Today here at FP,TD we’ve got a guest poster! My friend J.D. Faver. J.D. is possibly the hardest working author I know. She’s self-published 10 contemporary romantic novels including suspense and thriller titles. I’ve read quite a few of her titles. I’m almost done with Bad Vibes and have to say, I think it’s my favorite.
It is my pleasure to introduce to you, J.D. Faver!
Thanks so much for inviting me to guest blog, Melanie. I’m very excited about my latest release, BAD VIBES, the third novel in my romantic thriller series: THE EDGE OF TEXAS.
The setting for this series is about 25 miles north of the Mexican border on the lower Texas coast. South Padre Island is a beautiful semi-tropical resort separated from the mainland and the small coastal village of Port Isabel by the two-and-a-half mile Queen Isabella Causeway spanning the Intracoastal Waterway. BAD MEDICINE was the first of THE EDGE OF TEXAS romantic thrillers and it’s FREE today. I hope everyone has a chance to download it.
BAD MEDICINE is followed by BAD KARMA, and BAD VIBES picks right up where BAD KARMA leaves off. The heroine is Darla Calhoun, one of the team of deputies the sheriff relies on. She is suffering a major heartache due to her husband’s financial betrayal and suicide. She is recovering, but still feels angry and sad. She’s trying to maintain a positive facade for the sake of her twin 4-year-old sons as well as performing in the tight-knit law-enforcement team under the leadership of Sheriff Rafael Solis.
Darla arrests a vagrant, hanging around the marina, but after he’s cleaned up, she discovers a hunky, hard-body with a smoldering gaze hidden beneath the filthy rags. He turns out to be a federal agent working undercover. He’s after a gang of human traffickers using the Intracoastal Waterway to bring sex slaves into the United States from Mexico. Rafael assigns Darla as liaison officer to work with the feds, bringing her face-to-face with the “Iceman”, Mike Burke, the undercover agent she arrested. Darla, Mike and his partner tear up and down the Intracoastal Waterway in pursuit of the human traffickers, but when two local women disappear, the search becomes personal.
The following excerpt takes place when Darla and the two agents stop by her brother, Calvin’s place of business. They run into two of her fellow deputies, who fill her in on the case they’re working on.
EXCERPT:
Darla jumped into Mike’s arms and he swung her down onto the wooden pier. They’d tied up at the end of the Bait Camp dock. It was almost noon and, since they needed some provisions, the lure of the Bait Camp’s famous poor boy sandwiches had drawn them in.
Given that she had brought Calvin into their mission, she guessed that Mike was okay with talking to him about any suspicious characters he might have encountered.
There was a line at the bar, where people were placing orders. Darla left the men in line and went to scout out a table. Her eyes lit up when she saw Germaine and Adriano sitting in the back at the farthest corner table. Both men stood up when they spotted her and grabbed her up in ferocious hugs.
“Damn! We’ve missed you, girl!” Germaine set her on her feet. The cop shop just ain’t the same without your sassy self.”
“Shh! I’m under cover.”
Adriano raised his eyebrows. “Not under much cover, little one. Nice legs.”
Darla grinned. She swallowed hard, realizing how much the three deputies had been through together. “Can we sit with you guys?”
Adriano glowered. “You and the Iceman?”
“Me and two ICE men.”
“Sure. We can make room.” Germaine dragged up an extra chair and scooted the table out of the corner a little to create more space.
Adriano held a chair for her right beside him and she sat down. “Anything exciting going on in town?” she asked.
Germaine and Adriano exchanged a dark look. A squeezing sensation in her gut made her dread the answer.
Germaine spread his hands. “There are two missing women. Both are teachers at the high school.”
The squeezing sensation felt like talons ripping through her insides. “Who?”
“The first was an Iris Henley. Someone torched her car and then she disappeared right off her doorstep.”
“Oh, no! I know who she is. About thirty, dark-haired, slim, lives with her mother out on Stratton Road?”
Germaine nodded. “That’s the one.”
“And the other one?” She looked from one grim man to the other.
Germaine leaned toward Adriano. “I’m going to get our order. You tell her.” He shoved back from the table and departed.
Adriano grimaced. “The other one was your young friend, the fire fighter’s wife.”
She felt like she had been punched in the gut. “Oh, my God! No!” She covered her mouth with both hands, staring at Adriano in horror.
“What’s the matter, honey?” Mike had come up behind her.
“My friend, Cassie is missing,” she said all in a rush.
He laid a hand on her shoulder. “Missing, as in kidnapped or she went home to mother?”
Adriano glared at the hand he’d laid on Darla and then up at the man. “As in kidnapped from the bed she was sleeping in at the Rios home. The screen was cut and the kidnappers climbed in through the bedroom window. They used good old-fashioned ether on a rag to knock her out and carried her out through the window to a waiting car. We found the rag and plenty of tracks.”
Darla’s throat closed up. The din of voices and clatter of dishes faded as she visualized Cassie’s perennially happy face and realized how terrified she must be. Either that, or. . . No! She can’t be dead!
~*~
The order of this series is
(1) BAD MEDICINE <FREE through the 17th of October. Grab a copy.
(2) BAD KARMA
(3) BAD VIBES
(4) BAD DREAMS <Under Construction>
Visit J.D. Faver’s website: http://www.jdfaver.com/
I hope everyone has a chance to visit South Padre Island and the Lower Rio Grande Valley. In the meantime, you can visit through my series and keep up with the happenings. My goal is to entertain…and keep you awake nights. 😉
*hugs*
~J.D.
Feather Pens, Tartan Dreams 
Wow, what a story. And that little tidbit gave some interesting hints about backstory between these characters.
Thanks Donna. The more I write this series, the more I am bound to write in this series. 🙂