Tin Man by Lisa Henry and Heidi Belleau – A Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Must Read!

 

Tin Man (Bliss #1.5)
by Lisa Henry and Heidi Belleau

Riptide Publishing
Goodreads Link – Add It To Your Bookshelf
Cover Artist:  L. C. Chase

Sales Link:  Riptide Publishing  |

We have Lisa Henry and Heidi Belleau here today to talk about Tin Man, their latest release.  Need a new book to read? Check out Tin Man by Lisa Henry and Heidi Belleau – A Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Must Read! And don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered in the tour contest!

Hi! Welcome to Lisa Henry and Heidi Belleau’s blog tour for our new release, Tin Man. We’re visiting some of our favourite blogs around the place to talk a bit about writing Tin Man, and sharing some of our influences, our ideas, and even an excerpt or two! Don’t forget to leave a comment, for your chance to win prizes!

Today we’re sharing an excerpt from Tin Man. In this excerpt, Soren is back at headquarters after his encounter with Ace, and afraid his superiors will find out exactly what happened:

 Excerpt from Tin Man:

“Rookie? Hey, rookie, you still with me here?”
Soren swayed a little as Ruby helped him out of the back of the truck. His boots hit the ground, jarring his bones.
“Come on,” she said. She unhooked her water bottle from her belt and gave it to him. “You got yourself a nice concussion, rookie. Don’t pass out on me.”
It wasn’t his concussion making him dizzy. It was fear. Soren unscrewed the lid of the bottle and took a mouthful. He swirled it around and spat. The water stained the asphalt black. Soren watched it spread into the tiny cracks and slowly bleed away.
The rest of the team headed for the showers and locker room. One or two of them clapped him on the shoulder as they passed, but most didn’t. Soren glanced at Ruby, at his helmet held under her arm, and wondered what the feed had showed Command.
He took another swig of water and washed his mouth out again.
She took the bottle from him. “Let’s get you to the medical unit.”
He followed her inside. The sudden shift from sunlight to shade blinded him for a moment, and he didn’t know if Ruby’s hand on his shoulder was to guide him or restrain him. He blinked, waiting for the world to come back into focus, waiting for the blue shapes burned on his retina to vanish.
She steered him down the corridor.
Inside the medical unit, Captain Bernhardt was waiting with the doctors. “Lau.”
“Sir.” Soren tried not to read anything into the way that the captain’s gaze slid slowly over him. How much did he know? The worst thing he could possibly do, Soren knew, was to start offering up excuses too early. Innocent men didn’t do that. Only guilty men and weak men. In this place, they were the same thing.
“Clothes off,” the doctor said, stepping forward.
Soren bent down to remove his boots and socks. Then he tugged his shirt off and dropped it into the bag that the doctor held out. An evidence bag? God. His fingers fumbled with the button of his fly—all he could remember suddenly were Ace’s fingers sliding over his skin, making the muscles in his abdomen dance—then he shucked off his pants and underwear.
“Some abrasions and contusions,” the doctor said. “I’ll document them now and take the photographs in a day or two once the bruising comes up.”
He was talking to Captain Bernhardt, Soren realized, not him. Soren was a piece of evidence now. In some ways, it made things easier. It was useful to disengage himself from this for now, to move how the doctor wanted him to move, to stretch this way or bend that way, and not have to feel the humiliation a person might, with all these gazes on him. He was trembling, though. Couldn’t stop that.
“Hands on the edge of the table,” the doctor said. “Bend over.”
At least Ruby looked away for that indignity. Soren squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth. Easy to submit to the humiliation of it when he knew it wouldn’t reveal anything incriminating. The fact that they were examining him there at all, though . . . Why do it in the first place if they didn’t suspect anything?
The doctor moved away at last. Soren straightened up and turned around again.
Then the doctor was back, with a swab. “Open your mouth.”
Soren caught Ruby’s gaze as the doctor poked the swab around. Did she guess why he’d washed his mouth out with her water? Why he’d done it twice? He watched as the doctor slid the swab into a plastic tube and had to fight the crazy urge to reach out and grab it back. There was no point panicking about what the swab might tell Command when his own words might condemn him yet.
Ruby looked away. Yeah, Soren was fucked.
“Okay, Lau.” Bernhardt held out a fresh set of clothes—a white undershirt and boxers. Nothing else.
Soren dressed. His body ached. The doctor didn’t offer him any painkillers, but it didn’t matter. Just because nobody had accused him of anything didn’t mean they weren’t suspicious. Didn’t mean he was in the clear.
Soren knew the worst was yet to come.
Blurb:

Petty thief Ashoka “Ace” King knows better than to get in the way of Tophet’s Anti-Terrorist Unit. Rightfully feared in Tophet’s crime-ridden underbelly, a face-to-face encounter with an ATU is almost certainly a death sentence. But Ace has never been one to follow the rules.

Soren Lau might be an ATU rookie, but he’s not naive enough to believe everything his superiors tell him. Then again, he’s not stupid enough to disobey them, either. If he doesn’t shoot and kill as ordered, he might be next on their list.

But when Soren meets Ace, a moment’s hesitation is all it takes to put both their lives on the line. They don’t know each other, they don’t trust each other, and there’s no way in hell they can both walk away from this alive. But with suspicion and mortal danger mounting against both of them—and the forbidden attraction blazing between them—there’s nothing they can do but try.

Tin Man is out on July 20. You can order it now at Riptide.

Author Bios:

Lisa Henry

Lisa likes to tell stories, mostly with hot guys and happily ever afters.

Lisa lives in tropical North Queensland, Australia. She doesn’t know why, because she hates the heat, but she suspects she’s too lazy to move. She spends half her time slaving away as a government minion, and the other half plotting her escape.

She attended university at sixteen, not because she was a child prodigy or anything, but because of a mix-up between international school systems early in life. She studied History and English, neither of them very thoroughly.

She shares her house with too many cats, a green tree frog that swims in the toilet, and as many possums as can break in every night. This is not how she imagined life as a grown-up.

Connect with Lisa:

Blog: http://www.lisahenryonline.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LisaHenryOnline
Goodreads: http://http//www.goodreads.com/LisaHenry

Heidi Belleau

Heidi Belleau was born and raised in small town New Brunswick, Canada. She now lives in the rugged oil-patch frontier of Northern BC with her husband, an Irish ex-pat whose long work hours in the trades leave her plenty of quiet time to write.

She has a degree in history from Simon Fraser University with a concentration in British and Irish studies; much of her work centred on popular culture, oral folklore, and sexuality, but she was known to perplex her professors with unironic papers on the historical roots of modern romance novel tropes. (Ask her about Highlanders!)

When not writing, you might catch her trying to explain British television to her newborn daughter or standing in line at the local coffee shop, waiting on her caramel macchiato.

Connect with Heidi:

Blog: http://www.heidibelleau.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/HeidiBelleau
Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/heidibelleau
Email:  mailto:heidi.below.zero@gmail.com

Giveaway:

Each comment on this blog tour enters you for a chance to win a $20 Riptide credit and an ecopy of Bliss, the first book set in this universe. Entries close July 25, and contest is not restricted to US residents. Remember to leave your email address in the comments so we can contact you if you win!