Fair Trade Read online

I need a lot of things right now. But just like every last one of them, I’m not sure my body can even handle the thought of eating at the moment.

  “Jeff and Emily take off?” I whisper.

  “Yeah,” Ross replies. “They were both going to call in today, but I told them to go on. There’s nothing more they can do here.”

  Again, he is right. There is nothing anybody can do here. In a couple of hours, the fire department will determine that there is no risk of reignition and the police will string crime scene tape across the front. Tomorrow, or the next day, an arson investigator will come out and take a look.

  Not that I need to wait that long to know what happened here.

  “Sonsabitches,” I mutter.

  Beside me, Ross grunts slightly. “Wolves?”

  Just hearing the name draws my hand up into a fist. My jaw clenches as I stare straight ahead, the burning in my eyes becoming more pronounced.

  “Who else?” I whisper.

  This time he doesn’t bother to respond. There is no need to. We both know who is behind this, the bigger question being the one I’ve spent much of the last week trying to determine.

  Why? Why had one of their members killed my wife in cold blood? Why were they targeting Fran Ogo and her granddaughter Valerie? Why did they search my house six days ago only to come back and burn the place to the ground now?

  Why?

  The smell of wood char hangs heavy in the air, overpowering even the breakfast in my hand. I haven’t caught a glimpse of myself in hours, though I can only imagine how I must appear, with ash and soot staining my cheeks, rivulets streaming vertically through it, revealing where my tears have fallen.

  Almost certainly my eyes and nostrils are both red-rimmed, all stinging in the aftermath of the fire.

  At this point, I am well past caring.

  “What are you thinking?” he asks.

  He doesn’t expound further, though I know exactly what he is trying to say. He wants to know the plan I’m putting together, wants to make sure I’m not about to do something incredibly stupid.

  What he can’t possibly understand is, I haven’t even made it that far yet, my focus still on the remains of my home before us.

  “I have to go in this morning,” I reply. “Another one of those damn sessions with the doc.”

  Pausing, I smirk slightly, the fact that every last thing I have to wear just burned up occurring to me. “Think she’ll write me up for appearing out of uniform?”

  Find out more information about Ships Passing, My Mira Book 4, and keep reading December 2019: dustinstevens.com/SPwb

  Thank You

  Aloha again!

  If you’re reading this, that likely means you read the first two installments of the My Mira saga and found it worthy of continuing. Thank you. I truly do appreciate it.

  By now, I’m sure you know kind of what I’m going for with this story, and that you’re finding it enjoyable. As I mentioned in the past, this was based off of really immersing myself in a Netflix saga this past winter, and wanting to put together something almost episodic nature. A form that was apart from other series I work on, where we get glimpses of a character and how they change over time, but only in spurts spread over a number of years.

  With this particular work, I wanted to put together a full story, with a main character whose motivations and traits are fully fleshed, but also with a host of other storylines that contribute just as richly.

  Hopefully, that is beginning to materialize here.

  As I do each time (in a move I realize is a bit unorthodox), if you would be so kind, I would greatly appreciate any thoughts you might have on this. Reviews really do drive the entire indie publishing system, beginning with Amazon and filtering out onto other platforms.

  Perhaps even more importantly, I find the insight and ideas contained there invaluable. As I always say, I might be one of the few that truly reads every review, a practice I promise to continue moving forward.

  If you’re not as comfortable posting publicly, feel free to also contact me directly at [email protected].

  Until next time…happy trails,

  Dustin, writing as T.R. Kohler

  Free Book

  As thank you for reading, please enjoy a FREE copy of my first bestseller – and still one of my personal favorites – 21 Hours!

  Bookshelf

  Works Written by Dustin Stevens:

  Reed & Billie Novels:

  The Boat Man

  The Good Son

  The Kid

  The Partnership

  Justice

  The Scorekeeper

  The Bear

  Hawk Tate Novels:

  Cold Fire

  Cover Fire

  Fire and Ice

  Hellfire

  Home Fire

  Wild Fire

  Zoo Crew Novels:

  The Zoo Crew

  Dead Peasants

  Tracer

  The Glue Guy

  Moonblink

  The Shuffle

  (Coming 2020)

  Ham Novels:

  HAM

  EVEN

  My Mira Saga

  Spare Change

  Office Visit

  Fair Trade

  Ships Passing

  (Coming Soon)

  Warning Shot

  (Coming Soon)

  Standalone Thrillers:

  Four

  Ohana

  Liberation Day

  Twelve

  21 Hours

  Catastrophic

  Scars and Stars

  Motive

  Going Viral

  The Debt

  One Last Day

  The Subway

  The Exchange

  Standalone Dramas:

  Just A Game

  Be My Eyes

  Quarterback

  Children’s Books w/ Maddie Stevens:

  Danny the Daydreamer…Goes to the Grammy’s

  Danny the Daydreamer…Visits the Old West

  Danny the Daydreamer…Goes to the Moon

  (Coming Soon)

  Works Written by T.R. Kohler:

  Shoot to Wound

  Peeping Thoms

  The Ring

  The Hunter

  About the Author

  Dustin Stevens is the author of more than 40 novels, the vast majority having become #1 Amazon bestsellers, including the Reed & Billie and Hawk Tate series. The Boat Man, the first release in the best-selling Reed & Billie series, was named the 2016 Indie Award winner for E-Book fiction. The freestanding work The Debt was named an Independent Author Network action/adventure novel of the year for 2017 and The Exchange was dubbed a fiction novel of the year for 2018.

  He also writes thrillers and assorted other stories under the pseudonym T.R. Kohler, including The Hunter, The Ring, Shoot to Wound, and Peeping Thoms.

  A member of the Mystery Writers of America and Thriller Writers International, he resides in Honolulu, Hawaii.

  Let’s Keep in Touch:

  Website: dustinstevens.com

  Facebook: dustinstevens.com/fcbk

  Twitter: dustinstevens.com/tw

  Instagram: dustinstevens.com/DSinsta