WIP Wed.
There is always a book in progress. I’m either writing one or just finishing one. This week I’m continuing my work on Assassins Core 3. Having combed through it twice, I’m back on track.
I have a better idea of what was missing and how to fix it. I’m enjoying writing the book and I’ve decided on a title which I came up with after writing the words twice in the manuscript itself.
My goal for this book is to increase the pressure Alexi’s under from her enemies including Felix. I also want to show a little more of a connection between her and her past as I try to decide how to work that into future books, some of which won’t focus strictly on Alexi but a few others assassins from Assassins Trilogy like Cattail and Devin and Sax.
I liked Sax a lot and really want to give her her own story. I’m was going to kill Nikita off, but I’m rethinking that and trying to figure how to give her her own story.
It’s a good chance I’ll be focusing on this series for the next two to four books, throwing in a few shorter ones from Cozy Bend. Those will be longer than the current ones, but shorter than 50,000 words.
I’m already working on one that I have to rework to get in shape. I’m also thinking of doing something for Valentine’s Day, but with my schedule I probably won’t make it.
Here is a little peek at where I am now. This scene is from the end of the first half of the book or someplace close to it. It’s a meeting between Alexi and Gwen.
Gwen Rayne entered the spacious waiting
area, clad in blouse and slacks. Her gray hair was in a neat bun and her light
make-up was flawless. She was a slim woman, almost fragile, but attractive.
“Maybe the correct word is bastard,” Gwen
said as she raked her gaze over Alexi.
Alexi flashed the older woman a grin and
shoved the man with his hand on the door away from it toward Gwen. Slate put
her back against it since there was no worry of being hit from outside with the
other two guards in place.
“Whichever is good for you, works for me,”
Alexi told her. “What do you want, Gwen?”
“I want my husband back, but since I can’t
have him, I want you in the ground.”
Alexi shrugged. “So, this is a—”
“This is a negotiation,” Gwen told her.
“You adhere to Charles’s original terms of paying us seventy percent of your
income to leave you alone and send Tatiana back home.”
Alexi took a step and the man she’d shoved
drew his weapon. She didn’t stop until he blocked her advance.
“Gwen.”
Gwen moved so they were in each other’s
line of sight again.
“It would be a shame if Tatiana was to be
killed because you thought you could really play this game better than me,”
Gwen commented.
Alexi sighed deeply. “You and Cooley need
to get new play books,” Alexi said. “Joining forces with him will be the worst
thing you can do.”
“You’re entitled to your opinion, but
you’re outnumbered.”
“I’ve never been that before,” she said
with a hint of a smile.
Only all her young life had she been
out-manned and out-gunned. That’s why she’d become a cold bitch so early. She’d
learn to change what she could and kill what she couldn’t.
She’d stopped fearing death by the enemy
and learned to use what she had to tip the scales in her favor.
“So, what’s it going to be?” Gwen asked.
“Negotiations closed,” Alexi said. “Slate,
we’re out of here.”
“I’m not going to just go away, Alexi,”
Gwen told her. “I’ll have my pound of flesh from you and all the traitors in my
circle even if it’s one life at a time. You can prevent three of those deaths.”
She’d have killed Aleksandr if he’d ever
have gotten in her way. She still would if he came between her and her mate.
“Life isn’t fair, Gwen, and we don’t
always get the prizes we think we deserve,” Alexi told her. “This doesn’t have
to be an issue. You leave me in peace, and I do the same to you.”
“There is no peace!” Gwen shouted and
shoved the shoulder of the man between her and Alexi.
He stepped aside, and she drew back and
slapped Alexi hard enough to make her head jerk to one side.
“You will suffer for taking my husband and
for kidnapping me. I know it was you, and what you did to me will be nothing
compared to what you’ll experience.”
Alexi rubbed her jaw, having reined the
jaguar in. The animal was watching, drawing in the scent of the enemy and
preparing for the take down.
“The only way out of this is for you to
become my lap dog until the day I decide you’re no longer useful to me.”
Alexi lifted her brows in humor despite
the anger roiling in her gut, a hot flow of lava ready to escape. “Get real.”
“I hope you can live with the blood on
your hands.”
“How do you do it?”
Alexi asked in a mocking tone, and Gwen sneered at her.
