The Final Score

This collection comprises six short novels united by themes of loyalty, consequence, and the choices people make when cornered.

In "The Final Score," John Highland, a career heist man approaching 60, faces a life sentence under the three-strikes law. Out on bond, he tells his longtime partner Jamal Mobley he needs one final score to secure the future of his wife, Jewel, and go out on top. His target is the Castle, a fortified casino on a Native American reservation that launders Mexican cartel cash; because the money is illegal, no one will report its theft. Highland's inside source is Summer Redbird, the casino's executive manager, who resents her corrupt boss Gordon Matthews. The crew includes stunt performer Isa Almazan; Colt Mays, the son of an imprisoned friend; helicopter pilot Harley "Extraction" Jackson; and tech specialist Ash Patel, who hacks the cartel's tracking system and defeats the corridor's retinal scanner with a photograph of Matthews's eyes that Summer obtains. Drawing on World War II U-boat tactics, Highland plans to intercept the cash in a back corridor before it reaches the vault. The haul turns out to be $10 million, twice what they expected. Highland anticipates Colt's secret plan to ambush the crew at the remote cannabis grow field where a plane is set to extract them, because Colt never asked about his cut. He quietly substitutes a helicopter extraction to bypass the ambush. Highland and Jamal stride through the casino floor hurling cash, causing pandemonium, and the helicopter lifts Jamal, Isa, and Summer from the roof. Highland stays behind, telling Jamal the money needs to get away, not him. In a later prison visit, Jamal reports Jewel is well cared for. The cartel writes off the loss, and no one ever identifies the perpetrators.

"The Sunday List" follows Nick McKenna, an 18-year-old in a small Rhode Island coastal town in 1970, who delivers illegal Sunday liquor orders from a local package store. Nick loads his 1962 Corvair and makes rounds to regulars: struggling fishermen, a lonely widow named Mrs. Haverford who buys sherry mostly for the company, and Terry Faherty, a demanding New York summer resident whose younger wife flirts with Nick. Nick saves every penny for college while his hippie parents run their farmhouse as a commune. When summer ends, his mother Jackie drains his bank account to fund a guru's ashram in California and disappears. Facing the fish factory or Vietnam, Nick heads to the Marine recruiting office, where the university's chief financial officer tells him his tuition has been paid in full. Nick learns that Faherty, informed by the town's bank president, quietly covered the bill. An epilogue set in 2021 reveals Nick became a bestselling novelist and bought back the farmhouse. He orders Glenlivet from the Sunday List, though neither he nor his wife drinks.

"The North Wing" centers on Doug Pritchett, a young Rhode Island cop whose cousin Chrissy kills a 20-year-old college student in a drunk-driving crash. Chrissy, a slight loner with two prior DUIs, receives 10 years. Doug knows Chrissy will be brutalized in general population. Through Gino Battaglia, a high school friend, Doug reaches Gino's father Bobby, the consigliere, or chief adviser, to Carlo, the region's organized crime boss. Doug wants Chrissy placed in the North Wing, a prison section reserved for made men (formally inducted mob members), where inmates live in relative safety. Bobby refuses at first, but after learning the state police are eyeing Doug for recruitment, he recognizes Doug's future value. He tests Doug by having him run a license plate; Doug complies. The terms: Chrissy enters the North Wing immediately, and once Doug joins the state police, he periodically provides intelligence about investigations. Doug accepts and carries the bargain for years, leaking information about wiretaps while Chrissy serves seven quiet years before moving to North Carolina. Eventually Doug's mentor plays him a recording of his leaks. He pleads guilty and receives seven years. As a cop entering prison, he faces mortal danger from inmates he put away, but he is assigned to the North Wing.

"True Story" is told entirely in dialogue between two unnamed mob associates at a diner. Their conversation weaves through anecdotes about Rhode Island organized crime, including how Lenny No Socks got his nickname and Ball Peen Peter DiPrete's hammer murder. The primary thread concerns Lenny, a contractor whose New York client's house is accidentally built five feet onto protected park land. When the dispute threatens to bankrupt Lenny, he appeals to Bobby Bats, a powerful local organized crime figure allied with Carlo, but the foundation managing the land refuses to be intimidated. Lenny's lawyer warns Bats that litigation would expose rigged state construction bids implicating Bats and Carlo. Bats negotiates a deal with the New York client, and Lenny becomes expendable. As the two men pay their check and head to their car, it becomes clear their lunch was a prelude to a hit, and the target is Lenny.

"The Lunch Break" follows Dave "the Love God," a San Diego lifeguard hired with Boone Daniels, a private investigator, to bodyguard troubled movie star Brittany McVeigh during a film shoot. Brittany lives up to her reputation as a diva but also claims to have a stalker. After a brilliant but emotionally devastating day on set, she breaks down; Dave takes her to the beach and teaches her to surf, and she finds genuine joy for the first time. When her hotel room is ransacked with a threatening message, investigation traces the intruder, a low-level burglar named Benny Franco, to Eric Stoltz, the studio executive who wanted his girlfriend for the role. Stoltz orchestrated the harassment to terrorize Brittany into a breakdown. Boone forces Stoltz to resign. Brittany takes command of her career and challenges Dave to outgrow his shallow persona. They begin a relationship, and Boone's Pacific Beach surfing crew, the Dawn Patrol, watches from the water as Dave teaches Brittany to stand on a surfboard.

The collection's final story, "Collision," follows Brad McAlister, a Stanford-educated hotel executive whose life unravels from a single punch. When his corporation offers him a major promotion, McAlister pushes his wife Rachel and five-year-old son Wyatt from the path of a speeding car. He confronts the driver, who makes a crude remark, and throws one punch; the man's head strikes the curb, and he dies two days later. McAlister pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter; citing his intoxication, the judge imposes the maximum of 11 years. At Folsom prison, McAlister is caught between the Aryan Brotherhood, whose leader Mulligan tries to extort him, and the Black Guerrilla Family (BGF), whose leader Blanton quietly offers protection. When the Aryans close in, the BGF launches an attack using McAlister as a decoy to reach Mulligan. With Mulligan hospitalized, Blanton demands a favor: working the graveyard shift as a nurse's aide, McAlister injects an air bubble into Mulligan's IV line, killing him. After five years, McAlister wins parole and rebuilds his career when Stacy Tolliver, a former colleague now running the regional operations, hires him back. Six months later, Blanton reappears, freed by overcrowding, and reveals he has been cultivating McAlister since prison. He orders McAlister to kill Karl Metzger, a Swiss drug middleman at the hotel. When McAlister refuses, Blanton produces surveillance photos of Rachel and Wyatt and threatens their lives. McAlister confesses everything to Rachel. That night, he sends his family to the airport, enters Metzger's suite, and shoots him after Metzger pulls a hidden gun. At the rendezvous, McAlister waits until Rachel confirms she and Wyatt have cleared security, then kills Blanton, placing an origami bird on his chest as a warning. He discards the gun and drives toward Mexico. Years later, Stacy finds the couple running a hotel on a remote Indonesian island; she says nothing. That evening, McAlister tells Rachel the woman stayed silent. "It's over, Rache. It's truly over now."