I haven't blogged in almost a month because I've been struggling with my next Getaway Girls book. It's always fun to write about flesh-eating scavengers, but they're not the most cooperative of characters. You give someone a lust of human flesh, superhuman hearing, and a hot body and suddenly they're out of control. Divas!
So here's a quick snapshot from my current book, The Getaway Girls: A New Orleans Tale of Monsters, Mayhem and Moms - and hey, if you like it, you can read the entire first chapter for free on Amazon.com. Just a thought . . .
Beth hurried out of the casino and scanned the front
entrance but there was so sign of Syd or Audrey.
She walked quickly around the side of the building, her
eyes darting back and forth to make sure no one was following. Something moved in the darkness and she held
her breath.
“SYD!” Audrey’s voice screamed.
“Audrey!” Beth
called out as she ran toward her friend.
Audrey’s dress was spattered in blood and dust, her brown hair hung in
her face and dried red speckles dotted her cheek.
“Shit, you’re bleeding!” Beth said, but Audrey shook
her head.
“No, it’s not mine. Chet killed a girl in the
bathroom. Syd and I were there,” Audrey
panted, looking around the empty lot.
“Where’s Syd?” Beth demanded.
“I don’t know!” Audrey replied, “I left her in the
bushes to go find her some clothes, and when I got back with this coat she was
gone.”
“Why’d she need clothes?” Beth asked.
“Long story,” Audrey answered. “Short version is that Syd just danced in the
Burlesque Ball. She’s wearing a g-string
and pasties and now she’s disappeared.”
“Shit.” Beth bit her lip. “Naked and missing is not a
good combination when we’re getting picked off one by one.” She turned back
toward the casino entrance and beckoned. “Come on, let’s get a cab.”
“Where are we going?” Audrey asked.
“The Ninth Ward,” Beth replied grimly. “Declan told me to
go there right before he flipped out.”
“What do you mean he flipped out? Where is he?” Audrey looked around, suddenly
realizing Declan wasn’t there.
“He went looking for you and Syd in the bathroom,” Beth
said as they hurried toward the taxi line. “And then the place was on fire and
Declan stumbled out looking like three kinds of crazy. He shoved me, acted like
he wanted to fuck me or kill me, and then he said to head for the house. He said Chet had killed some girl and told
him that Carl had you and Syd.”
“Chet was there all right,” Audrey said, shuddering.
“But not Carl. Chet blocked us from
leaving the bathroom, so we climbed through the air vents till we hit the
stage.”
“Whoa, that’s so Die
Hard!”
“It was so scary is what it was.” Audrey said, wiping a
sticky strand of hair from her face. “But I can’t believe we made it out of there
to lose Syd in the bushes!”
“You didn’t lose
her, somebody took her. Let’s get out of
here before we’re next!” Beth said, flagging down a taxi.
The driver, a middle-aged black man wearing wire-framed
glasses rolled down his window. “Where
you ladies want to go?”
“We need to go to
the corner of Clouet and Roman.”
The driver raised a graying eyebrow and looked Beth up
and down. “You don’t want to go there, Miss.”
“Yes we do,” Beth insisted, reaching for the door
handle.
The driver immediately pushed the automatic lock button
and shook his head. “Not with me, you’re not. That’s just bad news waitin’ to
happen and y’all ain’t got no business there.”
Beth opened her mouth again to argue when a shiny black
van squealed to an abrupt stop behind the taxi.
The driver looked in his rearview mirror and swore. He looked at Audrey and shook his head,
mouthing the word, “Run!” before he gunned the gas pedal and took off down the
street.
The door slid open and a white hand gestured from
within, as an unfamiliar voice called out, “Get in now!”
Beth and Audrey looked at the door and didn’t move.
A man’s head popped out. He was tall, thin, and dark-haired with cool
gray eyes that scanned the women in quick appraisal.
“Why should we
get in with you?” Beth asked, as she and Audrey took a step back away from the
curb.
The man took an iPad from the van and held it out in
his hand for the women to see. On the small
screen they could see Evie draped across a couch, her eyes closed.
“Evie!” Beth cried.
The man answered in a smooth, lilting voice, “She is
safe. For now.”
Beth hesitated and the man sighed. “Oh, all right. We have the other one, too.” He tapped the
screen and a different image appeared, a woman wrapped in a black cloak looking
at once frightened and extremely pissed off.
“Syd!” Audrey said, and angrily demanded, “What have
you done with her?”
The man pursed his lips. “I’ve done nothing. And I will take you to both of them, but I
must insist that you come with me. ”
“This seems like a bad idea,” Audrey whispered and Beth
nodded, just as a giant blonde hulk of a man emerged from the driver’s seat and
moved swiftly around the corner of the van.
Beth looked up in surprise and his thick arm swept her straight into the
vehicle, Audrey tumbling in beside her. The door slid quickly closed behind
them and the automatic locks clicked into place, the sound chillingly loud in
the dark, quiet interior.
“Where’s Syd?”
Audrey repeated as they huddled in the soft black-carpeted interior of the van.
“She’s with us,” the gray-eyed man replied from the
front passenger seat. “We found her
naked in the bushes, where you left
her.”
“I left her to go find some clothes!” Audrey said
defensively.
The man shrugged. “If my friend was naked and Carl was on the hunt, I wouldn’t leave her in a shrub.”
“Hey, fuck you!” Audrey said, and Beth tugged on her
arm.
“Remember, he’s got Syd and Evie. Don’t piss him off.” Beth murmured.
The man gave a self-satisfied smirk to Audrey before
turning his gaze back toward the iPad, where he’d changed the image back to Evie
again. He gave a luxurious sigh. “I’ve been enjoying Evie’s company, she’s a
delightful girl.”
Audrey glanced at the screen. “She looks unconscious. How exactly have you been enjoying her company?”
The man’s mouth curved up into a dangerous smile. “Oh, I find women don’t always have to be
awake to be enjoyed.”
Want to read more? Check out The Getaway Girls: A New Orleans Tale of Monsters, Mayhem and Moms on Amazon.com.
