Thunder and Frightening

By Karen Guyler

Are Shari's wits sharp enough to save her this time?

After salvaging their heist at the Better Than New Year ball in Auld Lang Crime, Shari Dean is back on track with an easy job in a perfect window of opportunity. Easy that is if she doesn't think about who she's stealing from. Easy that is until all their meticulous plans fall apart . . .  

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Unexpected Books
• Release date: Apr 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224142385

Karen Guyler

Always being the new girl (at nine schools on two continents) was no fun at all so books became the only constant in my life, even if they didn't help me get out of sports days. Now settled in Milton Keynes, England, I juggle reading with writing, my three children, husband and dog, a much nicer mix! I also teach creative writing for Adult Education with lots of laughing in amongst the word wrangling and discovery. You can find me at www.karenguyler.com, where you’ll discover free stories, bonus epilogues and be the first to hear about thrilling upcoming releases. If you'd like to chat, you can find me @originalkaren, on facebook at Karen Guyler Author ​

Book preview

1

C an’t really see. Rook’s urgent voice down Shari’s earpiece confirmed what she was just realising.

Me either, Shari told her. Just once it’d be nice to do this in the daylight. Hold up. Shari stopped running and pulled out the glass case from the front pocket of her backpack. The rain spattered on the top of her head, a really annoying ‘what do you think you’re doing’ knock, knock, knock? She tried not to smear the lenses while her fingertips sought and flicked the tiny switch on the right arm of her glasses before slipping them on. Better?

Glorious technicolour, Rook said, or at least very green.

Shari would have liked to have pulled her hood up. Her hair was going to go mad once she dried off a bit but she didn’t feel comfortable restricting her peripheral vision. She started running again, not even a dozen steps than the lenses of her glasses needed windscreen wipers. Still better?

Yep.

Maybe the rain wasn’t getting past the housing that held the tiny night vision camera, concentrating all its efforts on dripping off the end of her nose, down the back of her jacket.

If this is light rain, I’d hate to be out in it when it’s really trying.

Radar picture says this is moving off.

Shari stepped round the barrier that blocked the entrance to the private road and ran on, her pace slowing in time with the increase in the gradient.

She pressed on past the varying tree-lines that hid railings and fences. It was so true the biggest thing real money bought was silence and security, or at least the space in huge houses and plots that neighbours ceased to be annoying nuisances.

Give me a heads up if you see any potholes, she said. I’m virtually running blind here.

Not really running. Ace joined the conversation through her comms.

Well, you’re welcome to switch places. This is bloody hard work.

He laughed. Wouldn’t know, they only have weights at my gym.

No treadmills? Shari asked.

Nope.

You know, big things you could trip over?

Nope, he insisted, never seen them in the wild.

You’ve got to get out more. Rook said.

Shari dug in to run: appearances were everything.

Coming up ahead on the right, the trees that lined the edge of the last property in the road were a dense barrier in their own right, no glimpse of the fence they hid visible at all. She threw them the casual glance of a runner trying to push past her unfitness and sprinted by. Double gates across the driveway were secured as expected.

Shari ran on steadily towards the first of the danger moments.

End of the road three metres. Rook told her, two, one, go to your right, now.

Shari rounded the edge where the road stopped dead. Careful to not slip on loose gravel, she stepped up onto the muddy bank. Bending low, she pushed past the tangle of wild bushes and shrubs. Up, up, up. Her foot slipped and she reached out, grabbing