BLURB: Luke Rogan’s assignment is simple: secure young Elijah Scoffield and his mother and bring them back to headquarters—just an ordinary mission for an operative of the Dark Alliance. But Elijah is no ordinary kid. He’s the grandson of one of the country’s most influential politicians—a man privy to the Alliance’s most valuable secrets, including its centuries-long connection to the Knights Templar. And someone else is attempting to capture the boy—someone who’s proven he doesn’t give a damn about collateral damage…
Heartbroken at the lies that tore her world apart, Sarah Scoffield will do anything to protect her son—even if that means teaming up with a deadly stranger. But Sarah soon finds herself falling in love with her dark hero. And as danger stalks ever closer, the fiery desire that claims them awakens in Sarah passions she’d thought dead and buried long ago…
Excerpt from Chapter 2
Sarah’s breath caught in her chest. At least a foot taller than she was, Luke towered over her, his powerful body crowding her as he pressed close. She put a hand against his muscled chest to stop him from getting any closer and was surprised to find his heart beating as fast as hers.
Dear God. He was looking at her with such intensity, she almost expected him to kiss her. And something told her it wouldn’t have been a tentative, uncertain kiss.
“Everything okay, Mrs. Scoffield?”
Sarah started and tore her gaze away from Luke’s—which was far more difficult than she would’ve thought—to give the man in the booth next to hers a smile. “Yes, Mr. Thomas. Everything’s fine.” She turned back to Luke, narrowing her eyes at him. “Just who the hell should I be worried about? What was this incident you seem to know all about?”
“There was an attempt on your father’s life,” Luke told her in a low rumble. “I’m sorry.”
“What?” She pegged Luke with a pointed stare, her anger and disbelief making her tremble. “Prove it. Prove to me that my father sent you. Prove that any of what you’re telling me is true.”
Luke heaved an exasperated sigh and took out his phone and turned it toward her. “Here.”
She read the text message from the phone number she recognized as her sister Maddie’s: Pic of Sarah and Eli. Please bring them home safely. Dad in surgery.
Sarah immediately called out, “Mr. Thomas! I need to take a break. Could you watch the booth for me until Mrs. Smith gets here?”
Luke didn’t wait for Mr. Thomas to answer before grabbing Sarah’s hand and pulling her along behind him. “Where’s the boy?”
“The haunted house.” Sarah gestured toward a sprawling historic home down the street that was converted into a house of horrors every year to the delight of people all over the county. She’d held firm about Eli not going, planning to have him sit with her at the booth until she was free to go with him, but then Hunter’s mom had informed her that, contrary to what Hunter had hoped, she and her husband would be joining the boys at the festival and keeping watch over them.
Luke picked up the pace, his powerful strides forcing Sarah to take three steps to his every one. She struggled to keep up with him, her long denim skirt and brown knee boots not really suited for jogging. But as her fear and panic ramped up, she surged forward, now dragging Luke behind her.
“Betsy,” Sarah panted when they reached the wrought-iron gates, recognizing the girl taking tickets as one of the high school girls who’d babysat for her during staff meetings. “Have you seen Eli?”
The girl blinked at Sarah—well, at Luke, really—but finally seemed to snap out of it and nodded. “Uh, yeah. He went in, like, a few minutes ago, I think. Haven’t seen him come out yet. But, you know, I’m not like watching for him or anything.”
Sarah bolted up the steps, ignoring Betsy’s protestations about tickets, and heard Luke’s heavy footfalls right behind her. “Eli!” she called when she burst inside. “Elijah!”
Luke grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. “Sarah—”
“Let me go, damn it,” she yelled over the spooky music and artificial sound effects of creaking doors and demonic cackles. “You told me my son’s in danger. Well, I’m going to go find him.”
Luke pulled her a few steps toward the wall and deeper into the thick curls of artificial fog to let another group of people pass, then grasped the back of her neck and bent to speak directly into her ear, “We’re not the only ones looking for him, remember?”
Sarah shuddered at the warmth of his breath on her ear and forced herself to focus on what he was saying.
“We don’t want to lead them to Eli.” He drew back just enough to peer down into her face, and his hand drifted from the back of her neck to cup her cheek. “Now, follow me—quickly, but calmly.”
Sarah nodded and let him take her hand as they hurried through the darkness, lit only by disorienting strobe lights. They searched the faces of those they passed, looking for Eli in the crowd. Whenever she saw one of the children she recognized, she tried to ask if they’d seen her son. Those to whom she could make herself heard could do little more than nod and point, their voices lost to the noise.
More than once, costumed performers dressed as gruesome zombies, mangled murder victims, or ghosts with hollowed-out eyes leapt out at them, startling a cry from her. But Luke barely flinched. It seemed the man was completely immune to fear. Which made Sarah wonder just how the hell her father knew him.
The aura of danger that surrounded Luke was unlike any she’d seen before—and did nothing to assuage her fear for Eli’s safety. If her father had sent someone like the man beside her to protect them, then the people he feared were coming for them had to be pretty damned frightening.
Her panic increasing with each passing moment that Eli wasn’t with her, Sarah tightened her grip on Luke’s hand. Finally, as they made their way through the crowded third-story hallway, she thought she suddenly caught a glimpse of Eli. Without thinking, she bolted forward, squeezing her way through the crowds, frantic to keep him in sight as he and the Smith family made their way toward the back stairs.
She was just about to dart down the darkened stairwell after them when a group of giggling girls emerged from the room to her right, clogging the passageway. Sarah elbowed her way through them, drawing angry protests that were thankfully drowned out. She raced down the stairs, which were dimly lit by a dull yellow bare bulb at the top landing and another, blinking, fizzling bulb further down below like something out of those creepy slasher films from the eighties.
Her heart pounding, she took the stairs as fast as she could. As she made the first landing, she came to an abrupt halt with a loud scream, not having expected to encounter a performer sprawled on the floor as if he’d been shot in the head. A shockingly realistic splatter was painted on the wall a couple of feet above him and smeared down as if he’d hit the wall when the bullet struck him and slowly slumped to the ground.
After the initial shock, Sarah moved to go around when something about the man’s face suddenly struck her as familiar. It was in the next instant that terror gripped her, making her knees momentarily week. The man wasn’t a performer. It was Mike Smith—the father of Eli’s friend Hunter and the man who was supposed to be watching out for her son.
Sarah forced her feet to move, tripping over the body and nearly tumbling down the stairs. Her heart was racing, her pulse pounding so loudly in her ears she no longer could hear the haunted house sound effects bleeding through the walls into the stairwell.
Dear God.
Mike Smith was dead. Shot in the head. And the person who’d committed such a horrific murder was there in the darkness somewhere. With her son.
The first in Kate SeRine’s new series-
The Dark Alliance
Release Date: June 28, 2016
About the Author:
Kate SeRine (pronounced “serene”) is a hopeless romantic who firmly believes in true love that lasts forever. So when she began writing her own stories, Kate vowed that her characters would always have a happily ever after.
Kate lives in a smallish, quintessentially Midwestern town with her husband and two sons, who share her love of storytelling. She never tires of creating new worlds to share and is even now working on her next project–probably while consuming way too much coffee. Kate is also the author of the award-winning Transplanted Tales paranormal romance series.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Leave a Reply