Who Let the Demon Out? by Naomi Bellina - Book Tour + Giveaway
Excerpt:
One minute I was surrounded by white light and the scent of lavender. The
next minute I was on my back in the dirt with a guy straddling me and
pounding my chest.
“You awake? You alive? Shit.”
Hard to see much in the dark, but the full moon shining through the oak
trees showed me his brown eyes, open wide and filled with fear.
“You’re alive. Jeez, woman.” He took his hands away and leaned back on
his heels.
He smelled like garlic and motor oil, and he needed to get the hell off
of me because a violent churning in my stomach meant ...
“Move.” I shoved him and rolled to my side.
He did, fast enough to get out of the way while I hurled the contents of
my stomach onto the ground. I made my way to my hands and knees and
retched a little more.
“Here.” The guy tapped my shoulder. “Water.”
I took the bottle he offered, rinsed and spit, then drank. A chunk of
something went down my throat and I almost puked again. Rinse, spit,
rinse, spit. Hope he didn’t want the bottle back.
A loud pop like a gunshot and a flash of light to my left made me swivel
my head and instantly regret the move as my gut reacted by gurgling
another warning.
The man looked in that direction too. “What was that? Are you alone out
here?” he asked.
“As far as I know. Did you see something?”
“I don’t know.” He assumed a fighting stance, legs slightly spread, hands
curled in fists at his side, then turned in a slow circle, studying the
woods around us.
We both stayed silent for a moment as he continued to scan the area. I
pulled in deep breaths, trying to convince my gut to settle down.
“An animal,” the man said and turned back to me. “Are you all right?”
No. Duh. He’d just pulled me out of a running car filled with carbon
monoxide.
“Why the hell did you do that?” I asked.
“Do what?”
“Stick your nose in my business.” I stood, wobbled a little, but I could
stay upright and possibly walk.
“You about died. I saved you,” he said.
“I about died because I wanted to.” I moved toward my car. “Pretty damn
obvious, dude. What are you doing out here in these woods anyway?”
I’d chosen this parking area that accessed a hiking trail on the Blue
Ridge Parkway in North Carolina because no one came here at night. No one
was supposed to, anyway.
It would have been easier to fill up a garage with carbon monoxide, but I
lived in an apartment and didn’t have one. I thought about using a
friend’s place or renting a storage unit, but that meant someone would be
in for a super-crappy day when they found my dead body in the morning. I
didn’t want to be the cause of someone having a super-crappy day.
“I come here between calls,” he said. “You need to get medical
attention.”
I walked back to my car, and he didn’t follow, which was good because I
was likely to punch him. It’d taken every ounce of courage I could muster
to set this up, and he’d ruined it. Now my car had holes in the exhaust
system and floor, my stomach was about to turn inside out and my head hurt
like a son of a bitch.
And I was still alive.
“Get the hell out of here and leave me alone.” I reached my car and
leaned on it. He’d turned off the ignition and left the door open, but it
still stank like poison.
“I’ll take you to the hospital. Come on.” He gestured with his hand.
I reached into the glove box, pulled out the Glock 19 I’d stolen/borrowed
from my dad in case I needed a plan B (Dad had a buttload of firearms;
he’d never miss this one), and pointed it at the guy. My arm shook, but I
held it steady enough. “I said get out of here. Now.”
He raised his hands. “Okay. Take it easy. I’m going. You can keep the
water.”
His hands remained in the air as he backed up slowly. Good. He wasn’t an
idiot hero type. Just a knight in a stained T-shirt instead of shining
armor, trying to rescue the girl. Except this girl didn’t need rescuing.
I didn’t lower the gun until the red glow of his truck taillights
disappeared. When I did let my arm fall, it shook. I sat back down in the
car. Okay, no biggie. Shut the doors, crank it up, finish the job. I could
do it. That was the only way. Who was I kidding? There was no plan B. I
totally couldn’t put a gun in my mouth. The knight wouldn’t come back
again and stop me. Would he?
An owl hooted, and the wind blew a scent of wet leaves my way, the smell
of strolls with Jasper, the world’s weirdest cat, who liked to go for
walks on a leash in the woods.
“Step out of the car, would you please?”
Holy crap! I about broke my neck swiveling toward a voice that came from
the entrance to the parking area. A man stood far enough away I couldn’t
see him clearly, just an outline. I slid all the way inside, shut my car
door and locked it. He stepped closer.
Not the same dude that screwed up my plan. This guy was tall, blond,
wearing tight black jeans and a long-sleeve black shirt. I didn’t see
another vehicle. Where the hell did he come from?
“Get away. I’m calling the police,” I yelled through the closed window. I
reached for my phone. Oh yeah. I didn’t have a phone. Since I’d planned to
die that night, I’d canceled my contract and told my carrier to stick
their overpriced rates up their butts.
One of the best moments I’d had while preparing for my death.
7 Comments
How long did it take you to write your book?
ReplyDeleteHello Bernie, thanks for asking. This one took me about a year. Normally I can write faster but, you know, this year has been kind of a wild one! It's a shorter book and I plan to make all the books in this series about the same length so I can write them faster. Also, I think for this type of action/adventure, shorter is better. Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteI got a kick out of the title!
ReplyDeletethis is a great excerpt, thanks for sharing
ReplyDeletecute title and cover. Thanks for the chance.
ReplyDeleteNaomi Bellina is a new author to me, but I look forward to reading this. I always love meeting new authors. She had so many books on Goodreads that looked good. I need to get busy reading. Thanks to this blog for the introduction.
ReplyDeleteI love the cover! The colors are great!
ReplyDeletePlease try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.