Free The Rampage of Ryan O'Hara by James R. Pera Page A

life he’d chosen and came home to her for good—assuming she was still waiting.
    Ryan remembered the first time he’d laid eyes on Carol Katzenbacher at a small dinner party thrown by mutual friends in North Beach. He’d just gone through a very messy divorce and the furthest thing from his mind was getting involved with another woman. His ex-wife, Ciara, had been a jealous, lazy, shiftless, and self-centered narcissist who’d put demands on him that were impossible to meet. Her main activities in life were watching soap operas and spending money. She neither worked nor performed the normal tasks of a stay-at-home wife.
    The marriage had begun to unravel when Ryan returned home from one of his lengthy deployments and discovered that she’d not only spent all his hostile-fire pay and depleted their bank account but had amassed a debt that put him in jeopardy with his superiors when the creditors came looking for him. The last straw had been when he’d found out that she’d been carrying on an affair with her best friend’s husband.
    After the divorce, Ryan was determined to avoid serious and long-lasting relationships. He held firm to that decision—until he met Carol.
    Carol had all the qualities that his ex-wife lacked. She was extremely attractive. Her angelic face, brown eyes, and auburn hair were complemented by the most perfectly proportioned body he had ever seen. She dressed immaculately and turned heads everywhere she went.
    More importantly, however, she possessed a quality that many modern-day women lack. She was selfless. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do to make him happy. She was a perfect lover and confidant, and Ryan hoped she would someday be his wife.
    They sat together in silence at the Jib, looking out over the water as they sipped merlot. No finer wines could be found than those from the Napa Valley—that not-so-far-away place where Ryan had spent the most troubled years of his life.
    “I’m going to miss you, my love. And when I’m sitting on top of some godforsaken, snow-covered mountain in Afghanistan freezing my ass off, I’ll relive these past few days. Just thinking about your embrace and those luscious, tender lips of yours will be enough to warm my bones.”
    “Your what?” Carol mocked, as if mistaking the word
bones
for something else. Then she added, “Oh, your bones. Right.” They both laughed.
    They lingered a while longer, stalling for time. The thought of parting once again was almost more than they could bear. When they finally left the restaurant, they headed to Carol’s apartment on Nob Hill, where they spent one last sweet but sad night together.
    The next morning, Ryan took one final look at his sleeping beauty.
    The innocent love of his life knew very little of what he did for a living and nothing of how he had been spending his time lately. He hoped he could keep it that way.
    He closed the door to the bedroom and slipped quietly out of the apartment.
    Having already closed down his home, he headed out across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toward his next destination—Sedona, Arizona, where he had some more unfinished business.

CHAPTER
9
    R yan turned on the radio as he drove past the windmills on Altamont Pass and headed south toward Interstate 5. The sun was just peeking over the eastern horizon and he was thankful that his southern route would preclude the aggravation of having it glare through the windshield. He half listened to the repetitive chatter that emanated from the local all news station, not absorbing much of what was being reported until he heard something about an incident at San Quentin prison.
    He listened as the reporter stated, “Prison officials have confirmed that the medium-security facility is still in lockdown after yesterday’s riot, which resultedfrom a brawl between three prison gangs. Members of Hijos de Zapata, the White Alliance, and the African Guerrilla Brotherhood clashed after the White Alliance challenged the