The Best Friend (42 page)

He gripped her hands. “You have to understand, Tracy. I did it because we were going to lose everything. Now, we
really
are going to lose it all. The house. Our retirement. Our savings. Everything that was once our life will be gone. And I’ll be in jail. But if I’m dead, it all ends here and now with me.”

“Stop! Please. Nothing would be worse for me than that. Please. Money and things, I can live without. Not you, Micah. I can’t live without you.”

He turned his head away, feeling the shame, which was as real for him as his eye color. She shook her head at the thought of it.

“You’ll have to live without me no matter what, Tracy. I’m as good as dead.”

“I won’t allow you to ruin our lives.”

“I already have.”

“No, you’re changing it. We can live through this. We will live through this. But you committing suicide, for that’s what we’re talking about, would ruin our lives.”

She slowly rose to her feet, but her knees wobbled and her toes curled in her shoes before a bout of dizziness made her feel like falling over.
Was this real? How could this be?
How could she, a busy, normal mother of two, and a part-time student, who was relatively content and happy… suddenly be kneeling on the floor and begging her husband not to kill himself because of the crimes he committed?

It was like she couldn’t stand still anymore. Ever since he told her, she couldn’t eat, or sleep, or bathe, or
do
anything. She walked around with her brain screaming at her incessantly,
No! This was not happening to them
. And now her husband’s contemplation of suicide? It was bad enough before. But doing this? He was staring at the gun and talking about unimaginable, horrible things.

“What’s going on?”

She whipped around at the softly worded question and her eyes blinked in a prolong moment of horror that they’d been caught. Donny Lindstrom, her brother-in-law, was standing just outside the bedroom door. His expression was filled with concern. He glanced from her to Micah, who simply continued staring down at his hands.

“Why do you have a gun out?” Donny’s tone grew louder as he stepped inside their bedroom. He pointed at the handgun now lying on her nightstand. She turned from it as if the sight of it nearly blinded her. “Micah? Tracy? What the hell is going on here?”

Tracy shook her head as again, her tears choked and blinded her.

“Talk to me. What did I just walk in on?”

“He-he was just looking at it.”

“Looking at it?” Donny frowned. “Why? What is this?”

Tracy suddenly moved and grabbed the offensive, terrible instrument of death and handed it to Donny. “Please take it. Destroy it. Get rid of it! I don’t care, just get it out of our house.”

Donny took it gently from her shaking fingers, quickly checking the chamber before setting it on the shelf beside him. “Okay, okay. What’s going on here, Tracy?”

Micah lifted his face and his tone was deadpan. “I’m leaving.”

****

Donny stared from Micah to his sister-in-law, and his mouth dropped open in total shock. He didn’t know what to do. He came over because Micah had called and asked him to meet at their house. It was an odd request from Micah, especially in middle of the afternoon on a work day. Micah was probably his best friend in the entire world. Donny didn’t think twice about walking in their front door when no one answered his knock. No big deal. He’d been coming in and out of their house often in the two years since being married to Vickie, Tracy’s sister. Their bedroom was on the way to the kitchen. He certainly never meant to walk in on them fighting.

He had started to back up, but seeing the gun on the nightstand, and the hysterical, crazy pacing of Tracy stopped him dead. Tracy was usually calm, reserved, and normal. There had never been an occasion when Donny ever saw Tracy act like
this.

Stay tuned to my
website
for the release date of
The Wrong Sister.

The Years After (Book 5): Targeted for Spring 2015

Eighteen-year-old Olivia Lindstrom is on the brink of starting the rest of her life in a world she sees as nothing but wide-open to accomplish her limitless dreams. A gifted musician she wants nothing more than to study and improve her skills, and translate that into a dedicated career. Her biggest concerns about starting college are missing her parents and worrying about keeping her grades up. That is, until she meets Derek Salazar, and is soon drawn into a world she has never conceived of before.

Derek Salazar’s life has been the opposite of Olivia’s in every way. He is amused and drawn to her naive innocence and innate goodness. When she assumes, he too is a new college student, he doesn’t correct her, but decides to see if he can take advantage of this strange, beautiful girl. But he soon finds out she is like no one he has ever met. Through her total trust in him, she starts to make him change the corrupt way he lives his life. But Derek’s life hides dark secrets that he realizes, too late, could harm Olivia. What started off in careless lies could end up becoming the greatest love of his life; that is if he can stop the forces that threaten to destroy it all.

My Other Titles:

The Other Sister (Sister Series, #1) :
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General Travis Bains has two daughters, one who is good, and one who is bad. Everyone knows Lindsey is the good one, and Jessie is the bad one. 

Jessie Bains is the other sister, the bad sister, which she has proven more often than not, until the day she gets kidnapped and brutally raped. Will Hendricks, one of her father’s soldiers, rescues her, and brings her home, but fears she may be nearly destroyed by what was done to her. The most important thing,however, no one can know, per the general’s orders.

Jessie’s life was always far from normal as the daughter of one of the most revered generals in the world. No one would ever think or believe the general could abuse either of his daughters, except Will. When Will discovers the danger Jessie is living in at her father’s hand, he once again rescues her, but this time, only he can protect her. Will has survived the horrors of war, but is now engaged in a battle that has become far more personal and far more deadly. Will alone realizes what the general has done and will do to destroy his “other” daughter.

The Good Sister (Sister Series, #2)
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Lindsey Bains Johanson has spent her entire life practicing the art of denial. She was always the obedient, perfect daughter of General Travis Bains, until she learned of the atrocities he committed against her own sister. Now, free of her father, she has become the perfect wife. A lifetime of training has enabled her to keep quiet about anything and everything, including the monster her husband becomes behind closed doors.

Circumstances allow her to take an unprecedented vacation, which she uses to visit her sister in Washington State, clear across the country from her home in Arlington, Virginia. Free of her husband’s presence, she starts to step out of the confines he keeps her shackled in. With the help of veterinarian, Noah Clark, she learns that she doesn’t have to be so good or obedient. But she also knows that the woman she is becoming is someone her husband will
never
allow her to be. 

When her husband eventually comes for her, she goes home, without telling anyone the secret she has kept at the expense of her mind and body. But this time… things go too far; and only then does Noah discover what she has hidden for years. But Lindsey knows that nothing will stop her husband from destroying her, no matter how long it takes.

The Zenith Trilogy:

Zenith Falling: Book #1:
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Zenith Rising: Book #2:
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Zenith Fulfilled: Book #3:
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The Seaclusion Series: Published through The Wild Rose Press

Poison Book #1:
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