All assassin Emmy Black wants for Christmas is three days off work and plenty of junk food, but instead, she’s left dashing around the country after her assistant comes up with yet another harebrained scheme.
Five girlfriends, four Christmas wishes, three crazy days, two exes, one jet…
Will it be happy holidays or hell on earth?
Spirit is a standalone novella in the Blackwood Security series and slots in after The Scarlet Affair.
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Excerpt: The Beginning…
It was almost time. The countdown had begun. Only half an hour to go until my most dreaded meeting of the year, and considering I was an assassin-slash-special-ops-bitch and most of my other meetings involved planning death, destruction, or some sort of near-impossible rescue, that was a big statement to make.
“Hurry up, hurry up, we haven’t got all day,” my assistant said. Yesterday, Bradley’s hair had been turquoise, but today it was pink. By Christmas Day, it would be either red or green, possibly with white tips, and he’d be wearing a sweater to match. He had a whole collection of cheesy knitwear, enough for a different outfit every day in December. “There’s mulled wine, mince pies, and Christmas cookies in the anteroom.”
“Tell me you didn’t start making the mulled wine yesterday.”
Last year, he’d been so eager to get everyone into the festive spirit that he’d set everything up the day before, only to get distracted by something shiny and leave the wine heating for so long that all the alcohol burned off. And boy did we need the alcohol.
“Mrs. Fairfax just finished making it.” Thank goodness. Mrs. Fairfax was my housekeeper and an absolute gem in the kitchen. “I did the cookies.”
I didn’t actually like mulled wine, but I’d drink a whole gallon if it made this meeting go any faster. Was ten a.m. too early for gin? Probably.
“Cheer up, bitch,” Dan said. My oldest girlfriend looked entirely too chipper at that time in the morning. “It can’t be any worse than last year.”
Last year, Bradley’s Christmas mission had involved us abseiling down Riverley Hall, my home, to cover the outside with thousands and thousands of stars. The only saving grace was that someone had popped out a baby in the middle of it, and he forgot all about the snow spray he’d wanted on the windows.
“Wanna bet? You said that the year after he recreated the North Pole out of polystyrene, and what happened?”
Dan grimaced, remembering. “The von Trapps.”
Excerpt: The Costumes…
“Here we go—costumes for everyone. We can borrow the bathroom to change.”
How horrific would this be? Since there were eight of us, I’d been betting on reindeer with Bradley as Rudolph, but no, what was I thinking? This was Bradley. He couldn’t possibly do something sensible. We got elves. And not just any old elves either.
“Uh, Bradley?” Mack said, peering into her bag. “I think this Christmas thing is for families.”
I tipped out the contents of my own allotted bag and found a stretchy red velvet leotard with fur-trimmed sleeves and a hood, a black belt, and thigh-high candy-striped stockings. Where the hell was the rest of it? I checked the bag again, but it was empty.
“Where did you buy this stuff?” Carmen asked. “A sex shop?”
“It’s mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve, and have you seen the crowd at the convention centre? All the other stores were sold out of costumes.”
Oh my freaking fuck. He’d bought our outfits from the Alaskan version of Ann Summers.
“I can’t wear this.” Carmen held up a green minidress edged with sparkles. “The Christmas tree on the front is decorated with dicks.”
“Yes, and I already thought of that. Ta-da! I bought extra pom-poms. We can glue them on.”
“My costume’s awesome,” Dan announced. “I love it.”
“Thank you, Dan. See? Somebody appreciates my work.”
Yes, it was awesome, if Dan wore it in the privacy of her bedroom for only Ethan to see. The red corset with a tiny skirt attached was practically indecent. We’d have to glue her tits into the top, but of course, Bradley had thought of that too. A package of toupee tape rolled across the floor.
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