Blindsided
I have just released my first novel. It’s called Blindsided.
It is available at https://books.by/rick-elkin/blindsided as a PrintOnDemand (POD) book. It’s about family secrets,
“For Peter, it was a mystery why his big brother suddenly rejected what appeared to be a privileged and luxurious lifestyle. Sunny weather, financial abundance, and close family relationships wasn't enough to satisfy Don's ambitions?
For Don, there were secrets he almost took to his grave.”
Here is a teaser, just to get your attention:
He finds a very strange looking duffel bag stuffed into a cardboard box in the back corner of his closet. It is almost military looking, with camouflage PVC coated heavy duty canvass material, and enormous, double stitched nylon straps, with super thick zippers and an air valve. It looks as if it is waterproof and airtight…It is crumpled into the bottom of the box, so Jeremiah pulls it out.
There is something weighty in it, so he unzips it. He immediately zips it back up, refolds it and places it in exactly the same place in the box. He quietly and quickly exits Xavier’s room, and moments later Molly walks in with Ericberto’s carnitas burritos for dinner.
He has barely had time to slow his heart rate down, as she unrolls the burritos onto a paper plate.
“Which salsa do you want, red or green?”
“Don’t know if I can even eat right now, Molly…”
“I know it’s kinda late, but (she looks up). You look like you just saw a ghost! Are you ok?”
“No. I am not ok. I am scared shitless!”
“By what?”
“I am not supposed to tell you anything, so please promise me you will keep a secret. It is a life or death situation, so please, can you promise to say nothing to nobody if I share something terrible with you?”
“Now you are scaring me! I promise. But first, do I really need to know? I hate keeping secrets!”
“Me too. But this involves Xavier. What you warned me about may be coming true. So I need to tell you to keep you safe!”
“Oh, shit! What now?”
“I just found a stash of cash in his room. It is bundled cash, like it was stolen from a bank or something. It looked like all big bills. It had to be twenty or thirty thousand dollars, or more!”
Neither one touches their food. Molly pushes her chair back and demands to see it. Jeremiah stops her in her tracks.
“No, honey, you can’t touch it. I didn’t touch it. I put it back as perfectly as possible because Xavier can’t know I found it. We have to decide, do we turn him in? Do we ignore it and let him deal with his demons? Molly, I have more to tell you…”
Molly interrupts him, “Jesus Christ! We’re talkin’ scary shit!”
Jeremiah knows he has reached a point of no return. Once he brings Molly into the circle of intrigue, she becomes a potential witness, or worse, a victim. He is convinced, at this point, that he is dealing with something very serious. How does a maintenance worker making $12 an hour come into possession of machine bundled stacks of 50 and 100 dollar bills? Dozens of them? And what in the hell was Xavier doing driving off with the head of fairgrounds security yesterday afternoon? Something Rafael Alvarez didn’t want to talk about this morning? And what was Angela Del Pilar alluding to when she told Jeremiah about the DEA investigation going on at the racetrack? She said it had to do with money smuggling
…