Just so y’all don’t think I’ve been resting on my laurels, here’s a peek at the book I finished last week for Ellora’s Cave. Lockdown is the sequel to my dark paranormal, Sin’s Gift.

What happens when demons take over a cellblock?

Around nine o’clock when prisoners were beginning to settle in front of the television or into little groups to chat quietly, Gillian’s mike squawked. “Priest, got a new ten-fifteen. Needs an escort.”

She hadn’t been briefed about their procedures for bringing in new prisoners, but she had read the manual. Didn’t seem any different from Bentonville’s SOP. She headed out of the housing unit to West Gate’s “Sally Port.” A white van was pulled up close to the port. A sheriff’s deputy was outside the vehicle chatting to with the officer manning the gate when she walked up to them.

“Got fresh meat,” the officer said.

Gillian wasn’t entirely sure whether he was talking about the prisoner being led up in leg irons toward the gate or her. And a glance at his twisted lips told her the ambiguity had been deliberate. She lifted her chin and held out her hand for the clipboard with the papers describing their requisition of a new prisoner, named Gabriel Vlahos.

Inmate number 140849 now. Chains rattled, feet shuffled as the prisoner rounded the end of the van.

Gillian’s eyes widened a fraction and she quickly looked at the clipboard again to gather her scattered wits. She’d only lost them a second.

It didn’t matter how beautiful the man was. The papers said he’d killed. But no matter the crime or the length of his sentence, the white jumpsuit rendered him forever off limits to her.
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