Excerpts

GUNS AND ROSES
A Murder She Writes Anthology
Includes "Pick Your Poison" - a brand new Bullet Catcher novella

Callie Parrish dropped to her bare knees and swallowed a curse that probably had the devil doing a happy dance in hell.  But right that minute, she didn’t care.  She didn’t care about anything but the dozens of bare naked rose bushes that stood like beheaded little soldiers in the middle of the flower farm. READ FULL EXCERPT

SPACE IN HIS HEART
Romantic Suspense

When PR superstar Jessica Marlowe is tasked with making America fall in love with space exploration, she knows exactly what to do:  find some smokin’ hot astronaut eye-candy and make him NASA's poster boy.  When she meets Commander Deke Stockard, the shiver down her spine tells her she's found her man. READ FULL EXCERPT

EDGE OF SIGHT
The Guardian Angelinos
Book #1

Sam hatched her entire escape plan from the floor of her bedroom closet.  There, with her laptop and phone, she figured out how to fashion a disguise, sneak out of her apartment in the middle of the night, and maybe not get caught and killed in the act. READ FULL EXCERPT

SHIVER OF FEAR
The Guardian Angelinos
Book #2

“Did I hear you say you were looking for a Dr. Greenberg, miss?”

For the first time since she’d started her search, Devyn felt a surge of hope. She blinked at the smooth-faced concierge and hesitated a second, making sure she understood the thick Belfast accent.  “Yes.” READ FULL EXCERPT

FACE OF DANGER
The Guardian Angelinos Book #3

The Bunker Hill bridge cast a long shadow over the sea of slate grey concrete bowls and ramps, the whine of traffic competing with the constant whirl of the BMX and skate wheels on concrete. Every sound was music to Vivi Angelino’s ears. READ FULL EXCERPT

KILL ME TWICE
Bullet Catchers Book #1

Jasmine Adams peered through the rental car windshield at the gaudy glass andbrass highrise, then back to her cell phone to try her sister one more time.

This is Jessica Adams, please leave a message and I'll get right back to you.

Jessica's chirpy TV voice usually made Jazz smile, but hearing the message for the umpteenth time simply made her boil. Or maybe it was Miami's two hundred percent humidity that had long ago melted the spunk out of her new spunky hairdo, and wrapped her whole body with perspiration. Back home in San Francisco, Jazz would need a leather jacket on a November evening; here, a thin cotton tank top was plastered to her skin. READ FULL EXCERPT

THRILL ME TO DEATH
Bullet Catchers Book #2

Not much impressed Lucy Sharpe. But when she told Max Roper his next assignment, and he didn’t so much as blink, her respect for his well-documented control ratcheted up a notch or two.

But then, it was possible he didn’t recognize the name. Perhaps he hadn’t kept track of his former lover. Perhaps he didn’t realize that Corinne Peyton, widowed billionairess, and Cori Cooper, DePaul Law Student, were one in the same. READ FULL EXCERPT

TAKE ME TONIGHT
Bullet Catchers Book #3

Earbuds to obliterate any warning of approaching danger. Check.

Long flowing ponytail for an easy take down. Check.

Low slung running shorts to give even the clumsiest rapist easy entry. Check.

A midnight jog, an abandoned park, not so much as a key in hand for self-defense. Check. Check. Check.

Didn’t this woman have a mother who taught her common sense?

Hey. Not his problem. Johnny slipped deeper into the shadows of the Public Garden and waited for her to make her next pass. READ FULL EXCERPT

FIRST YOU RUN
Bullet Catchers Book #4

Adrien Fletcher wanted something and he wanted it bad enough to skip his beloved Sunday afternoon rugby game, remove his single hoop earring, cover his aborigine axe blade tattoo with a long-sleeved shirt, and make small talk with his boss.

Amused and curious, Lucy Sharpe obliged.

“The client on the diamond drop sent me an email last night,” she told him, clicking through her BlackBerry for the message from the Dutch jewel trader. “He said you performed the job flawlessly, without losing a person, gem or dollar, and has requested you as his Bullet Catcher escort next month, when he plans to deliver another forty million dollars worth of…” She smiled as she read the rest. “Useless overpriced carbon to the jewelers of the world.” READ FULL EXCERPT

THEN YOU HIDE
Bullet Catchers Book #5

Vanessa Porter was not his type.

Not that Wade didn’t appreciate a tall, sexy blonde as much as the next male, especially when her black tank top and white shorts hugged some sweet curves. But something about her irritated him -- even from fifty feet away with clusters of tourists separating them across St. Kitt’s main port.

The horn rimmed glasses? A power play. The speed of her trajectory? That screamed Yankee to him. The little left-right sway in her backside that grabbed the eye of every man she passed? He despised women who drew attention to themselves. Her generous breasts were more than the requisite handful, her hair needed a six inch trim and something to keep it from flying all over the place, and those thighs? They didn’t quite touch at the top, as if there was room for…someone else in there. READ FULL EXCERPT

NOW YOU DIE
Bullet Catchers Book #6

Lucy Sharpe woke to the sound of gunfire. Steady. Distant. Infuriating.

In less time than it took for the shooter to load the next round, she rolled out of bed, and strode to the window, totally naked, completely awake, and royally pissed.

Sleep was such a brutal battle she waged every night, and she’d just dipped into a decent slumber when some idiot decided to take target practice at three in the morning.

She squinted at the training compound that sprawled a half mile away, over the eastern acreage of her estate, a few security lights casting yellow circles around the perimeter, but otherwise dark. Only one man had the nerve to do something like this. READ FULL EXCERPT

HUNT HER DOWN
Bullet Catchers Book #7

“Call it whatever you want.” Dan lifted the hand holding the dossier and gave Max Roper’s massive shoulder a decent smack. “Now go eat some charred meat like a good Rottweiler. You’re missing the party and all the gossip about the reasons behind my first official leave of absence.”

“A leave of absence?” Max’s gaze slid to his shoulder. “With a Bullet Catcher dossier still warm from the Research and Investigative Department printer?”
The son of a bitch didn’t miss a trick. “Just grabbed a file on an old friend I might look up in the Keys.” READ FULL EXCERPT

MAKE HER PAY
Bullet Catchers Book #8

Thwack!

The door slammed behind Lizzie the very instant one powerful arm encircled her whole body from behind. A warm hand smashed over her mouth, silencing a scream as the flashlight clunked to the floor.

She jerked one way, then the other, but she was no match for the mighty arms that immobilized her. She tried to see him, but all she could get was an eyeful of shoulder. Big shoulder. READ FULL EXCERPT

WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE
“Reason To Believe”
A Bullet Catcher Novella

How was it that rocket scientists could build a fully functioning laboratory eighty miles above the earth, but couldn’t figure out a way to fix the L.A. freeway system? Chase Ryker had been on both. The space station ran smoother than the 405, which was basically bumper to bumper congestion that extended, inexplicably, onto another freeway and all the way into Burbank.

He whipped the Porsche into the studio lot and announced himself to the guard, expecting to have to do some fast talking, considering he wasn’t actually scheduled to arrive until the next day. READ FULL EXCERPT

I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
“You Can Count On Me”
A Bullet Catcher Novella

The whoompf of a solid right uppercut landed smack on target, shooting a cracking jolt of pain up Raquel Durant’s arm, along with a gut-level sense of satisfaction and release.

The punching bag didn’t whimper.

“Is that my face you’re pummeling or some mysterious evil-doer?”

Raquel whipped around, wiped some sweat from her eyes with the back of her training glove and grinned at her boss. “Like you’d let me land one, Luce.”

“But you’re mad enough to try.”

How was it that no matter what Raquel did to disguise her feelings, Lucy Sharpe could sniff out the truth? The woman was a human bloodhound, but in the CIA they called that an elicitation expert and Lucy sure had been one of those before she started the Bullet Catchers. READ FULL EXCERPT

KILLER CURVES

Celeste Bennett imagined that the weight of her new engagement ring actually slowed her step to a rythmic thud…en-gaged…en-gaged…a-gain…a-gain. The anchor tugged at her finger as she crossed Fifth Avenue, contemplating how to rationalize the fact that she’d even accepted the diamond the night before. The excuse of not wanting to disappoint the people who loved her sounded as cowardly as taking the ring had made her feel.

En-gaged. En-gaged. A-gain. A-gain. READ FULL EXCERPT

FRENCH TWIST

Holy hell. Her Plums were missing.

Janine Coulter blinked against the blinding May sunshine reflected off hundreds of Venetian mirrors. She could feel their absence. Even in the chaotic cavern of light, glass, and enough gilded fleur-de-lis to eliminate world hunger, she knew her precious Pompadour Plum vases were not in Versailles’ famed Hall of Mirrors. READ FULL EXCERPT

TROPICAL GETAWAY

Dane Erikson stood on the weather-beaten docks of St. Bart's harbor, where mourners had gathered in clusters. With them, he listened to the tributes to twenty-one men delivered from a makeshift podium. Every few minutes, his gaze returned to the ebony-haired beauty in the back, drinking in her uncanny resemblance to Marco. There could only be one reason for Ava Santori to attend the memorial service for the victims of Paradisio. READ FULL EXCERPT