Deadly.com by Cindy McDonald excerpt and giveaway!

Deadly.com

by Cindy McDonald

Genre: Murder/Suspense
Publisher: CreateSpace
Release Date: September 2, 2012
Amazon

Book Description:

Make a note: never agitate a madman. Successful Thoroughbred trainer Mike West just made that mistake-and he’s gonna pay-more than he ever realized. But it’s all in the family; his sister, Kate, has been the object of the madman’s desire on the social network “My Town”. Her constant rejections have infuriated him! People who seem to be in the way start turning up dead, and he’s got Mike and Kate next on his list! In the first book of The Unbridled Series, Cindy McDonald introduces you to the world of Thoroughbred racing, while taking her cast of characters on a wild ride through a maniacs mind.


"Very well  done." -A Book Vacation

"Deadly.com" is a collection of thriller short stories compiled into one gripping narrative. -Midwest Book Reviews

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Deadly.com | Hot Coco | Dangerous Deception

BIO FOR AUTHOR, CINDY McDONALD…

For the past twenty years Cindy has helped her husband raise, train, and race Thoroughbreds at their forty-five acre farm known as Fly-By-Night Stables near Pittsburgh.

During those years Cindy has paid close attention to the characters that hang-out at the back-side of the track.  She found the situations and life style most intriguing. In 2005 she sat down at her computer and began a journey into writing about this life that few understand.

Cindy has recently retired from making her living as a professional choreographer. She owned and operated Cindy McDonald’s School of Dance since 1985.  She studied at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School and with the Pittsburgh Dance Alloy at Carnegie Mellon University to name a few.  She has choreographed many musicals and an opera for the Pittsburgh Savoyards.

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Excerpt:

The heat of a summer night wrapped its arms around Westwood Thoroughbred Farm. The farm’s vast one hundred acres nestled in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania outside the small town of Grantville. Westwood was a lucrative, bustling horse farm. In the mornings exercise riders would put the horses through their daily workouts. The stable hands would scuttle about the barn chattering in Spanish while cleaning stalls and filling water buckets. In the afternoon, the farm manager, Punch McMinn would deliver the horses to the racetrack where they would dash hell-bent–for-leather toward the finish line.

Not tonight. Not for Kate West anyway. Kate was only looking for peace and quiet tonight. The glimmer of candlelight and the comforting scent of sweet lilac filled the room. She took a long, gratifying sip of her Sleepy Time tea with a drizzle of honey, a tiny indulgence to help her unwind. She ran her fingers through her blonde, silky hair. Dressed in a soft cami and a pair of pajama pants, she was feeling cozy and glad to have the evening off. She often worked late into the evening as a veterinary assistant at the racetrack. Tonight was going to be a hot one.

She stretched out on the sofa in her father’s study. The sweat dribbled down her neck to between her breasts. Her cami clung to her like a contestant in a wet t-shirt competition. She propped her feet on the coffee table. Her lips curled devilishly as she thought how her father would disapprove.

Twenty-five-year-old Kate was much too old for scolding, but Eric West could be somewhat over-bearing. He loved the grandeur of the old Victorian-style farmhouse. He claimed that installing a modern convenience such as central air would compromise the home’s integrity. But he wasn’t home. She wiggled her toes, lifted her laptop from the couch, and logged onto a local networking website. The Wi-Fi delivered the site speedily to announce “MY TOWN” across the screen in bold letters.

The blueness from the laptop’s screen illuminated Kate’s face. She arched a brow and she bit her lip softly when the picture of Giorgio appeared on the screen.

He’s logged on! Oh yes! There he is a delicacy of pure eye candy.

Giorgio had smooth olive skin. His long, dark hair swept across his broad shoulders. His eyes were a cool, inviting green. His jaw was square and strong. It was as if he wasn’t real, as if he was one of those erotic-looking characters on the cover of a romance novel.

Kate chuckled to herself. She could easily picture this half-naked Adonis, embracing a buxom beauty with her brunette hair cascading over her shimmering bare shoulders with a title like Desire at Dawn scrawled over their heads.

She had been cautiously chatting with Giorgio for several weeks after he had requested her friendship on the site. His picture was so stimulating, how could she resist? A congregation of attractive woman worshipped him with suggestive messages and invitations on his page. And why wouldn’t they adore him? His half unbuttoned shirt clarifies one thing. He’s ripped.

Among the women who paid daily homage to Giorgio was Ava West, Kate’s ex-sister-in-law. Kate had a healthy disdain for her. She was unfaithful to Mike, Kate’s older brother. Ava blatantly flaunted her beauty in men’s faces to get what she desired. Tall and leggy, beautiful Ava allowed her auburn hair to dangle so she could brush it back with a coquettish smile when in seduction mode. Like Giorgio, she too had green eyes, but they weren’t soft. They were definitely piercing.

Every man’s wet dream featured Ava, and she knew it. She could be quite the smooth manipulator. Her messages to Giorgio weren’t so much suggestive as straight to the point. Ava liked men in multiples. One man, no matter how handsome, was just never enough for very long.

In general, Kate thought little of women who participated in cyber-sex; she considered it a pathetic, desperate activity. But merely flirting with a gorgeous man in cyber-space couldn’t hurt, right? She laid her fingers thoughtfully on the laptop’s keys just as a message popped onto her screen.

“Want some company?”

Her fingers jerked from the keyboard. Giorgio! Has he been waiting for me to log on? Hmmm. Maybe he prefers sultry blondes over auburn, green-eyed manipulative monsters.

The cat and mouse game she’d been playing with him for several weeks had been a lot of fun. He had suggested hooking up several times, but she wasn’t prepared for a face to face meeting. Not yet anyway.

She licked her lips in delight as her fingers found their way back into position. I have to hold him off a little longer... make him want me... make him really want to be with me. She typed, “Soon... maybe.”

****

In a crummy trailer park across the street from the racetrack, he waited for her answer in dark, rumpled bedroom. The old ceiling fan made a clacking sound while whirling the stench of sweat and body odor throughout the room.

In a pair of boxers and a dingy white wife-beater T-shirt, he stared at his laptop. A blop of brown meat sauce dribbled down the shirt. The wrapper from a half-eaten taco rested next to the laptop amongst five empty crumpled taco wrappers. His shoulders were damp with perspiration. He rubbed his thigh and then his groin.

Her reply popped-up on the screen. He was almost a relieved. He had created Giorgio as an alter ego to talk to her...flirt with her. Yes, possibly even be with her.

Kate was the beautiful daughter of Eric West, the imposing patriarch of Westwood Thoroughbred Farm. She‘s a woman I can only dream about. Maybe I could touch her through Giorgio. He wasn’t exactly sure how, but he would find a way. Soon...very soon.

****

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Guest Post by the Author!

Hey, remember the TV show, Batman, starring Adam West? I know, it’s a really old show, but I’m sure it’s on some cable network somewhere—they all are. Anyway, in the TV series, Cat Woman was always trying to take Batman down. She was evil. She was beautiful—in a scary kind of way. But c’mon, admit it, didn’t you always secretly want Batman and Cat Woman to hook-up?

No matter how we deny it, everyone (especially women) loves to hate a good female antagonist. They are so good at … antagonizing! As authors we love to write about our antagonists, male or female. In my first book Deadly.Com, George Smuts is my antagonist. He’s creepy, he’s mentally deranged. He made my reader’s skin crawl—they told me so via emails, reviews on amazon, and blog sites. I loved George and I loved the freaked-out reaction that he extracted from people. That said, my Unbridled series has a full-time antagonist within its pages who seems to really rile women. Her name is Ava West. She is a gorgeous, green eyed, redheaded, manipulative witch. She is Mike’s ex, but she still clutches a corner of his soul. When she’s not tormenting her ex, she’s got Lugowski wrapped tautly around her manicured pinky, except unbeknownst to Ava, she’d better keep him in closer check.

Oh yes, I’ve had women state that they would like to see Ava die … slowly. What? Are you kidding me? Ava is terrific! She is causing my readers to fidget in their seats while they read. In Deadly.Com she did things that made women’s eyes narrow and their brows pinch together. Well, wait to you see what she has in store for you in AGAINST THE ROPES. I love all of my Unbridled characters, although Ava holds a special place in my heart, or is that my modem? Truth be told, I’m most relieved that she lives inside my computer and I don’t have to deal with her in reality. Or do I? Surely there must be someone that I know who is very much like Ava West. Hmmm…I’ll have to think on that.

Now here’s the tough question about the hate that we feel for female antagonists: is it really hate that we are experiencing or is it…envy? Ouch! Ava is able to manipulate even the most alpha males in my stories. She has the power to make them see things her way, or else—or else…what? You know what—they’re not going to get to see her naked. Female antagonists are usually beautiful, as is Ava, and they make me wish that I had the manipulative might that they possess…or not.

Sorry readers, Ava West is going to be around to poke at you patience for quite some time—you loathed her in Deadly.Com,  she didn’t win any popularity contests in HOT COCO, and she was still at it in DANGEROUS DECEPTION. However, at some point in my Unbridled Series you may find yourself rooting for her. Hey, it could happen!

Who is your favorite female antagonist? The one that really irritates you—is she from a movie, book, or TV series? Okay now, be honest—do you really hate her, or do you secretly envy her? ;}