Cash Plays by Cordelia Kingsbridge Blog Tour, Excerpt & Giveaway!

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Hiya Peeps! We have Cordelia Kingsbridge visiting today with her new release Cash Plays, we have a great excerpt and a fantastic giveaway, so check out the post and leave a comment to enter the giveaway!  ❤ ~Pixie~

Cash Plays

(Seven of Spades 03)
by

Cordelia Kingsbridge

Las Vegas has never seen a serial killer like the Seven of Spades.

The self-styled vigilante is on a mission to cut down the wicked and treacherous, and Sin City has no shortage of targets for their bloody wrath. What happens in Vegas . . . ends with the Seven of Spades’s calling card on a grisly corpse.

Standing against the killer are Levi Abrams, a dedicated homicide detective locked in a constant struggle to restrain his own dark side, and bounty hunter Dominic Russo, a charming rogue with a heavy secret weighing on his shoulders.

The hunt for the Seven of Spades sends Levi and Dominic on a collision course, igniting a passionate relationship forged in conflict and sealed with blood. Together they’re stronger than the sum of their parts, but a wily, elusive serial killer isn’t the only threat that will strain their bond to the breaking point.

Ante up, because the Seven of Spades is all in. Are you?

Excerpt!

Thanks for checking out the blog tour for Cash Plays, the third book in the Seven of Spades series!

After the Seven of Spades returns at the end of Trick Roller, they resume their vigilante mission with a vengeance. Levi and Dominic do their best to keep up, but a bloodthirsty serial killer isn’t the only threat they face…

~~~~

Levi jerked awake with a full-body shudder. He lay still, breathing hard, resisting the creeping tendrils of the nightmare that tried to follow him out of sleep.

Once he felt less disoriented, he sat up and raked a hand through his sweat-damp curls. The hotel room was quiet and dark, but enough light filtered through the curtains for him to see that everything was as it should be. Beside him, his boyfriend Dominic didn’t stir; he was a heavy sleeper, and not much would wake him before he was ready.

This wasn’t the first time Levi had been grateful for that.

At the foot of the bed, however, lay Dominic’s dog Rebel, a hundred-pound German Shepherd–Rottweiler mix whose notice was more difficult to escape. She lifted her head off her paws and thumped her long tail against the bed.

“It’s okay,” Levi whispered. “Go to sleep.”

His heart was still racing, and the horror of the dream clung to him even as the details began to fade. He rolled his neck and shoulders to release the tension and wondered if he’d be able to go back to sleep tonight. The clock on the nightstand read half past three.

Letting out a low, uneasy whine, Rebel squirmed up the bed on her belly until she could butt her head against his hand. He sank his fingers into her fur, scratching her ears and neck, and his pulse calmed a bit. Few things in life were as comforting as petting a dog.

“Good girl. Everything’s fine.”

She sighed as he scritched the sweet spot behind her right ear. Then she tilted her head toward Dominic, who was out cold, and looked back at Levi.

He realized what she was about to do and opened his mouth to object, but it was too late. She let out three quiet, huffing barks before he could stop her. Rebel was a trained personal protection dog, and that sequence of barks in that tone was her conditioned signal to alert Dominic to trouble while he was sleeping.

Waking with the sudden and total alertness of a veteran soldier sensing danger, Dominic rolled over and sat up. “What’s wrong?” he asked in a voice that held not a trace of sleep.

“Nothing,” Levi said, irritated. “Rebel overreacted.”

Dominic’s eyes traveled over them both. One of his best and worst qualities, depending on the day, was his incredible perceptiveness; a few seconds later he said, “Did you have that nightmare again?”

Levi shrugged. “It’s not the same nightmare. Just . . . variations on a theme.”

Rubbing a hand over Levi’s bare back, Dominic leaned in and kissed his shoulder. “You weren’t gonna wake me up, were you?”

“Why would I wake you up in the middle of the night because I had a bad dream?”

“So I could take care of you.”

Levi flinched; he couldn’t help it. “I don’t need—”

“Everyone needs to be taken care of sometimes,” Dominic said firmly. “You do it for me when . . . well, you know.”

He knew exactly what Dominic meant; it had happened just a few days ago. They’d come out to Mt. Charleston to celebrate Dominic’s licensure as a private investigator with a week of hiking the challenging trails in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The first night, they’d gone to the hotel bar, unaware that it contained entire banks of video poker and blackjack games.

As a compulsive gambler in recovery, the unexpected exposure to such an intense trigger had sent Dominic into a tailspin. Levi had spent the rest of the night alternating between talking him down and very energetically distracting him.

“That’s different,” said Levi.

“How?” When Levi didn’t respond—because it wasn’t different, not really—Dominic said, “When you tell me in the morning that you had a terrible nightmare, and I realize I was fast asleep while you were lying wide-awake next to me for hours, it makes me feel like an asshole.”

Of course it did, because Dominic was pathologically altruistic, and being unable to help in any situation drove him right up the wall.

“Fine,” Levi said. “Next time, I’ll shake you awake at ass o’clock in the morning so you can be just as miserable and sleep-deprived as I am.”

Dominic smiled, as unfazed by Levi’s brusque sarcasm as ever. “That’s all I ask.” He pressed his lips to Levi’s temple, said, “I’ll get you some water,” and threw the covers back.

Before Dominic left the bed, Levi caught his arm and gave him a long, lingering kiss, trying to communicate with his body the things he was so bad at saying out loud. After they parted, Dominic nuzzled the side of his face for a few seconds and then stood.

Stroking Rebel’s head, Levi watched Dominic move around the room, naked and unselfconscious. He was dizzyingly attractive in a rugged, salt-of-the-earth way, a fascinating study in contrasts. The intimidating effect of his brawny, six-five frame was undercut by the sweet smile that left Levi breathless; his square jaw and broken nose were softened by the warmth in his eyes. Levi couldn’t look away.

¬¬Dominic crouched by the minifridge, giving Levi a view of the vibrant Ranger crest tattoo splashed across his chiseled upper back. Then he turned with a bottle of water in hand, and the view from the front was even better. If it weren’t for the stubborn remnants of his nightmare, Levi’s thoughts would be running in a decidedly filthy direction.

“My face is up here,” Dominic teased as he returned to the bed.

Levi snorted and accepted the bottle. “Yes, I can see you’re very offended.”

Chuckling, Dominic slung an arm around Levi’s shoulders and snuggled close while Levi sipped some water. “Do you want to talk about the dream?” he asked after a minute.

Levi shook his head. Since childhood, he’d had a particularly intense fear of being trapped and hunted by an enemy in a situation he couldn’t escape, even though nothing like that had ever happened to him. It was so bad he couldn’t read novels or watch horror movies that capitalized on the trope: stories where the protagonists were stuck in a house with a killer or lost in the woods or so on.

For over two decades, those nightmares had come and gone in waves, sometimes plaguing him for weeks at a time before disappearing altogether for months. The dreams had been especially bad in his early twenties after he’d been jumped and beaten half to death by a group of men in the parking lot of a gay bar. They’d gotten even worse than that over the past three months, ever since the serial killer Seven of Spades had resumed wreaking their bloody wrath throughout the Valley.

“Thanks for the water,” Levi said, handing Dominic the bottle. Dominic drank from it as well before setting it aside, then laid him down and spooned up behind him.

Rather than return to the foot of the bed, Rebel stretched out on Levi’s other side so he could curl up around her. Dominic’s arm rested on his, their fingers laced together over the soft fur of her belly, and Levi’s muscles unlocked as he took comfort from their combined warmth.

He didn’t have Dominic’s brute strength, but in the face of a violent threat, he was just as capable of defending himself—perhaps more so. Yet resting in Dominic’s arms always created a sense of safety he couldn’t quite explain.

Dominic kissed the back of Levi’s head, and in no time at all, his breathing evened out as he fell asleep again. Closing his eyes, Levi soaked up the pleasure of his embrace. It would have been perfect if not for the nagging guilt in the back of his mind, because he hadn’t told Dominic the whole truth about his nightmare.

Though the dream itself was never the same, the emotions it provoked always were: the heart-pounding terror of fleeing an unseen enemy, of endlessly searching for a place to hide and knowing there was no escape. It always spoke to one of Levi’s most deep-seated fears and ruthlessly exploited it.

Except tonight, Levi hadn’t been the prey.

He’d been the hunter.

Cordelia Kingsbridge - Cash Plays Promo 1Cordelia Kingsbridge - Seven Of Spades series banner

Seven of Spades series!

Las Vegas has never seen a serial killer like the Seven of Spades.

The self-styled vigilante is on a mission to cut down the wicked and treacherous, and Sin City has no shortage of targets for their bloody wrath. What happens in Vegas . . . ends with the Seven of Spades’s calling card on a grisly corpse.

Standing against the killer are Levi Abrams, a dedicated homicide detective locked in a constant struggle to restrain his own dark side, and bounty hunter Dominic Russo, a charming rogue with a heavy secret weighing on his shoulders.

The hunt for the Seven of Spades sends Levi and Dominic on a collision course, igniting a passionate relationship forged in conflict and sealed with blood. Together they’re stronger than the sum of their parts, but a wily, elusive serial killer isn’t the only threat that will strain their bond to the breaking point.

Ante up, because the Seven of Spades is all in. Are you?

Check out the Seven of Spades series!

Cordelia Kingsbridge - Cash Plays Promo

About Cordelia!

Cordelia Kingsbridge has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh, but quickly discovered that direct practice in the field was not for her. Having written novels as a hobby throughout graduate school, she decided to turn her focus to writing as a full-time career. Now she explores her fascination with human behavior, motivation, and psychopathology through fiction. Her weaknesses include opposites-attract pairings and snarky banter.

Away from her desk, Cordelia is a fitness fanatic, and can be found strength training, cycling, and practicing Krav Maga. She lives in South Florida but spends most of her time indoors with the air conditioning on full blast!

Connect with Cordelia:

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Giveaway!

To celebrate the release of Cash Plays, Cordelia is giving away a $15 Riptide credit!

(Just leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest.)

Thanks for following along, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

(Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on June 9, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.)
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Check out the other blogs on the tour!

June 4, 2018 – We Three Queens
June 4, 2018 – Dog-Eared Daydreams
June 4, 2018 – Jessie G Book Reviews
June 5, 2018 – Love Bytes Reviews
June 5, 2018 – OMG Reads
June 5, 2018 – Creative Deeds
June 6, 2018 – My Fiction Nook
June 6, 2018 – Boy Meets Boy Reviews
June 6, 2018 – Erotica For All
June 6, 2018 – MM Good Book Reviews
June 7, 2018 – The Novel Approach
June 7, 2018 – Real Talk Book Talk
June 7, 2018 – The Day Before You Came
June 8, 2018 – Bayou Book Junkie
June 8, 2018 – Two Chicks Obsessed
June 8, 2018 – La Crimson Femme
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7 thoughts on “Cash Plays by Cordelia Kingsbridge Blog Tour, Excerpt & Giveaway!

  1. Thank you for the excerpt, and congratulations on the release!
    susanaperez7140(at)gmail(dot)com

  2. Don’t even need the excerpt. I know I’m gonna love it!
    jlshannon74 at gmail.com

  3. I’ve been hearing a lot of wonderful things about this series. I haven’t started it yet as I want to have them all but soon…
    serena91291@gmail(dot)com

  4. Levi and Dominic are unforgettable characters. Already looking forward to the next book.
    lkbherring64(at)gmail(dot)com

  5. Congrats, and thanks for the post. Sounds like another great addition to the series. – Purple Reader, TheWrote [at] aol [dot] com

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