Allusive Aftershock - Release Date Update

I know there are many of you waiting for this and I want you to know that Allusive Aftershock will be available on December 23, 2012 in both print and digital formats

Just in time for the Holidays. Add it to your TBR today

Here's a teaser:

   His green eyes were intensely dark and something told me he was afraid, and that brilliant assessment was quickly confirmed when I stole a glance at the two men. One, completely bald, wore a huge silver belt buckle with an even bigger capital “F” on it under an oversized stomach hanging down slightly over the top of the buckle. A beer gut, no doubt, the way his pants sat below his watermelon-sized stomach. Under any other circumstances, I would have laughed to myself because I often wondered how men like that managed to keep their pants up, but there was nothing funny about this guy. The other one’s greasy brown hair stuck to his forehead and he reminded me of a stick figure used in playing hangman. The way the clumps of hair swirled above his bony face looked like they’d been drawn there with a big black crayon, making his skinny-as-a-broom-handle frame appear even scrawnier. Big belly creep smiled at me revealing yellow crooked teeth and puffed on a cigarette before throwing it to the ground.
   I looked at Court and nodded. He grabbed my hand and we walked out onto the street. We had no sooner taken a couple of steps down the hill than the two dubious looking mongrels approached us, fast. Like in the blink of an eye, they stood right in front of me.
   “Hey, sexy girlie,” skinny guy said and scooted close to me, reaching his hand behind me, grabbing my braid. “Nice hair.”
   I twirled around and tried to pull away from his hold on my hair when I heard a bone crushing sound as the skinny guy landed on his butt in the middle of the road. Big belly guy put up his hands. “Whoa, man, take it easy. We’re not going to hurt the pretty girl. Just wanted a little kiss, that’s all. See that lady over there? She gives us a kiss.”
   “Ha, more than a kiss,” skinny guy chirped, pulling himself back up, rubbing his chin.
   “You lay one hand on this one and you’ll never use those lips again,” Court said.
   “You got in a good suckerpunch on ol’ Len there, but now what’s a boy like you gonna do against two strong men, huh?”
   “Try it and you’ll find out.”
   The creeps circled us, snickering. “You gotta share, boy. Hey, I know you. You’re that Miwok kid that talks to animals. Didn’t your Miwok mama teach you the ways of the white man?”
   They know Court? How did they know Court was part Miwok? Did he know them?
   I watched the vein in Court’s neck throb as his pulse thrummed along the side of his throat, and he stood focused on the two men, his eyes cold, dark, without emotion. His uninjured hand stayed by his side while his other one grabbed me and shoved me toward the men. I stumbled forward as he held on and kept me from falling. Why was he shoving me toward these two creeps, when he should be pulling me behind him?
   “Yeah, my mama taught me all the good manners I’d need to get along in your white man’s world.    You want her? Take her. She’s all yours.”
   “What?” My head whipped around at him and I shouted, “Court, please don’t do this …”