Carly's View featuring C.D. Hersh and their new book, The Mercenary
and the Shifters, The Turning Stone Chronicles, book four.
Genre – Urban Fantasy,
Paranormal Suspense Romance
Heat Level - Sensual
Release Date: July 27th,
2016
The Mercenary and the Shifters (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 4):
eBook: https://amzn.com/B01I01W2JC
Blurb
When mercenary soldier Michael Corritore answers a desperate
call from an ex-military buddy, he finds himself in the middle of a double
kidnapping, caught in an ancient war between two shape shifter factions, and
ensnared between two female shape shifters after the same thing ... him.
Shape shifter Fiona Kayler will do anything to keep the
shipping company her father left her, including getting in bed with the enemy.
But when she believes the man trying to steal her company is involved with
kidnapping her nephew, she must choose between family, fortune, and love. The
problem is ... she wants all three.
Excerpt #1
Mike Corritore wheeled up the circular drive of the impressive house on
Lakeshore Road and cut the engine on his motorcycle. After a quick glance
around, he shouldered the bags containing his clothes, ammo, pump shotgun, and
talwar sword. Then he headed for the carved front door. The doorbell echoed
inside indicating the mansion had a cavernous entry hall. He searched the
entrance stoop for security cameras and found none.
What the heck had he gotten himself into? A rich bitch, with no
security on her home, mixed up with a bad syndicate spelled major trouble. With
this chintzy level of security, it would take more time than he originally
anticipated to make her house and business secure.
After a couple of minutes the door opened.
“Can I help you?” asked an attractive redhead.
“I’m Mike Corritore. Here to see Fiona Kayler. Will you tell her I’ve
arrived?”
The redhead looked him over, then braced her legs shoulder width apart
and crossed her arms over her curvy bust. “Do you have identification, Mr.
Corritore?”
Mike returned her once-over. Her porcelain complexion blushed pink at
his bold examination, and she tossed her mane of wavy, mahogany hair defiantly.
Damn, she was gorgeous.
If she thought her insolent pose enough to keep him, or intruders out,
she’d better reconsider.
“Hugh sent me.” He stepped forward but she blocked him.
“A driver’s license for your very expensive motorcycle will suffice,”
she said, wiggling her fingers at him. When he didn’t comply, she stepped back
and reached to the side of the door.
The distinct cachung of a gun
cocking sent him flying to the right of the doorway.
“Identification, Mr. Corritore. Please,” she said as she leveled a
pistol at him.
Mike dug in his rear pants’ pocket. “Hugh lied,” he said as he held out
his driver’s license. “You don’t need protection.”
After inspecting his identification, she lowered her weapon and waved
him inside. “For my business, Mr. Corritore. I’m capable of protecting my home,
but I can’t draw my gun just anywhere.”
“You should get a conceal and carry license,” Mike said as he entered.
She put the safety on the gun and stashed the weapon in the table
beside the front door.
“I take it you’re not the help,” he said, glancing around the entry
hall.
She held out her hand. “Fiona Kayler. Nice to meet you, Mr. Corritore.”
“Mike,” he said, taking her hand. Her palm, warm and soft, told him she
lived a life of leisure. But her strong grip screamed, No patsy. He held her hand a bit longer than he should have. She
wriggled free and waved him to the left.
“Ladies first.”
With a nod, she led him toward a sumptuously decorated room. He
followed, his eyes taking in the soft curves of her rear as she sashayed across
the marble-tiled floor. Mike’s body reacted to the seductive wiggle of her
bottom. She walked as sexy as she looked.
Keep your mind on the job, Corritore. He shifted his gaze away from temptation,
searching the ceiling and corners of the entry for security cameras. If she had
them, they were well hidden.
The measured click of her high heels on the hard marble tile floor
disappeared as they stepped on the thick, white carpet of the living room. This
room appeared cozier than the entry. A huge gold, gilt-edged mirror hung over
the fireplace reflecting the scene outside the oversized plate-glass window.
She motioned to a seat beside the fireplace. Mike chose a location less
exposed to the exterior, where he could watch the entrance to the room. Fiona
dragged a side chair across the room to where he sat, positioning it at a right
angle to his seat. Two vertical furrows appeared in the carpeting, bisecting
their shoe impressions and the vacuumed paths in the thick fibers. Apparently,
she didn’t use this room much.
“So, Ms. Kayler—”
“Fiona,” she corrected.
“Fiona, exactly what do you need me to do?” As he said the words, he
had a lurid vision of what he’d like to do to this lovely woman. He shook it
off. She was Hugh’s friend and in trouble. He had no business screwing around
with damsels in distress. They were needy. The last thing he wanted.
“A couple of years ago I had a problem with smugglers. They brought in
some hazardous materials which got me in trouble with Homeland Security and the
FBI. They cleared me, but my business took a pretty big hit. To keep things
afloat, I’ve had to get in bed with some rough characters recently.”
At the phrase get in bed with Mike
cocked his eyebrow at her.
“Not literally,” she amended quickly, as a dusky pink blush crept over
her pale complexion. “I need my security beefed up so I don’t have a replay of
two years ago.”
“Any good security company could upgrade you.”
“I also need someone I can trust implicitly. Hugh vouched for you, and
I trust Hugh.”
“We should start with your home security. I didn’t see surveillance
cameras at the door.”
“My home is perfectly safe. It’s my business I’m concerned about.”
Fiona crossed her arms over her chest, her body language closing off to
further suggestions. Mike followed her motions. As he did, he spotted a red dot
on her chest. The dot wiggled.
“Get down!” Mike shouted as he dove for Fiona.
Excerpt # 2
“My home is perfectly safe. It’s my business I’m concerned about.”
Fiona crossed her arms over her chest, her body language closing off to
further suggestions. Mike followed her motions. As he did, he spotted a red dot
on her chest. The dot wiggled.
“Get down!” Mike shouted as he dove for Fiona.
They hit the floor as the pottery on the raised fireplace hearth
exploded, sending shards across the room. Mike shoved Fiona behind the nearest
chair then scrambled across the rug to the blown-out window. Removing his gun
from his back-of-the-waist holster, he peered over the windowsill. Seeing no
one in the driveway, he swiveled around to check on Fiona. The red laser point
danced around the room, searching for a target.
Mike followed the trajectory of the beam. The shot came from across the
street in something high. He remembered seeing a tree house in the yard across
the road from the mansion.
“Who lives across from you?” he asked.
“No one right now. The house is for sale.”
“I didn’t see a ‘For Sale’ sign.”
“We’re in an exclusive neighborhood. The HOA forbids sale signs.”
Another shot rang out.
Mike whirled around in time to see Fiona’s head sticking out from
behind the chair. The image of her head reflected in the fireplace mirror.
“He’s using the mirror to target us. Do these curtains close?”
“Yes. The cord’s on the other side of the window.”
“I’m going to crawl under the window and close them. He’ll probably see
my reflection in the mirror and start shooting, so stay hidden. As soon as the
curtains close, crawl to the window as fast as you can and follow the wall to
the entryway. Then get the hell out of the front of the house. Got it?”
“Got it.” Fiona’s voice quavered up the scale.
“You okay?”
“Scared, but okay.”
As Mike crawled along the floor, a volley of shots rang out. The
remainder of the pottery displayed on the hearth shattered. When he reached the
other side of the window, he yanked the drapery cord. The curtains billowed
closed.
“Now, Fiona!” he shouted.
As she belly crawled across the floor, Mike held his breath. Bullets
sprayed the room, punching through the heavy draperies, the shots veering from
floor to ceiling.
Don’t ricochet! he commanded.
Fiona reached the cover of the exterior wall, and he let his breath out
in a whoosh.
“Hurry!”
When she came within arm’s reach, he grabbed her hand and yanked her
the rest of the way across the room and into the entry.
“Do you have a panic room?”
She nodded, her eyes filled with fear. “In the basement, behind the
trophy wall.”
“Get in it, and don’t come out until I tell you to.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get the SOB who’s trying to kill you.”
Mike’s presence in her bedroom as she gathered overnight items for the
guesthouse comforted Fiona. It also set jitters off in her stomach. The man was
hot and muscular and very alpha. He’d removed a sword and gun from his duffel
bag and slung them, along with a bandolier of ammunition, over his shoulder
after they’d been attacked. The sight of his weapons and his protective
behavior did unfamiliar, disconcerting things to her.
“Does the guesthouse have a phone?” he asked over her shoulder.
Fiona jumped and slammed her palm to her chest. “Jeez, don’t sneak up
on me. I didn’t hear you cross the room.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“After what happened tonight, it won’t take much to make me jump. And,
no, it doesn’t. But I’ve got my cell.”
“I’ll need the number.”
“Ditto, on yours.”
“I think you need to take your gun. The one you pulled on me.”
“After tonight, I’ll sleep with that baby under my pillow.”
Mike studied her. “You’re certain you don’t have an idea who might want
you dead? What about the group you’re dealing with? What was the name again?”
“OmniWorld? I think I’m more important to them alive, at the moment.”
A knowing smile flashed across Mike’s face, and she realized he’d
tricked her into revealing the name of the cartel she’d withheld earlier.
“At the moment?”
She thought about the cargo Mr. Swindell’s associate had forced her to
ship. Had he’d lied about the cigarettes? If he had, she needed backup. Hugh
trusted Mike. She needed to do the same.
“I’m handling some freight for them. I don’t think they want to off me,
at least until the deal’s finished.”
Mike swore under his breath. “What are you mixed up in, Fiona?” When
she didn’t answer he continued, “If I’m going to help, you have to be
completely honest with me.”
She cringed at the word completely.
Honesty with anyone, at this point, could only be partial. How much
could—should—she tell him?
Amazon buy links:
The
Promised One (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 1):
eBook:
http://amzn.com/B00DUMODKI
paperback:
http://amzn.com/1619353504
Blood Brothers (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 2):
eBook: http://amzn.com/B00OVNFC8W
paperback: http://amzn.com/1619358271
Son of the Moonless Night (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 3):
eBook: http://amzn.com/B00XK3E172
The Mercenary and the Shifters (The Turning Stone Chronicles Book 4):
eBook: https://amzn.com/B01I01W2JC
Bio:
Putting words and stories on paper is second nature to
co-authors C.D. Hersh. They’ve written separately since they were teenagers and
discovered their unique, collaborative abilities in the mid-90s. As high school
sweethearts and husband and wife, Catherine and Donald believe in true love and
happily ever after.
Together they have co-authored a number of dramas, six which
have been produced in Ohio, where they live. Their interactive Christmas
production had five seasonal runs in their hometown and has been sold in
Virginia, California, and Ohio. Their most recent collaborative writing efforts
have been focused on romance. The first four books of their paranormal romance
series entitled The Turning Stone
Chronicles are available on Amazon. They also have a Christmas novella, Kissing
Santa, in a Christmas anthology titled Sizzle in the Snow, with
seven other authors.
Where you can find
CD:
Thanks for hosting us.
ReplyDeleteNice excerpts!
ReplyDelete