Synopsis

Bree Thompson has suffered a tragic loss, one from which she’s afraid she won’t recover. Bree needs a drastic change; so that every time she turns around it doesn’t remind her of what she once had.

She drives to the east coast, determined to find what she thinks she needs in the sun and the sand.

Bree starts to believe it’s possible; she finds the perfect house on the water, and a construction crew for her fixer-upper. One of them might even be able to mend her broken heart.

But that’s when the trouble starts…

Watching, waiting, someone’s lurking in the shadows to take it all.

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Excerpt

He sat and stared out into the darkness, seething with anger. The moon was barely visible in the window next to him. A glass of whiskey in his hand, and a pistol in his lap. How did this happen? How could he have been denied? The one thing he wanted, the one thing he coveted more than anything, taken from him with the tip of a pen pressed to paper? With the swift movement of a hand, a name was signed and his life was altered, all because of a woman.

He glanced around the room disgusted and saw his pathetic existence contained within it. There were photos, discarded clothes, and empty bottles. The only thing of value to him in the room was his beloved collection of action figures from his favorite sci-fi thriller The Black Shadow.

Reaching for his favorite action figure, Kage Xyon, the main character of the movie, he examined it in the dim light. Kage’s hair was golden and his battle uniform was black with the moon emblem on his broad chest. He was a prince, a warrior, and the chosen one. He had everything and was everything he, himself, wanted to be, and just like Kage, he had it all taken from him by a woman.

Setting Kage back in his place, he decided right there and then he would not stand for it. Justice would be his.

He picked up a photo of her and scrutinized it. She was pretty but he saw past that to what she really was . . . cunning and manipulative. Bree Thompson . . . her name alone made him writhe with anger.

She thought she could get away with what was rightfully his but she was wrong. He felt a dark power well up inside of him. He would watch, he would wait, and when the time was right, he would take her and make her pay.

He propped the photo of her back up on the table, picked up the pistol that lay in his lap, put his finger on the trigger, looked down the barrel, and aimed it straight at her face.

***

She sat wrapped up in a blanket, knees tucked up to her chest. The air was cold. The wind was brisk. The early hour was still dark. Her eyes were heavy, so she let them drift closed. She let herself be lulled by the ocean’s melody. The night sounds of the ocean kept the nightmares at bay. When inside, she woke, drenched in sweat, heart racing, with the clash of metal ringing in her ears and the smell of gasoline and smoke burning in her nostrils.

Here, on top of the lifeguard stand, Bree relaxed and let the waves’ methodical rhythm carry away the devastating images. She half dozed, trying not to completely surrender to sleep, as she knew sunrise was coming soon. Bree tried to stay awake thinking of how wonderful yesterday had turned out.

After her breakdown, she had gathered her things, took out her camera, and wandered down the beach. Noticing a sailboat in the distance she had zoomed in. Its crisp, white sails were brilliantly set off against the bright cerulean of the sky and indigo ocean. Then she readjusted the lens as the water at her feet pulled away, tumbling a cornucopia of pebbles and shells. Her camera clicked off a dozen rounds as the sea foamed and rolled the debris. A few paces further, she caught a hermit crab in her lens as he quickly buried himself into a hole.

Through her camera, Bree had watched a couple of children holding hands charge into the surf only to scamper back giggling and squealing as the freezing water swept in. She captured them with sea spray showering down around them like a thousand diamonds as the setting sun behind them caught every droplet.

The day had been relaxing, and exactly what she needed.

She had her camera with her now in hopes of capturing her first east coast sunrise. She touched it in the darkness, to make sure it was close. Satisfied, she leaned back and tuned into the sigh of the waves, making her mind focus only on that, and nothing else.

About the Author

Melissa Roos was born and raised in Iowa, and graduated from Iowa State University. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family. Melissa published her first book, a cozy mystery/romantic suspense in 2020, titled You Can Hide. Her second novel, In the Shadow of the Black Moon, is also in the same genre and was released in September of 2021.

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