He turned and stared at Mariahs front door, wondering what he should do.
Why was he here? Why hadnt he gone home? He pushed himself forward and lightly tapped on the door. She opened it. Her soft curly hair spilled around her shoulders and her blue eyes radiated gentle concern as she looked at him. She wore the terry cloth robe shed had on the night they made love. That night seemed as if it were a million years ago.
It was at that moment that Lucas realized he could fall in love with her, if he allowed it, and that there would be no happy ending. When this was all over, he feared that to her he would be just a bad memory.
And that shed remember him as the man who broke her heart and never looked back.
The Sheriffs Secretary Carla Cassidy
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write. Shes looking forward to writing many more books and bringing hours of pleasure to readers.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Mariah Harrington Her entire world explodes when her son, Billy, disappears.
Jenny Jamison Is Lucass sister an innocent babysitter or part of a dangerous plot?
Frank Landers Mariahs ex-husband had no interest in being a father, but would he kidnap his own son to torment the woman who left him?
Phil Ribideaux Had the wealthy playboy Jennys ex-boyfriendbeen driven to commit a crime when his father disinherited him?
Remy Troulous The dangerous young man heads a gang called the Voodoo Priests. What was his connection with Jenny?
Louis DuBois, Wally Ellis and Ed Maylor The sheriffs men were doing their best to solve the crimewerent they?
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Prologue
As the adrenaline eased, a new sense of euphoria flooded his veins. Hed done it. Hed actually managed to pull it off. All the months of planning had finally paid off.
To assure himself of his success, he walked across the shacks wooden floor and opened the slat in the door that offered him a view into the small room.
They were both still out, unconscious on the mat where hed placed them when hed carried them in from the boat. Billy had been easy. He probably weighed no more than fifty pounds.
Jenny
had been more difficult. Hed struggled beneath her dead weight, not wanting to drop her into the gator-infested water that surrounded the shack.
They were out, but soon the drugs would wear off and theyd wake up and know they were trapped. They wouldnt know who had taken them or why they were here. And then the fear would begin.
Although, on the outside, the shack looked as if a stiff breeze could blow it over and into the murky waters of Conja Creek, that appearance was deceiving.
Hed spent the past month making sure the small interior room was strong and secure, like a fortress, not to keep people out but rather to keep people in. It was the perfect place for, when they woke, when they began to scream for help, there would be nobody to hear them but the gators and the fish.
He checked his watch, then closed the slat with a sigh of satisfaction. They had all the basic necessities they needed to survive until he returned here. But now it was time for him to go.
Minutes later he lowered himself into his boat. It would take him nearly an hour to maneuver through the maze of waterways half-choked with vegetation.
He didnt mind the time it would take. Hed use it to think about Sheriff Lucas Jamison, the golden boy who had it all. He tightened his hands on the boats steering wheel. Sheriff Lucas Jamison, the confident know-it-all, the towns favorite son, the man who looked at him like he was nothing. Right now Lucas was the towns favorite son, but soon he would know what it was like to be terrified.
Chapter One
She threw her keys on the kitchen table, stepped out of her navy high heels and opened the refrigerator to look for the can of soda that shed hidden the night before in the vegetable bin. No chance Billy or Jenny would look in there. They both shared the same abhorrence for anything green and good for them.
Smiling as she carried the cold can into the living room, she thought of her son and her roommate. It was hard to believe how much an eight-year-old and a twenty-five-year-old could have in common. But in many ways Jenny was as much child as adult.
Of course, that came from being raised by an overly protective, domineering brother. Her smile fell away as she thought of Sheriff Lucas Jamison.
As the mayors secretary, she often found herself acting as a buffer between the hardheaded Lucas and the ineffectual mayor of Conja Creek. But it wasnt her job that made her want to keep her distance from the handsome-as-sin sheriff.
There was a touch of judgment in his dark eyes and a command to his presence that made her think of dark days in her pasta past shed finally managed to escape.
It had been Lucas who had approached her about renting a room to his younger sister. Hed thought Mariah would be a good influence on flighty, immature Jenny.