Phoenix is the story of Amanda, Alex and Shiloh, three individuals tied together by two crimes committed thousands of miles and ten years apart, each looking for redemption and forgiveness.
Amanda Martin boards a bus in the middle of a cold Chicago night with no luggage and only two thoughts:get the hell away from the crazed gunman who obliterated her office and locate the man responsible for her indictment – and make him pay.
A small Texas town of Phoenix becomes her refuge as she assumes a new identity to rediscover who she was before all the power and money changed her. She intends it to be a temporary stop before searching for her ex-boyfriend who ensnared her in his securities fraud scandal, but the flirtatious advances of a handsome cop fuels her struggles between building a life there with him and her desire for vengeance. Uncovering a forgotten murder ignites Amanda’s need for redemption, but also drives a wedge in her new relationship, and puts her in the line of fire of two people who will stop at nothing to keep the case cold.
Excerpt
Amanda Martin didn’t believe in casual Fridays.
Sloppy dress, sloppy work, she thought as matching golf-shirt-clad tellers ignored the growing line.
Amanda paused at the door as she weighed her options. How long would it take her to deposit eighty hundred dollar bills into the ATM? Why didn’t Josh have HR cut her a check? Should she just wait it out for a teller? Why did Josh clean out his office? What is in El Paso? Or, who? And, what’s her bra size? The thumping headache from polishing off a bottle of wine alone jumbled her usually decisive thoughts.
“Dammit, Josh,” she murmured.
The line curved back on itself twice and each of the three tellers had four customers before it would be her turn at the window. The envelope of money poked at her collarbone from its haven in the interior pocket of her coat. No matter how she tried to maneuver it to a more comfortable position, the corner of the envelope continued to jab her.
She sighed, it’s probably a sign. Quarterly bonuses were standard for her at the mid-sized investment firm where she worked. But, this was different. It felt like a payoff.
Just as life during the pandemic was color-coded with different hues representing different levels of danger, life in its aftermath has become shaded in similar ways. As a self-styled “Seeker of Beauty with Beauty,” (borrowing from a quote by W.E.B.
