Sample Work

Shot Through The Heart

A car door slammed and Laramie Porter’s pulse jumped up to mach speed, but she forced a smile to reassure her sister-in-law. “Try to stay calm.”

        Julie made a noise in her throat like a frightened fawn. “Oh, no,” she moaned. “Lawrence found me already. How did he figure it out so fast?”

        Laramie motioned toward the kitchen. “Go in there.”

        Julie froze as Lawrence pounded on the front door. Behind her back, Laramie waved frantically. “Get out of here. Call 911 from the kitchen while I stall him.”

        Pulling aside the door-length lace curtain, Laramie faced her brother. His coyote-lean face contorted with rage, and he hammered on the glass panel until Laramie thought it might shatter. “Open up. I want to talk to my wife.”

        Laramie shook her head. “I’m not letting you in until you calm down.”

        With both fists, he pounded on the glass near her face. “I’m not playing, Laramie. Let me in.”

        “He’ll break down the door if you don’t open it,” Julie whimpered. Although Lawrence had lost a lot of weight lately, he could still smash through the glass door. With another soft moan, Julie fled. In a moment, Laramie heard the back door open, then slam shut. She could handle Lawrence. Even though both were hot-tempered redheads, they’d never hurt one another. But he’d injured Julie. Terribly.

Larkspur

“I believe you and my late wife may have been switched at birth.”

        Alannah Farris shoved a handful of unruly blonde curls out of her still-sleepy eyes to gape at the cowboy standing on her doorstep. “Who are you, and are you out of your mind?” She looked around for a camera crew. “Am I being Punk’d?”

        “No, ma’am.” He held out a brown manila envelope. “I have some documents—”

        Alannah eyed the manila envelop with suspicion. “Such as?”

        “If you’d let me come in and explain?” He sounded a little grumpy. Well, it wasn’t her fault he woke her up at the crack of dawn. Who showed up unexpectedly before eight a.m. and dropped a bombshell on a stranger?

        She studied him. Several inches taller than her own five-nine. Broad shoulders, slim hips. Kind, calm gray eyes. A hint of stubble on his firm jaw. He didn’t look like a killer, but then who did? “Just a minute. I’ll be right back.”

Rescued

“Get over here. Now.”

        Andy tossed her TV remote aside, grabbed her parka and headed for the door. When her dad used that tone of voice, it meant someone was in trouble. As head of Elk Park’s Search and Rescue, Mick must be calling the team together.

        Including Andy.

        He was giving her another chance.

Mississippi Blues

Friday, 6:00 AM

Something tangible sizzled in the air, an undercurrent of high tension.

        Jace Hill shot a glance around and all the other cons seemed normal, so he pinched his lips together. The last thing he needed was to draw any attention to himself. Angola guards were quick to use their clubs first and slow to ask questions later. Most were overly eager to put anyone in the hole who looked at them the wrong way.

The Cowboy's Baby

“Okay, that should be sufficiently creepy.”

        Cat O’Brien stepped off the ladder and backed up a few feet to admire the orange and black lights she’d strung around Gran’s porch. Along with the cardboard witch and ghost cutouts on the door and carved pumpkins on the steps, the blinking lights brought a new level of delicious holiday spookiness to the old house. Luckily, she’d been able to find her Halloween decorations in one of her still-unpacked boxes. Although she’d procrastinated until the afternoon of the holiday, the chore was done now.

Wild Horses

"Damn, it's hotter than the devil's backyard out here." Castaña Castillo took one hand off the steering wheel just long enough to swipe at the trickle of sweat running down the nape of her neck and adjust the volume on the radio. One of her favorites, "Amarillo by Morning", wafted from the speakers.