Author Name: Eden Winters
Book Name: Collusion
Series: Diversion
Book #: Two
Goodreads
Link:
Publisher: Rocky
Ridge Books
Cover
Artist: L.C. Chase
Release Date: Second edition releases June 20, 2015
Blurb:
Dead men can’t love.
Former drug trafficker Richmond “Lucky” Lucklighter “died” in the line of duty while working off a ten-year sentence in service to the Southeastern Narcotics Bureau, only to be reborn as Simon “Lucky” Harrison. The newbie he trained, former Marine Bo Schollenberger, is now his partner on (and maybe off) the job. It’s hard to tell when Lucky doesn’t understand relationships or have a clue what any sane human is doing in his bed. Bo’s nice to have around, sure, but there’s none of that picking-out-china-together crap for Lucky.
While fighting PTSD, memories of a horrid childhood, and a prescription drug addiction, Bo is paying for his mistakes. Using his pharmacy license for the good guys provides the sort of education he never got in school. Undercover with his hard-headed partner, Bo learns that not everything is as it seems in the world of pharmaceuticals.
When a prescription drug shortage jeopardizes the patients at Rosario Children’s Cancer Center, it not only pits Bo and Lucky against predatory opportunists, but also each other. How can they tell who the villains are? The bad guys don’t wear black hats, but they might wear white coats.
Former drug trafficker Richmond “Lucky” Lucklighter “died” in the line of duty while working off a ten-year sentence in service to the Southeastern Narcotics Bureau, only to be reborn as Simon “Lucky” Harrison. The newbie he trained, former Marine Bo Schollenberger, is now his partner on (and maybe off) the job. It’s hard to tell when Lucky doesn’t understand relationships or have a clue what any sane human is doing in his bed. Bo’s nice to have around, sure, but there’s none of that picking-out-china-together crap for Lucky.
While fighting PTSD, memories of a horrid childhood, and a prescription drug addiction, Bo is paying for his mistakes. Using his pharmacy license for the good guys provides the sort of education he never got in school. Undercover with his hard-headed partner, Bo learns that not everything is as it seems in the world of pharmaceuticals.
When a prescription drug shortage jeopardizes the patients at Rosario Children’s Cancer Center, it not only pits Bo and Lucky against predatory opportunists, but also each other. How can they tell who the villains are? The bad guys don’t wear black hats, but they might wear white coats.
Pages or Words: 70,000 words
Categories: Crime Fiction, Fiction, Gay
Fiction, M/M Romance, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Excerpt:
For once
the neighbors were fairly quiet. However, if they started their normal shit
tonight, Lucky might have to kill them, or whip out the badge he kept carefully
hidden in his closet, along with the golf shirt and ball cap emblazoned with
the SNB logo.
A few
moments later his cell phone chimed with an answer from Bo. “K. Catching cab.” Not an overwhelming
response, but Lucky would take it.
He shoved
dirty dishes into the dishwasher, scooped clothes off the floor and tossed them
into the closet, and put a pot of water on the stove to make Bo a cup of green
tea. A knock counterpointed the steady ba-boom,
ba-boom starting up from the next apartment. Fucking hell! Why couldn’t the
assholes be decent neighbors for one damned night? Lucky opened the door to find
Bo slumped against the wall, shirt wrinkled and hair in an
every-follicle-for-itself state of disarray.
“You look
like warmed over shit.” Lucky held the door open, suspicions about a drug
relapse igniting anew.
Bo
managed a half-hearted smile. “Yeah, it’s good to see you, too.” He staggered
into the apartment and collapsed onto Lucky’s couch. “God, am I ever tired.”
“Tired?
What do you do every day? Sit behind a desk and talk on the phone?” Catty, yes,
but after days of being ignored, Lucky wasn’t in the mood to play nice.
“I’ve
been scrambling since daybreak, tracking down dead-end leads for someone who
might supply us with some drugs.”
Lucky put
a finger to his lips. “Shh… keep your voice down. You’ll get my crackhead
neighbors excited shouting the ‘D’ word.”
Bo pinned
Lucky a glassy-eyed glare. “I don’t care who’s living over there, the scary’s
on this side of the wall. As I was saying, I’ve been following leads, trying to
locate pharmaceuticals for the hospital.” He gave Lucky a “happy now?”
face.
“What
kind of leads? Any of interest?”
Bo dropped his head back to rest
on padded upholstery. “We’ve been approached by seventeen different wholesalers
today, not on the list I gave you, who’ve offered us stock at ridiculous
prices. The first question they ask is what meds we’re having trouble getting
so they can go snatch them up and sell them to us for enormous markups, the
bastards. It’s against company policy to tell them anything.
“Graham
called another meeting with the department heads for tomorrow. We’re putting in
one more plea to let us consider a gray market broker. We’re pretty fucking
desperate.”
“Graham?”
And we’re?
“Mr.
Danvers, the head buyer.”
Lucky had
a file on Graham Danvers, such as it was. Squeaky clean with a nauseating
disposition toward humanitarian awards. Apparently, he invested a good bit of
time and money in local charities. Ava didn’t seem to like him. The highly
vocal pharmacy tech just became Lucky’s new best friend. “Bo, remember what I
told you about getting personally involved with suspects? You’ve got to remain
objective.”
Bo shot
to his feet. “Damn it, Lucky! Graham isn’t a suspect! He’s a pharmacy buyer,
for crying out loud. Do you have to be suspicious of everybody?”
He had to
ask? “Yes, I do. It’s in my job description.”
“Your job
description is the same as mine. I read it, I signed it. There’s nothing in
there about mandatory trust issues.” Bo added under his breath, “Or about being
an asshole.”
“Hey,
maybe you got a new revision. Take Keith, for example. ‘Asshole’ was definitely
in his.”
Bo
pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “Lucky, I work
with Graham, and trust me, he’s on the up and up.”
“Oh my
God! You haven’t told him why you’re there, have you?” Shoving Bo back toward
Atlanta seemed more and more likely.
Arms
folded across his chest, Bo glowered, the stance and expression reminding Lucky
of himself. “Do you actually believe I’m an idiot?”
Lucky
opened his mouth to reply but Bo cut him off. “Don’t answer that. But remember,
I graduated head of my class at pharmacy school and served my country in
Afghanistan. I’m not a moron and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t treat me like
one.”
After a
moment Lucky ventured again, “Did you?”
“Did I
what?”
“Tell him
why you’re there.”
Throwing
his hands up in the air, Bo stomped across the living room. “No, you suspicious
son of a bitch, I didn’t. But I also believe you’re out of your mind if you
consider the man a suspect.” He flopped back down on the couch with a huff.
Lucky
remained standing, leaning against the bar separating the poor excuse for a
kitchen from the poor excuse for a living room. He studied his partner,
cataloguing the telltale signs of burnout. Tired? Check. Moody? Check. Less
sociable? Double check. Some folks weren’t cut out for handling the type of
shit the Southeastern Narcotics Bureau dealt with, and from day one Lucky had
suspected Bo wouldn’t make it. Of course, he’d said the same about Keith and
anyone else who’d stayed long enough for Lucky to learn their names.
“Are you
hungry?” Lucky asked, though at the moment he didn’t have much in the way of
vegetarian cuisine handy, unless he counted the makings for peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches.
“No.” Bo
stared out the window at the brick wall of the next building.
“Can I
fix you some green tea?”
A weak,
“That’d be nice,” barely reached Lucky’s ears.
Moseying
into the kitchen and going through the motions of tea preparation allowed Lucky
time to mull things over. He recognized the listlessness, the lack of greeting
when he opened the door. Even to himself, he and Bo appeared to be merely
coworkers right now, nothing more. Losing Bo as a lover hurt like hell, for he
alone came close to understanding what made Lucky tick. Or, lacking
understanding, accepted Lucky’s quirks as part and parcel, never trying to
change what made Lucky “Lucky.” Bo only nudged and manipulated for the greater
good, like weaning him off caffeine so he slept better. Oh, and the whole,
“Tell me about yourself, Lucky” thing. Maybe Bo should have been a shrink
instead of a pharmacist.
Plain and
simple, the man couldn’t handle the job, though Lucky couldn’t imagine very
many people dealing with sick kids and remaining unchanged. Before when the
pressure reached critical levels, Bo sought comfort in alprazolam. Had he
resorted to self-medicating again?
Watching
a man he’d come to care about slowly slide back into the nightmare of
addiction, and a possible jail sentence, was more than Lucky could bear. He’d
do his damnedest, talk to Bo in a better moment, and only if he couldn’t break
through would he fill Walter in.
Not
tonight. If Bo allowed him to, tonight Lucky would hold him, love him one last
time before doing what he had to do. Because if Lucky’s hunch proved right, Bo
might never forgive him.
Sales Links:
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Book #4
About the
author:
Eden Winters was
captivated young by storytelling, and her earliest memories include spinning
tales for the family’s pets. Her dreams of writing professionally took a
sojourn into non-fiction, with a twelve-year stint in technical documentation.
She began reading GLBT novels as a way to better understand the issues faced by a dear friend and fell in love with the M/M romance genre. During a discussion of a favorite book, a fellow aficionado said, “We could do this, you know.”
Good-bye gears, motors, and other authors’ characters; hello plots and sex scenes. This has resulted in such prize-winning stories as Settling the Score, The Angel of Thirteenth Street, Naked Tails, The Wish, Duet, and Diversion.
Somewhat of a nomad, Eden has visited seven countries so far. She currently calls the southern US home, and many of her stories take place in the rural South. Having successfully raised two children, she now balances the day job with hiking, rafting, spoiling her grandchildren, and stalking the wily falafel or elusive tofu pad Thai at her favorite restaurants. Her musical tastes run from Ambient to Zydeco, and she’s a firm believer that life is better with fur kids and Harley Davidsons.
She began reading GLBT novels as a way to better understand the issues faced by a dear friend and fell in love with the M/M romance genre. During a discussion of a favorite book, a fellow aficionado said, “We could do this, you know.”
Good-bye gears, motors, and other authors’ characters; hello plots and sex scenes. This has resulted in such prize-winning stories as Settling the Score, The Angel of Thirteenth Street, Naked Tails, The Wish, Duet, and Diversion.
Somewhat of a nomad, Eden has visited seven countries so far. She currently calls the southern US home, and many of her stories take place in the rural South. Having successfully raised two children, she now balances the day job with hiking, rafting, spoiling her grandchildren, and stalking the wily falafel or elusive tofu pad Thai at her favorite restaurants. Her musical tastes run from Ambient to Zydeco, and she’s a firm believer that life is better with fur kids and Harley Davidsons.
Where to find the author:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdenWinters
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