Authors: Mark Dawson
Dragon Head - A Beatrix Rose Thriller: Hong Kong Stories Volume 1 (Beatrix Rose's Hong Kong Stories Book 3) (11 page)
She shrugged.
“I know a very pleasant restaurant. They serve excellent breakfasts. What do you say?”
Here it was again: another crossroads.
Two choices.
The first choice. Stay where she was and, if Yeung was telling the truth, wait to be arrested by the Hong Kong police. Control would locate her and send an agent. Even if she was released, they would find her. She was in poor condition, not fit to defend herself against an adversary like that. Staying here would be suicide. But maybe suicide wouldn’t be so bad.
The alternative?
Go with him. Listen to him. Hear him out, even though she knew what his proposal would entail. She would be asked to kill, and offered money to do it.
She thought of Isabella. She was out there somewhere, a four-year-old girl kept from her mother. Beatrix could try to forget her hopelessness in the haze of the opium pipe, but the longing was still there. She had to keep looking. She couldn’t give up.
And if she wanted to see her again, what else could she do?
She stood and almost toppled to the side. Yeung put an arm around her waist and anchored her. The two heavies at the door made their preparations to leave. The other addicts watched with black disinterested eyes.
“Come on, Beatrix,” Yeung said.
Beatrix stood and followed Yeung as he led her out of the
Hua-yan jian
and into the bright, sticky, humid Hong Kong morning.
BEATRIX ROSE returns in her first full length novel
IN COLD BLOOD
Building a relationship with my readers is the very best thing about writing. I occasionally send newsletters with details on new releases, special offers and other bits of news relating to the John Milton, Beatrix Rose and Soho Noir series.
And if you sign up to the mailing list I’ll send you all this free stuff:
1. A copy of my best-seller, The Cleaner (178 five star reviews and RRP of $5.99).
2. A copy of the John Milton introductory novella, 1000 Yards.
3. A copy of the introductory Soho Noir novella, Gaslight.
4. A free copy of my best-seller, The Black Mile (averages 4.4 out of 5 stars and RRP of $ 5.99).
5. A copy of the highly classified background check on John Milton before he was admitted to Group 15. Exclusive to my mailing list – you can’t get this anywhere else.
6. A copy of Tarantula, an exciting John Milton short story.
You can get the novel, the novellas, the background check and the short story,
for free
, by signing up at
http://eepurl.com/bfXjIT
…I would really, really appreciate it if you would help others to enjoy it, too. Reviews are like gold dust and they help persuade other readers to give the stories a shot. More readers means more incentive for me write and that means there will be more stories, more quickly.
Mark Dawson is the author of the breakout John Milton, Beatrix Rose and Soho Noir series. He makes his online home at
www.markjdawson.com
. You can connect with Mark on Twitter at
@pbackwriter
, on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/markdawsonauthor
and you should send him an email at
[email protected]
if the mood strikes you.
Have you read them all?
In the Soho Noir Series
Gaslight
When Harry and his brother Frank are blackmailed into paying off a local hood they decide to take care of the problem themselves. But when all of London’s underworld is in thrall to the man’s boss, was their plan audacious or the most foolish thing that they could possibly have done?
The Black Mile
London, 1940: the Luftwaffe blitzes London every night for fifty-seven nights. Houses, shops and entire streets are wiped from the map. The underworld is in flux: the Italian criminals who dominated the West End have been interned and now their rivals are fighting to replace them. Meanwhile, hidden in the shadows, the Black-Out Ripper sharpens his knife and sets to his grisly work.
The Imposter
War hero Edward Fabian finds himself drawn into a criminal family’s web of vice and soon he is an accomplice to their scheming. But he’s not the man they think he is - he’s far more dangerous than they could possibly imagine.
In the John Milton Series
One Thousand Yards
In this dip into his case files, John Milton is sent into North Korea. With nothing but a sniper rifle, bad intentions and a very particular target, will Milton be able to take on the secret police of the most dangerous failed state on the planet?
Tarantula
In this further dip into his files, Milton is sent to Italy. A colleague who was investigating a particularly violent Mafiosi has disappeared. Will Milton be able to get to the bottom of the mystery, or will he be the next to fall victim to Tarantula?
The Cleaner
Sharon Warriner is a single mother in the East End of London, fearful that she’s lost her young son to a life in the gangs. After John Milton saves her life, he promises to help. But the gang, and the charismatic rapper who leads it, is not about to cooperate with him.
Saint Death
John Milton has been off the grid for six months. He surfaces in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and immediately finds himself drawn into a vicious battle with the narco-gangs that control the borderlands.
The Driver
When a girl he drives to a party goes missing, John Milton is worried. Especially when two dead bodies are discovered and the police start treating him as their prime suspect.
Ghosts
John Milton is blackmailed into finding his predecessor as Number One. But she’s a ghost, too, and just as dangerous as him. He finds himself in deep trouble, playing the Russians against the British in a desperate attempt to save the life of his oldest friend.
The Sword of God
On the run from his own demons, John Milton treks through the Michigan wilderness into the town of Truth. He’s not looking for trouble, but trouble's looking for him. He finds himself up against a small-town cop who has no idea with whom he is dealing, and no idea how dangerous he is.
In the Beatrix Rose Series
In Cold Blood
Beatrix Rose was the most dangerous assassin in an off-the-books government kill squad until her former boss betrayed her. A decade later, she emerges from the Hong Kong underworld with payback on her mind. They gunned down her husband and kidnapped her daughter, and now the debt needs to be repaid. It’s a blood feud she didn’t start but she is going to finish.
Blood Moon Rising
There were six names on Beatrix’s Death List and now there are four. She’s going to account for the others, one by one, even if it kills her. She has returned from Somalia with another target in her sights. Bryan Duffy is in Iraq, surrounded by mercenaries, with no easy way to get to him and no easy way to get out. And Beatrix has other issues that need to be addressed. Will Duffy prove to be one kill too far?
Blood and Roses
Beatrix Rose has worked her way through her Kill List. Four are dead, just two are left. But now her foes know she has them in her sights and the hunter has become the hunted.
Standalone Novels
The Art of Falling Apart
A story of greed, duplicity and death in the flamboyant, super-ego world of rock and roll. Dystopia have rocketed up the charts in Europe, so now it’s time to crack America. The opening concert in Las Vegas is a sell-out success, but secret envy and open animosity have begun to tear the group apart.
Subpoena Colada
Daniel Tate looks like he has it all. A lucrative job as a lawyer and a host of famous names who want him to work for them. But his girlfriend has deserted him for an American film star and his main client has just been implicated in a sensational murder. Can he hold it all together?
To Mrs D, FD and SD.
Thanks, as usual, to my wife for her support (especially with regard to one very important decision). Thanks to my editors, Martha Hayes and Pauline Nolet, and the members of Team Milton who stomped on typos and checked facts until this book is as shiny and pristine as we can make it. You know who you are, and you all rock.
AN UNPUTDOWNABLE ebook.
First published in Great Britain in 2015 by UNPUTDOWNABLE LIMITED
Copyright © UNPUTDOWNABLE LIMITED 2015
Formatting by Polgarus Studio
The moral right of Mark Dawson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.