Excerpt from “Diversion”

diversion-3d-mock-up-5 transWhile Diversion is the second book in the “Breaking the Pattern” series, you can read it as a stand alone novel (readers have confirmed that they had no problem understanding what was going on). I will warn you, though, that it is a spoiler for the first book!

Watch the trailer, and read the excerpt below!


 

It hadn’t been cold or damp that day. It was been a mild, sunny day, which had started off very pleasantly, with the prospect of a date at the Harbor.

Sandy looked around the hotel lobby for her date. A couple of people looked at her or smiled, but no one approached. She hung around, watching the sidewalk outside for any one of interest. Friends, Johns, cops… She waited a while, then started to get impatient. Sandy looked at her watch. It had been half an hour. He wasn’t going to show. He’d chickened out or something.

Sandy left the hotel and walked down the street slowly, watching the traffic for any possibility of a pick-up. She wasn’t paying much attention to the others on the sidewalk around her. She was irritated by the no-show. As she crossed the alley, a van pulled up in front of her and the side door opened and before she had a chance to take it all in, a masked man grabbed her and threw her roughly in the back. The door slammed shut and the van lurched into the street and sped off. Sandy started to right herself, pushing herself up onto her elbows, disoriented. Her purse was snatched out of her hand, and a pair of hands closed around her arms, pulled her up and wrestled her around, and just as Sandy’s brain processed the thought that she needed to fight, handcuffs closed around her wrist. Sandy jerked back against them reflexively, crying out in protest, unable to formulate words. Once the cuffs were on, he dropped her to the floor of the van.

Sandy sat up and looked around. Since the cuffs had closed around her wrists, her brain had been trying to convince her that it was some sort of police sting or covert op. But looking around, she knew it was not true. They had lured and kidnapped her. They wore masks. The interior of the van was dark and bare, stripped of passenger seats, carpet, down to bare metal.

“What’s going on?” she demanded, finally finding her voice.

“Shut up or we’ll gag you,” the masked man growled.

Sandy considered and decided to obey. She couldn’t see out the front windshield. She sat up taller and strained for a look, and the man kicked her shoulder, knocking her down with a bone-shaking crash.

“Stay down,” he ordered.

Sandy didn’t move, laying partly on her face and partly on her side, breathing heavily and trying to assess the damage. Her shoulder throbbed where the kick had connected and her back and head where she’d landed. She was grateful that he had chosen to kick her shoulder instead of her face, which he could have done just as easily.

After ten or fifteen minutes, the van stopped. The man stooped down and lifted Sandy to her feet. Then he pulled a black garbage bag over her head. Sandy gasped, her life flashing before her eyes. She was sure he was now going to suffocate her. But the bag remained loose around her head and body as he took her out of the van and walked her into a building.

She was pushed to the floor again, roughly. Sandy felt him remove the handcuff from one wrist, and she was pulled over to a metal post and it was re-locked. Then he took the garbage bag back off her head. Sandy gasped for breath, even though it had not restricted her breathing.

“Please tell me what this is about,” Sandy pleaded. “What’s going on?”

“Shut up.”

He walked out of the room. Sandy could hear snatches of his conversation—maybe with the van driver—in the next room.

“…just gonna leave her?”

“…teach him to mess with me!”

“…what if…?”

“…I don’t care…”

More low voices Sandy couldn’t hear, getting gradually further away.

“…no one does that to me…”

Then a door slammed, and there was silence. Sandy sat there, listening, her eyes gradually adjusting to the dark. Where did they go? Who were they? What did they intend to do with her?

Somehow she fell asleep, frightened and confused, overwhelmed by the situation. Maybe when she woke back up, it would make sense.

Tell me what you think!

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