by Elise Noble
Artemis nodded. “She’s only seven years older than me, and she was really worried after the kidnapping. Kept asking if we were okay and if there was anything she could do to help. I hope Daddy doesn’t ditch her.”
“Look on the bright side—at least he doesn’t have Chantelle waiting in the wings anymore.”
On the day of the kidnapping, Fia had emptied a miniature of whisky down Chantelle’s top, then propped her up outside a soup kitchen and waited until a kind-hearted soul dragged her inside. Last we heard, she was working as an assistant weather girl for some obscure TV station in Iowa.
“Oh, that would’ve been a disaster. And even if Daddy does get another divorce, I think Carissa and I will still be friends. She’s helping with Artis. I’d offer her a job at the company. Did Bradley get those samples we sent? The new mascara?”
“You’re talking to the wrong person, I’m afraid. I basically wear whatever he puts on my face, and I don’t pay any attention to the labels. No offence.”
“I bet you think we’re really shallow, huh?”
“Honestly? I did at first, but I don’t anymore. You help women to feel good about themselves, and that’s admirable.”
“Did Bradley mention our new project?” Probably, but I doubt I’d been listening. “It’s called ‘Artis Gives Back.’ We’ve just launched a range of false lashes and eyebrows designed especially for people fighting cancer. Plus we’re selling an exclusive high-gloss moisturising lipstick, and we’re using the profits from that to pay off lunch debt one school at a time. Daddy even offered to match the amounts, and Isolde asked if he was feeling okay. I think that was another blow for him.”
Sad. Not that Isolde had hit him with the truth, but that it had taken so long for him to see it.
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
“I just wish he’d been like this our whole lives, you know? Think of all the good he could have done. We suggested he set up a hardship program for specialist drugs, and he agreed, but if he’d done that years ago…”
“You can’t change the past, only the future. Baby steps.” David Sacker still had to work on the price-gouging, but I’d heard on the grapevine that he’d implemented an employee welfare program at Bio-D. “How are you holding up after what happened?”
Yes, the second part of the “kidnapping” had been a total fabrication, but the initial hostage situation in the sphere had been all too real. And the girls had few people they could talk to about it.
“Okay, I guess. I haven’t been to the movies since that day. The thought of walking into a dark, enclosed space makes me nervous.”
“We’ve got a movie theatre here. No monkeys, no roller-coaster train, and no gun-toting maniacs.” Ana had gone out for the day. “Have at it.”
Artemis smiled a rare genuine smile. “Being held hostage was scary, but also the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Just try not to do it again, okay?”
She giggled. “I promise. Are you coming swimming?”
“Not today.” Today, I had to speak to a man about an arson attack. “Have fun.”
WHAT'S COMING NEXT?
The next book in the Blackwood Security series is The Scarlet Affair…
The Scarlet Affair
Seven dead men. Seven grieving widows…
After a series of particularly nasty home invasions, Blackwood Security is hired to catch the killers. With the company’s reputation at stake, everyone on the team is desperate to solve the mystery, unaware that there’s a traitor in their midst.
Cade Duchamp’s eager to help, but a minor indiscretion with the wrong girl leaves him banished to undercover duty. He’s always liked motorbikes, but he doesn’t like being a biker. Uncomfortable leather, an itchy beard, oil and grease—need he say more? Cade wants to be back at head office, hunting down the real bad guys. At least, he does until five-year-old Scarlet turns up. The daughter he never knew he had.
Taylor Hancock likes to fade into the background. As an office cleaner, she can come to work, do her job, and avoid those dreaded social interactions. But nobody says no to Emmy Black, and as Scarlet’s new nanny, Taylor’s forced way out of her comfort zone into a world of shopping trips, parties, and playdates.
The only problem?
She’s the traitor.
Find out more here: www.elise-noble.com/scarlet
And the next book I’ll be publishing will be The Girl with the Emerald Ring, the twelfth book in the Blackwood Security series…
The Girl with the Emerald Ring
After a nasty divorce, Bethany Stafford-Lyons is forced to transform herself from a high-society housewife into one of London’s worker bees. Using a last connection to her previous life, she lands a job at Pemberton Fine Arts, a world-renowned gallery and restoration studio. With her art degree, it should have been the perfect role, but she soon finds interning for Hugo Pemberton is a challenge in more ways than one.
Eight years ago, Alaric McLain got fired from the FBI after an undercover operation ended in disaster. Still missing? One masterpiece, ten million dollars in cash and diamonds, and his once-glowing reputation. When he retreated overseas to lick his wounds, he made a vow—he’d find The Girl with the Emerald Ring if it was the last thing he did.
The trail leads to Chelsea, where assisted by his ex-girlfriend and a seventeen-year-old brat he wants to handcuff to a railroad track, Alaric’s soon embroiled in a game of cat and mouse with a talented team of thieves. Let the fun begin…
For more details: www.elise-noble.com/emerald
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END OF BOOK STUFF
Back before I started writing, when I actually had free time, I had a season ticket to Thorpe Park, which is a big amusement park in the south of England. I don’t live too far away from there, so I could shoot over in the summer evenings when they were open late and miss all the crowds.
One of my favourite rides was an indoor rollercoaster called X:/No Way Out, set in a giant black pyramid. You rode backwards in the dark. Even the queue was fun, winding through a series of computer-virus-themed rooms with lights and lasers and all that shizzle.
And then there was Vortex, a giant rotating pendulum that strapped you in so tight you could hardly move before whirling you in circles.
Thorpe Park also had a little farm back then. You rode there on a train or a boat, and you could feed the animals and whatnot. Sadly, the farm is long gone and X has been overhauled and turned into a Walking Dead ride (an idea for another book, perhaps?). Vortex is still going, though :)
Anyhow, I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane and mash the whole lot together, and that turned into Sphere. At first, it was going to be a straight hostage situation, but then I figured it would be a lot more fun to turn the bad guys into the good guys and the good guys into the bad guys and give Emmy a nice little moral dilemma too. I hope you enjoyed the ride.
As always, I couldn’t have published this book without help from my awesome team. Huge thanks to Jeff, Renata, Terri, Musi, David, Stacia, Jessica, Nikita, Quenby, Jody, and Sandra for beta reading; Nikki for editing; and John, Debi, and Lizbeth for proof reading :)
And also thank you to you, the reader, for your support!
Elise
OTHER BOOKS BY ELISE NOBLE
The Blackwood Security Series
For the Love of Animals (Nate & Carmen - prequel)
Black is my Heart (Diamond & Snow - prequel)
Pitch Black
Into the Black
Forever Black
Gold Rush
Gray is my Heart
Neon (novella)
Out of the Blue
Ultraviolet
Glitter (novella)
Red Alert
White Hot
Sphere (novella)
The Scarlet Affair
Spirit (novella) (TBA)
Quicksilver
The Girl with the Emerald Ring (2020)
Red After Dark (2020)
When the Shadows Fall (TBA)
The Blackwood Elements Series
Oxygen
Lithium
Carbon
Rhodium
Platinum
Lead
Copper
Bronze
Nickel
Hydrogen (TBA)
The Blackwood UK Series
Joker in the Pack
Cherry on Top (novella)
Roses are Dead
Shallow Graves
Indigo Rain
Pass the Parcel (TBA)
Blackwood Casefiles
Stolen Hearts
Blackstone House
Hard Lines (TBA)
Hard Tide (TBA)
The Electi Series
Cursed
Spooked
Possessed
Demented
Judged (TBA)
The Trouble Series
Trouble in Paradise
Nothing but Trouble
24 Hours of Trouble
Standalone
Life
Coco du Ciel (TBA)
Twisted (short stories)
A Very Happy Christmas (novella)
Books with clean versions available (no swearing and no on-the-page sex)
Pitch Black
Into the Black
Forever Black
Gold Rush
Gray is my Heart
Audiobooks
Pitch Black
Into the Black
Forever Black