BREAKING TABOO - Can’t See the Forest for the Killing Fields

by Lakota Phillips

The politicos have been demanding for months that Americans “suck it up,” stop whining, tighten their belts, deal with the realities of unavoidable cuts to social programs, to healthcare programs, to education and pretty much anything and everything that provides any modem of support to a nation crumbling under a devastating economic crash and staggering unemployment.  Yes somehow, with an awesome debt of $14.3 trillion hanging like the proverbial albatross from America’s neck, our fearless leaders found a way to ADD $17 billion to the Defense Department budget.

Has anyone stopped to point out to the DOD and our President and our fine, upstanding leaders on the Hill that if they keep this shit up there won’t BE ANYTHING to DEFEND?

What – you’re going to feel all mighty and patriotic defending a land filled with starving, miserable people who have lost hope and no longer give a fuck? It is political grandstanding still. It is territorial pie fighting. It is a very clear indication that the Powers That Be don’t have a fucking clue because I guarantee that THEIR lives will not be impacted by the changes to social security, by eliminating arts and education programs, by slashing and burning health programs. It doesn’t touch them. All they can see is their fucking slice of American money pie. Eat up. You’re serving it over the killing fields layered with the bones of the citizens of this country.

As our esteemed President said today “he's prepared to take "significant heat" from his party over certain elements of the deficit reduction deal he's currently negotiating.” I’m sure he is.

HIS kids won’t go hungry tonight. But hey, that’s okay because as our President pointed out today, ours can “eat peas.”

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110709/NEWS/107090344

BREAKING TABOO - Thrown Under the Jezebel Bus

Breaking Taboo today at 4pm PST -live streaming from our new studios in Hollywood on newdissidentradio.com with new correspondent S. Paul Forrest of America Revealed. Call ins 323-289-2410 for last segment of the show

Thrown Under the Jezebel Bus

A 15 year old girl gets a life sentence in Mississippi for the miscarriage of her baby.  Georgia tries to pass legislation that would mandate the women would need to PROVE their miscarriages occurred naturally.  Extremist anti-abortion groups are pushing to outlaw contraceptives, saying by killing sperm they are committing infanticide. Four states have defunded Planned Parenthood and a new Ohio law bans abortions as early as six weeks without exceptions for rape or incest. Over half the states have introduced fetal homicide laws intended to be used against violent attacks by third parties. Instead the laws have been turned on the pregnant women. In South Carolina, only one case has been brought against a man for assaulting a pregnant woman, while 300 women have been arrested under the same law. In Alabama at least 40 cases have been brought under the state’s “chemical endangerment” law.

Drugs and pregnancy bad. So is smoking and pregnancy. So is alcohol and pregnancy. So is horseback riding and sometimes bike riding and…. Well – there’s a number of things that can endanger a pregnancy. Tripping and falling included. Will women who have miscarriages by any of those means also face jail time? See the thing is this – with cases like the 15 year old girl, there is no proof that she did drugs while pregnant or that she intended to harm her baby. Yes she drank rat poison but with the intent to commit suicide, not murder. Ten years ago she would have been seen as needing psychiatric help. Today they dredge up a 130 year old law that has never been used to throw a CHILD into prison. For life. This is the society we have become.

Women are systematically being shoved back into the dual role of the subservient breeder and the evil destroyer bitch.

When you pile all together the outlandish legislation that has been aggressively shoved to the political forefront by anti-abortion fanatics in the past 8 months; the hostile and often shocking news stories that depict girls and women as willing rape victims (they were asking for it by how they were dressed or where they had the audacity to venture); the subtle (or not) media witch burnings of women that somehow manages to make completely intelligent people forget that we used to be proud of our innocent until proven guilty system of justice; and a very frightening picture begins to emerge.  Just as women begin to find an equal place in society where we comprise over half of the workforce, have more advanced college degrees than men, and are shattering the crippling stereotypes and social behavior patterning that have inhibited generations – we suddenly have this unbelievably aggressive attack and vilification of women.  I don’t think it is “men” fighting in patriarchal terror, because there are just as many women casting their own gender under the Jezebel bus. I do think it is a desperate fight by narrow-minded religious fanatics who have risen to political power and are now using that power to “set things right” by any means necessary. Their “right” is so very ethically wrong. 

Hey if they can legally reinstate witch burnings in Australia in 2010, then I supposed we’re being civilized by throwing our teens into jail for life for having a miscarriage.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/07/01/256823/pregnant-women-criminal-charges/

BREAKING TABOO- "yes, we Cannibus"

Guests for today's show at 4pm PST / 7pm EST on www.newdissidentradio.com are the owner of a new smoking accessory store Bryan Connor, comedian Suzzanne Monk and correspondent Rev. Jeffrey Brunk. Tune in today for a little Pot, a little Gender discrimination and a really awesome show. Brought to you by Blaze-Jane.com

Breaking the Stereotypes: I promise - someone
you know smokes pot and he or she doesn't look like a dweeb like this dude.

 by Lakota Phillips 

“The War on Drugs, which is celebrating its 40th year, has been a colossal failure. It has curtailed personal freedom, created a violent black market, and filled our prisons. It has also trampled on states’ rights: Sixteen states have legalized “medical marijuana” — which is, admittedly, often code for legalizing pot in general — only to clash with federal laws that ban weed throughout the land.” 

The canyon of discord between those opposing the legalization of marijuana and those supporting has slowly but steadily narrowed over the past decade, especially recently as the info highway known as the internet has dispelled for some the many myths and outright lies associated with use of the drug.  Now to be clear – the federal legislation is NOT mandating that use, distribution and growth of pot be made legal. Instead it is putting it in the hands of the states, which is where it should be.  It would however, if passed as proposed, allow those 21 years and older to buy marijuana at licensed outlets. The number of stores per county would be set by the state Liquor Control Board. Also, taxes would be levied by the Liquor Control Board and could net the state an estimated $215 million a year in new revenue. I don’t have a problem with that. I’d rather see the money go into the hands of the states. Plus we tax the shit out of alcohol and tobacco – might as well throw cannabis onto the pile. The proposed measure would apply drunken driving laws to those driving under the influence of marijuana and it would allow qualified people to grow it for medical purposes without being slapped in handcuffs.

Face it. Alcoholism is far more deadly than potism. Terms like “reefer madness” and “lazy pothead” create a misguided social stereotype that keeps people misinformed. We are such suckers for negative spin in America.

Some quicky myths dispelled:

• Of the more than 800,000 people are arrested for marijuana each year, the vast majority of them for simple possession., approximately 88 percent were charged with possession only.  Them’s a lot of taxpayer court costs right there.
• Most marijuana users never use any other illicit drug – it is not a gate-way drug
• Most people who use marijuana do so only occasionally. Fewer than 10% of those who try marijuana meet the clinical criteria for dependence, while 32% of tobacco users and 15% of alcohol users do.
• Marijuana use has not been shown to increase risk of cancer.
• Marijuana has been proven helpful for treating the symptoms of a variety of medical conditions.
• Marijuana use rates in the Netherlands are similar to those in the U.S. despite very different policies.
• Unlike alcohol, Marijuana has not been shown to cause long-term cognitive impairment and There is no compelling evidence that it contributes substantially to traffic accidents and fatalities.

One of the big questions this raises though is how does it impact the possible legalization of harder drugs... and should it?

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/270520/right-marijuana-editors

BREAKING TABOO - Seeing is not Believing

Guests today: ghost hunter Karen Rontowski, actor John C. McDonnel and correspondent Davad. M. Davad. Tune in to the show at 4pm PST on http://www.newdissidentradio.com
___

Today it’s all things that go bump in the night and for once we aren’t talking about sex.

A nice big giant taboo is the paranormal. Most people get uncomfortable if asked whether they REALLY believe in ghosts or not. It’s okay to love ghost stories, and even okay to say yeah there might be something to that (as long as it’s followed with a depreciative chuckle) but tell people you’ve SEEN a ghost or that you absolutely believe in them… or reincarnation… or anything else related to the paranormal and you get that look. The one that says “you believe in santa claus too”, doncha?  In fact, we’ve been taught so well to NOT believe in anything outside the safe boundaries of this reality we stomp around in , that most people who do encounter something outside the norm tend to instantly disbelieve their own senses. Was that….? Nawwww. Did I just see….? Nawwwww.  Oh and sugah, definitely don’t run around town yelling “ghosts” with absolute conviction, because society has a nice tidy white cell with your name on it if you do. Well, unless you’re a professional ghost hunter, professional psychic, or a filmmaker (ie. entertainers.)

It is more comfortable for us to deny and discredit than to entertain an unproven possibility. That applies in most things but especially in the area of paranormal. Ironically, as a culture we LOVE to be teased and titillated with stories of ghosts and vamps and aliens and bigfoot and fairies. Horror and fantasy are huge sellers. But that’s okay because we can reassure ourselves that it isn’t real.

The need to have a nice tidy explanation for everything often compels us to either make all things possible or nothing possible. The truth usually lies somewhere in between the extremes.  The study of ghosts has taken on not only a popular mantle of entertainment, but also the trappings of very high tech science as ghost hunters track down evidence of altered existence. As with anything, you’ll have your charlatans and fame seekers that keep the doubtfires glowing, but you also have teams of people who sincerely are trying to provide that ever elusive proof that something of us exists beyond death.

A friend told me recently that all that remains are echoes of ourselves. Supernatural experiences can be explained via the science of our very complex brains where the power of suggestion and the mind’s ability to perceive illusionary images where none exist have been proven. But I don’t believe in black and white answers in a grey world. The flip side of the coin is this – while ghosts may not have been proven to exist to the skeptics’ satisfaction, neither have they been disproven to the believers’ satisfaction.

The spook factor definitely keeps life interesting. Especially when you keep company with ghosts.

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/Evidence-Scrutinized-The-Haunting-of-Fort-Sam/hhm8ZBJick2SnJ-QNLNmFw.cspx

(moving chair footage mentioned in the related tv station story is located near the end of their fairly long 7min video)

<---It could well be that it is no more possible to photograph ghosts than many other forms of sensory perception – sensations such as taste, smell, touch or subjective mental experiences such as dreams and visions, even thought itself. This does not mean that apparitions do not exist; rather that they may exist at a level of reality that cannot be recorded by instrumentation.

Breaking Taboo Stories for June 13, 2011

Tune in today at 4pm PST / 7pm EST to listen live on www.newdissidentradio.com.

Or catch the show on replays and in the archives this week. We're also on itunes.

Call ins are at the end of the show - 323-289-2410 or skype: lakotaphillips (add prior to show)

Guests today are actor Steve Gelder and correspondent Rev. Jeffrey Brunk.

Let Them Eat… Nothing

An Orlando ordinance restricts food donors to feeding groups of 25 or more two times per year in public spaces. A federal court ruled the ordinance unconstitutional in 2008, deciding that Food Not Bomb's activities are a protected form of free speech. But in April, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the earlier ruling.  Consequently, members of the activist group who are trying to bring awareness of the plight of the growing number of homeless have been repeatedly arrested for putting their money where hungry mouths are.

This isn’t a problem of those “shiftless vagrants” who are too lazy to get a job and expect the hard-working American public to carry them. My people -you need to grasp this – THAT America, where the middle class were busy pursuing the lovely grail of the American Dream is gone.  The people who are homeless – they could easily be your family, your friends, your loved ones… it could just as easily be you.  They are not there because they have nothing to offer society. The growing number of homeless are hungry and without homes because our society has collapsed. There aren’t enough jobs. Their homes have been repossessed due to a corrupt system. Some are the handicapped that are now out on the streets, unable to care for themselves because budget cuts have closed the programs we tried to put in place to help them. The consequences of a collapsed economy with not enough jobs have families living in cars, squatting in abandoned homes, sleeping in cardboard boxes, shanty communities, and going hungry while they try to hang on. It’s a vicious catch-22 nightmare that is nearly impossible to climb out of and which our leadership – which we elected - has all but ignored – as if the homeless will vanish if you don’t have to look at them. Now, when we need to REALLY be making aid a priority because the number of homeless is growing like crazy, we are instead allowing laws to be passed that punish anyone trying to help.

This problem will get worse. It will become one of our biggest nightmares. Think back to the great depression when the cries of misery in this country rang so loud that we remember it still, generations later. The recession will force around 2 million people into homelessness over the next year. A recent report cites “major increases in the number of homeless in 19 out of the 25 states.”  That doesn’t even take into account the huge numbers of “new adults” that have to sleep on friends’ sofas or stay with parents because they can’t find a job; can’t start their own lives.  You know that American Dream of their OWN home, where they can start their OWN family? These young adults are unable to contribute to society due to no fault of their own. They live in limbo. From 2008 to 2009, the number of unemployed in America increased by 60 percent from 8.9 to 14.3 million impacting heavily on the existing homeless situation.  Just imagine what that number will be next year and the year after.

Don’t let them snatch food from the mouths of the hungry. Don’t. The scary truth is, unless you are one of the wealthy few, the person that might not be fed tomorrow might be you.

http://floridaindependent.com/33406/twelve-activists-arrested-for-violating-group-feeding-ban-in-orlando-mayor-calls-them-food-terrorists

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/10/orlando-food-not-bombs-arrests_n_874840.html

http://www.huliq.com/10282/homeless-epidemic-spreading-cities-suburbs-and-no-longer-invisible

________________________

Contributed by Jeffrey Brunk:

"Welcome to America. You Want Combo?"

Welcome to America. A smorgasbord of opportunity awaits those who relocate to our fine, fat country. America is, after all, the land of the free and home of the Whopper. The numbers are out, rounded-off, so to speak, and the numbers are getting larger. One out of three Americans is obese. Not pudgy or ‘soft’ but obese. To try and put this in context, ponder this a moment: According to the CDC, in 2009 there were 33 states that were greater than or equal to 25% of the population classified as being obese and 9 of those 33 were equal to or greater than 30% of the population classified as being obese.

Talk about a growing population. Now it seems that immigrants to the land of milk and honey are swelling at the same rate as America’s home-grown populace. Apparently, being an American requires one to eat like an American which, in turn, causes one to eventually look like an American … fat and saggy.

America is now one of the world’s most overweight countries. This past week, I was at Disney World and marveled at the irony of the size of the people entering and exiting the ‘It’s a Small World’ attraction. I figure that it only a matter of time until the ‘Small World’ attraction features twirling, dancing and singing robotic obese children. There are those who go as far as to claim that parents of obese children are guilty of child abuse.

Our nation’s thundering herd is being blamed on everything from genetics to media to the workplace and technology. Technology? What does a serving of Google and a side of iPad taste like, anyway?

Truth be known, I suppose blame can be assigned to nearly anything when it comes to the blubbering-up of America, much like almost everything causes cancer. But when it comes down to the meat of the matter, the only cause of America’s population enlargement is a working jawbone. Each of us has one and most of us know how to use it. It’s just that many have no idea how to let the jaws rest.

Yes, welcome to America, brethren from afar. In order better serve you and enhance your experience, please pull around to the window and have your money ready. That’s how we roll in the U. S. of A.

____________________

Letter Sent today by Breaking Taboo Guest Steve Gelder:

Steve Gelder

After reading today's story about the Mayor in Orlando and his stance on feeding the homeless, I felt compelled to send him a note:


Dear Mayor Dyer,


I was disturbed and disappointed to read your stance on feeding the homeless in Orlando, and your reference to a group feeding needy people as "food terrorists".

At a time when our country faces record unemployment and greater economic problems on a daily basis, with millions homeless in need of assistance, to take a stand such as yours is inhumane and incomprehensible to me. Would America have survived the Great Depression if there had been these limits on helping our fellow citizens had been imposed back then?

It saddens me that someone chosen to lead his community has turned his back so completely on a section of it, simply because they have fallen on hard times. Shame on you, Sir.

Steve Gelder
(contact info)

If anyone else feels compelled to do the same, his email is: buddy.dyer@cityoforlando.net

Breaking Taboo Links

Listen live today at www.newdissidentradio.com - live streaming out of LA at 4pm PST / 7pm EST
Guests today are comedian, psychic and ghost hunter Karen Rontowski and my new correspondent Unkomik Thunder Davad.

Topics today include Evolution (or rather Davad's take on it) and God Divorcing His Wife.

Catch the past shows on itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-taboo-lakota-phillips/id421756643
or in the archives on www.newdissidentradio.com

Make sure to LIKE the Breaking Taboo Facebook Page to get the latest on show news and discussions.

Breaking Taboo: The First Divorce – God Ditches His Wife

And of course the kids are left with a dysfunctional mess.

In the 1960’s a Hebrew inscription on a broken storage jar, found in Sinai and dated from the beginning of the eighth century BCE (Before Common Era) reads: 'I bless you by Yhwh of Samaria and his Asherah.'  Lots of other references to Asherah exist and archeologists have been having a field day ever since sorting through the rubble. Why? Because it’s impossible to study humanity and try to grasp the inner workings of mankind without digging into the past.

The evolution of belief systems and our resulting societies… because face it – we are what we believe – is an intricate and endlessly fascinating puzzle. That puzzle has led us to where we are today. The recent news stories about God’s wife, Asherah, may seem like meaningless drivel, but there is in fact a great deal we can learn about our problems today by studying the past. Does it REALLY matter if the Jewish god Yahweh had a consort or wife? Not so much. Beliefs evolve and change over time. They assimilate and toss out what isn’t popular at any given time. Does it matter that all references to her were erased or reworked until she disappeared? Yes, it does actually. Not just as a reminder that history and the stories of a culture are written by the scribes in power (Can you say media megalopoly?) It should raise questions about what is believed to be Religious as well as Cultural Truths. It should raise questions regarding why even in this day and age women are not viewed as equals to men. Just look at the recent spat of legislation being proposed that takes away a woman’s control over her own body – and much of that in the name of religion.

See any resemblance to the ark of the covenent in this Asherah statue?

What we reap today fell long, long ago - perhaps even at the felling of the sacred tree of knowledge that was Asherah – the other half of the ancient dual gendered god Elohim. “Then Elohim said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness….’

The breadcrumbs are there…. Just follow them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8398099/Bibles-Buried-Secrets-Did-God-Have-a-Wife-review.html

Breaking Taboo - THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION

LAUGHING PHILOSOPHERS STUCK IN THE PRISON OF TIME AND THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION

By DAVAD M DAVAD

Roughly five hundred years before anyone decided to make up the arbitrary and silly mythology that is the Jesus Christ concept, a real man rose from Thrace and told us about atomic structure, galactic civilizations and Evolution.  His ideas were amazing, considering there was no real science at the time.  In fact, the Greek Democritus is known as “the father of Science.”  And he was a happy, yet displanted soul, lost in a sea of brutal mediocrity, surrounded by ages of ignorance in all directions of space and time. 

He was light years beyond those around him.  Democritus wrote prodigious books and papers on philosophy, ethics, and a vast number of other previously unknown scientific disciplines.  During his ninety years on the planet, he wrote about Evolution, and his ideas had features similar to Darwin’s theory.  This was a man who was a contemporary of Socrates and Plato, and despite Democritus’ writings, racist bigots like Aristotle created the ridiculous color coded ideas of “Fixed Speciation and ‘The Golden Class.”  And for reasons unknown…they all hated Democritus’ guts.  Maybe they were jealous.

So, why am I telling you about some long dead Greek dude?  Because he sat around, without a microscope and knew that Evolution, Astronomy, Biology, Anthropology, and science itself, existed, and that was well over TWO AND A HALF THOUSAND FUCKING YEARS AGO. 

Meanwhile, at this very moment in time, Kentucky has something called “The Creation Museum” where the ‘science’ they use, suggests that humans lived with dinosaurs, that the world is only a few thousand years old, and ordering huge saber tooth steaks so heavy they tip over their foot propelled cars was all part of life for the stone age families. 

Sometimes I want to scream at kids with Cigarettes, because my mother; who is in her seventies, stopped smoking back in the sixties, the moment they said “Hey, this causes Cancer” some fifty years ago.  Why do people still smoke?  Well, the same reason people still believe in stupid shit like Creationism and Intelligent Design concepts. 

And I might add, ‘concept’ is as far as they go.  There is no theory there, not even hypothesis.  Those formulas belong to the heady realm of Science.  If I say that “Glenn Beck is the Devil,” that’s just an idea.  If I say “Glenn Beck is the Devil and that is why the world is going to hell.” and I can prove it - that is a hypothesis.  If I can show you empirical evidence of him eating babies and traveling to hell and back on a whorey steed woven from the souls of duped Republican Teabaggers and have photos and video to back it up and seventy million other people saw him too…well…that starts to stray into the ‘theory’ department.  But only after strict longitudinal testing.

So, let’s just discount all that bullshit, and not dwell on it.  Lets concentrate on allowing our minds to understand Evolution and the broader implications of what math plus matter plus energy plus space plus time; have wrought for us at this stage of the game, some thirteen billion seven hundred million years since some George Carlin lookin dude opened up a can of multiversal whoopass.

Now, most folks want to talk about Evolution in terms of us.  Its all about us.  That’s known as Anthropogenics, or as I like to call it ‘being selfish Monkeys.’  But the Evolution of humanity and Evolution itself are not just concepts but the provable factual theory that is very fabric of the universe.  We move ever forward, entropy destroys, energy creates, and situations make us become.  Life is an expression of the universe, just like a black hole or a neutron star, or even Charlie Sheen.  Yes, even him.

If I ever get my time machine working again, I plan to go rescue Democritus from his two and a half thousand year deep prison and bring him to an age that can truly appreciate him…chiefly, the twenty ninth century.

UNKOMIK THUNDER

GHOST HUNTER - NEW from ELLORA'S CAVE!

I'm so excited to announce I have a new book out with Ellora's Cave! It's a paranormal romance called GHOST HUNTER, and it's got a hunky hero, a kick-ass heroine and a serial killing ghost that's scary as hell! Not to mention a smokin' hot cover!

I love when I come up with an idea for a book out of the blue, which is what happened with GHOST HUNTER. When I heard my local RWA chapter set up a lecture with a team of paranormal investigators, it got me thinking right away about writing a book about a ghost hunter. Because the chapter is far from where we live, though, we didn't actually go to the lecture. I was a little bummed about that, especially since they were giving out EMF detectors. On second thought, maybe it was better we didn't go. Ghosts freak me out, so having something that can detect them probably wouldn't be a good idea.

Enough about me, back to the story behind the story. While I knew the hero was a ghost hunter named Trace, I wasn't quite sure how the heroine fit into the story, or even who she was. So, my hubby and I played around with a few ideas at our local PF Chang's (we come up with a lot of story ideas there!) We both decided that having the heroine Cassidy need the hero's help because her house was haunted or something like that didn't seem original enough, so we made her a budding romance writer who tags along with the hero and his team to do some research. Like any good story, though, it had to have some conflict, which is why Trace and Cassidy completely rub each other the wrong way right from the beginning. Actually, he thinks he's a jerk. But don't worry, Cassidy discovers underneath that rough ghost hunter exterior, Trace is just the man she's been looking for. It doesn't hurt that he's hot!

Okay, so we had our hero and heroine. Now we needed a bad guy. That's where the ghost comes in. He's not your standard, everyday ghost, though. He's a serial killer who attacked Cassidy that comes back from the grrave to continue his string of grisly murders, and she's at the top of his list. To make things even more interesting, not only can he do all the regualar ghostly stuff like walk through walls and materialize out of thin air, he can also take solid form.

I'm not going to tell you any more than that, though. Don't want to give too much away, you know. I will add that my editor at Ellora's Cave told me she got so caught up in the story, she completely forgot she was reading a submission!

Now that you know the story behind the story, I think I'll tease you with an excerpt. Enjoy!


BLURB:


Almost getting murdered by a serial killer gives Cassidy Kincaide a new lease on life and convinces her to go ahead and tackle that ghost-hunter novel she's always wanted to write. So, she hooks up with a gorgeous paranormal investigator named Trace McCord to do some research.

Cassidy and Trace rub each other the wrong way right from the beginning, but they have to put aside their differences when the serial killer who attacked her comes back from the grave to continue his string of grisly murders, with her at the top of his list.

Trace has to keep Cassidy close to keep her safe, and as they try to stay one step ahead of the ghost while figuring out how to stop it, he and Cassidy end up in each other’s arms. While Trace has a whole list of reasons why he shouldn’t get involved with her, he finds himself falling in love with the beautiful blonde anyway. And even though Cassidy started out thinking he was a jerk, she learns that underneath the rough ghost hunter exterior, he’s just the man she’s always been looking for. Now, all they have to do, is live long enough to be together.





EXCERPT:

Trace was only a few miles from the address Robert had given him for Cassidy when his cell phone rang. At first he wasn’t going to answer it, but some sixth sense made him change his mind. Now he was glad he had.

He was about to disconnect the call when he heard a muffled scream on the other end of the line. It was quickly followed by a loud clatter, then nothing.

“Cassidy!”

No answer.

Trace felt his chest tighten. Swearing under his breath, he shoved his cell phone in the pocket of his jeans and floored the pedal on the Hummer, running a red light to get through the intersection. The other drivers honked their horns as they squealed to a stop, but he ignored them. There was no way he was going to let Cassidy die.

Five minutes later, he slid into the parking lot outside her apartment, running over an ornamental fence and a flower bed to come to a screeching halt a few feet from the front door. Jumping out of the Hummer, he ran around to the back and grabbed his duffel bag full of gear. Throwing it over his shoulder, he raced up the steps and charged through the door into the building, scaring the hell out of two women carrying laundry baskets.

“Where the hell are the stairs?” he demanded, not wanting to waste time with the elevator.

The women timidly pointed around the corner.

Trace didn’t thank them as he ran in that direction. He hit the steps hard, taking them hree at a time. Once on the fourth floor, he ran down the hall, checking the room numbers on he doors. When he came to the right one, he didn’t even bother to slow down. Instead, he icked the door in as hard as he could, reaching into his bag for his shotgun as the frame plintered and the door flew open.

He looked left and right as he entered the apartment, but there was no sign of Cassidy or el Vecchio. Trace’s blood ran cold at the scene that met his eyes. The living room looked s if a cyclone hit it. The couch and throw pillows were sliced to shreds, stuffing still floating hrough the air. The coffee table was lying on its side, as were the two end tables, and the amps that had been on them were smashed to pieces along with practically everything ele in the place. Even the walls had been slashed.

“Cassidy?” Trace called.

“In here.”

Trace followed the sound of her voice until he came to the kitchen. Cassidy was standing in the center of the room inside a wobbly drawn circle of salt, ready to throw a handful of something in his face. She sagged with relief at the sight of him, letting the stuff in her hand trickle out onto the floor. That was when he realized she was holding a big container of oregano.

“Is he gone?” she whispered.

Trace nodded. “Yeah, he’s gone. But I’m getting you the hell out of here anyway.”

He didn’t wait for an answer, but simply slung the shotgun over his shoulder by the strap, then walked into the kitchen and swung Cassidy up in his arms.

She put one of her own around his neck. “Is it safe for me to leave the circle?”

“Yes. I’ll keep you safe. Trust me.”

Apparently she must have believed him because she didn’t resist. She cuddled the container of oregano close to her body and leaned against his chest.

He frowned. “Cassidy, you did great with the salt circle. It saved your life without a doubt. But what are you doing with the oregano?”

She looked up at him with big, blue eyes. “Isn’t it what you used to get rid of ghosts?”

His mouth twitched. “That’s sage and garlic. You can ditch the spaghetti spice.”

“Oh,” was all she said. Resting her head on his shoulder, she let the container of oregano tumble to the floor, then put that arm around his neck, too.

Giving the place one more look to make sure Del Vecchio hadn’t come back, Trace carried her out of the apartment and right passed the alarmed neighbors who had come out into the hallway to see what the ruckus was all about. Trace imagined they got their money’s worth seeing a big guy with a shotgun and a duffel bag slung over his shoulder carrying a beautiful half-naked woman in his arms. He abruptly realized he probably should have taken a few minutes to let Cassidy grab some clothes. But then the lights in the hallway flickered and he decided he could get her clothes later. They were getting the hell out of there.

“Is she being kidnapped?” one elderly woman asked another in a low voice as he and Cassidy passed them.

“If she is,” said the other old woman, “then I want to want to be kidnapped next.”

Any other time, Trace would have laughed, but right now all he wanted to do was get Cassidy someplace safe. Fortunately, he knew exactly where to take her.



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*hugs*
Paige

"Stories so hot, they'll make your cheeks blush!"

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