King's Bounty: A Livi Talbot Novel

By Skyla Dawn Cameron

It's not always whirlwind international danger and adventures for single mom and treasure hunter Livi Talbot—this time, fun's a little closer to home when she accepts a blind date set up by her brother. A perfect storm leaves her without a babysitter—at least until Dale West arrives at her door and is willing to watch her daughter for a few hours.

But even the nicest evening out can take a sharp downturn fast: Livi and her date are abducted, bound, and dragged to an abandoned farmhouse outside of the city.

No one is coming to save her.

Her date isn't much help.

And the kidnappers? Well, they're merely henchmen. The real boss is on their way—and Livi's not sure she'll survive long after they arrive.

For Livi Talbot, of course even an ordinary first date is going to end badly.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Skyla Dawn Cameron
• Release date: Apr 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781927966341

Book preview

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King’s Bounty

A Livi Talbot Novella

Skyla Dawn Cameron

❇

It’s not always whirlwind international danger and adventures for single mom and treasure hunter Livi Talbot—this time, fun’s a little closer to home when she accepts a blind date set up by her brother. A perfect storm leaves her without a babysitter—at least until Dale West arrives at her door and is willing to watch her daughter for a few hours.

But even the nicest evening out can take a sharp downturn fast: Livi and her date are abducted, bound, and dragged to an abandoned farmhouse outside of the city.

No one is coming to save her.

Her date isn’t much help.

And the kidnappers? Well, they’re merely henchmen. The real boss is on their way—and Livi’s not sure she’ll survive long after they arrive.

For Livi Talbot, of course even an ordinary first date is going to end badly.

Books in the Livi Talbot Series

MAIN SERIES

Solomon’s Seal

Odin’s Spear

Ashford’s Ghost (novella)

Emperor’s Tomb

Shiva’s Bow (coming soon)

EXTRAS

A Livi Talbot Holiday Short

Tiger’s Memory (Patreon exclusive, West prequel)

Santa’s Secret (Patreon exclusive, West short story)

Solomon’s Seal – West POV (Patreon exclusive, West story)

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King’s Bounty takes place after Emperor’s Tomb but before Shiva’s Bow.

King’s Bounty

Copyright © 2019 by Skyla Dawn Cameron

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Cover Art © 2019 by Skyla Dawn Cameron

First Edition April 2019

ISBN 978-1-927966-34-1

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

This book is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this or any copyrighted work is illegal. Authors are paid on a per-purchase basis. Any use of this file beyond the rights stated above constitutes theft of the author’s earnings. File sharing is an international crime, prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice Division of Cyber Crimes, in partnership with Interpol. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is punishable by seizure of computers, up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 per reported instance.  Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material.

If you obtained this book legally, you have my deepest gratitude for the support of my livelihood.

If you did not obtain this book legally, you are responsible when there are no future books. Please do not copy or distribute my work without my consent.

For intimidating women.

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.

~Anaïs Nin

❇

I don’t date people on the other side of the planet from me.

~Livi Talbot

1

Perfect Storm

Former Prime Minister Alexander Denham was trying to ruin my life.

Not intentionally. Probably. But news had broken late afternoon that he’d had an affair fifteen years earlier, and three hours later it seemed I didn’t have a babysitter for the first real date I’d had in...I did not care to admit how long.

For my ex Chase Denham, family always came first, and usually that involved my daughter Emaleth. But with his parents embroiled in a new scandal—despite the fact that the elder Denham hadn’t held office in a decade—it wasn’t a good Friday night for him to take Em, and I wasn’t sure I wanted her present for everything going on. It was an evening of lawyers and crisis managers and probably a lot of shouting; with my own fall from high society, she’d mostly been sheltered from that kind of thing, and I wasn’t eager to introduce her to it.

Somehow in a massive house where no fewer than five people besides my daughter came and went, there was no one to babysit. Most of them I’d never ask anyway, but I couldn’t even hint and see if they’d be up for it.

Pru’s mother, stepfather, and her younger half-sister were in New Bristol for one of their rare, once-every-five-year visits; because they lived in B.C. and Pru almost never got to see her sister, who was now seven, she wanted to spend some time with them, but really, really disliked her stepfather and didn’t want him anywhere near our home. So Pru was staying with her aunt in the city for the weekend. She would probably come back to help with Emaleth, but I wouldn’t dare ask her for something as silly as a blind date I could reschedule.

Dawson was good with Em but he was back in Austin for the week—he’d moved nearly everything already, but there were still things to finalize with his late grandmother’s modest estate. I probably wouldn’t ask Thomas, Cal, or Laurel to watch her, but I was between clients and none were around anyway. Denny’s girlfriend was lovely but also an in-demand freelance journalist and currently in Thailand. My brother and his boyfriend were out of the country—out of the country for the blind date Martin set up for me in the first place.

Normal moms probably had babysitters. A neighbourhood girl who lived down the road and could come by for a couple of hours. A friend’s older child. Or a sleepover that could be set up.

But I lived out in the country now, no neighbour for miles and none of which I’d gotten to know. Em went to a private school in the city, and the two girls she’d had sleepovers with weren’t around that night.

It was just a blind date. It could be rescheduled. But coordinating schedules wasn’t easy, and I hadn’t been on an official date in...nope, I was not doing that math. Technically I’d been on a date in the fall, but I was doing double duty casing the museum, and the gentleman accompanying me was not someone I preferred to give much thought to. Instead I wiped the entire experience from my history, which meant I hadn’t been on a date for well over a year.

I checked the time on my cell—quarter to six. I was supposed to leave in fifteen minutes and I wasn’t completely ready yet. I had on a knee-length black pencil skirt and burgundy lace peplum top; a pair of ankle boots and a cardigan waited on my bed to be carted down with me because evenings in April still got chilly. Makeup mostly done—I didn’t really own much anymore so there was little to do—though my hair was still coiled in rollers.

Em was