Love,
betrayal and murder in a small town….
Twelve years after her mother's murder,
Shannon Bradford fears she may have helped convict an innocent man. Even worse,
her prominent family may have had something to do with it. Desperate for
answers, she seeks help from the one person least likely to give it. Her best
friend and childhood crush, Trace Dawson. The man she sent to prison.
Serving hard time for murder has left
Trace angry and bitter. As far as he's concerned, digging into the past won't
replace the years he's lost or erase the hell he's lived. Now that he's free,
Shannon Bradford tops his list of bad memories. But he never counted on falling
in love.
Set in a sleepy little town during the
dead of winter, this award-winning romance novel is a tale of one woman's quest
for truth and a man's struggle to forgive.
"MEMORIES flooded my mind, of the quiet
riot he was, of the secret crush I’d had on him, and the extraordinary
friendship we’d shared so many years ago. As fast as those images came, others
replaced them. I was thrust back to the crime scene, back to Mother’s corpse
and the shirtless eighteen-year-old roaring obscenities while Sheriff Gray and
a deputy dragged him away in handcuffs." -- Within
Temptation
No more than two minutes
could have passed, two of the most terrifying minutes I’d ever had. The left
side of my face was numb with cold. My lips and hands ached too. I couldn’t
seem to make anything move.
The
details came in pieces. How I’d almost been run over. How a stranger shoved me
to safety just before a Jeep playing target practice could send me flying.
Then as
if someone had flipped a switch, sensory explosions filled the void. Horns
blared. Somebody screamed. A baby was crying. And the wind howled while sounds
burst forth in a crush of voices.
“I swear
the brakes locked!” a teenage boy yelled. “She ain’t dead, is she? Oh, jeez.
Daddy’s gonna kill me!”
“Don’t
just stand there. Call 911!” a girl shrieked.
A cell
phone chimed and someone started pressing numbers.
Next, an
old man with a rough-and-ready voice said, “Pushed her out the way just in
time. Another second and—”
“Is she
dead or not?” the teenager demanded again.
While
this was going on, I sat up, taking my time to ensure I was in one piece.
Except for a sore hip, a bump on the head, and a scraped knee, I was fine. A
woman standing nearby helped me, and as I got to my feet, realization dawned.
Trace
Dawson had tried to save me.
I fought
to see past the crowd into the parking lot, spotting him instantly. He’d just
struggled to his feet and was staring right at me, his chin dripping blood. The
people scurrying about and the cars streaming through the slush faded. Nothing
but the two of us existed.
Memories
flooded my mind, of the quiet riot he was, of the secret crush I’d had on him,
and the extraordinary friendship we’d shared so many years ago. As fast as
those images came, others replaced them.
I was
thrust back to the crime scene, back to Mother’s corpse and the shirtless
eighteen-year-old roaring obscenities while Sheriff Gray and a deputy dragged
him away in handcuffs.
Trace
Dawson the man glared at me now, and his eyes were hard and accusing, eyes
brimming with fire and ice. A chill wind rumbled past him, but he stood as
still as a statue. Only his eyes moved while he looked me up and down with
agonizing thoroughness. The rage. The pain. It was all there.
“Trace?” I whispered.
In chilling silence, he
walked away without so much as a glance over his shoulder.
Tanya Holmes is a former Romance
Writers of America Golden Heart finalist, a recipient of the Maggie Award, the
MICA Award, as well as Overall Winner of the Sandy Haddad Award and a two-time
finalist and one-time winner of The Emily (Best of the Best). She's happily
married with children and loves reading, writing and a good cup of coffee---but
not necessarily in that order. Her debut novel, Within Temptation is due out on
May 12, 2014.
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