by Elle Casey
Publication
date: September 9th 2013
Genres: New
Adult, Romance, Suspense
Synopsis
**This
story was inspired by true events. If you liked the movie “Sleeping With the
Enemy”, then you might like this story too. CONTENT WARNING: Violence, foul
language, and adult situations. Not meant for younger readers.**
A
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE NOVEL. No one knew a woman lived there or that she even
existed. A monster, living in darkness…
At
twenty-two, Nicole doesn’t even look human anymore. The beast made sure of
that. So she hides. A monster, consigned to a life of fear and solitude. This
is all she deserves, she is quite sure of that.
And
then one day out of the blue, the autographed baseball caught by Brian Jensen
at the latest Marlins game enters her prison and manages to turn her world
completely upside down.
Temptation
comes in the form of pity at first, and then perhaps something more. Does she
dare to believe the things she’s told, that this is not the life she was meant
to live? That being a monster is not her forever-fate? And will she be willing
to risk everything, to reach out and accept the helping hands around her and
share her deepest, darkest secrets? She knows only too well that hands can
hurt. Finding out whether they can also heal is a risky proposition, especially
when the beast is still out there. Looking for her.
Chapter 1
She
sits on the couch, staring out the window as the late afternoon sun tries to
make its way through the glass. Dark
beige curtains frame the outside edges of her only access to the outside world,
while white sheers fill the middle, making it almost impossible to see what’s
going on beyond the shrubs that run underneath.
Those
gauzy curtains would also make it impossible for her to see what’s going on
inside her house, if she were ever standing on the lawn or the sidewalk looking
in. But that never happens. She never leaves the house. Not even at night. Well, once she did. But then never again. The aftermath was not worth the brief taste
of freedom.
The
clock is ticking.
Ticking
… ticking … ticking.
It’s
her only company for most of the day.
Kitten lived for less than a day before her violent end came and she was
put under a blanket of soil in the backyard.
The rat remains hidden in the attic crawl space where he’s safe from the
monster, so she rarely sees him. She
hears him though, at night, and it gives her comfort to know she’s not totally
alone.
There
is no attic space for Nicole, though.
She waits on the couch for the monster to come home. He’ll be here soon. An hour.
Maybe a few hours if she’s very, very unlucky. It’s not that she wants to see him sooner,
it’s just that if he’s late, it means he’ll be drunk. And anything can happen when the monster gets
liquored up. Good, bad, ugly. It’s all the same. Nicole wishes that the clock would stop
ticking, stop carrying time away from her and just give her a few hours of
non-time to gather her brain back together, to think, to find a way out of this
mess.
She
takes a deep breath and sighs heavily, the familiar ache in her ribs and face
reminding her of the reality she lives with day in, and day out. The clock might as well keep on ticking,
because there is no escape from this mess.
This mess is her life until the day she takes her last breath and is
placed in the spot next to Kitten in the backyard. He already has the hole dug.
Purchase
AUTHOR BIO
Elle
Casey is a prolific, NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestselling American
writer who lives in Southern France with her husband, three kids, and
several furry friends. She writes in several genres and publishes an
average of one full-length novel per month.
Author Links
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