Genre: Suspense
What it's about
Remorse...
All Sean Kincaid wanted was to use his Special Operative skills to bring a domestic terrorist to justice. But he left a trail of bodies in his wake: foes, colleagues - and an innocent woman. Now he's pursued by enemies, while desperately searching for a way to make amends.
Revenge...
Deirdre Monahan was expecting a happy afternoon with her cousin Anna. But she found a corpse abandoned like trash - and no one who could tell her why. Now Deirdre's looking for answers, and bent on giving whoever killed Anna the gift of knowing Deirdre's pain.
In Ashes, Sean sacrificed everything. In this thrilling sequel, there will be ... a Reckoning.
Reckoning is now available in print and in ebook for Kindle and other readers.
Read an excerpt from Reckoning
Deirdre Monahan tossed her purse and a bag full of
dirty laundry onto the passenger seat of her truck, then sat down in the
driver's seat. She'd had the truck since high school and it still ran well. The
trick was getting it to run. You had to push the clutch in just so, give it precisely this
much gas, and then — success.
"Good
girl." Deirdre patted the dashboard. She was fond of the truck, faulty
starter and all, and even more fond of it since the divorce had gone through.
Her mother couldn't understand why she had let Randy have the Mustang; couldn't
understand why Deirdre took as little of the things she and Randy had bought
together as she could live without.
It was simple, really. She wanted to
start over, on her own. Once her anger at Randy for putting them into a debt
sinkhole and losing his job and cheating on her with that
all-tits-and-no-brains floozy had subsided to a dull roar, once she was faced
with legal papers and signatures to end the marriage, she'd found herself
wondering what to do with her life. She'd said as much to her cousin Anna, who
put things in perspective.
"You know what they say, Dee,"
Anna had said. "Everything happens for a reason. And when life closes a
door, it opens a window as well. Did I miss any of the other clichés?"
"Every cloud has a silver
lining."
"That too. Take your pick."
Deirdre liked the one about the door and
the window best. So she had slammed the door (hoping to catch Randy's fingers
in the jamb), and jumped out the window. She jumped out by herself, and that
was why she'd kept the truck — she wanted to do this on her own, and she'd
never been on her own before. After high school she'd lived with her folks,
then with Randy, and now she was twenty-eight and had never had a life she
could call hers alone.
So far it was working out all right. The
job wasn't the best — she was a clerk at the new Wal-Mart over in Lakeside, but
it paid the bills until she could find something she liked better. Likewise the
apartment. It was threadbare and she was still living out of boxes, but she
liked the freedom of eating whatever she wanted, cleaning up the house when or
if she felt like it, and not having to share the TV remote with anyone.
Anna had offered her a room at their
house. Deirdre hadn't known how to refuse without hurting Anna's feelings; Richard
had come to her rescue. He'd seen her distress and said, "You need to sort
things out and stand on your own feet for a while, don't you?"
Relieved, she'd replied that was true.
They understood, but told her she was welcome at any time to stop by for a hot
dinner, or use their washer and dryer, or go for a ride on one of the horses.
It all sounded wonderful to Deirdre.
She had last talked to Anna on Sunday,
nearly a week ago. Anna was glad to hear she was settling in. "Now that
life's not too crazy you'll need to come by for dinner more often. Should we
make it a standing date for Sunday?" Anna asked.
"That's not too much trouble, is
it?"
"Of course not. Richard's always
bringing his friends over, but they're all men. It'll be nice to have some
female company for a change. Which reminds me, Dee. There's one of Richard's
friends I think you should meet."
"I don't know if I'm up for meeting
anyone new just yet."
"Just see if there's any
sparks."
In spite of herself she was intrigued.
Deirdre always felt weird going to restaurants or the movies by herself, and a
date would be welcome. "Wait, it's not that Steve guy you told me about?
He sounded like kind of a yo-yo."
"Have a little faith in me? His
name's Sam, he's a very nice guy. A real gentleman."
"What's he look like?"
"Well, he's older than you, I'm not
sure how much. Not too tall, not too short. Losing his hair."
"Sounds dreamy."
Anna never talked trash about people,
and she didn't now, but she did say, "Handsome is as handsome does,
Dee." Meaning that good-looking as Randy had been, as a husband he hadn't
amounted to much.
"Touché."
"Not that I'm matchmaking or
anything, but you need a steady guy. And he needs a nice girlfriend, not some
slutbunny."
Deirdre laughed. "Nan! Do you kiss
your mother with that mouth?"
Richard's voice boomed in the
background. "Who's a slutbunny? Where can I meet her?"
"Oh stop!" giggled Anna.
"Just think about it, that's all I'm asking. You'll see him at
Thanksgiving, I'm sure, if not sooner. See how you feel about it then. You will be here for Thanksgiving?"
"Wouldn't
miss it for anything."
"Good." Anna's voice dropped a
bit. She sounded both shy and happy. "I may have some good news for you
then."
Deirdre's heart had done a flip at these
words. Anna wouldn't say what the news was, but Deirdre could make a good
guess. Anna was expecting. Deirdre knew that Anna had wanted a child badly ever
since she'd married Richard, but they'd had no luck yet. There had been two
miscarriages that Deirdre knew of — she suspected there had been at least one
more, judging by how unusually moody and silent Anna had been two Christmases
ago. Deirdre was happier than ever that she'd moved close to Anna and Richard.
If Anna was indeed pregnant, she'd need to get her rest, and what better way than
for Deirdre to come by every Sunday to help with the housecleaning and errands,
and whip up a batch of her famous Eggs McMonahan.
Now, thinking about all this, Deirdre
put her truck into gear and began driving to Anna's house. It was a gloomy day,
threatening to rain, but she didn't mind. It would be warm and cozy at Anna's
house. It always was.
She opened the gate that led to Richard
and Anna's Christmas tree farm, pausing to take a deep breath of the
pine-scented air. Christmas was only a few months away; Deirdre had never been
to the farm at the holidays. Anna said it was chaotic but fun, and another set
of hands were always welcome. If cutting trees and tying them onto car roofs
didn't suit her, there was always ringing up orders or running the snack stand.
After closing the gate behind her, she
drove down the smooth dirt road to the house. Not for the first time, she felt
an unwelcome twinge of envy. There was no resentment in it, no ill will. She
just wondered why she couldn't have a life like Anna's — the farm, the pretty
house, the husband who was not just handsome and charming but who clearly loved
Anna more than anything else.
She was in luck. Richard's truck and
Anna's station wagon were both in the driveway. She hated surprising them like
this, but every time she'd called this week she'd gotten the answering machine.
They hadn’t called her cell; they must have been busy. She grabbed her purse
and walked up to the front door.
The door had an intercom; a good safety
precaution, Richard had told her, considering how many visitors they got with
the tree farm. She pressed the intercom button and got no answer. She pressed
again; although she knew her voice wouldn't carry, she called out anyway.
"Anna? Richard? It's Deirdre."
No answer.
Deirdre was positive Anna had said
they'd be home Sunday. Anna had even told her Richard might be able to look at
the truck and see if he could fix the starter. Deirdre stepped off the porch
and began to walk down the driveway, toward the back of the house. As she passed
the stables a shrill whinny made her jump. Both horses were looking out of the
stable windows at her. The palomino looked tired, almost ill, and the bay was
tossing his head in agitation. Deirdre walked over to the stables, murmuring
soothing noises to the horses. "Hey boys, hey pretty ponies," she
sang as she got close to the horses. The bay whinnied again, and Deirdre looked
inside the stables. She was shocked to see the feed bins empty, and the stable
floor in need of a good cleaning. Still crooning to the horses, she found a
basket of carrots outside the stables and put a half dozen in the feed bins;
they were devoured in no time, and the horses looked at her expectantly.
"Wait, guys, let me find Anna."
She headed back to the driveway, not
quite running. Her spine felt crawly and she wiped her sweaty palms on her
jeans. She stood indecisive in the driveway for a moment, then went to the back
of the house, to the kitchen door. She banged on the door, called out Anna's
name, and when there was no answer, tried the door. It was unlocked. Deirdre
opened the door and stepped inside.
The smell hit her with the force of a
slap. She stepped back, bumped into the door, and caught hold of the doorknob
to steady herself. Deirdre pinched her nostrils shut and breathed through her
mouth, but that didn't banish the smell — it was just lying in wait, pressing
against her skin, waiting for her to relax her vigilance and breathe through
her nose again. "Anna?" she called. Her voice seemed unnaturally
loud. For the house was not just quiet. It was silent.
She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the
dim light of the kitchen. After a moment she found the source of the smell: a
whole chicken, taken out to thaw and left forgotten on the counter.
Her relief was short-lived. What was a
rotten chicken doing left out in Anna's immaculate kitchen? Why were the horses
unfed and their stables dirty? Where the hell were Anna and Richard?
Deirdre walked quickly out of the
kitchen, into the hallway. The silence had a sound now, ringing in her ears.
"Anna? Richard? Are you here? Please say something."
She went into the living room and
stopped, staring. As she tried to make sense of what she was seeing, she forgot
to plug her nose and the smell hit her harder than ever. She gagged and bit
down on her arm to kill a scream. Plugging her nostrils, she looked around the
room.
There wasn't much wrong with it at first
glance. It was only if you knew Anna and what a good housekeeper she was that
you'd know something had happened. Anna wouldn't leave dirty scuff marks on the
floor, wouldn't leave the hearth rug bunched up and the fireplace pokers in a
heap.
Then there was the afghan on the sofa,
covering something. Covering someone.
Yes, someone, because there was a
person-size shape under it. The afghan mercifully hid whatever lay under it,
save for a pair of pink sneakers protruding from one end.
Deirdre swallowed hard, trying not to
recall that she'd seen those sneakers on Anna's feet two weeks ago. She felt
herself walking over to the sofa, saw her hand reaching out to that afghan. She
didn't know why at first, and then understood. Because once she pulled it back
and saw that it wasn't Anna after all, then the world would be OK again.
There'd be an explanation somehow. Because it wasn't Anna here, it couldn't be.
She just had to see for herself.
"Please,"
whispered Deirdre, and pulled back the afghan.
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