Welcome back author Kat Martin! Remember, check out the buy links, excerpt, and book info at the bottom!
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
In the course of writing more than sixty books, I’ve learned
that a character’s name is extremely important.
I spend hours pouring over lists of names: American, English, Italian, French, Japanese,
Russian, Chinese, etc.
Months before I start a novel, I begin to work on choosing
the right names for my hero and heroine, which is a way of getting to know them.
I like names that evoke an instant picture. I’ve been writing about the Brodies for the
last five books, men with strong family bonds.
Ty, Dylan, Nick, Rafe, and now Ethan are names I hope will make the
reader think of guys with strength, courage, and principals--and of course tons
of sex appeal.
In INTO THE FURY, Ethan is a private investigator who works
for his cousin, Ian, the owner of Brodie Operations Security Services, Inc. in
Seattle. BOSS, Inc they call it. Ethan’s a man used to taking charge, a hard
man and capable, but he isn’t happy about his current assignment--babysitting a
bunch of self-absorbed lingerie models on a cross-country fashion show
tour.
Ethan is a man who has lost faith in the opposite sex--until
he meets one of La Belle’s top ten models--Valentine Hart.
Val is another example of the importance of a name. Valentine Hart is actually her stage name and
I think it does its job. Valerie Hartman
is nothing at all like the image her stage name projects--though it takes Ethan
a while to figure that out. And to learn
there is a lot more to a being a top model than just having a pretty face.
Ethan is 6’3 and built like a brick house. I can’t imagine a guy named Ethan Brodie
being a wimp. Or a woman named Valentine
Hart being anything but a sex pot.
Another member of the BOSS Inc. crew is Dirk Reynolds,
another strong male name. Since Dirk was
supposed to remain a secondary character, I gave him a bad-ass cropped horseshoe
mustache and a cool dragon tattoo.
Then Dirk wound up being such a hunk I had to give him a
book of his own! INTO THE WHIRLWIND will
be out in June, one of my all-time favorites.
INTO THE FIRESTORM, the final book in the trilogy an another
of my all-time favorites, is Luke Brodie’s story--a bounty hunter
extraordinaire. Luke was former special
ops. He’s infamous as a bail enforcement
agent and unrepentant womanizer--until he meets his match with Emma Sullivan.
Choosing Emma’s name took me weeks and truth be told, it
still doesn’t sit exactly right. Emma
Brodie works better for me--fortunately this is a romance so we are pretty sure
she’s going to end up with the right name eventually!
I hope you’ll look for Ethan and Val in INTO THE FURY, out
January 26th, and that you’ll watch for the next two BOSS Inc.
novels, INTO THE WHIRLWIND and INTO THE FIRESTORM.
Till then, all best and happy reading, Kat
About the Book:
Take death threats against ten of La Belle's most beautiful lingerie models as they travel the
country on a widely publicized fashion show tour, mix with macho bodyguards,
throw in murder, mayhem, copycat killers, and millions of dollars in diamonds, and
you have INTO THE FURY, Kat Martin's newest Brodie novel.
Ethan Brodie goes head-to-head with Valentine Hart in this novel
of intrigue, fast-paced action, and steamy romance.
EXCERPT!:
CHAPTER ONE
Seattle, Washington
SINNERS, SLUTS,
and WHORES--BEWARE. Your TIME
is at HAND.
Standing next to the long mahogany table in the conference
room, Ethan Brodie re-read the note he’d just been handed. Printed on a plain sheet of white paper, the
words were typed in different fonts and sizes, all of them in big bold letters.
Fairly old-school for
the twenty-first century, Ethan thought.
But then, email was a helluva lot easier to trace.
The client, Matthew Carlyle, was Head of Operations for La
Belle Lingerie, a retail fashion chain, kind of a knock-off of Victoria’s
Secret with slightly less expensive garments.
In his mid forties, five-ten, lean and fit, Carlyle had silver-threaded
dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and a thin scar that ran close to his ear along
his jaw.
The other man in the room was Ethan’s boss, his cousin Ian,
owner of Brodie Operations Security Services, Inc.
“I imagine in the lingerie business you get notes like this
all the time,” Ethan said to Carlyle.
“We get kooks, all right.
Plenty of them.” Carlyle accepted
the note Ethan returned. “But a letter
like this was mailed to each of our ten top models, sent to them at our
flagship store here in Seattle, and the company isn’t happy about it.”
“You talk to the police?”
“Not yet. We’d prefer
to handle the problem discreetly, avoid any bad press. That’s why I came to BOSS, Inc. Ian and I have worked together before. I trust him to do the job.”
Ethan turned to his cousin, conservatively dressed in tan
slacks and a yellow button-down shirt.
While Ian was blond, Ethan was dark-haired, like most of the Brodie men.
Both were tall, Ethan taller at
six-foot-three. “You have the notes
checked for prints?” he asked.
“I did,” Ian said.
“Papers were all clean. The
letters were mailed out of different post office locations in the area so that
led nowhere. Since the models are about
to go on tour, Matt’s decided to temporarily beef-up La Belle security, just to
be on the safe side.”
“Probably a good idea.”
Though Ethan wished someone else was taking the job. The thought of traveling for weeks with a
group of air-headed fashion divas was the last thing he wanted. Still, he worked for a living and this was
exactly the kind of job he was good at.
Silently communicating his dislike of the assignment, he
flicked a hard glance at his cousin, whose blue eyes lit with amusement.
“Ethan’s the best man for the job,” Ian said, not the least
repentant. “He’s an ex-cop, worked
personal security for some of the top execs in the dot-com business. You can be sure he knows what he’s doing.”
Carlyle nodded. “I
read his resume. Looks like he can
handle the job.” He returned his
attention to Ethan. “Aside from working
protection, you’re a private investigator, correct?”
“That’s right. Before
I went to work in Seattle, I was a homicide detective on the Dallas police
force.”
“Good. I’d really
like to find the guy who sent those notes.
I’ve got a feeling about this, and I’m not liking it. I’m hoping with your background, you’ll be
able to sniff around, talk to the models and the hands backstage. If the guy’s part of the crew, we want him
out.”
“I can do that.”
“You’ll need to be discreet.
I don’t want people shook-up before we go on tour.”
“Understood.” And
he’d rather be busy than standing around waiting for trouble that probably
wouldn’t come. With any luck, the most
he’d have to worry about was crowd control and a few overzealous fans.
“How many more men do you think you’ll need?” Ian asked Carlyle. Though they’d gone into the conference room,
they hadn’t bothered to sit down. The
meeting wasn’t going to take that long.
“We’ve hired a couple of guys, but we could use at least one
more man with a background in personal protection.”
“That would be Dirk Reynolds,” Ian said. “I’ll talk to him, see if he can take the
job.”
Dirk worked freelance for the company, same as Ethan and his
brother, Luke, as well as his cousin, Nick.
Nick was married. With his little
wife pregnant, he preferred to stay close to home.
Luke was on a case.
Even if he weren’t, his specialty was bail enforcement, not personal
protection. Dirk Reynolds was one of
Ethan’s best friends, former Ranger, and a damned good man.
Ethan figured his friend would take the job. The money was extremely good, and since Dirk
had just wound up an assignment and was currently looking for something to do,
the tour might provide an interesting escape from Seattle.
Ethan thought of the weeks ahead and inwardly groaned. For him, babysitting a bunch of hot-bodied
women in scanty underwear would be a twenty-four-hour-a-day headache. He’d had more than his share of trouble with
the female sex, still did, and he didn’t want more.
“One thing I need to make clear,” Carlyle said as Ian walked
out of the room to call Dirk. “These are
some of the most beautiful, sexiest women in the world. They’re every man’s fantasy. That’s the reason La Belle has a strict no-fraternization
policy. There’s no way you can do your
job if you’re thinking about getting laid.
We expect you to be pleasant, but steer clear of anything more than
that. You with me so far?”
“Oh, I’m with you.”
“I realize you’re only human, but I need to know you
understand and accept our policy. Any
breach is grounds for automatic dismissal.”
“All right. One thing
you need to know. I wouldn’t accept the
job if I thought my dick would get in the way.
I admire a beautiful woman, same as any other man. But I’m being paid to do a job and that’s
exactly what I’ll do.”
Carlyle seemed relieved.
“I hope you’re speaking for your friend, Reynolds, as well.”
“Dirk’s a professional.
Beyond that, he’ll have to speak for himself.”
“Okay. Sounds like we
understand each other. We’ll be doing
dress rehearsals for the rest of the week.
Our first show is here in Seattle on Saturday night. Tomorrow morning at the theater, I’ll
introduce you and Reynolds to the rest of your team and our ten top
models. Just keep in mind what I said.”
Ethan made no reply.
If Carlyle knew how much he wasn’t looking forward to meeting a gaggle
of vein, self-absorbed females, he would probably do handstands. But actions spoke louder than words. It shouldn’t take the man long to figure out
Ethan was off women indefinitely.
His ex-girlfriend, Allison Winfield, had done everything in
her power to make sure of that.
***
“Oh, my God. Would
you look at the eye-candy that just walked backstage.”
There was awe in her best friend Megan O’Brien’s voice. As Val bent over to fasten the buckle on her
strappy high-heel, she tried for a glimpse, but couldn’t actually see who’d
just arrived.
Megan kept staring and just kept talking. “You see the one on the left? The guy with the sexy mustache? He looks like he walked out of a biker
fantasy. He can knock on my door any
time, day or night.” She rolled her
eyes. “Especially at night. And the big one on the right turns the words
tall, dark, and handsome into an understatement. I think I’m in love.”
Val finally looked up.
Two men stood next to Matt Carlyle.
One was about six-two, good-looking, with medium brown hair, and a
horseshoe mustache that framed his mouth, curved down to his jaw, and made him
look like a real badass. A real sexy
badass.
But it was the bigger man who snared her attention, at least
six-three, with dark brown hair, dark eyes, and a face any red-blooded female
would be hard-pressed not to admire. His
hair was trimmed cop-short and fit his hard-jawed, handsome face
perfectly. The way he filled out his
black T-shirt said he was two hundred plus pounds of solid male muscle.
When those dark eyes moved in her direction, skimmed lightly
over her frame, an unexpected zing of electricity shot through her body.
“Who are they?” The
little jolt of awareness was new to her.
Val was too busy for men. Being a
La Belle model was difficult and demanding.
At the same time, she was taking on-line college courses, getting ready
to start a part-time job at the end of the tour and go back to school in the
fall to finish her degree in veterinary medicine.
“They’re extra security,” Megan said. “After we got those threatening notes, Matt
hired a few more men. The big guy’s
heading up an additional team.” Megan
sighed. “Those two look yummy enough to
eat.”
“You know the rules.
No fraternizing with the staff.”
“I know. I don’t
usually care, but in this case...”
Val grinned. “Down,
girl. Best not to get your thong in a
twist. Far as we’re concerned, they’re
untouchable.”
“Yeah, more’s the pity.”
Val laughed. She
glanced back at the men, saw the bigger man looking the other way and enjoyed a
long, unabashedly thorough appraisal.
Sometimes pure masculine beauty deserved to be appreciated.
Hearing the voice of Daniel Clemens, the show’s
choreographer, along with the light rustle of feminine laughter, reminded her
where she was. Pushing the men into a
far corner of her mind, Val went back to work on her shoe so she could take her
place in the line-up with the rest of the models.
About Kat:
New York Times
bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at
Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. She is
married to L.J. Martin, author of western, non-fiction, and
suspense novels.
Kat
has written more than sixty-five novels.
Sixteen million copies of her books are in print and she has been
published in twenty foreign countries, including Japan, France, Germany, Argentina,
Greece, China, Russia, and Spain.
Born
in Bakersfield, California, Kat currently resides in Missoula, Montana, on a
small ranch in the beautiful Sapphire mountains.
Her
last 10 books have hit the prestigious New
York Times bestseller list. AGAINST
THE WILD, AGAINST THE SKY, and AGAINST THE TIDE her latest release, took top
ten spots.
Or
look for her on Facebook at
Katmartin/author.
Links!:
WEBSITE
VIDEO
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6TuRr6l0c0
SOCIAL MEDIA
PURCHASE LINKS
Thanks for stopping by, Kat!
Happy Reading!
~!~ Amanda, Novel Addiction ~!~
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