Harte's Deception

Christie's got trouble! When Fran Marshall's math-whiz daughter returns to university for her sophomore year, she knows there will be serious problems. She'd got a whiff of it the semester before, and now she's on the trail of a sophisticated, brutal conspiracy by a group of legacy athletes. What Christina doesn't count on, as she pursues data and makes spread sheets, is that someone blabs. Fran, concerned that Christie is incommunicado, schemes to visit her only child, to no avail. Trapped by the increase in her marshmallow business, and challenged to find an acceptable employee, Fran works long, anxious hours wondering what her darling daughter is up to. When Fran does find an employee, a childhood friend of Christie's, her throwback landlord takes exception to the woman's gender orientation. Django wonders if his marriage proposal to Fran, made the night of the shelter's big fundraiser and accepted instantaneously, will ever come to fruition. Fran's dodgy about the date, about the ceremony, about even discussing the event. Their talk is of neutral subjects, even Christie's improbable liaison with Clive Campbell, the rugged security chief twice her age, is off limits. And Fran won't consider moving in with him, even though her house has just sold. Is their romance on the rocks and she just hasn't told him? When disaster strikes, the fragile family Django hopes they are building threatens to crash. The urgency of the moment takes Django and Fran on a wild, unpredictable ride into unknown territory to keep Christie safe. When former Special Forces officer Clive Campbell gets into the equation, Django Harte must decide how much violence and deception he is willing to accept. And how he can bring himself to deceive the woman he loves and the girl he hopes to save. Shayla McBride lives on Gulfcoast Florida. At one point, after several years in the Peace Corps, she planned to live in Paris. France. But her kids live in Florida so here she is, living a sweet tropical life and not luxuriating in la Belle France. But, oh, for a decent bit of bread!Shayla's keen on gardenng (or at least keeping the greenery at bay), third-world travel, Asian street food, anything to do with kitchens (from total renovation to totally new recipes). She's a sucker for things literary, felines of all sorts, almost any red wine, darkest chocolate, and writing.New writers hold a special place in her heart; she was one for way too long. Now she seeks to help those on that path. After Writing Your First Fiction, it's back to suspense fiction, destroing whole cities and taking people out. The Ark, a no-kill Florida pet shelter, protects more than just abused or abandoned animals. Shelter manager Django Harte, a 38-year-old widower with a load of guilt you couldn't fit into a boxcar, protects and defends his charges with single-minded intensity. But his heart's no match for terr-stricken Fran Marshall, a reluctant visitor who's been bitten five times by dogs. When Fran's heart is captured by a withdrawn abused Catahoula Leopard hound named Millie, she doesn't realize she's stepping into a new world where both love and hate are in abundant supply.The world of the Pet Shelter series stars mature people with mature issues: 44-year-old divorcee and marshmallow entrepreneur (yes, marshmallows!) Fran Marshall and her overbearing big sister BethAnn who pretends to be both unmarried and wealthy...math-whiz Christie Marshall trying to navigate her first year at university where legacy athletes are treated like gods...real estate Mogul Howard Fishman...Howard's ex-Special Forces security manager who knows no boundaries...and a Chihuahua-obsessed killer with grandiose plans that could wreck The Ark. The series is mostly sweet with a few (very appropriate) cuss words.