Monday 8 August 2016

Guest Post: The Crimelord's War (Xavier & Vic 7) by @LizaOConnor


Meet Samson
Samson was once Vic’s driver, but he got ‘promoted’ to a crime lord, taking over for the recently demised crime lord, Black Hand Harry. Internal Affairs had ordered Xavier to take the fellow out for indiscriminately killing innocents while fighting over territory with Seth Sojourn. Xavier gave the fellow a chance but after promising to play by the rules, Harry started up trouble again, and was fired, permanently.
After going through all the men under his command and not finding a one who would be able to take over, he promoted Samson. And what were Samson’s credentials? Well, he was born in the district, had street creds since he spent a few years in prison, and most importantly was completely loyal to Vic.
Xavier has discovered the criminals Vic takes on remain loyal to her for life and make fabulous allies when fighting true criminals. However, Samson still worries Xavier. The fellow is annoyingly good looking and clearly adores Vic. He also has a library that is identical to Xavier’s. If the man is willing to steal his library, what else might he attempt to steal? He better not try for Vic, because Xavier will permanently fire him for that…



Chaos abounds in Late Victorian England. Xavier goes off on a mission without Vic because her protector, Tubs, is not well enough to keep Vic from harm right now. In fact, Tubs is dying and the doctor doesn’t expect him to live for more than a week. Upon discovering Tubs’ dire situation, Vic sets about rescuing him instead.
Good thing too. To all appearances the two strongest crime lords of London have declared war on each other. Only the two attempts on Vic’s life tells her this is all a clever plot by a third party—worse yet, a female villainess.
To stop the crime lords from destroying one another, leaving their territories open to the Russian spy, she must bring Seth and Samson together, share what is really going on, and get them to agree to work against this third party. Not an easy task since Seth Sojourn thinks Vic is nothing but a foolish sop. Unfortunately, Xavier has gone missing, so it’s up to her to convince the angry crime lord that her plan is best. Otherwise, this villainess will kill everyone who gets in her way and bring England to its knees.


Samson opened the door and smiled. “Vic come in.” He frowned at Casey. “Casey, wouldn’t you rather watch the horses. Otherwise, I can’t promise they’ll be there when Vic wants to leave.”
“I’ve got someone watching them,” Casey replied and followed Vic into his office.
“Well, I hope it’s not one of my guys. Terribly unreliable lot.”
“Fagan’s watching them,” she explained. “And he’s armed.”
“So are mine,” Samson stated and focused on Casey. “Seriously, nothing is going to happen to Vic, but those horses need a bit more protection.”
“Give him the letter from Tubs,” Casey said to Vic.
Vic patted her pockets. “I must have left it.”
“Then we’ll go home and get it, Casey warned. “I’ll lose my job if I don’t see you hand the letter to Samson and watch him read it.”
Vic huffed in exasperation, pulled the letter from her sleeve, and handed it to Samson. “There, your job is safe.”
He rewarded Vic with a smile. “Thank you. Once Samson reads it, I’ll go check on the horses.”
Samson opened the letter. Upon reading it, he opened the door for Casey to leave. Upon closing it, he smacked Vic on the head with the letter. “You wanted to shake these boys down yourself?”
“Without Tubs, I’m not allowed to do anything,” Vic complained and threw herself into his leather chair, identical to those in Xavier’s library. In fact, the whole room was identical to Xavier’s, which cheered her up.
Samson poured them both a glass of wine and then sat down in the second chair. “Tubs is right, you know. Young boys are like rabid dogs…very hard to control and will not hesitate to attack those they don’t fear.” He sighed. “In fact, if you don’t mind, I would prefer both of us staying here and I’ll send for Dredge, telling him to bring their catch for this week. Then we can find the items you want and send the rest back with the man.”
“May I can review your books to see if my changes are working as I expected.”
He smiled. “A much better use of your time,” he assured her.
He walked to his phone and instructed the operator who he wanted. While he waited to be connected, he pulled out three ledgers and placed them at his desk, and waved Vic an invitation to sit in his chair and review his books.
When he got Dredge on the phone, Vic passed him the list of items various clients had lost during a recent parade.
“Bring your full take, and don’t leave anything behind, because I have a list and every one of these items had better be there.”
Evidently, Dredge objected to that threat. Honestly, Vic couldn’t blame the man. Who was to say his boys were the only ones picking pockets during the parade?
She raised that very issue once Samson hung up. He only laughed and sat on the edge of his desk. “You’ve never met Dredge. He has the meanest boys in all of London. No one poaches their territory.”
Vic frowned. “I thought we agreed stealing was a crime.”
“We agreed stealing high price valuables was a crime. If you took this list to Stone, he’d yell at you for wasting his time.”
“That’s true,” she admitted. “But still, doesn’t it put the boys on a bad path?”
He rose and placed his hands on her shoulders and gently rubbed them. “It does, but if you recall, I am a crime lord. There has to be some outlet for criminals.”



Book 7
Free with Amazon Kindle Unlimited

Need to catch up?
Book 1
Book 2
Book 2.5
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6


All Xavier & Vic books are Free with Amazon Unlimited

Liza O’Connor was raised badly by feral cats, left the South/Midwest and wandered off to find nicer people on the east coast. There she worked for the meanest man on Wall Street, while her psychotic husband tried to kill her three times. (So much for finding nicer people.) Then one day she declared enough, got a better job, divorced her husband, and fell in love with her new life where people behaved nicely. But all those bad behaviors has given her lots of fodder for her humorous books. Please buy these books, because otherwise, she’ll become grumpy and write troubled novels instead. They will likely traumatize you.
You have been warned.
Mostly humorous books by Liza:
Ghost LoverTwo British brothers fall in love with the same young woman. Ancestral ghost is called in to fix the situation. And there’s a ghost cat that roams about the book as well. (Humorous Contemporary Romance)
Saving Casey— Cass wakes up in the body of a troubled teen who has burned every bridge imaginable. Her only choice is to turn this life around, but that’s much harder than she ever imagined.
Untamed & UnabashedThe youngest of the Bennet sisters, Lydia, tells her story. A faithful spinoff from Pride & Prejudice.
A Long Road to Love Series: (Humorous Contemporary odd Romance)
Worst Week Ever — Laugh out loud week of disasters of Epic proportions.
Oh Stupid Heart — The heart wants what it wants, even if it’s impossible.
Coming to Reason — There is a breaking point when even a saint comes to reason.
Climbing out of Hell — The reconstruction of a terrible man into a great one.
The Hardest Love Is to love oneself. Sam’s story.
The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Sleuth series: (Late Victorian/Mystery/Romance)
The Troublesome Apprentice — The greatest sleuth in Victorian England hires a young man who turns out to be a young woman.
The Missing Partner — Opps! The greatest sleuth in Victorian England goes missing, leaving Vic to rescue him, a suffragette, and about 100 servants. Not to mention an eviscerating cat. Yes, let’s not mention the cat.
A Right to Love — A romantic detour for Jacko. Want to see how amply rewarded Jacko was when he & Vic save an old woman from Bedlam?
The Mesmerist The Mesmerist can control people from afar and make them murder for her. Worse yet, Xavier Thorn has fallen under her spell.
Well Kept Secrets — The problems with secrets is that they always come to light, no matter how you wish to silence them.
Pack of Trouble — Changes are a part of life, but these changes almost kill Vic.
The Darkest Days — Muddled cases make Vic very grumpy.
The CrimeLords’ War — Vic is almost killed twice as she tries to prevent a CrimeLords’ War and stop a female Russian spy from killing Xavier.



FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
Investigate these sites:


1 comment:

  1. I was falling for Samson myself... He was someone who could win Vic's heart so Xavier better watch out!

    ReplyDelete