Excerpt Wednesday – The Stalker

He watched from the window, the same streaked window he stood in front of every morning. He’d been watching her for ten long years. He licked his lips in anticipation, and his heart thudded irregularly in his chest just like it did every time he knew he would be seeing her. He moved the curtain slightly to get a better view. She was coming, and his heart raced. She bounded out of her door, hands tightly gripping those of her ruddy-cheeked, carrot-topped twin boys. He wished he could hear what she was saying, just as he wished it were he whom she was smiling at and talking to. The children continued looking at her, laughter in their bright eyes as their cherub faces smiled while she talked.

How he longed to hear her voice speaking to him again, but it was only etched in his memory forever. He watched as her boys scurried onto their school bus. She smiled and waved even long after the bus was out of view. How he ached for her all these seemingly endless, lonely years. Being apart from her angered him and brought the demons closer to the surface, forcing him to lurk even further in the shadows. The shadows were his only solace, where he could watch her with no one telling him it was wrong or that he was a freak. Time was passing quickly, much too quickly. He had to make a move. It was time to come out of the shadows and finally claim her for his own.

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Excerpt Wednesday – Over The Edge

Maggie gazed out of the kitchen window at the thickening clouds then slowly stood up, scraping the chair across the worn linoleum floor. She hoped the impending rainstorm would give some relief to the heat. She was restless tonight, and a feeling of loneliness overtook her. She hated these melancholy moods. Sometimes they’d creep up out of nowhere, almost suffocating her.

She eyed her meager possessions. This was all she had to show for years of her hard work. It hadn’t always been this way. Once she had everything she ever wanted or could possibly want, but that seemed like a lifetime ago. Right when she was at the top, an error in judgment caused her to topple and land in a crumpled heap back down at the bottom. All she could do was lie there wondering what had happened and try to claw her way back to the top. But that was never to be again. Her life would have to begin anew.

Today she lived in a tiny, rented, rundown trailer, barely able to afford the monthly rent and utilities. She was grateful to have her job as a waitress, even though it paid only minimum wage plus whatever tips her customers gave her. She had quickly learned that a customer would be more willing to part with his hard-earned cash if she were friendly. In time she felt a distinctive bond growing with the regulars, as they became the family she yearned for, filling the empty void within her. Her friendliness toward them soon became less forced and instead genuinely sincere. Maggie had grown accustomed to their stories and jokes, and when they talked about their families and adventures, she felt like she was a part of their lives.


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Excerpt Wednesday – Silent Dreams

She chewed her bottom lip. "I couldn’t do it, Josh. It wasn’t the right time. You should’ve seen her. Some creep roughed her up and almost raped her last night. She’s in bad shape."

"You have twenty-four hours to talk to Blaine and convince her to work for me—no more, no less. Do I make myself clear?"

"Josh, there’s no way Blaine will go for it. She’s different—you know what I mean—too innocent. I can’t force her to do this. All the other girls came on board willingly. I’m sure there are a lot of girls who would love to join, but not Blaine. I think this is a bad business decision."

"How I run the business is no concern of yours."

"But Josh, what you’re asking me to do is illegal."

"Twenty-four hours!" he snarled. "Don’t cross me, Kami."

The line went dead. "Dammit! Now what do I do?" she muttered to herself as she leaned back in her chair and squeezed her eyes shut. Her head pounded near her temples. She prepared herself for another in a series of what were rapidly becoming daily headaches. How had she allowed herself to get into this mess? But more importantly, how could she keep Blaine out of it? She needed time, but time was the one thing that Josh Barnes would never give her.


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Excerpt Wednesday – The Black Heart

Carter emphatically shook his head. "What vendetta could anyone possibly have against my mother? It doesn’t make sense! Who would want her dead?" His eyes narrowed. "My mother didn’t have any enemies. You know that, Jake. Could it be a random act?"

"I don’t know, Carter."

Carter’s nostrils filled with the stench of the smoldering ruins. He coughed, and then spat at the ground. "Fill me in on what you do know, Jake."

"There’s not too much at this point," he answered, pulling on his chin.

"I’ve known you my entire life, Jake. You must have a theory."

Jake was thoughtful for a moment. "I do."

"And?" Carter persisted.

His eyes slanted. "My theory is that the perpetrator knew your mother would be out this evening. He then entered the house and rigged up a device in her bedroom lamp that would detonate the moment she turned the lamp on." He paused. "After the lamp was turned on, everything just blew."

Carter grabbed the sheriff’s arm. "A bomb? Why? What could my mother have ever done to cause someone to want to blow up her house with her in it? It still doesn’t make sense."


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