Just Another Outlaw

by Nick Kolakowski

About the Author: Nick Kolakowski is the author of "Boise Longpig Hunting Club," "Love & Bullets," and other grim delights of horror and crime fiction. He also co-edited the Anthony-nominated anthology "Lockdown" with Steve Weddle.

Excerpt

Kevin Turner pulled into the muddy driveway of his cousin Bobby’s rural compound at eleven fifty on Monday night. He knew Bobby only stayed there on weekends, which meant five days to figure out his next steps. If the police discovered his identity and tracked him down, they would probably kill him, but not before they made him give up the fifty million dollars in diamonds he’d stolen from a secret vault in New York City.

And if the owners of that secret vault tracked him down … well, he’d be lucky if they just killed him.

The diamonds sat in a duffel bag in the cargo area of his stolen SUV, along with an industrial drill and his other vault-busting tools. The gear weighed enough to make the vehicle’s engine whine as he pushed it up the hill to Bobby’s property, which consisted of a farmhouse, a converted barn, a guest house, and a pool lined along the ridge, all of it screened from the road below by a row of trees. Kevin and Bobby didn’t share a last name, and they’d never connected on social media; it would take any pursuers a little time to figure out the relationship, if they ever did.

Kevin steered the SUV off the driveway onto the wet grass, parking behind the barn. He shut off the engine and clenched his hands on the steering wheel and took a deep breath and wondered if he could survive this getaway. What choice did he have? His daughter needed the operation. His ex-wife needed the mortgage payments. And he needed to balance out his karma a little.

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