Good morning and Happy Hump Day ! If it's Wednesday, then it must be time for more flash fiction from the Wednesday Briefers! We're a group of authors who bring you our finest flash fiction every week, 500 to 1000 words, inspired by one of our prompts.
Last week, Vinnie and Ethan returned from a walk to find Anderson waiting for them in their home. What's up with that? See what's going on in this week's chapter of Rose and Thorne 6. Don't forget to visit the other Briefers and see what's up with them. Their links follow my tale! Enjoy!
“Like I said, I’m sorry to disturb you when you’re
taking your time off, which you don’t do often enough, and you know I wouldn’t
if it wasn’t important, but something came up that I think you’ll want to know
about and be a part of.” Anderson took a deep breath before he continued. He
definitely had our attention. “We’ve been asked to provide protection for an
important government witness.”
“For how long?” I asked the first question that came
to mind. At the moment, who the witness was seemed immaterial.
“For less than a week. He’s due in court in just a
few days.”
We’d been assigned to cases like that before. Our
duties usually consisted of sitting around hotel rooms with the witness, playing
cards and watching TV. What it came down to was babysitting someone who
couldn’t go home for whatever reason. So what made this case of special
interest to us?
I watched as Ethan accepted the folder from our boss
and flipped it open in such a manner that we could easily view the contents
together. Not like I thought Anderson was trying to keep anything from me, or
that he considered Ethan to be the senior partner. That was a ridiculous
notion, as we’d joined at exactly the same time and had been nothing but equal
ever since, and he’d never treated us any other way. It was quite possible he
considered Ethan to be the more responsible one of us, and that might be true—whether
I was willing to admit to that was another matter entirely.
When I saw Ethan’s eyes widen, I realized that
wasn’t the reason either. Mystified, I looked at the material he held.
Clipped just inside the folder was a photograph of a
middle-aged man. The guy was a redhead, with only a little bit of gray in his
slightly bushy beard, his longish hair pulled back into a man bun. Slightly
receding forehead, and piercing blue eyes completed the picture.
“This is… I mean… he’s….” Something had just rattled
Ethan to the point where he was fumbling for words.
My mind instantly reverted to our recent topic of
conversation and for just a moment I irrationally thought that this man was
Sarah’s baby daddy. But no, he was too old to be a contemporary of theirs, much
less the man Sarah was obviously pining after. So what had Ethan so confuzzled?
“Benjamin Thorne,” Anderson finished Ethan’s
half-formed sentences.
Why did that name sound familiar? My bafflement
lasted all of two seconds, and the answer came to me at the same time Ethan managed
to get out, “That’s my Uncle Benny.”
Holy shit. I certainly hadn’t seen that one coming,
and I’m fairly confident Ethan hadn’t either.
“The details are in the file, but I was thinking you
might like to get the facts of the case straight from the horse’s mouth, so to
speak. He’s staying at the Hamilton Arms. Under another name, of course.”
I tried not to frown. That hotel had left a bad
taste in my mouth. Not through any fault of the hotel itself, but because it
was there that the actress-who-shall-not-be-named tried to manipulate and put
the moves on my Ethan. Where I was forced to put up with her tomfoolery because
she was supposedly being targeted by someone who wanted to kill her. Of course,
that had turned out to be a huge crock, and the only one I knew of that wanted
to see her dead was me. (In theory, of course, as I would never do anything
like that). I still hoped the witch
would be declared competent enough to leave the fancy clinic she was currently
languishing in and stand trial for the things she’d done. Realistically, I had
my doubts as to whether that would ever happen, though.
I have to credit Ethan with being able to collect
himself and remain calm when I’m sure he had so many questions he wanted to
ask. His voice was steadier now as he asked, “Did you want us to take over tonight?”
to be continued
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