Lucky Charm
Authors: Valerie Douglas
Lucky Charm
By
Valerie Douglas
Published by the author as a member of the
Alexandria Publishing Group
Lucky Charm Copyright © 2011 Valerie Douglas
Cover art by Renee Barrett of The Cover Counts
With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from author.
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
License Notes
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Discover other titles by Valerie Douglas
Fantasy
The Coming Storm
A Convocation of Kings
Not Magic Enough
Setting Boundaries
Song of the Fairy Queen
Heart of the Gods
Servant of the Gods
Romance
Dirty Politics
Directors Cut
Irish Fling
Two Up
Nike’s Wings
The Last Resort
Dedication
To the person I know only as T, to T’s crew, to my brother Ken, to all the Law Enforcement Officers and first responders across the country who put their lives on the line every day trying to keep us safe. There is no greater service than to risk your life for another.
And to their families, who watch them go out the door every day.
This is a work of fiction, and as a work of fiction any resemblance to people, places or things is entirely accidental. The creation of certain buildings and locations is entirely the work of the author to avoid conflict and comparison with existing structures.
Matt suddenly found himself in the desert of Afghanistan again and a hell of a sandstorm raged around him. He could hear the sound of weapons fire in the distance but couldn’t tell who was shooting or what they were shooting at. The sand blew so thick he couldn’t see anyone, not even Bill at his back, and his ears were ringing. That ringing was about to drive him insane.
There’d been no ringing back then, though, nothing but the sound of the wind and the ceaseless whisper of the sand.
Ringing.
Ringing?
Phone? The phone. The phone was ringing.
The sound of it dragged him out of the depths of sleep – he glanced blearily at the clock, still half caught up in the last dregs of the dream.
A dream, that’s all it had been.
One forty two in the A.M. He’d been asleep for less than an hour and lately he’d been having a little bit of a problem getting even that far. Lying down in this big bed all by himself didn’t hold much attraction lately, it just seemed too empty. As a result, he found himself putting off trying to sleep longer and longer each night, even after a hard day. These days he was as likely to fall asleep in his chair in the living room as here but that left his back stiff.
He refused to think about the reason he had so much trouble sleeping. It wasn’t just the dreams or the memories.
Who the hell would be calling him at this hour anyway? He didn’t have anything hot going at on at work at the moment, he was between assignments, so it wasn’t work that was calling.
One thing he did know, at this time of night if it wasn’t some joker it was almost always bad news. A weird sense of foreboding went through him at the thought.
All Caller ID said ‘California number’. That meant it was most likely an unlisted land line. Who did he know in California?
Only a rare few people had his home number. In his line of work, it didn’t pay to give people access to that kind of personal information.
He answered as much out of habit and because he was still half-asleep as for any other reason. With his luck, it was probably a wrong number or an obscene phone caller. If it was they were going to get more than the rough edge of his tongue for waking him at this ungodly hour when he’d been lucky enough to get to sleep.
