DO OR DIE Countdown: Day five

Welcome back to the Countdown to the February 4th release of DO OR DIE, the first book in my new “Reluctant Heroes” romantic suspense series (and Troubleshooters spin-off) — available in hardcover and e-book from Ballantine Books and in audio from Blackstone Audio!

Reminder:  Tomorrow’s Countdown feature is a chat, right here on my blog (down in the comments section)! That’s Thursday, January 9, 2014,  from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m., ET.  This will be my very first chat on my website blog, so bring plenty of patience, and perhaps a nice Pinot Noir. 🙂

Today’s countdown is a blast-from-the-past excerpt, from Martell Griffin’s point of view, from FORCE OF NATURE.

Martell is one of the cross-over characters from the Troubleshooters series.  He plays a major secondary character role in DO OR DIE, and is a point-of-view character in that book, too.

This scene is from Chapter Twelve, when Martell, a former Sarasota Police Detective turned lawyer, picks up Annie at police HQ, after their mutual friend Ric, a former police detective turned priviate-eye, has a run-in with another detective on the force.

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From FORCE OF NATURE, Chapter Twelve:

Annie looked hot, in that I’ve just survived a plane crash and an attack from a tribe of zombies bedraggled evening-gown kind of way, killer shoes dangling from one finger, as one of the newbies to the police department brought her out from the women’s holding cell.

“Where’s Ric?” Annie asked Martell.

First things first. “Sign this,” he told her, finishing up the paperwork and holding out a pen for her.

She balked. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not going to sign anything that–”

“This just gets you home,” he explained. “We’ll handle right and wrong tomorrow.”

She read through the papers quickly – apparently she had trust issues – but she finally signed her name. “So is Ric in a lot of trouble?”

“Some.” Martell pocketed the pen and pushed the papers toward the officer. “But you pretty much stopped him before the little t became a capital one. Plus he’s still got plenty of friends here. And it’s not like he’s ever gotten this drunk before, which is also a point in his favor.”

Annie had been following him toward the door, but now she stopped short. “Drunk? He wasn’t drunk.”

“Yeah, he was.” He took her arm, trying to pull her outside, but she planted herself. “He smells like a distillery, which is why I won’t be able to get him out until the morning. He’s an overnight guest in the city drunk tank.”

“I was with him all night,” Annie insisted. “He ordered a beer at the Bistro, but he didn’t drink any of it.”

“That you saw.”

She was clearly going to argue this one until her face turned blue. She opened her mouth, so Martell spoke over her.

“I’m doing my boy a favor here.” He let a whole lot of whine into his tone. “Again. I got court in the morning, early, and you’re standing here quarreling with me about scientific evidence? Shut your piehole, beeyotch, and get your badonkadonk into my car.”

His name-calling obviously stunned her. She’d been wading hip-deep up shit’s creek for quite a few days now on too few hours of sleep, but enough of her brain was working for her to realize that beeyotch was not the most important part of the message he’d just delivered.

She snapped her mouth closed and went out the door.

She managed to stay silent until they got into his car, until he ran Ricky’s bug sweeper over them both.

It was part of their new daily regimen. Every time they left the house or office, every time someone new came over, and especially every time they came into contact with Burns or one of his friends, including those here at the local police, they were going to check and recheck to make sure they weren’t being listened in on.

They were both clear, so Martell said, “Sorry about that. I had to get you to zip it. Beeyotch.”

“Badonkadonk was nice, too.” Annie laughed, but her amusement didn’t last. “Ric wasn’t drunk.”

“I believe you.” He just hadn’t wanted her shouting that news flash in the police station. “But he definitely wanted someone to think he was.”

She stared at him. “You’re telling me he purposely—”

“When Ric texted me,” Martell reported. “Must’ve been while you were still over at the hospital. He told me two things. I need you to stay with Annie tonight, so clearly he anticipated not making it home.”

She thought about that as he started the car. “What was the second thing?” she asked.

“Took me a while to figure that one out.” Martell laughed as he pulled out of the police-station parking lot. “You’ll probably get it right away – WWGBJD, with a question mark at the end.”

Annie looked at him, her pretty face angelic in the dashboard light. “What would… Gordie Burns Junior do?”

Martell nodded. “That’s what I got, too.” He had no idea what Ric was up to, but it was clear he was up to something.

Of course maybe he just couldn’t bear the temptation of sleeping down the hall from sweet Annie Dugan, so he’d gone and gotten himself locked up.

With Ric, you never knew.

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