Getaway: The Billy Keene Stories, #0

By Chad Sanborn

A financial advisor with a gambling problem. His sexaholic best friend. And one very attractive and very bored young woman.

When they all meet it turns into a vicious game of cat and mouse—but who’s the cat and who’s the mouse?

Leaving behind their quiet suburbs, Felix and his well-off best friend, Geoff, check into a resort casino for a lost boys weekend — a little golf, some gambling and a lot of indulging their worst impulses.

No sooner do they arrive than they meet Sharla. She’s down for drinking, drugging and generally jacking with people. Nothing personal, it’s just her way entertaining herself while her boyfriend, a big and rich redneck with a temper, gambles away his daddy’s money.

Felix recognizes that Sharla is trouble. So when she decides to have some fun by letting Geoff think he’s seducing her all so she can steal from him, it’s up to Felix to look out for his naive friend. Of course, whenever Sharla’s involved it’s a different sort of gambling and this time it will be for the ultimate stakes when her idea of what passes for entertainment takes a cruel turn.

But despite his suburban dad appearance, Felix is no stranger to ruthless people, and before this getaway weekend is over, everyone will be betting against their own better nature to survive.

With Getaway, award-winning crime fiction author Chad Sanborn give readers a fun, sexy and twisted introduction to some of the unhinged characters populating his crime fiction series, The Billy Keene Stories.

Pick up Getaway to discover this darkly funny series today!

What Readers Are Saying About Getaway

“Very entertaining!”

“A quick read”

“The characters drew me in right away”

“I loved the bits of humor throughout the book”

“I’m anxious to read the next books to see what happens”

What Readers Are Saying About the next book in the series, All Debts, Public And Private

“The tale is twisted, funny and most important, HUMAN” 

“I definitely stayed up too late several nights just to read ‘one more chapter’”

“Twists and turns you don't see coming”

“(Billy Keene) is no super-sleuth or clichéd ‘plays by his own rules’ tough guy, and his humanity is what makes us root for him all the more”

Praise For Chad Sanborn

Chad’s writing is “exceptionally light on its feet, striking exactly the right note without appearing to try too hard." — Michael Harvey, author of The Chicago Way and We All Fall Down

“…strong voice, assured prose….” — Marcus Sakey, author of The Brilliance Trilogy and The Blade Itself

About The Author

Chad Sanborn maintains he had little choice but to turn to a life of crime...fiction. He was cursed, he says, with “a criminal’s mind but a coward’s stomach.”

He is the author of the crime stories Getaway, All Debts, Public and Private and the award-winning short story, The Cutting, among others. He lives in Kansas City.

Chad is always delighted to hear from readers, and you can reach him at mrchadsanborn.com.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monk & Bean Fabrications
• Release date: Mar 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781540182203

Book preview

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Building a relationship with my readers is one of my favorite things about writing crime fiction. That’s why I occasionally send out emails with details on new releases, special offers and other news relating my books and my writing life.

If you sign up for my email list, I’ll give you a bunch of free stuff and let you know when the next Billy Keene book is available. For details on the free stuff and how to get it, please visit http://www.mrchadsanborn.com/email-list-sign-up

— Chad

GET THE NEXT BOOK IN THE SERIES

ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

Get It Now!

An inexperienced sheriff bumbling his way through a kidnapping. A lottery-winning grandmother determined to handle things in her own savage way. And the ruthless party-girl in the middle of it all.

Each will be forced to answer the painful question: How far will you go when betrayed by people you thought you knew?

With All Debts, Public And Private, the first crime novel in The Billy Keene Storie, award-winning crime fiction author Chad Sanborn gives readers a taut, thrilling story filled with deception, wicked humor and redneck vengeance.

Get All Debts, Public And Private to take the first wild ride in this dark humor-crime fiction series today!

GETAWAY

Chad Sanborn

For Jen

GETAWAY

"Don't worry, I'm not contagious, honey."

The elderly woman speaking through a white surgical mask. Her bony hand gesturing to the mask then coming down hard, slapping the slot machine. The machine pitching a fit, lights flashing, wheels spinning, bling-bling-bling. A small win.

Sharla sitting next to the masked woman, ignoring her. Pretending to focus on her own slot machine and its big red blinking button urging her to spin. Sharla taking a sip of her breakfast Crown Royal and Diet Coke.

What I mean is, the masked woman going on in her raspy cigarette voice, "I'm not wearing this thing so I don't give you something. Wearing it so I don't get something. Swear, I get pneumonia easier than anybody you ever seen."

Sharla finally looking at the woman, saying really that must be terrible.

"It is terrible," the old woman said, pleased to find a sympathetic ear.

Sharla guessing the old lady had caught her looking sideways, assumed Sharla was curious about the mask. She wasn't.

Not interested in the woman's mask. Nor the tubes running from a small oxygen tank, up under the mask and into old woman's nose. The tubes grossing her out a little. And the crocheted sock the woman carried her oxygen tank around in, Sharla did find that kinda cute in a grandma sort of way. But beyond that Sharla couldn't give a shit.

What Sharla did care about—the masked woman's payout tickets. Two of them sitting right there on the ledge of the slot machine, plus the one that would come spitting out of the machine once the masked woman cashed out.

This was how Sharla kept herself entertained on these little weekend getaway trips. About six months back her boyfriend, Chubba, caught the gambling bug. Since then they'd made four trips from Kansas down to southern Oklahoma to play the big Indian casino. The casino and hotel complex sitting so close to the Texas border Sharla would bet a person could almost see the Dallas skyline from a penthouse suite.

Sharla just twenty years old on that first trip, not old enough to gamble or drink, so she’d come up with a way to keep herself entertained. Making up her own games of chance. Namely, seeing what all she could get away with. She was legal now. Could gamble and drink all she wanted and she did those things, but mostly she enjoyed her own games.

Again the masked woman's bony hand slapping the button and setting the machine off, whirling and flashing, binging and bonging, adding a few dollars to her kitty. Letting it ride.

Ain't it the damnedest thing, the woman said, I'm what it looks like if you're lucky enough to live a long time.

Sharla nodding, saying So true.

But in her head, I call bullshit on that, ya old bitty. Rather die young and hot, than take a wheezing, sagging body like yours to the grave.

The old woman leaned forward in her high-back stool, playing and talking to her newfound friend, Sharla. Sharla playing the part. Yes ma'am and ya-don't-say at the right times.

All the while using sips of her Crown and Diet Coke as a chance to keep an eye on the masked woman's winnings. But the masked woman looking like she was nowhere near deciding this particular slot was busted and cashing out.

I'm Vi, the masked woman said. Vivian but everyone calls me Vi.

A pause, the woman waiting for Sharla to volunteer her name. Sharla finally picking up on it.

Mary, Sharla said.

Well, nice to meet you, Mary.

Nice to meet you, Vi.

Sharla playing it straight and sweet, biding her time. Wouldn't be the first payout tickets she'd swiped. Previous trips she'd also managed to steal cash and jewelry. Like that one time here at the big casino...

Strange little man she'd picked up at the pool.

He was odd in a way that said he had so much money, no one around him ever called him on his weird ways. Intentional or not, he had a knack for making small talk awkward.

Like asking Tell me, what do you know? Or Where do you call home?

Then the guy getting drunk and falling asleep on the