Within Temptation (7-chapter excerpt)

Chapter 1: Happy Reunions

 WITHIN TEMPTATION

A romantic mystery with a dash of suspense

by Tanya Holmes

Publisher: Virtual Acquisitions Cover Art: The Killion Group Interior Design: Joel Friedlander Copyright © 2014 by Tanya Holmes www.tanyaholmes.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical meth- ods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and cer- tain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric pur- poses. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to busi- nesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

Holmes, Tanya – Within Temptation 1st Edition, September 2014 ISBN-10: 0615936113
ISBN-13: 978-0615936116

DEDICATION

To the wonderful Jack VanGreko, who believed in me even when I didn’t. I couldn’t have done this without you.

“The course of true love

never did run smooth."

―William Shakespeare

CHAPTER ONE

Happy Reunions

--TRACE--

Was this a major coincidence? Or had Lady Luck just taken a piss on me? I shot forward in the passenger seat, not quite believing my own eyes. Damn. Less than four hours had passed since I’d left Gainstown Penitentiary, and who do I run into? Shannon Bradford—the last person I wanted to see.

My brother-in-law had just dashed into CVS at Main Street Plaza when I spotted her. She pulled into the lot, parking her black Volvo sedan in the opposite row, five spaces to my left.

I squinted past the salty film on the windshield and the trickle of snowflakes outside while she rescued the key ring she’d dropped. After a van blew by, spewing a wave of slush that barely missed her, she crossed the street and disappeared inside Noëlle’s Bakery.

A few miles back, I’d seen her photo plastered on a fancy billboard along the interstate. Long blonde hair, eyes like liquid chocolate, and a killer smile. Beneath her picture, the caption read:

Shannon Bradford ofBradford Realty: A Name You Can Trust.

Not in this friggen life.

My heart slowly tightened into a fist, as the air got thick. I reached for the door handle and tore outside to snatch a decent breath, but it was like the world had opened up and swallowed me whole. Cars crept by. People walked this way and that. Snowflakes pelted my face. Icy wind slapped me. There was just too much going on. Damn if I didn’t feel like an alien in a foreign land.

I’d left Gainstown with only a few modest goals. Apart from hooking up with a generous lady for a few hours of mindless sex and diving into a bottle of Herradura, my biggest wish was not to be fucked with.

One look at Shannon Bradford had shot all that to hell.

An icy blast swept by in a haze of snow dust, yet I didn’t feel anything but a hot churning in the pit of my gut. No doubt about it, I was coming unglued. The trees lining the street hadn’t been this big before. Icy daggers hung from them like claws—claws that could snatch my soul back to hell. The world was closing in on me, just as it had twelve years ago...when Shannon Bradford accused me of murder.