~*BLOG TOUR*~
Title: Ruby
Series: The Working Girls, #2
Author: Heather Burnside
Genre: Organised Crime / Contemporary Urban Fiction
Pub. Date: December 5, 2019
Publisher: Aria
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Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2sjuipg
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2Nd4O3g
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2Sgd6sg
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2T65ahm
Blurb ↓
The stronger sex.
Ruby has always been strong. Growing up with a feeble mother and an absent father, she is forced to fight the battles of her younger siblings. And when a childhood experience leaves her traumatised, her distrust of men turns to hatred.
On the streets.
With no safe place to call home, Ruby is desperate to fit in with the tough crowd. She spends her teenage years sleeping around and drinking in the park, and by the time she is sixteen, prostitution has become a way of life. But Ruby has ambitions, and she soon moves up the ladder to become the madam of her own brothel.
The brothel.
But being in charge of a brothel has its down sides, Ruby faces her worst nightmare when an enemy from the past comes back into her life, and gang intimidation threatens to ruin everything. Can she find a way to beat her tormentors? And will she be strong enough to see it through?
Heather Burnside is back with this breath-taking, heart-racing series, perfect for all fans of Kimberley Chambers and Martina Cole.
EXTRACT ↓
‘Open the door, Daisy! I know you’re in there. I’ve just seen the children leave,’ shouted the man.
A look of concern flashed across Trina’s face as she picked up on the grave tone of the man’s voice.
‘I think it’s Mr Dodds. Shouldn’t we let him in, Mam?’ she whispered.
‘Shush,’ said Daisy, adding a stern, ‘No! The man can wait.’
Something about Mr Dodds’ tone and her mother’s gruff manner set Trina on edge. As they waited for him to go away, Trina could feel her heart beating so rapidly that she thought it would burst through her chest.
‘He’s gone,’ Daisy finally announced, releasing her grip on the curtain and striding away from the window. ‘Thank the Lord for that,’ she added, stopping to touch herself in the sign of the cross.
For a few moments the sound of the hoover drowned out all other noise so it wasn’t until Mr Dodds stepped into their living room and sidled up to Daisy that she saw him. Trina noticed her mother’s startled reaction when she caught sight of his tall, lean frame hovering over her.
‘What on earth are you doing in here?’ she demanded, switching off the hoover.
‘You forgot to lock your back door,’ he said, a self-satisfied smirk playing across his thin lips. ‘So now I’ll have the rent I’ve come for.’
Trina continued with the dusting, her body half turned towards her mother and Mr Dodds as she watched what was happening. She hated Mr Dodds. He was creepy with his lopsided features and the dirty, unwashed smell that came off him. She often saw him calling at other houses in the area, wearing one of the two creased and greasy suits that he rotated each week.
Trina noticed the way her mother nervously patted down her already tidy hair and shuffled uncomfortably from one foot to the other. ‘I haven’t got it,’ she mumbled.
‘I beg your pardon?’ Mr Dodds shouted so loud that Trina turned fully round, dropping the can of bargain-brand spray polish that she had been holding. As she bent to retrieve it, she heard her mother repeat herself.
‘I said I haven’t got it. Not this month. The kids needed new clothes.’
‘Well I’m afraid that’s not good enough,’ said Mr Dodds, adopting a frown and pursed lips, full of self-righteous indignation. ‘You shouldn’t be spending the rent money on clothes or anything else.’
‘I couldn’t let them go without,’ said Daisy.
Mr Dodds sidled even closer to Daisy and Trina saw her mother recoil as she caught a whiff of his malodorous breath. Then he hissed into her ear, but Trina couldn’t quite catch all the words. Something about, ‘other ways to pay’.
‘Not over my dead body!’ yelled Daisy, backing away from him. ‘How dare you suggest such a thing! And in front of the child as well. Now, get out of me house before I do some damage.’
She lifted the metal piping of the hoover and held it menacingly towards Mr Dodds who squirmed.
‘Very well,’ he said. ‘But don’t think this is the end of it. You owe me two months now and I’ll see to it that I get it, whatever it takes. By the time I’ve finished with you, you’ll be begging me to take you in payment.’
‘I’ll rot in hell first!’ shouted Daisy, waving the hoover at him till he dashed from the house.
Author Bio ↓
Heather Burnside spent her teenage years on one of the toughest estates in Manchester and she draws heavily on this background as the setting for many of her novels.
After taking a career break to raise two children Heather enrolled on a creative writing course. Heather now works full-time on her novels from her home in Manchester, which she shares with her two grown-up children.
Author Links ↓
Facebook: @HeatherBurnsideAuthor
Twitter: @heatherbwriter
Website: https://heatherburnside.com/
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