Saturday, November 24, 2018

Coming Cyber Monday - The Walk-in Agent

Coming out Cyber Monday, November 26th!

Hi Ivory Tower spies fans! I've heard from quite a few readers who love Julep, and I have great news. The Walk-in Agent, a short story told from Julep's point of view, comes out this Monday. It'll tide you over until book two in the Ivory Tower Spies series drops on January 7, 2019.

And as a special treat, I'm including the first scene below.

Caution: If you haven't finished reading For Your Ears Only, do not read this sneak peek. There are spoilers here!


***

Royal’s voice is ragged when I answer my phone. “Loveday isn’t here. Did she tell you where she was going?”
     My brow furrows in surprise. “What? No, I haven’t heard from her.” Granted, I’ve only been back in London for a few hours, which is hardly enough time for Loveday to miss me and reach out.
A soft curse carries through the phone line. Then, Royal continues. “She disappeared during our layover in Hong Kong. I hoped she’d gone back to England to see you, but if she’s not there…”
     “Can’t you use the GPS function in her watch to track her?”
     “She’s turned it off.”
     This admission doesn’t surprise me. Loveday seems like a young woman who, if the desire struck to get off the grid for a few days would know exactly how to do it.
     I look out the window of my hotel room, down onto the square, and my eyes linger over the bright green grass. “I know where she is.” The confidence in my tone surprises me, but I know the words are true the instant they leave my mouth.
     Guilt and anguish. I had seen them in Loveday the moment she came into the hotel lobby, that last day in Malaysia. In my experience, they’re two sides of one coin—the unfathomable pain of losing someone in the line of duty. Only Loveday wore it differently than I had. When Sean died, the pain filled me up, like a rising water line during a torrential downpour, and I let it wash me away. But Loveday, instead of allowing the pain to fill her with despair, chose to get angry. The steely gaze she gave Royal that day had sent a shiver through me. She wasn’t someone to be messed with; she made that abundantly clear when she got out her wireless headphones and put them in her ears, a move which effectively smothered any response Royal may have given her.
     My voice is sure when I say, “She’s in Alabama.”

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