Cover Reveal: Fortunate Son

 Cover time! 

Obviously, not a shocking cover, since I want all four individual parts of the book to have the same look and vibe, so same lettering, different gator. 

Every single scene in this book has felt surreal to write. The culmination of so many storylines, so much history between each and every character. My brain's gonna be soup by the end, but it'll be well worth it. 

Thanks again for your patience, y'all! Rome wasn't built in a day and all that. 

**

“I already told you, that wasn’t my husband.” It was taking every ounce of Ava’s frayed self-control to keep from screaming and cursing at the man seated across from her. She would have hated him on sight even if he hadn’t been grilling her about Mercy’s whereabouts today. He had the smuggest, most punchable face she’d ever seen, and a small, infuriating smile like he already knew all the answers to the questions he kept rephrasing and repeating, over and over, as if he thought she was stupid and panicked enough to slip up and incriminate her husband somehow.

Fallon – that was the agent’s name – tucked his chin and lifted his brows. Really? his expression said. He was sitting back in his chair, legs crossed, notepad propped on his raised knee, and he adjusted it, pen tapping at its edge as he stared her down a moment.

Ava wanted to laugh – after she’d punched him. Did he think he could give her that uppity, disapproving look, and she’d spill her guts? Did he think he was going to intimidate her?

When she did nothing but stare back, he sighed, and reached for the tablet sitting on his side of the table. He illuminated the screen with a tap and started swiping. “I’ve not been cleared to show you this yet.”

“Lucky me,” she quipped, and his gaze flicked up, and flashed a warning.

Another tap, and he spun the tablet toward her, and gestured to the big Play icon in the center of the queued-up video. “Press that when you’re ready.”

She did, albeit reluctantly. She already knew what the video would show her, but it had been shot from an angle she hadn’t been privy to, down on the ground, in the heat of the moment and center of the action.

The footage had come from a camera set up across the street from Maggie’s Kitchen. A women’s clothing boutique. The quality wasn’t great – grainy and jerky – but a towering man with long black hair was plainly visible, standing over a man lying back on the ground, hands lifted in surrender.

That was the Pretend Mercy, and though she was viewing him from behind, and though his cut looked real enough – top and bottom rockers, running black dog patch – seeing him again, without adrenaline and fear clouding her judgement, he looked even more shockingly wrong. His stance, the exact slant of his shoulders, even his elbows were wrong; his hair was long, yes, but the wind didn’t play with it the same way it did Mercy’s: a wig, she realized.

The tablet speakers emitted tinny screams and crackles into the room, and then the final gunshot, as the murder was committed.

The video ended, and Ava pushed the tablet back across the table and folded her arms. “That’s not him.”

“No?” Everything about his concerned look was false. She expected him to cluck. “You’re sure?” Poor little girl. She’s so confused. He reached over and hit Play again. “Look: he’s wearing your husband’s cut. That’s the word for the vest thing, right? Cut?”

“That guy’s wearing a cut, but not Mercy’s.”

“You can tell that? Just from this?”

“I know Mercy’s had his on all day,” she shot back. “And since that’s not him, that’s not his cut.”

A smirk threatened, and he smoothed it. “But you couldn’t say for sure. There’s no way to identify it exactly.”

“If that’s the case, how do you expect me to identify him exactly?”

The smirk slipped through, but it didn’t touch his eyes, which were hard and mean. He was frustrated with her – perhaps even angry – but hiding it well. A different interview subject might not have noticed his flare of temper at all, but Ava was long-used to angering men.

“Mrs. Lécuyer, I don’t think this is your first time being interviewed by the authorities.”