SYNOPSIS:
A romance
novel packed with suspense and
intrigue. Placed into Witness Protection, Kit Taylor,
formerly Karen Sue
Murphy, now a self -imposed loner, slowly pieces her
shattered life back
together in beautiful Steamboat Springs Colorado. Jess Ryan,
a firefighter and
Explosive’s Expert just back from Afghanistan, is haunted
with demons of his
own. When they meet the attraction is undeniably.
However, unwitting
influences jeopardize their new relationship. Separate and
equally dangerous
undertakings lead them into perilous situations that test
their courage and
ultimately their love for each
other.
This romantic thriller is offered in
two
versions. The Uncut Edition contains adult content and is
intended for mature
readers. The Abridged Edition is a milder in
content.
PURCHASE
LINKS:
Someone To Come Home To (Uncut
Edition)
Someone To Come Home To
(Abridged
Edition)
AUTHOR
BIO:
Zanne
Sweeney a graduate from Kent State University is a teacher,
and coach, who
loves to write stories that she hopes her readers won’t want
to put down.
“That’s the ultimate
compliment.”
When
she’s not teaching, coaching, or writing Zanne loves to
spend time with her
family and fun loving friends. She is a novice photographer,
a consummate
sports fan, and is never without a book to
read.
Other Zanne Sweeney books:
Neighbors
A
Chance For More (A finalist in the Readers Favorite Book
Contest in the
category of Romance –
Sizzle)
You
can reach out to Zanne on Twitter @zanneweeney and on her
Facebook like page:
Zanne Sweeney - Author. https://www.facebook.com/zanne.sweeney.author?ref=hl
Chapter
1
With a fake
smile and a hopefully cheery voice Karen Sue thanked her
neighbor for the ride
home. She opened the rickety gate that separated their
backyards and the
familiar squeak of the rusty hinges brought forth
bittersweet memories.
Years ago she and her best friend Katrina had practically
worn the hinges off that white, little gate as they ran from
one house to the
other seeking better snacks or newer toys.
The memories still stung even though an entire decade had
passed. Katrina and her family had moved to Ohio,
leaving Karen Sue to bravely face her freshman year in high
school without her
best friend of 13 years.
Not too long ago Karen Sue had been filled with pride and
contentment when she came home to her cozy house. Now as she
crossed her weed
choked lawn, a small frown tended her lips as she noted that
the grass, well
dandelions now, needed to be cut again.
Wearily she
walked down her short driveway towards the front of her
house to get the mail.
She sighed somberly knowing there would be bills with
‘Urgent’ red stamps
marring the white envelopes. As much as she had been denying
it she knew she
was going to have to sell her beloved home to dig out from
the havoc Ray had
created to her once good credit. She knew she could get a
good price for her
house that would pay off her bills and leave her enough
money to restart, if…if
Rays lawyers didn’t try to claim any of
it.
Three young
boys that Karen Sue taught at school peddled past her
driveway on their bikes,
waving shyly to their beautiful art teacher. Karen Sue
smiled and waved back as
she juggled her computer case and purse to free a hand. A
large black sedan
parked in front of her house with the motor running drew her
attention from the
boys. She could see someone sitting in the driver's seat and
he appeared to be
talking on a cell. Her eyes caught his when he glanced up to
his rearview
mirror. Karen Sue figured the man was being responsible and
had pulled over to
talk on the phone, she wished more people did that.
She gathered
the mail from the mailbox that she had painted flowers on
just three years
early, when life was good. Now when she opened the brightly
painted box she was
stung with how drastically her life had changed. Turning
back she walked up the
driveway and let herself into the house through the side
kitchen door. Placing
the mail down on the dull Formica counter without looking at
it, she settled
her computer bag and oversized purse on the nearby kitchen
table. Coming home
was never a good thing anymore. Karen Sue pulled her arms
out of her
lightweight coat and hung it on the wooden hook behind the
door; it was then
that she heard voices, angry voices coming from the
adjoining room.
Curious and
slightly alarmed she headed towards the swinging door that
separated the
kitchen and living room. She heard Ray say. “Leave her out
of this, she doesn’t
know anything.”
As she
extended her arms to push open the door she heard three
sounds, like wet
snowballs hitting a wall, followed by an anguished low
grunt. Without warning
the door slammed back inwards forcing Karen Sue’s arms back
against her body.
Ray fell through the swinging door his back colliding
heavily with her chest.
The force that had propelled Ray through the door caused
them to both to keel
over backwards. She landed painfully on the kitchen floor
with Ray sprawled on
top of her. Their prone bodies acting as a door stop holding
the swinging door
wide open. The jarring Karen Sue’s body
took knocked the breath from her and she fought for air. The
moment became surreal
as Karen Sue noticed many things at once.
Two men
were in her living room; a smaller man in a dark business
suit holding a gun,
and standing next to him was a larger man in dress pants, a
collared shirt with
gold chains surrounding his beefy neck. It was clear that
the smaller man had
just fired the gun, although she hadn’t seen it. Realizing
that a man she
didn’t know, held a gun in her living room and the gun had
been fired, Karen
Sue vainly struggled to push up on her elbows hoping Ray
would move. Gasping
for breath she peered over Ray's shoulder wondering why he
wasn’t getting up.
It was then she noticed Ray’s shirt was blooming with
crimson wet circles, two
in his chest and one in his shoulder.
Karen Sue
tried to maneuver out from underneath his heavyweight but
the floor was
slippery. Rivers of blood seeping onto her body ran off her
pooling onto the
floor below them. A copper smell permeated her senses as she
tried to suck in
air. Her face was wet and she panicked realizing it was
Ray’s blood that was
splattered on her skin and soaking her clothes.
Ray was not moving, at all, his deadweight hampering her
ability to regain her lost breath. She heard the smaller man
say, ‘shit” as he
looked at her. His head tilted to one side, as if he was in
thought. Karen Sue
watched him hand the gun to the larger man who was also
looking at her. Her
mind was slush, she couldn’t think, her survival instinct
was urging her to get
out from underneath Ray and run. She frantically pushed
against the kitchen floor
but the blood coating the floor had her hands slipping
frantically, like Fred
Flintstone's feet when he started his car. The front door
burst open,
momentarily halting Karen Sue’s attempts to
escape. A large, muscle-bound younger man dressed in
a black tee shirt and dress pants appeared. His eyes darted
over to Karen Sue
and Ray, surveying the scene he had walked in
on.
He then
looked to the man in the suit and said; “Boss, we gotta go,
scanner says cops
are on their way.” Karen Sue was silently praying, ‘Go,
please, go.’
“How the fuck are they on their way?” The smarmy thin man
questioned.
“Don’t know but I think a neighbor called in a suspicious
vehicle.”
Karen Sue was listening to this conversation as if she was
watching a TV show that she was staring in. Her shocked,
small body clenched
tightly to Ray as if he could somehow help her. A gooey blob
of wetness slid
down her cheek jolting Karen Sue back into reality. Ray had
been shot and he
was currently pinning her down and three men, one wielding a
gun were in her
living room getting ready to do God knows what. Bile caught
in her throat as
she swiped what she knew was a bloody piece of her husband
from her face
causing her to whimper in distress.
The older man took the gun back from the gold- chained gorilla
like man and handed it to the new guy. “Kill her,” he said.
He then turned and
walked out the front door. The gorilla remained behind
guarding her front door.
Karen Sue knew she was the ‘her’ that was about to be
killed.
Try as she might she couldn’t lift Ray off of her and the
blood had caused the linoleum underneath them to become so
slippery she
couldn’t even scoot backwards. She could hear sirens in the
distance, but she
knew there was no way they would get to her in time. Her
mind slipped into a
hyper focused state and her body trembled with terror. Her
random thoughts were
crazed as she thought about the many times she had watched
horror movies and
had laughed at the victims who had stood shocked and
unmoving just before they
were slaughtered. The muscle-bound man approached her; his
large frame blocked
her sight from the gorilla standing at the
door.
She feebly lifted one arm palms out stopping gesture and
garbled out, a lame “please, don’t...” The killer raised the
gun, aiming it at
her and Ray. She noticed his hands were not shaking in the
least and she knew
that only a monster could kill someone without emotion. She
had a moment of
bravado and decided if this bastard was going to kill her
then she was going to
be looking him in the face when he did it. She saw his mouth
move without
speaking and she thought he mouthed the words. “Play dead,”
then he squeezed
the trigger. Her last conscious thought was that the bullets
silently firing
from this gun sounded like the blow darts the natives would
use in the old
Tarzan movies. Karen Sue’s head hit the floor with a hard
thump, her arm
slipped limply to the blood coated linoleum as her eyes
rolled up into her
head. A welcoming blackness engulfed
her.
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