Liar,
Liar
By
Alexa
Bourne
Blurb:
Unable
to protect her mother from her father as a child, Devin McQueen has made it her
mission as an adult to protect as many abused women and children as she can.
The rare moments she’s not consumed with work as a victims’ advocate, she
limits her involvements to safe, predictable men….until she meets bounty hunter
Grady Cooper. He is big, bold, brash, and has no problem speaking his mind.
Growing
up in a broken home, Grady realized early on that good deeds had a price.
To survive, he learned to weigh every decision by what he could gain. Unfortunately, the successful,
solitary life he’s worked so hard to create spins out of control when demons
from his past shake his confidence. His boss has given him one last
chance—bring in Devin’s latest client quickly, and quietly and maybe he’ll
still have a job. It didn’t sound unreasonable until he met Devin.
Suddenly, Grady must make a decision: save his
career or follow his heart?
Excerpt:
If
Grady Cooper had any hope of salvaging his professional reputation, he needed
to charm Devin McQueen into giving him what she’d never given any other man.
He
tucked his keys into his cargo shorts, stared up at the five-story office
building and cursed the humidity.
And
his dilemma.
Needing
anyone was bad enough. Being forced to rely on a complete stranger to help
prove he wasn’t a menace to society was as appealing as the Red Sox using his
head for batting practice. If she refused to help him, he’d lose his job
for sure.
“That’s
not going to happen,” he whispered. He’d do whatever he had to, promise her the
world even, to get himself out of this mess and restore his reputation. By the
time she realized he had no intention of honoring his pledge, he’d be a free
man and he could get back to chasing the bad guys instead of being labeled one.
Whatever
it took.
He
pushed the glass door open and flew up the stairs two at a time to the third
floor. As he walked down the hallway, he glanced at the business names on the
doors: law offices, non-profit offices, save the bleeding heart offices. Rooms
of people he’d probably chased a bail jumper for at one time or another.
Loud
thumps filtered into the hallway from somewhere up ahead.
The
hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Trade rule number one: Always expect
the worst. Still, the noises could have been any number of things: a fallen
chair, a muffled voicemail message, boxes of printer paper being dropped. It
could have been nothing connected to this woman.
As
he got closer to the door with Soul Survivors carved on it, the name of
McQueen’s business, the noises got louder. Glass shattered. A series of thumps
passed from behind the door. A woman’s voice flew through the walls like a
high-pitched war cry.
What
if someone wanted Devin McQueen even more than Grady did?
Too
bad. He had to put his own needs first.
Adrenaline
pushed him. He turned the doorknob.
Damn
it. Locked.
He
shoved his shoulder against the wooden door. It budged. Barely. Inside, more
glass broke. A male voice growled through a string of swear words.
Whoever
stood on the other side of this door could not have her.
Grady
gritted his teeth and jammed his shoulder against the door again. This time, it
flew open and hurled him into the office.
Silence
reigned across the room. With his shoulder throbbing, he scanned the scene. One
upended chair, one thug cradling his nuts, the other, older one, bleeding from
his nose and one wild-eyed woman in the center of it all. The bleeding man had
his arms wrapped around the woman’s chest, crushing her…assets under his
forearms.
Grady bit back a grin. If this was
Devin McQueen, then some of the rumors were true. She could hold her
own. But now she didn’t need to. “What’s the matter, guys? Couldn’t find anyone
your own size to pick on?”
Bio:
Alexa Bourne is a teacher by day and a romance writer by nights, weekends, and all school holidays. She also teaches online classes for writers throughout the year. She writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance and is thrilled to have the chance to share her stories with readers everywhere.
When she’s not concocting sinister plots and steamy love scenes or traveling and exploring new cultures, Alexa spends her time reading, watching brainless TV, and thinking about exercising. Okay, she also spends way too much time interacting with readers and writers on social media sites. But don’t tell her editors! Find out more about her and her books on her website, www.alexabourne.com.