AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, kid, are you ready to head back to the clubhouse?”
“Yep!” Cameron said, jumping down off his stool that I set up in my lab just for him. Heading out of my laboratory, we both ripped off our clean suits and threw them in the trash. I took every precaution to keep my lab clean and free of anything that could contaminate my mixture of blends.
Hell’s Breath was the moneymaker for the club. The product that kept our club alive and running smoothly. Every year, King tasked me to come up with something new, something better, something different. I enjoyed the challenge. Hell’s Breath wasn’t just a top shelf whiskey, it was one of the best whiskeys on the market, and with King wanting to expand and start distributing worldwide, I needed to step up my game.
Making sure I locked up everything nice and tight, Cameron and I headed for my truck. There were still several inches of snow on the ground from the last snowfall, and while it all looked pretty, I couldn’t wait for spring to arrive. I loved spring. Everything was brand new, from the grass to the flowers, to the leaves on the trees. The sweet scent of new beginnings permeated the air and a soft, warm breeze occasionally blew in from the south. It was magical.
Not that I believed in magic.
I really didn’t believe in a lot of things.
What I believed in was my club brothers and science.
I knew those two things would never let me down.
After making sure the little man was locked up tight in his booster seat, we headed off back to the clubhouse, Cameron talking a mile a minute.
God, I loved this kid.
He was one of my best friends.
Kinda reminded me of myself when I was his age.
So full of energy, always asking questions, and so freaking smart.
Growing up, it was just me, Granny, and my big brother, George, if I counted him too, which I didn’t. We lost both our parents in a freak accident after they gave a lecture at NYU. Our parents were professors at the University of Nebraska. Dad was a professor in archeology who was always looking for some place new to dig. And well, Mom went with him because she firmly believed that if by chance Dad ever found some ancient civilization, he would need her to decipher the dialect. Yeah, my mom was good at languages. One of the leading professors in ancient dialects, to be exact. Because they were the best in their fields, that left little time to raise me or George.
That’s where Granny came in.
A professor in her own right, my gran was whip smart with a wicked tongue. I loved spending time with my gran. My brother, not so much. But what I loved the most was that Gran allowed me to be whatever I wanted. During my life, I’ve been a forest ranger, hell bent on saving all the animals. A swash-buckling pirate, looting the savage seas. A police officer, determined to protect everyone. I was even a circus clown once, wanting to make people laugh.
Yeah, I wasn’t a clown for long.
Didn’t understand any of the jokes.
Anyway, living with Gran was an adventure.
When our parents died, Gran simply told me and my brother that we were going to live with her forever. She didn’t mince words and firmly believed that the truth was best, no matter how hard it was to hear.
George stayed long enough to graduate from high school before he took off for Georgetown University. I always thought it odd he chose a school that had the same name as him. Maybe he didn’t want to forget? Who knows? George never liked Nebraska. The second he was able, he left and never returned. Last I heard, he was some fancy doctor in south Florida sewing new boobs onto women.
As for me, well, I went a different route and joined the Army.
Boy was Gran hopping mad when I told her I was enlisting as an officer in the Army after I graduated college. She refused to listen to me or speak to me. It was the only time we ever argued. The stubborn woman refused to talk to me the entire time I served. Even when I left for my first deployment, she just huffed and hung up the damn phone.
Not one damn email or letter.
Gran didn’t understand why someone smart like me would risk everything I worked so hard to obtain. I tried to tell her all I wanted to do was see the world and maybe make a few friends, but she didn’t understand.
I didn’t have a lot of those growing up.
Friends, that is.
Well, I had Barks, my dog, but he really didn’t do anything but bark at the wind. Whoever said labrador retrievers were smart had never met Barks. That damn dog would chase his tail until he passed out, dizzy from exhaustion. Then one day, Barks was chasing some leaf blowing in the wind and I never saw him again.
Sometimes when I think about him, I like to think he finally found that leaf and is happy wherever he’s at.
“Frank?”
