Liquor, Larceny, and the Ordinal Classifical of Courtship Rituals: A Tai & Trey Story

By Tina Whittle

After a week of murder and mayhem, Tai Randolph is eager to enjoy an actual, honest-to-goodness, sit-down dinner date with the new man in her life, ex-SWAT cop Trey Seaver. Their very first date, in her estimation.

Trey disagrees—surely by this point in their relationship they've already had a date—but before Tai can summon a rebuttal, she realizes that something's going down in their deceptively upscale surroundings, something nefarious, and she and Trey are right in the thick of it. Can they discover the bad guys before the bad guys discover them? And most importantly, can they manage to have a romantic evening that doesn't involve bloodshed or gunplay?

"Liquor, Larceny, and the Ordinal Classification of Courtship Rituals" is a between-book story featuring Tai Randolph, former Savannah tour guide turned Atlanta gunshop owner, and Trey Seaver, former Atlanta police officer turned corporate security agent. It takes place right after The Dangerous Edge of Things, the first book in the Tai Randolph & Trey Seaver series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tina Whittle
• Release date: Feb 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9798224465279

Tina Whittle

Tina Whittle's Tai Randolph & Trey Seaver series—featuring intrepid gun shop owner Tai and her corporate security agent partner Trey—has garnered starred reviews in Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal. A two-time nominee for Georgia Author of the Year and a Derringer finalist, Tina enjoys birdwatching, sushi, and reading tarot cards. She is a proud member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, where she has served as both a chapter officer and national board member. You can find out more about her and her work, plus read excerpts and short stories and other etceteras at her website.

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Copyright

All rights reserved.

© 2017 Tina Whittle

ISBN: 9798224465279 Ebook

In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written consent of the copyright owner except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Without in any way limiting the author’s and publisher’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

This is a work of fiction. Any references to real places, real people, real organizations, or historical events are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, organizations, places, or events are the product of the author’s imagination.

Liquor, Larceny, and the Ordinal Classification of Courtship Rituals

Ihadn’t picked the restaurant for its ambiance, which was exactly what I’d expected from a place that billed itself as Buckhead’s finest casually upscale gastropub—exposed concrete walls, booths upholstered in crimson leather, tin ceiling tiles that bounced conversations around like a pinball machine.

Its clientèle was equally unsurprising. There was the unavoidable Friday night bachelorette party, the guest of honor sporting a black tee with silver script identifying her as The Bride, as if the tiara wasn’t enough of a clue. Their raucous laughter pissed off the mid-level manager type in khakis and a sport jacket, who moved himself and his briefcase to a table next to the front door, then sat there in a huff. Their antics had no effect on the couple in the corner, however, a gray-bearded gentleman offering sweet nothings to an Amazonian blonde in a black dress so tight it may as well have been graffiti.

I sat alone at a high-top table for two, wearing my best jeans and a new blouse the color of vanilla custard. I’d done my hair, taming the tangles into curls and leaving it