#smith baker

Straight from the Heart

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White.  Ceiling.  Hospital.  Fuck.  I tried to sit up, and the pain was like another bullet in my gut.  My chest burned incessantly, from my collar down to my navel.  My arm was in a sling, but I couldn’t even feel it, just an arm-shaped field of agony.  The rest of me was hidden under a blanket and a hospital gown.  I pawed around with my spare hand until I found a…

Ablaze

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I was getting sick of the body armor; it reminded me too much of Navy fatigues, though it also gave me the same sense of power.  I felt even more powerful surrounded by big guys I knew, dressed just like me, ready to kick ass together.  One last time, I told myself.  And I hoped it would be true.

Garrison’s roads were nicer than the ones in Ingram, but I could hardly appreciate them. …

I Want to Hold Your Hand

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Dick’s new hideout was below an apartment building, less of a basement and more of a bunker.  As I climbed out of my car, I slipped into my suit jacket and marched up to the shabby brick building ahead.  This had been a nice place once before drug dealers flocked to the projects nearby.  The dealers were gone now, but Ingram’s citizens hadn’t gotten the message, and now…

Tender Loving Care

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Something was beeping.  For a moment I’d thought someone was torturing a squirrel next to my ear, but I figured it was probably beeping.  I opened my eyes and immediately closed them.  Sun.  Or something else too bright.  No, it was a ceiling, glaring down at me like I’d done something wrong.

Maybe I had.  There was this pain in my middle, around level with my spleen.  I…