Welcome to the Sixth Grave on the Edge Blog Tour. We have a rich post in for you to today with an excerpt, Giveaway and a bonus preview of the next book in the series, Seventh Grave with No Body. Charley Davidson is one of our favorite series. Each book keeps getting better and better, keeping us on the edge of our seats. If you haven't started reading Charley, what are you waiting for?
Blurb:
Few things in life can come
between a grim reaper and her coffee, but the sexy, sultry son of Satan is one
of them. Now that Reyes Farrow has asked for her hand, Charley Davidson feels
it's time to learn more about his past, but Reyes is reluctant to open up. When
the official FBI file of his childhood abduction lands in her lap, Charley
decides to go behind her mysterious beau’s back and conduct her own
investigation. Because what could go wrong?
Unfortunately, another case has fallen into her lap—one with dangerous implications. Some very insistent men want Charley to hunt down a witness who is scheduled to testify against their boss, a major player in the local crime syndicate. If Charley doesn't come up with an address in 48 hours, the people closest to her will start to disappear.
Add to that a desperate man in search of the soul he lost in a card game, a dogged mother determined to find the ghost of her son, and a beautiful, young Deaf boy haunted by his new ability to see the departed as clearly as he sees the living, and Charley has her hands full. The fact that Reyes has caught on to her latest venture only adds fuel to the inferno that he is. Good thing for Charley she's used to multi-tasking and always up for a challenge…especially when that challenge comes in the form of Reyes Farrow.
Unfortunately, another case has fallen into her lap—one with dangerous implications. Some very insistent men want Charley to hunt down a witness who is scheduled to testify against their boss, a major player in the local crime syndicate. If Charley doesn't come up with an address in 48 hours, the people closest to her will start to disappear.
Add to that a desperate man in search of the soul he lost in a card game, a dogged mother determined to find the ghost of her son, and a beautiful, young Deaf boy haunted by his new ability to see the departed as clearly as he sees the living, and Charley has her hands full. The fact that Reyes has caught on to her latest venture only adds fuel to the inferno that he is. Good thing for Charley she's used to multi-tasking and always up for a challenge…especially when that challenge comes in the form of Reyes Farrow.
Excerpt:
Chapter Three
coffee doesn’t ask silly questions.
coffee understands.
—bumper
sticker
We
weren’t back in the office ten minutes before the door to the front entrance
opened. I’d expected Mr. Joyce, the agitated man with the issues. Instead I got
Denise. My evil stepmother. Thankfully, Mr. Joyce was right behind her. He
afforded me the perfect excuse not to talk to her.
Her
pallor had a grayish tint to it, and her eyes were lined with the bright red
only the shedding of tears could evoke. I honestly didn’t know she had the
ability to cry.
“Can
I talk to you?” she asked.
“I
have a client.” I pointed to the man behind her to emphasize my point.
Giving
her chin a determined upward thrust, she said, “You’ve had clients for two
weeks now. I just need a minute.” When I started to argue again, she pleaded
with me. “Please, Charlotte.”
Mr.
Joyce was holding a baseball cap, wringing it in his hands. He seemed to be
growing more agitated by the second. “I really need to talk to you, Ms.
Davidson.”
“See?”
I pinned Denise with a chastising scowl. “Client.”
She
turned on the man, her face as cold and hard as marble. It was an expression I
knew all too well. “We just need a minute,” she said to him, her tone razor
sharp. “Then she’s all yours.”
He
backed off, raising a hand in surrender as he stepped to a chair and took a
seat.
My
temper flared to life, and I had to force myself to stay calm. I was
twenty-seven. I no longer had to put up with my stepmother’s insults. Her
revulsion. Her petty snubs. And I damned sure didn’t have to put up with her
invading my business and bullying my clients. “That was not necessary,” I said
to her when she turned back to me.
“I
apologize,” she said, doing a one-eighty. She turned back to Mr. Joyce. “I’m
sorry. I’m in a very desperate situation.”
“Tell
me about it,” he said, dismissing her with a wave. He clearly had problems of
his own.
With
all the enthusiasm of a prisoner walking up to the hangman’s noose, I led
Denise into my office and closed the door. My temper flaring must have summoned
Reyes. He was in my office, waiting, incorporeally.
Then
I remembered. He didn’t like Denise any more than I did. Blamed her for most of
my heartache as a child. Of course, she’d caused most of it, but Reyes could be
. . . testy when it came to my happiness or lack thereof.
“Want
me to sever her spine?” he asked as I sat behind my desk.
“Can
I think about it and get back to you?” I asked, teasing. Kind of.
Denise
looked toward the wall he was leaning against, the one I was looking at, and
naturally saw nothing. But where her usual response would be to purse her lips
in disapproval, she wiped at her lapel and sat down instead.
“What
do you want?” I asked her, my tone as cold as her heart.
“I’m
sure you know that your father has left me.”
“At
last.”
She
flinched like I’d slapped her. “Why would you say such a thing?”
“Are
you really asking me that?”
“I
love your father.” She almost came up out of her chair. “I’ve always loved your
father.”
She
had me there. She’d always been an attentive wife to him. Of course, attentive
included her agenda, which was manipulative, conniving, and venomous. I
couldn’t believe that I could dislike someone so much, but Denise had always
been that splinter in my relationship with my father. She did everything in her
power to keep us apart. Her jealousy was bizarre and childish. Who on earth was
afraid of a father’s love for his child? It just made no sense to me. It never
had.
And
yet she was never that way toward my sister, Gemma. In fact, she and Gemma were
fairly close. I had a feeling Dad’s leaving Denise affected Gemma much more
than she was willing to admit. She knew how I felt about our stepmonster, and
the fact that she couldn’t go to me when she needed support made me a very bad
sibling. But the truth was, she couldn’t. I had no warm and fuzzies where
Denise was concerned. She’d made sure of that from day one.
“I—I
need you to talk to him. He’s been sick and, and he’s not thinking straight.”
“And
what do you want me to say?”
She
leveled an exasperated glare on me. “I want you to convince him to come back
home where he belongs. He’s still weak. He still needs medical attention.”
“I’m
sorry,” I said with a soft, humorless chuckle, “you want me to convince my
father to stay with you? The bane of my existence? The woman who made my
childhood a living hell? After everything you’ve put me through, you want my
help? Are you insane?”
Too
bad Gemma, a licensed psychiatrist, was at a conference in D.C. I’d call her
and schedule an appointment for Denise ay-sap.
“What
have I ever put you through?”
My
temper flared again, and I bit my tongue, literally, to keep my emotions under
control. When I lost control, the earth shifted beneath me. An earthquake in
the middle of Albuquerque would do no one any good.
Reyes
straightened as though worried I’d lose control as well. I closed my eyes and
took several gulps of air. This wasn’t me. I didn’t hate people. I didn’t make
them pay for their misdeeds. Too many departed had crossed through me. Too many
times I’d seen what people went through, what they’d endured that made them
become the people they were when they died. Until I’d walked a mile in her
shoes, I could not judge Denise so completely. That would make me no better
than she was. I opened my eyes to her stone face, the face that brought nothing
but hurt feelings and knotted stomachaches. Maybe two miles.
“I
just have one question,” I said, trying to hold the resentment from my tone
lest I sound like her. “Why?”
“Why?”
“Yes,
why? Why did you hate me from day one? Why did you treat me like a thorn in
your side? What on God’s green earth did I ever do to you?”
She
sighed in frustration and let her true colors show through. Her impatience with
me, with anything I had to say. “I did no such thing, Charlotte. I don’t hate
you. I never have.”
I
leaned forward and gave her my best Sunday smile. “I’ll tell you what. When you
can admit that you hate me with every fiber of your being, I’ll help you win
back Dad. How does that sound?”
“I
will never say such a horrible thing.”
I’d
offended her. Sweet. “So you can feel it, you just can’t admit to it?”
She
squeezed the pocketbook in her lap, her fingers flexing involuntarily.
“Charlotte, can we talk sensibly?”
“Wait
a minute,” I said as understanding dawned. “You’re here because Dad is fed up
with the way you treat me, and you’re thinking that if we become besties, he’ll
come back to you.”
“I’m
here because I want us all to get into counseling together. Not just Leland and
me, but all four of us, including your sister.” Reyes crossed his arms over his
chest and went back to holding the wall up while I stood simmering in my
astonishment.
She
was a piece of work. “How about you go into counseling for you? Get over
yourself. And when that happens, when you can be honest with me, we’ll talk
again.” I was being so mean. I wanted to applaud myself. I wasn’t a mean person
by nature, so it took a lot of energy to bring out the beast in me and stick
with it for more than thirty seconds. Damned ADD. But I was so proud of myself.
No more being a carpet for someone else to walk on. I was my own girl, and no
one was walking on this carpet but me.
“Charley,”
Cookie said through the intercom.
I
poked the button. “Yes, Cookie?”
“Um,
are you almost done? I need coffee.”
“Oh,
sorry! I’ll get it made and bring you a cup.”
“Thanks.
And can you bring me the box of Nilla Wafers while you’re at it?”
“Can
do.” I jumped up and headed for the Bunn. “Priorities,” I said to Denise.
“That’s what life is all about.”
About the Author:
NYTimes and USA Today Bestselling Author Darynda Jones has won
numerous awards
Giveaway
Bonus Sneak
Peak
Seventh
Grave and No Body
\
Blurb:
Twelve. Twelve of the deadliest
beasts ever forged in the fires of hell have escaped onto our plane, and they
want nothing more than to rip out the jugular of Charley Davidson and serve her
lifeless, mangled body to Satan for dinner. So there’s that. But Charley has
more on her plate than a mob of testy hellhounds. For one thing, her father has
disappeared, and the more she retraces his last steps, the more she learns he
was conducting an investigation of his own, one that has Charley questioning
everything she’s ever known about him. Add to that an ex-BFF who is haunting
her night and day, a rash of suicides that has authorities baffled, and a
drop-dead sexy fiancé who has attracted the attentions of a local celebrity,
and Charley is not having the best week of her life.
A tad north of hell, a hop, skip, and a jump past the realm of eternity, is a little place called Earth, and Charley Davidson, grim reaper extraordinaire, is determined to do everything in her power to protect it.
We’re doomed!
A tad north of hell, a hop, skip, and a jump past the realm of eternity, is a little place called Earth, and Charley Davidson, grim reaper extraordinaire, is determined to do everything in her power to protect it.
We’re doomed!
Coming October
2014
