Note: Check the bottom of this post for giveaway information!
In two weeks, my newest romantic adventure, Acceptable Risks, will be released by Carina Press (available wherever e-books are sold AND as an audiobook from Audible.com).
by Natalie J. Damschroder
Carina Press | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Audible (Coming Soon)
When security expert Jason Templeton's team is ambushed while protecting a weapons manufacturer vital to U.S. interests, he risks his life to save the man's daughter…and loses. Unbeknownst to Jason, his mentor had been funding experimental medical procedures after losing his young wife. Using the untested drugs, Jason is brought back to life, stronger and faster than before, but also vulnerable in new ways. He's determined to find the traitor in their midst, who is after the miracle drug.
That means protecting the brilliant scientist Lark Madrassa. Their attraction and compatibility are undeniable, but Jason tries to deny his growing feelings for her, thinking he is too damaged. When Lark's father is kidnapped they have to rely on each other in a dangerous plot to uncover the double agent. Before, Jason always accepted the risks–but what about when the life of the woman he loves is on the line?
EXCERPT
Matt’s eyes crinkled but he didn’t seem to have enough energy to smile. “I saw you go over. Heard your body bouncing from rail to rail. Watched you hit the steps eight floors down. I didn’t think there was any way you could be alive.”
Jason knew the rest. How he somehow hadn’t hit his head, at least not hard enough for brain trauma. He’d ruptured his spleen, lacerated his liver, and damaged enough intestine to require a resection and a temporary colostomy (thank God he’d been asleep until after they reversed that). Plus all the shredded muscle-shattered bone stuff. They didn’t need to dwell on the how.
“The aftermath?” When you hired a company to protect you, you expected a low number of explosions. Like none.
“It hit immediately,” Matt admitted. “Half our ongoing private sector clients have fired us. The government hasn’t managed to find a way out of the stuff we do for them already, but they haven’t given us anything new. The media frenzy has died down, of course, it always does, but in the industry there’s still a furor. Some say our failure on the Kolanko job has damaged relations all over the industry.”
“That’s bull****.”
“Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, if people believe it.”
And Jason had been down here running on a f***ing treadmill, listening to Harry Potter audiobooks for the last three months. “I should have been—”
“No, you shouldn’t. It was hard enough losing you the first time.” Matt stopped. Swallowed. “The risk of infection was too great for you to be out.”
Jason nodded. It didn’t help his guilt, but it was reality and couldn’t be changed. “I appreciate what you’ve done, Matt. But—”
“There’s a reason I had you declared dead.” Matt rose and came closer to him, visibly steeling himself for whatever he was going to say. “The technology we used to fix you is a big deal. It can mean saving a lot of lives. But none of it is approved for use in humans yet. We didn’t know if it would work, and there wasn’t time… I had to make a quick decision.”
Jason bit back his response. He knew he was an experiment, and didn’t blame his friend or the doctors who, except for Gabby, treated him like a lab specimen. So he couldn’t yell at Matt for that. It wasn’t what he was really angry about, anyway.
“There was no way you should have survived the fall,” Matt continued. “If anyone had known you did, we wouldn’t have been able to save you.”
Jason nodded. It wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful or anything. But resentment burned in his gut for the implications of the lie.
“Plus, I knew if anyone found out about the technology, found out it had worked, we’d have enemies after all of us, from worldwide.”
“Why won’t we when I go topside, anyway?” Matt didn’t respond right away, and the resentment swelled.
“Because they won’t know, right?” This time, he didn’t wait for a response. “F*** that, Matthew. I’m not changing my identity.” It was one thing to use dangerous technology to save his life, and to use him to test dangerous technology. It was another to strip Jason of everything he’d done and been for thirty-six years. Every experience, every success and failure.
“You won’t have to,” Matt said, derailing the head of steam Jason was building.
He scowled. “How do you figure that? I’m dead.” He didn’t want to change his identity, but Matt’s decision six months ago had left them little choice. His intentions had been good, and Jason understood he’d been protecting both him and the company. So for Matt to now say he didn’t have to change his identity… His brain chewed on that for only a few seconds before he understood.
“Crap.”
“Yeah.” Matthew shoved his hand through his hair. “We can do some damage control. Since you left your assets to me—”
“Back up.” He pushed away from the treadmill and faced his best friend. “You’re not going to keep hiding me.” Matt didn’t move, didn’t change expression, but Jason knew he was right. “You’ll let them find out I’m alive. Why?”
“I’ll get to that.” Matt’s voice was strained. “As I was saying, since you left your assets to me—”
“Actually, I left my assets to my parents, under your guidance as trust manager.” Security at Hummingbird’s level was lucrative, and Jason had built what his mother called “quite the nest egg.” Not wanting his parents to face the repercussions of suddenly having a huge sum of money, he’d set it up to take care of them for life without causing a burden.
“Exactly,” Matt acknowledged. “They’re getting their allowance, and having a lot of fun with it, you’ll be glad to know. But I created a pocket fund for you. It’s been paying your ongoing expenses, including your property taxes and housekeeper.”
Jason raised his eyebrows. “My home is still there?”
“Yeah.”
“My neighbors—”
“Moved out, a month ago. Place is still vacant.”
What a coincidence. He only had one family living close enough to notice his presence, and they were gone? Matt had been busy.
“How come I didn’t know about this stuff?” He motioned around the lab. “Before, I mean. It had to be long-term research.”
Matthew winced. “Yeah, I kinda hoped you’d be mad enough about the rest to not mention that.” He rubbed the back of his neck and left his hand there. “It’s a separate company, not part of Hummingbird. And what they were doing was so sensitive, so advanced—”
“You didn’t trust me.”
“That’s not true.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Matt didn’t talk for several seconds. Finally, he admitted quietly, “It was so sensitive and advanced, even before we used it on you, it skirted moral if not legal channels. I didn’t think you’d approve.”
Jason watched him straighten and turn away. An unfamiliar warmth soothed the burning. He’d been wallowing down here for months, thinking one thing, and the opposite was the truth. He cleared his throat and snatched at the towel hanging over the treadmill, just for distraction.
“Okay, so.” The words stuck, and he cleared his throat again. “So. The risk of someone wanting the technology and coming after either me or the company.”
Matt turned around again, his face tightening. “I figured it would be acceptable to you.”
It was. “Except—”
“Except I underestimated our enemies.”
“Someone already knows.”
“Suspects.”
“Any idea who?” Jason’s mind clicked into work mode and started considering possibilities.
“Someone who knows me. Knows us, and what would hurt us most.”
His brain halted on one name. “Kemmerling.”
“I think so. I don’t know for sure.”
Isaac Kemmerling was a former employee. Slightly younger than Jason, he’d been an excellent agent for Hummingbird until two years ago, when he was promoted to mission leader, got cocky and risked all his agents’ lives on a job, and was censured. He didn’t take well to that and left the company. Since then, he’d done his best—unsuccessfully—to discredit Hummingbird and “take down” Matthew and Jason, as he’d threatened in a taped interview with a small-town Maryland reporter. It made sense he’d try to capitalize on the misfortune following the Kolanko incident.
“Who else could it be?” he asked, his mind searching for possibilities and not coming up with any.
Matt shrugged. “No one we’ve pinpointed. No one who has the knowledge, contacts, and especially motive to come after me. I could be wrong. But it’s the best place to start.”
Jason nodded. “So that’s what you need me for.” He looked around for a pad and pen. “To investigate Kemmerling without anyone knowing.”
“Not exactly.”
Matt’s voice had tightened even further, and Jason stilled, his heart thudding even though he had no idea what was coming.
“I got intel today that leads me to think Kemmerling is going after Lark,” Matt said.
Jason swallowed. “What kind of intel?”
Matthew pulled a folded piece of paper from his back pocket. It was a single sheet with a printed photo. Lark—whoa, had she grown up!—stood in the shower, her hair slicked back, eyes closed. Luckily for Matt’s sanity, Jason thought, she had her arms in front of her.
Jason didn’t think that helped much, though, considering the red laser sight in the center of her forehead.
GIVEAWAY
I have a whole slew of giveaways today! One commenter (randomly chosen from any of my posts) will receive a digital advance reader copy of Acceptable Risks. EVERY commenter will receive some type of author/book swag (while supplies last). AND, if I get over 20 comments total (not including my own), a separate winner will receive a $10 Amazon gift card! Comments on any of my posts will count. One swag item per commenter. Please leave your e-mail address with your comment so I can contact you, or be sure to check back to see if you're a winner.
~~~~~~~~~~
Text Copyright © 2012 by Natalie J. Damschroder. Cover Art Copyright © 2012 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited. Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A. Cover art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved. ® and ™ are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated companies, used under license.
Leave a Comment