Secret Sisters

Titles by Jayne Ann Krentz

SECRET SISTERS

TRUST NO ONE

RIVER ROAD

DREAM EYES

COPPER BEACH

IN TOO DEEP

FIRED UP

RUNNING HOT

SIZZLE AND BURN

WHITE LIES

ALL NIGHT LONG

FALLING AWAKE

TRUTH OR DARE

LIGHT IN SHADOW

SUMMER IN ECLIPSE BAY

TOGETHER IN ECLIPSE BAY

SMOKE IN MIRRORS

LOST & FOUND

DAWN IN ECLIPSE BAY

SOFT FOCUS

ECLIPSE BAY

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

FLASH

SHARP EDGES

DEEP WATERS

ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY

TRUST ME

GRAND PASSION

HIDDEN TALENTS

WILDEST HEARTS

FAMILY MAN

PERFECT PARTNERS

SWEET FORTUNE

SILVER LININGS

THE GOLDEN CHANCE

Titles by Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Amanda Quick

GARDEN OF LIES

OTHERWISE ENGAGED

THE MYSTERY WOMAN

CRYSTAL GARDENS

QUICKSILVER

BURNING LAMP

THE PERFECT POISON

THE THIRD CIRCLE

THE RIVER KNOWS

SECOND SIGHT

LIE BY MOONLIGHT

THE PAID COMPANION

WAIT UNTIL MIDNIGHT

LATE FOR THE WEDDING

DON'T LOOK BACK

SLIGHTLY SHADY

WICKED WIDOW

I THEE WED

WITH THIS RING

AFFAIR

MISCHIEF

MYSTIQUE

MISTRESS

DECEPTION

DESIRE

DANGEROUS

RECKLESS

RAVISHED

RENDEZVOUS

SCANDAL

SURRENDER

SEDUCTION

Titles by Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Jayne Castle

SIREN'S CALL

THE HOT ZONE

DECEPTION COVE

THE LOST NIGHT

CANYONS OF NIGHT

MIDNIGHT CRYSTAL

OBSIDIAN PREY

DARK LIGHT

SILVER MASTER

GHOST HUNTER

AFTER GLOW

HARMONY

AFTER DARK

AMARYLLIS

ZINNIA

ORCHID

The Guinevere Jones Titles

DESPERATE AND DECEPTIVE

The Guinevere Jones Collection, Volume 1

THE DESPERATE GAME

THE CHILLING DECEPTION

 

SINISTER AND FATAL

The Guinevere Jones Collection, Volume 2

THE SINISTER TOUCH

THE FATAL FORTUNE

Specials

THE SCARGILL COVE CASE FILES

BRIDAL JITTERS

(writing as Jayne Castle)

Anthologies

CHARMED

(with Julie Beard, Lori Foster, and Eileen Wilks)

Titles written by Jayne Ann Krentz and Jayne Castle

NO GOING BACK

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

This book is an original publication of Penguin Random House LLC.

Copyright © 2015 by Jayne Ann Krentz.

Excerpt from
'Til Death Do Us Part
by Amanda Quick copyright © 2015 by Jayne Ann Krentz.

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

BERKLEY® and the “B” design are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

For more information, visit
penguin.com
.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-19366-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Krentz, Jayne Ann.

Secret sisters / Jayne Ann Krentz. — First edition

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-399-17448-3

I. Title.

PS3561.R44S43 2015

813'.54—dc23

2015016234

FIRST EDITION:
December 2015

Cover photo © Mohamad Itani / Trevillion Images.

Cover design by Rita Frangie.

Title page: House © Ian Law / Shutterstock; Field © ileana_bt / Shutterstock.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This one is for my fabulous editor,
Leslie Gelbman,    
who knows the secret.        

CHAPTER ONE

Cooper Island, eighteen years earlier . . .

He stood in the shadows of the kitchen and tried to decide which girl he wanted. An hour ago they had both fallen asleep in front of the television. Now they slept the way only the young could sleep—deeply, soundly.

Both were the right age—twelve, maybe thirteen—right on the cusp of womanhood. That was the way he liked them. Pure. Innocent. Virginal. They were small-town girls who lacked urban street smarts—the kind of girls who usually could be terrified into keeping the secret.
If you tell anyone, I will come back and kill your parents and then I will kill you.

The cottage was some distance from the main hotel building where the wedding reception was taking place. The smaller girl's grandmother owned the Aurora Point. Her friend's mother worked there. Both adults were fully occupied with the crowd in the hotel tonight. There were no men in the picture—no fathers, no brothers; just the grandmother and the mother. No need to worry about them.

He had watched the girls closely ever since he had checked into the hotel. They had helped with the preparations for the wedding
reception, setting up folding chairs and placing the flower arrangements on the tables.

Once the festivities had begun, the girls had taken off to entertain themselves. They had played Ping-Pong for some time and then disappeared into the cottage to watch television.

The taller girl was the prettier of the two, but with her slim, long-legged body, she might be more of a problem to control simply because of her size and reach. If she struggled—and some did struggle in spite of his threats—she might knock over an object or make some noise that would attract attention. Still, there was a sweet, dreamy air about her that was very appealing. Earlier in the evening she had taken obvious delight in arranging the silly decorations and then she had fussed with the flowers on the buffet table. The adults had smiled and let her tweak things.

The smaller girl wasn't as pretty, but there was something intriguing about her attitude and self-confidence. She had been working behind the front desk when he had checked in. She had given him his key and instructions concerning his room with all the poise and assurance of an adult. She would grow up to become one of those bitchy women who were always giving orders, he thought. A real ball-buster. She needed to learn her place.

Now, standing in the shadows, he decided that she would be easier to handle. He could crush her with one arm and squeeze the air out of her lungs so that she couldn't scream. But she was also the one who might be the hardest to subdue with threats. He might have to kill her afterward to be sure she didn't talk.

In the end, fate made the decision for him. It was the smaller girl who awakened and padded, barefoot and yawning, into the kitchen to get a drink of water.

She never knew he was there until he put a hand over her mouth and carried her outside into the night.