Eliza will be awarding one $20 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour, and a $10 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card, winner's choice, to four (4) randomly drawn commenters during the tour.
Identity Crisis
by Eliza
Daly
When Olivia Doyle’s father dies under
suspicious circumstances, rather than inheriting a family fortune, she inherits
a new identity. She learns they were placed in the Federal Witness Protection
Program when she was five years old. Her father was involved in an art forgery
ring and testified against the mob. Brought up not to trust anyone, Olivia has
a difficult time relying on U.S. Marshal Ethan Ryder to protect her, and to
keep her secret. She fears her father may have continued his life of crime
through her art gallery. She has little choice but to depend on Ethan when she
realizes someone is now after her. Olivia’s search for the truth leads her and
Ethan across country to a family and past she doesn’t remember.
At the age of ten, Ethan witnessed a brutal
murder. He vowed when he grew up, he’d protect people in danger. Protecting
Olivia is difficult when she won’t trust him. He soon realizes his desire to
protect her goes beyond doing his job, but if his judgment becomes clouded by
emotions, her safety could be jeopardized.
Can Ethan and Olivia learn to trust each other
when they uncover secrets that will change their lives forever?
Excerpt:
The footsteps drew closer. Her
breathing quickened. The intruder paused outside the door and she held her
breath, a death grip on the pepper spray. The barrel of a gun appeared through
the doorway, followed by a man. In that split second, she blasted him with a
steady stream.
“Shit!” he yelled, snapping his head
away from the line of fire.
Unsure if she’d made a direct hit,
she flew past him, still spraying the air behind her. Although it wasn’t a
blanket mist, she couldn’t help but inhale some of the toxic vapors in the air.
Her eyes burned slightly and she coughed, racing down the hallway and across
the open foyer.
She was almost to the door when the
guy yelled out in a raspy voice, “Touch that door handle and I’ll shoot it
off.”
She came to a screeching halt,
unsure if he planned on aiming for the handle or her hand. The blood pulsating
in her ears muffled the roar of the lawn mower as it passed by near a window.
Nobody would hear her scream. She eyed the security alarm keypad on the wall by
the door. Two quick steps and she could hit the panic button. Two quick steps
and she might get shot. She slowly turned around, her gaze locking on the gun
pointed at her from the opposite side of the foyer. Sheer panic pressed against
her chest, and she sucked in a deep breath.
The guy cleared his throat. “I’m not
gonna hurt you.” He cautiously lowered the gun, but didn’t holster it. “Unless
you spray that crap again.” He blinked rapidly and ran a hand up over the top
of his head, sweeping back a clump of wet hair. Her aim had obviously been off.
It was impossible to spray straight when her body was shaking uncontrollably.
The guy’s dark hair was just shy of
touching his shoulders and he had a five o’clock shadow. A black T-shirt
covered his broad chest and faded, relaxed fitting jeans contradicted his rigid
stance. A scar across his cheekbone, and a thin one slashing his eyebrow, added
to his don’t mess with me look.
“I’m Ethan Ryder with the U.S.
Marshals.” The man flashed a badge, then slipped it back in his pants’ pocket.
If the mob had hunted down her dad,
who was to say it hadn’t been through a U.S. Marshal snitch? He’d trusted Roy
Howard, not Ethan Ryder. Maybe he wasn’t even with the U.S. Marshals. Rather
coincidental that he showed up right after a robbery.
“I assume you’re Olivia Doyle?”
At the back of her mind she heard
her dad’s voice. Don’t trust him, Livvy. Be leery of people you know and
certainly don’t trust someone you don’t know.
Author Bio
and Links:
Eliza
Daly’s first attempt at creative writing was in fourth grade. She and her
friends were huge Charlie’s Angels fans and she would sit in her bedroom at
night writing scripts for them to act out at recess the following day. She was
Kelly Garrett. Fast forward to the present, she’s still writing stories about
beautiful women who always get their men. The journey from fourth grade script
writer to published author wasn’t an easy one, but it was always an adventure
and the final destination was well worth it.
When
Eliza isn’t traveling for her job as an event planner, or tracing her ancestry
roots through Ireland, she’s at home in Milwaukee working on her next novel,
bouncing ideas off her husband Mark, and her cats Quigley, Frankie, and Sammy.
You
can find Eliza on the Web at:
Identity Crisis is available at Amazon,
Barnes & Noble, iTunes,
All
Romance, eBooks.com,
and Kobo
The excerpt sounds fantastic!
ReplyDeletelyra.lucky7 at gmail dot com
Thanks for the tour.
ReplyDeletemagic5905 at embarqmail dot com
Thank you so much for having me here today to celebrate the recent release of my romantic suspense, Identity Crisis! Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteThe story sounds very exciting.
ReplyDeleteKit3247(at)aol(dot)com
loving Ethan more and more!
ReplyDeletelilypondreads at gmail dot com
Very nice excerpt
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com