Champagne Book Group Blog: Excerpt - Killer Dolls by Angelica Hart and Zi

KILLER DOLLS

By: Angelica Hart and Zi

September 2009

Blurb:

After bio-terrorists use ricin to kill a man, they plan to attack innocent children by using ricin filled handcrafted dolls created by Letti Noel. After years of building her business, Letti now longs for romance and commitment, and thinks she might have found it in Taut Johnson. Only unbeknownst to her he is an FBI agent working undercover to find the terrorist. He knows he can't allow a relationship to develop until the case is over, yet finds that he is unwittingly falling for Letti, and now she is in danger, bringing back the past and a fear that he cannot protect those he loves.

Meanwhile, children are in increasing danger.

Meanwhile, there is another death.

Meanwhile, Taut's deceit threatens their growing love even as the stalking terrorists threaten their lives.

Unedited Excerpt from KILLER DOLLS First Chapter

ATROCITY

Under the blanket of a cloudy night an older rusty white Dodge van bounced along the dirt boreens adjacent to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Proceeding slowly, lights off, the driver was dressed in black, black hair jutting from a ski cap. The vehicle converged into a wooded area, it known for frequent fornication by lovers who had only a car and no money for a room. This evening, most likely because it was after 3a.m., it was vacant.

The driver exited the vehicle, surveyed the area, adjusted his genitalia, opened the rear door, and helped another similarly garbed man drag a third man from the van floor. The third man was tied, blindfolded and bound with duct tape. He writhed in an effort to free himself, yet only managed to frustrate the two abductors, one enough that he struck the restrained figure in the groin. An inarticulate muffled groan followed and the struggles for freedom ceased.

It would be easy to surmise because of the blindfold that the victim did not know these kidnappers, or maybe he knew them all too well. As might a recluse not wishing to be detected unexpectedly, they moved beyond the road. Facing away, they tied the man to a tree and began a more than devious process. While wearing protective masks—ones used in lab research—they took a plastic bag, inserted a vial into it, and placed that bag with the vial over the man’s head, duct taping it airtight at his neck. The vial was broken open and its contents released.

Sensing discord, the captive fought, rapid and struggled breathing followed, resulting in the movement of the bag as well as the inhalation of whatever gas or dust that was in the vial.

The motion of the bag was affirmation enough that their intentions were satisfied; they spun, walked, leaving the man to suffocate. Suddenly one of them returned, tore an opening into the plastic allowing fresh air to enter, and then he rejoined his partner.

“Why did you do that?”

“So he might suffer." The disparaging point was cruelly intended.

The two laughed.

Unedited Excerpt from KILLER DOLLS

She finally raised her head, flushed with what she could only imagine was a brilliant blush, she now making first eye contact. Why? He was an attractive man, the remember-to-breathe sort of attractive, with penetrating eyes and a charm-saturated smile. Every grooming detail meticulously accounted for earlier. He wore a Nat Nast beneath a vintage leather jacket and jeans that looked like something out of a GQ ad, perfect fit, perfect stance, perfect... everything. Her mind hung on the ideal of everything. The last thought reminded her she wasn't thinking about jeans but about the man in them. Confronted by such a man often embarrassed her, turning her shy, and with confidence elusive she oft times stuttered. Fumbling with her out-of-style eyeglasses she found her composure and responded, “Twenty-two fifty. Wow. That is pricy.”

“It is, but would be worth it if you smiled." He flashed a smile that nurtured as it tenderly comforted, and raised an eyebrow calling for that smile.

Though, completely taken off guard, she felt a flick of panic rush beneath her skin. Easy girl. You can do this, she told herself silently. So what if this man piqued the urge to drool and bat a few lashes, then she remembered her eyelashes were on her nightstand. He was just a man; gorgeous to the square of infinity but still a man. She knew many handsome men. She thought of Jack the handyman at her complex who had muscles that could barely fit through the door and Carlos, owner of a local pizzeria, with his all-white-dazzle smiles and compliments. But neither were the handsome that attracted Letti, neither had the voice that made her feel music, or looked at her as if she had a soul. Somehow, in this instantaneous moment of glance-to-glance, she found that this stranger did. He coupled her sensibility right to her passion and bridged that through his eyes retracting her soul into the protective hug of his. He was a man. All she was able to do was feign an awkward grin as she twittered in place.

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