Showing results by narrator "Patrick Zeller" in All Categories

A woman on the run. A wounded SEAL who wants to become invisible. Two strangers, one mountain cabin. The sole witness to a murder, stuntwoman Rachel Denning thought she’d found the perfect hideout in a remote cabin just outside Asheville, North Carolina. Until a strange man appears in her...

When Greg Svensson crossed my path four years ago, I should have just let him keep on walking...right into the street to get hit by a bus. But I was weak. Not to mention that when you’re a six-foot-tall woman and meet a guy out in the wild who is both taller than you and attracted to you, you make certain allowances. You ignore certain red flags.

From Lydia Millet—“the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves” (Chicago Tribune)—comes an inventive new collection of short fiction. Atavists follows a group of families, couples, and loners in their collisions, confessions, and conflicts in a post-pandemic America of artificially lush lawns, beauty salons, tech-bro mansions, assisted-living facilities, big-box stores, gastropubs, college campuses, and medieval role-playing festivals.

One by one, I've seen my friends fall in love with the alien warriors on this planet. More than any other single girl on this planet, I want what they have—a mate. After a childhood in foster care and an adulthood littered with crappy boyfriends, I just want to find my place, my home, love. I want it more than anything, and I'm ready for it. What I'm not ready for? An enemy Gahn from beyond the mountains attacking our settlement in the dead of night. And even more than that? This bleeding Gahn with piercing silver eyes and brutal blades claims that I'm his mate.

I've spent most of my time on this alien planet alone in the wrecked human ship. Now that I'm living with the other girls and the barbarian warriors at the Cliffs of Uruzai, I'm finding it hard to adjust. These Sea Sand guys are just so... alien. They're nothing compared to the beast that comes stalking out of the shadows of the cliffs one night. He has a snout, claws, and a massive spiked tail. He's more monster than a man, and even worse than that, he claims he has a human mate. When his dark eyes settle on me, I know with a sinking feeling exactly who it is he's been looking for.

Stella and her husband Adam are on the trip of a lifetime, a three-week tour across Europe. But then the unthinkable happens. On the last day of their holiday, a Parisian café explodes with Adam inside. What initially looks like a gas leak turns personal when the gendarmerie identify Adam as the target of the explosion, and they confront Stella with some startling allegations about her beloved husband. Determined to find out who the man she married really was, Stella follows the threads he left behind. 

Search and Defend The search for a ruthless hit man turns into a deadly alpine chase… Undercover to track the assassin who killed his partner, FBI special agent Alex Driscoll accidentally pulls his partner’s widow, Violet Sharp, and her search-and-rescue K-9, Teddy, into the case. Now, with...

My indentured servitude is almost over and freedom is a heartbeat away! Until some alien guy buys me because he needs a nanny, quick. What? I’m not even good with kids. I’ve never changed a diaper in my life. But the beings at the employment agency won’t listen. “Hew-mans are hot right now. Everyone wants a hew-man nanny”. Great. And since there isn’t another human available...I’m hired on the spot. Yay, me. And on day one of my new job I’m having a panic attack because I finally meet my new boss and he looks like Satan himself.

He needs a fake girlfriend but all I've ever wanted is him... Rock bottom has never felt so good. At least, that’s what I tell myself when I bargain with the enemy and score a renovation for my hair salon. The enemy? Nick Stamos, my best friend’s older brother. He’s got a body and face the Greek gods would envy but his personality needs a major overhaul. He’s surly. A rule-follower. Did I mention he’s seen me n*ked?

Meeting Ross Davis, professional baseball coach and my sports crush, is a funny story involving a stalled elevator, the potty dance, and an attempt to get into his hotel suite. In my defense, that last one was an accident. He came to my room instead with a bottle of scotch and a sad soul. My one night was not a stand, but more like a lie-in. As in, we snuggled and talked and not another thing happened. So, nothing surprises me more than seeing him again when he becomes the manager of the Chicago Anchors, my hometown pro-team, and our paths intersect once more.

I've done my best to avoid him. But when his dark eyes lock onto mine, this time, I know there's nowhere I can go. Nowhere I can hide. Nowhere he won't find me. He is Smoke. Head of the D'Angelos. Gorgeous and haunting. Brutal and ruthless. He rules Chicago, and I owe him a debt. And now…he owns me.

THEY CALL ME HOOK. I am what my past made me. A villain. But that doesn't mean I'm going to let the monster who ruined me destroy my brother. I'll do whatever it takes to bring that bastard down for good. Even work with Officer John Darling. He's too young, too good, too... everything for me. He should stay away. Too bad he's no better at doing what he should than I am.

A month-long retreat of rest and relaxation from my high-powered career is just what I need. Until I’m the only human in a rental home community on a distant planet populated by beings who look like satanic devils. Yep.

I’m getting married today, and I’m so freaking depressed. My bridal gown is exquisite. The ring is enormous. But my groom is evil personified, and I’m being forced into this doomed marriage. I’m seconds from breaking into a full-on ugly cry. And right then, as if by magic, the church doors burst open. Women scream and children scramble as a huge, satanic-looking alien stomps down the aisle, flicking his tail, flashing flames, and wreaking chaos in his wake. He’s looking right at me. “Charlotte Cruz?"

No one knows me like she does. She’s the only one who has power over me. I’ve loved Samara since I was a boy, since the moment I heard her sing and told her she would be my wife. I sacrificed that dream to keep her safe.

Christmas is bad enough without all the music, frantic shopping sprees, and holiday parties. So many parties… with people you couldn’t stand in high school and definitely can’t stand now. Top of the list? Patty Harrison. She made my teen years miserable and, now that we’re adults, she’s trying to get me banned from the Christmas market. Even so, I’m not going to commit literal murder.

I'm broke and need a job fast. The best tattoo artist in the Pacific Northwest is hiring a manager for his tattoo shop. So I don't have any experience... A few lies on my resume can fix that. Anyway, how hard can it be? I get the job and quickly find out that running a tattoo shop is very hard. Especially dealing with my new wild, brooding boss. He's an orc. An orc with a fiery temper. He's not all bad, though, with a deep love for his three black cats. But for me? Not so much.

I’ve seen firsthand the monsters that men turn into when they’re hit with the virus. I’ve been at their bedside in the ER when the Task Force comes and hauls them away. I’ve heard the stories of women getting kidnapped right off the street, never to be seen again. What I’m unprepared for is the day my best friend Mal goes missing, only to turn up upstate in a mansion, claiming one of the Awakened beasts is her “mate”.

As a young boy, Jack is sent to deliver a set of pictures to a house on Princeton's Mercer Street. The house is quite ordinary, but the man who lives there is not. Far from it. It is Albert Einstein, perhaps the smartest man in the world. The man that bent space and warped time. The first chance meeting leads to an unexpected friendship. Jack becomes a regular visitor to the famous professor's home. Together they set out on a journey that explores the professor's ideas about space, time, and gravity.

As any true sports fan will tell you, once you have an allegiance to a team it's set in stone. It's unwavering. It's finite. You never leave. Yet somehow, I've been asked to do just that. To set aside my love for The Yankees and take ownership of The New York Lions—the worst team in Major League Baseball. Oh, yes, and turn them into winners. An impossible job I don't want, from a gift I couldn't get a refund on.