Unforgettable Revenge: Glory and Satisfaction is the latest box set released by the Author’s Billboard. The collection is chock full of Romantic Suspense stories to set your heart fluttering and your veins thrumming!
Eight New York Times, USA Today, and International Bestselling Authors have joined forces to bring you fast-paced love stories so filled with passion and danger, you won’t want to put them down.
Today, we shine the spotlight on Special Agent Hunter by Mimi Barbour (NYT & USAT best-selling, award-winning author)
Blurb:
Detective Cora Taylor isn’t expecting the cop who’d haunted her dreams for ten years to return and find her drunk, wearing a torn wedding dress, and surrounded with tiny, white puppies. Go figure her rotten luck. The last time they’d met, she’d been a sweet-looking rookie too fearful to shoot a killer who ended up later murdering a family of four.
Guilt from that night changed her into a speed demon, a hardened detective with colorful language… in fact a whole new persona. One who wears too much makeup, bleaches her short messy hair, and has developed professional skills that earns everyone’s respect.
Agent Kal Hunter remains flummoxed by the altered vision of the pony-tailed rookie he remembers to the sexy woman he sees today. Being OCD about most things in his world, this unconventional female rings his bell constantly. Besides his need to have her assistance in stopping the ten-year-old, cold-case killer who’s again on a rampage, there’s something about her he can’t resist.
She’s her own boss, a cop who has no illusions. Yet when her shell is penetrated, there’s sweetness that rips a man to pieces.
He has only one worry.
When they meet up with the savage killer this time, will… can she take the shot?
Excerpt:
Kal had never before been greeted at an unlocked door by a fluffball of white exuberance. Upon entering Cora Taylor’s home, hit with the doggy smell he knew well enough from his own place, they stepped into the kitchen and could see why the odor had lingered.
A woman, her short blonde hair sticking out all over her head, tears messing with closed eyes completely covered in mascara and eyeliner running over her tear-dried cheeks, lay propped against the wall. A ruffled white wedding gown spilled around her body as she was spread-eagled on the floor, one ripped satin sleeve hanging loose.
An empty bottle of expensive rum was clutched in the right hand while one of the multiple pups snoozed in the left. Other fluffies were curled into her skirts, the ruffles hiding their bodies until they moved, stumbling forward on fat little legs to get their portion of attention. He counted five in all until the mother dog moved into her position of protection. Her lips growled a warning toward him as if she was worried he was planning to mess with her mistress.
Stunned, he stood back, having to use the counter for support. My Lord, he wanted so badly to pull out his phone and take a shot of the indescribable scene. The man with him began to chuckle under his breath before he turned to Kal. “It’s Cora’s weekend. I forgot.”
“Does she do this every weekend?” Stunned, he asked the question, hoping the answer would clear up his vision of a cop suffering a really bad problem.
“God, no. It’s only one weekend each year – you know, close to the same one as ten years ago when the first killing happened. She handles this time in her own way – gets drunk and lives through the three days as best she can. Only this year her best friend Sadie got married, so she has the wedding dress on.”
“Wait, if her friend Sadie was getting married, why does Cora have on the dress?”
“Because Sadie found out that her fiancé, Jon, got Briana, her partner at their hair salon, pregnant and ran away before the ceremony. Guess they changed clothes before she headed to the airport, leaving Cora to deal with the groom and the guests. Gotta say it was a humdinger watching Cora beat the bastard with the bouquet before she told the rest of us to enjoy the luncheon and then hightailed it outta there to come home and hide away for the rest of the time.”
Captain Swanson, Larry, finally leaned down to pick up one of the squalling pups. He petted the fussing mother dog so she wouldn’t fret. “It’s okay, Charli. I won’t hurt your babies.”
She’d backed down when it was Larry who’d moved in and not the stranger she seemed wary of. “This one is going to be our baby once she’s weaned.”
Just as Kal felt his head would explode, Cora opened her bleary eyes and stared at the two men. Words spoken in a rusty tone of indignant reprisal were not quite whispered, but close. “Get out of my house, or I’ll get my gun.”
“Now she’s going to shoot.” Kal’s muttered words made Larry grin, but he ignored him and bent down to the woman. “Honey, no one’s shooting anyone. We need your help, so get your shit together and clean yourself up.”
Cora moved her hand, and realizing she still held a puppy, she gently lowered it to rest on her skirt. Dropping the empty rum bottle, she raised her hands to her eyes, her clenched fists leaving more of a mess on her colorful cheeks.
Dried tears destroyed the kaleidoscope of blues and purples that had once graced her eyes. The streaks of black that had been mascara and eyeliner in another life made her look like a desperate rock star who’d gone wild with her makeup.
Seeing that the men weren’t going to budge, she tried to stand, only to fall over from the weight of the heavy crinoline skirt and the pups still using it as their mattress.
Larry reached down to scatter a couple of the pups, while Kal lifted the one nearest him only to get his face washed from the fluffy white handful. Sad for having to put it down, he lowered it close to where the food bowls had been filled but were now destroyed with pellets scattered everywhere.
Pointing toward the man who earned a scowl, Cora spoke in a strained voice. “Who’s the stranger you brought into my house?” Struggling to get to her feet, she fell back in a mound of tangled satin skirts, her bare legs showing among the mess of satin and crinoline. Before he could answer, she waved her hand. “Never mind. Just help me up, and then find me some Tylenol. I mean a bottle of the sons of bitches. I need a shower. And grab those fucking puppies before they get into the rest of the place and shit everywhere. Call Mona and tell her to get her ass over here. She was supposed to pick up the little bastards the day after the wedding.”
“It is the day after the wedding. She probably tried to get your attention, but you’d be too drunk to answer your phone, Rookie.”
“Bull. She knows where I keep the keys. You did.”
“The door was open when I got here.”
“See!”
Scratching his head, seeming to know better than to argue, Larry asked, his tone reasonable, “Did you hear anyone knocking?”
As if his words got through, she slammed her hand on the wall to stop from falling over and whirled around to face him. “Shit. Do I have to do everything around here? Whatever. Call her.”
“Say please, and I might.”
“How about I say go fuck yourself?”
Laughing as if he’d heard the biggest joke ever, Larry nodded. “Go get cleaned up, honeybunch. I brought an old friend of yours, but he wouldn’t recognize you today. Hell, I’m having trouble myself. Never thought I’d see you wearing a wedding dress, Rookie.”
Cora stopped struggling to walk, pulling at the skirts, and cussing under her breath. She turned and glared at Kal, then lowered her head as if she had no idea or gave a damn who he was.
If Kal hadn’t have been so close, he wouldn’t have seen her eyes widen or her cracked lips clutch her teeth as if to hold in a cry. Then she’d swung around so quickly, her skirts almost pulled her down before she struggled to get the crinoline and ruffles through the doorway into the other part of the house.
He managed to grab the same puppy who’d nestled in her hand and who suddenly began to follow the woman who’d given her warmth and been so gentle. The baby cried in frustration, struggling to shadow the one she’d chosen as hers.
Kal knew exactly how the wriggler felt…
You can get your copy of Special Agent Hunter through any of these vendors:
International Link: mybook.to/specialagenthunter
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Special-Agent-Hunter-Undercover-Book-ebook/dp/B08Q7D4NFS/
Special Agent Hunter is also available in the the Unforgettable Revenge: Glory and Satisfaction Box set.
***Reposted from Susanne Matthews’s blog – Living the Dream on Jan 18, 2021 https://livingthedream941447545.wordpress.com/2021/01/18/unforgettable-revenge-spotlight-on-special-agent-hunter-by-mimi-barbour/comment-page-1/?unapproved=337&moderation-hash=83400c551bc55184bcf547995699bdf4#comment-337
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