On the Corner of Heartache and Hopeful--MIC by Lynda Bailey Page B

in
the middle of nowhere. She wants nothing more than a new start and a chance to
forget the mistakes of the past and get her life back on track, minus the
shootouts. Her plans are shattered when her new neighbor, the town's hunky
young mayor, begins receiving death threats from a dangerous stalker. Evie is unwillingly drawn back into a world of peril, and
while her bruised heart tries to resist the out-of-control sparks that zing
between them, she is forced to stay close to keep him safe as the stalking
quickly turns to murder...
     
    Colin Daniels has his hands full running Bright's Ferry as their popular and busy young mayor. He doesn't have time for stalkers
or threats, much less a lovely gray-eyed cop with control issues who seems
determined to get in his way at every turn. When the situation takes a deadly
turn, Colin finds that he has no choice but to give up some control himself and
rely on Evie to protect him until they can unmask the
killer. Passion sizzles between two stubborn hearts as they clash over the best
way to handle a dangerous situation, but can they keep each other safe as the
dark closes in?
     
     
    EXCERPT
     
    "SON OF A BITCH!"
    Evie Asher swerved to avoid the fallen tree, only to feel the sedan jerk as the
front tires sank six inches into the mud off the side of what only the most
charitable of lunatics would call a road. It was only mid-afternoon, but the
thunderclouds and sheets of rain had darkened the October day to twilight and
turned the dirt road into sludge. Ten minutes and spinning wheels confirmed her
rotten bad luck – stuck fast.
    Fucking perfect , Evie thought, and slammed her hand against the steering
wheel, instantly regretting it as splinters of pain shot up her aching arm to
the newly healed scar tissue in her shoulder and side. She had ignored the
sling for the trip from New York, finding it awkward to drive one-handed, but
after ten hours, even Evie's legendary stamina was
giving out and her whole left side was one big, burning ache.
    She squinted through the
rain-slicked windshield at the split road ahead and considered her options. If
memory served, her grandmother's cabin was about a mile up the right fork. The
nearest neighbors were the Daniels, a half mile down the opposite fork. Evie had a vague recollection of her grandmother taking her
to visit Martha Daniels, who smelled of lemon and clean linen, cooing over her
and wishing she'd had a little girl of her own. It was a nice memory, one of Evie's last good ones before her life went to hell. She
wondered if Mrs. Daniels would remember her fondly or if disapproval would fill
her eyes when she opened the door. If Evie were
lucky, she wouldn't remember her at all. Evie had
changed, grown up miraculously in one piece, and remade her life as a tough and
capable member of the NYPD, until a month ago, when two bullets knocked her out
of commission and her monumentally bad relationship decision had blown up in
her face. Apparently the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
    The discovery that her grandmother
had left her the property in Bright’s Ferry, despite
everything, had been a welcome surprise. There was a chance the gossip hadn't
spread this far. Bright’s Ferry was about as rural as
one could get, tucked against a secluded New England bay, quiet, a good spot to
start over. Unless, of course, your parents were at the center of the biggest
town scandal in decades. Still, it had been twenty years, and Evie had nowhere else to go.
    Maybe this time it will stick, she
thought with a sigh.
    At the very least, Martha and Hank
Daniels would let her use the phone to call the town's lone garage. It was the
good human thing to do, regardless of whatever news about her might have made
it back to them.
    Evie checked her cell phone, unsurprised at the lack of bars, and shoved it into her
backpack. There was no way around it, she was going to get soaked. Evie Asher had never waited around to be rescued, and she
wasn't about to start