Title: An Assassin’s Holiday
Author: Dirk Greyson
Series: Stand Alone
Genre: M/M, Contemporary, Adventure
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Press
Release Date: Dec 2015
Edition/Formats: eBook & Print
Blurb/Synopsis:
Brick Colton has been hired to kill Santa Claus—or at least
the kindhearted accountant playing Santa for the kids in an orphanage. Brick
grew up in an orphanage himself, but that isn’t the only thing bothering him
about the contract on Robin Marvington’s life. The details don’t add up, and
it’s looking more and more like someone has set Robin up. As Brick
investigates, Robin brings some much-needed cheer into his life, the light in
Robin’s soul reaching something in Brick’s dark one. But all of that will end
if they can’t find the person who wants Robin dead.
RULES
RBTL World of Books Blog Tours is proud to present the An Assassin's Holiday Scavenger Hunt. 11 blogs have linked together to allow you to hunt for 11 different words that will be hidden in each post, so at the end of the hunt you will have 11 answers to plug into the Rafflecopter. Please DO NOT leave your answers in the comment section. We want this to be fun for everyone, and not take the challenge out of the game. So this is how it works.All the blogs listed below will post their word in their post. You are looking for one word (that is to be larger and in a different color to all other words around it) to plug into the rafflecopter as your answer. For Example:'
If you are on Read Between The Lines, and find your word you log into the rafflecopter form and place your answer in the box marked Read Between The Lines. Follow along the entire Scavenger Hunt and collect all 11 words. We will be drawing for 2 $10 DreamSpinner Press Gift Cards & 1 eBook of An Assassin's Holiday by Dirk Greyson. Happy Hunting!!!
Now children, that scruffy old man you made fun of on the street corner could just be the man known as Santa.
My quarry is just ahead. I can see him (1) ______ out of his
office the same time tonight as he has for the last week. He’s a model of
clockwork and predictability. I love guys like that—it makes my job so much
easier. Know your target, get into his head, watch him, know his routine, and
when the time comes, get in and out fast, clean, invisibly. Then disappear into
the city with no one the wiser.
He turns right, coming toward me, and for the first time
with this guy, I’m (2) ______. I expected him to go left toward home, like he
always did. Not this time.
I’m careful not to make eye contact, focusing on a Christmas
tree in the window of one of the buildings ahead of me, every window lit,
bright and cheery, even as the wind and snow try their best to dampen that spirit.
“Do you have the (3) _____?” I ask just as he passes me.
He gets his phone out of his coat pocket. “Twenty to seven.
Crap, I’m going to be late.” The (4) _____ shoves his phone into his pocket,
and with a mumbled, “Merry Christmas,” he races down the sidewalk as though he
has fire licking the bottoms of his feet.
I grin for a second and wait for him to turn the corner
before following. It isn’t like he’s going to remember me, anyway. He’s too
wrapped up in whatever has him so frazzled to register that he even talked to
me. Just what I needed.
I swear under my breath, a fucking (5) _____ streak, when I
don’t see him at all. “Fucking hell.” I’m going to have to do this another
fucking night. I can do that. It isn’t like I’m near my deadline to complete
the contract I hold. But I’d been hoping to have this over and done with.
Then I see him, running like a rabbit across the street,
down by the other corner. I pick up my pace, determined not to lose him again.
My heart races. You’d think it wouldn’t be a big deal any longer after all the
men—and women, for that matter. I don’t discriminate; I’ll kill anyone if the
money is right—whose lives have lethally crossed my path. But every time, the (6)
_____ builds and I can feel my heart hammering in my chest.
My quarry yanks open the door to a building and rushes
inside. Light spills from the huge windows out onto the sidewalk, making
patterns on the pavement as well as on the falling snow.
I approach and stop just outside the squares of light. The
room is decorated for the holidays with paper snowflakes hanging from the
ceiling. There’s a Christmas tree with child-made (7) _____ clustered toward
the bottom. Obviously the kids decorated the tree as well. Little kids, by the
looks of it.
“What the hell is this place?” I step back and look up for
some sort of sign on the building. There is none.
Just as I figure I might as well go home for the night and
finish my contract tomorrow, when my quarry is (8) _____ normally, a bus pulls
up in front of the building. The door opens and children stream off, talking,
laughing, and squealing with delight as they file inside, their faces wide with
smiles. The (9) _____, often ill-fitting clothes provide another piece of the
puzzle, as does the lettering on the side of the bus: Saints Mary and Martha
Home for Children.
“Shit,” I swear as I watch the last of the kids file past,
followed by (10) _____ and a nun with a kind expression, a black veil
flowing from her head down her back.
“Children, let’s all gather around—”
Whatever else she says is cut off as the door closes. The
bus pulls away, and once again I’m alone on the sidewalk. I think about going
home, but my feet are locked to the concrete. Instantly I’m transported back to
a similar Christmastime (11) _____, years ago.
Dirk is very much an
outside kind of man. He loves travel and
seeing new things. Dirk worked in
corporate America for way too long and now spends his days writing, gardening,
and taking care of the home he shares with his partner of more than two decades. He has a Master’s Degree and all the other
accessories that go with a corporate job.
But he is most proud of the stories he tells and the life he's built. Dirk lives in Pennsylvania in a century old
home and is blessed with an amazing circle of friends.
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