Showing results by narrator "James R Cheatham" in All Categories

Akuleh—Ku to his friends—thought his life would get easier after he learned his destiny wasn’t inescapably bound to his people’s death demon, Machitew. Then the enemy Supremacy gained a new ally that pushed the Resistance Pact forces into a two-front war across the galaxy. To halt the enemy’s advance and liberate a captured world, Ku’s unit, the 15th Aerospace Combat Wing, deploys to a planet aptly named for the destination of condemned souls. The terrain is rugged; the fighting worse.

The Confederate States of America was born in defense of slavery. Between Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Confederates bought and sold thousands African American men, women, and children. These transactions in humanity made the internal slave trade a cornerstone of Confederate society, a bulwark of the Rebel economy, and a central part of the experience of the Civil War for all inhabiting the American South.

With his career as a fighter pilot ended, Akuleh—Ku to his friends—is accepted into training for the Qaletaqa, the fulfillment of his childhood ambition. Once a territorial militia on Ku’s home world, the Qaletaqa are now the most sought-after special operations force in the Soliennese Commonwealth. The training regime is brutal, but Ku is motivated by his duty to his friend, King Mogen, who vanished when the enemy Supremacy occupied Solienne.

Humanity and their new allies, the Qash'vo'tar and the Zhal Confederation, embark on a mission to find the home system of their enemy-the Val'ayash. Both the Qash'vo'tar and the Zhal have been attacked by the Val'ayash and their allies, and were barely holding the line. Meanwhile, Earth is developing its magi-tech with the help from their Ethorrian allies, while also trying to build more ships.

History is written by the victors, and the powerful rewrite the rules in their favor. These are simple facts that the dysfunctional have decided to accept, if not embrace. After all, what's the point of fighting something as fundamental as gravity? The end result is always a fall. When it comes to Pain and Agony, conforming is just not an option. Challenges to these age-old proverbs will be taken on as the powerful, shifting on top of the pile, seek to stamp out any nonconformity. There's nothing left for Pain and Agony to do but punch hard enough to bring it all down.

Jilted lovers, cheating spouses, treacherous business partners . . . All bread and butter that pays the bills for this dysfunctional Investigation team. Unfortunately, the past is catching up with one of them. Vengeance with a capital V is as rare as it is dangerous and doesn't pay. Except that is what both of them want. What choice do they have when a federal agent promises to turn the pair into his personal sock puppets if they don't comply with his game?

New alliances and of course new betrayals are at hand as the tectonics of the black ops world shifts and rumbles. Who is working for who, who is hunting who, and will have the decency to simply shut up and die? Our favorite misfits must avoid being strangled and stabbed (and run over, and shot, and blown up, and, well, you get the point) in this latest cloak-and-dagger escapade. Can the pugnacious pair emerge from the intrigue in one piece? Dive into another adventure with the world's most dysfunctional duo, where murder, intrigue, and a stolen Pomeranian are just the tip of the iceberg.

Pain and Agony are two madcap masters of mayhem, but even they need friends. What are friends for? Companionship, support, and a helping hand when your luck is down. But the cost of friendship becomes something altogether different during their latest escapade. If you aren't going to help when things get rough, then what are you but a traitor? When longtime allies are at odds, and enemies new and old close in, the answer has lethal consequences.

In the finale of the That Was Before series, Randolph Spiers and Sheila Backe team up with redemption, forgiveness, and the possibility of second chances at stake.

If no good deed goes unpunished, what will a lifetime of doing Uncle Sam's dirty work cost a person? Pain and Agony have hardly cemented their new partnership as "investigative problem solvers" when SISTER comes poking around and raising all kinds of hell. Accusations flying left and right, the dysfunctional duo are back at it. But can they solve a murder, a kidnapping, and a matter of national security, all in the space of one week? Murder, mayhem, and a societal meltdown are all in a day's work for our pair, but to top it off, they get hit in the room and board department.

Jake Mean never had the time to grieve his wife and unborn child. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and members of the Border Kings decided she was a liability. Months later, they walk free, the legal system failing to bring consequences to those responsible.

PI Steve Rockfish's morning meeting was supposed to focus on a case of straightforward harassment. Two clients had purchased a miniature golf course and instantly became victims of vandalism and projected intolerance.

After the recent revelation about Pain's former partner, the big guy's been AWOL in search of answers. Agony is not the type to mope about. She has kept the ship afloat, trusting that when Pain's found the answers, he needs he'll be back. When Pain does come back, he arrives only he can . . . in a maelstrom of gunfire, screams, and callouts to emergency services. Agony and Pain need to sort out the issues months of distance and time have created, and they need to do it quickly.

The law was created to ensure citizens were viewed equally in the eyes of the criminal justice system. But justice could be blind. When criminals escaped justice, victims often turned to someone else, hoping the guilty were punished accordingly. Vigilantes, avengers, redeemers—no matter the name, they were people who took matters into their own hands. With the new millennium came a new type of redeemer: the victim's advocate. Every victim's advocate had a beginning, and this is the story of one of them.

Chance Hardway wants revenge. His woman was wronged by the Russian Mafia, and he has every intention of hunting them down for it. But information doesn’t come free. He’s got to get his hands dirty to find the men he’s looking for, so he jumps cities, doing odd jobs no one else wants. With someone on his tail, trying to beat him to the punch, Chance realizes he’s in a different position than he’d thought, and he’s running out of time. The Romano crime family, the Russian Mafia, the Muñoz Cartel, and every law enforcement agency in and around Las Vegas is after him and the woman he loves.

When Agony is spirited to the middle of nowhere, things get dicey for them both. The dangers are not contained to the glittering city lights. Some old scores can never be forgotten. Our tenacious twosome did just fine by themselves before they ran into each other, but the world has changed, and they can't go back to the way things were before they met. They'll need more than their usual shoot first, ask questions later tactics to get through this in one piece, and reunite.

The dysfunctional duo might have finally gone too far. When a confrontation with dirty cops crosses the line, they find themselves wearing orange jumpsuits. Locked up with a bunch of criminals, some of whom they have a passing familiarity with. What could go wrong? When you go by the names Pain and Agony, a lot. Our pugnacious pair are trapped in the fight of their life. But there's more going on here than just jail yard politics.

In a place like Las Vegas, people can find themselves in complicated situations with difficult and dangerous people. Chance Hardway is a debt collector, bounty hunter, assets-recovery specialist, and anything else needed—if the money is right. He’s a retired Green Beret, a former police officer, and a man who knows how to deal with difficult people his way, the Hardway.

Pain is a burned ex-mercenary. Agony is a burned ex-cop. Together, they might just find out. The only problem? They can't stand each other. Trust, it seems, doesn't come easily between a black-ops mercenary and an ex-police detective. What could make it worse for her? He doesn't like using guns. Will Pain and Agony be able to dodge the criminals trying to take them out and avoid killing each other in the process? Will the criminals be able to handle the two of them together?

The illegitimate son of a peasant, Rion of Tryferos has very limited prospects with only one remarkable talent: when he plays the lyre, he ushers in the supernatural balm of peace to all who hear. This turns out to be his ticket into the palace, where he nightly plays for the restless, rejected king. King Hector of Tryferos is paranoid, because he knows his days on the throne are numbered. What he doesn’t know is that his anointed successor is Rion.