AlTonya Washington's Blog - Posts Tagged "romantic-suspense"
Not By Blood AlTonya's New Novella Series
Not By Blood my new Novella Series is here and will soon have company. Volume 2 will be ready for your shelves this Spring. Stay tuned for the official release date!
Visit my site for a free preview of Chapters 1 and 2
https://alsreaders.weebly.com/
Sharing An Excerpt!
Enjoy this slice of "Not By Blood"
For the full free preview, visit the Features page at https://alsreaders.weebly.com/feature...
~~~~~
Yaz woke around 3 am after a fretful sleep. Surprising, given the busy day she’d had. She tried to fight her way back to slumber but eventually counted it a useless task and was out of bed just after 4 am.
It was customary for her and Candace to have breakfast together on work mornings. Since her work morning was getting started about 4 hours ahead of schedule, Yaz prepared a light meal of toast, mixed fruit, and coffee.
Treat yourself to delights beyond the business, Candace had said.
Before yesterday, Yaz hadn’t realized that she hadn’t been doing that. Before yesterday… she thought, as her coffee transitioned from black to creamy beige. How had so much been turned on its ear in the span of a brief, supposedly run-of-the-mill meeting?
There was that weirdness with the picture, compounded by the weirdness of Lakia Volley, but that was all relegated to sideline positioning next to Noah Volley. She’d indeed had tunnel vision where her business was concerned. Yes, she’d heard of the Volleys, though her interest was only in bringing them on as clients.
She had completely overlooked the brown-eyed and ‘super gorgeous’ Noah Volley. Still, she told herself to dismiss the train of thought. Delights beyond business were a whole other thing next to delights connected to the business. She’d met Noah Volley for business reasons and business was the area where he should remain. Besides that, her meeting had given rise to even more beyond the business.
Why had her parents never mentioned knowing the Volleys? They were well known in Manchester. The fact that their child lived there- the place where they began their lives as a married couple- should’ve generated some conversation on that score, right?
Maybe it was as Lakia Volley had said- the responsibilities of life had drawn them apart. Perhaps it was as simple and sensible as that. Only…God…why couldn’t she stop thinking there was more to it?
And so what if it was? If drama was involved, it had probably happened long before Yaz and her brothers were born. What was the saying? Stay out of grown folks' business.
That advice had never sounded more excellent. She certainly had enough on her plate. She’d just landed her biggest event to date. A bonafide success with the Volley party could post her to a level she’d been working toward from the start. That left little time for delving into family drama. Correction- it left no time for delving into family drama.
Yaz left her apartment just before 9am. That would give her and Candace plenty of time to talk business before she had to leave to be in time for the 11am meeting with Noah. It would also give them time to discuss Candace’s big date.
At least, Yaz hoped it would. She’d texted just to make sure her friend hadn’t decided to spend the night out after all. Candace hadn’t texted her back which was no surprise. Yaz had sent the text before 6am. Candace would’ve probably been turning over for another few minutes of shut-eye.
Yaz opted for the elevator instead of the stairs and used the wait time to reflect on Candace’s contagious excitement from the night before. That early relationship glee…it was a sensation few others could match. Yaz hadn’t experienced that in a long time. In her case, however, the glee stage had left a lot to be desired. Was that really why the ‘super gorgeous’ hadn’t been registering on her radar?
She smirked as another old saying came to mind- ‘once bitten, twice shy’.
“Come on,” Yaz muttered, pressing the elevator’s down button again. She let ten more seconds drift by before reminding herself that this was why she usually took the stairs.
Decided, she moved down the hall to the door leading to the stairwell. The din of mixed voices met her ears as she rounded the landing to the last flight down.
Yaz pulled open the stairwell door and froze in place at the sight meeting her eyes. The 2nd floor hallway teemed with people. It wasn’t the crowded corridor that had her heart pounding, though. It was the fact that they were all in uniform- police-issued uniform.
Yaz tore from the doorway, stumbling in a walk/run that took her closer to the end of the hall. She was halfway there when one of the uniforms called out for her to wait. Someone tried to grab her arm. She shook them off.
Her heart was in her throat. She barely registered dropping her purse and tote bag as she neared the end of the hall and the door to Candace Barnes’ apartment.
She stopped short of crossing the threshold. She didn’t need to in order to see the woman in the chair she’d tumbled into the night before as she’d laughed.
There would be no more laughter.
Yaz looked on in horror at her friend’s head lolling to one side of the chair. The bodice of her lilac pantsuit was caked in blood around a hole in the center of her chest.
Yazmine screamed.
~~~~
Book 1 Available Now. Book 2 Coming in April
For the full free preview, visit the Features page at https://alsreaders.weebly.com/feature...
~~~~~
Yaz woke around 3 am after a fretful sleep. Surprising, given the busy day she’d had. She tried to fight her way back to slumber but eventually counted it a useless task and was out of bed just after 4 am.
It was customary for her and Candace to have breakfast together on work mornings. Since her work morning was getting started about 4 hours ahead of schedule, Yaz prepared a light meal of toast, mixed fruit, and coffee.
Treat yourself to delights beyond the business, Candace had said.
Before yesterday, Yaz hadn’t realized that she hadn’t been doing that. Before yesterday… she thought, as her coffee transitioned from black to creamy beige. How had so much been turned on its ear in the span of a brief, supposedly run-of-the-mill meeting?
There was that weirdness with the picture, compounded by the weirdness of Lakia Volley, but that was all relegated to sideline positioning next to Noah Volley. She’d indeed had tunnel vision where her business was concerned. Yes, she’d heard of the Volleys, though her interest was only in bringing them on as clients.
She had completely overlooked the brown-eyed and ‘super gorgeous’ Noah Volley. Still, she told herself to dismiss the train of thought. Delights beyond business were a whole other thing next to delights connected to the business. She’d met Noah Volley for business reasons and business was the area where he should remain. Besides that, her meeting had given rise to even more beyond the business.
Why had her parents never mentioned knowing the Volleys? They were well known in Manchester. The fact that their child lived there- the place where they began their lives as a married couple- should’ve generated some conversation on that score, right?
Maybe it was as Lakia Volley had said- the responsibilities of life had drawn them apart. Perhaps it was as simple and sensible as that. Only…God…why couldn’t she stop thinking there was more to it?
And so what if it was? If drama was involved, it had probably happened long before Yaz and her brothers were born. What was the saying? Stay out of grown folks' business.
That advice had never sounded more excellent. She certainly had enough on her plate. She’d just landed her biggest event to date. A bonafide success with the Volley party could post her to a level she’d been working toward from the start. That left little time for delving into family drama. Correction- it left no time for delving into family drama.
Yaz left her apartment just before 9am. That would give her and Candace plenty of time to talk business before she had to leave to be in time for the 11am meeting with Noah. It would also give them time to discuss Candace’s big date.
At least, Yaz hoped it would. She’d texted just to make sure her friend hadn’t decided to spend the night out after all. Candace hadn’t texted her back which was no surprise. Yaz had sent the text before 6am. Candace would’ve probably been turning over for another few minutes of shut-eye.
Yaz opted for the elevator instead of the stairs and used the wait time to reflect on Candace’s contagious excitement from the night before. That early relationship glee…it was a sensation few others could match. Yaz hadn’t experienced that in a long time. In her case, however, the glee stage had left a lot to be desired. Was that really why the ‘super gorgeous’ hadn’t been registering on her radar?
She smirked as another old saying came to mind- ‘once bitten, twice shy’.
“Come on,” Yaz muttered, pressing the elevator’s down button again. She let ten more seconds drift by before reminding herself that this was why she usually took the stairs.
Decided, she moved down the hall to the door leading to the stairwell. The din of mixed voices met her ears as she rounded the landing to the last flight down.
Yaz pulled open the stairwell door and froze in place at the sight meeting her eyes. The 2nd floor hallway teemed with people. It wasn’t the crowded corridor that had her heart pounding, though. It was the fact that they were all in uniform- police-issued uniform.
Yaz tore from the doorway, stumbling in a walk/run that took her closer to the end of the hall. She was halfway there when one of the uniforms called out for her to wait. Someone tried to grab her arm. She shook them off.
Her heart was in her throat. She barely registered dropping her purse and tote bag as she neared the end of the hall and the door to Candace Barnes’ apartment.
She stopped short of crossing the threshold. She didn’t need to in order to see the woman in the chair she’d tumbled into the night before as she’d laughed.
There would be no more laughter.
Yaz looked on in horror at her friend’s head lolling to one side of the chair. The bodice of her lilac pantsuit was caked in blood around a hole in the center of her chest.
Yazmine screamed.
~~~~
Book 1 Available Now. Book 2 Coming in April
