I am so excited that HOLIDAY IN HIDING by Lily Michaels is available now and that I get to share the news!
If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book, be sure to check out all the details below.
This blitz also includes a giveaway for a self-care box courtesy of Lily & Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, check out the giveaway info below.
About The Book:
Author: Lily Michaels
Pub. Date: December 6, 2022
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Formats: eBook
Pages: 181
Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/Holiday-in-Hiding-A-Secret-Santa-story
FROM EXCITING AUTHOR OF LGBTQIA
ROMANCE LILY MICHAELS
A Secret Santa story
Hiding from his past may wind up
leading Liam to the merriest Christmas of his life.
Constantly looking over his shoulder
has become Liam Carlson' s norm after five years in witness protection. Living
with his new identity has come with a major downgrade in lifestyle and a lack
of any meaningful connections. But when he loses his minimum-wage job and the
rundown apartment he called home, he finds himself in the middle of a Texas
state park waiting for the marshal in charge of his case to help with
relocation. A sudden, ferocious storm destroys many of his belongings,
including the tent that offered him some protection, but it also heralds in a
sexy-as-hell park ranger, Jax Gallagher, who taunts Liam' s long-neglected
libido.
Jax and his wife, Megan, have had an
unconventional relationship from the beginning, with a military romance that
blossomed into marriage. Their mutual desire to share their love with a third
member resulted in several blissful years with another man that ended when they
left the service and took on civilian careers. An unexpected visitor in the
form of a drenched Liam is the first glimmer of hope since then that they can
reclaim the happily-ever-after they thought they' d lost. Their attraction
grows with every second they spend together. While they become closer, another
lifesaving rescue also manages to open the door to a career Liam never
fathomed.
But the truth of the criminal world
Liam grew up in threatens to destroy the still-tenuous bond the three are
forming and the bright future Liam never believed possible.
Excerpt:
Prologue
Nate—Liam
A perfect
circle of cold steel penetrated through my thin cotton dress shirt. I
closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and fought to keep my hands from
shaking. They’d found me…again. It was only a matter of
time. I’d known that.
Fuck.
“Don’t
move.” The gravelly voice behind me uttered the completely expected
command.
I rolled my
eyes toward the inky sky, barely noticing the full spectrum of
stars. “Exactly how predictable are we going here, Joe? Full-on
cartoon villain or just generic mobster? I want to make sure I keep my
expectations realistic.”
A laugh,
roughened undoubtedly by decades of smoking, was the response. “Name ain’t
Joe, but I know exactly who you are, Nathaniel Cogliano.”
“Left off
the middle name there, Joe. That’s how you really strike fear into the
hearts of your prey. Take a tip from my ma, since she’s the one paying you
to be here.” I sucked in a lungful of air. “And I call all you guys
Joe. No need to learn your name, since you pass through soon enough.”
The barrel
pressed harder into my back and the man behind me growled. “You think
you’re something special? I’ll have you back to the boss man, collect my
money and send your ass to the bottom of the river before breakfast.”
That was the
moment I knew I could smile. The banter had bought me enough time to
center myself and call my nerves under control—a sad fact for ole Joe. I
was exactly the protégé my mother had always hoped I’d be. “The
river? Really? Can’t we do something just a little more
creative? Maybe a warehouse in midtown or a cabin somewhere upstate that
you set on fire to cover the evidence? Work with me here, Joe. Bring
something to the table so I remember who the fuck you are five years from now.”
“I’m about
done with your ‘Joe’ bullshit, and you ain’t gonna live to see another day,
much less another year.”
My grin
widened. Irritating the latest thug who’d been hired to kill me was almost
too easy. Getting the other man frustrated and off his game was the first
step to controlling the situation. “Give me your real name or give me a
reason to remember you—otherwise I’m just gonna keep calling you Joe, right up
until I don’t need to call you anything anymore.”
I wished to
every higher being I knew that I could see the man’s face. It was certain
to be mottled and reddened from frustration. Fucking with these guys—the
ones who were always hiding in the shadows waiting to deliver me into the hands
that would destroy me—was one of the few pleasures I could find in my world
these days.
Even a night
at a strip club didn’t hold the same allure as it once had, which was a damn
shame. But surgically enhanced tits shoved in my face weren’t enough to
hold my attention when I was looking over my shoulder, literally and
metaphorically.
The goon pushed
the metal deeper against my spine and I counted to three in my head. As
soon as my internal voice whispered, ‘one’, I spun around, grabbing the
man’s wrist and twisting it behind his back until he let out a piercing scream
and the firearm clattered against the pavement. I might be trying to claw
my way out of the life of crime I’d been born into and live a more normal,
law-abiding life, but the insidious part of my soul relished his painful cry.
The dark
beast within me threatened to trample over all my good intentions, and a list
of ways to break the hitman now kneeling before me in agony trickled through my
mind. I tightened my hold on his arm just a fraction more and wrenched it
back a little higher before I pulled my phone from my back pocket with my free
hand and hit the number one contact on my speed dial.
Another
anguished scream tore from the man’s mouth before I could utter a
greeting. “Quiet, Joe. This is important business.”
“Fuck, Nate,
what the hell did you get yourself into this time? You’re supposed to be
lying low until the trial.” Deputy Xavier Brower’s frustrated and
exhausted voice echoed across the line and managed to irritate my nerves that
were still pulsing with adrenaline at the latest attempt on my life.
The nearly
animalistic howls ramped up another octave, and I sighed. He was going to
wind up attracting a hell of a lot of attention that I wasn’t in the mood to
deal with. I released his wrist, brought my knee up to his face and
slammed it into his nose. Once he was flat on his back, I lowered my hand
in a perfect slice against his carotid artery and he passed out before I’d even
straightened my stance, grabbing my phone from the ground where it had fallen
in the brief mêlée.
“Still
there, Deputy X?” Although the assault had been brief, the events leading
up to it combined with the actions to make my breathing slightly
labored. It had been a long-ass time since I’d done any hand-to-hand
combat, either in training or out in the world. I was clearly getting too
soft.
An annoyed
exhale was his first response, punctuated by a weighted silence. “Yeah,
I’m here. Send your location and restrain the guy. If you’re going to
live long enough to testify against your mother and her crew then we are going
to have to hide you away.”
They were
words I’d known were coming for a long time, but I’d deluded myself into
believing I wouldn’t have to hear them until after the trial came, right on the
heels of that statement. “Pack your bags, Nate. You’re going into
witness protection.”
About Lily Michaels:
A medical professional by day and writer by night, Lily is a huge believer in love being available for everyone. Her novels always include an over the top happily every after for her characters.
If you want
to connect with Lily, find her on Twitter or Facebook and check out her website
and book blog.
Website | Twitter | Instagram
| TikTok | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub
Giveaway Details:
1 winner
will receive a a mystery gift box of self-care items perfect for a "book
date night, US Only.
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Ends December 17th, midnight EST.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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