Last Bastion

When Dale Shaw gets offered a job at the Last Bastion Ranch, a discreet treatment facility out in the country, he jumps at it.

Sure, the ranch isn’t a ranch, the name sounds fatalistic, and it’s too remote for cell service. But after spending years as an army medic and ER nurse, he needs something low key. Low stress. More money. The biggest bonus is its proximity to Owen, the man he’d loved and lost in college. His work should allow him plenty of time for second chances.

Surprisingly, the security is excessive, the facility doesn’t cater to the wealthy, the patients are far too easygoing, and the director is leaving on vacation, after issuing a cryptic warning.

Nothing will stop him from rekindling his romance with Owen, right?

(This is a longer version of a story that appeared in Bookish Bits and Bites: A Coastal Magic Convention Charity Anthology)