Exile

 

 

Together or not at all.

Exile

The Price of Talent Book 5

by AK Nevermore

Genre: Spicy Dystopian Romance

Together or not at all.

 

On an alternate earth, a cataclysm has altered a subset of the population. Talents are persecuted for their psychic and physical mutations, giving rise to two conflicting societies based upon maintaining genetic purity. And the Source, a shadowy corporate entity dependent upon the exploitation of captive Talents, is hunting them…

Flynn Scot is spiraling.

After a cataclysmic chain of events and devastating loss, Flynn’s grasp on reality is slipping. Backed into a corner by the Assembly and his sanity called into question, the threat of exile and having his talent stripped endangers not only him, but any chance he might have of getting his family back…if they’re not already past saving.

Deep in stasis, Kara’s fate is uncertain.

Stolen away and in the clutches of a madman, Kara’s future depends solely upon Titus’s sufferance. With unfettered access to her genome, his attention is fixated upon the next iteration of Talents—especially after events in the North change her status from prize to bait.

Because Flynn is coming for her, and he’s not coming alone.

 

 

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Cal grimaced and climbed to his feet as Glynfyls stopped shaking. He clutched his breast, groping for the ward Miriam had set some thirty-odd years ago that tied Flynn back to him. Please, God… Cal exhaled, his knees buckling in relief. Still there. Feltdifferent, but the boy wasn’t dead.

Not yet at least.

His gaze slid from the calamity outside the window to the blood spattered across the wall and the gore-soaked carpet. In the unlikely event House Scot survived the next seventy-two hours, the whole damned room would have to be gutted. He dropped the last of his cigarette and ground it out beside Cordelia Kerns’s corpse.

And if they didn’t survive, screw the resale value. What a goddamned mess.

“Here’s a spot, there’s a spot…” he muttered to himself, bastardizing lines from his brief stint in community theater. Seemed appropriate. He couldn’t clearly remember his last wife’s smile or the faces of any of the children he’d buried, but every goddamned line from that play, every goddamned moment he’d spent with her, was seared into his memory in high goddamned definition.

Her. Elize. Lizzy. His Lilith.

Cal ran a shaking hand down his face. Squatted. Knees cracking, he leaned forward to lower Kerns’s lids and cover the look of surprise in her grayed-over baby blues, his gaze locking on the imprint of a bloody crescent between her brows—

A flash of memory—the same mark on his second wife—hit him hard.

He stumbled into a chair and pulled out his pouch of tobacco, cursing the tremor in his hands. Fingers fumbling, he threw aside the botched attempt. Deep breath. Rolled another. It was passible, barely. He lit it. Blew out a frenetic puff of smoke and spat tobacco from his lip.

His gaze drifted back to Kerns’s corpse. Another woman with her throat slit. Wasn’t related to Julia’s earlier demise, but that wouldn’t stop Crandall and the city’s rumor mill from having a goddamned field day with it.

Christ. Between that and Flynn’s tantrum destroying everything as far as the eye could see, House Scot was on borrowed time.

And when the press caught wind of Kara’s abduction, it would be worse.

What a clusterfuck. If there’d been any place to go, Cal would’ve started packing his bags, but this time, there wasn’t. Jane—Mother—had made sure of that.

He blew out a ragged stream of smoke and glanced at the couch as he brought the sad excuse for a cigarette to his lips again. Kara’s cat glared back. Miserable animal was wrapped around Fitz’s throat with its green eyes narrowed. Cal frowned at the rise and fall of the boy’s chest. Looked like taking pity on fuck ups was still part of Elize’s MO.

Not that the boy was losing any sleep over his brush with death. He was sawing wood like he didn’t have a care in the world thanks to Nora’s induced coma. Must be nice.

Cal took another drag, cursing himself and the lingering scent of Elize’s perfume. The barest hint of bergamot dragging his mind back to that first summer they’d met. To the stolen kisses during rehearsals. To the way the lighting had hit the curve of her cheek and the look she’d throw over her shoulder as she sauntered into the wings. Christ, that still got his dick hard.

Too bad her seduction had been as much of a role as the one she’d played on stage.

He’d hauled sets around the whole damned summer for that shit, podunk production to be close to her. Senator Dashell’s daughter. What she’d seen in the son of a pig farmer—Christ. In retrospect, he knew exactly what she’d seen. Or rather, what her father had. Man hadn’t blinked twice at pimping her out for twelve hundred acres just outside of town where the Corporation could build their research facility.

And damn them, but they’d gotten it.

Why her and her brother had stuck around after, slumming with the five of them—

Cal shook his head, staring at the blood pooling beneath Kerns. What was done, was done, and his hands had never been clean. No. He’d been up to his goddamned elbows in this shit from the get-go, but this right here? This was gonna sink him and everything he’d worked for since.

As intended.

He fished the slip of paper Elize had left on Kara’s pillow from his breast pocket, his fingers shying from the braid coiled beside it. Entwined E’s on the letterhead and beneath the monogram, a set of coordinates with four damning words.

 

40°49’26.99” N-73°55’20.99” W

Queen takes pawn.

Check.

 

Elize…Enoch…the twins were just pieces, not who he’d been playing against. Cal stroked a heavy hand over his mustache. Knowing the message for the invitation it was.

Jane had made her move, and now it was his. For better or worse, the endgame had begun.

**Don’t miss the rest of the series!**

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AK Nevermore enjoys operating heavy machinery, freebases coffee, and gives up sarcasm for Lent every year. A Jane-of-all-trades, she’s a certified chef, restores antiques, and dabbles in beekeeping when she’s not reading voraciously or running down the dream in her beat-up camo Chucks.

Unable to ignore the voices in her head, and unwilling to become medicated, she writes Science Fiction and Fantasy full time.

She pays the bills editing, wielding a wicked hot pink pen and writing a column on SFF. She also belongs to the Authors Guild, is a chapter treasurer for the RWA, teaches creative writing, and on the rare occasion, sleeps.

 

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Treacherous Hack

 

 

One hacked file.

Three bodies.

Zero time.

Treacherous Hack

A Mike Stoneman Mystery #7

by Kevin G. Chapman

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Police Procedural

From the award-winning Mike Stoneman Thriller series comes Book #7 — a gripping crime thriller set in the heart of a frozen New York City.

When electronics store owner Lou Palazzo is gunned down at a snowy Manhattan intersection, NYPD homicide detectives Mike Stoneman and Jason Dickson catch a case that’s anything but ordinary. Back at Lou’s shop, two Chinese nationals linked to a powerful Shanghai cybercrime ring are dead. The only clue? A missing laptop computer, possibly containing something Lou was willing to die to protect.

Meanwhile, NYU student Ryan Gelb is panicking. His hacked laptop held the stolen university data — data he quietly gave to his Uncle Lou. Now Lou is dead, and whoever killed him is coming for the file. . . and for Ryan.
Caught between international cybercriminals, New York mobsters, and the police, Ryan is desperate to recover the file and avoid being expelled — or worse, executed.

As Mike and Jason untangle a web of secrets, lies, and digital deception, they're met with stonewalling from all sides: NYU won’t talk, witnesses are hiding the truth, and even their closest allies are keeping dangerous secrets.
With the body count rising and a deadly showdown looming, the race is on to solve the mystery, recover the missing file, and avoid turning Lower Manhattan into a bloodbath.

Perfect for fans of Michael Connelly, John Sandford, and David Baldacci, this high-stakes police procedural mixes hard-boiled action, cybercrime intrigue, and unforgettable characters in a page-turning thriller you won’t be able to put down.

 

What readers are saying:

 “A page-turner of a police procedural, with multiple cryptological clues and misdirections. The convoluted plot is enough to keep readers on the edge of their seats throughout. While the action is nearly nonstop, it is inevitable that readers along the way will get invested in relationships such as that between Ryan and Star. All the main characters and many of the minor ones keep dangerous secrets, demonstrating once again the fallibility of human nature.”

~ S. W. Lawrence, MD, author of climate fiction including Climate Dragon and Cloud Dragon.

 

“Chapman delivers another pulse-pounding thriller that seamlessly weaves cybercrime, organized crime, and family loyalties into one explosive narrative of how far people will go to protect their secrets. This high-stakes thriller has non-stop action and suspense that culminates in a riveting page-turner until the end.”

 ~ LoLo Paige, award-winning author of Alaska Firestorm and Alaska Inferno.

 

“Treacherous Hack grabs you from the first chapter and doesn’t let go! An exciting police procedural that makes you feel like you’re on a ride-a-long with the detectives, conspiring with the bad guys, and hanging out in a dorm room with the young guys caught in the middle of it all.”

 ~ Laurel Heidtman, author of The Eden Mysteries.

 

“A pulse-pounding thriller that seamlessly weaves cybercrime, organized crime, and family loyalties into one explosive narrative of how far people will go to protect their secrets.”

 ~ LoLo Paige, award-winning author of Alaska Firestorm and Alaska Inferno.

  

 

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from Chapter 3 -- On the Scene

 

DETECTIVE MIKE STONEMAN CALLED OUT to his partner as soon as Jason ducked under the crime scene tape stretched across the sidewalk.

“Jason! Over here.” Mike waved his arm, beckoning Jason toward the center of the intersection. Since Mike lived in Manhattan, he had arrived fifteen minutes before his partner. A clot of officers and emergency services personnel milled about without much urgency.

“Nice night,” Jason said sarcastically.

Mike, dressed in a down parka and a blue-and-orange knit hat pulled down over his ears, grunted his agreement. Mike was a full five inches shorter than Jason and twenty years older. Even in their winter clothes, Jason’s style showed through, with his tailored wool overcoat, gloves, scarf, and LL Bean duck boots. Mike had long since stopped worrying about the fact that his partner was taller, better looking, in better shape, and a better dresser. Mike possessed wisdom that came from experience, which was the one thing Jason could not have. At least not until he had twenty-five years on the force like Mike. They had been partners for five years.

A uniformed officer with a plastic cover over his hat approached Mike as Jason arrived. “Detective Stoneman, the medical examiner is finished. Can we remove the body now?”

“Not yet,” Mike responded. “I want Detective Dickson to get a look at the scene first.”

The officer left to give his fellow officers the bad news – they all had to stay outside their warm squad cars.

As they walked around the intersection, Mike gave Jason the rundown. “The stiff’s name is Lou Palazzo. His wallet was in his pants pocket with a driver’s license, so the ID was pretty easy. He’s got a record from years back. Did three years in Sing Sing in the twenty-teens for conspiracy to commit murder. He was connected to the Gallata family. Since he got out, he’s had no arrests. He ran an electronics store and pawn shop over on the corner of Avenue B, a block away.” Mike pointed to the far end of the block. “He had a little cash and some credit cards in his wallet.”

Jason looked down at the remainder of the dead man’s head. “So, not a robbery, then?”

Mike didn’t laugh. “The snow and slush on the street mangled any physical evidence here, but there is blood in the snow outside his shop. It looks like he was shot inside the shop in the shoulder, tried to escape in this direction, then got caught here in the intersection and plugged once in the head. No cell phone on him. He wasn’t wearing a coat, so he left in a hurry. When we finish here, there are two more stiffs in the shop.”

“So, there’s more to see?” Jason asked.

“Oh, yeah. Plenty. We’ll get over there in a minute. The officer in the first squad car saw two figures in the middle of the street from a few blocks away and hit his lights. By the time he got here, Lou was dead on the ground and the other person had fled the scene on foot.”

Jason squatted to get a look at the body without dipping his knees into the slush. The kill shot entered the man’s head above his left ear and exited through his neck – a clean kill, likely fired by a person standing over the victim.

“Seen enough?” Mike asked.

“Sure. Thanks for doing the reconnaissance.”

“Let’s go see the shop. That’s where the action was.” Mike turned to the west. “Oh, and by the way, was that Rachel I saw over there with a cameraman?”

“Yeah,” Jason said without stopping. “She got a call from her network to come work this scene. She’s been bugging them for weeks about getting a chance to cover breaking news instead of the fluffy studio stuff. You know, the healthcare pieces and emergency services and such. She’s been on the on-call list every weekend since Halloween, hoping to get a call. Unfortunately, tonight was the night.”

“You need to be careful, Jason. You can’t spill any information to her. I know we talked about this possibly happening someday. Well, shit just got real. Sully will have your hide if he thinks you’re feeding her inside dirt on the investigation.”

“I know. I’m not telling her anything. But I can’t stop her from working. This is a big deal for her.”

“Sure. I get it,” Mike said. “But be careful.”

“You don’t need to tell me.”

  

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Kevin G. Chapman is an attorney specializing in labor and employment law. Kevin has now completed seven books in the Mike Stoneman Thriller series: Righteous Assassin (Kindle Book Award semi-finalist), Deadly Enterprise (Kindle Book Award semi-finalist), Lethal Voyage, (Winner of the 2021 Kindle Book Award, CLUE finalist, RONE finalist), Fatal Infraction (Best Police Procedural of the year – CLUE Award), Perilous Gambit, Double Takedown, and now, Treacherous Hack. In late 2022, Kevin published a stand-alone mystery/thriller titled Dead Winner (CLUE Award - Best Suspense/Thriller of the year). Then, in 2024 came The Other Murder, winner of the CLUE Award Grand Prize (best suspense/thriller of the year) and finalist for the National Indie Excellence Award. Kevin is a resident of Central New Jersey and is a graduate of Columbia College and Boston University School of Law. Readers can contact Kevin via his website at www.KevinGChapman.com.

  

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Kindred Schemes

 

 

One bookish debutante. 

Two dashing suitors.

 And a season full of scandal.

Kindred Schemes

Schemes Book 1

by R. K. Harrington

Genre: Historical Regency Romance

 

One bookish debutante. Two dashing suitors. And a season full of scandal.

Lady Alaina Sinclair never expected London society to be so treacherous—or so tempting. She has always preferred books to ballrooms, but with a disastrous start to her first season, she’s determined to rewrite her fate. With her heart set on the respectable—and very eligible—Duke of Ashford, Alaina is ready to embrace society’s expectations… even if it means silencing her true desires.

Alaina’s world is set awry by Christopher Kendall, the Marquess of Rochester—sharp-tongued, maddeningly handsome, and inconveniently, the duke’s closest friend. Their first encounter is a disaster. Their next, a temptation. And every moment together after that, increasingly impossible to ignore. But with a web of secrets, jealous relatives, and mysterious threats unraveling around her, it soon becomes clear: this is no ordinary season.

Kindred Schemes is a modern take on a regency romance with glamour, a steamy love triangle, and enough mystery to keep readers turning the page.

 

What readers are saying:

"The story’s central love triangle will delight romance fans...Harrington excels in crafting multidimensional characters...[A] satisfying blend of romance, intrigue, and character-driven storytelling." — Booklife 

 

An entertaining period love story, nicely balancing breathless lust with social satire and high-mindedness.” — Kirkus Reviews

 

"The characters are colorful and sharply etched…the prose has a droll, Austen-esque verve to it, using pompously polite palaver to reveal the crassness of high society...In keeping with the style is the spirit of the book’s message—that true love triumphs over mercenary calculation. Readers will root for the feisty Alaina to overcome the stuffed shirts and find her heart’s desire.” — Kirkus Reviews 

 

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London, 1809

Oh no, here he comes, the lascivious Lord Finch and his merry band of drunken fools. Alaina looked out at the crowded ballroom, her eyes connecting with the group of men making their way toward its center. Alaina had only been at the ball for a quarter hour before this particular disaster struck, the leers of the men making the hairs at the nape of her neck prickle. It did not escape Alaina’s attention that Lady Barbara, Lord Finch’s sister, accompanied the group, and wore a sly smile. Hopefully, this latest encounter would be short. Surely, Lord Finch would not want to be rejected twice, let alone in front of a large crowd.

Alaina looked to her right to find her parents close at hand, thankfully, and she stood a little straighter knowing she would not face this alone.

The group of men seemed to move in unison before coming to a halt a few paces before Alaina and her family. A group of onlookers formed a circle around them as if ready to enjoy the ensuing spectacle, Lady Barbara taking her place in the throng. Alaina struggled to focus on the faces of the onlookers as she held her head high, ready to meet Lord Finch and his friends with as much dignity as she could muster. She hoped to project a more serene exterior than she currently felt, her heartbeat accelerating to such a degree that she could feel the blood rushing in her ears.

Lord Finch stepped to the fore of the now halted group, and gallantly bowed to Alaina before speaking, his voice so loud that Alaina was sure people arriving in carriages outside could hear.

“My dearest beautiful Alaina,” he started, clearing his throat before continuing, “You have set upon me quite a conundrum. I fear I have fallen madly in love with the idea of having you as my wife, and I feel you should be happy with such an arrangement. I am quite the catch, you know, especially for someone from the country, and one who likes to read.”

From behind him, Lady Barbara piped up with an added insult, “Amazing, really, that Alaina found her way out of the library to be here.” Laughter rippled through the crowd.

Alaina cringed at his easy use of her given name, devoid of any honorific, and seethed at the mockery of her character. Lord Finch and his sister sounded ridiculous, pompous, and conceited.

Alaina was frozen in place, her lips trembling in rage, and when no comment ushered forth from her lips, Lord Finch rejoined, unfazed by the one-sided nature of their conversation. “I find myself at an impasse. Shall I continue to press my suit with decorum, or should I make my feelings known to the whole world, so that you may not so easily dismiss them as you have in the past?”

A warmth crept up Alaina’s neck and touched her cheeks, giving her pale skin a glow, although one not easily perceptible in the dim light of the ballroom. She turned once again to where her parents stood, only to find that her father had disappeared, and her mother’s pale face was drawn in embarrassment as she watched her eldest child with dismay. Oh, how Alaina wished her father would have stayed; his tall frame was intimidating to a crowd, and his familiar umber eyes were always reassuring to her.

Resolved to put a stop to this farce, Alaina turned back to Lord Finch and remarked, her voice distant and strange sounding in her ears, “Lord Finch, it seems my earlier rejection of your suit did not deter you in the least, but I ask you to have a care for your surroundings.”

As the words left her mouth, Alaina watched Lord Finch’s face change, his outwardly serene expression making way for something more sinister. His smile twisted into an outright leer, and his pale green eyes seemed to burn of their own accord, the candlelight no longer just a reflection in them. He lowered to one knee and reached out his hands in supplication as he sneered, “Please, will you marry me, my lady?” The emphasis on the last word ensured that Alaina felt the insult.

Lord Finch was quickly joined by his friends, their idiocy knowing no bounds, all of them dropping to their knees in a chorus of marriage proposals, each more mocking and infuriating than the last. Soon laughter rang loudly in Alaina’s ears as the men and then the onlookers seemed to find amusement in her predicament. Her world blurred through a sheen of tears, the faces of the laughing men—now resembling something like demons—the only clear points in her vision.

Alaina glanced about to find her mother and threw herself into her open arms, shielding her from the worst of the crowd. The two women made their way to the outer edge of the ballroom and quickly to the front entrance, only stopping a moment to gather their cloaks before heading out into the cool night. Her father, having had the forethought to make his way to the exit, met them in the front drive, where he had already called for their carriage to be brought around, and not a moment too soon.

The Sinclair family hastened into the carriage, a pall falling on them as the conveyance made its way onto the main thoroughfare and toward their London townhome. Alaina squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on the clip clop of the well-matched team of four, grateful for the silence of her parents, as she let tears make their way unchecked down her cheeks.

 

R. K. Harrington is a debut historical romance author, combining swoon-worthy romance with a bit of mystery. Her first novel, Kindred Schemes, is scheduled to be released February 2026.

In 2021, R. K. Harrington found that her daydreams were yearning to spill over to the written page, and, ever since, has been writing historical romance with a dash of mystery in hopes of publishing her work one day. After much editing, and long hours designing, she is gearing up to release her first novel, with many more to come!

R. K. Harrington grew up reading romance novels at a (maybe too) young age, and the stories entranced her. Give her a Happily Ever After (HEA) and there is no better book in the world. While romance books (namely historical romances) are her first love, R. K. Harrington is an avid reader of all genres. She has gone through many phases: medical mysteries, crime dramas, science fiction, romantasy, and is currently in a fantasy phase (she does do the occasional non-fiction book as well, namely history). Through every season of reading, romance books of all kinds are sprinkled liberally.

When R. K. Harrington is not writing or reading (or working her day job as an engineer), she is having fun with her husband, their kids, and her very cute dog, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Maximus. They all live in the DMV area, where the summers are hot, the winters are cold, and the two days of Spring and Fall are beautiful enough to open the windows!

 

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