Sunday Snippet: Spider's Webb

Ugh. My daughter had her first fender bender already. I haven't even made the first car payment yet. LOL

She's fine, which is all that truly matters. The car isn't completely wrecked and that's also a good thing. Whew.

Needless to say, I had a lot of distractions this past week. That said, I did get a few good viewing sessions in.

I started Luke Cage's second season and liked the first episode. I'm very interested in seeing what happens with everyone. Also caught two episodes of Killjoys and one of Wynonna Earp. Still behind, but I'll get caught up eventually.

Started the limited series Driven from Passionflix. So far… definitely so good. I'm so happy to be a founding member of this venture.

I ended up getting an episode of The Dresden Files in along with the tenth episode of Canal Road.

On DVD this week, I caught Batman: Assault on Arkham and the Veronica Mars movie. Enjoyed both!

Also did my usual marathon viewings of Murder, She Wrote and In the Heat of the Night. Got in an episode of Peter Gunn, too.

And that's pretty much it for television this week. Tonight's post is from Spider's Webb, a book in the Furlough 99 universe.

Here's the tagline:

Spider Smith, techno geek extraordinaire, meets his match when Hailey Webb decides she needs his expertise. When her carefully planned escape from a life of crime goes awry, Spider wants to help, but with his team out on a fool's mission, Spider has to fight the battle on his own.

And a sneaky peek…

Spider snarled. "So the guild is on a fool's mission. There's no fugitive." Dammit. They could've used the funds.

Hailey cringed. "Yeah, sorry about that. But if you'll let me—"

Spider grabbed her arm and dragged her behind him. "Let you what? Explain?" He whipped her around and marched her forward. "Oh, yeah. You're definitely gonna be doing some serious chatting." Thank the universe Spider caught Hailey before she could finish corrupting the security system. He dragged her to his lair and dumped her in an overstuffed recliner. Grabbing for the comm headset, he started to call in the guild.

"We'll see if there's a nice bounty on your head. The guys'll like that. It's been a quiet week."

Hailey snorted. "Whatever, dude. I could save you time and tell you there's not."

Spider paused, moving the microphone down. "You didn't have time to delete yourself. No way."

Hailey's lips quirked. "Listen, I hate to break it to you, but I could work circles around you."

Spider scoffed. "I don't think so. Your work is sloppy, messy, and amateur."

Hailey rose from the chair and moved in on Spider. "Hey, dumbass. Do you have any idea how hard it is to fuck code up in just the right way to alert the super genius security guy…" She poked him in the chest. "That would be you…" Her hand fell away and she rambled on. "But not clue in the above average intelligent crew breathing down the back of my neck?"

Spider blinked. "Shit." It would take a fuck ton of talent and finesse.

She smirked. "Damn straight, you moron. The shit's pretty deep and someone just dropped me in it, neck high." She pinned him with her gaze. "Again, that would be you."

Because he'd caught her sooner than she wanted. Spider heaved a sigh. "Shit."

Hailey shook her head. "You know, for a brilliantly smart guy, your vocabulary is hugely lacking." She paced back and forth. "No way you're gonna be the one to cover my ass. I'm pretty much a walking ghost right now."

Only a true pro could purposefully screw up the code enough to ping him but not alert the crew she ran with. Hell, she might be better than him.

Stunned at her skill, Spider finally got his brain to kick in. "Look, this is salvageable."

Hailey spun around. "Really? How?"

Spider shrugged. "I let you go. You meet back up with your team and finish the job."

Hailey shook her head. "Uh-uh. They'll never believe I got tagged by the guild and didn't spill."

Spider pondered a moment. "So you tell them you convinced me you'd make it worth it to let you go."

Hailey tilted her head to the side, considering the idea. "Hmm. Been a long time since I've pulled out the tits and teeth routine." She chuckled. "It's been a long time since I've been caught and needed to."

Spider frowned. "I was thinking more along the lines of a credit exchange."

Hailey snorted. "They'd never believe that. A guy with your skill set can get all the credits he wants." She dragged the ponytail holder from her hair and mussed it up. "But a wild night with me… they might just go for. Especially since none of them can ever get near me. And your boys are on fugitive patrol in the mining colony." She paused. "But my team will still be suspicious. That could be a problem."

Spider had a solution. "You really do need someone to cover your ass."

Hailey smirked, then purred. "You volunteering for the job, big man?"

If her voice made his dick hard, he had a fleeting thought about what her mouth could do.

Hailey snapped her fingers. "Hello? Stop thinking with the little brain and focus."

Spider shook his head. "Right. Focus." He moved to his setup and opened multiple programs. "And, yes, I’m volunteering." His fingers flew over the keyboard, entering a long series of commands. "Look at the monitors." He nodded toward the screens. "I'm hacking our droid units, telling them to log your every move." He turned and guided Hailey a few feet to her left. "Stand still." He hit enter, carefully watching the holovid scan Hailey from head to toe. "Your image is uploading to every droid and security monitor we have on station. They'll follow every move you make as soon as I enter the command code."

Hailey grinned, long and slow. "Geez. You're beyond skilled." She shuddered. "I'm actually very turned on right now."

Spider's dick jumped in response. "Later." Realizing how that sounded, he added. "Er, if you're not, you know, dead or behind bars."

Hailey laughed. "Oh, my god… I'm stupidly happy I took a chance and finally got to meet you."

I have so much fun writing Hailey and Spider! This couple knows how to keep each other on their toes.

That's it for this week. Catch everyone on the flipside.

ML Skye

Sunday Snippet: Spider's Webb (A Furlough 99 Novella)

Howdy!

Well, my week in television ended up being pretty damned awesome. Seriously, the Walking Dead kind of caught me off guard, but gotta give it to Rick. When he steps up, he sorta goes full tilt and gets it done. Not sure how I feel about the parting of ways, but I'm leaning towards it being a good thing.

Thoroughly enjoyed Castle, which is a nice change since I've been kind of 'meh' about this season. I love getting to see Rick and Kate together—that kind of never happens and it pisses me off—but the storylines either underwhelmed or made me scratch my head. Sons of Anarchy continues to rip the scabs off old wounds. I love having my smart Jax back. He's always at his best when he's not reacting to and working through shit like watching his best friend die. Very interested to see what side Tara's actions have him landing on. My hope is he'll stay smart, get the Irish out of the way, deal with the DA, and then let the emotional fallout hit. And good Christ, stay away from Gemma so she can't throw gasoline on the fire. *shakes head*

Arrow and The Tomorrow People just make my Wednesday the best day of the week. I can't say enough about Arrow at the moment, and anything I would say would contain spoilers, so *zips lips*. Haven twisted everything sideways again, but hit on a theory I had from the first episode. I kind of can't wait to see how the new wrinkle plays into the mythology. I have more thinky thoughts, but again… spoilers. LOL

So, that's my week in TV. Maybe I should get to the actual post, right? Tonight's snippet is from Spider's Webb, my next installment for Furlough 99. The story features Spider Smith from Finding Home. Spider is fun to write, but his female counterpart, Hailey is an absolute joy. Her voice is very strong and very insistent. LOL

Here's the tagline:

Spider Smith, techno geek extraordinaire, meets his match when Hailey Webb decides she needs his expertise. When her carefully planned escape from a life of crime goes awry, Spider wants to help, but with his team out on a fool's mission, Spider has to fight the battle on his own.

And a sneaky peek…

Hailey Webb let her fingers fly over the keyboards at a comp station, ignoring the four burly men standing behind her. Haj urged her to speed it up. Mal kept asking if she'd hacked in yet. And Dom informed her she'd better crack the system or their plans were fucked. Well, no shit. Taking the time to answer them would only slow her down.

One man remained silent. And he would be the one she worried about. Lou Bonera, their esteemed leader. An ex-enforcer, he tolerated Hailey for her hacking skills, but considered her expendable. Hell, he pretty much thought her only good for sucking his dick, taking his cock, or catering to his sexual whims. Within twenty minutes of meeting the guy, Hailey started referring to him as 'Boner' in her head. And she set him straight on their first encounter. She would not be his semen receptacle… but she would make him as bleeding rich as he wanted to be.

He didn't appreciate her point of view until she flashed her blade and promised to unman him the next time fell asleep. When she proved she could back up the promise of almost unlimited funds, he'd settled back and kept a watchful and sometimes leering eye on her.

Two years and she'd avoided any kind of physical entanglement with Boner. She found money and goods and hacked security systems to get the team in. They grabbed the bounty and split the profits—her share being considerably less than theirs. She could live with the cut. The men did the dangerous stuff. Hailey had the talent and know how. She also had money stashed in slush accounts all over the galaxy.

Lou finally broke his silence. "Come on, we don't got all day."

Fidgety and impatient never equaled a good combination with the crew she worked for.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm almost there. Give me ninety seconds." She prayed she had the time right. Thirty to finish working through the firewall into the vault control mainframe and sixty to lay the trail of kilobytes she hoped would be found on a timed delay.

Her life might just depend on it.

She'd been a master thief since the age of twelve. But at twenty-five, she'd taken a hard fall when her drop cord failed and she barely made her egress point before the ISP hit the scene. Hailey missed the thrill of getting in and out under the nose of authority, but the close call signaled her retirement—at least from the physical end of stealing. She had to keep her hacking skills current, hence the necessity of working with Bonero's team. She knew it would be dangerous, knew Lou to be ruthless, but lately he'd become sloppy, too. He'd left bodies behind on their last three jobs. Bodies that didn't need to be dead. Hailey always worked an op from the angle of no bloodshed unless absolutely unavoidable. And seriously… with the size of the men she worked with, a gloved fist to the face would render most opponents unconscious long enough for them to escape. Why chance leaving trace DNA? So much smarter to get in and out, leave nothing behind. The first two deaths she wrote off as shit luck of a coincidence. But the last heist… she knew, deep in her gut, Boner murdered one of the guards… simply because he could.

Hailey took it as her cue to get the hell out while she could. And she had a plan… a risky one… but she lived for risk. What she didn't live for? A trail corpses. She could totally do without dead bodies.

She hit the last keystroke, laying her plan into action. She'd picked the next target for the team with great care and deliberation.

Her crew's next stop?

Furlough 99.

Her last chance to get the hell out.

For a great introduction to Spider, please pick up Shyler: Finding Home on Amazon.

That's it for this week. Catch everyone on the flip.

ML Skye