The Weird, the Wild, & the Wicked!: Mid Week Tease - Take the Reins

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Mid Week Tease - Take the Reins - Something Abnormal

Welcome to the Weird, the Wild, & the Wicked for a new year of Mid Week Tease hosted by Sandra Bunino. It will release on Friday this week!!

Authors: this is a great opportunity to spotlight a few lines or even a paragraph or two from a new release or backlisted title. Readers: you get to sample some delicious snippets! We’ll do our best to tease, titillate and tantalize you into the weekend.

Today I'm offering snippets from my new release Take the Reins, a fantasy romance, and Book 1 in the Rifts series. Bethany Stanton is missing and her father is bringing in a special branch of the Army to find her. Except he'll have to convince Major McMacken that it's really worth his time and his team.

Major Stephen “Mack” McMacken stood at parade rest while he stared at the man behind a large mahogany desk. “I’m sorry, sir. Can you repeat that?”

“I want you and your team to investigate the disappearance of my daughter, Bethany.” Senator James William Stanton of Kentucky met Mack’s gaze with utter conviction. His lackey, John Coolidge, stood to one side and nodded vigorously.

“Isn’t this a job for the FBI rather than the Army, sir?”

The senator didn’t quite sneer, but his lip twitched and his chin rose. “If I had any confidence in the FBI or their ability to tackle this problem, Major, I’d have called them. But the uniqueness of this event necessitates the use of a far more capable force.”

Mack digested the enigmatic statement and tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut. As part of the Army’s Supernatural Anomalies Investigative Field Unit or SNAIFU, it was his job to investigate the weird events encountered by the military. And one damn letter off from SNAFU which is where we find ourselves most of the time.

“Are you saying there’s something abnormal going on with your daughter, Senator?”

“I wouldn’t say abnormal—”

“Yes.” Stanton didn’t flinch as he cut off his protégé’s hedging response.

Coolidge could be the poster child for Yes Men International. He reeked of smarmy charm and weaselly support. Mack kept his expression from curling into a scowl from sheer willpower.

“I see. Why do you think that, sir?”

Stanton opened his mouth to say more when someone knocked at the door and pushed it open.

“Excuse me, sir.” An older woman hesitated on the threshold, her expression troubled.

Senator Stanton glared at his secretary. “What is it, Rosalie? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of a debriefing?”

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir.” She held up a creamy note folded in half. “But it’s something I thought you needed to see immediately.”

Stanton gestured for the note impatiently, but turned his attention back to Mack. “Recent discoveries on my estate suggest there’s more going on than a simple case of Bethany running away. Originally, I thought she’d left the estate by conventional means, but my security guards had no record of her leaving by the front gate.” Stanton paused, nodded, and waved at the secretary. “Thank you, Rosalie. That will be all.”

“Yes, sir.” The secretary scurried out of the office and closed the door behind her. The senator didn’t even watch her leave.

“It’s been nearly three days, and since she didn’t run crying to any of her less appropriate friends, I assume something else has happened. It wasn’t until this morning I was informed she’d taken her horse as she is known to do when in a fit of distemper.” He glanced at his smarmy protégé. “She and John are to be married this year before the election and it’s vital she’s home in time.”

Damn, can this guy be any more of an asshole?

Take the Reins, available everywhere now.