CELEBRITY STATUS (The Kate Huntington mystery series #4) (35 page)
Read CELEBRITY STATUS (The Kate Huntington mystery series #4) Online
Authors: Kassandra Lamb
Tags: #Thriller, #female sleuth, #Psychological, #mystery
“You’ve told me, and so have Rose and Mac, that if you have to shoot somebody to defend yourself, you aim for the chest or stomach because it’s the bigger target, even though there’s a greater risk you’ll kill the person that way.” She sat quietly, waiting for him to respond.
He glanced her way again, still confused. Then understanding dawned.
He pulled onto a side street and stopped at the curb, lowering his window as Rob pulled up beside him. “Need to make a stop. You guys go on to the house. We’ll be along in a minute,” he said to the Franklins, by way of explanation.
When Rob had pulled away, Skip put the truck in park and turned to his wife. “Darlin’, I wasn’t aiming for her thigh.” He paused to choose his words carefully. “It’s a little hard to hold a gun totally steady while you’re shooting it and diving to the floor at the same time.”
Kate’s worried look shifted to relief. “Are you sure you weren’t hesitating?”
“Not for a second.”
The truth was he hadn’t gotten his gun all the way up. He’d had to take the best shot he could get, then drop to the floor and roll. A moving target was harder to hit. He’d expected Cherise to fire a second shot. But she hadn’t. She’d dropped the revolver, then crumpled down next to it.
She’d tried to pick her gun up again, but her hands were slick from clutching at her bleeding thigh. Manny had wrestled it away from her without much difficulty.
But Skip wasn’t about to tell Kate all that. He didn’t want to worry her more by painting too vivid a picture of that scene in Cherise’s living room. He reminded himself again that he needed to talk to Rose about giving Manny a raise.
Taking his wife’s face between his hands, Skip kissed her gently. Her lips parted and he nudged his way a bit further in. She moaned softly.
Oh, yes,
Skip thought.
So much better than those chaste pecks in the hospital room.
They came up for air a few minutes later. His hands still bracketing Kate’s face, Skip said, “That woman had just killed a friend of mine and had almost killed you. I didn’t have any qualms about shooting her, and I still don’t.” Actually he almost wished he had killed Cherise. Her trial for Ben’s murder was going to be a three-ring circus.
Kate smiled up into his face, love and relief in her eyes.
“You know, darlin’,” he drawled. “I haven’t been able to kiss you proper like that, for a whole four days now. I think I’m a little out of practice.”
“Hmm, didn’t seem that way to me, but maybe you ought to do it again so I can tell for sure.”
A couple minutes later, she broke away from him, gasping. “No, I think you’re as good as ever,” she managed to get out. “But we probably ought to head home now. Everybody will be wondering where we are.” She gave him a mischievous grin. “And making love is going to be awkward enough with this thing.” She tapped her sling with her right hand. “Without trying to do it in the front seat of your truck.”
He grinned back at her, catching her hand in his before she could return it to her lap. “Something tells me we’ll figure it out, darlin’.” His grin became devilish as he turned her hand over to kiss the palm. He heard her suck in her breath. “I, for one, am looking forward to the challenge,” he whispered.
Then he kissed the sweet spot on the inside of her wrist, just to hear that sharp intake of air again. Gently putting her hand down in her lap, he put the truck in gear and headed for home.
Kate figured they’d better talk about something else, so she could get herself settled down. An elevated heart rate probably wasn’t the best thing for her healing wound.
“So has Rose said anything to you about a date yet?” she asked.
“Date for what?” Skip said.
“For the wedding. Have she and Mac settled on when they’re getting hitched?”
Skip almost drove off the road.
If you enjoyed this book and write a review on Amazon.com, please e-mail me at
[email protected]
and I will send you a free e-book copy of any other book in the series (your choice). Putting the review up on Barnes and Noble and/or Goodreads.com would also be very helpful.
OTHER MISTERIO PRESS TITLES
At
misterio press
, we take pride in producing top quality books for our readers. All manuscripts are proofread several times, but proofreaders are human. If you discover any errors in this book, please e-mail the author at the address above. Thank you!
Look for these other
misterio press
titles:
Karma's A Bitch (A Pet Psychic Mystery)
by Shannon Esposito
Multiple Motives (A Kate Huntington Mystery)
by Kassandra Lamb
Maui Widow Waltz (Islands of Aloha Mystery)
by JoAnn Bassett
The Metaphysical Detective (Riga Hayworth)
by Kirsten Weiss
plus other books in these mystery series.
Turn the page for
Author Notes
and a preview of the next book in the Kate Huntington series,
Collateral Casualties.
AUTHOR’S NOTES
Just a few quick thank you’s and comments, and then I will give you a synopsis of the next adventure in the lives of Kate and her friends and family.
I have a wonderful group of beta readers who helped me polish this book. My husband, who never reads fiction except when coerced to do so by me, actually volunteered to read the first draft two summers ago. When he said he ‘really liked it’ I knew I had a winner, but there were still many months of refining to come. A huge thanks to Angi, Sue, Ralph, and Ann who critiqued it for me at various points along the way (some of them reading it more than once). And a special thanks to my cohorts at
misterio press
, Shannon Esposito, JoAnn Bassett and Kirsten Weiss, who each contributed tremendously to the quality of this book, and especially to my co-founder of
misterio
, Shannon, who has become a dear friend.
Also, I am always grateful to the other wonderful people in my life who support and encourage me in my writing career. You know who you are. God bless you!
One of the things about writing that never ceases to amaze me is how the characters will sometimes take over and write much bigger parts for themselves than I ever intended. This first happened with Rose Hernandez in
Multiple Motives
. She was supposed to be a bit player, with just a few short lines. Next thing I knew she’d become this rather complex character with a fierce and idealistic sense of right and wrong and she’d joined the investigation.
Likewise, Skip Canfield was never intended to be any more than a minor character in the first book. He came into the investigation late and provided a bit of a sounding board for Kate and Rose. Since then the man has managed to woo
both Kate and myself into letting him become a main character.
In
Celebrity Status,
I was further intrigued by the development of the relationship between Rose and Skip, as business partners and as friends. The story was intended to further develop and showcase Skip’s character, but somewhere along the way Rose also moved into a much more central role. The theme of her and Mac Reilly as extended family is further developed in
Collateral Casualties
and
Zero Hero.
So without further ado, here is a preview of
Collateral Casualties
:
COLLATERAL CASUALTIES, A Kate Huntington Mystery (Book 5):
When a former client reaches out to psychotherapist Kate Huntington and reveals a foreign diplomat’s dark secret, then is found dead of ‘natural causes’ just days later, Kate is not sure what to think. Had the man been delusional or has she been made privy to dangerous information?
As Kate connects the dots between a series of seemingly unrelated events, she realizes that Miller Dawson was totally sane... and he was murdered. Now she and everyone she loves are at risk. Someone is trying to eliminate anyone and everyone whom she or Miller might have told.
Her family and her friends, including the Franklins, are forced to go into hiding. As the body count rises, Kate and her husband, Skip Canfield, struggle to put aside grief and guilt in order to focus on discovering who is trying to kill them. Along with Skip’s business partner, Rose Hernandez, and the operatives of their private investigating agency, they race against time to stop an unknown but ruthless assassin.
Skip and Rose are good investigators, but they suspect that this time they may be in over their heads, and Kate is terrified that they will all drown in a sea of international intrigue.
About the Author
– –>
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kassandra Lamb was a psychotherapist for over two decades, specializing in trauma recovery. She has also taught psychopathology at Towson University and at other colleges. Now retired, she divides her time between Maryland and Florida, where she lives with her husband and her dog. She has completed four books in the Kate Huntington series and is working on books five and six.
You can read and see more at
www.kassandralamb.com
about Kassandra and the Kate Huntington series (including photo galleries to give you a sense of the settings in which these characters live and work). Please sign up for the newsletter to get updates regarding future releases and other interesting tidbits about the series. You can also contact the author at
[email protected]
.
Kassandra blogs at
www.misteriopress.com
about psychology, relationships, and a variety of other topics. Please check it out.
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