Warning: Some of these general audience stories contain explicit sex and/or graphic violence.
This Collection Includes:
CJ Lyons’ Chasing Shadows: Shadow Ops Book #1
Going undercover, playing the part of a disgraced former Marine, is easy for Chase Westin–until a Christmas Eve mission takes him back to his hometown and face to face with his estranged brother. When KC, an undercover FBI agent, flies into Chase’s life with her Doc Martens, purple, punk-rock hair, and Hollywood-hype leather and chains, Chase realizes that falling in love is more dangerous than catching bullets.
Debra Webb’s DIRTY (Jackie Mercer)
DECEPTION. Jackie Mercer can’t abide deception. Hey, a woman who single-handedly built the Mercer Detective Agency from the ground up has a right to expect honesty in a relationship. Tell that to the creep who, only this morning, she thought might be Mr. Right. Wrong! DANGER. Her day only gets worse from there. An ominous message arrives accompanied by the photo of a man she hasn’t seen in ten years: You were the last one to see him alive. DESIRE. Jackie’s own first rule is simple: never mix business with pleasure. Unfortunately the only applicant for the investigator position she badly needs filled is a hunky younger man. Derrick Dawson has pleasure written all over his rock-hard body and soon both her business and her world quickly spin way out of control. Time for chocolate and a shot of Old No. 7—not necessarily in that order. DISASTER. She’s in real trouble when a second message, this one including a dead body, drops into the mix. Jackie does what any smart Texas woman would do: she kicks butt and takes names, while the mystery spiraling around her long lost lover and her attraction to Derrick Dawson plunge her into a tangled web of shocking secrets and deadly deceptions. Jackie has her hands full and her heart on the line—time to play DIRTY.
Peggy Webb’s WITCH DANCE
Someone is out to kill Dr. Kate Malone. But first they want to make her suffer… Kate is the daughter of a Southern senator and fighting Irish to the hilt. When she came to Witch Dance to practice medicine under the guidance of her friend, Dr. Clayton Colbert, she expected to fall in love with the tribal lands of Oklahoma and its people. She never expected resistance and hostility to her clinic. And she certainly never expected death threats. But something evil is stalking Kate and the Chickasaw children. Only one man can stop the deadly enemy – Eagle Mingo, son of the Chickasaw governor, destined by blood to follow in his father’s footsteps and by fate to fall in love with a forbidden woman. Eagle will do anything to save Kate except shun the traditions that hold him fast to duty. But can he stop the evil spreading through his land and find a killer who calls himself the Avenger? Can he find a way to have the woman of his heart without breaking the heart of a Chickasaw nation? Follow Kate and Eagle’s sensual and chilling journey to its stunning conclusion.
Vicki Hinze’s MIND READER
SHE KNOWS a child’s life is in danger, but no one believes her. HE KNOWS she’s a fraud and is out to prove it. THEY SEEK the truth and discover the truth can set you free . . . or kill you. Caron Chalmers is an empath. A mind reader cursed with imaging only victims. She sees what they see, feels what they feel, endures what they endure and has since she was seven. But even with all the sensory perception and insights, sometimes she fails to save victims in time. Last year, she interpreted the signs wrong and a victim died. Caron nearly died with her. Her “gift” shut down. Now it’s back. There’s another victim–this time a child–and because of the mistake made last year and the shut-down, her police contact, though aware of her many successes, isn’t willing to stake his career on her. Yet he can’t dismiss her and calls in help from a private investigator, Parker Simms: a man with a past as bleak as Caron’s and a specific agenda of his own: proving Caron Chalmers is the fraud he believes her to be. In a hostile alliance, Caron and Parker seek the truth . . . and discover a labyrinth of lies and deceptions that require skills and experience they have and trust they don’t but must somehow find before the child becomes another victim lost. Time for the child’s survival grows short . . . and stakes that couldn’t get any higher soar.
VR Marks THE INFORMANT
A dead body is no way to start the day… a fake marriage makes it a special brand of hell. When her witness is murdered, DEA Agent Hannah Thalberg knows she’s the next target. The only way she can stay close to the case is to lie about getting married and hope her one-time lover goes along with the deception. Karl ‘Bart’ Bartholomew’s Army career ended his first marriage before an injury ended his career. Now the owner of a popular truck stop, he stays close to the action by keeping local DEA and law enforcement informed of suspicious activity. Can Hannah and Bart break the case and save lives before the passion between them breaks apart their friendship?
Regan Black’s IN THE INTEREST OF SECURITY
In the near future, retired soldier Jim Corvin is content with the challenge of heading up security for Chicago’s notorious smuggler, Slick Micky. But when he’s unexpectedly tasked with protecting the young son of a beautiful scientist, will his expertise be enough to shield mother and son as well as his battered heart?
Kathy Carmichael’s MY FAVORITE CORPSE (A Skullduggery Inn Short Story)
My Favorite Corpse centers around Ashley Sands, the owner of a mystery-themed inn located on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay. An amateur sleuth, Ashley finds a corpse washed to shore at her inn’s private beach. She must learn what happened before her guests begin checking out. While Ashley’s mystery weekend guests usually enjoy the occasional dead body, they prefer the never-previously-animated kind.