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SMOKE AND MIRRORS (The Gifted, Book 1)By MARIE TREANOREbook $2.99 from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, 6th Nov.

Deceit and desire, and a treasure beyond price...

When struggling Scottish writer Nell Black accepts a one-off job with the police, translatingfor an arson suspect from the isolated ex-Soviet republic of Zavrekestan, she stumbles into aterrifying world of organized crime and paranormal abilities that turns her whole belief system upside down. Faced with an incomparable thief, hit men who spontaneously combust,gangsters, drug dealers, British Intelligence and a fiery goddess, Nell no longer knows who totrust. The man who saves her life is a criminal to whom deceit is second nature. He has moresmoke screens and more plans in motion than anyone else can keep track of. He is, moreover,probably insane. Even his fellow gangsters are afraid of him. So why is he the one man Nellwants to touch her?Rodion Kosar is in trouble. His convoluted plans all lead to one goal - the retrieval of histreasure - and to achieve that, he needs Nell to believe he isn't the bad guy. He has manyreasons beyond his own desires to make love to her. Especially when a plan goes wrong andhe has to play dead before someone really kills him - either the police, the menacing Russiancrime lord known as the Bear, or the powerful Guardian of the Gifted whom he's defied oncetoo often. Nell's burgeoning gift of second sight could be his best route to the treasure, andyet keeping her with him spells danger. For Nell has her own agenda, her own mission, andshe could just as easily cause his final downfall.*

Excerpt

“Come on, I’ll walk you to your car by way of thank

-you. Where are you

parked?”

“Just across there in MacDonald Road.” Her voice said she hardly needed an escort for soshort a journey. Or for any other journey, come to that. But since she didn’t forbid him, he

stood and waited politely for her to pick up her coat and bag and then held the café door open

for her. That drew a surprised flicker from her eyes too. Either the men in her life weren’tcourteous enough or it wasn’t the behaviour she expected from criminals.

Two minutes, three at the most, and he’d be alone. It was

necessary. He needed to think, toplan. And yet all he really wanted to do was collapse and forget. Just for a little while.Crossing Leith Walk by her side, he recognised he was clinging to the last moments of hercompany just to stave off the excruciati

ng loneliness he’d have to deal with sooner or later.

And still he was pathetically grateful to her.She stopped beside a slightly battered-looking mini and turned to face him, rather like a

soldier awaiting orders for a suicidal mission. “Do you want a lift?” she blurted.

A lift. Did she mean that? Was she being polite now, or did he still have the possibility of thatoblivion fuck he so craved?A blink of early morning sunlight glinted off her soft, brown eyes. He lifted one hand, andshe flinched before forcing herself to be still. Interesting. He touched her cheek anyway, a

strictly one-time-only caress of regret. Smooth, soft, and warm, even in the damp cold of the

morning, her skin tempted him with possibilities. But…

“No.” He couldn’t do it to

her.She shivered under his touch. Her breath caught, sounding almost panicked. As she spunaway from him with a quick, nervous smile, the sun sparked red against the brown of herhair. And when she stilled, fitting her key to the car lock, the red remained

—

a round, red,definite dot.

Fuck.

He hurled himself into her, knocking her flat on the ground with his body over hers. Eventhrough the thud and her involuntary cry, he heard the snap of the bullet hitting the tenementwall only feet away. Her eyes, huge, stunned, frightened, stared into his.She jerked under him in obvious panic, kicking and pushing against his shoulders with thehand she had free.

“Keep down,” he said urgently. A quick glance confirmed what he already knew: a long

street of teneme

nts without a turnoff. “Our only cover is the parked cars. First doorway wecan get into, take it.”

“What…?”

He moved off her, dragging her to her knees and then her feet, still crouched behind the car.A glance over his shoulder caught the figure balanced on the tenement roof on the other sideof Leith Walk, rifle raised for another shot.

He didn’t wait for it but bolted along MacDonald Road, dragging the girl with him. He

crashed his shoulder into the first door, shattering the security lock, and almost fell into thecommon entrance, pulling the girl with him. Something whizzed into the door as it fell closed

again behind them, but he didn’t pause to look.

He bolted past the stairs, past the curious old lady in a dressing gown at the front door of thefirst flat, and straight to the door at the back of the building that led out to the communalyard.

“What’s going on?” Nell gasped out.

“A hit,” he answered, swiftly scanning the yard before he pulled her on toward the opening

into what looked like a ca

r park beyond. “Silenced but just as deadly.”

“Someone’s trying to kill you?” she squeaked.

“And you, I’m afraid.”

“But why?”