“I think something exploded next to me. I’ll be fine. Mac’s been shot. He needs a doctor.”
Monica raised her brow at the nice-looking pirate. “Brad Macmillan,” she easily recognized him from her dealings with Roberts. “I have a rap sheet on you close to a mile long.”
“He saved me, Monica.” Tori interjected.
“Really?” her brow raised askance. “Is that true, Macmillan?”
“I think I’m going to need my lawyer,” he glared at her.
“Monica!” Now Tori glared at her.
“Alright.” Monica placed Mac’s good arm around herself to help him. This had better be one helluva a report from her new agent-in-training.
The four of them walked past the Secret Service agents still rushing in to collect Robert’s men.
“SINCLAIR!” Roberts yelled from across the lawn. “THIS ISN’T OVER, SINCLAIR!” the pirate struggled with the handcuffs that were being applied by an enormous Secret Service officer. “YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD! SINCLAIR! YOU HEAR ME!? SINCLAIR!!”
“Yea. Whatever.” Liam scowled. He didn’t care; not at the moment. He had one helluva headache.
Epilogue
I t was, a little unexpected, Mac.” Tori entered the elevator with him.
His arm freshly out of the sling from the shoulder wound, he tapped his keycard on the newly installed RF scanner and punched the button for the fortieth floor. “I just thought you could use the extra security, that’s all.”
“I’m a goddess, Mac. Living next to a god—”
“—with a Navy Seal living across the hall.”
“Wonderful,” she smiled. “Mrs. Whirley will be the safest old lady in Tampa.”
He stole a sweet kiss from her that she returned as their elevator ascended.
“That was nice.” She complimented. He didn’t smell like cigarettes anymore.
“I quit. Last month. I could tell you didn’t like it.”
“Mac,” she began.
“You’re starting to rub off on me. I mean, in a good way.”
“Mac, you know you’re impossible. I mean, we’re impossible.” She smoothed her hands over his chest after he’d pulled back from her lips.
“I already know, Tori. You’re not really attracted to me. I don’t care.”
“We’ll never be able to do it—I mean, for real, Mac. I’d be like poison to you. I won’t do that to you.”
“I don’t mind pretending,” he assured.
“You saved my life. Whatever happens between us, it’s not pretend. Believe me.”
“I love you, Tori.”
“I know you do. Maybe I love you too. I just don’t know, with Liam and Monica. This, attraction. It’s all so confusing sometimes.”
“Don’t try to figure it out, then.”
She moved into his arms and he took her into his, warmly, kissing her tenderly and enjoying her breath and scent until the elevator doors opened.
Tori and Mac found Monica and Liam sipping margaritas while watching the surf from Tori’s living room, the smell of Tex-Mex rice, beans, and fresh salsa filling the air.
“Mac—” Monica began. “Surprise, surprise. All moved in?”
“Getting there.” He smiled.
“How’s the shoulder, Mac?” Liam approached the small kitchen bar.
“Almost as good as new.”
Liam slid an already frosted glass toward him.
Mac lifted the glass, looking askance at Liam and Monica. “Frozen margaritas—you two are very sick people. You know that?”
“Well, speaking of frozen,” Monica smiled, “Roberts and his whole crew will be on ice until hell freezes over.”
“Can we cut the puns, please?” Tori rolled her eyes.
“That’s good to hear,” Mac sipped the heavily salted edge of his glass.
“There’s more good news. It took some arm-twisting, but the Justice Department has agreed to full immunity, Mac, in exchange for your testimony.”
“That’s good news too, Monica. With my rap sheet, I was afraid they wanted to send me to the same hell as everyone else.”
“The City wanted to, Mac. They lost quite of few of ‘New York’s Finest’ during the pursuit. But the President and AG wouldn’t let them. You’re a valued witness now. And you’d make me one hell of an agent. Still haven’t accepted my offer?”
Mac took a deep breath. “I’m retired, Monica. For good now. I’ll be forty next month. I’m done with all of this. Karma gave me a break for rescuing a goddess; I’m not going to squander it.”
“Maybe there will be other goddesses who need rescuing? What then?”
“Hmmm,” he rubbed the dark five o’clock shadow around his dimpled chin. “Talk to me when that actually happens.”
“Oh, I will. Believe me.”
All of them gathered the pans and dishes of chilled and hot food, placing their feast onto the center of the small dining room table where they sat eating from Tori’s fine plates and flatware.
“What did the DOJ say about Liam?” Tori asked, reaching beside her to squeeze his hand and give him an empathic kiss that instantly put a smile on his face while he munched.
“Hmmm,” she spoke politely, her mouth half full with a new bite. “You’re not off the hook, Sinclair. Treasury was glad to have most of their money back, but they only recovered about a third of the missing gold from The Neptune. The President reauthorized my budget to find you and put you away.”
Liam smirked. “Bummer.”
“So, yes. I’m going to need to start looking for you again—somewhere.”
“You know—I have always been fascinated with Paris.”
“France?” Monica’s face drew surprise.
“Yea. You should probably start looking for me there next.”
“That could get expensive. I have teams, you know.”
“Not my problem.”
She chuckled. “This assignment could get interesting now. What about your island?”
“What island?” Tori asked, her brow lifting. “You own an island?”
“Not yet. But I’m looking for one.”
Mac now raised his brow. “You’re looking—for an island?”
“Yea,” Liam munched. “With a castle,” he added.
“You know, Liam,” Mac started filling another tortilla, “I may just know where you could find one of those—it used to be owned by a notorious pirate …”
About
Awakened Chronicles
A wakned Chronicles is part of the Awakened Series created to satisfy my literary Attention Deficit Disorder.
With the Awakened Series now into its sixth published book, and with the seventh, eighth, and ninth book completed, and a prequel on the way, I found myself with a handful of really cool and rather interesting ides that fit within the series’ milieu but didn’t really fit within the series’ main storyline. Most of these story snippets were becoming distractions within the main series; but I found them intriguing enough to put them to paper, so to speak, and flesh them out into their own novellas.
At this point, I have no idea where these various short stories are going, but suffice to say that all of them will tie into the Awakened Universe in ways that add background and even some bombshell intrigue to the original epic.
One of the criticisms I’ve been receiving from fans of the Awakened Series is that Harley Austin never met a new character I didn’t like. There is some truth to that. I am an avowed relationship junkie and I love the idea of introducing new ships and new people into the grand story.
The problem is, after six books, Awakened has close to a dozen (of what could be considered) main characters within the story. It is, to say the least, a personae-rich environment. This to me is just perfect, but to casual readers not thoroughly invested in the Awakened Universe, it is bordering on confusing. Rather important people show up in later books that were introduced perhaps three or four novels ago. Many readers simply don’t want to follow the lives of this many peopl
e. One of my beta readers, in fact, warned me, “If you introduce one more new couple I’m going to stop reading.”
Okay. Message delivered.
Awakened Chronicles will now become the Harley Austin playground for snippets of stories that wholly intersect with the primary series, but don’t actually further the main story—they simply build detail upon it. These chronicles are the lives of the people on the periphery; people deeply affected by the events unfolding within the main story, but who do not, seemingly, add to the overall events unfolding within it.
I am going to have some fun with these! I hope you enjoy reading them as well.
About the Author
Born and raised in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I’ve spent most of my life writing. I am, at heart, merely a storyteller. As early as I can remember I have loved stories and loved telling them in my own inimitable way.
Through my teens and twenties, I captivated groups of friends by weaving their role-play characters into fabulous, immersive scenarios filled with intrigue and emotion. The games were more than just rolling dice, commanding starships and slaying dragons. Our weekends together became deeply personal surrealisms.
While those games have now become fond distant memories, the child within who created them lives on, more imaginative than ever.
A Siren’s Call
Tori Evenson has her whole life ahead of her. A fantastic new job; a condo on the beach; and a new guy she really wants to meet. When the hot new bikini number finally gets his attention, what follows is much more than she bargained for.
In the span of a few hours everything she knows about her idyllic life will suddenly come unraveled. Nothing she’s known over the past several months has been real.
She’s being used.
Held prisoner by a notorious crew of Navy Seals turned bounty hunters, Tori finds herself ensnared by the team bent on capturing her new boyfriend. But it’s not the bounty they’re really after. And once they have what they want—dead goddesses tell no tales.
This Awakened Chronicles story setting takes place some time between books II and III of the original series.
Siren (Awakened Chronicles Book 1) Page 14