Secrets
by Lynn Crandall
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Someone is making homeless cats disappear and Michelle Slade wants
to put a stop to it. The office manager at Aegar Investigations and owner of
cat rescue Cats Alive, she struggles to keep together the life she’s forged
since the one she knew shattered five years ago on the night she was raped. She
couldn’t have predicted that the rape’s impact would reach into her present
life and put a strangle grip on all she holds dear, thanks to the evil
machinations of powerful businessman, William Carter.
When Michelle’s problems with Carter escalate, friends rally to
help her, with private investigator Casey Mitchell at the top of the line. When
Casey finds his investigation takes him down a very dark path of diabolic and
life-threatening research conducted by Carter Enterprises, he attempts to keep
his work life and his private identity as a were-lynx separate. However, though
he’s been trained his whole life to keep his identity and his colony of
were-cats protected, he now struggles with terrible aloneness.
As they are thrown together to save the missing cats and remedy
worse problems, Michelle and Casey can triumph and find true love, or lose
everything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A full moon in the starry night bathed the yard in
a soft glow. She started imagining
the things she could do here. Maybe even dance in
the moonlight. The thought lifted her
mood. Why not? Humming to herself, Michelle sunk
into the sounds, scents, and feelings
of the moment, and began moving to her inner music.
She was free, alone here in her own
yard. Nothing to worry about. Tension seeped away
from her muscles. She slowly turned
to a rhythm inside her, savoring the sense of self
that rose in her, her eyes closed.
A noise from the bushes crackled, and instantly her
muscles tensed. Still and on alert,
Michelle peered through the darkness. It could be a
stray, she thought, seeking food. If it
was a homeless cat, it was too late to prevent
scaring it. A movement of any sort would
send it running.
So she stood still in the spot, waiting and
squinting her eyes for a better look.
She held her breath, and as she did, a large figure
of a furry animal slipped silently
through the hedge, away from her.
Automatically, her hand slapped over her mouth. Her
heart raced. Her breath came in
deliberate pulls. That figure, that animal, was not
at all what she’d expected to appear out
of the shadows. She dropped her hand to her side
and stepped cautiously toward the spot
where the animal had disappeared.
The hedge bordered her half-acre backyard and split
it from the rest of her property.
The place in the hedge where the animal slipped
through meant a short walk away from
the security of her house, but she’d be damned if
she was going to let that deter her from
a possible identification of that animal.
She shivered in the cold air, taking measured steps
to the spot, her senses perched on
the edge of her nerves. She noticed a small opening
in the hedge. The large animal would
have had to crouch low to the ground to get
through. She leaned low and tried to see
through to the other side, but she saw nothing but
dry weeds. The hedge stood about to her chin, so standing on tiptoe, Michelle
searched the field on the other side for another glimpse of the animal.
“Geez!” She instinctively took a step back when her
gaze collided with the animal as it
sat still in the field, barely visible.
Inexplicably, it sat motionless, staring at her. Can it
see me? she wondered. Her heart thumped wildly in
her chest. She longed to get a better 19
look, but she didn’t dare slip through the hedge.
It seemed completely at ease, sitting
there staring at her through glistening eyes.
Dare she speak? Fairly mesmerized, Michelle
whispered to the animal. “I mean you no
harm.”
She waited. Her eyes were adjusting to the
darkness, so she focused them on the
figure. It looked to have a large body covered with
thick fur. Its head had a feline
appearance and ears tipped with dark tufts of fur.
Distinctive markings of a lynx.
Chills rolled up and down her spine. She couldn’t
explain why she wasn’t afraid, other
than the vibes she was picking up across the space
between her and the animal were
gentle, not threatening.
“I mean you no harm,” she repeated.
The animal chuffed, then stood and began walking
into the woods at then stood and began
walking into the woods at the outskirts of her property. She didn’t move,
instead taking in its graceful walk. A few steps away, it stopped, twisted its
head around to look at her, and chuffed again. A few more steps into the night
and the animal was gone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lynn
Crandall lives in the Midwest and writes in the company of her two cats. She
has been a reader and a writer all her life. Her background is in journalism,
but whether writing a magazine or newspaper story or creating a romance, she
loves the power stories hold to transport, inspire, and uplift. In her
romances, she focuses on vulnerable, embraceable characters who don't back down.
She hopes that readers discover, over and over, stories of ordinary people who
face ordinary life challenges and are transformed by extraordinary love.
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Luckily, for all you readers, our author, Lynn Crandall will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via the rafflecopter at the end of this post during the tour! Be sure you follow the tour from the beginning to the end and comment on the blogs throughout the duration. The more often you comment, the better your chances of winning. Wanna check out the tour dates? CLICK HERE
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