Countdown to
S&A-Day minus 1 day (and counting to the in-store date of July 15th... WHICH IS TOMORROW!!!)
Note from Suz: We'll finish up this countdown with a real excerpt. This one's from Sam Starrett's point of view, as he comes face to face with Alyssa Locke for the first time in months.
Sam heard Noah shift his weight slightly, and he knew another FBI agent was approaching them. Time to answer those freaking questions all over again.
"Is he asleep?" a voice asked softly. It was a voice he'd recognize anywhere.
"I don't think so," Noah told Alyssa Locke.
What the hell was she doing here?
Sam opened his eyes and pushed back the bill of his baseball cap as she sat down beside him. Right in the grass. He'd expected Noah and Claire to risk getting their clothes dirty, but Alyssa?
She certainly got to Florida fast enough.
"Hey, Sam," she said, as if they'd run into each other on some city street instead of her coming nearly a thousand miles to see him. She took in his beard and his shoulder length hair--he looked remarkably like Jesus with a hangover these days--without a single comment or so much as a blink.
"I figured you could use a little moral support," she told him. She was wearing her dark hair short, and with her pretty face, perfect cafe-au-lait skin and big green eyes, it made her look almost fragile. Delicate.
He knew better. Alyssa Locke was tougher and stronger than most men he knew.
God damn she looked good, like she might've actually put on a pound or two in the months since he'd seen her last. She'd been too skinny back then, but now she looked... healthy again. Strong and healthy and female. More like the way she'd looked the last time he'd seen her naked.
Which had been too, too long ago.
"Have they estimated a date and time of death yet?" she continued. "Because as soon as they do, we need to get on the phone with Coronado and establish the fact that you were in California when it happened."
"So I am a suspect." Sam exhaled in disgust. "That's just great."
"It's standard procedure, so suck it up," she told him briskly. "Don't take it personally."
He laughed. "Yeah, right. Go into the kitchen and look at Mary Lou and then come back here and tell me not to take it personally when it's implied that I did that."
She glanced over her shoulder at the house. Glanced at Noah, who was listening to every word they said. "I'm sorry," she said to him. "Are you with the Sarasota office...?"
"I'm with Ringo--Sam," he said. "I live here in town and when he called, I came. I'm not a lawyer, but I know quite a few, and I've been encouraging Sam to wait before answering any more questions--"
"I'm on Sam's side," Alyssa interrupted. "We've..." She glanced at Sam. "...known each other for some years now. We're friends. Mister...?"
Sam laughed. Yeah, right. They were friends and he was having lunch tomorrow with the Pope.
She gave him another look.
"Noah Gaines," Noah said, noticing all of it. Sam's laughter, Alyssa's sharp look.
She held out her hand to Noah. "Alyssa Locke."
Now she was the one who was watching for any kind of reaction, which, of course, Noah didn't give her because there was none to give.
When she glanced at Sam again, he shook his head very slightly. Noah didn't know. As he'd promised her, Sam hadn't told anyone about those nights--on two separate occasions--when Alyssa had come to his room, and completely rocked his world.
Back before Mary Lou had told him she was pregnant. Back before Alyssa hooked up with Max. The fucker.
"How's Max?" he asked her now.
"Worried about you," she answered.
Yeah, right.
"Do you have any idea who might've done this?" she asked.
"No."
Something flared in her eyes at his uncooperative response. "Look, I know how hard this must be for you--"
"Yeah, and it's so much easier now that you're here." Truth was, he had absolutely no idea who would want to kill Mary Lou. He had no clue at all. One of the aliens from outer space that his mentally ill neighbor Donny DaCosta saw lurking behind every bush would have been just as accurate a guess as anything else Sam might've been able to come up with.
Alyssa was silent for a moment. Then she said, quietly now, "I'm sorry you feel that way. Max wanted to send someone who knew you, and--"
"So he could ask you whether or not you think I'm lying when I say--again--that I didn't kill her?"
"I know you didn't kill her." She usually looked around him, above him, past him, or even through him. But now she looked directly into his eyes and even held his gaze. It was the longest amount of time she'd ever allowed herself to do that--aside from those couple of nights that they both were naked, and he was making love to her. Just remembering the way she'd looked at him back then made his chest hurt. "I heard you when you said it the first time, Starrett, and I don't need to ask again..."
Are you ready for this book to come out tomorrow? I sure am! I really loved writing Sam and Alyssa's story -- I hope you enjoy reading it even half as much!
This is it -- the final day of the countdown. Tomorrow's page has information about the GONE TOO FAR launch signing in Manhattan -- I hope to see many of you there, or on one of the stops on my East Coast Tour! (Check my appearances page for details!)
Except, whoops, I'm not going to be home to post the final page! You'll have to click HERE to see it!
Thank you for joining me this past month!
Thank you for joining me for the Countdown to Gone Too Far!
See you next spring, for the countdown to FLASH POINT!