Hi folks! Ally Blue here, touring bloglandia for my latest release, Long the Mile, part of the Home forthe Holidays collection from Riptide Publishing. I’m so happy to be here today! Thank you to Sid Love, and to all the lovely readers out there for stopping by. Today, I have a deleted scene for you. This is the prologue I’d originally written for the book, but cut it because it wasn’t really necessary. It gives you a bit of a glimpse into Judah, one of the main characters. I hope y’all enjoy J

 

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© Copyright 2013 Ally Blue

 

“I don’t like it.”

“Yes, you’ve said. Do it anyway.”

Deep sigh from Don, some seven hundred miles to the northeast in New York City. “Jax Enterprises stands to make millions on this deal. Why do you want to kill it now?”

Judah Jax peered out the floor-to-ceiling window of his penthouse and debated whether or not to tell his veep what he’d heard last weekend about the company his venture capital firm was on the verge of buying. In the end, he decided Don didn’t need to know. “My gut tells me it’s going to go sideways. You know I trust my instincts.”

On the other end of the connection, Don groaned. “Jesus Christ, Judah. Please tell me this didn’t come from that goddamn boy.”

Judah smiled. Apparently he would be telling Don after all. The man was irritatingly perceptive. Of course, that was one of the reasons Judah had hired him in the first place, so he could hardly complain about it.

“His name is Trey, and he’s not just any boy. You know that as well as I do.”

“And don’t I wish I didn’t.”

Judah reached over the back of the plush leather chair to touch the window. Still icy cold. The sun hadn’t warmed the February afternoon one iota. “He told me things that made me believe this purchase might not be a good idea.”

“Did it ever occur to you that he might’ve said those things—whatever they are—just so we wouldn’t buy the family business?”

It had, but… “He didn’t know who I was, Don.”

Several seconds of silence followed. Judah waited, sipping his glass of Bailey’s and watching the bare trees sway in the frigid wind whipping through the streets of downtown Asheville.

“Still doesn’t make any damn sense,” Don said eventually. “Why would the kid tell some stranger that Jax Enterprises shouldn’t buy his family’s company? Who were you pretending to be?”

The suspicion in Don’s voice was so strong Judah could see the man’s narrowed eyes and hunched shoulders in his mind. He laughed. “Trey didn’t exactly put it that way. In fact he told me he was relieved that Jax was taking the company off his family’s hands, because they were about to drown in debt. Apparently his dad’s been cooking the books for years.” The whole thing made Judah see red. He was going to have to find better screening techniques for who to purchase and who to pass up.

Don wasn’t finished with him yet. “My question stands. Why would he tell you that?”

Closing his eyes, Judah conjured the mental image of Trey Gilroy lying naked in the hotel bed, pale cheeks flushed and lips swollen from sucking Judah’s cock. The young man was gorgeous, great in bed and delightfully trusting. Judah wondered what the Gilroy patriarch would say if he knew what his youngest son had done.

Judah opened his eyes. “Alcohol and sex makes some people incredibly talkative.” He pulled his bare feet up onto the couch and waited for his words to sink in.

When they did, Don’s sigh managed to convey his disapproval as well as his capitulation. “Fine. I’ll kill the deal. But you’ve got to stop doing business in bed. It’s goddamn unethical.”

“Yes, well, you don’t get as rich as I am by being ethical. I shouldn’t have to tell you that.” A pounding on the door made Judah jump. His drink sloshed enough to splatter a few creamy drops on his sweater. Frowning, he stood and padded toward the door. “Don, hang on a second, there’s someone at the door.”

Don grumbled, but didn’t hang up, for which Judah was grateful. He’d had a fear of answering the door while alone ever since his estranged father found his mother and him when he was eight and beat his mother into a coma. Irrational, maybe, since he himself hadn’t been touched, but he couldn’t seem to shake it. Being a multi-millionaire, he’d found, excused all sorts of weird quirks, such as needing someone with him—in person or on the phone—in order to answer his own front door.

Heart racing, Judah edged up to his door and peered through the peephole. Several men and women stood there—a couple in suits, a few more in police uniforms.

Dread curled in the pit of his stomach. “Yes? Who is it?”

“Are you Judah Jax, president, CEO and owner of Jax Enterprises?”

The man’s tone was neutral, but did nothing to ease Judah’s fear. He swallowed. “I am, yes. Show me your badge, please.”

The man on the other side of the door fished a badge out of the inside pocket of his coat and held it up to the peephole. “I’m detective Holloway, sir. Could you please open the door? We need to speak with you.”

“Judah? What the fuck’s going on?”

Judah licked his lips. “I’m not sure, Don. Hold on, okay? Don’t hang up. I may need you.”

His phone in one hand, Judah undid the locks and deadbolts on his door with the other. His fingers shook. He swung the door open and stood aside to let the detectives and uniformed officers in. Their blank, dead-eyed expressions made his knees feel watery.

He drew himself up as tall as he could and forced himself to look calm in spite of his galloping pulse and churning stomach. “What’s going on, Detective? What did you need to talk to me about?” He glanced at the uniformed officers. One of them had a hand on her weapon.

No one had ever thought of him as a physical threat before. It was unnerving.

“Judah Jax, we have a warrant for your arrest.” Detective Holloway turned to nod at one of the officers, who strode forward. “You have the right to remain silent…”

Numbly, Judah raised his phone to his ear. “Don? Call my lawyer. I’m going to need her.”

Most of the financial world was surprised when Brandina Copper went public and promptly shot to the top of the stock market. Judah Jax was not one of them, thanks to the CEO’s personal assistant’s knack for hearing things he shouldn’t and repeating them after sex, and Judah’s willingness to use those things to his own advantage.

To Judah, buying up stock when it was new, before the price went up, was simply clever business. Unfortunately for him, the government called it insider trading.

“Guilty,” said the foreman, an angry-looking older man with a red face and a beer gut who glared at Judah as if he’d personally caused all the world’s sorrows.

“Eighteen months,” said the judge, pompous in his black robe up there above it all on his bench. As if Judah hadn’t seen him sneaking into Miz Malinda’s in DC more than once during the brief time he’d lived there years ago. The old man loved a barely-legal girl in leather, and every Washington insider knew it.

Not that it made any difference, in the end. Judah began his sentence in federal prison on April fifth, 2010.

When his cell door slammed shut and he looked out at the world through metal bars for the first time, it felt like the end of everything.

 

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About Long The Mile:

Sometimes it takes losing everything to find what you really need.

When Judah went to prison for insider trading, he lost everything he thought was important: his business, his money, his power. But when he gets out, homelessness strips him of the one thing he has left: his self-respect. When another homeless man saves him from a beating, he begins to learn to rely on the goodness of those around him.

For Toby, life on the streets has become familiar. Comfortable. So comfortable he wonders if he’s given up on changing his life for the better. Then comes Judah. Formerly rich, newly homeless, all his pride and attitude gone along with his material possessions. Helping Judah feels good. Their unexpected connection—physical and beyond—feels even better.

Their shared situation nurtures a growing closeness that blossoms into something deeper. But when change comes knocking, it will take all their strength to keep fear and insecurity from tearing them apart.

20% of all proceeds from this title are donated to the Ali Forney Center in New York, whose mission “is to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning (LGBTQ) youth from the harm of homelessness, and to support them in becoming safe and independent as they move from adolescence to adulthood.” To learn more about this charity or to donate directly, please visit http://www.aliforneycenter.org/.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ally Blue is acknowledged by the world at large (or at least by her heroes, who tend to suffer a lot) as the Popess of Gay Angst. She has a great big suggestively-shaped hat and rides in a bullet-proof Plexiglas bubble in Christmas parades. Her harem of manwhores does double duty as bodyguards and inspirational entertainment. Her favorite band is Radiohead, her favorite color is lime green and her favorite way to waste a perfectly good Saturday is to watch all three extended version LOTR movies in a row. Her ultimate dream is to one day ditch the evil day job and support the family on manlove alone. She is not a hippie or a brain surgeon, no matter what her kids’ friends say.

Connect with Ally on the interwebs:

Website  ::  Twitter  ::  Facebook profile  ::  Facebook fan page  ::  Tumblr  ::  Pinterest

Goodreads  ::  Love Is Blue Yahoo announcements group  ::  Fiction With Friction group blog

GIVEAWAY

Ally’s giveaway:
Comment on this post or any of the other posts in the tour, and you’ll be entered to win an ebook copy of Demon Dog, book one in my Mojo Mysteries series. I’ll pick a winner on December 1st at 5 p.m. EST. Contest is valid worldwide.

Riptide’s giveaway:
Enter your details in the Rafflecopter below  and leave a blog post comment to gain entry in the *Home for the  Holidays* giveaway! This week of the tour closes at midnight, EST, on November 30th. One grand prize winner will be contacted at the end of the tour on December 16th. Contest is valid worldwide.

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