Kate stomped barefoot to the intercom. If whoever had their finger on her buzzer didn’t take it off in the next two seconds, she’d grab a knife and remove the finger herself. Kids fooling around. Someone who’d forgotten their key. Always a guy. Always her buzzer.
She pressed the release switch and leaned against the wall, excitement bubbling until she convinced herself it was a sick joke.
But the doorbell rang and through the peephole, Kate saw a fair-haired guy holding a large bouquet of flowers.
Once he’d walked away, Kate removed the chain. Before she’d finished turning the handle, the door slammed open and sent her crashing to the floor, flowers raining over her. The door closed and the blond guy dropped to his knees at her side. Kate opened her mouth to scream, and he smiled.
His smug look gave her the kick-start she needed. Kate screamed and lashed out. But he slapped a palm over her mouth and nose and sat on her legs. Latex gloves. Kate’s cantering heart broke into a gallop as she struggled to breathe. His hand slid from her mouth to squeeze her neck. What did he want? She had nothing. No jewelry. Less than thirty dollars in her wallet.
He showed her the knife in his other hand, released her mouth and she drew in a noisy gulp of air. An arm around her neck, he dragged her across the floor and tugged the telephone cord from the wall. When he picked petals from her long brown hair and pushed her glasses back in place on her nose, Kate shuddered. Oh God, please let him be a thief.
“Don’t hurt me,” she choked out.
Some crimes can never be forgotten.
Kate Evans doesn’t take risks. She chose her apartment with care—a safe district with a good neighbor—a place where she can live a quiet, unassuming, under-the-radar existence. Then she makes one mistake and opens her door to accept a delivery of flowers from a secret admirer and her life will never be the same again. A guy she’s never seen before bursts into her apartment and asks her to marry him. Jack Thompson won’t take no for an answer and drags Kate on a cross country journey to hell.
Invalided out of the police, Nathan Beranson works as a private investigator in San Antonio, Texas where he spends too much of his time following unfaithful spouses and delivering the bad news to their partners. When his fiancée cheats on him with Jack Thompson, the half-brother Nathan’s only just met, he becomes obsessed with Jack in the same unhealthy way as his revenge-seeking clients. By the time Nathan finally realizes putting the ghosts of the past to rest is a wiser option than settling an old score, it’s too late. He’s already been drawn into his sibling’s latest deadly game and Nathan and Kate find their nightmare is only just beginning.
Stopping by to **wave** hi to you honey!