Unedited excerpt from
SCIONS:PERCEPTION
by Patrice Michelle
(releases November 1, 2008)
Chapter
One
“I can see the headlines
now: Martial arts expert taken out by bald tires,” Abby mumbled,
sighing in relief once her Jeep finally slid to a stop on the icy
driveway less than an inch from her friend Kaitlyn McKinney’s garage
door. Cutting the
engine, she rolled her head from one shoulder to the other. Her
nerves were frazzled from trying to keep her car on the
sleet-covered roads between Manhattan and the suburbs. The
weather had become steadily worse the farther she traveled from the
city. Still, even the
“worse ice storm of the decade” wouldn’t make her go back to her
apartment. Thanks to the fact that her roommate had hooked up with
Abby’s ex-boyfriend, Abby had immediately called Kaitlyn and had
never been more thankful for her friend’s offer of a place to stay
while she looked for another apartment.
“You’re
welcome to use my house. You know where I keep the spare key. Since
you’ll be getting to my house late in the evening, I’ll call my
neighbor across the street to let her know you’re coming. In her
advanced years, Mrs Donohue gets overly worried when she sees
strange cars parked in a neighbor’s driveway overnight.”
As she stared at the
ice-covered, empty house, Abby wished Kaitlyn was home now but
appreciated the fact that she wanted to spend as much time in the
mountains with her new partner, Landon.
Pulling her red jacket’s
hood over her head and zipping the jersey material closed, Abby
climbed out of the car.
Frozen leaves and pine needles crunched under her shoes as
she entered the dense woods beside the house. Other than the sound
of sleet pinging on the icy ground, the woods were eerily quiet as
she made her way across the sparkling ground to the circular seating
area. Abby started to
lift the knee-high garden gnome statue when something large blurred
through the woods ahead of her. She gasped and let the gnome fall
back into place. Pushing her hood back, she tried to track the
shadow that had now disappeared. Had she seen black fur?
“Who’s there?” she
whispered into the woods.
Even though the thick layer of ice gave off a bright glow,
lighting up the woods, a cold shiver trickled down her spine as
visions of grisly bears formed in her mind’s-eye. Nothing but an icy
wonderland greeted her.
Bears? In the suburbs?
Get
a grip, Ab! You’re going on four hours of sleep. Your imagination is
taking over. Shaking off the sensation she was being watched,
Abby focused on her task and lifted the gnome once more. Only, the space where the
key should’ve been was empty.
Damn it! Setting the gnome back down, she considered calling
Kaitlyn to ask if she’d changed the key’s hiding place. But it was after eleven and
she was freezing her ass off, getting wetter by the minute in the
thin sweat jacket.
Plus, she did have another way to get into the house.
After spending a good ten
minutes searching her car for her lock-picking kit, her hand finally
landed on the kit tucked under her driver’s seat. Palming the kit,
she grabbed her overnight bag and locked the car.
Thankful for the front
porch’s overhang to keep the heavy sleet at bay, Abby slid the tools
into the door’s lock and went to work. A few seconds later, she
smiled when she felt the tumblers slip into place, unlocking the
door. “Like riding a
bike,” she murmured and quickly put the tools and the case away in
her overnight bag.
But her confidence was
short lived. The moment
she entered the house, someone grabbed her arm and yanked her
inside. Shutting the front door, the person cupped her throat and
shoved her against the wood.
“What the hell are you doing?” The man’s deadly snarl made
the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as they stood facing
each other in the dimly lit entryway.
Heart thudding, Abby
dropped her bag and she instinctively grabbed the man’s wrist. Her attacker’s
wide-shouldered silhouette towered over her, and for a split-second,
she thought she saw a bright green glow where his eyes should be.
She blinked to clear her vision. Nothing glowed in the
darkness shrouding his face, but she sure as hell felt his dangerous
vise hold around her neck.
He wasn’t choking her, but he definitely had her pinned in
place with a steel lock.
His speed briefly stunned
her, but this burglar had picked the wrong chick to try and
intimidate. “I really
don’t want to deal with this tonight.” Abby spoke calmly, despite
her racing pulse.
“Huh?” the guy started to
say when she twisted his wrist and yanked his fingers from her
throat. His other hand
came up in a blur so fast she would’ve missed it if she’d been
waiting for it, but Abby acted on instinct, blocking his grab for
her shoulder. At the
same time, she kicked him hard in the groin. He bent forward,
grunting in pain, and she swept her leg around, hammering the back
of his thigh and then his calf with her foot as she swept his leg
out from under him.
When he landed on his
back on the wood floor, she gripped his hand in a painful lock and
growled her answer to his question. “I was invited! If you move even
one inch while I call the police, I’ll finish what I started and you
won’t walk straight for a week. Got it?”
Abby didn’t expect an
answer. He had to have
lost his breath when he landed on his back. A low chuckle rumbled up
from the floor a split second before the man pulled from her hold,
grabbing her wrist. The
room suddenly spun and she found herself flat on her back on the
area hall rug, lying in the pool of dim light coming from somewhere
upstairs.
His well-muscled chest
rested on top of hers, smelling of soap and covered with water
droplets, as if the man had just come from a shower. Jean-covered hips and hard
legs locked hers in place underneath him, while he pulled her arms
above her head. He
peered at her, the hall’s darkness shrouding his face. “Considering
the fact I used a key and you picked the lock, I think you’ll
understand my doubts that you were invited.”
“A key that you stole from
its hiding spot!” she shot back, right before she jerked a hand free
and brought her fist down toward the side of his neck. Anticipating he’d shift his
weight to avoid her hit, Abby jerked her hips free the moment he
moved and then kneed him hard in his side.
The man grunted from the
impact, and she thought she heard a rib crack, but she wasn’t giving
up her advantage. This
time she aimed for his jaw.
His big hand encircled her fist in a crushing hold, and she
cried out in pain when he slammed their hands to the floor and
rolled back over her.
“Damn, you’re a
scrapper. Hold still,
little thief.”
Indignant heat crept
across her cheeks. No one had so effectively beat her like this in
years. “I’m not the thief here—” Her words died off when his face
came into view. Most of
his hair was pulled back, but several ink-black pieces had fallen
loose to brush against his angular jaw. A stainless steel barbell
boldly pierced through the inch long scar along the outer edge of
his dark eyebrow. The piercing added a rebellious edge to his
mid-thirties appearance, intentionally drawing attention to the
imperfection as if to say, “Hell yeah, I’ve got a scar. What of
it?”
“She protests too much.”
His eyebrows slashed downward and crystal blue eyes skimmed her
body.
Everywhere he looked, she
burned. Why did his
skin feel so much warmer than hers? Apparently her excursion in the
woods had left her colder than she realized. “How did you know where to
find the key?”
“I was told, but even if
I hadn’t been, I could’ve found it easily enough.” For a brief
second, he closed his eyes and inhaled before his penetrating gaze
zeroed in on her face and narrowed slightly. “Oh, you are a
thief, sweetness. Every last inch of you.”
The man had the sexiest
drawl. It wasn’t Southern per se, but he spoke in a laidback speech
pattern very different from most New Yorkers’ hyper-speak. Yet beyond the calm,
still-water-runs-deep persona he exuded, something else had set her
libido into a tailspin. When he spoke, the dim light caught on
another glint of metal.
He had a tongue piercing, and she had a feeling the intense
man holding her down knew exactly how to use
it.
