Sunday Snippet: Feeling Alive

Well, we're off to move my daughter into her dorm for her very first semester of college. It's been a crazy whirlwind of a week, trying to get last-minute details nailed down and grabbing all the final items she needs to have with her. Thankfully, I've only got one project that has a deadline and my past self ended up being smart enough to work the move into the due date. Whew.

Not much viewing of television this week. Too many things going on. I did catch another episode of Danger Man, which happened to be another one I hadn't seen yet.

Also got through almost all of Gabriel's Inferno. Like I said, I'm kind of taking my time with this one and thoroughly enjoying it.

Started a new episode of Blue Heelers and a new character has been introduced. So far, he's a bit of dick. Not sure if I'll end up really liking him or hating him a bunch. Time will tell.

I'm really looking forward to having a little downtime once we get the college-bound kid settled in. The whole pandemic thing has completely thrown off my usual groove and I'm not quite sure if I'll get it back or if my new normal will take some getting used to.

That's my week in a nutshell. Tonight's post is from Feeling Alive, a novella that has a bit of a dark side before the light comes in.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Maddox loses her partner in a bomb explosion and shuts down emotionally. Wakefield arrives to interrogate Maddox about his brother's death, but she refuses to discuss the trauma. She ends up in another explosive situation and Wake finally breaks through Maddox's defenses, but he also opens the floodgates, which may get both killed.

And a snippety peek…

"Does Reed the robot care who claims the collar on this one?"

Maddox didn't have a clue which one of her coworkers dubbed her with the nickname. Hell, she couldn't muster up the will to give a shit what they called her. The word robot fit the bill. Maddox worked on autopilot, going through the motions, showing up for the job because she didn't know how to do anything else.

She slammed her locker shut. "Doesn't matter as much anymore." At least not the part about taking credit for busting lowlife drug dealers.

She got the job done, interacting as little as possible with her colleagues. The rift between her and them only grew wider without Avery to bridge the gap. He always used to coordinate a monthly meet-up for the squad room detectives, giving everyone a chance to blow off steam.

Grabbing her bag, Maddox headed down the stairs to exit the building. "Wonder if someone else will take on that little bit of team-building?" Definitely wouldn't be her.

She didn't have the stomach to play nice with anyone at the moment.

If fact, she needed to work out some serious aggression. Even with three solid busts, the week had been filled with one cluster fuck after another. If she wanted to at least appear sane and whatever passed for her new normal, she needed to have a good throw down with someone.

"I need a down and dirty fight followed by a nice, hard dick." She didn't really care how disappointed Avery would be in her right now.

Right. Keep telling yourself that, Maddox.

Okay, his opinion still mattered. Even if he'd never be able to voice it again. Part of the reason she hit her favorite dive bar almost every night had everything to do with punishing herself because she'd lost her voice of reason.

Crossing over to her vehicle, she slid behind the wheel. "At least this is one way to stop feeling numb for a while." Reversing out of her space, she left the lot and merged into traffic.

 Three blocks up and two over, a dimly lit place with decades of grime covering the walls called her name. Ironic that she went to a crappy tomb of a bar to feel a spark of life.

I'm honestly so pleased with how the scenes are coming together. Maddox is in a really low place and it's a challenge to write she speaks clearly with my sages and they know exactly how she wants things to go.

That's it for this week. Happy reading!

Skylin