Kimberly Quinn is here to tell us about Lovely Torment, Savage Hearts Syndicate #2, dark romance - suspense.
There's also a great giveaway.
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Lovely Torment
Kimberly Quinn
(Savage Hearts Syndicate, #2)
Publication date: November 18th 2025
Genres: Adult, Dark Romance, Romance, Suspense
He’s cold, calculating, and lethal. A killer.
He’s also my hero.
Finn Decker rescued me from a life in captivity, but not out of mercy. I’m his key to destroying the Bratva leader who shattered both our lives. A pawn in his ruthless game of vengeance.
I should be afraid. I should run.
Instead, I’m drawn to the darkness in his eyes, the craving he ignites, and the promise of retribution he offers. And I realize—I want him to use me in ways that have nothing to do with revenge.
Only, it’s hard to tell if I’m his leverage, his weakness, or something far more dangerous.
His.
Because in a war this savage, there’s no room for mistakes.
It was sharp and vivid, and suddenly, I was drowning in him. In his heat, in his scent, in the way his body caged mine like he was the only thing keeping me upright.
“Don’t lie,” he growled. “You can be pissed at me. You can be scared. You can feel whatever the fuck you want. But don’t pretend you don’t want something more from me. You’ve been clinging to me since the day I took you out of Rykov’s house.”
“Well, I wasn’t angry before.” I lifted my chin and let all my irritation flow into the glare I gave at him. “But now? Yeah. Now, I am.”
“Good. Get angry for a change. Stand up for yourself. Prove you’re not just a victim looking for a goddamn savior.”
“You think that’s what I want from you? That I’m so weak and desperate I can’t stand on my own?” The words tumbled out, fueled by a courage I didn’t recognize. A fire I’d never dared stoke before.
“No, Lena,” he growled. “I think you’re a thousand times stronger than you know. And I think if you knew me at all, you’d understand why friendship isn’t something I can give you.”
“But you’re friends with Robin.”
“I don’t want to fuck Robin.” His voice was rough. Like the words had clawed their way up his throat.
And they stunned me.
My mouth opened, but nothing came out. Was I even still breathing?
He twisted my arm higher up my back—the dull pinch of it, reminding me I was at his mercy. “I can’t be your friend. Because every time you get close, it gets harder to hold back. Harder to pretend I’m not about to lose my fucking mind.”
His hold loosened, just slightly, like he was about to let me go. But before I could process it, his fingers flexed, and in a swift, merciless motion, he’d wrenched my other arm behind my back, pinning both wrists in one unyielding hand.
“You want something safe. Someone stable. But that’s not who I am.” His free hand slid up to wrap around my throat, his fingers pressing into the side of my neck. “This is the kind of man I am.”
And God, despite the edge of fear, despite the voice in my head telling me to run, my panties were soaked.
He leaned in, his mouth hovering at my ear and breath rough against my skin. “What I want is to tie you up and then take you apart. Slowly. Thoroughly. Until you forget every man who ever came before me. I want to ruin you for anyone that isn’t me. Then build you back up from the wreckage. Stronger. Fiercer. Like the queen I already see when I look at you.”
He paused, his breath hitching. “And then do it again. And again. And a-fucking-gain.”
Author Bio:
Kimberly is a contemporary romance author, born procrastinator, and lover of morally gray heroes. She enjoys lively conversations, usually with imaginary people, and can often be found daydreaming at work.
She writes gritty, messy, dangerous romances, featuring beautifully flawed characters, pursuing love at all costs. It's romance with rough edges.
When she’s not busy writing, you can find her with a coffee in hand, dog at her side, and exploring the wilds of her hometown in Ontario, Canada… Or on her couch, getting lost in a good story.
Building an impossible tea farm in the Cheshire countryside was Sofia’s second chance. A way to prove herself. A fresh start. She knew it would be graft. She anticipated a degree of isolation. But with Christmas imminent and the farm failing, her thoughts have grown darker. She’s searching for something — an ineffable force to make this year the magical wonderland she always craves and never finds.
Yet with the farm failing there’s no time to fix her ailing social life. Sofia resigns herself to another lonely holiday.
Enter Matt.
Delaware Grange’s twenty-one-year-old assistant gamekeeper. Nice enough, a bit dopey.
As she hunkers down for winter, Sofia thinks she’s prepared for everything. Nothing could prepare her for Matt. For the abrupt awareness of him. For the way he’s far more capable than he seems. Thoughtful. Considerate. Quietly intelligent.
Way sexier than he appears.
Suddenly impossible to ignore.
But Matt isn’t what he seems. A darkness runs beneath Delaware Grange — insidious, creeping, buried deep.
Sofia was little more than a challenge, a box for Matt to check, an assignment to complete. Until he fell.
Hard.
Now all he sees is her. All he wants is her. And all he knows is she has no idea who he truly is. While Sofia fights her feelings in the face of forbidden fruit, and Matt wrestles with the reality of his true purpose on the estate, the pair fall into an intoxicating, passionate, volatile romance.
As winter deepens and Christmas closes in, two lonely souls struggle to find peace in each other, and trust becomes the most dangerous choice on the estate.
Falling for Matt threatens everything Sofia has worked so hard to build. Falling for Sofia might just be the making of Matt.
That Boy is a high-heat, secret-identity romance where desire, deception, and devotion collide in a snowy small-town Christmas.
While not required, it is highly suggested to read Nightshade before That Boy.
Author’s Note: Each novel in The Cheshire Set can be read as a standalone, but the following order avoids spoiling the reading experience of earlier books.
Recommended Reading Order for The Cheshire Set:
Bane
Nightshade
That Boy
Eve Was Framed, a prequel novella to Bane, isn’t strictly part of The Cheshire Set but is available for free download on the author’s website.
A quiet, introspective moment between Matt and Sofia after a near-disaster. As they talk about “The Gloaming”—that melancholy space between Halloween and Christmas—their chemistry deepens and the novel’s central themes of loneliness, yearning, and rediscovery of light emerge.
“What’s the Gloaming?”
“Oh. Right.” I shifted, trying to find a way to lean that didn’t hurt my shoulder. It was useless. Until someone could pop it back in, I was doomed to dull agony. “It’s that feeling that threatens to drown you…” I paused, swallowing hard and staring out the window.
The world nearly drowned me tonight.
“This time every year.” I finally managed. “You know?”
Keep talking. Stay conscious. Don’t toss your cookies into his lap.
“That…overwhelming urge to…cover everything in cheer. But…” I took a little more water. “…the more you try, the less cheerful you feel. So you just keep…adding more.”
He chuckled.
“Hoping the cheer finds you before you’re…” Another tiny sip of water. “…crushed by baubles and fake fir garlands.”
He stared at me.
Great. Now he thinks I’m a total weirdo.
“I get it.” A slow smile spread across his face. “You’re staring at all the decorations. Watching the snow fall. And somewhere inside you’re sure you love Christmas. But you never quite seem to feel it.”
“Yes!” I sat up, and momentarily thought I’d blackout from the effort.
He eased me back into the sofa.
“Nailed it.” I swallowed. Talking was so much effort. Thinking was weirdly worse. “It’s a coping mechanism, I guess.”
He nodded, but when I didn’t continue, he made a winding motion with his hands.
“Every year this…fog descends. When Halloween’s over. This looming sense of…dread.”
“And it’s right when everyone else is getting excited.”
I nodded. “Exactly. Not me.” The wind howled savagely by, rattling the window and making us both jump. I turned my face away from the glass, not wanting to think about the carnage outside. “I’m sat there like a…miserly Scrooge.”
“Scrooge was never that pretty.”
I shook my head. “Don’t flirt with me.”
“Keep talking then.”
I didn’t want to. I just wanted to sleep.
My eyes drifted, and he nudged my knee with his. “Sof?”
With gargantuan effort, I rallied. “Welcome to Gloamas!” I wheezed. “Not quite Christmas. Not quite apathy. Some…twisted netherworld.”
He permitted me another tiny sip of water for my effort.
I swallowed it and continued, “You’re stuck for weeks. Longing to be…joyful and merry. But…that ineffable light is…absent.”
Matt pursed his lips. “So…it’s not gloomy, it’s gloamy. You’re in the twilight. Daylight’s gone. You know it will be back at some point, but in the interim, you’re left with a hollow echo—”
“How you…loved Christmas…as a kid,” I managed. “Desperately wish to…feel it all.”
He grinned. “But for now, the light’s faded. Until the sun rises, you’re left wisting after a feeling.”
I stared at him. “And someone to share it with.”
Matty shifted a little closer. He was still soaking wet from the rain. Must have been freezing. Yet he hadn’t complained. Hadn’t even seemed to notice. I leant into him and shivered. More at the thought of how cold he must be than anything else. But he stripped off my blankets (now soaked) and wrapped me in two new dry ones.
The phone rang, and he shot up to grab it.
“She’s okay, I think. Conscious, talking, the bleeding’s stopped. Her shoulder’s bad, but—”
A pause as whoever was on the other end of the line spoke.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” He peered out of the window. “The rain’s still coming down hard.”
Another pause.
“Okay. We’ll be here.”
He hung up. “Sounds like the storm’s passing. It’s lightening up at the house, and the rain’s almost stopped down there. They’re on their way up. By the time they get here, it should have cleared.”
“The track will be murder.” I tried to sit up.
He moved and blocked me, forcing me to stay still. “Easy.”
“Give me the phone.”
“They’ve already left, Sof.”
I struggled some more.
“Stop!”
Calm. But firm. Commanding.
I’ve never heard him speak like that before.
“Stop.”
Softer. Eyes searching mine.
My heart fluttered.
“We’d all gladly risk a bit of fucking mud to get you safe. You must know that?”
My breath caught. My chest constricted painfully. His jaw was locked. The look in his eyes was…feral.
And so fucking hot.
There’s really something wrong with me.
Satisfied I wasn’t about to bolt for the door, he sat back down. Glanced around.
“Is that why all your decorations are so…weirdly depressing?”
“They’re not.” I sniffed.
“They really are, Sof. Like…they’re full of the festive spirit but don’t quite hit the mark.”
He glanced at my forlorn little tree. Which, in fairness, was at least standing vertically now. I’d come in one day to find him scrambling around on the floor, fiddling with the screws on the base to get it standing straight.
He was right. The baubles were desolate.
I loved them.
“I like them.” Matt wrapped the blankets tighter around me. “They’re comfortingly depressing. How Christmas should be. It always just…kind of reminds you of all you’re missing in life.”
Author Bio:
Briar has been a professional copywriter for many years (far more than she cares to admit). She began her career working for large companies and agencies before realising she could do it all for herself. Now, she happily writes for businesses and entrepreneurs she’s passionate about and dreams of the day her fiction becomes popular enough for her to retreat into fictional worlds full-time. Growing up in Cheshire and falling in love with its countryside, small towns, and villages, she’s enjoyed creating a fictional world that reflects her own.
Lisa Towles is here to tell us about Switch, E&A Investigations book 3, mystery crime thriller-suspense.
There's also a great giveaway.
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A fast-paced techno thriller that brings a gripping
conclusion to the E&A Investigations series as Mari Ellwyn faces her past,
her nemesis, and a web of high-stakes crimes.
Switch
E&A Investigations Book 3
by Lisa Towles
Genre: Mystery Crime Thriller, Suspense
A body vanished
from the morgue. A coastal town gripped by bank heists.
The only link is a
past that someone will kill to keep buried.
In Book 3 of the E&A Investigations series, Mari Ellwyn
and Derek Abernathy return to track a string of unsettling bank robberies.
Their case takes a dark turn with the bizarre disappearance of a body from the
local morgue, a mystery connected to the vanishing of the previous Medical
Examiner, Dr. Camille Bota. Their investigation plunges them into the dangerous
world of a multi-national organization involved in suspected fraud and fringe
technology research. For Mari, the case ignites a personal quest, forcing her
to confront the long-unresolved disappearance of her father, CIA operative
Richard Ellwyn.
The deeper she digs, the more Mari realizes that both she
and her father are inextricably linked to their lifelong nemesis, the notorious
international crime boss Jacques Martel. The missing body and the secrets
surrounding Dr. Bota become entangled with her father's shadowy past and
Martel's deadly machinations. In a high-stakes collision of family secrets and
criminal enterprise, Mari must confront her father and their shared enemy
before they both become casualties in Martel's lethal game.
REVIEWS:
“A taut, high-intelligence thriller with real emotional
teeth…” - The Prairies Book Review
Fast-paced, smart, and full of twists, this is a thriller
that delivers both heart and heat." —Scott Olsen, San Francisco
Book Review
“A breakneck techno-thriller that crackles with smart dialogue, raw emotion,
and relentless tension.” – Literary Titan
This exhilarating, action-infused crime thriller deftly incorporates suspense
with harrowing drama to keep readers turning the pages. – The Book
Commentary
"This
book is an intricate, immersive, and riveting thriller, with plenty of
surprising twists and turns." — Readers' Choice
In the heart-pounding international thriller Salt Island, Mari
Ellwyn, a former-CIA private investigator, finds herself thrust into a perilous
world of high-stakes corporate espionage and ecoterrorism. As her newly formed
partnership with Derek Abernathy is put to the ultimate test, Mari faces a
daunting challenge that forces her to confront powerful ghosts from her past.
When billionaire CEO Jack Darcy's reputation and IPO deal are under threat,
Mari finds herself entangled in a web of secrets, lies and corporate fraud. The
disappearance of Jack's glamorous wife, coupled with the unraveling of a dark
secret within his esteemed environmental startup, leaves Mari with unanswered
question and a thirst for Justice.
While Mari's partner Derek goes undercover to investigate a series of
suspicious deaths on a local farm in California's Central Valley, Mari grapples
with the haunting truth about her missing father—a man with a double identity
and secret agenda. Determined to uncover the depths of her father's involvement
with her case, Mari embarks on a solo journey to the British Virgin Islands, a
hidden Caribbean refuge that holds the key to her own identity and future.
With Derek gone and time running out, Mari must decide whether to risk
everything to uncover the truth or succumb to the powerful forces that seek to
bury it forever. Get your copy of Salt Island now and brace
yourself of a relentless rollercoaster. Secrets can't stay buried forever, but
now Mari is alone, exposed and fighting for her survival.
What readers are saying about the
award-winning Salt Island:
"An often engaging tale of money, danger, and family." - Kirkus
"An intricate, gorgeously written, character-driven page-turner with some
shocking twists." - Prairies Book Reviews
"An intoxicating read, hugely entertaining." - The Book Commentary
"An exceptional thriller and a riveting work of espionage, wrongdoing, and
discovery." - Midwest Book Review
Who killed Sophie Michaud? Stay up all night reading
this award-winning psychological thriller that has readers obsessed.
Shot in the line of duty, ex
CIA operative Mari Ellwyn is again chasing adrenaline, when she reinvents
herself as a private investigator on a quest to find the killer of college
student Sophie Michaud. Every door Mari opens proves to be more perilous than
the last, but she’s hell bent on bringing the killer to justice—for Sophie,
students, and all women.
Teaming up with seasoned
investigator and former detective, Derek Abernathy, the crime-savvy pair
discover Sophie’s journal, which is filled with names and controversial
secrets—listed among them is Mari’s own father.
What secrets was Sophie
hiding?
As they connect the dots
leading to Sophie’s death, the blackmailing of a federal judge, and Mari’s own
family, Sophie’s murderer is closing in for the next kill. Facing an adversary
like none she’s ever experienced before, Mari must find her missing father and
reconcile her broken past before she becomes the killer’s next victim.
A multiple award-winning
novel, Hot House is a page-turning psychological thriller
packed with tension, secrets, suspense, and surprises. If you like Blake
Crouch, Harlan Coben, and Lisa Gardner, discover Lisa Towles’ E&A Series
today.
·First Place Winner of The Book Fest 2022 Literary Award, Mystery &
Crime category
·Literary Titan Gold Award for Fiction
Escape into this devious mind
mystery by getting your copy of Hot House now, so you can
solve the puzzle of who killed Sophie Michaud.
“Memorable characters make for a winsome, absorbing detective tale.” - Kirkus
Reviews
“Towles does a fantastic job of pacing the
storyline so that the reader hangs on to every clue... I recommend this for
fans of crime fiction writers
Baldacci, Slaughter, and Gardner.” San Francisco Book Review
“Award-winning author Lisa Towles delivers again and again with
her gripping thrillers…” Sarah
Lovett, Bestselling author
“The plot is propelled
forward by the clever use of suspense,
measured action, and ingeniously written conflict. It is a
moving and delightful read with cinematic
scenes and characters that will stick with readers for a long after
they turn the last page.” - The Book Commentary
“Hot House is an intricate
maze of blackmail, surprise and suspense delivered by
quirky characters, pithy dialog and LOL humor. Another hit by my favorite thriller writer, Lisa Towles.”
- Ana Manwaring
“Fans of investigative thrillers and mysteries will be the audience for
Hot House, but its ability to craft a sassy, fun series of dialogues and
inspections... creates an exceptional
read with a powerfully unexpected
conclusion... This will attract audiences both within and beyond the thriller and mystery genres." -
Midwest Book Review
“Towles has produced a
knockout novel with Hot House. Towles’s plot is as twisted and unpredictable... Nowhere will thriller fans find a more
engaging keep-you-on-your-toes read.” -
Literary Titan
“This meticulously
constructed, remarkable mystery deftly
explores people’s darkest flaws while revealing hard truths about the hidden
workings of the world. A fast-paced
and psychologically astute thriller.” Prairies Book Review
“Hot House is one of those books that pries your eyelids open and
doesn't relent until you've reached the end. Good luck getting Mari out of your head!” - Benjamin Bradley
Lisa Towles is an
award-winning, Amazon bestselling crime novelist and a passionate speaker on
the topics of fiction writing, creativity, and Strategic Self Care. Lisa has 11
crime novels in print with her newest title Specimen freshly released in
November 2024. The first two books of her E&A Investigations Series (Hot
House and Salt Island) were both #1 Amazon Kindle Bestsellers. Lisa also writes
standalone thrillers, such as her 2022 political thriller, The Ridders, which
won an American Fiction Award. Lisa is an active member and frequent
panelist/speaker of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and
International Thriller Writers. She has an MBA in IT Management and works
full-time in the tech industry.
Janina Franck is here to tell us about Old Ghosts, Saoirse Kennedy #1, crime, LGBTQ+, suspense.
There's also a great giveaway.
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Old Ghosts
Janina Franck
(Saoirse Kennedy, #1)
Publication date: October 7th 2025
Genres: Adult, Crime, LGBTQ+, Suspense
Notorious crime boss Saoirse Kennedy finds herself entangled in a web of mystery when she receives orders to eliminate a detective and faces the resurgence of her haunting past.
In the midst of this city plagued by crime, Detective Lily Rose sets out to apprehend Saoirse, but their paths intertwine when a new, sinister force emerges, prompting an uneasy alliance to protect their city.
Two more men were already waiting for her in the large entry hall, dressed the same as the guards outside, pointing their guns at her.
Saoirse smiled her best cheerful smile, raising her hands in resignation and slowly advancing toward them with carefree steps. “Now, boys, that’s no way to ask a lady to have tea.”
As expected, they barely responded with more than a low growl.
“All I want to do is talk to Garrison. Look, I didn’t even bring a gun.” She gestured to her hips, clad in tight black jeans, wearing an equally tight leather jacket over her olive-green T-shirt.
Her having come unarmed obviously came as a surprise to the guards, because for just a moment, they glanced at one another in an attempt at wordless communication. That rookie mistake was all Saoirse needed. She dashed forward, keeping her body low, and ducked underneath the gun one of them was holding, ramming her head into his ribs. He not only stumbled backward, but he fell, his gun clattering onto the floor. By the time it was in Saoirse’s hands, the other man’s gun was pointed at her again, while hers was aimed at him. However, after a moment’s reflection, she moved it from him to the unarmed man on the floor.
Still smiling, she tilted her head to one side. “I’m sure your boss wouldn’t care if I killed him. But would you? Willing to risk it?” She paused to let her words sink in. Then she repeated her earlier statement. “All I want to do is talk to Garrison. Are you gonna let me go up those stairs, or does he need to die first?”
Her eyes were on his, unblinking and firm. Now it all depended on whether he knew who she was. Though, judging by his glance from her to his partner on the ground, he had a fair idea. Excruciatingly slowly, he lowered both his gun and head.
“There’s a good boy.” Saoirse beamed at him and pranced past him and up the stairs. Except for the guy manning the computers, Garrison wouldn’t have any more security in the building. He didn’t like having too many people around. It made things too confusing, and it lost a significant amount of class.
She had barely made it to the first landing, when she heard the click of a gun’s safety. Dropping her body to the ground immediately, she twisted and fired. The guard’s shot missed her by several meters as her own hitting his arm threw off his aim. Instead of retaliating further, Saoirse sprinted up the last steps of the stairs, and determinedly kicked down the door to what she knew to be Garrison’s office. He wouldn’t change it. Not when it had the perfect view across his grounds and ideal lighting from its positioning.
She was right.
He sat at his desk, facing the door, looking very grave.
“Saoirse,” he said, his tone level. He wore a navy suit today, and a light grey, almost silver tie. His brown hair was brushed and perfectly parted at the side, and his beard neatly trimmed. His hands were clasped together, his elbows stemmed on the table.
“Hello, Luis, old chap,” Saoirse responded. “Mind if we have an uninterrupted chat?”
Author Bio:
Janina is a nature-loving story-addict who may have tea and chocolate running through her veins. Guided by her daydreams, she started writing stories at a young age and never really stopped. Now living in Ireland, she loves to try new things and experience adventures, both real and imagined.
Jan D. Payne is here to tell us about Changing Woman's Hair, book 2 Marin Sinclair, a suspense thriller.
Read on for details...
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Marin Sinclair, Book 2
Suspense Thriller
Date Published: 09/15/2025
Publisher: RabbitHole LLC
When Marin Sinclair discovers teenager Garret Washburn in danger from a
deadly conspiracy involving bootlegged alcohol, wolf-witches, an election
campaign, murder, and an unknown bomber, she looks to Navajo Nation Police
Sergeant Justin Blue Eyes and Federal Agent Cullen MacPherson to help protect
Vangie Tso's son from the dark forces at play.
Excerpt
—“It’s likely the same guys,” Franklin
whispered. “You need to go for help. Get word to Sergeant Blue
Eyes.”
“I can’t go without you,” she said, and Franklin took her
hand and pressed it against his side. When she pulled her hand away, it was
wet and sticky.
“You’re bleeding!” she said, and Franklin’s nod was
dimly visible in the darkness lit only by the fires. “I’ll find
something to help,” Marin said, and crawled through the hogan’s
entrance, searching by feel until she found several pieces of soft clothing or
bedding.
“Hold this over the wound and press,” she said, making a thick
pad. She tied the pad around Franklin using a length of bale twine, and he
gasped, then sat taking deep breaths.
“Sorry, we need to get the bleeding stopped,” she whispered.
Franklin took another breath and gave a low whistle. A horse broke away from
the bunched group and came close to the rails, snorting softly.
“Here is your friend, Otekah,” Franklin said and ducked into the
corral. “You must take her and go.”
“Go where?”
Franklin didn’t answer. He took a rope from a corral post and ran the
rope behind Otekah’s ears, made a quick turn around the mare’s
muzzle, and looped a knot into the side of the make-shift halter. He pushed
the end of the rope into Marin’s hands.
“No,” she said. “I can’t leave you. You’re
hurt.”
“They’ll soon come looking,” Franklin said. “Trust
Otekah to find the way. She’ll be going home.”
“I can’t find my way in the dark!” Marin said.
“She knows the way. There is only one gate to open; our home is near the
canyon’s end. You will be able to climb out.”
“No … ” Marin said.
“Climb up to the rim road. Bring back help.”
“Franklin, I can’t climb the canyon wall!”
“There are handholds to guide you,” he said, and he pushed
something cold, round, and metallic into her hands … a flashlight.
“I shot one of those Indian kids,” said a man’s deep voice
and she and Franklin froze, sinking deeper into the hogan’s shadows.
“He ran over here.”
“Lay off. I’m not about to get trampled trying to find him,”
a second man answered.
“He’s in here, I know it.”
“He’s not going anywhere. He’s got nowhere to run with this
hut built up against the canyon wall.”
“You can either come out or you can bleed to death!” the first man
shouted, and there was a sudden blast of gunfire.
Marin yelped, and Otekah reared, yanking the rope from her hands and whirling
away. Yuma, his gray coat barely visible, whistled shrilly and kicked against
the corral poles until the saplings shuddered.
“I said lay off, you idiot! A pole fence won’t hold half-ton
horses! You’ll get us trampled! You don’t even know if the
kid’s in there.”
The first man raised his voice. “You hear that, Injun boy? We’re
gonna start shooting your horses if you don’t come out!”
“Stow it, Jack! You start shooting and these horses will go crazy. That
kid’s not going anywhere. We need to get back to the prisoners.”
“Prisoners,” Marin breathed when the men walked away. “We
have to stay and help them.”
“No. You must go, shadi,” Franklin said, making a soft clucking
noise until Otekah once more came close, tossing her head as the other horses
restlessly circled the corral, stamping and blowing. “My beauty,”
Franklin murmured, picking up the trailing rope and looping it around
Otekah’s neck.
“This is a bad idea,” Marin said, but she climbed between the
corral poles to lean against Otekah’s warmth. The horses were bunched
together, pressing hard against the gate poles, anxious to escape, eager to
run. Still …
“I’d never forgive myself if you and the others … ”
“You must bring help, tell the Sergeant what has happened.”
There was no one else to go.
When Franklin again pushed the flashlight into her hands, she took it and
shoved it into her waistband, then caught Otekah’s mane and rolled onto
the mare’s back, catching up the rope in one hand.
Franklin murmured something that sounded like a prayer and slid a pole from
the top of the gate. Carefully he lowered one end to the ground, then reached
for the next pole and did the same. Even with only two poles down, the horses
began to push into the gap, Otekah with them, and Marin clutched the halter
rope breathing in the familiar scent of horse—dust, dried grass, musky
sweat.
“I’m not sure I can guide her.”
“Just stay on,” Franklin returned.
Marin wrapped the rope tight around her hand and twisted both hands into
Otekah’s mane, aware of a familiar rush of excitement, that
stomach-clenching tension when Dandy’s muscles had bunched beneath her
the second before the rodeo arena gate flew open and they shot forward.
She’d done this a hundred times or more, and she bent low to
Otekah’s neck, gathering focus.
“Ready … ” Franklin whispered, and he eased the last pole
to the ground.
“Franklin, I … ” Marin began, but Franklin stepped back,
gave a shrill, yipping yell, and slapped Otekah across the rump, waving his
hat as the horses surged forward.—
About the Author
Drawing from her own life story in the Four Corners area of the Navajo
Nation, author Jan D. Payne offers readers a journey into the heart of the
American Southwest in a modern-day romantic suspense series. Writing
characters who navigate diverse cultural influences to explore the lines
between the seen and the unseen, the modern and the traditional, the present
and the past—she creates a world where the impossible becomes possible,
and mythical legends come to life.
Jan is a member of Western Writers of America and Women Writing the West. She
and her husband live in northern Minnesota with their three big
dogs—Kaibab, Rudi, and Orrin. Visit her website at: jandpayne.com
Summer Hunter is here to tell us about Protect My Wrong Secret, Pine Peaks Book 2, romantic suspense.
Read on for details...
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Pine Peaks, Book 2
Romantic Suspense
Date Published: August 28, 2025
She’s the wrong secret I should’ve left buried.
Jaci Linwood is unlike any woman I’ve ever known.
Pint-sized and buttoned up, she’s enclosed in sky-high walls I
can’t charm my way past.
Giving up is not my MO.
So when HEY, the security firm I co-own with my ex-military friends, gets
tasked with finding out what she and her boss are doing at Pine Peaks Resort,
I’m stoked to be the private investigator on the case.
Mysteries shroud their presence, but my investigation proves that
they’re not merely vacationing.
Something far more sinister lays at our doorstep and Jaci’s at the
center of it.
I should be doing my job...
But she becomes a fixation I can’t break, a craving that’s never
satisfied, a need I don’t want to escape.
She sees through my facade and challenges me, pushes me, unravels me.
Then I’m straddling two paths—doing my job or following my desire.
The danger creeps closer, bearing down on her.
I must protect her from those who’d cause her harm.
And from my obsessed self...
About the Author
Summer Hunter writes romantic suspense with bite—where love
sizzles, danger lurks, and someone always ends up shirtless.
She calls Hawaii home, which means she’s fueled by sunshine, strong
coffee, and the occasional plot twist that shows up between bites of fried
noodles. Her characters are bold, her banter is sharp, and her
happily-ever-afters always come with a little chaos and a lot of heat.
When she’s not plotting her next twisty love story, she’s probably
side-eyeing tourists from behind her sunglasses and pretending it’s all
“research.”
