Excerpt & Giveaway Carrier (The Line #1) by Anne Tibbets

Publication date: June 16th 2014

Genres: Dystopia, New Adult

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Twenty-two -year-old Naya has spent nearly half her life as a sex slave in a government institution called The Line. When she’s kicked out after getting pregnant with twins, she’s got no way to earn a living and a horrifying choice to make: find someone to replace her, or have her babies taken in her stead.

A doctor with a history of aiding ex-Line girls, Ric Bennett, wants to help. He runs a team of rebels that can delete Naya’s records and free her forever. But when The Line sniffs out his plan, things get bloody, fast. Naya means more to them than just a chance at fresh faces—her twins are part of the government’s larger plan.

As they hide from government search parties, Ric comes to admire Naya’s quiet strength. And Naya realizes Ric might be a man she can trust. If they make it off the grid, they could build a new life. But first they’ll have to survive the long, vicious reach of The Line.

On a stage behind the man with the headphones were several girls wearing bikinis, decorated with fluorescent body paint. They were puppetlike as they danced and glistened off the strobe lights. I was briefly mesmerized by their movements. They danced the same routine in tight synchronized motions, and I involuntarily bobbed my head along to the beat of the music.

Sonya caught me and grinned. “Cool, huh?”

I stopped a moment, then nodded and let my head bob all it wanted.

I liked it. The room’s power pumped me with false confidence.

Deeper through the crowd we reached the dead center of the dance floor. Sonya stopped for a moment and lifted her arms over her head, dancing along with the rest of the crowd.

I did the same.

There was a moment when a person bumped me, sending me bashing into Sonya, but she didn’t care, and I let it go.

A touch here was just a bump, nothing more.

The more people bumped into me, the freer I felt.

I cheered aloud, and the music took my whole body prisoner.

This is what it felt like to be free.

I was having the time of my life until I felt someone’s body press up against my hip. A guy. Shirtless, and wearing loose pants so low you could see his undergarments. He was dancing in time to the music with his eyes closed, but in his revelry he’d pressed up against me and the grinding of his hips plowed through me like a bulldozer.

I stopped dancing.

Sonya didn’t notice. She had her back turned and was hopping up and down with a group of people beside me.

I stood in the middle of the dancers and gave the grinding guy a healthy shove. He stumbled slightly but didn’t seem too bothered and simply turned the other direction to grind elsewhere.

Suddenly, the bumping wasn’t okay anymore.

I could feel the bodies pressing against me.

The walls moved closer still.

Cold sweat beaded on my brow. The air grew stifling.

“Sonya!” I screamed over the music, trying to get her attention. I reached out and grabbed her shoulder, and she swung around.

The look on my face must have spoken volumes. Without words, she grabbed my hand and we shoved our way through the crowd. When we came out the other side, I felt as if we’d swum up from the bottom of a deep lake and were coming up for air.

Anne Tibbets is an SCBWI award-winning and Smashwords.com Best Selling author. After writing for Children’s television, Anne found her way to young/new adult fiction by following what she loves: books, strong female characters, twisted family dynamics, magic, sword fights, quick moving plots, and ferocious and cuddly animals.

Along with CARRIER, Anne is also the author of the young adult fantasy novella, THE BEAST CALL and the young adult contemporary, SHUT UP.

Anne divides her time between writing, her family, and three furry creatures that she secretly believes are plotting her assassination.

Find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AnneTibbetsAuthor or on Twitter @WriteforCoffee. To contact Anne, visit www.annetibbets.com and click the ‘CONTACT’ tab.

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