Ethan
Cooke Security and their bodyguard team return to action in Deceiving
Bella – book eleven in Cate
Beauman’s Bodyguards of L.A. County
series.
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over 7700 reviews and a 4.4 rating for the entire series, see why the
Bodyguards of L.A. County
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Isabella Colby has always yearned for
normalcy. Now that she’s settled in LA, she finally has it. Good
friends, a pretty home, and her thriving career as the Palisades’
top skincare specialist are a dream come true. Bella is content until
she meets her hunky new neighbor, but her attraction to the blue-eyed
cutie is the least of her worries when contacting her long-lost
father threatens to destroy her happy life.
Reed McKinley is more than ready to
forget the past. His seven-year stint as an NYPD detective nearly got
him killed. His wounds have healed and he’s starting over as Ethan
Cooke Security’s latest recruit. With sixty-hour workweeks and
little time to himself, the last thing on his mind is a relationship.
Then he bumps into the gorgeous woman next door.
Reed and Bella become fast friends.
Before long, Reed discovers that Bella is keeping dangerous secrets.
Bella may have the answers to decades-old questions he’s been
searching for. Reed will risk it all to uncover the truth, but he
soon realizes that the deeper he digs, the direr the consequences.
The
Inspiration Behind Deceiving
Bella:
It’s no secret that
I’m a crime television junky. I love watching anything that might
bring about an idea for another story. Several months ago, I found a
series on Netflix about La Cosa Nostra—or the five mafia families
of New York. I was immediately drawn to the information I was
observing. Within minutes, I knew I wanted to weave together an
adventure that would bring Isabella Colby and Reed McKinley face to
face with organized crime. I hope you’ll enjoy reading Deceiving
Bella as much as I loved writing it.
Read
an excerpt from Deceiving Bella:
Chapter 1:
Bella drew a heart on
the back of a pale pink envelope while she sat at the small table
tucked in the corner of her room. Smiling, she set down her lilac
crayon, pleased that the shape of this heart hardly looked wobbly at
all. She studied the assortment of stickers Mommy had given her to
decorate her invitations with and picked the glittery fuchsia ones
for the corners. Locking her ankles, she kicked her legs back and
forth and hummed along with the music on the CD player, trying to
ignore her parents shouting in the living room. “Here is my handle,
here is my spout,” she muttered, sealing the envelope closed with a
puffy star sticker. “Tip me over and pour me out.”
The yelling suddenly
stopped, and footsteps stormed down the hall. Bella jumped when Mommy
and Daddy’s bedroom door slammed shut. Pausing, she listened to the
quiet, then picked up the next envelope and smiled again when she
recognized the letter ‘M.’ “Mary Rose.” She snatched
up the sheet of silly smiley faces and put one right below Mommy’s
pretty handwriting, certain her best friend would love it.
“Bella Boop,” Daddy
called, giving a quick knock on her door.
“I’m in here.”
The knob turned and
Daddy walked in dressed in jeans and one of the grease smeared white
T-shirts he always wore to work.
Bella picked up a
sky-blue crayon. She paused as she met Daddy’s gaze and realized
his brown eyes were red, the way hers looked when she scraped her
knees or got shots at the doctor’s office and cried. “Are you and
Mommy mad at each other?”
Daddy sat on the bed,
wrinkling her Hello Kitty comforter with his weight. “No. We’re
not mad at each other.”
“Mommy yelled at you.
Did you leave the toilet seat up again?” She frowned, remembering
the cold water she’d fallen into the other morning. “I don’t
want my tushy to get wet again when I sit down.”
He closed his eyes as
he laughed, but it wasn’t his regular laugh that always made her
giggle. “No, I didn’t leave the seat up.”
“Good,” she said
with a decisive nod and got back to work.
“What are you doing
in here?” he asked.
“Coloring my
invitations. Mommy said we can bring them with us to school in the
morning. Everybody gets to have one—even the boys—so we don’t
hurt anyone’s feelings.”
“That’s my girl.”
He winked.
She handed over one of
the envelopes in her finished pile for Daddy to admire. “This one
is for Clara. See how it has a letter ‘C’? That’s how I
know.”
“What’s this?”
Daddy pointed to the next letter in Clara’s name.
“An ‘L.’”
“Smarty-pants.”
She grinned, always
loving it when he called her that. “Clara’s going to be five too.
Her mommy’s bringing brownies to school next week when it’s her
birthday—just like you brought in the cupcakes for me to share
yesterday. Everyone liked them. Pink frosting is the best kind.”
“With purple
sprinkles, right?”
“Right.” She took
the invitation back and continued decorating Mary Rose’s.
“I can’t believe my
girl’s almost five. You’re not a baby anymore.”
“I’m a beautiful
young lady now, right?”
He sighed. “Somehow
you are. Not all that long ago, I was rocking you to sleep.”
“Beautiful young
ladies have pierced ears and paint their nails.” She beamed at him,
thrilled that she had both after a trip to the mall and a visit to
the nail painter woman Mommy knew. “And young ladies go to
kindergarten when the leaves fall off the trees, right after the
summer is over.”
“I guess they do.”
He blew out another breath. “Will you come sit with me for a couple
of minutes?”
She hesitated as she
glanced from the stickers to Daddy’s sad eyes. “Okay.”
He grabbed her under
the armpits of her favorite Hello Kitty pajamas and boosted her up,
settling her on his thigh. “Here we go.” He wrapped his arms
around her and hugged her tight.
She returned his
embrace, breathing in the familiar oil smell of the garage where he
fixed cars. “Is your tummy sick?”
“No, baby.” He
played his hand through the curls Mommy had made at the end of her
long ponytail this morning.
“Did you get a
boo-boo at work?” She picked up his stained black fingers, checking
for a cut.
“No, honey.” He
clenched his jaw. “I have to go on a trip.”
She gasped her
excitement and clapped. Daddy always took her on the best adventures.
“Can I come?”
He shook his head. “Not
this time.”
“We could get ice
cream at the Dairy Stop,” she said in a singsong voice, hoping that
would convince him to change his mind.
“I wish we could,
Bella. I have to go on this trip by myself.”
She pressed her cheek
to his chest. “I don’t want you to go unless I get to come too. I
always come too, Daddy.”
His fingers moved
through her hair again. “I know.”
“You can stay right
here with me.” She leaned forward and picked up her favorite book
from the pile on the nightstand. “We can read instead.”
He nuzzled his chin on
top of her head, keeping her close.
She clung to him as her
stomach started to hurt. Daddy never went away. He and Mommy always
read her books together and took turns bringing her to school after
breakfast. “Will you come back soon?”
He shook his head. “Not
for a long time. Not till you’re an even bigger young lady.”
Her lips trembled as
her eyes filled. “But I’ll miss you so much.”
“I’ll miss you too.
I’ll think of you every day.”
“Daddy.” She
sniffled. “I want you to stay.”
“I have something for
you.” He grabbed something from behind his back she hadn’t
noticed when he walked in and held up a small snow globe.
She took the delicate
glass and studied the pretty two-story house surrounded by pine trees
in the center—much bigger than the home she lived in now. “It’s
so nice.”
“When you look at it,
you can think of me.”
“You’ll live in
there?”
He looked at the
ceiling as he swallowed. “Something like that.”
She stared at the
lights on in the cheerful home as the snow fell to the ground. “Will
you come out for my party in a couple of days and sing ‘Happy
Birthday’?”
“I can’t.”
Her shoulders sagged.
“But you can come out at night and read to me and tuck me in?”
He shook his head.
Her lips trembled
again, and she blinked as tears fell.
“Don’t cry, Bella.”
He wiped her cheeks with his thumbs, like he always did. “If there
was any other way… If I could be sure you and your mom would be
safe, I’d take you with me.”
“We could call the
policemans. They’ll make us safe.”
“That’s an idea.”
He swiped another tear away. “How about I tuck you in and we’ll
read?”
She nodded. “Can I
sleep with this?” She gestured to the globe.
“How about we put it
right next to you on the table? I don’t want it to break and cut
you.”
“All right.” She
leaned over and set it next to her lamp. “There.”
Daddy stood, lifting
her with him, and pulled back her covers, then settled her in bed.
“Here we go.” He tucked the blankets around her and read the
story she and Mommy had picked out at the library.
She giggled when the
silly puppy got into mischief and yawned, struggling to keep her eyes
open as Daddy turned to the last page.
“The end.”
“That’s a good
one.” She yawned again. “Maybe we can get a doggy like the girl
in the book.”
“Someday.”
“I love doggies.”
“I know you do.”
She rubbed her tired
eyes. “Let’s read it some more.”
“You need to get some
rest.” Daddy stood from his chair. “Snuggle up.”
She rolled on her side
and nestled her cheek on the pillow. “Night-night, Daddy. I love
you.”
“I love you too.”
He knelt down and hugged her tight, his breath shuddering in and out
next to her ear. “I love you, Bella.” Clearing his throat, he
eased back and smiled. “I love you.”
She smiled too. “I’ll
see you in the morning.”
He shut his eyes,
swallowing several times. “Okay.” Standing again, he turned off
her light. “Bye, baby.”
“Bye, Daddy.”
Did you
enjoy the excerpt? You can read the first chapter on my website,
www.catebeauman.com,
or you can finish the whole book with the links below!
About
the author:
International
bestselling author Cate Beauman is known for her full-length,
action-packed romantic suspense series, The
Bodyguards of L.A. County. Her
novels have been nominated for the National Excellence in Romance
Fiction Award, National Indie Excellence Award, Golden Quill Award,
Writers Touch Award, and have been named Readers Favorite Five Star
books. In 2015, JUSTICE FOR ABBY was selected as the Readers'
Favorite International Book Award Gold Medalist, while SAVING SOPHIE
took the Silver Medal. SAVING SOPHIE was also selected as the 2015
Readers Crown Award winner for Romantic Suspense and FALLING FOR
SARAH received the silver medal for the 2014 Readers' Favorite
Awards.
Cate
makes her home in North Carolina with her husband, two boys, and
their St. Bernards, Bear and Jack. Currently Cate is working on her
twelfth full length romantic suspense novel.
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