Friday, December 18, 2020

MALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU BLOG TOUR

 

Mall I Want for Christmas is You, a sweet and sexy standalone holiday romance novella by Sarah Robinson, is available now!

About Mall I Want for Christmas is You:

From Bah Humbug to Santa Baby, this standalone holiday novella is full of ho, ho, oh no… Single mom Chrissy Eve is struggling to make ends meet selling pretzels at the Yule Heights Shopping Mall. All this mama wants is a silent night, but when her seven-year-old asks the mall Santa to teach his mom to drive a sleigh, she finds herself in knots over the man in red. Dash Winters is the last person she needs pulling her reins. She has a son to think about and a “seasonal romance” with someone who gets paid to lie to kids once a year is not going to jolly her holly. But the more she gets to know the Santa with a six-pack, the more Chrissy realizes she can’t judge a book by its cover... or a Santa by his suit!

Download your copy today!

Amazon | Kobo | Google Play

Add to Goodreads

About the Author

Sarah Robinson first started her writing career as a published poet in high school, and then continued in college, winning several poetry awards and being published in multiple local literary journals. Never expecting to make a career of it, a freelance writing Craigslist job accidentally introduced her to the world of book publishing. Lengthening her writing from poetry to novels, Robinson published her first book through a small press publisher, before moving into self-publishing, and then finally accepting a contract from Penguin Random House two years later. She continues to publish both traditionally and indie with over 18+ novels to her name with publishers like Penguin, Waterhouse Press, Hachette, and more. In her personal life, Sarah Robinson is happily married to the gentle giant of her dreams and the duo recently welcomed to the world their first baby, Norah Grace. They have a home full of love, snuggly dogs and cats, and are happily living in Arlington, Virginia.

Connect with Sarah

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BookBub | Amazon | Newsletter

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

MINE TO KEEP BLOG TOUR

 


Title:
Mine to Keep

Author: Rhenna Morgan

Series: NOLA Knights, #3

Imprint: Carina Press

Genre: Contemporary Romance

eBook & Audiobook On-Sale: December 14, 2020

Mass Market Paperback On-Sale: December 29, 2020

Book Description: Bonnie Drummond is from the wrong side of the tracks, raised in a family of liars and criminals. No matter how hard she tries to stay on the straight and narrow, she always finds herself sucked back into the family drama, forced to sacrifice everything she’s earned to protect her family.

 

But this time they’ve gone too far—crossed the wrong people—and to save them she’ll have to put her life on the line.

 

Roman Kozlov, enforcer for a New Orleans mafiya family, is the poster child for the life Bonnie is struggling to escape. But he's also as alluring as he is dangerous, and it doesn’t take long for their lives to begin to mesh.

 

With Roman, Bonnie finds the family she never had.

 

As their race for answers heats up, so too does the budding romance between them. And with danger nipping at her heels and love threatening her heart, Bonnie must come face-to-face with her past if she wants to have a future.

 

NOLA Knights

Book 1: His to Defend

Book 2: Hers to Tame

Book 3: Mine to Keep

 


Buy Mine to Keep

Harlequin.com: https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/9781335081162_mine-to-keep.html

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781335081162

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mine-Keep-Protective-Romance-Knights-ebook/dp/B089YWMQQ1

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mine-to-keep-rhenna-morgan/1137532798

iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/mine-to-keep/id1517805781

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mine-to-keep-13

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Rhenna_Morgan_Mine_to_Keep?id=XLfqDwAAQBAJ

 


About Rhenna Morgan

A native Oklahoman, Rhenna Morgan is a certified romance junkie. Whether it’s contemporary, paranormal, or fantasy you’re after, Rhenna’s stories pack romantic escape full of new, exciting worlds, and strong, intuitive men who fight to keep the women they want. For advance release news and exclusive content, sign up for her newsletter at http://RhennaMorgan.com. You'll also find all of her social links there, along with her smoking hot inspiration boards.

 

Connect with Rhenna Morgan

Website: http://rhennamorgan.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RhennaMorgan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RhennaMorgan

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhennamorgan/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8596977.Rhenna_Morgan


 EXCERPT

She’d lost her damned mind. Or at least had temporary insanity—probably induced by too much adrenaline. One of the two had to be the problem, because Bonnie had sure as hell never been known to let her mouth run rampant the way it had in front of Roman and Cassie fifteen minutes ago.

Perched in the middle rear seat of Roman’s supped-up truck, Bonnie stilled her jiggling knee for the third time in five minutes and stared out her window for any sign of the massive Russian. “What’s he doing, anyway?”

Cassie twisted from the front passenger seat, the length of time it took for her gaze to come into focus making it seem she’d been somewhere else entirely. “Who, Roman?” She scanned the front yard and shrugged her shoulder. “No telling. Maybe looking for clues? Or he could just be making sure the place is all locked up.”

Now, that was funny. Almost impossible to laugh at considering the anvil sitting in her stomach, but funny, nonetheless. “There’s nothing in there worth stealing. My family’s more the transitory type when it comes to possessions.”

See? There it was again. Her mouthing off and shar­ing shit she’d held back for most of her life.

Cassie didn’t seem to notice. Just twisted in her seat and cocked her head to one side. “So, what do you think about Roman?”

That he’s huge, hot and could probably make Satan piss his pants.

Before the uncensored answer could jump past her lips, she rearranged her backpack lying across her thighs. “He seems…nice.”

“Nice?” Cassie echoed back with open disbelief. “That’s it?”

Okay, he’s intimidating as fuck and somehow made me blurt out all my family’s dirty laundry in less than three sentences.

Also not a wise confession.

“Well, what do you want me to say? My mind’s all screwed up after the day I’ve had. He could have polka dots and a unicorn horn sticking out of his head and I’d probably have missed it.”

Liar.

All right, fine. So, she’d taken a healthy inventory. He was at least six-foot-four, for Christ’s sake, and packed more muscle than that slick black suit of his had a prayer of hiding.

And those tattoos at the base of his fingers and on the backs of his hands…she had no clue what they were or meant, but they were sexy AF.

Cassie’s face sobered. “I’m sorry. That was insensi­tive of me. I know you’re worried about your brother and dad, but I’ve wanted you to meet my family for so freaking long, I got carried away.”

Roman prowled into view from the far side of the with concentration.

Cassie followed Bonnie’s gaze out the windows, noted Roman’s trajectory toward the truck and low­ered her voice. “You have to admit, though. He’s pretty handsome.”

Bonnie shook her head. “Handsome belongs on guys like Hugh Jackman and Orlando Bloom. That guy’s got badass motherfucker written all over him.”

Cassie’s head snapped back in surprise just as Roman opened the door and climbed into the cab.

Great. More verbal diarrhea. Though, she had a feel­ing Cassie didn’t take the comment the way she’d in­tended it. To Bonnie’s mind, Roman’s mega short dark hair and tightly cropped beard was hella hot, and he could probably sharpen a knife on the hard angles of his jawline. His eyes were killer, too. Hooded in a way that made you have to really work to figure out what color they were.

And for the record, she’d put in the effort.

Gunmetal gray.

 

Add Mine to Keep to Goodreads now!



Thursday, December 10, 2020

TEDDY SPENSER ISN'T LOOKING FOR LOVE BLOG TOUR

 


Title:
Teddy Spenser Isn’t Looking for Love

Author: Kim Fielding

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Imprint: Carina Press (Carina Adores)

On Sale: December 29, 2020

Format: Trade Paperback

Price: $14.99 U.S.

ISBN: 9781335971999

Book Description: Some people search their whole lives to find love. He just wants to avoid it.

 

Teddy Spenser spends his days selling design ideas to higher-ups, living or dying on each new pitch. Stodgy engineer types like Romeo Blue, his nemesis—if you can call someone who barely talks to you a nemesis—are a necessary evil. A cute necessary evil.

 

Working together is bad enough, but when their boss puts them both on a new high-stakes project, “working together” suddenly means:

       sitting uncomfortably close on the same plane,

       staying in the same hotel room—with only one bed—and

       spending every waking minute together.

 

Turns out Mr. Starched Shirt has some hidden depths, and it’s getting harder to ignore the spark Teddy feels with every brush of their hands, with every knowing look. He might not have been looking for this connection with Romeo, but will he ever be ready to let him go?

 



 

Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories featuring beloved romance tropes, where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.

 

A new Carina Adores title is available each month in trade paperback, ebook and audiobook formats.

        Just Like That by Cole McCade (available now!)

        Hairpin Curves by Elia Winters (available now!)

        Better Than People by Roan Parrish (available now!)

        The Secret Ingredient by KD Fisher (available now!)

        Just Like This by Cole McCade (available now!)

        The Beautiful Things Shoppe by Philip William Stover (coming January 26, 2021)

        Best Laid Plans by Roan Parrish (coming February 23, 2021)

        Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl by Hettie Bell (coming March 30, 2021)

 

Buy Teddy Spenser Isn’t Looking for Love by Kim Fielding

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781335971999

Harlequin.com: https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/9781335971999_teddy-spenser-isnt-looking-for-love.html

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Spenser-Isnt-Looking-Love/dp/1335971998

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/teddy-spenser-isnt-looking-for-love-kim-fielding/1137293524

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/teddy-spenser-isnt-looking-for-love/id1522146415

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Kim_Fielding_Teddy_Spenser_Isn_t_Looking_for_Love?id=l17vDwAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/teddy-spenser-isn-t-looking-for-love

 


About Kim Fielding

Kim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.

 

Kim’s novel Brute was the 2013 Rainbow Award Winner for Best Gay Fantasy and tied for fourth place for Best Gay Novel.

 

After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her husband, her two daughters, and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.

 

Find Kim Fielding Online

Website: https://www.kfieldingwrites.com/

Twitter: @KFieldingWrites

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KFieldingWrites/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4105707.Kim_Fielding

 Excerpt

“Hey.”

Teddy hadn’t noticed anyone come up behind him, and he startled so violently that he almost knocked over his coffee. He spun the chair around and discovered Romeo Blue looking down at him, stone-faced.

“What?” Teddy knew he was scowling and didn’t care.

“Can we speak in my office, please?” As usual, Ro­meo’s voice was low, his words clipped. As if he refused to spare much energy to speak to Teddy.

“I’m busy right now.”

“As soon as you can then.” Romeo spun and marched back to his office, leaving its door slightly ajar.

Teddy could have followed him; Imani’s numbers weren’t so urgent that they couldn’t wait awhile. But he remained stubbornly at his desk even though he could no longer focus on the computer screen. Romeo Blue. Teddy had googled him once, just for the hell of it—not at all to dispel lingering notions that his coworker was a spy working under a really stupid alias. It turned out that Lenny Kravitz used Romeo Blue as a stage name back in the eighties, and that was more than a little weird since this Romeo resembled a young Lenny Kravitz, albeit with a darker complexion and a different clothing aesthetic. Kravitz probably didn’t wear suits from Zara. And to be honest, although Kravitz was gorgeous, Romeo was even more so, with perfect eyebrows, velvety eyes, and a mouth that—

“Nope!” Teddy stood abruptly and grabbed his coffee mug. He needed a refill.

He finished off that cup, visited the depressing bath­room he’d been fruitlessly begging Lauren to redecorate, and chatted briefly with the cute copy-machine repair­man before finally knocking on Romeo’s open door and stepping inside. And then, as always when he entered this room, Teddy glowered.

It was a fraction of the size of Lauren’s office, with barely enough room for a desk, two chairs, and a com­puter stand. Despite that, it was a real office instead of a cubicle. But what truly annoyed Teddy was that Romeo hadn’t even bothered to decorate the space. There wasn’t a single knickknack or picture, and the mismatched of­fice supplies—a black stapler and taupe tape dispenser—appeared to be from the discount bin at Staples. The only touches of personality were the three computer monitors—three of them, for God’s sake—and, of course, Romeo himself.

Maybe Romeo thought himself so decorative that his mere presence sufficed. Or he didn’t want any other objects to detract from his glory.

Also, he smelled like sandalwood, bergamot, and vanilla. Dammit.

 


Monday, December 07, 2020

RELEASE BLITZ: LILAC

 

One world tour. Three rock gods. Their gutsy new guitarist who talks back. Rules are Bound to be broken.

Lilac by B.B. Reid is now live!

From bestselling author B.B. Reid comes an unconventional romance and complete standalone.

I, Braxton Fawn, am the luckiest girl alive.
Or so the world keeps telling me.
Every so often, gods walk the earth. This time they came as musicians. When Bound loses its lead guitarist, yours truly is chosen to fill his shoes. From dive bars to the big stage, my instant claim to fame is nothing short of a fairytale. The only problem?
My new bandmates.
Jaded, gorgeous, and ridiculously talented--they're determined to turn my dream into a nightmare. It's no secret I wasn't their first choice. I wasn't even their last. The label wants a new image, Bound wants me gone, but I've got my own agenda.
To succeed I have to survive a world tour, public scrutiny, and idols turned enemies. But the biggest threat of all isn't a meticulous frontman, a narcissistic bassist, and a drummer with too many secrets.
It's me.
Somehow, I must resist the temptation of Houston Morrow, Loren James, and Jericho Noble.
It seemed easy enough when I boarded their tour bus, but it only took one city for the lines we'd drawn to blur.
Only sixty-two more to go.

***
LILAC is a contemporary rockstar romance, reverse harem, and complete standalone.

Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited

Amazon:https://amzn.to/2VLrNHK

Amazon Worldwide: mybook.to/Lilac

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/GR--Lilac

Meet B.B. Reid


B.B. Reid is the author of several novels including the hit enemies-to-lovers, Fear Me. She grew up the only daughter and middle child in a small town in North Carolina. After graduating with a Bachelors in Finance, she started her career at an investment research firm while continuing to serve in the National Guard. She currently resides in Charlotte with her moody cat and enjoys collecting Chuck Taylors and binge-eating chocolate.

Connect with B.B. Reid

Website: www.bbreid.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9815997.B_B_Reid

Amazon: https://geni.us/bbreid

Facebook: http://bit.ly/FB-BBREID

Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/Reiderville

Instagram: http://bit.ly/IG_BBREID

Twitter: http://bit.ly/TWBBREID

Bookbub: http://bit.ly/bookbubbbreid

Book+Main: http://bit.ly/BMB-BBREID

REIDER to 474747

Friday, December 04, 2020

A HOT X-MAS MIRACLE


Twenty years ago, badass military commander John “Viper” Mendez lost the love of his life. But fate brought them back together when he discovered she was still alive. Now they live a happily married life - and Kat’s pregnant. As Christmas approaches, they’re more in love than ever and looking forward to welcoming their new baby. 


But old secrets begin to resurface and old enemies might be coming back to haunt them. The only way to know is to hire rogue mercenary Ian Black to do some dirty work while Mendez stays close to his wife and keeps her safe - and keeps the investigation a secret from her. 


Christmas is a time of miracles. A season of snowy promises and gifts from the heart. When the holiday lights twinkle brightest, Mendez will either go on the offensive to save his family - or discover a truth that’ll change their lives forever.


**This story is a sequel to the events of HOT VALOR, Book 11 in the Hostile Operations Team Series. If you haven’t read that book, you’ll probably be lost. I highly recommend you read it before this Christmas story!


Release Date: December 1, 2020

H.O.T. Publishing

Hostile Operations Team #14.5

Military Romance/Contemporary Romance

Review copy provided by publisher


Liza' Review:


I absolutely adore the Hostile Operations Team books and all the spinoff series of books by Lynn Raye Harris. John "Viper" Mendez remains my absolute favorite character in the series, with Ian Black as a close second, so when I saw Viper had a Christmas story this year, I was totally and completely over the moon. Seriously, Ms. Harris gave her readers the very best early Christmas present this year!


I loved every single moment of A HOT X-mas Miracle. As the story centers around Mendez and Cat and the pending birth of their new baby, I was so happy to get to revisit these characters and see where life had taken them since HOT VALOR. I also loved getting to spend time with all the HOT family members, and especially Ian Black. I feel like I'm spending time with friends when reading each new installment in this series. Ms. Harris totally delivered with a family Christmas story with a few surprises thrown in along the way. I can't wait to see what happens next with the Hostile Operations Team and their families in upcoming books.



Rating: 5 Stars (A)


Buy Links


Amazon: https://amzn.to/2GKb6bo

Amazon Int: http://mybook.to/XmasMir

Apple Books: https://apple.co/3jdq5sO

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3icoVwo

 BN Nook: https://bit.ly/36ldaS8

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3n6gYN6

Paperback: https://amzn.to/2Jvvrmf

THE SWEETEST GIFT


The Sweetest Gift is a Christmas novella for fans of the Second Circle Tattoos and Preload series.


It’s messy. It’s loud. It’s the rough with the smooth. It’s love. And most of all, it’s family.


It’s Reid and Lia’s Christmas Day wedding, and everyone is invited.


Preload has officially become a cross between Pixie’s beloved Sound of Music Von Trapp’s and the McCallister family of Home Alone. With so many family members involved, it takes a private jet and a whole heap of patience to get the group to Miami. Elliott’s faith in the future is rocked, Nik needs to figure out how to reach the three children placed in his care, Lennon faces a dilemma, and Jordan has reasons to worry about Lexi.


Meanwhile, Cujo misses his wife, Trent’s world is shaken, Pixie’s heart is somewhere else, and Lia will be walking herself down the aisle, even though she worries she’ll be a terrible wife.


Each chapter in this 35,000-word novella catches up with a different couple (even PETAL and Kendalee’s Daniel get their say), as they all come together to celebrate. This book is not a standalone and picks up a year after Lennon Reborn.


Release Date: November 23, 2020

Kadelo Group Ltd

Second Circle Tattoos & Preload Series

Novella Length Christmas Stories


Nikki’s Review:


What an absolute treat this book is! You need to have read Scarlett Cole’s Second Circle Tattoos, and Preload series for the best enjoyment. You’ll be lost if you don’t. Also, if you haven’t read those two series yet you need to read them. ALL. OF. THEM! Scarlett reeled me in with the Strongest Steel ( Second Circle book #1 ) and I have been obsessed with her books ever since. This book was a gift for her devoted fans who have been begging for more from both series. Seriously, I didn’t stop smiling through the whole damn thing. It was like coming home and seeing your very best friends. 


Can I just say how much I still love Jordan from Preload?! And I’m still feeling stabby about what Scarlett put my man, Lennon, through in his book. I’m learning to forgive. It’s a long road, but I’ll get there...maybe. 😉


Rating: 5 Stars (A+)

NET FORCE: ATTACK PROTOCOL BLOG TOUR


NET FORCE: Attack Protocol 

Author: Jerome Preisler

ISBN: 9781335080783

Publication Date: December 1, 2020

Publisher: Hanover Square Press


Buy Links: 

Harlequin 

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Books-A-Million

Powell’s



Social Links:

Author Website

Twitter: @JeromeAuthor

Facebook: @JeromePreislerBooks

Goodreads



Author Bio: 


Jerome Preisler is the prolific author of almost forty books of fiction and narrative nonfiction, including all eight novels in the New York Times bestselling TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS series. His latest book is DARK WEB, the first novel in a relaunch of the New York Times bestselling NET FORCE series co-created Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik. Forthcoming in November 2020 is his next NET FORCE novel, ATTACK PROTOCOL. Jerome lives in New York City and coastal Maine.


Book Summary:


The cutting-edge Net Force thriller series, created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik and written by Jerome Preisler reveals the invisible battlefield where the war for global dominance is fought.

In the wake of stunning terrorist attacks around the world, Net Force jumps into action. The president’s new cybersecurity agency homes in on a dangerous figure operating in the shadows of the Carpathian mountains. And he’s ready to strike again, using the digital space to advance his destructive goals.


But before Net Force can get boots on the ground, the master hacker and his cadre mount a devastating high tech assault against the agency’s military threat-response unit. Has a Net Force insider turned traitor? The stakes are suddenly ratcheted higher when a global syndicate of black hat hackers and a newly belligerent Russia hatch an ambitious scheme to plunge the United States into a crippling war—one that will leave Moscow and its Dark Web allies supreme.

Their attack protocol: to seize control of the Internet, and open the door for a modern, nuclear Pearl Harbor…unless the men and women of Net Force can stop them.





EXCERPT:

1


Satu Mare District, Romania





The first snowfall of the season was dusting the banks of the Somes River when a catastrophic failure struck the power grid, plunging the western third of the country into darkness.

Nicu Borgos was just an hour into his midnight shift when things went wrong. An operator for Satu Mare District’s Electrica Power Distribution Center, he was tired from caring for his daughter, who was seven and sick with the flu. His wife, Balia, a sales clerk at a clothing store, was also miserably under the weather, and he had been doing his best to help her as well. But money was tight and, like him, Balia needed to work and bring in a paycheck.

The night before, she had come home from the shop, put chest rub on Angela, tucked her in, showered, and climbed into bed with her dinner untouched. Nicu normally slept until 9:00 p.m. or even a little later, but the sounds Angela was making in her room concerned him. He had lost his dear mother to the pandemic three years ago, and the outbreaks still could be vicious.

Taking no chances, he’d resolved to stay up to check on the child, poking his head through the doorway every fifteen or twenty minutes. It was a while before she settled in.

So Nicu was worn out and bleary, which might have been why he doubted his eyes when he saw the cursor suddenly drifting across his screen. The computer was networked into the energy grid, and the numbered blue buttons on its display controlled the circuit breakers for ten substations throughout the county—an area of almost seventeen hundred square miles, with some three hundred thousand residents.

The cursor landed on the switch for Substation One. Clicked. A dialogue window opened below the button:


Warning: Opening the breaker will result in

complete shutdown. Do you wish to proceed?


YES NO


Reaching for his mouse, Nicu tried to drag the cursor out of the window, thinking its driver might have developed a minor glitch. But it remained there…and slid to Yes.

He quickly swiped the mouse across its pad, wanting to move the cursor to No.

It stayed on Yes. Clicked. The dialogue box vanished, and the button for Substation One changed from blue to red.

Nicu inhaled. He had been an operator at the distribution center for half a decade and did not need to bring up a map to see the region each substation covered. The map was already in his head.

Substation One was Lazuli, a rural commune of six villages to the extreme north, near the Ukrainian and Hungarian borders. Its six thousand residents had now gone off-line. Even as Nicu registered this, the on-screen cursor jumped to the Substation Two button.

He snatched up the mouse in desperation, lifting it above the pad. It made no difference. The cursor clicked. Opened another dialogue window requesting confirmation. Went to Yes again.

Click.

Blue turned to red, and Nicu Borgos watched Substation Two go down in an instant.

Draga meu Domnezeu,” he rasped. “My dear God.”

Substation Two was the city of Satu Mare itself. With a population of one hundred thousand—a full third of the county’s inhabitants—it was now completely dark.

Nicu tried to think clearly. During the day, the operating station would have two people on shift. There was a second computer to his left, with a separate monitor. Possibly the problem was only with his machine. If he could log in to the system using the other computer, he might prevent more breakers from tripping open.

He rolled his chair in front of it, tapped the keyboard. The computer came out of idle showing the operator log-in screen. He entered his username and password.

A Wrong Password notification flashed on-screen.

He slowly retyped the password, thinking he might have entered a wrong character in his haste.

The notification appeared again. He was locked out of the system.

Nicu sat up straight, his spine a stiff rod of tension. His original machine showed that Substation Three, which provided power to Negresti Oas’s twelve thousand citizens, was down. He glanced at its screen just in time to see the cursor move to Substation Four…the distribution station for the commune Mediesu Aurit’s seven villages. The two stations combined served more than twenty thousand customers.

He remembered that tonight’s temperature was forecast to drop below freezing in the mountain areas, and felt suddenly helpless. Whatever was causing the shutdowns, he could not deal with the growing emergency himself.

His heart pounding, he reached for the hotline to call his supervisor.




The black BearCat G3 bore north on the unmarked strip of macadam that linked Satu Mare City to the tiny farming village of Rosalvea in the Carpathian foothills. Its windshield wipers beating off fat, wet flutters of snow, the vehicle moved smoothly and quietly for a big four-tonner armored with hardened ballistic steel panels.

At the wheel was Scott Dixon of the CIA’s elite manhunting Fox Team, recently placed under operational detachment to Net Force. Kali Alcazar sat beside him. In her late twenties, she had short silver-white hair and wore a black stealthsuit and lightweight plate vest. They were standard organizational issue. A Victorian English adventurer’s belt and a vintage film-canister pendant hanging from her neck were personal additions.

“How we doing timewise?” Dixon asked.

Kali looked at her dash screen. On it was the same controller’s interface Nicu Borgos was struggling with at the power distribution center. A moment ago she had seen the circuits trip in rapid succession.

“Pickles,” she said. Using the unfortunate name given to the vehicle’s AI by its architect, Sergeant Julio Fernandez.

“Yes, K?”

Outlier,” she corrected. Using the dark web handle she had long ago created for herself.

“Yes, K.”

“Bring up the Satu Mare power grid.”

“Yes, K.”

She clicked her tongue. Fernandez had infused the AI with one too many of his stubbornly aggravating personality traits. But the upside was that, like Julio, it was also smart, nuanced, and intuitive. She could live with it.

In front of her now, the panel on-screen was replaced by a sector-by-sector map of the region, its cities and towns numbered according to the substations that supplied their electricity. The five already off-line were black, the rest red.

She watched as a sixth went dark.

“Over half the stations are down,” she said. “Total blackout in about five minutes.”

“Bitter cold out, a quarter million people without light or heat,” Dixon said. “Women, children, seniors. All for the sake of bagging one guy.”

She glanced over at him. “The hackers—the technologie vampiri—are the local economy. The government protects them. The polizei, the citizens, everyone.”

He shrugged with his hands on the wheel. She was right. Suspicions definitely would have been raised at the syndicate’s current headquarters— the Wolf’s Lair—if they only cut power to its surrounding village.

“I get it,” he said. “Still tough.”

“Tougher than it was on New York?”

Dixon didn’t answer. Four months ago the vampiri had launched a cyberattack that left the East Coast a shambles, killed hundreds, and almost took out the President. Now his team’s pursuit of the Wolf had led them out here to the Romanian boonies, making them key players in the first fully integrated operation conducted by the various elements of America’s new Department of Internet Security and Law Enforcement. Net Force, in bureaucratic government shorthand.

He really did get it.

The BearCat rolled between the gigantic evergreens standing sentinel on either side of the road. In the rear compartment, Gregg Long, Fox Team, sat with a small detachment on loan from Task Force Quickdraw—six men in tactical gear with Mark 18 CQBR carbines strapped over their shoulders and short-barreled Mossberg 590 combat shotguns racked to the sides of the passenger compartment.

“Distance to the target?” Dixon asked after a few minutes.

This time Kali skipped the AI, tapping her computer keyboard for the GPS sat map. “Thirty-two miles.”

Dixon nodded and checked the speedometer. He was doing about fifty. So a little over half an hour.

Taking his hand off the wheel, he adjusted his earpiece and hailed Carmody on the ground-to-air.


  





Excerpted from Net Force: Attack Protocol created by Tom Clancy & Steve Piecznik, written by Jerome Preisler. Copyright © 2020 by Netco Partners Published by Hanover Square Press