Where to Find Harte

By Jade Archer

When you're a run-away slave, the very last person you should want to make contact with is a bounty hunter. Pity Harte can't seem to keep his hands off the man.

Harte is in trouble. Big trouble. And the only hope he and nineteen other cat man slaves have of surviving is to get a message out about what is really going on in the secret medical research facility they're being held at.

Unfortunately, the next to no chance Harte had when he ran away looks like a completely lost cause now he's been captured by the infamous Logan McCabe. If only the man didn't look like a walking wet dream he might be able to work out how to get out of this mess.

Logan has always prided himself on his professionalism and dedication to doing a good job, every time. Falling for a target and reneging on a contract isn't covered under either. It's simple, not something Logan has ever considered doing before. Until Harte. Now Logan finds himself putting his heart on the line, regardless of his commitments. A pity the gorgeous man of his dreams doesn't seem to have any qualms about crossing the line and grinding his misplaced affection into the dust.

Between stubborn bounty hunters who won't listen, a lab full of homicidal medical personnel, a system rife with abuse and injustice and a rather inconvenient internal time bomb threatening to end his life, Harte really is in a world of trouble. One that might not include the happily ever after he's been hoping for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pride Publishing
• Release date: Dec 6, 2010
• ISBN: 9780857153548

Jade Archer

Jade Archer was born in 2010 after a prolonged pregnancy and labour of over 34 years! I've decided she is about 24, enjoys long walks in the country because she does not have five kids and a husband to care for, eats as much chocolate as she wants because she never has to worry about putting on weight (must be all those long walks!) and can often be found planning her next whirlwind world tour or endlessly typing away (without any interruptions) on another hot and steamy erotic romance. It might be space pirates; it might be shifters or a lonely vampire with a hunger for the girl next door, one thing is for sure, she loves variety and cannot wait to meet the next characters destined to fall in love.

Book preview

A Total-E-Bound Publication

www.total-e-bound.com

Where to Find Harte

ISBN # 978-0-85715-354-8

©Copyright Jade Archer 2010

Cover Art by Natalie Winters ©Copyright December 2010

Edited by Andrea Grimm

Total-E-Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2010 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

Warning: This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has been rated Total-e-burning.

Contact

WHERE TO FIND HARTE

Jade Archer

Dedication

To the many friends I have made along this incredible journey, with all my love.

Chapter One

The forest was quiet and still. Too quiet. The booming, throaty calls of the walfrin were all gone now. The chattering and squawking of the myriad native bird species were suddenly silent. Even the high chirping sounds of the insectoids had vanished. It was as if the rapidly cooling afternoon air had suddenly frozen and everything stood poised and waiting. But it wasn’t the coming of a spring thaw that they were all anticipating.

Something was out there. Something the rest of the forest wasn’t used to being around. Something that didn’t have the first clue about how to stay hidden and unobtrusive as it moved through the thick vegetation of Gerilan.

Logan crouched in the undergrowth and waited patiently. It wouldn’t be long now, he thought as he concentrated on the small break in the trees ahead of him. Soon his hunt would be over.

It was a pity really—the hunt was his favourite part. Well, except for the getting paid part of course. But unfortunately, his prey was woefully unprepared and totally inept in the thick, jungle environment. It had been a short, completely unfulfilling pursuit. Like so many he had taken on recently.

Gods, he hated the Mebian system. There was just something wrong about the place. But a job was a job, and he prided himself on being a complete professional. That and the fact the pay was just too damn good to refuse.

Pushing the stray thoughts aside, he ran through what he knew of his target. Admittedly, it wasn’t much, but the owners had told him the runaway was training as an agricultural scientist. He was probably used to flat, arable land, fields of carefully tamed golden strogrom and laboratories.

Logan stifled a derisive snort. This place would have come as a very rude shock. He wondered if the little cat regretted running yet. It might make recapturing him a hell of a lot easier if he did.

What makes them think they can make it out here anyway? he mused absently, as he ignored the foot long growellin slug crawling over his boot. The small proximity alert curled around his ear feeding him detailed information about his surroundings had already let him know it was there. It was a harmless, completely vegetarian species and just passing through. Not worth giving his position away for, in other words. Now if it had been a ferrallin slug…that would have been a completely different story.

Still, it did make him wonder. This forest was absolutely teaming with critters—some harmless, some definitely far from it. Why would anyone voluntarily run into it? He literally had years of experience and training in survival and combat to fall back on, and he never came here lightly. 

Logan shook his head at the sheer idiocy and ignorance it would take to run away here without extensive, thorough preparation. Even with all his high tech equipment, tracking scans and an arsenal worthy of a small army, it had still taken him almost a full day to reach a viable intercept location. The terrain was just that unpredictable and inhospitable. He’d been forced to park his Hyperlight space cruiser nearly twenty-four clicks away because he hadn’t been willing to risk trying to get closer.

He frowned slightly at the reminder that they would be forced to spend the night out here. It was getting too late to try to get back now. But, while staying out in the forest was something he didn’t relish, he could handle it if he needed to. The runaway, on the other hand, was damn lucky to have survived last night out here on his own.

Logan really hadn’t expected to be able to track him with the bio-scanner. It seemed far more likely that the man would have already been inside one of the other life forms around here! But Logan had managed to find him—the proverbial needle in the strogrom mound. All in all, the little runaway really was a pretty lucky cat actually.

Logan’s ears pricked up when he heard his target crashing through the waist high brackman ferns a little to the left of his position. Shifting just his eyes, he managed to spot him—a stumbling figure in a worn grey slave’s tunic and pants. Actually, on this little guy the ferns were more like chest high, so he could only assume he had on the standard issue ugly grey slave’s pants. They certainly weren’t offering him much protection from the inch-long needle like fronds of the ferns if his grimace was anything to go by.

He looks so small and defenceless, Logan found himself thinking, before he could shake his head and clear the stray thought away. Where the hell had that thought come from? The guy was only defenceless because he had been foolish enough to try and run away through the Great Gerilan Wilderness. And he had only done that because he refused to face up to the commitment he had made.

A commitment to be a slave, yes, but one he had made of his own free will. There was no way Logan

Reviews for Where to Find Harte

[serenayates · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jade Archer has done it again. This fourth volume in the "Contact" series is the best yet, I think. It takes us to the point where the last one ended and shows what happens to the slaves who were sent to the medical facility to become organ donors.

Logan is a big, mean bounty hunter who makes a living capturing escaped slaves to return them to their owners. He's never thought about their lives, what made them slaves or what made them escape. He's very good at his job, so when his latest 'prey' makes him think about what is going on, he isn't comfortable. I loved how he fights his feelings until the last possible moment - and still can't escape the truth once it hits him full force.

Harte has barely escaped the medical facility to try to get help when he is captured by Logan. He's desperate to get the man to help him, but gets bitterly disappointed when his pleas fall on deaf ears. Even the emotional bond they form doesn't help. I loved how Harte sticks to his guns and continues his fight despite the loss of hope.

I really liked the emotional depth of these characters. Their struggle for understanding was very vivid. This future world Jade Archer is building is coming together very nicely. Each volume only makes me want the next one more!



Note: This book was provided by TEB for the purpose of a review.
NOTE: This book was provided by Total-E-Bound for the purpose of a review.