RJ Scott - Test Upgrade: Sanctuary Series

Showing posts with label Sanctuary Series. Show all posts

RJ Scott - September Sale... All Sanctuary books now $3.99

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI9uOft9t7flGOA960-VwQrJsXqKTeE9SqU-u4X6-BjhwQ5LSE7Xg99-JKTg1ymfhuL-0MeBkBErObb6ZpmLZOIADDhruOJ3_wXWQLEg3XPk_QWlRwmOxoleSYZWPBwC114T4zvS9NU5k/s1600/sanctuary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI9uOft9t7flGOA960-VwQrJsXqKTeE9SqU-u4X6-BjhwQ5LSE7Xg99-JKTg1ymfhuL-0MeBkBErObb6ZpmLZOIADDhruOJ3_wXWQLEg3XPk_QWlRwmOxoleSYZWPBwC114T4zvS9NU5k/s1600/sanctuary.jpg" /></a></div>Blurbs, excerpts, reviews and buy links... <ol><li><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2011/10/guarding-morgan.html">Guarding Morgan</a></li><li><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2012/01/only-easy-day-new-cover-art.html">The Only Easy Day</a></li><li><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2012/01/face-value.html">Face Value</a></li><li><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2012/03/still-waters-sanctuary-4.html">Still Waters</a></li><li><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/full-circle-sanctuary-5.html">Full Circle</a></li><li><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-journal-of-sanctuary-one-sanctuary.html">The Journal Of Sanctuary One</a></li><li><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/worlds-collide-sanctuary-7.html">Worlds Collide</a></li></ol>

RJ Scott - September Sale... All Sanctuary books now $3.99

Blurbs, excerpts, reviews and buy links... Guarding Morgan The Only Easy Day Face Value Still Waters Full Circle The Journal Of Sanctuary On...

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Sanctuary Series Fan Video

Wow A wonderful fan video for the Sanctuary Series by Trisha Harrington... *Loves so much* I've never had a fan video made of my writing before... and I am so blown away <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dcb44WBXTcc?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></div> Page Links to books: <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2011/10/guarding-morgan.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ce1111; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Guarding Morgan</a> <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2012/01/only-easy-day-new-cover-art.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ce1111; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">The Only Easy Day</a> <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2012/01/face-value.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ce1111; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Face Value</a> <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2012/03/still-waters-sanctuary-4.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ce1111; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Still Waters</a> <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/full-circle-sanctuary-5.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ce1111; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Full Circle</a> <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-journal-of-sanctuary-one-sanctuary.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ce1111; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Journal Of Sanctuary One</a> <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/worlds-collide-sanctuary-7.html" style="background-color: white; color: #ce1111; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Worlds Collide</a>

Sanctuary Series Fan Video

Wow A wonderful fan video for the Sanctuary Series by Trisha Harrington... *Loves so much* I've never had a fan video made of my writing...

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Worlds Collide (Sanctuary 7)

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2y0go_9pnRgxNgDqs2PkFQsK4stUKKIxXKlon3K6SJAxVPDZ7Lqwl28baPqa-zq_0_uD9XBe3g9RiFcrBip3BhoKVnsu2cygQ2rMKNOUSn47hl_gEx6caMMFbtO9TJpafZetWwTf_Xw/s1600/Worlds-Collide-400x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2y0go_9pnRgxNgDqs2PkFQsK4stUKKIxXKlon3K6SJAxVPDZ7Lqwl28baPqa-zq_0_uD9XBe3g9RiFcrBip3BhoKVnsu2cygQ2rMKNOUSn47hl_gEx6caMMFbtO9TJpafZetWwTf_Xw/s640/Worlds-Collide-400x600.jpg" width="425" /></a>Sanctuary Series Book 1 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/guarding-morgan.html">Guarding Morgan</a> Book 2 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/only-easy-day-new-cover-art.html">The Only Easy Day</a> Book 3 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/face-value.html">Face Value</a> Book 4 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/still-waters-sanctuary-4.html">Still Waters</a> Book 5 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/full-circle-sanctuary-5.html" target="_blank">Full Circle</a> Book 6 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-journal-of-sanctuary-one-sanctuary.html" target="_blank">The Journal Of Sanctuary One</a> Book 7 - Worlds Collide The Book It is the day after New Years and Dale is en route back to Albany in a private jet with Emily Bullen. She is coming back home after turning states evidence on her husband Senator Thomas Bullen. What no one factored in, not Sanctuary or the FBI, was the lengths Griffin Ryland would go to in the effort to protect himself. Joseph finds out Dale is in trouble and it is only with the help of his team of SEALs that he can make sure Dale is safe and that Griffin Ryland can't cause any more trouble. A snowy New Years, a deserted airport and a hostage situation with people already dead and suddenly the worlds of Sanctuary and the SEALs collide, with terrifying consequences. Then, two weeks alone at a resort, falling deeper in love leave the two men with decisions to make and suddenly there is the chance to make forever a possibility Featuring Dale and Joseph from  The Only Easy Day. Buy Links - eBook <a href="https://www.lovelanebooks.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=29" target="_blank">Love Lane Books</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DRF7UUS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00DRF7UUS&linkCode=as2&tag=rjsc-20" target="_blank">Amazon (US)</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DRF7UUS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00DRF7UUS&linkCode=as2&tag=rjsc-21" target="_blank">Amazon (UK)</a> | <a href="https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-worldscollidesanctuary7-1227982-149.html" target="_blank">All Romance</a> | <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/worlds-collide-rj-scott/1116058727?ean=2940044629158" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a> | <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Books/worlds-collide-sanctuary-7" target="_blank">Kobo</a> | <a href="https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/rj-scott/worlds-collide-sanctuary-7/_/R-400000000000001083238" target="_blank">Sony</a> | <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/332609" target="_blank">Smashwords</a> Buy Links - Print Book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1491004533/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1491004533&linkCode=as2&tag=rjsc-20" target="_blank">Amazon (US)</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1491004533/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1491004533&linkCode=as2&tag=rjsc-21" target="_blank">Amazon (UK)</a> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div>Reviews <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPY9vd5bUqaW9zBx9AqgwRXFhw0rXW53B5SaBYmhfnP9RtZi3_ZaojFIRNpXrdUHDuSwywx0OnkSVMjCegQ0jvlhnZzpeuhG93G50UE9fpYJHqDtBvpBrgyn0OJFnpHrTquVBZE3PIEUs/s1600/64246_434678613281893_1653726542_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a> <a href="http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/worlds-collide-by-r-j-scott/" target="_blank">MM Good Book Reviews</a> - 4/5: Ahhhh. These people are so romantic in their own macho way and they are surprising sweet together. Joseph has a lot of thinking to do about his future. Not just about his relationship, but also what he wants to do in his work life. Dale is just happy to have whatever time he can have with his sexy SEAL, especially if it involves him naked. These guys still have that explosive spark and they are still macho men. what they feel for each other is clear to see in their actions and thoughts and I can finally sigh in relief as they get their happy ever after. ... I have to recommend this to those who love alpha men, facing the future, accepting and receiving deep love, bombs, hostage situations, getting the bad guy and a very satisfying happy ending. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPY9vd5bUqaW9zBx9AqgwRXFhw0rXW53B5SaBYmhfnP9RtZi3_ZaojFIRNpXrdUHDuSwywx0OnkSVMjCegQ0jvlhnZzpeuhG93G50UE9fpYJHqDtBvpBrgyn0OJFnpHrTquVBZE3PIEUs/s1600/64246_434678613281893_1653726542_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPY9vd5bUqaW9zBx9AqgwRXFhw0rXW53B5SaBYmhfnP9RtZi3_ZaojFIRNpXrdUHDuSwywx0OnkSVMjCegQ0jvlhnZzpeuhG93G50UE9fpYJHqDtBvpBrgyn0OJFnpHrTquVBZE3PIEUs/s1600/64246_434678613281893_1653726542_n.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/646006940" target="_blank">Hearts On Fire Reviews</a> - 4/5: The last we saw of Joseph and Dale was in The Only Easy Day where we were left hanging with a HFN on their relationship. This installment in the Sanctuary series is all about the two men. I enjoyed the way Ms Scott wove the romance around Dale's taking Emily Bullen back from the west coast to turn state's evidence against her husband the senator. The story gave action at the airport fighting Griffin and his men who tried to kill Emily Bullen and balanced it with a great romance. The sex was hot and well written. There was a perfect flow to the story <a href="http://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords.com/2013/07/17/review-worlds-collide-sanctuary-7-by-r-j-scott/">Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words</a> - 4.75/5: It’s all here. All the things that have made this series such a great one. Realistic, fully rounded characters, a complicated criminal investigation that spreads through the series, and a narrative that moves the plot forward swiftly and smoothly. <a href="http://mrsconditreadsbooks.com/index.php/?p=13442">Mrs Condit Reads Books</a> - 4/5: I’m glad Ms. Scott wrote a follow up book to their story. Since I love to read series, any time I can read more about past couples it makes me happy ... Definite must read for Sanctuary fans. <a href="http://www.rainbowbookreviews.com/book-reviews/worlds-collide-sanctuary-7-by-rj-scott-at-love-lane-books" target="_blank">Rainbow Reviews</a> - While the first half of the book is the usual high-tension story including threats, lots of action, and even a bomb, the second half focuses entirely on Joseph and Dale. They need to reconnect, and I loved seeing how they became closer and closer, how they discussed the future, and how Joseph worked out what he wanted to do. Excerpt Chapter 1 “It’s not too late, we can still get out of here,” Chief Petty Officer Joseph Kinnon said urgently. He pressed both hands to the glass and stared down at the street below. The city was a white, snowy landscape and at any other time would have been stunningly beautiful. They were ten stories up in a hotel in the heart of the historic district and the place had ledges at each level. As a team they’d dealt with worse. Assessing the situation, he considered the options. “Fuentes, talk to me.” Luca Fuentes, young, tall, and built like the side of barn with muscles on muscles, was the team’s resident hacker but was also a tactical genius. He joined Joseph at the window. “Chief,” he said formally. His green-eyed gaze unerringly focused in on the view that Joseph had. He frowned as he looked out. “Can you find egress here?” Joseph asked. Luca tapped the glass. “Reinforced; we’d need some pretty heavy ordnance to get out—I can get Viktor on that—then zip wire. Get it hooked to the top of the plaza building.” Luca looked up and down, then turned to Joseph. “Forty degrees. We can get down to the roof and get out that way.” “Assessment?” “Fifty-fifty. I think most of us will be okay, but one of our team is scared of heights,” Fuentes said seriously. Joseph nodded in agreement. “You’re talking about Mike Dexter.” “He’s a liability, sir,” Luca answered. “I’m not sure his underwear would remain unstained and survive the fall.” Joseph frowned. “So if we could get a change of underwear for after then we can probably get him down.” “Yes, sir,” Luca answered immediately. “I should kill you both,” Dexter deadpanned from behind them. He joined them at the window, looked down at the snowy street below, then shrugged. “Anyway, my mother-in-law-to-be will definitely have all exit points covered.” Joseph and Luca snorted and suddenly all three men were leaning against the glass and laughing. “She’d have you strung up by your balls,” Joseph choked out between laughing and trying to breathe. “That wouldn’t be painful enough, Dexter.” Luca smirked. “She’d chop your dick off then hang you up by your balls for walking out on her daughter.” Joseph clapped his best friend on the shoulder, a quick hug, then he pulled back. “Last chance to escape, Dex, I can get another team in as backup.” Dexter thumped his shoulder. “Why would I give up the best thing I have?” Dexter said seriously. Everyone went silent. Then Joseph snorted another laugh and he had to step away from Dexter before his friend got a lot more physical. “And you call yourself a best man, J.” Dexter sighed. He shook his head. “I knew I should have asked Viktor.” That set all three men off again. Viktor played loose and hard with life and the idea of him being best-anything outside of bombs and grenades was just plain weird. “Speaking of best man and weddings, we’re at T minus twenty and I am out of here. I need to concentrate on my looking-good-in-my-uniform duty.” Fuentes walked to the door. “Maybe when you grow up you’ll look good,” Joseph called after him. “Face it, boys, you’re the wrong side of twenty-five and your wrinkled asses make your pants baggy.” Joseph threw the nearest thing he could find, an apple from the fruit dish. Fuentes caught the fruit and took a bite out of it. “Later,” he said as he left. Abruptly it was just Joseph and Dexter and one huge empty suite. Joseph’s only line of defense between himself and Dexter being all serious had gone. Joseph even considered calling Luca back at seeing the intense look on Dexter’s face. Joseph knew what he wanted to say but the words in his head just stayed there. He could be serious and focused, just, this was a huge occasion. He’d never been a best man before and he had to work hard to make it look like he knew what he was doing. Dexter crossed to the minibar and emptied the contents of a small bottle into a glass. He handed the glass to Joseph. “Here, J, drink this.” Joseph eyed the amber liquid. “Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” Dexter smiled. “Why do I need to drink? I’m not the one who’s nervous.” “I’m not nervous,” Joseph defended immediately. Dexter shook his head. “You remember that time in Iraq when we had to lie in goat shit for three hours and you were sick on yourself? You’re paler than that.” Joseph sighed. Dexter knew more about him than he liked. “I don’t like giving speeches, alright? Give me a rifle and I can control a crowd. Make me talk and I fuck it up every time.” He perched on the edge of the sofa and downed the whisky in one. The burn was welcome, but he hoped to hell he didn’t throw the whole lot back up. “What’s there to fuck up?” Dexter asked gently. He sat on the opposite sofa. “In ten minutes we’re going downstairs, then you tell me what is going to happen.” Joseph considered the question and decided this wasn’t the time for teasing or his usual shit, this was serious. This was like the run-through for missions where the focus was decided beforehand. For a second he thought of Dale and remembered some of the more thoughtful conversations they had been having recently. He didn’t have to be next to his lover to know how he felt. Whenever he saw Dale’s name light up on his cell he got butterflies. Yes, they’d only managed to meet up once since that first time, but Dale filled every single one of his waking thoughts that weren’t taken up by SEAL business. Thinking of his lover had a smile twitching his lips. “My best friend is getting married,” Joseph began, “to a beautiful woman who is way too good for him.” Whether it was that simple statement, the effects of the whisky, or even thinking of Dale, he felt himself relaxing. Yes, he was a duck out of water, but the man who had been his best friend since BUD/S was going into marriage with a smile on his face. Joseph could push past any concerns he had about SEALs marrying or about Dexter getting himself killed and leaving a widow. “J, I wanted to talk to you,” Dexter said carefully. “I’ve been thinking of taking the medical discharge I was offered.” Joseph’s chest tightened. This was what he had been expecting. Marriage and SEALs didn’t always mesh and he’d watched Dexter recently. The man was edgy and wary and being a SEAL didn’t allow for either. But to lose his best friend from the small expert team they were part of was a terrible blow. He didn’t say any of that. Instead he said, “I can understand that.” Dexter nodded. “I’m twenty-nine. I found Em. My back is fucked, and I’ve been offered the magic bullet of discharge. I’d like to maybe at least stay stateside if I can, maybe go civilian?” “The horror.” Joseph smirked. He knew about the medical discharge. Dex was in pain more often than not, and while he could push through it, the SEAL missions were hard on him. The bad back was courtesy of a fucked-up high altitude jump that Dexter was lucky to walk away from. He needed an operation to release nerves too close to scar tissue and he kind of needed it now before the damage became irreparable. “Ass.” “I’ve been offered a job with Sanctuary when I get out,” Joseph admitted. “But me leaving the Navy? That’s like ten years or more to retirement. Jake said if I knew anyone else that might be interested…” The comments had been serious but Joseph had dismissed them as something he could think about another day. “Sanctuary, eh? Sounds like a cool idea. I was thinking about you and me, some kind of security team when you finally get out,” Dexter said thoughtfully. “Me?” Joseph shook his head. “I’m only nine years in, I have eleven to go. I’m not that old yet.” Dexter smiled. “Wait till you get to be nearly thirty like I am,” he said. “Four years yet, old man.” “And you have Dale now. He’s important to you, and J, aren’t you just a little bit tempted by working privately one day? If not that, then you could move sideways to a Navy posting, or into SEAL training?” Joseph needed to change the subject. Spending time with Dale, building something with the sexy man, was way up on his to-do list, but to look that far into the future, leaving the SEALs…to leave the Navy after his twenty, even? To stop what he was damn good at? That was a hard one. “I know what I’m good at,” he said finally. His usual defense. “Look at it this way, buddy. Do you remember Garret Connor?” Joseph nodded. He recalled Lt Garret Connor, the tall, dark-haired guy with the serious expression. He knew what had happened to Garret. Every SEAL team was more than aware—being a SEAL made you part of a very small family. Garret had been MIA, separated from his entire team. Tortured, injured, his mind messed with, then left for dead. He was still suffering now. PTSD. Joseph had seen too much of it, not just the Navy but in all the forces fighting in the theater of war. “A good guy,” Joseph offered lamely. He knew exactly where this conversation was going. “He’s thirty-one. He’s in a bad place. Every time you suit up, you put yourself in the firing line.” “I get that, it’s what we do. Garret was unlucky.” “And we’ve been lucky so far, Joseph.” “We’re highly trained, we don’t rely on luck—” “Then neither should Garret. He wasn’t unlucky—it was his time to get hit.” “Sanctuary isn’t exactly safe either,” Joseph said. He sounded more than a little desperate to his own ears. “Just think on it in ten years, and if the time is right, we can maybe talk again?” Joseph relaxed. He liked conversations that could be put off to ‘another time’, particularly a conversation ten years in the future. “Okay,” he agreed. He’d just have to spend the next ten years or so avoiding a civilian Dexter and any mention of breaking up their team. Easy. “Joseph, there’s one last thing. I need to ask you something.” Dexter sounded deadly serious. “Anything.” “Before I get out…hell, after I get out, if anything ever goes wrong and I don’t make it home? Look out for Em?” Joseph opened his mouth to say what he’d instantly thought, the usual response that nothing was going to happen to Dexter. Instead he simply said, “Always.” “Then shall we do this thing?” Dexter stood and extended a hand to Joseph, who grasped it and levered himself to stand. After a final hug they separated and with shared smiles, left the suite. The whole team was here: him, Dexter, the Lieutenant, Fuentes, Freddy…even Viktor. The guy had somehow managed to time his arrival to exactly two minutes before the start, looking disheveled and with lipstick on his uniform. If the man wasn’t a damn genius with ordnance then he’d never get away with half the shit he did on his downtime. Joseph exchanged glances with the LT, Viktor had been slowly getting more and more on the ragged edge and something needed doing. The LT nodded in return and Joseph sighed. He liked Viktor and the man was good at his job, but he lacked control in his private life and something was messing with his head. His attention moved back to the room. The family was lucky to get this room in the hotel in Albany on New Year’s Eve. It wasn’t the best or most exotic location for a wedding, but that wasn’t what Em and Dexter wanted. The team’s needing to fit it in their thirty-day downtime was tight but Em’s family had somehow managed to snag this room and a judge on this snowy holiday. Em looked stunning. The slim redhead who had brought big, gruff Mike Dexter to his knees was smiling up at Joseph’s friend and teammate as if he hung the moon and the stars. It warmed Joseph to see it. Added to that she was a feisty partner who was in the Navy herself, based at Oceana with family in Albany and close by. Dexter and Em had been in love since they met at fourteen at school according to how Dexter told it, and today was perfect. The love that was in each vow was obvious. Joseph remembered the rings and was even lulled into a false sense of security up until they sat for the wedding dinner and it was his turn to talk to the fifty people in the room. He stood and tapped a glass. The chatter stopped and every face in the room turned to him expectantly. Terror punched him like a bullet to a vest and stole his voice. He coughed. Then he saw Fuentes giving him a big thumbs up and that was enough to get his focus back on what he was doing “When Mike Dexter asked me to be best man I thought he was an idiot,” he began. Great, that sounded better in his head than when he’d actually said the words. Fuentes nodded in encouragement. “Only because, while I can dismantle a gun and get it back together in record time and belch curse words with the best of them, I’m actually not good at standing up and talking.” Everyone laughed at that. The laughter was welcome and he took a sip of his champagne. He was doing this speech on a mild alcohol buzz and he’d not drunk in so long that this was a very nice feeling, with the word ‘nice’ in capital letters. He continued, “In fact, there is only one person I would do this for and he is the man who got married today. Dexter is my best friend and I guess that allows me to say things about how I think Em and Dexter together are perfect.” He stopped again and glanced at Dexter and Em. “Thank you,” Em said softly. “Anyway, I could launch into many an embarrassing story about Dexter here, including the one with the mountain lion and the cheese, but I’ll save that for his sixtieth birthday party.” He smiled at Dexter, who grinned back. Joseph didn’t think he’d ever seen Dexter this happy. “I just wanted to say, congratulations to the best friend a man could wish for, on and off the field. Raise your glasses.” Joseph paused as everyone stood and raised the crystal champagne flutes. “To Em and Dexter.” The crowd repeated and finally Joseph sat down, his job done and a huge weight off his shoulders. Now perhaps he could relax. He reached for more champagne, his second glass, and on top of the small whisky from before he was really feeling relaxed. His thoughts immediately turned to Dale—wondering how the other man was doing. He was working an assignment to bring Emily Bullen back home from the West Coast where she had been laying low. But when he finished, they had an entire two weeks together planned at a resort, courtesy of Jake and Sanctuary, and he couldn’t believe how excited he was at the thought. He’d bought Dale a gift for his birthday—his lover was turning thirty in a few days—and he had plans for absolute honesty when they were together. He fingered the piece of paper he kept with him in his pocket at all times. Not a picture of Dale, after all he did still have his balls. This was a print of a message Dale had sent him on his cell not long after they pulled Beckett from the Bullen Mansion. He’d been back at Oceana by then and only just got the message in time before he locked his cell away to be pulled out on his return from his next mission. Stay safe, kick ass, come home. Love you. Such a simple message, but the “Love you” didn’t have any kind of qualification. There was no I think I love you or I am falling in love with you, but a really simple, easy message. I love you. Just reading that message the first time had created feelings inside Joseph that he never thought he would feel. They’d been together such a short while but Dale just got him. He was funny, loving, strong, opinionate, good with a gun, tall, sexy, fantastic in bed, and a skilled kisser. All in all he was the perfect candidate for the post of Joseph’s forever-guy. Just touching the note grounded Joseph in the here and now. Slowly, over the course of the last few months, the space in his life that had once been filled by the team he was with, by the job, by staying alive, had seen a full-frontal assault by the man he had fallen in love with. The note wasn’t the last time that Dale had said those words. He’d never considered love at first sight—lust yes, love no—but this whole thing with Dale? That was love. A new love, one that was growing every day. When the dinner ended and people drifted away to freshen up, Joseph determinedly walked through the lobby and out into the frigid air. He wanted to connect to Dale if he could—to check in on him. Just to hear his voice. It was seven pm in Albany, earlier in LA, and he hoped he would get Dale on first try. He dialed the number he had in memory and Dale answered the phone immediately. “Hey, sailor,” Dale said softly. “Hey. Can you talk?” Joseph asked. He stamped his feet and settled back under the awning over the front door and as close to the wall as he could get without touching the icy brick. The snow had started and stopped a dozen times through the ceremony and the roads in Albany were covered in sparkling white. The snow covered any blemishes and left the area pristine and somewhat empty for a New Year’s Eve. Just for a second he debated returning to his room for a jacket but decided against it when he heard Dale’s voice. “Hang on.” Joseph listened as noises indicated Dale was moving from one place to another. “Here,” he finally said. “Tell me you’re not sitting in the bathroom,” Joseph said. “Nope, back up against the front door facing inwards. Sitting between the target, who is currently in the bathroom, and any bad guys brandishing guns.” Dale chuckled as he said this. Joseph could imagine his lover sitting, leaning back against the door. He’d done it himself at times when he needed time out but couldn’t leave the room. Stop the bad guys’ getting in the door. “Are you expecting guns?” Joseph asked conversationally. He refused to let his voice carry any indication of the worry that pierced him at the thought. Dale meant too much to him to lose at the end of a bullet but they hadn’t exactly covered the emotions surrounding possible loss of each other in their brief chats. Anyway, how could he show he was worried about Dale when he himself wasn’t exactly working a nine to five in an office? “Not really. Adam is running the op and there’s nothing indicating any shit near a proverbial fan. Emily Bullen is a low-rent witness now that she’s given access to records. This whole job is just a taxi service.” Dale didn’t sound impressed and Joseph smiled at the irritation in his voice. “Adam’s running this? Not Manny?” Joseph liked Manny, the guy had an old head on his shoulders and he ran Ops like one of the best SEAL support teams. “Manny and Josh are taking New Year’s off. Something about having to save Jake’s ass at Christmas.” Joseph wrapped an arm around his middle. He was freaking cold but hearing Dale’s voice was too much to give up the peace and quiet of the outside. There were too many people inside pushing for attention and wanting to talk to him. “When do you leave LA?” “Wheels up in three hours. Big issue is that there’s no letup in that damn snow at your end. Hoping to move out this evening if they clear us for takeoff. Will you still make it to the resort?” “If it kills me,” Joseph said without thinking. The thought of two weeks with just him and Dale and a Lake Placid Lodge had his cock half-hard and his heart swelling with affection. Realizing what he’d said, he went quiet and banged his head back against the wall. Idiot. Their relationship was still in its infant stage and as much as he wanted much more with the gorgeous blond who slammed into the middle of his life, he didn’t want to make himself look stupid by admitting it too early. “I can’t wait to see you,” Dale confessed softly. “Really?” Joseph said quickly. Jeez. His brain needed to focus better. That damn whisky added to two glasses of champagne was messing with his head. “I missed your SEAL ass,” Dale admitted. “Especially when you didn’t make it back before Christmas.” Joseph recalled exactly where he’d been on Christmas Day and grimaced at the memory. That particular date had been some particularly squirrely shit and the image of what he’d seen and felt was permanently etched into his thoughts. They were all fortunate to make it to Dexter’s wedding alive. “I missed you too,” Joseph said. “I’ll see you when you make it to Albany,” he added. He needed to finish this call before his balls froze. They were already in danger of shriveling up and falling off with all this romantic sappy shit. The same shit he was loving to hear. Joseph ended the call before he said anything else. Seeing Dale, wanting Dale, with all those love words thrown around whenever they met, was a deeply unsettling feeling. Chapter 2 Dale banged his head back against the wood of the door. When he and Joseph met up they needed to have a talk. Joseph sounded introspective, as usual, and it wasn’t as if Dale was much better. How was it Morgan and Nik made being in a relationship seem so damn easy? Dale swore under his breath. He and Joseph had been apart for a while now, months, not that he was counting or anything. Joseph must have noticed that their phone calls had become tenser, but he hoped that his lover would understand why. For Dale it was because he had so much inside him he knew that if he started to talk, he’d scare Joseph off. The affection and lust he’d had spiraling inside had just grown exponentially and tomorrow he was going to lay his emotions bare and actually tell Joseph how he felt. He’d texted the I love you, he’d emailed it, had even said it to Joseph’s face on Skype, but not in person yet. At least today he’d laid some of the foundation by admitting he missed Joseph. That was a step in the right direction. “How long now?” The voice roused him from his thoughts and he blinked up at Emily Bullen, who stood just outside the bathroom. She looked immaculate—as if she was just going to pose for a photo op. Pearls wound around her throat, and her powder blue suit screamed of more money than Dale made in a year. Her hair was sprayed to within an inch of its life and Dale doubted a hurricane would mess with the helmet. He sighed as he looked her up, then down. He’d asked her to wear pants and flats. She had at least made one concession Dale had demanded. She was wearing flatter heels. But they were still heels. “What if we have to run?” Dale said evenly. “You’ll break your neck.” “A lady of my age doesn’t run,” Emily replied smoothly. Emily appeared younger than her sixty-five but that was probably clever makeup and maybe even a little plastic surgery here and there. “You’ll run if I tell you to,” Dale said firmly. Tilting her head she stared down at him, a look that reminded Dale far too much of a tiger sizing its prey. “Why are you sitting on the floor?” she asked. Dale ignored her and smoothly came to stand almost eye to eye with the woman who was driving him mad. She was clearly bored or something when she pivoted on her heel and stalked into the sitting area. “Are you hoping to trip them up when they come in through the door?” she asked frostily as she walked away. Dale bit his tongue. He’d done a lot of that since Christmas. Damn woman had a stick firmly up her perfumed ass. Dale ignored her as he checked the locks on the door again then crossed to the table. Flight plans, schematics of the jet, and details of Swithuns private airport lay on the flat surface. This would be the first time that Dale had ever worked with Sanctuary where he had transferred someone on a plane, and he wanted as much intel as possible. Swithuns was just outside Albany. It had one runway that ran east to west with mountains at one end and a large lake at the other. His phone signaled an incoming call and he connected immediately. Jake didn’t waste time with niceties. “We may have a problem,” he said. “What kind of problem?” “We have intel that Griffin Ryland is back in New York state but we lost him.” “Lost him how?” Dale asked. Sanctuary didn’t lose people they were tracking. “He isn’t without resources or money,” Jake said firmly. “We were lucky to get his tail in LA.” Dale glanced over at the Senator’s wife who, despite appearing serene, had a look of fear in her eyes. He crossed back to the door, which was a good ten feet away from his charge. “What does he want with her?” he asked. “I don’t get his motivation. He’s fucked. There is so much evidence piled against him that he’s going down. Her testimony is only underlining his part in it all.” “The Senator could have paid him to pull this off?” A second voice joined Jake’s. Sean Hanson, Jake’s partner now—or so Kayden said—was adding his two cents. “Politics is thicker than marriage,” he added dryly. “It’s him she has the most against at the end of the day.” “I’m thinking of getting a partner in for your backup,” Jake said seriously. Dale considered the situation as it stood. They were a two-minute walk to the plane. Jake’s pilot flew the damn thing. All he had to do was get out of LA in one piece. “I’m not seeing I need anything. Easier for me to get her home with as little fuss as possible.” “Your call, Dale,” Jake agreed. “Edward is your pilot and we have a newbie working next to him. Stephanie Kellen is new to us, but she’s trained and good at her job.” So now all he had to do was kill a few hours until it was time to leave. * * * * * As soon as the plane door shut on them Dale finally released a noisy breath. That had to have been the longest two-minute walk of his life. He immediately called in a sit rep then checked the plane from one end to the other. Edward Martins was the pilot, an old friend of Jake’s and keeper of the Sanctuary jet, his copilot was Stephanie Kellen. Stephanie was eager to please and as soon as she saw Dale she was shaking his hand and talking. She hardly came up to his shoulder and her dark hair was pulled back from her face in a smooth twisted knot. She looked about eighteen but Dale was sure she couldn’t be that young. Dale half listened as he cast a glance around the small cockpit and the solid interior of the plane. This wasn’t a cozy millionaire’s jet, this was black leather and dull steel and only had four seats. According to Jake it was in the middle of some kind of refit but Dale kind of liked it the way it was. Solid and unassuming. If a jet could be unassuming. “So yell if you need anything,” Stephanie said. Dale looked back at her and realized she had stopped talking. “Just ask,” she added. “I will, Stephanie, thank you.” She waited and he considered why she hadn’t moved off. “Welcome to Sanctuary,” he said. She beamed at him then took her seat next to Edward. He’d obviously done the right thing. Dale buckled himself in opposite and as far away from the Senator’s wife as he could manage, and finally the jet left LA. The time in the air was going to be about six and half hours then they had one stop for fuel, although Dale didn’t know where. That was Edward’s job. His charge had her nose in a book and he grabbed a file out of his flight bag. His next job was a babysitting gig for Albany PD starting at the end of January and he had brief details he could at least begin to learn. Barring disasters or emergencies he was a free man for most of January—his downtime. Not only that, but Joseph was also free. At the thought of Joseph, Dale was half hard. Jeez, every time he remembered the touch of the man, the sounds he made when they were making love, the scent of him…it was a surprise his dick wasn’t raw. He could get off on the memories of what had happened between them. The mountain, waiting to go in and rescue Beckett, and Joseph unbuttoning his pants and pulling out his cock. The look on the SEAL’s face when he asked to suck Dale’s cock and that utter determination by Dale to get to Joseph first. Even if they hadn’t ended up connecting emotionally, they sure as hell connected physically. Expectation of what they would be doing when they met up had him hard. He could imagine pressing Joseph up against the wall and kissing him, enjoying that time of being in control before Joseph took over and pushed Dale to feel him for days. They’d had one chance to kiss since they met. That was all. Less than ten minutes in a freaking janitor’s closet. Dale closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. He could picture Joseph clearly. Beautiful gray eyes and close-cut dark hair with a body to die for and crazy ninja skills. Dale had never imagined himself with another SEAL. Not that Dale was still a SEAL, but when he was going through BUD/S he certainly hadn’t lusted after any of his fellow sailors. Joseph was different, a warrior but without steel running through every pore of him. There were softer parts that Dale wanted to know more about. He must have fallen asleep from the overdose of sappiness because Edward shaking his shoulder and talking to him was a shock. “We’re flying above storm clouds at the moment,” Stephanie confirmed. “Snow is heavy around Albany but Swithuns should be fine because it’s sheltered by the mountains. We’re landing to refuel in twenty. Want some coffee?” Coffee sounded like heaven and Dale took the insulated mug gratefully. Refueling meant they were more than halfway through the flight. “The storm anything we should worry about? Do we need to change anything?” Like maybe landing somewhere hotter. Miami sounded nice. Although, of course, Miami didn’t have Joseph waiting for him. Restless, he left his seat and leaned against the frame of the cockpit. “This is driving me freaking mad,” Edward muttered as he tapped one of the gauges then peered at it closely. “Stephanie, do me a favor and check the hydraulics on the right wing. Damn dial is stuck.” Edward sounded pissed. “I let people in my plane and they touch my stuff,” he grumped. Stephanie gave another one of her wide grins and unbuckled herself. “He obviously hates when they mess with the interior.” “Don’t need to touch mechanics to put in carpet,” Edward pointed out. Dale stood back as Stephanie went past and into the main cabin. “They’re going to put in carpet?” Dale glanced back at the bare floor of the jet. The metal was familiar, a reminder of his BUD/S week when the only chance of sleep was during transport. Amazing what a pack and a rolled-up jacket could do for comfort on the floor of a truck or a warehouse. Edward shrugged then huffed a laugh. “It’s for when we move kids. Opening up places on the West Coast means we have sometimes to move families. Not to mention the Canada safe house.” Stephanie came back into the cabin and slid into her seat. She looked pale. Sick. “You need to go and look,” she said carefully. Edward frowned. “Why? What did they do? Jeez, how bad can it be?” She didn’t answer but there was something in her expression that had Dale following Edward to the uncovered wires over the right wing. Edward crouched down and peered into the hole. “Fuck,” he cursed. Settling himself on his stomach, he shuffled forward to put his entire head down the hole. There was muttered cursing and then he slid back and up into a crouch. Gone was the laconic pilot and in his place was the ex-fighter pilot that had flown tours in Desert Storm. His expression was utterly focused and carved from stone. “We need to call this in,” he said. “What is it?” Dale asked immediately. Edward gestured for him to lie down as he had. “Look at the rear of the panel with the K and 6 on it. Follow the wire back to the rear. You see the blinking?” Dale looked closely. He wasn’t an expert in planes but he knew enough to see the wires and tubes for the hydraulics. Then he saw the blinking red light. He edged a little farther and the better view had him inhaling sharply. A timer. So small you could miss it. Wrapped to enough explosive that the jet wouldn’t stand a chance against the hole blown in its side. Letting out a curse, he pulled his cell from his pocket, which was awkward in this position, and snapped off a few shots of what he could see. The flash was bright and he hoped to hell the light was enough to help show decent photos so Jake could get a handle on this. Then he sat back upright. “What do you know about explosives?” Dale asked Edward. His expression remained impassive as he shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. “Stephanie?” “Enough to get us all killed,” Stephanie said from the cockpit. Dale connected to comms and uploaded the photos and watched as they were sent slowly. “Dale?” Jake answered immediately. “A bomb, Jake. We have a bomb on the plane.”

Worlds Collide (Sanctuary 7)

Sanctuary Series Book 1 - Guarding Morgan Book 2 - The Only Easy Day Book 3 - Face Value Book 4 - Still Waters Book 5 - Full Circle Book 6 -...

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Worlds Collide, Sanctuary 7, out today

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVprtjxbgTv6Cm8JKkE9CPqnwo_u7UfKMdTUkStKiv8DbULZGu-PpLBzlQDqWkB2E0SKH6xWPUYIeZbHtt5ruToG7dRoTJ_TFl8EjCjbv8A_HndxEF-e0d4WMI4PQ0qmPU7z4_L64QLw/s1600/28_June.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVprtjxbgTv6Cm8JKkE9CPqnwo_u7UfKMdTUkStKiv8DbULZGu-PpLBzlQDqWkB2E0SKH6xWPUYIeZbHtt5ruToG7dRoTJ_TFl8EjCjbv8A_HndxEF-e0d4WMI4PQ0qmPU7z4_L64QLw/s400/28_June.jpg" width="400" /></a> It is the day after New Years and Dale is en route back to Albany in a private jet with Emily Bullen. She is coming back home after turning states evidence on her husband Senator Thomas Bullen. What no one factored in, not Sanctuary or the FBI, was the lengths Griffin Ryland would go to in the effort to protect himself. Joseph finds out Dale is in trouble and it is only with the help of his team of SEALs that he can make sure Dale is safe and that Griffin Ryland can't cause any more trouble. A snowy New Years, a deserted airport and a hostage situation with people already dead and suddenly the worlds of Sanctuary and the SEALs collide, with terrifying consequences. <div> </div><div>Then, two weeks alone at a resort, falling deeper in love leave the two men with decisions to make and suddenly there is the chance to make forever a possibility. <div> </div><div>Available on the <a href="http://www.lovelanebooks.co.uk/" target="_blank">Love Lane Books Website</a></div></div>

Worlds Collide, Sanctuary 7, out today

It is the day after New Years and Dale is en route back to Albany in a private jet with Emily Bullen. She is coming back home after turning ...

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Monday News Round up - Sanctuary 7, Montana 1, UK Meet & More

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl0CBL4sV29QZJ8Q9uvc0ZzYPu-fm-ubDNQMKxZQetKBu5RbfXu3XmvPSOz3tyOhZaJ9WLPy3CB1V-d_dB5iVUQceYLsBHf5IsBoG4ve82ynW5RpGQuplzCBpvimJgJeIUzv_j-2RuWkw/s1600/23_June.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl0CBL4sV29QZJ8Q9uvc0ZzYPu-fm-ubDNQMKxZQetKBu5RbfXu3XmvPSOz3tyOhZaJ9WLPy3CB1V-d_dB5iVUQceYLsBHf5IsBoG4ve82ynW5RpGQuplzCBpvimJgJeIUzv_j-2RuWkw/s400/23_June.jpg" width="400" /></a>Book Releases The Doctor And The Bad Boy (Ellery 4)... ... has been described as classic RJ Scott. I like that phrase, not sure what classic RJ Scott is but never mind...typically crap, typically .... i'll leave that to your imagination! Out to buy and read from Total E-Bound only - <a href="http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=2198">http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=2198</a> <div> </div><div>Shattered Secrets (In The Shadow Of The Wolf #1) with Diane Adams Re-released through Love Lane Books and is available on <a href="http://www.lovelanebooks.co.uk/">www.lovelanebooks.co.uk</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Secrets-Shadow-Wolf-ebook/dp/B00DJXSVNS/" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-shatteredsecrets-1224905-145.html" target="_blank">ARe</a>. Writing with Amber Kell & Stephani Hecht <div> </div><div>The three of us are each taking one book in a trilogy about wolf shifters in Vermont... I am writing book 1, The New Wolf, which will be with you 1 August... Book 2 is Stephani's and is out 15 August and Book 3 is Ambers, out 1 September. All three will be available seperately on those dates but pulled together as one paperback and all being well it will be ready for Gay Rom Lit for us all to sign!</div><div> </div><div>Insert English Dry humour: Of course mine will the best book so Steph and Amber will have a hard time following it... BWHAHAHAHAHA</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVD_codlQAMUvNy9v3ecFL5Tss2EXMTxUd1rjLaxRTqY_jopw8rFFCamq1nnM_ocV1-SOoR9f9JDmSMzDukJnZ8lP7Jqz7Kzd-Fm_moEkLJZncOFgljZr2M6CZ6bmkL2IQjJYgEUP3i4/s1600/thedoctorandthebadboy_800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVD_codlQAMUvNy9v3ecFL5Tss2EXMTxUd1rjLaxRTqY_jopw8rFFCamq1nnM_ocV1-SOoR9f9JDmSMzDukJnZ8lP7Jqz7Kzd-Fm_moEkLJZncOFgljZr2M6CZ6bmkL2IQjJYgEUP3i4/s320/thedoctorandthebadboy_800.jpg" width="200" /></a></div> Sanctuary 7 marketing and buy date As you may all be aware S7 - Worlds Collide, is out this friday and I am trying this new countdown marketing thing. It was inspired by Diane Adams who used to do this for her Making Of A Man books, and also by the new work TEB is doing for their author's new books.</div><div> </div><div>Let me know what you think? New weekly competition I have these wonderful printed postcard type thingies that all arrived this week. OMG they are gorgeous - I am blessed with the most amazing artwork from Meredith Russell and BitterGrace Art. While hubby and I wrestle with a cost effective way to get these to people I decided to run a weekly competition for every single person that signs up, or is signed up already, to my website for email updates. The winner each week can select three cards and I will sign them and send them to the winner... <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnxjrCzwr_GG4qWESIAxCFSmjOwr9zUASaRKs6_oAMxTvH_QXtEkbR6osPcAWPb-7CVYeEW6vf7uaVaQD65-rPJI8gftKtFg6Uoy9JtKkahKTv19qxcc9H1Krq1nJpdioaqSDZERiGcQg/s1600/logo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnxjrCzwr_GG4qWESIAxCFSmjOwr9zUASaRKs6_oAMxTvH_QXtEkbR6osPcAWPb-7CVYeEW6vf7uaVaQD65-rPJI8gftKtFg6Uoy9JtKkahKTv19qxcc9H1Krq1nJpdioaqSDZERiGcQg/s1600/logo2.jpg" /></a>Pre-order books for the UK Meet If you're attending the UK Meet I have a list of books available in paperback that you can pre-order for me to sign. This was following on from a couple of emails I received about print books that really made me smile.</div><div> You can find the post about this here: <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/book-order-for-uk-meet.html">Book Order for UK Meet</a></div><div> Website</div><div> </div><div>I have a newly updated <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/p/work-in-progress.html" target="_blank">WIP page</a> which I am trying to keep up to date as I change anything... I need to work on my print books page... so no one go look at that, okay! </div><div> Recent Blog Posts <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/in-writing-closet.html">In The Writing Closet</a> <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/new-cover-art-fire-trilogy.html">New Cover Art - The Fire Trilogy</a> <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/friday-interview-lj-labarthe.html">Friday Interview - L.J. LaBarthe</a> <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/competition-winner.html">Competition Winner</a> </div></div>

Monday News Round up - Sanctuary 7, Montana 1, UK Meet & More

Book Releases The Doctor And The Bad Boy (Ellery 4)... ... has been described as classic RJ Scott. I like that phrase, not sure what classi...

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The Sanctuary Series

<table style="width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="10"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="50%"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbDrBjWouAn_eHgXGCNWc_F94OQRyzmRvnRhNzsOi7ZTAopMXMTI5xREHQYK2-pp5nYUSBDBYiz_ZRnTnhJGXM5_tUoq-6PGursr4E8tMRT4R6zVMWi8kb91fNuyWuz1bt2XnhxXkPNMs/s1600/guardingmorgan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbDrBjWouAn_eHgXGCNWc_F94OQRyzmRvnRhNzsOi7ZTAopMXMTI5xREHQYK2-pp5nYUSBDBYiz_ZRnTnhJGXM5_tUoq-6PGursr4E8tMRT4R6zVMWi8kb91fNuyWuz1bt2XnhxXkPNMs/s320/guardingmorgan.jpg" width="213"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></td><td valign="top" width="50%"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiZi-_Npgq7N5q8VhM__5SnsYY8ObS_5SqCwbrYwXXahGQAagabw-BdRPRmoyFm55A7uIqJ9IaRR0S6xUiHHaLEeEcdhlR6z6WlKTXOKl6geZiKZC5kww0dyg9xdZi7EwOjD6BLUFLn0M/s1600/The-Only-Easy-Day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiZi-_Npgq7N5q8VhM__5SnsYY8ObS_5SqCwbrYwXXahGQAagabw-BdRPRmoyFm55A7uIqJ9IaRR0S6xUiHHaLEeEcdhlR6z6WlKTXOKl6geZiKZC5kww0dyg9xdZi7EwOjD6BLUFLn0M/s320/The-Only-Easy-Day.jpg" width="213"></a></div></td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2011/10/guarding-morgan.html" style="text-align: start;">Guarding Morgan</a> (#1)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div>Morgan Drake witnesses a murder in an alleyway. He is the only person who can give evidence in prosecuting the cop responsible for the crime. When the FBI safe house where he’s being held is compromised, he follows the instructions of his agent in charge and runs. Nik Valentinov works for Sanctuary, a foundation that offers witness protection when FBI security is questionable. When Morgan's handler sends him to Nik for safety, neither Morgan nor Nik could imagine that two weeks alone in a cabin in the woods could start something more. Something way more than just trying to keep Morgan alive. Something that makes their heart race more than danger. Love. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></td><td valign="top"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2012/01/only-easy-day-new-cover-art.html" style="text-align: start;">The Only Easy Day</a> (#2)</div> Dale MacIntyre, former Navy SEAL, works for Sanctuary. He’s the acting handler for a member of the Bullen family’s inner circle. He’s close to obtaining the evidence he needs to prove Elisabeth Costain's death was ordered by them… until someone gets in his way. Joseph Kinnon, active Navy SEAL, is back on U.S. soil for the first time in months, and he’s told the tragic news that his stepsister is dead, gunned down in an alley by an unknown assailant. He’s determined to find out who murdered her…until someone gets in his way. They both want the same thing but have different methods of accomplishing their goals. They both want the Bullen family brought to account, but one wants justice and the other wants revenge. What happens between them, however, has nothing to do with either.</td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrz1HD-u3YDNq-9DwKELcbvvV8xBMyv3lyDqpz2H02c5bmlBg8wHs25rC_DJqZbxbD8NQPj2q-b30Skqf5Zy4XGv88qGz8g30a9jIlnHPhgOP9Z74-0N_r56B8UwLpx8lE5FtjO6m22lM/s1600/face+value.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrz1HD-u3YDNq-9DwKELcbvvV8xBMyv3lyDqpz2H02c5bmlBg8wHs25rC_DJqZbxbD8NQPj2q-b30Skqf5Zy4XGv88qGz8g30a9jIlnHPhgOP9Z74-0N_r56B8UwLpx8lE5FtjO6m22lM/s320/face+value.jpg" width="213"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></td><td valign="top"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOk1QOegZ0PuM08Of_7Ty_0HlTRWApMVrn_69_Rvii2OOGsgbz0isWqeuMEmePCxQqln9GqvLrtGXALi4mUwb8iFviojzM4Gt9ASpRNS9Q8EZMdOedIQUdyF-kex4xWXEitteiJHJrrMQ/s1600/stillwaters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOk1QOegZ0PuM08Of_7Ty_0HlTRWApMVrn_69_Rvii2OOGsgbz0isWqeuMEmePCxQqln9GqvLrtGXALi4mUwb8iFviojzM4Gt9ASpRNS9Q8EZMdOedIQUdyF-kex4xWXEitteiJHJrrMQ/s320/stillwaters.jpg" width="213"></a></div></td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2012/01/face-value.html" style="text-align: start;">Face Value</a> (#3)</div> Beckett Jamieson, AKA Robert Bullen, has been rescued by Sanctuary from a situation in which he nearly died and is left temporarily blind. Doctor Kayden Summers is the Sanctuary operative assigned to look out for him. It soon becomes clear Beckett is the key to evidence left by his mom. Evidence that may well destroy the Bullen family. The two men become involved in a critical retrieval situation and when bullets start to fly there is only one thing between Beckett and death. Kayden. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></td><td valign="top"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.com/2012/03/still-waters-sanctuary-4.html" style="text-align: start;">Still Waters</a> (#4)</div> Adam is given an assignment - to work with a man he hates. The same man that didn't trust him two years before and destroyed their relationship in a single day. Lee is adamant that he needs to understand why Adam betrayed the Bureau and the Bullen case is the perfect cover to get back in his ex lover's life. Against the backdrop of Sanctuary and the Bullen case can they both realise not everything they saw was real ...</td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLf58oPKppxBAwC7qdTh9egOxyeU12ojZc5PbqWLnTNaF8qlQvNcvgANGNsFfWm7oJuv3oUL_GGAyDMHyv-GmYgw8-5xqycQyMHOp9foDWaqAs8YDQjs9KZEZBYTNJb6sgfWEfHX3cp2o/s1600/fullcircle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLf58oPKppxBAwC7qdTh9egOxyeU12ojZc5PbqWLnTNaF8qlQvNcvgANGNsFfWm7oJuv3oUL_GGAyDMHyv-GmYgw8-5xqycQyMHOp9foDWaqAs8YDQjs9KZEZBYTNJb6sgfWEfHX3cp2o/s320/fullcircle.jpg" width="213"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></td><td valign="top"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKWM1L22DG5sg5LKfIhkofvZJPDDQlcfyiHExLSnv7bMFbKDEyD8zsYnYuR8t5HrXNF336A1DOn9AmC7MEuvU2wzU9e-BASfd4Z69P26XHsqT8DmNVDy2tnegoADTFBH0B1xsFgLtvbqM/s1600/the+journal+of+sanctuary+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKWM1L22DG5sg5LKfIhkofvZJPDDQlcfyiHExLSnv7bMFbKDEyD8zsYnYuR8t5HrXNF336A1DOn9AmC7MEuvU2wzU9e-BASfd4Z69P26XHsqT8DmNVDy2tnegoADTFBH0B1xsFgLtvbqM/s320/the+journal+of+sanctuary+1.jpg" width="212"></a></div></td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/full-circle-sanctuary-5.html" style="text-align: start;">Full Circle</a> (#5)</div> Manny Sullivan is the backbone of Sanctuary. He has his fingers in every pie and when he spots Josh Headley where he shouldn't be, it is Manny who goes in and rescues him. <div> Josh is in Sanctuary witness protection after his dad turns on the Bullens. Not only is his dad a murderer but his ex is a liar who was using him for information. With his skill in information retrieval, he hopes to make a contribution to the solution. What started with the death of Elisabeth Costain is drawing to a close and Josh and Manny are in the middle of it all. When Manny risks his life could it finally be time for Josh to risk his heart?</div></td><td valign="top"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-journal-of-sanctuary-one-sanctuary.html" style="text-align: start;">The Journal Of Sanctuary One</a> (#6)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div>Jake spends every Christmas at Sanctuary One. From a small child the cabin was home for his family in the special season, and with the third anniversary of his dad's death approaching he arranges for Kayden, Beckett and himself to meet at the cabin a few days before Christmas. When a snowstorm means Kayden is blocked in NY with Beckett, Jake ends up in the cabin on his own. Sean is being hunted and the only place he can run to is somewhere mentioned in an old journal - the original Sanctuary Cabin. The cabin is no longer in official use but it would be a good place to heal and take stock of just what the fuck is going on with his life. Neither man is prepared for being stuck together for an entire week, nor for the secrets that threaten to get them both killed.</td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2y0go_9pnRgxNgDqs2PkFQsK4stUKKIxXKlon3K6SJAxVPDZ7Lqwl28baPqa-zq_0_uD9XBe3g9RiFcrBip3BhoKVnsu2cygQ2rMKNOUSn47hl_gEx6caMMFbtO9TJpafZetWwTf_Xw/s1600/Worlds-Collide-400x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2y0go_9pnRgxNgDqs2PkFQsK4stUKKIxXKlon3K6SJAxVPDZ7Lqwl28baPqa-zq_0_uD9XBe3g9RiFcrBip3BhoKVnsu2cygQ2rMKNOUSn47hl_gEx6caMMFbtO9TJpafZetWwTf_Xw/s320/Worlds-Collide-400x600.jpg" width="212"></a></div></td><td valign="top">Worlds Collide (#7) Coming 29 June 2013</td></tr></tbody></table>

The Sanctuary Series

Guarding Morgan (#1) Morgan Drake witnesses a murder in an alleyway. He is the only person who can give evidence in prosecuting the cop res...

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Face Value (Sanctuary 3)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3VBnByFcD9gngV-PKJ-iIpW_03ZLOFDCgpgORNWACLbJcoDW7G4Rtq65frPRngcurHnZD5A_sg5sJN4LzFRGL_1CjIfA9Rw9bV_kMBvqPcNQ6IzMfQqC3SnSi1yY6oeDJv0p0Ate5t1w/s1600/Face-Value+600x900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3VBnByFcD9gngV-PKJ-iIpW_03ZLOFDCgpgORNWACLbJcoDW7G4Rtq65frPRngcurHnZD5A_sg5sJN4LzFRGL_1CjIfA9Rw9bV_kMBvqPcNQ6IzMfQqC3SnSi1yY6oeDJv0p0Ate5t1w/s640/Face-Value+600x900.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>Sanctuary Series Book 1 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/guarding-morgan.html">Guarding Morgan</a> Book 2 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/only-easy-day-new-cover-art.html">The Only Easy Day</a> Book 3 - Face Value Book 4 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/still-waters-sanctuary-4.html">Still Waters</a> Book 5 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/full-circle-sanctuary-5.html" target="_blank">Full Circle</a> Book 6 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-journal-of-sanctuary-one-sanctuary.html" target="_blank">The Journal Of Sanctuary One</a> Book 7 - <a href="http://rjscottauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/worlds-collide-sanctuary-7.html">Worlds Collide</a> The Book Beckett Jamieson, AKA Robert Bullen, has been rescued by Sanctuary from a situation in which he nearly died and is left temporarily blind. Doctor Kayden Summers is the Sanctuary operative assigned to look out for him. It soon becomes clear Beckett is the key to evidence left by his mom. Evidence that may well destroy the Bullen family. The two men become involved in a critical retrieval situation and when bullets start to fly there is only one thing between Beckett and death. Kayden. "....As I got to the end of Face Value, I immediately wanted to reach for the next book. And then the one after that. I want to know more ... Mission accomplished, RJ Scott, a job well done...." Buy Links - eBook <a href="https://www.lovelanebooks.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=14" target="_blank">Love Lane Books</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ADSELYA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00ADSELYA&linkCode=as2&tag=rjsc-20" target="_blank">Amazon (US)</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ADSELYA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00ADSELYA&linkCode=as2&tag=rjsc-21" target="_blank">Amazon (UK)</a> | <a href="https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-facevaluesanctuary3-1007883-145.html" target="_blank">All Romance</a> | <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/face-value-rj-scott/1110200236?ean=2940045102438" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a> | <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Books/face-value-sanctuary-3" target="_blank">Kobo </a>| <a href="https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/rj-scott/face-value-sanctuary-3/_/R-400000000000000877371" target="_blank">Sony</a> | <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/256683" target="_blank">Smashwords</a> Buy Links - Print Book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1482784580/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1482784580&linkCode=as2&tag=rjsc-20" target="_blank">Amazon (US)</a> | <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Face-Value-Sanctuary-RJ-Scott/dp/1482784580/ref=tmm_pap_title_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379334264&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Amazon (UK)</a> Reviews <a href="http://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords.com/2012/05/02/review-of-face-value-sanctuary-3-by-rj-scott-2/" target="_blank">Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words</a> - 4.5/5 -  "....As I got to the end of Face Value, I immediately wanted to reach for the next book. And then the one after that. I want to know more ... Mission accomplished, RJ Scott, a job well done...." <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4CRjzKgpSQ_CjqUEh9G6rxts6flXcebgnQPQt80X3EhNJ3XFo6vMePseF-d-z4wXmJWClhaVz60pGizyVNnH-7APugNo5yE7eQMzEFWMGi2dhyphenhyphenJtGB3uswrcrYGigAkeQi5hfG3d2JUg/s1600/facevalue.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4CRjzKgpSQ_CjqUEh9G6rxts6flXcebgnQPQt80X3EhNJ3XFo6vMePseF-d-z4wXmJWClhaVz60pGizyVNnH-7APugNo5yE7eQMzEFWMGi2dhyphenhyphenJtGB3uswrcrYGigAkeQi5hfG3d2JUg/s320/facevalue.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="http://mrsconditreadsbooks.com/index.php/?p=4352" target="_blank">Mrs Condit & Friends Read Books</a> - 4/5 - "....I really enjoy the story RJ Scott creates. The beginnings of Face Value and The Only Easy Day (#2 in Sanctuary) both have a lot of detail and intensity. The whole Bullen family drama is very interesting. I really like all the characters involved, then are funny, cocky and great at their jobs...." <a href="https://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/face-value-by-rj-scott/" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/face-value-by-rj-scott/" target="_blank">MM Good Book Reviews</a> - 4/5 - "....A great addition to the Sanctuary series so I recommend this to those who love mystery, suspense, a bit of action, some danger, a budding attraction/relationship and two stubborn men who strike sparks off each other...." <a href="http://www.rainbowbookreviews.com/book-reviews/face-value-sanctuary-3-by-rj-scott-at-silver-publishing" target="_blank">Rainbow Book Reviews</a> - "....This series is managing to keep the suspense going and definitely has my attention. Where we heard from the witness to a brutal murder in the first book, the victim’s step-brother in the second, this third volume now adds the point of view of the victim’s pseudo-boyfriend, who is also a member of the Bullen family, or rather the three brothers who are behind all the illegal activity. This story just gets more interesting every time there is a new book out....." Excerpt Chapter 1 "What the hell am I looking for?" Beckett Jamieson stood in the center of the room and then spun slowly in a full circle, cataloguing as much as he could. Nothing fit the description of what she had said would be here. There was no carved finial; in fact the bed looked new. Probably a lot newer than the eighteen years ago he was last here. But surely she would have known things could change before his twenty-first birthday. So the carving she talked of, maybe it wasn't a decorative carving on a bed. He looked at the two freestanding drawer units that served as bedside tables. They were frustratingly simple in their design. "Come on, Mom. There's nothing that looks half way carved in this room. Help me out here." Up until four weeks ago he hadn't known that his birth mother had left this puzzle for him to solve. He had known since his tenth birthday that he was adopted but he had never felt any compulsion to charge across the States looking for nebulous family or for birth parents who clearly hadn't wanted him. Not when he was ten and fixated on Transformers, or fifteen when he realized he was gay, or at eighteen when his college years were just beginning. Twenty-one was the magic year; but not through any intention of his. His mom and dad, Isla and Derek Jamieson, the people who took him in as a small child, had taken any information they may have had on his real parents to their graves a few years before. All they had ever said was that everything would be made clear when he was twenty-one and old enough to be who he wanted to be. Being called in to meet Austin Mitchell, apparently the family lawyer, had been the catalyst for wanting and needing to know more. The lawyer—"call me Austin"—had handed him a thick file that contained a letter in a sealed envelope and a carefully wrapped package. The label on the package held a simple missive: Happy twenty-first, Robert, with love, Mom. "You knew my birth mother?" Beckett always looked on her as that. Isla Compton was his real mom. The one constant in his life; provider of cookies and hugs and one hell of a lot of love. "I knew her well enough." Austin said this in an utterly matter of fact way but Beckett could see the twitch of his lips and the sadness in his expression. Evidently Austin had known his birth mother well enough to grieve at her loss. Was it possible the older man had known her in a biblical sense? "Were you…" Beckett wanted to say her lover? her husband? but that would have been rude. He didn't do rude. "Special to her?" He finished lamely. It was all he could think of and a special relationship could explain why the lawyer was tasked with talking to Beckett on his twenty-first. Maybe this older guy was his birth father? Austin, looking a little shaken at the question, simply shook his head. "So my real name is Robert?" "Robert Edward Bullen." Beckett considered the name and its initial implications. He definitely wasn't a Robert. He was Beckett. Beck. In no way was changing his name to Robert happening anytime in his future. There was a tiny teddy bear with the letter—the sort you gave a small child to decorate a crib or a carriage. When Beckett grasped it and felt the soft fur he suddenly wished that it would pull memories of before he was four to the surface. He couldn't recall a single thing and he placed it on the desk. "What about my birth dad?" Beckett asked carefully. In his head his mother had been a kid who became pregnant with no husband in the picture. It was easy to forgive her for dumping him if he used that reasoning. "He's still alive," Austin said. Beckett looked up sharply. "Does he know about me?" "He knew you. He thought you died in the same car wreck as your mother." "So she is dead then. She died and then I was adopted. She didn't give me up?" "No." Austin sighed and briefly closed his eyes. "There was no giving up. She died, you lived." Austin's voice was calm and rational. He continued, "I helped her by taking you and making you safe." Beckett blinked at the man. He really didn't understand this. It sounded like the plot of a murder novel. "You made me safe? What do you mean?" "I think the letter will begin to explain. I will give you your privacy and make some coffee for when you are ready to talk. The computer is yours." Austin left the room without a backward glance and Beckett opened the package. Inside was a simple flat wooden box with a dark inked stamp on the lid. He examined the letters on the lid and realized they were his birth initials, RB. Sliding open the lid he found a chain. Heavy and gold, it was definitely a man's chain and it was the size that fitted around a wrist—Beckett's wrist. Thrown back to the here and now Beckett felt for the chain. The heavy feel of it against his skin was reassuring and a connection to the woman who had brought him into the world. Emma Bullen. The letter had held little except a list of instructions and the usual things he imagined a letter of explanation held. He was Robert Bullen, son of Gregory Bullen, nephew to Senator Thomas Bullen and to Alastair Bullen. His birth father was alive, as were his uncles. It was the odd instruction that he should look for a carved area in his old room that had sent him to the mansion in the Catskills and to his biological father. Of course, he had done his research before he arrived. What Beckett discovered wasn't as much as he had hoped he would; well, not about his mom anyway. Emma Bullen had died in a car accident along with her son Robert—a fiery death on a twisting road in the mountains not far from the Bullen mansion. There were no witnesses and nothing left of the car except black twisted metal at the base of a cliff. So there he had sat; apparently he was Robert Bullen, and he had learned what he could about his family. Gregory Bullen, his father, and his uncle, Alastair, were both businessmen with their fingers in one hell of a lot of pies. His other uncle, Thomas, was an honest to God senator, a whiter than white politician who rode high on the platform of strong moral values. The senator wasn't that close to his two brothers but even an idiot who happened upon Greg and Alastair would see what kind of men they were. Mob. In every sense of the word. Extortion, drugs, prostitution; all wrapped up in a cloak of respectability. He wasn't even sure how far the crimes extended. And now he was in this old bedroom following the instructions from that letter, burned into his memory, looking for carvings that would lead him to God knows what. Whatever he found, she had written in the letter, was enough to make people pay for her death and would give him leverage against the family. Even now that sent a chill down Beckett's spine. She knew she was going to die? That must have been an unbearable weight to hold without cracking. There were grainy photos on the Internet from newspapers at the time of Emma's death—the three brothers standing at a graveside, and the two coffins; one large and one small. Apparently both coffins were full of not much more than a collection of burned bones. The papers had printed that without apology. Sensationalist journalism at its best. "Okay," he said softly to himself. "If I was in this room, where would I think was safe?" Crossing to the dresser, another simple wooden piece of furniture, he ran his fingers over the grain of the wood. When his mother had written the instructions, he had been so little as to have no memories of what this room had looked like. "Are you okay, son?" Gregory Bullen was at the door and Beckett immediately stood straight. There was a presence about Gregory that scared the shit out of him. The older man was built like a brick house, wide and strong, with years of lines carved into his weathered skin and hair as black as night. Imposing. Forceful. Strong. "I was just looking." Beckett shrugged. Let Gregory read whatever he wanted into that. His father entered the room and paused to look about him. "Robert." He acknowledged him. "Your mother," he made a sign of the cross on his chest, "God rest her soul. She loved this room." "She did?" Beckett couldn't help himself. He was starving for information about the person who had given him life. He even chose to ignore the instant burn of dislike inside him at being addressed as Robert. "I shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but she was never suited to a grand house like this. She was too simple for this place and she liked this room for what it was; a place to be herself." Gregory said this with a faint hint of fond recollection but Beckett liked to think he could see through it to the intent beneath. There wasn't any love lost in Gregory's voice. "What did I think of the house when I was here?" Beckett asked curiously. He may as well get some sense of his four-year-old self before he moved on. "You loved this house. Every corner was a hiding place and every room an adventure." This time there was real emotion in Gregory's voice. Affection? Anger? Beckett wasn't entirely sure. Gregory was a difficult man to feel. He continued, "Your uncle and I are attending our meetings. Would you like to join us in the city?" Spending an hour in the chauffeur driven limo with Gregory and Alastair Bullen? Gregory as cold as ice and slimy to boot and Alastair a freaking intimidating bully with death in his eyes? Fuck no. Beckett had work to do here. Not least of which was finding any evidence his mother had hidden in this room and trying to get into Gregory's computer for more information. Gregory was trying to make the effort, but not for the first time Beckett felt like there was nothing more than suspicion in their relationship. After all, he had returned after seventeen years and although it had been proven with a paternity test that he was Robert Bullen, Gregory still wasn't throwing his arms wide open to welcome Beckett home. There had been serious discussions on where Beckett had been, who had looked after him, and what did Beckett remember. Beckett never thought he would be relieved he had no family left to speak of. "No. Thank you," he replied pleasantly. "I have a ton of studying to catch up on." Beckett underlined the decision with what he hoped was a rueful smile and not a forced grimace. Gregory returned the smile although it didn't quite reach his eyes. Beckett wondered what the other man was going to say. He looked to be winding himself up for some emotional outpouring which, every time it happened, screwed with Beckett's head. "My son, the graduate," he said instead. Then he turned on his heel and was gone. Beckett waited until the car left; watched as the limo with its curved lines disappeared down the long drive. He added an extra five minutes and then continued to search the room. This time though, he had the freedom to really search and he pulled furniture away from walls. His deal with the Assistant District Attorney was for him to provide information in return for help to get away. He had already seen what happened to someone who crossed the Bullens. Elisabeth's death showed him that it was easy for someone to die at the hands of whomever the Bullens hired. He didn't think for one minute that being the prodigal son would save him if they found out why he was really here. That guy yesterday, Dale, had promised that he would help. All Beckett needed was to find the evidence his mom wrote that she had collected. He wondered what he looked for. Was it a disc? This had been seventeen years ago. If it was a disc it was probably some huge package that he hoped like hell hadn't deteriorated to the point of not being readable. Maybe it was notes or photos? Frustrated that he had found nothing he leaned back against the dresser and bowed his head. Why couldn't he remember more about his childhood? Why was his mind a blank? Lifting his head to the heavens again he uttered a curse word and a plea for inspiration. Which is when he saw it. The ceiling medallion around the light. Soft carved wood painted over with white gloss. Was it possible this was the place? There was only one way to find out. Pulling the chair from the dressing table to under the light he clambered to reach the carving. There was a lip around the edge that from the floor looked like it met the ceiling but that in actuality left a gap as wide as a finger to reach in. He hoped to hell that he wasn't about to poke his fingers into live wires or spiders and associated creepy crawlies. Excitement had him pushing his hand in flat and reaching around. There was something there. A flat envelope? Papers? Shifting up onto his toes he pushed his hand in farther and managed to wiggle the item out. It finally popped free with a puff of dust which stung his eyes and tickled his nose. Carefully he checked for more inside the medallion but all he felt was wires. Satisfied he had found everything he jumped down from the chair. With a shaking hand he pulled out the single sheet of paper inside. Sighing he realized it was more cryptic notes; he started to re–read. He never saw who it was. Never had a chance to duck. A fist caught the side of his head and when the pain drove him to his knees he knew he was fucked. "What the fuck are you doing?" Alastair's voice. He clearly hadn't gone with Gregory. It had been a lie that he was going, or a last minute change. Whatever. Alastair had a gun and he was pointing it at Beckett. Beckett scrambled back and rolled into the bathroom shutting the door and holding it closed with his body. There was no lock. Fuck. Who didn't have a lock on their bathroom door? The solid wood door may hold off a bullet but even so he debated scrambling away from it just in case. Shit. What the hell was he doing? Why hadn't he tried to talk himself out of this? He could have just said he was… fuck. He didn't have a ready excuse. "Stop being stupid, Robert, and come out of the bathroom." Alastair's voice was harsh and impatient. "Beckett. My name is Beckett Jamieson." Beckett shouted and leaned harder on the door as he pulled his cell from his pocket. There was no way out of this bathroom. No external window. The call connected quickly and he blurted out as much as he could. "I'm trapped in a bathroom. I fucked up and I'm scared. I can't get out—" He never finished the call. The door was forced open; his own slight figure nothing to hold back his bear of an uncle and the phone went flying. It smashed into the porcelain of the tub and as suddenly as it had flown from his hand it lay in pieces on the floor. The door pushed him inward and he grabbed for something to prevent his fall only to be stopped by Alastair grabbing at his neck and hair. Alastair had a choke hold on him and pulled Beckett up off of the ground so hard that Beckett saw spots before his eyes. "I fucking knew it," Alastair bit the words out angrily and with a shake of his hand Beckett felt consciousness slip away from him. * * * * Something was biting into his wrists and it hurt. Rope? Twine? Something hard and unforgiving. Awareness was coming back to him a second at a time and blood coated his tongue. His hands were tied and he was slumped in the same chair he had used to reach the ceiling. His throat hurt. Really. Hurt. "…computer. The cameras showed us." "That doesn't mean—" "Greg, this is why I said I would stay here and why I called you back from the city. I've been at him for nearly twenty-four hours and he's given me shit. The prodigal son returns and you aren't the least bit suspicious? Have you learned nothing? Shit. You always were the loose end in this family. First all-innocence-Emma, then Thomas and that bitch Elisabeth and now your freak of a son. Both my brothers are idiots—" "Don't talk to me like that—" "Wait. Pretty boy is all woken up." Beckett blinked up at his uncle; Alastair's face twisted in a sneer. He was up close and personal in Beckett's face and he could smell the cloying cologne that Alastair must pour over himself. Suddenly he wished he was unconscious again. Alastair had been asking questions, punching him, and leaving him tied up in the bitterly cold room with the windows wide open. He had reached his limit. And now Gregory was here. "Wha—" Beckett began. He could try and play innocent. Surely it wasn't too late to retrieve some measure of control in this situation? "What happened? What is Uncle Alastair doing to me? Get him to untie me." Alastair stepped backward with a laugh and Gregory simply shrugged. Okay. Appealing to Gregory about his uncle wasn't going to work. "Dad?" There. Focus on the man who was responsible for his existence. Pain crossed Gregory's face. "Alastair?" Beckett watched Gregory appeal to his brother but Alastair shook his head. For a moment Beckett had felt like he'd actually connected with his father but it didn't last. "No, Greg. I don't know what the fuck this is." Alastair handed the open envelope to Gregory who pulled out a single sheet of paper and a key. "Maybe you'll tell my brother what this is?" Alastair snapped and Beckett flinched as his uncle leaned closer. "Something I remembered from when I was four," Beckett lied. "Bull. Shit." The slap that accompanied the two succinct words snapped Beckett 's head sideways and his neck protested with sharp pain. "Read it out loud, Greg. What does it say?" "You'll need the other one but you know where it is. Texas has it," Gregory read. "Then some shit in letters and numbers." He crumpled the note and threw it on the floor. He turned the key in his hand. It was small and silver; nothing fancy. Beckett watched as Gregory pocketed it. "The other what?" Alastair shouted into Beckett's ear. "Another key? Where in Texas? Who do you know in Texas? What is the key for?" "No one—" Beckett started but Alastair hit him again, and again. Always with the same questions. Where. Who. Why. His head snapped from side to side and bile clawed his throat. This seemed like the end of things; after a day of questions and dealing out pain Alastair was finally at the edge. "Fuck, Alastair; what is wrong with you? You'll kill him." Even Gregory seemed shocked by the level of anger in Alastair and Beckett felt a glimmer of hope that Gregory would step in and stop this. "You wanna know? You really want to know what this little shit has been doing?" "What?" Gregory sounded lost. "I had him followed. He was cozy with Elisabeth, you know that, but I dealt with that. Then he had a meeting yesterday with a PI, some guy in a shopping center and fuck knows what he handed over. Security cameras have him using your computer in your office, Greg. Taking copies of files." Another hit and Beckett felt bile rise in him. He was going to be sick. Alastair pulled him to his feet. "Tell him what you were doing you little shit—" "Studying—" Beckett blurted out the single word. Alastair's expression held derision. "In your private files, Greg." "Dad?" Beckett pasted his best pleading expression on his face. May as well use the possible connection. There was nothing in Gregory's eyes. No compassion or fatherly affection. Just ice. "You never came here to find me, did you Robert." Gregory's voice was flat. There was no question in what he said. "Did she tell you to come here? What did you come here to do? Kill me? Avenge what happened to her?" "No—" All the breath left his body as Gregory ended what Alastair had started even as Alastair held him. The barrier had broken and the hate and violence Gregory had been hiding behind his mask of civility was out in force. The punches he threw connected with Beckett 's chest, the pain quick and sharp. "Have you shown anyone? What did you do with the files?" "I didn't—I was studying—" Beckett felt consciousness slip away from him. Step by step his vision was blurring and the only thing keeping him standing was the tight grip Alastair had on his arm. The next hit wrenched the socket hard and he felt something tear and snap in his arm. "I told you he was talking to Elisabeth. Fuck, Greg. I told you we should have shut him down as soon as he arrived here." Alastair released his arm and Beckett dropped to the chair. It scooted backward until the wooden back hit the bed and only sheer willpower kept Beckett upright. "He'll need to die. Like Elisabeth." "Okay. I don't have the stomach for this—" Greg didn't sound sad or grieved. His words were bitter and staccato. "You find out what he knows. What he's done." "I got it, brother. Leave it to me." There was an unholy glee in Alastair's voice. This was a man who enjoyed hurting and killing. "I want names and numbers and when you're finished put his body on the mountain." Greg said dispassionately. Beckett heard the words and fear chased up his spine. Mind numbing and utterly all-consuming terror. He lifted his head, barely able to see through the slits of his swollen eyes. Greg was staring at him. "You could have had it all Robert. All of it." Then everything went to hell. Shouting. Demands. A gun. A shot. Then strong arms pulling him upright and a muttered. "Got you, kid." Beckett allowed himself to be pulled up, his only conscious thought getting to the key and the letter. He fell to his knees, the curse of whoever held him ripe in the air, and scrambled to where Gregory lay in a widening pool of blood. Beckett snatched at the letter and then dug through blood and gore to find the key. He couldn't see anything in the blur of pain and was feeling his way around pushing aside material and sticky blood. "Fuck. Kid—" "Wait—" he screamed the words in his head but all that left his cracked, bloodied lips was a near whimper. "We gotta go. Dale, for fuck's sake—" Beckett's fingers closed around the small key and with a thrill of triumph he clambered to stand. "You're not taking him—" Alastair's voice, the sound of a scuffle and Beckett was pushed violently from behind. As he fell his head connected with the edge of the dresser and his last conscious thought was that he was alive and he had the letter and the key. The rest would sort itself out. Chapter 2 "It's been three days. Shouldn't he at least be conscious?" The words filtered into Beckett's thoughts. His dreams. Experimentally he attempted to turn his head, anything but nothing happened. His brain told him he could move but his body wasn't helping. "Today." Another voice replied simply. "He still looks like shit." The first voice was familiar. Beckett wanted to ask who it was. Where was he? Why couldn't he move? "He'll be back to being a pretty boy in days." The second man was talking with very little emotion in his voice, not like the first who seemed anxious. Was this second guy a doctor? Was it two doctors? "Talking of pretty boys, I am assuming Joseph has gone now?" "Ten minutes ago." That sounded like Dale. So he was with Dale? Inch by inch the tension seeped from his brain. If Dale had him then he wasn't near Gregory and Alastair Bullen. "That was some intense shit you had going with super-SEAL." The second guy's tone was pure sarcasm. "Yeah." A loud laugh framed the response "He's an intense guy." "You're good together—" "Jeez, Kayden, that sounds almost poetic coming from you." "Fuck poetic. Just, the ass on that man, hell, not to mention you. That is one SEAL sandwich I would die to get in the middle of." There was laughter and the other guy left, leaving the one called Kayden with Beckett. He knew that because Kayden was talking to him. Soft and low, his voice was like honey and Beckett desperately tried to move to acknowledge he could hear. The voice was reassuring, comforting and he was clinging to every syllable. "Hell," Kayden was saying, "damn idiot operative falls in love with a SEAL. Can't see that lasting past the next mission. If you're gonna be gay you need to choose the ones who don't go off getting themselves shot at." There was a pause and Beckett felt hands on him pressing and pushing over his body. Kayden continued conversationally, "But, shit kid, the chemistry those two had going was intense. Wish you coulda woken up in time to see Joseph. Hell, he was a sight for sore eyes. Tall and dark, with the sweetest ass you ever laid your eyes on. Not that this would interest you normal types. But jeez. To tap that… hmmmm. "Now Robert… how about you open your eyes for me?" Beckett, I'm Beckett. Please don't call me Robert. The words just wouldn't form. Trapped in his head they buzzed and clung to his brain. "I know you're in there, kid." Kayden continued. "Your vitals are good, your responses are mostly there but you won't let yourself wake up. So how about opening your eyes for me? I could use the company." Beckett tried damn hard. He wanted to see the man whose voice was a balm to his pain. He forced himself to relax as tension and pain knifed through his head. Unbearable pain. It had to stop. He wanted to open his eyes. Open your eyes. Open. I want to open my eyes. "Okay. I get it. You think I'm going to be boring." No. Please help me with the pain. "So. You're not waking up this morning then. Shit. I bet Dale a twenty you'd be awake today. Don't you go making a liar out of me, kid. I want you up and at 'em by evening." Kayden, his doctor it seemed, had a voice that wrapped its way around his thoughts. It made Beckett want to wake up for the Doc. "I'm pushing your meds 'cause you look like shit." Meds? Meds were good. But what kind of doctor spoke like that? And Dale was here? Dale whom he'd spoken to in the coffee shop? Dale who had promised he would be okay? Wait. Was it Dale at the mansion? Was it Dale who had spoken to him and held him together in the stumbling half-conscious walk from mansion to car? A trickle inside him and the pain in his head began to ease. "So, I'll be outside if you need me, Robert, yeah? Usual place, kid." Stop calling me Robert. Stop calling me kid. * * * * Doctor Kayden Summers wasn't feeling this case at all. Not only was it a non-official off-record-but-really-Sanctuary case, which made the whole thing a pain in the ass, but the kid remained unconscious. He prided himself on knowing what a patient needed. Hell, he was a fully-fledged doctor at twenty-six with four years ER training under his belt and a raft of experience in blunt trauma that went years back. Given his experience of patient care, the kid should be awake by now. As much as he'd joked with Dale, the part where the kid wasn't waking up formed a worry that niggled at him. He made coffee and slumped in the plush sofa of the main lounge. The room was closest to the medical area and if he didn't have the TV on he could hear if he was needed. Television was a necessary evil and he only watched it to catch up on news. It wasn't as if he were a sports fan, or that much into reality TV, to bother with it. Given he hadn't seen a television until the age of around thirteen meant his formative years had shaped him into someone that really couldn't be bothered with the shit forced on most kids. His cell vibrated and danced on the wooden table that he had his feet up on and he glanced at the caller ID. For some reason Jake had a stick up his ass about where Kayden's head was at. He didn't answer. He may well owe Jake Callahan his life but that didn't mean he had to put up with the shit that Jake kept throwing at him. The phone vibrated again. It moved closer to the edge of the table. Next time it would fall off into the deep pile rug. That would solve the problem. "I'm packing up," Dale announced from the doorway. "Thought you were here for two more days?" "Nik's picking me up and Jake called." As he spoke Dale checked his gun and then he slid it into his shoulder holster. "He had a message for you." "Yeah?" Kayden could well imagine what Jake wanted to say to him. "He says, and I quote, 'get that fucker to answer his phone'." A grin broke across Dale's face. Smiling was something Dale had been doing a lot of in the past few days and it unnerved Kayden. A fuck was a fuck. Sex had never made Kayden freaking smile like some hormonal girl. He ignored the feeling of envy that pricked inside him at what Dale seemed to have found with Joseph. They didn't know he'd been listening, but he couldn't help it. Hearing exchanged promises of more for both of them was wrong in Kayden's head. Man or woman, nothing lasted long enough in this world for enduring attachments. Dale may well fancy himself in love with Joseph but love was like having a perpetual Achilles heel. Attachments? Love? Just makes you weak, boy. His dad's words were indelibly etched into his soul. That and ten years of military-based training. He had stopped listening to his dad's warped view of the world a long time before the old man died. He smirked inwardly and some of that humor must have shown on his face. "What's funny?" Dale asked as he rolled his neck and stretched. "Nothing. Just shit in my head." He shrugged and Dale crossed his arms over his chest. "Phone Jake, yeah?" he said simply. "If I have to." Subject closed, Kayden deliberately picked his cell up from the table and pretended to scrutinize it. Dale huffed his own laugh and left, presumably to pack his gear. Kayden wondered for a moment if Dale's new posting was all on the up and up, or if it was more of this unofficial shit. If the case he was on now, babysitting this kid who'd had the snot kicked out of him, had been official then Sanctuary would have put him in one of the city located safe houses with medical units. Being out in the middle of freaking nowhere surrounded by trees and behind a wall of security smacked too much of his childhood. Jake knew damn well Kayden only took cases in the damn city. So why dump him here? His cell vibrated again and Kayden simply turned the phone off. All he was doing was delaying the inevitable lecture. He wasn't actually cutting off total lines of communication simply because the whole place was wired to Sanctuary ops. Jeez. You could even contact them from the bathrooms. Still, he felt a little thrill at ending the call. Jake Callahan may well be rich enough to have created, run, and built the Sanctuary Foundation but hell if that meant a thing to Kayden. To him, Jake was his annoying elder stepbrother. The young man who, at the tender age of nineteen along with his dad, had liberated Kayden and a few others from a compound at the ass end of nowhere. An ex-veteran compound, it was all Kayden had known from a young age but when Jake arrived as part of some liberating mission, fourteen-year-old Kayden had been the first to switch sides. Hell. That was only because his dad had made him. "You're a waste to us here. Fucking useless when all you want to do is book learn." His dad had spat that at him with the fire of trauma-driven hate in his eyes. "May as well do what they say and move out. I can't protect you no more. You have to make your own way." Stupid thing was, book learning remained a useful tool. With both the learning and the experience Kayden was the best in the compound. The best learner, the best fighter, the best at strategy. Still, nothing he had done for his father had ever been good enough and the young Kayden had tried so damn hard every single day. Kayden closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the sofa. Only when his dad had held his hand tightly with blood and air escaping his chest from a wound as big as Kayden's fist did he get the real reason why his dad had screamed he was useless. It was, according to the fucking idiot, the only way Jack Summers knew to get him to leave the place that his dad called his own form of sanctuary. God knows why Kayden was so damned introspective today. He turned the cell back on and near immediately it vibrated in his hand. This time Kayden answered the call with a curt hello. "Kayden. Stop avoiding my calls." Jeez. Jake sounded pissed. "I'm not avoiding them. I was busy." Kayden lied. Jake didn't even call him on it but he was used to Kayden's avoidance tactics. "Dale's been re-assigned so you're Robert Bullen aka Beckett Jamieson's case controller now." "There's not a lot to control. The kid's still unconscious." "Still?" Jake sounded skeptical and professional pride put Kayden's back up. He contemplated retorting with reasons why the kid, beaten to within a breath of dying, was probably not choosing to join humanity for a while but he didn't. That the trauma the young man had undergone had left him with internal injuries and a fractured arm and swelling so bad on his face that it was near unthinkable he would ever heal. Instead, Kayden resorted to what Jake expected from him. What everyone expected from him. "I poked him with a stick. He didn't move." Jake snorted. He could see through his brother's smoke blowing instinctively. "Just keep me apprised." "I'll keep you apprised." Kayden confirmed with sarcasm dripping from the words. "Hell K, what crawled up your ass and died?" For the first time in a while Jake sounded stressed and tired. It wasn't easy juggling millions of dollars in investments to the face of the world and then running Sanctuary behind the scenes. Added to that he knew Jake was being shadowed by some kind of FBI internal investigator. What the hell for no one other than Jake knew. As a man he should be respecting Jake and answering civilly. As a younger brother he really didn't know what to say to Jake's question. 'You sent me to the middle of freaking nowhere with a comatose patient', would probably be a start. Instead he just chose silence and finally Jake huffed his disapproval. "Not all your cases can be action filled little brother." Kayden frowned and felt more than a little uncomfortable. Jeez. How did Jake do that? How did he manage to cut to the heart of what drove Kayden's bad mood. "You know I don't do sitting around well. I have all this need in me to get physical. I'd give anything for a good fist fight," Kayden replied. Jake was the only one on this earth he would ever say that to. The restrained violence that lived inside of Kayden was only thinly veiled by civility. He had a temper but it never blew. He couldn't allow it to. That would mean losing control and Kayden didn't lose control. Ever. "A few days, K. Get him awake and debrief him. Then we can move him to another safe house, assign this elsewhere." He paused and Kayden imagined his brother ticking off items in his head. "Also, we have a training camp for some newbies and I could use your skills on that after you're done." Great. Just what he needed. Raw recruits from the alphabets—FBI, CIA, who the hell ever. All needing to be retaught skills and how to control being the one that stopped the bullet. "I need my martial arts expert," Jake continued. "I need the strategy expert." "Yeah, yeah." Kayden waved away the words. He didn't need to hear he was the best. Jake had him on the training team for hand to hand, strategy and survival. Whatever people insisted on labeling his skills, he knew that was the type of thinking that led to letting your guard down, didn't keep you at your peak. He had learned his lessons well and scars on his back and thighs proved just how much he had suffered for what he got wrong. At least in Sanctuary the training was civilized and included beer after. The irony of it all was being so damn good at hurting and defending didn't count for anything when the call to want to train as a medic happened. The intensity of his focus led him to want to be a healer. He had seen so much illness and pain, psychological damage, and PTSD that went untreated or remained misunderstood when his dad refused outside help for his fellow Veterans. Kayden wanted to learn to fix everyone. Jake had never commented when Kayden had announced his degree choice. Just supported the decision in the way an elder brother would. Kayden's portion of the Callahan estate stretched into the millions and became his entitlement when Callahan senior had adopted Kayden officially. Not that Kayden wanted it nor did he officially change his surname from Summers. Still. It saw him through medical school and as soon as he had that pass under his belt he was back at Sanctuary. Home. "I'll get him conscious, assess him, then pass him off. Agreed?" Kayden asked. Kayden could help a person heal physically. He knew exactly how every nerve and muscle connected in a web of life inside a broken body. He could support broken bones and organize meds. He just preferred it when his patients were awake. Jake sighed. "Okay. Agreed. Keep in touch, K." "Yeah." He ended the call there. They didn't need to exchange anything else. What was unsaid remained in his head and would be in Jake's. The brotherly things that men had a hard time vocalizing. "He give you a hard time?" Dale piled three bags on the table and knocked Kayden's feet off of their comfortable perch. "Big brothers do that." Kayden offered with a grimace. "Did he mention the training camp?" Dale wasn't looking at him. He was rifling through his munitions bag and carefully pulling pieces of a dismantled Sig from the inside. "Yeah, he did." "You take care," Dale said simply. He picked up his bags and with the disarming wide grin, that really would not give up, Dale left Sanctuary eighteen. * * * * Kayden checked in on the kid and analyzed another problem he was having at the moment. The young guy remained unconscious and the bruising on his face was spectacular; a myriad of green and black as well as splits in the skin. The bruises would disappear; the splits would close when the swelling decreased. Under the sheet Robert's body was covered in similar marks. Clearly the Bullen brothers had decided that the prodigal son's return was a good excuse for using the kid as a punching bag. Kayden wondered if Robert had given anything up under the punishment that had been meted out. What the hell did they think he had that warranted this kind of abuse? Compassion flooded him as it did whenever an innocent was caught up in something dark and undefinable. Had he broken or had Dale and Joseph arrived in time to stop anything being said? Gregory may well be dead but Alastair was alive and bemoaning his brother's terrible self-inflicted accident. Kayden pulled the sheet back to check on his patient and that there was where his final source of stress with this whole shit-fest of an assignment lay. Shit, the kid was pretty. Very fit, tall and slim but not too skinny. Possibly five nine or ten he was all lean, toned flesh with a swimmer's build—narrow and spare. He was naked under the sheet and Kayden felt like some kind of pervert to be checking vitals and at the same time checking everything else. Every single mark and muscle stood indelibly burned into Kayden's brain. From the top of his patient's head and his short dark hair to the tip of his toes he was gorgeous and that thought made him squirm. Kayden was twenty-six; only five years older than the kid in years but so much older in experience. That didn't stop Kayden from thinking what he did. Shit. Really, under the bruises and the pain the kid was gorgeous. And the very fact that Kayden even registered that with someone as young and in need of protection as Robert Bullen made him feel sick with himself. Besides, Robert was straight as evidenced by the girlfriend murdered in the alley. It had been too long since he had enjoyed fucking someone. At least three months. Way too long. Perving on a patient was top of his no go list. Dropping the sheet he edged back, noted vitals on the pad at the end of the bed then left his patient's room. For some really strange reason he couldn't bear to be in the same room as the innocent youth that lay in that bed.

Face Value (Sanctuary 3)

Sanctuary Series Book 1 - Guarding Morgan Book 2 - The Only Easy Day Book 3 - Face Value Book 4 - Still Waters Book 5 - Full Circle Book 6 -...

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