I found this beauty waiting for me in my In Box this morning when I got up - another masterpiece by Reese Dante, Artiste Extraordinaire.
Finders, Keepers is due for release from Silver Publishing on August 25th, and as soon as I have a pre-order link, I'll post it.
Blurb:
Coming off a high-pressure undercover job
for his company's covert Retrievals Department, and despite being on the edge
of burnout, Jeff is thrown straight into another mission: set a trap for illegal
metal detectorists who'll be planting a priceless reliquary in a field.
To be in the right place at the right time, Jeff
seduces Alan, son of the farmer who may or may not be in on the million-dollar
scam. The job should be straightforward, easy, and it is—except that Jeff’s usual
guard is down, and he finds himself falling for Alan. Still trying to shake off
an obsessive ex-lover Alan doesn't want commitment, just a no-strings, friends
with benefits relationship. But events have a way of changing minds.
Excerpt:
Luck was on Jeff's side.
He located his target at the Boat House, the first midtown coffee house and bar
he checked at the end of his first day in the office. Despite its name, the
place had no connection to the riverside wharfs downtown other than the
pictures on its walls. Jeff paused just inside the door to remove his dark blue
tie and undo the top two buttons of his cream shirt, and have a surreptitious
look around as he did so. Alan Fletcher was sitting at the bar. The series of
photos in the man's dossier made him impossible to miss, even when seen from
behind. So did his height and untidy mess of copper-red hair badly in need of
restyling. All Jeff had to do now was engineer a successful hookup.
The Boat House,
conveniently situated five minutes’ walk away from the office and his
apartment, hadn't changed much in eight years. The decor was still Victorian
municipal green and cream tiles, gleaming brass fittings, and sepia-tinted
pictures of wharfs, locks, and canal boats on the walls. The clientele was
still the upwardly mobile types out to unwind and socialize after a hard day.
Singles, too, discreetly looking to connect with the opposite sex. Or the same sex,
Jeff observed. By the look of it, the House was an equal opportunities kind of
place these days. He threaded his way between the crowded tables and
fake-leather easy chairs to the bar, and eased himself into the narrow gap
between a tall girl having an intense conversation with a bemused-looking man
in a green polo shirt, and his target.
Alan had his back to
Jeff and was chatting to an older couple. The woman was African-American, of
average height, plump, her strong features good-natured and pleasing rather
than pretty, and framed by neat black cornrows. The man was solid with muscle
and built foursquare like a brick outhouse, his brown hair thinning and shot
with gray. The three of them were comfortable together, in the way of friends
and/or work colleagues.
Jeff leaned both elbows
on the mahogany surface and relaxed with a long sigh of relief. It was genuine.
He felt tired, jaded, and some of it showed.
"Hard day?"
the bartender asked with a sympathetic smile.
"Yeah. Just got
transferred in from the Manhattan branch. New office, new regime. You know how
it goes." He ordered a beer, then picked idly at the pretzels in the dish
off to his left and just within his reach. He didn't move it closer.
The first swallow of
beer slid down Jeff's throat like a cold blessing, and he sighed again. The
woman on his right was becoming indignant, the pitch of her voice enough to
engrave designs on glass, and he tuned her out with difficulty. To his left,
the discussion was a lot more good-natured: an obviously long-standing friendly
feud over the merits of football, soccer, and rugby. Alan had an unmistakable
English accent and a pleasant, easy on the ear baritone. His laughter, when it
came, was the contagious kind that brought a smile to anyone within hearing.
Jeff schooled his expression to a staring-into-space vagueness and did not
react.
The argumentative woman
finally stormed off, followed more sedately by Alan's friends. Jeff had
purposely sat close to him, and when the Englishman shifted to face the bar, he
jostled Jeff's elbow. Jeff, who had timed his moment to take a handful of
pretzels, let them spill over the bar.
"Damn, I'm sorry!"
Alan exclaimed, turning quickly.
"It's okay."
Jeff brushed a few straying crumbs from his pants. "It is kind of crowded
in here." He looked up to meet Alan's hazel eyes and saw the pupils expand
in the so-useful giveaway. He knew what the man saw: sable hair, deep-set blue
eyes in the hawk-like Italian features he inherited from Grandma Lucreza. A
young but dangerous face now he wasn't being Borya: a Mafia hitman masquerading
as a male model, back in the day when male models didn't look like they'd blow
away in a high wind. "Hey, you're a long way from home. British, right?"
"Yes and no."
Alan's smile was engaging. "Mum was American, but I grew up in the UK.
Alan Fletcher."
"Jeff," he replied with a full wattage
answering smile that was all his own and had nothing to do with his last
persona. Alan blinked.
Target acquired, Jeff thought.
~ * ~
