Blog Tour: Expendable by Maggie Jaimeson (International Giveaway)

This Blog Tour is presented by The Bookish Snob Tours.

You can get to the entire tour schedule by clicking HERE.

You can see my review by clicking HERE.

Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the tour!

I am pleased to present Maggie Jaimeson and an excerpt from Expendable:

During the week, Maggie’s days are spent assisting colleges and universities with technology, distance education, open source software, and open education resources. At night and on the

weekends, she journeys into the world of her imagination and writes novels that reflect her passions and her belief that the good guys win in the end and that love will conquer all.

Maggie has published several short stories in romance and science fiction, but since 2004 she has

focused on publishing novels. Expendable is her first romantic suspense novel and she promises there will be more. Also currently available is Eternity, an SF with romantic elements; and Undertones, a contemporary romance which is the first in a four book series about the women of the Sweetwater Canyon Band. All of her full length novels are made available in ebook and print by her publishers.

Excerpt:

The kid stepped off the trail on the up slope and started climbing cross-country, then scampered further south again. Reed closed the gap. Only a few more strides and he’d have him. The boy slipped and screamed, tumbling down the slope. Reed braced himself, scooped his arms down and caught the boy, bringing him up against his chest.

The boy flailed at him, kicking and crying.

“Hold on,” Reed said. “Just a minute. I’m not going to hurt you. What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

The boy kicked again, and Reed let out an “oof” as the boy’s foot connected with Reed’s kidney. He set the kid on the ground, tightly pressing down on his shoulders. The kid kicked his shin.

“F…if you do that again, I’m going to sit on you.” Reed said. The kid twisted in his grasp and Reed applied more pressure, forcing the kid to bend lower to keep his balance. “Now tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help.”

For a moment, the boy quieted, tears streaming down his face. For the first time, Reed had a chance to actually look at him. Red marks encircled the kid’s wrists, as if they’d been tied for a long time. A large purple bruise on his left cheek looked like he’d been hit hard by someone strong. His shirt was ripped at the collar with what looked like dried blood along his shoulder.

Reed loosened his grip a little. “What’s happened here?”

The boy’s shoulders slumped and he looked down at the ground. Reed let go completely and the kid took off again, running up the trail.

Shit! Whatever had scared this kid was way beyond Reed’s stupid flashback.

The boy turned suddenly, jumping over a large boulder and then veered sharply to the left. Reed tried to adjust, but he stumbled and landed flat on his chest and face-to-face with a woman on the ground. Obviously dead. Reed scrambled back to a sitting position and scanned the woods for the kid.

Nowhere.

Had the boy been part of this? Maybe escaped from the assailant?

The woman wore a nice suit—skirt and jacket—but she was bent in an unnatural way. One leg splayed out to the right crossing over the other, putting her almost completely face down, with one arm pinned beneath her. Her long blonde hair, matted with blood and needles from the conifers, looked sticky and stiff. She’d probably died several hours ago. He’d seen people bleed out in Afghanistan; he knew that look of resigned horror.

His training kept him close to the ground, though he doubted whoever did this was still around. If they had been, the boy would be dead too. He listened for a moment, unmoving, just in case.

Nothing.

Slowly, he turned the woman on to her back. Her clothes were intact except for an open shirt that showed some type of wound beneath her bra. Her hand compressed fabric against the wound, a torn yellow piece of paper clutched in her fingers with dried blood acting like a type of glue to keep the note there.

Based on the amount of blood, he guessed it had been a gunshot wound. Shit. No wonder the kid was running. He probably didn’t know the good guys from the bad.

Reed didn’t want to move her any more. The police would need to see her exactly as he’d found her. They’d want the kid, too. It’s likely the boy was a witness, and probably also a victim. He braced his hand against the ground and pushed himself up. To his surprise, the kid stood just ten feet off the trail. There were no tears now, no trembling, just him standing still as a statue with a tortured look in his eyes.

Reed didn’t move. He didn’t want to scare him into running again. “I’m sorry, kid. She’s dead.”

The boy stiffened and refused to look Reed in the eye.

“I guess you already knew that.”

The boy dropped his eyes to the ground and let out a big breath. His shoulders slumped.

“Do you know who did this?”

Again, the boy said nothing. He stared at Reed, his eyes wide, unblinking, as vacant as a sacrificial lamb. His lips trembled, but he didn’t cry out. Suddenly, he folded to the ground and curled into a fetal position.

Reed took a step forward, then another. When there was no flight reaction, he hurried to the kid and scooped him into his lap. Small arms went around his neck and held tight. Reed rocked him, hugging him to his chest.

“I don’t know what happened here, kid. But I’ll keep you safe. You hear? I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

The boy didn’t cry, didn’t say anything, but he held on as if his fingers had a death grip on a hand grenade.

The next stop on the tour is:  Oct 10 – Paranormal Opinion 

You can buy your own copy HERE or HERE.

You can enter to win a copy by filling out the form below!  Good luck to all who enter!

Connect with Maggie online at:

Website: http://maggiejaimeson.com

Twitter: @maggiejaimeson

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maggie-Jaimeson/118916694787820

Behind the Book blog where she interviews other authors: http://author-secrets.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by The Wormhole!

Happy Reading!