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My contribution to this HOP is a snippet of Shocking Finds (A Finder’s Keepers Novel)… the link to Amazon as well as a page with all other buy links can be located at the bottom… now here is your never before posted excerpt… enjoy

She’d overreacted. Again.

Walking into Finder’s Keepers, Marin admitted just how screwed she truly was. Her small electrical problem got worse every time she lost her temper. And the person she needed to ask about said problem? Marin had shocked the shit out of Kyland and watched as he disappeared. Crap and double crap. Her latest episode had ended with the death of both her television and most of her living area lamps. She couldn’t afford this new gift. If she lost her coffee maker, Marin would be having her new power bound, or cut out, or whatever happened when a person chose to have a gift removed.

Looking around the office, counting all the antique furnishings, Marin started to second-guess the merit of her intentions, running in to pick up some Finds to work on at home. Between the French terra cotta flooring, with oak wood inlays, and the antique Persian Sultanabad rug running underfoot in the sitting area, the cheapest decorative items to be found were the Tiffany lamps and other assorted light fixtures, fixtures that could explode at any moment, raining glass down on all in sight. Not exactly a cheap mistake to have to clean up.

On top of everything else, the hospital had informed Marin that Lindal remained in her coma-like state. She didn’t understand what little information the nurse had been allowed to give her over the phone, and the lack of solid facts was enough to drive a saint over the edge. Waiting for visiting hours, to speak to someone face to face, had Marin’s nerves on edge.

Did Lindal have internal injuries? What did the doctor think? Marin could only remember walking back to see Lindal. Everything else remained a blur. A surreal and crappy day. She just needed to kill a couple hours— or five. Add in the drive time and she should get to the hospital just in time to sit in the waiting room. Okay, she needed more to do. Even driving under the speed limit, the hospital was only forty minutes from her house, just outside of the city.

Freezing in place, Marin remembered her poor van. She had allowed Kyland to take her home, to desert her vehicle.

Continuing down the hall, Marin reworked her day to accommodate her van’s retrieval. She couldn’t keep driving Lindal’s car.

As Marin passed Anton’s office, she heard the answer to one of her problems. Kennith’s voice boomed out into the hallway, and Kennith meant Finder cases that involved the Finds that Anton said that she wasn’t ready for but hopefully he would make an exception just this once. She didn’t normally work on those, but she was desperate.

Sure, Kennith worked for the SBI and mainly worked with Finders that had previous law enforcement training, but maybe they would allow her to help out in some small way.

Marin walked into Anton’s inner sanctum and came to an abrupt halt as Anton and Kennith turned disbelieving eyes her way. Shoving her hands into her pockets, she anxiously bounced from foot to foot, wondering if she should have knocked. Anton’s policy had always been an open door policy. If the looks aimed her way were any indication, things must have changed. This was her first time seeking Anton out in his office, and the door had stood wide open, but that clearly didn’t mean come on in.

The level of silent scrutiny became uncomfortable, a suffocating tension building in the air. Really, Anton could just ask her to come back later. He owned Finder’s Keepers, after all.

“Did I do something wrong?” Marin couldn’t believe that her one hope at creating a distraction from her day looked to be one more log for the stress pile.

“Come in and shut the door, please.” Anton’s voice came out crisp and demanding.

This couldn’t be good. Anton had never had a closed door meeting with her. Or with anyone that she could remember.

Marin frantically tried to think… What had she done wrong? She needed this job. Unlike most Finders, she had to work Finds. She didn’t have a choice. She would be overwhelmed by her heightened senses without her current job. If she went too long without a Find, she started to feel her senses pulling, searching for the lost without her permission.

Working at Finder’s Keepers had become the perfect outlet for Marin’s overwhelming senses. She could unwind and keep her senses from overloading while Anton happily pointed her in the most profitable direction.

Marin pushed the door closed and squared her shoulders, trying to prepare herself for the worst, while doing her best to block out the increasing buzz in her temples. The stress of waiting for Anton to speak had her head ready to explode. Blinking rapidly, Marin smoothed her sweaty hands against the top of her paintsplattered jeans, trying to remain calm.

If Marin didn’t want to lose control of her emotions, and her gift, out in the waiting area, she definitely didn’t want to start blowing up Anton’s office. She couldn’t help but stare in dread at the vintage Lalique Perruches glass lamp perched in a place of pride on Anton’s desk. The damn lamp cost nearly five grand. She had cringed at the price while helping Anton locate an antiques dealer to replace his broken one. Now she shook her head, accepting the dock in pay that would come her way, once the shit hit the fan. She didn’t know what the chairs and love seat had cost, or even the elaborately carved bookshelves, but the Persian rug would be another twenty grand or so, should the flying glass from the exploding lamp do any damage.

The way Kennith kept gawking at her maybe she was dying. Then again, maybe he was. There was no way that much shock on one man’s face could be healthy. Any minute now, Kennith would surely pass out. He didn’t even appear to be breathing. Marin focused on Anton, instead. Kennith obviously needed some privacy. No one should be seen looking so weak. He was a police officer, for heaven’s sake, and he looked ready to run, throw up, or just keel over on the spot.

“How?” That one choked out word didn’t come from an expected source. Apparently, Kennith could still speak. Now, if he could start making sense.

Marin waited for more. How what? When it was clear that Kennith either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say more, she looked for Anton to finish the question.

Anton said, “You’re radiating power, my dear. Then, of course, there is the question of your soul-bound shadow. I think our friend Kennith is asking about the nature of this increase in power as well as the acquisition of said shadow.”

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