Treacherous seas, p.1
Treacherous Seas, page 1
Treacherous Seas
Synopsis
Reese Conlon’s much anticipated family leave is only two weeks away, and nothing is going to stand in the way of her being at her wife’s side for the upcoming birth—not even the summer crowds in Provincetown, a new rookie cop with a hero complex, and a cruise ship at anchor in the harbor with a reported outbreak of a mysterious illness.
Andy Champlain might be a rookie cop, but she was raised by a family of cops, and she’s ready to take on any challenge, if she only gets the chance. With a disaster brewing in Provincetown Harbor, a journalist who’ll do anything for a story, and sexy summer PA, Laurel Winter, at the local clinic, she’s about to have all the excitement she can handle.
Before long, Reese, Tory, Laurel, and Andy are caught up in the gathering storms of an epidemic that could threaten all their lives.
Acclaim for Radclyffe’s Fiction
“Dangerous Waters is a bumpy ride through a devastating time with powerful events and resolute characters. Radclyffe gives us the strong, dedicated women we love to read in a story that keeps us turning pages until the end.”—Lambda Literary Review
“Radclyffe’s Dangerous Waters has the feel of a tense television drama, as the narrative interchanges between hurricane trackers and first responders. Sawyer and Dara butt heads in the beginning as each moves for some level of control during the storm’s approach, and the interference of a lovely television reporter adds an engaging love triangle threat to the sexual tension brewing between them.”—RT Book Reviews
“Love After Hours, the fourth in Radclyffe’s Rivers Community series, evokes the sense of a continuing drama as Gina and Carrie’s slow-burning romance intertwines with details of other Rivers residents. They become part of a greater picture where friends and family support each other in personal and recreational endeavors. Vivid settings and characters draw in the reader…”—RT Book Reviews
Secret Hearts “delivers exactly what it says on the tin: poignant story, sweet romance, great characters, chemistry and hot sex scenes. Radclyffe knows how to pen a good lesbian romance.”—LezReviewBooks Blog
Wild Shores “will hook you early. Radclyffe weaves a chance encounter into all-out steamy romance. These strong, dynamic women have great conversations, and fantastic chemistry.”—The Romantic Reader Blog
In 2016 RWA/OCC Book Buyers Best award winner for suspense and mystery with romantic elements Price of Honor “Radclyffe is master of the action-thriller series…The old familiar characters are there, but enough new blood is introduced to give it a fresh feel and open new avenues for intrigue.”—Curve Magazine
In Prescription for Love “Radclyffe populates her small town with colorful characters, among the most memorable being Flann’s little sister, Margie, and Abby’s 15-year-old trans son, Blake…This romantic drama has plenty of heart and soul.”—Publishers Weekly
2013 RWA/New England Bean Pot award winner for contemporary romance Crossroads “will draw the reader in and make her heart ache, willing the two main characters to find love and a life together. It’s a story that lingers long after coming to ‘the end.’”—Lambda Literary Review
In 2012 RWA/FTHRW Lories and RWA HODRW Aspen Gold award winner Firestorm “Radclyffe brings another hot lesbian romance for her readers.”—The Lesbrary
Foreword Review Book of the Year finalist and IPPY silver medalist Trauma Alert “is hard to put down and it will sizzle in the reader’s hands. The characters are hot, the sex scenes explicit and explosive, and the book is moved along by an interesting plot with well drawn secondary characters. The real star of this show is the attraction between the two characters, both of whom resist and then fall head over heels.”—Lambda Literary Reviews
Lambda Literary Award Finalist Best Lesbian Romance 2010 features “stories [that] are diverse in tone, style, and subject, making for more variety than in many, similar anthologies…well written, each containing a satisfying, surprising twist. Best Lesbian Romance series editor Radclyffe has assembled a respectable crop of 17 authors for this year’s offering.”—Curve Magazine
2010 Prism award winner and ForeWord Review Book of the Year Award finalist Secrets in the Stone is “so powerfully [written] that the worlds of these three women shimmer between reality and dreams…A strong, must read novel that will linger in the minds of readers long after the last page is turned.”—Just About Write
In Benjamin Franklin Award finalist Desire by Starlight “Radclyffe writes romance with such heart and her down-to-earth characters not only come to life but leap off the page until you feel like you know them. What Jenna and Gard feel for each other is not only a spark but an inferno and, as a reader, you will be washed away in this tumultuous romance until you can do nothing but succumb to it.”—Queer Magazine Online
Lambda Literary Award winner Stolen Moments “is a collection of steamy stories about women who just couldn’t wait. It’s sex when desire overrides reason, and it’s incredibly hot!”—On Our Backs
Lambda Literary Award winner Distant Shores, Silent Thunder “weaves an intricate tapestry about passion and commitment between lovers. The story explores the fragile nature of trust and the sanctuary provided by loving relationships.”—Sapphic Reader
Lambda Literary Award Finalist Justice Served delivers a “crisply written, fast-paced story with twists and turns and keeps us guessing until the final explosive ending.”—Independent Gay Writer
Lambda Literary Award finalist Turn Back Time “is filled with wonderful love scenes, which are both tender and hot.”—MegaScene
Applause for L.L. Raand’s Midnight Hunters Series
The Midnight Hunt
RWA 2012 VCRW Laurel Wreath winner Blood Hunt
Night Hunt
The Lone Hunt
“Raand has built a complex world inhabited by werewolves, vampires, and other paranormal beings…Raand has given her readers a complex plot filled with wonderful characters as well as insight into the hierarchy of Sylvan’s pack and vampire clans. There are many plot twists and turns, as well as erotic sex scenes in this riveting novel that keep the pages flying until its satisfying conclusion.”—Just About Write
“Once again, I am amazed at the storytelling ability of L.L. Raand aka Radclyffe. In Blood Hunt, she mixes high levels of sheer eroticism that will leave you squirming in your seat with an impeccable multi-character storyline all streaming together to form one great read.”—Queer Magazine Online
“The Midnight Hunt has a gripping story to tell, and while there are also some truly erotic sex scenes, the story always takes precedence. This is a great read which is not easily put down nor easily forgotten.”—Just About Write
“Are you sick of the same old hetero vampire/werewolf story plastered in every bookstore and at every movie theater? Well, I’ve got the cure to your werewolf fever. The Midnight Hunt is first in, what I hope is, a long-running series of fantasy erotica for L.L. Raand (aka Radclyffe).”—Queer Magazine Online
“Any reader familiar with Radclyffe’s writing will recognize the author’s style within The Midnight Hunt, yet at the same time it is most definitely a new direction. The author delivers an excellent story here, one that is engrossing from the very beginning. Raand has pieced together an intricate world, and provided just enough details for the reader to become enmeshed in the new world. The action moves quickly throughout the book and it’s hard to put down.”—Three Dollar Bill Reviews
Treacherous Seas
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Treacherous Seas
© 2020 By Radclyffe. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-63555-779-4
This Electronic Original Is Published By
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, NY 12185
First Edition: November 2020
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editors: Ruth Sternglantz and Stacia Seaman
Production Design: Stacia Seaman
Cover Design by Tammy Seidick
eBook Design by Toni Whitaker
By Radclyffe
The Provincetown Tales
Safe Harbor
Beyond the Breakwater
Distant Shores, Silent Thunder
Storms of Change
Winds of Fortune
Returning Tides
Sheltering Dunes
Treacherous Seas
PMC Hospitals Romances
Passion’s Bright Fury (prequel)
Fated Love
Night Call
Crossroads
Passionate Rivals
Rivers Community Romances
Against Doctor’s Orders
Prescription for Love
Love on Call
Love After Hours
Love to the Rescue
Love on the Night Shift
Honor Series
Above All, Honor
Honor Bound
Love & Honor
Honor Guards
Honor Reclaimed
Honor Under Siege
Word of Honor
Oath of Honor (First Responders)
Code of Honor
Price of Honor
Cost of Honor
Justice Series
A Matter of Trust (prequel)
Shield of Justice
In Pursuit of Justice
Justice in the Shadows
Justice Served
Justice For All
First Responders Novels
Trauma Alert
Firestorm
Taking Fire
Wild Shores
Heart Stop
Dangerous Waters
Romances
Innocent Hearts
Promising Hearts
Love’s Melody Lost
Love’s Tender Warriors
Tomorrow’s Promise
Love’s Masquerade
shadowland
Turn Back Time
When Dreams Tremble
The Lonely Hearts Club
Secrets in the Stone
Desire by Starlight
Homestead
The Color of Love
Secret Hearts
Short Fiction
Collected Stories by Radclyffe
Erotic Interludes: Change of Pace
Radical Encounters
Stacia Seaman and Radclyffe, eds.
Erotic Interludes Vol. 2—5
Romantic Interludes Vol. 1—2
Breathless: Tales of Celebration
Women of the Dark Streets
Amor and More: Love Everafter
Myth & Magic: Queer Fairy Tales
Writing As L.L. Raand
Midnight Hunters
The Midnight Hunt
Blood Hunt
Night Hunt
The Lone Hunt
The Magic Hunt
Shadow Hunt
Rogue Hunt
Enchanted Hunt
Acknowledgments
Thank you to all the readers who have never given up on this series (or given up asking for more). Safe Harbor—the first in the series—was my first published book (although not the first one I wrote), and that book and the village that inspired it hold special places in my heart. As soon as I started writing, I felt like I was coming home. I loved introducing a new couple to the mix and spending time with characters I have known for decades. This is most of all a book about the power of community, friendship, trust, and bravery in the face of uncertainty.
This book is better for all the help I’ve had while writing it: Sandy Lowe for encouragement, belief in my stories, and keeping all the BSB wheels turning; Stacia Seaman and Ruth Sternglantz for editorial expertise; Paula and Eva for the always timely and insightful first reads; and Lee for being there through all the challenges.
Radclyffe, 2020
To all the essentials who keep our lives going, despite the personal costs
Chapter One
Andy Champlain loved warm summer nights, when the sultry heat of the day still lingered like a soft breath against her skin. Tonight the hint of cotton candy mixed with fresh salt air brought images of long-ago trips to the Atlantic City boardwalk, of dodging in and out of the surf and racing down the crowded sidewalks to her favorite ice cream stand, determined to get there ahead of her fleeter older brother. The memories, viewed through the sepia lens of time, carried a familiar patina of sadness, and she pushed the past away.
Walking a beat on the night shift in Provincetown was a whole new kind of special, and after six weeks, she still wasn’t used to the way a breeze off the water would catch her unawares and leave her exhilarated and unaccountably content. As she passed through the intersection at Standish and Commercial, maneuvering her way through the crowd spilling out of the ice cream shop on the corner, she scanned down the wharf to the harbor. Past the blinking lights on the fishing trawlers moored along the dock, in the darkness at the far reaches of the bay, pinpoints of light dotted the inky water, as if the sky had turned upside down and dumped the stars atop the waves. Farther out toward Long Point, the rhythmic pulse of the lighthouse beacon beat in counterpoint to the lowing of the foghorn, while here on the street winding along the harbor’s edge, at just before one in the morning, life bustled as if sleep was a forgotten pastime. Many of the stores clustered along Commercial Street in the center of town had closed at sundown, but the bars and clubs were open, as was the Mediterranean place across from Town Hall, the cookie and candy place next to it, and of course, Spiritus Pizza, the final congregating point for partygoers before everyone finally disappeared into the condos, bed-and-breakfasts, and rare motels.
Being on foot, after riding in a patrol car during her month-long training period, suited her fine. She relished the chance to feel the night tingling on her skin, to get close to the life that seethed along the main thoroughfare and up the narrow alleys, to breathe in the fragrances of pizza and steak and the occasional whiff of a tantalizing scent as someone brushed past her, smelling like sin. She’d smile in appreciation, then keep her eyes forward and keep walking. The week leading up to the Fourth of July holiday had seen ten thousand more people crowding into the two-by-three-mile town on the very tip of Cape Cod. What had been pleasant throngs before was a crush now, day and night. Tour buses arrived first thing in the morning and disgorged hundreds of travelers who descended on the funky shops and restaurants in a frenzy. The ferry brought scores of day-trippers over from Boston, and the more people there were, the more business for the small Provincetown police force. And Andy loved it. The more action the better. Movement, adrenaline, and danger kept her fed as surely as any food.
Her radio crackled just as she passed in front of the Unitarian church.
“3-Baker-15. Report of a 4-4 at the Alehouse,” Ralph White, the dispatcher at the station, reported.
A disturbance—a bar fight, most likely, or one about to erupt—was practically a nightly occurrence. At closing time, the occasional rumpus wasn’t unusual, not with a few hundred sexed-up, usually liquored-up bodies jousting for a hookup, or realizing that the person they’d come with had already hooked up elsewhere. Usually, just walking into the place quieted things down. At least, in her six weeks’ experience policing in the town, that had been the case. Andy’s pulse kicked up a notch.
“10-4,” Andy replied. “I’m a minute away.”
“Adam-101 en route. Three minutes out,” Ralph White added.
“Copy,” Andy said, breaking into an easy jog. She was right around the corner from the bar, a popular place on a side street halfway between Commercial and Bradford. Mostly a guy bar, but not exclusively. Known for its leather clientele, but again, not exclusively.
She reached the place a good two minutes before her backup. Bri Parker, who’d been her training officer the month before, would have trouble getting through town in her patrol car, even if she put her lights on. People just couldn’t move out of the way in the narrow one-way street, even if they wanted to, and most of the time the pedestrians played chicken with vehicles just to register their displeasure at being inconvenienced while out on a stroll. And really, what was the point of waiting while whatever was going on inside heated up? She was already there. The longer she waited, the more chance things would escalate. She might be new to town, but not to the job.
She gave it another thirty seconds, until a clutch of people burst out of the doors, one of them yelling, “That maniac’s got a knife.”
