Below you will find the opening ‘prologue’ from my debut novel Showdown in Los Angeles. This novel is book one in my Dying Games Saga.

Hope you like it…

Prologue

The cold rough of the pavement bit into her cheek, and the weight bearing down made it difficult for her to breathe. She eased open her eyes as she felt a warm breeze ruffle her hair, and looked to the window of the drugstore, fragments of glass littering the street. Cameron Willis was in serious trouble. It had seemed an easy way out, such a simple job, not too risky. But she’d failed to realise just how tenuous the term ‘friendship’ was among those who’d been with her … and when the shit rained down, where were they now? Hiding in the shadows or long gone? Cameron suspected the latter.

The Police officer holding her down slowly relaxed his knee from the small of her back. If he had pressed any harder, she was sure he would have snapped her spine.

“Come on sister, you’re going downtown.” his voice, coated with tobacco, rasped – then she was lifted swiftly from the forecourt, specks of dirt and tarmac clinging to her face.

She gritted her teeth, his hold on her painful, and felt her sneaker-clad feet scrape the ground. She was then moved to an awaiting squad car, its flashing lights, accentuated by the night, bouncing a blue tint off every building.

In the back of the squad car, Cameron looked out of the window as she slumped awkwardly, the open door to the drugstore swinging in the breeze, a broken wire-mesh window hanging loose where Stacy had applied a crowbar. She recalled entering the store, sneakers treading on a packet of Paracetamol that must have fallen from a display stand. Nervousness had given way to adrenaline, but that adrenaline was short-lived as the alarm went off. Stacy, Gemma, Francesca and herself had barely been inside when the lights blazed to life – the same light that was now burning out of the front window and igniting the street.

A large female officer was interviewing the store owner who had been sleeping upstairs. Old man Barnaby. Cameron felt no remorse; she assumed his insurance would cover the damage. One question just lingered in her head: what was she going to do now? The drugstore had been her last hope.

*

Soon she was thrown onto a chair in a small claustrophobic interview room, her hands still cuffed behind her back. For Christ’s sake, she thought, I’m just a girl, what danger am I to anyone? The large female officer guarded a door about two metres ahead beyond a desk, and directly in front sat a middle-aged detective. His face was a tapestry of bumps and grazes, likely the result of a childhood acne problem, tired eyes lacking enthusiasm as he rubbed them with his finger and thumb. He opened a file on the desk as Cameron’s eyes remained fixed on him.

“Cameron Willis.” He exhaled rhetorically.

She maintained her best poker-face.

“You do realise that I’m only doing this because of your family and who your father happens to be, sweetheart. Otherwise, a petty B & E such as this wouldn’t even get me out of bed.”

A name tag pinned to his shirt read: ‘Detective Inspector Jack Travern’.

“What were you doing at the Barnaby’s drugstore, Cameron?”

“Er… I forgot to collect my prescription, detective?” Cameron eventually answered with a sarcastic attitude which had for too long been ‘her thing’.

Travern sighed and slapped the file shut, his stern gaze not leaving Cameron, greying eyebrows aimed at his nose.

“I’m guessing you’re not stupid, Cameron, so I’ll cut to the chase. You’re looking at a potential sentence for this. That bag we found on you, had a heavy stash of hard prescription medication… and on the black market they are known to fetch big bucks. So, tell me who you were trying to steal this shit for, and maybe I can work something out that don’t result in you spending the next few years in a jail cell.”

Cameron just smirked, gently tugging at her cuffs. Her arms had started to ache.

“Just give me my damn phone call.” she said gruffly.

Travern looked incensed. Abruptly, he stood up, causing the chair to crash to the floor, and stormed away, opening the door. Pausing in the doorway, he glanced back at Cameron with a venomous expression.

“A smart-ass just like your big sister. We’ll have her sitting in that chair again too, before long … mark my words.” He said, then walked out, slamming the door behind him.

The female officer jolted in reaction whilst Cameron just lowered her head with a drawn out sigh.