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Stories by: jeff_bond
8 stories![The Pinebox Vendetta [SAMPLE]](https://img.wattpad.com/cover/215033879.jpg "The Pinebox Vendetta [SAMPLE]")
The Pinebox Vendetta [SAMPLE]
The Gallaghers and Pruitts have dominated the American political landscape dating back to Revolutionary times. The Yale University class of 1996 had one of each, and as the twenty-year reunion approaches, the families are on a collision course.Owen Gallagher is coasting to the Democratic nomination for president.Rock Pruitt - the brash maverick whose career was derailed two decades ago by his association to a tragic death - is back, ready to reclaim the mantle of clan leader.And fatefully in between lies Samantha Lessing. Sam arrives at reunion weekend lugging a rotten marriage, dumb hope, and a portable audio recorder she'll use for a public radio-style documentary on the Pruitt-Gallagher rivalry - widely known as the pinebox vendetta. What Sam uncovers will thrust her into the middle of the ancient feud, upending presidential politics and changing the trajectory of one clan forever.The Pinebox Vendetta is the first entry in the Pruitt-Gallagher saga: a series that promises cutthroat plots, power grabs, and unforgettable characters stretched to their very limits by the same ideological forces that roil America today.
Pretty Good, Too
[A LookingForAlaska contest entry] Leah Coates coaches softball at Franklin Community College, but dreams of becoming a detective - and helping stop crimes like the one she endured as a child. Can she overcome her devotion to the players and the uncertainty of a new, possibly dangerous path?Welcome to Franklin, a city in full. Grace and pettiness, ambition, despair. Threats. Hunger. Heroism. Six sorts of love. More children every day. The NFL's Franklin Federals - Go Feds! The roaring Shawnee, which never floods Franklin Heights but routinely devastates the Falls side.You've passed through before, reader. Now come a bit farther off the interstate.
Franklin Vignettes
Snippets of daily life in the fictional city of Franklin, told in flash fiction-length vignettes.Welcome to Franklin, a city in full. Grace and pettiness, ambition, despair. Threats. Hunger. Heroism. Six sorts of love. More children every day. The NFL's Franklin Federals - Go Feds! The roaring Shawnee, which never floods Franklin Heights but routinely devastates the Falls side.You've passed through before, reader. Now come a bit farther off the interstate.
Dear Durwood
The town of Chickasaw, Texas, needs saving, and Durwood Oak Jones is the man for the job.At least that's what Carol Bridges-the town's mayor-believes when she answers Durwood's Soldier of Fortune ad soliciting "injustices in need of attention."For nearly a century, Chickasaw has relied on the jobs and goodwill of Hogan Consolidated, a family-run manufacturer of industrial parts. Now East Coast lawyers and investment bankers have taken aim at the company. The citizens of Chickasaw fear it may be acquired or bankrupted, effectively destroying the town.Durwood and his bluetick coonhound, Sue-Ann, trek to Texas to see what can be done. They find a young CEO born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Factory workers with hammers. In Carol Bridges-a good woman who knows her town's being cheated but can't get to the bottom of how.A handsome woman, too.Durwood digs into Hogan's corruption with fists and a plainspoken approach. But the trail of clues is complex-too many danged documents-and when a fatal blow from the renowned justice warrior's boot lands him in jail, the bankers and lawyers are confident they have Durwood's number.They will not be the first, nor last, to underestimate this son of a West Virginia coal miner.---------------Durwood Oak Jones can be found in other Third Chance Adventures (Anarchy of the Mice, 2019) with partners Quaid Rafferty and Molly McGill. Dear Durwood is his first standalone mystery.
The Cleaner
Bonnie Pearson has toted her stainless-steel vacuum all over Franklin, from the Falls side's modest bungalows to the mansions of Franklin Heights. She's seen good and bad in the city -- though makes no special claim on telling one from the other. She believes in leaving people to their business.The Glassers are a fun-loving bunch from the Heights, whose carefree lives bear little resemblance to Bonnie's own. When the family's unruly children hatch a plan to sabotage their parents' venture, she faces a decision: use her special access to the household to stop it, or let the Glassers' laissez-faire parenting style run its course?The Cleaner is the first entry in the Franklin saga.---------------Welcome to Franklin: a city in full. Grace and pettiness, ambition, despair. Threats. Hunger. Heroism. Six sorts of love. More children every day. The NFL's Franklin Federals -- Go Feds! The roaring Shawnee, which never floods Franklin Heights but routinely devastates the Falls side.You've passed through before, reader. Now come a bit farther off the interstate.
Blackquest 40
** WATTYS 2018 WINNER **Big Tech meets Die Hard in this techno-thriller Kirkus Reviews calls "a clever, spirited tale with a brainy, nimble heroine at the helm."From IndieReader's 5-star (highest rating) review: "Bond weaves an entertaining tale filled with deceit, robots, Russians, and tech entrepreneurs that all combine to give the reader a reason to flip pages furiously to find out what might happen next."Deb Bollinger has no time for corporate training.Her company's top engineer at just twenty-seven, Deb has blocked off her day for the one project she truly cares about: the launch of Carebnb, an app that finds spare beds for the homeless. When she's told all employees must drop everything for some busywork exercise called Blackquest 40, it's an easy no.Trouble is, her bosses aren't really asking. Blackquest 40 is the mother of all corporate trainings. A near-impossible project to be completed in forty straight hours. No phones. No internet. Sleeping on cots. Nobody in, nobody out. Deb finds the whole setup creepy and authoritarian. When a Carebnb issue necessitates her leaving the office, she heads for the door.What's the worst that could happen?Armed commandos, HVAC-duct chases, a catastrophic master plan that gets darker by the hour - Blackquest 40 is a fresh take on the Die Hard formula, layering smart-drones and a modern heroine onto the classic action tale.Cover design and illustration by Ethan Scott.
Anarchy of the Mice
"Nibble, nibble. Until the whole sick scam rots through."When anarchist-hackers the Blind Mice begin crippling the country's worst corporations -- the "Despicable Dozen" -- with web and software attacks, the public yawns. When they blip the power grid and penetrate municipal databases? Annoying but hardly a crisis.What about murdered executives?And what if the data disappeared for stock and account balances, property lines, personal ID records ... and never came back?----Molly McGill is fighting it. Her teenage son has come downstairs in a T-shirt from these "hacktivists" dominating the news. Her daughter's bus is canceled -- too many stoplights out -- and school is in the opposite direction of the temp job she's supposed to be starting this morning. She is divorced; her P.I. business went belly-up; seriously, what kind of life is this for a woman a mere twelve credit-hours shy of her PhD?Then the doorbell rings.It's Quaid Rafferty, the disgraced (but handsome) ex-governor of Massachusetts, and his partner Durwood Oak Jones, the preeminent small-force private-arms contractors in the Western world. The guys have an assignment for Molly. It's risky, but the pay sure beats switchboard work.They need her to infiltrate the Blind Mice.Danger, intrigue, action for miles and even a whiff of romance. Whatever you read, Anarchy of the Mice is coming for you.cover by Ethan Scott
![The Winner Maker [SAMPLE]](https://img.wattpad.com/cover/152292138.jpg "The Winner Maker [SAMPLE]")
The Winner Maker [SAMPLE]
"Thrilling...an exhilarating and emotionally astute mystery." - Kirkus Reviews"Chilling moments, well-drawn action, believable motivation, expert pacing roll into a solid, fast-paced thriller." - IndieReaderBob Fiske - the seventy-four-year-old dinosaur who's taught Honors English and coached varsity football for five decades - is missing.To his Winners, class favorites Fiske designated over the years for their potential to "Live Big," it's heartbreaking. Fiske did more than inspire with soaring oratory; he supported their ambitions into adulthood. Four of his brightest former stars reunite to find him, putting high-octane careers on hold, slipping police barricades, racing into the wilds of Northern Michigan for clues about the fate of their legendary mentor.Others don't see a legend. They see an elitist whose time has passed.When a current student - female - disappears just hours into the Winners' search amid rumors of inappropriate meetings, the Great Man's reputation is in shambles.Feints, betrayal, explosive secrets from their own pasts: as facts emerge, each Winner must decide how far they'll go for Fiske. Can the truth redeem him? Or has this cult of hyper-achievement spawned a thing so vile none of their lives will survive intact?