Stilettos and Gunpowder by Gail Koger 💕 Book Tour and $20 Gift Card Giveaway 💕(Action-Packed Romantic Comedy)

This blog post contains affiliate links. Click Here for details.

Buckle up, it’s gonna be a wild ride full of spicy romance and hijinks-fueled action that will have you laughing uncontrollably!

My name is Gemma Stone. I’m a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy and not only must I deal with the sweat-soaked misery of the Arizona desert, I get to respond to a bunch of crazy 9-1-1 calls all day long. Like a parakeet up a tree, or a car accident where a tractor trailer full of fireworks is hit and the 4th of July comes a bit early.

But some days crime takes a deadly turn. Police cars are suddenly blowing up. Detective Sergeant Dante Delgado, the love of my life, was assigned to track down and stop the bomber. Am I worried? You betcha. There’s a madman on the loose and he is very, very good at making bombs.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, the Feds think I’m in cahoots with an Iraqi warlord who deals in stolen antiquities. Ichabod, my murderous ex-dance partner, escapes from prison and I’m suddenly in everyone’s crosshairs.

“Holy hell! The CIA just locked up my computer,” Julie cried.

“What?” I slid my chair over to her console. Crap! A red warning bar flashed at the top of the screen. Evidently, we were in violation of all sorts of espionage laws, and we needed to call the number listed immediately. Whoever Eric Roberts was, the CIA wanted him badly.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Julie’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “They’re trying to breach our mainframe.”

I grabbed a thumb drive Mom called The Hail Mary and inserted it into my computer. The red warning bar appeared at the top of my screen too and gobbledygook scrolled across the screen. “Crap! The Hail Mary isn’t working.”

An alarm sounded and a mechanical voice announced. “Breach imminent! Breach imminent!”

“I can’t shut it down! I can’t shut it down!” Julie yelled.

Typing frantically, I accessed our mainframe and tried to block the malware infiltrating our system. “This bastard is good.”

Wearing only a towel, Dad burst into the room and hit the main power switch. The lights died. Thirty seconds later, the backup generator kicked in.

He glared at us. “What did you do?”

“Us?” I bristled. “Nothing. We were running the fingerprints through the database like you wanted and wham! The CIA was trying to breach our computers. It seems they’re really interested in some dude named Eric Roberts.”

Loathing filled Mom’s voice, “Eric Roberts? Are you sure?”

“Yes.” I eyed Mom in alarm, not only was she sopping wet, but her melting mascara gave her a scary, killer clown mask. “Who is he?”

Dad rubbed a hand over his face, trying to hide his smile. “He’s a rogue CIA agent who tried to kill us thirty years ago.”

“This time he won’t come back from the dead,” Mom promised darkly, ignoring the water dripping off her.

Okay, Mom had to get rid of her killer clown look. I handed her the box of wipes and gestured to her face. She ignored me. Mentally throwing my hands up in disgust, I interjected, “I think the question is: Where has he been hiding for all these years and why is he back now?”

“Revenge. We need to warn the others,” Mom said, tapping away on her cellphone. “I sent a Defcon One alert.”

Dad nodded. “And we need to prepare for a visit from the CIA or their FBI attack dogs.”

Miss Kitty trotted into the room and meowed.

Dad stomped his feet and yelled, “Git!”

Miss Kitty hissed at him.

Dad scowled at her and failed to notice his towel was slipping.

Julie’s eyes bugged. “Ummm, sir, your...”

Mom fixed her serial killer stare on Dad. “She stays.”

‘For God’s sake Dad, go put some pants on. We don’t want to see your junk,” I exclaimed loudly. Lordy, I hoped that worked.

Horror filled Dad’s eyes. He grabbed the towel as it slid down his abdomen and color flooded his face. “Sorry.” In full retreat, he backed toward the door. “I’ll go change. I never meant. I would never…”

Huh? I never knew my dad could blush like that.

He bolted down the hallway.

Miss Kitty chased after him.

Yay, fight averted for now.

“Go away, furball.” The bedroom door slammed.

“Wow, he’s got a nice ass,” Julie sighed, then flashed Mom an appalled look. “Not that I was looking or anything.”

I’ve been a Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputy for four years. Most folks don’t have a clue about what a cop deals with every day. Like a pack of attack chihuahuas, a monkey with a bad case of diarrhea, a hungry python, a Brahma bull named Bodacious and a six-foot iguana.

And that is just the critters. Now let me tell you about the two-legged varmints. Such as a three-hundred-pound biker who got a bit irate when I zapped him with a stun gun, or a murderous nun, and let’s not forget the senior citizens having an orgy. Ugh.

My personal life isn’t much better. Off duty I’m a ballroom dancer which everyone makes fun of. I love competitive dancing; I get to meet a lot of people who aren’t trying to kill me. Ok, there was one incident, but hey, shit happens. At a dance competition Detective Sergeant Dante Delgado waltzed into my life. My girly parts yelled Yee-haw, he’s the one. Now, if I can only get him to do the tango with me.

Law enforcement isn’t for the fainthearted. Are you brave enough to enter my world?

Author’s note: I was a 9-1-1 dispatcher for way too many years and this novella contains some of the wilder incidents that occurred.

Just call me Calamity Jane, wherever I go, trouble soon follows. Which makes my job as a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy a bit hazardous. From chasing down a bank robber to dealing with a cat burglar or handling Sun City’s seniors who are crazy as June bugs and horny as hell.

My personal life is complicated. Off duty I’m a ballroom dancer. Detective Sergeant Dante Delgado is my new dance partner. My relationship with him puts me in the crosshairs of a dirty cop with homicidal tendencies. Can we stop him, or will we become his next victims?

Law enforcement isn’t for the fainthearted. Are you brave enough to enter my world?

Author’s note: I was a 9-1-1 dispatcher for way too many years and this novella contains some of the wilder incidents that occurred.

**Due to a trademark issue this book has been retitled, but the contents are the same.

Howdy. My name is Gail Koger and once upon a time I was a 9-1-1 dispatcher. Too many years of wild requests, screwy questions, bizarre behavior and outrageous demands have left me with a permanent twitch and an uncontrollable craving for chocolate. I took up writing science fiction romance to keep from killing people. So far, it has worked.