Excerpt: The Lawyer & the Leprechaun
Motion. Rumbling, like a motor. The smell of leather and a “pine”-scented air freshener, with the faintest whiff of gasoline. That falling sensation in the belly...
As if she were in a car. A car going very fast.
Out of control.
Downhill.
What in the name of the Light...?!
Eleni’s head pounded and her wrists hurt. Her eyelids snapped opened but that didn’t clear up the inky blackness, since she was blind. However, she had a compensating system for detecting what was around her. She had tiny green snakes, dozens of them, growing from her head instead of hair. Normally, her snakes rested in their alternate form, tiny braids decked out in jade and lapis lazuli beads, like the hair of an Egyptian princess. When she needed them, however, her snakes revealed their true form.
The snakes didn’t want to wake up right now. That meant not only had Eleni Bendox been knocked out, but whoever had rendered her unconscious had known exactly what she was: a Gorgon. And whoever had done this had taken the time to knock out her snakes as well…. Eleni was a tall, statuesque woman, curvy and physically fit for her size and age, but she was no kickbox champion. Her snakes, on the other hand, were venomous. Who had managed to render both her and her snakes unconscious, without her even remembering the fight?
Until her snakes woke up, Eleni had to rely on her other human senses, besides sight, to figure out what was going on. She was certain now that she was in a car, going downhill, extremely fast. But who was driving?
She tried to move her hands and discovered she was manacled on one side to the door of the car... and on the other, to another person, who was in the driver’s seat. Eleni explored with her hands. Bracelets that she didn’t recognize clinked against her wrists. On one side, she banged her knuckles into a glass window and then a metal door, confirming she was inside a car, in the passenger seat. On the other side, with her left hand, she encountered an extremely muscular masculine thigh, wearing high-quality material that indicated an expensive suit. The driver?
As soon as she touched the man’s leg, she paused, fearful of a reaction from whomever she had groped. She went very still, listening carefully. Above the sound of the car, she could hear his breathing. It was very low, long, and steady, like a man who was sleeping. That was a little disturbing, because he was in the driver’s seat, and the car was definitely moving. In fact, the car felt as if were accelerating with every passing minute.
But when she tried to move her hand further, her wrist snagged against something that caused her to hiss in pain. Those things on her wrists weren’t bracelets, but manacles! Silver manacles! Silver laced with poison restrained arcanes, including Gorgons. She drew a deep breath, fighting panic.
She could smell a mix of pine, coffee, and whiskey… along with a musky masculine scent. This scent was familiar. Although she primarily supported her senses with her magical snakes, she also was very aware of the habitual noises and scents associated with various people she met. And this familiar, much too sexy, intoxicating combination of aromas reminded her of one man in particular: Owen McGee.
Why had someone handcuffed her, the prosecutor, to an unconscious man in a moving car? And why did the man smell like Owen McGee, her nemesis?
It hit her what must be happening. He did it himself. He was pretending to be another victim to hide his guilt; that would be typical of one of his convoluted cons. That criminal Leprechaun has finally crossed the line! He kidnapped me!
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