Sweet Dreams Boxed Set

Sweet Dreams

Foreword by Lee Child

Featuring in Order of Appearance:

Allison Brennan, Cynthia Eden, JT Ellison, Heather Graham,

Brenda Novak, Liliana Hart, Alex Kava, CJ Lyons, Carla Neggers,

Theresa Ragan, Erica Spindler, Jo Robertson, Tiffany Snow

Sweet Dreams

Copyright 2015

Cover Design by
Croco Design

Formatted by
IRONHORSE Formatting

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite e-book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Thank you for purchasing this limited-edition digital box set filled with wonderful novels and novellas from some of today’s most popular authors. I hope you will have a wonderful reading experience and discover many authors you might not have read before.

All the proceeds from the sale of these stories will be going to fund important research at the University of Miami’s Diabetes Research Institute—because I feel as if they are currently our best bet for a practical cure. I have been involved in raising money for research for more than a decade. Usually, I run an annual online auction each May (so far, we’ve raised $2.4 million), but this “boxed set” effort is replacing the auction this year. I appreciate your support, and all those people who have supported me in the past. For more information about my efforts, please visit
http://brendanovakforthecure.org

In addition to this boxed set, I’m offering two more this year—SWEET TALK (filled with 11 contemporary romances, including my own WHEN WE TOUCH, the kick-off to my popular Whiskey Creek series as a bonus story) and SWEET SEDUCTION (filled with 13 “hot” romances a la
Fifty Shades of Grey
). In addition, Lauren Hawkeye, a fellow writer who also has a son with Type 1, is contributing the proceeds of the sale of her contemporary romance, SAFE HAVEN, to the cause.

And don’t miss my very first cookbook! LOVE THAT! BRENDA NOVAK’S EVERY OCCASION COOKBOOK contains all of my healthiest recipes—the ones I used to raise my five kids, not recipes I hired someone to create—along with some recipes contributed by my friend and co-author Jan Coad, who once owned a restaurant and has published other cookbooks. It’s available in both digital and print, so order yours now.

Here’s to making a difference!

Brenda Novak

Dedication:

To all those who are fighting the same battle as my son, Thad. May we find a cure for diabetes
soon
! And to everyone who purchased this box set. Thanks for being part of the solution.

Table of Contents

Dear Reader

Foreword

Aim to Kill by Allison Brennan

Until Death by Cynthia Eden

Crossed by JT Ellison

Toys in the Attic by Heather Graham

Hanover House by Brenda Novak

Dirty Deeds by Liliana Hart

Before Evil by Alex Kava

Bad Break by CJ Lyons

Secret Hideaway by Carla Neggers

Dead Man Running by Theresa Ragan

Random Acts by Erica Spindler

Without Malice by Jo Robertson

Turn the Tables by Tiffany Snow

I’m a thriller writer, and a thriller reader, and hence a sucker for the classic thriller plot, where an ordinary man or an ordinary woman slowly becomes aware of a looming threat: someone or something is out there, close by, infinitely dangerous; or perhaps an intruder is already in the house, mocking, violating a sanctuary, or perhaps – really creepy – he’s been living in the attic for a couple of weeks already, camping out, undetected, silent, leaving odd nighttime disturbances … who moved that chair?

Or perhaps, for added anguish, it’s not the ordinary man or woman under threat: it’s his or her son or daughter, their child, their responsibility, the intended victim, a helpless target.  What mother or father wouldn’t fight to the death?  And they do … 400 pages later, an investigation has been conducted, the bad guy has been identified, close scrapes have been survived, and finally the family is sitting together on the bottom stair, stunned but finally safe, as the bad guy is put in the cop car and driven away.  The end.

Diabetes starts like that.  But it doesn’t finish like that.

It’s a mysterious malfunction.  No one knows the cause.  Researchers suspect an element of genetic susceptibility, and in those susceptible it’s possible the Coxsackie B4 virus kicks things off.  Then a tiny balance among the human body’s billion moving parts goes slightly out of whack, and the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans (such an innocent name) inside the pancreas shut down and stop producing insulin, so the body can no longer deal with the kind of sugars we crave.

The intruder is now in the house.

Untreated, all kinds of complications will follow.  Cardiovascular disease, and stroke, and damage to the eyes, kidneys, and nerves.  And more.  Including death.  All in store, unbelievably, for the ordinary parent’s beautiful and vulnerable child.  No one’s fault.  Type 1 diabetes is unrelated to lifestyle.  Most victims are thin or normal, healthy, well fed, well loved.

The fight back begins with maintenance.  Sometimes diet is enough; more often, insulin must be provided.  An endless round begins: testing and injecting, testing and injecting.  Most sufferers do OK for a long time, but only OK.  Quite apart from the social and organizational burdens of diet and injection, they can feel under the weather a lot of the time.  But in thriller terms, we can at least get them barricaded in a safe house, at least temporarily, doors and windows locked, guns drawn, with the bad guy lurking outside in the yard.

But how do we get the bad guy in the cop car?

Research is the answer, but it’s fantastically expensive.  All around the world, teams of biochemists are working hard, but they have to pay the rent.  And eat.  Their funding comes from governments and institutions and drug companies – but also from hundreds of thousands of concerned individuals.  Many of them are parents of diabetic children, and it’s easy to see why.  The primeval instinct that makes a mother or father fight to the death is a powerful one – perhaps the most powerful among our emotional inheritance.  But in the case of diabetes it’s frustrated.  There’s no identifiable antagonist, no role for a gun or a blade.  There’s no bar fight to be had.  If only it was that easy.  I know of no parent who wouldn’t gladly smash a long-neck bottle and join the fray.  But they can’t.  Such parents have to channel their natural aggression into a long, patient, endless struggle for progress.  They raise awareness and money any way they can.

This anthology is an example.  It will help fund the search for a cure.  All good.  In fact better than good, because whatever else, there are some great authors and some great stories here to enjoy.  So if you buy it, you’ll get some excellent entertainment – but also you might just get the chance to be that mysterious character on page 297 of our notional thriller, who contributes the tiny but vital clue that eventually leads to the big reveal on page 397.  Your few cents could make the difference.  You could be the one.

Lee Child

New York

2015

Allison Brennan

Chapter One

The interview had not gone well.

Alex Morgan walked out of the hotel’s third-floor suite of offices in a daze. She simmered with an odd blend of anger and defeat. Why had she expected anything different?

She felt nauseous and sidestepped into a restroom at the end of the hall. Thankfully, it was empty. She splashed cold water on her face and closed her eyes.

She’d like to blame her frustration on the ridiculous questions that came from the three person hiring panel. Maybe she’d been out of the job market too long, but did it really matter what her hobbies were, how she spent her free time, or the last book she read? They were hiring a security chief, not a best friend. Her resume spoke for itself: she’d graduated with a degree in criminal justice from U.C. Davis; she’d been a decorated street cop for seven years; and a detective for five. She was more than qualified to manage security for a major hotel.

Then came the zinger.

“Ms. Morgan, can you please tell us more about why you left the Sacramento Police Department?”

She’d been expecting the question. Of
course
they would ask why a thirty-four year old detective in her prime would leave a good job to work hotel security, when nearly every other applicant for the position was a
retired
law enforcement officer.

“I needed a change,” she’d said.

Why the hell had she said that?

The three panelists had looked at each other, the truth written all over their smarmy faces.

It was the female assistant manager who asked:

“Would you please talk a little about what led up to that decision of needing a change? Were you reprimanded for abuse of authority and illegally discharging your weapon?”

That had been a smokescreen by her direct supervisor to cloud the D.A.’s case against Alex’s partner. And someone had leaked it to the press.

“That was a personnel matter. The reprimand was removed from my file as being unsubstantiated.”

The woman pursed her lips. Glanced at her colleagues, then said:

“So much of your employment file is sealed, Ms. Morgan, we don’t have a lot to go on as to why you might be a good fit for us. Perhaps if you can explain the circumstances that led to your firing?”

“I wasn’t fired, I resigned.”

“According to the newspaper—”

“The newspaper was wrong.”

“We called your former supervisor—”

“I didn’t put Sergeant Young down as a reference.”

“We always contact previous supervisors.”

And that was it. She walked out in the middle of the interview. Sergeant Young hated her so violently that when he found out she’d been keeping a log about her partner’s illegal activities, he’d leaked false information to the press. He denied it ... but not convincingly.