If you keep up with my Facebook Page (and if you don’t, why don’t you? Go check it out) you’ll know that I sent the Braving the Boneyard manuscript to my copy editor Tuesday. Hot diggety! That means I can give you an official release date now: Thursday, May 19, 2016. I’m giving away FIVE FREE EBOOK COPIES of Boneyard, to celebrate the release of the fifth Sydney Brennan book. Watch this space for details. In the meantime, I thought I’d give you a little tease. (Remember, this is the pre-copy edits version.) Hope you enjoy it!

Braving the Boneyard: Chapter One

I heard the squeak of sneakers, right before the man slammed into me from behind. His choking arm bent my body backward and nearly lifted my feet off the ground. I grabbed his arm with both hands, but there was no give in it.

“Gimme me your purse,” he said.

My hands slid down his arm, looking for a weakness. His other arm clamped his wrist, doubling the strength of his hold. I inhaled the slightly musky scent of his deodorant and felt the heat of his body against mine. My heartbeat filled my ears, louder and faster, overpowering the voice that said, Come on, Brennan; you know what to do.

Because I didn’t. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t breathe. A field of gray swallowed my peripheral vision and made its way toward the center of my eye, clouding the world as it moved. My legs grew numb, weak…

Time and space shifted and my feet did leave the ground this time, coming back down to rest awkwardly on someone else’s, someone with intense body odor. A hand grabbed my hair at the base of my skull and yanked my head back. The sky was relentlessly black above my wide-open eyes. His voice pushed its way in, through my ear, on to the nerves and the brain.

Are you a real redhead? I hear there’s only one way to tell for sure.

His arms loosened enough for me to plant my feet back on the ground. I tilted my head forward, then slammed it back into teeth and chin. The man let go, and I stumbled sideways. Run. Run for the trees. But before I could run, something smashed into my face. Pain shot from my cheek through my skull, to my eyes and my neck, and the impact spun me around. Disoriented, I shook my head to clear sudden, intense nausea. Bile rose in my throat, and I struggled to not vomit. When I lifted my head, he was staring at me, dark eyes behind a darker mask, filled with the knowledge of the ways I would die before he was finished. I shrieked and swung my leg with everything I had. His knees buckled, and he rolled forward, moaning and clutching his groin. My legs gave way, dumping me to the floor with a thud that rocked my tailbone. I scuttled backwards, then hugged my knees as my body was overcome by shaking.