Necessary Evil: Book One in the Diamonds, Blood and Shadows . . .
On the Dark Web, Alanna Symone is the most precious commodity alive. Fathoms below in Deep Web, she is also the deadliest. Can hard-nosed, Homicide Detective Cassiel Garrett, figure out her next move or will a “Necessary Evil” kill them both?
Unfinished Business: Book Two in the Shadows, Blood and Diamonds Series
Sex ... Blood … Diamonds. Human capital is the “new” oil. Drug cartels are the aristocracy. Bitcoin is king, but sex, blood and diamonds rule the world.
Alana Symone walked away from that world when Homicide Detective Cassiel Garrett gave her his heart and a new life. Her betrayal has a price.
Nature of the Beast: Book Three in the Shadows, Blood and Diamonds Series
Everything vanished in the heat of a kiss … One breath and the years spun away. Someone wants to kill Willow Daniels. Can she trust the enigmatic owner of a nightclub or will the secrets that surround him destroy them both?
Season of the Blood: Book Four in the Shadows, Blood and Diamonds Series
‘Everything is for sale. Even the screams.’
Secrets drove gifted surgeon, Olivia Calderone, away from Shadow Bay. Now that she’s come home, will something more sinister be the death of her?
Homicide Lieutenant, Gabriel Garrett, is a man well acquainted with shadows and darkness. With the discovery of a mass grave in his hometown that shines a light on an underworld no one knew existed, his second chance with a long-lost soulmate hangs in the balance. Will his pursuit of justice restore a love interrupted or will the truth destroy them both?
Knight of Bronzeville: Book Two in the Knights of the Castle Series
Naleighna Kai and Stephanie M. Freeman
Chaz Maharaj thought he could maintain the lie of a perfect marriage for his adoring fans … until he met Amanda. The connection between them should have ended with that unconditional “hall pass” which led to one night of unbridled passion. But once would never satisfy his hunger for a woman who could never be his. When Amanda walked out of his life, it was supposed to be forever. Neither of them could have anticipated fate’s plan.
More . . . .
Book Excerpt from Season of the Blood: Book Four in the Shadows, Blood and Diamonds Series
I am not one or the other.
Names are petty and mine never fit no how. It’s enough that I exist. Profound and profane is good enough for me. I am perfect in my otherness, believe that.
I am something else.
Such a simple truth that dogged my steps from the time I was born. Can’t say my parents loved me, you understand. On the outside I resembled every little girl all decked out in barrettes and bows. Under my skirts… well that was another story entirely. Never thought anything was right or wrong with me until the games started with Daddy.
I won’t bore you with the particulars. Spare me the tears and the guilt that passes for sympathy. All you need to know is that by my twelfth birthday Daddy was in the ground and I put him there. Planted him better than any undertaker or gardener. You don’t get to know how I finished him neither. All you need to know is that he died screaming. Made damned sure of that. I even joined him at one point… in screaming that is. Laughed a little too.
Mamma married again and you’d think she’d trade up. Hearing the grunts and groans and the occasional gag before she bolted to the bathroom served as a marker. What she couldn’t abide, and more or less let slide I was assigned to.
To keep the peace…. Hell, maybe to take her place on account of the new baby on the way. Out with the old and in with the new, I guess. Hoped it wasn’t true. Prayed it wasn’t, but then I heard the floor creak and my doorknob turn. You know how the story goes.
Can’t stay anywhere for free.
Frying pan to the fire. Rolled out with the clothes on my back and a sweaty, crumpled five in my pocket. Won’t tell you how I earned that or about my first night’s peace. You see my otherness had its perks and buyers. Some meaner than others, but it was business; nothing personal.
Snuffling back blood and spitting out a tooth or two makes you humble or mean. I chose the latter and had a good run until I didn’t
That was where she found me. Hair like flames; green eyes like hellfire. Never said a word. Just sat there in an alley that reeked of piss, vomit, and my own fear. Sat there as fine as you please on a wooden milk crate next to the pile of garbage I’d been thrown in.
Followed her I don’t remember how many city blocks. Thought I lost her in the shadows of the streetlights. It was almost daylight before we got to where she was going. She unlocked the door to an apartment and went in leaving the choice to me.
It is one I will never regret.
It’s why I’m here with grey eyes, sagging breasts and a silver beard to match. Filed my teeth down to points and forked my tongue. Can lick many things in many directions and I often do. People think me a monster, and I am. I live, lie, and fuck all in equal measure.
Male…female or something else on the menu, I don’t discriminate.
I run it all; buy and sell it all. It’s what I am, who I am and what I do.
And I’m good at it.
With a shot glass in one hand and a blunt dangling from the corner of my mouth I am the one your Mamma couldn’t conjure in her worse night terror. But to her…. Not Mamma, you dumb shit. The one that saved my life and straightened my crown of bones. To her I am Blood. I’d kill or die for her and that’s even after I betrayed her.