer a Witch
Suffer a Witch
Copyright © Claudia Hall
Christian
ISNI: 0000 0003 6726
170X
Licensed under the
Creative Commons License:
Attribution –
NonCommercial – Share Alike 3.0
ISBN-13 :
978-1-938057-31-1 (digital)
978-1-938057-30-4
(print)
Library of Congress
available upon request.
SMASHWORDS
EDITION
PUBLISHER’S
NOTE:
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places and incidents either are either the
product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously.
First edition © serial
fiction October 2014 — May 2015
Cook Street
Publishing
ISNI: 0000 0004 1443
6403
PO Box 18217
Denver, CO
80218
~~~~~~~~
For Rose,
Every one of these chapters
was written with your head on my lap.
Be at peace, precious one.
What’s happened so
far
Denver Cereal
is an addicting, fun, sweet and crunchy serial
fiction filled with the tension, drama, and love of urban
life.
The best way to catch up
is to read
Grand
Junction
,
Denver
Cereal
Volume 1- 10 wherever eBooks are
sold or online at
StoriesbyClaudia.com
.
We used to write a section here that gave a
synopsis of all of the previous books. Frankly, the synopsis’
weren’t very good. More than anything, they deprived you of the
chance to hang out in Denver Cereal for a while. We were only be
spoiling your fun You deserve a chance to read all the twists and
turns, mischief, and wild adventures of Denver Cereal. These aren’t
books to be accomplished or checked off a list. They are stories to
be savored and enjoys.
Get to it. We’ll be here when you get
back.
Contents
Chapter Three Hundred and
Thirty-one
Chapter Three Hundred and
Thirty-two
Chapter Three Hundred and
Thirty-three
Chapter Three Hundred and
Thirty-four
Chapter Three Hundred and
Thirty-five
Chapter Three Hundred and
Thirty-six
Chapter Three Hundred and
Thirty-seven
Chapter Three Hundred and
Thirty-eight
Chapter Three Hundred and
Thirty-nine
Chapter Three Hundred and
Forty
Chapter Three Hundred and
Forty-one
Chapter Three Hundred and
Forty-two
Chapter Three Hundred and
Forty-three
Chapter Three Hundred and
Forty-four
Chapter Three Hundred and
Forty-five
Chapter Three Hundred and
Forty-six
Chapter Three Hundred and
Forty-seven
Chapter Three Hundred and
Forty-eight
Chapter Three Hundred and
Forty-nine
Chapter Three Hundred and
Fifty
Chapter Three Hundred and
Fifty-one
Chapter Three Hundred and
Fifty-two
Chapter Three Hundred and
Fifty-three
Chapter Three Hundred and
Fifty-four
Chapter Three Hundred and
Fifty-five
Chapter Three Hundred and
Fifty-six
Chapter Three Hundred and
Fifty-seven
Chapter Three Hundred and
Fifty-eight
Chapter Three Hundred and
Fifty-nine
Chapter Three Hundred and
Sixty
Danger
Tuesday night — 9:18 p.m.
Phoenix, Arizona
Dionne looked across the room. The men had
taken them into an office filled with soft couches, thick rugs, and
even a fireplace. If Dionne didn’t know better, she’d swear she was
in a hotel room and not a place of business. The men had checked
with someone who was negotiating with the police before bringing
them in here. The men . . .
They were more like the monsters that lived
in the children’s books she’d read to La Tonya and Jeraine —
gorgeous to look at and very evil. One of the men, Jeff, was tall,
thin, and tan. His eyes were shockingly blue and his hair salt and
pepper. He wore a clean blue dress shirt, even though it was nearly
ten at night. His suit probably cost more than her and Bumpy’s
first home. He was like a shark — always looking for what to
consume next. He’d given Dionne the once-over before turning his
attention to Yvonne. While clearly the alpha male, this man would
not be the one to actually kill them. He was more likely to order
them killed or throw them out of a helicopter and let gravity do
the work.
The other man . . . What was
his name? Gio? Gino? Dionne closed her eyes for a moment. She’d
been so frightened for such a long time that her mind was starting
to blank out.
Gino. That was his name. Also some kind of
banker in an expensive suit, this man was thick, tough, and had the
look of a mobster. His face showed the wear of too much sun and too
much alcohol. From what she could tell, this man was the muscle of
the operation. He talked almost as much as he did cocaine and drank
tequila. Snort a line. Take a shot. Suck on a wedge of lime. Tell a
long-winded, pointless story. Snort a line. Take a shot. Suck on a
wedge of lime. Tell another story. She did her best to listen to
Gino.
The bodyguard used to be a cop,
Jeff-the-alpha-banker told them, before he got into trouble, and he
looked the part. Gino had implied that he was the trouble that had
taken down the bodyguard. While they were in the bathroom, the
bodyguard had gone to the conference room to get Agent Angie.
Whoever was negotiating had agreed to turn her over to the police
as an act of “good faith.” Gino had laughed and laughed as if it
had been his idea, but Dionne was pretty sure that Yvonne had made
it happen.
Gino was the one who’d killed the young
secretary and shot Agent Angie. When push came to shove, Gino was
going to be the one who would kill them too.
He was also the one who would end up holding
the bag for Jeff-the-alpha-banker. Gino would end up stabbed by a
shiv in some maximum security prison while Jeff-lay on a beach
somewhere. Gino asked her a question.
“
I’m sorry?” Dionne
asked.
“
What’re you thinkin’?”
Gino repeated.
“
Nothing much,” Dionne
said. “I’m just a little fatigued.”
“
Here,” Gino said. “Have a
line.”
“
No, thank you,” Dionne
said. “I come from a long line of addicts. My father, my
son . . .”
“
Jeraine,” Gino said.
“That’s your boy.”
Dionne swallowed hard. She hadn’t realized
Gino knew who she was. Gino grinned at her unease.
“
I used to see him perform
every year,” Gino said. “My dad took me to see you when I was a
kid.”
“
Me?” Dionne
asked.
Gino nodded.
“
My dad used to say that
you were danger personified, with the voice of an angel in the
smoking hot body of a she-devil,” he said.
Gino leaned forward to cut another slice of
lime. He snorted a line of cocaine, took a shot of tequila, and
stuffed the lime in his mouth. Gino pulled the lime from his
mouth.
“
So don’t you worry,” Gino
said. “When the time comes, I’ll kill you fast and easy. I owe it
to my old man to make sure you don’t suffer.”