Book Blitz: Text di Cambria Hebert + giveaway

Buongiorno ^^ Eccoci ad un nuovo book blitz, ideato come sempre da Giselle di Xpresso Book Tours; anche oggi vi presento un new adult contemporaneo, spero possa piacervi :) Non perdete il ricco giveaway alla fine del post ^^

Titolo: Text

Autore: Cambria Hebert

Genere: New adult contemporaneo
Trama: One text can change everything.
Honor Calhoun never thought her life would ever be like the books she writes for a living. One morning while out for a run, she learns not all bad things are plots in novels. Some horrors can actually come true.
She faces off with a persistent attacker, holds her own, but in the end is taken hostage and thrown into a hole. In the middle of the woods.
But Honor didn’t go down there alone.
She took her kidnapper’s phone with her. With a spotty signal and a dying battery, her hope is slim.
Nathan Reed is an active duty Marine stationed at a small reserve base in Pennsylvania. All he wants is a calm and uneventful duty station where he can forget the memories of his time in a war-torn country.
But a single text changes everything.
Nathan becomes Honor’s only hope for survival, and he has to go against the clock, push aside his past, and take on a mission for a girl he’s never met.
Both of them want freedom… but they have to survive long enough to obtain it.

Cambria Hebert is the author of the young adult paranormal Heven and Hell series, the new adult Death Escorts series, and the new adult Take it Off series. She loves a caramel latte, hates math and is afraid of chickens (yes, chickens). She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major, and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and children (both human and furry) where she is plotting her next book. 

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

ESTRATTI

#1

As I ran, something darted out from the side. I jerked, the sudden movement startling me. My stride faltered and I turned toward whatever it was, but I didn’t see it.

It plowed into me, knocking me over, my hip taking the brunt of my fall. I grunted in pain and scrambled to get up.

But someone pinned me down.

I shoved at the man, and he glanced down, his eyes meeting mine. There was something cold in his blue-eyed stare. Something empty and flat.

Panic bloomed in my chest, spiking through my body as my heart rate went wild and alarm bells started sounding in my head.

Yes, I read the stories. Yes, I saw it on the news.

Woman is kidnapped. Search for missing woman continues. Woman is found beaten and dead.

But that stuff didn’t happen to me. That stuff happened to other people. Unfortunate women… women that weren’t me.

This isn’t happening to me.

A surge of adrenaline had me bringing up my knee and catching the man in his balls. He made a high-pitched sound and fell to the side. I scrambled up and took off, racing down the path, toward the road that intersected it. If I could make it there, I could flag down a car. I could find someone to help me.

The earbuds had fallen out of my ears and hung around my neck, banging into my skin and reminding me that I had my phone. My phone! As I ran, my hand fumbled, trying to yank it out of the band around my arm. Finally, I managed to grasp it and I held it up in front of me, calling up the keypad and dialing.

9-1—

He tackled me from behind and I fell face forward, the phone tumbling out of my hands, just ahead, just out of reach. I cried out and stretched my hand toward my lifeline, desperate to finish the call.

“You’re going to pay for that, bitch,” the gruff voice said.

I’d never known such fear in all my life. I could barely think straight. Straight-laced dread and panic took over my body, making my limbs feel heavy and numb.

Don’t give in, the voice inside me screamed.

I bucked like a pony and reached forward, my hand closing over my phone. Yes! My joy was extremely short-lived when the man, who was still straddling my back, snatched it out of my hand and tossed it into the nearby creek.

“No,” I cried, watching it swept away beneath the surface.

“No one’s going to help you,” the voice above intoned.

#2

All I heard was his breathing. The pounding of my heart. I felt the rush of blood draining to my head and the sharp stab of pain every time his shoulder gouged into my stomach. I don’t know how long he walked. I don’t know how long I’d been gone, how long I’d been passed out. The sun was higher in the sky, which told me it must have been a while.

We could be anywhere.

His steps slowed, and my entire body stiffened.

Was this it?

Were these the last moments of my life?

I noticed something then… the bulge in the back pocket of his jeans. The top of a cell phone peaked out, tempting me.

He stopped walking altogether. Silence rained upon us. Not even a bird dared make a noise. I was presented with a choice. This entire day had been nothing but a series of choices, of attempts at gaining freedom.

I lurched my body to the right, rolling off his shoulder and down his arm. He swore and threw me back up. I made an intense gagging sound, not all of it made up (his shoulder really hurt my gut). He leaned forward like he was trying to get away from a shower of puke, and my body went with him.

I flailed my arms about like I needed help, quickly making my move. Then I gagged again.

He made a disgusted sound and pulled me off him, pushed me away, and held me out. Our eyes met one final time.

And then he let go.

I braced myself for the brunt of the hard ground. Only it didn’t come. My body was forced into a free-fall.

I dropped from the air, the bottom falling out of my stomach as my arms and legs searched for something—anything—to catch myself with.

But there was nothing.

The longer I fell, the darker it became. Until the sunlight was just a beacon above.

And then I hit.

My teeth banged together, biting into my tongue and filling my mouth with the tang of blood. I blinked, trying to rid my head of the throbbing, but it didn’t help. I looked up… up past the tall dirt walls of my prison, up to the tiny round hole at the top.

My captor stood there staring down, watching me, not saying a word.

I lay there unmoving, feeling the damp, cold dirt at my back and against my legs. I lay there and stared at him, hoping he would think I was dead, that the fall broke my neck.

He stood there a long time.

Staring.

Watching.

Waiting.

And then he stepped away, disappearing from sight, leaving nothing above me but the image of trees and sunlight.

I lay there a little bit longer, wondering if he would come back.

When I thought it was safe, I began to wiggle my prize out of the sleeve of my running jacket, jiggling it down into the palm of my hand.

A shadow fell overhead, and I stopped breathing.

He returned.

He stared at me some more. I lay there still unmoving, gripping my lifeline in my hand. Finally, he grunted. And he said three words that scared me more than death itself.

“I’ll be back.”

#3

Both of us pulled out a pistol at the same time. I trained mine on his chest. He trained his on Honor.

“Drop the gun,” I demanded.

“I’ll shoot her before you even pull the trigger,” he said around a sick smile.

“Run,” I told Honor.

When I didn’t hear the scuffle of rushing feet, I yelled, “Run!”

I heard her then, retreating away from us.

Lex pulled the trigger. The sound of a bullet discharging from his weapon filled the air around us. Then he swung the gun at me and squeezed off a shot. I dove to the side and shot off a bullet of my own.

He went down at the same time I did. His bullet missed me, but I prayed to God mine hit him. He didn’t move, and I hoped that meant he was injured.

I heard Honor yell my name, and I pushed off the ground and ran toward her yell. The chances of her being shot were high. If she was injured, I would need to get her out of here stat.

I saw the flash of her white shirt just ahead, and I dropped to my knees beside her.

“Are you hit?”

“Shot?” she asked, her breath coming in short spurts.

“Yes. Are you shot?”

“No.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

I pulled her up and wrapped an arm around her waist. I started leading her away from Lex. We would have to take the long way around.

We made it about three steps.

Then she shocked the shit out of me by yanking the gun out of my hand and rushing away—back toward Lex.

“Honor!” I yelled, thinking this chick must be out of her mind.

I ran behind her and she tore through the woods, skidding to a stop beside the manmade hole that was dug into the ground.

“Where is he!” she demanded, holding the gun out in front of her like she meant business.

My eyes went to the spot where he fell.

It was empty.

“Come on you sick bastard!” she challenged. “Not so tough when the playing field is even!”

She stole my gun and ran back to where she was being held captive with the intention of shooting her captor?

She was one crazy bitch.

It was awesome.

Nothing around us moved and as awesome as her kickass attitude was, it was also kind of stupid. He had a gun. He could be lining up a shot right that minute.

My gut told me he ran off, but I wasn’t going to take any chances.

I approached Honor like a cowboy approaching a nervous filly. “Hey,” I said gently. “It’s okay now. He ran off.”

She still stood rigidly, holding the gun out in front of her like she would shoot anything that freaking dared to breathe.

“Honor,” I said, stopping at her side. “You’re safe now.” Slowly, I reached out and wrapped my hand over the gun, pulling her arm down and gently taking the pistol from her grasp.

I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck. Her skin was ice cold to the touch. The warmth of my palm seemed to break through whatever mental state she was in and she turned her head, her eyes searching for mine in the dark.

“You came,” she whispered like she never really thought I would.

Something inside me cracked at her tiny, whispered words. “Of course I came.”

She folded herself against my chest, pressing her face into my jacket and letting out a deep exhale. My arm left her neck and wound around her, clutching her against me, supporting her weight, and noting how small she felt in my arms.

She might be tiny, but she was a survivor.

“You did good, sweetheart,” I murmured. “You did real good.”

I felt a shudder move through her and I wanted to gather her even closer. I was tempted to sit down right there on the ground and pull her into my lap and hunch myself around her, to shelter her with my body.

But I couldn’t.

We had to get out of here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway