Enter Nathan Regan, an ex-elite soldier who is assigned to protect her. He’s a good man doing bad things but what drives him? Passion? Madness? Or grief? Demons from his past are threatening to consume him. Can he win the fight alone or will he have to admit he needs help?
As the threat deepens, Autumn starts to find out who she really needs in her life. Is there still room for personal assistant Janey or rapper boyfriend Rockweiler? When everyone around her is feeding her lies, how does she work out the truth? Does her record producer know more than he’s letting on? What is her mother, the British Foreign Secretary’s involvement in the situation? And can Autumn put her faith in a forty-something Jamaican woman who handles an automatic weapon as expertly as she cooks?
Eluding kidnap and trying to stay alive, can Autumn find the strength to be the person she longs to be? And can two people, poles apart, forge something strong enough to survive anything?"
“I’ve employed someone,” Alison stated, pouring herself a glass of water.
“What! Someone from MI5?”
“Not exactly. Someone they recommended.” Alison’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Someone who’s done work for them before…unofficially you might say.”
The whispering in public was very annoying. Almost as annoying as when Alison got out a pad and pen and wrote notes instead of speaking. Autumn always wondered if her mother had to burn the notes after their conversations, or, at the very least, eat them. She hoped the latter. The thought of her mother chewing up Basildon Bond’s finest gave her a secret thrill.
“Are you completely insane?” Autumn exclaimed.
“I’m being practical.”
“You’re being over-the-top. I do not need a bodyguard or whatever this unofficial MI5 psycho is supposed to be.”
“I would disagree.” A deep, male voice interjected into their conversation.
Autumn’s purse fell off her knee and onto the floor as she turned to look at the voice’s owner. He smiled at her and picked her purse up, replacing it on her lap. He was tall, with short, glossy, black hair, and he had so much stubble on his face, it was on the verge of being called a beard. Autumn couldn’t help but wonder how he had managed to get so close to their table without their noticing.
“Do you mind? This is a private conversation,” Autumn said, glaring up at him.
He was good-looking, but his clothes were a style disaster. He was wearing an off-the-peg charcoal suit, a white shirt open at the neck, and on his feet were very cheap shoes. He wasn’t the hotel’s usual clientele. He looked like he might be more at home selling mobile phones.
“Can I join you?” he asked, pulling up a chair and sitting down.
“No, you most certainly may not. Georgio! We need security over here.” Alison screeched like an irritated parrot.
“I am security. Nathan Regan.” He offered his hand to Autumn.
A day in my writing life
by Mandy Baggot
*sound of a Harley Davidson* It’s 6.50am and it’s my iPhone alarm! *curses and turns over*.
As a mom of two school-age girls every day starts off with a made scrambled to get them fed, washed and dressed before school. We leave about 8.20am for the ten minute drive, I drop off and wave goodbye and I’m back at my desk by 8.50am.
The first thing I do is check my schedule for what’s going on that day. Believe me there is always something going on! I am a member of Loveahappyending Lifestyle – an on-line magazine run by a group of us authors. We write interesting posts on all sorts of topics – I am the trends/pop culture guru. We also support each other in our writing lives so I will schedule up some Facebook posts and some tweets for them as well as a few for me. Then when I visit Twitter later I can chat about food and wine instead of books!
After that I’ll answer emails or messages. There are usually at least fifty a day! I tell myself it’s good to be popular!
Finally, after messing about on Twitter and seeing what mad things other people are up to I will get down to writing about 11am. I then have three and a half hours to crack on before picking the girls up again. Three and a half hours sounds like a long time doesn’t it? If you factor in doing some exercise, eating some lunch and dipping back in to social media, it just flies by.
After picking up my girls, I might get a couple of hours of writing in in short bursts of fifteen minutes or so. Sometimes I take a pen and paper (do you remember those?!) and write with the children around if it’s the only way to grind out some words. I will write anywhere!
That’s a normal writing day but most weeks I also have some meetings on. I belong to a Wiltshire women’s networking group called Women on Wednesday and we meet up once a month. I was the guest speaker back in February.
As a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association I go up to London for their meetings and functions and I’m also quite an active member of the Wiltshire business community so I try and attend most functions I get invited to. I also speak at book groups, festivals and conferences which are mainly in the evenings or at weekends. No two weeks are the same!
I have to say I do love my writer life. I just wish there were a few more hours in the day!
This book and I didn't really see eye to eye, so what I'll do is post the review after the tour. Not all books are liked by everyone.
