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    Highway Shoes
    Highway Shoes
    Highway Shoes
    Ebook77 pages1 hour

    Highway Shoes

    By Leigh Barker

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Highway Shoes
    5 Bitesize Read Short Stories
    Romance, heroism, wonderlust, lost love - 5 stories of roads less traveled.
    ...Route 50
    ...Ventura Highway
    ...Country Roads
    ...Lincoln Highway
    ...Daylight Pass

    Route 50
    Johnny Diamond was a poker player, one of the best, but now he's walking back to his car in Las Vegas. His life is over. So he gets in his classic ’95 Eldorado and heads north to join Route 50, the loneliest highway in America. But he is about to take the biggest gamble of his life.

    Ventura Highway
    Christina should have been happy, she is 17, beautiful and in LA. But her life is tortured by violence from which there is no hope of rescue. Until she hitches a lift on Ventura Highway to the world of make-believe and dreams.

    Country Roads
    Ryan Roe runs moonshine for a living in the mountains of Kentucky. Fate had given him the love of the sheriff’s daughter. Her father swears he'll put the boy away and give his girl a new life. The Wild Kid is about to risk everything to save the man who would see him behind bars.

    Lincoln Highway
    Ronan McCarthy wants nothing more than a day’s work for food and a clean shirt, then to get back on the highway to places he’s never been. He doesn't know he's about to meet Alex, the most stunning woman he has ever met. So now, as on the highway, he is at a crossroads and his decision will shape the rest of his life.

    Daylight Pass
    Marine Corpsman Jimmy Levine is driving across Death Valley to get away from the demons that haunted him. Once again he is called on to save another’s life. But unlike the men who bled in his arms on the battlefield, this young woman will save him right back.

    Bonus: pick up your copy of: Heroes Library for free The first Episode of all 8 rip-roaring adventure series. Complete stories in Bitesize Reads. Get your copy at: LeighWBarker.com

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLeigh Barker
    Release dateMar 6, 2019
    ISBN9780463862865
    Highway Shoes
    Author

    Leigh Barker

    Leigh was born in Dudley in the middle of England. He has been a merchant seaman, a (useless) electronics salesman, a programmer, and a business analyst. And now he is a full-time writer, but that doesn't make him a bad person.He is presently writing 4 series:Clan, following the adventures of Calum Maclean as he tries to avoid the Bonnie Prince but still protect his beloved Highlands.The Hellfire Legacy Series follows US Marine Master Sergeant Ethan Gill and his team as they take on the jobs too hot for other special forces. They go where they're sent; South America, Middle East, Korea, but their most dangerous missions are on US soil.Volume #1: A Whisper of ArmageddonVolume #2: The Hellfire LegacyVolume #3: The Orpheus DirectiveEden, a three-volume series -Trinity is at war with Lucid, the son of Lucifer, and he will do whatever it takes to win. The Archangel Gabriel has an army but he needs more. He needs heroes, but they are few and far between. Which is why he gets Dylan and co. Not too much luck in Heaven then.Volume #1: Eden's Last HeroVolume #2: WinterwoodVolume #3: Requiem for Eden.Soldiers is set in 1914 and follows John Regret and his 12-man squad on their suicidal mission to find and destroy the German howitzer nicknamed Big Bertha. Find it before it drops it's thousand-pound shells on the allied army retreating across France. A seemingly hopeless mission that just cannot fail.Other occasional series include:Anarchy, the 'completely true' stories of men doing what men do when there's nobody to keep them in check. Create mayhem and behave like monkeys on speed.Coffee Break Reads - each issue has 5 stories short enough to read while taking a break from life. A mix of adventure, love, disaster, and fun. All with one thing in common; for a moment they transport the reader to another world.Episode 1 of each Season is free and can be picked up with other free books at:https://leighwbarker.com/my-library/Just copy the link above and paste it into your browser and you're there...

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      Book preview

      Highway Shoes - Leigh Barker

      COFFEE BREAKS

      VOLUME 3

      HIGHWAY SHOES

      LEIGH BARKER

      Copyright 2022 Leigh Barker. Published by Leigh Barker at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with others, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      ISBN: 9780463862865

      Stories:

      Route 50

      Ventura Highway

      Country Roads

      Lincoln Highway

      Daylight Pass

      Route 50

      Vegas purred like a huge contented beast, a sigh of expectation and awe from some of the forty million people who walk in wonder and hope in the city of joy and broken hearts.

      Johnny Seymour liked to be known as Johnny Diamond, and that was okay because nobody knew him, so it never got tested. Nobody walks in LA, but in Vegas everybody walks sooner or later. That or sit in the traffic and watch the taillights of the guy in front watching the taillights of the guy in front of him. Johnny Diamond was walking. He’d have sooner been in a taxi, but that cost money, and that was something he didn’t have, not anymore. Sure, he’d had plenty when he arrived just yesterday, but a day, a night, in Vegas can take a man from the bottom to the top. Or back the other way. And Johnny was walking.

      He still had his car, and man, he loved that car. A ’95 Eldorado convertible, red as a hooker’s shoes, white leather seats and whitewall tires and slightly less miles on its clock than Apollo 13. Man, those were wheels to die for. He wished now he hadn’t left it in the parking lot across town, but how was he to know the casino was going to rip him off?

      He stopped walking and looked back along the long straight road at the casino glinting in the morning sun, and swore quietly. He’d been holding aces over kings. His winnings at three o’clock in the morning stood at a hundred grand and change. And he’d bet the bundle to scoop the pot. And hell, why not? It was a hand to cheer about.

      Except the dealer put down a queen, followed by three others. And took his chips. All of them. Jesus, he was glad he hadn’t tossed in his car keys as well. He’d thought about it.

      There’d been near three-quarters of a mil on the table, and his full house should’ve taken it. He could’ve gone back home a rich man. Married his high school sweetheart, Shirley something. Kids maybe, and a house with a white fence. Nothing to do but play golf and watch the world roll by. If only.

      Every time it looked like this time he was up, something came along and pulled the rug out from under him. Every fuckin’ time. He’d never cheated in any game in his whole life, but there was always some sharp looking to stiff him, and this time it was the house. He should’ve called the man. Should’ve bounced his head off the table a few times. Called the cops. Got the fuckin’ place raided and closed down. The dealer had an earpiece so the suits up in the roof could tell him to shut this guy down. Take his money. Kick him to the sidewalk. If the big guys hadn’t stepped up behind the card sharp, he’d have cracked his teeth. Seven-fifty thou. He shook his head.

      Hey! Watch where you’re going.

      He looked up to see a tourist in gardenia shorts stretched across his fat gut trying to swerve out of his way.

      Sidewalk not big enough for you? The fat guy shoved something in a bun into his mouth and waddled away.

      Your ass is taking up most of it, Johnny said, and forgot about it.

      Fuck you.

      That’s the only fuck you’d ever get. Lard-ass.

      Fat guy comes back or shoots off his mouth, he was going to—let it go, man, he wasn’t the dealer.

      The Caddy was right where he’d left it, in the partial shade of a big old palm tree, shiny and red and welcoming. An old friend. And god knew he had few enough of those.

      He touched the Caddy’s door and pulled his hand away quickly while it still had skin. Leather was going to cook his skinny ass. He leaned in and opened the door from the inside, reached behind the seat and pulled out a couple of beaded seat covers, the sort old folks use, but if he was going to drive anywhere soon, this was how he’d have to do it.

      He slid in behind the wheel and moved his thigh onto the beads, his chinos leg already wet in two seconds. He adjusted the rear-view, even though nobody except him had driven it. The radio was still tuned to blues he’d been listening to driving in yesterday. Jesus, had it only been yesterday? He turned it off. Depressing songs about guys losing everything.

      He put his fingers on the ignition and stopped. Yeah, right. Where you going, man? Annoyed at himself, he fired up the engine and checked the fuel gauge. Well, at least something was on his side. Near full, good for around four hundred

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