Today we have the blog tour for The Protector by HelenKay Dimon! Check it out and get your copy today!
Title: The Protector:
Author: HelenKay Dimon
Genre Romantic Suspense
About The Protector:
Salvation, Pennsylvania. The commune located in the small town was advertised as a modern Utopia: a place to live, share, and learn with other like-minded young people. Cate Pendleton’s sister was one of them. Now she’s dead—and Cate won’t rest until she finds out who killed her. Stonewalled at every turn, she approaches a DC Fixer for help and ends up with Damon Knox, a mysterious man with a secretive past. But Cate soon discovers that she not only needs Damon, she wants him, which isn’t good—for the attraction brewing between them will only lead to complications that can turn into danger . . .Damon has tried to erase the hellish memories and the evil that happened in Salvation ever since he left a long time ago. Still, he can’t turn his back on Cate. As Damon works with Cate to uncover her sister’s killer, he finds himself drawn to her more and more. But how will she feel about him when she learns about his connection to the place?
EXCERPT:
Cate heard the knocking sound and looked around the windowless conference room to track it. Nothing obvious stuck out as she swiveled her chair from one side to the other but the knocking stopped. That pretty much fit with her experience in the building so far. Plush and bustling with people inside. Outside, a nondescript beige building near Capitol Hill. She only knew the business’s official name – Owari Enterprises – due to the small plaque in the lobby. Not exactly where she’d expected the mysterious, everyone-wants-his-help D.C. fixer to work.
Un-crossing and re-crossing her legs, she went back to studying the files in front of her. The same ones she’d collated, created and read at least a hundred times each. Police reports. Interviews. Piles of paper that purported to tell Shauna’s story but really only told the pieces that people assumed explained how and why she died. Cate knew better.
The door opened behind her. She didn’t look up, choosing to focus on the paperwork instead. Then her visitor’s legs came into view. Long, like stupid long. Her head jerked up and she caught a peek at the rest of him. Tall and sleek in his slim-fitting black pants and black short-sleeve shirt with thin white stripes.
She tried to look away, not see how fit he was. Ignore the way his biceps strained the hem of sleeves. Pretend she didn’t notice how those pants balanced low on his hips, highlighting his long torso and flat stomach. The light brown hair and his shocking green eyes. So, green. Like grass-on-a-summer-afternoon green.
So far every man she met in this office gave off a hottie vibe. Men in suits. Men in casual clothes, all walking around, seemingly working hard with chiseled faces to match their impressive muscles. Almost like it was some sort of employment requirement.
“Cate Pendleton?” The guy’s deep voice floated through the room.
The knocking started again right after. This time it beat in time with the smack of her knee against the underside of the desk. The second she realized she was the one causing the noise, she stopped fidgeting.
She gestured at the chair across from her at the wide conference table. “Take a seat.”
But he didn’t move except for his eyebrow which kicked up and somehow managed to make him look amused. “I’m guessing that means you actually are Cate Pendleton.”
“Yes.” She assumed that was clear, but maybe there was more than one conference room with a lone woman on the edge in this place. “I have–”
“Hello.”
Good grief, that smile. He could sell anything to anyone with that dimple. Except her. She didn’t fall for that sort of thing. “What?”
“I thought we’d do the old-fashioned thing and introduce ourselves.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Damon Knox.”
“Okay.” Her gaze followed his arms and those long fingers. For a second all she could do was stare as mindless chatter rattled around in her brain. It took a few blinks for her to snap back to reality, shake and drop her hand to the table again. “Are you ready now?”
“Sorry I got delayed. How are we doing in here?” Garrett McGrath said as he stepped into the room behind the other guy.
She nodded toward Doug…wait, was that it? Her mind blanked out when he started talking. Not a state she was accustomed to. She blamed the secrecy covert crap she had to do to get on Wren’s radar. “Your guy is big on formal introductions.”
“That doesn’t sound like him.” Garrett winked at her then closed the door and took the chair at the head of the table. He glanced at Doug, Dan…whatever his name was. “Sit.”
He listened to Garrett and took a seat. Then he pointed at the shiny band on Garrett’s finger. “Congratulations. Gotta say, I never thought you’d get married.”
Garrett laughed. “We were looking at takeout menus one night and I suggested we go to Vegas and get the deed done. Once she said yes, I couldn’t get her there fast enough.”
“Couldn’t risk her changing her mind to that romantic proposal?”
Garrett’s laughter only got louder. “Exactly.”
Damon! Seeing the men go back and forth, paying her the same attention they paid to the plant in the room, sparked something and the name popped right into her head. One problem down. Now, onto the next one. Enough boy talk. The whole conversation raced by without her understanding the context. She’d picked up the Sullivan reference but little more.
“Excuse me.” They both stared at her now. “I’m not sure if this is some sort of mens’ club thing, but is there any chance one, or both of you, would consider filling me in on what’s happening. Me being the client and all.”
If Garrett was offended he hid it well. At her slight outburst, he pivoted the conversation and focus on her. “Sorry about that. But yes, Wren has used Damon on other missions.”
“How formal you sound,” Damon mumbled, not even trying to keep his voice low.
“And he’ll be with you on this until he heads into Sullivan to collect intel,” Garrett said, almost talking over Damon. “I’ll be your contact on the outside.”
She wasn’t convinced about this Damon guy or any plan to put him in Sullivan. Being hot didn’t qualify him for anything other than hotness, but he had said something pretty interesting. “But he mentioned you already have an inside man.”
Damon nodded. “She’s not wrong. I did.”
“If there’s a person inside, I should just skip…” She let her voice trail off when Damon frowned at her. “Well, I should work directly with that person and Damon can go do…whatever it is he does.”
Garrett glanced at Damon. “I see you’ve made quite an impression on her.”
Joining forces to uncover the truth, they must stay one step ahead of a cunning killer who’s bent on not being exposed.
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