Empire Blue, #4
by DC Stone
Date of Publication: November 29th 2022
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Cover Artist: Evernight Publishing
Genre: Romantic Suspense
ASIN: B0BLL64YJS
Number of pages: 250
Word Count: 76,000
BLURB
Juliette Scaglione doesn't think her world can get any worse. Recently dumped by her longtime boyfriend while on a vacation she paid for, she returned home only to find the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) on her heels.
DEA Agent Matt Gonzalez is sent on a task to uncover a mule at the airport, one he discovers is a feisty and beautiful woman whom he can't take his eyes off of.
Problem is, things get out of control for both fairly quickly as they are kidnapped by the cartel and taken to a prison in Mexico. The two have to learn how to rely on one another to escape the clutches of this violent operation. Through their journey across a country far from home, both of them recognize fighting their attraction may not be the only challenge they have to face.
Excerpt:
“What do you
expect to find in my bags?” she asked.
Agent Gonzalez
stared at her, and rather than answer what she thought was a pretty logical
question, he threw another softball. “I’ll ask you one more time. Do you give
your consent to allow us to search your bags? I’m warning you now that I have a
federal judge on standby in the event you say no, so one way or another, I will
search these bags today. It’s just a matter of whether this will go quickly or
take a few hours. Up to you.”
Her heart
pounded against the inside of her chest, wanting to run away. She felt much the
same way. Not that she thought he’d find anything. It was the absolute
certainty she saw on his face that said he knew he’d find something.
“What’s going
on?” she asked, hating the meek sound in her voice.
“Juliette—”
“Yes! Yes, you
can search my bags, my—my body, but you won’t find anything in, or rather, on
them.”
Agent Gonzalez
unzipped her suitcase.
“After you find
nothing, I expect an explanation for what’s going on.” There, that sounded
firm. Not shaky, like what her insides were doing.
Agent Watson
relieved her of her backpack and purse but placed them on the table and didn’t
go through them. Instead, he kept his attention on what Agent Gonzalez was
doing, though she knew without a doubt she had his full attention too.
Gonzalez removed
her clothing in a systematic fashion, placing items one at a time on the table
next to the suitcase. Out came her dirty clothes, which lay on top, jeans,
dresses, and her underwear. Her cheeks heated as he continued, his movements
slow and thorough.
He got to the
bottom, having removed everything from within. Her things were scattered across
the table like some bizarre game of Clue.
“See?” she said.
“Nothing.”
Agent Watson
didn’t move, but Gonzalez sure did. He reached inside her suitcase and felt
around the corners, then yanked. The sound of fabric tore.
“Hey! What are
you doing?” He tossed the fabric aside, and black plastic square packages were
stacked inside in a neat and orderly fashion. Had to be about a dozen of them,
at least five to six inches in width.
Shock rooted her
to the spot for a few moments. “Wait. What is that?” she asked and took a step
forward.
Watson held up a
hand in front of her. “Ma’am, please stay back.”
“What is that?”
she asked him again, hearing the rising hysteria in her voice.
Gonzalez pulled
out one package and produced a pocketknife from somewhere, then cut into the
wrapping. Everything around her moved in slow motion until she swore the world
had ceased to spin. Her attention stayed riveted to the white powder that came
out on the shiny blade.
“Gonna need a
test kit,” he said to Watson. The other agent immediately set the bags beside
the table, at the farthest reach from her, and left the room.
“Agent
Gonzalez,” she said, sounding like she pleaded, because she did. She’d never
seen that stuff before in her life. “That’s not mine. What’s going on?”
He pulled out
twelve packages, and yes, she counted every single one, before grabbing another
black trash bag that someone had taped to the inside of her luggage frame. Once
he opened that, several brown baggies came tumbling out. She gasped.
No wonder her
bag had been so heavy.
Only then, after
the whole horrid nightmare was laid out on the table, all the ugliness next to
her things, her clothes, and her bag of toiletries, did he look up at her. “Ms.
Scaglione,” he said, reverting to formalities, “the intel we received was there
would be someone on your plane, matching your description and carrying a
suitcase with over ten kilos of cocaine and about a hundred baggies of heroin.
Although I haven’t tested it yet, I can tell you I’d bet my next paycheck that’s
what is right here.”
“But it’s not
mine.” Dryness coated the inside of her mouth, as if cotton balls had been
shoved inside and sucked up all the moisture.
“Are those your
clothes?” he asked.
She nodded.
“This your bag?”
She nodded, getting where he headed. “Yes, but those drugs are not mine!”
“Of course, they
aren’t.” But he said the words as if he didn’t believe her.
“They aren’t!”
she yelled.
He slammed his hands on the table and leaned
toward her.
Author Info
D.C. “Desi” Stone is a best-selling romance author and full-time fraud investigator. She lives in the northeast with her incredibly supporting husband, two kids, a cat, and the ever-growing family of dogs.
After serving eight years of service with the United States Air Force, she went on to transition into the world of financial crimes and became a lead investigator for many years.
Reading has always been a passion of hers, getting lost in a good, steamy romance is one of her favorite past times. She soon after discovered her own love for writing and recreating stories and characters in her head. Her writing concentrates on romantic with specifics in paranormal, suspense, and erotica.
Now, when she isn’t trying to solve a new puzzle in the world of fraud, she is engulfed with coffee, her laptop, and all those crazy characters in her head. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America, Hudson Valley Romance Writers, New Jersey Romance Writers, RomVets, RWA Kiss of Death, and the Liberty State Fiction Writers. She served as the 2014 NJRW Vice President and Conference Chair. Come stop by on Facebook, Twitter, or her website and say hello!
The Book Junkie Reads . . .Reckless Dreams Interview with . . . DC Stone . . .
How would you describe your style of writing to someone that has never read your work?
A cross between the hint of danger combined with a bit of humor. I like to keep things moving through the story and really try to hone in on details to help the reader try and solve the crimes along with the characters.
Do you feel that writing is an ingrained process or just something that flows naturally for you?
For me, I feel as if writing is just something that flows naturally. I like to picture the scene in my head as I write, as if it’s a movie playing out. And I’ve found this works for me. So I can sit down, picture the scene in my head and end up writing close to three to four thousand words in an hour. In most instances, I get so lost in what I’m doing and picturing that I lose track of time.
Do you have a character that you have been working on that you can't wait to put to paper?
I have two characters I’ve been working on that I can’t wait to put to paper, and I’m actually writing their book as I promote this one. I can’t give any specific details on who those characters are (don’t want to spoil it) but they did have a secondary role in book two of this current series, Intimate Fear.
If you could have dinner/dinner party with 7 fictional characters, who would they be?
I’m a huge fan of Kristen Ashley’s Rock Chick series, so I would have to say while the count would be higher than seven, I’d have to choose that entire character base for a dinner party. One, I know without a doubt it’d be the safest place in the country to be. And two, it would be a blast. We’d have to make sure someone brought cashews though, as everyone knows you can’t have a good dinner party without cashews.
Where would you spend one full year, if you could go ANYWhere, money is not a concern? What would you do with this time?
This is a tough question to answer as I’m a traveler by heart so there are so many places I’d love to check out and spend some time. My first inclination was to answer the Faroe Islands, as the beauty of these island is unlike any other place. But I’d have to say it would most likely be Scotland. There’s so much history there that I would love to check out for the year. Spending time exploring the countryside would be amazing and Edinburgh is definitely a city I could never get tired of.
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