Double Shot to the Heart (Brewed Moon Book 2)

by Critch, J. Margot

  Mitch had offered to help her rebuild, but she didn’t want to lay this burden on him after everything he’d done already. Having built this business from the ground up she didn’t want to rely on anyone in fact, and she hadn’t, not since she’d lived with her parents.

  She could go to her parents, she reasoned, and grovel for money. They could afford it, but the thought of showing up after all this time, hat in hand pleading for help made her blood pressure rise. She could already hear their ‘I told you so’ tone and back-handed consolations. No, there was no way in hell she would do that.

  She looked up as a man walked up to her table and surprised her by sitting in the empty chair across from her. She scowled. Why can’t people let a woman mourn the loss of her life’s work in peace?

  “Can I help you?” she asked him, tersely.

  “No, but I think I can help you,” he said, with a thick Irish brogue. “You’re Juliana Lark, correct? The owner of the café over there?” he pointed out the window. “Or what used to be a café?”

  “The very same,” she responded warily, “proud owner of the best view of the harbour a blasted-out shell of a building has to offer.”

  “Yes I heard it was quite a remarkable spot. A terrible loss for the city, just awful,” he said, shaking his head.

  Juliana joined him in regarding the boarded-up storefront. “I’m sure it won’t stay that way long. It’s prime real estate, even with the damage. Give it six months and it’ll be a cozy restaurant or a chain coffee shop,” she lamented.

  “So you don’t plan on rebuilding?”

  She scoffed at the suggestion. “I put everything I had into that place. Insurance won’t cover the damage.” She wasn’t sure why she was being so open with this perfect stranger. Perhaps she just needed to get it off her chest.

  “Well I’m sad to hear that. I for one prefer the local entrepreneur to the faceless corporations, as I’m sure many here do,” he said, turning away from the window as the waitress delivered a pint of dark stout to him. He thanked her politely and raised his glass. “You see Ms. Lark, I prefer tradition, some people would call that stubborn. Like this stout, for example. Not everyone will find it palatable, it will never be a bestseller, but should it change just to suit the masses?” He shook his head. “That’s why I’d like to make you an offer – let’s go into business together and resurrect Brewed Moon. I’m sure that five-dollar-coffee money is profitable venture.”

  Juliana was too stunned to respond. She sat there for what felt like minutes taking in this strange man watching her over the top of his pint. This was simply too good to be true.

  Finally, she managed to stammer out, “who are you?”

  “Oh, how rude of me. I’m a friend of Mitch’s,” he said, brushing his free hand over his coat and extending it across the table to her. “My name is Declan O’Connell. Let’s talk business.”

  About the Author

  J. Margot Critch graduated from Memorial University with a BA in Religious Studies and Folklore. She currently lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland, with her husband, Brian, and their two little buddies, Simon and Chibs. She spends equal amounts of time writing, listening to Jimmy Buffett music and looking out at the ocean, all the while trying to decide if she should have coffee or margaritas.

  Connect with J. Margot Critch online!

  Website: jmargotcritch.com

  Twitter: @juanitamcritch

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/jmargotcritch

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  Also by J. Margot Critch

  Double Shot to the Heart: Brewed Moon #2

  All of Juliana Lark’s hard work is finally paying off. Brewed Moon, her trendy downtown St. John’s café, is finally turning a profit, and she is on her way to business success. Her days are consumed with running her business, but her nights belong to Leather & Lace, an exclusive club that facilitates sexy rendezvous for its members. It was at the club’s Halloween masquerade ball that she met a mystery man in a fox mask, and their subsequent encounters have been lifting her love life to new heights. Just as Juliana’s stars seem to be aligning, her life gets turned upside down when she witnesses a grisly murder behind her café on a quiet winter morning. Shaken to her core, she calls the only person she can trust to protect her – Detective Mitch Swanson.

  Mitch, the leader of special team trained to fight organized crime, suspects this latest killing in a string of murders is linked to Yuri Petrova, the head of a Russian crime syndicate. A major war between two gangs is boiling over into barely-contained bloodshed, and this latest crime is putting his friends in the crosshairs. Unfortunately, Mitch’s team has been unable to get any concrete evidence to hold their prime suspect. Mitch is reluctant to involve Juliana in the case for her own protection, but he can’t deny that the killing at her café might be the break his team needs to blow the case wide open – and end the turf war before more lives are lost.

  Meanwhile, the street violence reaches a fever pitch and Mitch is torn between protecting his witness at any cost and falling in love with her while keeping secrets from both her and his team. At the centre of the chaos, Juliana fights to maintain some normalcy in her life, and her independence despite Mitch’s intensifying insistence that she lay low with him until the danger subsides. However, she finds the stress of doing nothing is worse than the danger, so Juliana clings to the two bright spots in her life: the café and her anonymous lover from Leather & Lace, who may be someone more familiar to her than she realizes.

  Up All Night: A Brewed Moon Single Shot (Brewed Moon #1.5)

  Available only in Tricks & Treats – A Romance Anthology

  When Detective Mitch Swanson gets word that a deadly drug cocktail is being distributed through Leather & Lace, an exclusive St. John’s club, he decides that he needs to get inside to see for sure. He secures an invitation to the club’s Halloween masquerade party, but once he’s past the club’s heavy wooden doors, finds himself immersed in an erotically-charged anonymous party for the city’s elite. For once Mitch might be in over his head, until he gets the attention of a mystery woman who offers to show him around. In the company of the seductive stranger he finds it impossible to concentrate on the job, and soon, he finds himself more at home in the club, and with the woman, than he ever imagined he would.

  Bump & Grind: Brewed Moon #1

  By day, Erica Hardin is a barista at Brewed Moon, a trendy downtown St. John’s café, but by night, she is one of the city’s most sought after burlesque dancers. She craves more adventure and excitement in her somewhat dull, coffee-pouring life, and she gets all that and more when Peter Swanson walks into Brewed Moon. Unknown to Erica, Peter is a detective, part of a special team trained to fight the scourge of organized crime. When he and his team have suspicions of mobsters associating in the Brewed Moon, they spring into action, investigating the café and everyone who works there.

  In Peter and his sinfully-good looks, Erica sees the element of danger she’s been craving. Peter however, can’t look past her luscious curves and wily red-lipped smile, and he’s willing to sacrifice everything he holds dear to get close to her. Despite the circumstances, neither Erica nor Peter can escape the instant attraction they feel, and before they know it, their steamy, forbidden affair is embroiled in a sinister plot perpetrated by Irish mob kingpin, Dylan O’Connell. Soon Erica finds herself in more danger than she anticipated, and she must rely on her own wits to survive, while Peter has to stop O’Connell before he makes his evil plans a reality.

  HARLEQUIN® BLAZE®:

  In the Boss’s Bed

  Hot for the boss…

  Maya Connor was already embarrassed after a dare—and a shot of vodka—resulted in one seriously sexy kiss with an even sexier stranger. She had no idea that the man she made out with was hotel magnate and reputed playboy Jamie Sellers. Or that she would soon be working for him…

  Maya won't let anything get in the way of her ambition. And s
he's determined to be taken seriously as she begins her career—and not give in to the heat that's constantly driving her to distraction. Lust, that's all it is. The more Maya and Jamie ignore it, the stronger it gets. But ending up in the boss's bed won't just be Maya's wickedest fantasies come to life…it'll be the end of her dreams.

  In Her Best Friend’s Bed (coming February 2017; available for pre-order now)

  She wants him so much!

  Abby Shaw has had enough. She's done with relationships (why are guys always so needy?) and wants to focus on getting her career off the ground. The fact that Trevor Jones—her new best bud and her boss—is seriously hot shouldn't complicate things at all. But that deliciously hard, tattooed body? A kiss that suggests hours—and nights—of wicked pleasure? Yep, Trevor is trouble…

  Abby and Trevor can't resist turning "just friends" into "friends with sexy benefits." Which means lots of hot sex, no messy emotions. It's the perfect arrangement—at first. But their searing sexual chemistry verges on becoming dangerously intimate…and Abby will do just about anything to keep herself from falling in love with Trevor Jones.