Fatal Truth Series
Genre: Dark Romantic Thriller
Publication Date: April 4, 2017
Genre: Dark Romantic Thriller
Publication Date: April 4, 2017
Cain Killion knows himself to be a damaged man. His only redeeming quality? The extrasensory connection to blood that he uses to catch killers. His latest case takes a macabre turn when he discovers a familiar and haunting symbol linking the crime to his horrific past—and the one woman who might understand what it means.
Only to lose her to a nightmare
Mercy Ledger is brave, resilient, beautiful—and in terrible danger. The moment Cain finds her the line between good and evil blurs and the only thing clear to them is that they belong together. Love is the antidote for blood—but is their bond strong enough to overcome the madness that stalks them?
“Do
you remember where you are?”
“Ward
B of The Center of Balance and Wellness. The name doesn’t fit. It should be
called The Center of Indifference. No one here cares—except for Liz. You know
Liz?” He opened his mouth to answer, but she bulldozed over him, her words
coming out in a rush. “She looks like Nurse Ratchet, but her personality is all
Mary Poppins. She always lets me stay up past lights-out since it’s the only
solitude to be had in the whole place. Once, she snuck a cupcake in on my
birthday. Now isn’t that sweet? She—” The words were speeding out of her mouth.
Not
that he was complaining. He preferred her hyped-up over out-of-it, but she
might backslide if she didn’t stay somewhat calm. “Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down.
Take a breath. We’ve got all the time in the world here.” Had to be the meds or
lack of meds—some strange part of the withdrawals—causing her diarrhea of the
mouth.
She
grabbed in one good breath, then tossed off again. “You know there aren’t many
people to talk to in here.” She turned her voice down to a whisper. “Everyone’s
crazy. I mean really crazy.
Certifiable. It’s hard to carry on a rational conversation with someone who
keeps talking to the demon that lives in their ankle. You ever have that
happen? Where you’re talking to someone and all of sudden they lift their foot
up in front of their face and start having a conversation with it? It’s a bit
off putting, if you know what I mean.”
Her
expression was full on seriousness, and he probably shouldn’t laugh—definitely
he shouldn’t—but couldn’t help it.
A
smile—no, it wasn’t quite a smile—tipped the corners of her mouth, giving her a
look that said she was thinking about something pleasing.
“We’ve
hit a new phase of your withdrawals. Speed talking.”
“Oh,
my. Your voice. Wow. It reminds me of dark chocolate, a hot bath, and sex and—”
“Apparently
your mental filter is malfunctioning.”
“—sweaty,
dirty, hard fucking.”
Holy
Christ. Just the words sex, sweaty, and dirty had his dick going all skyscraper
inside his jeans, but when she said hard
fucking—he blacked out for a moment. When his mind came back online it
decided to flash him images of what sweaty,
dirty, hard fucking would look like with her. Her nipples brushing against his chest as he rammed into her with
a pace and depth and exuberance he’d never experienced.
He
needed to change the subject, but couldn’t remember how to get his mouth to
form words. He might’ve swallowed his damned tongue.
“Why
do you suppose your voice sounds like sex on a summer day? It’s because I’m
horny. I haven’t had sex in five years. That’s a long time you know. I have
needs.”
He
finally figured out how to flap his lips, while making sound to form actual
words. Maybe he’d had a stroke. “Jesus Christ woman.” The words exploded out of
him. “You’ve got to stop talking about sex.” He scrubbed his hand over his eyes,
trying to wipe out the mental images that still played. “You’re speaking every
single thought that floats into your mind. No goddamned censor. It’s gotta be
the meds or the shock treatments causing it. Something.”
Her
bottom lip pushed out in an utterly inappropriate—but adorably kissable—pout.
“I don’t see anything wrong with talking about how I feel. Maybe that’s why I
can’t get out of this place. I won’t open up. Won’t let Dr. Payne-in-my-ass
into my mind. Maybe if I—”
“Christ
on a crapper. You’ve got to stop for a moment.” She opened her mouth to
argue—he cut her off. “I need you to listen for thirty seconds. A minute tops.
Then you can talk about sex, Dr. Payne, and your feelings all you want.”
“You
can’t go putting sex, Dr. Payne, and my feelings in the same sentence. Wrong.
So wrong.”
“Won’t
argue about that. But I need you to keep your lips closed.”
Pain
pinched her features as she lifted her hands, placing them over her mouth. It
should have been a comical gesture, but all he could see was her hurting. It
had been five days since Dr. Payne had injured her and the fact that her body
still suffered scraped his justice bone. If he ever got the guy alone, he just
might uncage that part of himself that thirsted for blood.
He
cleared his throat and emptied his mind of those thoughts. “There’s some things
you need to know right now. Important things. Like you’re not at The Center. You’re safe in a cabin in Southern Ohio. You’ve
been withdrawing from the meds for the past two days. Your short term memory is
shit from the shock treatments. I’ve been taking care of you the whole time.”
He spoke the sentences as if there were a list he’d memorized—probably because
he’d said the same thing so many times before. “That’s why we keep having this
same conversation and you can’t remember it.”
She
lifted her hands off her mouth. “Cool. That works for me. Never liked that
place.”
Ooo…kkaayy…
She obviously wasn’t fully grasping reality. “You’re not going to remember any
of this are you?”
“Probably
not. Not when I’m feeling half drunk.” She put her hand back over her mouth,
but her eyes sparkled with laughter.
She might be more
coherent, but she definitely wasn’t fully functional. “I just want you to know.
You are safe here. I won’t let you go
back there. And I won’t hurt you. I would never
hurt you.”
Abbie Roads is a mental health counselor known for her blunt, honest style of therapy. By night she writes dark, emotional novels always giving her characters the happy ending she wishes for all her clients. SAVING MERCY is the first book in her new Fatal Truth Series of dark, gritty, romantic suspense with a psychological twist.
Thank you for sharing <3!
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