Epilogue
“We need more hands on deck,” Portia said as she and I stood at the end of the training center, looking over the couple dozen StrikeForce prospects who chatted or demonstrated their powers. “We had these people working here in other capacities. I think it’s time to give a few of them promotions to full-fledged team members.”
I looked around. “We can trust these people?”
She sighed. “About as much as we can trust anybody. We can’t be picky at this point. I’ve worked with some of these people for almost ten years. They stuck with us through the craziness of taking control from Alpha, and several of them fought and were injured when Killjoy’s people came to bust Maddoc and those guys out.”
I guess it says a lot about my trust level that as I watched them, I was looking for those with the weakest powers to recommend for the team. That way if they did betray us, we wouldn’t have too much of a fight on our hands. I shook my head, knowing I was being paranoid and that having a bunch of weaklings on our team wouldn’t really help anybody.
“Well. Who’s making the final choice again?”
“Jenson, David, and I,” she said. “I asked Caine but he doesn’t feel comfortable getting involved in the team management side of things. And you don’t know any of these people,” she added, as if she thought I might be offended that I hadn’t been asked or something.
“Okay.”
“It’ll be okay,” she assured me. “I’m thinking we’ll bring two or three up to start with and once they’re fully trained and we feel comfortable with them on the team, we’ll look at promoting more.”
I nodded, and we watched our prospective team mates for a while longer. We had some useful skills there, I had to admit. Several with enhanced speed, which was always handy. A couple of fire starters, one guy who could freeze things with his breath. A telekinetic, like Monica had been, I realized with a pang.
“We all know this is going to get worse,” Portia said quietly as we looked at them. “You pissed him off now, and we actually kind of held our own against them when they attacked us. The tribunal is looking into not just our charges against Alpha, but also into your possible involvement in blowing up a lab in Mexico.”
I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself calm.
She went on. “And the thing is, they have no goddamn proof of that, so I’m not too worried. Whoever did it was stealthy as hell about how they went about it. Kind of scary, really.”
I smiled.
“The local media and that damn Detroit UnPowered guy are all over the fight between us and Killjoy. They’re split on trying to decide if we were the heroes or the villains in that fight.”
“Well. We’ll train your new people. Suit them up in the gray and black, and we’ll do better. Eventually they’ll get their heads out of their asses and realize that we’re the only ones who give a damn about this city.”
She nodded. “Amen to that. All right. Let’s get to it.”
I left Portia to join up with Ryan for our patrol shift. I’d kept almost stupidly busy since Mama’s funeral. I took extra patrol shifts when I could, monitored the detention wing fairly often because I just couldn’t shake the idea that eventually, they’d have to come back for Alpha. His money had clearly been important to Killjoy, and Killjoy had some rebuilding to do. I watched as Jenson and Portia worked even harder to make StrikeForce’s reputation stronger, watched David step up and do more public super hero stuff. I watched them all trying to convince the world that we could be trusted to keep them safe. And, in spare pockets of time, I met up with Dani, Jenson, David, and Ryan behind closed doors, trying to figure out the next non-official move we’d make to ensure that the promises StirkeForce made publicly would be upheld. And underneath it all, I burned with one overriding goal:
Revenge.
THE END
Jolene returns in Darkest Day: StrikeForce Book Three
Available now at Amazon.com
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For backstory material, news, and upcoming events be sure to check out http://www.colleenvanderlinden.com
Cast of Characters
Alpha - Michael Fendrath
Beta - David Fendrath
Caine - Ryan Lucas
Chance - Not Known
Crystal - Not Known
Daemon - Not Known
Daystar - Jolene Faraday
Dr. Death - Not Known
Jenson - Not Known
Killjoy - Connor (Last Name Not Known)
Maddoc - Not Known
Nightbane - Not Known
Portia - Portia Jones
Screamer - Dani Whitehall
Steel - Amy Li
Swoon - Monica Simmons
Toxxin - Ariana Torres
Virus - Damian Rutherford
Thank you so much for reading One More Day! I have been having so much fun with this series, and we’re going to keep it going with book three, which will be out in March, 2016. I hope you’ll come along for the ride and see what craziness happens in Jolene’s life next. If you enjoyed this book, I would greatly appreciate your review on Amazon, and, of course, I always appreciate hearing from you via email (email@colleenvanderlinden.com), Twitter (c_vanderlinden), or Facebook (colleenvanderlinden). And if you want to keep up with my releases as well as read some of my stories before they’re ever published, I hope you’ll sign up for my newsletter.
Writing a book is a very solitary pursuit, but publishing a book requires a team. I am lucky to have a phenomenal team helping me with these books. First of all is my husband and partner in crime, Roger, who is my designer, tech guy, website designer, therapist, and just all-around hero. I also worked with a brilliant team of beta readers on this book, and their input, without a doubt, improved this story. Thanks so much to Danielle Calleja, Susan Cambra, Jo Dawson, Krys Hopkins, Sarah Leenart, Jayna Longstreet, Sam McMullen-Hamilton, Kari Powers, Rachel Scott, and Samantha Wheeler. You guys are the best.
As always, my wonderful family deserves an award just for putting up with me sometimes. I love you guys.
Huge thanks to everyone who buys my books or checks them out via Kindle Unlimited. Thank you for your support, which allows me to keep writing and publishing these crazy stories of mine.
Colleen Vanderlinden
Detroit, Michigan
January 18, 2016
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For backstory material, news, and upcoming events be sure to check out http://www.colleenvanderlinden.com
About the Author
Colleen Vanderlinden is the author of the Hidden and Soulhunter urban fantasy series, as well as the Copper Falls paranormal romance series. The third Hidden novel, Home, was a finalist for RT Book Reviews’ Editors Choice Awards for best self-published urban fantasy novel of 2014. Her books have consistently received positive reviews, and RT Book Reviews has called her storytelling “electrifying.” She lives in the Detroit area with her husband, kids, demonic Basset hound, and two lazy cats. You can find out more about Colleen’s books at colleenvanderlinden.com, or follow her on Twitter, where she’s @C_Vanderlinden and Facebook.
Books by
Colleen Vanderlinden
The StrikeForce Series
A New Day
One More Day
Darkest Day
The Copper Falls Series
Shadow Witch Rising
The Hidden: Soulhunter Series
Guardian
Betrayer
The Hidden Series
Book One: Lost Girl
Book Two: Broken
Book Three: Home
Book Four: Strife
Boo
k Five: Nether
Hidden Series Novellas
Forever Night
Earth Bound
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