Welcome Guest Blogger Sue Fineman

WHAT COMES NEXT?

Have you ever read a book and wondered what happened with the other members of the hero or heroine’s family? What’s their story? What comes next? This is why I love to write a series of books about different members of the same family. So my readers know what comes next.

THE GREGORY SERIES features the family’s three adopted brothers. Greg and Bo lost their natural mother when they were very young, and Chance came from a Korean orphanage. His natural father was an American soldier.

Greg is the youngest sibling, the one who was always in trouble as a kid. He’s the macho brother, the fearless one who always jumps in with both feet without considering the consequences. In ON THE RUN, he’s a former DEA agent working undercover with the FBI, trying to find Neen Summers, who was in the house of a big drug lord during the raid three years ago. Neen’s been on the run since then, staying one step ahead of two men who chew apple gum and suck on menthol eucalyptus cough drops. At least she can smell them coming. Then there’s the man who claimed to be her uncle and invited her to L.A. for a visit. Who knew Uncle Julio was a big drug lord? Nobody told her what he did for a living. And who knew the hunky guy she met jogging was a DEA agent?

Bo is the responsible brother, the one who held the family together after their police officer father was killed in a domestic violence call. A former Marine, Bo’s elbow was shattered in Iraq, a painful injury the surgeons made worse. In spite of his injuries, his siblings still expect him to take care of Mom. In ON THE LAM, Callie shows up on Bo’s doorstep. He doesn’t need more responsibility, especially a woman hiding out from a husband who likes to beat on her, but he takes her in. Then her husband shows up. Why didn’t she tell Bo her husband was a Sheriff and has a warrant out for her arrest? Callie looks like Snow White, speaks with a soft Texas drawl, and cooks better than Mom, but this woman is pure trouble!

Chance is the oldest of the Gregory siblings. In ON THE EDGE, Chance’s ex-wife was murdered, leaving him with three grieving children. But the killer has a list of people he wants to kill, and Chance’s name is on that list. So is Baylee Patterson’s. She’s a newspaper reporter who wrote some not-so-nice things about the killer. Chance had a brief fling with Baylee the night his divorce became final, then neglected to call her. He’s still kicking himself for that mistake. When a police detective advises them to leave town until the killer is caught, Chance talks Baylee into coming with him. It’s an awkward situation at best. There’s no place in his life for a girl reporter who’s crazy enough to play games with a killer’s mind, but he can’t leave her behind to be murdered.

Excerpt from ON THE LAM: (While Callie’s abusive husband, Sheriff Tommy Ray Caldwell, was in Washington searching for her, she and Bo flew to Texas and snuck into the old ranch house to get the contents of her daddy’s safe.)

While Callie went to the closet to open the safe, Bo wandered around looking at the run-down house. Although it held a certain old-fashioned charm, the floors felt soft and the ceiling sagged with water stains. There were three small bedrooms, one dinky bathroom, and tiny closets. The hardwood floors must have been nice at one time, but they hadn’t been maintained.

“I take it Tommy Ray doesn’t like to clean.”

“No, sir. He wants everything done for him.”

Bo swore under his breath when he saw the handcuffs on the headboard and footboard of the bed. While Callie worked on the safe, he opened the nightstand to find a small whip and blindfold and other sex toys or instruments of torture, whichever way you wanted to look at it. She said Tommy Ray beat on her and slapped Brady around, but she never said what went on in her bedroom.

After living with Tommy Ray, she should be afraid of men in general, yet she’d crawled into his bed last night, and she’d not only let him kiss her, she’d kissed him back. Knowing how she’d lived made him appreciate last night even more. The nightmare woke him and he’d found himself snuggled up to her soft, warm body. Still half asleep, he’d wanted her to be there for other reasons. Maybe someday she would come for sex, but he wouldn’t push it. He couldn’t, not after learning about the rape and seeing the bed she’d shared with her husband.

“I got it open,” she called.

Bo glanced out the window and saw an old pickup truck coming down the dirt drive toward the house, kicking up a cloud of dust. “Looks like we have company.”

“Oh, no. We’ll have to hide until they’re gone.”

Bo closed and locked the kitchen door as the pickup, country music blasting from the radio, stopped near the front door. Callie held a flowered pillowcase knotted on the end. The contents of the safe, he assumed. She pointed to a door in the kitchen and followed him down the basement steps, closing the door behind her without making a sound.

“Hey, Dwayne,” a man called. “I’ll check the bedrooms.”

“Will you look at this mess.” Dwayne laughed. “I do believe the sheriff is a bigger slob than me, and according to Mama, nobody is a bigger slob than me.”

“Ole man Winthrop musta left that map here in the house somewheres,” said the other man.

Bo whispered in Callie’s ear. “Do you know those men?”

“Dwayne and Leroy Richardson. They have a small ranch on the north side of us.”

“Brothers?” asked Bo.

She nodded.

“Did you hear something?” called Dwayne.

“Nah. Hey, I found a safe. What you ‘spose is in here?”

Dwayne’s voice faded toward the bedroom. “Probably what we’re looking for. Can you open it?”

“Hell, no, not without the combination. Let’s just pull it out of the wall and take it home. Go get the tire iron and we’ll pry it out.”

“What if someone catches us?”

“You turning into a chicken shit, or you gonna help me with this thing?” Leroy sounded angry.

Colorful language poured from Dwayne as he walked through the house and outside. The door slammed and seconds later Bo heard footsteps on the front porch, and then the sound of prying and hammering came from the bedroom.

Bo tripped over a bucket and it made a godawful noise. The activity in the bedroom stopped.

“What the hell was that?” Leroy said.

“I’ll get the gun from the truck.”

“Oh, dear God.” Callie’s words came out on a whispered breath.

Footsteps sounded on the floor above them and the front door slammed. Seconds later, the door slammed again and Dwayne called, “It ain’t in the truck. You used it to kill them birds, remember? I don’t hear nothing now anyways. Probably just a cat or coon or something.”

“Yeah, probably. Help me with this. Damn thing weighs a ton.”

Callie crept up the basement steps, and Bo followed right behind her.

“If it wasn’t for that damn sheriff, Callie and me’d be married by now,” said Leroy. “She always did favor me.”

Dwayne burst out laughing. “Then why did she let me feel her up in high school?”

Callie gasped and Bo put his hand over her mouth. His body shook with silent laughter, and she jabbed her elbow in his ribs. She obviously didn’t see anything funny about it, but he did. It was meaningless guy talk.

“Did she let you get inside her panties?” Leroy asked.

“No, and she didn’t let you neither.”

“Wanta bet?”

Callie had heard enough of this nonsense. She broke away from Bo and ran into the kitchen sputtering, “You lying fools.”

Dwayne dropped the safe and Leroy yowled. “Where in the hell did you come from?”

“I flew in on my broomstick, you idiot. What are you doing in my house?”

“Ain’t yours,” said Leroy. “Tommy Ray says it belongs to him.”

Callie crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “Does the safe belong to him, too?”

Leroy stammered, “Uh... well... you see... we uh—”

“Y’all broke into the sheriff’s house and stole his safe, and I’m gonna tell him I caught you. You’re in deep trouble, boys. If he don’t shoot you, he’ll lock you up forever.”

Dwayne hung his head. “Mama’s gonna kill us for sure this time.”

“Tell me what you’re looking for and I won’t tell.”

Leroy, the older and more intelligent brother, which wasn’t saying much, said, “Well, now, we can’t—”

“Fine.” She walked to the kitchen phone and punched three buttons. They had no way of knowing the phones didn’t work.

Leroy grabbed the phone from her hand and hung up. “Daddy told us there was something buried out by the river and your daddy had a map, so we thought we’d—”

Leroy and Dwayne didn’t have the brains to think anything through clearly.

“Y’all thought you’d find it and get rich?”

“We woulda shared it with you, Callie,” said Dwayne.

One lie deserved another, so she pointed to the safe. “Well, go ahead and take it. I can’t get it open anyway.” If Tommy Ray couldn’t open it, the Richardson boys couldn’t either, but having it gone might keep Tommy Ray off her back.

The two men struggled under the weight of the safe and somehow got it through the door and into the back of their pickup truck.

Bo stepped into the kitchen with Callie. “Why did you let them take the safe?”

“So Tommy Ray won’t know I emptied it.”

“Won’t they tell him?”

“And admit they were here?”

”Good point.” Bo glanced around. “Anything else you want to take while we’re here?”

Callie took a few things from her son’s room and stuffed them in his pillowcase. “I think that’s it. I wouldn’t mind taking my pistol, but I can’t get on a plane with it.”

“Then leave it here.”

Leaving the ranch again tore at her spirits. It was supposed to belong to her some day, so why did Daddy have to go and give it to Tommy Ray? She would’ve been better off without a husband. So what if she was pregnant? The ladies in the church would’ve shunned her, but that wouldn’t have been half as bad as the things Tommy Ray did to her.

Sue Fineman is a grumpy old lady who lives with an even grumpier old man in a small town in Washington State. She writes women’s fiction, light paranormal romance, and romantic suspense novels. Most of her books have a little humor sprinkled in.

On the Run, On the Lam, and On the Edge are now available at Amazon and BN, and they’re only 99 cents each.

You can find her latest release from The Wild Rose Press, THE MITCHELL MONEY, at TWRP, Amazon, and BN. Happy reading!

ON THE RUN
www.amazon.com/ontherun/dp/b004vt5m4u

 

 

 

 

ON THE LAM
www.amazon.com/onthelam/dp/b004vn3t50

ON THE EDGE
www.amazon.com/ontheedge/dp/b004y1or3m