Snippet time…

So, you may or may not know that I'm wrapping up the Hunters series.  I guess it's a good enough point to do it.

Sales are slumping off and although this wasn't the way I'd planned to end it, at least it wasn't right after Nessa's book...I wanted to tell her story and I wanted to tell Toronto's story.  I got to tell both.

There are other books I wanted to write in that world, but...well.  We don't get everything we want in life, especially when sales are sliding off and it's a crazy-tight market anyway. Le sigh.

I'm going to try and send it out with a bang, though.  Between now and release day, I'm going to be posting snippets about the book.  It would be the world to me if we sent it out in style and we can do that if the supporters of the book order it. Please be aware you might not be able to find the book in the store...sales have slumped that much, so if you want it, you might want to order it from your local bookstore if you have one or order it online.

Snippet time....

meet the heroine

"The one thing I wanted him to do was die. And he wouldn't. I mean, he had that fucking heart attack and I thought, finally, this is over. And what happens?"

Bent over her drink, the brunette smiled a little as she listened to the conversation between the two women. Maybe it was morbid of her—it was definitely a morbid discussion to eavesdrop on, but gloomy bits like that were one of the few things that amused her.

Her name was Sylvia . . . at least for now. She toyed with her glass of wine without drinking more than a sip every few minutes, more focused on the discussion than her drink.

"Oh, come on, Faith. He'll die, sooner or later. We all do, right?"

Faith, a pretty blonde with pretty blue eyes and pretty curls and pretty, plump breasts shifted on her seat and sighed. "Um, this is about him. And he's not going fast enough. I'd like him to kick it early enough that I can still enjoy my life before I'm too damned old and ugly. Damn it, this wasn't what I'd planned on."

Idiot. Sylvia set her wineglass down and checked her purse once more. The woman was an idiot. That's all there was to it. Shifting around just a little, she studied the friend. The poor woman looked uncomfortable, but she was trying to hide it.

Faith didn't even seem to notice as she leaned in after a quick glance around the bar—it wasn't even a subtle glance. "That's why we're here. I'm looking to meet this . . . person. Apparently she takes care of problems."

"Problems?" The friend was looking more and more nervous with every passing second, Sylvia noticed.

Smart girl.

Some people talked about doing stupid shit.

Others actually tried to go through with it. Faith was dumb enough, arrogant enough to try and go through with it.

"Yeah." Faith worked up a convincing little sob. "He hits me. All the time. He doesn't leave marks, because he likes to show me off. But I'm so tired of being hurt . . ."

"Faith, you're not . . ." Her friend tried to laugh, but it fell flat. In the end, she just cleared her throat and asked, "What are you talking about?"

A cold glint appeared in Faith's eyes. "Doing what's necessary. And it's not like I can divorce him, either. There's that damn prenup and everything. And if I screw around on him? I'm screwed."

"Look, this isn't funny." Her friend didn't just look nervous now; she looked outright sick. "I know you don't much care for the guy, so just divorce him. If you disliked him that much, you never should have married him."

She reached into her purse and grabbed some money, threw it down on the table. "You can sit here and feel sorry for yourself alone. I don't want to—"

Faith snaked out a hand, curling it around the other woman's wrist. "Sit down," she said, her voice cold. "You think I called you just so you could whimper and whine? I need somebody with me tonight and it's going to be you."

"I don't want to be with you," the other woman snapped, trying to jerk away.

"Tough shit." The smile on Faith's face now was cold. Cold, mean and ugly. "Because if you're not, I'm going to spill your secrets."

The woman went white.

"Faith, this is insane." The woman was trying not to cry now. "Just divorce him or something. You can't . . . you're going to . . ."

"I'm just trying to make sure I have a nice, easy life." Faith shrugged, unconcerned. "Just like you have a nice, easy life. It's only fair."

Fair. Fair? The absurdity of the conversation was almost enough to make Sylvia choke on the wine. Except she'd actually heard more absurd shit in her long life. After all, she was an assassin—very often, people didn't have good reasons for wanting to see another person dead.

"Fair . . ." Sylvia lowered her glass of wine to the bar and spun around, studying the blonde and her friend. "Life really doesn't have a great deal to do with being fair, does it?"

"Excuse me?"

Sylvia James leaned back against the bar and crossed her legs, an amused smile on her lips, keeping a hand on her purse. "I mean, if you wanted to talk about fair, we could talk about the fact that it wouldn't be unfair to expect a woman to actually abide by the vows she took."

Faith went white, and then red. Not quite so pretty now that she was pissed. Sylvia smiled. She was going to make the woman even angrier shortly.

Next to Faith, her friend squirmed uncomfortably. "Hey, lady, we're just . . ."

"You, my dear, were just avoiding a whole shitload of trouble," Sylvia said, resting an elbow on the bar, flicking her a glance before looking back at Faith. "You, on the other hand . . ."

"Bitch, why don't you mind your own business?" Faith narrowed her eyes.

"My own business?" Arching a brow, she slid off the stool and sauntered closer to the table the women shared. "Maybe we should just get down to business then . . . ?" Without waiting for an answer, she reached into her purse and withdrew a small digital recorder, hit the play button.

Faith's voice, recorded two days ago, came out.

And Sylvia didn't need supersensitive hearing to hear Faith's breath catch as her eyes darted to the recorder and then back up to Sylvia's face.

"Now, Ms. Dwyer, what were you saying about minding my own business?" With one hand resting on her purse, she leaned over the table, peering into Faith's dazed eyes. "You called me. I told you I'd be here. I told you to take precautions. I told you to be discreet. I also told you . . . no lies."

She paused and sipped her wine, studying the dark red liquid, desperately wishing it was something else. "Now I've been sitting here for twenty minutes. You weren't discreet. You didn't take precautions. And . . ." She drew her voice out, studying the woman through her lashes, watching as the blood slowly drained from Faith Dwyer's face. "You lied to me."

Preorder...

 B & N | Amazon | Indiebound | Book Depository | BAMM

Spread the word...comment, chat away about it.  Every comment in regards to the upcoming release will be entered into a giveaway to be given away (that's a tongue twister) after release week.  One comment per blog post will be entered, so while I love it if you want to chat endlessly, you only get one entry per blog post and the contests will only be related to Hunter's Rise.

So... have at it.

How do you feel about a series ending?  Sometimes they have to.  I hate that it's now, but it happens.  That's life.

Check the disclaimer-please.  I lose more contest winners this way because people don't realize they have to check back to see if they've won. I don't contact you.  You have to check back and an easy way to watch that is to sign up for the blogger feed by clicking that nifty little fire icon up above my header.