What Once Was Perfect by Zoe York
Kyle and Laney shared a perfect summer 12 years ago, and have never moved past their breakup. Now she’s back for the holidays and they have a chance to work out things out and move on with their lives. But moving on doesn’t make sense when you’ve finally reconnected with the only person you’ve ever truly loved.
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Two Weeks in Geneva: Book One by Lydia Rowan
An unplanned work trip to Geneva, Switzerland puts Quinn Jeffries on a collision course with the rage-inducing, sinfully handsome Alexander Montague, and it might change both of their lives forever. Two Weeks in Geneva: Book One is the first part of a three-part serial.
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Tempted by the Pack [Blue Moon Brides] by Anne Marsh
For Rafer Breaux, life in the Louisiana Bayou is harsh, violent, and deeply sensual. The Cajun werewolf lives for his Pack and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep his brothers safe, including hunt for a mate--because the longer a wolf lives without a mate, the harder it becomes for that wolf to shift back. When a blue moon finally rises and leads Rafer to his mate, Rafer will need every weapon in his sensual arsenal to tempt that one special woman into his arms and the heart of the Pack.
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Sweet Girl by Cristin Harber
She’s his best friend’s little sister. The definition of hands off. Cash has tried to ignore her for years. Those innocent eyes and her smile that screams kiss-me-if-you-dare… Instead, he’s looked at every pretty little thing who’s crossed his path, all to ignore the girl he seems destined to want.
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Scott's Solace (Lightning Saga) by Lyn Brittan
When businessman Scott Ares finds his old friend from the farm with tattoos and a Harley, he can’t help but follow her home. Or rather, drag her into his. A standalone novella in the New Adult Paranormal Romance series, The Lightning Saga.
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Queen of Starlight (SheerSpace Book 1) by Jessa Slade
Transformed by empathic crystals into the perfect paramour, Benedetta Galil must save her fading world from raiders seeking to corrupt the crystals and conquer all of charted space. Mercenary sheership Captain Corso Deynah left oppression behind him on a burning planet and has no use for a sex slave, even one as seductive as Benedetta. But while he stubbornly resists her body, her fierce spirit tempts him, and he will risk everything—his ship, his seclusion, the very stars—to win not just her passion but her love.
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Opposing Sides (University Park Series) by CM Doporto
Lexi Thompson finds herself to be wed to the university’s star baseball Pitcher, Collin Norris. Collin’s damn hot, but his lack of spark has Lexi thinking twice before she says ‘I Do’. When she’s forced to tutor bad boy football quarterback, Raven Davenport, she discovers all the things she’s missing with Collin.
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New York (Allie's War Early Years) by JC Andrijeski
Allie calls it her New York jinx. Already on this trip, obnoxious band groupies hang on her boyfriend, a stalker leaves her cryptic and creepy notes, she nearly gets arrested watching a Seer get tasered by cops. But when a religious cult targets Allie for an end of the world ritual, her visit goes from annoying to quite probably fatal.
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His Wicked Games (The Cunningham Family #1) by Ember Casey
Lily Frazer would do anything to save the Frazer Center for the Arts—even take on the infamous billionaire Calder Cunningham. As it turns out, the arrogant billionaire is willing to give her the money he promised, but there's a catch: she must win it from him. And the games he has in mind aren't exactly... innocent.
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Dream Vacation by Sidney Bristol
She’s ready to live a new life.
Naomi has turned her life around and to celebrate she’s taking a decadent, tropical vacation. There’s just one problem. A tropical storm has blown in and stranded her at a deserted resort. Alone.
He’s willing to travel half-way around the world for love.
Luc is about to crash his best friend’s vacation. There’s just one problem. They’ve never met before. Their online friendship is about to go physical, in every way possible. He’s not the man she first met when they began a virtual journey together, but he wants her to love the man he’s become.
Two people. One vacation. It’s time to live out all their passionate desires.
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Dangerous Proximity (Bad Judgment #1) by Leigh James
New lawyer Nicole is always on the right side of the law, until hot billionaire Broden Walker becomes her client. Then people start trying to kill them and Walker starts trying to charm the pants off her. From then on, all bets are off and any rule can and will be broken...
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Curse of the Alpha: Episodes 1 & 2 by Tasha Black
Ainsley Connor is on a mission to get back to the penthouses of Manhattan before the full moon. Will the pack manage to stake their claim on her before it's too late?
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Crave by Violet Vaughn
Casey Cassidy moves to Colorado to become a ski instructor and find a man that wants children. Blaine is everything she thought she wanted, but their relationship lacks passion. When her ex shows up must she choose between true love and a family?
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Claimed by the Elven King: Part One by Cristina Rayne
For Emily Ford, being awakened in the dead of night by what seems to be the very shadows in her bedroom come to life is the least of her worries as she is spirited away to become the new wife of an elven king for the purpose of bearing his heirs. But can a human ever really win the heart of an elf or have a place within the elven court?
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Balanced on the Blade's Edge by Lindsay Buroker
Sardelle Terushan wakes from three hundred years in a mage stasis shelter, only to realize that she is the last of the sorcerers who were purged during an uprising centuries before. The soldiers guarding the mine where she awakens still fear magic and have a policy of killing anyone suspected of using it. The base commander, Colonel Ridgewalker Zirkander, charms her with his wit and easy smile, but if he finds out who and what she truly is, his duty will force him to kill her.
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Anja's Star by Lyn Brittan
Rule 1: Don't lose a pirate's spaceship. Rule 2: If you break the first rule, run...and bring the pirate's hottie son with you.
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Shopping for a Billionaire 1 by Julia Kent
When mystery shopper Shannon Jacoby meets billionaire Declan McCormick with her hand down a toilet in the men’s room of one of his stores, it’s love at first flush in this hilarious new romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Julia Kent.
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Influential Magic by Deanna Chase
Welcome to the Crescent City, the home of Willow Rhoswen, faery and magical baker extraordinaire. While fighting for her life, Willow is caught between two gorgeous men as she navigates the corruption of a powerful vampire organization and her own supernatural government agency.
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Haunted on Bourbon Street (Jade Calhoun, Book 1) by Deanna Chase
When empath Jade Calhoun moves into an apartment above a strip bar on Bourbon Street, she expects life to get interesting. What she doesn’t count on is making friends with an exotic dancer, attracting a powerful spirit, and having feelings for Kane, her sexy landlord. But when the ghost moves from spooking Jade, to terrorizing Pyper, the dancer, it’s up to Jade and Kane to use their unique abilities to save her.
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Then We Kissed (Bliss Harbor) by Juliet Spenser
When curvy, no-nonsense bakery owner Charlotte Heatley wakes up with regrets over a fun, drunken night with US Army Captain Bradley Ryder, all she wants is to avoid him and deliver a cake to her client’s wedding reception. But when a mixup puts the cake and reception in danger, Charlotte has to act quickly. It's not long before she realizes that sometimes you have to get everything wrong before you can get the most important things right, especially when it comes to love and cake.
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Rae Falling: A Romance, (Episode 1 of Billionaires in Disguise: Rae) by Blair Babylon
One wild quickie with a sexy stranger will change Rae’s life forever. Will the secretive Wulf turn out to be her Prince Charming or the Devil who tempts her to ruin?
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Falling Hard, a Romance (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #1) by Blair Babylon
At high-class party, Lizzy meets Theo, a handsome, bright lawyer who wants to take things slowly, and Mannix, an ex-pro-football player with a taste for the disturbing. Romantic and suspenseful, Falling Hard sizzles with sex and explores the power of love to heal the deepest wounds.
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Dazzled by Silver (prequel to Layers Trilogy) by Lacey Silks
He's not ready to commit. She's looking for a fling. Will their no strings attached motto stand in the way of finding true love?
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AT ANY PRICE (Gaming The System #1) by Brenna Aubrey
Prominent blogger Mia Strong cashes in on her online popularity by selling her virginity to the highest bidder. But when sexy millionaire CEO Adam Drake wins the prize, all bets are off in this sizzling contemporary romance with over 200 **FIVE STAR** reviews.
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Vengeful in Love (Billionaires in Love Book 1) by Nadia Lee
Billionaire tycoon Alex Damon plans to seduce Natalie Hall as part of his plot for revenge against her family. But as he pursues his cruel game, Natalie's kindness starts to win him over. What choice will he make if he comes to love the woman whose family he intends to ruin?
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Taken: The Alpha's Captive BBW/Werewolf Romance #1 by V. M. Black
Running for his life, he takes her along for the ride…. Werewolf Levi Harris has a habit of going off half-cocked and getting into trouble. But Levi himself might just prove the greatest danger of all….
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Life Blood [Cora's Choice Billionaire Vampire Romance] by V. M. Black
In a world in which vampires are born, not made, Cora Shaw will do anything to live, and Dorian Thorne demands the ultimate price.
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Hot Package (A Hostile Operations Team Novella Book 3) by Lynn Raye Harris
A HOT Christmas tale! When public relations expert Olivia Reese stumbles onto evidence of a dangerous conspiracy right before Christmas, there’s only one man she can call for help. Billy “The Kid” Blake is a member of an elite military unit—the Hostile Operations Team—and he’s Olivia’s former lover. Can these two work together to thwart a plot against the Pentagon without getting involved again?
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The Sweetest Seduction (The Kelly Brothers, Book 1) by Crista McHugh
Adam has spent years trying to convince world famous chef Amadeus Schlittler to open a restaurant in Chicago, but he wants the prime location held by Lia. Business has always come first… until sparks fly when Adam meets her. When things get hot outside the kitchen, though, they’re both in danger of getting burned.
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Hot Pursuit (Hostile Operations Team Book 1) by Lynn Raye Harris
The bestselling first novel in an explosive military Black Ops series! When Matt Girard returns home for a brief visit, he doesn't expect to encounter the girl whose heart he broke ten years ago. But someone wants Evie Baker dead, and Matt will use everything he knows to keep her safe. Even if it means he has to sacrifice all he believes in to do it…
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Insight by Jamie Magee
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A Viking's Peace by Zoe York
Thrown together in an intergalactic diplomatic mission, Reinn and Ashleigh know they must fight the burning attraction between them. But this Viking has finally found his mate in the beautiful Earth officer, and nothing else matters.
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Home for the Howlidays by Chloe Cole
Nicklaus Maslov left Stone Creek, Montana, in his rear–view mirror three years ago and never planned to go back. His pack’s ways are antiquated, and the girl he loves will never be his. But when his father, the pack’s alpha, sends him an urgent message, he can’t deny the protective instinct drawing him back to his hometown, or the lure of the one that got away.
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Rain on Me by Eden Connor
If every heart’s a package someone else has tied in knots, how did bondage unravel mine?
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Once Upon a Fiery Christmas (Return to Avalore series) by Elianne Adams
Convinced Sebastian is her fated mate, Chantelle is ready to have the Elders make it official, but he keeps pushing her away. Until he is named, Sebastian must keep Chantelle at arm’s length. Loving her is easy, but loving her if he’s not the one could be deadly.
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Guardian Wolf (Black Mesa Wolves) by J.K. Harper
Wolf shifter Lily Bardou lost her status as a Guardian for the Black Mesa Pack—until sexy Kieran Rendall prowls into her life, very willing to help her release the past and unlock her caged passions.
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King of Prey (King of Prey Book One) by Mandy M. Roth
In a place where realms combine and portals open passages to the unknown, a prophecy speaks of fertility being restored to his people through the taking of King Kabril’s mate.
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The Pack Rules 1: Chosen by the Alpha by Michele Bardsley
To honor the town pact made with the Shadow Pack werewolves, Belle will become a shifter bride. But she never expects to be chosen by the alpha.
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Soul of the Alpha by Renee George
A curvy woman with a killer curse and the alpha werewolf who must have her... even if it costs his life.
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A Capella (Dominant Cord Intermezzo - 1) by Sadie Haller
After receiving upsetting news, assault survivor, Mac Wallis, hides her distress from her Dom because she is worried she is just one new piece of emotional baggage away from being dumped. When Finn Taylor returns home unexpectedly for a surprise play session and discovers his submissive has been keeping secrets, he spends the day showing her how much she means to him.
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Festive Seduction (The Holiday Engagement Series) by Sidney Bristol
Kinky bells, kinky bells, kink all the way!
A playful evening spent with her Dominant was all Jade expected from a snowed-in Christmas Eve. After a year of turmoil, she’s ready for pleasure. But Philip has more in store for his submissive than Christmas light bondage. He’ll push past her limits, and ask for everything.
*Previously published as part of the Holiday Spice anthology. It has been expanded and renamed for re-publication. Approximately 8,000 words.*
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The Maid and the Billionaire Prince (He Wanted Me Pregnant!) by Victoria Wessex
Sparks fly when headstrong hotel maid Annabelle runs into fiercely traditional Prince Taros. Confounded and entranced by a woman who knows her own mind, the prince is soon determined to have Annabelle in his bed...and carrying his child.
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Trust by Viola Rivard
On the run from the law, Taylor Michaels finds refuge among a secluded werewolf pack and in the arms of its two alphas, twin brothers Alder and Hale.
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Love and Blarney by Zara Keane
A second chance romance at Blarney Castle. Love, laughter, and a Happily Ever After—Irish style!
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Can't Hold Back (River Bend, #1.5) by Molly McLain
Newlyweds Dan and Maddie Hudson intend to enjoy every sexy second of their Cabo honeymoon. Only Maddie has desires she hasn’t yet shared with her new husband. Will Dan embrace this unexpected twist in their marriage—or will he regret walking down the aisle altogether?
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Burns So Bad (When SEALs Come Home) by Anne Marsh
Home from the front lines, former SEAL Rio Donovan has a new mission: fighting fire as a smoke jumper. Kissing a fellow smoke jumper would be career suicide and Gia Jackson has worked too hard and too long to earn her spot on the jump team to jeopardize it all now for a man. The love-em-and-leave-em boys of summer aren’t her type and she’s hiding a few secrets of her own, but, when her chute tangles with Rio’s on a jump, he’s thrown into her arms.
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Suffer (Slave to the Coven Series) by Kim Faulks
I own women. It’s the chase that gets me, that look in their eyes when they surrender.
Until Sarah.
She won’t give in and I won’t give up… until she is mine, even if she has to suffer.
But in her eyes I don’t see surrender. I see something darker, something dangerous and there’s a twinge in my gut that tells me I might’ve just picked the wrong woman.
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Blair Babylon's Books
Friday, December 26, 2014
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
FIVE Great New Releases Just For You!
Before Her Billionaires
By Julia Kent
She should have calmed down. She should have been able to shake it off. She should have let it all fade, but there had been four hands on her in that dream. Sometimes your wildest dreams really do come true... This 84-page prequel takes Laura, Mike and Dylan from the New York Times bestselling series Her Billionaires and offers a glimpse into their yearning for what was meant to be...
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Lost and Found (Book 1 in the Love in New York Series)
By Elle Casey
Sometimes engagement rings can get lost and then found. Sometimes people can too. All it takes is a heavy-duty dose of karma and the magic of Manhattan to make it all come together. Standalone Adult Contemporary Romance novel, part of a 3-book series.
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Love in a Snow Storm (Pine Harbour #2)
Zoe York
Never fall in love with your best friend's little sister... especially when she's too young, or dating someone else, or mad at you. Or all of the above. Jake and Dani have danced around each other for years, but this winter everything is going to change.
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Red Hot Alphas: 11 Novels of Sexy, Bad Boy, Alpha Males
By Jo Raven, Blair Babylon, Olivia Rigal, Melanie Marchande, Sky Corgan, V. J. Chambers, Daizie Draper, Lacey Silks, Holly Hood, Irma Geddon, and J.C. Valentine
ON SALE FOR A LIMITED TIME! Only 99c! Over 1700 pages of brand-new novels from your favorite NYT and USAT bestselling authors! From first kisses to dangerous encounters and second chances at love, we've gathered all 11 BRAND NEW novels in one big box, giving you a heart-pounding collection filled with confident, sexy, and mysterious alpha men you'll fall madly in love with.
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The Angel of Death (Police Snipers and Hostage Negotiators #1), An Angel Day Novel
By Blair Babylon
Only 99c this week!
To protect and to serve, or to save her own brother? Angel Day, the lead sniper for the Phoenix Police Department, got her nickname “The Angel of Death” the old-fashioned way: she earned it for her ruthless efficiency at stopping crimes with one well-placed bullet. When a massive call-out down by the Mexican Border reveals a terrorist cell and turns into a standoff, Angel’s brother texts her that he is inside that barricaded house, and her orders are to shoot anything that moves. Monday, December 22, 2014
The Angel of Death, A Thriller from USA Today Bestselling Author Blair Babylon - New Release
BRAND NEW THRILLER
FROM BLAIR BABYLON!
The Angel of Death
(Police Snipers and Hostage Negotiators #1)
An Angel Day Novel
ON SALE NOW FOR JUST 99c!
To protect and to serve, or to save her own brother?
Angel Day, the lead sniper for the Phoenix Police Department, got her nickname “The Angel of Death” the old-fashioned way: she earned it for her ruthless efficiency at stopping crimes with one well-placed bullet. When a massive call-out down by the Mexican Border reveals a terrorist cell and turns into a standoff, Angel’s youngest brother, the lost soul of her family, texts her that he is inside that barricaded house, and her orders are to shoot anything that moves.
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CHAPTER ONE: THE STASH HOUSE
Angel Day focused the black tunnel of her gun sight and crosshairs on the man holding the shotgun, ready to shoot him.
In the magnified circle of the telescopic sight, under the thin black cross, spring sunlight poured as if from a hot bucket down on the suspect’s head, shining in a white circle on the top of his black hair, which hung loose and past his shoulders. His hair obscured the small sweet-spot where his skull met the rolls of fat on his neck, but she knew right where it was.
Angel pressed the stock of her sniper rifle against her shoulder, raising the crosshairs to touch the suspect’s neck. She was coiled around her gun and ready for the shot, dead calm.
A bullet to the brainstem, where the spinal cord connects to the brain, will drop a man without a twitch or a whimper, which was imperative because that blubbery walrus of a suspect had wrapped a bulbous wad of duct tape around his hand and the stock and trigger of the shotgun, and he had duct-taped the barrel of the gun to the back of a small woman’s neck.
Angel had wedged herself into an improvised sniper hide under a jacked-up pick-up truck. Her thick muscles cushioned her bones from the hot, pebbled asphalt. She felt like a hunting snake down there, perfectly still and ready to stab and kill the suspect.
The suspect yelled something to the police negotiators, who were taking cover behind their cars and trying to negotiate through bullhorns.
Angel could hear the hostage crying and begging, the slow beat of her own heart, and the grating growl of the police vehicles’ diesel engines in the street ringing the target, waiting for the suspect’s next move.
Her field of fire was across three large suburban lawns and a neighborhood street, over two hundred yards. She was lying prone behind a monster-truck tire, aiming around the hot rubber. Her body—her arms, her chest, her shoulder—interlocked around the rifle. The desert sun beat all around her, reflecting off the cement to bake even the undersides of her arms that held the gun. Her helmet was getting hot, and her sweaty hair stuck to her scalp. At least there was shade under the truck, even though the smell of dirty oil stung her nose.
If this were a long shot, like a mile or more, the sun warming the ammunition might make a difference in how fast the propellant in the rounds burned, and she would have to adjust her point of aim accordingly.
Angel waited, just as methodically she had waited during the last four hours of this stand-off. She had been aiming at the affluent house for most of that time, rotating her gun sight over the closed windows and doors until eight minutes ago,when this suspect had exited the McMansion with his hostage. She was always ready to squeeze the trigger and was always relaxed as she didn’t.
Even though the suspect was 209 yards away, through her scope, Angel saw the target as close as if the end of her rifle was resting on his fat neck.
The suspect yanked his shotgun and wheeled his hostage around in front of him like a spaniel on a choke chain. Angel followed him with her gun. The woman’s hands were duct-taped behind her, so she couldn’t catch herself when she tumbled to the sidewalk. Her knees bled through her ripped, pink pants.
Angel inhaled smoothly, then held her breath, and then exhaled smoothly, and held it again, always ready to take the shot. Her finger was taut on the trigger, but not jittery. Her body was trained to not squirt hot adrenaline into her blood.
This standoff was at a stash house, a domicile where human traffickers change the rules of the game. Most illegal immigrants cross the Mexican border into the US with the help of traffickers, called coyotes, who know the better routes. A few, like this woman, end up in the hands of truly evil men, who kidnap them and hold them for ransom, often sending small body parts to their families in Mexico or raping the women and children while their parents listen on the phone to hurry payment.
The evacuated neighbors had been shocked to discover such a travesty in their own neighborhood in North Scottsdale. Sure, this type of atrocity occurred in the Alhambra district, but North Scottsdale was a nice part of town.
Angel hadn’t been surprised. The best neighborhoods harbored the worst crime. There was more money to be made, and the police had to be more circumspect about busts and careful about bystanders. Criminals love that.
The gunman roared something to the encircling police cars and crouching officers. The wind corrupted his voice over the two hundred yards of lawns and asphalt, and Angel could only hear a harsh bellow as his whole body bowed back like he was belting out a high note. The woman cowered, bending forward as far as the shotgun attached to her neck would let her.
Above Angel, flags snapped on another house’s flagpole. The wind had freshened, so she turned the calibration wheel on the turret of her sniper scope. At two hundred yards, a ten mile per hour wind will cause a bullet to drift six and a half inches.
The sniper rifle’s stock was hot against her cheek. “Bravo One to command post,” Angel muttered into her microphone. “I have a bead on the suspect. I can take the shot, cold zero.”
“Hold your fire. Repeat, hold your fire.” Tony’s voice was calm on the radio in her ear. Tony was her cousin and the Phoenix Police Chief. “The rules of engagement are still at compromised authority. The risk is too great for the hostage outside and the hostages still in the house. Let the negotiators do their job.”
Compromised authority rules mean that, if an authority team member is compromised, which means injured, grabbed, or shot at, then everyone—the snipers, the entry team, and the inner perimeter officers—has the authority to take any immediately necessary action to protect the team member, including sniping the bastard.
Angel had to wait until the gunman down there killed the hostage or shot at a police officer.
The hostage negotiators had been doing their job for four hours. When the suspect had been inside the house, he had been allowed to talk to his girlfriend on the negotiator’s phone, and he had told her that he was going to kill a hostage out front where the television cameras would record the splatter. A conservative radio station had interviewed him via another hostage’s cell phone because authorities cannot use cell phone jammers in any situation. Federal laws protect the nationally controlled airwaves. The hostage-taker had told the radio station that he was going to kill a hostage in plain sight and to keep the cameras rolling, evidently not understanding the video limitations of radio.
Since then, the television cameras had arrived and, despite the police’s best efforts, had set up their cameras at the end of the block where their telephoto lenses could capture every shot.
Now, that bastard was going to do it.
Angel’s calloused finger tightened on the trigger to two pounds of pull. At four pounds, the sniper rifle would fire. Angel had fired a thousand rounds a week through her rifle for six years, over three hundred thousand rounds. She knew the feel of her Remington .308 Police DM rifle far better than most people know the feel of their car’s accelerator.
She whispered into her mic, “I can make this shot.”
Through her earpiece, her boss Tony said, “Hold your fire. Rules of engagement are not, repeat not, at shot of opportunity.”
Shot of opportunity rules of engagement are a license to kill the suspect at the first chance, any chance.
“Come on, Tony. I can make this shot with a handgun,” she muttered into her mic.
“Hold your fire.”
The hot wind blew the target’s voice to Angel’s hide under the truck. His voice was tinny and too high. Through her scope, Angel watched the target roar, “Ten!”
Over the radio in her ear, Angel heard police near the scene confirm that the suspect was counting, beginning at ten.
The suspect was counting down. At one, the gunman would fire that shotgun and tear that terrified woman’s head off her neck. He was not negotiating his way out of a bad situation; he was a psychopath performing terror theater.
Angel said, “This is not a hostage situation. This suspect is an active shooter. He will kill her.”
Tony whispered into her ear, “Keep your position. Rules of engagement remain at compromised authority. Hold your fire.”
Angel settled herself and watched the target through her scope.
She breathed in, held it, and out, and held it. Her finger was tensed and strong on the trigger, ready to move it a fraction of an inch more and release the shot.
People think that sniping is sanitary, that the sniper doesn’t feel like a murderer because they’re hundreds of yards away.
Through the scope, Angel could see black hairs waving over the suspect’s neck, as close as if she were sitting on his shoulder with a revolver plugged into his ear, so close that he should be able to feel her breath whispering down his neck like the robe of the Angel of Death was blowing around him.
The gunman grinned, enjoying the spectacle he was making. All those cops were scampering around at his nutcase bidding.
Her own lack of authority to stop this evil act disgusted her. They should shoot him now and end this crime. She could do it. She wanted to.
The target threw back his head and hollered, “Nine!”
From her other radio channel, Jack Jordan’s deep bass voice whispered, “Bravo Three has an unobstructed shot with a stucco wall backstop behind the target. Do we have authorization to take the shot?” Jordan was her side two sniper, meaning he was the third-ranking sniper on her team. As the primary sniper, Angel covered the front of the building. Her number two sniper, Luke Johnson, covered the back.
“Negative,” Angel whispered to Jordan over the radio. “We do not have authorization. Rules of engagement remain at compromised authority. Maintain position.” Jack Jordan was a good sniper who probably wanted to tag this asshole as much as Angel did.
To Tony on her other channel, Angel said, “Bravo three has an unobstructed shot with a stucco wall backstop. If I shoot and have a through-and-through wound, the round will strike the house’s front wall. Other hostages are not in danger. We can take a sync’d shot that will stop him.”
Snipers don’t shoot to kill. Snipers shoot to stop, an important distinction. Police snipers aren’t killers, just highly effective at stopping a crime in progress.
“Negative,” Tony said. “No authorization. Remain at compromised authority.”
Down at street level, the police negotiators squatted behind their cars and held their bullhorns, talking, demanding, and pleading in English and Spanish for the suspect to respond. The long cable of a throw-phone snaked from their van to where the suspect had kicked it away from him.
“Eight!” the target yelled. He jerked the shotgun, and the hostage stumbled aside.
This was the kind of situation Angel had trained for: to save an innocent life by stopping the crime in progress. She thought of herself as a guardian angel for hostages.
She coiled tighter around her rifle, ready to strike. “Bravo One to command post. Bravo Three and One will drop him flat.”
“We can’t risk it,” Tony said.
“Request to elevate the level of engagement to shot of opportunity.” Her sight was dialed in so tight that she squeezed her stock to raise and lower her aim in rhythm with the suspect’s breathing.
“Negative,” Tony said.
Across the clean, green yards, the gunman yelled, “Seven!”
Through her scope, Angel could see the target sweating greasy streaks in the heat. His meaty hands were probably slippery, but the duct-taped one couldn’t slip off the shotgun. No chance of him dropping it.
“Six!”
“Let me put him down, Cuz,” she said to Tony.
Tony whispered through their radio, “There are more people behind him, watching from inside the house. The round might ricochet and hit one of them.”
Angel knew that. She knew it better than her cousin Tony because she was far better trained, but she didn’t wave that red flag in his face.
She also knew she could kill this target and save that woman.
Through her earpiece, another of her snipers, Hunter, said, “This is Bravo Eight, I have an unobstructed line of fire. I can take the shot.”
“Negative,” Angel said. “We are at compromised authority.”
“Goddamn,” Hunter said, and Angel wanted to agree with him but held her aim.
Through the radio, she heard, “Bravo Two, no clear line of fire.” Luke Johnson didn’t have a clear shot from the back of the house.
Angel and Jack could pick this guy off. Four snipers surrounded the house, but only one needed a clear line to stop this guy. They had three with clear lines. That was an heir and two spares.
In the heat of battle, her body didn’t respond with hyped-up adrenaline. She watched the suspect sweat. She might have been meditating, but for her steady stare down the telescopic sight on the rifle.
“Five!” the gunman screamed.
She whispered into the microphone, “Bravo Three has a bead with a stucco wall behind the target. I can make a brainstem shot from here. He won’t twitch. Give us the reins.”
Tony said, “Let the negotiators do their jobs. If you shoot him and that shotgun goes off and she dies, we’re liable.”
“The negotiators aren’t doing shit.”
The suspect screamed, “Four!”
They had been at the siege for over four hours. Angel’s head ached from the sun glaring on the cement and asphalt around her, and her eyes throbbed from peering through the scope. She whispered into her mic, “When are we going to shoot him?”
“We’re not,” Tony said. “Unless he fires at authority personnel, we can’t shoot.”
“Three!”
The bedlam of the negotiators’ voices hollering at the criminal from all sides escalated. Angel kept the crosshairs on the gunman’s neck and steady pressure on the trigger because, after he shot that poor woman, he would doubtlessly open fire on the police officers and then, finally, she could shoot him.
Light glinted off the sidewalk from the overhead sun. “Two!”
The woman hostage wrenched her head to the side, black hair flying in the wind.
The duct tape around her neck tore.
The shotgun blasted, spraying lead shot at the police cars, shattering glass and slamming on steel.
Angel squeezed her trigger the last fraction of an inch, sending the bullet through the rifle and into the gunman’s brainstem.
He dropped straight down as if through a trapdoor and lay in a glutinous heap on the sidewalk in front of the Desert Victorian house.
The woman hostage’s scream wailed high and tinny off the stucco houses and ascended into the clear, blue sky as she ran away. Her hair was a mess of blood, but Angel could see that the shotgun blast had only lightly scalped her. She would be fine.
Other captives, around fifty women and children, ran out of the house and grabbed the woman, crying over her. A small boy clung to her neck and sobbed.
Angel worked the action on the rifle to chamber another round and kept her sights on the gunman, in case the mound of blood and blubber moved.
Angel murmured into her radio, “That counted as firing at authorities, right?”
See The Angel of Death at:
Praise for Blair C. Babylon’s other books:
“This is why [Blair C. Babylon] is an author to watch!” ~ Booklist (starred review)
"I stumbled upon this series a few months ago while searching through e-books for the kindle. Out of all of the books I've read, this is by far the best. I have never been the type to read things in installments, but this is the first time I've faithfully awaited each new episode release. The story … is great, the characters are believable, and I can never really guess what is going to happen next. What more could you want in a series?" ~Amazon Review
“This series just takes my breath away. Breathless!!!! That's how this book made me feel from beginning to end. It was one of those books I just couldn't put down until some of my questions were answered. I was constantly on the edge of my seat anxiously hoping it would turn out the way I hoped. I had this same sense of anxious excitement from the very first book of this series and it has not left me yet. This is not your typical cliched novel, where you can tell practically from the first page what is going to happen. Oh no! This book has you waiting with bated breath to see what happens next. I cannot wait for the next book. Ms. Babylon is a genius, who proves every skeptic who says all novels are alike, wrong!” ~Amazon Review
USA Today Bestselling Author Blair C. Babylon is the nom de plume of an award-winning author who used to publish literary fiction under another name. Because professional reviews of her literary fiction usually included the caveat that there was too much plot, too many interesting twists, and too much sex, she decided to abandon all literary pretensions, let her freak flag fly, and write intense thrillers and naughty romantic suspense.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
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Somebody to Love
(Rock Stars in Disguise: Tryp) by Blair Babylon - Meet Tryp, the rock star
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Hot Pursuit (An Iron
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Meeting Mr. Steele by
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Crossed (A Prequel to
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Get To Me (8th Sin
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Butterflies (Will o' the Wisp Series #1) by Irma Geddon - When an arranged
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