Coming August 14th, 2012

After three years at war, the First Warlord of the Forest alone faces the newly won peace with trepidation–a curse ensures the wolves of Farran’s family line are fit only for violence.  Denied an enemy, he would prefer to return to his remote keep alone and turn that inevitable rage inward. Unfortunately, there’s the small matter of the bride he took in a moment of madness.

Iloria is a gently reared lady, trained from childhood to be the wife of the High Lord himself.  Instead, she finds herself wed to his brutish commander, a man who offered kindness in her weakest moment.  She’s more than willing to turn her dreams toward building a life with Farran, but her new husband seems reluctant to speak to her, much less bed her.

Farran’s isolated castle offers him little respite from the temptation of Iloria’s stubborn affections.  Every encounter with her chips away at his self-control–a dangerous thing for a cursed man.  If he takes her to his bed, he won’t stop until he’s mated his virgin bride…but if he fails to consummate their union, he risks losing the only person who’s ever made him feel like more than a beast.

More …and the Beast stories

Let’s start at the top!

Southern Arcana

This series is still trucking right along.  We’re looking at the print release of Cipher in August and the digital debut of Impulse on September 4th.  As usual, the print release of Impulse should follow along in 10-12 months.  Next up after that is Enigma, which is looking at a fall 2013 release.  Going forward, I think Southern Arcana novels should come out pretty regularly every fall. We also have a few short stories that we’d really like to write, but as always, those have to fit in and around our contracted work.  (And I will say now for those of you have been waiting for it…Michelle’s story is book #7.)

Sanctuary

The final draft of book one in the new Sanctuary series, Haunted Sanctuary should be headed toward our awesome editor by the end of the day.  This is book one of four in the Green Pines series, and I’ll warn you now–though the relationship arc will be neatly tied up at the end of each of these books, the series arc may be a little cliff-hangery.  However, we’re committed to putting the whole arc out there fairly close together, just like we did with Red Rock Pass.  Tentatively, at this point, we’re looking at January & July 2013 and January & July 2014.  (So all 4 books within 18 months!)

Bloodhounds

This has been a big year for the Bloodhounds. With Merrick’s Destiny out in February, Hunter’s Prey out in March and Archer’s Lady coming out in July. Each Bloodhounds book is a little longer than the previous one, and this trend may continue as we uncover more of the world.  We’ve signed a contract for book #4, Diana’s Hound, which is due out in April 2013.  For those of you who enjoyed Merrick, we’re also planning on doing more side-novellas.  These will always take place away from the main action and focus on only the hero & heroine.  (And future novellas will be distributed to all ebook stores!)

Children of the Undying

These books are my secret favorites, but sadly they’re on the back burner for the immediate future.    The full, long-wided & complicated explanation can be found here.  Rest assured that the next book will be percolating in the back of my head, and when the time is right…well, the time will be right.  Some day. 

And the Beast

The And the Beast stories are in a unique position this year. Last year the series launched six days after a string of tornadoes plowed through a large percentage of the communities around us and so when I say “launched” I mostly mean “limped, unaided, into the world and were promptly neglected by their somewhat shocked & exhausted authors.”   These stories never got the attention I wanted to give them, and so they’ve languished a little, even though we’d already completed story #3 and written most of #4.

At the start of this year we had a hard to make a decision–finish the series out at Samhain (and by doing so, delay the launch of the new Sanctuary books until nearly 2014) or take them out of our Samhain  line-up and hire an editor to go the self-pub route.  Since a far greater percentage of our readers are anxious to read new Sanctuary books, we decided to do the latter.   Iloria is booked with an editor for this summer, and once we’ve got it polished as shiny as we can make it, it will venture forth into the world! If that goes well and people are still excited, we’ll finish up the final story (Malrion’s tale) the same way.

(I do want to emphasize that this was a scheduling conflict only, and not any reflection on Samhain or our editor. If they weren’t so damn enjoyable to work with, it would have been a very easy decision to make!)

Last Call

The Last Call series has been (for the most part!) re-released with new covers.  The previously written books have red covers, and once we’ve finalized a few more details, we’ll be releasing those as a bundle and (hopefully) a print collection.  The new Last Call stories have blue covers.  This is partly so you can easily tell which are reissues and which are new, and partly so it will be easy to tell which books belong to which bundles.  The first of the new stories is Frostbite and it’s available now at most of the bigger stores!  We really love writing these stories, and while we won’t have a regular schedule for them, we hope to find time to squeeze them in once in a while.

Mysterious Projects of Mystery

There are always one or two in the works.    Writing is our day job, our evening job, our hobby and our relaxation technique, so there will always be a few secret projects traipsing through our harddrives.  For now, though, the above projects are our main focus, and that’s plenty to keep us busy.  Even if there are two of us! LOL

Any questions?  Anyone else need a nap?  (By the way–Donna sent Haunted Sanctuary to our editor before I finished this post. She beat me! Curse her!)

Well, we’ve had word from our editor that she’s excited about the proposal we sent in for Bloodhounds #4, and so I’m pleased to be able to say that book four, Diana’s Hound is scheduled for April 2013.

That puts our rough upcoming schedule as:

July: Archer’s Lady (Bloodhounds #3)
August: Iloria (And the Beast #3)
September: Impulse (Southern Arcana #5)
January: Haunted Sanctuary (Green Pines #1/Red Rock Spin-Off)
April: Diana’s Hound (Bloodhounds #4)
Tentative – June/July: Green Pines #2, September/October: Southern Arcana #6

There are some novellas & short stories that may be released or re-released in that time period as well.   I’ll be doing a more in-depth series-by-series update next week that answers some questions I’ve gotten, but for now rest assured we’re plenty busy!

2011 was a bit of an experimental year for us.  We went out on limbs in every direction, and we did it knowing any or all of them could snap.  Heck, we did it knowing it was likely they’d snap.  But no one ever really expects it to happen, even when they try to prepare themselves, because being an author is like being eternally hopeful. You rarely set out to write a book you’re pretty sure no one will want to read.

Here’s the sad, bitter truth that has bummed me out this winter: The Children of the Undying books are not selling well. It’s early days in the actual reporting of numbers yet, but they are pretty indisputable.  The somewhat paradoxical part is that Hammer Down has gotten more positive feedback than any book we’ve written to date, but it just hasn’t translated to sales or even much interest.

And that’s where the tough decision comes in. We don’t work in an atmosphere where our books have to perform out the gate or our publisher will pull the plug.  Instead, we have to look at our current projects and decide what to write based on what we’re excited about, and what our readers are excited about.  At the start of the year, we sat down and took a hard look at what we’d written, what people were buying and what they were e-mailing, commenting & tweeting about, asking for more.

The sad conclusion?  The best way to give the bulk of our readers what they wanted was to set aside Children of the Undying (for now) and use our time on other things that they’re more excited to read. It was a sad choice, and a hard choice, but the thing that made it easier was knowing we had control over it–and that we didn’t have to say goodbye forever.  The beauty of digital publishing is the ability to give a book a chance to find an audience over time.

My secret dream is that Hammer Down will continue to sell a little at a time, and some day not so far in the future we’ll be able to justify carving out the time it’ll take to write the next book.  And I’ll be honest.  I’ve had second thoughts about posting this, because I’m sure some people will not want to start the series knowing it won’t continue in the immediate future, and maybe I’m killing my dream by being too honest.  But this is what feels right, and when I go forward talking about new plans I don’t want to feel like I have to side-step or dance around why the sequel to Hammer Down isn’t on the list.

I want to thank everyone who has read and loved this series, especially Hammer Down, and everyone who has talked about it, gushed about it, given it awards and Top Picks and love.  You guys are awesome, and you’re the reason it was a hard decision AND the reason I have hope we might get to continue.  With all the options open to authors in this awesome day & age, I feel pretty good about hoping that the story doesn’t end here.

In the meantime, we’re still lucky beyond words to work with an editor who was nothing but supportive as we struggled with this decision, to work with a publisher where we get to go out on crazy limbs to begin with, to have friends who petted us and hugged us and kicked our asses and, most of all, to have readers who are endlessly awesome and supportive.  I can’t imagine doing any other job, and I don’t want to.

(Yikes, this post was exactly 666 words, which I suppose is fitting for a post about a demon apocalypse series, but I decided to add this line. Just in case.  Next week I’ll talk about what we are writing in the future, and that won’t be 666 words, hopefully.)

ETA: It occurred to me that those of you who don’t think it’s already late 2013 might not realize why I’m posting this when the book hasn’t been out very long.  But to have the next book in the series out within the general timeline that we usually work for with an ongoing series we’d have to commit to it now.  As it is we’re currently finishing up projects that will be released in summer 2013 and have things contracted straight through 2014.  Since these books take us a fair chunk of time to write, even if we committed to it now, there’s no way it would be coming out before 2014 at the very earliest.  So this is not a, “never ever” blog post, but a, “I’m sorry, not in a timely fashion” one. 

Those of you who read the series know that Julio & Sera have had some important moments in some of the previous books (Deadlock and Cipher in particular) but I also think it marks a slight turn in the series.  This is the first book featuring a hero & heroine who weren’t introduced in Crux, and while you see some old friends (Mac & Jackson are my favorite cameo *g*) much of the book takes place away from the main group in New Orleans.

This is a trend that will continue across the next two books–Enigma, which features two certain bounty hunters tramping across the Southwest, and book #7, which may or may not involve a certain ranch in Wyoming.  (Enough hinting. I’m gonna get in trouble.)

Speaking of Enigma–we had originally intended to try to have it out in May 2013, but these books just take us a lot longer when it comes to revisions and working all the niggly little series arcs and foreshadowing in, so it’s being bumped back a few months to the fall.  That will put it more in line with our usual Southern Arcana release schedule of one a year, which is about what we feel comfortable maintaining without rushing.

So that’s the update! Oh, except also, Impulse is already up for pre-order on Amazon and hopefully will be available on B&N soon too. And since I’m so excited to have finished Impulse, how about I share a promo excerpt.  (A first kiss! And a little naughty.)

Her submission can heal him. His dominance can free her.

Southern Arcana, Book 5

Sera Sinclaire is a New Orleans rarity: a submissive coyote trapped in a town overrun by dominant shapeshifters. Worse, she lacks the willpower to deny the alphas-in-shining-armor who need her soothing presence, even when their protectiveness threatens to crush her hard-won self-reliance.

The only shifter she doesn’t want to push away is Julio Mendoza, a wolf so dominant he’s earned a place on the Southeast council.

Julio doesn’t have the luxury of indulging in the vacation his psychic shrink insists he needs. He can’t turn his back on responsibilities he’s beginning to wish he’d never shouldered. When an obsessive ex endangers Sera, though, instinct drives him to get her out of town. Watching her come to life outside the city makes him feel like he’s finally done something right, and her touch ignites desire he doesn’t want to ignore.

But soon, lighthearted flirting becomes a dangerous game of seduction, where every day spent falling into each other is another day avoiding the truth. Sera’s ex isn’t the only one who’d disapprove of their relationship. There are wolves who would kill to get Sera out of Julio’s life—starting with his own blood kin.

Warning: Contains endless summer road trips, family drama, redneck werewolves, sexual power games and a taboo love affair between a submissive coyote who’s among the last of her kind and a dominant wolf who loves his heroine’s ass. Literally.

* * *
An Excerpt from Impulse
* * *

If he didn’t do anything else right, at least he could do this. “We’re going to keep you safe. Whatever it takes.”

“Any of them would have kept me safe.” She unbuckled her seatbelt with a soft click and slid across the bench seat until she was tucked against his side with one arm wrapped around him in a half-hug. “You’re keeping me sane.”

Sane. Exactly what he wasn’t as he cupped the back of her head and tilted her face to his. Insane, that was more like it—for a thousand different reasons.

He kissed her anyway.

She had soft lips. Soft and warm, and they tasted like the cherry ChapStick she’d tossed into her bag a few miles back. Her hand slapped against his chest, fingers splayed wide, then fisted around his shirt as she moaned, low and hungry.

He wanted to delve deeper, bite her lip and slide his tongue into her mouth. Instead, he lifted his head and fought to slow his breathing. Sera’s fingernails dug into his chest as she voiced her protest in a snarl of loss and caught his lips again.

He reacted without thought, tightened his fingers in her hair and pulled her head back. “Sera.”

She went still. Not just quiet, but utterly still. Even her breathing stopped for one tense moment, and in that moment her power washed over him in a shuddering wave. An alpha’s magic challenged. Hers was sweet and accepting, clinging to him even as her breath escaped on her rushed apology. “I’m sorry—”

“No, I am.” He stroked his thumb over the shell of her ear. “Not about kissing you. I’m not going to apologize for that. But I shouldn’t have done it here. Now.”

“I don’t have very good control.” A confession. A tortured whisper. “I’m so freaking tired of fucking humans. I eat them alive.”

He knew there were human men who could handle fucking shifters—people did it all the time, Mackenzie for one—but Sera seemed caught up on what she wanted versus what she thought she should want. “What you want isn’t so complicated, sweetheart. You’ve just got to let go.”

She shivered. “Letting go is how you drown.”

He still had the taste of her on his tongue. “Not letting go isn’t worth it.”

“No one’s ever caught me.” Her whole damn body trembled with nervous energy. “Last time I let go, I fell forever.”

Her eyes were deep and still despite all that energy. “Does that mean you’re going to hold back now?” he asked.

She fought the grip on her hair, tugged against it until she could nuzzle his chin. Not a very human gesture, and he could feel the feral edge of her coyote beneath the surface. “I don’t know how to let go a little. Don’t ask for it if you don’t really want it. It’ll change this trip. It’ll change everything.”

It sounded like an ultimatum and a promise. It sounded like a warning. “We’ll find out,” he whispered. “Tonight.”

Warm breath feathered across his ear. She licked the lobe, then closed her teeth on it with a quiet growl. “The clerk inside is staring at us.”

“Do you blame her?” After another heartbeat, Julio released Sera and started the car. “Probably wondering whether she needs to call the cops on us.”

After retreating to her side of the car, Sera gave the attendant a cheerful wave. “Maybe she was enjoying the show. You’re hotter than any of the softcore stuff on cable.”

“If you say so.”

“You don’t fool me, mister. You look like a man with a healthy stash of porn.” Her seatbelt clicked into place before she turned to eye him. “I’m thinking…busty cheerleaders in short skirts? Or is that too vanilla?”

“I’m all about variety,” he told her solemnly. “Busty cheerleaders are well-represented in my collection, but I would never limit myself so severely.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught her grin. “I stick to the Playgirl stuff. Oiled-up men aren’t really my thing, but at least they go for the hunky ones.”

He flashed her a knowing grin of his own. “And you like the men in uniform, right? All the ladies do.”

“You mean like McNeely?” She whistled as he steered the car out of the parking lot. “That is one fine hunk of wolf. Too bad he’s got a big dumb crush on Giselle.”

After Wesley Dade’s conveniently telling remark, they’d probably spent the weekend in bed together. “That’s your type, huh? Tall, dark and handsome?”

“You have to ask, when I just tried to climb into your lap in a parking lot?”

“You’re the one who brought it up.”

She laughed. “You’re tall, dark and handsome, Mendoza.”

“You’re mostly right, Sinclaire.” He adjusted the rearview mirror so the slanting sunlight wouldn’t blind him and pressed his foot harder on the accelerator. “I’m not particularly tall.”

“You’re taller than me.” She reached across the seat, and her fingers brushed the back of his neck in a caress almost as teasing as her words. “But not too much taller. Which would come in handy, if you’d ever considered bending me over furniture for dirty sex.”

The car swerved as his grip tightened on the wheel. It wasn’t hard to call forth images to match her words—her naked, rounded hips, pale skin under his hands, and the smooth, endless expanse of her back stretched out before him.

Her fingertip snuck under the collar of his shirt. “If you were taller, I’d have to stand on phone books or something.”

That bare touch on the back of his neck hardened his cock. “Arrive alive, honey. Hands to yourself.”

Another laugh, but she eased away. “And this is why everyone in New Orleans thinks we’re going to spend the next week having sex. They all know I can’t keep my hands off you.”

* * *

Behold! The Amazon Widget of Temptation!

Books featured this week include the MIDNIGHT JUSTICE novellas from Samhain Publishing (Superlovin’ by Vivi Andrews, Breaking Bad by Jodi Redford & Blade of Moonlight by Kimberly Dean) along with two other Samhain releases: Under the Hill: Dogfighters by Alex Beecroft and Hidden Heat by Leah Braemel.  Rounding out the list are Lauren Dane’s latest sci-fi romance and the second in Zoe Archer’s historical paranormal romance series!

ZombieJoe!

(The book will be going in the mail next week! Enjoy!)

And the winner of a copy of Cry Sanctuary is…

Vickie!

(Email bree@moirarogers.com for your prize!)

(Yes, it’s next to a bottle of Diet Pepsi. That’s so y’all know it’s really my desk.)

Some of you may remember the story of how I got Vicki Pettersson to give me an ARC by talking about dead puppies.  (No puppies were harmed in the procurement of this ARC. It was just an unexpectedly effective strategy.)  The short version of the story is that I fell in so much love with this cover and am happy to report that the words inside the book are every bit as beautiful as the cover.  Really, this book has some stunning prose, and I think anyone who has been looking for some dark, gritty noir with a paranormal edge might really enjoy this one.

Because I know some of my romance lovers will ask: yes, there’s a romance arc, AND it’s told from the 3rd person POVs of both the hero & heroine. This is one of those books where I think you could make arguments over genre, but it felt just a little more urban fantasy than paranormal romance to me.  However, it hit a nice place along that line, and I think romance readers could really enjoy it.  (And Griff is pretty damn awesome, y’all.)  My understanding is that this couple will continue in the next couple books, so there will be more of them!

Now that I’ve blathered a bit, how about the official blurb?

Griffin Shaw used to be a PI, but that was back when gumshoes hoofed the streets . . . and he was still alive. Fifty years later, he’s a celestial Centurion, assisting the recently, and violently, dead. Yet just because he’s an angel doesn’t mean he’s a saint. One small mistake has altered fate, and now he’s been dumped back onto to the mortal mudflat to collect another soul—Katherine “Kit” Craig, a journalist whose latest investigation is about to get her clipped.

Bucking heavenly orders, Grif refuses to let this sable-haired siren with hairpin curves come to harm. Besides, protecting her offers a chance to find the truth about his own mysterious death — and wreak some vengeance for the murder of his beloved wife, Evie.

Joining forces, Kit and Grif’s search for answers leads beyond the blinding lights of the Strip into the dark heart of an evil conspiracy. But a ruthless killer determined to destroy them isn’t Griffin’s biggest threat. His growing attraction to Kit could cost them both their lives, as well as the answer to the greatest mystery of his long afterlife …

Who killed Griffin Shaw?

This contest is for a paperback ARC (which is an uncorrected proof copy, and could contain some minor changes from the finished book.)  I’ll ship it anywhere in the world, so it’s open to my international people too.    

TWO STEPS to enter:  first fill out the form below so I’ll have your contact information if you win, and then leave a comment and tell me what part of the book you find most intriguing.  (For me, it was TOTALLY the noir/50s feel of the cover, and that was conveyed beautifully in the book, too!)

After that, we’ll be working on another Bloodhounds side-novella AND the fourth Bloodhounds book (which may or may not feature a certain inventor) and after THAT we’re finishing up Southern Arcana #6.  So we’ve got our summer’s worth of writing blocked out, and I expect we’ll be kept hopping.

However, the full, complete update will have to wait, because today is a writing day.  So I’ll leave you with this taste of Haunted Sanctuary — unedited snippet, remember!

* * *

The world dipped again, and color exploded behind her eyes.  Dazzling greens and vivid golds twisted and danced as she hid her face against his throat with a not very human whimper.

Jay pressed his lips to her temple and another wave of heat washed over her.

Stroking. Coaxing. He was surrounding her, pushing in from all sides, and some foreign part of her pushed back.  The forces collided at her skin and sparked lightning.  She cried out and struggled in his arms, driven by the sudden urge to fight, to flee, to run.

Another door slammed, and Eden felt cool wood under her hands.  Jay was still whispering, only this time his fingers moved busily, tugging open the buttons on her shirt.

Good.  Her shirt was claustrophobic.  Clutching, clinging fabric, trapping her in her body.  Her fingers felt too clumsy, but his glided over the buttons, freeing one after another with a gentle rasp of fabric over plastic.

Patient.  She had to be patient.  But when he slipped his hands under the fabric to guide it down her arms, he leaned close enough to put the vulnerable expanse of his throat at risk.

Clumsy, arrogant male.  Snarling, she lunged for him, intent on setting her teeth in his skin.

He stopped her short with a firm hand wound in her hair.  “Bite me and I’ll spank you, honey.”

She panted, sucking in short, sharp breaths that only served to drag his scent into her lungs.  She’d never noticed it before, not really. Not enough to pick apart the clean smell of soap from the sharp undertones of his aftershave.  And she’d never imagined the lower notes, the earth, the rain—like the wind when it ripped through town ahead of a bad storm.  Wild nature, unchecked.

Seductive.  She strained against his grip on her hair, yearning toward his throat with a different purpose now. To bury her face in the crook of his neck and wallow in that wildness, to rub her cheek against his skin so the intoxicating memory of it would linger after he was gone.

Instead of loosening his hold on her hair, he tugged her head back, baring the line of her throat.  A brush of lips, almost like a kiss—and then he bit her.

* * *

Va-voom! Back to the writing cave with me. Send brownies if you’ve got them.

Last week we signed contract #20 with Samhain (and with Anne!) and it was for a new book in this universe.  Going back to reread and writing about where Keith & Abby are a few years later has made me all nostalgic, so I’m going to be doing some contests & excerpts over the next few weeks as we finish up the first Green Pines book.

So here it is… almost four (four! ACK!) years later!

Cry Sanctuary

Length: Category Novel | Rating: Hot | Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Themes: Werewolves, Magic, Guns & Explosions, Ex-Military, Dominance Games, Badass Alphas, Witches & Wizards

* * *

For the seventh time in as many minutes, Abigail Adler checked her cell phone’s display. “Still no service.”

“I told you.” Dylan grunted as he tried to wrestle the blown tire off his car. “I don’t think you can use cell phones up here. Even if you got reception, the magic they use to keep humans out would screw it all up.” He spoke calmly, but the tension in his voice provoked a reaction she didn’t understand.

Abby took a deep breath and distracted herself by counting the lug nuts lying in the upturned hubcap. Finally, when she had her frustration under control, she spoke again. “Does anyone know where we are?” Do you know, Dylan? Please say yes.

The tension grew worse, prickling tangibly against her skin. “I told someone we were coming, but I didn’t exactly have time to call ahead and make hotel reservations, Abby.”

“I know.” She closed her eyes and leaned against the side of the car. “I know this wasn’t easy for you.” He’d put his life on the line to get her out of Helena, defying his alpha. It was something she could still barely wrap her brain around. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” he responded, his voice almost harsh. “It’s my damn fault you’re in this situation. My fault you’re–” He wrenched the tire free and sent it skittering back down the road in a show of temper and inhuman strength that would have shocked her a few weeks ago. “Damn it, I should have protected you before it happened.”

She closed her eyes again and tried to calm her pounding heart. “It’s not your fault.” He couldn’t have helped what happened. He couldn’t have stopped it.

Only a month earlier, Abby had lived a quiet life. She’d had work and family and friends, and she’d known nothing of Dylan’s secret. In the years they’d been friends, she’d known him as a funny, sensitive, compassionate man.

She hadn’t known Dylan Gennaro was a werewolf.

She’d met Alan Matthews one night at a restaurant. Dylan had gone out with Abby and a group of friends, and Alan had come over to the table. He was tall, blond and gorgeous, and she’d been mildly flattered by the attention he’d shown her that evening. Only Dylan’s obvious discomfort had kept her from accepting the date he offered.

Then, two nights later, something attacked her in the parking lot outside her apartment building, and her world exploded.

She wanted to scream at the injustice of it. Instead, she helped Dylan roll the spare tire into place and lift it onto the axle. “It’s not your fault,” she repeated. She touched his shoulder lightly.

He stiffened under her touch, and she knew he was fighting not to shrug her hand away. He’d been drowning in guilt for weeks now, choking himself with it as he struggled to help her adapt to the life that had been thrust upon her.

The hardest part had been watching his reactions change, as if some instinct that had lain dormant while she was nothing but human had shoved its way to the surface. He acted antsy whenever she got too close, and withdrew when she touched him. Their easy, open friendship was gone.

Dylan focused on the spare tire and said nothing until he had it fixed into place. The line of his jaw tightened as he took a breath. “Hand me the lug nuts?”

She wiped her palms on her jeans and gathered them with both hands. “Have you ever been to Red Rock before?”

“No.” The word came out short and rough. “Alan would have killed me. Even talking about Gavin Hamilton is treason, as far as he’s concerned.”

She handed him the first lug nut. “Because Hamilton takes people in?”

“Yeah. Because he’s fighting for the old ways.”

He’d tried to explain it to her before, but it hadn’t made much sense. She opened her mouth to question him, but a faint noise tickled her ears. A car or a truck was somewhere down the road and coming closer. “Dylan–”

He was already on his feet. “Do you know how to use a gun?”

“No.” The thought that Dylan did shocked her. “I-I can try.”

Dylan strode around the side of the car and reached through the passenger window to open his glove compartment. He pulled out a small, compact gun, and the ease with which he handled it alarmed her even more. “This is the safety.” He showed her how to switch it off. “If someone gets close to you, point and squeeze the trigger. I’m going to deal with whoever’s in that car, and you’re going to run. If anyone comes after you, do your best to shoot them.”

* * *

Want to enter to win a copy? Just leave a comment with your preferred ebook format and we’ll draw one winner next Monday.