Gina Takes Bangkok (The Femme Vendettas) (39 page)

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WHAT’S NEXT?

Pensri’s Pink
Platypus
…the third in THE FEMME VENDETTA series.

Billions are being made in the resource-rich outback of Queensland, and setting up a brothel, Pensri and her quixotic girls are determined to snare their share. But wherever there are riches, there’s trouble, especially when she crosses a vile gangster with his own horrific way of creating wealth. Luckily Pensri’s also caught the eye of stockman Zach Donovan, a former outlaw with secrets to guard, and his own stake in Pensri’s business—
The Pink Platypus
.

Here’s a handy link to add it to your Goodreads list:
Pensri’s Pink Platypus
on Goodreads

Release date Spring 2014!

Also, below, is the opening to
Undertow
, the first in our urban horror romance series,
The UnderCity Chronicles
, available now!

All of these excerpts are available over at our website, too.

Lindsay desperately wanted to hold Jack’s hand. Her breath came fast and shallow, and her every muscle had stiffened into near rigor mortis. And still the elevator dropped beneath the city streets, down into the dark guts of New York, its metal lattice floor the only barrier between her and the shadowy depths below.

She wasn’t about to admit her fear of heights to Jack. Sure she had a crush on him, as bad as any fifteen-year-old could have, and would’ve considered herself the luckiest girl in the world to hold hands with him. Yet, she also knew he hung out with her because she could keep up with him. To confess her vulnerabilities now would make her no better than all the other girls, and she was determined that he would remember her as someone exceptional.

Sam Cole, Jack’s father, gave her a lopsided smile. “This crate’s on the slow side, but we’ll be there in a minute. That hardhat fit okay, Lindsay?”

She managed a nod, and the oversized yellow helmet slipped over her eyes.

The other side of his smile shot up. “Good. I’m glad Jack invited you. Another couple of weeks and we’d be finished down here. Not many people ever get to see the real underground.”

As if on cue, the elevator reached the bottom, making Lindsay’s already queasy stomach lurch.

“You okay?” Jack asked.

Great, she probably looked like the vomit she was trying to keep down. “Yeah. I’m–I’m a little nervous of heights.”

His golden eyes shone. “So I noticed.” He looked down. Her hand had his in a death grip.

Lindsay gasped and let go, her face burning. “Oh, jeez. Sorry. I didn’t even realize that I...sorry.”

She hurried off the elevator—and stepped into a fresh hell. The subway tunnel was dark and filthy and reeked of grime and oil, and she could feel claustrophobia begin to crush her. The halogen lighting created a pool of civilization in which the workers called to each other, and there were the strong noises of steel striking steel and generators throbbing out energy. Beyond that, in the world Jack was going to take her, there was only darkness and silence. Yet he and his father looked content, as if this dank scene was a veritable wonderland.

Jack had used that very word when he was talking her into coming. A wonderland. She described it the same way to her parents, and to her brother, fifteen years her senior, and his wife around the dining room table. Her niece, two going on irrational, wanted to go right away, and when Lindsay explained that wonderland didn’t mean Disneyland, she said it was okay, that Jack could lift her on his shoulders and take her to the playground there. Due to her gender, Seline adored Jack. Lindsay’s mother melted when Jack came over and ate through the fridge and pantry, and Lindsay had the distinct feeling that it was Jack’s charms had played a large part in her mother had giving her permission to go underground. Her father, being male, had only given the go-ahead once he knew Jack’s father was going to be nearby. Then her brother, male and bossy beyond belief, had called up Jack’s father to confirm the dos and don’ts. Gracie, her sis-in-law, had winced in sympathy. “You should see him with the babysitter. The poor girl is stiff with worry before we’ve even left, and then she’s got an evening of Seline. I always give her an extra ten as stress pay.”

Sometimes Lindsay envied the casual bachelor relationship between Jack and his father. Sam Cole was pretty laidback as far as parents went, and actively encouraged his son to explore the tunnels. He’d done the same thing in London when he was a boy, and was overjoyed that his only child shared his lifelong passion for places deep and dark.

“Be back within the hour, and no taking Lindsay off the track,” he said. “I don’t want to go searching for you again.”

Jack laughed, sharing an in-joke with his father. “We’ll be careful. Let’s go, Linds.”

He flicked on his helmet light and waited long enough for her to do the same before leading her down the tunnel, away from the swarm of tradesmen and engineers. Jack was always ready to chart unknown territory, and he wasn’t one to check if anyone was following. He was always the first to take a dare, not to show off but because he couldn’t resist a challenge. That she was his regular buddy filled her with pride. That he was leaving for Hong Kong in a month, and likely never coming back, filled her with a profound sadness.

Right now with him so real and solid beside her, Lindsay wasn’t going to worry about the future. The immediate present was freaky enough. She could feel the darkness here. It had a kind of smothering thickness to it, so alien to anything on the surface.

“What’s this about sending out a search party for you?” she asked off-handedly, as if this was no different than walking the streets above.

“They did, but I made it back on my own and they got lost. In the end, I was part of the group that found them.”

That was Jack. Total master of his surroundings. Lindsay looked about, her light cutting a pale swath over wet concrete walls, iron rails, graffiti. “Sounds like you know these tunnels pretty well.”

“No, I’ve barely scratched the surface. One day I want to come back here and map the whole underground.”

He wanted to come back. Okay, not to see her. Still, there was no way he wouldn’t look her up. She squashed down her excitement. “How long do you think they’ll take to map?”

Jack gave a short laugh. “A lifetime.”

She stopped in her tracks. “You want to spend your life in tunnels? Don’t you think that would get old after a while?”

“Not for me. Come on, I want you to meet someone.”

“What?”

“There’s this guy who lives down here. Name’s Tim.”

“Who the hell lives in a tunnel?”

“People with nowhere else to go, Linds,” he said quietly and, to her ears, reproachfully. “Used to be a lawyer or judge or something. When the transit authority kicked him out of the tunnels, I got him a copy of the keys so he could get back in.”

Lindsay wondered what the men in her family would say if they knew Jack was taking her to visit a bum. Or that he’d done something shady for that bum. Maybe she’d skip this part.

“Tim knows everything about the tunnels. My dad told me they’ve had people down here since the 50’s. Tim says there were people underground before that. Way before. You wouldn’t believe the stuff that goes on down here.”

Lindsay looked over her shoulder, uneasily noticing how far they were getting from the work crew, and bumped into Jack, who’d stopped immediately ahead of her.

“Sorry…”

Jack didn’t seem to notice, his gaze focused down the tunnel on some point beyond the beam of his helmet light.

“What is it?” she whispered.

“I thought I heard something up ahead. Like a yell or… something.”

Lindsay strained to hear anything. Nothing but the faint dripping of water. “One of the workers?”

“No,” he replied hesitantly. “They’d be wearing a light.” He started forward again. She couldn’t stop herself. She caught his arm.

“Shouldn’t we go tell your dad?”

Jack kept his eyes on the darkness. “It’s probably just Tim. He said he has nightmares sometimes. Sees things that aren’t there. Come on. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Then why had his usual confident pace slowed? Wordlessly, she followed on Jack’s heels down the tunnel for what seemed like a mile, each step taking them further into the gloom of the underworld until the lights behind them had almost faded to nothing. Cold crept over her, a vapor that twined about her limbs.

She was about to suggest again they return when Jack pivoted to face a small side passage that branched off the subway line. The opening didn’t reach Lindsay’s shoulders and was barely as wide as her body, and it was so obscured by pipes and cables that she never would have noticed it on her own.

“In here,” he said, and crouching, disappeared inside.

Fear rooted her feet to the ground. Something was wrong here. Very terribly wrong, and though she trusted Jack, her intuition screamed at her to run back to the safety of the surface, away from whatever lay beyond. But Jack was waiting for her, and she’d never abandon him even if she knew that disaster lay ahead. Especially then. She took a deep breath and followed.

She stayed right on his butt so she was beside him when the cramped passage emptied into a chamber the size of Lindsay’s bedroom.

It was the smell that hit her first. Warm, metallic. Blood. Jack’s hand clamped around hers, the beams from their helmets skittering about as they frantically scanned the room. Lindsay took in scattered newspapers and paperbacks, an overturned folding cot, pop bottles and a kerosene lantern.

Then Jack made a soft pained noise, and she turned so that her light ran alongside his. Blood was smeared along the wall by the entrance, left by hands that had clawed futilely at the concrete before being dragged off into the darkness.

“Oh my God,” Jack whispered. “They’re real.”