A romance novel packed with suspense and
intrigue. Placed into Witness Protection, Kit Taylor, formerly Karen Sue
Murphy, now a self -imposed loner, slowly pieces her shattered life back
together in beautiful Steamboat Springs Colorado. Jess Ryan, a firefighter and
Explosive’s Expert just back from Afghanistan, is haunted with demons of his
own. When they meet the attraction is undeniably. However, unwitting
influences jeopardize their new relationship. Separate and equally dangerous
undertakings lead them into perilous situations that test their courage and
ultimately their love for each other.
This romantic thriller is offered in two
versions. The Uncut Edition contains adult content and is intended for mature
readers. The Abridged Edition is a milder in content.
Someone To Come Home To (Uncut
Edition)
Someone To Come Home To
(Abridged Edition)
When
she’s not teaching, coaching, or writing Zanne loves to spend time with her
family and fun loving friends. She is a novice photographer, a consummate
sports fan, and is never without a book to read.
Other Zanne Sweeney books:
Neighbors
A
Chance For More (A finalist in the Readers Favorite Book Contest in the
category of Romance – Sizzle)
AUTHOR LINKS:
You
can reach out to Zanne on Twitter @zanneweeney and on her Facebook like page:
Zanne Sweeney - Author. https://www.facebook.com/zanne.sweeney.author?ref=hl
Chapter 1
With a fake
smile and a hopefully cheery voice Karen Sue thanked her neighbor for the ride
home. She opened the rickety gate that separated their backyards and the
familiar squeak of the rusty hinges brought forth bittersweet memories.
Years ago she and her best friend Katrina had practically
worn the hinges off that white, little gate as they ran from one house to the
other seeking better snacks or newer toys.
The memories still stung even though an entire decade had passed. Katrina and her family had moved to Ohio,
leaving Karen Sue to bravely face her freshman year in high school without her
best friend of 13 years.
Not too long ago Karen Sue had been filled with pride and
contentment when she came home to her cozy house. Now as she crossed her weed
choked lawn, a small frown tended her lips as she noted that the grass, well
dandelions now, needed to be cut again.
Wearily she
walked down her short driveway towards the front of her house to get the mail.
She sighed somberly knowing there would be bills with ‘Urgent’ red stamps
marring the white envelopes. As much as she had been denying it she knew she
was going to have to sell her beloved home to dig out from the havoc Ray had
created to her once good credit. She knew she could get a good price for her
house that would pay off her bills and leave her enough money to restart, if…if
Rays lawyers didn’t try to claim any of it.
Three young
boys that Karen Sue taught at school peddled past her driveway on their bikes,
waving shyly to their beautiful art teacher. Karen Sue smiled and waved back as
she juggled her computer case and purse to free a hand. A large black sedan
parked in front of her house with the motor running drew her attention from the
boys. She could see someone sitting in the driver's seat and he appeared to be
talking on a cell. Her eyes caught his when he glanced up to his rearview
mirror. Karen Sue figured the man was being responsible and had pulled over to
talk on the phone, she wished more people did that.
She gathered
the mail from the mailbox that she had painted flowers on just three years
early, when life was good. Now when she opened the brightly painted box she was
stung with how drastically her life had changed. Turning back she walked up the
driveway and let herself into the house through the side kitchen door. Placing
the mail down on the dull Formica counter without looking at it, she settled
her computer bag and oversized purse on the nearby kitchen table. Coming home
was never a good thing anymore. Karen Sue pulled her arms out of her
lightweight coat and hung it on the wooden hook behind the door; it was then
that she heard voices, angry voices coming from the adjoining room.
Curious and
slightly alarmed she headed towards the swinging door that separated the
kitchen and living room. She heard Ray say. “Leave her out of this, she doesn’t
know anything.”
As she
extended her arms to push open the door she heard three sounds, like wet
snowballs hitting a wall, followed by an anguished low grunt. Without warning
the door slammed back inwards forcing Karen Sue’s arms back against her body.
Ray fell through the swinging door his back colliding heavily with her chest.
The force that had propelled Ray through the door caused them to both to keel
over backwards. She landed painfully on the kitchen floor with Ray sprawled on
top of her. Their prone bodies acting as a door stop holding the swinging door
wide open. The jarring Karen Sue’s body
took knocked the breath from her and she fought for air. The moment became surreal
as Karen Sue noticed many things at once.
Two men
were in her living room; a smaller man in a dark business suit holding a gun,
and standing next to him was a larger man in dress pants, a collared shirt with
gold chains surrounding his beefy neck. It was clear that the smaller man had
just fired the gun, although she hadn’t seen it. Realizing that a man she
didn’t know, held a gun in her living room and the gun had been fired, Karen
Sue vainly struggled to push up on her elbows hoping Ray would move. Gasping
for breath she peered over Ray's shoulder wondering why he wasn’t getting up.
It was then she noticed Ray’s shirt was blooming with crimson wet circles, two
in his chest and one in his shoulder.
Karen Sue
tried to maneuver out from underneath his heavyweight but the floor was
slippery. Rivers of blood seeping onto her body ran off her pooling onto the
floor below them. A copper smell permeated her senses as she tried to suck in
air. Her face was wet and she panicked realizing it was Ray’s blood that was
splattered on her skin and soaking her clothes.
Ray was not moving, at all, his deadweight hampering her
ability to regain her lost breath. She heard the smaller man say, ‘shit” as he
looked at her. His head tilted to one side, as if he was in thought. Karen Sue
watched him hand the gun to the larger man who was also looking at her. Her
mind was slush, she couldn’t think, her survival instinct was urging her to get
out from underneath Ray and run. She frantically pushed against the kitchen floor
but the blood coating the floor had her hands slipping frantically, like Fred
Flintstone's feet when he started his car. The front door burst open,
momentarily halting Karen Sue’s attempts to escape. A large, muscle-bound younger man dressed in
a black tee shirt and dress pants appeared. His eyes darted over to Karen Sue
and Ray, surveying the scene he had walked in on.
He then
looked to the man in the suit and said; “Boss, we gotta go, scanner says cops
are on their way.” Karen Sue was silently praying, ‘Go, please, go.’
“How the fuck are they on their way?” The smarmy thin man
questioned.
“Don’t know but I think a neighbor called in a suspicious
vehicle.”
Karen Sue was listening to this conversation as if she was
watching a TV show that she was staring in. Her shocked, small body clenched
tightly to Ray as if he could somehow help her. A gooey blob of wetness slid
down her cheek jolting Karen Sue back into reality. Ray had been shot and he
was currently pinning her down and three men, one wielding a gun were in her
living room getting ready to do God knows what. Bile caught in her throat as
she swiped what she knew was a bloody piece of her husband from her face
causing her to whimper in distress.
The older man took the gun back from the gold- chained gorilla
like man and handed it to the new guy. “Kill her,” he said. He then turned and
walked out the front door. The gorilla remained behind guarding her front door.
Karen Sue knew she was the ‘her’ that was about to be killed.
Try as she might she couldn’t lift Ray off of her and the
blood had caused the linoleum underneath them to become so slippery she
couldn’t even scoot backwards. She could hear sirens in the distance, but she
knew there was no way they would get to her in time. Her mind slipped into a
hyper focused state and her body trembled with terror. Her random thoughts were
crazed as she thought about the many times she had watched horror movies and
had laughed at the victims who had stood shocked and unmoving just before they
were slaughtered. The muscle-bound man approached her; his large frame blocked
her sight from the gorilla standing at the door.
She feebly lifted one arm palms out stopping gesture and
garbled out, a lame “please, don’t...” The killer raised the gun, aiming it at
her and Ray. She noticed his hands were not shaking in the least and she knew
that only a monster could kill someone without emotion. She had a moment of
bravado and decided if this bastard was going to kill her then she was going to
be looking him in the face when he did it. She saw his mouth move without
speaking and she thought he mouthed the words. “Play dead,” then he squeezed
the trigger. Her last conscious thought was that the bullets silently firing
from this gun sounded like the blow darts the natives would use in the old
Tarzan movies. Karen Sue’s head hit the floor with a hard thump, her arm
slipped limply to the blood coated linoleum as her eyes rolled up into her
head. A welcoming blackness engulfed her.
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