After a night out ends in tragedy, lingerie designer Lily Matthews is the sole witness to a murder. The only problem? She can’t remember what she saw. But the killer’s taking no chances, and he’s determined to help her forget for good.
When bodyguard Max Tian agrees to do a favour for a friend, it’s supposed to be a simple babysitting assignment. But as the bodycount increases, he finds he’s in danger of not only losing his principal but his heart as well.
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Roses are dead, Lily is blue,
The killer's escaped without leaving a clue.
Can Lily pick up the pieces he left,
After committing the ultimate theft?
Or will he come back with flowers and more,
To end what he only started before?
Excerpt – the beginning:
An insistent beeping interrupted what had been a peaceful sleep. No dreams, no nightmares, just a delicious void of nothingness. How long had I been out? I tried to lift an eyelid, but neither played ball. Okay, I’d take things slowly. And as I waited for my body to catch up with my mind, I thought back to yesterday’s good news.
At midday, my little shop had received its first ever order from Hollywood. In all honesty, Velvet Jones wasn’t my favourite actress, but she’d bought six corsets. Six! And not the cheap ones either. “Queen of the Night” retailed at eight hundred pounds, and she wanted it in two different colours. The other four weren’t far off it. Suki, my best friend and assistant, had squealed loudly enough for the whole of Soho to hear then rushed out to buy cupcakes in eight different flavours.
And yes, we ate them all.
Still in the mood to celebrate when I finished work, I’d put on a party frock and caught the Tube to my sister’s apartment to surprise her with a bottle of wine and a takeaway. Oh, who was I kidding? Rose would have necked the wine, laughed at the idea of food, and then dragged me out to a bar. Wouldn’t she? I scrunched my eyes, doing my best to remember. Try as I might, I couldn’t recall getting to her place. Everything after the pervert who squeezed my bottom on his way out of the carriage at Stockwell was a blur.
Still, I must have got there, and we must have partied the night away. Why else would I feel this bad? My head throbbed as sensation came back, and aches pulsed through my muscles with every breath. Had Rose let me drink Southern Comfort again? She knew what that did to me.
My lungs felt squashed, sore, and as I struggled to take in air, something tickled the end of my nose. I wanted to wipe it away, but my hand refused to move, and when I tried to force it, a fresh wave of pain swept through me. That did it. With God as my witness, I was never touching alcohol again. I hadn’t felt so rough since that morning in college I woke up on the couch with a blow-up unicorn, a lightsabre, and half a kebab.
I gave a delicate sniff. Well, at least I couldn’t smell vomit. Had I managed to keep one shred of dignity before passing out in my sister’s guest room? Because that was where I was, wasn’t it? I sniffed again. My sister’s flat always smelled like the Italian deli down below—the price she had to pay for cheap rent in a half-decent area. This room didn’t. Instead, the aromas of hand sanitiser and bleach lingered in my nostrils.
Come to think of it, this bed was much softer than her futon too. And what was that damn beeping?
I tried again with my eyes and succeeded in lifting one lid halfway. An expanse of white filled my vision, broken only by the harsh glare of a strip light. Unless Rose had decided to redecorate in the last two days, this wasn’t her apartment. Sweat popped through the pores on my back as I struggled to sit up, and my heart sped out of control. Where was I? The beeping hurried in sympathy, muffled by the blood whooshing in my ears. I managed to roll onto my left side, but not all the way. Something tugged at my right hand, and when I attempted to shake it off, a new noise started—a loud screech that made my teeth hurt.
Someone flung a door open, and it crashed into the wall behind, making me jump. Running footsteps got closer…closer…
“Miss? Are you awake?”
A female voice, but not my sister. Who the hell was she? I tried to ask, but my words didn’t work. My tongue felt too big for my mouth, a pair of old socks someone had stuffed in there as a cruel prank.
“Doctor’s on his way,” a second voice called.
Doctor? I didn’t need a doctor. I needed another twelve hours of sleep and maybe an aspirin.
“Lie still, Miss. Everything’ll be all right.”
Okay, I could manage that one. I leaned back, welcoming the softness of the pillow, and succumbed to the darkness once more.
xx
Excerpt – Max and Lily:
I made another attempt at conversation. “How long have you been a bodyguard?”
“Four years.”
“Is it a hard profession to get into?”
“Yes.”
He wasn’t making this easy. “If you could be a farmyard animal, which would you pick?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“One designed to get you to say a whole sentence.”
“Oh.” He bit one corner of his lip as he thought, and that tiny gesture made him seem more human. “I guess I’d be a wolf.”
“How many wolves have you seen on farms?”
He paused mid-chew, thinking again. “Okay, a dog.”
“I’m not sure they count either.”
“Sheepdogs.”
Fair enough. “Why a dog?”
“They’re not part of the human food chain. What about you?”
We had totally different thought processes. “A pig. They get to eat and sleep all day.” I dropped my fork, too full for more spaghetti. “You want a donut?”
He didn’t, and as soon as he finished eating, he retired to his room. It had barely gone nine o’clock. Wow. Life as a bodyguard really rocked.
BONUS!
Roses are Dead comes with a free short story about one of the side characters, downloadable via the link at the end 🙂
CONTENT WARNINGS
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