Enjoy an excerpt from Mission: Touchdown, the latest book in my Live Action Hero series. Each book can stand alone, though characters show up in other books, and while Touchdown finishes the books I re-released, I am hoping to write more because I really love these stories.
Excerpt
Someone, or something, rustled down the hall. It sounded like it came from his office, except he’d only been in there long enough to put the action figure on his desk. His home alarm hadn’t sounded. Still, the noise bothered him. Too loud to be a mouse—and frankly, if he had mice he’d better talk to his cleaning service—yet not normal home noises. Something wasn’t right.
Reaching beneath the edge of the bed, Van curled his fingers around the rubber grip on his aluminum baseball bat. He set it on his bed long enough to grab a pair of sweats. Tugging them on, he grabbed the bat. He glanced at his cell phone on the nightstand. Maybe he should call the cops. No, if it were something innocent he’d feel pretty stupid. Hefting the bat over his shoulder, he crept toward the door.
He paused and listened in the hallway. Normal household noises filtered through the air. The refrigerator whirred, and he heard the air conditioner kick off. Crickets chirped outside. Van frowned. Maybe he’d been hearing things.
Papers shuffled inside his office. “Adrian?” Once Van had given his friend a key, told him to come over if he needed anything. Van didn’t mind, but the early hours of the morning seemed a little excessive. If Adrian needed something for the shop, surely he’d call or wait until morning. “Hello?”
The sounds stopped.
He waited, his heart pounding. The bat sat heavily on his shoulder. He pressed his hand to the wall, and when he didn’t hear anything turned to go back to his bedroom. Just the consequences of waking up from a crazy-ass dream. Whoever this Brice was, he looked just like the action figure he’d been working with at the shop. Van shook his head. Yeah, and if he opened the door to his den, he’d find Brice there, naked and waiting. He bit back laughter.
The thump of something falling to the floor vibrated through the walls. “Shit.” The muttered voice, clearly male, propelled Van forward.
He stopped just outside the door, hand on the knob. “Whoever you are, I’m armed,” he called.
The creak of his chair—was the perp sitting down?—was the only answer. “How did you get in here without tripping the alarms?”
No reply.
Damn it, this was fucking stupid, standing here waiting to get whacked upside the head by some intruder. Spinning on his heel, he started back toward his cell phone and safety.
“Your alarm wasn’t set.”
That voice! Van sagged against the wall. The bat thumped against the drywall, and he cursed, afraid he’d created a hole. It sounded exactly like the man in his dream. He straightened, checking the wall to ensure he hadn’t done any damage, then marched back to his office door. “I always set the alarm.”
This was stupid, conversing with an intruder. Turning the doorknob, he flung the door open. “And who the hell are you?” Spinning, he leveled the bat at the man, who was sitting behind Van’s desk as if he owned it.
You can pre-order Mission; Touchdown at a discount directly from this website and get it on January 7. Or, pre-order from your favorite retailer and get it on January 14.
