The Promise of Surrender
Read The Promise of Surrender Online
Authors: Liliana Hart
Tags: #1001 Dark Nights, #Romance, #Surrender, #mackenzie, #Liliana Hart
The Promise of Surrender
A MacKenzie Family Novella
By Liliana Hart
1001 Dark Nights
The Promise of Surrender
A MacKenzie Family Novella
By Liliana Hart
1001 Dark Nights
Copyright 2015 Liliana Hart
ISBN: 978-1-940887-78-4
Foreword: Copyright 2014 M. J. Rose
Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
The Promise of Surrender
A MacKenzie Family Novella
By Liliana Hart
Mia Russo spent ten years working undercover, entrenched in the dregs of society before handing in her shield. Opening her own pawn shop is a piece of cake in comparison. All she needs is the bad attitude she developed on the streets and the shotgun under her counter to keep law and order. Until the day Zeke McBride walks into her shop.
Zeke knows Mia has every right not to trust him. He was the one who chose the next op instead of her. And all he can hope is that somewhere under the snarl and cynicism is a woman who can forgive. Because whether she trusts him or not, they're going to have to work together to bring down the gang that's decided Mia is their next target.
Liliana Hart is a
New York Times
,
USA Today
, and Publisher's Weekly Bestselling Author of more than 40 titles. After starting her first novel her freshman year of college, she immediately became addicted to writing and knew she'd found what she was meant to do with her life. She has no idea why she majored in music.
Since self-publishing in June of 2011, Liliana has sold more than 4 million ebooks and been translated into eight languages. She's appeared at #1 on lists all over the world and all three of her series have appeared on the New York Times list. Liliana is a sought after speaker and she's given keynote speeches and self-publishing workshops to standing-room-only crowds from California to New York to London.
Liliana can almost always be found at her computer writing or on the road giving workshops for SilverHart International, a company she founded with her partner, Scott Silverii, where they provide law enforcement, military, and fire resources for writers so they can write it right. Liliana is a recent transplant to Southern Louisiana, where she's getting used to the humidity and hurricane season, and plotting murders (for her books, of course).
Connect with me online:
My Website:
www.lilianahart.com
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The MacKenzie Series
The MacKenzie Security Series
(Includes the 3 books listed above)
1001 Dark Nights: Captured in Surrender
THE COLLECTIVE SERIES
THE RENA DRAKE SERIES
ADDISON HOLMES MYSTERIES
JJ GRAVES MYSTERIES
STANDALONE NOVELS/NOVELLAS
Goldilocks and the Three Behrs
To Scott,
I'm glad I married you. Even though you jumped out of the closet and scared me.
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Table Of Contents
An excerpt from Captured in Surrender by Liliana Hart
Sweet Surrender, Coming December 13, 2016
MacKenzie Family World, Coming February 16, 2016
One Thousand And One Dark Nights
Once upon a time, in the future…
I was a student fascinated with stories and learning.
I studied philosophy, poetry, history, the occult, and
the art and science of love and magic. I had a vast
library at my father’s home and collected thousands
of volumes of fantastic tales.
I learned all about ancient races and bygone
times. About myths and legends and dreams of all
people through the millennium. And the more I read
the stronger my imagination grew until I discovered
that I was able to travel into the stories... to actually
become part of them.
I wish I could say that I listened to my teacher
and respected my gift, as I ought to have. If I had, I
would not be telling you this tale now.
But I was foolhardy and confused, showing off
with bravery.
One afternoon, curious about the myth of the
Arabian Nights, I traveled back to ancient Persia to
see for myself if it was true that every day Shahryar
(Persian:
شهریار,
“king”) married a new virgin, and then
sent yesterday’s wife to be beheaded. It was written
and I had read, that by the time he met Scheherazade,
the vizier’s daughter, he’d killed one thousand
women.
Something went wrong with my efforts. I arrived
in the midst of the story and somehow exchanged
places with Scheherazade – a phenomena that had
never occurred before and that still to this day, I
cannot explain.
Now I am trapped in that ancient past. I have
taken on Scheherazade’s life and the only way I can
protect myself and stay alive is to do what she did to
protect herself and stay alive.
Every night the King calls for me and listens as I spin tales.
And when the evening ends and dawn breaks, I stop at a
point that leaves him breathless and yearning for more.
And so the King spares my life for one more day, so that
he might hear the rest of my dark tale.
As soon as I finish a story... I begin a new
one... like the one that you, dear reader, have before
you now.
Surrender, Montana
She had him pegged for a cop the second he stepped out of the beat-up pickup truck.
He opened the back of the cab and pulled out a cardboard box, maybe a foot long and wide. His worn sneakers scuffed against the graveled parking lot, and even through the surveillance cameras that covered every square inch of her property, she could see the outline of his backup weapon strapped to his ankle.
“Lord, save me from rookies.” Mia stopped processing her inventory to watch him out of curiosity. She’d spent the weekend at an estate sale and ended up with more boxes than she’d planned. That was usually how it went, but she had a knack for things that would sell for a profit.
The guy was tall and thin as a rail, his hair long and shaggy, and he had a partial growth of beard on his face. She could see why they’d want him for undercover work. He had the naturally too-thin build that made him able to pass for a junkie. He was just a baby, maybe a year or two out of the academy, and he had no idea the toll that working undercover would have on his life.
“Get out while you still can, boy.” She shook her head sadly.
There was no warning them—the rookies. They thought working undercover was like it was on TV—sexy and dangerous—living life on the edge between good and evil. And then six months into the job they realized it wasn’t so sexy, but it sure as hell was dangerous. They were lying to spouses and family and friends, living a double life, and they were doing things the soul would never be able to reconcile. All for the greater good.
His jeans and T-shirt looked like he’d gotten them straight from a thrift store and he wasn’t quite comfortable in them. He was used to being pressed and polished. A silver-spoon kid. He’d probably been a patrolman, used to the uniform, and the dead giveaway was the way he kept tapping his elbow against his side, checking for his duty weapon.