The cost of living

by David Dorsey

Richard Cahill is working more insane hours than ever - and getting less and less in return. His e-mail grows in geometric proportion to the amount of time he spends answering it. He's days away from the big client presentation for the account that will get him a promotion and buy his dream house - talisman of the upper-middle-class life he and his wife have slaved for. The stress is ripping holes in the fabric of his family. Then everything changes. Rich and his son stumble into a holdup at McDonald's and into the unflinching peripheral vision of a black drug lord, one Eugene Price. Price sees Cahill as an easy pawn in his last big deal - his springboard to a new legitimate life. And its clear that, to Price, using Cahill is just the cost of doing business. Through Price, Rich also meets a powerful temptation - whose name is Paulette. Paulette is a veritable force of nature who knows full well the effect she has on Rich even as she's drawn to him in ways she can't quite control. Toget