I hope you enjoy the excerpts. I always love feedback, as well as reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Feel free to follow me and interact on those platforms. Thank you so much for reading my blog and my books.

Sorry for the double clicking on this… I had assembled all of the excerpts into one post previously, so this points to those posts. But, these are complete stories, not teasers. Enjoy.

The Proposal – Complete

The Hacker – Complete

And don’t forget, if you enjoy the stories you read here on the blog, you can pick up a FREE ebook, Escape, for signing up for the free newsletter. There are regular editions each week, highlighting the posts to the blog, as well as special mentions of sales, giveaways or new books coming out. The sign-up link is on the right side of the sidebar.

I hope you enjoy the excerpts. I always love feedback, as well as reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Feel free to follow me and interact on those platforms. Thank you so much for reading my blog and my books.

You Don’t Know Jack – excerpt 1A

You Don’t Know Jack – excerpt 1B

You Don’t Know Jack – excerpt 2

You Don’t Know Jack – excerpt 3

You Don’t Know Jack – excerpt 4

And don’t forget, if you enjoy the stories you read here on the blog, you can pick up a FREE ebook, Escape, for signing up for the free newsletter. There are regular editions each week, highlighting the posts to the blog, as well as special mentions of sales, giveaways or new books coming out. The sign-up link is on the right side of the sidebar.

Escape – excerpt 1

Escape – excerpt 2

Escape – excerpt 3

I hope you enjoy the excerpts enough to consider subscribing and downloading the book. The newsletter subscription form is over there to your right just a little…

Thank you.

Triple Cross – excerpt 1

Triple Cross – excerpt 2

Triple Cross – excerpt 3

Triple Cross – excerpt 4

Triple Cross – excerpt 5

These are not contiguous in the book. I skipped around a little bit to try to grab more of the books flavor than just splitting up the opening chapters. It is a fun book loaded with some political intrigue, romance and action. Pick up your copy today.

Thank you.

He walked through the door and saw that it was quite crowded.  But then he saw a small table in the corner as the couple that had been sitting there got up to leave, pulling on their coats.  JD hurried through the crowded coffee shop and dropped into one of the seats, his back against the wall so he could watch the whole shop. 

“Chto ya mogu dlya vas poluchit’?” a pretty, brunette woman said as she hovered over him.  She was young, he thought, perhaps twenty or twenty-one.  She was dressed casually in jeans and a long-sleeve shirt with an American football team’s logo.

“I don’t speak Russian,” he said, looking at her.  Then he noticed her nametag.  He couldn’t read her name, but he assumed she worked there.  “Large coffee?” he said, hoping she’d understand.  “Grande?” he added, hoping she spoke “Starbucks.”

“Da” she said and walked away. 

A few minutes later she came back and gently placed the coffee in front of him and smiled.  She said something else, but he couldn’t understand.

“Shest’sot pyat’desyat rubley, pozhaluysta,” she repeated. 

She must be asking to be paid.  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of Russian currency.  He took a guess and pulled out a thousand ruble note and held it up to her. 

“Good?” he said, watching to see her reaction. 

“ya tebe sdachu?” she replied, smiling. 

He guessed that she was asking if he wanted change.  “No change…  Nyet?” he said, unsure of himself. 

That earned him a broad smile.  “Blagodaryu vas!” she replied before turning and heading back to the counter. 

Satisfied that he’d made it through the transaction, he pulled out his phone, set it on the table in front of him, and began to check his email.  He glanced up every once in a while, to see if there was anyone new in the crowd. 

As he sipped his coffee and scrolled through his emails, mostly spam and junk he quickly deleted, he looked up and saw an attractive, young blonde woman walking from the counter toward him.  She locked her eyes on him and approached directly.  When she was directly opposite him, she glanced down at the chair.

“May I join you?” she said to him in Russian accented English. 

“Please,” he replied as he rose and moved around to get her chair for her. 

“Such a gentleman.  Thank you,” she said.  “I guess you aren’t waiting for someone?” she asked. 

A pained expression crossed his face and he replied that he wasn’t.

“How did you know I spoke English?” he asked her after a moment.

“Your phone… and the waitress over there was talking to the Barista about the American that tipped her three-hundred fifty rubles on his six-hundred fifty-ruble bill.  That kind of tipped me off, too,” she said, smiling. 

“You speak English well.  Are you studying here at the university?”

“Thank you.  I do study here, but I learned English from watching General Hospital.”  Her smile crept back out.  “So, what is an American doing in St. Petersburg, Russia in January?”

“Trying to find an old friend,” he replied. 

Her phone rang.  She looked at it for a second and then apologized to JD before accepting the call.  She spoke quickly in Russian to the caller, then set her phone down on the table.

“She must be a pretty important friend,” she said.  “Oh, my manners, my name is Katerina.  You can call me Kat.”

“Please, call me JD.  And how did you know my friend was a woman?”

“I don’t see a guy like you flying halfway around the world looking for a buddy.  So… just a hunch.  Besides, I’m a romantic.  Tell me about her.  Maybe I know her and can help.”

“Her name is Christina… Christi.  I’ve been in love with her since the moment we met.  She disappeared a couple of years ago, after my parent’s funeral.  I haven’t seen her since.  That was almost two years ago.  One of my friends ran across something that said she was at university here.  I just had to come and see if I could find her.”

“Wow, JD.  You must really love this Christi.”  She leaned toward him a little bit, “She’d be stupid not to run back to you if given the chance.” 

“I don’t know if she met someone, or if something happened to her… I just don’t know.  Honestly, I’m having trouble moving on.  I know that I need to… but I just had to try one more time.  You probably think it’s stupid.”

“Not at all.  I’m a romantic.  If I could say anything to her, I would tell her she needs to let herself be found.  You are a rare man, JD.”  She held his eyes with hers.  “How long will you be here, might I ask?”

“I leave in the afternoon, tomorrow.  I am taking the train to Moscow.”

“Your friend doesn’t realize how lucky she is.” Kat said. 

JD finished his coffee and set the cup down.  Kat was smiling at him… like she knew something but wouldn’t tell.  But then that expression was gone… softened into something else. 

“Kat, it has been wonderful talking with you.  Maybe I’ll see you around,” he said as he rose and slipped his coat back on. 

Katerina rose and grabbed him in a tight hug. 

“It was wonderful meeting you, JD.  I hope to see you again, my friend,” kissing him on the cheek.

He snaked his way through the tight tables of the café and through the door onto the street. 

***

“She is just impulsive!” Christi said out loud with frustration.  After a few minutes she picked up the phone and called Kat.  She was her best friend, but she didn’t need her meddling in her love life… especially with Jason.  She felt like the best she could hope for was to hold the fond memories of the past. 

“Kat, what do you think you are doing?  Do you think you are going to just walk across campus and find him?  You’re crazy,” she said to her friend in rapid fire Russian as soon as she picked up the phone. 

“I’m sitting at the coffee shop, three blocks away, and he’s sitting across the table from me,” Kat replied to her in Russian, over the phone. 

“Bullshit,” Christi hit back in English.  Oddly, that was Kat’s favorite word.

“Get Olga, next door, to watch her and get your butt over here.  He is gorgeous and you’re the crazy one if you don’t,” was Kat’s reply, in Russian. 

Then Christi heard Kat put the phone on speaker and set it on the table while she started talking with Jason.  Christi muted her phone so that she wouldn’t blow her cover. 

She listened to him talk and her heart raced.  Just hearing his voice.  She could hear the pain and longing.  She never thought it could still be there… and be so strong.  She grabbed her phone and took it with her into her bedroom.  She threw her clothes off and tried to find something to wear.  Then she ran into the bathroom… she couldn’t do much with her hair, but she touched up her make-up. 

Rushing back into the living room, she went to the door and hurried across the hall to Olga’s.   

Christi grabbed her coat and as she ran down the stairs, she pulled it on and buttoned it up.  She was still listening to him talk as she exited her building and turned down the sidewalk.  It was only a few blocks to the coffee shop.  Maybe five more minutes. 

“Oh God, Jason, don’t leave,” she said to her phone, not even thinking about whether it was muted or not. 

One block.

Crap, he’s leaving, she thought to herself. 

“Christi, where are you?” Kat said into the phone. 

Christi started talking, but then realized she had muted her phone.  “I’m just around the corner,” she said.

“He just walked out the door.  Did he go your way?”

“I don’t see him.” 

“Then keep going, I’ll be right behind you.,” Kat said, moving toward the door.  She saw Christi swoop by a moment before she opened it. 

Kat turned and caught her friend.  She looked ahead, trying to see if she could spot JD’s coat, but his black coat and hat blended it with the dozens of others on the street. 

Christi stopped and turned to Kat.  “How could I have been so stupid?” she said. 

“We can find him, Christi.  I know we can,” Kat said, hugging her friend as she started to cry. 

“It’s no use, Kat.  He’s gone.” 

“No, he isn’t.  Not yet.  Walk with me,” Kat said as she took Christi’s hand and walked with her down the street, hoping to see him entering a hotel or in case he stopped off somewhere.