Pretend You're Safe
by Alexandra Ivy
Genre: Romantic Suspense
He Sees You
First came the
floods. Then came the bodies. The victims—strangled, then buried
along the shores of the Mississippi—have finally been unearthed,
years after they disappeared. He remembers every satisfying kill . .
. each woman’s terror and agony. But there’s only one he truly
wanted. And fate has brought her within reach again . . .
He Knows You
Jaci Patterson was
sixteen when she found the first golden locket on her porch. Inside
were a few strands of hair wrapped around a scrap of bloodstained
ribbon. Though the “gifts” kept arriving, no one believed her
hunch that a serial killer was at work. Now Jaci has returned home .
. . and the nightmare is starting once more.
And He’ll Never
Let You Go
Back then, Rylan
Cooper was an arrogant deputy sheriff convinced that Jaci was just an
attention-seeking teen. It was a fatal mistake. There’s a murderer
in their midst, someone determined to settle old scores and keep
playing a twisted game. And it won’t end until Jaci is his forever
. . .
“Alexandra Ivy
gives readers a nice balance of romance and suspense in her
fast-paced, well-plotted novel.” --Kat Martin, New York
Times bestselling author
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Rylan was living the dream.
But he couldn’t deny that more than once he’d felt a pang of restless
dissatisfaction.
He assumed that at least a portion of his frustration was the fact that
he missed his father. It’d just been the two of them after his mother’s death
when he was twelve. Of course he missed the old man when they were separated by
a couple thousand miles.
Crossing the slanted floor, he joined his father, who was finishing up
the last of the breakfast dishes.
Rylan leaned against the counter, folding his arms across his chest. He
studied the face that looked remark-ably like his own. Lean. Angular
cheekbones. A narrow nose and wide brow. Both had the same unusual golden-brown
eyes.
There were a few differences. Rylan’s hair was bleached to a light
blond and his skin tanned from his hours in the sun, while his father had thick
silver hair and a leathered face that was pale from a long winter and even
longer spring.
Elmer had also been honed to the point he was little more than bones
and sinew. Rylan, on the other hand, was slender, but he spent enough time in
the gym to ensure he didn’t embarrass himself on the beach.
“The patch is holding for now, but you’ll need to call in a
contractor,” he informed his father. “Better yet, you can call in a mover and
sell this damned place before it collapses on your head.”
Elmer snorted, reaching for a worn towel to dry his gnarled hands. A
lifetime of working the land had taken its toll on the older man.
“The only way I’m leaving this house is in a coffin.” He repeated the
words he’d been mouthing since Rylan had first suggested the move.
“Stubborn old coot,” Rylan said.
Elmer tossed aside the towel. “Look at it this way, son. If the roof
does fall, then my thick skull should protect me well enough.”
“There is that,” Rylan wryly agreed. Then, with a sigh, he glanced
toward the torrential water that swept past the house less than a mile away.
“Still, I wish you’d come and stay with me until the river goes down.”
Elmer shrugged with the confidence of a man who’d seen about everything
in his sixty years.
“It’s supposed to crest the first of next week.”
“As long as it stops raining.” Rylan pointedly glanced toward the
sullen clouds that hung so low they nearly brushed the tops of the trees. “And
that doesn’t seem likely.”
“Don’t fuss,” Elmer said, moving to the narrow opening that led to the
enclosed back porch. “I’ll be fine.”
Following behind his aggravating father, Rylan leaned a shoulder
against the doorjamb. “Is there a reason you don’t want to stay with me?”
Elmer reached for the muddy coveralls that were hung on a nail. The
narrow space was built with a wooden plank floor. The slanting edge of the roof
and framed screens that kept out the bugs and wildlife did nothing to block the
icy breeze.
“LA has too much sunshine.”
“Sunshine?” Rylan arched a brow that was several shades darker than his
hair. “That’s your reason?”
“Yep.”
“You prefer endless days of rain?”
“I like to wake up and be surprised,” Elmer corrected, stepping into
the coveralls so he could pull them up and over his jeans and flannel shirt.
“Here it might be hot or cold. Sunny or rainy. You might get a bit of snow or
it might suddenly turn off with a blizzard.” He pulled up the zipper before
training his piercing gaze on Rylan. “What about you? When you open your eyes
there’s nothing but sun, sun, and more sun.”
“It would only be for a month or two,” Rylan insisted. It wasn’t just
that he would enjoy his father’s company when he returned to California, but he
wanted to have the entire house rewired and new plumbing installed. A home
built over a hundred and fifty years ago was in constant need of repairs. “Just
long enough for the river to go down and someone to make a few upgrades around
the place.”
Elmer grabbed his rubber boots and settled on the edge of a wooden
chair.
“I have a better idea,” he said, yanking a boot over his foot, which
was covered by a thermal sock.
“What’s that?”
“Why don’t you move home where you belong and do the repairs yourself ?
Computers are fine and dandy, but a man needs to work with his hands on
occasion.”
Rylan’s lips twisted. He’d walked right into that one.
“My business—”
“Can be done anywhere,” Elmer interrupted, pulling on the second boot.
“Okay,” Rylan conceded. It was true. Although he had to meet with the
occasional client, most of his work was video chatting with his partner as they
brainstormed their newest creation. He offered suggestions from a
crime-fighting or security perspective, while his friend decided whether his
vision was technically possible. “But unlike you, I prefer a view that includes
beaches with beautiful, barely covered women to a muddy cow pasture.”
Elmer shoved himself upright, sending his son a chiding glance.
“We have our fair share of pretty gals, although they’re smart enough
to cover up what God gave ’em.”
Rylan snorted. “A sin.”
Elmer shook his head, moving to open the screened door that led to the
backyard.
“And speaking of pretty gals, I need to get going.”
Rylan frowned. He’d assumed his father was headed out to finish his
chores.
“Where?”
Elmer glanced over his shoulder. “I want to check on Jaci. She should
be back from her deliveries by now.”
Rylan frowned. “Why?”
The older man shrugged. “It’s what neighbors do when we have bad
weather.”
“At least you admit it’s bad,” Rylan said.
Elmer stood in the open doorway, eyeing his son with a hint of
impatience.
“Are you coming?”
Rylan grimaced, not overly excited at the thought of getting out in the
chilled rain.
“Why don’t you just call?”
His father gave a disappointed shake of his head. “Is that how you do
it in LA? Talk to each other at a distance so you don’t have to look each other
in the eye?”
Rylan narrowed his gaze. The older man had been distracted all morning.
Something was up.
“Okay, old man,” he said. “What’s bothering you?”
Elmer grimaced. “Frank stopped by before you got up this morning.”
Well, that explained the voices that’d woken him before the crack of
dawn.
“I thought I heard someone here at some ungodly hour,” he said. “What
did he want?”
“He came to tell me that he’d got up early to check on his bottom
fields. They were flooded after the levee broke during the night.”
“And?”
His dad’s eyes darkened with the worry he’d been trying to conceal.
“And, he caught sight of a dead woman floating in the water.”
A shocking fear blasted through Rylan. Pressing his hand against the
wall to keep himself upright, he swallowed the sudden lump in his throat.
“He didn’t think it was Jaci, did he?”
“No.” His father gave a shake of his head. “There wasn’t much light and
the body was in pretty bad shape, but he was sure the woman had long hair.”
Shit. Rylan forced himself to
suck in a deep breath.
The intensity of his fear had been . . . cataclysmic.
Which should have been odd. He’d only seen Jaci on a handful of
occasions since he’d left for California. And even when they were young, they
hadn’t been more than neighbors. He’d made very sure of that.
And, of course, there was the little fact that she’d never forgiven him
for his refusal to believe her claims of a stalker when he worked part-time at
the local sheriff ’s office.
Yeah. They weren’t exactly BFFs, but there was a part of him that knew
his world would be a darker place with-out her in it.
Grimly he hid his surge of relief. He’d never shared his confusing mix
of emotions when it came to Jaci Patterson. And he didn’t intend to start now.
Alexandra
Ivy is the New York Times, USA Today and Wall
Street Journal bestselling author of romantic suspense,
paranormal and erotic romance. She has also written Regency
historicals under the name Deborah Raleigh. A five-time RT Book Award
Finalist, Ivy has received much acclaim for her Guardians of
Eternity, ARES Security, Immortal Rogues and Sentinels series. She
lives with her family in Missouri and can be found online
at AlexandraIvy.com.
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