COLLATERAL
Title: COLLATERAL (Desert Eagles MC #1)
Author: Alexandra Ayers
Pub. Date: November 9, 2018
Publisher: Afterlife Royalty
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 275
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, iBooks
In the battle of love and loyalty, only one can win.
As Vice President of The Desert Eagles motorcycle club, Derek Pearce is ordered to do business with the ruthless organizer of a dog-fighting ring. But Derek faces another challenge: ten years after turning down his marriage proposal, his childhood love, Brielle Andrews, returns home to Las Vegas. Brielle has devoted her life to healing and saving animals from harm, including, of course, dogs used for fighting.
Derek reconnects with Brielle after rescuing a dog severely injured in a fight and rushing it to the nearest animal hospital, where he finds Brielle as the lead veterinarian. Sparks fly, but turn acrid when she becomes suspicious about how the dog was hurt. Derek can’t risk telling her the truth for fear of exposing the club to an investigation. Out of options, Brielle enlists her father, a federal judge, for help.
When new clues about The Desert Eagles MC come to light, will Brielle’s loyalty to her father and insistence on unearthing the truth about the fighting ring threaten her newly rekindled romance with Derek? Will Derek do whatever is necessary to save their love—and their lives—even if it means exposing the club?
A crowd of rowdy men screaming obscenities and placing bets filled the large room. Their shouts came in waves as they threw themselves into the action, most likely to counter their sobriety from the lack of alcohol at the fight. In the center of the crowd was a ring with two skeletal pit bulls trapped inside. A brown dog was bleeding from its nose, a smear of red staining its white chest, and circling a smaller, grey dog in an attempt to corner it.
“Get him!”
“Bite his fucking ankle!”
“Tear his ear off!”
The men yelled, trying to bait the dogs. The air conditioning was on full blast, whistling through the vents, but Derek could still feel the heat of the barbaric spectators in the room.
“Is this what the fuck we’re doing now? Making dogs fight?” Derek asked with a twisted face. He took a drag from his cigarette. I should ditch this shit hole and go meet Crystal at the bar.
“Hey!” Max frowned at Derek. “Andre needs our money, and that’s what we’re giving him. It’s fucking business, simple as that.”
“The Haitians got held up in customs, but they’ll be here tomorrow. They were supposed to collect one million from us.” Derek pressed his lips together. All the hard work he’d put in to make that deal, and they got ran up by the fucking feds.
“Yeah, well, everyone’s deals are getting fucked up. We need to deliver to the Russians too.” Max lowered his voice. “When the printer is fixed, which better be today if AJ doesn’t want me to strangle him, I’ll cut the bills and deliver them to Andre.”
Although Derek would never admit it, he wanted to impress the other members of the club with this deal. Eliminate any doubts that he’d earned his place as vice president of the Desert Eagles. He shook his head as the brown dog snapped at the grey one. “This shit is fucking sick. What happens to the loser?”
“Don’t turn into a vegan pussy on me, okay?” Max pulled a cigarette from his kutte. “Lucky for us, Carson came to us as a vouch for Andre and his dog business, which apparently is very lucrative. Besides, the piece-of-shit owner wants the cash to buy food and flea treatment for them. Now you can feel good at your next PETA meeting.”
Derek rolled his eyes at his uncle and then blew a puff of smoke at his face.
“Asshole.” Max snatched the lighter from Derek’s hand. “I did a shit job raising you.”
“It’s not your fault. Twenty-two is pretty young to have an eight-year-old dumped on you.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Max smiled. The faint lines of age on his hazel eyes. “Your piece-of-shit father dumped you on me. It wasn’t your doing.”
Derek shot up an eyebrow. The crowd got louder, and the men surrounding the ring started banging on the edge of it. Derek turned to his uncle, who shrugged and brought the lighter to his cigarette. Max took a deep breath and exhaled the smoke. “I’m getting too old for this shit. Fucking forty-two next week.”
Derek took another drag. “Twenty-eight ain’t so young either, you know.”
Max scoffed and said that one day Derek would pray to be twenty-eight again.
Derek put out his cigarette and pushed through the crowd to get to the edge of the ring. What he saw almost made him throw up. He had done some pretty fucked-up shit since patching in with the club ten years ago, but all of those assholes had it coming. These were just dogs who had been starved and tortured so Las Vegas locals didn’t have to put up with tourists at the casinos.
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About Alexandra:
Alex is a California native who currently resides in the Bay Area. She has loved romance for as long as she could remember, from watching Titanic as young girl to True Blood as a teenager to Say Yes to the Dress as an Adult. After years of reading romance, she finally decided to try her hand at writing stories with characters that reflect the diverse world we inhabit.
Outside of writing, Alex enjoys listening to girlboss podcasts while doing her makeup, reading comic books (DC girl but loves The Punisher), stalking Beyoncé’s every move, and watching The Golden Girls with a glass of wine. She enjoys talking to her readers and anyone with a great sense of humor, so feel free to drop her a note anytime!
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- What is on your nightstand?
Master lists for writers, the emotion thesaurus, a notebook, and some water.
- What author would you totally fan?
Roxane Gay
- What makes you cringe?
Pretentious people who think they’re right all the time. UGH!
- Do you obsessively plot out each point or just go with the flow?
I plot! I have a story outline and I outline each chapter before I write it. But lots of ideas do come to me when I write so that’s also fun.
- Is there a word you love to use?
All the cuss words. Hahaha. I have a day job so I am not free to speak how I want. L
Giveaway Details:
1 winner will win an eBook of COLLATERAL, International.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
11/26/2018- Adventures Thru Wonderland– Review
11/26/2018- Book-o-Craze– Excerpt
11/27/2018- Confessions of a YA Reader– Excerpt
11/27/2018- Jaime’s World– Excerpt
11/28/2018- Random Bookish Banter– Review
11/28/2018- Parajunkee– Excerpt
11/29/2018- BookHounds– Interview
11/29/2018- Good Choice Reading– Excerpt
11/30/2018- My Books-My World– Interview
Week Two:
12/3/2018- Jump Into Books– Excerpt
12/4/2018- Here’s to Happy Endings– Excerpt
12/4/2018- Bookish Rantings– Interview
12/5/2018- Books,Dreams,Life– Spotlight
12/6/2018- Dena Garson-Real… Hot… Romance– Excerp
12/7/2018- Two Chicks on Books– Excerpt
Sounds interesting can’t wait to read it.
This sounds like a good book. Thanks for the chance.
Tammy
Tighefan42@gmail.com
I’m looking forward to reading this. Thank you for the giveaway!