The Prophet's Trap (Part 2)

By Holly Glass

Local reporter and bonafide burnout Caroline Hedstrom may not have what it takes to become a hard-hitting journalist, but she’s seen enough to know a thing or two about how the world works. For her, life is pretty easy: Write a story, take a paycheck, and go home to the bottle and the barn out back. But when a wave of grisly violence rattles her North Dakota home, Caroline is at a loss for words. As she digs deeper into the story, Caroline discovers just how hot a good search can be, and how dangerous her pride really is. Will the thrill of desire be enough to tether Caroline to the real world, or will her thirst for truth push her over the edge?
Caroline Hedstrom isn’t one to flinch when it comes to a tackling a tough news story, but a recent murder has her spooked. In spite of her mounting fear, Caroline realizes that her curiosity and her undying urge to be a voice of truth are impossible to resist. Against her better judgment, Caroline allows a violent mystery — and a mysterious woman — to seduce her completely.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Shorts
• Release date: Mar 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781094407197

Holly Glass

Holly Glass uses romance to explore the complexities of gender identity, the joys of sexual fluidity, and the possibility of personal liberation in a highly gendered world. Her goal is to cultivate intimacy and health by telling stories that are authentic to life and love outside of the hetero-norm.

Book preview

The Prophet’s Trap

I don’t want to know.

This is the thought that keeps racing through my mind over and over, like a race car with squealing tires and bad brakes moving in sad smoking circles. There’s a swoop in my stomach, the type of punch that hits you when disaster is approaching: a glimmer of a guardrail, the turn of a storm cloud, the rattle in your father’s chest. It hasn’t happened yet, but you can see the horror before it arrives. You want to look away, run, shout — but your feet won’t move, and your voice doesn’t work.

The debates over free will and fate are over now.

You are stuck with whatever’s coming to you.

Section Break

Kat is looking at me with her big, brown eyes. She’s naked on the living room floor of the house I grew up in, wrapped in an afghan that my mother made many years ago. She doesn’t look like an FBI agent — or even a grown woman, for that matter. Her spine has the hunch of a frightened child, and her eyes are wide. I want to tell her that she doesn’t owe me any stories; she doesn’t have to spill what she knows to this hard-up reporter just because we slept together.

Earlier today, I was desperate to get someone — anyone — to spill whatever it was about this case that was making people clam up. I kept hitting roadblocks, but I was determined to find out the truth. Funny how