Jillian Chantal

This week’s word for the group of authors from Tuesday Tales is cozy. It’s kind of hard to use such a word in this human trafficking novel I’m writing but I did it. It amused me to try to figure a way to work it in. Hope you like what I did.

Check out the other tales here.

Ben looked at me. “How do you want to play this?”
“It seems deserted, but we can’t be sure. Since we can’t take Bozo back there with us as he’d be a distraction, I propose you stay here with him and keep an eye out. I’ll sneak around back and see if I can scope it out. If it’s safe, I’ll radio you.”
“I’ll send Dawn our GPS coordinates and have her come along with some of our people for backup. Don’t go in until they arrive. Even if it looks clear. Someone could be hiding out ready to blow your head off.”
I wasn’t making any promises, but I knew I’d be careful. I was kind of attached to my head. It was cozy and snug right where it was. On my neck, between my shoulders. And there it would stay if I had anything to say about it.
“Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing, Kev.”
“What?” Even to me, my voice sounded falsely sincere.
“You didn’t respond to my order not to go in.” He stared into my eyes with a hard look. “It is an order, by the way, but I see where your heart is. Just try to stay alive, man.”
With that tacit approval, I opened the door of the SUV and stepped out on the cracked and pot-holed parking lot. The thing was a danger in and of itself. I bet it hadn’t been maintained in forty years. Loose pieces of broken tarmac were scattered around.
Hoping I wouldn’t trip in one of the crater-sized holes and break my ankle, I moved as swiftly as I could to the side of the building closest to the edge of the woods. It seemed a safer place to start as there would be no traffic coming from that direction. Not that we’d seen any coming from the other way either. It was strangely still and silent. Almost as if the whole place held its breath.