Death and a Few Days Off

After being furloughed from his flying position at a major airline, all Jake Harris wants is a night of consoling mattress aerobics with Sofia Gianolo before taking the only job he can find, flying tiny bush planes in the north.His plans take an abrupt left turn when he finds himself in a Chicago wrecking yard waiting for Sofia and wondering, why is she a no-show? Why is the wrecking yard so deserted in the middle of the week? Why can he hear a phone ringing in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle?

Before the answers become clear, Jake is on the run with three incompetent gangsters on his tail, intent on turning him into a collection of misaligned body parts.

Worse, he's incurred the wrath of a seriously unstable hitman who uses shoe polish as hair dye and considers violence a recreational sport.

And somehow, he's picked up an unexpected and unwelcome hitchhiker who refuses to get out of his car. She's cute as hell, seems determined to ruin his road trip, and her incessant chatter is driving him mad.

It's a lot for a single, carefree guy to deal with but...If he can tolerate working for a new boss he neither likes nor trusts, if he can avoid bullets that are flying like pollen on a spring breeze and, if he can somehow keep his brother, a driving instructor who's only one student away from vehicular manslaughter, out of jail, the end of the month might turn out a little better than the beginning.