Winter Deception

By Amy J. Hawthorn

Kelly’s been framed for diamond theft. Nothing is more important than clearing her name and keeping her job. There’s only one problem—the deadly snowstorm tearing through Kentucky.

Detective Jake Bowie comes home exhausted and prepared to sleep his vacation away. His dog, Jasper, has more important things in mind... like rescuing a half-frozen damsel in distress.

No stranger to puzzles, Jake senses there’s far more to Kelly’s story than she admits.
Can he see through the heat of their passion and figure out this sexy little mystery?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amy J. Hawthorn
• Release date: Nov 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9780996880176

Amy J. Hawthorn

As a teen Amy read horror and fantasy as fast as she could get her hands on it. She'd never met a Dean Koontz book she didn't like.Until one day at the bookstore she stumbled across a pretty blue cover complete with a bare-chested, sword-wielding Highlander. That Highlander and his heroine showed her the magic of a happily-ever-after and she's never looked back.She's read and written her way from Kentucky to Arizona and California then back to Kentucky which she and her family now call home.Who says characters with a dark side can't find love?

Book preview

Chapter 1

Kelly paused with one hand midair, reaching for a can of soup in the kitchen cabinet, when the TV reporter mentioned the jewelry shop where she worked. The room spun around her as a whirlwind of random and frightening words processed through her brain .

Theft. Over fifty thousand dollars in value. No suspects. Inside job not ruled out at this time. Higgins Jewelry.

Nausea squirmed in her belly until bile rose in her throat and she had to force it down. She closed the cabinet, leaving the can on its perch. Unable to listen to another word, she moved across the small house and turned the TV off.

The tote she carried to work every day sat on her little secondhand table, waiting like a snake poised to strike. She needed to look inside. Chances were, she’d open her bag and find nothing out of the ordinary. Then she’d be able to shake her head over her silliness.

There is nothing extra in my bag.

Why would there be? Just because she saw the shop owner’s niece hovering suspiciously in front of the old cabinet in the breakroom where they kept their personal things didn’t mean anything.

People had personality clashes all the time. The fact that they didn’t get along didn’t necessarily make Amber the thief.

Sure, last Friday she’d been certain she had thirty dollars tucked in her checkbook and had only found ten when she’d stopped to put gas in her car. She’d likely miscalculated. It was just a coincidence that it happened on the only day of the week that Amber worked. Right?

Dread placed a black hand against her breastbone and pushed, doing its best to suffocate her. Not having any choice, unable to bear the ugly suspense any longer, she opened her bag and looked inside.

The sight punched her in the gut. Laying right between her hairbrush and checkbook was a manila envelope that hadn’t been there this morning. Why would Amber do such a thing? They kept their things in the same cabinet. Had she put the envelope in the wrong bag by mistake when Kelly had walked in and caught her? Or had it been on purpose for some strange reason?

No, it would have had to have been because she’d surprised Amber. Their bags were often side by side on the shelf. Once they put their coats in there, it only got more crowded.

She had to get back there and explain what happened to her boss. She prayed Mr. Higgins would understand. For the life of her, she couldn’t comprehend why anyone would do something like this. But how else could it have happened? That bag of loose diamonds didn’t walk across the room and jump into her purse.

She pulled on her coat, grabbed her tote, and made sure everything she needed was inside. She turned off all the lights and locked the door as she headed out of her little house. Her work shoes left prints in the light blanket of snow as she carefully walked to her car. Icy gusts of wind pulled at her coat and hair. In mere moments, cold seeped through her slacks, chilling her legs through the bone, into the marrow. She probably should have changed out of her work attire, but she didn’t want to waste any more time.

She took a deep breath. She could do this. It might not be easy, but she could do this.

Correction. She would do this.

She loved this little corner of Kentucky. The people were so incredibly nice to one another and, even though she’d been away for years, they treated her like an old friend. As soon as she’d made the decision to move, she’d felt lighter. Happier.

If luck was on her side, she could talk to Mr. Higgins, return the diamonds, and set everything straight. She’d be back home, nestled in front of the heater with a mug of hot tea before the worst of the snowstorm hit. The last report she’d seen predicted the heaviest snowfall would begin shortly after dark.

Snowmageddon. Storm of the century.

That’s what the gleeful, drama seeking weather reporter had called the incoming storm. Kentucky, no stranger to snow and freezing rain, hadn’t seen a snowfall this heavy in over fifty years.

Really, she didn’t mind. Her boss assured her he would close the store if the roads were bad. She had enough basic groceries for a week and had stopped by the library on her way home. She had four new-to-her romance novels waiting, plus a handful of her well-worn comfort reads. She was set for a few days.

All she had to do was set things right with her boss so she could keep a job that she loved and get back home before the Snowpocalypse arrived. She rolled her eyes.

Drama, drama, drama.

Pulling into the mouth of his winding driveway, Jake Bowie turned his head to look at the little doublewide house sitting on the edge of his land. When he’d bought his property five years ago, it consisted of forty-three acres and that small