It Takes a Cat Burglar is now $0.99 permanently. That’s right, the price drop is here to stay. It’s available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Google Play, and Kobo.

It Takes a Cat Burglar: A Thief in Love Suspense Romance
By Cailin Briste

Buy Now: https://books2read.com/cat-burglar
Add it on Goodreads.

When Darcelle Lebeau throws off the invisible chains that keep her bound to her family, she discovers a new vocation. Tempted to enter the illegal playground of a man she nicknames Matou, she becomes a cat burglar in training. Deeply ensnared with each task he entices her to fulfill, she fails to discover his identity and true intentions.

Sebastian St. Croix, a wealthy businessman, has a dark side. He’s a thief, a cat burglar who steals art and historical objects. For one year, he trains Darcelle to become his assistant, remaining incognito, observing her from afar. His admiration grows along with his desire for her with every phase-one challenge she completes. Phase two will test the limits of his control. Hands-on personal training? Yes. Sex? No. With his sister’s happiness at stake, nothing, not even the tempting Darcelle Lebeau, can interfere with accomplishing the biggest break-in of his career.

Excerpt:

DARCELLE STEELED HERSELF before entering the study. She’d been shocked to discover her own clothes laid out for her. This stranger had insinuated himself deep into her life, and she was determined to find out why.

He was seated at a large desk, hands behind his head, long legs stretched before him, and feet propped on the desktop. Arrogant man. Before her strides brought her to stand across from him, he pointed at a chair positioned at an angle to the desk. It was straight in line with his gaze, so he could study her at his ease.

“Sit there.” He returned his hands to the back of his head.

Darcelle ignored the command, stopping at the edge of the desk. “Who are you?”

A glimmer of heat flashed. “If you want your questions answered, you will sit. Do not defy me. There will be consequences.”

Unmoved by the threat, she pressed her lips in a tight line and narrowed her eyes. If it was a battle of wills he wanted, she’d be happy to oblige.

He stared pointedly at her. “Do you want answers?”

She balled her hands into fists. He had her. Without looking at him, she sat.

“Good girl.”

She shot her gaze up to him. Gods. I’d like to wipe that smirk from your face. Or kiss it away. What the hell was wrong with her? She should look out for herself not sink deeper under his thrall.

He abruptly dropped his feet to the floor and sat forward, his gaze aimed so sharply at her that she jerked back.

“There’s a price for my services. It’s time for you to pay.”

Buy Now: https://books2read.com/cat-burglar

About Cailin

Cailin has been writing fiction for six years and non-fiction for two decades. Her non-fiction work has been published in magazines and in a non-fiction anthology. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America, the RWA Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Chapter, and the RWA Passionate Ink Chapter.

Cailin likes to flip convention on its head, creating a universe in which each planet is a study in different what ifs. What would happen to alpha men on a matriarchal planet? How would society handle it if girls born on their new planet developed empathic senses?

She is currently writing the third book in her Sons of Tallav sci-fi erotic romance series. Shane: Marshal of Tallav and Maon: Marshal of Tallav were released in 2016 by Loose Id. Educated by the Master, a Sons of Tallav novella, will be released in October in the Cosmic Love Cabaret anthology.

For information about Cailin’s new releases, sale prices, and giveaways, sign up for her newsletter.

Social Media Links:

Website https://cailinbriste.com/
Blog https://cailinbriste.com/category/all-posts/ 
Street Team https://cailinbriste.com/cailins-street-team/
Twitter https://twitter.com/CailinBriste
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cailinbriste/
Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/102592935378667862505
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/cailinbriste/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7413817.Cailin_Briste
Bookbub Author Page https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cailin-briste
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Cailin-Briste/e/B00GSX9QVW

A little over a year ago I had one of my short stories published with a series called Candy Hearts and released by the Wild Rose Press. Each story in the series revolved around Valentines Day, and each had to contain reference to the heart-shaped sugar candies with the goofy sayings on them like: Love U Forever; Be Mine; Take Me, I’m Yours. You get the picture. My story was titled For Keeps and it was a lot of fun to write.

When it came time to promote the story, the other Candy Hearts authors were willing to visit my blog but they only wanted to give me what they called a Media Kit. If I wanted to visit their blogs to promote For Keeps, I had to supply a Media Kit. Known among my friends and family as the Woman Who Needs to Get Out More, I had no clue what to do and was ready to hang it up.

So I asked and one of the authors very kindly showed me how to create a Media Kit. Step by step, cut and paste, be imaginative, she said. And whaddya know, it worked. Within one year I was teaching others how to create a Media Kit for each of their books. I call that Paying It Forward.

Now we come to Twitter, Tweeting and other similar social communication which do not involve dialing a phone. Up until six months ago I had no clue what Twitter or Tweeting meant, beyond a classroom of giggling eight year-olds who recently discovered Justin Timberlake or that man-child Bieber person. Okay, I’ll admit to hearing about tweeting when I tuned into Mike & Mike on ESPN every morning. These two guys tweet their . . . posteriors off several times a day. And it works—for them. Not me, I swore. I’d swallow my tongue before I did this “at hash tag whatever”. Like that’ll work.

Then I was invited to join a group of six authors to create stories for a box-set anthology set in a casino-resort near Niagara Falls in Western New York. One of the rules was each participating author was expected to tweet often, like daily. Okay okay, I grumbled. I’ll do this if I have to. If it kills me. I researched, I practiced, I learned. Now I’m helping others tweet. Wahoo. Let me tell you, I can re-tweet anyone’s butt off.

Facebook? Learned that one, sort of, after much trial and error. Then passed it on.

Pinterest? That, I learned, is soooo much fun, just like friends had been telling me for years. I now have Pinterest boards for each of my books, and I’m scheduled to present an on-line course in the value of creating Pinterest boards—not just for authors but for anyone interested.

By far, the best Paying It Forward concept I now employ is making seat belt cushions for patients who undergo chest surgery [mastectomies, pacemaker insertions, PICC line insertions for chemotherapy]. What began as a simple survival technique to stop the whining from the back seat, “this strap hurts my neck, Nana. Can’t I take it off?” evolved into helping others infinitely less fortunate than I.

Paying It Forward. It works for me.

Hey, you never know.

*~*~*~*

I love to hear from readers.

You can find me at:

KatHenryDoran@yahoo.com

my blogs:  www.WildWomenAuthorsx2.blogspot.com
www.ApronsWithAttitude2.blgspot.com
Pinterest:  www.Pinterest.com/KatHenryDoran
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WildWomenAuthors

Thanks for inviting me to stop by, Delilah. I appreciate it very much!

Kat

Thanks Delilah, for having me.

We’re snowbirds. Every year when it gets cold up north we head for the sunny south. Our resort has multiple activities and crafts.  Each year I try something new – watercolor painting, ukulele, and two years ago I tried glass fusion, and now I’m addicted.

Glass fusion is the technique used to join at least two glass pieces together by partly melting the glass at high temperature in either a small kiln or a large kiln.

I started by making earrings. I thought they would be easy. I learned to find a design, pick the glass and the colors. Since you need at least two pieces of glass it’s usually a color plus a clear piece either on top or underneath. You need to find or make a pattern and the two pieces have to match up when placed together. For jewelry they are placed in a small kiln for over four hours. After they cool down you add the backing or posts.

Last year I advanced to trays, serving dishes and bowls. The process is the same, just on larger surfaces. I’m a panda person so my favorite piece is my panda  plate. I used a decal which you put on prior to fusing. I do it for fun, but many people do it and sell their pieces. I didn’t use glass fusion in my last book but I’m considering adding it to a new one. My latest book, By Design, came out in June. By Design is about cloning.

*~*~*~*

By Design

 

Nurse Evie Dalton succumbs to greed and a chance to work with sexy Dr. Adam Marsden. She accepts a position at an isolated hospital with an onsite animal farm, screams in the night, and mysterious limos arriving in the dark. People disappear and turn up dead. There’s no way to leave and no communication outside the town.

Dr. Adam Marsden left his past behind. Now he has it all; a great job, money, and a chance to buy his own hospital. But he hadn’t counted on Evie Dalton. Because of him, she’s at risk and might be the next victim.

Excerpt

A slender woman, maybe in her mid-thirties, wearing a simple, but very expensive designer black suit and hat, stepped out and tripped up the stairs in her four inch heels. Diamonds flashed on her wrist and her ears.

The driver closed the back door.

When she reached the top step she turned toward the driver. “Charles, check with my husband in about a week. I should be ready by then.”

“Yes ma’am.” He nodded, slid back behind the wheel, and turned the key. The engine purred quietly as it slid down the driveway. The taillights disappeared into the night.

Grethe Byrne watched the car fade away.

“You have what we want?” the woman asked.

“Of course, that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Nurse Byrne snapped.

“No. I mean exactly. Do you have exactly what we ordered? White blonde hair, sky blue eyes, IQ of at least 130?”

“Yes. Don’t worry. It will be exactly what you ordered. Did you bring the balance of your payment? In cash and small bills?”

“Yes of course. I’ve kept my part of the arrangement. You had better keep yours.”

Buy Links:
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Beverley-Bateman-ebook/dp/B0711TRG13/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495487690&sr=1-1&keywords=By+Design+by+Beverley+Bateman
iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/by-design/id1237611343?mt=11&ls=1&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Kobo
https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/by-design-12

At the beginning of August, it seems like there’s a lot of summer left. An entire month of hot, sleepy days of summer. (At least in my corner of the globe!) Yet the stores try to remind us that it’s not too long until Autumn with back to school sales and Halloween displays.

Instead of worrying about the future, let’s take a moment to stop. Just breathe. Smell that sea air as the wind whips it around your face. Listen to the ocean waves as they crest against the shore. Feel the sand beneath your feet, a gentle massage that might be a bit too hot against your soles.

I’m very lucky that I live here in New Jersey – yes, I said New Jersey. I know my state gets a bad reputation, but there are many things I love about my home, and being so close to the beach is one of them.

There’s nothing more restorative to the soul than taking a moment to stare at the horizon, knowing that the world goes beyond what you can see. I like to step on the boardwalk and just watch the ocean and just be. I get some of my best ideas while watching the water.

So I wrote not one, but two stories about the beach. One, a short story, you can read for free on my webpage! https://ccbridges.net/shore.html

In The Shorehouse:

Vince invites his two best friends to his family’s house down the shore for Memorial Day weekend, with plans to set the two of them up.

However, thanks to some magic cookies and honesty, he finds out that three is sometimes better than two.

Note: This story is mmf

One of the nicest things about living here is being able to go to the beach in the fall and winter, after the heavy tourist season dies down. It’s during this season that I set my novella “Love in the Time of Hurricanes” which is my love letter to the Jersey shore.

The night Nick Henderson storms into Martelli’s Pizzeria, he’s just looking for something to eat. Along with dinner, he finds Lou Martelli—pizza cook extraordinaire and Jersey Shore native. Nick is renting a Shore house for the winter while taking classes at the local community college as he devises a way to escape the accounting major his father chose for him.

When Lou offers to show Nick around, heat flares between them as they realize they have more in common than domineering families. But it’s not all fun and games on the boardwalk. Hurricane Sandy blows ashore, changing the place Nick was starting to think of as home. His peace is shattered, and it will take everything he has to keep his relationship with Lou from being torn apart by the storm brewing around them.

States of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the United States.

Buy Links:
Dreamspinner: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/love-in-the-time-of-hurricanes-by-cc-bridges-8262-b
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Time-Hurricanes-States-Book-ebook/dp/B06WP7DXXX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487819184&sr=8-1&keywords=love+in+the+time+of+hurricanes
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-in-the-time-of-hurricanes-cc-bridges/1125793547?ean=2940157413507
Books a Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Love-Time-Hurricanes/CC-Bridges/Q767430428?id=6878192726616

About the Author

CC Bridges is a mild-mannered librarian by day, but by night she writes about worlds of adventure and romance. When she’s not busy solving puzzles in an escape room, she can be found diving into comics or binge-watching superhero movies. She writes surrounded by books, spare computing equipment, a fluffy dog, and a long-suffering husband in the state of New Jersey.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ccbridgeswriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ccbridgeswriter
Blog: https://blog.ccbridges.net/
Website: https://www.ccbridges.net

UPDATE: The winner is Jackie Wisherd!

* * * * *

The birth of a series. Years ago, I was selling short stories frequently. Now this was in 1968 when my first short story was published. I wrote a story called “And So We Walk On Eggshells.” I sent it out to an editor who had bought several of my other stories. The mss came back with this comment, “This sounds like the synopsis of a novel.” I put the story in the file cabinet and forgot about it. The short story market went bust with many magazines closing or changing direction.

So I moved on to novels. The learning process took several years and many rejections of the same book. In 1972 the first novel sold. There were so many publishers in existence that this book had sixteen rejections before the acceptance. I was at that time writing what I knew, medical romances. I was a nurse.

Then I found that manuscript for that sounded like a synopsis. I had thrown out a lot of false starts during my striving to become a novelist. The short story and the comments by the editor were in a box in the cellar. I began the quest to turn this into a book called Murder and Mint Tea. I didn’t intend this to be a series but the book in the initial printing sold well and even ended up as a book on tape. Things happened and publishers closed down. This was at the dawn of electronic books when books were sold to be read on the computer. But another idea for my heroine to step into the limelight.

I wrote a second, third, fourth and fifth “cozy mysteries” with my take on the genre. Now it’s several publishers later and the books are live again. They’ve been updated from their earlier versions. Station wagons are gone. Cell phones are in, though my heroine isn’t used to using one but she’s learning. A sixth book is on the horizon. My new publisher has designed a series of covers that show my heroine’s “familiar” Robespierre, a Maine Coon cat.

He was once a living cat found by my sons in the wire hub of my silver car with red racing stripes. The vet said he was perhaps four weeks old. We fed him with a baby bottle and he grew to twenty-five pounds at his greatest weight.

The books, all but the first one have new titles except Murder and Mint Tea. They are Murder and Poisoned Tea, Murder and Tainted Tea, Murder and Bitter Tea, Murder and Herbal tea. I’m currently working on Murder and Sweet Tea. They’re all published by Books We Love LTD, my Canadian publisher.

Next year, I’ll be blogging about all the changes I’ve seen in 50 years of being a published author.  You can find me at  https://wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.com/ My books are available from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords and other venues.

Giveaway

I would like to give away a print copy of Murder and Mint Tea. It will be a random drawing from those who comment of this post.

Thank you to the incomparable Delilah Devlin for having me here today!

Music. Do you like music? Most people listen to it while working or exercising. We sing in the car or shower or have favorite songs that make us stop what we’re doing and listen.

Does music set your hips swaying or bring tears to your eyes? Music has a way of reaching inside and touching us. It’s almost magical what music can do. No matter how bad the day is going, a happy song can bring us up. No matter how many aches and pains we have, when we hear the songs from our high school days we’re instantly sixteen again.

What kind do you listen to? Are you country, rock and roll, classical, or one of the amazing number of hybrid fusion styles?

I play flute, have done for more years than I care to count, lol. My husband plays cello, and ditto. If you like Greensleeves, I have a short rendition on Irish flute here https://youtu.be/A0AB5M0nPJc  and There Is a Balm in Gilead on regular flute here https://youtu.be/zDtO7Or34IQ

Music plays a big part in my life. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it seeped over into my writing. Several of my Biting Love heroines are musicians.  Rocky in Downbeat is a flute player like me, Junior of Biting Oz plays clarinet and saxophone in a pit orchestra, and Nixie is a punk rock musician in Biting Nixie.

If you’re curious how music and vampires go together, the Biting Love series is on sale, only 99 cents each. Nine steamy, zany, action-packed vampire romances for UNDER ten bucks. But this special goes away forever Sunday, so grab yours now. Check out the Entangled site for complete buying choices. (https://entangledpublishing.com/author/mary-hughes)

Or start the series on Amazon here, BN here, or iTunes here. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TSV9VV) (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bite-my-fire-mary-hughes/1100402234?ean=9781640632233) (https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/bite-my-fire/id1257724029?mt=11)

What about you? What’s your favorite song, singer, band, or type of music? What is there about it that you love—does it set your body moving or make you reach for the tissues or…?

GIVEAWAYS: Normally I only reveal my super-secret giveaway page to my newsletter readers, but in thanks for being here today, I’m sharing it with you! Usually there’s at least one Kindle giveaway—today and today only, there are TWO up for grabs. https://www.maryhughesbooks.com/Giveaways.html

About the Author

I write steamy paranormal romances and wickedly fun romantic adventures, stories that crackle with action and love. Challenging, smart alpha men—and women not afraid of a challenge. Oh, do the sparks fly when he meets THE woman guaranteed to infuriate and inflame him most.

In real life I’m an author, a spouse and mother, a flutist, a computer geek, and a binge-TV-watcher of The Flash, Elementary, NCIS, and Wynonna Earp.

I’d love to hear from you!
Newsletter https://www.maryhughesbooks.com/Newsletter.html
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaryHughesAuthor
Twitter https://www.twitter.com/MaryHughesBooks
BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/mary-hughes
Website https://www.maryhughesbooks.com/
Blog https://maryhughesbooks.blogspot.com/
Group Blog https://www.lustwithalaugh.com/

Delos Series
7B2 Sequel and Novella

Ali Montero pushed aside her pride and accepted help from arrogant Ram Torres to help rescue her sister Cara from kidnappers. Now safely back at home with her family, Cara doesn’t feel safe without Ram nearby to protect her. He agrees to stay with Ali and her family until Cara recovers, but spending time around the boisterous Montero family makes Ram yearn for the one thing he has never had—a loving family. Ram wants to explore the connection he feels with Ali. But can he convince her to take a chance on such a flawed man?

BUY LINKS:
Kobo.com: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/taking-a-chance-26
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0725QDZ98/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495110135&sr=1-2&keywords=Taking+a+Chance+by+Lindsay+McKenna
BN.com: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1126407909?ean=2940157601720
iBooks/Apple/iTunes: https://linkmaker.itunes.apple.com/en-us/details/1237462912?country=us&mediaType=books&term=Taking+A+Chance+by+Lindsay+McKenna

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT…

CHAPTER 1

Ali felt anxious and frustrated while trying to project calm to her younger sister, Cara. At age twenty-six, two years younger than herself, Cara shakily stood between their parents, trying to smile, but it was forced and brittle. She tried to look ”normal,” but that word would never apply to her again.

Ali watched as her parents, their arms around her sister’s waist, carefully walked down the steps from the Operations building. Her sister was still weak after having been a prisoner in Mexico for three long weeks.

Above them, two A-10 Warthogs thundered by.  The family was now at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.  Ali had helped rescue her sister, along with the Artemis Security team. Afterwards, the group had flown from Mexico to Tucson for a long, arduous debriefing with the FBI, CIA, DEA and ATF.  Everyone was exhausted, but Cara looked pale and weak. Ali suspected her sister would head straight for bed as soon as she got home.

Cara had been kidnapped off a street in Tucson less than a month ago.  A kindergarten teacher for Delos charity, she’d been walking home from the school, only five blocks from the home where she and her parents lived. She had been stuffed into a car trunk, tied up, duct-taped across her mouth and drugged.  She was then driven into the Sierra Madre mountains in the state of Sonora, which butted up against the US border.  There, she was thrown in with three female German tourists, also abducted by his men. The four women were kept in a mountain fortress belonging to a drug lord named Azarola. who planned to sell his captives to sex traffickers.

Cara found out that a container ship anchored at Puerto Nuevo on Baja’s west coast would be leaving shortly for Asia.  She would be hidden in a truck and driven dockside, put on board the container vessel, and join over a hundred other kidnapped women from North and South America, as well as children as young as eight years old, promised to buyers awaiting them. Fortunately, their plan was foiled by Ali and the Delos security team.

Now, Ram Torres, Ali’s black ops partner on the rescue mission, came and stood quietly by her side.  They traded brief looks with one another. Ram’s presence always calmed Ali as nothing else ever could.  She could feel tension radiating off him, his green eyes narrowed upon Cara as the family slowly approached them.  Ram and Ali had been working together for years in the military and she was highly sensitized to his feelings.  Right now, he was feeling very protective of Ali, knowing that her sister would be leaning heavily upon her in the coming weeks after being rescued.

Cara’s forced smile made Ali’s stomach clench.  Her sister was, as Ram had put it earlier, “a clam without a shell,” unlike Ali.  They had always had very different personalities, even as children. Cara had always wanted to be a teacher, and had gloried in her job as a kindergarten teacher.  All she’d wanted was to make a positive change in the lives of needy children.

Ali, on the other hand, had gone into the Marine Corps at age eighteen.

“Ali!” Cara said brightly, “Thank you for coming!” and her parents released their arms around her, allowing her to move freely toward her sister.

Swept up in her grief for her traumatized sister, Ali forced her own wooden smile, opened her arms and took Cara into her embrace.  As her arms wrapped around Cara, Ali could feel her sister trembling, and Cara clung tighter and tighter to her, burying her face against Ali’s shoulder.

As they separated, Ali saw the worry in her parents’ eyes.  They knew Cara had been shattered by the experience–who wouldn’t be?  And afterwards, she’d been debriefed for three long days, trying to answer questions along with the German women who had also been captured.  Authorities had asked them detailed questions about Azarola and his fortress in the mountains, where they had been kept prisoners.

Ali knew that each woman had undergone a thorough medical exam by a woman doctor on base, and then spent hours with an Air Force psychiatrist.  All that debrief material would be sent to Artemis Security, the in-house firm for Delos charities. The top-secret debrief would also be sent to other security and law enforcement agencies worldwide who were dealing with this situation.

Ali was itching to read that report! As she released Cara, she saw that her skin was stretched tight across her high cheekbones, her black hair drawn into a pony tail, her dark brown eyes almost black with terror etched deep within them.

Ali knew her baby sister did not have the internal grit that she did.  Cara had always been the “soft” one in the family, as her father, Diego, had once confided to her.  Mary, her mother, once told her that Cara had been born without a protective shell and therefore, needed protection.

“Cara, I’d like you to meet Ram Torres, the man who led the Artemis team to free you and the others,” Ali said.

Cara turned to the tall, dark-haired man with intense green eyes.  “Thank you, Mr. Torres,” and she stuck her hand out toward him.  Her voice trembled.  “Thank you for saving all of us…”

Ram managed a gentle smile, knowing that his hard, weathered face had been known to frighten women and children.  He gently grasped Cara’s damp, cool hand.  “You’re welcome, Senorita Montero.”

“Call me Cara,” she insisted, releasing his hand.  Then, glancing at her parents, who stood nearby, she asked wearily, “Mama? Papa?  Can we go home now?”

“Of course, sweetheart,” Mary said, coming forward, sliding her arm around Cara’s waist again.  “Papa put our pick-up in the parking lot across the street.  Come this way.”

Hesitating, Cara gave Ail and Ram an anxious look.  “You’re coming with us, aren’t you?  I don’t feel safe alone. I was told in the debriefing that Mr. Torres would be staying with us at our home for a while to make me feel safe. Is that right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ram said, speaking up.  “I’m your personal bodyguard detail.  Your parents have given me their guest bedroom and I’ll be in the house and accompany you whenever you go.  You’ll be safe, Cara.”

Ali saw her sister’s face mirror utter relief hearing Ram’s words of reassurance.  She knew he could project quiet strength to her sister and her parents. He was a wonderful anchor for someone to hold onto.

Ram had been right in his raw assessment of her younger sister’s state:  she was traumatized to the point of being lost, unable to grapple with what had happened to her. Actually, Ali still wasn’t sure what had happened to Cara.  She was eager to get her hands on the debrief report that Lockwood had.

“Oh,” Cara whispered, giving Ram a grateful look, “that’s wonderful. Thank you for doing this, Mr. Torres.”

“Call me Ram, and it’s my job—one I’m happy to provide, by the way. Just know that I’ll be with you for as long as I can.”  He gestured to Ali, who stood nearby.  “And remember, your sister is a trained operator, just like me.  You actually have two guard dogs in the house protecting you.  Ali is just as good as I am at being a private security detail.”

Cara gave her a grateful look.  “I-I know.  But it’s nice to have both of you so close.  I-I worry that Azarola will send men back here to take me away again.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Ali told her.

“A-are you staying with us, Ali?  Tell me you will, okay?” Cara begged.

“I’m staying for as long as you need me, Cara.”  Ali reached out, briefly touching her sister’s slump shoulder.  “You’re safe now.  And there’s no way Azarola will come after you again.  Ram and his team put a huge hole in their operations.  They aren’t focused on you any longer.  They’ve got their hands full with other issues they have to address, okay?” and she gave her sister a very confident look.

There was no way Ali was going to appear weak, unsure or hesitant around Cara.  She knew what it took to make her sister feel stable again.  She’d spent her formative years being Cara’s shield and protector, so it was easy to move into that role once more for Cara’s sake.  Instantly, she saw Cara grow a little less frightened.

“That’s wonderful!” Cara wobbled. She reached out, gripping Ali’s hand.  “I’m ready now. Let’s go home.”