Ivie Davis’s seemingly perfect life is not quite so perfect thanks to a stalker who is determined to hurt her in every way possible.
The guy she falls for is forbidden.
Malicious intent is around every corner she turns.
She runs…for a while.
When she returns home to piece together the puzzle of her past, she finds herself working painfully close to the one man she knows she can’t have.
Her heart has other plans.
Sterling Brigg is a rancher by blood, detective by choice.
He is driven by a need to find the truth.
He fell in love with Ivie, even though he knew better.
Years later, he still searches for the answers to her past.
Now that she’s back in his life, he has no intention of letting her go again.
Together, they vow to find the truth, and in doing so, they will have to decide if the truth will bring them together or be the barrier that keeps them apart forever.
I open my wallet and pull out a tattered photograph of Ivie. She’s smiling at the camera and lying in a hammock wearing a black dress. The photo’s black and white, and she’s holding a yellow and orange flower that’s in color. It was a picture that Lucy gave me after she left all of us in the dust.
She knew I had feelings for Ivie. I suppose she thought the picture would help me. It did and it didn’t. When I needed to see her face, I pulled it out and stared at those mesmerizing eyes. Other times it served as a reminder of heartbreak— something I wanted so badly but could never have.
I’ve tried to throw the picture away many times over the years but could never bring myself to do it. I put the photo back in my wallet.
I never told her that I was becoming an officer, much less that I was doing it to protect her and to try to help her find answers. I remember the night she said goodbye. She’d been avoiding my calls for weeks after her attack. Then she pulled up at my house, car loaded down, to say she was leaving.
“No sense in dwelling on the past,” I tell myself. I give my room a onceover. “Camden Springs, Alabama, here I come.”
I turn off all the lights and I get into my personal rig, a black Dodge diesel 2500, and pull out of my garage. I see my partner on the ranch and close friend, Tate Marks, and stop to tell him I’ll be gone for a few days.
“Okay brother, you know I’ll be here. I’ll call if I need anything, but you know me, I can run this place in my sleep.” His confident words are punctuated with a wink and a theatrical yawn.
“Thanks, Tate. I’ll be back soon.” He smiles and heads back toward the stables as I turn the wheel to head down the drive. Tate’s family to me; he grew up spending most his summers here. He’s the brother I always hoped I’d have.
Darkness falls as I head toward the interstate. Ivie Davis is in for one hell of a surprise, and hopefully she can give me some answers as to why she left Greendale Valley in the first place, not to mention whatever’s going on now.
I hit the interstate and think about how much I loved her. I’ve never felt that way about anyone else. There’s just something special about her. Sure, I date women. But I’ve never settled down, never gotten serious. There are a few who would like to, but it’s just not in my plans. I’m too involved in my cases, in my work. And then there’s the ranch. A fling here and there is about all I’ve ever had since Ivie left. No one’s ever made me feel the way she did. I doubt anyone ever will.
My GPS says I should be there in a couple hours. So, Ivie left Tennessee, but didn’t go so far that she couldn’t easily come back home. I wonder what she’s been up to. The thought occurs to me she probably has a boyfriend. She’s way too beautiful not to. A prickle of jealousy surges through me, but I squash it. What I had with Ivie is ancient history, and this is strictly business. This case literally landed on my desk. I didn’t go looking for it— although I’d still do anything to keep her safe. Nevertheless, once this case is closed, and maybe helps find who attacked Dean, the past can be left there, in the past. I flip on my radio and set it to shuffle the playlist on my phone. As I continue down the interstate, the tires hum under me, and something floats to the surface in my mind I haven’t really allowed myself to think in a long time. We did love each other once. She never said it, but I think she did. I felt it. She had to know I did. Maybe she’ll forgive me for finding her. She was adamant she didn’t want to see me anymore. Then again, maybe she won’t forgive me. We’re about to find out. She left me with more questions than answers, that’s for sure. Maybe, just maybe, I can get some of those answered tonight.
A.B. Medley lives in Tennessee with the love of her life and two sons. Her husband stole her heart when she was sixteen and their relationship is one of those meant to be love stories you find in magazines and novels.
She is a dental hygienist who loves to read and has always dabbled in writing. When she’s not making people’s smiles shine, she enjoys belting out songs with her boys, dancing, raspberries, baseball, and anything vintage. Like any proper Tennessean, Sundrop is her drink of choice.
She loves her family and friends fiercely and believes in always chasing your dreams.
Deception in the Truth is her debut novel—but now she’s hooked, and there’s more to come!
That’s what I first came to know about the shady town.
I never thought I’d see myself ending up in that horrific town… but I did.
I was taken, stolen and completely destroyed.
The Shadows were hovering upon me to wreck me, hiding and waiting- until they finally attacked.
Ace West is on a mission to ruin me.
He told me he’ll break me in the most ruthless way.
What he doesn’t know is that you can’t break someone who’s already broken. And you definitely can’t break the girl you love without destroying yourself.
Avery Kane is a dark romance writer . Her passion for reading began at a very young age of fourteen, she found her escape through books. Avery decided to publish her debut book in 2021 and loved the progress so much- she plans to never stop writing. Living in the beautiful country of Australia, her hobbies include horse riding, spending time with her little brother, and lots of junk eating. Follow Avery on all socials to see this incredible journey she’s on and never hesitate to get in contact, Avery loves interacting with everyone!
Lou My life is great. Perfect really. I mean, I’m thirty-two and I live with my dad… All right, let me say this a different way. I have the best job in the world. I get to painstakingly renovate old houses—diamonds in the rough—until they’re polished gems. What woman can say that? I work alone most of the time and I like it that way. Okay, maybe I wish I could find someone nice to work alongside me, a partner in life, or better yet, someone tall, dark, and sexy, like the guy who waltzes into my latest project uninvited. Sadly for him, he ends up with wood stain all over his face and shirt. What? He startled me.
Chase I can’t resist stopping into the huge old Queen Ann house in the town off the highway. Sure, it’s late, but I knocked. I did. I heard someone inside singing badly at the top of their lungs. And when I get a look at her from behind, with her hands in the air singing like her life depends on it, well, I couldn’t help myself. I had to meet her. She turns out to be a surprise. A beauty wrapped in flannel and a tool belt. She’s nothing like the women I’ve met or even dated before with her affinity to early-bird dining and meatloaf covered in mashed potatoes. No, she’s nothing like the women I’ve known. And I’m okay with that. More than okay. It’s too bad I’m only in town for a few days. I could get used to Lou Hamlin.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Velma Lou. Here we go again.”
At the mention of my name, I glance up from my drawing of the new kitchen layout I’ve been fretting about for days to my father, Kip. It’s not like him to use Jesus and Mary like that. I mean, the guy probably says six words a day and right there was his quota.
“What?”
I stare as his head slowly lifts from the small-town newspaper he’s reading, The Zodiac Hills Gazette, and turns until our eyes meet. “They’re making that goddamn show again.”
Well, sadly, that’s not enough information. He’s going to have to give me a bit more. “What show?”
“That show.”
Still not enough. “Dad. What show?” It hits me. “No.” I say it in a breathy, shocked way that tells him everything he needs to know. That I’ve figured it out. “Reruns?” I squeak.
Please say it’s only reruns. We’ve been through those before with only minor repercussions.
“Worse.”
“Worse than reruns?” What could be worse than reruns of the 1980s show, 1985 to be exact, that put my little town on the map and ruined a whole lot of lives. Well, not a whole lot. Several. It ruined several lives. Like mine and my dad’s.
A few people actually got lives thanks to that show, but that’s neither here nor there, because the show Dad is talking about, Love in Zodiac Hills, turned my little town of Zodiac Hills, Nebraska, upside down and sideways. Granted, I was a young when it first aired, but I know, firsthand, the impact it had on the people here.
“They’re re-making it. So it’s new.”
“Re-making it? Who’s doing that?” Please don’t say Netfilms, because that company is huge. So big that everyone has that particular streaming service.
“That Net thing you always watch on your computer.”
“Shit.”
Dad gives me his best scowl. He doesn’t care for my curse words even though he too cusses when it’s warranted. But “Do as I say, not as I do” is one of my father’s favorite sayings.
“Sorry,” I say with very little remorse.
“It says here, it’s coming out this April.”
I glance at the calendar. “Next month?”
“The fifteenth. They’re gonna call it Return to Zodiac Hills.”
“You read that in the paper?” The local paper.
Dad nods. “Which means, everyone will know.”
Which also means, the town is going to go apeshit crazy. It also means we’re going to get split in two. Again.
As soon as Dad heads off to work, I reach for the abandoned newspaper. I need to read it for myself. Scanning the front page, I see nothing about the show. Weird because, to me, this is front-page news. Opening our small-town paper, I search pages two and three. Since it’s a weekly paper, it’s usually only four or five pages long. I mean, how much news can a town with the population of over three thousand people generate in a week? Finally, I find the article on the second to last page.
Well, article isn’t the right word. It’s a paragraph posted in the part of the paper called Kitty’s Korner. Katherine “Kitty” Standish has been writing what she refers to as “her column” for a century. Just kidding. It’s been years and years, though. She’s got to be in her seventies by now. You can’t tell her age for sure, though, because she’s rarely seen during the daylight hours. Some speculate that she’s a vampire due to that fact, but Dad says it’s not true. According to him, “She’s a night owl. Always has been.”
I believe my pops. He’s a no-nonsense kind of man. What he says, he means, and what he means, he really means. Also, don’t piss him off, because he’s a grudge holder of epic proportions. Just ask my mom.
Well, I would ask her if she ever came back to Zodiac Hills after she ran off with that Capricorn.
But that’s a story for another day.
Lifting the paper, I read Kitty’s Korner.
Hear ye! Hear ye!
She always starts off announcements like she’s a town crier. I usually laugh but not this time.
People of Zodiac Hills, hold onto your hats!
She does that too—makes archaic references like that. I mean… who wears hats nowadays? Well, lots of people wear baseball caps, I guess.
But I’m getting off track.
Starting this April, that big movie-streaming company called Netfilms will be showing a brand-new version of Love in Zodiac Hills. (For those of you young’uns out there, that was a show they had on television in the ’80s. Sort of like that other show, TheLove Boat, only it was on land.) Anyhoo, it was a program about people finding their one true love all based on their birthday which is ridiculous because what does that have to do with anything?
They’re calling it Return to Zodiac Hills.
Which means, you’d better get ready because… they’re coming.
Kayt enjoys writing steamy love stories about curvy Heroines (big H) and brawny Heroes. Sometimes they’re all about that instant-attraction, sometimes the stories are more of a slow burn. Either way, they’re hot.
