“Dog tags?” Foster asked.
Ghared came back on screen. “Yeah. Deo’s dog tags.”
Darina felt Foster’s hands on her shoulders, and it was a good thing he was there. She needed something to anchor her.
“Where did you get those?”
“Warres’s guy said he got them off Deo himself. Said he’d been working undercover in Warres’s circle with Deo.”
“Working with Deo? Undercover?” It was as if Ghared were no longer speaking a language she understood. “How can this be true? Why didn’t we know?”
“I don’t know, Darina,” Ghared said, “but I’m sure as hell going to find out.”
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Other Books in The Shielded Series – Sci-Fi Romance
PROTECTED (Book Two)
SECURE (Book Three)
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Read on for a peek at PROTECTED!
PROTECTED Sneak Peek
Chapter One
“If I ask you to tell me a million times, you’ll tell me a million times.” Ghared Timms slammed his fist down on the aluminum table separating him from one of Mikale Warres’s associates.
The late Mikale Warres, that is.
Thanks to the kickass woman sitting beside him, Officer Darina Lazitter, the globe’s most wanted chemist, Mikale Warres, was dead, exterminated August 2025. With his demise, the world had been saved from Warres’s fatal plague—one that reduced victims’ organs to ash. Darina’s mate, Doctor Foster Ashby, had found the cure to the plague and the population was recovering, slowly but surely. Things were turning around. With people no longer fighting the disease, they were beginning to rebuild after the Anarch, a techhead terrorist group, had unplugged the globe a few years ago. Power was being restored. A second chance emerged from the rubble, and the city of Boston was as the heart of the revival.
But everything wasn’t tied up neatly with a big, red bow just yet.
“These belonged to my best friend.” Ghared held up a set of dog tags on a long silver chain and motioned to Darina. “To her brother. We’ve thought he was dead all this time and when you announce he’s alive, we need every goddamn detail you have.”
They’d been at it for a few days, trying to get all the crumbs out of this guy. Aven Demaris swore he’d been undercover—with Deo—inside Warres’s organization on a government-backed mission to bring Warres down from within. As unbelievable as it sounded, how else did Aven have Deo’s dog tags? How else was he able to describe Deo right down to the yellow-eyed wolf head tattoo on his left arm? How else had he been able to predict Warres’s organization would name Sasha Boisette as Warres’s successor?
And how much did that suck?
Taking down the head of the beast and capturing several of Warres’s associates should have been enough to shut down the enemy. Curing the plague should have been enough. So many things should have been enough, but they weren’t. With this new chick in charge, one could only guess what nonsense would come from the enemy now.
Things have to get worse before they can get better.
That was something Deo would have said and right now it sounded damn true.
“Can I have a drink?” Aven cleared his throat and Ghared saw red.
“A drink? You want a drink?” He shot to his feet causing Aven to flinch in his seat. The slightly smaller man was handcuffed and wearing a gray prison jumpsuit like all the other captured associates. He had been granted a private cell, however, until the validity of his tale of undercover work could be determined.
As of yet, the government had offered no support to Aven and with each passing day, Ghared grew more reluctant to believe his best friend was still alive.
But he couldn’t give up. If a shred of possibility existed that Deo wasn’t dead, Ghared would search to the ends of the Earth to find him. For Deo, for Darina, for himself.
“Ghared…” A wisp of warning simmered in Darina’s voice.
“I’ll get you a drink.” He closed his hand around Aven’s throat and lifted the man off the chair, knocking it over in the process. A loud metallic clang echoed in the cinderblock interrogation room followed by a shuffling as Ghared dragged Aven over to the wall and pinned him against it. “I’ll get you a drink as soon as you start making some sense. You might have trouble swallowing that drink when I’m done with you though.”
Aven’s face grew purple as the man sputtered for oxygen. A little over the top. Ghared hadn’t begun to tighten his grasp. Plenty of air still getting in. No need for the theatrics.
“So far, you haven’t given us anything concrete besides the dog tags.” Ghared increased the pressure slightly and Aven’s eyes bugged. “You’ve given your word too, which is shit to me. The only thing I know for sure about you is that you were counted among Warres’s associates during the battle at Foster’s Vermont place. That doesn’t put you on my list of Top Ten People I Trust, asshole.”
Aven slapped at Ghared’s hand, trying to get free. His attempts were no more troublesome than a mosquito’s attack.
“Ghared, you should let him go.” Darina uttered the words, but she never looked up from her tablet. Her attempt to be the “good cop” would have had him laughing. If he were in the laughing mood.
He was not.
“I’m done playing nice, Darina. This guy doesn’t have anything more for us.” He used his icy blue gaze to send a physical ripple of fear through Aven. That was kind of fun. “I say we end him.”
Aven released a strangled whimper, his gaze darting to Darina in a silent plea for help.
“End him. Doesn’t matter to me. I’ve got the cell space to hold him indefinitely, but ending him is much more efficient.” She gave Aven a bored once-over with her hazel eyes, then returned her focus to her tablet. God, she was good. Ghared almost believed she didn’t give a dorse’s ass if Aven told them something of value or not.
He knew, however, Darina had not slept since he’d called her to say Deo might be alive. He saw it in the dark circles around her beautiful eyes. He’d heard it from Foster who was concerned. He’d also heard it from Darina’s son, Zeke, and his own niece, Mareea. Everyone was worried about Darina and what it meant if Deo was, in fact, alive. He tried not to get his hopes up, but that was a hard thing to do.
To have Deo back…
Well, shit, that’d be like having a wish granted.
Letting out a growl, Ghared pulled Aven forward a bit so they were eye-to-eye. “I’d love to make this your last day, but maybe there’s something you forgot to tell us. Something important. Something that makes you indispensible.”
Aven nodded as much as he could with Ghared still gripping his throat.
“Let him go,” Darina said.
Ghared released him and Aven slid to the floor, panting like a dog who’d run twenty miles. Uphill. On a humid, summer day.
Darina slid her own chair back and stood. She walked around the table to join Ghared on the other side and folded her arms across her chest as she glared down at Aven still on all fours and sucking in air.
She reached down and pulled Aven up by his hair. The man let out a screech and Ghared found it harder and harder to believe the guy was capable of undercover work or of being partnered with Deo.
Grow a set, dude.
“Why is it the government hasn’t backed your tale, Aven?” Darina pushed him into the chair Ghared had righted. “Why is there absolutely no record of this undercover mission?”
Aven rubbed his cuffed hands over his neck, and Ghared wished he’d been able to crush the jackass’s windpipe. All this interrogating wasted valuable time. Time he could be out there… somewhere… finding Deo
.
“I already told you.” Aven’s voice was scratchy, strained. “I don’t have the clearance to discuss the details with you. The mission is highly classified. Only a handful of people know about it.”
“And most of that handful is unreachable, right?” Darina sat again and pressed two fingers to her temple. This was wearing her down.
Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten her involved.
When this shitbag first mentioned Deo, Ghared had toyed with not saying anything to Darina until he had more information, but that felt too much like lying. He tried hard not to lie to Darina, the person who had become his best friend in Deo’s absence. They’d been surviving in the hellhole the world had become by having each other’s backs, and if he wanted help finding Deo, Darina was it.
As he studied her now, though, he reconsidered. “Maybe you should take a break, Darina.”
She glared at him with those sharp green-gold eyes and he put his hands up in surrender. Right. Darina was no more willing to take a break than he was.
“Maybe we should shift our focus,” she said to Ghared.
“To what?” He sat beside her again, but his gaze never left Aven. How he wished he could inject the dude with something that would have him blubbering all his secrets. Maybe Foster could whip up a special serum or some shit that could do just that. The guy was a genius after all.
Darina clasped her hands in front of her on the table and leaned forward. Aven’s gaze dipped down to the tops of her breasts showing at the neck of her fitted T-shirt, and Ghared nearly jumped the table to rip the guy’s eyes out.
A hand on his forearm stopped him. “Easy.” Darina sat back, aware of what she’d showcased to Aven. Was that part of her interrogation strategy? If so, Ghared didn’t like it. Darina was like a sister to him, and no one but Foster was allowed to look at her as if he needed her to breathe. Ghared wasn’t even sure he was okay with Foster looking at her like that, but he didn’t get to have a say on that. He did want Darina to be happy.
Bringing Deo back would make her happy. It’d make him damn happy too.
“Tell us about Sasha Boisette,” Darina said.
Aven stretched out his neck, his dramatic performance as the victim nearly wrapping up. He rested his cuffed hands in his lap and looked at the ceiling. At first, Ghared didn’t think the guy was going to answer, and he was more than prepared to beat a response out of him. He was itching to pound on something. Aven would make a great something.
“I guess you’d call her Warres’s adopted step-sister. His mother took Sasha in when her own parents abandoned her. No one knows what happened to them, but Laurette Warres took pity on the girl and raised her with Mikale.” Aven swallowed loudly and let out a cough as if his throat was sandpaper dry.
When neither Darina nor Ghared made a move to get him that requested drink, Aven continued. “Sasha is beautiful. Like unreal beautiful. Some of us suspected she was a GEC, but Mikale swore she was not a genetically engineered castoff.”
“Like we should believe anything that asshole said,” Ghared muttered.
“I agree,” Aven said, “but GECs have a least one flaw. That was why they got cast off and were deemed unfit for military duty, but Sasha… well, there isn’t anything flawed about her.” His cheeks reddened. “She’s as perfect as they come.”
Darina shot a quick look to Ghared before asking, “Were you intimate with Sasha Boisette, Aven?”
The man let out a breath in one long rush. “No, ma’am. I was undercover in a government-supported mission, as I’ve stated repeatedly, with your brother, Deo Lazitter, and had no time for sexual activities.”
“Not because you didn’t want to have sex with Boisette though.” Ghared found it more and more unbelievable Deo would be partnered with this dick.
“You can judge, but I’ll bet one look at her would have you going hard too, man.”
“Doubtful.” Ghared had searched for Sasha on his underground online channels but found nothing. She didn’t exist to the world until word had gotten out she was Warres’s successor. Regardless of how beautiful she might be, Ghared liked to think he was more in control of his hormones than this average human sitting across from him.
Aven smirked. “You think you’re better than me?”
Ghared shook his head. “I know I’m better than you.”
“You gave up looking for your best friend.” Aven pointed to Darina. “Her brother. You were told he was dead and you took that as truth. Meanwhile, Deo has been alive. I’d like to say alive and well, but that’s most probably not the case.”
Darina gripped the edge of the table and leaned forward again. “What does that mean?”
“Deo’s cover had been compromised just before Warres made the trip to find Ashby. Warres found out Deo was working for the government and hauled him out of the rooms we shared at headquarters.”
“Where did they take him?” Darina asked.
“A place called the Pit. It’s their version of a prison.”
Ghared’s well of hope was running dry. Quickly. “How do you know he’s still alive then?”
“Because if I know anything, it’s that Deo Lazitter is one tough bastard.”
“Finally, something we can agree on.” Ghared leaned back and folded his arms across his chest for a moment. Then he took Darina’s tablet and opened a sketch program. “Now show me the layout of Warres’s headquarters and don’t leave anything out.” He slid the tablet toward Aven.
“What are you planning?” Aven asked.
“None of your damn business. Now draw.” He arrowed his index finger to the tablet.
Aven got busy sketching, and Ghared felt Darina’s eyes on him.
“What?” He didn’t mean to bark at her, but his patience was nearly gone.
“You’re thinking of going in there.” She motioned to what Aven was drawing. “I don’t know if Boston PD will approve of that, Ghared.”
“I’m not a cop, sweetheart. I don’t need Boston PD approval. I just need a way in and a plan.” He hoped to have both in the next five minutes.
Check www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com for release dates on all upcoming novels.
Books in The Maple Leaf Series – Contemporary Romance
What Readers Are Saying:
“I was expecting a short, simple story, what I got was a well-written, slow-burning romance with just a touch of suspense and a whole lot of pancakes.”
“I could imagine I was in those woods...”
“The premise is simple -- sophisticated city girl hooks up with rugged, outdoorsy Vermont guy, but the author creates such depth that I can't stop reading.”
More Than Pancakes (Book One)
More Than Cookies (Book Two)
More Than Rum (Book Three)
More Than Pizza (Book Four)
More Than Candy Corn (A Halloween Novella)
More Than Cocoa (Book Five)
More Than Biscotti (A FREE Christmas Novella available on my website only)
More Than Peaches (Book Six)
Check www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com for release dates.
Other Available Titles by Christine DePetrillo
Alaska Heart
Firefly Mountain
Kisses to Remember
Abra Cadaver
Lazuli Moon
Night Eternal (gothic poetry with author Joseph Mazzenga)
Salvation Eternal (gothic poetry with author Joseph Mazzenga)
The Vampire Diaries: Blood Angel (a Kindle Worlds novella)
Young Adult Romance writing as Christy Major
Run With Me
Sail With Me
Co-writing as Goodwin Reed
A Less Perfect Union
About the Author
Christine DePetrillo tried not being a writer. She attempted to ignore the voices in her head, but they would not stop. The only way she could achieve peace and quiet was to write the stories the voices demanded. Today, she writes tales meant to make you laugh, maybe make
you sweat, and definitely make you believe in the power of love.
She lives in Rhode Island and occasionally Vermont with her husband, two cats, and a big, black German Shepherd who defends her fiercely against all evils.
Find Christine’s other titles at www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com. Connect on Facebook at www.facebook.com/christinedepetrilloauthor, on Twitter at @cdepetrillo, and at The Roses of Prose group blog on the 4th and 14th of every month at www.rosesofprose.blogspot.com.
Safe (The Shielded Series Book 1) Page 22