Until Death (A Kindle Short Short): A Hardboiled Noir Thriller Short Read online

  Until Death

  A Short Story

  Dan Ames

  Contents

  Copyright

  Foreword

  UNTIL DEATH

  Also by Dan Ames

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2014 by Dan Ames

  UNTIL DEATH is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

  Created with Vellum

  Foreword

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  UNTIL DEATH

  Vincent Caradonna took a deep breath. It was the last wedding of the night at Crossroads Wedding Chapel and he wanted to make this one extra special.

  Vincent looked at the bride from Wisconsin. The man was 6’6” in his heels with the satin uppers. Vincent guessed he weighed in at around three hundred pounds.

  But the man’s gown was a knockout. Probably a Vera Wang knockoff, Vincent guessed. It was gorgeous raw silk, flowing like a favorite love song. The lace tooling was exquisite with the kind of detail and craftsmanship that had to come from a pair of very caring hands. Vincent wondered if the dress had been the man’s mother’s.

  Vincent watched as the groom reached over and took his partner’s hand. The groom was slender and Hispanic, with fine features and a pencil thin mustache. The love in his eyes was unmistakable. Vincent could always tell the real deal; the couples that were truly in love, versus the ones who had just met and were three sheets to the wind and whose marriage would dissolve in a glass of warm tap water mixed with Tylenol the very next morning.

  The couple stood with their eyes locked on Vincent. Vincent beamed at them in return. Yes, he was a fringe player in the Las Vegas mafia family that bore his surname. And yes, he had been assigned managing director of Crossroads because it was a cash cow and provided the occasional laundering opportunities for his employer’s use, but he had also been given the position because he was the right man for the job.

  He loved weddings and he always had.

  Now, he looked at the faces of these two, and he didn’t see a couple as queer as a vegan cattle rancher. He saw two people seeking the peace and unconditional love that could only be found at Crossroads Wedding Chapel.

  “And do you, Hector,” said Vincent. “Take Doug to be your wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do you part?”

  The couple turned to each other when the two oak doors of the chapel were thrown open. Vincent watched, stunned, as two figures in masks, each carrying a pump shotgun, burst into the chapel.

  Vincent instantly realized two things.

  One, everyone knew Crossroads was under the direct protection of the Caradonna family. So these two were either out-of-towners or had their heads so far up their asses they might as well have been.

  Two, Vincent realized that the masks and the shotguns could mean no witnesses planned to be left behind.

  “Please,” Vincent said, his voice surprisingly calm and still in the tone of a polished wedding priest. “You don’t know what you’re doing.” He was sure he could talk some sense into these severely misguided gunmen. They were, after all, about to make the worst, and last, mistake of their lives.

  The first gunman was across the chapel instantly, and had the muzzle of the shotgun in Vincent’s face.

  “Actually, we do,” he said. “We’re taking your cash and if you get in our way, we’ll kill you.”

  The gunman looked at the big man in the gown.

  “Fuck,” he said.

  Hector stepped protectively in front of his bride.

  “So you know you’re stealing from Salvatore Caradonna,” Vincent said, as he watched the second gunman go into the office and quickly locate the cash box and tuck it under his arm.

  “Sal who?” the first gunman said.

  “No witnesses,” the second man said.

  The first man raised the muzzle but before he could pull the trigger, the bride-to-be slid a .45 from beneath the embroidered taffeta veil and shot the thief in the face.

  Halfway across the chapel, the cash box hit the floor. The second thief jacked a shell but another .45 from the bride’s gun blew off the top of his head.

  Vincent’s ears rang. His quiet and serene chapel now reeked of gunsmoke and death.

  “I’m a cop,” the bride said to Vincent. “In Milwaukee.” He spread his hands wide as if he were sorry for the explanation. The silk moved with his beefy arms and made him look like an angel to Vincent.

  “I know,” Vincent said. “I saw your badge when I was arranging your flowers.”

  “Uh, I hope your boss knows how to dispose of things like these,” the bride said, and waved a meaty paw toward the two dead and bleeding bodies.

  “Yeah,” the groom said. “You kind of promised a quiet, private ceremony. Classy, you know.”

  Vincent surveyed the room. He was still shaking. He had almost died for Christ’s sake. This man had saved his life. Vincent felt a surge of love and admiration and respect.

  Vincent nodded.

  He looked at the bride, the way the silk cascaded over his beer belly, the way the pink and yellow piping seemed to float over his steel-toed Doc Martens.

  “You are proof,” Vincent said to the man. “Nothing is more beautiful than a bride on her wedding day.”

  THE END

  Also by Dan Ames

  Dead Wood (A John Rockne Mystery)

  Hard Rock (John Rockne Mystery #2)

  Cold Jade (John Rockne Mystery #3)

  The Killing League (A Wallace Mack Thriller)

  The Murder Store (Wallace Mack Thriller #2)

  Death by Sarcasm (A Mary Cooper Mystery)

  Murder with Sarcastic Intent (Mary Cooper Mystery #2)

  Gross Sarcastic Homicide (Mary Cooper Mystery #3)

  The Circuit Rider

  Killer’s Draw

  Killing the Rat

  To Find a Mountain

  Choke

  Beer Money

  Dr. Slick

  Head Shot

  Afterword

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  About the Author

  Dan Ames is a national and international bestselling author. His mysteries, thrillers and Westerns have sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and he won the Independent Book Award for Crime Fiction.

  @AuthorDanAmes

  AuthorDanAmes

  www.authordanames.com

  [email protected]

 

 

  Dan Ames, Until Death (A Kindle Short Short): A Hardboiled Noir Thriller Short

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