The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1) (75 page)

But suddenly, Matt finds himself in a desperate life-or-death situation on a trip overseas, and he realizes just how much he misses home, and Brian. He’s luckily rescued by a team of US Special Operations Forces, only to immediately find out they’re a bunch of bigoted jerks. Worse, a quirk of his situation forces him to spend time with them that he’d rather not. And that’s when he finds out that first impressions can be misleading. When called upon, he steps up when every fiber of his being tells him not to, and discovers something deep inside himself that he didn’t realize was even there. And his life will never be the same. He finds that he can, after all, make some very overdue changes in his own life.

What Matt doesn’t realize is that the bond of brotherhood runs both ways. And he winds up changing the lives of several of the men on that SpecOps team as much as they changed his.

All it takes is faith and trust.

The Sticks (A Short Story)

Percy’s given up. He’s given up and wants to be as far away as possible from the place that has been the source of his troubles all his life. But to his disappointment, he finds himself in the last place he expected. And a chance encounter with a redneck and a stubborn hound dog aren’t helping, either. That is… until they do.

Invincibility can be found in the strangest places.

The Last Day Of Summer

Rett’s done some running away in his life, from family and from boyfriends, and he’s not above doing it again. His current boyfriend wants to take their relationship to the next level, which makes Rett hesitant and doubtful. Luckily, a job offer in a new town solves his problem for him, giving him the perfect excuse to run away yet again from the uncomfortable feeling of someone trying to get close to him, even if it means picking up after seven years of school and starting over.

Most guys would kill for his new job, and Rett’s certainly desperate for the paycheck. But the irony of the new position isn’t lost on him — he’s never cared a whole lot for sports, and even far less about the world of professional sports, which is right where he’s landed. Then he finds out he’s not the only one that’s new to pro sports, and he gets closer and closer to one of the players as they try to make sense of the whole crazy thing together. And things seem good!

But when his family, whom he had long since left behind, shows back up with a family crisis, his life starts to unwind and Rett allows everything around him to painfully self-destruct. It’s only then that he realizes he’s got to get back up, stand his ground, and teach himself the one thing he never truly learned growing up.

He’s got to stop running away and finally learn what it really means to be a man.

The Fence And Then The Trees

What would you do?

Jack Carber was in a bad spot. Betrayed and thrown in prison, he had to figure out fast how to survive, and with no idea who to trust and who not to trust. To make matters worse, he had already gotten on the bad side of The Kennel on day one. But his biggest threat was the vacant psychopath named Adder, whose cell he found himself sharing. And with this one, his best tools for survival, his skills as a con man, had no effect at all.

How would you survive?

Jack faced dangerous enemies, an indifferent prison administration, and an inmate advocate with his own twisted agenda. He was determined to keep himself alive and sane, even as he began to slowly give up on himself.

As long as he kept his head down and didn’t fall prey to the fatal mistake of trusting anyone ever again, he’d eventually get out alive... in body if not in spirit. And that seemed like the most he could expect.

What would keep you going?

A sudden revelation and the resulting puzzle, though, throws his world into a wildly different light. He’s unexpectedly clutching at a glimmer of hope, something more than mere survival, and yet fighting to not repeat the mistakes of his past again. But something deep inside him begs him to take that risk one more time.

Because, exactly how far would you be willing to go to protect the best thing that ever happened to you, especially when it hadn’t even happened?

Photo Credit: R. D. Jimenez

When he’s not writing, JF Smith spends quite a bit of time wondering how much time is left, which seems like something of a waste of time. If you’re interested, please feel free to contact the author at:
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