I WAS A LONELY MILLIONAIRE UNTIL A LITTLE GIRL HANDED ME HER DEAD FATHER’S BROKEN RABBIT—THEN HER MOTHER ASKED FOR SOMETHING MONEY COULDN’T BUY

A bottle exploded against the pine wall hard enough to make the cheap mirror behind the bar tremble in its frame. Glass sprayed across the…

The wrench hit the concrete hard enough to ring through the whole shop like a gunshot. A boot sent it skidding under a workbench. A…

The asphalt was hot enough to cook on that afternoon. Heat shimmered above the road in warped silver waves. The dust in Oildale hung in…

By the time James Callaway noticed the little girl on the curb, the afternoon had already been cruel for hours. The heat over Bakersfield rose…

The first thing Arthur Collins noticed was the silence. Not the usual silence of an empty room or a sleeping house. This was the kind…

By the time the light turned green, Jack already knew that if he drove away, he would hear that girl’s face in his sleep for…