Kindle Edition
Amazon
Category:
Mystery/Suspense
Publisher: Independent (originally Pen It Publications)
ISBN-10: 1952894506
Type: Fiction
Pages: 265
Copyright: July 30, 2020
ISBN-13: 9798316046829
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
Reclusive writer Natalie Willis stumbles onto a crime scene at her neighbor’s house that is eerily similar to the Halloween night seven years earlier when her parents and younger siblings were murdered…with one exception. Her neighbor’s young son is missing. New Moon Valley police chief Gil Acosta must hunt for a killer, search for the boy and wrestle with his instant attraction to Natalie. Can he also protect her from an evil seven years in the making?
After 17-year-old Natalie Willis is dropped off at her Birmingham, Alabama home following a Halloween party, she discovers that the house has been ransacked and her parents and younger twin siblings have been brutally murdered. Natalie is attacked by one of the killers, but rescued by the police who arrive in time to save her.
Fast forward seven years to another Halloween night. Natalie, now a reclusive author of children's books, stumbles onto another crime scene when she checks to see how her neighbors fared during a tornado. She sees the bodies of Emma And Craig Hadley lying lifeless in their own blood. Their young son, Aiden, is missing. Terrified, Natalie flees the house, but is grabbed by a masked man who whispers "Where is he?" before choking her into unconsciousness.
Moon Valley Chief of Police, Gil Acosta, arrives on the scene in time to save Natalie from further harm, and quickly becomes intent on soothing her fears. Natalie soon realizes she's entertaining possibilities of romance with the handsome cop. Gil also would prefer to spend his time developing a relationship with the fragile author, but is kept busy determining why two separate, yet eerily similar, murders happened within less than 80 miles of each other, seven years apart.
As Natalie joins in the hunt to find Aiden Hadley, she avoids more threats and dangerous situations from murderers intent on retrieving a priceless object, no matter the cost. All the while Natalie is determined to overcome the brokenness inside herself and be willing accept the love Gil clearly wants to give.
Excerpt
The truck bearing Natalie and a killer were now less than a quarter of a mile from the cottage. Natalie looked at the road ahead, which led to the house alongside what passed as a driveway, and across a yard that headed straight down to the river if one didn’t stop.
She suddenly spotted an eagle flying
overhead. It seemed to signify both freedom and hope. She swallowed hard, sent up a prayer, pressed down on the accelerator with all the power she could summon, and reached for the door handle.
****
Fifteen-year old Justin Shirley had been hiking for an hour, taking photos on his cell phone, and was tired. He found a rock on the opposite side of the Terrapin River from a vacant summer rental cottage and sank down to rest. He trained his camera phone on an eagle soaring over the cottage. He heard the sound of an engine revving and saw a truck speeding down the drive, heading for the river. Justin shifted the camera’s focus.
The video of a truck flying about seven feet in the air before plunging into the water below went viral ten minutes after Justin uploaded it online. And one month later, the still shot he made of a woman jumping from an opened door on the driver’s side just before the truck crashed into the river gave Justin a first-place award in the Moon Valley High School photography contest.
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