Read more
Zusatztext Praise for Kay Hooper: “A dark thriller that plunges readers into the disturbing side of the paranormal.”— Fresh Fiction “Kay Hooper…provide[s] a welcome chill on a hot summer’s day.”— Orlando Sentinel “Filled with page-turning suspense.”— The Sunday Oklahoman Informationen zum Autor Kay Hooper is the award-winning! New York Times bestselling author of the Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series! including Haunted ! Hostage ! Haven ! Blood Ties ! Blood Dreams ! and Blood Sins ! and the Bishop Files series! including A Deadly Web and The First Prophet . She lives in North Carolina. Prologue Serenity, Tennessee May 5 Amy Grimes was bored with her life. She was bored with school, bored with her parents, bored with most of her friends, and had been well on the way to being bored with her boyfriend, Simon Church (of all things!), until he suggested that they just pack up and leave this very boring little town. Amy was sensible enough even at seventeen to know that the suggestion had been prompted more by his failing grades in school and the six-pack of beer he’d polished off that night than any seriously deep feelings for her, but she discovered that she didn’t really care what had prompted the suggestion. It suited her just fine. Simon had worked construction since his midteens, and Amy was only one credit away from earning her certificate as a beautician at the nearby community college, so she was confident they could support themselves. She had her college savings (fairly pitiful, which was why beauty school) and Simon had two weeks’ pay in his pocket, and they decided that was enough to get started on. Even after he’d sobered up, Simon was ready to leave Serenity and take Amy with him, even to the point of being willing to go along with her plans for a mysteriously secret buildup to their departure. She didn’t confide even in her girlfriends, because she knew all too well that one of them was bound to blab to her older brother or one of theirs, and before you could say scat everybody in town would know. Since Simon was eighteen and had a decent car in his name—courtesy of his parents—all paid off and insured and everything, they decided to take that. And for nearly a week, they had a lot of fun in gradually sneaking into his car those items they felt unable to leave without. There was a brief argument about Simon’s flat-screen, but in the end he managed to make room and Amy agreed that they’d certainly need a TV wherever they landed. Because that was the fun part, as far as she was concerned. No real plans. They’d just leave, and drive, and decide somewhere along the way where to settle—at least for a time. “We’ll stop in Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg,” she’d suggested to Simon, “and both write postcards to our families.” “Then just keep going,” he said with some relish. Amy nodded. “Then just keep going. We could head west, or north—wherever.” “And our parents probably won’t even know we’re gone until they get the postcards,” Simon said. Amy wasn’t so sure about that, given her father’s watchful eye, but she was still certain she could sneak out once her parents were in bed, and by morning she and Simon would be out of the reach of both sets of parents. She was certain of that. She just loved the idea that people would wake to find the two of them mysteriously vanished. She did spare a pang for the worry that would undoubtedly seize her parents but was certain a reassuring postcard in a couple of days would be enough to allay worry. The plan was perfect. And over the course of just three days, they were somehow able to sneak their things from their respective houses and get everything in Simon’s car without anyone the wiser. Three days, and they were re...
