Cold Fingers Series

Cold Fingers (Book 1)

Christopher Minnick is at a bad place in his life. Turning thirty and newly out of the hospital, the last thing he wants to do is attend a birthday dinner, even one thrown in his honor.

When he is introduced to a friend's godson, things just might be starting to look up.

Or are they?

Victor Polidori seems like the perfect man. He’s clever, attractive and interested. But, even as Christopher finds himself falling in love, there are some things that just don’t add up. And when bodies start disappearing, Christopher knows he must get to the bottom of it.

Will Christopher find his happily ever after or is it true what they say? All the good ones are either married or straight. Or they're necrophiliacs.

Excerpt

I’d just finished saying my goodbyes to Nathan and Amber, a couple with a shop just down from mine. I had promised to stop by the following week, to help them identify the age of what they thought was probably a Scandinavian trunk, when Lee came to stand beside me.

“I’m glad to see you looking so much better. You had me worried there for a few days.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” I really did. It was nice to know there was still someone that worried after me. “I also really appreciate this evening. I had a good time, and I think I needed it.”

He patted my shoulder before slipping into a long coat in a soft gray. It worked with his complexion and the silver of his hair.

“I want you to take care of yourself, Christopher. You need to be with people, and none of this running yourself ragged at that little shop with what amounts to no help. You need money, you come to me.” I didn’t even know what to say. “And you come visit. I only have you and Binky now, you know. And don’t just text. I despise all these texts. People need in-person, face-to-face. It’s healthier.”

I pulled Lee into a tight hug, thanking him again, before he headed out of the restaurant door and to the curb. Through the front window, I watched him claim his car from the valet, and waved when he held up his hand in a final farewell.

He was probably the closest person I had in my life, more like family, really, than a friend.

“Did you need a ride home?”

I turned to give Vic a smile. “Thanks, but I just live down the street.”

“Could I walk you home, then?”

I almost said no. “Sure.”

We said our goodbyes to the last few stragglers before pushing our way out onto the sidewalk. I pointed north, and we started in that direction.

“So,” I began after a few moments of silence. “How is it that Lee dragged you out here this evening.”

Vic laughed. “I asked to tag along, actually.”

I turned to find him watching me, a smile on that lovely mouth. It was flattering really, and it had been a good long time since I had noticed anyone looking at me in that way.

“Why in God’s name did you want to do that?”

“I was curious, mostly. I stopped by your hospital room a couple of times, but you were asleep.” I’d rather have not known that. “I happened to see your paperwork come through the ER. I figured there couldn’t have been too many Christopher Minnicks, and I’d heard Lee talk about you for years.”

I found it odd that Lee had never talked to me about him.

“So, you’re how he found out I was admitted? I’d wondered about that.”

“Yeah, hope you don’t mind. I called him first thing.”

I didn’t. It would have been another matter completely if he had somehow managed to contact my parents. We hadn’t spoken in years, and I was pretty sure they wouldn’t have come anyway, but it wasn’t something I wanted confirmed.

“No. That’s okay. I would have told him myself when I was up to it.”

We chatted a little more about nothing important, huddled into our jackets. Late September was still warm enough during the day, but in the evenings it had already started to dip into the fifties. As much as I hated anything over seventy-two, I hated anything under sixty even more.

“This is me here,” I said, indicating the building just ahead. “It was very nice meeting you, Vic. Thanks for the company.”

He held out his hand, and I took it, shaking and letting go. I almost convinced myself that this was all there would be, surprised at my own disappointment, when he asked, “Would you be interested in going out sometime? I’m on a two-week rotation, so I’m working nights for the next two weeks straight, but after? Would you like to maybe have dinner?”

I smiled, taking a moment to answer. Not because I didn’t know what the answer would be, but so I wouldn’t come across too fucking eager.

“Yes, I’d like that.”

We exchanged numbers, me adding my number to his phone, him adding his to mine. It was exciting in a weird way, like all little firsts are when you meet someone you like, someone you could, maybe, really like. He snapped a picture of me to add to his contacts, and I made a goofy face, not comfortable with having a pale, overly thin, version of myself on his phone.

We said our goodbyes again, this time exchanging a quick hug, and he watched me until I made it inside my building. What he thought he might be protecting me from, I didn’t know. He was only the slightest amount taller than my six foot, and no broader. If I had somehow gotten myself in trouble in the eight steps it took to reach my door, we probably would have both gotten our asses kicked.

Still, it was a nice gesture, and I couldn’t stop myself watching from my apartment window until he was long gone.

Body of Work (Cold Fingers Book 2)

Life with Vic isn't exactly what Christopher Minnick was expecting. His boyfriend has given him a new lease on life - literally - but he doesn't have a job, Jessie thinks he's a ghost, and there are only so many closets on hand for shoving Jonathan into. Now, with Lee back in the limelight, things just might become more than Christopher can handle.

Lee Hellstrom is hitting the big screen after more than three decades and, with the much younger Grant Cooper at his side on the red carpet, he plans to make a lasting impression. The only problem is that not all the attention Lee has drawn is good.

When Lee goes missing, it's up to Christopher, Vic, and Grant to save the old man from a most horrible of fates.

Christopher's life may not have been perfect, but his death is a pain in the ass.

Excerpt

Like nearly every week after dinner, Grant and I sat on the bench across the street from Things in the Attic.

The sun had already set, but the traffic was still heavy. I managed only a few glimpses of Jessie and Evan as they moved around inside. They both looked the same from this distance, and I wondered if they would look the same close up. I wondered if I did.

I liked watching them, and in the darkened street, the brightly lit store looked like a movie screen showing scenes from my past, the past I missed a hell of a lot.

Maybe I needed a job.

Even before I sold the place, I had known I would miss it. I’d stood behind its counter for too many years not to. It had felt like a part of me. But when I had moved out West—ran away, if I were honest—I hadn’t given much thought to the people inside. I’d simply thought of Jessie, Evan, and Grant as employees, too caught up in my broken heart and need to escape. But they’d been friends. They’d been a lifeline I needed and didn’t realize I already had.

In the end, it was the people that I missed most of all.

The October wind was bitter, and I pulled my coat around me, out of habit more than anything else. As a…what was I? Despite Grant’s insistence that I was a zombie, I was pretty sure I wasn’t. Though, I had been eating a great deal of red meat. Would brains be considered red meat? I had no idea.

So, if I wasn’t dead but I wasn’t alive in the same way the people around me were, what was I? I felt like something else. I felt different than before. Better. But maybe this was the same way people walking around with other people’s organs felt. Or perhaps there was somewhere in-between. I didn’t know.

“You could just walk inside.” It was the same conversation every week.

“I’m sorry?” Maybe if I pretended I was going deaf. “What?”

“I know you heard me. The undead have great hearing.”

Did they?

“They think I’m dead.” There was no arguing with that.

“But you know you’re not.” Well, apparently, Grant could argue about anything, couldn’t he?

“Because Jessie and Evan were at my funeral.”

“So was I.” That was true. Lee had been the only one of my friends Vic managed to completely keep in the dark, but Grant had been the one to help Vic dig up my body. Still, somehow the excuse seemed more and more flimsy every week. It was only a matter of time before we met accidentally.

“I’m going to tell her, just not now.” I’d always been good at putting things off. “But soon. I have a plan.”

I didn’t.

“Well, don’t wait too long. Waiting will just make it worse.”

“And how exactly is that?” I sounded like an asshole. Of course waiting would make it worse.

“What if she gets so used to having all that money she starts to need your ghost?”

I didn’t want to ask, I really didn’t, but I fucking asked anyway.

“Grant, please tell me why Jessie would need my ghost for money?”

If there had been an award for stupid questions, I was pretty sure balloons would have dropped from the sky, and someone would have stepped out of the shadows carrying one of those giant checks.

“Well, you know. The shop has been really hopping since you came back.” Grant looked at me like I was supposed to know what he was talking about. “With the tours?”

“Tours? What tours?”

“Things in the Attic, it’s one of the stops on the weekend ghost tours now. You know, because of the ghost of the old owner that haunts the park bench across the street?”

He had to be shitting me.

“Jessie sees me sitting here with you after dinner every week, and she thinks I’m a ghost?”

Grant nodded.

“She told you this?” I asked again for clarification. He nodded again. “And what did you say?”

“I told her I was pretty sure you were the one who lost the keys to the filing cabinet.”

“I’m going home.” I stood up and started heading down the sidewalk.

“You want me to walk you to your car?” Grant called after me.

“No, I think I can manage it.”

“See you next week, then.”

Not if I saw him first.

Pretty Plastic (Cold Fingers Book 3)

Three months after his run-in with the vampire Marcus Gråsson, Christopher’s ankle has healed but his life is anything but perfect. There are people watching the house. Flora’s worried about the scarecrow. And after an unexpected tragedy strikes, Christopher will need to figure out how to deal with the loss without tearing a rift between his brother and himself.

When Victor accepts a job with Pretty, a prestigious private hospital, to work alongside the handsome Austen Poole, Christopher ends up with one more thing to worry about. While it might seem like a dream job, there’s something not quite right in paradise, and when Vic starts acting strangely, Christopher will stop at nothing to get his man back.

When striving for perfection, you sometimes need to get your hands a little dirty.

Excerpt

“Weird.” Jesse sat behind the cash register of Things in the Attic on the same tall stool I’d sat on when I’d owned the place. It was still strange to be on the other side of the counter. “I’ve never even heard of it.”

“Me either. And it just…doesn’t seem like a job Vic would find fulfilling. Not in the long term.”

“How do you know?”

It was a legitimate question.

“I guess I don’t.” I adjusted my position, moving to rest an elbow on the armrest of a surprisingly uncomfortable faded pink Bregère chair, sending dust into the air like talcum powder. It worried me, knowing the baby was asleep in an infant seat just feet away on the counter. “Not really.”

“You think it’s hotter dating an ER surgeon.” It was a statement, and Jesse smiled sweetly at me. Bitch. She wasn’t wrong.

“I didn’t say that. He can work wherever he wants to work.”

“Who?” Jesse and I both turned at Grant’s voice as he emerged from the back room. I’d been listening to his stumbling around on the metal grating of the dock for the last couple of minutes.

“Grant.” Jesse hopped down from her stool and retrieved a cart of dishes she had tucked just inside the office door. “I had no idea you were even here. I need you to put these dishes in the window display. I sold the set that was there this morning. I haven’t gotten around to it, and I need to head out for Mia’s pediatrician appointment in a few minutes.”

“Yeah, sure.” He took the cart from Jesse, abandoning it just as quickly to stand at the glass counter and coo at the baby. “So, who’s getting a new job?”

“Vic. He’s been offered a chief surgeon position at some place called Pretty.” I felt stupid just saying the name.

“Shit.” Grant let out a whistle. “That’s high-end.”

“You’ve heard of it?” Jesse and I asked in unison.

“Yeah. I’ve been there with Lee a few times.” Of course. If anyone would know the place, it would be Lee Hellstrom. “Before…you know…there was a while he was thinking about some kind of skin rejuvenation thingy or a facelift. They have these lamps or something that heal all the incisions and shit up in just a couple days.” Yeah, I doubted it. “And it’s fancy as fuck. All hot ladies with great racks and hotter guys with perfect eyebrows. You know the kind of place.”

No. I really didn’t. But it did remind me of one of the reasons I’d come by.

“You know, Grant, I think I’ve met the perfect man for you.” Maybe if I could throw Grant into Austen’s path, he would get over his little infatuation with Victor. And I would rest a little easier. “He’s a nurse. Very attractive.”

“No thanks, man.”

“Really?” I couldn’t hide my surprise. Grant was a notorious man-whore. But in a charming, non-shaming kind of way.

“Yep. I’m totally in love, dude. It’s real meant-to-be, romance kind of stuff.”

I looked at Jesse, and she gave me a wide-eyed look back and nodded her head.

“Congratulations.” Goddamnit. “Who’s the lucky…?” I trailed off.

“Dalton” Jesse supplied. “He owns the flower shop up the street. Short? Cute? You remember?”

“Grant the romantic. Never thought I’d see the day.” Jesus, was I starting to get misty-eyed?

“I know.” Grant grinned. “And he’s super loud in bed.”

Nope. False alarm.