by Lisa Hughey
She slowed to a stop, then twisted around, jabbing her index finger into Grady’s hard, unyielding chest. Of course he was right behind her.
She jerked her chin up and glared at him. “You set this up.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“I’m going to kill her.”
“Nah, don’t do that. I’ll sleep on the porch if you insist.”
“The por— Grady, tell me you have your own bunk in a boys’ cabin somewhere.”
“Camp’s full up, I’m afraid.” He grinned. “But I hear you’ve got a cabin all to yourself this week. What’s that all about?”
“None of your business.”
“Mental health break?”
More like a physical health break. “I’m on vacation.”
“And you came back to where we met.”
She laughed. “Also known as a fun resort where I had a good time with two of my girlfriends last year.”
“And an even better time with a certain sexy sailor…” He flashed her a rakish smile. He wasn’t wrong. Their secret hook-up had been spectacular. But it had also been a mistake, one she had no intention of making again.
“I remember splinters?” She screwed up her face in thought. “And it was over pretty fast, too.”
“I made you whimper my name for hours,” he said, lowering his voice.
She ignored the thrill that danced through her at the private tone. “Minutes. And it was more of a giving instructions situation.”
“Like, ‘more, Grady, yes, Grady, oh my god—‘“
“Grady!” She clapped her hand over his mouth.
He licked her.
She squealed and pulled her hand back.
“Yeah, I remember that sound, too.” He leaned right in. Not touching her, but…close. “And I want to hear it again.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s been a year. And that’s too long. So…no.” Unexpected heat prickled behind her eyelids and she spun around again. Nope. Not crying over a one-night-stand that wouldn’t be repeated.
Did phone sex count as a repeat? Okay, a one-night-stand and a follow-up-phone-call, neither of which would be repeated.
“I missed you,” he said from behind her. “I know that’s not enough, but—”
She nodded definitively, feeling his eyes boring into the back of her head. “It’s not. So…I don’t know what you and Tegan thought would happen, but I’m going in search of a Lake Waawaatesi Iced Tea, and I’d prefer you not follow me.”
She didn’t get far before he called out to her. “You didn’t tell her about us.”
Tegan? No, she hadn’t told her best friend that Tegan wasn’t the only person to hook-up with a Navy SEAL last summer. Because Tegan’s fling had turned into the real deal and Prina’s had fizzled before it had really gotten started.
“It wasn’t any of her business,” she tossed back over her shoulder.
“I’m not following you,” he hollered, his voice getting louder as she put distance between them. “But I’ll be sitting on the porch when you get back. Bring me a drink.”
Excerpt of Stone Cold Heart
Excerpt of Stone Cold Heart…FREE at all retailers
Family Stone #1 Jess
In the early evening dusk, Jess Stone lay on her stomach in the twenty foot high rubble of a demolished church, underneath a black and gray city-scape tarp intended to camouflage her position. A sharp-edged chunk of debris dug into her lower rib cage, the scope of the Remington M24 cool and familiar against her face.
Her standard uniform of jeans, running shoes, and plain black t-shirt rendered her just another anonymous and transient relief worker...which she was actually. A black baseball cap hid her distinctive multi-hued blonde hair. The paper mask kept out the contaminated dust from the destroyed buildings but did little to stem the overwhelming stench of decaying bodies.
Tanks rumbled through the destroyed coastal town, their public address system blasting warnings for citizens to stay in their homes, curfew was in effect. The threat was a joke. Ninety percent of the people in the town didn't have homes left. Those who did were terrified to go back inside. In the fetid, humidity choked air, the tent cities erected in the parks and on the beach were seething masses of the injured and shock struck.
The substandard construction in the small country had never been enough to withstand the angry might of Mother Nature. Buildings had toppled like a stack of Tinkertoys, and left crumbling cement walls with twisted rebar poking out of the jagged ruins like a skeletal hand.
Trapped in the concrete pieces that littered the ground, the heat from the tropical day seared through her thin sturdy clothing. The stank of the raw sewage that ran in rivulets through the streets overpowered the salt-laden breeze off the ocean. People, covered with the grit of pulverized buildings and humans, shuffled along with blank vacant stares. Two weeks after the quake, still in shock, their lives decimated first by nature and then kicked and beaten by the ineffectiveness of a flawed relief system. Hundreds of humanitarian agencies had descended on the population duplicating efforts and yet completely missing the need in other areas. The government was ostensibly trying to coordinate the effort, however the mass chaos was undeniable.
Through the Leupold Ultra M3 fixed power sight, she tracked the movements of Henri LeRoy, leader of this tiny island nation, violator of human rights and dignity, and all around poor excuse for a human being.
Sickness roiled in her stomach. The power bar she’d eaten for breakfast threatened to add to the rubble pile as she tried to figure out how in the hell she'd ended up here. Back behind a sniper rifle with the power over life and death trembling in the muscles of her right trigger finger.
Dammit. When she'd decided to take control of her life and quit the FBI, she hadn't wanted to do this anymore.
She'd wanted to be a simple relief worker. She'd wanted to connect with her family, brothers and mother.
But that bitch, fate, had slapped her upside the head and now here she was, where she'd sworn she never wanted to be again. Looking through the scope of a high-powered rifle, with a crystal clear head shot and a murky sense of right and wrong.
With little fanfare, she could blast LeRoy's brain matter all over the silk-covered walls and the antique Louis the XIV scrolled chairs in the receiving room of his ridiculously elegant weekend mansion which, since built properly, had sustained minimal damage. Her muscles twitched with the knowledge and acceptance that with one slow slide of her finger, the despotic, amoral leader would be history.
Jess didn't want to kill him, didn't want to be directly responsible for another death. She didn't want this choice. She’d given up this kind of life. She'd left the FBI after a series of high stress cases to get away from the doubt and guilt that had crippled her. To make her own decisions about right and wrong rather than carry out the commands of her bosses.
But if Henri LeRoy lived, chances were astronomical that many other citizens would die.
And yeah, she'd probably been manipulated into this. Actually no probably about it. Assassination had not been listed as one of her duties when she'd joined Global Humanitarian Relief. Damn her brother anyway.
But now all she could do was lay here in the desecrated remains of the former church and hope that her special skill set wouldn't be needed.
Fortunately, she was secondary backup.
And unless several things went horribly wrong, she would break down her weapon, get back to the relief aid encampment, back to actually helping people, and be out of here without ever firing her rifle.
Then she could hand out seed packets to her heart's content and figure out what she was going to do next. If she'd stay with GHR and her brothers, or go. First, she had to get through the next two hours.
But if something did go wrong...she prayed that if she was called upon, she could make the right decision. Make the shot. Cold zero.
Also by Lisa Hughey
Black Cipher Files Romantic Su
spense
The Encounter, A Prequel to Blowback
Blowback
Betrayals
Burned
Dangerous Game
**These books are also available in paperback from Amazon.com
Black Cipher Files Box Set (includes Blowback, Betrayals, and Burned)
The Seven
Archangel Rafe
Archangel Jed
Archangel Zach
Snow Creek Christmas
Love on Main Street: A Snow Creek Christmas – 7 Author anthology
One Silent Night (from Love on Main Street)
Miracle on Main Street (standalone novella)
Family Stone Romantic Suspense
Stone Cold Heart, (Jess, Family Stone #1)
Carved in Stone (Connor, Family Stone #2)
Heart of Stone (Riley, Family Stone #3)
Still the One (Jack, Family Stone #4)
Jar of Hearts (Keisha & Shane, Family Stone #5)
Queen of Hearts (Shelley, Family Stone #6)
Cold as Stone (John, Family Stone #7)
Family Stone Box Set (Stone Cold Heart, Carved in Stone, Heart of Stone, Still the One, & Jar of Hearts)
The Nostradamus Prophecies
View To A Kill #1
Never Say Never #2
ALIAS
Stalked (ALIAS #1)
Hunted (ALIAS #2)
Vanished…coming late 2017
About Lisa
USA Today Bestselling Author Lisa Hughey has been writing romance since the fourth grade, which was also about the time she began her love affair with spies. Harriet and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys later gave way to James Bond and Lara Croft and Jason Bourne. Exploring the complex nature of a profession that requires subterfuge and lies fascinates her. She loves combining her two passions into fiction. As evidenced by her Black Cipher Files series.
Archangel Rafe was her first foray into the paranormal but after spending time in the Angelic Realm, it won't be her last. At their heart, the Seven novels are about the dynamics of family relationships. But the really hot Archangels don't hurt.
And recently she's been immersed in the Stone Family novellas, stories about a blended family of brothers and a sister who have a lot more in common than they realize. But of course she couldn't just write about family and romance. There are complex plots, bad guys, and suspense too.
Lisa loves to hear from readers and has various places you can connect with her, although, shh, Twitter is her favorite.
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