Sam Morton
Writer
Excerpts
From Ten Weeks Til...
Austin shot up straight in his bed, eyes wide, his heart thudding, visibly heaving
his chest. His sheets twisted around his feet. He ground the heels of his hands into
his eyes and plopped back onto his pillow. “My God, a nightmare,” he said aloud to
the milky pre-
He knew immediately what had caused his dream—the phone call from Konstantine. Seven and a half months had passed since he, Rico, and Veronica helped bring down Mexican General Hugo Omaga who was kidnapping, and sometimes killing, people who tried to illegally cross the border to the United States. A powerful senator’s aide had been caught up in the scheme, too. The senator resigned in disgrace. The aide sat in a cell, his bail denied, waiting for his trial.
“You proved yourself to be quite a man in Mexico, young Mr. Pierce. If we need your help again, may we count on it?” Konstantine had asked almost eight months ago in a conference room in a federal building in Houston.
Why did I say yes? Austin wondered. I was so eager then. So pumped up with adrenaline So…invincible. Why did I say yes?
From Disavowed—
The memory of his last day at the office tortured him. Not a single day went by when he didn't relive it, changing it ever so slightly so that it came out all right. Regardless of how he ended it in his mind, reality never changed. It was almost a ritual now, all the scenes flying through his consciousness at once, no matter what he was trying to do, no matter how he tried to otherwise occupy his thoughts. The yelling, the prodding, hell bent for truth. The scream. The fall. The accusations. A career destroyed.
What took milliseconds in Mike's mind actually took place over a series of weeks. To him it seemed simultaneously to have been a lifetime ago, and yet all too recent and vivid. The thoughts nagged him, but he couldn't make them go away. He opened a beer and plopped onto the weary sagging springs of an old, overstuffed chair. He unfastened the ribbon binding Stearns' file and spread the pages out across his legs. He stared intently at the pages but he saw not a word. Mike shook his head, trying to exorcise his demons, but the nightmarish images flooded back. Had it really been that many months ago?
Praise for Betrayed: From the Austin Files, Book 1
“Armed with a powerful story, stunning language, and a belief that right must triumph, Sam Morton weaves a tale of laughter, passion, and fury in Betrayed. Don’t miss a word. Sam is an author on the move.”
Pat Conroy, bestselling author of The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, and The Great Santini
