The Gulf Coast stretches from Florida to the Mexican border and offers access to the world for many of the southern states. However west of the Mississippi and the city of New Orleans, there are very few natural ports. There is, however, one sliver of an island that provides entree to the broad Gulf on one side and a protected bay on the other. Gulf City started as a small fishing hamlet and grew due to the bounty found in the waters surrounding the island. Once docks were built, ships started using the port to deliver goods to areas west of the Mississippi and to collect the yield from the farms and ranches in the area. Fortunes soon started to amass and a city grew. The scattering of small wooden buildings disappeared as a proper city started to grow in their place. Near the docks, a large warehouse district was built. It was here that the cotton, rice, grain and other bounties of the land were stored before they were loaded on ships for sale around the world. These warehouses also collected bananas, tea and all the goods the world could offer to Gulf City and its surrounds. After a time, the fishing hamlet was completely gone, replaced with warehouses and a free-for-all commercial district that met the needs of everyone from the bankers to the sailors coming off the ships.
Chapter 1
No matter what
position I turned, my body could never quite get comfortable. For what seemed
like hours, my mind pitched around in a state between sleep and consciousness.
In fitful dreams I tried to leave work but every door just led to another room
and I could not find my way home before fading back into darkness. Then I was
trying to swim to shore, but the current kept pulling me further out into the
gulf and the beach kept receding in the distance until the deep warm water
pulled me under. Finally one eye cracked open and absorbed the red glow
creeping around a window shade. At first I could not figure out where I was,
but soon the dark shadows formed into the recognizable shapes of my boarding
house room. Then the solution to another mystery revealed itself—why my bed
seemed so uncomfortable. The edge of the steel frame was pressing through the
thin mattress and into my spine because another person had staked claim to most
of the bed. Not knowing exactly who this squatter was, I reached over to find
round hips and silky thighs. Disturbed from her sleep, my guest turned over on
her back and her blonde wavy hair caught the sunlight that leaked through the
yellowed window shade.