Jan Sikes is a dear friend, a Story Empire colleague, and an incredible author. She’s taking her newest publication on tour and chose Entertaining Stories to spread the word. Check out her excerpts, and please use those sharing buttons.
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Thank you, Craig, for inviting me to your blog site today to talk about my new book, JAGGED FEATHERS! I appreciate your generosity.
Today, I want to talk about one aspect of my new book that required a lot of research and that is drug cartels. My knowledge of these powerful organizations comes from watching “Queen of the South” and “Ozarks.” So, I needed to do some actual research to give my story a believability factor. They show up early in the book, but their appearance only raises questions for Vann. Questions that Nakina hesitates to answer.
EXCERPT #1:
Vann slipped her backpack off and lifted her onto the seat, glad for his determination to stay in excellent physical shape following his rehab. She hardly weighed anything. He tossed the backpack onto the floorboard, and Champion jumped in.
One thing for sure, this woman was no ordinary street person with her fancy inlaid boots and soft leather jacket.
Only two blocks away, the black SUV approached faster.
He met her dark eyes, pools of sadness and despair, when she gripped his hand. “Please, mister. You can’t take me to a hospital. They’ll find me there.”
Vann sprinted to the driver’s side, keeping an eye on the approaching vehicle now only a block away. The hairs on his arms stood on end like they always did when in enemy territory.
Time to move. He jammed the gears, and tires squealed as he made a U-turn, meeting the SUV head-on.
The window on the driver’s side lowered, and the unmistakable glint of blue metal sent him sailing down a side street. But not before a bullet whizzed by the jeep, missing its target.
“Oh, hell! Get down,” he yelled.
A sharp turn down a deserted alleyway put him closer to the highway. He pressed on the gas.
With one eye on the rearview mirror, he took fast zigzag turns until he reached the main road.
He’d lost them. But questions flew around his head like a swarm of angry bees.
EXCERPT #2:
(Nakina is talking) “So, I came to work on a Friday morning, and there were two Latin American men dressed in expensive suits waiting to see Mr. Gordon. They weren’t on his schedule, and I’d never seen them. He hadn’t arrived yet, so I asked them if they wanted to wait. But Mr. Gordon didn’t come in. When I tried to call him, he didn’t answer. I started getting a bad feeling. And I got flashes of men with angry faces, cursing, and the sound of a shovel connecting with hard ground.”
“What did you do?” Vann tried to imagine her fear.
She cleared her throat. “I told the men that I didn’t know where Mr. Gordon was, and he wasn’t answering his phone. They left after an hour or so.”
“Who do you suppose they were?”
“I’m getting to that. Almost the minute the two men were out of sight, Mr. Gordon crawled through the window in his office and called for me. He was disheveled and looked as though he’d been trekking through the woods, with dirt and pieces of leaves and grass on his clothes.”
“I hope you locked the office door behind the two men when they left.”
“I hadn’t, but as soon as Mr. Gordon came in, I did. He was wild-eyed and almost incoherent. He shoved this package in my hands along with the key and told me to deliver them. Then he handed me a bus ticket. I was totally freaked out and tried to ask questions. The only thing he said was that the Montoya Cartel was going to kill him. He said this package would take care of his wife and son and that I was the only person he trusted to deliver it.”
Vann scrubbed his chin and leaned forward. “The Montoya Drug Cartel?”
Nakina nodded.
“That’s who is after you?”
***
I’ve never had any first-hand dealings with a drug cartel, thank goodness, but I do enjoy watching the shows that expose their inner workings. I won’t ask if anyone has ever had a run-in with one of these powerful organizations, but I will ask how many have watched “Queen of the South” or “Ozarks?” Your thoughts?
BOOK TRAILER LINK: https://youtu.be/CwGRyRVMyLE
BLURB:
Vann Noble did his duty. He served his country and returned a shell of a man, wounded inside and out. With a missing limb and battling PTSD, he seeks healing in an isolated cabin outside a small Texas town with a stray dog that sees beyond his master’s scars. If only the white rune’s magic can bring a happily ever after to a man as broken as Vann.
On the run from hired killers and struggling to make sense of her unexplained deadly mission, Nakina Bird seeks refuge in Vann’s cabin. She has secrets. Secrets that can get them all killed.
A ticking clock and long odds of living or dying, create jarring risks.
Will these two not only survive, but find an unexpected love along the way? Or, will evil forces win and destroy them both?
UNIVERSAL PURCHASE LINK https://linktr.ee/Rijanjks
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
WEBSITE: http://www.jansikes.com
BLOG: http://www.jansikesblog.com
TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/jansikes3
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorJanSikesBooks
PINTEREST: https://www.pinterest.com/jks0851/
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7095856.Jan_Sikes
BOOKBUB: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jan-sikes
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jansikes/
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: https://www.amazon.com/Jan-Sikes/e/B00CS9K8DK
Entertaining Stories 