Shrouded in Darkness (Shrouded Series) (35 page)

EXCERPT OF SHROUDED IN ILLUSION

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible....

—Anonymous

“No one fuckin’ move! You! Get away from the door.”

Skye Hunter snapped her head up from looking inside her purse and gaped at a tall, bald-headed man several yards away. In his tight-fisted hand, he pointed a gun at her chest.

She blinked. For a moment she didn’t understand. Then panic crashed through her body and her breath hitched painfully inside her throat.

My God. Tyler.

She whipped her gaze across the inside of the convenience store. Aisles of chips, dip and candy, but no sign of her nine-year-old son.

They’d been separated but minutes. While he’d gone to get a hotdog, she’d run into the restroom. And now this sick nightmare.

The acrid taste of bile bubbled up her throat. Savagely, she swallowed it down. She needed her wits. For Tyler, for herself.

“Didn’cha hear him, bitch!” Another man, short and stocky, stood in front of the counter and several feet to the side of the other robber. Acne scars spattered most of his face, while his eyes, black, small and closely set, regarded her with rage.

“Okay, okay.” She jerked her hands into the air. Her purse, its straps sliding along her arm, swung wildly and banged against her side. “Just don’t shoot.”

Great. They’d fled the violence in Boston only to encounter it here in Las Vegas.

Tension cut into every muscle and tendon across her back and shoulders. Skye stared past both men to the front door and freedom. Seeing no sign of Tyler through the glass panels, she inched away from the counter and register.

Another empty aisle without Tyler.

Where the hell was he?

“Are you an idiot?” the bald thug asked the clerk, a boy not much older than twenty. “Open the damn drawer.”

“No.”

In horror, Skye stared at the redheaded clerk as she eased further from the trio and the front door. The kid was crazy. These men weren’t playing around. Agitation and fury radiated from both. Neither of them wore masks to hide their identities, screaming their recklessness, stupidity or savage intent.

“The cash, asshole. Now,” the acne-faced thief growled, shoving his greasy black hair from his face.

“I can’t believe this shit.” The kid shook his head. “Second time this week. If you think—”

“Shut up, you fuck!” The bald thug lashed out at a display rack with the flat of his hand, pitching packets of energy pills across the counter and onto the floor. “Give him the money. Now! Before one of us blows your mother-fucking head off!

A new wave of panic rolled through Skye’s body as she edged further away. Tyler had to be somewhere. He’d never run off voluntarily. She glanced past the surveillance camera to the far corner of the store and the convex mirror, which reflected the back section of the room.

There. Partially hidden behind the counter of the store’s coffee bar in the back corner, a figure huddled on the floor. Tyler.

Relief turned her limbs unsteady, but that relief mingled with a new fear. If she could see him in the mirror, the robbers could do the same.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

Skye jerked her gaze back to the acne-faced thug now glaring at her. She couldn’t believe she’d dragged Tyler into this mess.

“Nowhere.”

“Don’t give me that shit. I saw you.”

“No. You’ve got it wrong.” She lifted her arms higher. “I didn’t—” Horror strangled the rest of the words from her throat. Two brainless thugs weren’t going to end her life and that of her son in some sick parody of random violence. Not when she’d managed to elude far smarter killers.

The thug lifted his gun and aimed at Skye’s head. Her peripheral vision faded as she stared at the gun. It gleamed silver-gray beneath the florescent light. From this angle, she could see the man’s blunt, dirty fingers around the gun’s handle. His index finger rested across the trigger, then flexed.

“Don’t!” She dropped her hands and lurched to the side.

The thug pulled the trigger.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

H. D. Thomson moved from Ontario, Canada as a teenager to the heat of Arizona where she graduated from the University of Arizona with a B.S. in Business Administration with a major in accounting. After working in the corporate world as an accountant, H.D. changed her focus to one of her passions—books. She owned and operated an online bookstore for several years and then started the company, Bella Media Management. The company specializes in web sites, video trailers, ebook conversion and promotional resources for authors and small businesses. When she is not heading her company, she is following her first love—

writing. You can read more about her and her books at www.HDThomson.com.

If you liked Shrouded in Darkness, please fell free to leave a review on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Thank you!

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Excerpt of Shrouded in Mystery

Excerpt of Shrouded in Illusion

About the Author