Meredith Shayne

Reasonable Force at JMS Books

I am pleased to be able to announce that Reasonable Force is available for sale at JMS Books. You can find it here, in various ebook formats and also on sale for 40% off, so if that’s not a bargain, I don’t know what is.

Please note that this story was previously published in the Torquere Press anthology The Care and Feeding of Demons, and that this version is not significantly different from that version. For owners of the anthology, there’s no pressing need to buy it again, unless you want it as a standalone with its snazzy new cover.

With that said, I’ll leave you with an excerpt:

Daniel went straight from Francis’ office to his usual post-hunt club. He was well on the way to drowning Francis’ words in beer and tequila when the waitress’ shadow fell over him. He looked up at her, his eyebrows raised. She put a shot of tequila down on the table in front of him and jerked her head in the direction of the dance floor. “Guy over there’s bought you a drink.”

Daniel looked over to where she’d indicated, catching the eye of a man leaning against the wall across the room. He was tall and dark and built like a proverbial mountain. He was good looking too, but what was most striking about him were his eyes — they positively smoldered, and even from across the room Daniel felt the man’s gaze like a touch. Daniel narrowed his eyes as the man smirked at him.

“Take it away. And tell him I don’t want it.”

“Yeah, he said you’d say that. He said to tell you if you don’t want him to come over and bother you, you’ll take the drink.”

Daniel frowned. “What? Don’t you usually buy a drink for someone so you can talk to them?”

“That’s how it usually works, darlin’. But this bar does get all the strange ones.”

She gave his table a cursory swipe with a cloth and left him to it. Daniel looked at the drink at his elbow and then back at the man across the room, who was still staring at him. Daniel sighed and picked up the drink, saluting the man before tipping his head back and downing it, smacking the glass back on the table when he was done. When he looked back across the room, the man looked delighted.

“Fucking weirdo,” he muttered, turning back to his beer and somber thoughts.

He wasn’t left alone to brood for long. It couldn’t have been five minutes before another shadow fell across him, a shadow much taller and broader than the waitress’ had been. Daniel gripped his glass with both hands until his knuckles turned white and didn’t look up.

“I thought you were going to leave me alone if I drank the damn drink.”

“Really? Perhaps that lovely waitress misheard me when I told her what to say to you.”

The shadow moved as the man slipped into the seat opposite him. Daniel stared at him.

“I don’t recall inviting you to sit.”

“Well, well, aren’t you a rude one? I take it I am not going to get a thank you for the drink?”

“You told the waitress it would keep you away!”

“You keep saying that,” the man said lightly. “You are not flattered I wished to come and speak to you?”

“Should I be? Who the hell are you?”

“Someone who wishes to know you.”

Daniel felt his lip curl as he sneered. “Oh, spare me. I don’t hook up with random strangers in bars.”

“Is that right?” The smirk was back. “Because I would say you do, if that business in the alleyway last night was any indication of your … proclivities.” The man chuckled. “Or is it you would rather pay than be paid for?”

Daniel’s face grew hot, and he was glad for the lack of lighting in the bar. “I don’t have to listen to this shit,” he said, and slid out of his seat, putting a hand on the table to push himself up. He was about to step away when strong, warm fingers curled tightly around his wrist.

“Don’t go,” the man said. “We were just starting to have fun.”