Nothing to Lose

Pax West, Book 2

By: Christopher Cartwright

Narrated by: David Gilmore

Pax West, a former CIA Ghost with no past and no future, alights an Amtrak train in Portland, Oregon. He wasn’t there long before a detective arrests him for the murder of a local woman. The detective says he has him on CCTV. The woman was his niece, making this personal. The usual judicial rules didn’t apply as far as he was concerned. Pax was thrown into Oregon State Penitentiary. It was a mistake, but it would get cleaned up in the morning. Inside, Pax witnessed another inmate – Elliot Brooks – getting beaten up. It was an uneven fight. Four, heavyset men on one skinny kid with glasses. Pax let it happen. It wasn’t his fight. Then, when it looked like they were going to kill him, Pax intervened.

Elliot cursed him for saving his life. He deserved to die. Two years earlier, Elliot had woken up at home with a baseball bat covered in blood. The blood’s DNA was a match to his own daughter. They never found her body, but there was too much blood at the scene for her to have survived. Police found high levels of amphetamines in his system. He couldn’t remember a thing about the night. But the evidence was clear – he’d killed his own daughter.

The next morning, Elliot had a visit from his sister. She didn’t say anything. Just handed him a photograph. The picture was taken at Sea World in San Diego, California. There was a picture of a dolphin performing some sort of trick. He barely registered the dolphin. Instead, his eyes landed on a girl, about four years old smiling into the camera. The sight took his breath away. She looked familiar. Not just familiar. Identical. Without a doubt in his mind, he knew in that instant, it was his Amy. She was two years older, but very much alive. For the first time in two years, Elliot wanted to live. Knew he had to escape Oregon State Penitentiary. It was the only way to get his daughter back.

The question remained, was Pax West willing to risk everything to save a stranger?

©2025 Christopher Cartwright (P)2025 Christopher Cartwright