Read Deadly Chaos for Free Online Page A

I’m so sorry.” Chaos turned and practically ran for the back door. She caught the stares of others from the corner of her eyes. She couldn’t blame them for staring. Pushing through the door she ran across the parking lot. She heard the screech of brakes and turned to see headlights bearing down on her. The car swerved to avoid hitting her and smashed into a parked car. More damage. More trouble caused by her. “I’m sorry!” she yelled. She didn’t stop. Chaos jumped into her Jeep, started it up and headed west toward the mountains and the back roads. She was too messed up to drive, she knew that. She just needed to get far enough away from the bar that she could park the car on the side of the road and sleep it off.
    One mile away, on a dirt road, Chaos pulled over. Confident she could get out in the morning, she maneuvered the Jeep into a ditch far off the road and hopefully out of sight of anyone that might drive by. She snagged an old orange and blue Mexican blanket from the back and leaned the front seat back as far as it could go. Closing her eyes, Chaos listened to the sound of the crickets and the whirring of the highway a few miles away. Why did everything always go wrong? Why couldn’t she live a normal life with friends, boyfriends? She couldn’t even keep a damn dog alive for more than a few days. Everything she cared about died. She didn’t cry. The tears had dried up years ago. This was her life. She glanced out the window. The full harvest moon smiled down on her. “At least I have you.” Cracking the window, Chaos let the continuous sounds of the frogs and the crickets lull her to sleep.
    Several hours later, the sound of a passing car woke her up. Chaos rubbed her face to rouse herself from sleep. She fished the keys out from under the front seat and slipped them into the ignition. She turned it just far enough that the auxiliary power came on. Two a.m. She got out of the car and walked around it a few times to check her awareness. She felt fine. She stopped and took a deep cleansing breath. She felt clear and safe. “Time to go home,” she mumbled, not really sure if she was ready to face the memories.
    Chaos stepped onto her front porch and stopped. It was covered with smashed pumpkins. The bale of hay they’d been perched on was decimated. “Damn kids,” she groaned. It was the week before Halloween. Children were out causing trouble and wreaking havoc. Avoiding the pumpkin bits, Chaos opened her front door and stepped inside. The house was eerily quiet but after tonight she’d have to find a way to manage her discomfort. Clearly going out with friends and coworkers wasn’t going to happen again anytime soon. It had been a bad, desperate idea.
    Locking the front door behind her, Chaos made her way into the dining room. She dropped her keys on the table and looked around. Her home felt foreign, as if it no longer belonged to her. She’d bought this home on her own and was proud of it. Sitting on three acres and backing up to the National Park, it was her sanctuary. She could sit on her back porch and stare for hours at the rolling hills covered with sage, statuesque Aspens, and spruce.
    Mid-summer and the field behind her house was covered with a rainbow of color. Flowers, thistles, bee plants and even a few rare flowers like the Holy Ghost could be spotted during her hikes. Late fall and the area around her home was dry and dead. Shades of brown no longer welcomed her. Looking out her window at the hillside left her feeling empty. Maybe it was time to get out of town for a while. The business would be dormant for at least three months, until March. She could go skiing in Colorado or maybe head south to the Baja coastline and enjoy some sun and surf.
    Making her way to her bedroom, Chaos toed off her work boots, stripped her jeans and sweater off and tossed them into her hamper. She needed to make amends to Jones. He was a bit of a jerk but he didn’t deserve to be punched in the